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Length: 2:57
MILES O'BRIEN: A new crisis for Iraq's leaders. It
turns out one of the members of Iraq's parliament is
a convicted terrorist.
CNN's Michael Ware first broke the story. He joins us
now live from Baghdad.
Michael, who is he and what is he accused of?
MICHAEL WARE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Miles, this
member of parliament's name is Jamal Jafaar Mohammed,
although he goes by many names. This man was
convicted in Kuwait in 1984 for blowing up a U.S.
embassy, no less.
U.S. military intelligence also links him to the
hijack of at least one Kuwaiti airliner back in the
'80s in a bid to free other members of the car
bombing or embassy bombing plot. American military
intelligence also links him to one attempted
assassination on a Kuwaiti prince.
Now, this fellow later went on to become the
commander of an Iraqi element of the Iranian armed
forces, a position he left just shortly before the
invasion when he returned to covert operations. U.S.
military intelligence now says that under the cover
of parliamentary privilege, with the immunity from
prosecution that that gives him, he is now a conduit
for Iranian special forces as they run weapons and
political influence in and out of Iraq. It says that
he is a part of assisting Shia insurgents to this day
-- Miles.
O'BRIEN: Wow. That's amazing. Now, the prime
minister, Nuri al-Maliki, what can he do about it,
and what does this mean about the effectiveness of
his government at this point?
WARE: Well, it says many things. The first thing is,
there's little Maliki can actually do. Maliki says
this is now a parliamentary issue.
He has called upon the U.S. to now present its large
body of information to the Iraqi parliament and let
them decide. It's only the parliament that can lift
the immunity. But the question is, how did this man
end up there in the first place?
He was elected in December 2005, in the elections
that the Bush administration held up as a model of
success for the region to follow. Now, one U.S.
official I spoke to said the fact that this fellow is
in the parliament, a man who is said to have
masterminded the bombing of U.S. and French
embassies, the official said to me, "well, given his
background, given how good he is at covert
operations, at spying, at moving without detection,
given how many false names he has, you cannot blame
us. It's not beyond the realm that these things would
happen."
The irony, Miles, is that the name that he is
registered in the Iraqi parliament is the same name
that the Kuwaiti court sentenced him to death in
absentia for bombing the American embassy.
O'BRIEN: Wow. Talk about hiding in broad daylight
there.
All right. Michael Ware in Baghdad.
Thank you.
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Length: 1:26
ALINA CHO: A new crisis
for Iraq's leaders. It turns out one of the members
of Iraq's parliament is a convicted terrorist. CNN's
Michael Ware first broke the story, and he's live
with us now from Baghdad.
Michael, so who is this guy and what is he accused
of?
MICHAEL WARE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Alina, this is
one of the members of the Iraqi parliament known here
as Jamal Jafaar Mohammed, although he has many names,
given his background. U.S. military intelligence
calls him the joint or co-mastermind of the 1983 car
bombing of the U.S. and French embassies. Indeed, a
Kuwaiti court found him guilty in absentia of playing
a role in a series of attacks, including the embassy
bombings, and sentenced him to death.
Now, he eventually moved to Iran, where he came to
command an Iraqi element of the Iranian armed forces,
and then shortly before the U.S. invasion of Iraq, he
reverted back to covert operations.
In the U.S.-sponsored elections in December, 2005,
the dominant Shia Political Alliance nominated him as
a candidate, and he was elected to parliament. He now
has immunity from prosecution, yet U.S. military
intelligence now tells the Iraqi government that he
is helping support Shia insurgents and is a conduit
for Iranian special forces.
CHO: CNN's Michael Ware live for us in Baghdad.
Michael, thank you.