The Common Ills: Nouri's thugs wound 2 protesters

Thursday, January 24, 2013

Nouri's thugs wound 2 protesters

Today Nouri al-Maliki's thugs -- a thug's thugs -- fired on the peaceful demonstrators in Mosul -- fired yet again. January 7th, Nouri's forces assaulted four protesters in Mosul. Today All Iraq News reports that they sent two protesters to the hospital. Alsumaria notes that journalist Sama Mosul Waddah Badrani was injured as he covered the protest and he, like the two protesters has been taken to the hospital.

This will only fuel tomorrow's protests and it also makes Nouri look even more like a thug. The provincial council, even governor Atheel al-Nujaifi, have made clear that the protesters have their support. Nouri needs to bring his forces back to Baghdad. They're not helping him or the crisis.

Kurdistan Regional Government Massoud Barzani went to Davos, Switzerland for the World Economic Conference. Alsumaria reports that Barzani spoke with Turkey's Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu about Iraq's political crisis and how it is only getting worse. Meanwhile Speaker of Parliament Osama al-Nujaifi and former prime minister and National Alliance leader Ibrahim al-Jaafari have also met to discuss the current crisis. Alsumaria reports the two are in agreement that the laws passed need to serve the Iraqi people and there is talk of having the protesters elect repreentatives to convey their demands to provincial councils. As Wael Grace (Al Mada) notes Iraqiya is currently boycotting Cabinet meetings. Iraqiya is the political slate headed by Ayad Allawi which came in first in the 2010 parliamentary elections (Nouri's State of Law came in second). Iraqiya is boycotting the meetings to protest Nouri's government ignoring the demands of the protesters.

Dar Addustour columnist As Sheikh notes that the protests have been taking place for about a month and that they are especially welcomed in the south of Iraq where service is especially poor and corruption rampant. Sheikh observes that the failure to deal with the serious demands of the protesters has aided support and that support has been growing with each successive protest.
Nasiriyah reports the farmers in Dhi Qar are talking about organizing and joining the peaceful protests to demand their legitimate rights.

Tomorrow should be a big day of protests in Iraq, not just because protests have been building up to this for weeks but also because Iraqi youth declared January 25th their day of protest back in December before the current protests began taking place.

The following community sites -- plus Antiwar.com, Jody Watley, The Diane Rehm Show, Pacifica Evening News, Adam Kokesh, Ms. magazine, and NYT's At War -- updated last night and this morning: