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Home Front: WoT
Iranian Military Sending Elite Fighters to the U.S.
2016-11-03
[FreeBeacon] The Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps, the country's elite military force, is sending assets to infiltrate the United States and Europe at the direction of Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, according to recent Farsi-language comments from an Iranian military leader.

The IRGC "will be in the U.S. and Europe very soon," according to the Iranian military commander, who said that these forces would operate with the goal of bolstering Iran's hardline regime and thwarting potential plots against the Islamic Republic.
About the time Obama and Valjar leave Washington after providing massive financing to the mad mullahs.
"The whole world should know that the IRGC will be in the U.S. and Europe very soon," Salar Abnoush, deputy coordinator of Iran's Khatam-al-Anbia Garrison, an IRGC command front, was quoted as saying in an Iranian state-controlled publication closely tied to the IRGC.

The military leader's comments come as Iran is spending great amounts of money to upgrade its military hardware and bolster its presence throughout the Middle East and beyond. Iran intends to spend billions to purchase U.S.-made planes that are likely to be converted for use in its air force.

Congressional leaders and others suspect that Iran has used a large portion of the cash windfall it received as a result of last summer's nuclear agreement to upgrade its fighting capabilities war machine.

"The IRGC is [the] strong guardian of the Islamic Republic," Abnoush was quoted as saying. "The Fedayeen of Velayat [fighting force] are under the order of Iran's Supreme leader. Defending and protecting the Velayat [the Supreme Leader] has no border and limit."

Iranian military and government officials have continued to advocate violence against the U.S. and its allies, despite the nuclear deal and several secret side agreements that gave Iran $1.7 billion in cash.

Iran accuses the U.S. of violating its end of the agreement by not helping the Islamic Republic gain further access to international banks and other markets.

Iran's frustration over this has led to further accusations about a U.S. plot to foster unrest in the country.

"Our enemies have several projects to destroy our Islamic revolution, and have waged three wars against us to execute their plans against our Islamic Republic," Abnoush said. "The IRGC has defeated enemies in several fronts. The enemy surrendered and accepted to negotiate with us."

"And now all of our problems are being solved and our country is becoming stronger in all fronts. Some believe the holy defense ended," the military leader added. "They are wrong; the holy defense continues, and today, it is more complicated than before."

Congressional sources and experts involved in tracking Iran's increased aggression in the region and elsewhere told the Washington Free Beacon that these most recent comments are troubling given Iran's very public efforts to assassinate political enemies and others across the globe.

"If we look at Iran's previous terror attacks and assassination campaign around the world, such a statement is alarming," Saeed Ghasseminejad, an Iran expert at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told the Free Beacon. "The Islamic Republic has killed hundreds of Iranians and non-Iranians around the world in a coordinated campaign of terror. Iran may decide to restart the project now that many western companies are going to Iran and Iran feels its action in Europe may not be punished strongly."

Another source who advises congressional leaders on Iran sanctions issues told the Free Beacon that the Obama administration is blocking Congress from taking action to stop this type of infiltration by Iranian forces.

"Iran is ideologically, politically, and militarily committed to exporting the Islamic revolution through terrorism, which is why even the Obama administration says they're the world's foremost state sponsor of terrorism," the source said. "Congress wants to act, but Obama officials keep saying that new laws are unnecessary because the U.S. has enough tools to block Iranian terror expansion. Instead of using those tools, though, they're sending Iran billions of dollars in cash while Iran plants terror cells in Europe and here at home."
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Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Russian influence evident in Palestinian militia in Syria
2016-10-22
[Long Wars] Senior commanders in the Sunni Palestinian Quds Brigade, known as the Liwa al Quds or the Syrian Arab Army Fedayeen, have been photographed receiving medals from Russian military officers for battlefield action. The latest interaction further indicates the deep level of Russian involvement and impact they are having on the Syrian civil war.
ZANLA and ZIPRA Soviet proxy redux. Putin now doing what he knows works well.
The pro-government militia is drawn from the Palestinian diaspora in Aleppo province, and has openly operated as an auxiliary to pro-regime forces there since 2013. The unit numbers in the several hundreds.

