November 1st, Iraq's Prime Minister and chief thug of the ongoing occupation and war Nouri al-Maliki will stroll into the White House for a visit with US President Barack Obama.
Ivan Sacha Sheehan (The Hill) offers:
Analysts will be watching closely to see if President Obama leverages
his influence over the leader that many are calling a puppet of the
Iranian regime.
Al-Maliki’s visit comes on the heels of the administration’s repeated
olive branches to newly elected Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and
Obama’s naive attempts to re-establish relations with the authoritarian
regime’s so-called “moderate” envoy.
Iraq's relationship with Iran is not a big concern to me but Ivan Sacha Sheehan is noting the upcoming visit and taking it seriously so we'll note his remarks. Also, while the relationship is not a big concern to me, this concern will probably result in the only protest against Barack entertaining Nouri. The Ashraf supporters are still talking about protesting. They do turn out for every Congressional hearing on Iraq or Iran -- wearing yellow.
Yesterday, the US Embassy in Baghdad issued the following:
Ambassador Beecroft meets with Foreign Minister Zebari
On October 23rd, Ambassador Beecroft
met with Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari to discuss U.S.-Iraqi
relations, the Strategic Framework Agreement, and preparations for
the upcoming visit of Prime Minister Maliki to Washington.
At
Antiwar.com, Margaret Griffis reviews violence in Iraq over the last few days with "
78 Killed, 53 Wounded in Ongoing Iraq Horror." The horror is a country where people are targeted for death and hunted.
Rashid al-Khayoun (The Majalla) explains:
This new sectarian Iraq is not all that far removed from a hunting
ground. The government was elected because it promised to provide
security, but they are not protecting us and they are perhaps even
contributing to the bloodshed. High-ranking government officials have
been charged with the killings of Sunnis, only to have the cases against
them dropped in dubious circumstances.
Groups of people are killed in massive bombings, seemingly at random,
the last of which we saw yesterday. But what is more frightening,
indeed truly terrifying, is the hunting of individuals—a crime whose
victims are innumerable. There are countless incidents where civilians
have been killed and the government has failed to hold anyone to
account. These include the murders of high-profile figures, such as
radio talk show host Hadi Al-Mehdi in 2011, and Karbala football coach
Mohammad Abbas, who was killed earlier this year. All too often, the
rush of bullets from a gun with a silencer is the last thing an Iraqi
hears.
Many countries have banned the hunting of wild animals, as well as
woodland creatures, birds and marine wildlife. The United Kingdom banned
fox hunting, an aristocratic activity that had been around for
centuries, under pressure from animal rights activists and those wanting
to protect the environment. In fact, if anyone tries to hurt so much as
a waterbird in a public park in Europe, they have no defense.
If a duck happens to waddle past you in the UK, you must not even
scare it because it is protected by the highest authorities and a law
that must not be broken. Additionally, if your neighbor complains that
you are neglecting your cat or dog, the police will arrive at your house
within minutes and you will suddenly find yourself a suspect in a
crime.
However, the people of Iraq do not have this level of protection. The
number of people assassinated in my own family alone has reached eleven
in the past eight years—although there have possibly been more, but we
have never heard about it. I decided to count how many people were
killed or assassinated in my family by the previous regime, and I found
five, including my brother. The difference between then and now is that
under Saddam we at least knew who the killers were: the state itself.
Nicole Gaouette and Caroline Alexander (Bloomberg News) report on how the violence is running off businesses and investments:
“It’s striking how different the outlook for Iraq is today
than what it was as late as June, when the question was who would make
room for growing Iraqi production in the marketplace,” said Daniel Yergin,
author of “The Quest: Energy, Security and the Remaking of the Modern
World.” “Everyone is bringing down their forecast in light of what’s
actually happening on the ground.”
“It’s hard for companies to operate in Iraq,” Yergin, vice chairman of Englewood, Colorado-based research company IHS Inc. (IHS),
said in a phone interview. “The cost of operating there is higher
because the cost of assuring security adds significantly to the overall
costs.”
Maybe Nouri and Barack could discuss how Nouri's now failed Iraq for seven years? Add to the month's growing death toll that
NINA notes a Albo Hayyat home bombing which claimed the life of 1 woman and left her daughter injured.
The following community sites -- plus The NewsHour, Cindy Sheehan, The Diane Rehm Show, Pacifica Evening News, Susan's On the Edge and Antiwar.com -- updated last night and this morning:
We'll close with this from Debra Sweet's "
The Dirtiness of US Drone War" (World Can't Wait):
Almost 5 years after the spike in U.S. use of targeted killing of people via drone by the Obama administration (thousands have been killed), the United Nations, or rather its special rapporteur Ben Emmerson, has released a report
saying these drone strikes by the United States have killed civilians
by the hundreds, or more, and should be carried out in accordance with
international law.
Anyone wanting a ringing condemnation of how utterly wrong it is for
the United States to use killer robots flown from 8,000 miles away,
attacking people on the basis of suspected patterns of behavior (a
"signature" drone strike) and on the President's order will read this
and be outraged. The personal stories of family members obliterated in
seconds, with only parts to be buried, shock the conscience, as war
crimes do. But let's speak the truth and call them war crimes, not just
cry for "accountability."
Joining the United Nations in criticizing U.S. drone strikes – to a point – are Amnesty International “Will I Be Next?” and Human Rights Watch, "Between a Drone and al Qaeda"
each of whom issued their own reports this week. These reports come
out just ahead of a debate at the U.N. Friday October 25 on the use of
drones, and of the visit of Pakistan's Prime Minister Sharif, who told
Obama today to end the drone strikes in Pakistan, while no doubt also appealing to him for more military aid.
Kevin Gosztola describes the Amnesty report in Drone Victims Recount Horror of Follow-Up Strikes Launched Against People Rescuing Wounded.
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