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December 6, 2007
Iraqi Parliament Closes Shop for Month
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 9:57 p.m. ET
BAGHDAD (AP) -- Iraqi legislators suspended parliamentary sessions Thursday
for the rest of the month to mark the Muslim religious season -- the end of
much-delayed efforts to pass U.S.-backed legislation aimed at achieving
national reconciliation this year.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates, meanwhile, welcomed a report from his top
commander in Iraq that violence has declined 60 percent in the last six
months. But Gates warned that ''people are getting impatient'' for the Iraqi
government to take advantage of improved security and move toward needed
political reforms.
The Sunni speaker of parliament announced the decision to suspend sessions
after days of debate over a draft bill that would allow thousands of former
members of Saddam Hussein's Baath Party to return to their government jobs.
The measure is among the 18 benchmarks set by the United States to encourage
reconciliation.
Speaker Mahmoud al-Mashhadani said the legislative body would not hold
another session until the end of December because many lawmakers would be
traveling to Mecca, Saudi Arabia, for the annual Islamic pilgrimage.
Others were expected to leave the capital to spend Eid al-Adha, or the feast
of sacrifice, with their families elsewhere in Iraq or abroad. The holiday
begins around Dec. 20.
The suspension was the latest setback to efforts by Prime Minister Nouri
al-Maliki's Shiite-dominated government to bring minority Sunnis into the
political process.
The 275-member parliament came under criticism over the summer for taking
the month of August off despite the lack of progress on passing the
legislation, including a law to ensure the equitable distribution of Iraq's
oil riches.
Many lawmakers have residences in neighboring Jordan , and the chamber
rarely holds a full house.
Before the legislature adjourned, a shouting match erupted when a Shiite
lawmaker accused a powerful Sunni Arab politician of harboring sectarian
sentiments against Iraq's Shiite majority.
The public outburst could renew calls by Shiite politicians that Adnan
al-Dulaimi, the Sunni politician, be stripped of his parliamentary immunity
to stand trial for inciting sectarian strife.
Iraqi forces have repeatedly raided al-Dulaimi's offices in a western
Baghdad neighborhood over the past week, arresting 42 people linked to the
politician after one of his security guards was discovered with a key to an
explosives-laden car.
The detained, who included al-Dulaimi's son, are under criminal
investigation, but the chief military spokesman, Brig. Gen. Qassim
al-Moussawi, said the politician himself was not under suspicion.
Al-Dulaimi is the leader of the Iraqi Accordance Front, a three-party
alliance with 44 seats in parliament, and he has been a harsh critic of
al-Maliki, a Shiite. The Front's six Cabinet ministers have pulled out of
the government to protest the prime minister's policies.
The quarrel began when Bahaa al-Aaraji, a follower of radical Shiite cleric
Muqtada al-Sadr, told the 275-seat house that he had evidence that
al-Dulaimi branded Shiites ''heretics'' whose killing is legitimate.
Al-Aaraji said the evidence was in documents he held while addressing
parliament, but declined to divulge their contents when he later spoke to
reporters.
''Everything he said is nothing but lies,'' al-Dulaimi told reporters
outside the chamber. ''I am a well-known and a peaceful personality and I
don't incite the killing of Shiites, Kurds or Sunnis. I dare anyone to prove
otherwise.''
Sunni-Shiite tensions soared after the bombing in February 2006 of a major
Shiite shrine north of Baghdad. The bombing, blamed on Sunni militants,
unleashed a wave of sectarian killings that has claimed tens of thousands of
lives.
U.S. officials had hoped that approval of the benchmark laws would help
bridge the sectarian gap.
American officials began talking about benchmarks last year as a way to
press the al-Maliki government to show tangible achievements in a bid to
deflect calls in Congress for setting a timetable to withdraw U.S. forces.
Congress set 18 benchmarks and directed President Bush to provide progress
reports in July and September as a condition for supporting the increasingly
unpopular U.S. mission here.
The Iraqis have received mixed reviews in both reports, and the Americans
have shifted their focus to supporting Sunnis at a grass-roots level as many
tribal leaders and residents have joined forces against extremists, lowering
the number of attacks to levels not seen since January 2006.
''We are trying to still push very hard the political leadership on these
issues of defining what it means to be an Iraqi, what a future Iraq will
look like, how they're going to relate to each other,'' said a senior U.S.
official in Baghdad.
But the official said the U.S. was ''approaching it very much at a ground
level of how do people in communities at the local level accommodate the
fact that this country has been so devastated by the sectarian and ethnic
violence and rivalries of the last two years.''
The official briefed reporters on condition his name not be published
because the sensitivity of one government commenting on another.
While the violence has declined, American commanders have warned extremists
on both sides of the sectarian divide still pose a serious threat.
Gen. David Petraeus told Gates, who was visiting, that violence has declined
60 percent in the last six months. But Petraeus acknowledged that
significant problem areas remain, including northern Iraq where some
al-Qaida activity is on the rise.
Petraeus, who is scheduled to give Congress an update next March on progress
in Iraq and map out some plans for U.S. force levels down the road, refused
to offer too much optimism.
'' Nobody says anything about turning a corner , seeing lights at the end of
tunnels, any of those other phrases,'' said Petraeus. ''You just keep your
head down and keep moving.''
