IRAQ IIO

Summary here and here.

Hakim, the power behind the throne of the major political bloc, displays his quills.

A senior Iraqi Shiite leader who is meeting President Bush next week on Saturday rejected a suggestion by U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan to hold an international conference on Iraq.

Annan said last week an international conference on Iraq could be useful if the groundwork was carefully prepared and all the political parties could be brought together somewhere outside the country.

But Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim, whose party runs a feared Shiite militia backed by Iran, said Iraq’s problems need to be solved at home.

“It is unreasonable or incorrect to discuss issues related to the Iraqi people at international conferences. The proposal is unrealistic, incorrect and illegal,” he said at a news conference in Amman, Jordan.

Al-Hakim, who is scheduled to meet Bush in Washington on Monday to discuss the Sunni-Shiite violence raging in Iraq, also played down fears that his country is facing civil war, labeling the nation’s conflict as “political” rather than sectarian. Article

Wheels within wheels.

Saudi Arabia said there was no truth in an article by a Saudi security adviser suggesting the world’s top oil exporter would back Iraq’s Muslim Sunnis in the event of a wider sectarian conflict.

[snip]

A Western diplomat in Riyadh said the official denial confirmed diplomats’ belief that the substance of Obaid’s article does not reflect Saudi policy. He said at most the article may have been intended as a “warning.”

Diplomats say Saudi Arabia, a key U.S. ally, is worried that Washington has lost control of Iraq and developments in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which Arab governments say is driving Islamic extremism and anti-U.S. sentiment in the region.

[snip]

Diplomats say it is possible that Saudi Arabia has begun low-level funding of some Sunni tribes in Iraq, but a prominent Saudi tribal figure cast doubt on any large scale funding.

“The Sunni tribes have been asking for money for a number of years from Saudi Arabia and they never got anything because Saudi Arabia was so worried about al Qaeda,” said Turki al-Rasheed of the Shamar tribal group that extends into Iraq.

“Those who want Saudi Arabia to intervene are none other than the Americans who are trying to find a quick exit from Iraq. Saudi Arabia will not fight or seriously engage itself in Iraq.” Article

NEW WORLD DISORDER

Seeing ourselves through the eyes of others: From earlier this fall, but new to ye old scribe, is this sometimes intriguing, sometimes aggravating look at U.S. policy implementation and reactive clues from Russia.

RABBLE BABBLE

Ignorance is our most dangerous product.

When radio host Jerry Klein suggested that all Muslims in the United States should be identified with a crescent-shape tattoo or a distinctive arm band, the phone lines jammed instantly.

The first caller to the station in Washington said that Klein must be “off his rocker.” The second congratulated him and added: “Not only do you tattoo them in the middle of their forehead but you ship them out of this country … they are here to kill us.”

Another said that tattoos, armbands and other identifying markers such as crescent marks on driver’s licenses, passports and birth certificates did not go far enough. “What good is identifying them?” he asked. “You have to set up encampments like during World War Two with the Japanese and Germans.”

At the end of the one-hour show, rich with arguments on why visual identification of “the threat in our midst” would alleviate the public’s fears, Klein revealed that he had staged a hoax. It drew out reactions that are not uncommon in post-9/11 America.

“I can’t believe any of you are sick enough to have agreed for one second with anything I said,” he told his audience on the AM station 630 WMAL, which covers Washington, Northern Virginia and Maryland.

“For me to suggest to tattoo marks on people’s bodies, have them wear armbands, put a crescent moon on their driver’s license on their passport or birth certificate is disgusting. It’s beyond disgusting.

“Because basically what you just did was show me how the German people allowed what happened to the Jews to happen … We need to separate them, we need to tattoo their arms, we need to make them wear the yellow Star of David, we need to put them in concentration camps, we basically just need to kill them all because they are dangerous.”

The show aired on November 26, the Sunday after the Thanksgiving holiday, and Klein said in an interview afterwards he had been surprised by the response. Article

“This boy is Ignorance. This girl is Want. Beware them both, and all of their degree, but most of all beware this boy, for on his brow I see that written which is Doom, unless the writing be erased.”
– – Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol

ROCK (OR IS THAT IRAQ?) BOTTOM

Worst ever — or a runner-up? Five takes: #1 — #2 — #3 — #4 — #5