Hazim Sha'lan

This is exclusive to my blog and you will not find it any where else on the internet.

A friend of mine just recently told me that Hazim Al-Sha'lan (previous Iraqi Defence Minister who was accused of stealing almost $1 billion) came to his house. In most cases, when Iraqi's enter a house they take off their shoes just before or after the main door, as he was taking them off my friend noticed that on the sole of Hazim's shoes was a big red label;

"SALE was £49.99 now £39.99"

This brings me to my conclusion. If you have been accused of stealing $1,000,000,000 and you buy $75 shoes it means:

a) You are insane

or:

b) You don't have $1 billion

Hazim Al-Sha'lan is not insane and I have just logically proven that he is not a theif.

Green Zone Blast

The difference in reaction between a man used to bombs landing next to him and one who isnt;

After the mortar/katyusha (what ever it was) landed less than 100m away from Ban Ki-moon and Noori Al-Maliki, one ducked down for cover and was visibly shaken, and the other simply stood his ground, showed no emotion and when approached by his personal security told them "Maku shee" ("Its nothing") and "Rohoo" ("Go away").

Of course we got the classic Iraqi response of 'dont worry this happens all the time' when Jawad Bolani (Minister of Interior) said "This was not a security breach. Things like this happen in Baghdad once or twice a week."

Another Classic

I can't for the life of me work out what his point is and thats because he is just being himself. Random and never makes much sense. What's really depressing is the fact that a fool like him is a "leader" and has millions of followers.

"What do you have with me? What do I owe you? I am sitting here 'enjoining in good and forbidding evil', I just give you my 2 cents, if you think its shit just ignore me, if you think its not just take it and go away, bye bye and alot of liars also speak some truth".

Committee on Foreign Relations

At the invitation of the UK foreign office, some members of Iraq’s largest parliamentary committee (there are 24 committees) arrived to London earlier this week and left yesterday. The Iraqi parliament committee on Foreign Relations is made up of 15 MP’s who come from all sorts of different backgrounds. The head of the committee is Sheikh Humam Hamoodi (SCIRI) and the deputy is Sayyid Iyad Jamal Al-Deen (who was not present), a secular Shia in Iyad Allawi’s Iraqi National List. The other MP’s who came were Sami Al-Askari, who has links to the Da’wa party and Sadr Movement, Salman Al-Jumaili, a Sunni expert in political sciences and member of the Islamic Party, Samiya Dal’at, from the Kurdish Alliance and Mithal Al-Alousi, an independent liberal Sunni.

After introducing the members of the delegation and thanking the Iraqi ambassador and Al-Khoei Foundation for organising the event, Sheikh Humam Hamoodi, as head of the delegation, kicked off the event.

“I was here in this very same place roughly 4 months ago with Sayyid Abdul Aziz Al-Hakim, and since my last visit we have seen some positive results in Iraq, the Baghdad security plan has given hope to the Iraqi’s, they now feel there is a government which does not just make laws, but can enforce them too”. He mentioned the fact that many Baghdad residents who at some point or another were forced to leave have started coming back and now feel more "relaxed” (of course relaxed in the context of Iraq simply means they think there is less chance of them being beheaded on their way to work or blown to pieces at a market place while they are doing their shopping). He thinks the most important aspect of the new security plan is that the Iraqi forces move when given orders to do so by the Iraqi PM, not Americans. Something Ali Al-Dabbagh mentioned earlier at the same place.

I’m not really an economics guy (I dropped the Economics A-Level subject after my very first lesson) but in case you are interested, the budget for this year is $41 billion.

On a political level, the government is trying its best to push for reconciliation and an important test for them is bringing back thousands of former officers in the old Iraqi army. The Ba’ath party as a political party is banned, however many ba’athis still exist and they have to try and differentiate between ba’athis who are ba’athis by name and ba’athis who have blood on their hands. The Iraqi government has no problem bringing back ba’athis who are clean and the "ijtithath al-Ba'th" laws (literal meaning “to tear out”/”uproot” the ba’athis) as well as constitution will be reviewed and maybe amended.

