Monday, February 18, 2013

Nouri's Iraq: Hacking, firing and torture

Sunday at 10:00 pm Pacific Time, Alsumaria was hacked.  The website to the Iraqi news channel is back up.  But today there's another hacking.

all iraq news


That's the message you encounter if you visit All Iraq News currently.

In other journalism news, Nouri's extra-constitutional Tigris Operation Command reveals to Alsumaria that they have been holding Diyala TV journalist Marwan Zeidan for six months.  They maintain that he is a 'terrorist' and that he 'confessed' to this after six months of 'questioning.'


As noted in this Yahoo Groups posting, he was grabbed October 9th along with three other Diyala TV journalists -- Khaled al-Qaisi and a broadcast technician with the last name of Ismail.  The other two were released after 10 days.  They reported being beaten with the butts of rifles.

This is what Barack Obama's endorsing and embracing.  Don't kid that the US government opposes torture.  A journalist has been held and tortured for six months and has just 'broken' and now the Tigris Operation Command steps forward to claim credit.  And 'broken' does not mean offered a truthful confession.  Broken means broken.  That's what torture does.  It doesn't get truth.  That's in Zero Dark Thirty though the Glenn-Glenn's lacked the analytical ability to grasp it.  Amar's tortured and what is he giving?  The next terrorist attack will be Tuesday.  Monday.  Thursday.  He is saying anything to stop the torture.  He is 'broken.'  It has nothing to do with truth.

For six months, Nouri's forces held and tortured a journalist.  Now they come forward to brag that he's a terrorist.  I believe the terrorists are the Tigris Operation Command and Nouri and Barack Obama.

The Tigris Operation Command also announces that they're releasing 200 detainees -- these are people that they have illegaly 'captured' -- Iraqis in Iraq -- and they've determined that these 200 people are innocent.  They were held for weeks without charges.  Again the terrorists are the Tigris Operation Command.  Alsumaria reports Nineveh Province Governor Atheel al-Nujaifi is accusing the security forces of terrorizing preachers and religious scholars.  Al Mada adds that the Tigris Operation Command has been interrogating them and tribal leaders, warning them of arrests should they continue to participate in the ongoing rallies that have been going on in Iraq for sixty days now.  The Tigris Operation Command are also now following protesters after protests to their homes in an effort to intimidate them.

This is what Barack's supporting, this is what he's embracing.  You won't hear about it on Rachel Maddow's lousy program but then you don't get current truth on MSNBC prime time, you just get distractions and lies and the myth that the US government went bad in 2001 but recovered in 2009.


Sheikh Ali Hatem Ali Suleiman al-Dulaimi met with Barack in 2008.  Now, Al Rafidayn reports,  he's targeted with an arrest warrant by Nouri.  In 2012, Bloomberg News noted he "was one of the first sheikhs to rise up to fight al-Qaeda in the predominately Sunni Anbar Province as part of the Awakening movement in 2006.  Today, Ali Suleiman says the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is trying to 'destroy Anbari tribal society'."  Speak out against Nouri and take part in protests and get an arrest warrant?  The US government seriously needs to rethink their support for Nouri.

And Nouri's sacked the head of the Justice and Accountability Commission.  Al Rafidayn reports that he's replaced Falah Shanshal with Sharif al-Badri.  Aswat al-Iraq noted Shanshal's election to head the commission October 8, 2012 and that he "is a member of the Sadrist bloc." And al-Badri?  He's a member of Nouri's Dawa political party.  Dar Addustour reports MP Sabah al-Saadi ("indepdent") held a press conference to announce that Nouri gave the order and that it is unfair and a blatant interference in the Commission's work.    The move means that the Commission's previous decisions are now cancelled and that candidates they'd restored to run in the provincial elections (which are supposed to take place at the start of April) are now pulled again from the lists.  Comments on Alsumaria's item about this do not go well with Nouri being repeatedly called out.  Wael Grace (Al Mada) reports that Shanshal met with Speaker of Parliament Osama al-Nujaifi today and that the Speaker issued a statement declaring that the commission must be indpendent and no one should be interferring with it.  Kitabat reports that al-Nujaifi has, in effect, overidden Nouri's action and reassianged Shanshal to head the Justice and Accountability Commission and that the body is overseen by Parliament, not the prime minister..

