Iraqi PM Orders Halt to Baghdad Barrier

[Eugene]

Source: Associated Press

Iraqi PM Orders Halt to Baghdad Barrier

Sunday April 22, 2007 7:46 PM

AP Photo BAG130

By QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA

Associated Press Writer

CAIRO, Egypt (AP) - Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said Sunday
that he has ordered a halt to the construction of a barrier that
would separate a Sunni enclave from surrounding Shiite areas in
Baghdad, saying there are other ways to protect the neighborhood.

The U.S. military announced last week that it was building a large
concrete wall in the northern Azamiyah section of Baghdad in an
effort to protect the minority Sunnis from attacks by Shiites living
nearby.

The decision drew sharp criticism from residents and Sunni leaders
who complained it would isolate their community.

In his first public comments on the issue, al-Maliki said he had
ordered the construction to stop.

-snip-

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-6578262,00.html

[burythehatchet]

1. These people are functionally retarded

building a fucking wall solves every problem

[Vincardog]

2. Having our forces there does NO GOOD. When can we bring them home?

[saltpoint]

3. "I'm the Decider in Baghdad," al-Maliki asserts.

The Decider in Washington, DC ain't gonna like it none, either.

Monday ought to be a real fun day in the Oval office.

[VegasWolf]

25. I thought that bush with all of his OIL occupation forces was the "decider". Now I'm all

confused.

[saltpoint]

26. LOL! It's going to come down to a GUNSMOKE duel, looks like.

al-Maliki and his boys on one end of town, Dubya and his on the other, then the two principals lined up alone, facing each other in the dusty street, staring each other down like the hot rivals they are.

"This town ain't big enough for TWO deciders, Maliki," Dubya snarls. More of a smirk, actually.

Just as al-Maliki is about to speak in response, a shot rings out. al-Maliki, hit, slumps to the ground. He's been sniped in the back by one of the Swiftboaters from a saloon window behind him.

Smirking one last smirk, Dubya walks off into the sunset, as confident as ever that cheating to win is where it's at.

[VegasWolf]

28. Excellent! Adroit word play!! nt

[rodeodance]

4. oh my my. I would never have thought this would happen!

[grytpype]

5. Of course he stopped the wall, it would make it hard to kill Sunnis.

[tanyev]

6. You know it's bad when the puppets start turning on you.

[madrchsod]

7. it could be that most of it is already in place...

no one is reporting how much is completed. there seems to be only two pictures of this wall posted anywhere in the world






this picture was shot by a us soldier - the iraqi contractors work only at night

[Kagemusha]

8. What does he mean, "ordered"?

He doesn't control the US military, he doesn't pay US military contractors, what am I missing here?

[Eugene]

9. He has this notion that he head of a sovereign government.

Don't worry. As soon as he comes back from Egypt,
Crocker and Petraeus will have a word with him.
He'll go along as he usually does.

[Charlie Brown]

10. Iraq Prime Minister asks for work to end on Baghdad wall

Source: Reuters

CAIRO, April 22 (Reuters) - Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said on Sunday he had asked for an end to construction work on a wall which would separate a mainly Sunni Muslim part of Baghdad from nearby Shi'ite areas.

"I asked yesterday that it be stopped and that alternatives be found to protect the area," Maliki told reporters in Cairo after talks with Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa.

The U.S. military said last week it was building the wall in the Adhamiya quarter of Baghdad to protect the minority Sunni community from attacks.

Maliki said he objected to the wall, even if the aim was to protect the district's inhabitants, rather than to separate the two religious communities.

Read more: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/B15718.htm

[Skip Intro]

11. asked? n/t

[Roy]

12. What's wrong with a wall????

after all Germany had one, China had a very nice one, Israel is building one, these Eye-Rackees are so ungrateful......

:sarcasm:

[Lochloosa]

17. So are we....

building one that is...

[Xipe Totec]

13. It shows how ignorant of history we have become

Does this administration have a clue?

