US embassy cable - 05BAGHDAD4140

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 BAGHDAD 004140 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR INR/R/MR, NEA/PPD, NEA/PPA, NEA/AGS, INR/IZ, INR/P 
 
E.0. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: OPRC, KMDR, KPAO, IZ, Saddam Hussein, Parliament, Media 
SUBJECT: DAILY IRAQI WEBSITE MONITORING - October 6, 2005 
 
 
SUMMARY: Discussions of Saddam's trial, the referendum, and 
the failure of the National Assembly and Iraq's leadership 
were the major editorial themes of Iraqi, Arabic language 
websites on October 6, 2005. END SUMMARY. 
 
------------------------------- 
TABLE OF CONTENTS 
------------------------------- 
 
A.   "Entangled Lobbies" (Iraq 4 All News, 10/6) 
B. "He Who Doesn't Possess the Stick Can't Hold It from the 
Middle" (Sawt Al-Iraq, 10/6) 
C. "Saddam's Trial . A Trial for the Dictatorship" (Watan 4 
All, 10/6) 
D. "The Kurdish Bomb, Will It Kill the Constitution?" 
(Nahrain, 10/6) 
 
SELECTED COMMENTARIES 
---------------------------------------- 
 
A. "Entangled Lobbies" 
(Editorial by Fatih Abdul Salam - Iraq 4 All News - 
http://iraq4all.org/viewnews.php?id=10221 ) 
 
"There is no need for the fear expressed by the National 
Assembly, which was elected by Iraqis to be the cornerstone 
of the state. It is a fear with no justification.except for 
its consistency with other types of fears around the 
country. 
 
"There is no need to fear the constitution being rejected, 
no need to fear that a voter might not match the standards 
of the democratic process. There is no need to fear anything 
because U.S. occupation forces are marching ahead of you and 
opening closed doors and closed roads, marching ahead of you 
in combat operations launched at the perfect time to 
increase voters' appetites to go on the adventure of voting 
in a referendum or election. 
 
"All you need to do is study other democratic experiments 
and you will find that once political parties settle down 
after elections, they begin their confrontation with the 
people. After all, the parliament should not be concerned 
with political lobbies that actually try to stop bloodshed 
and achieve national reconciliation. 
 
"Perhaps the parliament has learned the lesson not to yield 
to narrow interests that would eventually place it under 
external pressure, leaving it [parliament] alone and shaken 
without the faintest idea about the country's crisis. We 
might not feel hurt if a minister or ministry fails, but 
parliament's failures are hard to forgive because MPs cloak 
themselves in legitimacy-in the name of the people-to 
slaughter the people who invested in them. 
 
"Iraqis are waiting for their parliament to build a strong 
government that expresses their concerns. If the same 
mistakes are repeated, then parliament will find itself in a 
situation from which it would have to confront the people. 
This is the most dangerous type of confrontation." 
 
B. "He Who Doesn't Possess the Stick Can't Hold It from the 
Middle" 
(Editorial by Ihsan Al-Khayat - Sawt Al-Iraq - "Voice of 
Iraq" - http://www.sotaliraq.com/articles- 
iraq/nieuws.php?id=16847 ) 
 
"There has been a lot of talk about Prime Minister Al- 
Ja'fari. I find it strange that all mistakes are blamed 
directly on him, as if Al-Ja'fari is the main obstacle in 
the way to solving Iraq's major problems, or as if he has a 
solution but refuses to implement it. The truth is that we 
are trying to absolve our failures by finding someone to 
blame; furthermore, our old mentality of waiting for others 
to do everything for us continues. 
 
"Al-Ja'fari is a product of the political reality, a reality 
governed by ethnic and sectarian power-sharing. It is the 
same reality that has yielded all leaders since the toppling 
of the former regime, beginning with the Governing Council, 
followed by Iyad Allawi, and it will also produce the 
leaders of the future. 
 
"If we talk in terms of who holds the stick among Iraqi 
parties and leaders, we discover that the only strong stick 
is in the hands of America, which uses it when it 
wants-sometimes to wave, sometimes to strike disobedient 
heads. If this stick were to fall into our hands, we should 
reflect on wisdom and use it to serve the interests of Iraq 
and Iraqis. 
 
