Iraq VP says won't sign off on key Baath party law

[sabra]

Source: Reuters

BAGHDAD, Jan 31 (Reuters) - Iraq's Presidency Council is unlikely to sign off on a new law that would give thousands of former members of Saddam Hussein's Baath party their old jobs back, Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi said on Thursday.

Iraq's parliament passed the bill on Jan. 12, winning praise for making headway on the first of a series of key measures that Washington has sought to promote national reconciliation.

Hashemi, a Sunni Arab, said the bill was flawed because it meant many people appointed to fill jobs after the U.S.-led invasion to topple Saddam Hussein in 2003 would be forced out of those positions to allow ex-Baathists to return.

"We cannot regard this law as a step in the national reconciliation process," Hashemi told Reuters in an interview.

"It is not only me who objects to signing it, but the whole Presidency Council," he added.


Read more: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L31241396.htm

[Mnemosyne]

1. It was Bremner's "brilliant" de-Bathification that created the

"insurgency". You cannot put 500,000 men out of work and expect cooperation.

Total Idiots.

[Supersedeas]

3. uh-oh, i guess that massive oil company payoffs just weren't enough

[sabra]

4. VP Hashemi doesn't seem to be a sell out ... in fact appears to be a thorn

in al Maliki's gov't

[Mnemosyne]

6. Never is enough, is it? n/t

[armodem08]

2. Ah...

I love the smell of progress in the morning! Smells like... victory!

:sarcasm:

Let's see what they have to say about this..

[ConcernedCanuk]

5. "winning praise for making headway " from the USA warmongers?

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.
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like that is worth having . . .