The death of the President of the Republic of Iraq Jalal Talabani

[Mammaw]

They could all be correct. He had a meeting with M, had a stroke, M went with him to the hospital, they hoped they could save him and possibly planned to air lift him to where he could get additional help. But he had a turn for the worse (M kept putting the pillow over his head) and died. It isn't conflicting. It is what it is.

[steveh12]

Poor Bugger Pobably Died Waiting for the Dinar to

RV Like the Rest of Us!!

[DinarThug]

Folks, don't you know FOX and the word "news" aren't related?

That's CNN .....

[Dinar_o'saurs]

To check on the health status of His Excellency President Jalal Talabani Contact Tuesday 18/12/2012 His Excellency the President of the State of Palestine, Mr. Mahmoud Abbas, wishing health and wellness and a speedy recovery to President Talabani.

In a telephone conversation reassured His Excellency the Secretary General of the Arab League, Mr. Nabil Elaraby on the health status of the President and expressed his wishes for a speedy recovery and good health and wellness to the President.

Also telephoned Chief of the Emiri Diwan in Kuwait Sheikh Nasser Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, wishing health and healing to His Excellency the President.

And phoned the ambassadors of Egypt, Turkey, Jordan and Spain accredited to Iraq assured the health of His Excellency President Jalal Talabani and carriers greetings and best wishes of their governments to the president a speedy recovery.

My link

[Mike12570]

IMO he probably has gone. I remember the mother king of thailand was sick and passed away in a local hospital. They're news that she was dead. Someone in the upper official came on live TV, radio saying that she was still alive and recovering.

Day later before a speaker of the king came on live TV comfirming her death and having the country moan for the lost. There gotta be a rep for such an official drum.

I believe that he must has passed away. It was sad, but that's how life go.

[zigmeister]

When Maliki formally announces his death, I will believe it.

[SWFloridaGuy]

According to this twitter update Talabani may have taken a turn for the worse and the initial reports may have been accurate. Possibly he was just kept on life support after the stroke. Still too early to tell. We'll see but it's a shame if true. I'm definitely not saying that I know he's passed for sure. I have no clue and hope this turns out to be false. Twitter Link -

[steveinfla]

Why lie about Talabani's death? :blink:/>

The reason they may lie about Talabani's death would be to keep speculators out of the market. It is very possible they are going to RV pretty quick. They do not want everyone buyng up large reserves of Dinar. But please please keep in mind this could be true. With all of Talabani's health issues and stress he has been under he very well could of had a stroke... The timing of his "blood clot" seems a bit fishy to me but again it very well could be true. The poor guy could be have fallen ill.... But again to answer your question it could be a "well timed" incident to keep speculators out of the market. Much like Kwait did back in the 90's with the King died story. As it turned out the RV/RI'ed and the King was perfectly fine...

[Rayzur]

His official site says he is in hospital because he was suffering from fatigue and exhaustion.... Do you ever notice that public figures are always admitted for "fatigue and exhaustion", yet if you actually tried to check into a hospital for fatigue and exhaustion, they'd tell you to go pound sand...

[i_musician77]

His official site says he is in hospital because he was suffering from fatigue and exhaustion.... Do you ever notice that public figures are always admitted for "fatigue and exhaustion", yet if you actually tried to check into a hospital for fatigue and exhaustion, they'd tell you to go pound sand...

I'm with you Rayzur. This still doesn't add up. I find it very difficult to believe that the media would announce the specific locations of the countries two highest officals (Talabani and Maliki). Why would you broadcast this? Sounds great for a media spin as the unsuspecting would think nothing of it. I can't see it being policy to do this. In General, any meetings with multiple members of political stature is announced post meeting, and the general purpose is for the security of those individuals. Additionally, we would have seen an official news conference/statement from the physician/medical staff attending to the President. We have not seen this to date. Not saying it's not true...I am saying this falls way outside typical protocal for this type of event.

[caz1104]

That's CNN .....

& MSNBC,CBS,NBS,PBS,& ABC.....................did I leave anyone out? If I did I apologize-peace

sorry not "NBS"...NBC

[Iownya83]

The reason they may lie about Talabani's death would be to keep speculators out of the market. It is very possible they are going to RV pretty quick. They do not want everyone buyng up large reserves of Dinar. But please please keep in mind this could be true. With all of Talabani's health issues and stress he has been under he very well could of had a stroke... The timing of his "blood clot" seems a bit fishy to me but again it very well could be true. The poor guy could be have fallen ill.... But again to answer your question it could be a "well timed" incident to keep speculators out of the market. Much like Kwait did back in the 90's with the King died story. As it turned out the RV/RI'ed and the King was perfectly fine...

I like the way you think.

[audigger]

The medical team supervising the health of President Jalal Talabani, held this evening, December 18, a press conference to shed light on the health status of the President.

At the beginning of the press conference Naseer al-Ani Head of the Iraqi Presidency Divan talked about the health status of President Talabani, he said that the health of His Excellency President Jalal Talabani is stable.

