Saturday, March 22, 2014

Nouri finds another group to blame for his own failures

The Guardian notes:

The Iraqi prime minister Nouri al-Maliki accused unnamed government officials of deliberately hampering the political process, on his weekly televised address to the nation.
He said that some civil servants had "an intentional disrespect for citizens with the aim of turning them against the country's new political system and the current government", the Turkish Press reported.
Al-Malaki said that officials were neglecting public services with the intention of eroding public confidence in the government.


Nouri al-Maliki, if he opens his mouth, chances are he's blaming someone else.

Nothing is ever his fault.

This week, it's 'civil servants.'

Well, too bad Nouri was prime minister for the last eight years.  If he had been, he could have dealt with the issue.

Oh, wait, he has been prime minister since 2006.

So if civil servants are a problem, that's on him.  And he should have done something long ago instead of waiting until the last weeks of his second term to note the problem.


Nouri's mouth flaps a lot but nothing improves in the country.

Iraq Body Count notes, through Friday, 717 violent deaths for the month thus far.


Today's violence saw the murder of a journalist working for the US propaganda outlet.  In addition,  National Iraqi News Agency reports a Qayyarah roadside bombing left 2 Iraqi soldiers dead, police Colonel Ihsan Madhi was shot dead in Basra, a suicide car bomber took his own life and the lives of 3 other people and left twelve others injured "north of Baquba," an Anjana Village roadside bombing left five members of the same family injured, 1st Lt Maadh Hadi was left injured in a Kirkuk shooting, Baquba battles left 3 rebels and 1 police member dead (with two more police injured), 2 suspects traveling in a car were shot dead "near Qaratapa" by military helicopters, Sheikh Zaid Eidan al-Zaidi was shot dead in Arab Jabar Village, Brigadier Saad Maan states security forces killed 1 person "south of Baghdad" and 2 suspects "near the Jordanian hospital in Fallujah," a security source states 5 suspects were killed in Anbar Province by security forces,  1 Peshmerga was discovered "dumped on the road in the center of the province of Sulaymaniyah showing the traces of fire shoots on different parts of the victim's body," and the corpse of Bunyan Abdullah was discovered in Adghaliya Village ("signs of torture and gunshot wounds").

Nouri continues committing the War Crime of collective punishment and his shelling of residential neighborhoods in Falluja left five civilians injured today.


All Iraq News notes Nouri also slammed Speaker of Parliament Osama al-Nujaifi for refusing to allow state TV Iraqiya to film Parliament.  The news of al-Nujaifi's ban broke earlier this week.

I didn't consider it news.  I don't consider it news now.

al-Nujaifi's actions were in response to Nouri banning all outlets from his terrorism conference except for Iraqiya (which his party controls).

It wasn't the end of the world.  Especially since State Of Law was already boycotting sessions of Parliament.

In an ideal world, there would be no response because Nouri wouldn't have banned others to begin with.

But it is news that, having banned all Iraqi and Western outlets from his two-day terrorist conference except for his own Iraqiya satellite TV, Nouri now wants to whine about Iraqiya being banned from filming inside Parliament.


There may or may not be an "I Hate The War" later tonight.  I'd love for it to happen but I've got plans for the next hours and then we've got to start writing Third and Ava and I are hoping to do 3 pieces.  One very short on this week's ethical media lapse that no one seems to have noticed, one on an announced series that hasn't started filming yet (it's a warning piece on the acting) and we'd like to weigh in on Pacifica in light of the lengthy article predicting its demise this week.


The following community sites -- plus Tavis Smiley, Pacifica Evening News, Antiwar.com, Jody Watley, KPFK, ACLU, Jake Tapper and  Susan's On the Edge -- updated:









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