Thursday, March 03, 2016

Moqtada's getting death threats?

ALSUMARIA reports a Baghdad mortar attack has led to twelve dead and wounded.

And as if the Iraqi people aren't suffering enough, they have Brett McGurk to endure.



  1. Landed in for 3 days of consultations on destroying , regional issues, and economic reforms.

The violence never ends in the failed state of Iraq.

However, this violence rarely touches Iraq's leaders or 'leaders.'


Meanwhile, a joint press conference was supposed to take place today.  NATIONAL IRAQI NEWS AGENCY reports that cleric and movement leader Moqtada al-Sadr was supposed to participate in a satellite press conference with the leader of the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq Ammar al-Hakim and that journalists were present and waiting when the delay turned into a cancellation with no explanation offered.

Moqtada has been very busy of late shoring up support for Iraq's faltering prime minister Haider al-Abadi.  (US Vice President Joe Biden also tried to lend Haider a hand with a phone call yesterday.)

Last Friday, Moqtada sent his followers into Baghdad's Tahrir Square to show support for reform measures that Haider had proposed a week before.

He has called for his followers to turn out this Friday at the gates of the Green Zone.

The topic of the failed press conference is not know.

Nor is it know why it was cancelled but ALSUMARIA reports Moqtada has publicly vowed he will reach the protesters in spite of death threats.


Death threats may or may not have led to the cancellation of the press conference.

On those reforms that Haider's called for and Moqtada is backing, former prime minister Nouri al-Maliki is saying that they must be real and not for show.  Nouri's political slate, State of Law, has had various members tossing water on the reforms proposals in the last six days.



The United Nations notes:






  • It's a pity that, in the US presidential race, there's not a candidate who says women matter and that she places great importance on the status of women.

    Oh, wait, there is.

    Hillary Clinton.

    She just makes those generic statements, though.

    She never calls attention to specific problems because that might require proposing specific solutions.

    Moving on . . .





  • Yes, they do.  NATO stands with Iraq in the fight against extremism from others -- like the Islamic State.

    But they stand side by side with Iraq in extremism carried out by the government.




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