The Common Ills: Nouri imprisons Le Monde journalist

Tuesday, January 29, 2013

Nouri imprisons Le Monde journalist

A reporter for Le Monde stands as an indictment against Iraq's 'justice' system and against the petty tyrant Nouri al-Maliki. Nadir Dendoune, who holds dual Algerian and Australian citizenship was covering Iraq for the fabled French newspaper Le Monde's monthly magazine. His assignment was to document Iraq 10 years after the start of the Iraq War. Alsumaria notes the journalist was grabbed by authorities in Baghdad last week for the 'crime' of taking pictures. (Nouri has imposed a required permit, issued by his government, to 'report' in Iraq.) All Iraq News adds the journalist has been imprisoned for over a week now without charges.

The 'crime' of taking pictures? You may remember Nouri immediately launched a war on the press in the summer of 2006. Then again, you may not remember it. Only BBC News reported on it. The New York Times and other outlets praised Nouri's proposals -- they left out his proposal regarding journalism. They lied for him then, they lie for him now. Nouri's not bothered by violence -- why should he be with all the protection he has? But he is bothered by press coverage of violence. He has repeatedly insisted upon arresting journalists, especially photo journalists who take pictures of violence and its aftermath.

Tyrants have to be taught and he's merely aping what the US government ordered done in Iraq -- whether targeting journalists by firing on the Palestine Hotel in downtown Baghdad (killing journalists Jose Couso and Taras Protsyuk and injuring at least three other journalists injured) or by holding journalists (such as Reuters' journalist Ibrahim Jassam) repeatedly and insisting they must be 'terrorists' because they had photos of the aftermath of violence. (Yes, the policy would have led to Clark Kent himself being imprisoned. 'Whenever Superman captures a bad guy, you're right there afterwards! You must be one of the bad guys!')

But Nouri's gone even further, he's kidnapped and tortured journalists and, even when it's reported, it's never a big deal. Especially not to the Committee to Protect Journalists which has revealed itself to be little more than an arm of the US government with no independence -- going so far as to lie about violence in Iraq in their annual report in order to please the US government.

Tyrants don't happen on their own. They need to be taught. They need someone to model their behavior on. Most of all, they require a great deal of shade to grow. Sunlight is the tyrants greatest threat.

Fortunately for Nouri, the international press has long protected him.

The Committee to Protect Journalists is nothing but a s**t stirrer for the US government. Read their day's 'news' and you're sitting through a listing of the US government's targets, it's not any different than a State Dept briefing. They pretend they're concerned with journalists, they pretend.

But if they really gave a damn, they would cover Iraq. Have you seen one item from them -- this is Tuesday, remember -- about Aziz Ghazal Abbas? He's the Alsumaria journalist that the Iraqi military fired on in Falluja Friday. The Committee to Protect Journalists pretends to care about journalists but they don't. They haven't condemned the shooting of Abbas. They're not interested. It doesn't advance the US government's defined interests to call out Nouri's government.

If they were really a watchdog, they wouldn't do the bidding the US government and they'd cover it when a journalist was injured while reporting.

Grasp that, the despicable and craven Committee to Protect Journalists has ignored Aziz Ghazal Abbas, a journalist attempting to cover protests in his country but shot by the military for doing so.

The following community websites -- plus Tavis Smiley, Antiwar.com, Susan's On the Edge, Ms. magazine's blog, C-SPAN, Adam Kokesh, Black Agenda Report, NYT's At War and Pacifica Evening News -- updated last night and this morning: