Saturday, January 21, 2012

Crisis continues, Nouri cowers before Iran, Biden gets called out in Iraqi media

Abeer Mohammed for the "highly compromised" Institute for War & Peace Reporting argues that the plan of the League of Righteous to join the political process in Iraq may end up "further alienating Sunni Arabs while sparking rivalries between competing Shia groups." Mohammed notes that Moqtada al-Sadr has issued a statement decrying the planned inclusion and insistng of the League of Righteous that they are "killers with no religion -- all they care about is position." (For a critique of the War & Peace Reporting Institute see, PDF format warning, Edward S. Herman and David Peterson's "Milosevic's Death in the Propaganda System" and Herman and Peterson's "Marlise Simons on the Yugoslavia Tribunal: A Study in Total Propaganda Service.") Nouri started the political crisis and seems to have his hands in every move since that further inflames the crisis. From yesterday's snapshot:

Ali al-Tuwaijri (AFP) reports that Nouri's forces arrested Ghabdan al-Khazraji, the Deputy Governor of Investments Diyala Province, and attempted to arrest the Deputy Governor of Administrative Affairs Talal al-Juburi.but he's now in the Kurdsitan Regional Government. The two are Sunni and they are also members of Iraqiya. The arrest follows Wednesday's arrest. Margaret Griffis (Antiwar.com) explained, "Baghdad Provincial Council Vice President Riyadh al-Adhadh was arrested on terrorism charges and stands accused of financing a terrorist group in Abu Ghraib. Adhadh is a Sunni doctor who founded a free clinic in Adhamiya and is the focus of an English-language documentary on Iraq. The Iraqi Islamic Party condemned the action and called it an "unprecedented escalation" in the political arena."Italic

And more arrest connections to Nouri, AFP reports on the reaction to the arrest of Baghdad Deputy Mayor Naeem Abboub (Sunni and member of Iraqiya). "19 officials and tribal leaders" in Nasiriyah were arrested yesterday after they confronted the brother of Sherwan al-Waili demanding that Sherwan retract his accusations against Abboub. Sherwan al-Waili is"a lawmaker belonging to Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's bloc". Strange isn't it how Nouri's finger prints can be found on all the attacks?

As the political crisis continues, Al Sabaah notes increased cries for the leaders to follow the Constitution. Al Mannarah covers a State of Law MP who told the press Friday that she asked Iraqiya to return to sessions of Parliament but that Iraqiya stated they were busy in negotiations with the National Alliance. Sunday a meet-up is set to take place. Al Sabaah explains that it is now expected that the meet-up will result in the announcement of a day for the National Conference. Since December President Jalal Talabani and Speaker of Parliament Osama al-Nujaifi have been calling for a national conference to address the political crisis.

As the crisis continues, Iraq continues to have problems with neighbors its shares borders with. Saud al-Zahid (Al Arabiya) reports the latest, "Commander of Iraqn's Quds Force, Brig. Gen. Qasem Soleimani has said that the Islamic Republic controls 'one way or another' over Iraq and south Lebanon and that Tehran is capable of influencing the advent of Islamist governments in order to fight 'arrogant' powers, ISNA student agency reported on Thursday." Following that announcement, there were four responses. Alsumaria TV reports, "Iraqi Sadr Movement headed by Cleric Sayyed Muqtada Al Sadr rebuked, on Friday, Iranian Quds Forces Commander Qassim Suleimani for declaring that Iraq is subject to Iran's will and that there is a potential to form an Islamic government in Iraq. These statements are unacceptable, Sadr Movement argued assuring that it doesn't allow any pretext to interfere in Iraqi internal affairs." Moqtada's bloc responds. KUNA notes that Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari released a statement which includes, "Iraq has not and will never be affiliated to anyone and will not be a toy in others' game or a place to settle scores between different parties." Alsumaria TV also notes Kurdistan Alliance MP Mahmoud Othman objecting to the statements and terming them "a blatant interference in the affairs of Iraq." And Aswat al-Iraq reports:

Al-Iraqiya Bloc's spokeswoman Maysoon al-Damalouji called today the Iraqi government to officially reply to Iranian Quds Brigade Commander statement that Iraq is subject to Tehran's will.
In a statement, received by Aswat al-Iraq, al-Iraqiya Bloc expressed "sorrow for such statement by General Qassim Sulaimani for being Iraq is under the will of Teheran", while the bloc is "trying to build balanced relations with the neighboring countries to achieve peace, security and stability in the region, based on joint interests and non interference in others' internal affairs".

