Irksome Iraq Irony
By Bill West
Andy Cochran, on February 6, posted about Iraqi member of parliament Jamal Jafaar Mohammed, who may have been convicted of terrorism crimes in Kuwait from 1984, including an attack against the US embassy there in 1983, and is alleged by US Military Intelligence to be currently involved with Iranian agents supplying weapons inside Iraq. Supposedly, US authorities are conferring with the al-Maliki government on the Mohammed issue. Meanwhile, Mohammed enjoys parliamentary immunity from Iraqi prosecution and US officials have not indicated any immediate public willingness to take action.
In May 2004, I wrote an article about the possibility of US authorities taking advantage of our post-war possession of Iraqi government records and access to senior Iraqi military and government prisoners to identify former members of the Iraqi military and security services who had engaged in human rights violations such as torture and political assassination. That effort could particularly focus on any such violators who, over the years, may have found their way into the United States as refugees or in some other immigrant status. There has been little effort by the US Government to pursue such matters.
Andy’s posting on Mohammed is a glaring reminder that no matter the arguments for or against US involvement in Iraq there have been significant missed opportunities to pursue otherwise indisputably worthy “bad guy” targets that are Iraqi-related in the counter-terrorism and other national security arenas that stem far more from mismanagement than bad policy.
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