Monday, September 09, 2013

Iraqi officials oppose US strike on Syria

World Bulletin reports, "Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki on Monday called for a political solution regarding the Syrian crisis that escalated due to Syrian President Bashar Al Assad's use of chemical weapons."  Kitabat notes the Speaker of Parliament Osama al-Nujaifi declared on Sunday that an attack on Syria could touch off a regional war effecting all the surrounding countries (Iraq shares a border with Syria).  NINA quotes MP Bahaa al-Araji (head of Moqtada al-Sadr's bloc in Parliament) stating, "The impact of the military strike to Syria will be negative on Iraq."

As Barack Obama pushes war on Syria, the positive for others is the chance to look mature and wise by comparison.  As Barack Obama pushes war on Syria, the negative effect for the US is putting the 2003 US image back in front of the world.  Iraq's Ahlul Bayt News Agency features Jeremy R. Hammond's reminder today:


 The Role of the New York Times.
A headline in the New York Times (September 7, 2013) stated as fact that “With the World Watching, Syria Amassed Nerve Gas”.
The lead paragraph asserted that “Syria’s top leaders amassed one of the world’s largest stockpiles of chemical weapons with help from the Soviet Union and Iran, as well as Western European suppliers and even a handful of American companies, according to American diplomatic cables and declassified intelligence records.”
But as with its propagandistic reporting about Saddam Hussein’s possession of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) in the run-up to the Iraq war, the Times provided no evidence to support its claim, and an examination of publicly available documents the Times cited for this story illustrates how the newspaper is demonstrably lying.

Former US House Rep Dennis Kucinich (Huffington Post) also catches similarities:
Governments have always used fear and manipulation of emotion to get the public to support wars. The Bush administration did it in 2002 in Iraq and it is happening again in Obama's push for war in Syria.
In possibly the biggest development yet in the story, we learned this weekend that the CIA has now been enlisted to sell this new war with unproven evidence. On Saturday, U.S. intelligence officials claimed they "authenticated" 13 videos that show the horrific aftermath of a chemical attack in Syria in August. What exactly did they "authenticate"?
Why are these videos suddenly news when they have been publicly circulating the web for weeks? Here's why: The videos are meant to market the war, not to "prove" who committed the atrocities. (CBS News and others have reported that the White House case for war has been described as "largely circumstantial.")
We've seen this movie before and it doesn't end well. A decade after the Bush administration used the CIA's "yellow cake" tale and other faulty evidence, the government is yet again relying on the CIA to lead a domestic propaganda effort for military action abroad. If these videos can sway American public opinion, as they're intended to do, and influence Congress to vote to attack Syria, this could become the first YouTube war.

Also catching the similarities?  Tom Hayden (Beyond Chron):

 Secretary of State John Kerry even already has suggested a role for American ground forces in his Senate testimony, for example in the case of chaos or a takeover by Syrian militants in a vacuum. This was purely "hypothetical" Kerry said, under sharp questioning. Then in his classic way, Kerry retracted his retraction, sort of, by saying that there would be no boots on the ground during "the civil war" phase of the conflict. This statement left open the possibility of American ground troops if and when the Assad regime begins disintegrating. At that point, does anyone seriously believe there would be another Congressional debate?
The parallel with Iraq is crystal clear. That earlier war was based on false information about "weapons of mass destruction" in the terrifying hands of Saddam Hussein. In an interview, Paul Wolfowitz, one of the war's architects, said that the non-existent weapons were the best argument for mobilizing public opinion and a reluctant Congress. In this war, there seems to be no question that a sarin-type gas attack killed one thousand people, although a UN investigation is incomplete and there are questions about who exactly ordered the attack. That major difference aside, the eerie parallel with Iraq is that the chemical weapons attack is a pretext for expanding the American war in Syria on a much broader basis than is acknowledged.
The American public deserves a full explanation for what we are expected to support.

Barack is correct when he says it's not just like Iraq -- Nouri al-Maliki wasn't calling out the United States in 2003, he wasn't on the world stage as a leader in 2003 and he wasn't publicly talking peace.


Calls for peace isn't the only thing a possible US attack on Syria is prompting.  Kitabat reports Shi'ite militants today have stepped up threats that they will hit US targets in Iraq if there is an attack on Syria.   Shi'ite militias are stating they have 23,000 willing to seek "martyrdom" and that they have received training and been supplied with equipment for just that reason.  It is stated that Americans in Iraq will not be able to escape the retribution of the 23,000 and that the biggest loser from an attack on Syria will be the US and its ally Israel.  Hezbollah in Iraq has issued its own statement where they note that the US was able to go to war on Iraq but it did not go the way the US had hoped, that an attack on Syria will not as well and that the US should stop subordinating their own needs to those of "the Zionist lobby" and oil money -- apparently a reference to Saudi Arabia.


