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Tuesday, January 31, 2012. Chaos and violence continue, close to 500
people died in Iraq's January violence, a Palestinian is tortured to death by
Thug Nouri al-Maliki's forces, Iraq drops significantly on Reporters Without
Borders Press Index, Nouri wants to sue the Guardian yet again, the documentary
This Is Where We Take Our Stand debuts in NYC tomorrow and DC on
Wednesday, and more.
The Iraq War destroyed the lives of many in Iraq, women, Christians, Jews
and Palestinians among them. In 2006, Ken Ellingwood (Los Angeles
Times) observed, "The civil war convulsing the country has raised
worries about the fate of the approximately 20,000 Palestinians in Iraq, who are
targeted by kidnappers and Shiite Muslim death squads because of what many
Iraqis see as the group's favored status under former President Saddam
Hussein." Ali Kareem (ICR) offered
this background on Iraq's Palestinian population in 2009:
Many Palestinian families have roots in this country dating to the
creation of Israel in 1948 and its subsequent wars with its Arab neighbours.
Others came more recently. Following his defeat in the first Gulf War in 1991,
Saddam Hussein encouraged the migration of thousands of Palestinians to Iraq,
promising jobs and preferential treatment in an effort to portray himself as a
champion of oppressed Arabs.
According to the United Nations refugee agency UNHCR, Baghdad was
home to some 30,000 Palestinians at the time of the US-led invasion in 2003.
Less than half remain in the city now.
Last fall, Saed Bannoura (International Middle East
Media Center) explained that from a high of 35,000, the population had
declined to approximately 7,000. A huge drop like that happens only because a
population is living in fear and feeling that the government will not protect
them. That has been the case for Palestinians in Iraq. The current prime
minister is Nouri al-Maliki who has been prime minister since April 2006 and has
done nothing to protect the Palestinian population. In fact, from 2006 to 2010
refugee camp Al Tanf housed hundreds of Palestinians who were caught in the
desert, unable to move forward to Syria (Saddam Hussein did not consider them
residents in or citizens of Iraq, they were "bretheren" and, as such had no
legal documents that the Syrian government would recognize at the border) and
unable to go back to their homes. They were left there by Nouri with no efforts
made to assist them. The United Nations would set up temporary tents for the
refugees. But Nouri did nothing. Offered no aid. Offered no verbal comfort.
Just didn't give a damn. And when the Palestinians are attacked, the killers
and kidnappers are never brought to justice. Nouri makes no public statements
decrying the targeting. The message to Iraq's thug population has been, "Attack
them. You will not face punishment."
And that thug population includes the security forces Nouri al-Maliki
commands. 30-year-old Palestinian Emad Abdulsalam died last week. Ahlul Bayt News Agency reports the
man was arrested in Doura three days ago and was tortured non-stop by Iraqi
forces which notes the Association of Muslim Scholars in Iraq "said that
Palestinians have been the target of 'Death squads and militias' over the past
six years under the very eyes of the government." The International Middle East Media Center
gives his name as Imad Abdul-Salaam Abu Rabee and notes that Iraqi
police grabbed him after he left work and was heading home. Imad's family sought
out a forensic center in Baghdad which determined "that their son was killed
under interrogation." The International Middle East Media Center
notes: It is worth mentioning that Abu
Rabee' is married and a father of two children. His brother was killed by
insurgents in Baghdad last year. He was born and raised in Iraq; his family is
from the Al Boreij refugee camp, in the Gaza Strip. Sa'ad voiced an appeal to the Palestinian Authority to
act on resolving the plight of the Palestinian refugees in Iraq as soon as
possible as they are being attacked and murdered by the Iraqi Police and by
several militias in the country.
