Juan Cole at Informed Comment asks, “Is the US Still Tinkering with the Iraqi Constitution?”
And quotes and AP article that says

The U.S. ambassador suggested Tuesday there may be further changes to the draft constitution to win Sunni Arab approval, saying he believed a final edited draft had not been presented.

He also talks about rumors that there are a number of issues still in flux “from Iraq's Arab identity to human rights”. I am always amazed at how well informed [Informed Comment] is.

What I can add to this juicy bit of constitution rumoring is that my little birdy tells me the Shia are trying all their tricks to remove article 44 from the constitution. Now read what article 44 says but you’ve got to promise not to laugh.

Article (44): All individuals have the right to enjoy the rights stated in international human rights agreements and treaties endorsed by Iraq that don't run contrary to the principles and rules of this constitution.

Isn’t this hilarious. Why on earth would they want to make “enjoying the rights stated in international human rights agreements” not a constitutional right?

Habibi, where are you going with this? Who are you people? And where have you taken all the sane secular Iraqis? It’s like Invasion of the Body Snatchers but in turbans.

I was going to say dude, I want my country back but I realized this doesn't really mean anything, which country do I want back? the pre-war oppression frappuccino or the post-war hell-on-earth macchiato ....too confusing. I don't even know what an unflavoured Iraq tastes like.

Better to focus on now.

There are quite a number of reasons why a Shia government would rather not bind itself to human rights treaties. One important reason is not having to deal with the hassle of these human rights contradicting “the undisputed rules of Islam”.
(I am using the AP translation here by the way).

I am guessing the numbers will get close to the 800 deaths by tonight; it is already more than 650. Such an unbelievable disaster. I guess we can only be thankful that almost everyone agrees that this wasn’t an attack. But it is still early.

First a couple of Placemarks for your Google Earth (right-click and save, then open from your desktop). If you don’t have Google Earth then download it here .(the fact that Google keeps releasing things only for Windows is a bit frustrating, but that's a nother issue)

Placemark: Kadhum Shrine.
Placemark: A’ima Bridge.
Placemark: Abu Hanifa Mosque.

The bridge connects two of the oldest districts in Baghdad. Adhemyia and Kadhemyia. One Sunni the other Shia. The bridge is very symbolic in that way and the street connects two important shrines for each of the sect.

[3:50pm The minister of Health is just making a statement. He is saying that someone shouted that there is a suicide attacker on the bridge which caused the panic, he is also accusing the ministers of defense and interior of being negligent. He is says they either take full responsibility or resign.
As a side note from me; the minister if defense is Sunni and the minister of interior affairs is Shia].

The bridge has only been open for pedestrian traffic and it is usually closed even for pedestrians on occasions like these. What you don’t see on the Google Earth pictures are concrete blocks closing the bridge, the satellite images were obviously taken before the war.

There was apparently a bit of a scuffle between the ministers of defense and interior because the minister of defense insists that he gave orders to close the bridge today while the minister of interior decided to allow pedestrians on it. Not that their argument will be any use to more than 600 dead.

Six Hundred. That’s really unbelievably high.
My mother sat crying in front of the TV as al-Sharqiya started showing footage of people trying to find relatives covered in these strange shimmery-golden covers. A kid with a prayer book. An arm blue and red limp on the ground. A man sitting beside a covered body shouting at the camera. I put my headphones on, I can’t listen or I’ll start blubbering.

I tell you whichever god you believe in, it has abandoned this land. Can’t you friggin’ see the signs?

39 pages still warm from the photocopying machine......
I am sure there are people out there who are much better at legal-ese who will translate this beast.

"We, the people of Mesopotamia..... "

Brings a smile, doesn't it. Sort of imagine myself standing sidways wearing a sarong-type thingy like a Sumerian relief on a wall.

....and the next dedication goes out to the National Assembly and everybody involved in the Constitution writing process, may the power to extend extension endlessly be with you.

