Sectarian killer running for Iraqi office

Hakim al-Zamili earned the moniker "the shredder" during the worst years of sectarian violence.

While Deputy Minister of Health he was accused of kidnapping and murder. Now he's running for Parliament in Iraq's national elections slated for March 7th.

Mr. al-Zamili has been accused by eye witnesses of orchestrating the infiltration of the Mehdi Army militia into the Ministry of Health (MoH) , complete with use of ambulances as kidnapping machines and ministry facilities as torture chambers. All while funneling millions of dollars in donor assistance back to the Mehdi Army and to himself.

Iraqi blogs and new sources say that Zamili tortured Sunni patients in hospital wards, and many Sunni's disappeared from hospitals in medical city, close to the Ministry of Health. That he participated in killing a pharmacist who witnessed a $6 million bribe from a medical supply company to the inspector general of the MoH.

It's common knowledge that he's ferried $60 million out of Iraq into a personal account, once kidnapped a Sunni rival vying for his position as Deputy Minister, and helped hide leaders of the Mehdi Army in a special ambulance.

It would all sound like the most incredible slander if one didn't know how bad sectarian killings were in 2005-'07 and how sectarian armies used government ministries as shadow institutions and arms of their own reprisals.

Bad man caught and released

Mr. al-Zamili became so synonymous with sectarian disappearances that when he was finally apprehended by coalition forces in 2008, families of Iraqis who'd long disappeared, hoped that they'd finally get some answers.

He was the first senior official charged with terrorism since the invasion, according to a Reuter's Feb. 17 2008 article. The arrest was seen as evidence that Prime Minister al-Maliki's government would no longer stand by while fellow Shiites propagated a sectarian war against minority Sunnis.

But in March of 2008, a three-judge Iraqi panel acquitted al-Zamili and the head of security on all charges, according to the AFP. Several key witnesses had received death threats and refused to testify. Mr. al-Zamili reportedly set up a tent outside his house in Sadr city to greet well wishes once he was freed.

Popular killer

He may be a killer, but he's a popular killer. Some would say he's a defender of his people, murder for murder. Now he's running as part of the Sadr block in the Iraqi National Alliance, the only other Shia coalition that could trump Maliki's Rule of Law Party.

Not to paint a broad stroke over all Shiite candidates in the Alliance as Islamist extremists. Iyad Jamal Al-Din, a Shia cleric and member of Parliament and also running under the Iraqi National Alliance, advocates a separation of church and state.

According to Al-Din's Wikipedia page, he's "on record as saying that his mission is to see an end to the corruption that has seen politicians subvert religion to their own needs, and use their sects to determine their success."

De-Baathification: the Swift Boating of secular electoral alliances

The word De-Baathification has subsumed all meaningful political dialogue in these upcoming national elections.

The Iraqi courts have blocked key Sunnis, labeled Baathists, from participating: a Feb. 25 International Crisis Group report characterizing it as, "...A naked power play with sectarian overtones in that its most prominent victims are Sunni Arabs, it also reopened old wounds and cast a troubling light on Maliki who only a year ago had won votes by eschewing sectarian rhetoric and has pledged to stitch together a broad non-sectarian electoral alliance."

But who's gonna vote?

According to the same ICG report, if the 2009 provincial elections had anything to teach, it's that Iraqi voters were more interested in security and keeping the lights on than in sectarian or Islamist candidates.

Shatha al-Abbousi, one of its parliament members, said: "The problem with the Islamic parties is that they failed. Since many people turned against them, they began to change, like Maliki, who now calls himself a nationalist. I am from a religious party, but I don’t like that name, “religious”. We are human beings, not angels. We make mistakes. When parties that call themselves Islamic are corrupt, it sends a very bad message. We are learning this in a very hard way."

What 2009 provincial elections results have taught:

--"About half of the registered voters went to the ballots, or 7.5 million Iraqis.

--Out of 418 lists only sixteen won seats... This means that 5 million Iraqis voted for nationalist lists and only 2.5 million for religious lists."

--"The scope of the prime minister's victory should not be exaggerated , however. His State of Law list won only 15.1 percent of votes nationwide... It can hardly be read as popular mandate."

Which leads us into these 2010 elections-

Maliki seems to have lost more credibility with the spate of recent bombings. Also, the secular strong man, Ayad Allawi-led Iraqiya party and the former ISCI and Sadrists coalesced into the Iraqi National Alliance Party, will split his votes.

Despite Al Qaeda' s threats, Sunnis say they will vote, but in what numbers is to be determined. This landscape combined with a strong Iraqi sentiment that the vote is fixed anyway and that all politicians are corrupt and detestable, will cause many to stay home on March 7th.

Who's gonna decide if the count gets close?

The fact that Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC) immediately adopted the Accountability and Justice Commission' s decision to disqualify 511 candidates, forecasts problems if the March 7th vote is close.

The IHEC will be the arbiters of this election, and it's hoped that they aren't as beholden as Pres. Karzai's "independent election commission", and also that there will actually be international election monitors in problematic areas to prevent wholesale ballot stuffing and voter intimidation like in Afghanistan.

But voter intimidation has already started. Yesterday, March 3, a triple bombing in Baquoba killed 32, with the final bomber posing as a victim and riding the ambulance of wounded straight to the hospital only to pull his suicide vest inside, killing scores more. Today in Mansour neighborhood, we heard the blast from Baghdad's second attack of the day. A suicide bomber detonated an explosive vest near a group of soldiers proudly lining up to vote at a nearby polling station, killing six people according to the AP.

Deeper Analysis

Reidar Visser, the Editor of the Iraq-focused website Historiae.org, has some serious stuff to say about the current political process, and the power struggle between Iran and the U.S. over Iraq's future in a Foreign Affairs interview.

Visser says the U.S. has done relatively little to address the de-Baathification of candidates.. "The U.S. still possesses some leverage related to Iraq's debt to Kuwait and the Iraqi governments's desire to obtain U.S. military hardware; if used wisely, that leverage could be used to achieve institutional national-reconciliation aims in Iraq -- such as a revised constitution -- that in turn could help limit Iranian influence."

In the March 4th interview, Visser says Iranian influence has clearly been seen in the all-Shiite Iraqi National Alliance and the de-Baathificiation issue defining this election, which has prevented the al-Maliki's administration from forming a stronger bond with the nationalist and secularist parties. He sums Iraq's fledgling democracy soberly, "There is nothing to suggest that the political process in Iraq is 'on track' if you take a more detailed look. The widespread violations of the principal of due process in the exclusion of candidates under the pretext of de-Baathification are perhaps the best indicator of a political system in deep crisis. Only the most superficial analysis of what is going on would conclude that the current situation is democracy in progress."