Ma'an News
adds, "[The Society for Palestinian-Iraqi Brotherhood Imad Abdul Salam]
Khalil said Palestinian refugees in Iraq have been targeted for sectarian
reasons. International rights group Amnesty International says Iraqi forces use
arbitrary detentions and torture to quell dissent." Nouri's forces have
tortured another person to death. And it comes right as Nouri was hoping the
news cycle would be dominated by the 16 "confessions" against
Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi which state-TV Iraqiya has been in a frenzy
over. [ Aswat al-Iraq:
"Noteworthy is that the semi-official al-Iraqiya TV Satellite Channel had
carried out an urgent report on Sunday, reporting that 16 members of Tariq
Hashimy's bodyguards were charged with having been involved in terrorist acts, a
report that was condemned, because it did not represent anything new in the
series of charges against Hashimy and his bodyguards and office
elements."]
Imad Abdul-Salaam Abu Rabee's death is part of the violence in today's news
cycles. Reuters notes a
Muqdadiya clash in which one police officer and one "civilian" were left
injured, a Baghdad roadside bombing which left two Sahwa injured, 2 Mosul
roadside bombings left one police officer and his son injured, a Mosul sticky
bombing injured a police officer, a Baghdad sticky bombing injured a military
officer and a Shirqat sticky bombing injured a police officer. So that's 1
death and nine injured for today.
Let's go over the monthy totals -- the number wounded are in parentheses.
January
1st, 9 were reported dead (21). January
2nd, 0 were reported dead (3). January
3rd, 3 were reported dead (13). January
4th, 9 were reported dead (17). January
5th, 75 were reported dead (80). January
6th, 3 were reported dead (20). January
7th, 7 were reported dead (25). January
8th, 3 were reported dead (20). January
9th, 20 were reported dead (59). January
10th, 12 were reported dead (3). January
11th, 6 were reported dead (14). January
12th, 6 were reported dead (25). January
13th, 6 were reported dead (32). January
14th, 53 were reported dead (157). January
15th, 21 were reported dead (0). January
16th, 0 were reported dead (0). January
17th, 10 were reported dead (5). January
18th, 6 were reported dead (5). January
19th, 4 were reported dead (8). January
20th, 6 were reported dead (5). January
21st, 7 were reported dead (1). January
22nd, 7 were reported dead (6). January
23rd, 2 were reported dead (5). January
24th, 20 were reported dead (86). January
25th, 1 was reported dead (1). January
26th, 14 were reported dead (8). January 27th, 37 were
reported dead (0), January 28th, 7 reported
dead (10). January 29th, 7 were
reported dead (20). January 30th, 10
reported dead (11). January 31st, 1 reported dead (9).
Check my math (always), that's at least 371 reported dead and 669 reported
injured. Many deaths aren't reported in Iraq. Iraq Body Count currently lists "450 civilians
killed" as of Monday for the month of January and that's about seventy more than
they had for January 2011. (Go with their number, it's not covering every death
but it's more comprehensive than our snapshots.) So comparing January in the
two years, violence is not dropping, it has in fact increased.
During that entire year, please note, Iraq has had no Minister of Defense,
no Minister of Interior and no Minister of National Security. Nouri al-Maliki
has refused to nominate anyone and have Parliament vote. From the December 21, 2010
snapshot:
Shashank Bengali and Mohammed al-Dulaimy (McClatchy
Newspapers) report point out the Cabinet is missing
"the key ministries responsible for security and military affairs for now,
because lawmakers haven't agreed on who should fill them. There's still no deal,
either, on creating a yet-to-be named strategic council -- a U.S.-backed
initiative aimed at curbing al-Maliki's powers -- which lawmarkers said could be
weeks away." Liz Sly and Aaron Davis (Washington Post)
explain, "Maliki appointed himself acting minister
of interior, defense and national security and said the three powerful positions
would be filled with permanent appointees once suitable candidates have been
agreed on."
A Minister of a Cabinet is someone nominated by Nouri and approved by
Parliament. Without the approval of Parliament, they are not a minister. Why
does that matter? Nouri can't fire a member of his Cabinet without Parliament's
approval. But 'acting' ministers (named by Nouri) are not approved by
Parliament, are not real ministers and serve at the whim of Nouri. It's a power
grab on Nouri's part as is his failure to name a "national strategic
councill."
