Maliki Announces His Presence with Authority
By Looks like Maliki is moving to consolidate power:
Up to 35 officials in the Iraqi Ministry of the Interior ranking as high as general have been arrested over the past three days with some of them accused of quietly working to reconstitute Saddam Hussein’s Baath Party, according to senior security officials in Baghdad.
The arrests, confirmed by officials from the Ministries of the Interior and National Security as well as the prime minister’s office, included four generals. The officials also said that the arrests had come at the hand of an elite counterterrorism force that reports directly to the office of Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki.
The involvement of the counterterrorism unit speaks to the seriousness of the accusations, and several officials from the Ministries of the Interior and National Security said that some of those arrested were in the early stages of planning a coup.
Credit where due, I suppose; I had not expected Maliki to survive as long as he has. This is latest of several steps that he’s taken to ensure his survival in power after the United States leaves.
…Drezner wonders “was this Maliki engaging in a coup or him preventing a coup by others?” I’m guessing the former; an “elite counterterrorism force that reports directly to the office of Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki” is pretty much an ideal tool for seizing the Ministry of the Interior, which is crucial for controlling the rest of Iraq. Curious to see how the Kurds will respond.