Rattlesnake Ridge 
BFF 
“An arrest warrant has been issued against the Iraqi Vice President Tariq al-Hashimi late Saturday for being the mastermind behind the recent bombing targeting the parliament, spokesman of Baghdad police operations said. The car bombing which took place on November 28, was an attempt to assassinate one of the members of the parliament, he added. According to the Iraqi government, evidence pointed at al-Hashimi’s embroilment in the parliament blast incident after deriving confessions from four arrested Islamic Party members……… Hashimi was the head of the Islamic Party, a political party representative of the Muslim Brotherhood in Iraq, in 2004, but in 2009 he announced that he is no longer a member of the party. Instead, he created the Tajdeed movement, which is considered to be one of the political parties component of the secular Iraqiya block. Meanwhile, the allegations against Hashimi came hours after the Iraqiya bloc which won most of the votes of Iraq’s disenchanted Sunni Arab minority Walked out of parliament………..”
A serious charge: Tareq al-Hashimi doesn’t look like a master terrorist. Lucky for Iraqis, they have three vice presidents.
Iraqis couldn’t seem to wait for the last departing American soldier to cross the Kuwait border before they started at each other again. All this may give senator John McCain and Lieberman (Joe not Avigdor), and Gingrich and Romney, the excuse they need to re-invade Iraq and restore a Republican order.
It is interesting how roles have shifted in post-2003 Iraq. Early on the southern provinces were talking about ‘federalism’ while the likes of al-Anbar tribals and former Ba’athists were against it, claiming that it would lead to fragmentation. Most neighboring Arab despots were also against it: the usual Arab obsession with centralized authority. Now it is the likes of al-Anbar tribals and former Ba’athists who are calling for “federalism” with some of the neighboring Arab media cheering on.
Cheers
mhg
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