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...Nouri alarms many who knew the old Jawad. Sunni and Kurdish leaders have accused him of employing tribal councils to shore up his personal standing at the expense of rivals, just as Saddam did. Vice President Adel Abdel-Mahdi, a prominent Shi'ite, has openly criticized the centralization of power in the Prime Minister's office. "We don't want another dictator in Baghdad," says Maysoon al-Damluji, a secular Member of Parliament. "It worries us all that [Maliki] is beginning to behave like a tyrant...
...five-o'clock shadow and slack posture, he seems no more tyrannical than a demotivated schoolteacher, an impression underscored by his toneless speaking style. But there's no denying that his stature has increased. "I didn't know he had it in him," says Ridha Jawad Taki, a Shi'ite parliamentarian who has known Maliki since the 1980s, when both lived in Syria. "He has become self-assured, and very decisive." Those qualities were burnished in November, when Maliki overcame considerable opposition within Iraq's parliament to sign an agreement with the U.S. that requires the withdrawal of American combat...
...latest version of Maliki will be put to the test on Jan. 31, when Iraqis vote in provincial elections. If the Dawa Party - now a junior partner in the Shi'ite coalition - makes big gains, it will be seen as an endorsement of the Prime Minister. Dawa officials have been playing up Maliki's tough-guy credentials, depicting him as the man who forced a reluctant U.S. to accept a withdrawal deadline...
Most discussion about the security dangers of U.S. withdrawal from Iraq tends to center on the threats of jihadist insurgents, friction between the Sunni Awakening militias and the Shi'ite-led government, and intra-Shi'ite power struggles. But U.S. commanders in Diyala province believe that mounting tensions between Baghdad and the semi-autonomous Kurdistan region in the north could produce one of the most dangerous flash points...
...insurgents and militia elements may stage attacks on election day. With the vehicle ban, suicide bombers on foot and rocket or mortar fire pose the biggest threats. But so far there has been little sign that Iraq's militants are organizing a bloody show of force. The largest Shi'ite militia, the Mahdi Army of cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, is essentially dormant these days. And Sunni insurgent elements in previously volatile areas such as Anbar and Diyala provinces appear to be, by and large, staying their hand in the expectation that sympathetic Sunni politicians - who boycotted the last provincial election...