Dancing through the news on Iraq

[Cross-posted from The Middle Everything]

The Guardian:

A wave of at least 14 bombings ripped across Baghdad on Thursday morning, killing at least 60 people in the worst violence Iraq has seen for months.

Radio Free Europe:

The fear now is that today’s attacks, which have occurred amid a rapidly unraveling political situation and the withdrawal of U.S. military support, could signal a return to that sectarian strife.

How pervasive is this sectarian strife?

Russia Today:

Tariq al-Hashemi [Iraqi Vice President] is accused of paying his bodyguards to target government officials in 2006-2007, and was banned from leaving the country on Sunday. But by Monday, when the warrant was issued, Al-Hashemi had already moved to Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdish region. The move provided the VP with significant immunity to the arrest warrant, given the region’s special status.

Let’s backtrack for a second to put this into perspective. Tariq al-Hashemi is a leading Sunni politician in Iraq’s central government that seeks to bring together the country’s majority Shia Muslim population with the minority Sunni Muslims and Kurds.

Before World War I, “Iraq” was three provinces within the Ottoman Empire: Sunni, Shia, and Kurd. After becoming a country and being forced to live together, a strongman Sunni ruler named Sadaam Hussein came to power and committed massacres against both the Shia and Kurd populations. The Kurd’s still want their own country (hence the “semi-autonomous Kurdish region” in northern Iraq); the Shia and Sunni always seem to have trouble living together.

Iraq’s current Prime Minister, Nouri al-Malki, is a Shiite. And the Sunni VP al-Hashemi apparently contracted out hits on Shia politicians. After al-Malki issued an arrested warrant for the country’s vice president, al-Hashemi fled for safe haven in Kurdistan, which is supposed to be part of Iraq and, BTW, is also part of Iraq’s central government in Baghdad.

So, besides issuing an arrest warrant for a sitting member of that government, what else is happening with Iraq’s central government? Glad you asked.

The Guardian:

The claims about Hashimi, made on state television, which aired the alleged confessions of three of his guards, have inflamed already high tensions between Sunni politicians and the Shia-led government of Maliki, which last week ordered a second prominent Sunni figure, deputy prime minister Saleh al-Mutlaq, to stay away from parliament.

The Sunni-dominated Iraqiya bloc, which has 91 seats in the 325-seat parliament, has flagged a boycott from the legislature by many of its members. Three Sunni provinces have made unilateral declarations of autonomy.

And, of course, massive bombings — right after the last US troops pulled out of Iraq. The timing of all this is peculiar, because…

Russia Today:

The scandal follows the departure of the last remaining US troops from the country, leaving behind what US President Barack Obama called a “sovereign, stable, and self-reliant Iraq.”

Looks like that $808 billion spent on the Iraq war — instead of infrastructure repairs, improving the US economy, and social services — was a complete and total waste.

:: Mark your Calendars, but keep it secret! Loose lips and all that rot... ::

Hint: Leaving Iraq March 2008 (or, now and between the end of time...)

tag: iraq, jon stewart, bush, congress, peace, war, fubar

CIA and NYPD Spying On Protest Groups

Lindsay Beyerstein informs us that the NYPD Billionaires For Bush and the Men (and Women) in Black Bloc during the Republican National Convention. What a waste of taxpayers money.

“Activists are showing a well-organized network made up of anti-Bush sentiment; the mixing of music and political rhetoric indicates sophisticated organizing skills with a specific agenda,” said the report, dated Oct. 9, 2003. “Police departments in above listed areas have been contacted regarding this event.”

More.

Christopher Dunn, the associate legal director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, which represents seven of the 1,806 people arrested during the convention, said the Police Department stepped beyond the law in its covert surveillance program.

“The police have no authority to spy on lawful political activity, and this wide-ranging N.Y.P.D. program was wrong and illegal,” Mr. Dunn said. “In the coming weeks, the city will be required to disclose to us many more details about its preconvention surveillance of groups and activists, and many will be shocked by the breadth of the Police Department’s political surveillance operation.”

What is more troubling is the CIA worked with the NYPD to collect intelligence on protest groups. This reeks of the Hoover FBI days of government intrusiveness.