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TechnoratiThousands of Iraqis Protest US Security Pact
BAGHDAD - A suicide bomber killed 12 people in an Iraqi mosque on Friday while thousands of followers of anti-American Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr demonstrated in Baghdad after parliament passed a pact allowing U.S. troops to remain through 2011.
![[Supporters of Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr burn U.S. flags during a protest after Friday prayers in Baghdad's Sadr City November 28, 2008. (Reuters/Thaier al-Sudani/Iraq)]](http://www.commondreams.org/files/article_images/1128-02.jpg "1128-02.jpg")
Some 9,000 people protested in Baghdad's Shi'ite slum of Sadr City after Friday prayers, burning a U.S. flag and holding banners reading "No, no to the agreement." About 2,500 people held a similar rally in the southern city of Basra.
"I express my condolences to the Iraqi people on this grave occasion, in which they are harmed by the ... pact of shame and degradation," Sadr, whose militia has fought U.S. troops many times, said in a statement read to followers on his behalf.
Sadr told his followers to wear black to mourn the passage of the deal, under which U.S. troops will withdraw from Iraqi towns and cities by mid-2009, and leave the country by the end of 2011.
Earlier on Friday, a suicide bomber wearing an explosives-packed vest killed 12 people and wounded 17 others inside a Shi'ite mosque visited mainly by Sadr supporters 60 km (40 miles) south of Baghdad, police said.
The U.S. military said the bomber killed eight people and wounded 15 others as they queued outside the mosque to enter for Friday prayers.
U.N. officials say such attacks are aimed at provoking renewed sectarian fighting between minority Sunni Arabs, once affiliated with al Qaeda, and the majority Shi'ites who are now in charge of Iraq.
BAGHDAD BOMBINGS
In central Baghdad a suicide car bomber killed two people and wounded 14 others, police said, and in Sadr City a roadside bomb targeting a U.S. patrol wounded one person, the U.S. military said.
Sadrist lawmakers opposed the security deal with the United States to the last, banging desks and chanting slogans during the parliamentary session that passed it on Thursday.
They consider the U.S. military presence an occupation and want an immediate withdrawal.
The deal curbs U.S. military powers to arrest Iraqis and conduct operations, shifting greater responsibility onto Iraq's security forces to keep the peace. Violence is at four-year lows, but car bombings and suicide blasts are still common.
In the first comments by a senior Iranian figure since the passage of the pact, Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, who heads a powerful constitutional watchdog, said Washington had forced its passage with pressure and threats.
"Yesterday, this pact was finally approved despite the ... problems it had. This ratification was not a normal one," Jannati, head of the Guardian Council, told Friday prayer worshippers in Tehran in a sermon broadcast on state radio.
He likened its signing to "somebody standing over your head with a sword," saying Washington had threatened to indirectly overthrow the Iraqi government if it was not ratified.
Iran, which enjoys close ties with Maliki's Shi'ite-led government, has repeatedly blamed the United States for the violence and bloodshed in Iraq in the last five years.
The U.S. military has long accused Iran of arming, training and funding small Shi'ite militia units which attack U.S. troops and Iraqi forces, a charge Tehran denies.
Under the security pact, the United States will no longer be able to hold Iraqi suspects detained during the insurgency and around 16,000 mainly Sunni Arab prisoners will have to be handed over to Iraqi authorities or released.
Human rights group Amnesty International said thousands could face torture or possibly execution as a result as the pact provided no safeguards for prisoner rights.
Nor does the security deal mention 2,000 members of Iranian exile group the Mujahideen Organization of Iran, who have been housed at Camp Ashraf north of Baghdad for two decades. They could face execution if sent back to Iran, Amnesty said.
(Additional reporting by Khalid al-Ansary in Baghdad, Aref Mohammed in Basra, Zahra Hosseinian in Tehran; Writing by Mohammed Abbas; Editing by Michael Christie and Giles Elgood)
20 Comments so far
Show AllWell, now we have an idea as to where those cargo plane loads of shrink-wrapped hundred dollar bills disappeared to, don't we?
They're asking us to leave.........
~ Some people live their whole lives without ever waking up ~
Here is an idea: http://www.thoughts.com/RedNeckPossie/blog/a-way-to-give-power-back-to-the-people-184665/
"Human rights group Amnesty International said thousands could face torture or possibly execution as a result as the pact provided no safeguards for prisoner rights."
Are we supposed to get out or not. If we do, is Iraq a soverign country or is it not? If we do and if it is, Amnesty International is speaking to the wrong people.
Earlier on Friday, a suicide bomber wearing an explosives-packed vest killed 12 people and wounded 17 others inside a Shi'ite mosque . . .
More Iraqis "liberated" by George Wanker Bush.
The SOFA seems like a good deal for Iraq. I wonder what sort of pressure they had to resist to get it.
Nanoo
Just why would the Iraqi people want to sign any agreement allowing the US military to stay in their country?
What a war torn hell and occupation for so many years these remaining people have suffered. So few comments. The media says the economy is the first issue in the US. A nation of whinners alright. When I start thinking things are really going to hell here, all I have to do is think of what it must be like to live in Iraq.
