Yeah.
Right.
Good thinking John Boy.
Sunni leader and parliamentarian Adnan al-Dulaimi speaks during a press conference in Baghdad, May 2007. Iraq's faltering political process was thrown into fresh turmoil on Saturday when the main Sunni bloc walked out of parliament in protest at a security crackdown on its leader Dulaimi. (AFP Wisam Sami)
Iraq parliament hit by walkout over raid on Sunni leader
by Ammar Karim
Published: December 01, 2007
BAGHDAD (AFP) Iraq's faltering political process was thrown into fresh turmoil on Saturday when the main Sunni bloc walked out of parliament in protest at a security crackdown on its leader Adnan al-Dulaimi.
The latest political upheaval came as suspected Al-Qaeda militants killed 14 people in a raid on a Shiite village.
The National Concord Front, the main Sunni bloc with 44 MPs in the 275-member parliament, walked out of the assembly, saying it would return after Dulaimi himself comes back to the legislature.
"We announce our boycott of the parliament until Adnan al-Dulaimi returns to the assembly today or tomorrow," the bloc's Abdul Karim al-Samarraie told the assembly.
"When I went to meet him I was stopped and told that he is under house arrest. This is a violation of the rights of an MP who wants to come to the parliament," Samarraie said.
After his statement the bloc's MPs walked out of the assembly hall. Mahmud al-Mashhadani, the Sunni parliament speaker, joined them.
Shiite MP Haider al-Ibadi said the Dulaimi issue should not be discussed in the assembly.
"There is an investigation and parliament should not interfere in it," he said before the Sunnis walked out.
Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh denied that Dulaimi was under house arrest.
"What is being said about house arrest is not true. It is only protection given to Dulaimi until the situation is clear," Dabbagh told state television Al-Iraqiya.
http://www.metimes.com/Politics/2007/12/01/iraq_parliament_hit_by_walkout_over_raid_on_sunni_leader/afp/
No relief for Iraqi camp kids
By IWPR
Published: December 01, 2007
Seven-year-old Ali Hussein's toy is an old tire, which he pushes back and forth in a pond of dirty water.
Ali, a mud-caked, pale-faced little boy, is a Shiite from Baqouba, 50 kilometers north of Baghdad, who together with his family left the town after his father was killed by Sunni insurgents. The family was told they would also be killed if they stayed there.
"He was a very nice person and no one can replace him," said Ali.
Ali and his family now live in a camp in the al-Habibya area east of Baghdad. The conditions in the camp are poor, its residents are impoverished and the services are limited. Ali, a first grader, no longer attends school.
Recent reports of refugee and internally displaced families trickling back to their Baghdad neighborhoods have brought some semblance of hope that the security situation is improving in the capital.
But "the number being displaced still far exceeds the number of returnees," according to a November report by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) a Swiss-based intergovernmental organization focusing on refugees and displaced persons. And aid for internally displaced Iraqis is not meeting needs, aid organizations report.
Hundreds of thousands of families remain in camps throughout the country, where young Iraqis do not have access to education and are vulnerable to disease, according to aid agencies.
According to the U.N. children's agency, UNICEF, 15 percent of Iraq's population - about 4 million people - has fled their homes since 2003. Fifty percent are children.
The IOM in Iraq reports that 2.25 million Iraqis are internally displaced. In September 2007, Amnesty International said that Iraq had the "the fastest growing displacement crisis in the world."
"Inside Iraq, conditions for displaced children and the communities hosting them are grave," UNICEF maintained in a report earlier this year. "The need to act is urgent."
The camps lack basic services such as clean water, sewage, and electricity. In one camp in the capital's al-Madaen neighborhood, 65 families are living in mud houses and children are suffering from diarrhea, skin diseases, and malnutrition, according to the IOM. Children are working to support their families and are not attending school.
Efforts to raise money for children have achieved little.
UNICEF launched an appeal in late May for nearly $42 million to support displaced Iraqi children and women in Iraq, Syria, and Jordan. But the agency has yet to receive any funds, according to a Nov. 23 report by the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
http://www.metimes.com/International/2007/12/01/no_relief_for_iraqi_camp_kids/2976/
EDITORIAL: Annapolis – why now?
By MIDDLE EAST TIMES
Published: November 23, 2007
There is never a good time to hold a conference to try and settle the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, only lesser bad times. Or, as Robert Malley of the International Crisis Group put it recently, "It depends whether you see the glass as one-third full or two-thirds empty."
There have been plenty of skeptical assessments of the prospects for success at Annapolis. In fact, the expectations have dropped so low that the Annapolis meeting itself is probably immune to failure. Instead it will be judged later on whether it launches a productive peace process.
There are plenty of obstacles to that happening but there is also a real set of interests in achieving a settlement at this time that go beyond the desire to secure a legacy for U.S. President George W. Bush. The interests involved are those of the United States, Israel, the Palestinian Authority, and the Arab states, especially Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states. It is worth taking stock of them.