You will you won't
You do you don't
You're saying you will
But you know you won't

What the hell is going on in Najaf? The amount of damage control the Iraqi government has been trying to exercise makes me almost think the shit has hit the fan down there real bad. Al-Jafari is now on TV (00:20) doing some sort of live announcement concerning Najaf!!! I am too low and down to watch it.


UPDATE: it seems that Sadr City is on fire as well. Is it Sadr felxing his muscle again?

and another update (00:46): The commotion is Sadr City only started a couple of hours ago. I am guessing after the minister of defence was in Iraqi TV trying to explain what was going on. Jafari sudden TV appearance was a reaction to what is happening in Sadr City now.

Now al-Jazeera's ticker thing is saying something about attacks on Badr Brigade in baghdad and a mortar attack on a SCIRI building. The minister of transport and 20 other MPs (all supporters of Muqtada al-Sadr) have suspended their activities atthe National Assembly in objection to what is happening in Najaf. Which really no one knows what that is.

Isn't it funny how everytime we are close to some big hurdle Sadr acts up like an annoying rash?

I'm gonna need to find a happy medium
to make my future look good

Today's officially endorsed Fat Whiner song is Malcolm Middleton's [A Happy Medium] because at the moment, from where I'm sitting, the future does not look that good at all.

The Shia want Shiastan, the Kurds already have Kurdistan and they have both signed a draft, which they think is agreeable to both groups. It is the rest who are being left out and are now trying really hard to fight for the scraps these two groups are throwing at them. And please don’t forget that the ignored groups include secular Arabs who are not really welcome in Kurdistan and won’t find a home in Shiastan.

What the Kurds and the Shia Coalition (grouped around the Iran friendly SCIRI) want is a weak central government which they can easily bypass and start forming their own happy states.

But where do I go?

Let’s assume that by the end of the deadline no one has anything better than the draft that was announced a couple of days ago.
Al-Hakim and the Shia coalition can actually, if they want to, pass the draft and put it up for a referendum. They don't need anyone’s support since they have the majority plus the signature of the Kurds on the document. Believe me whatever the draft that's put up for referendum looks like it will be approved. I don’t think there are a lot of people in Iraq who find the idea of having to go thru all this again very appealing.

And we end up with a constitution that assures all that “No law may be legislated that contravenes the essential verities of Islamic law.” And allows SCIRI and Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim to announce the formation of Shiastan without the following 2 weeks.

What happens to me then? The message I get now is that since I am not Shia and not Kurd no one gives a damn about what I think. Oh and Sunnis wouldn’t be too thrilled by the idea of having infidels like me as a citizen of Middle-iraq-istan.

I don’t know what will happen when the deadline approaches but at the moment I feel like if I am not a religious Shia or a Kurd I am supposed to be neither heard nor seen. At least religious Sunnis can say their leaders told them it was against Allah will to play along. But what happens to you if you subscribe to none of those agendas? What happens if you believe that neither religion nor ethnic background is the way you want to be identified? What about just being Iraqi?

Eh, Whatever! You get the picture. Me not happy.

23:30
Jarafi and the rest of the political leaders have just come into the Assembly and they are all smiling. The commentator on TV is saying that he sees many of the MPs reading a paper which he thinks is the draft. Talabani also just walked in and Chalabi has arrived at the convention centre too. They are all here.

Iraqi TV, by the way, has been showing happy-happy-joy-joy songs for the last half hour. Talabani just walked in things should start happening in a moment.

Just noticed how BIG our president Talabani is! It looks like he can't really fit in the chair BUT he is happy which promises good news.

23:35
even Barazani, the president of Kurdistan just walked in. This is big boys! I wonder where al-Yawer is and al-Hasani the president of the National Assembly is also not here.

My god! Zibari is also here he just came in.
The kurds are such prima donnas they have to come in one by one doing little waves left and right, but they are smiling.

My mom can't get over the fact how big Talabani is and she just won't stop commenting on that. So he needs a diet, and so does your son and 50% of Iraqi men, but he's smiling today and that's real good.

