The public e-mail account (common_ills@yahoo.com) really should be used for issues regarding Iraq. So I'm glad that two new people are using it for that. However, we don't highlight SITE or Rita Katz. We never have and we never will. Their problems are well known if you search controversies.
In fact, I didn't know this until a second ago, if you go to Rita Katz at SOURCE WATCH, you'll see
2006
- "NYT: SITE gives Dexy translations, he gives them play -- None dare call it reporting," The Common Ills Blogspot, March 25, 2006.
Again, we do not promote SITE. They have serious problems which include Islamaphobia.
Every few years, Rita works hard to make herself relevant again and a few will play along -- some because they too are hate mongers -- but then she tends to burn out all over again. She had a tragic life, as so many of her supporters have noted over the years. We all have tragedies. You rise above them or you wallow in them. Rita could have learned to be better than the people who persecuted her but instead she decided to persecute others.
I'm not interested in her hate group.
Iraq elections, moving on to a real topic. Adil Abdul-Mahdi was Prime Minister of Iraq from October 25, 2018 to May 6, 2020. No, that was not a full term. October of 2019 (actually September 30, 2019 but the press narrative has gone with October 1, 2019) protests start in Iraq and continue to this day. These protests against corruption, lack of jobs, lack of basic services and more eventually forced Adil to announce his resignation because his term was such a failure. May 7, 2020, Mustafa al-Kadhimi became prime minister. He was supposed to call for immediate elections -- his was to be a brief term. But when he finally called for elections, it was for June of 2021. And now? They've been futher postponed to October. Dana Taib Menmy (ALJAZEERA) reports:
Iraq’s leaders pushed to postpone parliamentary elections fearing public discontent would lead to their removal from power, an analyst with ties to the government says.
Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi, President Barham Salih, and Speaker of the Parliament Mohammad al-Halbusi wanted a later vote over concerns about their prospects for re-election and sought to buy time, said Mohammad Bakhtiar, a Kurdish political analyst who meets regularly with Iraqi decision-makers.
“At least two of the three leaders of Iraq who favoured early election have realised that their chances of being re-elected are minimal,” Bakhtiar said.
In a bid to delay the elections, the three Iraqi leaders met on January 12 and later with the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) and election commission officials, he told Al Jazeera.
After a request from Iraq’s Independent High Election Commission (IHEC), the government last week announced the postponement of the country’s elections from June 6 to October 10.
Bakhtiar said it was unlikely the vote would take place in October and suggested May 2022 was more likely.
We told you Mustafa didn't want to let go of the job -- despite being an utter failure and despite coming into office swearing he would rule just long enough to set up elections.
He's a liar. And it's a real shame that so many press outlets it more important to lie and cover for him (remember, he used to work for the ones who are lying for him) than to inform their readers how awful a job he's doing as prime minister.
In other news, THE WASHINGTON POST's Louisa Loveluck Tweets:
This is a Twitter thread, if it were a report, I think Louisa might clarify that what he promised, what Mustafa promised, wasn't to close the camps, it was to create homes and living conditions for the camp residents to return to so that the camps could be closed.
He has failed to do that. We called this out the last week in October when the announcement was made. This is not helpful, shutting down a displacement camp when the people in it have no place to go. Many human rights organizations have objected to this move. The KRG has, thus far, not followed suit in their own region. But outside the KRG, displacement camps are being shut down.
The European Union's ambassador to Iraq Martin Huth Tweeted:
Personal note, I do plan on doing an Iraq snapshot tomorrow but it may run late. I've had a really bad reaction to a new medication -- I last injected it Sunday morning and my doctor's told me to stop but I'm dizzy -- grip the walls to walk -- and I'm throwing up and it's been that way most of the day. So I may oversleep. Thank you to Elaine who's offered to go through the public e-mail account and post some videos that are people are noting.
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