When U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney toured Arab capitals in 2002 trying to drum up support for the overthrow of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, the refrain he heard in response to his "Iraq, Iraq," was "Palestine, Palestine." Cheney was a little hard of hearing at the time and the neocon foreign policy gurus responded that the road to Jerusalem went through Baghdad.
It has taken a while but the administration seems to have learned that the opposite is the case. The road to cleaning up some of the negative consequences of Iraq runs through Jerusalem. In particular, success in this initiative would improve the abysmal public perception of the U.S. in the region and the dangerous idea that the U.S. is the enemy of Islam.
In Israel, the broad center of Israeli society now accepts that the occupation of the Palestinian territories has been a drain on resources and morale and become unsustainable. The creation of the Kadima party and, in a way, the building of the separation barrier reflects that consensus. The challenge is to find a way to end the occupation that does not increase, but hopefully diminishes, the security threat to Israel.
With Hamas controlling Gaza and acting as the wolf at the door in the West Bank, the Palestinian Authority has a strong interest in achieving a settlement acceptable to a majority of Palestinians. President Mahmoud Abbas understands that failure in this regard will undermine his credibility with the Palestinian people. Equally important, Israel and the U.S. understand this too.
Hamas, and beyond it, the specter of Iran is focusing the minds of the Arab states too. Islamist movements like Hamas threaten the hold on power of the regions' authoritarian regimes. Iran's regional aspirations, with or without nuclear weapons, make Saudi Arabia, with a large Shiite minority in its eastern oil-producing region, or Bahrain with a majority Shiite population, extremely nervous. A peace settlement in Palestine would remove one area where Iran can make trouble.
None of this means that the parties will actually find ground on which they can agree. The domestic political pressures are great. And agreement is not the same as implementation. Hamas may exercise a veto through action on any agreement. Nevertheless, if agreement were achieved it would change the context in which implementation and the role of Hamas were addressed by the international community.
http://www.metimes.com/Editorial/2007/11/23/editorial_annapolis_why_now/6305/
Iraq Sunni Arab leader 'under house arrest'
Agencies
Published: December 01, 2007, 14:22
Baghdad: Iraq's top Sunni Arab leader said on Saturday he has been placed under house arrest, a day after his son and bodyguards were arrested in government raids.
The Iraqi government said they asked Adnan Al Dulaimi to stay at home for his own safety after Iraqi troops arrested dozens of his bodyguards under suspicion of terrorism.
A government spokesman said the measures were temporary and did not amount to house arrest.
At least 35 of Dulaimi's bodyguards and his son were arrested on Thursday and Friday after police found a car bomb near his office. Dulaimi denied the car was near his office.
Dulaimi said troops prevented him from leaving his compound on Saturday.
http://www.gulfnews.com/region/Iraq/10171602.html
Sunnis walk out over leader 'house arrest'
Reuters
Published: December 02, 2007, 01:07
Baghdad: Iraq's largest Sunni political bloc walked out of parliament on Saturday and its leader said he had been placed under house arrest after his son and dozens of members of his entourage were detained.
Saleem Al Jubouri, spokesman for the Accordance Front, said the group would not return to parliament until its leader, Adnan Al Dulaimi, was allowed to leave his home.
"We walked out [yesterday] and announced we will not attend the session [yesterday] or [today] unless the pressure is lifted off Dr Al Dulaimi and he is allowed to move wherever he likes," Al Jubouri told Reuters at parliament.
The standoff could worsen sectarian tension between the minority Sunni community and the Shiite-led government at a time when violence in Iraq has been falling.
http://www.gulfnews.com/region/Iraq/10171740.html
Roadside bomb kills two policemen in Baghdad
Agencies
Published: December 02, 2007, 13:19
Baghdad: Two police officers were killed in a Sunni-dominated neighbourhood of Baghdad on Sunday after a roadside bomb targeting a police patrol exploded.
A third officer in the neighbourhood was shot to death on his way to work, police said, while a further roadside bomb struck an Iraqi army patrol north of Baghdad, killing three soldiers.
Also in Baghdad, an Iraqi civilian was killed when a roadside bomb planted beneath a parked car exploded near the heavily fortified Buratha Shiite mosque, a frequent target of Sunni extremists.
http://www.gulfnews.com/region/Iraq/10171860.html
Son of Iraqi official held over bomb find
Agencies
Published: December 01, 2007, 11:48
Baghdad: Security forces have arrested the son of a top Iraqi politician along with at least 35 other people after police found a car bomb in the MP’s compound.
MP Adnan Al Dulaimi denied any links to terrorism and said that the car was not in the compound. He said he is a victim of an assassination plot.
Al Dulaimi said that up to 50 of his bodyguards and his son Mekki had been detained since Thursday evening.
However, Baghdad security spokesman Qassim Al Moussawi said that the car bomb was found when security forces chased a suspected fugitive into the compound.
Al Moussawi said that weapons and army and police uniforms had also been found at the MP's home.
"Dulaimi's bodyguards are suspected of having links to car bombs and killings," he said.
http://www.gulfnews.com/region/Iraq/10171590.html
