For one thing, NINA reports they're seeing another mass arrest today, this time in Qadissiya Province, 31 people were arrested. One of the things the protesters have been protesting is Article IV. This means that Clay Miller is suspected of terrorism -- suspected, please understand, not guilty of, nothing has been proven. They can't find Clay. But I'm married to Clay. So they arrest me. Am I thought to have taken part in terrorism? No. But I'm Clay's wife and in 'free Iraq' that's all it takes for me to be arrested. Or I'm Clay's child or his parent or his aunt . . . That's all it takes for me to be arrested. I don't have to be accused of having done anything wrong. But the police can't find the suspect and I'm related to the suspect so I get arrested.
This is used to detain thousands of Sunnis and it's part of the continued war that Nouri and thugs like him maintain in Iraq. Iraq will either learn to be Iraq -- learn to embrace one another -- or it will be the land where Coward Nouri who fled the country decades ago because he was scared he might be hurt now gets to return and overcompensate for the fact that he was a coward who couldn't fight for his own country but instead had to lobby imperial America to overthrow Saddam Hussein. The impotence of Nouri is so great that he will continue to work out these grudges in his failed attempts to demonstrate something that he hopes approximates masculinity. And Iraq will suffer day after day. In contrast to Nouri, Dar Addustour reports Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani is speaking of the importance of Iraqi blood -- of all Iraqi blood -- and the need for the country to pull together.
As Human Rights Watch's Erin Evers observed last month:
In recent months, the government has announced broad reforms in response to weekly mass demonstrations in majority Sunni provinces. These demonstrations began in December, after the arrest of Sunni Finance Minister Rafi al-Essawi’s bodyguards. Early on protesters demanded the release of prisoners — especially female prisoners, who have been held illegally for long periods of time — and reform of Article 4 of the Anti-Terror Law.
Over the last several weeks in Baghdad, I’ve spoken with more than 30 women who are in detention or were recently released, along with lawyers and families of detainees, researching allegations of torture in Iraqi detention facilities.
People told me over and over about random arrests, torture during interrogation and prolonged detention in unofficial facilities. They said corruption was rife among Interior Ministry officials, that there was collusion between officials and judges, and that trials lacked the most basic due process protections.
Detainees repeatedly told me the government uses the broad provisions of Article 4 to detain people without arrest warrants in detention centers overseen by security forces that answer to the Interior and Defense Ministries, or directly to the Prime Minister’s Office.
I asked officials I met about promises to release detainees and about the broader problems with the criminal justice system. By the government’s own admission, some detainees have been held illegally for months — even years.
There is little evidence, though, that the government is carrying out the pledged reforms, or that the reforms target illegal arrests, coerced interrogations and arbitrary detentions.
So, no, there's been no movement on this issue or on any other. Nouri's giving his empty lip service. Like when he told the protesters in 2011, 'give me 100 days and I'll address your demands.' The 100 days came and went and he didn't do a damn thing. He's empty promises, he's a broken oath.
Alsumaria reports that protesters gathered in Nineveh today to protest the security forces arresting an Iman in Mosul and that the security forces fired shots into the crowd. I guess that's another example of Nouri meeting the demands of the protesters?
Kitabat reports protesters in Kirkuk are decrying the Minister of Education Mohammad al-Tamim and, yes, Deputy Prime Minister Saleh al-Mutlaq -- they are saying that in an attempt to stop the people from exercising their right to assembly and end the protests, the two men have sworn out false warrants on three leaders of the Kirkuk protests.
Meanwhile the Iraq Times reports that Haider al-Mullah is calling out Nouri for his failure to attend sessions of Parliament and answer questions. This is a key story and not because of Nouri. This goes to the split the State Dept delegation saw in Saleh al-Mutlaq's National Dialogue Front on their one-day visit to Iraq. Haider is seen as making a move to take leadership of the political party. To take leadership from Saleh al-Mutlaq who has displeased party elders. This is a key moment and it may play out at a low level for another year but we noted here what the State Dept observed with regards to al-Mutlaq on that visit. This goes to those observations. My own personal guess? al-Mutlaq would immediately leap over to Nouri's State of Law if he lost his leadership of the National Dialogue Front.
The National Iraqi News Agency reports a Kirkuk roadside bombing has left eight people injured, and a Tikrit roadside bombing claimed the life of 1 police officer and left another injured. In addition, AP notes a Sahwa member and his mother were shot dead in Baghdad and his brother was left injured.
In other news, it is said that 12 of Iraq's 18 provinces will hold elections April 20th. All Iraq News notes the Electoral Commission met with UNAMI and Martin Kobler yesterday -- Kobler is United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's Special Envoy to Iraq. In a statement from the Electoral Commission, it's noted the meeting included a discussion of postponing elections in Anbar and Ninvehe Province (as Nouri has ordered). Kitabat reports the Electoral Commission is offering that elections in Anbar and Nineveh be postponed until May 18th.
