Word: saddams
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...policy side, it is the work I did on the U.N. I led investigations into the Oil-for-Food scam that Saddam Hussein perpetrated. That became part of a larger discussion on U.N. reform. My lament is that it hasn’t gone far enough—that the U.N. still needs reform. I believe we need a United Nations, but if we’re going to make that investment, we need greater transparency and accountability...
...completed by the end of 2011 (and the demands of the Afghanistan war requiring that many leave even sooner), the future of Arab-Kurdish relations could be substantially shaped by the composition of the next government. The Kurds have played a kingmaking role in the democratic process since Saddam's ouster, but their backing for the Shi'ite-dominated al-Maliki government in 2005 did little to cement Kurdish territorial claims. But now that Sunni Arabs no longer boycott elections, Kurdish parliamentary influence will be diminished. Indeed, stiffening resistance to Kurdish political demands could be a key point of consensus...
...their autonomous semistate but administered by the Arab-dominated government in Baghdad, has long been a potential flash point in the uneasy relationship between the Kurdish autonomous region and Baghdad. Sunday's compromise, which allows recent Kurdish returnees (much of the city's Kurdish population had been expelled by Saddam Hussein, precisely to cement Arab control there) to vote in Kirkuk but gives parliament the authority to investigate any suspicious voting patterns, came only after strong pressure from U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, who made personal phone calls to top Kurdish leaders while the U.S. ambassador counted Arab votes...
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki pledged to abide by the Iraqi constitution and "normalize" Kirkuk by removing the tens of thousands of Arab Iraqis settled there by Saddam as part of an ethnic-cleansing campaign in the 1980s. After such normalization, according to the constitution, Kirkuk - and other areas with large Kurdish populations in four Iraqi governorates - should then hold a referendum to determine whether they should continue to be administered by Baghdad or be ruled by the Kurdistan Regional Government. It may have been constitutionally mandated, but the idea of forcibly resettling Kirkuk's Arab population was unthinkable...
...Instead of hiding in a pit like Saddam Hussein, he is writing books." - Florence Hartmann, spokeswoman for top U.N. war-crimes prosecutor Carla del Ponte...