
CNN reports that a man sentenced to death in Kuwait for the 1983 bombings of the U.S. and French embassies now sits in Iraq’s parliament as a member of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki’s ruling coalition.
Jamal Jafaar Mohammed’s seat in parliament gives him immunity from prosecution and Washington sources say he supports Shiite insurgents and acts as an Iranian agent in Iraq.
CNN said that U.S. military intelligence in Iraq has approached al-Maliki’s government with the allegations against Jamal Jafaar Mohammed, whom it says assists Iranian special forces in Iraq as “a conduit for weapons and political influence.”
More here.
How did this guy end up in parliament in the first place? Doesn’t new Iraqi law prohibit criminals from candidating?
Also, what did he do during Saddam’s reign? Was he in Iraq? If yes, did authorities know he is a terorist? Was he hiding in another country? If yes, why was he allowed to stay there?
This may become interesting. I guess this story will gain some momemtum in the next days.
This illustrates another reason not to view our alliance with the Iraqi government as anything but a relationship of convenience- similar to other relationships the US has held in the past —there are no black and white- good and evil sides to this conflict. There are only many shades of gray.
Iraq will end up a close ally of Iran and many in its government hate Israel and the Jews. Most Iraqis hate us and blame the US for the violence tearing apart their country. What moral high ground is really left for us? The only good that can come out of this mess is to avoid wholesale slaughter of innocent civilians-if we can identify who’s innocent over there.
But we need to stay the course, Kim. We’re bringing democracy to the Iraqi people! And it’s all Iran and Syria’s fault!
Well, Maliki’s making the right noises, anyway. Definitely a story to watch as it develops.
“Well, Maliki’s making the right noises, anyway.”
Wow! That’s great! The right noises. A good sign. |-(
Well, is it only me who thinks not everything that sounds like “choochoo” is really a locomotive? Sometimes it’s only a loco…
C Prez- I thought it was still Bill Clinton’s fault! At least until Hillary gets elected in 2008!:)
That damn Jimmy Carter! He messed it all up, Kim!
Jimmy Carter is the Manchurian Arab. You BDS Demonocrats hate our soldiers, want to see our defeat in WWIV. One mans terrorist is another mans freedom fighter. MMMMM Cheetos:).
Screw Anwar Sadat and Menachem Begin for trying to bring peace to the M.E.
Yeah, blame Jimmy Carter- that Nobel-Peace-Prize winning, Camp David organizing Jew Hater!
That damn Shimon Peres and Yitzhak Rabin! Traitors to Israel for trying to bring peace with the Palestinians!
Well, this is a high level debate
A regular snark feeding frenzy, I’d say.
Kim and I are having a little clean fun, MvdG.
MvdG – is fun still allowed on here? No one’s cursing, bullying conservatives or Bush-bashing! CP promises he will be clean, articulate and mainstream.
I don’t think anyone said anything about those kind of comments not being allowed, Kim and CP. I just find them about as interesting as talk radio. I’ll pass.
No one’s cursing, bullying conservatives or Bush-bashing!
That isn’t any fun, see ya off to DU.
KR MvdG is being nice, yesterday he lumped us(Gray included) as the ‘Axis of Weevils’. Another accused US of TROLLING, I preffer still or drift fishing. LOL – But I only use PETA approved hooks, don’t want to harm any Conservatives, their no longer in season here.
LMAO!”Axis of Weevils!” Yes, MvdG was a little pissy yesterday, Rudi. Maybe his expanded executive powers have gone to his head, and he’s trying to control dissent– like—uh oh, on second thought let’s not make that comparison!
CS- Sorry we are not entertaining you with scintillating debate. I was busy concentrating on not annoying the conservative wing of TMV with offensive references today.
“MvdG is being nice, yesterday he lumped us(Gray included) as the ‘Axis of Weevils’”
Did you, Mike? Damn, I missed that…
Hohoho, load the cannons, folks, next time the (f)lying dutchman crosses our bow we’ll send him a full broadside with our best regards!
Kim we have to make fun of ourselves now.
CP On a serious note most of the people you mentioned were killed by extremeist on their side. Extremeists in Egypt and Israel killed their own peace makers, don’t forget.