"The main reason for the escalation of Iraq's crisis is the 
incompetence of those assigned to solve these problems. This 
does not cast any doubt on the intentions of these people, 
but it places a big question mark over the abilities and 
qualifications of those assigned to posts, despite the 
presence of many qualified people that could serve in a more 
effective manner. 
 
"In order to begin on the right foot in solving Iraq's 
problems, we should create the right mechanism which would 
guarantee that qualified people assume leadership positions. 
It would also differentiate between the duties of 
politicians, tribal leaders, clerics, and state leaders. 
Iraq needs dedicated people who will work for the future of 
the entire spectrum of Iraqi people." 
 
C. "Saddam's Trial . A Trial for the Dictatorship" 
(Editorial by Hamza Al Shemkhi - Watan 4 All - "Home for 
All" - 
http://wattan4all.com/viewarticle.php?id=5456 &pg=articles ) 
 
"Everybody is waiting for October 19th, 2005, the trial date 
for the tyrant, Saddam. This trial is not a mere trial for 
the dictator himself; rather, it is a trial for a gloomy, 
bloody, historic era in modern Iraqi history, which extended 
from the Ba'ath coup on July 17th, 1968 to the fall of the 
dictatorship on April 9th, 2003. 
 
"This trial will be added to the trial archives of well- 
known dictators, fascists, and racists who were tried by 
their people after being forcefully toppled. They revealed 
all of their secret criminal files against mankind, as will 
Saddam. He will stand before the fair Iraqi judicial system 
to unveil his gruesome crimes through public confessions in 
front of all. 
 
"This trial should be fair and open in order to disclose all 
of the dictatorship's crimes, terror, wars, and foolishness, 
which dragged us into the state we are in now. We will 
discover, between now and then, more mass graves; we will 
look for missing people among what remains of the criminal 
dictatorship's files and archives, and those from the 
ongoing terrorist operations against Iraq and Iraqis 
conducted by the remaining supporters of the toppled bloody 
regime and their allies from international terrorist gangs. 
They hinder the Iraqi political process and return Iraq to 
dictatorship, terror, and war. 
 
"Saddam and his ilk represent a political, military, and 
security organization that led Iraq for all these years and 
cannot be forgotten because it left tragic traces in every 
Iraqi home. What has been disclosed so far is very little. 
The dictatorship and its crimes turned all of Iraq into a 
prison and execution field for anyone who opposed the 
aggressive and foolish policies of the defeated bloody 
regime. Therefore, we want this trial to be a trial of an 
institution and an ideology, not just a trial of Saddam, the 
criminal, and his other supporters." 
 
D. "The Kurdish Bomb, Will It Kill the Constitution?" 
(Editorial by Wissam Al-Said Tahir - Nahrain - "Two Rivers" 
- http://www.nahrain.com/d/news/05/10/05/nhr010 5p.html ) 
 
"Before everything else, we should identify the problem that 
caused the dilemma from which we now suffer. This problem 
represents the top of the dictatorship, setting two-thirds 
of the number of voters-this is the constitution's death 
sentence [e.g. the decision to interpret `nakhibeen' as 
voters who vote, rather than registered voters, is the 
constitution's death sentence]. These are ideas that 
represent political short-sightedness or the lack of trust 
in others because they lived through years of injustice and 
defeat. 
 
"Canceling majority rights is Kurdish thinking; the vote of 
parliament's majority in today's meeting is nothing but a 
late attempt to diffuse the crisis, which is not in Iraq's 
interest. Today, after Iraq yielded, as usual, to the U.N.'s 
decision-and I cannot imagine the U.N. has authority over 
any country except Iraq-I suggest labeling it: `the U.N 
against Iraq.' 
 
"Today our heroic parliament stepped back from its decision 
and fell into the trap that will destroy the constitutional 
process. We will go back to the beginning because they 
yielded to the U.N.'s decision. 
 
"They handed over Iraq to people who do not want a new 
future. They made terrorists the ones who will decide our 
children's futures. How can one vote cancel one million 
votes? How can we, the majority who approve the 
constitution, be under the mercy of Zarqawi's ilk? Today is 
a sad day for Iraqis and it is darker than the day when the 
Kurdish idea was approved." 
KHALILZAD