"Plans to isolate the Jewish population of Warsaw and its nearby suburbs in a ghetto first circulated immediately after the German occupation of Poland in 1939. At the time, the German administration of the General Government had not been fully organized, and there were conflicting interests among the three major players: the civilian administration, the military, and the SS. Under these circumstances, the Jewish Council, or Judenrat, headed by Adam Czerniaków, was able to delay the establishment of the Ghetto by one year, mainly by appealing to the military to consider how Jews were a valuable labor resource. The Jewish were rounded up and just allocated a scrubby flat and given little food."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warsaw_Ghetto


Did we forget this lesson?

[annabanana]

14. Is al-Maliki delusional? Does he think this will stop it if the US orders it built?

This is also now on Yahoo (rate it up!)

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/iraq_neighborhood_barrier;_ylt=AiQdVSNJT5Yf_CBrQDjtkCVhr7sF

on edit: nom.

[rocktivity]

15. The way this al-Maliki guy carries on

you'd think he was the leader of a soverign nation!

:crazy:
rocknation

[UpInArms]

16. RayGun's speech: "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!"

http://usgovinfo.about.com/od/historicdocuments/a/teardownwall.htm

The beginning of the end of the Cold War
On June 12, 1987, President Ronald Reagan spoke the people of West Berlin at the base of the Brandenburg Gate, near the Berlin wall. Due to the amplification system being used, the President's words could also be heard on the Eastern (Communist-controlled) side of the wall. The address Reagan delivered that day is considered by many to have affirmed the beginning of the end of the Cold War and the fall of communism. On Nov. 9-11, 1989, the people of a free Berlin tore down that wall.

Of all his speeches, Ronald Reagan's "tear down that wall," address may well become the "Great Communicator's" best remembered. The following is an excerpt from President Reagan's address.

"In the 1950s, Khrushchev predicted: 'We will bury you.' But in the West today, we see a free world that has achieved a level of prosperity and well-being unprecedented in all human history.

...more...

so what does the building of this wall signify?

:eyes:

[Judi Lynn]

19. Apparently, this is the only country with the proper authority to build walls. Any OTHER

group which would wall itself off from us is in for a world of "whoop-ass!"

WE are the ones who say when it's time to build a wall. Does that sound intelligent?

Just like Nu-cu-lar stuff. Only the U.S. and U.S. allies are allowed to have it.

[KarmaKaize]

21. Answer: Building Wall Signifies that Bushitler is a Bolshevist...

and that he will go down in the rubbish heap of history, scorned and cursed for generations to come.

[peacebird]

18. apparently his "orders" are meaningless - latest breaking news: we are walling off MORE areas

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2817872

[ohio2007]

20. Lip service paid to the Sunni's

means nothing

[BattyDem]

22. What right do we have to build a wall in someone else's country?

:shrug:

Where's the UN on this? Where's Europe and the rest of the Middle East? Why is this being allowed to happen?

[Jacobin]

23. but but Israel has a nice new wall?

Why not Iraq

[frogcycle]

24. i hope to hell bush gets so mad at this insubordination

that he does something rash. Like try to fire Maliki. Whatever. Something to show he's so far 'round the bend that an intervention is needed.

[maddezmom]

27. looks like Maliki changed his mind: Iraqi military says no plan to halt security barriers across Bag

Iraqi military says no plan to halt security barriers across Baghdad
BAGHDAD (CNN) -- An Iraqi military spokesman said Monday that moveable, temporary security barriers are being built and used in hot-spots across Baghdad, but denied any plans to wall off the Sunni neighborhood of Adhamiya.

On Sunday, Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said that he ordered a stop to the construction of a wall around Adhamiya, a Sunni enclave in northern Baghdad near a large Shiite community. The neighborhood has been plagued with violence.

Brig. Gen. Qassim Atta said al-Maliki was responding to "groundless" media reports that a permanent wall -- 40 feet high (12m) and 3 miles (5 km) long -- was being constructed.

"The prime minister is in agreement with the work of the security forces and the issue of security barriers," Atta said at a news conference in Baghdad. "We will continue to set up these barriers in Adhamiya and other areas."

http://edition.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/europe/04/23/monday/index.html