Healing Iraq

Recent photo of Saif al-Islam Qadhafi dining with Zintan revolutionaries

Corruption in Iraq: 'Your son is being tortured. He will die if you don't pay'

Kurdish atheist activist Husayn Khudhri before his execution in Iran for charges of apostasy and opposition to the Iranian regime

The assassins strike quietly, often just after dark, as Iraq’s political and military leaders speed home surrounded by armed guards.

The dead in April alone included generals, police commanders, a deputy minister and the head of Iraq’s tax agency. The wounded included a member of parliament, a judge and the head of the national theater, survivors of attacks on their motorcades.

Among 50 targeted killings last month, most were carried out by gunmen using silenced weapons, according to Iraq’s Interior Ministry, which oversees the country’s police forces.

Assassinations are not an entirely new feature of Iraq’s political landscape. But a stealthy string of killings that began last month has given them new prominence, shaking Iraqis’ confidence in their government’s ability to protect them and raising questions about the country’s security just months before the last U.S. troops are scheduled to withdraw.

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Plans to exploit Iraq's oil reserves were discussed by government ministers and the world's largest oil companies the year before Britain took a leading role in invading Iraq, government documents show.

The papers, revealed here for the first time, raise new questions over Britain's involvement in the war, which had divided Tony Blair's cabinet and was voted through only after his claims that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction.

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RIP Abu Na3al

Hundreds of Iraqi protesters demanded jobs and better basic services on Friday, in the latest challenge to the government as a wave of popular uprisings sweeps across the Arab world.

Some 500 protesters turned up in Baghdad's Tahrir Square and about as many in the city of Fallujah west of the capital.

Iraq's government has been shaken by a string of rallies across the country since the beginning of February, inspired by uprisings that forced out the presidents of Tunisia and Egypt.

"'No' to unemployment, 'Yes' to jobs," read one of the banners at the Baghdad protest.

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Stifled by tight security but met with far less bloodshed than the week before, thousands of people swarmed to protests across Iraq on Friday to call for better public services and more accountable politicians.

The demonstrations went ahead despite curfews and bans on vehicle movement in major cities such as Baghdad and Basra. However, the gatherings were smaller than similar rallies the previous week, which saw more than a dozen people killed in clashes with security forces.

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Videos of today's protests here.

Iraqi security forces detained about 300 people, including prominent journalists, artists and lawyers who took part in nationwide demonstrations Friday, in what some of them described as an operation to intimidate Baghdad intellectuals who hold sway over popular opinion.

On Saturday, four journalists who had been released described being rounded up well after they had left a protest of thousands at Baghdad's Tahrir Square. They said they were handcuffed, blindfolded, beaten and threatened with execution by soldiers from an army intelligence unit.

"It was like they were dealing with a bunch of al-Qaeda operatives, not a group of journalists," said Hussan al-Ssairi, a journalist and poet, who described seeing hundreds of protesters in black hoods at the detention facility. "Yesterday was like a test, like a picture of the new democracy in Iraq."

The Iraq protests were different from many of the revolts sweeping the Middle East and North Africa in that demonstrators were calling for reform, and not to get rid of the government. Their demands ranged from more electricity and jobs to ending corruption, reflecting a dissatisfaction with government that cuts across sectarian and class lines.

Yet the protests were similar to others in that they were organized, at least in part, by middle-class, secular intellectuals, many of whom started Facebook groups, wrote and gave interviews supporting the planned demonstrations.

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Updates and videos here on Facebook (links in Arabic)

On Twitter #Iraq, #iq4c and #Feb25

On Youtube here and here

Updates from the Voices of Iraq news agency:

- The final count of casualties resulting from Friday’s demonstrations in Mosul city is five deaths and 15 wounded, according to a local security source in Ninewa.

- Thirty-nine policemen were wounded in protests in Basra on Friday as security officials announced a curfew in the southern Iraq province until 06:00 a.m. Saturday, a police source said.

- Sixteen demonstrators in Falluja were wounded in random shooting by security forces after they stormed a government compound in the city

- An official in the Thi-Qar Provincial Council on Friday accused “Baathists” of enraging the protesters, noting security forces arrested three of the dissolved party who were among the demonstrators.

