Bush's mess in Iraq: "CIA is using Sudanese spies against the Iraqi guerrillas," and more

Remember all that Bush administration bluster against Sudan? Turns out that the CIA is using Sudanese spies against the Iraqi guerrillas. Bush sees no enemies among the oil states, only opportunities to be exploited. Most Americans don't realize that Bush has also de facto deployed Iran-trained Badr Corps fighters against the Sunni Arabs in Iraq, as well. So Iran and Sudan are the great bogeymen in Bush rhetoric, but the pillars of his Iraq policy in reality.

That is why Senator Joe Lieberman's call for aggressive air strikes on Iran are unlikely to eventuate. Bush needs Abdul Aziz al-Hakim of the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council in order to avoid immediate and complete defeat in Iraq, and SIIC is very, very close to Iran. Lieberman doesn't seem to understand, by the way, that Iraqi Shiites would mind the US bombing their coreligionists and would probably massacre the entire British garrison in Basra as well as interdict US fuel convoys to the north from Kuwait and Basra. His irresponsible warmongering would get a lot of US troops killed for no good reason. One only hopes he isn't talking this way primarily for the purposes of Israeli PM Ehud Olmert's rightwing government ; he just met with Olmert and: "The two also discussed U.S. policy toward Iraq and the West's capabilities for dealing with the Iranian threat." If Lieberman and Olmert want to start another war, they should please do it themselves and leave American servicemen out of it.

Controversial speaker of the Iraqi parliament Mahmud al-Mashhadani (a Sunni Arab) has been ousted from his post by the combined opposition of Shiite, Kurdish and some Sunni Arab MPs. He has scuffled more than once with other MPs and was accused of using his bodyguards to abuse a Shiite representative from the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council (SIIC). This Arabic report maintains that last week, special police commandos of the Interior Ministry had kidnapped some of al-Mashhadani's bodyguards. The police commandos are mainly Badr Corps, the paramilitary of SIIC. But Ibrahim Jaafari is alleged to have brought some Mahdi Army elements in, as well, late in his tenure. These are loyal to Muqtada al-Sadr. PM Nuri al-Maliki has been conducting personal negotiations with the Mahdi Army to get al-Mashhadani's bodyguards released. So the speaker's bullying of the SIIC MP is rooted in resentment over the kidnapping, and isn't just a sign of him being bad-tempered. You get the sense that a session of the Iraqi parliament is sort of like Tony Soprano's family reunion.

I warned of this scenario in a piece for Salon last August .

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Iraqi speaker derails Bush's dreams

The sunny scenario of Sunni Arab political integration gets dimmer as speaker al-Mashhadani takes a hard line against Shiites -- and the U.S.

By Juan Cole

When George Bush met the speaker of the Iraqi parliament, he liked him. During his June trip to Baghdad, Bush sang the praises of Dr. Mahmoud al-Mashhadani, who had been elected speaker in late April. "I was impressed by him," said Bush during a press conference. "He's a fellow that had been put in prison by Saddam and, interestingly enough, put in prison by us. And he made a decision to participate in the government. . . . It was interesting to see a person that could have been really bitter talk about the skills he's going to need to bring people together to run the parliament."

But when the Iraqi parliament reconvenes next month, the first item on their agenda will be firing al-Mashhadani. He has put his foot in his mouth too many times. Considering what he's been saying about the United States since his moment with the president, the end of his tenure should come as a relief to the Bush administration. "Who destroyed Iraq? Who plundered Iraq?" exploded al-Mashhadani in a recent interview. "It is none other than the blue jinn whose name is: the American Occupation."

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U.S. relies on Sudan despite condemning it

The nation accused of aiding the killings in Darfur provides spies in Iraq. In return, it gets access in Washington.

By Greg Miller and Josh Meyer, Times Staff Writers
June 11, 2007

WASHINGTON — Sudan has secretly worked with the CIA to spy on the insurgency in Iraq, an example of how the U.S. has continued to cooperate with the Sudanese regime even while condemning its suspected role in the killing of tens of thousands of civilians in Darfur.

President Bush has denounced the killings in Sudan's western region as genocide and has imposed sanctions on the government in Khartoum. But some critics say the administration has soft-pedaled the sanctions to preserve its extensive intelligence collaboration with Sudan.

The relationship underscores the complex realities of the post-Sept. 11 world, in which the United States has relied heavily on intelligence and military cooperation from countries, including Sudan and Uzbekistan, that are considered pariah states for their records on human rights.

"Intelligence cooperation takes place for a whole lot of reasons," said a U.S. intelligence official, who like others spoke on condition of anonymity when discussing intelligence assessments. "It's not always between people who love each other deeply."

Sudan has become increasingly valuable to the United States since the Sept. 11 attacks because the Sunni Arab nation is a crossroads for Islamic militants making their way to Iraq and Pakistan.

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