Saturday, February 27, 2016

Iraq snapshot

Saturday, February 27, 2016.  Chaos and violence continue, Moqtada backs Haider, Ammar al-Hakim warns of a poison in the Iraqi government, Moqtada wants a former prime minister prosecuted, Hillary's corruption runs deep, and much more.



Starting in the US where Cranky Clinton wants to be president.  However, the former First Lady, former US senator, former Secretary of State and forever War Hawk, doesn't want to disclose her private speeches to Wall Street.

She and her husband Bill Clinton have taken millions from Wall Street.  They are happy to sing and dance before them and say whatever.  They just don't want the American people to know what was said.

Why does it matter?

John Podesta is the Chair of the 2016 Hillary Clinton presidential campaign.



Huge thanks to all the staff, volunteers, and friends who brought it home. On to Super Tuesday!



He is also -- with his brother -- the founder of The Podesta Group.


A lobbying group.

And his closeness to Hillary benefits him -- if not the people of the United States.


The Podesta Group has [PDF format warning] disclosed their new contact to represent the government of Iraq:


Iraq shall pay the Provider an amount of nine hundred sixty thousand US dollars (US $960,000) for services rendered, plus expenses.  Quarterly installments of two hundred forty thousand US dollars (US $240,000) shall bee paid by check in advance of each three-month period, including the beginning of the term of this Agreement.  Should the Provider be required to travel, Iraq will reimburse Provider at cost for travel expenses, including but not limited to airline tickets, airport transfers, accommodations, and meals.  Public relations expenses such as subscription services, events, digital and media monitoring, or advertising will also be passed through at cost.
Expenses for each three-month period shall be invoiced and paid by check with the fees due for the following period.  Total expenses billed during the period of this contract shall not exceed forty thousand US dollars (US $40,000).


What's that money buying?


The contract innocently puts it:




The objectives of this contract are to promote better understanding within the United States of the priorities and concerns of the Government of Iraq and to further the purposes of the Strategic Framework Agreement between the United States and Iraq, facilitate dialogue between Iraq and the U.S. Congress and executive branch, and make available to the Government of Iraq the services identified below. 



So Podesta's family gets richer and he gets Hillary's ear and what do the Iraqi people get?

A non-responsive government which tolerates and participates in abuses well documented by Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International.



A functioning media would be raising this issue, asking Hillary at debates, "How will you be protecting the people of Iraq when the Podestas rake in close to a million for representing the government of Iraq?"


They'd be asking about her own vision of a free Iraq.  They'd be asking about this Tweet:








  • But we don't have a functioning media.

    For example, Moqtada al-Sadr.

    The cleric and movement leader in Iraq is in the news.

    And the usual liars of the western press are out in full force.

    Moqtada filled Tahrir Square.

    This is an accomplishment?

    There was no police harassment.

    Under police harassment, young Sunnis filled Tahrir Square every Friday for over a year.

    They were beaten, they were arrested and they still filled the square in downtown Baghdad.

    Friday, Moqtada couldn't even turn out a crowd like he had in March of 2014.

    Anyone remember that?







    That's Alsumaria.




    That's Al Mada.


    By contrast, filling Tahrir Square on Friday looks rather tiny.


    Friday, Moqtada held a rally, not a protest.

    It was a rally for the calls of the current prime minister Haider al-Abadi.


    Yes, it was announced that no one spoke for the Sadr movement in the current government.

    A minor note of discordance.

    Otherwise, Moqtada was singing from Haider al-Abadi's hymnal.

    Thursday, NATIONAL IRAQI NEWS AGENCY noted:

    Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi stressed that the government needs to a reformist and harmonious team at the level of application and implementation of reforms and public trends and vision of the government," stressing "the importance of cooperation in order to reduce the number of MPs and members of the provincial councils."

    The office said in a statement that Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi held a meeting with the Chairman and members of the economic and investment committee in Parliament, where he stressed that "economic reform needs to action, and we started working out to move the country to the right path."

    He noted that "the government needs to harmonious reformist team at the level of application and implementation of the reforms and the general trends and vision of the government."



    What are they talking about?




    His appearance before Parliament -- the one the Saturday, February 20th snapshot noted Haider addressed Parliament and we mainly focused on the big news that he told Parliament the Shi'ite militias would be taking part in the liberation of Mosul.  You can also see this February 22nd entry which includes Haider's Tweet about that:










  • PM Al-Abadi addressed Parliament to make the case for a ministerial reshuffle and outline his economic reform plan



  • We offered an analysis Friday morning of what was actually going on.

