My, oh my! The western press missed this (See Juan Cole post by Gilbert Achcar) (more)

[UPDATE] Boston Globe picks it up.

This is the quick copy... A group of leading Iraqi names met and signed a pact in preperation for post election Iraq. Names on pact include Muqtada al-Sadr and Ahmad Chalabi (embezzler, fraudster, counterfeiter, double agent, etc.), and al-Jaafari's personal representative (al-Daawa). Groups: Iraqi Concord Front (the major Sunni electoral alliance), SCIRI, and the Sadrist.

Choice text from Achcar via Cole:

According to the reports, the "Pact of Honor" that was adopted consists of 14 points, among which the following demands and agreements are the most important (the sentences in quotation marks are translated from the document as quoted in the reports):

• "withdrawal of the occupiers and setting of an objective timetable for their withdrawal from Iraq"; "elimination of all the consequences of their presence, including any bases for them in the country, while working seriously for the building of [Iraqi] security institutions and military forces within a defined schedule";

• suppression of the legal immunity of occupation troops, a demand coming with the condemnation of their practices against civilians and their breach of human rights;

• categorical rejection of the establishment of any relations with Israel;

• "resistance is a legitimate right of all peoples, but terrorism does not represent legitimate resistance"; "we condemn terrorism and acts of violence, killing, abducting and expulsion aimed at innocent citizens for sectarian reasons";

• "to activate the de-Ba'athification law and to consider that the Ba'ath party is a terrorist organization for all the tyranny it brought on the oppressed sons of Iraq, and to speed up the trial of overthrown president Saddam Hussein and the pillars of his regime";

• "to postpone the implementation of the disputed principle of federalism and to respect the people's opinion about it."

The conference established a committee that is responsible for following up the implementation of the resolutions and reporting on it after six months.

More later (after Exam :( )

Posted by Geoff