Hi..
I had a question from someone about the Emergency Powers of the Iraqi government and had I ever said this before?
Yes I did. Back in 2008 the same situation came up.
You see the original deadline for the resolution of the Kirkuk issue (which is the problem right now) that deadline for the resolution of Article 140 of the Iraqi Constitution concerning Kirkuk was December 31st 2007.
Now it got to the point that the deadline would not be made so the government of Iraq had to do one of two things.
They ether had to pass the resolution on time or Parliament had to vote for a Constitutional amendment to extend the deadline.
Now according to the Iraqi Constitution this had to happen no later than December 31st 2007 and if NOT then they would be in direct violation of their own Constitution.
Well what happen was the Iraqi Parliament refused to take any action and allowed the deadline to pass with no action or amendment and in doing so threw the nation of Iraq into Constitutional Crisis.
By do this the Emergency Powers Law was automatically activated by default.
Now the Emergency Powers Law was fashioned after our Emergency Powers Law and the Patriot Act.
This law for Iraq was enacted in June of 2004 and mention of this was made in the New York Times and can be read here:
At that time I had speculated that this had been done by design to allow the HCL and other laws to be passed by decree and thusly clearing the path for the revaluation.
Needless to say...that speculation was wrong! LOL!
I had actually given too much credit to the Iraqis thinking they would do such a thing and never thought at that time it was just plain and simple incompetence on their part.
Ok...so what happened then?
Well the nation went into Emergency Powers mode and threats were made back and forth and Maliki had threatened to resolve the issue by the "Mandate" (Emergency Powers)
This went back and forth between the Iraqi Supreme Court and the Iraqi Parliament and in the end a decision was made by the Iraqi Supreme Court to amend the Iraqi Constitution to allow for a 6 month extension until June 30th 2007.
Now at that time they STILL did not reach an agreement but the Iraqi Parliament DID agree to allow the UN to handle the resolution of Article 140 debate and therefore avoid for the second time a Constitutional Crisis.
OK...so here we are right back to the same issue and the same problem.
Because of the Kirkuk issue (Article 140) we see again that the Iraqi Parliament has missed a constitutional deadline and has placed Iraq into a Constitutional Crisis.
But like I said yesterday...this is a good thing.
With all that is going on with the oil deals...the UN and everything else we see that this is a done deal.
Now it appears that we will see one of two things tomorrow.
1. The Iraqi Parliament will pass the Election Law and all is well and the world will see that Iraq is a strong nation who can resolve its differences.
OR
2. We see an impasse and a failure to vote on the issue or come to an agreement.
IF that we to happen we would then see the passage of the Election Law by Emergency Powers and in doing so this will ALSO show the world that the nation of Iraq has the Constitutional strength and integrity to do what is necessary for the well being of the nation and the world.
So...to answer yesterdays question YES we have seen this before (2008).
And YES this is all a good thing and everything is solid and right on track.
Hope that clears that up.
Phoenix
I had a question from someone about the Emergency Powers of the Iraqi government and had I ever said this before?
Yes I did. Back in 2008 the same situation came up.
You see the original deadline for the resolution of the Kirkuk issue (which is the problem right now) that deadline for the resolution of Article 140 of the Iraqi Constitution concerning Kirkuk was December 31st 2007.
Now it got to the point that the deadline would not be made so the government of Iraq had to do one of two things.
They ether had to pass the resolution on time or Parliament had to vote for a Constitutional amendment to extend the deadline.
Now according to the Iraqi Constitution this had to happen no later than December 31st 2007 and if NOT then they would be in direct violation of their own Constitution.
Well what happen was the Iraqi Parliament refused to take any action and allowed the deadline to pass with no action or amendment and in doing so threw the nation of Iraq into Constitutional Crisis.
By do this the Emergency Powers Law was automatically activated by default.
Now the Emergency Powers Law was fashioned after our Emergency Powers Law and the Patriot Act.
This law for Iraq was enacted in June of 2004 and mention of this was made in the New York Times and can be read here:
At that time I had speculated that this had been done by design to allow the HCL and other laws to be passed by decree and thusly clearing the path for the revaluation.
Needless to say...that speculation was wrong! LOL!
I had actually given too much credit to the Iraqis thinking they would do such a thing and never thought at that time it was just plain and simple incompetence on their part.
Ok...so what happened then?
Well the nation went into Emergency Powers mode and threats were made back and forth and Maliki had threatened to resolve the issue by the "Mandate" (Emergency Powers)
This went back and forth between the Iraqi Supreme Court and the Iraqi Parliament and in the end a decision was made by the Iraqi Supreme Court to amend the Iraqi Constitution to allow for a 6 month extension until June 30th 2007.
Now at that time they STILL did not reach an agreement but the Iraqi Parliament DID agree to allow the UN to handle the resolution of Article 140 debate and therefore avoid for the second time a Constitutional Crisis.
OK...so here we are right back to the same issue and the same problem.
Because of the Kirkuk issue (Article 140) we see again that the Iraqi Parliament has missed a constitutional deadline and has placed Iraq into a Constitutional Crisis.
But like I said yesterday...this is a good thing.
With all that is going on with the oil deals...the UN and everything else we see that this is a done deal.
Now it appears that we will see one of two things tomorrow.
1. The Iraqi Parliament will pass the Election Law and all is well and the world will see that Iraq is a strong nation who can resolve its differences.
OR
2. We see an impasse and a failure to vote on the issue or come to an agreement.
IF that we to happen we would then see the passage of the Election Law by Emergency Powers and in doing so this will ALSO show the world that the nation of Iraq has the Constitutional strength and integrity to do what is necessary for the well being of the nation and the world.
So...to answer yesterdays question YES we have seen this before (2008).
And YES this is all a good thing and everything is solid and right on track.
Hope that clears that up.
Phoenix
