Iraq Press Roundup

The Parliament speaker is for the Sunnis

Kurdish lawmaker Mahmoud Othman slammed comments from Accordance Front lawmakers who said they would protest if their candidate was not chosen for speaker, al-Sabaah reported Tuesday.

Sunni Accordance Front members said they would boycott future parliamentary sessions if lawmakers did not seat their candidate, Iyad al-Samarrai, for the position of speaker.

Mahmoud Mashhadani resigned from the position in December.

Othman said that although the post is reserved for a Sunni under terms of a de facto power-sharing agreement, that does not mean the candidate has to come from the Accordance Front.

Lawmakers fell short of the majority needed from the 275-member Parliament to nominate Samarrai. Accordance Front members said he did, however, win the majority of the votes from the lawmakers who attended a session to consider his candidacy.

Samarrai won 136 votes from the 234 members present for a runoff vote Thursday.

Othman said the Accordance Front has no right to complain about the legal procedures enacted by Parliament, adding that Samarrai's chances in a full session may be in danger because he failed to secure an absolute majority.

Mutlaq threatens to expel Daini

Mohamed al-Daini faced expulsion from the Sunni Accordance Front Party for allegations he had ties to the planning of an April 2007 bombing of the Parliament building, Addustour reported Tuesday.

Saleh Mutlaq, head of the Accordance Front coalition, said Daini should resign from the party or face a formal dismissal. Party leaders, he said, were ready to issue a vote of no confidence against the lawmaker.

Daini faces a variety of charges linked in part to a 2007 bombing of the Iraqi Parliament building that left eight dead and wounded 20 others. He claims, however, the charges are politically motivated in response to his allegations of human-rights abuses in the Iraqi prison system.

Meanwhile, former Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, who heads the Iraqi List, called for a continued investigation into the 2007 bombing. Family members came forward with claims Daini was linked to the plot, but rumors surfaced that the testimony was tainted.

Lawmakers with the Sunni National Dialogue Council, however, called on government officials to lift all "illegal" procedures stemming from the Daini investigation.

Secret informant service dissolved

Security sources said the Iraqi Interior Ministry is in the process of dissolving a U.S.-backed secret informant division as Iraqi forces assume security responsibility, Shabab al-Iraq said Tuesday.

Sources to the news service said these informants are considered by several members of the public to be one of the most terrifying groups in Iraq.

U.S. military forces recruited thousands of informants across the country to offer details of insurgent and Baathist activity that ran counter to Washington's efforts in Iraq.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki ordered an investigation into more than 250 of these informants after evidence emerged that they provided false information to officials, leading to the arrests and killings of innocent Iraqis.

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(Edited by Daniel Graeber)