    A few e-mails objected to this section specifically:


    Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani is no fool.
    He's stopped making calls for change in this government because it's just not happening.
    And he actually made real demands -- as opposed to being a cheerleader for Haider, the way Moqtada is.
    al-Sistani walked away from it because (a) he knows it's not happening and (b) he knows he's going to lose followers over it because he'll look like a tool of an abusive government.
    It's a decision Moqtada should have made.
    Why didn't he?
    Nouri al-Maliki.
    The two were never close.
    Moqtada played a key role in rallying support to oust Nouri.
    Nouri wants back in.
    And may get back in.
    Because Haider's doing such a lousy job.
    Many Shi'ite politicians who did not care for Nouri are beginning to say Nouri's needed.
    (Nouri is a thug who took the country to the brink.  I am not saying he needs to return.  I'm talking about what the perceptions are in Iraq.)
    Moqtada knows he and Nouri have crossed a line and that if, Nouri returned to power right now, eliminating Moqtada would be one of Nouri's strongest goals.
    Or Moqtada thinks that.
    (I think if Nouri returned to power, he'd be willing to form an alliance with Moqtada.  At great cost to Moqtada, but he'd be willing to form one.)
    So to protect himself, he's making desperate measures to prop up Haider.



    One e-mailer especially felt the need to insist, "Sadr doesn't even think about Maliki anymore.  You don't know what you're talking about."


    Moqtada doesn't sweat Nouri?

    In what world?


    Friday evening, NINA reported:

    On the possibility of Sadr's call to prosecute al-Maliki and his former government, [Sheikh Salah] al-Obeidi said "it is not necessarily to prosecute a person as much as al-Maliki rather than prosecute the corrupt in the previous government, whether close to al-Maliki or other even if they are from the Ahrar bloc." 


    Moqtada's "call to prosecute al-Maliki"?


    Yes, boys and girls, Moqtada's sweating him.


    Moqtada's rally was to back Haider.  Wael Grace (AL MADA) reports that there are elements in the National Alliance (largest Shi'ite bloc) that are questioning the reforms Haider's called for an Moqtada's backing.



    Murad Makhmudov, Takeshi Hasegawa and Lee Jay Walker (MODERN TOKYO TIMES) report:


    Therefore, al-Sadr spoke openly to the alienated Shia underclass in Baghdad and other people from the same faith from various walks of life. He attacked the reality of enormous political corruption and how people feel abandoned and alienated. However, al-Sadr is backing the reform minded Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi who is promising to alter the current inept status quo of political corruption and social alienation. In saying this, it could well be that al-Abadi is the final straw for al-Sadr because if his promise of genuine reforms fail, then maybe it is time for another option. Until then, al-Sadr is open to providing much needed support to al-Abadi given the fractious nature of politics in Iraq.



    Here's THE NEW YORK TIMES' Tim Arango:


    In seizing a chance on Friday to return to the political spotlight, he positioned himself as an Iraqi nationalist in the face of Iran’s growing role and as an ally to a weak Prime Minister. “Today I am among you to say to you, frankly and bravely, that the government has left its people struggling against death, fear, hunger, unemployment, occupation, a struggling economy, a security crisis, bad services and a big political crisis,” al-Sadr told the crowd. Above all, it was a reminder of al-Sadr’s complexity, and the confused state of internal Shia politics, that even as he was seeking to harness public rage against the political elites, he had actually called the street rally to support the reform policies of the country’s struggling Prime Minister, Haider al-Abadi. Al-Abadi’s proposal to tackle corruption and install technocrats in the country’s ministries has stalled over the opposition of powerful militia leaders and some pro-Iran politicians. For his part, al-Sadr has offered to have his ministers resign in protest to lend al-Abadi’s agenda some steam. Despite that, and the support of the most senior Shia cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Husseini al-Sistani, it remains unclear whether al-Abadi’s agenda will be able to win the help of any other political blocs. 



    Need more proof of how tight Haider and Moqtada are?


    This week Haider Tweeted about meeting with Moqtada and offered a link to a photo of the two of them.





  • رئيس مجلس الوزراء الدكتور حيدر العبادي اثناء لقائه زعيم التيار الصدري السيد مقتدى الصدر في العتبة الكاظمية المقدسة.


