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CNN: Iraqi Lawmaker Tried to Blow Up U.S. Embassy in '83
More on the Iraqi politicians the surge is designed to protect. According to CNN, one ally of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki was convicted by a Kuwaiti court of involvement in the December 1983 bombing of the U.S. and French Embassies, which killed five people and wounded more than 80:
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, according to U.S. military intelligence.Jamal Jafaar Mohammed's seat in parliament gives him immunity from prosecution. Washington says he supports Shiite insurgents and acts as an Iranian agent in Iraq.
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."
This should hardly come as a surprise. Maliki's al-Dawa party was an Iranian proxy all throughout the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s. Yet Maliki, somewhat pathetically, pleads ignorance and powerlessness:
"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 don't think parliament will accept having people like [him] or others currently in the parliament."
Comments (2)
thebewilderness wrote on February 6, 2007 7:55 PM:It is important to remember that just as a prosecutor can indite a ham sandwich, so could any of us be convicted and sentenced to death in absentia in Kuwait.
greggp wrote on February 6, 2007 9:05 PM:In hindsight, perhaps it would have been better if the voters of Iraq had actually known the names of the candidates for whom they were voting. This embarrasing situation might have been avoided.