Al- Ani also said that President Talabani is now in good health, thanking all the doctors who supervised the health of the President.

Undersecretary of the Ministry of Health, during the press conference, said: President Talabani had a health emergency and he was admitted immediately to the hospital, and we have set up a medical team from all specialties, and carried out all the necessary tests to His Excellency the President, and shown that the health emergency of the President was caused by hardening of the arteries.

The tests also showed that body functions of President Talabani are normal and that his health status is stable, the Undersecretary of the Ministry of Health also said, adding that a medical team from Britain would arrive in Iraq tomorrow to oversee the health of the President.

[OldSignalOfficer]

Iraqi president in a coma after suffering stroke, officials say

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2012/12/18/iraqi-president-in-hospital-for-unknown-illness-officials-say/#ixzz2FRmDH600

Let's hope he gets well fast.

[NoviceInvestor]

What next?????????????????????

[jeepguy]

now if those hardened arteries have bullet holes in them i would ask for a second oppionion ,, just saying

[Doctor Smith]

As an off the wall comment.

If you drink a glass of almost hot water with a tablespoon of cayenne pepper in it. You will stop a stroke or heart attack in its tracks every time.

But he will never get this information from mainstream corporate controlled medicine.

[zigmeister]

What next?????????????????????

An RV?

[Alex38]

RIP...

[skitealwedrop]

The Iraqi officials will most likely take a couple days off and then hold multiple meetings to determine if he is dead or not!! More info to come!!

Thank you for the serious laugh, Bump. You have a great sense of humor. Be well! :)/>/>

Ski

As always, facts out of Iraq are non existent or limited. Even the US Media is biased and flawed. Be careful what you read!

[vietnam1969]

Sorry if this makes me laugh......I just hope he signed all the papers before he left !!!! :)/>

Yes, you are sorry if a death makes you laugh. You should have kept that comment to yourself.

[Bumper64]

Thank you for the serious laugh, Bump. You have a great sense of humor. Be well! />/>

Ski

As always, facts out of Iraq are non existent or limited. Even the US Media is biased and flawed. Be careful what you read!

Years of helping mod this forum and reading all the articles about Iraq, you have to have a great sense of humor!!!!!!!!

Hope you and yours have a GREAT HOLIDAY!! Same goes for all the great members here at DV!!!

[snooz]

Yes, you are sorry if a death makes you laugh. You should have kept that comment to yourself.

What a great sens of humor you have !!!!

Oh boy, OK !!

[Capn Geech]

Its just a flesh wound!

[RICK C]

December 18th, 2012

01:39 PM ET

Who would succeed Talabani?

By Michael Rubin, Special to CNN

Editor's note: Michael Rubin is a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute and senior lecturer at the Naval Postgraduate School. The views expressed are his own.

Early this morning, Iraqi President Jalal Talabani suffered a stroke. While his spokesman is releasing few details other than to acknowledge Talabani is in stable condition, some around described the president as comatose. Should he not recover, his loss would strike a blow for Iraq.

Unlike his Kurdish rival Massoud Barzani who often strikes diplomats as cold and aloof, Talabani was an affable man with ready humor. A polyglot, he put Americans, Iraqis, and Kurds at ease, maintained relationships with almost everyone, and so became a natural choice for Iraq’s presidency after Iraq held its first free elections in 2005. He would negotiate one day with Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani in Persian, the next day with American diplomats in fluent English, debate Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki in Arabic, and then instruct his own staff in Kurdish. Few trusted him – his commitments tended only to last until his next meeting, he is said to have leaked American intelligence like a sieve to Iran and vice versa, and he was responsible for a disproportionate amount of pre-war intelligence regarding Saddam Hussein’s alleged weapons systems – but all talked to him and most liked him. In short, he was the perfect figurehead for Iraq.

While the U.S. media has largely ignored Iraq since the withdrawal last year of the last American troops, Talabani’s ill-health does not surprise Iraqis. The president’s health has long been shaky; Talabani has made a half dozen trips to Minnesota’s Mayo clinic in recent years for various ailments exacerbated by obesity and diabetes, compounded by years of excessive smoking and drinking. Talabani’s extended absences have become commonplace. Just this past summer, Talabani was absent from Iraq for almost two months after suffering complications from knee surgery.

Politicians in Baghdad and in Iraqi Kurdistan have long planned for Talabani’s demise: Should Talabani remain incapacitated or pass away, the first question Iraqis will ask is who else can fill his role. Iraqi vice presidents are largely ceremonial, and even if one assumes acting power, he will not continue in the position for long because Kurds will demand that they retain the presidency.

