Nancy Pelosi’s Surprise Visit To Baghdad
BAGHDAD - U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a top Democratic critic of the U.S.- led war in Iraq, met with the Iraqi prime minister Saturday during a visit to Baghdad.
The visit comes amid complaints the Iraqi government is not contributing enough financially to the reconstruction of the oil-rich country.
Pelosi went into the meeting with Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki shortly after arriving in the Iraqi capital, a government official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to release the information.
U.S. Embassy spokeswoman Mirembe Nantongo confirmed that the California Democrat had arrived and said she would be meeting with senior U.S. and Iraqi leaders.
Pelosi’s visit comes a day after she led a bipartisan congressional delegation to Israel to mark the 60th anniversary of Israel’s founding.
Pelosi, who also traveled to Iraq in January 2007 shortly after the Democrats assumed congressional control, has been a sharp critic of the Bush administration’s conduct of the war and has pressed for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from the country this year.
She also has called for the Iraqi government to contribute more financially to the reconstruction of the country.
President Bush’s Iraq war funding request failed in the House Thursday as anti-war Democrats and Republicans unhappy about added domestic funding formed an unlikely coalition to kill, for now, $163 billion to support U.S. troops overseas.
Republicans had been expected to provide the winning margin for the Iraq and Afghanistan funding but instead sat out the vote in protest. Their revolt was spurred by Democratic tactics in advancing the must- pass measure, as well as their efforts to add money for the unemployed and an expansion of troop education benefits to the bill.
The practical effect of the Republican protest is likely to be minimal. While it kills the war funding component of the bill for now, the Senate is sure to revive it next week.
Al-Maliki met with Pelosi after returning to the Iraqi capital from Mosul, where he oversaw the start of a new crackdown against al-Qaida in Iraq militants in the northern city.
Nearly 1,000 people have been detained since the operations against Sunni insurgents in Mosul began on May 10, Interior Minister Jawad al- Bolani said during a news conference.
He said a total of 1,068 people were detained but 94 were released.
The prime minister also sought to draw Saddam Hussein-era troops to the government’s side, inviting them to rejoin the Iraqi security services and promising to facilitate their return. During the Saddam era, Mosul’s Sunni Arab population was a major source of officers for the military—and many have remained bitter over their removal after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.
Al-Maliki “has invited all former security and army employees to rejoin the military and security services,” al-Bolani told reporters in Mosul. He said the Interior and Defense ministries would take steps to facilitate their return.
“This step is considered a positive one toward building our country in the framework of national reconciliation,” he added.
The government crackdown against Sunni insurgents follows similar operations targeting Shiite militants in Baghdad’s Sadr City district and the southern city of Basra.
(AP)
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I thought I felt the presence of evil in Baghdad today.
May 17th, 2008 at 5:17 amI guess she’s there to remind Maliki that a bad moon is rising in the US and its shadow is going to fall on Iraq come November.
May 17th, 2008 at 5:58 amI feel sorry for Maliki. Nobody should be subjected to being in the same room as Pelosi.
May 17th, 2008 at 6:35 amI thought we were trying to remove evil people from Baghdad, not add more.
May 17th, 2008 at 6:47 amplease please please tell me there is a follow up story saying that this bitch didn’t make it back
May 17th, 2008 at 6:48 ammy god, where did you get that pic!? i nearly pee’d me kilt! i think i’ll print out a copy and place it in the basement to scare away the rats.
yes, please say the 2nd part to this story was that a 1000 camel spiders devoured her…
May 17th, 2008 at 7:01 amWhat a picture!
May 17th, 2008 at 7:15 am
Phendlin
May 17th, 2008 at 7:31 amHer face (even as a picture) could do a helluva lot more than scare away the rats. It would either kill them or turn them to stone.
Great photo of the bitch. Does her justice.
May 17th, 2008 at 7:45 amThis is what happens to after years of consuming organic crops, makeup toxicity, botox blossoming, and living in Gomorrah.
Anybody taken a gander at that Haight-Asbury crowd from the ’60s? Comical…the women look like Medea Benjamin clones and the men, assuming they’re still among the living, look like something you’d drag off the ocean bottom.
May 17th, 2008 at 7:56 amcan we possibly have a friendly fire incident
May 17th, 2008 at 8:28 amUh, the Speaker is not the Sec of State Nasti. Too bad AQ wasn’t on target today. Damn, where’s incomming when you need it?
May 17th, 2008 at 8:40 amI’m starting to think that Maliki can handle her; turns out that guy is pretty crafty and capable after all. I hope he reads her the riot act.
May 17th, 2008 at 8:43 amSenator Pelosi kidnapped by AQ in Baghdad— released 3 minutes later —– boys from the hood be sayin —damn!
May 17th, 2008 at 9:02 amWhat momps said
May 17th, 2008 at 9:44 amWink, Wink, Do we have a UAV watching
Sir I swear It fired that missle all on it’s own.
May 17th, 2008 at 10:29 amWhat surprise? Bitch is Sec State for the Dhimmi Politburo.
May 17th, 2008 at 11:48 amThey *hope* they’re gonna be able to *change* the government ‘for the common good’ to reflect their own (lack of) values in ‘09…. she’s just getting a head start.
i swear…we thought it was a Vehicle based IED (theoretically she is an IED because her bullshit kills soldiers)
May 17th, 2008 at 12:42 pmMaybe one of the weapons that Iran supplies, the same Iran that gives Hezbollah and Syria stuff (the same Syria whose President she prostrated herself before with a rag on her head) will hit her plane on the way out. Poetic justice.
May 17th, 2008 at 3:13 pmMiserable Bitch! Hopefully she’ll take a ride on a “side” road!
May 17th, 2008 at 3:36 pmMuch as I detest vile language, Pelosi is a one-women cunt festival.
Apologies to the ladies here. I can’t help myself.
May 17th, 2008 at 4:40 pmYet another “Bush Basher” trying to help the terrorist. The enemy of my enemy is my ally comes to mind when Pelosi puts her nose where it dose not belong.
May 17th, 2008 at 6:29 pmWhy’d they kill one of their own?
May 17th, 2008 at 7:51 pmI mean she’s been helping the Jihad now for a while, why get rid of her now?
Mitt Romney was right about her: Our differences stop at the boarder. This Anti-American has NO RIGHT to go abroad and undermine the President of the United States of America. What she has done is a disgrace, and is the portrait of a preening, self agrandizing, power-hungry, selfish, foolish amiture.
May 17th, 2008 at 8:17 pmWhat I’d give to have just one clear shot at giving that bitch a shot in the face with my fist.
May 17th, 2008 at 8:53 pm“Why’d they kill one of their own?
I mean she’s been helping the Jihad now for a while, why get rid of her now?”
Friendly fire.
May 17th, 2008 at 9:43 pmWo-oh, too late Kevin, can’t seee you had an evil language, a bit crude sometimes, I like crudités
May 17th, 2008 at 10:01 pmWhy’d they kill one of their own?
I mean she’s been helping the Jihad now for a while, why get rid of her now?”
forbidden, even in a freedom of speech
May 17th, 2008 at 10:02 pmI’ve asked this before, except for self-agrandisement, what has this stooge for the enemies of America ever accomplished in her life? Any positive accomplishments? Wait, I know. She brought home some pork for some constituents. OK, other than that.
May 18th, 2008 at 1:41 am@Rob
Good point. Why kill a good Dhimi useful idiot like Peluteski? Only cause she’s a kafir and a crusader.
May 18th, 2008 at 2:52 amyou’re right, any of the gorgons would be no match for this hag’s gaze.
May 18th, 2008 at 10:19 am