Unfortunately, this isn’t overly surprising:
Iraqi special forces and British troops stormed the offices of an Iraqi government intelligence agency in the southern city of Basra on Sunday, and British officials said they discovered about 30 prisoners, some showing signs of torture.
What is surprising is exactly how enfeebled Iraqi PM Nouri al-Maliki is: he cannot even criticize his Shi’a rivals in government for torturing Iraqis:
Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, a conservative Shiite, condemned the raid in Basra, but he publicly said nothing about the evidence of torture.
“The prime minister has ordered an immediate investigation into the incident of breaking into the security compound in Basra and stressed the need to punish those who have carried out this illegal and irresponsible act,” said the full text of a statement issued late Sunday by his office.
It remained unclear why he sought to pursue the raiding force aggressively rather than the accusations of prisoner abuse. Efforts to reach officials in his office were unsuccessful.
Could Maliki be so frightened for his position and, perhaps, his life that he refuses to publicly condemn what may have been the work of the SCIRI’s Badr Organization disguised as Iraqi intelligence officials? Perhaps Maliki believes it unwise to take on both the Mahdi Army and the SCIRI at the same time, but, regardless, this is a testament to how far al-Da’wa and Maliki himself have slid since his appointment as PM.
The conspiracy theorist in me almost wants to suggest that Maliki may have more sinister plans in mind, perhaps a stronger alliance with the SCIRI in order to offset Muqtada al-Sadr and his Mahdi Army’s influence. It isn’t so far-fetched, especially since Maliki is operating off the knowledge that US support for him is waning. Drastic times, drastic measures and all that. After all, he relied on an alliance of conveince with Sadr to achieve his current position — there is nothing to suggest that Maliki would not shift his allegiance toward the SCIRI long enough to turn a blind eye to government-backed torture. Welcome to Iraqi politics today.
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