Late last month, the Quds Brigade and the Syrian Arab Army succeeded in taking the strategic Handarat Palestinian refugee camp and Kindi Hospital north of Aleppo proper, following the launch of an offensive in late September and several rounds of intense back-and-forth with the Islamist-led Fatah Halab coalition. Pro-regime forces and the Quds Brigade have been fighting to control the camp since 2014.
Con't, with interesting reader comments.
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Iraq
Saddam’s secret service and officers are ISIS’ backbone
2015-04-21
[Rudaw] The black clothes, balaclavas, boots, the violence--it took me a while to realize where I had seen them before they became ISIS' trademarks. Then it struck me: the Fedayeen Saddam. A special force Saddam Hussein set up in the 1990s to fight a guerrilla war against any enemy--the most probable one being the American army--as the Americans were more and more critical of Saddam's ambitions.

And these highly trained and hardened men in black did actually fight against them in the first weeks of the American invasion in 2003. I remember a location in Basra where the Fedayeen were said to have fought to their deaths to defend a water basin that could have hidden weapons or chemicals.

During the street battles reported then in Basra and Umm Qasr, many Fedayeen took part. Even in the battles in the center of Kirkuk with the Peshmerga, some witnesses say the black-clothed Fedayeen were there--fighting till their demise.
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Iraq
Iraq cabinet unveils sweeping reform of Saddam law
2013-04-08
[Al Ahram] Iraq's cabinet unveiled sweeping reforms to a law barring members of Saddam Hussein's Baath party from public life on Sunday, in a bid to head off months of rallies by the country's Sunni Arab minority.

The amendment to a De-Baathification law still needs to be approved by parliament but if implemented would mark a key concession to demonstrators in Iraq's north and west who have alleged the current rules promote unfair targeting of their community by the Shiite-led authorities.

Ministers on Sunday approved a draft amendment that would allow Baath branch chiefs, or firqa-level members, to rejoin the civil service, and would provide for pension payments for many members of the Fedayeen Saddam, a paramilitary organization loyal to the now-ousted dictator.

It would also put a time limit on the law, ensuring that only names blacklisted by the end of 2013 would be restricted from public life.

In all, the draft law would allow thousands of people to either enter the civil service or receive pensions.

"Cabinet today approved an important amendment to the law of Justice and Accountability," Deputy Prime Minister Saleh al-Mutlak said in a statement summarising the reforms, referring to the formal name for Iraq's De-Baathification law.

"This law has excluded many talented people and prevented the country from (benefiting from) their services."

Critics have said the existing rules are too broad-reaching, disproportionately target Sunni Arabs, who were largely in power during Saddam's rule, and could theoretically be applied in perpetuity.

In particular, Sunni Arab protesters have railed against the law during months of protests alleging that anti-terror legislation is used to target their minority.
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India-Pakistan
'Tomorrow, you will be in paradise'
2011-10-19
[Dawn] IN 2002, there were reportedly only two suicide kabooms in Pakistain, but at the end of 2010, 49 such terror attacks in the year have proven that modern Islamic militancy is a hydra-headed problem.

Intelligence services are in a quandary when it comes to short-term preventive strategies, with bigwigs conceding that stringent public security measures at civilian and government institutions and places of worship including Sufi shrines do not act as deterrents.

The continuous flow of volunteers willing to train at jihad boy camps in Pakistain, Afghanistan and Iraq indicates that those involved are willing to travel continents, driven by a cause that hasn't run dry of recruits and trainers.

In fact, interviews with thwarted bombers, recruiters and family members from Pakistain, Afghanistan, Iraq, Leb and Paleostine have shown how middle-class, devout and aggressive young men, many with a university degree, are drawn for various reasons to the process of indoctrination.
Since 9/11, the surge in suicide kabooms is said to be in reaction to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and to poor economic conditions in the Mohammedan world. The effects of these events have catalysed a blend of global jihad boy trends drawing potential jacket wallahs.

