Iraq Issues Arrest Warrant for Sunni Vice President

[WestVirginiaRebel]

Fox News:

BAGHDAD – Iraq's Shiite-led government issued an arrest warrant Monday for Vice President Tariq al-Hashemi, the country's highest ranking Sunni official, on terrorism charges.

The move, a day after the last U.S. troops left Iraq and ended the nearly nine-year war, signaled a sharp new escalation in sectarian tensions that drove Iraq to the brink of civil war just a few years ago.

Interior Ministry spokesman Adil Daham told reporters about the warrant on Monday and state-run television aired what it characterized as confessions by alleged terrorists linked to al-Hashemi.

Since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein and his Sunni-dominated Baath party regime, the Sunni minority has constantly complained of attempts by the Shiite majority to sideline them.

Al-Hashemi is one of the leaders of the Sunni-backed political bloc Iraqiya, which has just suspended its participation in parliament to protest the control of key posts by Shiite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.

The boycott decision by Iraqiya, headed by Ayad Allawi, was in response to the government's failure to share more powers, particularly the authorities over the security forces, said Sunni lawmaker Hamid al-Mutlaq, a member of the bloc.
________

Holy Shiite!

Sounds like we got out just in time...

[Valin]

Fox News:

 

 

Sounds like we got out just in time...

 

 

Or you could say this happened because we got out.

 

CNN has a better more informative article on this

 

(Snip)

One man said he carried out assassination attempts using roadside bombs and guns with silencers. He said some orders came from the vice president and some came through the director of his office. The man also alleged that he and others were told that if they didn't carry out the attacks, their families would be killed.

 

CNN could not immediately confirm that the men in the videos were bodyguards for al-Hashimi.

 

Three of the vice president's security guards were detained earlier this month.

 

Over the past few days, al-Hashimi's office told CNN it feared that his three guards would be forced to make false confessions.

 

Confession videos in Iraq have been controversial. Human rights groups have reported previously on allegedly forced confessions.

(Snip)

[Saltbag]

Now that we're out of there, it's going to be very interesting to watch how it unfolds. Looks like they're off to a rough start. I predict it will unfold, and will do so quickly.

[Valin]

Now that we're out of there, it's going to be very interesting to watch how it unfolds. Looks like they're off to a rough start. I predict it will unfold, and will do so quickly.

 

 

A good reason why we should not have left. An administration that was really interested in Iraq and what happens there would have been able to cut a deal.

Barack Obama...A Jimmy Carter for the XXIst century

 

TWS: Crisis Unfolds in Iraq

FREDERICK W. KAGAN and KIMBERLY KAGAN

Dec 19, 2011

 

We interrupt President Obama’s celebration of keeping a campaign promise to bring you news from Iraq, where a political crisis has been unfolding since just hours after Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta departed on Thursday. The ethno-sectarian settlement achieved at such cost to Iraqis and Americans is unraveling rapidly. The principal Sunni bloc has withdrawn its members from the Iraqi Parliament and is threatening to withdraw from the government altogether within two weeks unless Prime Minister Nuri al Maliki adheres to the written commitments he made during the negotiations to form a government.

Maliki Nouri (2008)

 

Maliki prompted their action by arresting and torturing the bodyguards of Sunni vice president Tariq al Hashemi. Multiple unconfirmed reports indicate that on Thursday night, Maliki moved elements of the Baghdad Brigade, commanded by his son, to surround the residences of Sunni political figures, including Hashemi. In retaliation for the Sunni parliamentarians' walkout, Maliki has demanded a no-confidence vote for Sunni deputy prime minister Salah Mutlaq, and indicated his intent to bring charges against Hashemi and others for conspiring to assassinate him.

 

The crisis is not confined to Baghdad. Fearful of the moves Maliki had already made to consolidate autocratic rule under the fist of his Shi’a Dawa Party, Sunni provincial leaders in Salahuddin and Diyala Provinces have declared their intention to form federal autonomous regions. Maliki has angrily rejected their rights to do so. Communities have reportedly begun mobilizing to defend themselves against potential sectarian conflict in Diyala. Vice President Joe Biden and Ambassador James Jeffrey have reportedly been working the phones to manage the crisis, but their efforts do not appear to be bearing any fruit.

 

(Snip)

[Valin]

When the situation is dire Who You Gonna Call! Joe Biden

 

(Snip)

Biden told the Iraqi leaders Tuesday that the United States was monitoring the situation closely, according to a White House readout of the call.

(Snip)

 

Thank Goodness, I was concerned, now all will be well.