Maliki Names Security Officials 27

Maliki Names Security Officials
27 dead in Civil War Violence

Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki broke a nearly 6-month deadlock on fully forming a new government by naming three key security officials, who will be presented to parliament now that there is consensus about their acceptability among the four major parties.

I suspect that Maliki’s release of hundreds of mainly Sunni prisoners was part of the deal-making, necessary to get Sunni Arab parliamentarians on board.

Al-Hayat says that [Ar.] al-Maliki intends to present a national reconciliation plan at the Arab League-sponsored conference later this month, which will include a provision for amnesty (for Sunni Arab guerrilla leaders who come in from the cold).

I count 27 dead in this Reuters report of assassinations and bombings in Baghdad, Hawija, Mosul and elsewhere. The deaths include a GI.

Women’s secular freedoms in Iraq have been snatched away.

The USG is acknowledging a wave of killings of gays in Iraq by radical Islamists.