The indoctrination of young men, angry and bereft of economic opportunities, is not based solely on religious and sectarian reasoning. And with recruitment, jihad boy activism and venues varying after 9/11, the religious indoctrination package isn't exclusive to a local mosque (no longer prime recruitment ground with private homes, cafés, Islamic centres attracting 'self-starters' searching for Taliban contact and training).

This widely available package includes the insertion of a global narrative infused with strong anti-western or anti-American sentiment.

In Pakistain or in Europe and America, suicide bombers are led to the process of radicalisation, often created by certain
conditions. With many paths to radicalisation, whether it is a wide cultural generation gap that could either lead to radical secularism or extreme religiosity, or humiliation faced by communities when dehumanised by armed security forces, it has
been difficult to determine the psychological portrait of a suicide bomber that fits all regions.

It has been claimed that they are driven by poverty, hopelessness and ignorance.

In fact, interviews with thwarted bombers, recruiters and family members from Pakistain, Afghanistan, Iraq, Leb and Paleostine have shown how middle-class, devout and aggressive young men, many with a university degree, are drawn for various reasons to the process of indoctrination.

This contradicts the stereotype of the fanatic. However,
a hangover is the wrath of grapes...
 it doesn't hold true for child recruits as young as seven who are easy prey because of economic circumstances, especially in Pakistain's tribal region where buying, (and bartering) children, who can come closer to their target or escape security checks, is not uncommon.

Since 9/11 there have been several hundred suicide attacks in Pakistain in which thousands have been killed.

In April this year, when Qari Hussain's Fedayeen-i-Islam, also part of the Pakistain Taliban, claimed that its North Wazoo camp had 1,000 suicide bomber 'graduates', it boasted three separate facilities with 350 'students' each. That was the same time when US rhetoric grew angrier about attacks orchestrated by the Haqqani network in North Waziristan.

In the same month, three would-be-suicide bombers were placed in long-term storage in the Spinboldak district in southern Kandahar. Two of them, Pak boys aged 15, trained at camps in Quetta were more likely sent over the border through the Chaman route, a Taliban region that allegedly comes under Mullah Zakir, a former Gitmo detainee in Quetta.

The 2010 Bajaur suicide attack by a veiled woman killing 45 people at a World Food Programme distribution queue raised the question of security and easy access.

In August this year, the burka bomber re-emerged with a 17-year-old veiled girl in Beautiful Downtown Peshawar attacking a police check post.

Similar attacks, many by girls as young as eight (June 2011, Uruzgan province) are examples of how the Taliban are using suicide bombers cleverly, ensuring vulnerability doesn't attract attention. Failed female suicide bombers have alleged that either they were forced to or kidnapped and coerced to attack Pak troops.

Depending on the region, reasons include nurturing a volatile mix of bitterness and despondency at life and political governments (unemployment, or in the case of Paleostinian bombers, the occupation has enraged many young people, most have lost family members).

Motivations differ but appear more political than faith-based. Most global recruits come ill-equipped in jihad boy philosophy and combat training, wanting to act against injustices and make a change.

In The 9/11 Wars Jason Burke meets British-born Pak Hanif Qadir, a successful businessman who leaves London to fight alongside the Taliban, travels to Peshawar and then decides to turn back en route to Afghanistan. Qadir's bus ride across the border makes him realise how international volunteers are treated as 'cannon fodder'.

During the Intifada, reasons included the humiliations caused to Paleostinians (Israeli-controlled check posts, curfews) that motivated many from Gazoo to go to Israel on suicide missions. And with no shortage of recruits to die for the cause there was no typical profile of a suicide bomber: they were aged between 18 to 38 years, came from middle-class families and had jobs.

All were religious, and some gave up their luxurious lifestyles to kill.

Researchers say that typically men from broken homes, and under-achievers are more vulnerable but intelligence services have found that recruits (the 2004 UK Crevice Plotters and the 7/7 attackers) were educated and from stable backgrounds.