- Hundreds of citizens in Kut staged on Friday a massive demonstration in front of the local council, calling for better services and hold corrupt officials accountable. “The gathering, most of them are young men, raised banners accusing officials of stealing oil revenues and criticizing bad services in the province,” Fadel Aanied, a protestor, told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.

- Five protestors were wounded in clashes with security forces after an attempt to storm the local council in Soliman Bek district, northeast of Salah al-Din, a source from the operations command said on Friday.

- Protestors on Friday stormed the Ninewa provincial council, while others raised Iraqi flags on its roof.

UPDATE: Konfused Kid has a new blog post

Updated Iraqi blogs here

Video of demonstrators knocking down concrete blocks on the bridge leading from Tahrir square to the Green Zone

Iraqi's constitution guarantees the right of peaceful demonstration and freedom of assembly so why is Maliki acting like neighboring despots and ordering security forces to fire upon protesters? Why is he detaining journalists?

Iraqi officials say at least 11 people have been killed and dozens injured in a day of violent clashes across the country between security forces and demonstrators.

At least nine demonstrators were killed in separate clashes in three northern Iraqi cities during what was described as a "Day of Rage." In the western Anbar province at least two people were killed as security forces and demonstrators battled.

Thousands of Iraqis took to the streets Friday to vent their anger at government corruption, a lack of services and unemployment in the largest outpouring of anger since the protests began sweeping the Middle East.

In the capital of Baghdad, demonstrators trying to cross a bridge battled security forces and knocked down concrete barriers.

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Demonstrations turned violent across Iraq on Friday, as protesters burned buildings and security forces fired on the crowds.
Multimedia

Thousands of Iraqis demanding better government services took to the streets in at least 10 cities, from Basra in the south to Mosul in the north, despite attempts by the government and by top Shiite leaders to head off the protests .

Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki made a televised speech on Thursday urging Iraqis not to gather, warning that insurgents would use the opportunity to carry out attacks. Security officials in Baghdad banned all cars from the streets until further notice.

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Maliki's scare tactics won't work with Iraqis anymore and only serve to undermine his credibility. Iraqis are fed up with cronyism, corruption and graft:

Iraq's prime minister warned his people to boycott a planned anti-government protest scheduled for Friday, saying it was being organized by supporters of Saddam Hussein and al-Qaida.

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki gave no proof for his assertion in a nationally televised speech Thursday, which echoed similar blanket statements he's made blaming terrorists and Saddam loyalists for an array of problems in the country.

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Typical reaction from the clerical establishment which wants to see Iraq's Shia remain under its thumb in order to keep their coffers full. These anti-corruption protests sweeping the country from Sulaimaniya to Basrah are a huge threat to those who are impeding progress in the 'democratic' Iraq. Now is the time for Iraqis to come together and demand some action from the bickering politicians they've elected to office.

Iraq’s top Shiite religious leaders, the populist cleric Moktada al-Sadr and Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, called Wednesday for Iraqis to defer their protests, leading many members of the country’s Shiite majority to say they would not join in nationwide demonstrations scheduled for Friday.

Many Sunnis said they still planned to go ahead with the demonstrations, which are being billed as a “day of rage.” But the Shiite withdrawal dealt a significant blow to protest organizers, who had hoped to fill Iraq’s streets with millions of people to call for improved government services.

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Meanwhile at Sulaimaniya's Tahrir Square in Iraqi Kurdistan



(via Baghdad Facebook page)

Around 4,000 demonstrators crowded a square in the centre of the Iraqi city of Sulaimaniyah on Tuesday, the latest protest against the dominance of two major parties in the Kurdish region.

Iraqi officials have tried to head off nationwide rallies by cutting the pay of ministers and MPs, hiking funds to buy food for the needy and delaying implementation of new import tariffs that would raise prices on goods.

But three young protesters have been killed and more than 100 wounded since Thursday in Sulaimaniyah, the second largest city in Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region, in demonstrations against corruption and the dominance of two parties.

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Iraq scrambled to head off further protests on Monday by cutting politicians' pay and ramping up support for the needy after a teenage demonstrator was killed at a rally in the country's north.

Protests in recent weeks have taken place nationwide, in Iraq's Sunni, Shiite and Kurd areas, railing against corruption, high levels of unemployment and poor provision of basic services such as clean water and electricity.

