.U.S. doubts Iraqi leaders after taunting of Saddam
BAGHDAD, Iraq - The taunts and insults hurled at Saddam Hussein minutes before his execution Saturday have prompted some U.S. officials and Iraqi politicians to conclude that Prime Minister Nouri Maliki's government is led by Shiite Muslim radicals and cannot be counted on to disarm Shiite militias.
Several U.S. officials in Baghdad and Washington said that, practically speaking, the Bush administration no longer can expect Maliki to tackle the militias because Saddam's hanging exposed the depth of the government's sectarianism.
The scene at the execution "confirms everyone's worst speculations about the government: It is sectarian and incompetent," said a U.S. official who agreed to speak under a promise of anonymity. The militias and Maliki's government are intertwined "so much that you don't know for sure from issue to issue what is the militia and what is the government," the official said.
That assessment underscores the Bush administration's challenge as it considers sending thousands of additional U.S. troops to confront Iraq's growing sectarian violence.
President Bush, who is expected to announce a new Iraq policy next week, has vowed to support Maliki, who came to power via U.S.-sponsored elections. He is pushing Maliki to disarm the militias, especially the Mahdi Army of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada Sadr. Many blame the Mahdi Army, which fought two bloody campaigns against U.S. forces in 2004, for much of the violence that is engulfing Baghdad.
However, a jerky cell-phone video of Saddam's execution showed that Sadr supporters were involved. Amid Shiite chants, at least one witness to the execution can be heard chanting "Muqtada, Muqtada, Muqtada."
Someone also can be heard yelling the name of Sadr's uncle, Mohammed Baqir Sadr, who is considered the intellectual behind Maliki's Dawa Party.
Sadr's father, the Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Mohammed Sadeq Sadr, was a prominent Saddam opponent who was murdered in 1999, reportedly on Saddam's orders.
Some accounts of the execution indicate that Maliki's national security adviser, Mowafek Rubaie, quizzed Saddam about the Sadr murder before Saddam, who was a Sunni Muslim, was hanged.
An official videotape of the execution did not include audio.
Links between the Sadrists and the Dawa Party have long been a topic of speculation here, with Iraqi and U.S. officials agreeing that Maliki rose to his position largely with the support of the Sadrists, who control the largest bloc of seats in Iraq's 275-member legislature.
Sadrists also control four ministries, including health, agriculture and transportation, and Mahdi Army members are widely believed to have infiltrated Iraq's security services. The recent report by the bipartisan Iraq Study Group described the country's Facilities Protection Services, a security force charged with protecting government buildings, as "a source of funding and jobs for the Mahdi Army."
But the scene at the execution, captured by a cell phone and posted on the Internet, was the starkest example yet of the ties between Maliki's government and Sadr's militia.
Mithal Alusi, a secular parliament member who took part in the government's deliberations about Saddam's execution, said the video made it clear that the Maliki government was harboring militia members it did not control. He called the display of emotions a warning that the government must cut its connections to the militias.
"What happened was a clear and lasting warning to Maliki to rid the security services of militias," said Alusi, one of a handful of secular politicians in the government, who said he supported the decision to hang Saddam quickly. "Why not now?" he answered when asked about the timing of the execution.
But he was critical of the behavior of guards and other witnesses. "This was evidence that those militiamen have forgotten they are official security members," Alusi said.
On Wednesday, crowds continued to congregate near Saddam's hometown of Awja, where his body was buried in a hall used for funeral gatherings. Witnesses said American forces asked police stationed south of nearby Tikrit to remove black banners that residents had placed on their homes and mosques as a sign of mourning. The police refused, the witnesses said.
In Tikrit, some police officers distributed photos of Saddam.
ContraCostaTimes
Damn! These guys in Washington are smart!! How did they ever figure it all out.
Several U.S. officials in Baghdad and Washington said that, practically speaking, the Bush administration no longer can expect Maliki to tackle the militias because Saddam's hanging exposed the depth of the government's sectarianism.
The scene at the execution "confirms everyone's worst speculations about the government: It is sectarian and incompetent," said a U.S. official who agreed to speak under a promise of anonymity. The militias and Maliki's government are intertwined "so much that you don't know for sure from issue to issue what is the militia and what is the government," the official said.
That assessment underscores the Bush administration's challenge as it considers sending thousands of additional U.S. troops to confront Iraq's growing sectarian violence.
President Bush, who is expected to announce a new Iraq policy next week, has vowed to support Maliki, who came to power via U.S.-sponsored elections. He is pushing Maliki to disarm the militias, especially the Mahdi Army of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada Sadr. Many blame the Mahdi Army, which fought two bloody campaigns against U.S. forces in 2004, for much of the violence that is engulfing Baghdad.
However, a jerky cell-phone video of Saddam's execution showed that Sadr supporters were involved. Amid Shiite chants, at least one witness to the execution can be heard chanting "Muqtada, Muqtada, Muqtada."
Someone also can be heard yelling the name of Sadr's uncle, Mohammed Baqir Sadr, who is considered the intellectual behind Maliki's Dawa Party.
Sadr's father, the Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Mohammed Sadeq Sadr, was a prominent Saddam opponent who was murdered in 1999, reportedly on Saddam's orders.
Some accounts of the execution indicate that Maliki's national security adviser, Mowafek Rubaie, quizzed Saddam about the Sadr murder before Saddam, who was a Sunni Muslim, was hanged.
An official videotape of the execution did not include audio.
Links between the Sadrists and the Dawa Party have long been a topic of speculation here, with Iraqi and U.S. officials agreeing that Maliki rose to his position largely with the support of the Sadrists, who control the largest bloc of seats in Iraq's 275-member legislature.
Sadrists also control four ministries, including health, agriculture and transportation, and Mahdi Army members are widely believed to have infiltrated Iraq's security services. The recent report by the bipartisan Iraq Study Group described the country's Facilities Protection Services, a security force charged with protecting government buildings, as "a source of funding and jobs for the Mahdi Army."
But the scene at the execution, captured by a cell phone and posted on the Internet, was the starkest example yet of the ties between Maliki's government and Sadr's militia.
Mithal Alusi, a secular parliament member who took part in the government's deliberations about Saddam's execution, said the video made it clear that the Maliki government was harboring militia members it did not control. He called the display of emotions a warning that the government must cut its connections to the militias.
"What happened was a clear and lasting warning to Maliki to rid the security services of militias," said Alusi, one of a handful of secular politicians in the government, who said he supported the decision to hang Saddam quickly. "Why not now?" he answered when asked about the timing of the execution.
But he was critical of the behavior of guards and other witnesses. "This was evidence that those militiamen have forgotten they are official security members," Alusi said.
On Wednesday, crowds continued to congregate near Saddam's hometown of Awja, where his body was buried in a hall used for funeral gatherings. Witnesses said American forces asked police stationed south of nearby Tikrit to remove black banners that residents had placed on their homes and mosques as a sign of mourning. The police refused, the witnesses said.
In Tikrit, some police officers distributed photos of Saddam.
ContraCostaTimes
Damn! These guys in Washington are smart!! How did they ever figure it all out.
posted by madtom at 5:41 PM
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