Posted on 08/06/2006 11:10:15 PM PDT by jmc1969
The government of Iraq is secretly holding a Baathist cabal of military officers it claims attempted a coup against Prime Minister al-Maliki.
The plotters were rounded up July 5 with the help of American military authorities after the Iraqi government's security warning center sent word to Mr. Maliki, who was in Kuwait on his first official visit as head of state, two highly placed Iraqi sources said.
The prime minister quickly canceled a scheduled trip to Amman, Jordan, and returned to Baghdad to attend to the matter. At the time, Mr. Maliki's staff told reporters that the prime minister was cutting his trip short because of Iraq's "security situation."
In an interview last night, an adviser to Mr. Maliki and a member of parliament in Baghdad, Mithal al-Alusi, said a coup attempt indeed took place last month. He said the mutinous attempt to replace the elected government of Iraq was organized by military officers loyal to Saddam Hussein.
"The Baathists were trying to have this coup, and people have been arrested and it has been stopped. There have been a lot of rumors as to who is behind this," Mr. Alusi said, referring to speculation that the plot may have involved a former interim prime minister, Ayad Allawi, whose men worked with the CIA in 1995 to oust Saddam in a military coup.
But Mr. Alusi said Mr. Allawi was not behind the coup attempt. "I have seen the file and their pictures and I can say that this is not Ayad Allawi. These people were in the system, but they are not well-known," he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at nysun.com ...
Sunni's making a move. Very interesting.
The biggest mistake of Iraqi Freedom is that a hand grenade wasn't tossed down Saddam's spider hole first. Not killing Saddam on site, what, two+ years ago now, has cost the lives of hundreds of American and coalition soldiers. As long as Saddam is alive his loyalists (a percentage of the insurgency) still think their is a chance that he will come back to power and will keep trying to disrupt the current government by attacking our troops, the Iraqi military and their police.
Yeah, these guys weren't very bright were they?
Are these the same Baath Party Military leaders that the US should have made use of instead of barring them??
I think there is a connection between the SUnnis making a move and the announcement last week or so that the US troops would not be needed after the end of the year. I do not remember which Iraqi official said it, but I wonder if the plan was to get this over with now by the Iraqis by cleaning up their own house in their own way.
That would be consistent with the US needing its troops freed up in the event of an escalation of the war to include Syria.
Gee, maybe disbanding the military wasn't the huge mistake pundits have made it out to be.
As long as he lives, there are always die-hards ready to fight, sacrifice, revolt or connive for him. They hope to revive their glory days when he was their leader.
Their hopes must be stifled with the lawful but quick execution of the Beast of Baghdad.
Leni
I feel certain Reed, Kennedy, clinton, Kerry, Biden, et al are saddened ... especially Biden, since he appears to have had some sort of early warning of a coup coming with his continuous insistence on civil war in Iraq.
"Wow, that's pretty nutty. Did they expect the Americans would just sit there and do nothing while they installed another Baathist regime?"
Baathists hate Iranians and they despise Shiites. The Iranian/Syrian connection is a farce. Syria has basically given up their country to Iran in exchange for Iran not destroying them with radical shiite extremists.
Basically, the Syrians are wussies. They are the key to peace in the middle east because they are the road that Iran takes to get to Israel. Block the road and the Iranians have no where to go.
That is the isolation that needs to take place.
Saddam et al must be executed immediately to end this action. As long as Saddam is alive, some will fear his return and act on his behalf.
There is no other course except death.
"And to think the Left says we made our big mistake in Iraq by not allowing the Baathist generals to continue to run the Army in 2003. We caused the insurgency by putting the Iraqi Army out on the street. They say we could have had our troops home by now if we had just trusted the Iraqi Army to perform security for us."
That is one of stupidest arguments liberals make, I have to say. Yeah, lets just keep the military in place that was in charge of the rape rooms, firing squads, and secret police. Baathists loyal to Saddam Hussein, not to mention their hatred of the Great Satan. I'm sure they would have been great to work with during the invasion. Utter B.S.
Uh oh....those ASPCA cops will be a hunting you down for suggesting that we feed such filth to those poor innocent pigs, not to mention dropping them into a place where they would be so unloved.
This looks to be Alistair Cooke (spelled "Alastair" on some links):
Conflicts Forum was founded by Alastair Crooke, a trained negotiator and Mark Perry, a military, intelligence and foreign affairs analyst and writer. Both men have extensive experience in conflict resolution and negotiation. For example, Mr. Cooke and Mr. Perry negotiated the end of the Church of Nativity siege in Bethlehem in 2002, and helped facilitate the Palestinian ceasefires of 2002 and 2003. Mr. Crooke was also a staff member of the Mitchell Committee that inquired into the causes of the intifada (2000–2001). Conflicts Forum is funded by donations from individuals and businesses in the United States and the Middle East who believe that dialogue and mutual understanding is the way forward. It has had a good start and, in conjunction with other events transpiring in the Middle East, Vanessa feels that it will have an impact on U.S. policy.
Interview with former MI6 agent
Alastair Crooke is a former official with Britain's MI6 intelligence agency and I have picked up this recent interview with al-jazeera that makes fascinating reading. Considering his previous position it is probably fair to presume that his view mirrors that of MI6 and therefore makes the interview more interesting still. . .Alastair spent many years in the Arab and Muslim world and engaged in dialogue with Hamas and Hizb Allah, as well as facing paramilitary forces and drug cartels in Latin America and militias in Africa. During this time, Crooke helped end the Israeli siege of the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem in 2002 and worked to mediate the summer 2003 ceasefire between Palestinian armed groups and Israeli forces.
No.
Yep. There is a trend in self-aggrandizing, dishonest journalism to dismiss the choice of the lesser of two evils and conclude that the greater one would have led to paradise instead. Real life doesn't work like that.
Thanks!
Actually, there are a lot of reasons the U.S. forces in Baghdad have increased.
There's a lot of trouble in this town that needs to be cleaned up.
There have been a lot of threats made recently as well.
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