Oil was a major point of discussion too. All the MP’s stated that the oil of Iraq should be distributed equally to the population and Sheikh Humam Hamoodi dismissed claims that foreign companies are going to receive massive profits (20-40% for 30 years) from the new Iraqi law. “Maybe I just haven’t read it properly, but as far as I know there is no such thing”. The law was drafted by 3 Iraqi petroleum experts and was approved by the cabinet and will be discussed by the parliament very soon. The debate should be transparent and open.

Responding to a question from Ma’ad Fayadh (a journalist for Asharq Al-Awsat) both Sheikh Humam and Samiya Dal’at dismissed allegations that the Iraqi MP’s "have no real power" because all the decisions they make are actually dictated to them by the leaders of the parties (who are not even in the parliament) and said that this is not true. They gave examples of laws that when voted for, many MP’s from the same party voted differently from each other (e.g. Federalism)

Mithal Al-Alousi said that he did not want to comment on the new Baghdad security plan until he sees clear cut results but added that all he wishes for is stability. He did however mention that he knows of many residents living in Palestine Street and Hay Al-Jama'a in Baghdad who are hoping to maintain the status quo in Baghdad because they are living in houses which don’t belong to them and don’t want the real owners to come back. On the other hand, he said that although many people are returning to their homes, it should not be a measure of the plans success because many people who left Baghdad left behind small (100sqm) houses and moved out to much bigger (500-1000sqm) homes and have no interest in coming back. Sheikh Humam added that new laws have recently been passed to remove (by force if necessary) people who live in homes that do not belong to them, a problem many Iraqi's now face especially with the forgery of deeds and documents. From I.D cards to passports to house deeds, there is not a single thing the Iraqi's cannot forge, Baghdad must be the worlds capital of forgery.

This visit also gave an opportunity for the Iraqi ex-pats in London to voice their complaints with some of them questioning the power of the parliament and showing anger at the MP’s who do not even turn up to the parliament. Samiya Dal’at sympathised with the attendees and said “Let me be frank, you have a right to complain about the parliament, everything you say is true, but we are trying our best to fix things, we are trying to push forward new laws which would punish MP’s who do not turn up regularly to the parliament. New laws have been passed that would cut 10% of the MP's wages if they are absent for a certain amount of time without an excuse”. Nice and simple answer. Admit there are problems, and tell us what is being done to solve them.

Mithal Al-Alousi quickly commented that "It is important to note that Iraq's democracy is only 2 years old, many of us have never been in power before and this is all new to us, of course there will be short comings but we are now able to build up the country". He mentioned how the Iraqi people have learnt the power that democracy gives them, "If they do not like certain leaders they will show them they have the power by not voting for them in the next elections". Although what Mithal said is partly true in that Iraq's democracy is still in its infancy and cannot be compared with the UK or US for example, I still think he is being too idealistic, I personally do not think the majority of the Shia-Sunni-Kurdish "street" voted for a specific party because they saw great potential in them and liked their policies, the majority of the Shia voted for 555 because S.Sistani encouraged them to vote for them or simply because they are Shia. The Kurds being Kurds of course voted for the Kurdish Alliance, and the Sunni's obviously not wanting to vote for the Shia or Kurdish parties voted for the Sunni blocs. I am willing to bet anything, but deep down I hope I am wrong, that in the next elections, 90% of the Shia would vote for Shia parties, 95% of the Sunnis would vote for Sunni parties, and 99% of the Kurds would vote for Kurdish parties. Votes not based on policies and competence, but race and sect.

When suggested to Sheikh Humam that Iraq should take lessons from Lebanon’s democracy, he replied “Why? Has Lebanon been successful for us to copy them? Should we put in writing that only a Kurd can be President, only a Shia should be Prime Minister and only a Sunni should be speaker of parliament? Positions should be given to people who are qualified, not because of their race or religious sect.”