23:40
Allawi just walked in and he is smiling as well.
C'mon get started already....

oooh here comes al-Hasani, we should get started

23:45
He left again, come back big man and get this party started.
.....
what are they waiting for?
15 minutes to go boys, YALLA!

Shehrestani, who also presides over the assembly has given a paper to jafari and he is writing something on it.....What? last minute changes? C'mon C'mon.

Man this is so exciting the future of your country is being decided live on TV, the ultimate Reality Show.
Which housemate are we going to vote off here????

23:50
The Assembly's president is gone again!!? We're dying here. Actually I am, just need to go pee real bad but don't want tlo miss this.

23:53
here we go

Al-Hassani (pres. of the National Assembly):
as we have told the Iraqi people that we will work hard to achieve a constitution whish everybody agrees upon and today we reciuved the draft(....Allahu akbar...Allahu akbar) BUT there are still a couple of issues which need to be disscussed in the next three days. All involved will try to achive at least partial agreement on someof these issues. The draft has been recieved and the issues will be discussed. The Assembly will in the mean time work on the rferendun laws.

god bless all and we shall meet in the next three days to resolve alll the issues still to be discussed. Thank you.




00:00
So nothing really. They just wanted to make sure the current Assembly is not desolved. al-Hassani is having a press conference and he is talking about four outstanding issues. One of them is the issue if regions.
al-hassani is saying this is not to be called an extension because we do have a draft what's going to be done are amendments only.

And it looks like the preamble has not been agreed upon yet!

"we had two choices either take an unfinished draft or apply for a new extension. We chose the unfinished draft".

!!!!

00:05
Actually the person I feel sorry for most is the anchor on al-Iraqiya. The poor guy was ready to start dancing 15 minutes ago and he is almost ready to cry now....

00:15
My dad just came back, have to see how much he will tell me.

00:25
"everybody's got a bloody nose". That's what he is telling me.
There are still two issues which are still open. The formation of regions is still very much debated. The Shia want this to be an issue decided within the region itself i.e. if Basra wants to become an autonomous region this is decided in Basra only the central federal government has no say. The other parties want this to be a national decision.

The other big issue is de-Baathification. The Shia parties want this tobe mentioned in the constitution. Allawi and the Sunnis don't want this to be mentioned there.

I did see the draft, I wasn't allowed to touch it tho :-) It looks like a hastily written document, not even good hand writing. It is hand written and with lots of things crossed out. Each page is signed by a memeber of the Shia coalition and a member of the Kurdish coalition.

00:40
At 6pm today after the papers were signed by the Shia and Kurdish coalition the Shia went around giving copies of the hand written document announcing that we have a constitution. They did not bother asking any other Iraqi factions since the Kurds are OK with it.
What they wnated to do is to get al-Hassani to announce that a draft has been submitted. period. And not mention that there are still outstanding issues. They will ask for the three day delibiration period and get the draft they have signed with the Kurds to be passed. Totally ignoring everyone else.
If you watched the live transmition there was a point where there was a bit of a commotion at the Assembly and al-Hassani left, that is because al-Hassani wanted to include that tere are still some disputed issues.

When Talabani was shown al-Hassani's paper he said yes this is correct there are still issues not agreed upon while al-Hakim argued that this should not be said.
Now why do the Shia want to deny the fact there are still outstanding issues????

Anyway the one good thing that was achieved during the talks today was to solve the resources issues. The draft says " National resources are owned by all Iraqis" (excuse the rough translation) while the earlier drafts wanted that line to be "owned by the regions" (that was one of the Kurdish demands) rumour has it that it took a call from Condi Rice to the Kurdish lradership to force the change.

Another important change was that the water resources are to be managed by the central government and not by the regions, this would have given the Kurdish region a lot of arm-bending leaverage.

