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Iraq

Maliki sacks Karbala police chief, runs operations room by himself

2007-08-30

(KUNA) -- Angered by Tuesday's clashes between policemen of Karbala City and the Shiite militia of Al-Mahdi's Army, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki decided Wednesday to sack commander of police operations' center Major General Saleh Khazal Al-Maliki and run the center by himself. He also fired 1,500 other police officers.

Al-Maliki's decree sacking the police chief and other police officers was meant to blame them of professional incompetence, Spokesman of Iraqi Ministry of Defense Staff Major General Mohammad Al-Askari told KUNA here. The Prime Minister visited the embattled city earlier in the day to defuse the two-day riots and chaos among Iraqis during religious Shiite rites. Soon after his arrival in Karbala, Al-Maliki convened with Minister of Defense Mohammad Abdul-Qader Al-Ubaidi and National Security Advisor Mowaffaq Al-Rubaiei as well as local military and civilian leaders.

He imposed a curfew as of Wednesday morning pending further notice and ordered the arrest of anyone who breaks his instructions.

Al-Maliki held "criminal gangs" and "remnants of Al-Baath Party" responsible for the riots and attacks against visitors of the holy city. He vowed to track down the perpetrators and culprits of the riots that left 55 dead and some 300 others injured.

The malicious design targeting the stability in the holy city and the safety of its citizens was aborted, the prime minister asserted, adding that the situation was brought under full control of the security forces after the arrival of military backup. The militants targeted to occupy the two holy shrines and topple Al-Maliki's government, Al-Rubaiei said. Commandoes took part in normalizing the situation in the southern Iraqi city, he added.

However, local sources told KUNA two secretaries of the Shiite cleric Al-Sistani; Sheikh Abdul-Mahdi Al-Karbalaei and Ahmad Al-Safi were still seized in areas adjacent to the two holy shrines of the city which are under full control of Al-Mahdi Army.

Posted by:Fred

#9 So, Thomas Woof, any comments or reactions? What would be your preference in this situation? Do you continue to hold Maliki in any high regard?

Posted by: Zenster 2007-08-30 22:56

#8 Perhaps an American Viceroy?

Almost anything would be better than what is going on. I'll repost what I wrote over in the Iraqi Islamic Party does not oppose "quartet agreement" -- Talabani thread.

If this current batch of wannabe warlords and gangsters can't get on the same page and be damn quick about it, we should give all of them the boot and hold a new round of elections. And please don't give me any "sovereignty" crap. Iraq is our piece until we deem otherwise. We were the worst sort of fools to let them incorporate shari'a law into their constitution. If we had any brains, we'd cite that as ample reason to send them all back to the drafting board and come up with a document that doesn't reach back to the Stone Age.

I no longer have any delusions about bringing democracy to Muslim majority nations. It WILL NOT work. Islam demands theocratic rule and Muslims do not want anything else. Democracy is a complete and total affront to Islam. Man made laws can never trump the laws of Allah.

For us to pretend that we can change this without first crushing Islam like the ideological cockroach it is goes beyond foolish. Despite being liberated from abject tyranny, these hideous bastards immediately reintstituted shari'a law at the very first opportunity.

Shari'a and democracy are not just immiscible, they are mortal enemies. It is better by far for the West to subjugate Muslim majority countries by outright force than to delude ourselves that they will ever exhibit the least sort of reliable or genuine friendship. Muslim countries with shari'a law intact will be nothing more than manufactories for terrorists who will than strike against us. Period.

As with all relationships involving Islamic counterparts, any agreements are merely tools of convenience amounting to nothing more than hudna. There is not a single Muslim leader on earth who will ever defy the advancement of Islam in order to keep even the most insignificant promise to an Infidel. They have given themselves the ultimate tools of deceit and we are idiots to rely upon them.

I'll repost some observations about Maliki made by Khudayr Taher:

Taher wrote an editorial in Arabic saying that he used to meet Maliki at the local library in Syria, where he would be doing research for his master's degree in Arabic literature, pointing out: "I do not claim that we were friends." Taher said Maliki had "modest general knowledge ... he will be a puppet in the hands of Jaafari, Hakim, the Kurds and Sunnis". He added that Maliki "does not believe in democracy because of his ideological commitments" in al-Da'wa Party, claiming that political Islam and democracy do not meet for someone like Maliki.

In a private discussion held when both men were in Syria, Maliki told Taher: "We declare our acceptance of democracy, but in reality, we are tricking them [the Americans] in order to topple Saddam and come to power." Taher writes: "I swear to God that this is exactly what he said!"

Taher adds that Maliki does not believe in the equality of women and will refuse to give any cabinet posts to Iraqi women, unless those imposed by the Kurds. He wraps up by saying that Maliki is anti-American, and has expressed his anti-American views to friends and in private discourse.

In light of how Khudayr Taher had the courage and intellectual honesty to advocate deportation of all Muslims from Western countriesincluding his own selfI'm rather inclined to take his word. Maliki must go and either we find some way of getting non-shari'a law emplaced in Iraq or we are far better off turning it into a Ssuzerain of America just like we did with the Philippines and Japan.

Posted by: Zenster 2007-08-30 20:35

#7 How is it that the Karbala police are deemed incompetent when they've been fighting against an attack by the Jaish al Mahdi for the previous two days?

Karbala police are SCIRI. Maliki is Dawa party.

Which do you prefer at the moment?

Former Prime Minister Allawi. All the other Shia leaders of Dawa, SCIRI, JAM spent their exile in Iran and are beholden to the Tehran. Allawi spent exile in the UK and, from what I can tell, not the least islamist.

Posted by: ed 2007-08-30 20:21

#6 Thomas, are you free? Health & life insurance all paid up?

Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 2007-08-30 19:53

#5 Just out of naive and indeed somewhat desperate curiosity, who would you install in place of Maliki? Perhaps an American Viceroy? A hidden candidate? Maybe no-one? Destroy the government? All options. Which do you prefer at the moment?

Posted by: Thomas Woof 2007-08-30 19:02

#4 Maliki is the one who sent Sadr a warning to get out of Dodge when the US made the mistake of sharing their surge plans with him.

Which, right there, is enough to earn Maliki a bullet.

Posted by: Zenster 2007-08-30 14:37

#3 Maliki is the one who sent Sadr a warning to get out of Dodge when the US made the mistake of sharing their surge plans with him. Of course he'd can anyone going after his pudgy little buddy.

Posted by: Betty Ebbath8778 2007-08-30 11:52

#2 How is it that the Karbala police are deemed incompetent when they've been fighting against an attack by the Jaish al Mahdi for the previous two days? Surely that's what we want the local guardians of law & order to do in between finding lost kittens and tracking down runaway six year olds who can't yet cross the street?

Posted by: trailing wife 2007-08-30 11:15

#1 Weren't Sadr's boys the first to knock off a high-profile rival right after the invasion? In a holy place, IIRC?

Posted by: Bobby 2007-08-30 06:32

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