Administration leaving out important details on Iraq

January 14, 2007
Administration leaving out important details on Iraq

But the president's account understates by at least 15 months when Shiite death squads began
targeting Sunni politicians and clerics. It also ignores the role that Iranian-backed Shiite
groups had in death squad activities prior to the Samarra bombing.

Blaming the start of sectarian violence in Iraq on the Golden Dome bombing risks policy errors
because it underestimates the depth of sectarian hatred in Iraq and overlooks the conflict's root
causes. The Bush account also fails to acknowledge that Iranian-backed Iraqi Shiite groups stoked
the conflict.

President Bush met at the White House in November with the head of one of those groups: Abdul
Aziz al-Hakim of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq. SCIRI's Badr Organization militia is widely reported to have infiltrated Iraq's security forces and to be involved in death squad activities.