Public Works Minister Seriously Wounded
Vice President Abdul Mahdi narrowly Escapes Assassination
New Oil Law Passes Cabinet
Sunni Arab guerrillas attempted on Monday to assassinate Iraq's Shiite vice president, Adil Abdul Mahdi, 59, as he visited a the offices of the ministry of public works and municipalities in the upscale Mansour district of the capital. Abdul Mahdi was hurt but escaped serious injury; the force of the blast knocked him down. A Shiite cabinet member, Public Works Minister Riyad Gharib, was seriously injured, and 10 others were killed. Wire services estimated the wounded at between 18 and 32. The bomb had been planted in the office, pointing to an inside job-- i.e. someone in the Iraqi government who knew the itinerary of the Vice President and leaked it to the assassins. Abdul Mahdi has often been mentioned as a possible successor to current prime minister Nuri al-Maliki. He belongs to the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq. The leader of SCIRI, Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, had been the target of a bombing over the weekend, and some observers are now saying that the guerrillas are targetting members of that Shiite party.
So as of Monday both Iraq's president, Jalal Talabani, and one of two vice presidents, are in hospital.
Iraq's other (Sunni fundamentalist) vice president, Tariq al-Hashimi, in the meantime slammed the current security plan, which has so far mainly involved sweeps in Sunni neighborhoods of the capital. He complained that the plan does not respect residents' rights and implied that it consisted of a Shiite government cracking down on Sunnis only. He said that the Shiite militias have to be taken on, and that the US needs a plan B in case the surge fails. He also criticized the al-Maliki government for refusing seriously to reach out to the Sunni Arab guerrilla leadership.
In Ramadi, a major Sunni Arab city west of Baghdad, a suicide bomber used ambulance to attack a police station, killing 14 and wounding 10. Al-Hayat reports in Arabic that the Sunni imam of the Mu'awiya Mosque in Ramadi was killed on Monday, as part of an ongoing conflict between tribal forces and "al-Qaeda" (Salafi Jihadis) in al-Anbar. Some 15 bodies were found in the streets of Baghdad on Monday. US and Iraqi troops attempted a sweep of a Baquba neighborhood. There were clashes between Shiite militiamen and British troops in Basra.
Also in Basra, al-Hayat reported that Muqtada al-Sadr's representative in that city, Baha' al-A'raji, read a statement from him that said, "The decision of the British to withdraw is a sign of the victory of the Resistance there." He added, "The partial withdrawal of the British forces from the city constitutes a defeat for the forces of Occupation, and is the fruit of the struggle and jihad of the sons of the city."
Elsewhere in al-Anbar Province, Sunni Arab guerrillas killed a US marine.
There were other scattered bombings and mortar attacks, in Baghdad, Iskandariya, Abbasi, and Mosul.
Pepe Escobar on Iraq's new oil law, which he sees as a giveaway to US Big Oil.
Reuters reviews the main outlines of the proposed petroleum law, which has been approved by the cabinet but must now get 138 votes in parliament. Since the Kurds have been given the clauses that they want, guaranteeing their ability to act semi-autonomously, and since the Shiites crafted this law, it is likely to sail through.
Note that contrary to US hopes, it does not privatize petroleum, putting it under a government holding company instead. Receipts go to a government account for distribution to the population, a la Alaska. Some critics believe it will make possible deals that are overly generous to the oil companies and which essentially cheat Iraqis, given that the present government is desperate to jump-start new development and foreign companies won't try to operate in blood-soaked Iraq unless the deal is sweetened enormously. On the other hand, Husayn Shahristani, the oil minister, is an Iraqi nationalist close to Grand Ayatollah Sistani, and had no motivation to see Iraq cheated. I will try to get some readings from oil industry experts and report back.
[By the way, five Western governors committed to reducing carbon emissions as a way of fighting global warming, saying that if the Federal government is not going to do anything about it, they will. Good for them! Send messages of support or they won't know we're happy about it!]
Egypt's Nilesat satellite television company has stopped carrying al-Zawra', a channel that favored the Iraqi Sunni Arab guerrillas and showed graphic footage of attacks on US troops. Nilesat said that the decision was based on technical considerations, but there is speculation that the Egyptian government intervened after US or Saudi/Jordanian pressure. The Shiite government in Baghdad was furious at Cairo for allowing the channel to be carried.
The Minorities Rights Group has issued a study warning that Iraq's religious minorities, once perhaps five percent of the population, are in danger of disappearing from the country as they flee abroad because of the bad security. The report, in PDF format is here.
Labels: Iraq War
posted by Juan Cole @ 2/27/2007 12:30:00 AM
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5 Comments:
If I was Abdul Mahdi, I'd rethink my support to the new oil law.
Abdul Mahdi was the US favorite candidate for PM, because he was supporting the new oil draft and preparing the Iraqi oil grasp by US and Western companies. IMO, it's not a case if Abdul Mahdi was targeted just now that the new oil law is going to be adopted.
There may be some grandstanding in parliament, but it is basically just an up-and-down rubber stamp. Dick Cheney has won. Big Oil will control Iraq’s oil for generations to come. The new law states that the oil belongs to “the Iraqi people” but EXTRACTION RIGHTS will belong to Big Oil. This effectively puts big Oil in control of the tap, which they can switch on or off at will. The law, which was written by Big Oil consultants to the US, UK and Iraqi governments, is also intentionally vague about revenue sharing.
This is NOT a victory for the Iraqi people, it is a tragedy, a travesty and a disgrace. Expect major protests across Iraq and neighbouring countries.
From Chris Floyd at Empire Burlesque:
The New York Times notes (in the next-to-last paragraph) that Iraq’s oil will controlled by the iron fist of a “central body called the Federal Oil and Gas Council” which will have “a panel of oil experts from inside and outside Iraq” as part of the operation… without telling us that these “oil experts” will in fact be executives and representatives of American and other Western oil companies.
President / Vice-president
I am at a loss if both are in hospital – the first due to "fatigue" in Jordan and the second due to "shrapnels" in Baghdad, this does not mean that the second Vice-President is now the acting President ? If this is not the case then something is awfully wrong.
It is further evidence that Iraq as an independent state does not currently exists and that it is actually run by the occupying forces.
Is there any knowledge on whether the suicide bombers are preponderantly foreign or local, Sunni or Shia? Do they leave behind videos or letters that might give a clue of their origins?
Given the power of words and beliefs to inspire actions, does the Iraqi media refer to the operations as "martyrdom" or "suicide"? Or is the choice of words highly polarized based on the source? For instance, if someone (persumably a Sunni) blows himself up in a Shia school, will a cleric or newspaper affiliated with AMS speak reverently of martyrs or disparagingly of killers destined to hell? Evidently, someone is telling these operatives they merit some sort of post-mortem reward, or they would be very hard to recruit.
Cheney adores cloaking himself in secrecy, but it is obvious his presence at Bagram was not a secret, nor was his flight delay. Only the naive or the most determined spinmeisters will insist the suicide bombings were coincidental.Apparently,the bombings were meant to send a threat and a message of protest. Information must be leaking out of Bagram like water from a hole in the dike; and it cost lives. Cheney should have stayed home. His warmongering only incites more hatred and contempt among the local people. He no longer serves any useful purpose, if he ever did. What is needed in Afghanistan is a cash crop that can replace poppies. The heroin trade is a cash cow for terrorism. It is, however, unfair to the impoverished Afghani farmer to ask him to starve to death. We might actually do some good, if we subsidized other crops at the same value or more as heroin poppies, instead of bombing or otherwise intimidating the local population, and spending billions to do it. We will have as much success as the former Soviet Union.
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