Antichrist Ousts US Advisors

Sadr bloc seeks to ‘expel’ US advisors from Iraq

Tuesday, 28 October 2014 17:23

Mithaq Al-Mozani – ‘We will confront the US presence under the pretext of acting as advisors and will use all means to expel them from Iraqi cities’

A prominent member of Al-Ahrar (Freedom) parliamentary bloc of Al-Sadr movement, led by Shia cleric Muqtada Al-Sadr, said today that his bloc is determined to end the presence of American advisors in more than one Iraqi province. He pointed out that his bloc would take all necessary measures to end what he called “the new American occupation”.In a statement to a reporter from Anadolu Agency, Mithaq Al-Mozani said: “No legal cover justifies the presence of US advisors in Iraq and their presence is part of a plan for occupation different to the 2003 occupation.”
He added that Al-Ahrar bloc pressured the government to prevent any US military presence in Iraq, and that it will work to expel US advisors from the country by any means necessary.
On the other hand, Al-Mozani said he felt that US presence in Iraq “does not contribute to containing the Islamic State (ISIS) gangs, but actually achieves the opposite”. He considered the fact that the American planes accidently dropped military and food aid recently to ISIS fighters in Kobani, Syria, by mistake as well – he did not specify the date this occurred – to be “an indication of US support for terrorists”.
Al-Mozani added: “We will confront the US presence under the pretext of acting as advisors and will use all means to expel them from Iraqi cities.” He did not give details regarding the means Al-Sadr’s bloc may resort to eliminate the presence of these advisers.
No confirmation could be obtain regarding Al-Mozani ‘s comments.

From The Large Horn Comes A Larger One (Daniel 7)

Iraq’s borders are disappearing: this is a disaster

Islamic State of Iraq

By Tom Rogan World Last updated: June 12th, 2014

The Islamic State of Iraq and greater Syria (ISIS) is shredding Iraq. After seizing the northern city of Mosul on Monday, on Tuesday ISIS stormed down Iraq’s route 1 highway to take Tikrit. This victory has left them emboldened and only 110 miles from Baghdad. The Iraqi military seemingly overrun, Nouri al-Maliki’s government is greatly concerned.

Unfortunately, the disaster isn’t confined to Iraq. After all, ISIS isn’t interested in Iraq per se. Instead, it seeks a caliphate that stretches from western Syria to Iraq’s eastern border with Iran. A dominion preserved under an iron fist of brutality (think Fallujah 2004) and a base from which to export global terrorism.

What’s happening in Iraq and Syria today is the nightmare that drove George W Bush to gamble everything on his January 2007 surge. He knew that Iraq’s collapse might enable Al-Qaeda in Iraq to rip the Middle East apart. And today Al-Qaeda in Iraq’s successor – ISIS – have never been closer to their dream.

ISIS are pure terrorists: their strategy is to use extreme violence to drive Iraq into a sectarian melee. The group knows that with each atrocity it commits, Iraq’s geographic borders and government institutions lose form. That with each Shia market it bombs, Iraq moves closer to the bloody civil war of 2006 (Shia terrorist groups are far from silent). That with each ISIS victory, Iraq’s basic viability becomes ever more tenuous. Exacerbating the crisis is Maliki’s long term authoritarianism: this has empowered ISIS.

ISIS believes that if it can push Maliki, he’ll make policy from his own paranoia. It hopes he’ll overreact: killing Sunni civilians and attracting support to the ISIS banner. Already a deeply paranoid man, the Iraqi Prime Minister faces a severe test.

A big question follows. What will Maliki do next?

Though it’s a casual refrain to label Maliki an Iranian puppet, the truth of his relationship with the Islamic republic is far more complex. While Maliki finds support from Iran, he’s shown on numerous occasions that he’s his own man. Nevertheless, ISIS has forced Maliki into a crucible of two choices. On the one hand, he can attempt to restrain ISIS with his security forces and the support of certain Sunni tribes. Conversely, Maliki could reach out to a foreign party for backup. Without US guidance he’s likely to go for the second option.

Enter Iran.

Here we must forget Rouhani. Iran’s foreign-security policy is ultimately led by Ayatollah Khamenei and his revolutionary project. In polar opposition to ISIS, Iran pursues an arc of Khomeinism from Lebanon to Iraq and Bahrain. And while Iran is more calculating than ISIS, its comfort with extreme violence is nevertheless undeniable. Indeed, in its indiscriminate conflict in Syria, Iran has slaughtered countless civilians. The great risk is that Maliki will now jump into open Iranian arms and support their wholly sectarian war against Iraq’s Sunni population.

