Polish Ambassador Wounded;
Maliki: Blackwater Must Go;
PM Praises Saudi Fatwa
Guerrillas injured the Polish ambassador to Iraq on Wednesday with roadside bombs.
Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki again insisted on Wednesday that the Blackwater security firm should leave Iraq. He accused its employees of having been trigger-happy on several occasions. Al-Maliki began making this demand soon after the September 16 shootings at Nisur Square, which left 11 dead. The US authorities in Baghdad attempted to convince him that if he expelled the over 800 Blackwater guards, the US military would have to take their place, thus reducing the number of army and Marine fighters available to tackle the Sunni Arab guerrillas in Baghdad and elsewhere. Al-Maliki seems unimpressed with the argument, and faces an Iraqi public that is just boiling with rage about having private security men operating in their country outside the reach of both Iraqi and American law.
Russia is complaining that a private security firm mistreated its embassy personnel at Baghdad International Airport on Monday.
A Saudi cleric has given a fatwa forbidding Saudi youth from going abroad (i.e. Iraq) to fight jihad. Al-Hayat reports in Arabic Al-Maliki praised the Saudi fatwa. Arab nationalists such as Abdel Bari Atwan at al-Quds al-Arabi are incensed by it. Atwan can't see much difference between the US occupation of Iraq and the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, which lots of Saudis went to fight.
The US military captured a cache of information on foreign jihadis fighting in Iraq, with 500 names. Gen. Petraeus has made a special effort to track down and capture the foreign jihadis, who have been behind some massive and destabilizing bombings (though I think the US press over-emphasizes the foreigners and underestimates the indigenous Iraqi guerrilla groups).
The Kurdistan Regional Authority of northern Iraq has signed four more petroleum development contracts with foreign firms. Oil minister Husain Shahristani has warned that the federal government views these agreements as illegitimate and that the Iraqi government will abrogate them if Baghdad is not involved. The Kurds, who have their own private army and have said that no federal troops will ever set foot on their soil, are clearly not impressed.
Ben Lando has more.
What I can't understand is why Armed Forces Radio carries Rush Limbaugh. Is he really who we want our troops to be listening to? Some of the vets are pretty ticked off at him, and Wesley Clark says that Limbaugh has long been dismissive of servicemen who don't agree with his politics.
Labels: Iraq
posted by Juan Cole @ 10/04/2007 12:30:00 AM
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6 Comments:
The Kurdish deals take advantage of the ambiguities in the Iraqi (Zalmay Khalilzad) Constitution.
But they cement the interpretation that revenues from new fields go to the Regions. The Kurds have already secured a law which gives them 17% of Iraq's income, so the proceeds from the new oil will be extra for them.
This is in fact better for Iraq proper! The Kurds will not have any share of the new oil in the rest of Iraq which may reach ten or even twenty million barrels a day. Contrary to popular US "news" the Kurdish mountains are the only part of Iraq which does NOT have any significant oil: it is in the geology. The oil in Kirkuk and Erbil, and now in Duhok, is found in the flats not the mountains which make up most of Kurdistan.
Moreover, Kurdistan is land-locked and they plan to export their oil via a new pipeline which goes directly to Turkey (unlike the existing one which passes through hostile Arab areas in Iraq.) This will put them under the mercy of the Turks and they will surely have to compromise with them.
Why is Blackwater not loading out to leave Iraq? After all if Iraq is a sovereign nation and their leader wants them to leave, why are they still there? Again we are shown who really is in charge of things. (And it ain't the Iraqis).
A list of 500 names, eh? Sounds a little like McCarthy's "I have here in my hand a list of 205—a list of names that were made known to the Secretary of State as being members of the Communist Party and who nevertheless are still working and shaping policy in the State Department." Why the MSM and the American people believe any information disseminated by the US military is beyond me.
"Atwan can't see much difference between the US occupation of Iraq and the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan,"
That makes (at least) two of us...
Would anyone care to state the difference in re natural resources, regional foothold, or hegemonic intent?
Juan,
You should really go to Rush's website and look at the full context of his remarks. I think you'll see that the "phony soldiers" remark was in reference to a convicted fake soldier who had accused US rangers of atrocities.
Who is in charge, allowing Rush to be on Armed Forces Radio, and how do we stop him or her?
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