Some "Monday News" Posted by Samson at KTFA 8-15-2022
KTFA:
Samson: Zebari warns of a civil war in Iraq: Shiite tension has reached its peak
15th August, 2022
The leader of the Kurdistan Democratic Party, Hoshyar Zebari, warned on Monday of a civil war that may occur in Iraq unless it is prevented, while indicating that the political tension between Shiite forces has reached its peak.
Zebari wrote in a tweet he posted on his Twitter account, "Civil wars do not happen by leadership decisions. The Kurdish war in 1994 did not start with a decision by Messrs. Massoud Barzani and Jalal Talabani, but isolated and sporadic incidents of violence by field leaders were the cause."
He added that "the current political tension between the Shiite forces, the framework and the current, has reached its peak and must be prevented, and let us benefit from history."
The political scene in Iraq has been going through a dangerous turn since supporters of the Sadrist movement led by prominent Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr stormed the parliament building in the fortified Green Zone in central Baghdad, and staged a sit-in in protest against Al-Sudani’s nomination for the position of Prime Minister of the next federal government, at first, before the ceiling rose
Their demands are to dissolve parliament and hold early elections, after a call from their leader Muqtada al-Sadr. LINK
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Samson: The Integrity Commission announces the imminent recovery of two billion dollars smuggled from abroad
15th August, 2022
Today, Monday, the Federal Integrity Commission announced the imminent recovery of two billion dollars, while confirming that some countries deliberately not cooperate to recover Iraqi funds
The head of the Integrity Commission, Alaa Al-Saadi, said in a statement to the Iraqi News Agency that "there is a law to recover Iraq's money issued in 2012 and until the year 2019 was administered by the Ministry of Finance, after which the Integrity Commission took over its administration," noting that "during this period, we gained the confidence of the citizen to report on Iraqi money abroad by giving privileges to the informant
He added, "Most of the collaborators are the heirs of those who trespass on public money as a result of the privileges granted by the state and their inability to complete the official papers," noting that "one of the collaborators, who is one of the servants of the former regime, revealed details of money totaling two billion dollars that will be recovered, as well as telling details about a lot of money, whether inside or outside the country
He explained, "Part of the countries deliberately refrain from not cooperating to recover Iraq's money, and we need the higher authorities to conclude agreements for the extradition of Iraqis and convicts
Al-Saadi called "the higher authorities authorized to negotiate and contract with countries in order to recover funds abroad because most countries are not cooperating with Iraq to return its money
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Samson: Is the dissolution of the Iraqi parliament the only way out of the crisis?
15th August, 2022
The dissolution of the Iraqi parliament has become the only way for Iraq to get out of its stifling crisis, which has begun to turn into a major political conflict that threatens armed confrontations between the two parties to the conflict, the "Sadr movement" and the "coordinating framework" that have armed factions and large numbers of fighters.
These fears seem to have leaked to most Kurdish leaders, most notably the head of the Kurdistan Democratic Party, Massoud Barzani, who called for dialogue to resolve the current political crisis, alluding to the approval of early parliamentary elections after the Iraqi political forces agreed on how to organize them and ensure their integrity.
There is no alternative
Barzani's position was the closest to prominent Sunni leaders, such as Iraqi Parliament Speaker Muhammad al-Halbousi, who stressed the organization of early elections, but according to the constitution and the law in a way that guarantees a political consensus to hold them without major objections.
Sarwa Abdel Wahed, head of the "New Generation" bloc, the most prominent opposition bloc in the Kurdistan region, also called for "a meeting in Baghdad that includes the heads of all the parliamentary blocs that won the elections and in the presence of the United Nations, to take the necessary steps to dissolve parliament and set a road map for the pre-election phase and its preparations."
Constitutional Path
Although there is support within the "coordinating framework" itself for holding early elections, some of its parties have a different viewpoint from al-Sadr's, which includes the necessity of holding a parliament session, choosing a president and a prime minister, and then setting a date for new elections after forming the government, which they called The designation of the "constitutional path".
The leader of the "State of Law" coalition, Nuri al-Maliki, said that "the coordination framework demonstrations sent a message to all political components represented in respecting the constitutional and legal track in Iraq before taking any steps regarding the current parliament," while noting that "it is not possible for the street to be taken over by one party without the other."
The only solution
Ghazi Faisal, director of the Iraq Center for Strategic Studies, said that "dissolving parliament is the only solution in the current period to form a new political map," while referring to "the authority of the Federal Court to dissolve parliament because the formation of the government exceeded the constitutional terms."
