Less than two months into 2012, the Iraqi government has executed at least 65 prisoners, as the country continues to slip into dictatorship with continued support from the U.S.
Many aspects of the government in Baghdad have spiraled out of control since the end of the U.S. military occupation, but the rate of state executions has skyrocketed. In January, 51 prisoners were put to death, and 14 more on February 8.
“The Iraqi government seems to have given state executioners the green light to execute at will,” said Joe Stork, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. “The government needs to declare an immediate moratorium on all executions and begin an overhaul of its flawed criminal justice system.”
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s security forces have detained and brutally tortured more than 1,000 political opponents in secret prisons and denied them access to legal counsel. Ayad Allawi, a political opponent of Maliki, has alleged that Maliki aims to extract false confessions that implicate his political rivals and justify taking legal action against them.
Indeed, some of the confessions obtained through torture in the last few months have been the basis for trying to detain Maliki’s Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi on trumped up terrorism charges, in a broader effort to marginalize Sunni leaders in the country.
Maliki’s turn towards dictatorship sharpened almost immediately after U.S. occupation forces left in December. He has circumvented Parliament, consolidated illegitimate power in a long trend of quasi-dictatorial behavior, harshly cracked down on peaceful activism, harassed and even attacked journalists that were critical of his regime, and recently betrayed an agreement that would have limited his ability to marginalize his Sunni rivals.
Despite all this, the Obama administration is planning to negotiate with the Iraqi government on a new long-term defense agreement that may include an expanded number of U.S. troops and U.S. support in the form of money and weapons continue to flow.
Of course 99.9% of the execution done against the Sunni rivals with the blessing of uncle Sam. US thinks playing for Nuri Al-Maliki will guarantee the loyalty of Iraqi shia when they hit Iran which preposterous. The shiat Arabs loyalty always been toward their master in Iran.
What if I told you an imperialist government is hehind the bombings to destabilize Al-Maliki rule and replace it with Sunnis, considering that all U.S. allies in the Persian Gulf area are Sunnis?
well we wanted to make iraq a "democratic example" to others in the region, looks like libya will follow right in it's footsteps.
On to Syria!! "Democracy" and "Human Rights" for all Mooslims!!1!
"Saudi Puppet Obama" purposely left the "Saudi written Sharia Law" in the constitution of Iraq. This turned the semi-democracy into a bloody, genocidal Saudi Dictatorship.
Of course there are executions, this is the Saudi form of Sunday afternoon entertainment. The Saudis are the next Hitler and "Saudi Puppet Obama" is sacrificing millions of lives, thousands of American's lives, and $Trillions of American Dollars to create the next Hitler.
ENOUGH IS ENOUGH – "SAUDI PUPPET OBAMA" STOP KILLING PEOPLE TO CREATE HITLER!
And we call Iran repressive and are supporting these "democrats" ?
Good God, we have become a degenerate country.
It must have been a test to see if readers noticed that the map is of Afghanistan rather than Iraq. The idea that the US will provide more weapons to Iraq as a ploy/plot to justify bringing troops back won't work out. The Iraqis have already started to tighten the screws on that gigantic bloated embassy in Baghdad. When they cut off the water, electricity and sewer lines this summer and the beer runs out, only then will the Embassy folks realize they don't want any Americans in their country.