  • Click the Facebook link and be taken to the below:

    رئيس مجلس الوزراء الدكتور حيدر العبادي اثناء لقائه زعيم التيار الصدري السيد مقتدى الصدر في العتبة الكاظمية المقدسة.


    Hou Qiang (XINHUA) reports a new wrinkle in the Iraqi government's relations with neighbors:


    On Friday, UAE Foreign Minister Abdullah Bin Zaid said in a press conference in Moscow that there must be no differentiation between the IS group and those Iranian-backed Shiite militias, including Hashd Shaabi paramilitary groups.
    The Iraqi Foreign Ministry said in a statement that it summoned UAE Ambassador Abdulla Ibrahim al-Shihi to hand him over an official letter of protest at the ill intended remarks of the UAE foreign minister over the Hashd Shaabi (Shiite militias)."



    NINA notes Haider's office expressed outrage over the statements by the UAE.  Meanwhile ALL IRAQ NEWS notes that the leader of the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq, Ammar al-Hakin, has declared that there's a state within the government of Iraq committed to sabotaging the work of the government.



    With all this ongoing suffering, the US government continued bombing Iraq.  Today, the US Defense Dept boasted/claimed/insisted:


    Strikes in Iraq
    Attack, fighter and remotely piloted aircraft conducted 14 strikes in Iraq, coordinated with and in support of Iraq’s government:

    -- Near Baghdadi, two strikes destroyed an ISIL front end loader and an ISIL vehicle bomb.

    -- Near Fallujah, a strike struck an ISIL tactical unit and destroyed an ISIL fighting position.

    -- Near Kirkuk, a strike struck an ISIL tactical unit.

    -- Near Kisik, a strike suppressed an ISIL mortar position.

    -- Near Mosul, seven strikes struck two separate ISIL tactical units and destroyed two ISIL assembly areas, five ISIL fighting positions, an ISIL vehicle bomb facility, an ISIL weapons storage facility and suppressed an ISIL mortar position and two ISIL rocket fire positions.

    -- Near Qayyarah, a strike produced inconclusive results.

    -- Near Ramadi, a strike struck an ISIL tactical unit.

    Task force officials define a strike as one or more kinetic events that occur in roughly the same geographic location to produce a single, sometimes cumulative, effect. Therefore, officials explained, a single aircraft delivering a single weapon against a lone ISIL vehicle is one strike, but so is multiple aircraft delivering dozens of weapons against buildings, vehicles and weapon systems in a compound, for example, having the cumulative effect of making those targets harder or impossible for ISIL to use. Accordingly, officials said, they do not report the number or type of aircraft employed in a strike, the number of munitions dropped in each strike, or the number of individual munition impact points against a target.





















    Isakson Praises Senate VA Committee General Counsel on Receiving Special Recognition Award

    isakson

    Senator Johnny Isakson (above) is the Chair of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee.  His office issued the following last week:





    FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
    Monday, February 26, 2016
    Contact: Amanda Maddox, 202-224-7777
    Lauren Gaydos, 202-224-9126





    Isakson Praises Senate VA Committee General Counsel on Receiving Special Recognition Award
    Amanda Meredith honored by Disabled American Veterans for years of service to veterans through work on committee, Veterans Court
     
    WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., chairman of the Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, today applauded committee Deputy Staff Director and General Counsel Amanda Meredith on receiving the Special Recognition Award from Disabled American Veterans (DAV), a veteran service organization that advocates for veterans and their families to ensure they have access to the resources needed while transitioning back to civilian life.
     
    Meredith, of Binghamton, New York, has worked for the committee for more than 10 years, where she currently focuses on veterans’ benefits policy. Previously, Meredith served at the United States Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims.
     
    “When I took over as chairman of this committee, I knew I needed Amanda Meredith by my side to see to it that veterans get the benefits they deserve,” said Isakson. “She is a great asset to our team and the veterans of America are lucky to have her working on their behalf.”
     
    DAV National Commander Moses A. McIntosh, Jr., said Meredith’s “exemplary professionalism and unwavering spirit of cooperation with DAV and others have measurably contributed to stronger federal policies and laws to improve the lives of America’s veterans, particularly those injured or ill from their military service.”
     
                For more information about DAV and the Special Recognition Award, click here.
     
