Let's start with this:
- (1/2) Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi led a campaign of mass violence and terror that devastated the region and threatened the world. His death is a setback for ISIS and a victory for justice. I am grateful for the skill and courage of our special operations and intelligence professionals.
(2/2) Baghdadi's death closes one chapter, but it is not the end of our fight against terrorism. We need a settlement that ends the suffering and destruction in Syria—and ultimately, a long-term plan to counter extremism and allow the region to achieve peace and stability.
That's about all the should be said. I don't know that even that much is required. This is a man who, if we noted his death every time he was said to be dead, would have multiple entries. Maybe he's dead this time, maybe he's not. He's really not all that important and never was. He's not unique or special. He didn't do anything amazing other than tap into resentments and ride them. Someone else will come along who will do that. That's what happens.
A series of e-mails to the public account (were we targeted for astroturf?) insist that, if Barack Obama were in the White House, I would be treating this death as the most important development in the world but because Donald Trump is president, I am underplaying it. "I bet," one e-mailer insists, "you didn't downplay the death of Osama bin Laden!"
I think you'd lose that bet. bin Laden died May 1, 2011. CRAPAPEDIA says May 2nd. There's a reason we call it CRAPAPEDIA. On May 1st, Ava and I wrote "TV: Blather." That was a Sunday night and we cover media for THIRD. We had already done our TV piece ("TV: You can learn a lot from the screen") but Barack Obama broke into prime time for his announcement so Jim asked us to cover the death from a media point of view. We'd worked with Ann on "Diane Rehm's gender imbalance (Ann, Ava and C.I.)" and were tired and just wrote it to be done with and done with the damn edition.
There will be no THIRD piece by Ava and myself on this latest death. I have no desire and we wrote a very long piece on Sunday covering a news segment, a TV show development and a new book.
Osama's coverage here at THE COMMON ILLS? We didn't mention the death that Sunday night. In the May 2nd "Iraq snapshot," we covered deaths. We did a long paragraph noting the deaths of "Spc. Andrew E. Lara, 25, of Albany, Ore" and "Pfc. Robert M. Friese, 21, of Chesterfield, Mich." as well as the funeral of " 25-year-old Pfc Antonio G. Stiggins." After that, these two paragraphs followed:
April ended Saturday and it's time to do the monthly count of Iraqis killed in the ongoing war. April 1st 5 people were reported dead and 55 injured. April 2nd 8 were reported dead and 12 injured. April 3rd 3 were counted dead and 29 injured. April 4th 17 were reported dead and 23 injured. April 5th 8 were counted dead and 14 injured. April 6th 19 were reported dead with 28 injured (we're not including the 8 dead from the collapsed brick plant). April 7th 1 person was reported dead and 1 wounded. April 8th 9 were reported dead and 9 injured. April 9th 3 were reported dead and 4 injured. April 10th 5 were reported dead and twelve injured. April 11th 23 were reported dead and 45 injured. April 12th 12 were reported dead and 15 were reported injured. April 13th 2 were reported dead and 21 injured. April 14th 38 were reported dead and 19 wounded (34 dead at Camp Ashraf on April 8th are included in this day's count because April 14th is when the United Nations was able to confirm the deaths). April 15th 9 people were reported injured. April 16th 2 were reported dead and 7 injured. April 17th 10 were reported dead and 52 injured. April 18th 9 were reported dead and 35 injured. April 19th 8 were reported dead and 17 injured. April 20th 4 were reported dead and 6 wounded. April 21st 7 were reported dead and 8 injured. April 22nd 5 were reported dead 3 injured. April 24th 1 person was reported dead and 13 injured. April 25th 3 were reported dead and 15 injured. April 26th 4 dead 36 injured. April 27th 1 was reported dead and 12 injured. April 28th 19 were reported dead and 49 injured. April 29th 15 were reported dead and 31 injured. April 30th 22 were reported dead and 27 injured. That's 262 deaths and 598 injured (as always, check my math).
Salman Faraj (AFP) notes
that the Iraqi "ministries of health, interior and defence and released
on Sunday showed that a total of 211 Iraqis -- 120 civilians, 56
policemen and 35 soldiers" -- died as a result of attacks in April"
that's a total of 211 and they state 377 were wounded. Now let's move
over to Girlie In The Green Zone, to read her bad reporting for Reuters
is to always be uninformed. Serenes tells you
that the number of wounded has decreased because only "190 civilians
were wounded in April." Does Girlie just make up her figures? Or do
her handlers give her them? She credits the Ministry of Health. Who
knows. She's worthless. The reality is that every outlet that reports
deaths on a daily basis should be doing their own count. Iraqi Body Count does their own and counts 283 civilians killed in the month of April.
AFP mixed the count with an actual report on another topic. Reuters
just tossed out a partial figure. No one offered any analysis. April
24th, Ammar Karim (AFP) noted
an emerging trend: "In recent days, however, three top officials have
been shot dead with silenced guns in the Iraqi capital, leading to
tighter security at checkpoints, with officers checking pistols to see
if they can be fitted with silencers." Silencers have been used in many
attacks throughout the month but the big trend has been the targeting
of officials -- with guns or, as with Baghdad provincial council member
Jasim Mohammed, with bombings. Jasim Mohammed survived the bombing with
injuries. Some targeted officials were lucky enough to survive without
even injuries (though in at least one case, four body guards were
injured) and of course some (like Judge Tuma Jabar Lafta) were killed in
the bombings (also killed was Lafta's wife and their two daughters).
Academics were targeted through out the month (school and college). And
another common theme was home invasions tended to be carried out by
people wearing Iraqi military uniforms. Today New Sabah notes
a Parliamentary Committee has lodged an accusation that the Iraqi
military is "responsible for the security violations in areas they
control" surrounding the capital. The committee notes that repeatedly
reports find the assailants are wearing Iraqi military uniforms and that
the assailants are able to move freely throughout the areas, through
checkpoints, and without arousing suspicion.
Then we had two paragraphs about the protests in Iraq over the government corruption and inability to serve the Iraqi people and how the government response was to attack the protesters. (The prime minister may change but, as this month's events make clear, the Iraqi government remains hostile to the Iraqi people.) We covered the Iraqi political scene for several paragraphs and then we noted the following:
Some can't absorb that.Take Michael D. Shear (New York Times) who can barely
be understood as he frantically tongues Barack Obama's crotch. He just
knows!!! just knows!!!! this death/execution was what Barack was
speaking of last Wednesday and found the pull quote to prove it . . . If
you're stupid. Last night, Ava and I covered the death and we concluded:
A
better press would've noted what a contradiction the presidential
address was. After all, it was only last week that Barack was addressing
the nation about his birth and, at the top of that televised event, he declared,
"I was just back there listening to Chuck -- he was saying, it's
amazing that he's not going to be talking about national security. I
would not have the networks breaking in if I was talking about that,
Chuck, and you know it." So what was tonight? Was bin Laden's death
about national security or not? And if bin Laden was the reason the US
went to war with Afghanistan (that has always been the stated reason),
does bin Laden's death mean US forces finally (and immediately) leave
Afghanistan?
A functioning press would have a ton of questions. Instead, ABC served up Spring Break DC! very MTV style. |
If
Barack were going to be talking about national security, he said
Wednesday, "I would not have the networks breaking in if I was talking
about that, Chuck, and you know it." No, he did not have the
assassination of Osama bin Laden at the front of his mind when he spoke
Wednesday, Michael Shear, you stupid, stupid, little boy. Iraq War
veteran Mike Prysner is with March Forward. He tells Ari Bloomekatz (Los Angles Times),
"Bin Laden's death is being touted in a symbolic way, but the reality
is our friends and family are dying in two wars that have nothing to do
with protecting ourselves from Al Qaeda. It's great that people are
heartened by the death of Bin Laden, but what about the deaths of the
American soldiers and Iraqi civilians that's going to continue after
he's dead?"
The Iraq War has not ended.
That was it from me. It was not a topic that received a lot of play here at all. In fact, check out
"2011: The Year of the Slow Reveal" and you'll notice, in looking back on the year, the death doesn't even get a mention.