Nanoo,
I agree completely. The ignoramuses running this administration perpetrated crime upon crime against a people whose community was fragile when US forces went in to liberate them from Saddam Hussein, bring Democracy to further peace in the region, rid Iraq of WMD......all baldfaced lies for domination of oil. That hundreds of thousands were killed and maimed (apologies for collateral damage from serious faced Rumsfeld and Cheney) is something to make one nauseous.....those that have a conscious and a heart. That the resultant escalation of civil war, certain to impede any possible internal peace in the near future, has manifested due to the ignorance and egotistical and yes, maniacal agenda of a bunch of fundamentalist, PNAC minded goons and was foreseen but ignored.
Those whole persons in our country who recognize the horror delivered to the people of that region are aching to their souls. And the collective soul of a once great America is moaning in agony. And further, that none of the criminals and liars that created this nightmare will ever be prosecuted is yet another tragedy for the eviscerated rule of law, changed to protect the thugs and their minions.
When we say our prayers of Thanksgiving, be sure to say some for the Iraqis and Afghans too, and with humility, ask for forgiveness while you're at it.
Kissy
In the realm of political crimes committed by nations, such as the Vietnam War and the invasion and occupation of Iraq, there is no forgiveness, only eventual retribution. It makes no difference that not everyone in the United States cheered on these crimes; the entire nation will pay for them. How we eventually take it in the neck for the fireball of Lyndon Johnson's ego, the acid of Richard Nixon's paranoia and secret love and admiration for people like Stalin or Pol Pot and the general and vacant worminess of George Wanker Bush, the end is going to be like a bad movie, banal and dull. Nothing grand for the U.S., no twilight of the gods, just a thud.
Why are they protesting Obama ending the war? This is how it must be done. Obviously, they don't understand the American political process works.
joe dope strikes again....get a clue fella.
Wait 'til we begin to bill them for our occupation of their country, then you'll see protests!
Seriously. From all I've read these past several months, our nation is broke, with financial life-supports thrown to all kinds of corporations. Who is going to pay for this continued occupation?
Most of the states face large budget deficits. It appears from yesterday's newspaper that my state of Iowa faces a budget deficit of 600-million dollars, and we expect cost-cutting measures in state services.
Yet we're willing to continue to spend at least 13 billion dollars per month on two illegal and immoral wars in the Middle East.
As MLK said in 1967, "Somehow this madness must cease."
Who is going to pay for this continued occupation?
China, oil rich Middle Eastern nations and, increasingly, anybody with a couple of pennies to spare. Then, realizing we can never pay back this much, the government will try to inflate its way out of much of it and we will all be carrying around suitcases full of paper money to buy a package of Ramen.
America will occupy Iraq for O-I-L until it all runs out. The so-called "pact" is nothing but a business scam and the Iraqis know it. Kudos to them for standing up to the occupation.
It would be interesting to know about all of the Machiavellian machinations that
came before the vote. A number of news article stated that the US threatened to withhold all money that was part of reconstruction. What happened to the missing 77 members of the Parliament out of 275 that didn't show up to vote? That would be equivalent to 122 members of the 435 members of the US House of Representatives not showing up to vote. 149 of the 198 Iraqi members present voted for the SOFA, which sounds impressive until some asks, "What happened to those other 77 members of Parliament". They couldn't have all come down with the flu. The FIX was in! Not to worry, the Bush White House will be doing their usual Rah-Rah spinmeister routine about victory and democracy in Iraq. They don't care that the Iraqi public is very much against the SOFA and they have the same attitude toward the US public.
especially for all those columnists and writers who delight in referring to "muslims" as Muslim Terrorists, I highly recomment this book:
NONVIOLENT SOLDIER OF ISLAM:
Badshah khan
A Man to Match His Mountains
Badshah Khan & Mahatma Gandidhi
Allies in a Revolution of Human Spirit
Pioneers in a Culture of Peace
by Eknath Easwaran
End of 2011? If we, or others more grownup than us, have decided-- finally-- that we shall leave, why wait any longer? The hard part in all such negotiations was to get the clunkheads who started the dumb war to assent to withdrawal ever.
They are a backward bunch-- what sane person would dispute that? Anyone who carefully considers their words about Vietnam for instance can easily and correctly conclude, that, if they had their way we would not only remain enmired in Iraq and Afghanistan-- we'd still be fighting in Vietnam, too.
A copy of this goes in John Escher's Blog at the Obama-Biden website as well.
> End of 2011? If we, or others more grownup than us, have decided-- finally-- that we shall leave, why wait any longer?
If the Pentagon is to be believed, it will take that long to get all that freedom-promoting equipment out of the country. It could be true: the ports are not very good, and they have one hell of a lot of equipment. On the other hand...
It will take a while for an orderly withdrawal, but I'm fairly certain we can be out of there by Christmas next year, if the order is given by Feb. 09. Could take a little longer, but 2 years is absurd.
so the stooge maliki has delivered his pound f flesh
anyone got 30 pieces of silver?
cheers, b