Will the new Iraqi government open its arms to terrorists?

According to the Associated Press, Ayham al-Samarie, who used to be electricity minister in Iraq, claims the Iraqi government is opening channels of communication with terrorist groups such as the Islamic Army in Iraq.

"We told them that 'no one knows what you want. You say you want the occupier to leave Iraq but what do you want after that? You must have a political agenda. You must come out to the political arena and make clear what you want," said al-Samarie. "They set no conditions and we agreed with them that the time has come for them to come out,' he added, but would not disclose who else was involved."

The terrorists must be thinking, "Make clear what we want? Where has al-Samarie been? Doesn't he read our statements? Watch our videos? Listen to our tapes?" Near the end of last December, Ansar Al-Sunna, the Islamic Army in Iraq, and the Army of the Mujahedeen issued a joint statement on the internet that was reported by both western and Arab media. It echoed many of Zarqawi's sentiments regarding democracy and western influence on Islamic society.

The text of the original statement has been pretty much shoved down the memory hole by the mainstream media. In December and January, it was reported by many media outlets, including The Times, the BBC, The Guardian, and al Jazeera. None have archived the text of the statement. All the links I can find now lead back to an irritatingly password-protected PDF file from Global Terror Alert. The PDF won't allow copying from its text, so loath as I am to become a typist for murderers, here's a sampling of the PDF, retyped. (Though there's no way to Dowdify this statement, I still encourage you to read the alleged translation of the original:

O Mujahideen! Know that fighting is not considered jihad unless undertaken in the cause of the religion ... Also, jihad must be the best way to serve that cause, as the praised one [Allah] has said: 'And kill them until there is no more dissent and the religion of Allah is supreme ...

We are concerned that Muslims will be fooled by their pagan magic tricks and misleading propaganda and, therefore, the scholars of our nation must reveal the truth. In this statement, we reveal some evidence of why democracy should be prohibited and why it stands in opposition to the religion of Allah:

1.) Ruling is for Allah alone--not for the people--and the people should merely obey Allah's commands and his Islamic law ...

3.) The religion of Allah is complete, as are his Islamic laws comprehensive and complete. Therefore, casting ballots over his already known and established laws is considered to be among the worst of the forbidden acts ...

8.) Democracy looks upon everyone as equals: the Muslims and the non-Muslims, males and females, the righteous and the evil, the educated and the ignorant. However, the laws of Allah do not look equally at all these groups ...

11.) The religion of democracy is a belief system used by the enemies of Allah--the Christians and the Jews--in order to trick and deceive the people

Is al-Samarie suggesting that there is some place in the new Iraqi government for these views? He can negotiate some kind of truce with these primitivist thugs?

In addition to the Jihadis hoping to create in Iraq a new Caliphate to rule over a vast Taliban-style Islamic super-state, there are the Baathists (some leftover Fedayeen Saddam, some Syrian agents and insurgents) hoping to resurrect the old guard and get back to raiding Iraq's wealth for the personal gain of the Sunni minority. The United Nations Assistance Mission in Iraq (which goes by the acronym UNAMI--sounds like Esperanto for "unfriendly") noted in March a comment in the Iraqi press by Rashid al-Khayun:

Such a heinous atrocity as the blowing up of a health centre in a sprawling marketplace leaves no doubt that the mastermind behind it has one clear message to get across to Iraqis: Accept a new Ba'thist state with a Salafi faade, or risk physical liquidation to the last one of you. After such knowledge, what national reconciliation can some still talk about?

I agree wholeheartedly. There is no room the new Iraqi democracy for murderers, even supposedly repentant murderers.

There is a somewhat lame defense of Baathist resistance in an open letter written by Nada Al-Rubaiee of the Iraqi Patriotic Alliance and reprinted on the odious but useful albasrah.net.

The resistance in Iraq is the resistance of the Iraqi people and it is mainly represented by the major political groups; the Patriotic, Islamic and the Pan-Arab groups.

By this, we want to emphasis on the fact that our resistance has an anti-imperialistic profile with Islamic and patriotic elements. Adding on that, the effective participation of members of the dismantled Iraqi army and the Baath party.

We could expect some objections about the participation of the Baath party in the resistance. There are more than three million active Baath party members in Iraq. So, when we mention members of this party we do not mean only those who were in the former Iraqi government. But those who believe in the Baath ideology expressed in their slogan: Unity, Liberty and socialism.

The fear of the Islamic character of the Iraqi resistance could be answered by the fact that after the liberation of Iraq, the Iraqi resistance will then be the only legitimized representative of the Iraqi people. A transition period will then give the Iraqi people the chance to choose their representatives to form a united national government with full participation of all parties including the Islamic forces. We have then to accept the choice of the Iraqi people.

Al-Rubaiee then lapses into typical terrorist mendacity and obfuscation to address the problem that no sane people would want their nation placed in the hands of those behind the indiscriminate bloodletting that poses as "resistance" in Iraq:

Schools, churches, mosques and other civilian places have never been the target of the Iraqi resistance. Besides, we have to be very critical and careful about any kidnapping or killing process of a foreigner-worker in Iraq. The resistance has no benefit in attacking people like Margaret Hassan, two Simona's or others. These actions are meant to discredit the legal resistance of our people.

They "have to be very critical and careful about any kidnapping or killing process of a foreigner-worker in Iraq." What on earth does that mean? Bear in mind that this is a written letter, not an off-the-cuff radio interview. That's the best he could come up with?

Those Sunnis who foolishly boycotted the elections should be invited into the government, included in the development of the permanent constitution, and shown the value of the voting power they possess. Those who went beyond merely boycotting and waged war on the civilian population of Iraq (whether for heresy or for collaboration) are criminals and should be treated as criminals.

For another glimpse into the nature of the Iraqi "resistance," we have this, from Albasrah.net:

Resistance sharpshooter kills American soldier in Samarra

An Iraqi Resistance sharpshooter shot and killed an American soldier who was standing in a US armored vehicle that was passing on patrol in the ad-Dubbat neighborhood of western Samarra, Mafkarat al-Islam reported. The Resistance sharpshooter was perched in a large medical building opposite the street where the patrol was.

"A large medical building." Hmmm, pass me the thesaurus, because I think there's an easier way to say that. Here it is: "hospital." So the Iraqi Resistance proudly places sharpshooters in hospital windows. You have to give them--and Albasrah--credit for their honesty.

Albasrah is a goldmine of jihadi hatred and violence, with accounts and videos of attacks on troops, beheadings of hostages, and bombings of civilian targets (including polling places). Notably, Albasrah also offers clips of Michael Moore speeches, a bootleg download of Fahrenheit 911, BBC documentaries, George Galloway's blather before the U.S. Senate, and interviews with Seymour Hersh, Scott Ritter, Senator Robert Byrd, and other shining stars of the American left.

Samir Haddad and Mazin Ghazi wrote in September 2004 a brief and useful analysis of the different insurgent groups operating in Iraq. The article was originally published in the weekly Baghdad Al-Zawra and is reprinted on the website of the Socialist Unity Network.

And here are a couple of quotes I find relevant to this issue:

In an interview with David Remnick, Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak said: "The U.S and U.K., including human-rights groups, have, in the past, been calling on us to give these terrorists their 'human rights' ... You can give them all the human rights they deserve until they kill you."

"He who would kill you would also lie to you." Mid-east maxim.