Arrest Order for Sunni Leader in Iraq Opens New Rift

[alp227]

Iraq’s Shiite-dominated government was thrown into crisis on Monday night as authorities issued an arrest warrant for the Sunni vice president, accusing him of running a personal death squad that assassinated security officials and government bureaucrats.

The sensational charges against Tariq al-Hashimi, one of the country’s most prominent Sunni leaders, threatened to inflame widening sectarian and political conflicts in Iraq just one day after the last American convoy of American troops rolled out of the country into Kuwait.

The accusations were broadcast over Iraqi television, in a half-hour of grainy video confessions from three men identified as Mr. Hashimi’s bodyguards. They spoke of how they had planted bombs in public squares, driven up to convoys carrying Iraqi officials and opened fire.

Under the direction of Mr. Hashimi’s top aides, the men said, they gunned down convoys carrying Shiite officials and planted roadside bombs in traffic circles and wealthy neighborhoods of Baghdad, then detonated them as their targets drove by. One of the men said Mr. Hashimi had personally handed him an envelope with $3,000 after one of the attacks.

full: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/20/world/middleeast/iraqi-government-accuses-top-official-in-assassinations.html

[tabatha]

1. Well US forces could not stop that when they were there.

So no need for them to go back.

[Nancy Waterman]

2. So we have traded a Sunni stong man (Saddam)

for a Shiite strong man. We went in despite the religious
schism, essentially ignoring it, and now it is erupting (again). And we
removed the chief counterbalance to Iran to create, instead, an ally
and potential puppet for Iran. Oh and the GOP will blame this
outcome on Obama instead of putting it squarely in the lap of Bush/Cheney,
the geniuses who thought this thing up.

[SoCalDem]

3. That didn't take long, did it?

There will be more of this and in the end Moqtada al Sadr will be the new Saddam..

[Eugene]

4. BBC: Iraq Vice-President Tariq al-Hashemi denies charge

Source: BBC

20 December 2011 Last updated at 13:35 GMT

Iraq Vice-President Tariq al-Hashemi denies charge

Iraq's Sunni Vice-President, Tariq al-Hashemi, has denied any wrongdoing, a day after a warrant was issued for his arrest on terrorism-related charges.

Mr Hashemi described as "fabricated" the accusation he was linked to attacks on government and security officials.

He also accused Prime Minister Nouri Maliki, a Shia, of being behind a plot to embarrass him and blow apart recent attempts at national reconciliation.

The Sunni deputy prime minister has warned Iraq risks a new sectarian war.

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Read more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-16270186

[pampango]

5. Juan Cole: Iraq on the Brink: Court Forbids VP al-Hashimi from Leaving Country

http://www.juancole.com/2011/12/iraq-on-the-brink-court-forbids-vp-al-hashimi-from-leaving-iraq.html

The Iraqi equivalent of the supreme court issued an order Monday forbidding Vice President Tariq al-Hashimi from leaving Iraq, according to al-Hayat writing in Arabic. The order came on the heels of the issuance of a warrant against him, accusing the Sunni Arab politician of involvement in a bomb plot in the Green Zone aimed at assassinating PM Nouri al-Maliki. Hashimi’s office issued a press release Monday confirming that three members of his security detail had been arrested.

The Iraqiya Party (or National Iraqi Movement) to which al-Hashimi belongs holds 91 seats in a parliament of 325, and had been part of the national unity government cobbled together in November of 2010. Some 80% of Iraqi Sunni Arabs voted for Iraqiya in 2010, so that Shiite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s attack on its leaders is viewed by many Iraqis as an assertion of a tyranny of the Shiite majority.

If it happens, the total withdrawal of the Iraqi National Movement from the government will not cause it to fall. First, al-Maliki still has a majority in parliament as long as the Kurds continue to stand with him (and they probably will). Second, the Iraqi system doesn’t seem to envision governments falling and snap elections being held, as happens in the UK and other parliamentary systems. The prime minister can lose majority of support, but continue till the next election as head of a minority government. In summer of 2007, al-Maliki lost the support of all the major parties but his own, but his government did not fall.

On the other hand, al-Maliki is in danger of provoking very bad relations between Shiites and Sunni Arabs. He not only is dragging the Sunni vice president before the courts as a common terrorist, but he is trying to strong-arm vice premier Saleh Mutlak out of office for complaining that al-Maliki has begun acting dictatorially and is becoming worse than Saddam.

[Eugene]

6. BBC: Iraqi PM asks Kurds to hand over Vice-President Hashemi

Source: BBC

21 December 2011 Last updated at 14:19 GMT

Iraqi PM asks Kurds to hand over Vice-President Hashemi

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki has urged the Kurdish authorities in northern Iraq to hand over fugitive Vice-President Tariq al-Hashemi.

An arrest warrant was issued for Iraq's most senior Sunni Arab politician on Monday on terrorism charges.

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Mr Hashemi is currently in Irbil, under the protection of the Kurdistan regional government. The warrant was issued a day after US troops pulled out of Iraq.

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Read more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-16283562