There was little that made the 7/7 bombers any different from other young men sharing similar backgrounds.

What has been noted was how jihad boy handlers ensured recruits were isolated, spent time together alone; that taped sermons by beturbanned goons holy mans and television images of Mohammedans suffering globally played an important role in their training.

Young 'self-starters' with profiles like the Times Square bomber Faisal Shahzad are most vulnerable to adopting hard-line ideologies, making contact with senior jihad boy figures for logistical aid and direction to carry out large missions.

This 'raw material' waiting to be exploited in the theatre of jihad must compel governments to chalk out strategies for political and economic progress, targeting the youth of their country before the cult of the suicide bomber becomes a celebrated violent alternative.
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India-Pakistan
US Predators kill 13 in South Waziristan strike
2011-06-27
US Predators struck for the first time in a week in Pakistan's Taliban-controlled tribal agency of South Waziristan today, killing 13 "militants," according to reports from the region.

The remotely-piloted Predators or the more deadly Reapers fired four missiles at a vehicle traveling in the village of Kond Ghalay Pnaga in the Birmal area of South Waziristan. Thirteen "militants" were killed in the strike, according to SAMAA.

The target of the strike is unclear.
...although probably he was in that vehicle...
The strike took place in an area close to the border of North Waziristan, and is used by fighters loyal to Taliban Hafiz Gul Bahadar as well as the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan.
Perhaps someday we'll learn whether the UAVs followed them home from a raid, followed them out from a meeting/safe house, or even homed in on a cell phone signal. There are so many possibilities when UAVs are involved!
Also today in North Waziristan a Taliban commander named Shakirullah Shakir was reported to have been gunned down while riding a motorcycle near Miramshah. Shakir is a spokesman for the Fedayeen-e-Islam, the suicide squad for the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan. Shakir has claimed the Fedayeen-e-Islam executed suicide attacks in Lahore in September 2010 and January 2011. Most recently, Shakir boasted that more than 1,000 suicide bombers were training at three camps in the Mir Ali area of North Waziristan.
Perhaps relatives of someone in Lahore decided to act on his grief and anger... or perhaps the Pakistani authorities are tired of him applying his skills on the wrong side of the border.
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Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Iran: Ahmadinejads Quest for Legitimacy
2011-01-08
[Asharq al-Aswat] Hoping to regain a measure of legitimacy in the wake of the disputed presidential election in 2009, Iran's President Mahmoud Short Round Ahmadinejad may be trying to recast himself as a nationalist leading a struggle against foreign foes.

We have already noted this trend in previous columns as, slowly but surely, the president abandoned the standard Islamist discourse in favour of a nationalist one.

Now, there are fresh signs to confirm the trend.

On Tuesday, Ahmadinejad made a trip to Semnan, the native province of his parents, to inaugurate some real or imaginary projects. At a gathering of his supporters, he made an hour-long speech in which, according to the text published by the official news agency IRNA, the word Islam was not mentioned once.

Ahmadinejad spoke of "the land of the pure" one of the names that ancient Aryans gave to Iran as they settled in it. Instead of using the word "ummah" which denotes the Mohammedan community and is favoured by the mullahs, the president used the word "mellat" which means "nation" in Persian.

He developed his new theme of the "Iranian school", as opposed to the "Islamic school", and claimed that, thanks to its ancient civilisation, Iran was capable of offering mankind leadership.

On his arrival, Ahmadinejad received a list of demands by the local population.

According to the province's Director of Cultural Affairs, Hamid Yazdani, top of the list was a demand for the extension of an exhibition in Tehran. There, the item on exhibit is the famous Cyrus Cylinder that contains an edict by Cyrus the Great the founder of the Persian Empire.

The cylinder is on loan from the British Museum in London and is due to be returned there next week.

"The people of Semnan wish to see a relic of a civilisation that brought light to the world," Yazdani claimed.

