The new Iraqi Prime minister worked for the Dawa Party back when Dawa was engaging in anti-Western attacks and helping to form Hizbullah.
Juan Cole has some background on the Iraqi Prime-Minister-to-be:
Al-Maliki is the number two man in the Dawa Party. Born in Babil Province, he fled Iraq for Iran in 1980 when Saddam Hussein made it a capital crime to belong to the revolutionary Shiite Dawa Party, which was working for an Islamic state. He later left Tehran for Damascus, where he was in Dawa’s political office. The Iraqi Dawa was engaged in anti-Western attacks in Lebanon during the 1980s, and helped form the Lebanese Hizbullah in 1984. It is not clear if al-Maliki had been involved in any of those activities.
Author: Mark Kleiman
Professor of Public Policy at the NYU Marron Institute for Urban Management and editor of the Journal of Drug Policy Analysis. Teaches about the methods of policy analysis about drug abuse control and crime control policy, working out the implications of two principles: that swift and certain sanctions don't have to be severe to be effective, and that well-designed threats usually don't have to be carried out.
Books:
Drugs and Drug Policy: What Everyone Needs to Know (with Jonathan Caulkins and Angela Hawken)
When Brute Force Fails: How to Have Less Crime and Less Punishment (Princeton, 2009; named one of the "books of the year" by The Economist
Against Excess: Drug Policy for Results (Basic, 1993)
Marijuana: Costs of Abuse, Costs of Control (Greenwood, 1989)
UCLA Homepage
Curriculum Vitae
Contact: Markarkleiman-at-gmail.com
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I'm reminded of the song in "Life of Brian"…
Always look on the bright side of life.
Or, as one Nazareen was puported to say, "I can see my house from here"
It sounds to me as though you have simply repeated Mr. Cole's innuendo. Given that "it is not clear if al-Maliki had been involved in any of those activities" what is the point of mentioning them other than to throw mud at someone without having to accept responsibility for it?
There may well be valid reasons to be concerned over his appointment, but throwing mud just because Mr. Cole did is not helping anything.