     
    ###
     
    The Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs is chaired by U.S. Senator Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., in the 114th Congress.
    Isakson is a veteran himself – having served in the Georgia Air National Guard from 1966-1972 – and has been a member of the Senate VA Committee since he joined the Senate in 2005. Isakson’s home state of Georgia is home to more than a dozen military installations representing each branch of the military as well as more than 750,000 veterans.

      





    India - protesters vow to continue struggle to free arrested student union president

    This is a repost from Great Britain's Socialist Worker:


    India - protesters vow to continue struggle to free arrested student union president



    Students groups block Bihar Sampark Kranti Express demanding release of Kanhaiya Kumar
    Students block the Bihar Sampark Kranti Express trainline demanding release of Kanhaiya Kumar



    The biggest wave of student unrest for 25 years has hit India following the arrest in Delhi of Kanhaiya Kumar, a student union president.

    Cops seized Kumar after he addressed a demonstration last week and charged him with sedition.

    Far right students, linked to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government, had accused him of making “anti-national” statements during the protest held to mark the execution of Afzal Guru – a Kashmiri convicted of a terrorist attack on the Indian parliament in 2001.

    Thousands joined protests yesterday, Thursday in response to Kumar’s arrest. These took place at colleges across the country, from Udaipur in the north to Chennai in the south.

    More than 10,000 students from across Delhi blocked city streets.

    Elsewhere, scores of protesters were held by cops as they tried to march in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Varanasi constituency. Meanwhile, demonstrators clashed with right wing student activists in the southern city of Hyderabad.

    In Patna, students stormed the BJP headquarters and tried to vandalise the offices of the hard-right party. Some students were injured as police drove them out with baton charges.

    Struggle

    The tempo of struggle rose dramatically after BJP lawyers threw rocks at Kumar and journalists covering his case in court earlier this week.

    The BJP lawyers waved Indian flags and chanted “Glory to Mother India” and “Traitors leave India”.

    The BJP is desperate to whip-up anti-Muslim tensions in the run up to state assembly elections later this year. They calculate that by polarising Indian society they can rally right wing voters into their camp.

    But the resilience of the students has many politicians rattled, and the movement shows little sign of dispersing.

    As one student from Jawaharlal Nehru University said, “Until the time Kumar is released, we will continue this struggle. Unless they drop the sedition charges against our comrades we will carry on with our strike.”

    The spread of the student protests to the millions of workers and poor who are being attacked by the government is the best way to ensure the BJP’s plans turn to dust.





    the socialist worker




    Friday, February 26, 2016

    The waning of Moqtada?

    I really can't stand trash.  This Twitter user?



    is by far the most democratic Arab nation.. Where else in the Arab world would such huge protests be allowed?

  •  

  • He's spent forever applauding and urging violence and ignoring reports from Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, etc.  He's a thug, a pimp for violence.

    And his stupidity is yet again showing if he thinks the above is 'democracy.

    These are not real protests.

    They did not originate with the people.

    Moqtada al-Sadr used whatever's left of his influence (it's waning -- as the US State Dept is aware) to get his followers out in the street.

    To object to government policies?

    No.

    To demand the government be supported.

    These are not protests.

    Not real ones.

    And when Iraqis take part in real protests, as the Twitter idiot/liar damn well knows, the Iraqi forces attack the people protesting.

    And often they will also attack journalists attempting to cover the protests.


    Massive anti-corruption rally led by Muqtada al-Sadr in Baghdad's Tahrir square.





    "Rally"?

    That's the better term for it.

    It's like that ridiculous non-action Jon Stewart staged in DC.


    It's not a protest.

    And Moqtada weakens himself with this nonsense.

    As a general rule, Moqtada cannot deliver to his followers anything.

    That's been the reality throughout the Iraq War.

    He was almost toppled and forgotten at one point but Condi Rice and others re-inflated him when they thought they were taking him down.

    Moqtada's strength stems from angry followers.

    When he speaks to that anger and mistrust, they rally around him.

    But the reason so many have broken off, the reason so many have left him, is because he's yet again failing to address their concerns and instead seen as a mouth piece for a government -- one that allows Sadr City to remain a slum.

    That's why those who leave him go to even more radical Shi'ite groups.

    What can the US do right now?

    I have no interest in sidelining or 'defeating' Moqtada.

    But I was on the phone with two State Dept friends discussing this topic because they wanted input.

    The worst thing the US government could do -- if they want to sideline Moqtada -- is go after him.