Dropping back to yesterday's snapshot:
This morning, Alsumaria, citing a police source, reported an attack on the headquarters of a Baghdad newspaper where four employees were stabbed with knives. [The number is now five.] The assailants demanded and recorded the names of all the paper's employees. In a later article, the outlet reveals that four daily papers were attacked by "paramilitary" members yesterday. Journalists are decrying the silence and indifference from the government over the attacks. The Associated Press' Diaa Hadid Tweets:
AFP lists the four newspapers as: "Al-Dustour (The Constitution), Al-Parliament, Al-Mustaqbal (The Future) and Al-Nas (The People)" and quotes the editor-in-chief of Al-Mustaqbal, Ali Darraji, stating, "About 30 men in civilian clothes entered our offices after forcibly removing the door. They set fire to my car, and they entered the office, broke all the computers and everything around. All of this happened in about 20 minutes -- when guards outside opened fire to scare them away, they escaped, but they escaped after doing what they wanted to do."
"Al-Dustour" is the paper we note here as Dar Addustour. On their front page -- go to cached copy if the first link doesn't work -- they note that their attackers claimed to be affiliated with Sarkhi Hassani and that they smashed furniture and attacked the staff. They note the attack took place in broad daylight and that a number of employees were wounded -- some left with serious fractures. Dar Addustour has many strong journalists and, in addition to reports, we often note their columnist As Sheik (such as January 25th: "Dar Addustour columnist As Sheik notes that the protesters and their demands have been repeatedly ignored and that it appears any pretext for aggravation has been seized upon by the security forces but that there must be no more Iraqi blood spilled at the hands of the military.") They do long form and contextual journalism and they pride themselves on being independent and not playing favorites. They are a strong example of what the press in any country should aim for. Another strongly independent paper is Al Mada. Mohammed Tawfeeq and Joe Sterling (CNN) report, "Employees of a fifth Baghdad daily newspaper, al-Mada, received threats on Tuesday, the paper's director general told CNN. Mada means 'range' in Arabic."
Many papers and channels have been shut down in the 'free' Iraq. Al Mada was repeatedly targeted last year by the government. At one point, the editor and publisher's home was encircled by military tanks on Nouri's orders. Out of 179 countries in the world, the World Press Freedom Index 2013 ranks Iraq at 150. Meaning there are 29 countries in which the press is in even more danger. And that there are 149 countries in which the press is safer. The report notes of Iraq, "The security situation for journalists continues to be very worrying with three killed in connection with their work in 2012 and seven killed in 2011. Journalists are constantly obstructed." Ahmed Rasheed, Patrick Markey and Mark Heinrich (Reuters) note, "Now Iraqis have a choice of 200 print outlets, 60 radio stations and 30 TV channels in Arabic and also in the Turkman, Syriac and Kurdish languages. But while press freedom has improved, many media outlets remain dominated by religious or political party patrons who use them for their own ends. The government has also occasionally threatened to close media outlets it regards as offensive." They also note 5 journalists killed in 2012.
Dar Addustour reports that the the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council's Sheikh Humam Hamoud has condemned the attacks and termed them "disturbing and scary." He has called on the security forces to double their efforts to find the assailants. As Sheikh is a columnist for Dar Addustour and today he weighs in on the attacks noting that the solidarity many Iraqi officials, politicians and media figures have expressed with the papers attacked has been empowering. He calls on Iraqis to reject violence and to come together to build a modern, democratic Iraq. The attacks were a dangerous precedent, he writes, and must not happen again while the assailants must be brought to justice because this will affirm Iraq's committment tot he law, to democracy and to Constitutional principles. He ends his column calling for the Almighty's blessing on Iraq and thanking those Iraqis who stood up and expressed solidarity.
David Bacon's latest book is Illegal People -- How Globalization Creates Migration and Criminalizes Immigrants (Beacon Press) which won the CLR James Award. We'll close with this from Bacon's "For Unionists, Iraq's Oil War Rages On; The leader of Iraq's oil union is being threatened with prison -- again" (In These Times):
Many Iraqi oil workers thought the fall of Saddam Hussein would mean they would finally be free to organize unions, and that their nationally owned industry would be devoted to financing the reconstruction of the country. But the reality could not have been more different. Earlier this month, the head of the Iraqi Federation of Oil Unions, Hassan Juma’a (below right), was hauled into a Basra courtroom and accused of organizing strikes, a charge for which he could face prison time. The union he heads is still technically illegal: Saddam’s ban on public-sector unions was the sole Saddam-era dictate kept in place under the U.S. occupation, and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki hasn't shown any interest in changing it since most U.S. troops left.
And the oil industry? The big multinational petroleum giants now run the nation’s fields. Between 2009 and 2010, the Maliki government granted contracts for developing existing fields and exploring new ones to 18 companies, including ExxonMobil, Royal Dutch Shell, the Italian Eni, Russia's Gazprom and Lukoil, Malaysia's Petronas and a partnership between BP and the Chinese National Petroleum Corporation. When they started, the U.S. military provided the initial security umbrella protecting all of their field operations.
Lastly, there are real issues in the world. John Hall's crap at the Independent doesn't do anything for anyone. If you doubt it, it's picked up by the Iraq Times today. There are so many things of value that a news outlet could cover. If people don't have respect for their profession, they shouldn't be upset that so many hold the profession in such low regard. The Independent has yet to write one word of its own about the attacks on the newspapers in Baghdad. But it thinks it's earned the right to giggle over people who believe lizards control the earth? You'd think grown adults would realize how ridiculous they look and strive to take themselves a little more seriously. Until they can do that, they shouldn't expect anyone else to take them seriously. And if they're not getting it, Iraqis are giggling at the trivial nonsense a supposed important British newspaper chooses to offer.
The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.
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