Iraqi Parliament Closes Shop for Month
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 9:57 p.m. ET
BAGHDAD (AP) -- Iraqi legislators suspended parliamentary sessions Thursday
for the rest of the month to mark the Muslim religious season -- the end of
much-delayed efforts to pass U.S.-backed legislation aimed at achieving
national reconciliation this year.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates, meanwhile, welcomed a report from his top
commander in Iraq that violence has declined 60 percent in the last six
months. But Gates warned that ''people are getting impatient'' for the Iraqi
government to take advantage of improved security and move toward needed
political reforms.
The Sunni speaker of parliament announced the decision to suspend sessions
after days of debate over a draft bill that would allow thousands of former
members of Saddam Hussein's Baath Party to return to their government jobs.
The measure is among the 18 benchmarks set by the United States to encourage
reconciliation.
Speaker Mahmoud al-Mashhadani said the legislative body would not hold
another session until the end of December because many lawmakers would be
traveling to Mecca, Saudi Arabia, for the annual Islamic pilgrimage.
Others were expected to leave the capital to spend Eid al-Adha, or the feast
of sacrifice, with their families elsewhere in Iraq or abroad. The holiday
begins around Dec. 20.
The suspension was the latest setback to efforts by Prime Minister Nouri
al-Maliki's Shiite-dominated government to bring minority Sunnis into the
political process.
The 275-member parliament came under criticism over the summer for taking
the month of August off despite the lack of progress on passing the
legislation, including a law to ensure the equitable distribution of Iraq's
oil riches.
Many lawmakers have residences in neighboring Jordan , and the chamber
rarely holds a full house.
Before the legislature adjourned, a shouting match erupted when a Shiite
lawmaker accused a powerful Sunni Arab politician of harboring sectarian
sentiments against Iraq's Shiite majority.
The public outburst could renew calls by Shiite politicians that Adnan
al-Dulaimi, the Sunni politician, be stripped of his parliamentary immunity
to stand trial for inciting sectarian strife.
Iraqi forces have repeatedly raided al-Dulaimi's offices in a western
Baghdad neighborhood over the past week, arresting 42 people linked to the
politician after one of his security guards was discovered with a key to an
explosives-laden car.
The detained, who included al-Dulaimi's son, are under criminal
investigation, but the chief military spokesman, Brig. Gen. Qassim
al-Moussawi, said the politician himself was not under suspicion.
Al-Dulaimi is the leader of the Iraqi Accordance Front, a three-party
alliance with 44 seats in parliament, and he has been a harsh critic of
al-Maliki, a Shiite. The Front's six Cabinet ministers have pulled out of
the government to protest the prime minister's policies.
The quarrel began when Bahaa al-Aaraji, a follower of radical Shiite cleric
Muqtada al-Sadr, told the 275-seat house that he had evidence that
al-Dulaimi branded Shiites ''heretics'' whose killing is legitimate.
Al-Aaraji said the evidence was in documents he held while addressing
parliament, but declined to divulge their contents when he later spoke to
reporters.
''Everything he said is nothing but lies,'' al-Dulaimi told reporters
outside the chamber. ''I am a well-known and a peaceful personality and I
don't incite the killing of Shiites, Kurds or Sunnis. I dare anyone to prove
otherwise.''
Sunni-Shiite tensions soared after the bombing in February 2006 of a major
Shiite shrine north of Baghdad. The bombing, blamed on Sunni militants,
unleashed a wave of sectarian killings that has claimed tens of thousands of
lives.
U.S. officials had hoped that approval of the benchmark laws would help
bridge the sectarian gap.
American officials began talking about benchmarks last year as a way to
press the al-Maliki government to show tangible achievements in a bid to
deflect calls in Congress for setting a timetable to withdraw U.S. forces.
Congress set 18 benchmarks and directed President Bush to provide progress
reports in July and September as a condition for supporting the increasingly
unpopular U.S. mission here.
The Iraqis have received mixed reviews in both reports, and the Americans
have shifted their focus to supporting Sunnis at a grass-roots level as many
tribal leaders and residents have joined forces against extremists, lowering
the number of attacks to levels not seen since January 2006.
''We are trying to still push very hard the political leadership on these
issues of defining what it means to be an Iraqi, what a future Iraq will
look like, how they're going to relate to each other,'' said a senior U.S.
official in Baghdad.
But the official said the U.S. was ''approaching it very much at a ground
level of how do people in communities at the local level accommodate the
fact that this country has been so devastated by the sectarian and ethnic
violence and rivalries of the last two years.''
The official briefed reporters on condition his name not be published
because the sensitivity of one government commenting on another.
While the violence has declined, American commanders have warned extremists
on both sides of the sectarian divide still pose a serious threat.
Gen. David Petraeus told Gates, who was visiting, that violence has declined
60 percent in the last six months. But Petraeus acknowledged that
significant problem areas remain, including northern Iraq where some
al-Qaida activity is on the rise.
Petraeus, who is scheduled to give Congress an update next March on progress
in Iraq and map out some plans for U.S. force levels down the road, refused
to offer too much optimism.
'' Nobody says anything about turning a corner , seeing lights at the end of
tunnels, any of those other phrases,'' said Petraeus. ''You just keep your
head down and keep moving.''
