Shiites Stick with Jaafari
26 Dead, with clashes in Adhamiyah, Ramadi
26 Iraqis died in guerrilla violence on Monday. 17 corpses surfaced in Baghdad, and another 9 persons died in violence around the country.
American sources say that in the northern Baghdad district of Adhamiyah, a neighborhood militia fought a 9-hour-long pitched battle with Iraqi troops and police, with the Americans coming in to settle it.
But Arabic sources suc as Al-Zaman , al-Hayat and Aljazeera reported in such a way as to make it look like the brave stand of local (Sunni Arab) men against the predations of (Shiite) death squads masquerading as police. The latter were accused of coming into Adhamiyah in order to kidnap, kill and pillage. The special police commandos of the minstry of the interior are widely believed to comprise Shiite militiamen.
Guerrillas in Ramadi launched a coordinated attack on the Marines, fighting a pitched battle. The US forces damaged a mosque in the course of the fighting.
US casualties in Iraq have risen sharply in April.
The Dawa Party and the Shiite religious coalition have decided to support Ibrahim Jaafari as their candidate for prime minister unless he himself decides to step down. He has said that he was elected by a democratic vote, and will not step down.
The idea of having Dawa put forward Ali Al-Adib as an alternative to Jaafari appears to have faltered. Aljazeera reports that Salih Mutlak, leader of the neo-Baathist National Dialogue Council, dismissed al-Adib as no better than Jaafari, and in some ways worse, since he lacked the latter's political experience. (I have all along wondered who the Sunni Arabs thought they could get from the UIA as a prime minister who would be different in basic policies and outlook from Jaafari).
Al-Zaman reports that [Ar.] the alliance between the Sunni Arab fundamentalists and the secular party of Iyad Allawi has faltered. Allawi's Iraqi National List had hoped that the loose coalition of Sunnis, Kurds and secularists would put Allawi up for vice president. But in the end the fundamentalist Iraqi Accord Front declined, saying that Allawi is a Shiite, and the post must go to an IAF Sunni Arab.
Large numbers of Iraqi families continue to be displaced by sectarian violence or the threat of it.
The guerrillas' campaign of assassinations against professors and other white collar professionals in Iraq is provoking a major brain drain. On Monday, a doctor and three engineers were kidnapped.
Baghdadis are complaining that the curfew is impeding their access to health care.
Tom Lasseter reveals that the US knew all along about the problem of the infiltration of Iraqi government security agencies by Shiite militias, but declined to act because they could not afford to alienate the Shiites too much at a time of Sunni Arab insurgency.
The Japanese involvement in Iraq is documented here. The governor of Samawah says he wants them to stay . . .
posted by Juan Cole @ 4/18/2006 12:30:00 AM
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Juan, Newsweek has a story out today about an Iraqi police force, called the Facility Protection Services, that is apparently operating without any central command, but rather under the auspices of the individual ministries — by implication, they're even less loyal to the central government, such as it is, or the interior or defence ministries, than are the regular police and army — whose assets they protect. Newsweek says the FPS number nearly 150,000 and have official access to Iraqi police uniforms, vehicles and weapons, and suggests that they're involved in the death squad-style killings in Baghdad.
I've never heard of them. Do you know anything about them? Is it really possible that in addition to the army and the regular police, there's a third official paramilitary force of that size running around?
The Dawa Party and the Shiite religious coalition have decided to support Ibrahim Jafaari...
Pessimism reigns in Iraq as politicians stall again
Latest failure to name prime minister leaves nation paralyzed
' Amid unrelenting violence and a widening mood of despair, Iraqi politicians failed again to agree on a prime minister Sunday, leaving the country's government adrift for at least several more days. '
Rumsfeld: No U.S.-style democracy in Iraq
' "I don't think there will ever be a U.S.-style democracy in Iraq," Rumsfeld said in an interview with the Dubai-based al-Arabiya satellite TV channel. "I think there will be an Iraqi democracy as there should." '
Secular Iraqis Propose Emergency Government
' Allawi, a onetime CIA protege and leader of a secular coalition with 25 seats in parliament, said in a statement broadcast on Iraqi television that political leaders might have to create an emergency government "that is capable of bringing Iraq to its feet and save it from its current deadly crisis."
' Such a government could include political groups that didn't win seats in the election and be based on a political agreement rather than the constitution, said Adnan Pachachi, a leading politician in Allawi's coalition. '
Crude Designs: The Rip-Off of Iraq's Oil Wealth
' About three months after taking power, Allawi issued a set of guidelines to the Supreme Council for Oil Policy, from which the Council was to develop a full petroleum policy. Pre-empting both the Iraqi elections and the drafting of a new constitution, Allawi?s guidelines specified that while Iraq?s currently producing fields should be developed by the Iraq National Oil Company (INOC), all other fields should be developed by private companies, through the contractual mechanism of production sharing agreements'
' Iraq has about 80 known oilfields, only 17 of which are currently in production. Thus the Allawi guidelines would grant the other 63 to private companies.
' Allawi also added that:
' New fields would be developed exclusively by private companies, with the policy ruling out any participation of INOC;
' The national oil company INOC, which manages existing oil fields, should be part-privatised;
' The Iraqi authorities should not spend time negotiating the best possible deals with the oil companies; instead they should proceed quickly, agreeing whatever terms the companies will accept, with a possibility of renegotiation later. '
Good News and Crazy News on Iran:
The Good News: Tony Blair is telling Bush that the UK won't be helping Bush invade or attack Iran. They'll back UN-approved sanctions, but no military options even if the UN approves them (which they won't).
The Crazy News: Failed Presidential candidate and spoiled-brat trust-fund baby Steve Forbes says that bombing Iran would LOWER the price of oil. (No, I'm not making this up.)
Thank you for noting that Arabic sourced versions of the actions against the Sunni town.
Well, it looks like more and more the French were right! George should have listened to them. I wonder how this will help the Dems come November. My guess is between Iraq and the scandals, there will be alot of "throw the bums out" mentality in the minds of American voters.
My guess is that he might bomb Iran to bolster his ratings. There is this organization, called "Velvet Revolution", that was way ahead of the Iran bombing thing; they posted two ads, one in the Washington Post and then one in the New York Times. It has a site worthy of checking out:
www.velvetrevolution.us
I have all along wondered who the Sunni Arabs thought they could get from the UIA as a prime minister who would be different in basic policies and outlook from Jaafari
It's the same as Americans who wanted Bush to resign or be impeached. Another Republican would simply fill the void. However, the sentiment is understandable, it might make the replacement more cautious.
The Facility Protection Services are nothing new. They were created by Bremmer's CPA in 2003 to compensate for the disintegration of previous security forces. There were no other police forces or anyone to pay their salaries. The stop-gap solution was to have each ministry pay guards to protect the infrastructure under its mandate. Thus, Agriculture paid for irrigation canal security, etc. Otherwise, there was no way to make sure anything would be protected.
There is no consolidated budget or record-keeping. Whatever the numbers say, an inordinate amount of official money has to be spent on security, even if it means simply sowing payroll amounts to feed people. Head counts and job descriptions may not be very reliable. Graft, self-dealing, nepotism, and dual-loyalties may be rife.
Professor, I unfortunately can find more and more resemblance to the situation in Sunni Iraq and that of Catholic Northern Ireland. Adhamiya may be the most glaring example yet.
From this evening's Financial Times:
It is significant that the street fighting in Adhamiya has been portrayed, by the Iraqi media and Sunni leaders, as neighbourhood self-defence rather than an insurgent attack on security forces. It could strengthen the insurgents’ claim to be fighting for the Sunni population as a whole.
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