01:00
I sort of feel empty.
That has been really anticlimactic. When all the big politicians walked in smiling and joking I thought we had but, but apparently not. An announcement made by the “Dialogue Council” – the council set up to include the Sunnis - said that they did not agree with the draft. And the Shia Coalition really surpised me by their total lack of consideration for other Iraqi factions. As long as they have the Kurds’ signature on a paper they announce the draft is ready!
Fact is the constitution, unless it is a shoe-on-my-head insulting document, will pass and the Shia know that. I’m just tired and want things to move along.
I don’t know what it is but something feels wrong and I want to go to bed now.

Electricity was off for the last 10 hours (thank you Basra!), water’s gone as well and the news from the National Assembly doesn’t really sound very optimistic.

So looking for some distraction I clicked through my bookmarks and stumbled upon this post from The Religious Policeman (via. Iraqi Bloggers Central)

Welcome to Sunny Saudi Arabia

If you have not read it yet then go it is really funny, IBC picked on the hilarious Saudi swimwear fashion line (via RP, go on click the link it is the funniest thing you'll ever see standing by a pool)

(The Religious Policeman asking about the one or two hotels that allow women to swim in their pools)

RP: And can the women go topless?
M: Certainly not. They must keep their heads covered at all times.

My favorite line is about visas given only to men or married couples

RP: And what about couples who aren't married, or gay couples?
M: Well as you know, we behead homosexuals, and stone adulterous or loose women to death, so it's probably best if we don't let them in in the first place, otherwise there'll be no end of paperwork.

It is a brilliant post.

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Since we are on the subject of religion.
There is a program on al-Iraqiya TV called Khali Nsoolif (let’s talk) it is one guy who takes phone calls and shows a couple of reports which he discusses with the authorities concerned, today’s show was about the ministry of education. He showed a report about a school, which he described as doing something remarkable, and should get all the support it needs from the government.

The school had opened computer summer courses for kids. What is so special about this course, as we are informed by a very proud school principal, is the fact that the school made it a condition that if the kids want to learn how to use a PC they have to enroll in Quran classes.

What’s worrying is that neither the teacher nor the presenter on TV saw anything alarming in that, the presenter actually called the press office at the ministry of education asking why had they ignored such an admirable initiative.

It sort of hits you in the face wherever you look. In fact one of the reasons I grew a beard is because it makes life a bit easier.
And that is exactly how we might end up with something like the Islamic Republic of Iraq because sissy queens like me will start growing beards and stop wearing ties to avoid conflict. Mind you, I do think my beard makes me look distinguished but my A-list Bear looks are not helping the cause.
Brandish your razors and make banners of your ties. Clean-shaven and tie-wearing masses of the world unite!

Remember the little brouhaha about Basra and a couple of other cities in the south wanting to have weekend days other than the ones in the rest of Iraq? Well…. The kids have grown up and are now doing some serious arm-twisting.

A couple of days ago one of the main lines feeding a major electricity generating facility in Baghdad was hit, this plunged Baghdad into even more darkness. Yesterday some areas in Baghdad had no more than 5 hours of electricity throughout the whole day. Lately Baghdadis have been living on a 5off 2 on ration plan for electricity so it was bad enough already.
Obviously Iraq does not only generate electricity in Baghdad there are plants in the Shiastan and in Kurdistan but Basra has refused to help by directing some of its electricity resources to Baghdadistan.
Incidentally the Shiastan and Kurdistan regions already have more electricity per day than Baghdad but are they going to give us some? NOOOO. They are not going to share, so go away and cry at your central government’s doorstep. And they haven’t even announced themselves an independent region yet!

In Baghdad the PM’s spokesman admits that even if Basra was an independent region the laws at the moment don’t give regions that much control over electricity but he also says that there is nothing they can do. The state’s electricity minister is negotiating with the Basra electricity authority!!!

More constitution gossip…….

Did you read today’s guest editorial on the excellent Informed Comment?
Amendment and Empire (Andrew Arato)
You should. Go read it now and come back.



