Victory for Freedom:
Posted on 04/22/2006 9:05:11 AM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -
Iraq's president formally designated Shiite politician Jawad al-Maliki to form a new government Saturday, starting a process aimed at healing ethnic and religious wounds and pulling the nation out of insurgency and sectarian strife.
The move ends months of political deadlock among Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds that threatened to drag the nation into civil war. Al-Maliki has 30 days to present his Cabinet to parliament for approval.
Parliament elected President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, to a second term and gave the post of parliament speaker to Mahmoud al-Mashhadani, a Sunni Arab. Al-Mashhadani's two deputies were to be Khalid al-Attiyah, a Shiite, and Aref Tayfour, a Kurd.
The tough-talking al-Maliki was nominated by the Shiites on Friday after outgoing Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari gave up his bid for another term. Al-Jaafari's attempt to stay in office was adamantly opposed by Sunnis and Kurds, causing a monthslong deadlock while the country's security crisis worsened in the wake of December's election.
U.S. and Iraqi officials hope that a national unity government representing Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds will be able to quell both the Sunni-led insurgency and bloody Shiite-Sunni violence that has raged during the political uncertainty. If it succeeds, it could enable the U.S. to begin withdrawing its 133,000 troops.
White House spokesman Scott McClellan said the Bush administration is hopeful that the latest political developments in Iraq will lead to significant progress in forming a permanent government.
"We hope to see good progress in the coming days," McClellan told reporters traveling with President Bush to California. "We'll be watching."
Suspected insurgents, meanwhile, set off two bombs in a public market in central Iraq, killing at least two Iraqis and wounding 17. The second blast was timed to hit emergency crews arriving at the scene.
The first bomb exploded at 7:30 a.m. in the middle of Muqdadiyah, about 60 miles northeast of Baghdad, causing a large fire, police said.
When fire engines arrived, the second bomb went off, killing a firefighter and a civilian, and wounding 17 civilians, police said.
The bullet-ridden bodies of 10 Iraqis were found in and around Baghdad, many blindfolded with their hands and legs bound in rope. Some appeared to have been tortured, and one had been decapitated, police said.
Police also found a body with signs of torture floating in the Tigris River in Kut, 100 miles southeast of Baghdad, said Hadi al-Ittabi, an employee of the Kut Forensic Center.
In Baghdad, gunmen in a speeding car sprayed a police patrol with machine-gun fire, killing one officer, police said. Gunmen killed a civilian riding in a car, and a roadside bomb wounded two policemen, police said.
On Friday, at least 22 Iraqis were killed, including six in a car bombing in Tal Afar in western Iraq and six off-duty Iraqi soldiers slain in Beiji in northern Iraq, police said.
An Australian soldier shot himself in the head in a "tragic accident" inside Baghdad's Green Zone housing the U.S. Embassy and Iraqi government buildings, Australian defense officials said Saturday.
He was the Australian military's first casualty since the Iraq war began in 2003. Last year, an Australian-British citizen serving in Britain's Royal Air Force was killed.
Al-Maliki has a reputation as a hard-line, outspoken defender of the Shiite stance - raising questions over whether he will be able to negotiate the delicate sectarian balancing act.
From exile in Syria in the 1980s and 1990s, he directed Dawa guerrillas fighting Saddam Hussein's regime. Since returning home after Saddam's fall, he has been a prominent member of the commission purging former Baath Party officials from the military and government.
Sunni Arabs, who made up the backbone of Saddam's ousted party, deeply resent the commission.
Al-Maliki also was a tough negotiator in drawn-out deliberations over the new constitution passed last year despite Sunni Arab objections. He resisted U.S. efforts to put more Sunnis on the drafting committee as well as Sunni efforts to water down provisions giving Shiites and Kurds the power to form semiautonomous mini-states in the north and south.
Sunnis and Kurds blamed the rise of sectarian tensions on al-Jaafari, saying he failed to rein in Shiite militias and Interior Ministry commandos, accused by the Sunnis of harboring death squads. Those parties refused to join any government headed by al-Jaafari.
Al-Jaafari, prime minister since April 2005, was nominated by the alliance for a second term in February by a one-vote margin, relying on support from radical, anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.
Al-Jaafari had stalwartly rejected pressure to give up the post until Iraq's most powerful Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, sent word that he should go. On Thursday, al-Jaafari gave the alliance the go-ahead to pick a new nominee.
The new prime minister nominee will now face the task of putting together a national unity government, meaning divvying up the ministries among Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish parties.
One source of conflict is likely to be the powerful Interior Ministry, which currently is held by SCIRI. Sunnis probably will push for a change and demand the uprooting of Shiite militias from the ministry's security forces.
--
AP has a better headline...
Maliki endorsed as new Iraqi PM ~ Talabani asks Maliki to form the country's next government....
Bush' Fault, Impeach him for this quagmire.
Pray for W and Our Freedom Fighters
Encouraging development. I wonder how rags like Time will choose to ignore it. They were screaming about the tipping point, outright civil war, and failed government just a couple issues ago.
Civil war?
mark
Excellent news.
Fascinating reading, seemed to be a very reasonable session...
A rather quiet thread,....all of the action is on all of the revelations coming out on the CIA Firing.....some good stuff.
MSM wearing black armbands.
Am & will be doing.
A double whammy, their CIA mole got a MAJOR Whacking and that is only the start....
you're sporting one helluva pithy tagline!
TRIPLE whammy..........Mollohan forced to step down..........you know that 'ethical' Rat??
Don't know Mollohan...what is his resignation about?
More bad news for the Democrats.
I think I'll celebrate with a Dove ice cream bar.
Leni
A good week, I'd say!
CIA officer fired after admitting leak, (Mary McCarthy named in this article)
Pray for setting up the new government in Iraq.