That is part of the Erbil Agreement. The US-brokered that agreement with
Iraqi political blocs to end the political stalemate that had desceneded on Iraq
and lasted eight months. Nouri signed off on that agreement. It's that
agreement that allowed him to become prime minister. He created the stalemate
after his State of Law came in second to Iraqiya and Nouri refused to give up
the post of prime minister. The White House backed Nouri and that's the only
reason Nouri remains prime minister. The White House talked Iraqiya and its
leader into accepting the post of heading the "national strategic council." And
yet, the day after the Erbil Agreement was reached, when Parliament held its
first real (and full) session of Parliament, Nouri's State of Law announced they
couldn't create it right away but it would come. A large number of Iraqiya's 91
MPs walked out at that point. They should have stuck to that walk out but they
returned. And waited and waited. Nouri now says that the council can't be
created. He claims the Erbil Agreement -- the thing that allows him to be prime
minister right now -- is unconstitutional. The current political crisis is
fueled by Nouri's refusal to follow the Erbil Agreement. Alsumaria TV reports
today, "President of Kurdistan Region Masoud Al Barzani assured, on Monday, that
Kurds may no longer play the mediator role in solving Iraq's issues. Barazani
added that bases upon which the current government was formed are not being
respected. The current government was formed to reinforce true partnership,
comply with Iraqi Constitution, and fix disputes between Erbil and Baghdad,
Barzani revealed."
He is prime minister because the White House chose to back him. And they
knew he was a thug. The whole world did by that point. In fact, when the
Cabinet was (partially) named at the end of December 2010, Liz Sly (Washington
Post) was noting:
That Maliki has an authoritarian streak has been amply demonstrated
over the past 4 1/2 years, critics say. Maliki, originally selected in 2006 as
a compromise candidate assumed to be weak and malleable, has proved to be a
tough and ruthless political operator who cannily subverted parliament to cement
his authority over many of the new democracy's fledgling
institutions.
In his role as commander in chief of the armed forces, he replaced
divisional army commanders with his appointees, brought provincial command
centers under his control and moved to dominate the intelligence agencies.
The widely feared Baghdad Brigade, which answers directly to
Maliki's office, has frequently been used to move against his political
opponents. Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have accused him of
operating secret prisons in which Sunni suspects have been
tortured.
And thug Nouri had the support of the Bush administration before he had
the support of the Barack administration. The "compromise" candidate Sly refers
to? Iraqis didn't select him. They wanted Ibrahim al-Jaafari. The US told the
Iraqi Parliament no in 2006. The Bush White House approved of Nouri. In 2010,
the Barack White House made clear that there would be no new prime minister --
despite the will of the Iraqi voters and the Iraqi Constitution -- the Barack
White House made clear that Nouri would remain as prime minister. They knew he
was a thug. Democracy in Iraq and the Iraqi people mattered less to them than
their oil puppet.
As the death toll mounts and does so under yet another US-installed puppet.
William
Fisher (The Public Record)
notes: Human Rights Watch is
charging that, despite U.S. government assurances that it helped create a stable
democracy, the reality is that it left behind a "budding police state" --
cracking down harshly during 2011 on freedom of expression and assembly by
intimidating, beating, and detaining activists, demonstrators, and
journalists.The organization's Middle
East and North Africa director, Sarah Leah Whitson, warns that "Iraq is quickly
slipping back into authoritarianism as its security forces abuse protesters,
harass journalists, and torture detainees."
Last week, the Associated
Press quoted Human Rights Watch's Sarah Leah
Whitson stating, 'Iraq is quickly slipping back into authoritarianism. Despite
U.S. government assurances that it helped create a stable democracy (in Iraq),
the reality is that it left behind a budding police state'." She was referring
to what Human Rights Watch found and documented in their [PDF format warning] World Report: 2012.