If that happens, just as in Syria, Iraqi society will collapse. In that hellhole, questions of borders, consensus, peace and the future would become irrelevant: victims of what Clausewitz would describe as absolute war.

Obviously, this places the West in a serious bind. Whatever some might say, forming an alliance with Iran to fight ISIS would be a disaster. Still, America cannot allow Iraq to collapse. Too much of our blood and our allies’ blood has already been spilled for that nation’s future. Those sacrifices must not be in vain. Correspondingly, the US should adopt a new, comprehensive regional strategy. Recognising that only the US government has the intelligence and logistics capabilities Iraq so desperately needs, Obama should support Maliki with the caveat that the Iraqi leader make reciprocal concessions. These must include power transfers to Iraqi Sunni-centered political parties and the establishment of independent democratic institutions that can cool sectarian flames over the longer term. These commitments must take form beyond words.

Regardless, we’ve heard for far too long that our absence from the Middle East would best serve our interests. Now we’re learning the opposite is true. No one wants more Iraq wars, but we must face the geopolitical disaster unfolding before us.

Iraq Prepares For Sadrists To Take Over

Iraqis to vote for new parliament with dim hopes

 

Sunday, April 27, 2014
From Print Edition

Sadrists Prepare to Take Over

The vibrant posters promise jobs, prosperity and security coming from Iraq’s first parliamentary elections since US troops withdrew from the country, but so far, voters have only dim hopes as sectarian bloodshed rages unstopped.

Eleven years after the US-led invasion toppled dictator Saddam Hussein, Iraqis live in a deeply divided country sinking back into a cycle of violence that claimed more than 8,800 lives last year alone.
Candidates largely campaign by smiling signs alone some women in conservative districts using only images of husbands or brothers as suicide bombers killed at least 33 people at a rare rally on Friday by a militant group fielding its own political hopefuls.

The resurgence of sectarian violence, which nearly tore Iraq apart in 2006 and 2007, is both a reflection of the 3-year-old conflict in neighbouring Syria and the politics of a democratic, but splintered nation. Voters in Wednesday’s polls are widely expected to cast ballots along sectarian and ethnic lines, though many say they have little hope the election will bring any real change.

“Iraqi politics needs new blood,” said Ammar Faleh, a 35-year-old government employee in Baghdad’s eastern Sadr City. “We don’t want the people who created our miseries to be re-elected. We want honest people who can fix the situation, not make it worse.”

More than 9,000 candidates are vying for 328 seats in parliament. As in the last round of nationwide elections in 2010, fierce intra-sectarian political rivalries have left members of the country’s majority community running on different tickets a shift from the 2006 elections when they formed a unified list with support from traditional religious authorities.

Whichever bloc comes out ahead will have a shot at cobbling together a coalition that will choose the prime minister, though many Iraqis expect that post could well remain in the hands of the man who has held it since 2006: Nouri al-Maliki.

However, the administration of Al-Maliki, 63, has been unable to stop the near-daily bloodshed on the country’s streets, while corruption permeates all levels of government.

Despite the unrest, al-Maliki is presenting himself as a strong leader who can defeat the insurgency that has come roaring back on his watch. One of his campaign posters shows him standing next to soldier with a slogan reading: “Together, we defeat terrorism.”

Experts predict al-Maliki’s State of Law coalition will gain the largest number of seats, given its emergence as the largest single bloc in seven of 12 provinces in last year’s provincial elections. But even if he secures the most seats, al-Maliki likely will need to work with opponents to build a coalition to form the next government.

His main rivals are the al-Muwatin coalition, led by powerful cleric Ammar al-Hakim, who heads the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council, as well as followers of the firebrand cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. The Sadrists are running on three separate lists, with the major one called al-Ahrar. A new political player running for seats this time around is the extremist Asaib Ahl al-Haq, or “the League of the Righteous.” Its followers carried out deadly attacks against US troops before their withdrawal and claimed responsibility for the 2007 kidnapping of a British contractor along with his four guards.

