Iraq province gives Baathists 24 hours to leave

[sabra]

Source: al arabiya/AFP

Najaf, IRAQ (AFP)

Local government officials warned Saddam Hussein loyalists on Monday to move out of the Shiite province of Najaf in central Iraq within 24 hours or face an "iron fist."

They demanded the exodus after a meeting to discuss security in the wake of a triple bomb attack last week in Najaf, about 150 kilometres (90 miles) south of Baghdad, that left up to 15 people dead.

"The Baath gang of Saddam has one day to leave the province or we will use an iron fist against those who have failed to distance themselves from the Baath and al-Qaeda," the officials said in a statement.

The leader of the provincial council, which is dominated by the party of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, a Shiite, blamed the bomb attack on Baathists, referring to Saddam's outlawed Sunni-dominated Baath party.

"The council's next measure will be to purge local government institutions of Baathists," said the statement, which also asked Baghdad to use its intelligence services to identify wrongdoers.


Read more: http://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2010/01/18/97714.html

[Rebubula]

1. As long as...

..the edict came from Iraqi's without the insistence of US powers..I have no problem with this.

The Baath Party ruled with the type of pernicious violence, fear and oppression that would give Prescott Bush a woodie in the grave.

[sabra]

2. there are recent reports that the US is reaching out to former Baathist officials...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=4212987

[Rebubula]

3. Thanks...

..that was informative, if not disturbing.

War makes for strange bedfellows.

[Tempest]

4. Guilty by suspicion

Where's the evidence Baathists were behind the bombings?

Is this what democracy in Iraq is going to look like?

[Codeine]

5. Democracy in Iraq is a fiction.

A theocracy is inevitable.

[Tempest]

6. Which is what many of us predicted back in 2003

And it will be a theocracy with close ties to Iran.

A lose-lose outcome for the U.S.

[Blandocyte]

7. Shoowerists may stay

[Nihil]

8. Now wouldn't that be poetic ...

... seeing as how the Baathists are now exiles - as a direct result of
"regime change" - and so forced to seek homes abroad, they arrive in
the very country that led that illegal invasion and thus were able to
claim - completely legal & unavoidable - asylum in the US ...

:evilgrin: