Thursday, May 23, 2013

Nouri allows armed militias to publicly threaten Iraqis

Violence continues in Iraq.  National Iraqi News Agency notes a series of armed attacks in Falluja which claimed the lives of 3 Iraqi soldiers and eighteen soldiers and Sahwas injured, a Baghdad armed attack left 4 Iraqi soldiers dead and five more injured, and a Falluja attack left two bystanders (woman and man) injured.  All Iraq News notes that "the driver of the dean of Kirkuk Law College" was found dead "shot in the chest" today in Kirkuk.  Alsumaria adds a Tikrit bombing claimed the life of 1 police officer and four more were left injured, an Abu Ghraib bombing injured one Sahwa, and 1 person was shot dead in a Mosul market.  Through yesterday, Iraq Body Count counts 640 violent deaths so far this month.

In related news, National Iraqi News Agency reports that the Motahedoon Coalition has issued a statement stating that the government is supporting armed militias.  (Speaker of Parliament Osama al-Nujaifi heads this coalition.) 

And they are exactly right.

There is no dispute here. If you think there is, you haven't been paying attention.  As NINA also reports, "Sheikh Mohammad al-Hayes, member of Anbar Salvation Council, announced two days grace for Anbar sitters before handing over the killers of five military."

Did someone forget what the rule of law means?

Sahwa's not even officially part of Iraq's security forces.  Nouri's refused to incorporate them.

But if they were part of it?

That's not how the law works.

You don't threaten people with you have 'two days . . .'


You don't threaten collective punishment to begin with, not in a civil society.

If there are deaths, an investigation -- a police investigation -- takes place and, if a suspect can be charged, an arrest is made.

There is no, "You are guilty because I say so, now turn over people to us or we're attacking you're sit-in."

This is completely crazy.

And Nouri al-Maliki has not said one word to call it out.

He is supposedly in charge.

And he's allowing a rag-tag militia of paid whores to threaten the Iraqi people?

Paid whores.  Sahwa's always been a joke, let's be honest.  To see the little whores on Press TV earlier this week accusing the US and Israel of being behind the current attacks in Iraq was hilarious because all those years Sahwa was on the US payroll, they were happy to take that US cash.

In my opinion, you're nothing but a whore if you sell out your beliefs because someone tosses a few crumpled bills at you.  April 8, 2008 the Senate Foreign Relations Committee held a hearing and US Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker and Gen David Petraeus offered testimony.  Senator Barbara Boxer raised the issue of the "Awakening" Council and how "you are asking us for millions more to pay off the militias and, by the way, I have an article here that says Maliki recently told a London paper that he was concerned about half of them".  Boxer noted that the US was spending $182 million each year ($18 million a month) to "Awakening" Council members and "why don't we ask the Iraqis to pay the entire cost of that program"?    Sahwa, Awakening, Sons of Iraq, whatever you call them, were attacking US military equipment and US service members (that is the emphasis and order Petraeus repeatedly gave to it in his April testimonies before Congress).  What changed it?  They were paid off.

Add in that Sahwa's also got known mob connections within Iraq.  Dahr Jamail had established that back in 2007. 

They're mobsters. 

And they're now threatening protesters in Iraq with violence.

And Nouri al-Maliki has yet to call that out?

It his job, it his duty to call that out.

Here's Dahr on Sahwa back in 2008:


Witnesses from the area who have recently fled to Baghdad told IPS that more than 200 residents have been arrested by Awakening fighters supported by the al-Muthanna battalion of the Iraqi army.
“They came and arrested my 14 and 17-year-old sons,” said Hajja Um Ahmed. “I told them my sons are only schoolboys who did nothing wrong, but they pushed me away.”
Saydiya residents are worried that some of the detainees will be executed as others were in Fallujah and other areas where ‘Awakening’ fighters have taken over.
“They will kill them in cold blood and throw their bodies in garbage dumps,” the terrified father of a 35-year-old detainee, speaking on condition of anonymity, told IPS. “They told my son when they took him that they would cut off his head, and it seems that they meant it.”
“They have spread their spies all over the area and threatened us with arrest if we ever talk about this to the press,” a merchant who did not give his name told IPS. “You too must be careful because they really hate journalists.”



 Nouri loathes Sahwa.  But he can't call them out now?  This is his perfect opportunity to order them disbanded.  They are making public threats on Iraqi citizens.  This is where Nouri not only condemns the threat but calls for them to be dissolved. 

But he's not doing a damn thing.

Which makes every word that Osama al-Nujaifi's coalition stated true.


 The following community sites -- plus The Diane Rehm Show, Pacifica Evenings News, Adam Kokesh, Susan's On the Edge, Antiwar.com, Chocolate City and Iraq Inquiry Digest -- updated last night and this morning:




And we'll close with this from David Swanson's "Obama Promises His Speech Will End Some Day" (War Is A Crime):

President Obama is expected to announce that the eternal war on the world will have an end.
When?
He won't say.
I too have an announcement.  I promise my drinking problem will end some day.
When?
I'm not saying.  But the celebrations of the armistice in 1918 began when plans for it were announced, and the partying continued until it actually happened.  Perhaps that is the best approach here.  As an aid to your festivities, let me present the . . .
Afternoon Obama Murder Rap Drinking Game
(which I promise to stop playing soon)




Use links to find out more about the drinking game.

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






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