Thug Nouri and his climate of thuggery leads to attacks on minorities,
attacks on demonstrators, attacks on the press, you name it. How does Nouri
respond to the press? It depends if they're Iraqi (violence) or foreigners (law
suits). That becomes clear yet again today. Iraq Streets reports:
according to a Sumeria news web site the editor of
an Iraqi newspaper has threaten to start a law suit against Baghdad
sceuirty operations ,after a group of Iraqi forces beats a news papers seller in
his stand in the street in the 28th of Jan 2012 , because he was selling a news
paper that had used a cartoon drawing of Baghdad Operations spokesman's Qassim
Atta after he was promoted to a general and transferred from his position as
a spokesman , the forces thought the cartoon was disrespectful and beats the
papers man who was admitted later to hospital ,general Atta has no comment of
knowledge of what happened,but according to sumaria many
iraqi journalists thought this is a new deterioration of the bad treatment to
journalism and freedom of speech in Iraq…
So that's his treatment of the press in his own country. Foreign press?
He yet again wants to sue England's Guardian newspaper. Yesterday, CNN's Jomana Karadsheh Tweeted on his latest
threat:
jomana karadsheh @JomanaCNN
jomana karadsheh @JomanaCNN
The editorial was
actually calling out Barack's notion that the Iraq War was over ("The war was
over, Barack Obama repeatedly declared") and ran December 14th. This is the
section Nouri wants to sue over:
Even with an election campaign in full flow, the chasm that opened
up between words in Fort Bragg and one day in the life of Iraq was unbridgeable.
Wednesday December 14 was relatively quiet: two car bombs in Tal Afar, killing
three and wounding 35; bombings and shootings in Kirkuk, Mosul, Baghdad. A war
that is over? Or take the decision on Monday of Diyala provincial council to
declare itself independent from central government. Or take the answer that the
prime minister Nouri al-Maliki gave last week when asked to describe who he
thought he was -- first a Shia, second an Iraqi, third an arab, and fourth a
member of the Dawa party. What chance for a nation state, if its prime minister
places his confessional identity above his national one? Can any of the above be
deemed solid, stable or representative?
A Shia first, for those not grasping, sends a message of sectarianism --
continued sectarianism and sect warfare in Iraq. And a foe of the free press
forever. Last week, Reporters Without Borders published their latest Press Freedom
Index:
After rising in the index for several years
in a row, Iraq fell 22 places this year, from 130th to 152nd (almost to the
position it held in 2008, when it was 158th). There were various reasons. The
first was an increase in murders of journalists. Hadi Al-Mahdi's murder on 8
September marked a clear turning point. Another reason was the fact that
journalists are very often the target of violence by the security forces,
whether at demonstrations in Tahrir Square in Baghdad, or in Iraqi Kurdistan, a
region that had for many years offered a refuge for journalists.
That's what the US White House is backing. And hopefully tomorrow we'll
talk about the money the US is wasting in Iraq. For now we'll note this from Ahlul Bayt News Agency:
An Iraqi political analyst says the US is still going ahead with a
plan to "disintegrate" Iraq by escalating the current political crisis in the
Arab country.
"The US is still pursuing the plan of disintegration of Iraq and
therefore is against reaching a solution by political groups for resolving the
political crisis of Iraq," said Qahtan al-Khafaji on Friday.
Khafaji, a
professor of political sciences at Baghdad University, said that the US is
trying to blame Iraqis for the current situation in the country but "the
Americans are the main cause of the crisis in political process of Iraq."
The political crisis continues in Iraq. Jane Arraf speaks with Marco
Werman (PRI's The World) about it today noting that it was "the
biggest political crisis since Saddam Hussein was toppled." (We'll note it
tomorrow, as I dictate this snapshot into one cell phone and juggle two others,
I'm also listening to NPR's live coverage of the Florida primary because Ava and
I are covering it Sunday at Third. And those wanting a preview? Besides the
co-anchor, we've only heard from one woman an hour and 23 minutes in.versus over
11 men. In addition, we're about to speak to a group. So The World will wait
until tomorrow.) As Jane Arraf observed earlier this week
in a Tweet, "National conference seems still long way off."
Al Mada
reports 'recovering' President Jalal Talabani and Nouri met yesterday
and agree on a national conference now. Unlike weeks ago, when Nouri had demands
(including that it not be called a "national conference" and that the guest list
be restricted.) Oh, Nouri still has demands, it turns out, and he's making
them, but Jalal's office insists that the two are agreeing.
