[antimedia] antimedia: It's Monday....so it's time for....

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Posted by antimedia:
It's Monday....so it's time for....
http://www.antimedia.us/posts/1176774669.shtml


   ....[1]good news from Iraq.

     The largest Sunni insurgent group has severed ties with al Qaeda
     and its Islamic State of Iraq; Sunni religious leaders oppose al
     Qaeda The Sunni civil war in Iraq continues to gather steam. The
     Islamic Army in Iraq, the largest Sunni insurgent group which has
     previously operated closely with al Qaeda in Iraq, has severed ties
     with the terror group after several months of infighting, Al
     Jazeera reported today. Ibrahim al-Shammari, an Islamic Army in
     Iraq spokesman, "told Al Jazeera on Thursday that the Islamic Army
     in Iraq had decided to disunite from al-Qaeda in Iraq after its
     members were threatened.""In the beginning, we were dealing with
     Tawhid and Jihad organisation, which turned into al-Qaeda in Iraq,"
     Al-Shammari explained. Specifically after Abu Musab al-Zarqawi
     died, the gap between us [and al-Qaeda] widened, because [they]
     started to target our members... They killed about 30 of our
     people, and we definitely don't recognise their establishment of an
     Islamic state - we consider it invalid." Evidence of the split
     between the Islamic Army in Iraq and al Qaeda began to appear early
     this year. Mishan al-Jabouri, the owner of Al Zawraa - or Muj TV,
     which is the propaganda television station for the Islamic Army in
     Iraq, lashed out against al Qaeda in February of 2007. Jabouri
     aired a laundry list of complaints against al-Qaeda and its puppet
     Islamic State of Iraq. the grievances included:
     1) Al-Qaeda in Iraq has divided the Iraqi people, failed to protect
     the Sunnis and brought the Shia death squads down on the Sunnis by
     inciting sectarian violence through mass suicide attacks. 2) The
     Islamic State of Iraq in Iraq wants the Sunni groups to "pledge
     allegiance" to leaders, ministers and emirs whose identities are
     unknown, including Abu Omar al-Baghdadi. 3) Islamic State of Iraq
     has continued to conduct an extensive campaign of assassination
     against rival sheikhs, emirs and insurgent group leaders, and in
     many cases added insult to injury by failing to give the bodies
     back to the families. One of al-Jabouri's own messengers was
     executed. 4) The Islamic State of Iraq has no system of law or
     justice.
     5) Weapons and ammunition are being confiscated from insurgent
     groups that do not support the Islamic State. 6) Al-Qaeda in Iraq
     is intentionally targeting members of the Iraqi Army and police
     forces, who al-Jabouri and other insurgents believe are acting in
     the best interest of Iraqis. 7) The goal of the Islamic State of
     Iraq is to serve as a stepping stone to attack other nations, which
     is not in the interest of the Iraqi nation.

   Something tells me the Sunnis are going to be very busy fighting
   terrorists for a little while. Something also tells me they'll accept
   help from the US Marines in their fight.
   I think that's a good thing.
   Remember the bombing on the Parliament that was played up in the press
   here in the US?

     4B) Parliament Bombing backfires by uniting Iraq's MPs
     http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/04/15/wir
     q15.xml By Robert Watson and Aqeel Hussein in Baghdad, UK Sunday
     Telegraph
     14/04/2007 The bombing of Iraq's parliament by suspected al-Qaeda
     militants appears to have backfired by uniting Sunni and Shia
     politicians against a common enemy.An alliance of Sunni insurgent
     groups that includes al-Qaeda in Iraq claimed responsibility for
     Thursday's attack, in which an MP died and more than 20 other
     people were injured. Shia parliamentarians had previously voiced
     disquiet at the security threat posed by their Sunni colleagues,
     claiming that many of those protecting Sunni MPs had links to
     al-Qaeda. But at an extraordinary session of the parliament on
     Friday, politicians from both sides condemned the suicide attack
     and vowed to press forward with the political process, calling for
     unity against extremism. There were also signs that Sunni
     insurgents had had enough of their erstwhile al-Qaeda allies. "They
     have realised that those people are not working for Iraq's
     interests. They realised that their operations might destroy Iraq
     altogether," said Alaa Makki, a Sunni MP. Other politicians
     indicated that the bombing had worked against al-Qaeda. "The
     relationship between [Sunni and Shia MPs] is better than before,
     because now they have agreed to fight terrorism together," one
     commentator noted. Officials say three people, believed to be
     workers in the cafeteria where the bomb went off, have been
     detained. The government has been rallying the tribes of Anbar
     province in the western desert against al-Qaeda, which appears to
     have made a tactical error by targeting tribal leaders who had been
     reluctant to join their bombing campaign against Shia civilians.
     The result has been a wave of clan-based retribution against the
     foreign terrorist network in the Sunni heartland.However, US and
     Iraqi forces also have to contend with growing frustration in the
     ranks of the Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army, which has
     been ordered to collaborate in the security clampdown in Baghdad.
     Yesterday, a senior official in the Sadr movement, which holds six
     cabinet posts, warned that it was on the verge of withdrawing from
     the government because of Baghdad's close ties to Washington.
     Meanwhile, British forces in Basra killed eight gunmen laying mines
     in an area where four British soldiers and their civilian
     translator were killed by a roadside blast last week.

   Perhaps our media gloated a bit too early?
   Read the rest.

References

   1. http://www.blackfive.net/main/2007/04/good_news_from__2.html