Posted on 09/15/2008 6:52:53 AM PDT by forkinsocket
Iraqi legislators said Sunday that parliament had voted to lift the immunity of a Sunni Arab lawmaker who visited Israel.
The parliament has also banned Mithal al-Alusi from traveling outside Iraq or attending parliamentary sessions, they said.
Sunday's punishment was confirmed by Osama al-Nujeif, a Sunni Arab lawmaker, and Haider al-Ibadi, a Shi'ite lawmaker.
The two men said Alusi's trip was illegal and a humiliation for Iraqis who see Israel as a historical enemy. Without parliamentary immunity, Alusi could be subject to prosecution.
Alusi, chairman of Iraq's Democratic Party, Mithal al-Alusi, surprisingly arrived at a conference on terror in Herzliya last Wednesday, calling for the establishment of a joint intelligence network with Israel and the United States.
"In Israel, there is no occupation, there is liberalism," Alusi said to the sound of roaring applause.
Alusi made his first trip to Israel in September 2004 to participate in a counter-terrorism conference. Apparently as payback, extremists murdered his two sons, 22 and 30.
The terrorists "will try to kill more. They will try to stop us. It should give us power to continue, to believe in ourselves," he told The Jerusalem Post in an interview at the time.
Alusi was given the American Jewish Committee's Moral Courage award following his sons' deaths.
Iraqi democracy in action. Paging the Weekly Standard.
After a combative session, parliamentarians voted to lift Alusi’s parliamentary immunity and seek charges against him for visiting the Jewish state. They also said the fiery, secular politician should be prevented from traveling abroad again.
Alusi, who accuses Iraq’s Shiite-led government of being in the pocket of Iran, reacted angrily during the parliament session, which was broadcast live on Iraqi TV.
“You are selling Iraq! You are pushing the region to war!” he bellowed, alleging that many Iraqi lawmakers are collaborating with Iranian agents. “I will visit and I will go wherever there is an issue of interest to Iraq,” Alusi said.
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/babylonbeyond/2008/09/iraq-iraqi-mp-u.html
High Volume. Articles on Israel can also be found by clicking on the Topic or Keyword Israel. or WOT [War on Terror]
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A minor, but not particularly positive, development
Tradition! Tradition! Without our tradition of hatred, we’d be as shaky as...as a suicide bomber on a roof!
very disappointing. The new Iraq is just like the old Iraq.
In the old Iraq, no MP would have ever visited Israel, or if he had, he would have been murdered in an alleyway.
In the new Iraq, they only murder his two sons.
so official punishment is an improvement? Sounds like a Mussolini/trains on time argument
Due process is an improvement over summary execution by unknown persons. Criminal sanctions are an improvement over the ultimate sanction any time anyone’s po’d. This makes dissent possible, and so here we see it. A dissenting Iraqi challenging his country to change is in and of itself change.
That’s the vestige of the old Iraq, no doubt about it. I didn’t say they were there yet, just that they had made progress.
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