[Lamplighter]

One day after the US troops leave Iraq the turmoil deepens...

NY Times
JACK HEALY
December 19, 2011

Arrest Order for Sunni Leader in Iraq Opens New Rift

BAGHDAD — Iraq’s Shiite-dominated government was thrown into crisis on Monday night
as authorities issued an arrest warrant for the Sunni vice president,
accusing him of running a personal death squad that assassinated
security officials and government bureaucrats.

The sensational charges against Tariq al-Hashimi,
one of the country’s most prominent Sunni leaders,
threatened to inflame widening sectarian and political conflicts in Iraq
just one day after the last American convoy of American troops rolled
out of the country into Kuwait.

Reidar Visser, an analyst of Iraqi politics and editor of the blog historiae.org,
called the situation the worst crisis Iraq had faced in five years.

“Any leading Sunni politician seems now to be a target of this campaign by Maliki,”
Mr. Visser said. “It seems that every Sunni Muslim or secularist is in danger
of being labeled either a Baathist or a terrorist.”
<snip>

Members of the Iraqiya coalition walked away from Parliament on Saturday,
accusing Mr. Maliki of seizing power and thwarting democratic procedures
through a wave of politically tinged arrests in recent weeks.

The boycott was the culmination of months of political discord,
and signaled the near breakdown of relations between two
of the country’s most powerful political adversaries.

And the beat goes on...