Word: suleimaniya
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...outside investment and Baghdad; critics have also charged it with nepotism, alleging that key political and administrative positions have been handed over to kinfolk or party stalwarts; opponents also say that the budget process lacks transparency. "It's these ideas," says Rebwar Karim Mahmood, a political-science professor at Suleimaniya University, "that opposition parties and groups are using to campaign in the elections." This month KRG prime minister Nechirvan Barzani (Massoud's nephew) launched a process to improve government openness. Qubad Talabani (Jalal's son and the KRG representative to Washington) has been blogging from Kurdistan that the fact that...
Still, some are more optimistic. Though the peace is fragile, says the political writer, Baghdad has gotten safer in the past year, so much so that he is moving his grandson back from Suleimaniya to attend high school in the capital. But the Americans are failing to create a democracy, he warned. "Democracy is like a small plant. It needs to grow in the appropriate conditions and appropriate soil. The Americans have applied democracy but not in the right conditions and not in the right media," he said...
...Challenge: Chances of getting Chalabi onto the throne now appear to be negligible; his next-best hope will be to parlay his ability to move between power centers from Washington to Tehran, Najaf to Suleimaniya into some sort of power behind the throne...
...group continues to pose a threat to the anti-Baghdad Kurds. Last year Ansar assailants attempted to assassinate the PUK's prime minister in Suleimaniya, leaving five bodyguards dead in a gun battle that coincided with a visit by U.S. officials. Interviewed in prison, the sole surviving attacker said he was working for the glory of Allah and later hanged himself with his black cotton belt. There are indications, however, that Ansar's strength may be waning. The Iranian government last November forced it to move back from the Iranian border, robbing the group of the cover of high mountains...
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