Session no. 59 of Iraqi parliament has failed to convene for the fifth time since early December as a result of failure to reach quorum, which is at least 138 members of parliament, or 50% of the 275 members. The Speaker of Parliament had decided to deduct half a million Iraqi Dinars out of the monthly compensations added to salaries of parliament members, which are a total of 17 million Iraqi Dinars ($12,000). He also threatened to publish the names of absent members in local newspapers and media outlets. Governmental sources had stated earlier that 176 members had left the country to participate in the Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca, even though many of them had participated once or twice in the past, and many others were living abroad with their families in Western and regional countries.
Two senior Iraqi governmental officials were responsible for filming and leaking the cell phone video of Saddam’s execution, prosecutor Munqidh Al-Far’awn, who also attended the hanging, said Tuesday. Far’awn said that all witnesses who attended the execution were thoroughly searched by U.S. troops and cell phones and cameras were confiscated. “I don’t know how and where they got the equipment to film,” he said. The Iraqi Rabita website had also posted conflicting accounts of who filmed the execution. “My brother attended the procedure of the execution of the ex-president, and he confided something to me that I want the whole world to know,” said one poster. “MPs Maryam Al-Rayis (UIA, Shi’ite) and Bahaa’ Al-A’raji (UIA, Sadrist bloc, Shi’ite) filmed the execution with their cell phones. Later she sold the footage for $20,000.” Another poster disagreed and said that NSA Muwafaq Al-Rubai’I (UIA) and MP Sami Al-Askari (UIA) were responsible for the video.
SotalIraq.com reports that tribal delegations from the governorates of Anbar, Ninewa, Salah Al-Din, Kirkuk and Diyala arrived in Tikrit Wednesday to visit Saddam Hussein’s grave at his hometown of Al-Ouja. Relatives of Saddam in Tikrit stated that delegations of well-known Arab tribes also came from Basrah, Nasiriya, Karbala and other southern Iraqi governorates to pay respect for Saddam’s tribe, Al-Bu Nasir. Several Iraqi websites had also reported that a delegation representing the Shi’ite Khazraj tribe from Dujail - the town where Saddam’s assassination attempt took place in 1982, and for which he was sentenced to hang for killing 148 of the townspeople – also took part in the mourning reception at Al-Ouja, according to tribesmen who mentioned that they had covered their faces out of fear of retribution from “Iran and its militias in Iraq.”
Al-Iraq News Net posts a message claiming that Muqtada Al-Sadr was the masked executioner who placed the noose around Saddam’s neck, allegedly to avenge his father, Ayatollah Mohammed Sadiq Al-Sadr, who is thought to have been assassinated by Saddam’s regime in 1991, and that the team of six masked executioners were brought by NSA Muwafaq Al-Rubai’i.
Iraqis have been circulating SMS messages in several Iraqi cities claiming that an image of Saddam in his military outfit and beret can be seen on the moon. The message spread to Iraqi exile communities in nearby countries and made its rounds on Arab message boards. Similar rumors had spread four decades ago in Iraq when Iraqi President Abdul Karim Qassim was overthrown and killed by Ba’athists in a military coup in 1963. Many of Qassim’s supporters swore, at the time, that they saw the image of the Za’eem (the leader, as he was known) on the face of the moon.
The Haqq Agency reports that American and Iraqi Army troops stormed into the Assaf Mosque at Raghiba Khatoun, the second largest mosque in the Adhamiya district after the Abu Hanifa Mosque, Wednesday night, and destroyed its furniture and air conditioning units, after beating the two guards who were inside the mosque, and then they left. Interior Ministry sources had stated earlier that 15 corpses were found near the Assaf Mosque in Adhamiya. The Agency also reports from the Sulaikh district where clashes erupted Tuesday between residents and Iraqi troops. The clashes started after noon prayers when someone attacked the Najeeb Mosque in Sulaikh with a hand grenade, wounding two guards, before he was shot and killed. Iraqi troops then opened random fire from the Sulaikh Bridge over the highway, damaging the mosque and electric power lines in the neighbourhood. The Iraqi Rabita website also reported the incident and included a cell phone photo of the man who attacked the Najeeb Mosque, lying dead in a street in Sulaikh.
The Association of Muslim Scholars in Iraq publishes two press releases on its website today, one condemning the closure of Al-Sharqiya TV’s Baghdad bureau by the Iraqi police and the other condemning the assassination of Sheikh Hamed Mohammed Suhail, leader of the Bani Tamim tribe in Iraq, who was kidnapped by gunmen near the Shu’la district while he was returning from a funeral reception in Agarguf near Abu Ghuraib, west of Baghdad, and was pushed off a building, according to the Nur Hospital in Shu’la. Sheikh Suhail (Shi’ite) had participated in the recent national reconciliation conference in Baghdad and was known for his moderate stance and his condemnation of sectarian violence in Iraq.
The Iraq News Agency reports that an American marine killed an Iraqi soldier after they exchanged curses in Fallujah. The American soldier pulled his weapon and shot the Iraqi soldier, the agency said, adding that the American Army had admitted the incident and will start an investigation.