After Talabani’s tenure, Kurds see the presidency as their slot. This has certainly been the hope of Barham Salih, Iraqi Kurdistan’s former prime minister and a long-time member of Talabani’s political party, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK). When, in early 2007, Talabani flew to Amman for emergency medical care for a “toothache,” Kurdish sources say Salih met with Iranian intelligence at Penjwin, a border town, in order to make his case to succeed Talabani. While word of Salih’s actions put him in the doghouse with Talabani and Talabani’s wife Hero Khan, the Kurdish press has reported that in recent months, Salih has been at it again, lobbying both the White House and the leadership of Iran’s notorious Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. For this and personal reasons, Hero Khan, a kingmaker within the PUK, may do all she can to prevent Salih’s rise.

Other Kurds will push for Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari, the uncle of Iraqi Kurdish President Massoud Barzani, a move that will simply unleash a new round of fighting over who should take the helm at the foreign ministry. Whether for president or foreign minister, other communities will push for their own favorites. In the deal-making that followed Iraq’s 2009 elections, Iraq’s interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi won a plurality but was unable to cobble together a coalition and form a government. He has since used his substantial capital to lobby neighboring Arab states to keep his political prospects alive. The White House briefly hoped Talabani might step down to allow Allawi the presidency as a consolation prize, a move the Kurds flatly rejected, but one which will surely re-emerge should the presidency again open.

Regardless of who succeeds Talabani, diplomats and Iraqi politicians must soon confront the elephant in Iraqi politics: The arrangement by which they distribute positions on the basis of ethnicity and religious sect. At issue is whether Iraq will follow Lebanon’s confessional system. In that tiny yet diverse Arab state, the president is a Maronite Christian, the speaker of parliament a Shiite Muslim, and the prime minister a Sunni Muslim. Such a compromise worked well in Lebanon until demography began to shift; the result was a 17-year civil war. Alas, Iraqi politicians may not be farsighted enough to prioritize long term stability over short-term deal-making, and risk setting Iraq down Lebanon’s trajectory. The only thing that unites Sunnis, Kurds, and even Shiites, is the belief that they have been shortchanged in Iraq’s power lottery.

Compounding the succession question will be Iraq’s current political impasse. Barzani encouraged Talabani to take the presidency less for Kurdish pride and more to get his longtime opponent away from Iraqi Kurdistan. Talabani, however, brought the rivalry to Baghdad. While Barzani sought a vote of no confidence to bring down the Maliki government, Talabani maneuvered to keep the vote off the floor of the parliament. Any nomination will become hostage to this and other unresolved Baghdad disputes. Maliki’s future may not be the only one at stake. Many Iraqis would like to send Tariq Aziz, Iraq’s imprisoned Saddam-era foreign minister, to the gallows. While former members of Talabani’s inner circle acknowledge that Talabani ordered his party loyalists to kill political opponents over the years, Talabani has refused to sign Aziz’s death warrant on the basis that Talabani opposes capital punishment. A new president might not be so inclined; certainly parties like Ayad Allawi’s which represent former Baathists will not be inclined to accept a nominee who will carry out Aziz’s sentence.

Talabani’s death might also upset Kurdish stability. The PUK is beset by infighting among Hero Khan, Barham Salih, and former PUK Prime Minister Kosrat Rasul. In recent years, Talabani has also sought to promote his younger son Qubad within the party. Both Barham and Qubad are liked in Washington and London but many Kurds question their legitimacy because neither fought against Iraqi forces as peshmerga, guerilla fighters. Kosrat was a popular peshmerga commander, but his health is poor. Talabani’s wife’s reputation for ruthlessness – and her J. Edgar Hoover-esque control of files regarding her peers quirks and faults – may not be enough for her to consolidate the remnants of her party, or hand the reins to Qubad.

The question then becomes who fills the gap. Both Gorran – a popular reformist party founded by Noshirwan Mustafa, Talabani’s former deputy – and Barzani’s traditional Kurdistan Democratic Party will try. The problem is that for 20 years, Barzani and Talabani resolved their divisions and divided power in backroom deals rather than at the ballot box. (Iraqi Kurdistan is still yet to hold its scheduled 2009 local elections). If Mustafa and Barzani cannot strike a deal, Kurdistan’s stability might be upended: While Mustafa would no doubt relish free and fair elections, Barzani is more likely to fight than trust his future to the electorate. Iraqi Kurdistan may seem stable today, but its devastating civil war is only 15 years behind it, something Kurds remember only too well. The family members of those who Barzani and Talabani’s security forces consigned to mass graves continue to demonstrate for justice. A new round of fighting might not replicate past battles, but it could take the form of assassination waves and bombings.

Exacerbating the political reshuffle on both the Kurdish and larger Iraqi stage will be the disposition of Talabani’s extensive business interests. When Qubad Talabani represented the Kurdistan Regional Government in Washington, he worked as much as his father’s business agent than as a representative of Iraqi Kurds. Much business in Iraq is personal, and absent the patronage of a figure such as Talabani, many businesses – American firms included – may find their contracts worth considerably less than the paper on which they are written.

Let us hope that Talabani recovers. But should he not, expect the next year in Iraqi and Kurdish politics to be a true roller coaster ride.

http://www.cnn.com/

http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2012/12/18/iraqs-president-rushed-to-hospital/