The Common Ills: Mahmoud's revenge, Iraq's national guard

Tuesday, July 07, 2015

Mahmoud's revenge, Iraq's national guard

The US government hated Mahmoud al-Mashhadani. Which of course meant that the New York Times harnessed its power to lie about him. The lies they printed included a story about how he was hidden away in his home, a broken man, a recluse who was thought to be crazy.

Among the problems with that story?

He was not in his home.

He was in Jordan on a diplomatic mission.

The Times never corrected their lies.

Apparently, when the paper does the bidding of the US government, it requires no facts to publish and no correction when the lies are exposed.

But the US government made an enemy in al-Mashhadani.

And today the former Speaker of Parliament extracts a little revenge.

Iraqi Springs MC has a video of him today explaining how the Iraqi Constitution actually did not pass in 2005 but instead a rigged process by the US government pushed it through.

No doubt this is the first of many corpses al-Mashhadani intends to float to the surface.

Meanwhile Alsumaria publishes the text for the bill on the National Guard. The proposed law does note the Sons Of Iraq (Sahwa, "Awakenings" -- a largely Sunni body) as well as tribal fighters, it notes the Shi'ite militias as well. As written those groupings would be allowed to join the National Guard. In terms of arms, the law declares the group would be more heavily armed than the federal police but less than the Iraqi army. It goes into commissions and, as I'm reading it, Sunnis might have difficulty of meeting the criteria since they've been shut out of the process and might not have the one year qualification to be made a Major General. The Guard itself is put under the Prime Minister in his/her role as Commander in Chief.

Article 13 outlines some general requirements which include:

* Both parents must be Iraqi

* volunteer must be at least 18

* permanent volunteers cannot be older than 35 and reserve volunteers cannot be older than 45

* must meet medical requirements (pass physical)

* no felony conviction (or misdemeanor on moral turpitude)

In yesterday's snapshot, we again noted the failure of the Parliament to pass the National Guard bill (while they did make time to vote on a new national anthem). National Iraqi News Agency notes that, in addition to the National Guard bill, they also failed to pass a law regarding the Federal Court as well as one regarding the justice and accountability commission.

Make time for Pierre Bienaime's report at CJR. We'll note it in today's snapshot.

The following community sites updated: