Did WikiLeaks Target al-Maliki? Revealing US Extremely Alarming And Horrific Standard
31 October 2010By Abdul Rahman Al-Rashed
Leader of the outgoing government, Iraqi Prime
Minister Nouri al-Maliki did not brand the classified
US military documents recently leaked by WikiLeaks as
being pure lies and fabrications. Rather, al-Maliki
said that he considered the disclosure of this
information – and its timing – to be part of an
attempt to prevent him remaining as Prime Minister.
The question here is; who is al-Maliki – or indeed any
other Iraqi prime ministerial candidate – that in
order to prevent them from assuming office, this huge
number of classified documents which implicate
numerous countries, organizations, and individuals
must be leaked?
Anybody scrolling down the index of these documents on
the WikiLeaks website can clearly see that there is
little mention of al-Maliki, and that other parties
such as the Pentagon, Iran, and Syria, have much more
to lose. Nobody could believe that the person being
targeted by this overwhelming deluge of information is
Nouri al-Maliki; and that all of this is part of a
grand conspiracy to prevent him from obtaining a
second term in office.
Al-Maliki's belief that he is being targeted is
completely wrong for a number of reasons. If the
Americans truly wanted to prevent him from a second
term in office, they wouldn't need to air their dirty
laundry in public and further tarnish their own image.
The diplomatic leverage possessed by the Americans is
sufficient to prevent al-Maliki from returning to
office in the blink of an eye. The US ambassador in
Iraq need only summon a few of America's friends in
America; that would be sufficient for them to break
off their alliance with al-Maliki. If a US official
were to drop a hint that al-Maliki is an undesirable
candidate, some Iraqi blocs would turn towards his
rivals, and forge an alliance with them instead. The
truth is that al-Maliki is not an opponent of America
but is in fact one of Washington's favourites and the
US continues to suggest that al-Maliki is a suitable
figure to reassume the role of Prime Minster, provided
that he manages to bring the other major Iraqi
political blocs into government. However al-Maliki's
problem is that he wants to be a dictator, not a prime
minister.
He wants to enjoy sovereign rule in the same manner
that he has over the past four years. This is the
problem that could prevent al-Maliki's reappointment;
nevertheless his changes are still good.
400,000 classified military documents do not need to
be leaked in order [for anybody] to conspire against
al-Maliki and prevent him from being re-elected when
one single document is sufficient to create the
desired scandal without these repercussions. We all
know there is no body in Iraq that specializes in
calling those in power to account, such as the Prime
Minster. Should any of Nouri al-Maliki's – or indeed
any other senior Iraqi officials – violations be
unearthed, the result of this is nothing more than
another chance to criticize them in the media.
No one will be called to account, and surely nobody
will be brought to trial. Al-Maliki's belief that he
is the target of the leaked military documents is just
an illusion. If those documents were posted nine
months ago, al-Maliki would claim that they were
leaked to prevent him from standing in the elections.
If they were leaked during the election process, al-Maliki
would claim that they aimed to scupper his chances of
winning. If they were posted one, two, or four months
after the elections, he would argue that they were
designed to prevent him from forming the cabinet, and
perhaps if they were posted a year from now, he would
think it was part of a plot to overthrow him!
What these documents reveal is extremely alarming and
horrific by any standard. If it is true that the Iraqi
Prime Minister once established militias in order to
carry out sectarian killings, or had knowledge of
their existence, or influence over them, then this is
very disturbing news. Many have accepted the idea that
Saddam Hussein was overthrown not because he possessed
weapons of mass destruction, but rather because he was
a bloodthirsty dictator. I think al-Maliki needs to
clarify this issue, rather than levelling accusations
at others, and ignoring what these documents revealed.
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