Following various photo ops with US President Barack Obama in mid-December,
Nouri returned to Iraq and began targeting his political rivals more than ever.
Tareq al-Hashemi is one of Iraq's two vice presidents. (They have a third vice
president slot vacant.) He is in the KRG and a guest of Talabani's while Nouri
demands he be arrested on charges of terrorism. Aswat al-Iraq reports al-Hashemi
has issued a statement: A statement,
issued on Tuesday by the Temporary Media Office of Hashimy, stressed that "at a
time when we condemn the cheap practices by the Prime Minister, which he carries
out in a feverish means against his political opponent, through theexpansion of
the accusation circle and the chasing of innocent members of Hashimy's
bodyguards and office employees, we call on President Jalal Talabani for
immediate interference to put an end to the Prime Minister's acts and violations
of the Constitution and the laws"."His continued violations against human rights, have
caused dishonor for Iraq and forced Amnesty International to issue its statement
from 2 days ago regarding the 2 female employees in Hashimy's office, Rasha and
Bassima," the statement added.AP reports that Iraqiya rejoined
the Parliament today but the boycott of attending Cabinet meetings continues. Dar Addutour reports that a meeting
to determine Iraqiya returning to Cabinet meetings has been postponed and that
one of Iraqiya's terms is that Saleh al-Mutlaq be part of the return. Nouri
demanded in December that Deputy Minister al-Mutlaq be stripped of his
post. Meanwhile AFP reports on US President Barack
Obama's YouTube fest yesterday and his assertion that there was nothing wrong
with the drones flying over Iraq. He is quoted declaring, "The truth of the
matter is we're not engaging in a bunch of drone attacks inside of Iraq. There's
some surveillance to make sure that our embassy compound is protected." That's
dishonest. It's going beyond the embassy compound, for one thing. For another,
Iraq's objecting to the helicopters and other US air traffic taking place.
Yesterday's snapshot noted State Dept's spokesperson Victoria Nuland's remarks
about drones. She was asked about if Iran or another country had a
non-weaponized drone flying through Central Park what would happen and she
stated no country had ever made such a request. Clearly, the US made no such
request to Iraq. However, let's get to what would happen, I checked with a
friend at the Justice Dept. Whatever foreigner was flying a drone in Central
Park would be arrested, facing questions and facing terrorism charges. It would
be incumbent upon him or her to prove that this was not a rehearsal for an armed
drone which may or may not be used for a biological attack. In the current
climate, it is thought that anyone arrested for such a thing would plead out to
the lowest charge possible because he or she could never make a strong case --
even if they were innocent -- in court that would prove their
innocence. In the US, Joanna Molloy (New York
Daily News) reports on an Intersections International event where veterans,
last Friday, discussed their experiences in Iraq:
"No matter what culture you're raised in, you're taught 'Thou shalt
not kill,' " said Brian
Iglesias, a Marine platoon commander turned
filmmaker. "Then you go to war, and it's different."
Former Marine Byll Potts, who said he had lived out of his car for
two years after getting laid off from his job in 2008, read a line from his
poetry book, "I'm Just Saying."
"Back in our towns, half smiles behind frowns, no job or a place
with lock and key . . . Do you really see me?" he read.
The film will also air on PBS around
the country, thanks to generous support from the National Educational Television
Association. Due to the controversial nature of the film, many local PBS
stations will relegate 'This is Where We Take Our Stand' to their smaller and
less widely available affiliates. We urge you to contact your local PBS station
and encourage them to air the film on their major channel. http://thisiswherewetakeourstand.com/?p=376
Premiere screening of This Is Where We Take Our Stand: The
Iraq Veterans Against the War who risked everything to tell their
story.
Thursday February 2, 2012 from 6pm to 8pm.
Bus boys & Poets (14th & V NW)
The long awaited full length movie about Winter Soldier 2008, This
Is Where We Take Our Stand: The Iraq Veterans Against the War who risked
everything to tell their story will premier in DC at Busboys &
Poets.
Following the film director David Zeiger (Sir No Sir) & one of
the main characters, Geoff Millard, will answer questions.
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