All that is anathema to the mullahs who claim that, before Islam appeared to end "the Age of Darkness", there was no civilisation anywhere in the world. The late Ruhallah Khomeini, the mullah who founded the regime, hated such words as "nation" and Iran. This is why he insisted that Iran's parliament, known as the National Consultative Assembly of Iran, be renamed the Islamic Consultative Assembly. In almost every government institution, the word Iran was replaced by the word Islamic. Ayatollah Sadeq Khalkhali, one of the founders of the Khomeinist regime, even suggested that Iran be re-named Islamistan.

"Nationalism is a sin and a disease," Khalkhali wrote in 1981.

Ahmadinejad's nationalistic twist has been criticised by mullahs including "Supreme Guide" Ali Khamenehi.

The president has responded with defiance. "There are people who are afraid of the word Iran," he said in a recent speech. "Let them be! This is Iran and we are Iranians."

In December, he despatched the Revolutionary Guards to stop a group of Islamists from destroying the ancient remains of the Temple of Anahita the Goddess of Fertility in Kangavar, west of Tehran.

Ahmadinejad may be a late convert to a trend that one might call Iranism. The trend has affected almost all Iranian political groups including almost all the opposition.

Former Prime Minister Mir Hussein Mussavi, the man who claims to have won the 2009 presidential election against Ahmadinejad, has adopted an almost entirely nationalistic discourse. He no longer uses the title seyyed that denotes his claim of decent from seventh Imam of Shi'ism.

A man who denied the very existence of an Iranian nation in the 1980s has recast himself into the role of its legitimate front man.]

The Mujahedin Khalq, a guerrilla outfit that helped Khomeini win power, started as a cocktail of Marxist and Islamist groups with is own flag, insignia and anthem. In recent years, however, it has moved into the opposition and rallied under Iran's national flag and "lion and sun" insignia. As for its anthem, it has adopted the "O Iran" hymn, one of the most popular tributes to Iranian nationalism.

Even the more openly Marxist groups, such as the People's Fedayeen Guerrillas, have almost totally abandoned their leftist discourse in favour of one that emphasises nationalism and democracy.

Almost all Iranian political movements opposing the Khomeinist regime have adopted the green-white-red tricolour flag, the Lion and Sun insignia, and the hymn "O Iran!".

Iranism is affecting all aspects of life in Iran.

Many public speeches now start with the phrase "In The Name of God and Iran."

The number of visitors to ancient ruins and monuments, including the tomb of Cyrus the Great at Pasargad north of Shiraz, is growing by leaps and bounds. The Cyrus Cylinder exhibition, in Tehran's Museum of Ancient Iran, drew record crowds. People queued all night long to enter the exhibition that Ahmadinejad's Chief of Staff Esfandiar Rahim Masha'i claims to be the most popular in Iranian history.

For the first time since the mullahs came to power, Iranian embassies and offices of the government-owned airline abroad have been ordered to display posters showing some of Iran's pre-Islamic monuments.

The return of Iranism is the latest sign of Iran's split personality. As a people, the Iranians have a history that spans almost 30 centuries. Half of that time-span is covered by Iran's ancient glory whilst Iran was a major contributor to the creation of an Islamic civilisation in the other half. To reject either half would be to deny a major part of the Iranian identity.

People like Khomeini, who denied the existence of an Iranian identity, resembled those Marxist internationalists who favoured class solidarity over nationalism.

It is too early to decide whether Ahmadinejad's attempt at posing as an Iranian nationalist has any chance of success.

His new discourse might resonate with segments of the urban middle classes as well as part of the military. It may also mislead some people into believing that Ahmadinejad's provocative foreign policy is motivated by national interest rather than ideological considerations.

The new discourse may also help the government justify its policy of repression against Iran's ethnic and religious minorities as they become more vocal in their demands for autonomy and cultural rights.