 Turning to Iraq's internal political situation, Iraqiya leader Ayad Allawi Tweeted the following in the last 24 hours:


  1. 2h
    الاوضاع في وصلت الى مراحل خطيرة والمشهد العراقي لا يسر احدا، بسبب الممارسات التي تتعمد التهميش والاقصاء .
    Expand
  2. 2h
    The Iraqi situation has reached serious stages with the practices that adopt deliberate marginalization and exclusion.
    Expand
  3. 24h
    الحل الحقيقي للازمة في هو اصلاح العملية السياسية ووقف الاقصاء والتهميش وعدم الاستفراد بالسلطة.
    Expand
  4. 24h
    The real solution of Iraqi crisis is by reforming the political process, stopping exclusion and autocracy.
    Expand



The Tweets come as the vote on the legislation for next year's parliamentary elections has again been postponed.  All Iraq News reports that September 19th is thought to be the last day on which to vote without delaying the elections planned for early next year.  Kitabat notes rumors that Moqtada al-Sadr's bloc will be making amendments to the proposal and that these amendments are seen as part of the continued conflict between Moqtada and Nouri.  Ahmed Hussein and Muhannad Muhammad (Alsumaria) report the postponement is due to the desire to switch to an open-list system.  NINA quotes Iraqiya MP Wahda al-Jumaili stating, "The delay in adopting the electoral law and its impact on the work [of] IHEC is what some political blocs want in order to postpone the parliamentary elections."  Wael Grace (Al Mada) reports there is a growing belief that there is a concentrated effort on the part of some in government to prevent elections from taking place next year.


Through yesterday, Iraq Body Count counts 268 violent deaths so far this month.  NINA notes 1 person shot dead in Ramadi today, and 2 people were shot dead in Mosul. All Iraq News adds 1 person was shot dead in Babel. Alsumaria reports a Mosul suicide bomber has left three people injured, the Iraq Times adds the suicide bomber was attempting to attack a Peshmerga checkpoint.  The Iraq Times reports 3 people were found hanged from a bridge in Basra.

From last night:

 Last December,  Iraqi President Jalal Talabani suffered a stroke.   The incident took place late on December 17th (see the December 18th snapshot) and resulted in Jalal being admitted to Baghdad's Medical Center Hospital.    Thursday, December 20th, he was moved to Germany.  He remains in Germany currently.  Early Sunday, All Iraq News reports, Osama al-Nujaifi declared he attempted to meet with the hospitalized Jalal five months ago  (that would have been around April) but was rebuffed.  He states he has again asked for another meeting.  He further states if Jalal is unable to resume his tasks shortly, a new president needs to be named.


Dar Addustour columnist As Sheikh notes today that the Constitution is very clear on what happens when the president can't perform duties but how is that determination made? (Is Jalal performing duties from the hospital in Germany?  He could be.  If he is, the Constitution would see him as in office.)  The Constitution says nothing, Sheik notes, about how long a president can be out of the country.  He reviews the rumors that Jalal has not recovered, that he is in a coma, that he has passed away, that his family is putting up a pretense that Jalal has recovered.  He ends his column with a call for clarity both in terms of the governing rules and in terms of the state of Jalal's health.


In other news, Iraq Times is reporting that the governor of the Central Bank of Iraq will be announcing his resignation.

Bonnie reminds that Isaiah's The World Today Just Nuts "Defending Miss Barack's Honor." On this week's Law and Disorder Radio,  an hour long program that airs Monday mornings at 9:00 a.m. EST on WBAI and around the country throughout the week, hosted by attorneys Heidi Boghosian, Michael S. Smith and Michael Ratner (Center for Constitutional Rights) topics addressed include a discussion on the drive for war on Syria (guest: Professor Rashid Khalidi), a discussion of Heidi Boghosian's new book Spying on Democracy: Government Surveillance, Corporate Power and Public Relations, the 50th anniversary of the coup in Chile and more.  Also, tonight on The Charlie Rose Show (PBS), Charlie's interview with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad airs.  This has been teased (with clips) on CBS News since yesterday morning; however, despite claims made by some outlets, the interview will air on Charlie's PBS show (tonight) not on CBS -- CBS has just and will just air clips of it.





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