Now back to the SNARK. BJ has the ‘I like pie’ and’ponies’ for the Darrell trolls……
“I just find them about as interesting as talk radio.”
Looks like a slow nes day, CS, the crew is bored.
Now, if Michael creates an open thread, at least we could play a nice game of battleships…
Lads, the (f)lying dutchmen is hiding somewhere in the 4 acres of a fogbank on starboard. That’s not much space to hide, and his frigate covers about 4 roods of that field, so I’ll tell you what we’ll do. We’ll simply fire randomly into that area, until we hear our shots splinter the worminfested wood of his coffin ship. This will be a nice surprise for that stealthy captain!
Ok, here we go, BATTLESTATIONS!
Run out the canons!
Take good aim, target is D4.
Ready….FIRE!
BABOOOM!
Did anybody here an impact?
Rudi,
I was in conversation (well, argument) with an extreme right-wing conservative Jew and he said he wishes he could spit on Rabin’s grave because he was willing to ruin the greatness of the accomplishments of Israel…I shook my head in disgust. Yet these are the people who are running things worldwide, the extremists…on ALL sides…NOBODY wants to show moderation it seems and that friggin stinks, IMO.
Gray: you’ve got yourself an open thread.
Back to Shaun’s post: this is absolutely shameful.
from the link:
Good that he agrees with everyone on that. He must make it his job to talk to Parliament as to convince them that this man has to go immediately (no immunity).
You can say that again.
CP I enter into a little playfull debate with the Dutch lad yesterday about TIP. What bothered me was a lecture abot the ‘Iranian hegemony’.
A hegemony by Iran or the US will never be ‘benevolent’, yet the hawks still pine for ‘Pax Americana’. I find a hegemony by Iran or the US as ‘manevolent’, not ‘benevolent’.
Hey CP, did you check out the link to the info about nonviolent communication? The guy that developed this (who was the speaker I heard) is actually working with Israelis and Palestinians, to use this technique to understand each other and stop the cycle of violence. It’s really fascinating and while I don’t know if the movement will catch on, I am certainly grasping for hope. I’ve been saying for a long time that the Middle East needs its Ghandi, so maybe this guy Marshall Rosenberg will be it.
Which reminds me, could you send me an e-mail on that C.S.? With some additional information perhaps? I think that it would be interesting to publish a post on…
Sure, Michael. Here are some links, and feel free to e-mail me if you have a question that I might be able to answer. I’ve only just found out about this so I’m not at all an expert. I find the philosophy to be quite radical even though it’s simple, and I’m trying to reconcile the ways that it challenges my preconceptions.
Center for nonviolent communication website
wiki entry on nonviolent communication
wiki bio of Marshall Rosenberg
If someone with that history is in the Parliament, is it any wonder that the death squads have permeated the Iraqi army and police force? Are we aiding and abetting another country that will end up with state-sponsored terrorism? We should insist that Maliki use whatever pressure he can.
We don’t want parliament to be a shelter for outlaws and wanted people,� al-Maliki told CNN. “This is the government’s view, but the parliament is responsible. I
Isn’t this his way of saying he is powerless to do anything about it?
Well on his own he is powerless. The point is, will he be able to leverage some power by putting the onus on his cohorts in Parliament? We have to see how they will respond. If they ignore him, bad sign. If they make excuses, bad sign. If they step up, good sign.
Thanks C.S.
No problem of course, MvdG. I’m interested to know what you think about it (I was disappointed in the websites though, you don’t really get the same feel for it as I did in hearing Rosenberg speak about his experiences.)
If you decide not to write a post, I’d still like to hear your thoughts on it if you get a chance.
C.S.: that is fine. I will either post it or send you an e-mail.
MvdG,
Please post that, as I’ll comment on it in that particular thread.
I’ve read those links and will post on it.
It is an interesting concept. Even if one doesn’t agree with Rosenberg on everything, the concept seems to be a good tool (theoratically at least) to communicate more effectively, with more understanding for each other, etc.
Yeah, that’s pretty much how I feel about it. And believe me, there were areas where I didn’t agree with Rosenberg on everything LOL (as you might imagine, this group didn’t exactly resemble a GOP rally).
lol C.S. that was what I was thinking when I read it. I was quite surprised that you went to this seminar on one hand, on the other you do come across like a person who might interested in this kind of things as well… so…