U.S. puppet leader in Iraq calls for calm, then fans the flames

[bigtree]

Iraqi leader calls for calm yet declares Saddam should get ''what he deserves''

Associated Press

November 4, 2006 12:35 PM

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - {snips}

In a televised message, al-Maliki said Iraqis should celebrate a guilty verdict but calmly and in a way that ''does not risk their lives.''

''We hope that the verdict will give this man what he deserves for the crimes he committed against the Iraqi people,'' said al-Maliki, who last month said Saddam should be condemned to hang.

It was hoped that Saddam's trial would heal the deep wounds among Iraqis as they watched their former tormentor stand before his accusers and suffer the consequences of nearly a quarter-century of brutal rule, during which tens of thousands of Shiites and ethnic Kurds were killed.

In the meantime, however, the center of the country flamed with sectarian killings that pitted Saddam's now disaffected Sunni backers against the newly empowered Shiites and their revenge-seeking militiamen and death squads.

Al-Maliki, who has been in office since May, has essentially looked the other way, paying lip-service to his role as leader of a nominal ''unity government.'' His Islamic Dawa party claimed responsibility for a 1982 assassination attempt on Saddam that allegedly prompted a wave of revenge killings in the city of Dujail.

http://www.newspress.com/Top/Article/article.jsp?Section=WORLD&ID=564834864512500762



http://journals.democraticunderground.com/bigtree

[NanceGreggs]

1. Yeah, right.

"It was hoped that Saddam's trial would heal the wounds among Iraqis as they watched their former tormentor stand before his accusers and suffer the consequences of nearly a quarter-century of brutal rule ..."

Kind of difficult to be in a celebratory mood about that now, knowing the guy who replaced Saddam, one George W. Bush, turned out to be so much worse.

[bigtree]

2. Saddam/Maliki . . . no difference

"Torture, abuses worse than under Saddam"
http://www.infowars.com/articles/iraq/detainee_abuse/torture_abuses_worse_than_unde.html


"The official number of Iraqi men, women and children in US-run prisons in Iraq is said to be around 16,000, reported ABC News in June 2005. The number has since rocketed, and Iraqi sources put the number as high as “hundreds of thousands” prisoners languishing in prisons across Iraq"
http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_579.shtml
http://www.faair.org/index.html


Iraqi police infiltrated by death-squad militias
http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/view.php?StoryID=20061031-111831-6144r


Al-Qaeda has blossomed, grown, and is flourishing in Iraq
http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/view.php?StoryID=20061031-111831-6144r