Iraq issues arrest warrant for First Vice President Tariq al-Hashimi

[News_Editor]

Iraq issues arrest warrant for First Vice President Tariq al-Hashimi

2011-12-21 02:07:49 GMT+7 (ICT)

BAGHDAD, IRAQ (BNO NEWS) -- Iraqi authorities on Monday issued an arrest warrant against one of the country's vice presidents and accused him of having personal death squads to target opponents, officials said on Tuesday. It comes days after U.S. troops left the country.

According to the Iraqi Interior Ministry, First Vice President Tariq al-Hashimi is being accused of ordering attacks, including bombings, against government and security officials. As a result, the Iraqi Investigation Committee issued an arrest warrant, which means Hashimi will not be allowed to travel and faces immediate arrest.

The warrant came on the same day as Iraqi authorities arrested three of Hashimi's bodyguards and aired their alleged confessions on state-run television. They confessed they were paid by the vice president to carry out assassinations, but Hashimi said the confessions were fabricated and said he would defend himself in court. It was not immediately clear if the bodyguards had been forced to make the televised confessions.

Security forces also searched Hashimi's home and office on Monday evening and arrested several staff members. The vice president himself, who has served since April 2006, was not immediately arrested despite the arrest warrant, but security officials said they would arrest the politician as soon as possible.

The news comes just days after the last U.S. troops left Iraq, ending the nearly nine-year-long war. White House spokesman Jay Carney said the U.S. government is monitoring the developments. "We are talking to all of the parties and have expressed our concern regarding these developments," he said. "We are urging all sides to work to resolve differences peacefully and through dialogue, in a manner consistent with the rule of law and the democratic political process."

Meanwhile, U.S. Senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham said the arrest warrant is "a clear sign that the fragile political accommodation made possible by the surge of 2007, which ended large-scale sectarian violence in Iraq, is now unraveling." The politicians said such a crisis had been 'precipitated' after the U.S. and Iraq were unable to reach an agreement on a residual presence of U.S. forces in Iraq.

"If Iraq slides back into sectarian violence, the consequences will be catastrophic for the Iraqi people and U.S. interests in the Middle East, and a clear victory for al-Qaeda and Iran," McCain and Graham said in a joint statement, which urged Obama to reopen negotiations so that a number of U.S. troops can return to the country. "A deterioration of the kind we are now witnessing in Iraq was not unforeseen, and now the U.S. government must do whatever it can to help Iraqis stabilize the situation."

-- © BNO News All rights reserved 2011-12-21

[Steely Dan]

I take it from the comments of the U.S senators that they believe this arrest is a sign of how quickly things are unraveling almost immediately U.S troops leave.

http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=48254

As he closed the door on American military involvement in Iraq, Barack Obama said: “Everything that American troops have done in Iraq—all the fighting, all the dying, the bleeding and the building and the training and the partnering—all of it has landed to this moment of success.

If you read the article you can see just what a 'success' has really been left behind.

[geriatrickid]

It's called democracy. Things will settle down. If the case is legit, there is a good reason for it to proceed.

[Steely Dan]

I wish I had any optimism, however I don't - the following news today speaks for itself sadly.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2011/12/22/iraq-bombings-death-toll-rises-to-65-after-further-explosion-in-baghdad-115875-23654732/