Other than that?
Isaiah's THE WORLD TODAY JUST NUTS "The Mouser and Glory Hog." That went up May 5, 2011. And it became a topic at various sites in 2012.
But bin Laden himself wasn't really an issue in 2011 or 2012 here.
So the claim that I would have treated this as huge news if Barack were in the White House today is a false claim.
Sunday, we posted "Isakson Statement on U.S. Raid Targeting ISIS Leader" which was Senator Johnny Iskason (Chair of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee) noting the death. Until this snapshot, that's it. And that'll probably be it unless it turns out the man is still alive.
His death really doesn't matter. His only power was to tap into rage and resentment. If he's dead, I'm not crying.
I'll cry for protesters killed in Iraq, for example. But for him? I don't really care and he himself was meaningless. Just a little thug.
The death below? It matters to me.
The world is a little grayer since we lost this amazing woman and dear friend today. The courage and determination that Kay Hagan and her family showed in the face of her debilitating illness over the last few years was awe inspiring. I loved her.
I've never been a Claire fan but I'll note her Tweet because she and Kay were friends. I won't note Joe Biden's Tweet because the last time I heard him speak of Kay was to rip her apart for her remarks in a Senate hearing. His Tweet is insincere.
He was furious with what she said.
You know what she said, right? If it was so big that the then-Vice President of the United States was cursing about her, surely you saw all the press coverage, right?
What's that? The press didn't cover it all. (One reporter covered it for THE NEW YORK TIMES.) Well we covered it here. We covered that very important hearing at length, in fact. Equally true, I was just mentioning Kay here and that hearing last week (October 22nd snapshot).
The November 15, 2011 Senate Armed Services Committee hearing was covered at length throughout the community. In terms of the exchange between Chair of the Joint-Chiefs Gen Martin Dempsey and Senator Kay Hagan, it was covered in the November 16, 2011 snapshot and THIRD's "Gen Dempsey talks "10 enduring" US bases in Iraq." That exchange was as follows:
Senator Kay Hagan: Well with the drawdown taking place in less than two months, what is your outlook for the ability to continue this training process to enable them to continue to do this on their own?
General
Martin Dempsey: Well they will be limited. They don't have the airlift
to deliver them to the target that we might have been able to provide.
They don't have the ISR target to keep persistent surveillance over the
top of the target. So they'll be limited to ground movement and
they'll be limited to human intelligence and we'll keep -- But part of
the Office of Security Cooperation provides the trainers to keep the
training to develop those other areas, but we're some time off in
reaching that point.
Senator
Kay Hagan: We'll, as we continue this drawdown of our military
personnel from Iraq, I really remain concerned about their force
protection -- the individuals that will be remaining in Iraq. So what
are the remaining challenges for our military personnel in Iraq in
terms of managing their vulnerabilities, managing their exposures
during the drawdown?
General
Martin Dempsey: Senator, are you talking about getting from 24,000,
the existing force now and having it retrograde through Kuwait?
Senator Kay Hagan: The ones that will remain over there.
General Martin Dempsey: The ones that will remain --
Senator Kay Hagan: Their protection.
General
Martin Dempsey: Yes, Senator. Well, they will have -- First and
foremost, we've got ten Offices of Security Cooperation in Iraq bases.
And their activities will largely be conducted on these bases because
their activities are fundamentally oriented on delivering the foreign
military sales. So F-16s get delivered, there's a team there to help
new equipment training and-and helping Iraq understand how to use them
to establish air sovereignty. Or there's a 141 M1 Tanks right now,
generally located at a tank gunnery range in Besmaya, east of Baghdad
and the team supporting that training stays on Besmaya so this isn't
about us moving around the country very much at all. This is about our
exposure being limited to 10 enduring, if you will, Offices of Security
Cooperation base camps. And doing the job of educating and training and
equipping on those ten bases. Host nation is always responsible for
the outer parameter. We'll have contracted security on the inner
parameter. And these young men and women will always have
responsibility for their own self-defense.