    Condi did that, with statements, when he was weakened and it only drove support for him.

    Just ignore him and pray he continues to (mis)use his support to stand by a corrupt government.

    Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani is no fool.

    He's stopped making calls for change in this government because it's just not happening.

    And he actually made real demands -- as opposed to being a cheerleader for Haider, the way Moqtada is.


    al-Sistani walked away from it because (a) he knows it's not happening and (b) he knows he's going to lose followers over it because he'll look like a tool of an abusive government.


    It's a decision Moqtada should have made.

    Why didn't he?

    Nouri al-Maliki.

    The two were never close.

    Moqtada played a key role in rallying support to oust Nouri.

    Nouri wants back in.

    And may get back in.

    Because Haider's doing such a lousy job.

    Many Shi'ite politicians who did not care for Nouri are beginning to say Nouri's needed.

    (Nouri is a thug who took the country to the brink.  I am not saying he needs to return.  I'm talking about what the perceptions are in Iraq.)

    Moqtada knows he and Nouri have crossed a line and that if, Nouri returned to power right now, eliminating Moqtada would be one of Nouri's strongest goals.

    Or Moqtada thinks that.

    (I think if Nouri returned to power, he'd be willing to form an alliance with Moqtada.  At great cost to Moqtada, but he'd be willing to form one.)

    So to protect himself, he's making desperate measures to prop up Haider.


    Haider's fate is now entwined with his own.

    There's nothing the State Dept can do to bring down Moqtada (and, yes, that is a goal of the administration).

    Even mockery of Moqtada would drive support to him.

    They need to just step back and let this play out however it's going to play out.

    As for the rally.

    That's impressive.

    In that who knew he could turn out that number.

    But that's nothing like the rally he pulled in when he finally returned to Iraq from Iran.

    Again, his support is waning.

    His efforts to prop up a corrupt and ineffective government will only breed more disillusion in those who are still following him.

    By the way, the State Dept has issued a statement on the mosque bombing from yesterday.

    We won't be noting it.  I was asked to this morning.


    Nope.

    If you read it, you'll see why.

    We will be noting the bombing whenever I'm able to do another snapshot -- maybe tonight.  If not, it'll be Saturday.


    FYI,  a friend went to the doctor yesterday thinking she was going to get something to take for what she assumed was a very nasty cold. Instead, she learned she had Stage II kidney failure.  I had planned to do a snapshot yesterday but that was before that.  Instead, I flew out to her and tried to be a good friend.  My apologies for no content last night.  That's also why I didn't take part in the gina & krista round-robin roundtable or have any content for this weeks edition.  Again, my apologies.  (And sorry for everyone who picked up the slack on the round-robin, I've heard that was a near all night thing.)








    The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.












    Thursday, February 25, 2016

    How to get John Kerry to talk Iraq?

    The discredited and laughable John Kerry appeared before House Appropriations Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations and Related Programs on Wednesday (see yesterday's snapshot).


    And the real takeaway?


    One way to get the reluctant Kerry to talk about Iraq?

    Ask about e-mails.


    US House Rep Chris Stewart shared the belief -- common in Congress, as he noted -- that the administration did not have a plan for addressing the Islamic State.

    He then wanted to know if Kerry, as head of the State Dept, had reviewed the e-mails Hillary Clinton sent from a private e-mail address over a non-secure server that the State Dept is stating today were classified?

    Kerry was furious.

    Stewart asked,  "I'm curious, Mr. Secretary, have you read these e-mails that were classified as top secrect?"

    Kerry's reply?

    To ignore the question.

    "So let me answer the questions there that I think are relevant to the budget and the policy," he started before trying to eat up time talking about the Islamic State.


    Stewart attempted to redirect him with, "Well, Mr. Secretary, I wasn't asking that question."

    "Let me just finish now," prissy, fussbudget Kerry insisted.


    And "prissy, fussbudget"?


    Comes from the White House this morning.

    A call wanted to know why I didn't talk about his exchange with Stewart?

    I said I'd planned to go into it in the next snapshot.

    That's when I was asked if I saw idiot Michael Isikoff's Yahoo piece -- yahoo, indeed.

    The administration refers to Iskikoff as John's "clutch purse."

    He's an accessory of Kerry's.

    He tries to rescue him with a non-story of things that will never happen to distract from the reality that Kerry was an embarrassment before the Committee.


    And he was.


    He doesn't get to decide what questions he answers.

