No, the stand-off hasn't ended. There has been no solution and there's still no agreed upon proposal.
Why does that matter?
Because AP filed a false report. We've covered this:
- Iraq snapshot
- Violence continues as does the conflict between Ba...
- Iraq snapshot
- AP sucks off Nouri and swallows
Thursday morning they filed what was an untruth. Antiwar.com, Press TV and others ran with it. AP falsely 'reported' and it was picked up. It was amplified. There was no reason for that. There was never any reason for it. Thursday morning, AP 'broke news' by announcing something that had happened. They announced it while we were doing the Thursday morning entry and it was obvious that AP had some problems:
AFP also notes, "The visit also comes at a time of high tensions between Iraq's federal government and the autonomous Kurdistan region, during which military reinforcements have been sent to disputed areas in the country's north." All Iraq News notes Nouri held a news conference with Ban Ki-moon today and he declared that there were proposals (plural) to resolve the current standoff between Baghdad and Erbil.
Qassim Abdul-Zahra (AP) has a 'breaking news' bulletin about Nouri announcing that a preliminaty agreement has been reached. I don't think that's accurate. I think AP is reporting on the press conference this morning. If so, again, Nouri said "proposals." Alsumaria reports Nouri said there were two proposals. (The two proposals -- one is locals are in charge of security, two is a joint patrol by Nouri's Tigris forces and the Peshmerga. The key on the second proposal would be whether or not the Peshmerga remains under Kurdish control.) Second, since when the hell did Massoud Barzani develop a case of the shys? Meaning, if an agreement was reached, it stands to reason the the KRG President would be announcing it as well.
Also if it's all wrapped up, shouldn't Jalal Talabani know that? He is the President of Iraq. But All Iraq News reports he gave a speech today noting that the crisis is threatening the security and the peace. Al Mada adds that Talabani declared that threatening language -- a reference to Nouri's speech on Saturday -- has no place in this discussion.
No agreement was reached -- preliminary or otherwise -- nor did Nouri declare that in the press conference.
We established that in the snapshots and a Friday morning entry. If an agreement were reached, Ban Ki-moon, at the same press conference, would not be talking about how both sides needed to figure out how to come to an understanding. Nor would Jalal Talabani be meeting with various people -- including Ahmed Chalabi -- later that day. Nor would the US State Dept and the US Defense Dept -- both represented in Baghdad that day and both holding news-conferences with the acting Minister of the Defense talking about the ongoing stand-off. Meetings continued on Friday, clerics called for the crisis to be resolved, etc.
AP was wrong. And others picked up on it and amplified it. Why Antiwar.com hasn't corrected their repetition of AP's false story is a puzzle and really questions the integrity of the site.
Thursday morning, AP got the story wrong. And by doing so, they ensured that all English outlets were immediately paralyzed. AP's reporting it? Where's our story? And if our story is about the conflict, we better bury that story, not running that because AP says that it's all over.
That's what AP's lie did, it shut down the reporting on Iraq. This was huge day, Thursday, for Iraq. If AP hadn't lied, you would have had a ton of stories. Ban Ki-moon was in Baghdad. The US military and the Iraqi military have signed a new agreement and you had DoD officials in Baghdad. The State Dept had a high ranking official in Baghdad.
And all of that was lost because AP 'reported' -- lied -- and it stopped the whole flow of news.
That can be bad reporting. That can just be bad reporting.
Except November 26th found AP doing the same thing. The stand-off was getting attention, NPR sent Kelly McEvers back to file on Iraq. There was serious interest in what was going on. Just as that was building, AP announced the conflict is over.
It wasn't over.
But there little announcement served to kill the coverage.
So that's twice where AP has been 'wrong' and managed to kill off building interest in Iraq.
It happens once, you think, "Okay, everybody makes mistakes." It happens twice?
We're still going to pretend this was just bad reporting?
This was an outright lie.
It was an intentional lie.
Was AP present at the news conference? Presumably they were. If everyone else heard two potential approaches were being discussed, why did AP hear something different -- something that wasn't said?
It's very hard with this happening twice to pretend that this was anything but propaganda -- intentional propaganda.
Propaganda always has a purpose. Sunday, Nouri wanted the world to know the leader of al Qaeda in Iraq was captured!
And if we were idiots, we would have run with it. But the Iraq War has had how many 'leaders' captured?
Like it happened every time before, as soon as the headlines and spin died down, it was quietly announced that it wasn't the leader of Iraq.
I'm really troubled by Antiwar.com running with that lie about an agreement reached. They made the opening in their late Thursday night filing.
It was never plausible. We had Ban Ki-moon's remarks from the same press conference, we knew AP was lying. We knew by everything that happened Thursday. But at midnight, Antiwar.com wants to pimp that lie?
I think that goes to the level of 'coverage' we're getting from Antiwar.com and I think it also goes to a lack of standards and a lack of concern about Iraq.
AP achieved the desired goal of stopping the coverage. The question that needs to be answered is whose desired goal was it? The US government, the Iraqi government, who was AP serving because they sure as hell weren't serving the public.
It's over, I'm done writing songs about love
There's a war going on
So I'm holding my gun with a strap and a glove
And I'm writing a song about war
And it goes
Na na na na na na na
I hate the war
Na na na na na na na
I hate the war
Na na na na na na na
I hate the war
Oh oh oh oh
-- "I Hate The War" (written by Greg Goldberg, on The Ballet's Mattachine!)
The number of US service members the Dept of Defense states died in the Iraq War is [PDF format warning] 4488.
The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.
iraq
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