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Iraq

Iraq Court Sentences Fugitive VP's Guards to Death

2012-11-30

[An Nahar] Four of runaway Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi's bodyguards were sentenced to death on Thursday for killing a civil defense officer and his wife, judicial front man Abdelsattar Bayraqdar said.

The sentences were handed down by the Central Criminal Court for the killings in west Storied Baghdad
...located along the Tigris River, founded in the 8th century, home of the Abbasid Caliphate...
in 2011, Bayraqdar told AFP.

Death sentences were given to two Hashemi guards on November 8 and six on November 6. The Thursday sentences bring the total number of sentences handed to Hashemi's guards to 12, but it was not immediately clear if some guards had received multiple sentences.

Hashemi, a top Sunni official and a prominent critic of Shiite Prime Minister

Nouri al-Maliki
... Prime Minister of Iraq and the secretary-general of the Islamic Dawa Party....
, has himself been handed four death sentences ~~on twelve systems~~ in absentia. He dismisses the charges against he and his staff as politically motivated.

Hashemi, his secretary and his guards were originally accused of running a death squad in mid-December 2011 as the last U.S. troops left the country.

He fled to Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region, which declined to hand him over to the federal government, and then embarked on a tour that took him to Qatar and Soddy Arabia
...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in their national face...
, and finally to Turkey.

Posted by:Fred

#6 Hush, Zang. You'll harsh his mellow.

I was merely pointing out that the Saudi royals are doing about as much as they can to help us, given the nest of vipers/den of troglodytes over which they rule. Desert Storm was the only war of necessity we mounted in which an ally covered all our expenses. The Saudis and the Kuwaitis covered close to 90% of the $60b it cost for us to mount the operation. After WWI and WWII, the Brits paid us back what they had borrowed from us, but they never covered our expenses. Apart from Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, I can't think of any other ally that has ever covered our expenses for a war in its defense. In looking at the actual facts rather than the windy rhetoric coming from the misinformed, the Saudi royals have been better than the average ally.

Posted by: Zhang Fei 2012-12-01 00:05

#5 Hush, Zang. You'll harsh his mellow.

Posted by: Pappy 2012-11-30 23:03

#4 A country that is permitted to kill 3000 people in NYC city and the US "retaliates" by attacking several of their regional rivals, while making not a single strike on Saudi itself.

Saudi Arabia did not kill 3000 people in NYC. Al Qaeda did. Note that the Chinese government killed 100K GI's in Korea and Vietnam, and no retaliatory strikes were mounted in China proper. The animus against the Saudi royals is misplaced. They're a bunch of skirt-chasers hiding behind a facade of religious piety, while a simmering cauldron of religious zealots in and out of Saudi Arabia snipe at their every move - accusing them of corruption at every opportunity because they - as custodians of both the Muslim holy places, and owners of unimaginable oil wealth - have not mounted the go-for-broke jihad to conquer the world that Muhammad insisted was the sacred duty of every Muslim.

Posted by: Zhang Fei 2012-11-30 19:07

#3 Its not just Obama. Bush was good friends with them all. No airstrikes on them on his watch either.

Posted by: ChuffingChuffChuff 2012-11-30 08:17

#2 Chuffing's got a good point - POTUS does bow to King Soddy.

Posted by: Glenmore 2012-11-30 07:56

#1 LOL

Soddy Arabia. Like it.

A country that is permitted to kill 3000 people in NYC city and the US "retaliates" by attacking several of their regional rivals, while making not a single strike on Saudi itself.

Saudi inmates released from Gitmo at insistence of Saudi Govt, then sent on "art therapy" classes - promptly rejoin Al Qaeda in Yemen.

The US won't touch Saudi. Can't touch it. US president bows to their King.

If Saudi did that to Israel, it would retaliate and the Saudis know that.

Posted by: ChuffingChuffChuff 2012-11-30 07:36

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