    He can refuse to answer.

    Doesn't make the department or the administration come off well.

    ("He's an embarrassment," direct quote from this morning's phone call.)

    When a witness appears before Congress, they have to answer the question.

    If they're a member of the administration, they're supposed to finesse it when the answer might be uncomfortable.

    Kerry could have stated, "I'm sorry, I can't comment because there's an ongoing investigation."

    But John wants to bully and bellow.

    And it's just all the more hysterical when you realize this over 70 year old man spends so much time trying to look young.  The botox is appalling and would be on anyone but especially on a government official.

    We can deal with Isikoff's nonsense in the snapshot.

    But John Kerry embarrassed the White House yet again yesterday.  And that's why they no longer take him seriously (as he well knows).


    Repeating, this was written due to a phone call from a White House friend. I'm being very clear on that so no one later says, "You do the bidding of the White House!"  Anytime I'm asked to do something like this -- including by State Dept friends -- it clearly notes that in the entry.  And for those wondering, this does give me a favor to call in later.



    The following community sites updated:


  •  


    The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.




















    Wednesday, February 24, 2016

    Iraq snapshot

    Wednesday, February 25, 2016. Chaos and violence continue, John Kerry wants billions from Congress but doesn't feel he owes them even basic respect in a hearing, Moqtada al-Sadr floats the threat/promise of Friday protests, and more.



    Today, the US Defense Dept announced/bragged/insisted/claimed:



    Strikes in Iraq
    Fighter aircraft conducted four strikes in Iraq, coordinated with and in support of Iraq’s government:

    -- Near Qayyarah, a strike destroyed an ISIL excavator.

    -- Near Ramadi, a strike struck an ISIL tactical unit.

    -- Near Sinjar, a strike destroyed two ISIL weapons caches and five ISIL assembly areas.

    -- Near Sultan Abdallah, a strike destroyed seven ISIL fighting positions.


    Task force officials define a strike as one or more kinetic events that occur in roughly the same geographic location to produce a single, sometimes cumulative, effect. Therefore, officials explained, a single aircraft delivering a single weapon against a lone ISIL vehicle is one strike, but so is multiple aircraft delivering dozens of weapons against buildings, vehicles and weapon systems in a compound, for example, having the cumulative effect of making those targets harder or impossible for ISIL to use. Accordingly, officials said, they do not report the number or type of aircraft employed in a strike, the number of munitions dropped in each strike, or the number of individual munition impact points against a target.



    These bombings have been carried out every day for 18 months and the Islamic State is still in Iraq.

    What's been accomplished?


    Not real much except to spend a lot of US taxpayer monies.


    On that topic -- taxpayer money -- let's note this.


    "Let me just say that $50 billion is the total request when you add the OCO and the core elements and the AID. It’s equal to about one percent of the federal budget, and it is, frankly, the minimum price of leadership at a time when America is diplomatically engaged more deeply than at any time I think in history in more places as the same time."

    That's US Secretary John Kerry appearing this morning before the House Appropriations Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations and Related Programs.  US House Rep Kay Granger is the Chair of the Committee and US House Rep Hal Rogers is the Ranking Member.


    In spite of all the US dollars which continue to be spent in Iraq, Kerry didn't even note the country in his opening remarks and Iraq was only an issue when Committee members raised it.


    Ukraine was a popular topic in the hearing.  And US House Rep Nita Lowey used the hearing to trash the French government and, yet again, note her fealty to the government of Israel.


    Let's note a rare moment when Iraq came up, when the Chair was noting the Kurds.


    Chair Kay Granger: What can we do to help them stabilize their economy and get them the equipment that they need to fight ISIL?  And I still here continually the fact that the aid for the Kurds has to go through Iraq, that 17% just doesn't get there.  And it doesn't get there in time to be helpful.  So what else can we do?

    Secretary John Kerry:  I have heard that, uh, Madam Chair -- about the question of  some siphoning off.  Uh, I don't know.  I don't have specific evidence of it.  But I've heard these-these allegations and we have a team working -- the Embassy in Baghdad is working very, very closely.  It is a fact, indeed, that US military assistance has to go through the central government.  And that's required both by Iraqi law and by international law.  Uh, and-and-and the reason for that is that we have -- part of our policy has been to try to strengthen the central government of Iraq and not to encourage a break off or the belief that independent entities in the country can deal directly with the -- with the United States and other countries.  So in order to strengthen the government of Iraq, that has been the rule.  But I will tell you that massive amount of effort is getting to the Kurds and the Kurds, frankly, have been quite extraordinary in their efforts to help fight ISIL


    Chair Kay Granger:  They have.

