Following are excerpts from an interview with Iraqi MP Mithal Al-Alousi, which aired on Al-Fayhaa TV on December 12, 2009.
Mithal Al-Alousi: If things are like that, and a certain country is waging a war against us, the Iraqi intelligence should respond by the same token, in that very same contemptible capital where they sanction the killing of Iraqis. The Iraqi government should talk about Hareth Al-Dhari. How come nobody mentions the 1920 Revolution Brigades, or talks about Hareth Al-Dhari? How come the Iraqi intelligence does not carry out preemptive operations, even if it involves stopping that criminal by any possible means, in order to protect our citizens? What can the policemen and soldiers out on the streets do? Today, most of the victims are soldiers and policemen, who absorb the first terrorist strike.
We want to see preemptive operations, stemming from confidence in ourselves and in our state. The politicians and security chiefs should act, and take real preemptive measures. The defense of Baghdad cannot be achieved on the streets of Baghdad itself. Baghdad should be defended from advanced posts, and even in dance clubs, among criminals, and in places of worship...
Interviewer: As well as advanced posts in Damascus, in Tehran, and in Riyadh...
Mithal Al-Alousi: In Damascus, in Tehran, in the UAE, and everywhere – even in Washington. We should conduct preemptive operations everywhere, in order to protect the Iraqis.
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in the work of intelligence agencies, preemptive operations are legitimate. I am not telling you to strike at the intelligence agency of some country. I am saying that you should attack the terrorists coming from there, or the recruiting and training centers, about which our government says it has information.
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I would like to say something to our neighboring countries, and I mean what I say. Iraq has survived six years of terror attacks, car bombs, and bloodshed. By God, we can survive another 60 years of this war. But these Mickey Mouse countries – even the large ones, which believe they are protected by the cloak of religion – cannot survive even five terror attacks in their capitals. You will see how their regimes collapse. They should know that Iraq is a superpower that cannot be divided into Sunnis and Shiites, into Kurds, Arabs, and Turkmen – all that nonsense. The body of Iraq has taken many blows, while their bodies cannot tolerate even 2-3 strikes.
We should use our bargaining chips, and eliminate any Iraqi – let me repeat – any Iraqi who plans, from a foreign country, the killing of Iraqis. Let that country get mad and complain to the UN Security Council. Let them do whatever they want. They need us, they need our economy, they need to export their goods to us. They need commercial relations with Iraq. I, Mithal Al-Alousi, am willing to give the order to kill a terrorist in Syria, Tehran, or any other city, if he so much as dreams of killing a single Iraqi citizen.