BULLY BOY PRESS & CEDRIC'S BIG MIX -- THE KOOL-AID TABLE
CELEBRITY IN CHIEF BARRY O JUST CAN'T SEEM TO GET THE ATTENTION HE CRAVES AS EASY AS HE USED TO. WHAT WITH MEN'S VOGUE FOLDING, HE'S LIKE A LONE ARUGULA LEAF SITTING A TOP A PLASTIC WRAPPED HEAD OF ICEBERG LETTUCE.
DESPERATE TO STAND OUT, YEARNING FOR EVER MORE ATTENTION, BARRY O HAS DECIDED TO GO THE REALITY TV ROUTE AND, AFTER FAILING LAST WEEK WITH HIS TALK SHOW, BARRY O HAS DECIDED TO DO A HEAVILY PROMOTED GUEST SHOT ON AMERICA'S MOST WANTED.
REACHED FOR COMMENT, BARRY O TOLD THESE REPORTERS, "THE PROBLEM'S NOT ME! IT'S MY HANDLERS! THEY DON'T KNOW HOW TO MANAGE A TALENT AS IMMENSE AS ME. THIS GUEST SPOT IS GOING TO TAKE ME IN A WHOLE OTHER DIRECTION, WAIT AND SEE! YOU'RE GOING TO HEAR FROM ME!"
FROM THE TCI WIRE:
This morning on the second hour of The Diane Rehm Show (NPR), Susan Page (USA Today) guest hosted for Diane and she spoke with the panelists Tom Gjelten (NPR), Susan Glasser (Foreign Policy) and David E. Sanger (New York Times).
Susan Page: Well Iraqis -- most Iraqis who are going to vote, go to the polls on Sunday, the first national election in five years. David Sanger, what seats are up?
David Sanger: Well an amazing number of candidates are up. Uh there are going to be 6127 candidates for 325 seats. So you could see a fair number of people who come in with one, two and even three votes if they, you know, get Moms and spouses to vote for them. You'll also see uh about 50,000 polling places. And I guess they must have all read those books about uh how Lyndon Johnson conducted polls in Texas in the 40s and 50s because not only are they writing this on special paper and numbering the ballots but the ballots then go into clear plastic boxes so that it gets a little bit harder to fiddle with. That said, the ingenuity of Iraqis with fiddling with uh ballots now may be as good as Americans have had at various points in our history. Uh, I think what you need to think about for this election are two things. First is it could be a long time before we see a serious result. When this happened in 2005, it took about five months to put the government together. Here it may not take as long but it could be a few months. And the second big question is: Does anything come up out of this that gets in the way of the American withdrawal strategy? And that is all linked to the divisions of Sunni and Shia, the levels of violence and so forth. For President [Barack] Obama who has already said that he's not out to make a Jeffersonian democracy and either Afghanistan or Iraq the big question is can he just stay on schedule.
Susan Page: Well what do you think, Susan, will he be able to stay on schedule with the withdrawal of US troops over the next two years or do you think that's in some peril?
Susan Glasser: Uh, well, you know, if I had a crystal ball for this one, we-we could all go home. But I do think that the election will be an intersting indicator. And what comes after it, as David mentioned, of just how riven is the political space in Iraq right now. There have certainly been some uh disturbing signs in the weeks leading up to the election that this is a highly polarized, highly sectarian environment going into the elections. Uhm, you know, there are signs of levels of divisions between Sunni and Shia that have probably reached their highest level of the last two years in the context of this campaign. So will renewed violence break out? What does it do to the potential unraveling of political space in Iraq? How much is the current prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki -- what is he willing to do to hold onto power over the next few weeks and months?
Susan Page: Tom, is there someone the US hopes emerges as the new leader of Iraq?
Tom Gjelten: No, I-I think what the United States hopes is simply stability. Uh, as David said, I think the, you know the prospect of divisions following this election is so unnerving that the United States would basically settle for any candidate that's able to keep the country more or less, uh, uh, on track and stable. I mean there seem to be -- You know, the good news is that all sectors of the Iraqi political spectrum are-are represented in this election. The bad news is that all sectors of the Iraqi political spectrum are represented in this election including some very violent, anti-American militia members. Moqtada al-Sadr who's responsible for a lot of the attacks even though he's currently living in Iraq, we think. His-his party is well represented. We've got an alleged former death squad leader who's represented. We have Sunni religious groups represented, Sunni secular groups, Shia religious groups, Shia secular groups. So everybody is represented but what that also does is it really is a recipe for what Susan and David are talking about, the kind of, the warring factions in the aftermath.