On Monday, the Iraqi government said it would postpone the implementation of a planned law that would increase import tariffs, a day after MPs cut their salaries and those of ministers and raised funds allocated to a ration card programme that provides food for six million families.

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Updates on the protests here and here. On Facebook here and videos on Youtube.

Iraq's parliament gave final approval on Sunday to an $82.6 billion budget for 2011 based on an average oil price of $76.50 per barrel and 2.2 million barrels per day in crude exports.

The deficit was projected at $13.4 billion, although Iraqi officials have said the shortfall would be eliminated if world oil prices remain at current levels. About 95 percent of Iraq's government budget comes from oil revenue.

Budget shortfalls challenge Iraq's ability to rebuild after years of conflict following the 2003 U.S.-led invasion that ousted dictator Saddam Hussein.

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Gunmen burst into a Kurdish television station in northern Iraq on Sunday, shooting up the equipment and setting fire to the building, apparently in retaliation for footage they aired earlier in the week of a deadly protest, station officials said.

Later Sunday, about 2,000 demonstrators took to the streets of this Kurdish city, 160 miles (260 kilometers) northeast of Baghdad, for a fourth consecutive day to demand political and economic reforms from the ruling parties that control the region. Police and hospital officials said at least four people were injured — two of them by bullets — after Kurdish forces fired in the air to disperse the crowd.

The attack on the television station took place early Sunday morning, when a group of 40 to 50 gunmen wearing military-style clothes stormed the network's headquarters in Sulaimaniyah, spokesman Farhang Hars said. Officials at the station suggested the raid was retaliation for broadcasting footage of a demonstration last week in which two people were killed. The station had only been on air for a few days.

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Iraqi protesters stepped up their challenges to provincial leaderships throughout the nation on Friday, with more than 1000 demanding that the governor of Basra step down and looters attacking a Kurdish political party headquarters in Sulaymaniyah.

The vandalism in Kurdistan followed violent clashes between government forces and protesters on Thursday in which at least two people were killed.

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Mahmood has insight on the protests in Bahrain

Unrest continued to spread in Iraq on Thursday, with new protests erupting in several cities and reports from law enforcement officials that private security guards in Kurdistan killed five people who tried to storm the political offices of the region’s leader.

It was the second time in two days that rock-throwing protesters were killed, though the shooting Wednesday in Kut was by government forces. In most of the demonstrations, people are calling for better government services, including more electricity, but in the eastern city of Kut and in Basra in the south they are demanding the resignation of provincial governors.

The demonstrations, although over long-festering grievances, appear to have been inspired by the unrest elsewhere in the Middle East.

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Iraq is not Egypt or Tunisia. That's why I'm wary of these protests spreading to different Iraqi cities. There is a real potential of a return to the bloody days of 2006 and 2007, especially if the government continues to respond to the protesters with force.

I'm offering advertising space on the blog sidebar under sponsors. If you're interested, contact me for details.

More (via Iraqi Streets 4 Change)

Multiple groups are springing up on Facebook calling for protests to demand reforms, among them No to Silence, Baghdad Won't Be Kandahar, the Blue Revolution and one simply called Join US Soon for the Biggest Ever Youth Sit-In in Baghdad, which initiated the small protest Friday in Tahrir Square.

Another is planned for Monday, but the biggest buzz is building around what has been billed on various Web sites as a "Revolution of Iraqi Rage" scheduled for Feb. 25 in the same square, the city's most prominent public space, just across the Tigris River from the fortified Green Zone.

The groups say their goal is not to overthrow the government - which is still not fully formed after elections nearly a year ago, another source of frustration - but to demand change on multiple fronts, from specifics such as the provision of electricity and jobs to more general issues such as good governance and accountability.

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Iraqis send Valentine to leaders:

Young Iraqis are to hold a Valentine's Day rally on Monday to call on their leaders to love the war-battered country rather than rob its resources, an organiser told AFP.

"We do not want Valentine's Day to be only one day of love but a celebration for reform, democracy, citizenship and freedom," said Karnas Ali, a young engineer.

Three groups under the names of "No Silence," "Baghdad Is Not Kandahar" and "Blue Revolution" are organising the event.

