Saturday, December 03, 2011

State of Law says US Air Force will be 'leased' to Iraq

Hossam Acommok (Al Mada) reports that, "according to State of Law," the US and Iraq have reached an agreement for US forces to patrol Iraqi skies which is seen as good news by State of Law (Nouri's political slate) since Iraq cannot protect their own skies currently. In effect, the US will be turning the American Air Force into rent-a-cops. There will be no security agreement, per se, but instead these forces will be "leased" to Iraq. That State of Law source named for that information is MP Khalid al-Asadi who is not just a State of Law MP and leader, he's also very tight with Nouri. The commander of the Iraqi air force, Anwar Hama Amin, is quoted stating that he has not been informed of any such deal but stating that the Iraq air force needs "a lot" more equipment, more time and more money.

Qassim Abdul-Zahra and Rebecca Santana (AP) report on their outlet's interview with Nouri al-Maliki. Nouri claims that his forces are ready to defend Iraq. Is he unaware of what his buddy Khalid al-Asadi is telling the press? Or maybe he just wanted to lie? He does that claiming he was the target of the bombing.

We explained how foolish that was in yesterday's snapshot.

But liars can't help themselves, they lie and they lie some more and their lies get bigger and bigger. That's how we caught on the Myth of the Great Return. They couldn't stop lying. They kept adding details to it.

Today Nouri wants you to know that he has info that he was the target. He's quoted stating, "The preliminary intelligence information says that the car was due to enter parliament and stay there and not to explode. It was supposed to explode on the day I entered parliament."

Nouri's such a bad liar.

Apparently, he's forgotten the detail that was being pimped yesterday: Thursday was to be explosion day? Or maybe he realized how stupid that sounded? That could be. In which case, he's a good lair in that he's realized a glaring detail doesn't fit and needs to be dropped immediately. If so, good liar there. But still a bad liar.


Intelligence tells Nouri that he was the target. That's a good lead. Especially when they have no one to talk to. The reporters inform ou, "A body was found near the wrecked car, but authorities were still trying to determine the person's identity and whether he was the bomber or a bystander, officials have said." They can't even identify a body in terms of whether the person was or wasn't part of a plot. But they somehow have intel that allows them to determine Nouri was a target?

No, it doesn't play.


But what it should do is raise the concern level. It's one thing to have a flunky announce that you were a target. That's a bid for sympathy. But when it's paired with you announcing you were targeted for an assassination?

That may mean that you're going to use this lie to even some scores. For example, insisting it was an inside job that was to target Nouri allows Nouri to bring 'evil doers' to 'justice,' right? Considering his past record, the fact that Nouri gave an interview where he talked about the attempt on his own, concern levels should be rising. Especially when the Sadr bloc is asserting it was an "inside job."


While Nouri tries to present a happy face on Iraq these days, Patrick Cockburn (Independent) finds that things are less sanguine on the ground in Iraq:

Iraqis are worried. The last American soldiers leave the country in the next few days and they are waiting to see how the outcome of the struggle for power in Syria will affect them. "We are afraid about the future," said a businessman in Baghdad. "We are importing goods for two months ahead maximum, and not six months, as we usually do."
The nervousness of Iraqis is inspired in part by memories of the traumatising years between 2003 and 2009, when tens of thousands were slaughtered. Many were victims of "identity card" killings, when a Sunni or Shia caught at the wrong checkpoint or in the wrong area was routinely killed.


Suha Sheikhly (Al Mada) reports on the attacks on women and girls in Iraq. These include the so-called 'honor' killings for girls and women who have had sex outside of marriage. For girls and women. Not for boys and men. This includes teaching Iraq's school age females lies and teaching them lies on purpose, lies that put at risk of pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases. (AIDS is in Iraq. A few of Moqtada's little buddies tried blaming that on the US troops but it was such a bad lie that, these days, the popular scapegoat is foreign workers brought into the country from third world nations.) The culture that permits so-called 'honor' killings is being encouraged via intimidation. It's a very in-depth article. But you want to end honor killings?

Start punishing the men (and women) who are performing these. They're taking a life. Iraq's got the death penalty and has no problem using it. (I don't support the death penalty. I'm aware, however, that the rare 'punishment' in Iraq for these 'honor' killings has been a few weeks in jail and then you're released.) As long as people know there are no consequences for killing a girl or woman when you claim 'honor killing,' don't look for it to disappear. As Hatem al-Saadi (Society for Human Rights) notes, the government needs to pass laws to outlaw the practice and stop protecting the killer.

In today's violence reporting, Reuters notes a Mosul home invasion in which 2 men were killed, an Iskandaraiya roadside bombing which claimed 3 lives, 1 person was shot dead in a Mosul drive-by shooting, an armed clash in Mosul led to 1 death, 2 Baquba bombings injured three people and, dropping back to Friday night for the rest, 3 Kirkuk roadside bombings resulted in 1 death and twelve people being injured and a Baghdad roadside bombing left seven people injured.



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