Thursday, December 13, 2012

Icky Vicky Nuland and her lust for oil

Tuesday, Victoria Nuland elected to wade into the issue of oil and what the KRG needed to do and what Turkey needed to do and to push a 'solution' that ignored existing agreements between Baghdad and Erbil.  Never let it be said that the neocon Kagan family has ever been bogged down by facts.  We noted this in yesterday's snapshot and we'll go over it again today or tomorrow depending on which day we have space for it.  Here's the exchange.


QUESTION: Yes. Turkey is negotiating, or already finished an oil deal with the Kurdistan Regional Government in Iraq. Are you encouraging Turkey not to go along with this, since it will be a provocation to the central government in Baghdad?
 
 
MS. NULAND: Well, first of all, let me say as a general matter, once again, Samir, that the United States supports a constitutional solution to the dispute over the management of Iraq's hydrocarbon resources. This is our longstanding position. We are continuing to urge the Iraqi Government and the Kurdistan Regional Government to reach an agreement over legislation so that they can enhance investment so that everybody knows what the fair legal basis is for this.
We don't support oil exports from any part of Iraq without the appropriate approval of the Iraqi Government, and we're calling on the Government of Iraq and the Kurdistan Regional Government to continue to try to work through their differences. We also call on neighboring states to similarly avoid any action or comment that can contribute in any way to increasing tensions.



In Baghdad Monday, Iraq's Journalistic Freedom Observatory notes, a team of Alsumaria workers were prepaing a report when they were attacked (physically -- punches were thrown at them) by Iraq's security forces. The attack took place in Baghdad's Tahrir Square.

I'm sorry, when is Victoria Nuland going to condemn that?

Iraq's Journalistic Freedom Observatory notes that Saifi Qaisi, editori-in-chief of Safir newspaper, disappeared Sunday when he left a management and editorial meeting to return home by cab but never made it home.  The fifty-year-old has a wife and three children and has been a journalist since the 1980s. 

Victoria Nuland's going to express concern over this when?

Hadi al-Mahdi.  Iraqi journalist and activist who was assassinated in his own home September 8, 2011.

When has Icky Vicky weighed in?

Iraq's LGBT community has been targeted throughout the last four years.  2009 seemed like a slaughter until 2012.  And during that entire time, Icky Vicky Nuland hasn't said one damn word.  In 2009, the State Dept's Ian Kelly did get press -- by the BBC -- and had to say something publicly.

June 10, 2009, here's what Ian Kelly had to say as gay men in Iraq -- and men suspected of being gay -- were being killed by Iraqi security forces and militias:

Ian Kelly: Well, let me say that, in general, we absolutely condemn acts of violence and human rights violations committed against individuals in Iraq because of their sexual orientation or gender identity. This is an issue that we've been following very closely since we have been made aware of these allegations, and we are aware of the allegations. Our training for Iraqi security forces includes instruction on the proper observance of human rights. Human rights training is also a very important part of our and other international donors' civilian capacity-building efforts in Iraq. And the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad has raised and will continue to raise the issue with senior officials from the Government of Iraq, and has urged them to respond appropriately to all credible reports of violence against gay and lesbian Iraqis.

In general, we condemn.  That's all they said.  In 2012, when Nouri's Ministry of the Interior went into schools calling for the deaths of Iraq's LGBT and Emo youth, they didn't say one damn word.





But Icky Vicky Nuland feels she can weigh in on oil.

Icky Vicky feels oil is the topic she can get out there in front of?