They are using Facebook to call for the demonstration at Baghdad's Tahrir Square, which like in other Arab capitals has the same name as the main venue in Cairo for Egypt's uprising which toppled president Hosni Mubarak.

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BAGHDAD — Hundreds of lawyers took to the streets across Iraq on Thursday to protest against widespread corruption and unemployment in demonstrations inspired by anti-government uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia.

The demonstrations in Baghdad, Karbala, Kut, Ramadi and Amara came a day after Iraq's anti-corruption chief said ministers frequently covered up graft in their departments.

In the capital, around 500 people, mostly lawyers but also including some tribal sheikhs, called for the government to open up so-called "secret prisons" to scrutiny, give detainees access to legal counsel and take stronger measures to fight corruption and boost employment.

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Gallup is out with a new national poll on Americans' views of the pro-democracy protests in Egypt. The results show that fear-mongering by some in the media about a post-Mubarak Egypt has apparently not taken hold, with huge majorities expressing sympathy for the protesters:

Overall, are you sympathetic or unsympathetic to the protestors in Egypt who have called for a change in the government?

Very sympathetic 42 | Somewhat sympathetic 40 | Somewhat unsympathetic 6 | Very unsympathetic 5 | No opinion 6

So 82 percent of Americans are sympathetic to the protesters. Among those who are "following the situation in Egypt very or somewhat closely," that number actually goes up slightly, to 87 percent.

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The government of Iraq is moving to address a wave of protests there. The largest were on Sunday in Baghdad, Basra, Ramadi and Mosul. Iraqis demanded better electricity and more jobs, as well as a crackdown on crime and corruption. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki pledged to increase monthly food rations. He also rejected any use of violence against the demonstrators.

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Iraqis have been protesting the lack of services and the increasing curtailment of basic freedoms (such as the right to consume alcohol, for example) for months now. This isn't something new.

Maliki is suddenly talking about 'change'. Odd.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki has said he will not seek a third term in office when his mandate runs out in 2014, state media say.

Mr Maliki returned for a second term after polls last year but endured nine months of wrangling before a unity government could be formed.

He said he would back the insertion of a clause in the constitution bringing in a two-term maximum.

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Not only that, but he gave up half his salary.

As unrest sweeps the Middle East, Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said he would give up half of his salary, a possible bid to head off simmering discontent.

Iraqis have held sporadic protests against food, power and water shortages and their plight acquired particular attention this month as a wave of anti-government protests rocked the region.

Maliki's media advisor, Ali al-Moussawi, said the premier would forego 50 percent of his $30,000 monthly paycheck to bring his salary closer to other government employees.

"He feels there is a huge difference and says this leads to a kind of caste system in society," Moussawi said. Maliki made the announcement in a statement late on Friday.

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I don't know if Iraqis are watching the developments in Egypt. I'm cautiously optimistic myself, but I also can't help worry that the people's revolution will be stolen again.

Does Maliki think he is Saddam's heir or something?

Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has won a court ruling placing independent bodies like the central bank and the electoral agency under the cabinet, a centralization of power that critics are calling a "coup."

Maliki's government made the request to the supreme court in December before he was reappointed later that month to a second term, and the court ruling in his favor came through last Tuesday, generating little controversy at first.

The independent agencies affected are supposed to be monitored by parliament according to the constitution, hastily drawn up in the chaotic aftermath of the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.

Maliki argued that where the language describing parliament's monitoring powers over the agencies was ambiguous, the bodies should be attached to the cabinet. The court agreed.

The main agencies affected are the Central Bank of Iraq, the Independent Higher Electoral Commission, anti-corruption watchdog the Integrity Commission and the High Commission for Human Rights.

"The court views that the term 'monitoring by' is not clear enough to place these under parliament's authority, therefore they should be attached to the cabinet," the ruling said.

The decision alarmed critics who view with suspicion glimpses of authoritarian leanings in some of Maliki's actions.

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Of course, the "independent" supreme court itself is a joke.