Faisal said, "It is certain that the dissolution of Parliament has become the only solution for the current period, which represents a political crisis, a constitutional vacuum, conflicts and sharp contradictions between the parties to the political process, especially the coordination framework and the Sadrist movement, as well as the contradictions and challenges facing the return of consensus between the coordination framework and the Kurdistan Democratic Party and the deep differences over Article 140, the oil and gas law, the issue of zeroing crises, disbanding militias, balance and consensus, which were put forward as a basis for forming the government by Massoud Barzani.
Deep crisis
Faisal considered that "today's deep crisis will not lead to any breakthrough unless Parliament is dissolved and the political map reconfigured so that the next majority that can appear in the elections will be able to participate in the elections provided that the majority of boycotters participate in the previous elections if the United Nations guarantees its integrity."
Faisal continued, "The available frameworks for dissolving Parliament are represented by its failure 10 months ago to elect the president of the republic and assign a prime minister, which was deliberate by the coordination framework," noting that "this failure came despite the ability of the Sadrist movement, the Sovereignty Alliance and the Kurdistan Democratic Party to provide 208 Out of a total of 220 votes, this is the constitutional number for the session.
Faisal stressed that "the re-election represents the only solution to restore an equal and integrated political map and to form a majority representing an Iraqi government that elects a president and a democratic opposition minority that plays an important role in the legislative authority."
Al-Sadr will not give up
The head of the "Colwadha" polling center, Basil Hussein, rules out that the leader of the Sadrist movement, Muqtada al-Sadr, would make concessions to the coordination framework to resolve the crisis, as he was going towards escalation, referring to it as "a battle of breaking wills, in which al-Sadr does not want to appear to the public broken."
Hussein said that "there are two ways to dissolve Parliament. The first is the direct one defined by Article 64 of the Constitution, which stipulates that the House of Representatives dissolve itself by an absolute majority of its members at the request of one-third of the members' representatives, or a request from the Prime Minister or with the approval of the President of the Republic."
The decision rests with the Federal Court
Hussein explained that "the indirect way is for the Federal Court to dissolve Parliament through a lawsuit filed by relying on the general theory of constitutional interpretation, for example, to issue a fatwa for the perjury stipulated in Article 50 of the Constitution, or to issue a fatwa that the House of Representatives no longer enjoys constitutional legitimacy due to exceeding the constitutional deadlines,” he said, noting that “the Court had previously issued a ruling that the House of Representatives must elect the President of the Republic within a short period.”
Crossing gate
Hussein considered that "the re-election is the gateway to overcoming the current crisis and a basic condition for resolving it, because the current parliament no longer embodies the representation that resulted from the election results due to the withdrawal of the first winning bloc, the Sadrist bloc," noting that "the elections are held without constitutional reforms through the umbrella of constitutional justice." It will only mean a deportation of the crisis without a solution."
Hussein explained that "the Federal Court should make constitutional amendments in relation to Article 76 by assigning the first winner in the elections to form the government, thus we will get rid of the burden of the largest bloc or the most numerous parliamentary bloc, which is an obstacle to forming a government," noting that "the second amendment is related to Article 70." It is represented in the court ruling that the quorum for the second round of voting is the absolute majority of the number of members of the House of Representatives, thus ending the issue of the two-thirds quorum.”
Hussein referred to the third amendment related to Article 72 (Second B), which is that the 30-day period for electing the President of the Republic should be a constitutional and not an organizational period, in order to force the parties to proceed with forming the government and to abide by the constitutional timings, stressing that “the lack of reforms means that early elections are of no use.” to her".
Legal researcher Ali Al-Tamimi also considered that " The Federal Court can dissolve Parliament for not performing its constitutional role within the deadlines set for it.”
Al-Tamimi said that the Federal Court can dissolve Parliament in accordance with Articles 47 and 59 of the Civil Code related to the failure of this institution (Parliament) to perform its constitutional role and exceed the constitutional deadlines, noting that “ Article 64 of the constitution does not provide for this.
We return to the general principles contained in the Civil Code, which affirm that when the institution fails to perform its role, the judiciary takes over dissolving it. Al-Tamimi said that "the large number of cases that are being filed before the Federal Court is the best way to obtain a decision to dissolve parliament, which is a popular demand." LINK
Samson: The head of the Integrity Commission calls for a media bloc to fight corruption
15th August, 2022
The head of the Integrity Commission, Jawad Alaa Al-Saadi, called on Monday, August 15, 2022, for the formation of a national anti-corruption bloc that strongly pushes pressure on the corrupt and supports the national oversight bodies in their noble mission in the fight against corruption and curbing the corrupt, suggesting that this bloc be from the media, which represents the fourth authority, and community organizations and events.
