Starting with Hoshyar Zebari.
That's Zebari in better times pictures with his good friend and colleague Hillary Clinton. Yesterday, he was voted out as the Minister of Finance in Iraq due to corruption.
Erika Solomon's piece for THE FINANCIAL TIMES OF LONDON has a headline echoed by some other outlets "Zebari no-confidence vote puts Iraq economy at risk."
If you've paid attention to Iraq, you're going to be rolling your eyes and laughing at what whores the press can be.
Oh, the horror, Iraq has no Minister of Finance!!!!!
You'll probably be thinking, "Wasn't Haider al-Abadi trying to get a brand new cabinet? So doesn't this ouster go along with what he's called for and what the US government has backed?"
If you've really been paying attention, though, you'll probably be thinking back to November 2010 and how Nouri al-Maliki (re-installed as Iraq's prime minister by US President Barack Obama via The Erbil Agreement) was supposed to form a Cabinet.
Then how in January of 2011, he still didn't have a Minister of Defense.
Nouri al-Maliki went his entire second term without a Minister of Defense, from 2010 to 2014.
Now how did the Iraqi military end up in such poor shape that it ran from one 2014 battle after another? That the only time it had the will to attack was when it was attacking Iraqi civilians?
Four years.
We pointed it out repeatedly in real time.
Where was the press then?
For the longest time they were lying.
They were pretending Saadoun al-Dulaimi was heading the ministry. He wasn't.
He was Nouri's glorified personal assistant.
He had no power and he was never confirmed by the Parliament -- because Nouri never nominated him for the post. (Do not e-mail that he was confirmed December 21, 2010 -- that was for the post of Minister of Culture.)
Again, the press had no concern that Iraq had no Minister of Defense for approximately four years.
As the country fell into further chaos, they expressed no concerns.
Wednesday, Hoshyar's voted out due to corruption and before nightfall western outlets are in a tizzy and insisting this could greatly harm Iraq.
Which brings us to Donald Trump.
The Republican presidential candidate has stated repeatedly -- and stated this before he pursued his party's presidential nomination -- that the US should have "kept," "taken," etc. Iraq's oil.
With Iraq, it's hard to know which governmental lie to refute -- governmental lie, I'm not talking about Trump.
But the illegal war was marketed as "freedom" and "liberation" and "democracy."
So outright public theft of the oil would have undermined those slogans.
Donald Rumsfled (he fled his post, remember, while the country was at war, hence Rums-fled -- as did Colin Powell) insisted that the Iraq War would be paid for via Iraq's oil.
So in some way or form, Donald Rumsfled was publicly hinting at what Donald Trump has repeatedly favored.
Should the US have stolen Iraq's oil?
Ethically, I'd say no.
But it has stolen Iraq's oil.
You can pretend otherwise.
And a lot of idiots and whores are doing that just that as they mock Donald.
Things have changed, it's multi-nationals now. That's who the government works for.
And they've benefited from the Iraq War (and that goes beyond oil).
In fact, the corruption in Iraq might have been a planned goal of the US government's all along.
Iraq brings in enough from oil -- in good times -- to give every Iraqi citizen a billion dollars.
Yet over a third of Iraqis live in extreme poverty.
By allowing the corrupt officials to siphon off the oil revenues, it makes it that much easier to steal because Iraq's very young population has now grown 12 years older without ever feeling the benefits of the oil revenues.
How can they object to the loss of something many have never even known?
Nouri was installed by Bully Boy Bush in 2006 and kept by Barack in 2010 (after Nouri lost the election) because Nouri was supposed to deliver the oil and gas revenue law.
He even agreed to it as part of Bully Boy Bush's official benchmarks to measure success.
Nouri never could get it through the Parliament.
Haider is from Nouri's political party (Dawa) and political slate (State of Law) and has also promised he will deliver the passage of the oil and gas revenue law.
Two years and counting since Barack installed him and he's not been able to do it.
He flounders publicly repeatedly -- most infamously with his claim of attacks on NYC subways -- but he's tolerated because they want that law passed.