Alsumaria notes that some see Nouri's firing is seen as part of the same move that saw Nouri oust the head of Iraq's Supreme Court, Medhat al-Mahmoud.  Last Friday, Shafaq News reported Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi's reaction to the ouster of al-Mahmoud, "He legalize the injustice . . . and finally to the dustbin of history.  He is haunted by the curse of Allah, angels and all the people."  The rumor is that al-Mahmoud was refusing Nouri's latest 'rulings' on how the Court would rule.  If so, al-Mahmoud being out for his past actions may be justice but it's frightening to imagine what's in store for Iraq with the new pick.  Kitabat reports that ten citizens brought lawsuits against the judge today for the exection of their children.

Yesterday, Margaret Griffis (Antiwar.com) reported 52 dead and 141 injured from violence.  Alsumaria notes that today the protesters in Diyala Province began a Mosul blood donation campaign for the injured from the Baghdad bombings.  Sahwa leader Sheikh Ahmed Abu Risha announced the blood drive late yesterday.   Today's violence?  Alsumaria reports 1 Iraqi soldier shot dead in Mosul, and a Kirkuk bombing left 1 person dead and twelve injured.


In the only potentially good news out of Iraq today, Al Mada reports the President's Office has issued a statement that President Jalal Talabani is responding to treatments and exercises from the German medical team that has been treating him since his stroke in December.  Alsumaria covers the announcement here.

Isaiah's latest will go up later tonight.

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





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A tale of two Huffingtons?


The US, UK, Australia and others invaded Iraq in March 2003.  While England has had multiple public inquiries into the Iraq War -- on intel, on legality, on what was done over there, etc -- the US hasn't had one.  Wonder why that is?


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At Huffington Post UK, they're looking at Iraq and the effects of the war while at the US version the concern is navel gazing.

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I'm going to assume anyone who drinks it long ago had their morning coffee, but still, sit down.

Bully Boy Bush lied the nation into the Iraq War.

Are you okay?  Do we need a medic?

I know that''s a shocker and it never occurred to you because no one has ever made that statement before, right?




Huffington Post (US) and The Nation are all about pimping War Hawk Rachel Maddow's bad TV special -- billed as a 'documentary' -- and it is to documentaries what Dateline is to news magazines.

The special's also being pimped by Michael Isikoff and why not?  If you co-wrote a (brief) best seller nearly six years ago and the special was using it as the primary text and even keeping the name. you'd most likely be marketing your book too.  Think of the p.r. possibilities!  If only they can get some McNuggett tie-in as well! --  you'd probably be pimping the special too.

(In fairness, _____ wrote a brilliant book on a related topic.  When it was turned into a bad movie, he didn't jump on the bandwagon and largely avoided discussing the movie.  Not everyone whores.  I won't embarrass him by naming him -- and he would be embarrassed because he's not an ego maniac -- but not everyone whores.)


The big lesson of Hubris (yes, I saw it) is p.r.

Most people already know that Colin Powell has repeatedly saved his own ass by cozying up to the press.  No one feeds them better than Colin and so grateful are the hungry press masses to swallow his bone soup that they ensure he whethers each and every scandal.  They did the same for Henry Kissinger but even they can't protect Kissinger now, Colin take note.

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The photo above is right off the book Hubris but it's used in the special.  Which major US war criminal is missing?  Collie Powell.  The lovable Collie, the frisky Collie, scratch behind his ears and watch his leg thump.  His devoted (love slavish?) Lawrence Wilkerson yet again tries to rescue Collie.  (Doesn't the relationship disgust Alma Powell? You'd think it would.  But then again, if you bed a War Criminal knowingly and repeatedly, I guess you don't have any higher ground to scramble to.)

So Wilkerson gives access -- no one gives access like Wilkerson, they say -- and the result is that Powell is even less guilty than he was in Hubris the book.

Colin's so brave and so honorable and look what those mean, mean boys and girls made this grown man do!  Colin chose to sell the illegal war, chose to lie about it.  But Colin's now endorsed Barack Obama twice.  Don't think that doesn't count in the sick of land of MSNBC prime time.

Watching the garbage, I couldn't help but think of what it could have been.

 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.:  We took the initiative to enlarge the war on land, on the sea, and in the air. We are strong enough to take the initiative to end it. I am not absolving Hanoi nor the Viet Cong of their responsibilities, nor do I condone certain rigid attitudes. I am not naive enough, however, to think that they will come to a conference table while clouds of bombs are driving them into bomb shelters. As an American my duty is to speak to my government. Even if my philosophy is not welcomed in an other country, I must constantly strive to make it welcomed in Washington.

