At Least 90 Dead 162 Injured In

At least 90 Dead, 162 Injured in Baghdad Blast
Sunnis Reject Constitution

At 7 am on Wednesday morning, guerrillas detonated a huge suicide car bomb in the midst of Shiite day laborers gathering in search of work in the district of Kadhimiyah. It killed at least 90 and wounded 162, according to Al-Jazeera on Wednesday morning Iraq time..

On Monday night, guerrillas had detonated a bomb at a Baghdad restaurant, killing 5 and injuring 10. A bomber on a bus in the Shiite city of Hillah killed 2 and wounded 10.

The Sunni Arab delegation on the constitution-drafting committee say that they are “frustrated” and determined to try to sink the constitution. Meeting with UN envoy Ashraf Qazi, they asked that the United Nations intervene to assure that the October 15 referendum was conducted fairly.

Husain al-Falluji said of the Sunni Arab delegation, “We want to know if two thirds of people who actually cast votes in three provinces could turn it down, or two thirds of the eligible voters. Because if it’s two thirds of actual voters, then this is easy: the constitution will be turned down. But if it’s two thirds of eligible voters, then it will be almost impossible to reject it.”

Since the Kurds put the veto provision into the interim constitution in order to be able to block the Shiite majority from producing a constitution absolutely unacceptable to them, I am sure they intended that it be rejected if two-thirds of actual voters in 3 provinces voted against, rather than two-thirds of eligible voters. Not even all the eligible voters would be registered! But since the Kurds and most of the Shiites now want the constitution, they could reinterpret the Transitional Administrative Law to require 2/3s of eligible voters for a rejection. As al-Falluji says, this interpretation would make it impossible to reject the constitution, and that is why it cannot be what the Kurds had in mind.

Meanwhile, Iraqi President Jalal Talibani retracted his earlier statement that the US could withdraw a third of its ground forces this fall. He said he refused tos et deadlines.