Well why not, it was an illegal war for oil and who would know that better than the wife of Robert Kagan?  Here's IPS on Victoria Nuland's husband:

Robert Kagan is a prominent neoconservative writer based at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C. He cofounded, with Wiliam Kristol and other likeminded figures, the Foreign Policy Initiative (FPI), a successor to their now defunct advocacy group, the Project for the New American Century.[1] Kagan’s father, Donald, and brother, Frederick, are also well known neoconservative figures who advocate for a stronger, more interventionist U.S. military.
Despite his close association with neoconservatism and the unpopular policies promoted by that political faction—especially the 2003 invasion of Iraq—Kagan is frequently called upon to serve as an adviser to political figures, including Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who tapped Kagan to serve on her Foreign Affairs Policy Board.[2]


Who better to comment on oil than Dick Cheney's right hand?  As we noted in 2004 when NPR's idiotic ombudsperson was pretending that there was nothing wrong with Robert Kagan critiquing the John Kerry campagin, Icky Vicky was working for Dick Cheney, she was his deputy national security advisor.

Icky Vicky is the Mouth of the State Dept.  She regularly ignores Iraq, she has nothing to say about human rights abuses.  When secret prisons are unearthed by Ned Parker (Los Angeles Times) she just offers that blank, drugged-out looking stare.  When Iraqi women's rights under attack, she says nothing.  When Iraq's LGBT community is targeted, she's just looking bored.

But mention Iraqi oil and damned if the neocon doesn't come alive.  It's called priorities.  And Icky Vicky wouldn't be the face for the State Dept if she didn't share the goals of the White House.  The occupant of the Oval Office may change but the lust for oil remains.

The following community sites -- plus Tavis Smiley, Pacifica Evening News, Antiwar.com, Susan's On The Edge and NPR  -- updated last night and this morning:





Senator Patty Murray is the Chair of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee  and her office issued the following yesterday:

 
 
FOR PLANNING PURPOSES
Wednesday, December 12th, 2012
CONTACT: Murray Press Office
(202) 224-2834
 
 
Tomorrow: Murray to Attempt to Pass Bill Allowing Catastrophically Wounded Veterans to Start Families
 
Murray bill will end ban on in vitro fertilization at VA; provide needed assistance to veterans with major reproductive injuries who are now paying out-of-pocket for expensive fertility procedures
 
(Washington, D.C.) -- Tomorrow, Thursday, December 13th, U.S. Senator Patty Murray, Chairman of the Senate Veterans Affairs' Committee, will head to the Senate floor to call for unanimous consent on her Women Veterans and Other Health Care Improvement Act of 2012, which builds upon previous law to improve VA services for women veterans and veterans with families and ends the ban on in vitro fertilization (IVF) services at VA to help severely wounded veterans start families.  Senator Murray will share the story of Tracy Keil, the spouse of a severely wounded OIF veteran, and her family's experience with VA's fertility services. 
Pentagon data shows that since 2003 nearly 2,000 veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have suffered pelvic fractures and genitourinary injuries that could affect their abilities to reproduce.  In particular, the reliance on foot patrols in Afghanistan and the use of improvised explosive devices has left service members far more susceptible to these injuries.  Veterans who have severe reproductive and urinary tract injuries and spinal cord injuries (SCI) often need highly specialized treatments and procedures like IVF to conceive.  However, under regulations, IVF is expressly excluded from fertility services that are provided by the VA to veterans or their spouses.  This is a significant barrier for veterans with SCI and genital and urinary tract injuries and as a result they have to seek care outside of the VA.  The Department of Defense currently provides access to IVF services and coverage for IVF and other fertility treatments at no charge to severely combat wounded servicemembers.  Senator Murray's bill would provide veterans with the same access.  Read more about Senator Murray's bill HERE.
 
 
 
WHO:             U.S. Senator Patty Murray 
 
 
WHAT:           Senator Murray will give a speech in support of the Women Veterans and     
                        Other Health Care Improvement Act of 2012, will seek unanimous consent
                        on the bill
 
 
WHEN:           TOMORROW:  Thursday, December 13th 2012
                         Approximately 10:15 AM ET/ 7:15 AM PT (this may change depending on                     
floor  
                         schedule)
 
 
WHERE:         Senate Floor
 
 
WATCH:         Speech will air live on C-SPAN2
 
###
 



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