Yes she is, and so am I.
Where did she get that kind of money, and why did she give more than twice the amount she gave to Kerry to the Ohio Dems?
Yep, the MSM and dimocRATS are deeply saddend.
In other news, John Kerry call for an immediate withdrawl if the Iraqis can't decide upon a new prime minister and work to form a new government.
Seriously he did, it reminds me of when Daschle asked when is Bush going to do something in Afghanistan, on the very day the bombing started.
Oh yes. Civil war, Quagmire, Next Viet Nan, etc...
To be serious, I wish the people of Iraq the best but this guy scares me a bit. Iran should NOT be in the same sentence as Iraq when you're talking about a head of state. I gave Allawi th benefit of the doubt and look where that went. At least I actually KNOW Allawi. I don't know this gentleman, who may very well be a highly reasoning individual. BUT...Once bitten and all.
CIA firings needed to be done. It's obviously too late at this point to undo any part of the damage already wrought for the other side in the WOT but a staart. The CIA's been shaking, as it should have been years ago, since the Plamegate. There have been low level firings...there will be more high level firings. NOW, after six years, we ARE cleaning house. As with any dusty house, you're bound to miss some the first time around, so you go the second...we're beginning the third now. Not necessarily final, just third round of the cleanup operations.
Boooooooooooooooooooooooooooooom!
So much for the Dems and Kerry's May 15 threats.
Are you suggesting someone slipped HER money to give, that it wasn't her own, OR that she got the money by doing something wrong in the first place? Couldn't she and her hubby the Landscape Architect afford it without something underhanded going on? Just asking...obviously I don't know. As to why Ohio even more than Kerry himself, Kerry HAD TO HAVE OHIO. We know that much. But was the money improperly used? That is another question...
The lack of faith in the skills of our President Bush and his Team to solve big problems simply amazes...
We have had and are having incredible success on many fronts with the most hostile press and dim attacks ever in history against a sitting President...
That's why I can't get over those on this site who brag about sitting out for no good reason, and then actually hoping Speaker Pelosi impeaches Bush. I admit he's messed up a few things, but this childish act by someon this site will actually set conservatism and the world back 30 years just to "send a message". What message is sent by Speaker Pelosi and President Hillary?
The average person from Maryland doesn't donate $5,000 to the Ohio Democratic party, no matter how wealthy they are.
I'd just like to know how it was used here, and if it was used legitimately (this woman doesn't seem to care much about laws), and if it came from anywhere other than her own personal funds.
I also know that George Soros poured millions into Ohio, and wonder if he didn't funnel it through individuals like Ms McCarthy. (He also doesn't care what's legal).
The wonderful thing about all this money, though, is that they might as well have thrown it down the toilet, because they did NOT succeed in buying this state, nor stealing our legitimate election of President Bush. And in that, it makes me glad. :)
They are leftist trolls, or they are insane.
In either case, they don't CARE about the future of conservatism, nor the moral future of this country, nor its security.
If the word 'impeach' is used in a post, the poster is a fraud.
No doubt about it. I'm sure they'll develop an angle to cast this as a terrible outcome.
Exactly So, Bush has accomplished more with less visable support in the press, with such open lies of his actual success...it is extreme skill to have done so much good...
The attacks by DA's, lies by Kerry, Clinton, Wilson,...et al...geez, a lesser man could just say to hell with it...a realist knows we must move America to the Right Way, no faster than the strengh of the rope we can use to pull the voters with us in that direction!
I agree, could America survive with a Clinton back in the Whitehouse?
If anyone on this forum says they don't care if Hillary wins in '08, they are not a conservative in any sense of the word. They are an America-hater, just like the most extreme leftist.
I love you Ohio...the damage that can be done to America by Hillery without any Zell Millers in her Party to be responsible...that would be a tragedy...yet for some moderates, it takes a 9 11 ever year or so to keep them focused on conservative values and self reliance...
We are making great progress even today...seal the borders, take Iran down...Syria falls on its own, and Hamas has its balls handed to it...yea...we must vote Republican, regardless of some weakness...it is still 1000 times stronger than a dim...communist.
***Not suggesting, just wondering***
Agree there is PLENTY there to wonder about, ohio.
The reaction here hasn't been quiet. You can tell there are some ticked off Sadr/Iran-freaks out there.
Early this morning, as I was getting up, I heard so many explosions I thought freakin' shock and awe was back on.
Turns out it was a rocket attack (Iranian rocket) followed by several mortars.
The Sadr-ists will just have to get over it. I hope they're all locked up soon and eventually swinging from ropes.
(I guess that eliminates a number of freepers and their troll partners).
$2,000 is the limit for individual candidates, IIRC, which is what McCarthy gave to Kerry. But the $5,000 to Ohio was for Kerry too. And this was legal??
Let us know if things settle down......or should I say "When" things settle down.
I'm no expert.
But I vaguely heard something about people being encouraged to give to state parties rather than to national candidates, or in addition to national candidates. Then the state parties can use the money to help get out the vote (however they use it) on behalf of the national candidate as well as their own state candidates. I THINK there is a loophole there large enough to drive a truck through. Maybe one is soft money and the other hard money, or some such CFR silliness.
Still, don't know the precise rules for giving money to the states, just know it seems to be all the rage now.
Ditto!
CFR - ARRGGGHHHHH!!!
How I despise it, too, ohio!
People ask how GWB could have signed that thing. One, he probably thought it would go down in court, in which case he got poor legal advice.
But really, I have always thought he mostly did it to assuage John McCain. Those two have a complex relationship from what I've seen. I have my thoughts, but let's just say I think he did not want to veto a bill that was John McCain's baby from beginning to end.
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