Saturday, March 09, 2013

With 3 dead protesters, Nouri faces calls for an investigation

Philip Sherwell (Telegraph of London) has a strong column which opens:
Mr Blair is accused of being “evangelical” in his approach to the world and hence to toppling Saddam Hussein’s regime, of making mistakes which led to British forces being ill-prepared for the invasion and caught out by the violent aftermath, and of being so determined to support President George W Bush that he imposed no preconditions for Britain going to war alongside the United States.
Meanwhile, senior Bush White House staff confirmed for the first time to The Sunday Telegraph that they had viewed it as a certainty that Mr Blair would back any US-led invasion, long before he publicly committed Britain to taking part.
They say he made clear his unwavering support for US policy nearly a year before the invasion, after a visit to the president’s ranch in Crawford, Texas.


Shrewell's on strong ground.  The Iraq Inquiry (check the archives) heard from one witness after another and the notion of Tony Blair being pulled into the war unknowingly or reluctantly was refuted.  Blair was an equal to Bully Boy Bush and may have, in fact, led on it because he was also much smarter than his American counterpart was.  Andrew Gilligan offers his own reflections (though he doesn't note or explore his days at the BBC -- he's the one who filed the report about the "sexed up" intelligence being used to argue for war on Iraq.


Meanwhile thug and prime minister Nouri al-Maliki continues to let his crazy run free in Iraq.

Yesterday, Nouri's forces fired on protesters in Mosul, leaving many injured and 3 dead.  It was three -- Arab media reported it as three.  Today, England's Big Pond News reports it as three.  As Elaine noted, the New York Times ran with one -- but as Elaine notes, that lousy paper has an awful record with regards to Iraq.

Ayad Allawi is the leader of Iraqiya, the political slate that came in first in the March 2010 elections, besting Nouri's own State of Law.   Today he Tweets:


  1. 10 hrs
    بالاضافة الى قتل و جرح المتظاهرين المسالمين منعت الحكومة ممارسة الشعائر الدينية بمحاصرة الجوامع .
    Expand



Allawi notes that not only were protesters in Mosul killed and injured but the government (Nouri's forces) also prevented the practice of religion by surrounding the mosque sites.

That's really not minor and good for Allawi for bringing it up.

This is actually the Constitutional crime that could get Nouri in trouble.  If Iraq had independent courts, it would be very likely because the Constitution is very clear about worship.  Nouri sending his forces to prevent people from participating in morning prayers yesterday wasn't just offensive, it was a Constitutional crime.


As for the violence, a lot more objection has beeng voiced than happened earlier this year.  From yesterday's snapshot:

 Responses to the attack?   Alsumaria reports cleric and movement leader Moqtada al-Sadr is calling for an investigation into this assault on the Iraqi people.  Al Mada reports that the Kurdistan Alliance is calling for an investigation and for the perpetrators to be punished.   All Iraq News notes that Mosul has been placed on curfew.   Ahmed al-Saddy's Facebook page carries the announcement that there will be a strike at the University of Mosul March 10th (Sunday) as a result of the attacks on the protesters.   Alsumaria reports the immediate reaction also includes Ezz al-Din al-Dawla resigning as Minister of Agriculture as a result of the killing of protesters in Mosul and he stated that the voices that sent him to Baghdad are not being represented by the government.



Al Mada reports Nineveh Provincial Council met today to disccus the assault and that they are calling for an investigation.  All Iraq News adds that they are calling for Nouri to pull his federal forces out of the province.  Kitabat reports that today the United Nations joined the call for an independent investigation into the attack.


Nouri appears to have gotten away with an earlier attack.  The  January 25th massacre and this left at least 9 protesters dead.   Human Rights Watch called for an investigation on February 14th:

Iraqi authorities should complete promised investigations into the army killings of nine protesters in Fallujah on January 25, 2013, and make the results public. The authorities need to ensure that there will be independent investigations into the deaths, in addition to the promised inquiries by a parliamentary committee and the Defense Ministry, and that if there is evidence of unlawful killing, those responsible are prosecuted.'

 All Iraq News quotes Martin Kobler stating that it was urgent that an independent investigation be launched and that the "authorities must practice high self-control in dealing with demonstrations and the demonstrators."  Kobler is the Special Envoy to Iraq for United Nations' Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.  With the UN, Moqtada al-Sadr, the Nineveh Provincial Council and the Kurdistan Alliance calling for an investigation, Nouri may find it more difficult to emerge unscathed from this attack on protesters.


Meanwhile, Nouri had his forces enter Ramadi early this morning in larger numbers.  All Iraq News notes that the Ministry of Defense is insisting this is due to the fact that there are al Qaeda "elements" in Ramadi.  The Ministry of Defense is Nouri.  Nouri never nominated anyone to head the Ministry because he wanted to control it -- it was a power-grab, just as Iraqiya pointed out in January 2011 while the western press giggled and scoffed and insisted that, in a few weeks, Nouri would nominate people to head the Ministry of Defense, the Ministry of Interior and the Ministry of National Security.  He never did.  Iraqiya was correct, it was a power-grab.

Kitabat reports that the Ministry of Defense's claims were false and quotes Anbar Operations Command's Lt Gen Tareq al-Azawwi who states that there are not any terrorist threats and that the whole thing was inflated.

Violence continued today throughout Iraq. Xinhua reports an al-Madain roadside bombing claimed 2 lives and left two people injured while 2 Kanaan roadside bombings left 1 Iraqi soldier dead and three police officers injured.  NINA adds that a Falluja roadside bombing claimed the life of 1 police officer (another was injured),  unknown assailants shot two people in Falluja (both shot were injured),  and a Baghdad sticky bombing left two people injured.


The following community sites -- plus Tavis Smiley,  Adam Kokesh, the Guardian, Ms. magazine's blog, Cindy Sheehan, Antiwar.com and Pacifica Evening News  -- updated last night and today:





Jeff Kaye (FiredogLake) has an important column, here's the opening:

On March 6, the UK Guardian posted a very important story, with accompanying videos, examining in details and with witnesses the extraordinary efforts by US military and civilian personnel to assemble, train, and direct Shi’a commando brigades in Iraq. These police brigades and paramilitary units unleashed a hellish reign of terror, with massive round-ups, torture, and death squad killings.
The Guardian reveals from photos, interviews, and documentary evidence the chief role of former US Special Operations Colonel James Steele, as well as General Petraeus and other US officials in organizing this counterinsurgency-cum-terror campaign.
Steele had been in charge of training Salvadoran army personnel linked to a campaign of extrajudicial killings, disappearances, and torture during the Salvadoran Civil War in the 1980s. Back in those days, Petraeus was an ambitious up-and-comer, reportedly all too willing to learn what Steele, who’d learned counter-terror techniques in Vietnam, had to teach him, even staying in Steele’s house.


I'm recommending the column and linking to it but not writing on the topic today (we covered it all last week in the snapshots) because we're making it a piece at Third.  So go read Kaye who has a lot worth hearing on the topic.


The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.





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