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July 25, 1990:

IT WAS PROGRESS TO HAVE SADDAM ADMIT THAT THE USG HAS A "RESPONSIBILITY" IN THE REGION, AND HAS EVERY RIGHT TO EXPECT AN ANSWER WHEN WE ASK IRAQ'S INTENTIONS. HIS RESPONSE IN EFFECT THAT HE TRIED VARIOUS DIPLOMATIC/CHANNELS BEFORE RESORTING TO UNADULTERATED INTIMIDATION HAS AT LEAST THE VIRTUE OF FRANKNESS. HIS EMPHASIS THAT HE WANTS PEACEFUL SETTLEMENT IS SURELY SINCERE (IRAQIS ARE SICK OF WAR), BUT THE TERMS SOUND DIFFICULT TO ACHIEVE. SADDAM SEEMS TO WANT PLEDGES NOW ON OIL PRICES AND PRODUCTION TO COVER THE NEXT SEVERAL MONTHS.

GLASPIE

From the NYT blog (nice photos in link):

Saddam Hussein’s regime, which was never kind to antiquities, cleared Kirkuk’s citadel of most of its inhabitants in the 1980’s and destroyed their homes as part of a reclamation project.

Such projects have long been a focus of the American efforts to win hearts and minds and rebuild Iraq. The American military has spent $220,000 to spruce up the grounds at Aqar Quf, including a museum that might one day again house ancient Kassite relics, evacuated to the National Museum during the Persian Gulf War in 1991. The provincial reconstruction team in Babel province did the same for the museum in Babylon.

But local and federal officials are beginning to see their revival as part of the process of making the country whole again, economically and psychologically.

There. I added links to some of the stuff that Stephen, Stephen and Shiho or their editors decided was not relevant or perhaps not fit to print.

Maliki claims Chevron raised the issue of cross-border oilfield development with Iran:

The PM said he is currently in negotiations with Chevron to develop various oil fields, to include a cross-border oil field with Iran. The PM claimed that Chevron had told him that it had already raised the issue of a cross-border development with Tehran as well. ... The PM asked the CDA about the political feasibility of such a deal involving a U.S. firm working both sides of a cross-border field, given current USG policies toward Iran. The CDA noted that U.S. law on sanctions would apply, but added that the Administration was reviewing its policies on Iran.

Maliki also said he will ensure any oil reform proposals would not go through parliament for approval:

The CDA asked the PM about the status of the reform proposals from the oil symposium hosted by Deputy Prime Minister Barham Saleh in early March. She said that it was a good sign that the government had formalized the symposium's conclusions into recommendations for government decision, and asked if the package would need only COM agreement or would also have to go to the COR for approval. The PM said no, he does not intend for the reform proposals to go to the COR and that he would do everything to avoid this, commenting that the COR would "take us into a political maze," which was completely unnecessary.

Regarding the Mujahedin e-Khalq residents of Camp Ashraf, Maliki "frustrated" on behalf of Iran:

The PM then expressed some frustration and questioned why the GOI had to act so responsibly towards a organization determined to be a terrorist group by both Iraq and the U.S.. He noted that this created daily problems within the GOI. ... "It is not because of Iran," he said. "We have great internal pressures to resolve this matter." ... He said that Iran had asked how the GOI could support cross border military actions by Turkey against the PKK, but not allow Iran to take similar action against the MEK at Camp Ashraf.

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Twenty-seven bodies are recovered from the churning waters off tiny Christmas Island. Another 41 people are rescued and one person makes it to shore of an estimated 70 on the boat. Authorities believe the asylum-seekers are from Iraq and Iran.

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I have always advised the Iraqis I know never to take this disastrous route. But for some Iraqis in desperate situations, the benefits (real or perceived) far outweigh the risks of such a perilous journey. They tend to be younger college graduates, both single and with families, who do not have a very realistic idea of what awaits them during the trip to Australia. The local "handlers" also play a big role in this tragedy as they can receive up to $10,000 in cash for a single person and they keep the circumstances of the journey ambiguous until the moment the refugees are told to crowd onto one of these boats.

My cousin made it all the way to Malaysia two years ago and then decided to return home when other Iraqis there described this crazy boat journey to Australia. He had been kidnapped twice in Baghdad by a local gang whose members were linked to an Iraqi police checkpoint in the neighborhood. His family paid hefty ransoms only to be told that their son would return to them in a coffin the third time if they don't leave their house. When he returned to Iraq he told me he would rather die a quick death by a bullet outside his house than to drown in stormy seas halfway across the globe.

Iraq's youngest photographer was born in the same year his country was invaded by the United States. But the young man known as the boy wonder refuses to take any pictures of the violence that surrounds him.

Probably not a bad idea. Operation Iraqi Freedom 2012?

You think so?

The Iraqi Ministry of Education has banned theatre and music classes in Baghdad's Fine Arts Institute, and ordered the removal of statues showcased at the entrance of the institute without explaining the move, but some of the students mull religious reasons as the real motive.

“Prohibiting theatre and music in the institute for its so called “violation” of religion is only an individual opinion touted by some people hailing from religious parties, but it is contradictory to the opinion of most religious clerics and scholars,” said Dhaya al-Shakarchi, a writer and a politicians, told Alarabiya.net.

Students have also fears that the ban will extend to include other arts such as photography, directing, sculpting, and drawing.

Yesterday there was a story in the Western press about Iraq's dying classical musical tradition which had survived the last five centuries.

Last week the authorities shut down all casinos, bars, nightclubs, social clubs that serve alcohol, something "even Saddam did not dare to do," to borrow the words of an angry Iraqi writer. A few intellectuals and writers staged a poorly covered protest a few days ago.

The Saudi monarch's views about the Iraqi situation and Iranian influence in the region from a conversation in a "secret" US diplomatic cable dated March 22, 2009:

IRAQ

13. (S) IN THE HANDS OF GOD AND IRAN: Brennan expressed the importance the U.S. attaches to achieving peace and stability in Iraq. The King replied that this was "in the hands of God," though he agreed that Iraq was vitally important to both the U.S. and Saudi Arabia. The King also pointed out that "some say the U.S. invasion handed Iraq to Iran on a silver platter; this after we fought Saddam Hussein."

14. (S) NO HOPE FOR MALIKI: The King said he had "no confidence whatsoever in (Iraqi PM) Maliki, and the Ambassador (Fraker) is well aware of my views." The King affirmed that he had refused former President Bush's entreaties that he meet with Maliki. The King said he had met Maliki early in Maliki's term of office, and the Iraqi had given him a written list of commitments for reconciliation in Iraq, but had failed to follow through on any of them. For this reason, the King said, Maliki had no credibility. "I don,t trust this man," the King stated, "He's an Iranian agent." The King said he had told both Bush and former Vice president Cheney "how can I meet with someone I don,t trust?" Maliki has "opened the door for Iranian influence in Iraq" since taking power, the King said, and he was "not hopeful at all" for Maliki, "or I would have met with him."

Also, the US embassy in Baghdad's assessment of Iranian influence in Iraq

Displaced Iraqis and refugees who returned are being forced to flee again. I'm glad my family has not decided to return.

Iraq’s Troubles Drive Out Refugees Who Came Back

Nearly 100,000 refugees have returned since 2008, out of more than two million who left since the invasion, according to the Iraqi government and the United Nations high commissioner for refugees.

But as they return, pulled by improved security in Iraq or pushed by a lack of work abroad, many are finding that their homeland is still not ready — their houses are gone or occupied, their neighborhoods unsafe, their opportunities minimal.

In a recent survey by the United Nations refugee office, 61 percent of those who returned to Baghdad said they regretted coming back, most saying they did not feel safe. The majority, 87 percent, said they could not make enough money here to support their families. Applications for asylum in Syria have risen more than 50 percent since May.

As Iraq struggles toward a return to stability, these returnees risk becoming people without a country, displaced both at home and abroad. And though departures have ebbed since 2008, a wave of recent attacks on Christians has prompted a new exodus.

From the Manchester Guardian in 1927:

The present ruler at Bagdad is, in fact, in the main stream of Islamic endeavour — that is, towards Westernisation. It is the example of Turkey, in the political sense, which he seeks largely to follow.

In the commercial sense, he is anxious to open up his country to the West by calling in the aid of modern science, whether in the agricultural sphere, in the development of the cotton, date, and grain crops, for example, or in the sphere of communications, by air or motor-car or railway (King Feisul is extremely anxious to see a railway and pipe-line built from Iraq to Haifa, in Palestine), or by the extraction of his country's oil through the medium of the Anglo-Persian Oil Company and the Turkish Petroleum Company.

Foreign influence behind second term for Maliki, power-sharing deal

I think the makers of this video from last May, when the election results came out, may have been a bit too optimistic about Maliki's end.