As John Foster (COUNTERPUNCH) pointed out last year:
Iraq has the world’s fifth largest reserves of oil. The Bush administration accused Saddam Hussein of harbouring weapons of mass destruction and being a threat to the world. At the same time, before the invasion, Washington began drafting an oil law for Iraq — one that would open Iraq’s oil to Western companies. During the war, the country’s infrastructure was devastated, thousands of Iraqis were killed, and millions fled as refugees. The Oil Ministry and oil fields were protected. Washington insiders now admit there was an oil agenda.
If and when it's passed, Iraqis will truly be stripped of everything.
Thus far, all that's been achieved is a level of privatization -- forced -- which has destroyed Iraq's oil as a government industry and contractual enslavement.
The passage of the desired oil and gas revenues law would shatter Iraq's oil industry completely.
I keep waiting for all those condemning Donald Trump to note the theft that has already taken place.
And maybe they would if Bernie Sanders was the Democratic Party's presidential nominee.
But they won't speak the truth with Hillary Clinton the nominee.
As David Sirota and Andrew Perez (IBT) reported last fall:
When then-U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton voted to authorize the war against Iraq in 2002, she justified her support of the invasion as a way to protect America’s national security. But less than a decade later, as secretary of state, Clinton promoted the war-torn country as a place where American corporations could make big money.
“It's time for the United States to start thinking of Iraq as a business opportunity," she said in a 2011 speech.
War aren't just about resources, they're also about markets.
Hillary will speak honestly to big business, it's just the American people she lies to.
Where the wealth's displayed
Thieves and sycophants parade
And where it's made
the slaves will be taken
Some are treated well
In these games of buy and sell
And some like poor beast
Are burdened down to breaking
-- "Dog Eat Dog," written by Joni Mitchell, first appears on her album of the same name
Haider's assisted in the tag sale of Iraq by ignoring Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani's warnings against taking money from the International Money Fund. Yesterday, the IMF issued the following:
IMF Statement on Iraq
September 21, 2016
Mr. Gerry Rice, Director of Communications at the International Monetary Fund (IMF), issued the following statement today:
“IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde met on September 21 with Iraq’s Prime Minister Haidar Al-Abadi in New York on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly meetings. During the meeting, they discussed Iraq’s IMF-supported economic reform program that was approved by the Executive Board on July 7, 2016.
“The Managing Director welcomed the Iraqi authorities' economic program, which is being supported by a $5.34 billion Stand-By Arrangement (SBA) from the Fund approved in July 2016. The Managing Director and the Prime Minister exchanged views on how the SBA can help Iraq address the shocks posed by violent attacks and the drop in global oil prices. The Managing Director reiterated the importance of strong commitment to sound policies and decisive action on key reforms that are crucial to yield the largest gains for Iraq’s population.”
IMF Communications Department
MEDIA RELATIONS
PRESS OFFICER: Wafa AmrPhone: +1 202 623-7100Email: MEDIA@IMF.org
As many countries can attest, the IMF is no friend. (See Bolivia for one example.)
- ISIS Believed To Attack US Base In Iraq With #Mustard Gas. In the past they used it against the #Peshmerga http://fxn.ws/2dktcRj
Michael Harris Ph.D 
Barbara Starr (CNN) reports on the unverified claims here.
Did it happen?
Who knows.
Maybe.
Or maybe it's just Barack's very own Gulf of Tonkin to allow for even more US troops to be sent into Iraq.
After all, Gordon Lubold and Paul Sonne (WALL STREET JOURNAL) report, "The U.S. military is requesting authority to send up to 500 new troops to Iraq ahead of a much-anticipated campaign to take back Mosul from Islamic State, according to U.S. officials, adding to an expanding American presence in the country."
The following community sites -- plus BLACK AGENDA REPORT -- updated:
NETFLIX, SLING TV, Tim Kring
9 hours ago
2 liars keep lying
9 hours ago
All those lies
9 hours ago
The press lies
9 hours ago
Some Tweets
9 hours ago
Most can't face the truth
9 hours ago
iraq