That's Dr. King in April, 1967.  No, it's not the Riverside Church address that everyone loves to play.  It's a more important speech than that and the proof is in the fact that it's disappeared by the mainstream media (like the Riverside Church) and no attempts are made by Democracy Now!, et al to rescue it the way they do the Riverside Church speech.

MLK was speaking April 15, 1967 in NYC at the Mobilization to End the War in Vietnam.  Click here for the full text.  You can hear some of it in An Introduction To The Enemy, the documentary film Jane Fonda made with director Haskell Wexler and with Tom Hayden.  (Click here for a video of Haskell Wexler discussing his films and the politics around them.) 

The Pacifica Radio Archives has an interview, conducted by Paul McIsaac,  with Jane about the documentary. 


 Jane Fonda:  Well Tom and I felt -- and Haskell Wexler -- and the other people in the organization, the Indochina Peace Campaign, we all share the feeling that it's becoming possible now, even though the war continues in South Vietnam, but it is becoming possible to start to deal with the Vietnamese as people.  It wasn't so easy when there were American troops there, POWs there, but now these people who have been viewed as victims or the enemy for so long must begin to be addressed as human beings.  They are very eager to open up human relations with American people.



In contrast, Hubris celebrates xenophobia.  What has happened to the Iraqis?  Who cares? MSNBC doesn't.  The Iraq War was a tragedy -- for all from the countries who participated but most of all for the Iraqi people.

Hubris is xenophobia, it's reducing the people whose lives were most effected to bit players in order to navel gaze and celebrity watch.  It's as offensive as the initial war coverage was.

Remember the criticism?  We see the missiles launch but we don't see the targets hit.

That is Hubris.  And it's also hubris.

It is not about the Iraq War.

You can't do a documentary on the Iraq War without including the Iraqi people.

 Hubris is full of hubris.

It will allow War Hawks who still support the Iraq War to insist that the special avoided showing the effects on the Iraqi people because they have democracy now and they have freedom and they're all happy and wonderful.

And that argument could take hold.

It's a pack of lies but it could take hold because most US media doesn't acknowledge Iraq.  60 days of ongoing protests today but most media in the US hasn't bothered to tell you that.  A corrupt government that is among the lowest rated countries on Transparency International's transparency rankings.  But most don't bother to tell you that.

The whole point of Hubris is: BUSH BAD. BUSH LIED.

Yeah, but I don't believe he would have left office in disgrace if most Americans didn't agree with that message.  (The rank xenophobia of the special guarantees that it will have a very limited international audience.)  And, yes, it is important to repeat that he lied. 

But an entire special?

Is Rachel so stupid that she believes Bully Boy Bush (and Colin Powell, and Dick Cheney, and Condi Rice . . .) launched the first set of lies to a country about war?

Again from the 1974 Pacifia Radio interview.

Jane Fonda:  The whole justification for the war was 'well there's two countries, North Vietnam and South Vietnam. And the North Vietnamese have invaded the South.'  And what we tried to point out by interviewing members of families who lived just north of the DMZ and other relatives just south is that it is one country.  It was a barrier that was imposed by foreigners, maintained by the United States and it makes the Vietnamese suffer a great deal.  -- Yeah -- As the last person says in the film, I want to live to see the day that our country can be reunified.


See, the lies are a point, an aspect, of a film.  Ten years later, while you refuse to cover the Iraqi people, to obsess over your own country's lie?

The lie isn't the focus at this point.  Bully Boy Bush got away with it.  If you wanted to make it relevant, you'd apply it to the Iraqi people today.  For the lie to matter, you have to show the impact the lie had and continues to have.

But, if you're xenophobic, and wanted the special to matter in terms of the US, you'd  explore how the lies have been aided and abetted by Barack Obama -- both as a Senator and now as a President. Call it The Destruction of the Constitution.   But, of course, such a special wouldn't air on MSNBC.

So we're left with Rachel Madddow's Hubris.  It's not about war, it's not about Iraq.

The tragedy of Iraq will not be explored because it's more important that Rachel get her anti-Bush on.  She was anti-Bush -- as she is anti- any Republican.  And isn't that what MSNBC has become?  A party outlet masquerading as a news channel?

(I'm referring to prime time programming before anyone working for MSNBC daytime -- I'm thinking of two people -- pick up the phone and call to complain about that staement.)



