Alawi's party just quit the Iraqi government

[youngdem]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/24/AR2007082401449.html?hpid=topnews

(with a nod to Talkingpointsmemo for the link and heads up on the story)



Hey, things are going GREAT!


:sarcasm:

[Cooley Hurd]

1. al-Maliki will be gone by next Friday, mark my words...

Juan Cole thinks it'll be a military coup d'tat:
http://www.juancole.com/2007/08/military-coup-planned-for-iraq.html

Military Coup Planned for Iraq?

A rumor is circulating among well-connected and formerly high-level Iraqi bureaucrats in exile in places like Damascus that a military coup is being prepared for Iraq. I received the following from a reliable, knowledgeable contact. There is no certitude that this plan can or will be implemented. That it is being discussed at high levels seems highly likely.

"There is serious talk of a military commission (majlis `askari) to take over the government. The parties would be banned from holding positions, and all the ministers would be technocrats, so to speak. . . (The writer indicates that attempts have been made to recruit cabinet members from the ranks of expatriate technocrats.)

The six-member board or commission would be composed on non-political former military personnel who are presently not part of the government OR the military establishment, such as it is in Iraq at the moment. It is said that the Americans are supporting this behind the scenes.

[nadinbrzezinski]

2. Swimmingly

and a coup in Iraq and a strong man, unfortunately, may be the only thing that will bring "peace" to that hell hole

Oh god, but democracy is flourishing, huh?

[Wiley50]

11. Haley Barber and co Are Pushing Alawi, Who, after all, Is CIA since 1992

and is famous for summarily killing 6 insurgents
in an Iraqi police station, personally, with bullets to the head

Alawi is the neocon's guy and just as vicious

[bleever]

3. And they've hired top shelf Republican PR.

I wonder if there are connections between Allawi's newly-hired PR firm, and those who hired the giant blubbering head of Ari Fleischer to front for their pro-war ad blitz.

[Bluebear]

4. Purple fingers held high! nt

[flyarm]

5. oh lovely see who is pointed out ...saying Maliki should be removed...

makes one all warm and fuzzy coming from our party to remove an elected Prime Minister.....gee maybe they can find a Saddam look alike..democracy is on the march...and looky looky who the leaders for tearing apart that democracy are!!..gee they better get Alawi in fast to gobble up all that oil for our oil companies!!


snip from the washington post article :

The National List's move comes on the heels of proclamations by two prominent U.S. senators that Maliki should be removed. On Tuesday, Sen. Carl M. Levin (D-Mich.), chairman of the Armed Services Committee, called for "a less sectarian and more unifying prime minister and government" in Iraq, comments that were echoed by a leading presidential candidate, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.), and quickly rejected by Maliki.


fly

[flyarm]

6. well when they take him down we all need to paint our fingers purple..and keep them purple!

and do all we can to get on national tv with purple fingers!

fly

[flyarm]

7. oh and K&R..eom

[slipslidingaway]

8. Maliki fears U.S. will torpedo government over oil money

from March

http://iraqnam.blogspot.com/2007/03/maliki-fears-us-will-torpedo-government.html

"Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki fears the Americans will torpedo his government if parliament does not pass a law to fairly divvy up the country's oil wealth among Iraqis by the end of June, close associates of the leader told The Associated Press on Tuesday.

The legislature has not even taken up the draft measure, which is only one of several U.S. benchmarks that are seen by al-Maliki as key to continued American support, a crucial need for the survival of his troubled administration.

Aside from the oil law, the associates said, American officials have told the hardline Shiite Muslim prime minister that they want an Iraqi government in place by year's end acceptable to the country's Sunni Arab neighbors, particularly Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Egypt.

"They have said it must be secular and inclusive," one al-Maliki associate said."

[Canuckistanian]

9. Wait, I thought Allawi was poised to make a takeover

"Powerhouse GOP firm working to undermine Iraqi PM"

CRAWFORD, Texas (CNN) -- A powerhouse Republican lobbying firm with close ties to the White House has begun a public campaign to undermine the government of Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, CNN has confirmed.

A report by the U.S. intelligence community questions Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's ability to govern.

This comes as President Bush is publicly taking great pains to reiterate his support for the embattled Iraqi leader.

Al-Maliki's government has come under sharp criticism and scrutiny from Washington lawmakers and officials, as reflected in Thursday's National Intelligence Estimate.

A senior Bush administration official told CNN the White House is aware of the lobbying campaign by Barbour Griffith & Rogers because the firm is "blasting e-mails all over town" criticizing al-Maliki and promoting the firm's client, former interim Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, as an alternative to al-Maliki.
http://edition.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/08/23/anti.maliki.compaign/index.html?iref=mpstoryview

What gives here?

[jimshoes]

10. That whole democracy thing just

wasn't working out quite like the neo-dimwits thought it would. Or perhaps the Iraqi's thought we really meant there was to be a democracy in Iraq with self rule and all that. Silly Iraqi's.