    Secretary John Kerry:  We need to say thank you to them.  And we're training and working with them right now with respect to the preparations for Mosul and, uh, that will continue.



    Kerry continued to be an embarrassment to the administration in today's hearing -- part of the reason he's been pushed to the shun and Brett McGurk has become Barack's go-to.


    In the hearing, he was combative and flat out rude repeatedly.

    Why did he want this job?

    Who knows but it went to his head.

    He would never have accepted such rudeness from a committee witness when he was Chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee but today rudeness is all he offers.


    US House Rep Mario Diaz-Balart did not agree with the White House's normalizing of relations with Cuba.

    Kerry was shocked that Diaz-Balart wouldn't fawn over him the way US House Rep Barbara Lee did (and she did everything but fall to her knees before Kerry).

    Whether you agree with what the administration is doing with Cuba or not, the fact that Kerry was surprised anyone would voice disagreement was shocking.

    Even more shocking was his failure to apparently know Diaz-Balart's history.

    By marriage, Diaz-Balart has a connection to Fidel Castro. His aunt was married to Fidel prior to Fidel ruling Cuba (they divorced, they share a son).  Diaz-Balart's father was a member of Cuba's House of Representatives (before Fidel's rise to power) and opposed any amnesty being offered to the rebel Fidel Castro.

    These are not abstract ideas or beliefs for Diaz-Balart, they're part of his family history.

    And for Kerry to go into that hearing with apparently no knowledge that Diaz-Balart might not be thrilled with attempts to normalize relations with Cuba is rather shocking until you realize that Kerry no longer does any research or preparing at all.  He just thinks he can thunder and intimidate people into silence.

    That's diplomacy?

    That's America's key diplomat?

    Diaz-Balart tossed out numbers.

    They may or may not have been wrong.

    But Kerry was not prepared, had no numbers of his own and was unable to take part in a discussion so he just got rude.


    US House Rep Mario Diaz-Balart:  Do you have any of those numbers, because the numbers that we have --

    Secretary John Kerry:  Well I'll get those numbers for you.

    US House Rep Mario Diaz-Balart:  Reassure us because --

    Secretary John Kerry:  I am trying to reassure you but you don't want to be reassured.

    US House Rep Mario Diaz-Balart:  Mr. Secretary, you have not given me any numbers.


    Kerry has become rude and corrupted by power in his position.

    As a member of the Senate, he would have pursued a witness for numbers and if a witness had attempted to mind read him, he would have corrected the witness immediately.

    Corrupt, rude, and, yes, stupid.

    Again, no one should have been surprised that the objections to White House moves regarding Cuba would come up -- let alone that Diaz-Balart would raise them.



    Kerry has failed Iraq.

    He's failed to defend the people under attack in Iraq, for example.

    Today, those people include the Sunnis.

    And they are attacked by their own government.






  • *Warning Graphic* NO these are not horrid acts perpetrated by the likes of These were done by the Iraqi army




  • Iraqi Shiite militias im Aleppo kill and drag body of a man bcz he is a "son of an Omayyad" (Sunni)




  • The US government looks the other way.

    They fail to call these actions out.

    And then they're surprised that the Islamic State -- which attempts to present itself as a defender of the Sunni people -- got a foothold in Iraq?

    The Islamic State is only a defender of the Sunnis when it comes to protecting them from the Shi'ites who attack them.  The Islamic State itself attacks the Sunni people.

    But that reality is sometimes obscured.


    Changing topics, what happens if the Islamic State is defeated?

    It's not over, it's not finished, argues an expert.

    Ariel Ben Solomon (JERUSALEM POST) speaks with an expert and is told:

    “The Islamic State insurgency will not end if or when all territory is recaptured in Iraq and Syria. The group will return to its pre-January 2015 operational model of destabilizing mass-casualty attacks in urban centers alongside low-level insurgent operations, ensuring that if it cannot fully control these cities, then neither will Baghdad or Damascus,” said Matthew Henman, head of the IHS JTIC.


    If the Islamic State will most likely remain in Iraq even if Barack's vision of 'defeat' for the Islamic State takes place, then it's time to really get honest about how you defeat the Islamic State.

