Support Your Local Rapists - Maliki Declares No Harm, No Foul

By: Catzmaw
Published On: 2/21/2007 12:58:45 PM

From ABC News comes this story here about the Sunni woman who charged Shiite police officials with raping her a few days ago.  In showing how much he has embraced American concepts of justice Iraq's prime minister Maliki has
fired a top Sunni official who had called for an international investigation into the rape allegations
  The official, Ahmed Abdul-Ghafour al-Samaraie, head of the Sunni Endowments, disputed Maliki's right to fire him, and also alleged that rape is a common problem with run amok Shiite police raping Sunni women. 
Without even pretending to investigate the case the Maliki government has already dismissed the woman's allegations. 
Al-Maliki's office released what it said was a medical report indicating no signs of rape. The grainy document was marked as page two of three and did not have the name of the patients or any of her personal details. A handwritten note in English said she had no bruises or injuries.

Al-Maliki has said the rape allegations were being used by his critics to discredit the security forces and undermine a major, U.S.-led Baghdad crackdown. In exonerating the three officers Tuesday, al-Maliki said they should be rewarded as a sign of confidence in the force.


Maliki, who learned all he needs to know about bipartisanship from President Bush, apparently does not believe it is necessary to subject criminal charges to any judicial process when he can just step in on purely sectarian grounds and declare that no crime has taken place and impugn the reputation of the alleged victim.  So much for the Iraqi constitution and the new democracy the Bush Administration keeps touting.  It was not too long ago that we were encouraged to support the war based in part upon charges that Saddam's son (can't remember which) was a vicious rapist who abducted and defiled woman at will, and that women arrested by Saddam's agents were frequently raped in prison.  Maybe rape is repulsive to the Bush Administration only when committed by people with whom we are not allied.

That this will only fuel Sunni anger at the Maliki government is obvious:

[Al-Samaraie's] dismissal is the latest move in a highly publicized and increasingly bitter dispute over the rape allegations, pitting al-Maliki's Shiite-dominated government ... against its Sunni Arab critics. The public quarrel is fueling charges by the Sunnis that the Baghdad crackdown was targeting Sunni neighborhoods and leaving unaffected Shiite areas harboring militias blamed for sectarian killings.

Although American authorities have instituted their own investigation, General Petraeus made it clear that the Americans would await a request from the Iraqi government for the results of the investigation.  Given Maliki's actions it is clear that request is not forthcoming.

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