The MSNBC special wants to make you rage with hate over Bully Boy Bush.  Bully Boy Bush is frozen in history and drumming up hate for him at this point is little more than a distraction.  The Bully Boy rarely ventures out in public and knows travel throughout the world is now limited.  The War Criminal is caged as much as leaders ever get punished.  Obsessing over  Bully Boy Bush seems rather silly.  (I didn't vote for Barack, but I was thrilled when Bush left the White House.  I will also be thrilled when Barack leaves.)  But that's all the special does which is why serious journalists see it as little more than another distraction for the current administration by MSNBC.


Again, England's had multiple public inquires -- even ones that, hard for MSNBC to believe, featured Iraqis offering testimony.  But they're able to do that because they're focused on something more than partisan grudges. 

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





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Sunday, February 17, 2013

Hejira

Violence yet again slammed Iraq.  Margaret Griffis (Antiwar.com) counts 52 dead and 141 injured.  Mohammed Tawfeeq (CNN) reports 6 car bombs and 3 roadside bombs in Bahgdad alone.  Reuters quotes Jumaa Kareem stating, "I was buying an air conditioner and suddenly there was an explosion.  I threw myself on the ground.  Minutes later I saw many people around, some of them dead, others wounded."

Martin Kolber is the United Nations Secretary-General's Special Envoy to Iraq.  He declared, "Once again, innocent civilians going about their daily business have been targeted, bringing great grief to their families and communities. Nothing can justify these terrorist attacks.  All Iraqi leaders have a responsibility to stand up against these atrocious crimes targeting the social fabric of the country."

Do they?

Maybe so.

But maybe the first place to take a stand is in demanding that Iraq have a Minister of Defense, a Minister of Interior and a Minister of National Security.


Back in July, Mohammed Tawfeeq (CNN) observed, "Shiite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has struggled to forge a lasting power-sharing agreement and has yet to fill key Cabinet positions, including the ministers of defense, interior and national security, while his backers have also shown signs of wobbling support." 


That remains true.  Since the 2010 elections, those positions have been vacant.  Currently, in the US, the Senate  Republicans are blocking Chuck Hagel's nomination to become Secretary of Defense and the Democrats in the  Senate are livid.  They started blocking him last week. 

Imagine if they blocked him until 2015? 

There is a difference here. 

US President Barack Obama has nominated Hagel for the post.  In Iraq, Nouri's failed to nominate people for the posts.  It's not that Parliament is blocking his nominees.

How does that happen?

The Constitution clearly requires a prime minister-designate to get a full Cabinet approved by the Parliament in order to move from prime minister-designate to prime minister.  The designate, in fact, has 30 days to do that.  Failure to do so, per the Iraqi Constitution, means someone else gets nominated to be prime minister-designate and then they're given 30 days to fill a Cabinet.

How did Nouri get around that?

Because the Constitution didn't grant him a second term.  His State of Law failed to come in first in the March 2010 elections.  He didn't win a second term.  That's why he brought the government to a stand still for over 8 months.  He refused to let the country move forward. 

This would be akin to Barack losing last November and then refusing to leave the White House.  For eight months.

Nouri got away with that because he had the backing from the leader of the US and the leader of Iran.  And it was Barack's backing that led to the US-brokered Erbil Agreement, a contract that went around the Constitution to give Nouri a second term after he failed to secure one via the voting booth.

Since The Erbil Agreement names him prime minister-designate, he was not bound by the Constitution.

Grasp that.  Grasp that Barack spat on the voters of Iraq.  He ignored the will of the people.  He also took a piss on democracy.  Iraq is a failed state though the US government likes to insist it's a fledging democracy.  Let's say I'm wrong (wouldn't be the first time) and the White House is correct -- Iraq really is a fledging democracy. 

Well then what message was sent to the Iraqi people when the 2010 election results were ignored and discarded, when the supreme law of their land (the Constitution) was ignored and sat aside?

These are questions that need to be answered and maybe if Helen Thomas was still in the White House press corps, they would at least be asked.


I'm traveling in some vehicle
I'm sitting in some cafe
A defector from the petty wars
That shell shock love away
-- "Hejira," written by Joni Mitchell, first appears on her album of the same name

 The number of US service members the Dept of Defense states died in the Iraq War is [PDF format warning] 4488.


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Tomorrow?  Isaiah will have a comic up early in the day.  I'll do two entries.  If its needed, I'll do a snapshot.  That will depend on news out of Iraq.  (Tomorrow is a US holiday -- Presidents Day.)


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








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