I find it amazing how at times like these someone like me who usually throws around words like they are Dinar notes at a wedding realizes how careful many others are with their use of words. I’m loving this.

Andrew Arato in his piece points out that the one week extension was not really illegal, there is an amendment rule in the TAL it just wasn’t put in there to be used for this sort of amendment.

Using the TAL Article 3A to extend the process by a week, in spite of the apparently raging resistance of the U.S. Ambassador who stormed out of a meeting when he heard of the decision, was a small declaration of independence on the part of the Iraqis.

Now you are wondering what Article 3 states

Article 3
(A) This Law is the Supreme Law of the land and shall be binding in all parts of Iraq without exception. No amendment to this Law may be made except by a three-fourths majority of the members of the National Assembly and the unanimous approval of the Presidency Council.

Likewise, no amendment may be made that could abridge in any way the rights of the Iraqi people cited in Chapter Two; extend the transitional period beyond the timeframe cited in this Law; delay the holding of elections to a new assembly; reduce the powers of the regions or governorates; or affect Islam, or any other religions or sects and their rites.

So if you are really going to start hair splitting the one-week extension, since it did not extend the transitional period is legal. I personally think if you got to this point you really are stretching it a bit and bending the essence of the Law but as Mr. Arato elegantly points out

The texts with the dates TAL Art. 61A , and 61F were not enshrined in any way! Thus the ban against extension applied only under the TAL as it was, not as amended.

enshrined!!!? Fancy-shmancy. I should start a list of words I have never used on this blog. Ghaith used to joke that all we know is 500 English words which we sort of shuffle around.
I’m rambling, back to the matter at hand…

Mr. Arato and even earlier than him Christopher at [Back in Iraq] – thanks artappraiser – both argue that the extension is not illegal since Artricle 3A allows the amendment of the TAL and the extension was an amendment.
I am still convinced that when the negotiators at the National Assembly came to the decision that the only way to save the process from collapsing is to extend the deadline someone starting searching frantically in the TAL to find a way around Article 61. But as a a comment on Back to Iraq wisely points out all this hairsplitting won’t matter by the fourth of fifth extension.


There is another interesting paragraph in Arato’s article

Even worse, Khalilzad personally and in a highly publicized way attended meetings of the round table, distributed a constitutional draft or something like it, probably twisted arms, cajoled, threatened and who knows what else.

I showed the article to Pax Senior and he said Arato seems to have a very good grasp of things. I have been trying to prod and poke about this the last couple of days and the answer I got was that at no point did Khalilzad actually hand out a draft but there were a couple of ‘something-like-it’s and it seems that on the 15th there wasn’t a person involved in the negotiations who wasn’t taken aside by Khalilzad for a little talk.

Arato also thinks that Khalilzad is the “first intelligent American pro-consul in Iraq”. I say not only is he intelligent he also is a personal friend of many of the main political players in Iraq at the moment which makes his little “suggestions” more acceptable to the Iraqi side. Khalilzad either because of his background, his Afghanistan experience or his personal acquaintance with the involved doesn’t have the air of distant superiority the US and UK ambassadors radiate. At relaxed moments he tells funny stories about Iraqi political leaders while in exile and is literally more hands on when he deals with the Iraqis.

This obviously won’t help Arato to stop worrying that Khalilzad interference might “delegitimate the final product” it just shows that Khlailzad was a very good choice for some ‘imperial imposition’-ing.

BUT….
The point Arato is making in his article is one which tickles in all the right places and I am sure the Iraqi negotiators who’ve realized what they have done go back home full of themselves.

Using the TAL Article 3A to extend the process by a week, in spite of the apparently raging resistance of the U.S. Ambassador who stormed out of a meeting when he heard of the decision, was a small declaration of independence on the part of the Iraqis.

Talk about looking for a silver lining!