In the end, however, Ahmadinejad's move towards the last refuge of the scoundrel, is unlikely to succeed. A repressive regime with an anti-Iranian ideology cannot be transformed overnight into one motivated by patriotism. Beating the drum of ancient glories will not change the fact that the Iranian economy is losing 3,000 jobs each day while growth is in sub-zero regions. Nor will it prevent a substantial number of Iranians from sincerely believing that Ahmadinejad stole the 2009 election.

Whether he talks of Iran or Islam, many nationalists and at least some Islamists will find it hard to trust a leadership that has isolated the country and is keeping it in a state of perpetual crisis.
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India-Pakistan
Suicide bombers’ trainer Qari 
Hussain ‘killed’
2010-10-17
That's 'killed' as in 'dead' and 'buried' and 'titz up' and 'gomer' and 'pining for the fjords' ...
ISLAMABAD — The alleged ‘master trainer’ of suicide bombers, Qari Hussain Mehsud, is reported to have been killed in the October 4 US drone attack in Mir Ali town of North Waziristan. However, Tehrik-i-Taleban Pakistan contradicted reports about Qari Hussain’s death and described it as part of a campaign to demoralise its fighters.
I realize it was a drone-zap, but I'd like to see a severed head ...
“Qari Hussain is alive and healthy and will soon contact the media,” one of his associates told Dawn on phone.

According to one report, Qari Hussain was injured in the attack on a house in Mir Ali in which eight foreigners, including German militants, were killed. According to intelligence sources, those killed included Qari Hussain, known as Ustad-i-Fedayeen (teacher of suicide bomber), and his two guards.

They said that Qari Hussain, who was sleeping in the house at the time, was severely injured and taken to Miram Shah where doctors amputated one of his legs and he died there.
So my prayer for sepsis was answered!
Qari Hussain was cousin of TTP chief Hakimullah Mehsud. In the past also there have been reports of his death but he re-surfaced to continue his terror activities.
Definitely need the severed head ...
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Iraq
2 cars owned by Saddam's son confiscated north of Kut
2010-07-12
WASSIT / Aswat al-Iraq: A security force confiscated two precious Rolls Royce vehicles owned by Uday, the son of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, in a house north of al-Kut city on Sunday, a local security source in Wassit said.

"A security force raided a house in al-Zubaydiya area, (75 km) north of Kut, and confiscated two cars used to be owned by Uday Saddam Hussein," the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.

"The two Rolls Royce vehicles, $250,000 each, had been stolen during the chaos that swept Iraq right after the former regime was unseated in 2003," he added, not giving further details.
I'd eventually turn them back in but I would have been awfully tempted to take a joyride or two ...
Uday, born on June 18, 1964, was known for his flair for collecting fancy and unusual vehicles. He was known to have had a fleet of them.

Uday, Saddam's elder son, was killed along with his younger brother Qusay and his nephew Mostafa, by U.S. security forces after a brief violent gunfight in Mosul city on July 23, 2003. He ranked third on the U.S. pack of cards of wanted figures of the former regime.
It's been 2,568 days since Uday was last capable of raping an innocent Iraqi woman. Let us thank the U.S. Army for making it so.
He had led a division named Fedayeen Saddam, founded by his father, which was notorious for its brutal practices. He also chaired the Iraqi Olympic Committee (IOC) and occupied the post of chairman of the Iraqi press syndicate for several years.

Uday produced the newspaper Babel and a local Iraqi TV channel called "Al-shabab TV". He was briefly married to the daughter of Izzat Ibrahim al-Dori, who was Vice President and Deputy Chairman of the Revolutionary Command Council, but later divorced her.
She's lucky to be alive ...
Uday is known to have used a body double named Latif Yahia. Yahia attended the same school as Uday when they were children (from approximately age 12 onwards) and it is alleged that he was forcibly recruited and 'groomed' as Uday's double around the same time.

It is also claimed that, as he grew older, Yahia underwent extensive plastic surgery to enhance his resemblance to Uday. After surviving eleven assassination attempts targeted at Uday, Yahia successfully fled Iraq in December 1991.

