So High Above

In the interview with Iraqi Prime Minister al-Maliki by Mathias Müller von Blumencron and Bernard Zand in Baghdad for Spiege l, the following exchange occurs: " SPIEGEL : Large parts of Iraq's assets abroad remain frozen -- and inaccessible to creditors. Now, victims of the Saddam dictatorship want that money to go towards reparations. What will happen to this money when the UN Security Council mandate for Iraq expires at the end of this year? Maliki : We have hired several international law firms to deal with these assets. At the moment, they are protected by UN resolutions, American law and the personal commitment of President George W. Bush -- and we want this protection to remain in place after the end of UN mandate on Iraq. We consider the claims being lodged against this money to be unjustified. Iraq cannot be punished for crimes that were committed by the dictator. This is very important to us, and a key aspect of our negotiations over the future status of US troops in ...

Senator Obama has manged to change the Iraq Policy without even securing the Democratic Nomination yet. In Interview conducted by Mathias Müller von Blumencron and Bernard Zand in Baghdad for SPIEGEL Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, the Prime Minister all but endorsed a 16 month time table for withdrawing the U.S. Troops from Iraq. al-Maliki went so far as to say, "US presidential candidate Barrack Obama talks about 16 months. That, we think, would be the right time frame for a withdrawal, with the possibility of slight changes." Later he disclaimed that he had any preference for either U.S. Presidential Candidate. The implications of the comments throughout the interview are that the Iraqi Government feels that the occupation should end sooner rather than later. This is diametrically opposed to the policies of the White House. It has been reported that the Bush Administration is trying to sign an agreement that would leave permanent U.S. Military Bases in Iraq, even th...