Senator Kay Hagan: So we'll have contracted security on the inner-paramenter?
General Martin Dempsey: That's right.
.[Other real time community coverage of that hearing included the following: "Iraq snapshot," "Iraq snapshot," "Iraq snapshot," "Scott Brown questions Panetta and Dempsey (Ava)," "The costs (Wally)" and "Who wanted what?"]
Joe was furious with Kay. She was 'off message!' The rah-rah lie of all US troops out of Iraq was what everyone was supposed to stick to. She chose to note that there would be some US forces remaining in Iraq. It was, as the Defense Dept repeatedly noted, a "draw down." It was not a "withdrawal." We've applauded Kay for some time for her honesty.
And, again, Joe cursed and whined after that hearing. The press missed it (intentionally or not) but that was a major moment and Joe treated it as such. Now he wants to Tweet kind words? He may mean them. His explosion back then may have purged him of his anger. But Kay was right and he was wrong and I'm not playing or pretending otherwise.
Nor am I saying Kay was perfect. But I did congratulate her after that hearing and I did thank her for bringing up the very real issue that the press was ignoring. I liked Kay and I'm very sad that she's passed away.
Kay mattered.
In Iraq, concern about events in Karbala as protests continue.
- Very alarming videos coming from Karbalaa #Iraq tonight: Live ammunition, beatings, detentions of protestors. This guy is running helpless as he screams that others are being shot behind. It’s 3:00 a.m there
- Very alarming videos coming from Karbalaa #Iraq tonight: Live ammunition, beatings, detentions of protestors. This guy is running helpless as he screams that others are being shot behind. It’s 3:00 a.m there
- Breaking: very scary news coming out of Karbala, the government has used force to break the civil protest , the world is watching the Iraqi government use violence day by day without any interference or pressure to stop it. #Iraq
Masked gunmen in Iraq killed up to 18 protesters in Karbala and wounded hundreds. The gunmen are believed to be security forces.
Over 90 people have been killed in anti-government protests since Thursday.
As the protesters continue to be attacked, there are calls for the prime minister to appear before the Parliament.
- MPs from Sairoon call to summon Adil Abdul-Mahdi. "We want! We want! We want!" "Now! Now! Now!" #Iraq
And journalist Mustafa Habib notes:
Breaking: #Iraqi parliament decided to form a committee to amend the constitution within four months, in response to #IraqProtests, and cancellation the special living financial of all senior officials in the government
Instead of cracking down on the violence against the protesters, the prime minister cracks down on the protests. ALJAZEERA reports:
Authorities in Iraq have declared a curfew in the capital, Baghdad, where mass anti-government demonstrations continue for a fourth day.
The renewed protests came weeks after an earlier wave of rallies broke out as a result of widespread anger at high-level corruption, mass unemployment and poor public services. More than 200 people have been killed in this month's demonstrations in Baghdad and several southern cities.
At his FACEBOOK page, the prime minister posted the following yesterday.
The National Security Council stresses the necessary measures to maintain security and the lives of citizens, security forces, public and private property
••••••••••
••••••••••
On Monday, the National Security Council held an extraordinary meeting under the presidency of the Prime Minister, the commander-in-Chief of the armed forces, Mr. Adel Abdul Mahdi. The Council discussed the performance of the security forces to ensure the protection of protesters, public and private institutions and property, and the council stressed the taking Legal actions against the instigators and saboteurs who attack security forces, citizens, property, government institutions and party headquarters.
The Council also discussed the killing of the terrorist leader of the ISIS gang, according to the information obtained by the Iraqi National Intelligence service by capturing his close, and praised the role of the security and intelligence services in finding the information that led to his description.
Media Office of the prime minister
28-Oct-2019
28-Oct-2019
The National Security Council stresses the necessary measures to maintain security and the lives of citizens, security forces, public and private property
••••••••••
••••••••••
On Monday, the National Security Council held an extraordinary meeting under the presidency of the Prime Minister, the commander-in-Chief of the armed forces, Mr. Adel Abdul Mahdi. The Council discussed the performance of the security forces to ensure the protection of protesters, public and private institutions ..
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