During his speech at the press conference held by the authority, Al-Saadi praised the disclosure of the details of the investigative, legal, preventive and educational work accomplished by its departments, directorates and investigative offices throughout Iraq, except for the Kurdistan region. and its general managers, “with the efforts of the bodies supporting the work of the authority and describing them as real partners who contributed to the achievements made by the authority, especially the judiciary and the Board of Financial Control,” noting that “the authority aspires for the legislative and executive authorities to take some important decisions that contribute to the development of the oversight work and bypassing the obvious defect left by the abolition of the system of public inspectors.”
Al-Saadi expressed his "regret for the cases of bribery, extortion and bargaining that the citizen is subjected to during his review of state institutions," while urging "citizens to cooperate with the authority by taking the initiative to report these cases; In order for the commission’s teams to be able to apprehend those accused of the red flag, he demanded that “the applications of digital systems and e-government replace routine procedures and prevent the citizen from interacting with the employee; This will contribute to reducing cases of bribery, extortion and bargaining.”
In his review of the most important achievements of the authority during the first half of this year, the head of the authority stated that “the public funds that were recovered and for which judicial rulings were issued to return them, which prevented and stopped their waste, and which were actually returned to the account of the public treasury through preventive measures, totaled 380,06,773, total (106,773) trillion dinars.
Al-Saadi added that "the commission considered (34,209) communications, reports and criminal cases with the reporter from him, explaining that the number of reports was (8,877), while the number of reports reached (10,535) news, while the criminal cases amounted to (14,797), the number of them were judged. 7,739 defendants were charged with 9,557 charges, pointing out that among the defendants in criminal cases were 39 ministers and those of his rank, and 241 people with special degrees, general managers and those of their rank.
He pointed out that “the number of defendants referred to the trial court - misdemeanors and felonies during the first half of the current year amounted to (1754), while the commission’s investigations led to the issuance of (731) arrest warrants, of which (396) were executed, including ( 8) Ministers and those of their rank, and (53) of those with special degrees, general managers and those of their rank, indicating that the number of judicial recruitment orders issued based on the commission’s investigations amounted to (3,871) orders, of which (2,824) were executed, noting that orders were issued against (32) ) Minister and those of his rank, as well as (147) of those with higher ranks, general managers and those of their rank.
He reviewed the number of defendants covered by the general amnesty law, noting that "the number of convicts and defendants during the first half of this year reached (746), while the amount of money paid under it amounted to (522,392,537) million dinars."
Al-Saadi referred to the seizure operations and the seized funds carried out by the authority during the first half of this year, explaining that "the number of operations carried out by the authority reached (452), in which 378 suspects were seized and nearly half a billion dinars." He explained that “the commission worked during the same period on (58) files related to fugitives wanted in corruption cases, of which (23) files were prepared, including (11) files against people with special degrees, general managers and those of their rank, while at the same time it worked on (104) Files to recover the smuggled money, 166 judicial decisions were issued against them.
He pointed out that “the authority received (28,340) forms for disclosure of financial disclosure, where the response rate of the presidents of the republic, ministers, the parliament, the judiciary, the two deputy speakers of the parliament, ministers, heads of bodies and entities not associated with a ministry was (100) percent, and the members of the House of Representatives responded to (51) percent. 2%) percent, as only (167) MPs disclosed their financial accounts out of a total of (326) MPs until the middle of the year. He continued, "The authority monitored the integrity and validity of the data presented in the financial accounts statements for (1,500) covered persons distributed among (152) entities, and it was found that the data of (165 of those covered) did not match."
He stressed that “the number of taxpayers whose financial statements were analyzed reached (720), while the number of forms that were analyzed for the purpose of detecting inflation for their owners reached (2982), pointing out that clarification and inquiries were carried out for those covered by submitting forms to disclose their financial liabilities, as their number reached (245) clarifications and inquiries, while (7) files were referred to the Investigation Department; Because there was an increase in funds, while only one court ruling was issued in the matter of one of the taxpayers.”
He pointed out that "the work of audit teams for the codes of conduct and job performance monitoring conducted visits between a number of administrative formations affiliated with ministries and entities not affiliated with a ministry, which numbered (342), noting the efforts of these teams, whose visits resulted in the preparation of (21) various reports, among which were investigative reports diagnosed. Imbalances in the work of some ministries, their strengths and weaknesses, the level of service provided to citizens, and the level of bribery.”
The head of the commission concluded by noting that the commission “prepared (9) drafts of cooperation agreements and memoranda of understanding with Iraqi, Arab and international ministries and governmental institutions, one of which was concluded. (2,897) participants, in addition to issuing (3) magazines and one newspaper, and (4) radio and TV programmes. LINK