Kirkland Laing

Baghdad, Iraq(CNN) -- A member of the Dawa terrorist organisation sentenced to death in Kuwait for the 1983 bombings of the U.S. and French embassies now sits in Iraq's parliament as a member of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's ruling coalition, according to U.S. military intelligence.

Jamal Jafaar Mohammed's seat in parliament gives him immunity from prosecution. Washington says he supports Shiite insurgents and acts as an Iranian agent in Iraq.

U.S. military intelligence in Iraq has approached al-Maliki's government with the allegations against Jamal Jafaar Mohammed, who it says assists Iranian special forces in Iraq as "a conduit for weapons and political influence."
Repeated efforts by CNN to reach Jamal Jafaar Mohammed for comment through the parliament, through the ruling Shiite Muslim coalition and the Badr Organization -- the Iranian-backed paramilitary organization he once led -- have been unsuccessful.

CNN
U.S. military : Iraqi lawmaker is embassy bomber
February 23, 2005




The ultimate goal of SCIRI and Badr is to consolidate their grip on southern Iraq and to create a nine-province Shiite region with control over its natural resources on par with the semiautonomous Kurdish region in the north. This is a subject of great conflict among many Iraqis, especially the Sunnis, as the region contains 90% of Iraq's oil and may be the largest oil reserve in the world, even outstripping Saudi Arabia in terms of deposits.

"We believe the elections are extremely important. We will run jointly with.... SCIRI. We both have a significant base of public support," says Hadi al-Ameri, Badr's leader and a senior member of the Iraqi parliament.

Christian Science Monitor
July 7, 2008



BAGHDAD, July 7 -- Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has for the first time suggested establishing a timetable for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq, a step that the Bush administration has long opposed.

Washington Post
July 8, 2008