Wednesday, December 29, 2010

Assault on Mosul police station

UPI notes 5 corpses were discovered in Baghdad Tuesday. Meanwhile an attack by suicide bombers in Mosul took place today. Alsumaria TV reports it was 6 suicide bombers, that they attacked a police station in Mosul, that police managed to shoot dead three of them, that one fled and one detonated taking the life of Shamel Akla (also spelled Shamil Oglaq in some press reports) while the police chief was targeted with a roadside bombings (which he survived). BBC News counts three suicide bombers, says one was killed by police and has the other two entering the police station where they set off their bombs. The BBC's numbers and narrative match with Sinana Salaheddin's AP report. AFP adds that 3 other police officers were killed in the attack and they cite an unnamed police officer calling this the fifth attempt on Oglaq's life. Mohammed Tawfeeq (CNN) notes, "Several officers were unaccounted for after the blast and rescue crews were at the scene late Wednesday morning scouring through the wreckage of the building, looking for them."

Yesterday, attacks in Mosul claimed 8 lives. Mosul is in Nineveh Province and, from yesterday's snapshot, we'll note this on the political unrest and political connections:

Hamid al-Zubaidi (Iraq Hurr) reports that last night in Mosul, the Presidency of the Conference of Nineveh, calls were made for the removal of the governor of Nineveh Province (Ethel Nujaifi also spelled Atheel al-Najafi). It's been a busy second half of the year for Nujaifi. In August, he was nearly assassinated, in September he condemned a US raid in Mosul and the arrests which followed, dubbing them "politically motivated," October saw further tensions between the Provincial Council and Nujaifi and that Nujaifi was angling for the post of Foreign Minister (Hoshyar Zebari had the post at that time and Zebari holds the post in last week's 'new' announced Cabinet) and, along with many other activities, he also helped delay the census. Last night in Mosul, Nujaifi was accused of overstepping his role and exceeding his powers due to various alleged abuses including the appointment of a mayor whom he allegedly has ties to. His brother is Osama Najafi who is the new Speaker of Parliament. New Sabah reports Osama Najafi is raising the issues of salaries in the Parliament -- Jalal Talabani's and the two vice presidents. As President of Iraq, Talabani's salary "is more than the salary of [US] President Barack Obama." It is agued that laws are needed to address this -- the same argument was made in the previous Parliament. Nujaifi, who surprised many by disclosing his own finances in a Monday Parliament session, is calling for other MPs and Cabinet ministers to do the same.

Meanwhile the national government. The New York Times' editorial board weighs in today with "An Iraqi Government, Finally" that gets taken in by Sam Dagher's 'reporting' the way so many of the rest of us did early yesterday morning. They provide a fleeting overview. They do manage to note there is only one woman in Nouri's Cabinet. That's about it. The editorial could have been written a few months ago. Most outlets (Baltimore Sun, Washington Post, etc.) wrote their 'new government' editorials last week -- when the Cabinet was announced (Tuesday of last week was the Parliament vote). An editorial that's allegedly about a cabinet should note that Nouri's holding three posts in addition to PM and that the three additional posts are part of at least ten posts that were not filled. That's fairly basic and those who turn their assignments in late are really required to offer something outstanding.

On the issue of the still unsettled Cabinet, Alsumaria TV is reporting on ongoing squabbles over one post. They note, "In a statement over Kurds' demands to take over one of the security ministries, National Alliance MP Ali Shallah affirmed that there is no political agreement between Kurds and Al Maliki over allocating the National Security Ministry to Kurdistan Alliance." And they note: "National Alliance MP Nada Al Soudani affirmed that Iraq's security ministries will not be subject to political apportionment. In a statement to Alsumaria, Al Soudani noted that plans to choose security ministers among independent figures might be hindered." That's two members of the National Alliance (Shi'ite bloc) who've felt the need to go on the record today insisting that the Kurds had no automatic hold on the National Security Ministry.

In other unrest, Sinan Salaheddin (AP) reports on a mood -- move? -- in Basra that continues to argue for the city to become its own region -- not unlike the KRG in the north -- and it would certainly have the oil riches to fund any adventures. It also has a highly important sea port as well as Basra International Airport. There have been two efforts at forcing a vote on the issue and Salaheddin reports a third may emerge now that Nouri has named his (partial) Cabinet finally.

The following community sites updated last night and this morning:





Lastly, David Bacon's latest book is Illegal People -- How Globalization Creates Migration and Criminalizes Immigrants (Beacon Press) which won the CLR James Award. We'll close with this from Bacon's "FEDERAL RAIDS AGAINST IMMIGRANT WORKERS ON THE RISE" (Urban Habitat):


While the criminalization of undocumented people in Arizona continues to draw headlines, the actual punishment of workers because of their immigration status has become an increasingly bitter fact of life across the country. The number of workplace raids carried out by the Obama administration is staggering. Tens, maybe even hundreds of thousands of workers have been fired for not having papers.
According to public records obtained by Syracuse University, the latest available data from the Justice Department show that criminal immigration enforcement by the two largest investigative agencies within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has increased to levels comparable to the highest seen during the Bush Administration. Homeland Secretary Janet Napolitano announced that almost 400,000 people were deported last year, the highest number in the country's history.
But deportations are only part of the story. Much less visible is the other arm of current immigration enforcement policy -- the firing of workers. The justification is brutal -- if immigrant workers can't work, and therefore can't eat, pay rent, or provide for their families, they'll have no alternative but to leave the country.
In a recent action DHS pressured one of San Francisco's major building service companies, ABM, into firing hundreds of its own workers. Some 475 janitors have been told that unless they can show legal immigration status, they will lose their jobs in the near future.
ABM has been a union company for decades, and many of the workers have been there for years. "They've been working in this industry for 15, 20, some as many as 27 years in the buildings downtown," says Olga Miranda, president of Service Employees Local 87. "They've built homes. They've provided for their families. They've sent their kids to college. They're not new workers. They didn't just get here a year ago."
Those workers are now faced with an agonizing dilemma. Should they turn themselves in to Homeland Security, who might charge them with providing a bad Social Security number to their employer, and even hold them for deportation? For workers with families, homes, and deep roots in a community, it's not possible to just walk away and disappear. "I have a lot of members who are single mothers whose children were born here," Miranda says. "I have a member whose child has leukemia. What are they supposed to do? Leave their children here and go back to Mexico and wait? And wait for what?"
Miranda's question reflects not just the dilemma facing individual workers, but of 12 million undocu- mented people living in the United States. Since 2005, successive Congressmen, Senators, and administrations have dangled the prospect of gaining legal status in front of those who lack it. In exchange, their various schemes for immigration reform have proposed huge new guest worker programs, and a big increase in exactly the kind of enforcement directed at 475 San Francisco janitors.




The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.


















thomas friedman is a great man






oh boy it never ends








Posted by at