Thursday, January 02, 2020

Some Tweets from Rasha al-Aqeedi


  •  Pinned Tweet
    Please ignore any articles or analyses suggesting "protesters " are behind storming the US Embassy. These are clearly Hashd units. Hashd leaders are out in the open.
  • Just notice my spontaneous choice of words: "without him". The twisted, almost intimate mental affiliation we develop with authoritarian/brutal figures is very hard to explain.
  • A multitude of mixed feelings, but "fear" is the dominant one. God-like figures aren't supposed to die. When they do, it gets very confusing.
  • A bit of anecdote: Suleimani has an indispensable aura to him. I don't mean this as a praise, but it was there. None of the bad guys did. The closest to him was perhaps Saddam, and what I'm feeling now is reminiscent of the day Saddam fell.
  •   Retweeted
    In all seriousness though, it’s best not to get absorbed in the endless hot-takes on this platform. Talk to local voices. Goodnight.
  • Let's be honest. No "hot take" makes any sense now. None of us who work on Iraq closely ever anticipated a scenario without him.
  •   Retweeted
    : Pentagon says Soleimani was killed "in a decisive defensive action to protect US personnel abroad" at the direction of US President Donald Trump - via
  •   Retweeted
    قتل اليوم.....من هو أبو مهدي المهندس؟
  •   Retweeted
    The amount of blood on this man’s hands
  • Friday sermon in 6 hours. I doubt the Marjiyia can stray away from politics this week.
  •   Retweeted
    Maybe before I leave you: If you're a news producer, in addition to all the usual talking heads, see if you can get your hands on some Iraqi or regional voices tonight - it's on their backs that most of this is going to fall.
  •   Retweeted
    Statement from DOD on the death of IRGC-Quds force leader Qassem Soleimani.
  •   Retweeted
    Replying to 
    There HAD to be Iraqi help on this--like the Baghdadi raid. No way USG has its own Humint to pull this off.
  • More alarming for people living in countries where he had influence. Most Americans don't know him or care enough to know him for a variety of reasons.
  • Did they hide their faces when they burned his posters?
  • here we go:
  • This is what I meant by flashbacks of April 9th, 2003
  • This is looking more and more like a reverse military coup ...what that means... security apparatus kicking out the PMF
  •   Retweeted
    Well, live by the gun die by the gun. Though I have more questions than answers.
  • Can honestly say very few saw this coming. I certainly didn't.
  •   Retweeted
    ⭕️⭕️⭕️ عاجل .. تم التأكيد بشكل رسمي على ان عملية الاغتيال شملت قاسم سليماني "قائد فيلق القدس الايراني" و ابو مهدي المهندس "نائب رئيس هيئة الحشد" في غارة قرب الدولي
     
  • I'm struggling to see how the US could carry out such a precise attack without help from Iraqi intelligence.
  • Flashbacks of April 9th, 2003.
  • Same
  • In the midst of all this chaos, please wish my good friend a happy birthday.
  • Mishaan Jiboori tweeted this. Guys. GUYS.
  • Ok can anyone confirm tonight's operation had one of those fancy names?
  • This means absolutely nothing btw. I refuse to retweet rumors but yeah there's definitely an unprecedented escalation.
  • يا بويه
  • They've been clearly stating that the goal isn't to weaken Iran, but rather stop it from attacking US interests. "Anti-Benghazi". Have we forgotten how much the Benghazi affair exhausted the media and elections?
  • Ok who's in for an all-nighter?
  •   Retweeted
    This is complete nonsense and proves you have zero understanding of the local dynamics in Iraq.
  •   Retweeted
    The Post's deserves a serious tip of the cap for his work this week in Baghdad. In addition to reporting, his video -- taken at peril to his safety -- has featured prominently on national television and provided a better understanding for the facts on the ground.
  •   Retweeted
    We nearly did something similar back in July 2011 but they got the message. I will never forget June 2011 - we lost sixteen Americans to militia attacks right at the end. At my old firm we lost an Iraqi driver to a KH EFP to the head at Two Mosque roundabout in Zubayr
  • Stories from Iraqi protesters(not the Embassy sackers). Hamad has been fighting Leukemia for years, but the young man set up his tent at Tahrir Square and offers free hair cuts for anyone who needs it.
  •   Retweeted
    images from (2 January 2020) show the (29 December 2019) aftermath in , , approx. 15 km South to , , where the crossing and "Imam Ali" base are located.
  •   Retweeted
    An Iraqi psychiatrist once told me that he estimates 90% of Iraqis have some form of mental health issue, with PTSD and depression the top causes. Exposure to violence is so common that finding unaffected people is hard. All this and mental health provisioning is awful