The Common Ills: 2017-04-09

Saturday, April 15, 2017

AP repeats as fact single-sourced anonymous claim

AP is trumpeting 'news.'

Not news.

'News.'

A chemical attack has taken place in Mosul.

And we're supposed to know it's true, understand, because they have an anonymous source.

Some unnamed Iraqi military officer says it happened.

Really?

A chemical attack happens in Mosul and the prime minister of the country, Hayder al-Abadi, is silent but an unnamed Iraqi military officer -- whose rank is never specified -- says it happened.

Whatever happened to the rule of three?

I guess AP doesn't really care.

They'll insist a chemical attack took place based on a single source.

What a proud moment for journalism, for AP and for humanity.

If you really want to end fake news, maybe you start by not reporting single sourced claims -- especially not reporting them as facts?

It's day 179 of The Mosul Slog.

AFP offers a timeline of the lengthy operation that is now six months old. AFP also reports:

IS holds territory in Iraq's Kirkuk province, as well as areas west of Mosul, and in western Anbar province, and also controls territory including the city of Raqa in Syria.
Losing these areas would still not eliminate the threat of bombings and hit-and-run attacks by the jihadists.
Iraqi "successes in Mosul obscure how (IS) has successfully been resurging in other provinces in Iraq," Martin said.

The jihadists have "reconstituted attack capabilities in Diyala and central Salaheddin," he said, referring to provinces where Iraqi forces had largely reasserted control after heavy fighting earlier in the war against IS.
The end of the battle for Mosul will also leave Iraq struggling with thorny political issues including control of recaptured territory in the north that is claimed by both the country's autonomous Kurdish region and its federal government.

The following community sites updated:

Ann's Mega Dub

Alyssa Milano -- photo ops were her college

1 hour ago

The World Today Just Nuts

Shinseki's Limited Hang Out

1 hour ago

Oh Boy It Never Ends

THE FATE OF THE FURIOUS

1 hour ago

Kat's Korner (of The Common Ills)

Blondie is coming

1 hour ago

SICKOFITRADLZ

The Originals continues to amaze this season

3 hours ago

Ruth's Report

When will she go away?

3 hours ago

Thomas Friedman is a Great Man

We've have accepted as normal that which is appalling

6 hours ago

Trina's Kitchen

Grilled Garlic Herb Corn with Tomatoes and Walnuts

11 hours ago

Sex and Politics and Screeds and Attitude

how they lie, how they look away

11 hours ago

Like Maria Said Paz

Shame on Aug San Suu Kyi

12 hours ago

Mikey Likes It!

They lie and lie again

12 hours ago

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

iraq

xx

Veterans For Peace Condemns U.S. Actions in Syria

This is from Veterans For Peace:

Veterans For Peace condemns the illegal U.S. attack in Syria. We call on the Trump Administration to immediately end all military actions in Syria and to begin intense U.S. diplomatic efforts to end the conflict in the region. We call on our members and all those who want an end to U.S. wars to contact the President and Congress, to meet and talk to people about peaceful means to end the war in Syria and hit the streets to make our resistance to war visible.

Call the White House 202-456-1111 and your Senators and Congressional Representatives 202-224-3121 and tell them that military action only increases the dangers and intensifies the humanitarian catastrophe in the region.

Veterans For Peace mourns the deaths of those recently killed in the chemical attack and the hundreds of thousands of lives that have passed over the last six years of this conflict.

The physical effects of a chemical attack and the way it kills is horrendous. The president stated, “No child should ever suffer such horror.” But the ongoing war itself is horrific with many more children dying due to countless attacks by all forces involved, disease, and other war related crises. The madness of this multi-sided war must end. We demand the Trump administration remove all military operations within Syria and to stop flooding the region with arms sales.

The United States is not innocent in the death of over 400,000 people in Syria and across the region since 2011. For more than two decades, the U.S. has been the most powerful destabilizing factor in the region. For the last few years, the U.S. has and continues to support and conduct military operations within the borders of Syria with devastating effects, including the bombing and killing of civilians. Further, the 1991 U.S. led invasion of Iraq, the no-fly zones led by U.S. forces, the war in Afghanistan and the second invasion of Iraq are twenty-six years of continuous U.S. military operations. The cumulative effects of U.S. war-making, decisions made as part of the occupation of Iraq and the subsequent rise of ISIL are the most impactful factors in creating the refugee crisis and the regional destabilization the president referred to in his statement.

It should be clear after more than a generation of war that more war and violence as witnessed in last night’s attacks will not bring an end to the killing and suffering. There are no positive effects coming out of U.S. involvement in Syria and it only further contributes to the death and destruction of the Syrian people. We call on the President to stop ratcheting up tension at home and around the world. The “peace and harmony” he calls for cannot prevail through cycles of violence.