Sami Askari, who has close ties to Noori Al-Maliki managed to turn a few heads when he said that there is currently "not even a single minister that the PM is happy with”. When asked about the existence of a list that includes several incompetent ministers and many MP's he said "I am not denying there are such MP's and ministers but there is no list...If there are criminals they will be punished, they are not immune or above the law."

It is impossible to find meetings like this where tempers do not flare and people do not shout, when Salman Al-Jumaili was asked about the incompetent ministers he said something along the lines of (I cannot remember the exact words) "It just happened". One guy who was sitting at the back, stood up straight away and shouted "This is totally unacceptable, you cannot tell me that we should put illiterate Iraqi's in charge of ministries and leave the educated Iraqi's on the street". Maybe I just misheard him, because all he could reply with was "Yes I agree".

Another incident that left the entire hall in pin drop silence was when Samiya Dal'at was explaining to someone (pictured with his arm in the air) who was complaining "Why does the government not bring back educated and qualified Iraqi's from outside Iraq into high ranking positions?". The answer: "because they want too much, they want a high salary, cars, armed body guards, a house e.t.c". Almost immediately he interrupted by saying "I'm sorry but isn't that what they gave you?". After the very awkward moment of silence, half the people were just looking at each other and Samiya Dal'ats response of "No not me, not me" was almost drowned out by the other half laughing.

Although you do get these weird/funny spur of the moment incidents, I have to say the nicest thing about the meeting was seeing different Iraqi’s from different sects and different races sitting on the same table and speaking with one voice. Not just any Iraqi's, but members of the parliament. This type of unity is not something you see or hear about every day.

Just like many other Iraqi officials, they all hoped the Baghdad surge would be successful and it was the most talked about issue. By far the hottest topic in Iraqi politics today.

p.s If your wondering why Sami Al-Askari or Salman Al-Jumaili didnt do much talking its not because they didn’t speak, but because I placed my phone in front of Mithal Al-Alousi...Sheikh Humam and Samiya Dal'at both have clear loud voices and I could hardly hear what Sami Al-Askari or Salman Al-Jumaili were saying from the play back and I was relying on the recording and didn’t take many notes. Ghanim Jawad chaired the event (sitting between Mithal Al-Alousi and Sheikh Humam). Click on the images to view in higher resolution.

Ali Al-Dabbagh

Ali Al-Dabbagh was in town a few days ago and he met with some of the Iraqi ex-pats for a Q&A session that lasted roughly 2 hours. He knew most of the people who attended on a personal level and that was one of the reasons why he was grilled with questions. He is the official spokesmen for the Iraqi government and that was why he was on the receiving end of many angry comments made by the Iraqi's who have simply had enough with the chaos in Iraq.

One of the topics he talked about was the new security plan for Baghdad. He described it as the "only hope" for Iraq and for the Republicans in Washington...which is why "the Americans are trying their best to make sure this plan succeeds and Baghdad returns to normal". If it fails, nothing can be achieved in the country. Before, any Iraqi armed unit in Baghdad needed to get permission from the Multi-National Forces if they wanted to move, however the new security plan allows the Iraqi units to move freely. They can move when they want, how they want, where they want. He said even if the new plan is 50% successful, it will be the "key to the success of Iraq". He sounded very confident in this new plan and expects Baghdad to settle down within 5-6 months.

Speaking about some of the ministers, he said some of them are not even qualified to run a normal business, yet alone a ministry, or even "half a ministry"."They live in a country for 15 years and cannot even learn the local language".

He spoke against sectarianism. "We should respect all races, religions and sects, but national identity must come first".

There are also problems within some ministries as well. "The shia control only 48% of the Ministry of Defence, and they feel underrepresented. The sunnis on the other hand say they want more control". Neither side is happy.

Regarding the alleged rape of 'Sabreen Al-Janabi' (not her real name) he said that "even if it did happen, it has nothing to do with the government. These things can happen anywhere in the world and if a police man here rapes a women, no one is going to blame Tony Blair for it". He said that the media are tyring to exploit this alleged rape and various groups in Iraq are simply opportunistic and would make up any excuse to attack the Iraqi government.