Yahia wrote a book detailing his life and the life he lived as Uday's body double in his book The Devil's Double. Bearing the same name, a movie is being filmed in Malta. Yahia's story never received much widespread media coverage until after the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
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India-Pakistan
Qari Mohammad Zafar (F-I commander) thought killed in US airstrike
2010-02-25
A top terrorist leader wanted by the US for attacking the consulate in Karachi in 2002 is thought to have been killed during an airstrike in North Waziristan.

Qari Mohammad Zafar, the operational commander of the Fedayeen-i-Islam, is reported to have been killed in a US airstrike in the village of Danda Darpa Khel, Pakistani officials told Dawn. The US last hit the village on Feb. 18, and killed Mohammed Haqqani, a military commander in the Haqqani Network.

US intelligence officials contacted by The Long War Journal would not confirm his death but said it was “possible' he was killed.

Zafar is wanted by the US government for his involvement in the Karachi Consulate bombing in 2002, which resulted in the death of three Pakistanis and a consular official. "Zafar is suspected of being a key figure involved with this attack," according to the Rewards for Justice website page. A $5 million reward has been offered for information leading the capture of Zafar.
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Iraq
Iraq reinstates 59 election candidates
2010-01-26
BAGHDAD - Iraq has reinstated 59 election candidates among more than 500 who had been blacklisted because of their alleged links to executed dictator Saddam Hussein, an official said on Monday. Ali al-Allami, a senior official from an integrity and accountability committee, said 150 people had appealed for their names to be removed from the controversial list of candidates excluded from the March 7 poll.

The blacklist includes Iraqis from the minority Sunni Arab community as well as dominant Shiites but analysts say the barring of those with links to Saddam could exclude Sunnis from the political arena and spark new sectarian tensions.

“After we got new information, we decided to accept the requests of 59 candidates,' Allami told AFP, referring to errors in applicants' names, dates of birth or other personal details that have since been corrected.

“We received a total of 150 requests,' he added, without specifying the status of the 91 appeals that remain active. According to Allami, 458 people are currently barred from contesting the election.

The move also threatens to damage the ballot by creating a campaign battleground where past quarrels will be exposed rather than healed under a much vaunted but stumbling national reconciliation process. The excluded candidates are accused of membership or other links to Saddam's outlawed Baath party, feared Fedayeen (Men of Sacrifice) militia or Mukhabarat intelligence agency.

The integrity and accountability committee whose probe has inflamed the political climate less than six weeks from polling day is headed by Shiite politician Ahmed Chalabi, who was deputy prime minister after the 2003 US-led invasion that toppled Saddam.

The election row sparked a flurry of diplomatic activity in the past week, including a visit by US Vice President Joe Biden at the weekend who said he was “confident' that Iraq's leaders would resolve the dispute.
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Iraq
Biden backs election ban on Iraq's Baath party
2010-01-24
[Al Arabiya Latest] Vice President Joe Biden told Iraqi officials on Saturday the United States backed a ban on Saddam Hussein's Baath party and said he had faith Iraq would resolve a row over the banning of election candidates suspected of links to it.

U.S. officials say the arbitrary way the list banned candidates appears to have been drawn up and the questionable legitimacy of the panel could undermine the election.

" He made the point that they want to see a transparent, fair election that has credibility, both for the Iraqi people and foreign people, but how you do it is your business "
Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari
But Biden, on his third visit to Iraq since U.S. troops pulled out of city centers in June, said Washington had no problem with holding Baath party loyalists accountable.

"I want to make clear I am not here to resolve that issue (of the banned candidates). This is for Iraqis, not for me. I am confident that Iraq's leaders are seized with this issue and are working for a final, just solution," Biden said.

The 511 candidates banned from taking part are accused of membership or other links to executed former President Saddam Hussein's outlawed Baath party, feared Fedayeen (Men of Sacrifice) militia or Mukhabarat intelligence agency.

The dispute has stoked tension between the Shiite majority now leading the government and the Sunni Arab former elite and has also exposed the failings of a much vaunted but apparently stumbling national reconciliation process.
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