Politicians collaborating with gunmen against govt. – Atta

BAGHDAD / IraqiNews.com: An official spokesman for the Fardh al-Qanoon security plan on Sunday accused figures from within the country’s political process of collaborating with armed organizations to hinder the government’s efforts in Iraq. “Security forces arrested the so-called commander-in-chief of the Ansar al-Sunna group, Tha’er Kadhem Abad Salman al-Samarraie in Baghdad’s al-Yarmuk area on December 18, 2008,” said Maj. General Qassem Atta during a press conference he held in Baghdad today (Jan. 11), attended by IraqiNews.com news agency. “The detainee has confessed to his responsibility for several bombing operations and facilitating foreign gunmen’s entry into Iraq,” said Atta, adding Samarraie “also confessed to having links with figures from within the political process that try to throw a spanner in the government’s efforts and achievements made at the political and security levels”. The security agencies have investigated Samarraie and referred him to courts after his confessions, Atta said, not revealing any names of political figures he said involved. “The Baghdad Operations Command (BOC) believed it should be better for the integrity of the investigations not to reveal these names,” he said. The BOC chief noted that Sammarraie claimed responsibility for a car bomb attack in the area of al-Muqdadiya in return for $10,000, mortar attacks on residential sections in Diala province, two car bomb blasts in al-Bayya in 2007, three car bombs in al-Hurriya area in July 2007 and killing six truck drivers in Diala. Samarraie also confessed to supervising an improvised explosive device (IED) attack that targeted the motorcade of Ahmed Chalabi, the leader of the Iraqi National Congress (INC) party, killing 17 policemen in Muqdadiya by setting fake checkpoints on highways, kidnapping and killing National Guard personnel in Baghdad’s al-Amiriya area in collaboration with a sahwa (awakening) tribal fighter, killing a civilian man in al-Dawoudi area, overseeing sectarian-motivated forced displacement operations in al-Mansour and al-Rabie areas and detonating the house of Iraqi lawmaker Mithal al-Alusi’s mother, Atta added. “Samarraie also has links with neighboring countries that would not be named for the integrity of the investigations,” he said. AmR (S) 1