Their entry into the political process sparked new bloodshed Friday. A Sunni al-Qaeda breakaway group, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, said its suicide bombers attacked Asaib Ahl al-Haq’s rally for some 10,000 followers on Friday, an assault that killed at least 33 people.

The Islamic State said on a militant website that the bombings were to avenge what it called the killing of Sunnis and their forced removal from their homes by militias.

Sadrist Prepare To Take Over Iraq Government

Key political figures in Iraq’s elections

Sadrists Prepare To Take Over Iraq

A look at the key political players in Iraq’s parliamentary elections.

Nuri al-Maliki

Election basics

BASIC INFORMATION information about Iraq’s parliamentary elections Sunday: 

Registered voters: About 19 million.

Polling places: About 10,000 centers containing 52,000 voting booths.
Candidates: More than 6,200.
Voting hours: 7 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Size of new parliament: 325 seats
Size of previous parliament: 275 seats
Mandatory number of women in new parliament: 82
Election staff: Nearly 300,000
International observers: 500-600 expected
Iraqi provinces: 18

Independent High Electoral Commission and United Nations Assistance Mission
for Iraq

A look at the key political players in Iraq’s parliamentary elections:

Nouri al-Maliki: The prime minister is seeking a second, four-year term, contesting this election at the head of his State of Law Coalition. Al-Maliki took office in May 2006 after winning the premiership as a compromise candidate put forward by Shiite parties. He has since asserted his authority and overseen the drop in violence after a 2007 U.S. troop buildup. He has been harshly criticized for shutting out his government partners from the decision-making process on key issues, depending instead on a small clique of aides from his Dawa Party.

Jalal Talabani: The senior and longtime leader of Iraq’s Kurdish minority is serving a second term as president. He founded the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) in 1975, one of the two main Kurdish parties that fought Saddam Hussein. Talabani has built a “father of the nation” reputation during the past four years. He is reported to be seeking another presidential term, but the PUK is being challenged by an upstart Kurdish party called Change that may upset the Kurdish balance of power.

Adel Abdul-Mahdi: The Shiite vice president is a French-trained economist who has been a prime minister-in waiting since 2005. Abdul-Mahdi, a stalwart of the Iranian-backed Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council party, twice came close to becoming prime minister but missed out in both cases to candidates from the Dawa Party. Abdul-Mahdi may get another shot at the prime minister’s job if the Supreme Council wins the largest number of seats inside the Iraqi National Alliance.

Tariq al-Hashemi: The Sunni vice president has been among the harshest critics of al-Maliki. A Sunni, al-Hashemi has quit the Iraqi Islamic Party that he once led and is running for parliament in a secular coalition led by former Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, a Shiite. He is viewed as the most powerful Sunni Arab politician in Iraq today.

Muqtada al-Sadr: The fiery, anti-U.S. cleric is not running in the election but has endorsed the vote, calling it a means of “political resistance.” In the past, al-Sadr, who is thought to be living in Iran, denounced elections as a sham because they were held under U.S. “occupation.” His opposition to any U.S. role in Iraq has been uncompromising. But it’s his close ties to Iran that could undermine his standing.

Ayad Allawi: The former prime minister is the face of secular politics in post-Saddam Hussein Iraq. A Shiite, Allawi has carved a niche for himself in Iraq as the answer to urban and educated Iraqis, Sunnis and Shiites alike, who are dismayed by the religious parties and the close ties they maintain with the country’s cleric-ruled neighbor, Iran. A physician by training, Allawi was a member of Iraq’s outlawed Baath party until the 1970s.

Ibrahim al-: A former prime minister, Al-Jaafari is running in a mostly Shiite coalition led by the Iranian-backed Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council and followers of al-Sadr. He is widely believed to have a chance at becoming prime minister if his allies, the Sadrists, emerge from the vote as the party with a larger number of seats than any other group in the coalition.

Ahmed Chalabi: A one-time Pentagon favorite and insider, Chalabi is running in the same coalition led by the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council and the Sadrists. He failed to win a seat in the last parliamentary election in 2005, but is virtually assured of one this time around. Chalabi’s relations with the United States soured when the intelligence he provided the Americans on Saddam’s weapons of mass destruction proved faulty.

The U.S. also accused him in 2004 of spying for Iran. Chalabi is a secular Shiite who is loathed by the country’s Sunni Arab minority for the zeal he has shown in rooting out Saddam’s loyalists from jobs in the government, armed forces and security agencies.