All that visibly remains of the uprising are a few faded posters of its first victim – a 16-year-old – and scorch marks where security forces burned the tents of protesters. But it has deepened the political crisis in this semiautonomous region of northern Iraq.
That's from Scott Peterson's "Arab Spring crackdown damages Kurdistan's image as regional model" (Christian Science Monitor) which I was supposed to link to Friday but forgot (I actually fell asleep while dictating the snapshot, I'm not joking) and then did plan to link to Saturday (and had it up on another screen) but ended up focused on whether or not to pull a joke (I pulled it -- hoping we could use it at Third, didn't work out that way) and just minutes ago got a tongue lashing over the phone from a friend who had asked for the link. And I tell that story because, first off, I said I'd link to it on Friday and only did on Sunday so my apologies to a friend. But second of all, if we don't know each other and you're e-mailing stuff to be highlighted and I'm not able to get around to it (or to do so as quick as you'd like), always remember that there are people who can call me on the phone and ask for a highlight and they have to wait. Human Rights Watch issued a report last week on Nouri and the protesters. And CSM's Dan Murphy covere it here. That's a little more important to me than what goes on in the KRG. That's because -- check the archives -- we never bought the myth that the KRG was a land of fairy tales and rainbows. When Newsweek -- and those new to Iraq may find this hard to believe -- was pimping stories of Iraqi girls being set on fire in the KRG as a 'fad' and something the girls were doing to themselves to look 'cool,' we called out not just Newsweek but the KRG. No, it was not a 'fad'. Newsweek deserved to go under for so many reasons not the least of which was its strong desire to repeatedly lie.
And that predates the attack they launched on Jean Seberg -- and it was Newsweek, not the LA Times, that put into print the lie that Jean Seberg was pregnant by a Black Panther, that is when Jean went into early labor and gave birth to a daughter who did not make it. That is why Romain Gary sued Newsweek. It's why he worte "The Big Knife" attacking Newsweek and noting:
Several hours after reading this infamy, Jean had to be transported by helicopter to the Cantonal Hospital in Geneva, where she has jsut given birth, 63 days prematurely, to a little girl, who at the moment I am writing this, is struggling against death with all of her 1,700 grams of white flesh. This little spark of life is mine by all the laws of France. But Newsweek cares little for the laws of our country.
This is all public record and any lying piece of s**t website or resource that tells you it was Joyce Harber and the LA Times is a damn liar and a whore for the CIA. That was a disinformation campaign to cover up for Newsweek and its very close alliance with the spooks of the CIA. It was, after all, the CIA and not Jean Seberg who told Newsweek's correspondent in France (Edward Behr) the lie about Jean's pregnancy. This was done to destroy Jean because of her work against the war, her work for racial equality. Similar attempts were made against Jane Fonda and others.
Edward Behr (and his editor Kermit Lansner) are the reason Jean gave birth long before she should have. Many would say that death of her daughter was the reason Jean eventually took her own life. The US government targeted her and a number of US citizens were more than happy to help with that. (They continued to target her after they'd killed her daughter.)
It's amazing that Joyce Harber's blind item, which ran May 17, 1970 continues to be blamed for the August 25, 1970 death of Jean's daughter. It's also amazing who did the blaming in the last ten years -- who blamed Harber in the last ten years. Media 'critics' on the left who were against the Iraq War . . . while Bush was in office but say nothing now. Guess it is a little easier to attack a gossip columnist than it is to go after Newsweek.
Now Newsweek, as it was, is dead. Long time coming. (For those late to the party, Harber ran a blind item. One that her editor gave her. He was given it by the FBI though, when confronted, he pretended not to remember who had given it. He passed it on to Harber with a note saying it was from a trusted source. Harber had no contact with the FBI or CIA but she's the one who gets blamed in the revisionary history.)
Newsweek was a liar. At the end of its life (Tina Brown may be able to revive it; I like Tina but I loathe Newsweek), it made no pretense to be about journalism. It was the sort of magazine where the 'wife of' would dictate a cover photograph -- would and did. Where the editor would decide the coverage would be slanted. How ironic that it ended up being a bagman in 2008 for the CIA since that's really all it ever was.
One of its most hilarious 2003 stories had to be the underground lairs Saddam Hussein supposedly had and would be using after he unleashed his chemical and biological weapons at the start of the Iraq War. Since we now all know your story was a complete lie, Christopher Dickey and Stefan Theil, how about you tell us which CIA agents fed it to you?
Chrissy Dickey is in Paris now, just like little Edward Behr was when he worked for the CIA and filed for Newsweek. The more it changes, the more it stays the same, eh? Theil has, of course, distinguished himself as a denier of climate change. Oh what fun it's going to be when they're both in the mad house. And that's the thing the whores never get told, the ones who sell the war. They never learn about those who came before. A few will make it through the system and be held up. But the bulk of them, the bulk of these who willing and knowingly lie to promote war? Their endings are never as pretty and that is fitting because their lies cost the lives of so many innocents.
They're just there to try and make the people free,
But the way that they're doing it, it don't seem like that to me.
Just more blood-letting and misery and tears
That this poor country's known for the last twenty years,
And the war drags on.
-- words and lyrics by Mick Softly (available on Donovan's Fairytale)
Last Sunday, the number of US military people killed in the Iraq War since the start of the illegal war was 4466. Tonight? PDF format warning, DoD lists the the number of Americans killed serving in Iraq at 4469.
Violence continues in Iraq. Reuters notes 2 police officers were shot dead in Haswa, a Jurf al-Sakhar sticky bombing claimed the life of 1 Sahwa, 1 police officer was shot dead in Baghdad,
1 corpse ("bullet wounds to the head and chest") was discovered in Kirkuk, a Kirkuk roadside bombing claimed 1 life and left another person injured, a Daquq bombing claimed 2 lives and, dropping back to Saturday for what remains, police officers were shot dead in Rutba and 1 police officer was shot dead in Qaiyara.
Roy Gutman has an important report for McClatchy Newspapers. He reports US Ambassador to Iraq James Jeffrey met with some leadership at Camp Ashraf to urge them to disband and become refugees elsewhere in Iraq. The leadership out of the country (in France) said "no." And why would they say yes to that. That's an answer? Hey, become a refugee in Iraq! That's assistance and help. Jeffrey tells Gutman that the Camp Ashraf residents seem to believe that the US and the UN will protect them forever.
That statement's telling. The State Dept's done damn little for the residents. The White House has done damn little as well. And Jeffery's remarks sound like someone who feels a problem's been pushed off on him. The residents of Camp Ashraf were given a promise by the US government. That's why they disarmed.
Jeffrey may not like that promise but he damn well better be aware that it was made.
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