U.S. Troops Raid Kurdish Party Offices in Kirkuk

[NNN0LHI]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20040104/wl_nm/iraq_kirkuk_dc&cid=574&ncid=1473

TIKRIT, Iraq (Reuters) - U.S. troops raided the offices of Kurdish parties in the oil-rich city Kirkuk, where six people died in ethnic clashes last week, and seized AK-47 rifles and rocket-propelled grenades, officials said Sunday.


One senior member of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) was taken into custody after the raids Saturday night, Sergeant Robert Cargie of the 4th Infantry Division told reporters.


A KDP office and an adjacent office of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan -- the two key parties representing the Kurdish minority in Iraq (news - web sites) -- were both raided, he said.


Tension surfaced Wednesday in Kirkuk, 155 miles north of Baghdad, after Arab and Turkish-speaking Turkmen residents marched on the headquarters of a Kurdish party to protest a Kurdish political push for more control in the area.

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[Yavin4]

1. Aren't The Kurds Our Allies?

I'm so confused.

[NNN0LHI]

3. I was sitting here wondering the same thing

I know they used to be our allies. Not sure about their current status.

Don

[DuctapeFatwa]

6. WorldLink TV has a program called "Good Kurd, Bad Kurd"

That is a good introduction to US policy on Kurds for the last few decades. Now that those living on the Iraq side of the border have served their purpose, certain gentlemens' agreements with Turkey are apparently resuming.

[IndianaGreen]

10. The Kurds spilled the beans about Saddam's "capture"

and they are making noises about a federated Kurdish state in Northern Iraq.

Strategically, this is another blunder by the American colonial government.

[Occulus]

16. Call it

the American Federal Empire and you'll have it right.

My thanks to "John Titor" for the phrase; I use it often.

[pscot]

2. Sounds like we're doing the Turks' dirty work

N/T

[xray s]

4. Payback for spilling the beans?

:shrug:

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0104-01.htm

[DUreader]

5. "The Kurds are today in a powerful position...

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0104-01.htm


snip

To show how serious they are, the two main Kurdish groups, the PUK and the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP),
have decided to close ranks and set up a joint Kurdish administration, with jobs being divided between the two
camps. They have made it clear to the Americans that their leadership has a responsibility to their constituency.

Last week Massoud Barzani, leader of the KDP, called for a revision of the power-transfer agreement signed
between the US-led coalition and Iraq's interim governing council to recognise "Kurdish rights".

The November 15 agreement calls for the creation of a national assembly by the end of May 2004 which will put in
place a caretaker government by June, which in turn will draft a new constitution and hold national elections

"The November 15 accord must be revised and 'Kurdish rights' within an Iraqi federation must be mentioned,"
Barzani told a meeting of his supporters.

"The Kurds are today in a powerful position but must continue the struggle to guard their unity," he added.

snip

[Just Me]

7. It still looks like a potential train wreck to me.

I don't know, of course, what the outcome will be but,...the potential for explosive civil unrest seems dangerously close to the surface of all this.

[kalian]

8. Its peculiar, isn't it?

Remember, the Kurds were the ones that captured and held Saddam...
and now, the US is raiding their offices. :eyes:
Very interesting development and to be quite honest...the US had
better not make them their enemy.

[maryallen]

9. Had to get any incriminating evidence ...

that the Kurds beat us to Saddam?

[tlcandie]

11. Payback for leaking of Saddam capture?

:shrug:

[legin]

12. Problem for the Kurds is

they have to play it a bit subtle.

If they piss the u.s. off too much the u.s. just say "well this problem is getting rather a lot to handle and is taking up troops who would be better utilized in other areas, so we are allowing Turkey to police the Northern Iraqi region because they have much more experience of this problem", and then the u.s. makes sure no information gets out about what happens afterwards.

And this is a threat that the u.s. can hold over the Kurds to make them play ball. The Kurds need to start working on American public opinion, in America, in a large way almost immediatly.

[DoYouEverWonder]

13. Didn't Josh Marshall say there was no such thing

as the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan?

Now US Troops are raiding their offices? Probably looking for those videos they took of Saddam before they handed him over to the US?

[NNN0LHI]

14. Wasn't it some Kurds who named their kids George Bush?

And didn't Juniors old man leave these same Kurks high and dry after telling them to rise up against Saddam in '91? Old man Bush ordered our military to stand down as Hussein's military including using helicopters in the northern no-fly zone and tore them to shreds. Hence your mass graves. Are the the same Kurds, or some other ones? Anyone know? Thanks in advance.

Don

[daleo]

15. Screw Kurds - check

Re-establish secret police - check.

Wonder what's next in the effort to imitate Saddam. Wait, maybe:

Start war with Iran.

[legin]

17. LOL n/t