AP: Iraq's al-Maliki tours Baghdad streets

[Eugene]

Iraq's al-Maliki tours Baghdad streets

By LAUREN FRAYER, Associated Press Writer

9 minutes ago

BAGHDAD - Iraq's prime minister strolled Baghdad's streets and visited police
checkpoints Friday to showcase security ahead of an international conference
aimed at stabilizing the war-torn country with help from its neighbors.

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki toured a neighborhood and chatted with people,
one of his advisers said. But the tour — during a weekly four-hour vehicle ban
every Friday for the Muslim holy day — also pointed out Baghdad's inherent risks.

Al-Makiki's office did not release any advance details of the outing or even
say where he visited because of safety concerns.

Security was heightened across Baghdad as international envoys prepared to
arrive for Saturday's conference, which would be held at Iraq's Foreign Ministry
just outside the heavily fortified Green Zone.

-snip-

Full article: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070309/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq

The article goes on with other events around Iraq and
a report of a pre-conference spat.

[POAS]

1. And of course he did this

without a flak jacket or a squad of security police surrounding him.

I'm sure he also went to Sadr City right?

It sounds like they managed to expand the security zone in the vicinity of the "Green Zone" and little else.

[Bonobo]

2. Well our president is more scared of his own people than Maliki is!

I dare Bush to walk around in public! He wouldn't and it's not just he's scared of nuts. His fear is indistinhuishable from any 2-bit dictator who is also afraid of his people.

[POAS]

3. Good point

[GreenZoneLT]

4. Maliki's fairly popular in Sadr City

He'd be way less safe in the neighborhoods near the Green Zone, because they're largely Sunni and he's seen as a Shiite partisan who won't rein in militias and death squads. Sadr is a big reason why Maliki wound up prime minister.

Right now, American troops aren't having much of a problem patrolling Sadr City, because they negotiated their way in. I have to tell you, I'm still not a long-term optimist on U.S. involvement here, but the new security plan has definitely cut down on the number of mortar and rocket attacks on the Green Zone. We were getting hit several times a day a couple months ago, and recently there's been nothing.

[4dsc]

5. You saw this coming though

Inasmuch as the violence is dropping, all they(Sunni's and Shiite's) are doing is reassessing the situation and will come back soon..Typical insurgent tactics..