But Nouri al-Maliki who bitched, moaned and whined to remain prime minister? He has no statement, he has no response. What a 'leader.'

In other signs of great 'leadership,' Al Sabaah reports that there is a Cabinet plan to reduce the rations cards so many Iraqis depend upon for basic staples (tea, flour, sugar, milk, etc.). But not to worry because while Iraqis might have to do without, Nouri continues to pursue weaponry that will allow him (he hopes) to remain in power. Dar Addustour reports that an unnamed "high-ranking" Ministry of Defense source reveals that Nouri is negotiating futher weaponry contracts with the US including radar equipment and that there is a rush to push this deal through on the Iraqi side.

Violence continued today. Reuters notes 1 nurse was shot dead in Mosul when "his private medical clin" was stormed, a Qaiyara gunfire exchange left 1 police officer and 1 suspect dead and a police officer's Hawija home was attacked leaving 1 of his relatives dead and the officer injured.
In addition, AP notes 1 police officer was shot dead in Baghdad and 2 Iraqi soldiers were shot dead in Falluja.

In other news, Al Mada offers a suggestion for US Vice President Joe Biden: Wake up. They note a message of praise Biden offered yesterday on Iraq and suggest he wake up, rub his eyes and see what's really going on in Iraq. They call him to express humility, recognize the serious nature of the political crisis and the nature of what the US has done to Iraq, offer a public apology and change the US Ambassador to Iraq. (James Jeffry is the current ambassador.)

Finally to three who e-mailed Friday to inform that they'd covered Chris Hill as well, I heard of your e-mails. Martha and Shirley informed me of that. So there was no need to write again on Saturday. Your e-mails weren't missed and I wasn't waiting to highlight you. Why would I highlight you?

Friday morning, out of the gate, here we called out Chris Hill. Yes, you went on to call him out later that day.

Know what I did later that day?

Among other things, one of the groups we spoke to about the wars was a social media group, college students. And the women talked about how the men -- in this group -- expected all their causes and writings to get linked to and 'bumped up' and thumbed up and this and that but never did a damn thing for the women in the group. They were really mad about that. (And the men had no excuses, they stumbled and stammered but they had no excuse that made up for their behaivor.) So listening to them, I thought about how my own actions here reward that.

I don't ask for links. I don't ask for highlights. I don't care. I can afford to. I'm not trying to make a name with this site or make money off it. But that doesn't mean I should reinforce bad behavior that's going to hurt other women.

So when Shirley and Martha told me about your 3 e-mails Friday and when Martha stressed that one of you linked to the other two and Martha really stressed that despite your claiming, in your e-mail, that "your takedown of Chris Hill was perfection!," you didn't link to my piece, my attitude was forget it.

Not because it matters if you link to me or not but because your pigs. All three of you, too chicken to call out Chris Hill until this woman does, and then begging me in e-mails for links to your pieces. Your pieces that really aren't offering anything of value, I should add.

I thought about those young women and I'm just not interested in being part of this problem. If you're e-mailing me for links, I better start seeing women linked to by you. (It doesn't have to be me and I'd prefer that it not be me.) I'm sick of your circle jerk and your refusal to include women. And I'm just not interested in highlighting your Chris Hill posts.

I don't need your posts to "back up" (quoting another e-mail from the three) what I said about Chris Hill. Here, I covered the Chris Hill confirmation hearing while you were off doing 'cultural' posts or some other cotten-candy-for-the-mind crap. I attended the hearing, I reported on it here. I reported on it in two consecutive snapshots. I had major reservations about Hill prior to the hearing, they were confirmed in the hearing, I then noted it would be a huge mistake for Hill to be confirmed. When he did get confirmed, we were the only ones to note that, within one week, he had already broken a promise he made the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. And I can go on and on. In other words, what you only recently discovered or only recently felt comfortable talking about? That's a trail we blazed here in real time.

You can stop e-mailing.

For others, the e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.


































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