Several Iraq stories that caught my eye this morning.

In response to the Sunni's attempted rejection of Jaafari, the Shia's have started rejecting the Sunni's proposed governmental appointments, as example, the rejection of Tariq al-Hashimi, the proposed nominee for parliament speaker. Perhaps this move by the Shia is why US darling Adnan Pachachi backed down from his call to have parliament meet today.

Newsweek has an interesting article on the devolution of the Iraqi FPS(Facilities Protection Service) to armed bands being funded and run by the respective ministries although "Not one ministry contacted by NEWSWEEK would accept overall responsibility for the FPS." This is a force that "now apparently numbers a staggering 146,000 men." Just another account of another unaccountable armed force inside Iraq.

Also, did you know that 2006 is designated as "the year of the police?"

From yesterday in the Boston Globe, contractors who committed fraud against the Iraqi government(stole reconstruction funds) are getting off scott-free becauuse of "an Iraqi law created by the Coalition Provisional Authority days before it ceded sovereignty to Iraq in June 2004 gives American contractors immunity from prosecution in Iraq." Bremer strikes again.

LAST, and probably the spookiest one, the Guardian tells this story...

Lieutenant Arjuman of the Kirkuk police lay unconscious in the recovery room after a successful operation to remove an insurgent's bullet from his chest. His weary surgeons had gone home for the night, satisfied a life had been saved.

Al-Jumhuriya hospital - Kirkuk's largest and busiest - was quiet. At 10.30pm, a doctor moved along the corridor on the second floor and entered the recovery room. He leaned across the bed and turned off the oxygen supply. Half an hour later, Lt Arjuman was dead.

This guy killed 43 that they know of. How deep is the hatred in Iraq?