When he was asked whether or not the current government has succeeded, he answered "I don't think it has, but it hasn't failed either".

The only media to cover the Q&A was the Iraqi channel Al-Sharqiya, and he came down hard on them after one of their journalists said "You always speak about terrorists and takfeeris, yet you never mention Jayshul Mehdi which has gone on a killing spree attacking Sunni civilians". His reply was "Anyone who is not part of the Iraqi security forces and who holds a weapon is an outlaw, while Jayshul Mehdi is a threat to Iraq and the militia are a real problem, it is Al-Qaida and the takfeeri terrorists who are destroying the country". He then attacked Al-Sharqiya for not being a "neutral" channel. "They claim to be neutral, but they are not. When 4 sunni girls die they make a long programme about how a shia bomb killed 4 innocent sunni girls, yet at the same time dozens of shia are beheaded by terrorists and it hardly gets mentioned, do you call this neutrality?", not wanting to sound biased himself, he also described the channel Al-Iraqiya as a "hussayniya" (shia place of worship). Almost immediately after his comment on Al-Sharqiya, they packed up the cameras and stopped filming.

He described the media as a "weapon" and said unfortunately the Iraqi government hasn't realised the true potential of this weapon. "Al-Qaida's media is much stronger than the Iraqi governments and it is a powerful tool that can be used on the war against terrorists". He did however mention that closing down channels in Baghdad by force (i.e what happened to Al-Jazeera) was not the best solution. "France went through legal proceedings to stop Al-Manar from being broadcast and this is the same thing we should do, not send in Police to a station and close it down they way we did".

One man stood up and asked "Laith Kubba (previous spokesmen) almost a year ago said that the Iraqi government is responsible for many of Iraq's problems, will you do the same and take responsibility for your actions". In an indirect attack on Laith Kubba he said, "I don't see the point in saying 'we are responsible' and than quitting, you are basically running away, what we need to do is tackle the issue and try to improve the situation". When asked about the holy shrine in Samara that was destroyed by terrorists and why the government has done nothing about it, he said "How can we re-build the shrine when the entire city is at the hands of the terrorists?". The Iraqi government is facing huge problems with security and he gave an example of the police in Kut. "There are officially 11,000 police in Kut but only 4,000 guns". The Iraqi security forces are taking more control of the security day by day and by the end of this year "No American soldier will be able to search an Iraqi, it will all be carried out by our own forces".

He also commented on what he described as the "flawed" system of the elections. "You are simply voting for a list, and hardly anyone knows who exactly is on the list they are voting for".

He repeated his famous statement that "50% of terrorism is coming from Syria, and we have evidence which we handed over to Damascus". He did however say that the Syrians (and Iranians) have made "promises to cooperate with the Iraqi government and help improve the security."

After he left, we had dinner and then I gave him a lift to his hotel in Park Lane. He claimedr there are 5,000 FPS personnel who are “working” in one of the ministries (I cant say which one, but no prizes for guessing who its controlled by) who don't even exist, the Iraqi government is paying salaries for these people and all the money ends up with the minister and his staff, in terms of corruption he said "we are 50 years behind Bangladesh". There are also 40,000 Police officially "registered" with the FPS that don't exist, and the Iraqi government is paying their salaries. $20 million ending up in the hands of various parties, groups and individuals every single month. I was so shocked by what he had just told me that I didn't even think about the most obvious question that should have been asked..."If you know you are paying for the salaries of people who don't exist, why don't you just stop paying".

Although he did confirm that Moqtada Al-Sadr is currently hiding in Iran, when I asked him whether or not news, from a Kurdish website, that Noori Al-Maliki told Moqtada Sadr to stay in Iran is true he said the press release was "fabricated".

He comes across as a 'no nonsense' type of guy and I was impressed with the way he argues and defends the government. He doesnt beat about the bush and comes straight to the point. I had heard rumours last year that the Americans wanted him to become an advisor for them...I for one can understand why.