Muntazar to be Tried this Week;
To Sue Security for Torture
The trial of Iraqi journalist Muntazar al-Zaidi for assaulting W. with a shoe will begin later this week in Baghdad. Al-Zaidi, who became a hero in much of the Muslim world, is planning a lawsuit against the Iraqi security forces for beating him while he was in custody, on the grounds that they tortured him.
The Baydan Shoe Co. in Turkey, which says it manufactured the shoes used by al-Zaidi, has been besieged by orders and has added 100 workers.
Toby Dodge warns that all the pie in the sky talk from George W. Bush and Gordon Brown about the situation in Iraq disguises a country on the brink.
The Iraqi government is planning to expel members of the Mojahedin-e Khalq guerrilla group, to whom Saddam Hussein had given a base, Camp Ashraf. Although the State Department has put the MeK on the terrorist list, the US Pentagon has likely been using the group to spy on and commit dirty tricks against Iran.
Al-Hayat reports in Arabic that a tug of war is going on between Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and Interior Minister Jawad Bulani over the officers who were arrested and then released on charges of belonging to the outlawed al-Awda Party (neo-Baathist). Bulani says his people are innocent.
The Kurdish Workers Party (PKK) is worried that Turkey will successfully lobby Iraqi Kurdistan to put limits on the scope of its paramilitary actions against Turkey while it is based on Iraqi soil.
posted by Juan Cole @ 12/22/2008 12:41:00 AM
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4 Comments:
Maliki has declared that investigations have proved that a person "who has slaughtered Iraqis" is behind the shoe throwing.
He also said that the officers arrested recently are accused of issuing papers to terrorists, saying that the coup was just a rumor since nobody in Iraq thinks about coups. Elections, according to Maliki prevent coups (so the Mauritania, Thailand and similar coups didn't happen?)
Maliki had also accused the chief anti-corruption judge of committing assasinations, no less.
Having the PM involved personally into dishing out clearly false and very serious accusations betrays not only his lack of integrity and decorum, but also his background as the head of the military wing of the Da'wa party in exile, a terrorist in short.
"Al-Zaidi, who became a hero in much of the Muslim world"
I think he became a hero to much of the world, Muslim or not.
The trial for the shoes thrower will be on 31 December, and will be held in public according to the judge.
The choice of New Year's eve suggests it will be embarrassing to the western public.
The journalist has been charged with assaulting a foriegn leader which carries a lesser sentence than for insulting senior Iraqi officials. This can explain his letter to Maliki saying that the target was Bush, and not the PM.
to karloff 1 message at 2:15
Bravo ; i agree with you ; the MEK has been used by the CIA to committ acts of terrorism within iran to distabilize iran while the world keeps quiet .
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