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The Final Mistake - Beastellabeast

Too much going on which sort of confuses me.
I was out of the country for 5 weeks and look at the state they got themselves into.
Pah! These emerging democracies are so unreliable. And no one even cracked a smile when the Iraqi National Assembly decided to do something unconstitutional to save the constitution writing process!

Yes, I am sure the one-week extension is unconstitutional. I was looking up the TAL a couple of hours before the deadline to check what will happen if they can’t bring a draft to the National Assembly and it clearly states in Article 61 paragraph F

If necessary, the president of the National Assembly, with the agreement of a majority of the members’ votes, may certify to the Presidency Council no later than 1 August 2005 that there is a need for additional time to complete the writing of the draft constitution. The Presidency Council shall then extend the deadline for writing the draft constitution for only six months. This deadline may not be extended again.

So if they would have wanted an extension they should have asked the National Assembly two weeks prior to the submission deadline.

The Next question is obviously why did they panic and voted for this unconstitutional extension?
Because the paragraph before the one above states that if the National Assembly failed to present a draft it will be dissolved. And it seems certain parties on that day did actually start drafting a paper demanding the dissolution of the National Assembly because they did not believe there will be any sort of accord on a draft.

A couple of options other than the dissolution were discussed, like announcing that there was a draft but a couple of disputed points still needed to be hammered out. What nobody mentioned thru all this was the fact that there was no unified document to discuss.

You would think the constitution committee would have presented the main political parties with a draft but members at the constitution committee were complaining of all sorts of things hindering this task including the bizarre complaint that the text sent to clerks to be typed came back with different wording and this caused a bit of a conspiracy theory atmosphere. At one point all clerks were asked to leave and an American typist was brought in!!

On the day of the vote itself things were still in a state of confusion, the draft which part of the Shia coalition were considering had the sentence “as long as it does not contradict Islamic Law” sprinkled at the end of choice paragraphs while it didn’t show at the drafts the other groups had. Everybody realized they were not looking at the same text, which dragged the whole process back to square one.

Bottom line is that after months of deliberations when the 15th of August came everyone involved realized belatedly that the draft each group had was different from the next and it all became a bit of a mess.
Hence a suggestion was quickly made to vote for an extension and to the question if it was legal or not the answer was “yes yes just do it”.

Phew! Gossip sure makes me thirsty. Hang on, need tea. In the mean time I’ll upload a song.

Holiday – The Subways

Soooo.
Two days AFTER the crisis and the delay (i.e. last Wednesday) representatives of the main political parties sat down together and put a rough draft, which is being used now as a basis for negotiations.

Good? Yes
Does this mean everybody is onboard and talking? Naa, not really.

It looks like for some reason the Shia’s heart is not in it. Take today’s morning meeting for example. This was supposed to be a high level meeting to sit down and talk things thru because they don’t have much time left. Even representatives of the US and UK governments were to be present.
High level representation from the Kurdish parties were there, Allawi was there, british and US representatives, Three men representing various Sunni factions and a rep for the Islamic Party, even Adnan Pachechi made an appearance.

From the Shia parties? Abdul-Azziz al-Hakim is said to be complaining of back aches and did not show up. Jaafari showed up for 10 minutes and left and Adil Abdul-Mahdi did not go into the meeting!!!
So the other parties ask the few Shia present at the meeting if they have the right to talk in the name of their parties but the answer is no, they are not authorized to negotiate. The meeting is deemed pointless and everybody goes home.
This is 3 days before the deadline.

Not Good.

I am all gossiped out now, I still want to rant a bit about the draft but I need to recharge.
ba-bye.

You look away for a second and the "Iraqi metal scene" kids start discussing headbanging and Iron Maiden. I know it is only two posts (here and here) but that's already two posts too many. And I almost like the Konfused Kid enough to want to save him from the evil clutches of the guitar solo. But then there is that unfortunate blog URL.....

Anyway, for now my good deed of the day is going to be restoring the balance with some sophisticated Japanese pop.

Drop - Cornelius

Go on, you know you want to.