    You don't do so militarily.

    You defeat it by robbing it of its purpose.


    You defeat the Islamic State by removing the only justification it ever had for being in Iraq.

    Nouri al-Maliki was persecuting the Sunnis.  This meant he was using the army to circle the homes of Sunni politicians, he was doing kangaroo courts to sentence Sunni politicians to the death penalty, he was using his forces to invade their homes at three in the morning and kill their family members in the process.

    And this was the Sunni politicians.

    The average Sunni had it even worse.

    There were arrests with no arrest warrants.

    They came looking for Laif al-Naffari and Laif wasn't there but his wife was?

    They arrested his wife.

    And these people arrested were tossed into prisons and jails and disappeared.

    Sunni girls and women in prison were beaten and raped.

    We could go on and on.

    But with the world -- including Barack Obama -- looking the other way, that's when the Islamic State -- a terrorist organization -- took hold in Iraq as a defender of the Sunnis under attack.

    Now they would go on to launch their own attacks against Sunnis.

    But that's not the point.

    The point is that it was the persecution of the Sunnis -- and the world' non-response to it -- that created the climate where some saw the Islamic State as needed in Iraq.

    Let's remember that they only went visibly public when Nouri was threatening and attacking Sunni protesters.


    "But with the world -- including Barack Obama -- looking the other way"?



    Yes, Barack looked the other way.

    Not only did Barack give Nouri a second term as prime minister, but Barack also ignored the protesters. Even when they carried signs proclaiming "Obama, if you Cannot Hear Us Can you Not See Us?Sunday, April 21, 2013, a State Dept friend called me and said the US was monitoring Hawija closely and considered it a hot spot.  So how did the massacre happen two days later?

    And since they were monitoring it, they clearly knew, at least after it happened, that what took place were War Crimes.

    And yet Barack stood with Nouri, continued to stand with him.



    From Samarra من سامراء

    Iraqis in Samarra with a message for the world (photo via Iraqi Spring MC).

    That's March 15, 2013.  One month later, the Hawija massacre would take place.


     The April 23, 2013 massacre of a sit-in in Hawija which resulted from  Nouri's federal forces storming in.  Alsumaria noted Kirkuk's Department of Health (Hawija is in Kirkuk)  announced 50 activists have died and 110 were injured in the assault.   AFP reported the death toll eventually (as some wounded died) rose to 53 dead.   UNICEF noted that the dead included 8 children (twelve more were injured).


    Want to destroy the Islamic State?

    Stop the persecution of the Sunni people in Iraq.

    Rob the Islamic State of what they insist is their reason for existing.


    On protests, let's turn to a Tweet.


    Shiaa cleric Muqtada Al sadar surveying tahrir square in preparing for Fridays protest for reform





    The return of Friday protests?


    If it happens, that would be major news.

    Especially if it were true protests.

    As opposed to the staging and theatrics the Baghdad government sometimes puts on.

    Real protests took place in Dhi Qar today.  IRAQI SPRING MC reports that street cleaners took to the streets of Nasiriyah today to demand the payment of salaries -- salaries that are over two months overdue.

    Wael Grace (AL MADA) reports that Moqtada declared today his continued support for Iraq's Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi while insisting that, if protests begin, his followers would stay in the streets until al-Abadi implemented reforms.  Moqtada stated he supports the Parliament and feels that any finger pointing for failures need to be pointed to the executive branch (which could mean Haider himself but most likely means the Cabinet of Ministers).  Moqtada insists this protest would be for the people and not about backing any political group.  He further stated that demonstrators will not be carrying any weapons.


    On the Cabinet of Ministers, ALL IRAQ NEWS reports that the leader of the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq, Ammar al-Hakim, declared today that there was a need for government reform, a political representation of all segments of Iraqi society and that he backs Haider's call for some Cabinet ministers to resign from their posts.




    ADDED: Lastly, Stan's "The Rock, Zac Ephron and Goldie Hawn" earlier this week inspired the following theme posts: Ruth's "Kojack: The Movie," Rebecca's "trapper john m.d.." Mike's "BJ and the Bear," Betty's "Holmes & Yo-Yo," Kat's "Supertrain," Ann's "The Misadventures of Sheriff Lobo," Stan's "Blansky's Beauties," Elaine's "The Man From Atlantis," Marcia's "Love Sidney" and Trina's "American Girls."