What happenedIraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki faced intensifying pressure this week to take charge of his fractured country, as the White House sent strong signals of its lack of confidence in his leadership. A summit meeting between al-Maliki and President Bush in Amman, Jordan, was overshadowed by the publication in The New York Times of a classified memo, by National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley, which is highly critical of al-Maliki. In the memo, Hadley expresses doubts that al-Maliki can control the Shiite militias now conducting a campaign of vengeance killings against Sunnis, saying that al-Maliki "is either ignorant of what is going on, misrepresenting his intentions," or simply incapable of exerting authority. Bush said he was meeting with al-Maliki primarily to ask, "What is your strategy in dealing with the sectarian violence?"
But at the same time as the White House ratcheted up the pressure, al-Maliki also faced anger from fellow Shiites in the political faction led by radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. Several Cabinet ministers and legislators protested al-Maliki's meeting with Bush—which they called "a provocation" — by refusing to perform their government functions for an unspecified time period.
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