Susan Page: But I wonder if, to look on the bright side maybe, a second democratic election in five years, since the fall of the Saddam Hussein regime, does it indicate democracy or an Iraqi form of democracy is really taking root? Or do you think that goes too far, David?
David Sanger: It represents an Iraqi form of democracy. We've had other moments in Iraqi history, including in the 1950s, when there were similar forms of democracy and they didn't last. I mean, Iraq is a place that, at various moments, has gravitated towards strong-man leaders and that could well happen again.
Echoing that thought are Ernesto Londono and Leila Fadel (Washington Post) who explain, "After the ballots are cast and counted, voters will have provided the first conclusive evidence of what kind of democracy is likely to take root in the heart of the Middle East -- if one does at all." Charles Levinson (Wall St. Journal) reports, "Iraq's leading candidates made final appeals to voters and an influential anti-U.S. cleric unveiled a unqiue election-day strategy, on the final day of campaigning for Sunday's national polls." Iraqi refugees will vote in the US, Jordan, Syria, Turkey, Egypt, the UAE, Lebanon, Iran, Canada, England, Denmark, Australia, Germany, Austria, Sweden and the Netherlands. And in Iraq, Jane Arraf (Christian Science Monitor) looks at the approximately 3 million young, first-time voters in Iraq who express frustration and note that their lives have been plagued by violence, unemployment and lack of basic services. The Iraq War started in March 2003 and that's seven years ago. 20-year-old Iraqis were 13 when this illegal war started. Arraf reports, "This should be an exciting threshold to a new future for young people. But a broad range of interviews reveal that for this generation, born into a decade of trade sanctions and raised in war, there is an overriding sense of frustration, fears about security, and the struggle to find their place in a country still emerging from conflict." Among the first time voters is Nada Hatem Farhan and Jane Arraf examines what the elections mean to her and her life: Not much at all. She's like to be an attorney or journalist but instead states she must become a teacher which is about it in terms of 'respectability' for women in her area -- but that's if she's able to go college. There is a push for her to get married to her cousin as soon as she finishes high school. At Inside Iraq, an Iraqi correspondent for McClatchy Newspapers notes that all the candidates are decrying foreign influence and foreign money in the process but that those who serve in Parliament refused to address the situation before the elections. The correspondent observes:
The parties that are ruling Iraqi now are the same, two were established in Iran, and that we can find an explanation because Saddam was hunting the opposition down and killing their beloved ones so they had to find a safe place to live and seek change, but what me and my fellow citizens cannot comprehend is why these parties still receiving money and show allegiance to Iran or other countries and then criticize the foreign support.
And the most important part, these parties didn't mind an invasion and called it a liberation in 2003, later they called it occupation and interference, and they keep forgetting that it is the foreign interference and invasion that brought the democracy to the country, so why Iraqis need to oppose foreign funds, when everything was and still coming from outside.
In other deveopments, Layla Anwar (An Arab Woman Blues) expresses her anger very clearly today over Zeinab Khadum Allwan (we covered her in Wednesday's snapshot) but she's confused George W. Bush with "Western feminists" and we won't play dumb, Layla, just because we respect you. Rage and scream and do so against "Western feminists" if you want but don't expect us to play dumb with you.
First off, there's nothing about a burqa in Zeinab's story as told by the BBC -- nor is she 'modestly' dressed. She's dressed in tennis gear, so why Layla wants to use shame of the human body and how the West has allegedly torn off the 'mystique' of the female form (that would be "the other" for all educated in feminist theory, that which is cloaked, that which is hidden) to try to score points is actually a mystery.
Let me be really clear before I go further, I've noted this before online. I've posed nude. I have no hang ups about being naked and anytime someone wants to play the shame game re: nudity, it's never going to work with me. So call that A and B. C, George W. Bush is not and never was the face of feminism. If the Iraq War was sometimes sold as 'liberation' for Iraqi women, that came from Bush and his supporters in the media. Western feminists, as a group, opposed the Iraq War. We won't be your sin eater on this, Layla. You're angry and you have every right to be. You can lash out at whatever grouping you want including Western feminists. But I'm not of the Chickie-baby-boom-boom 'school' who's confused a push-up bra and a party schedule with feminism nor do I stand still while hit with a two-by-four.
Feminists in the West have got to learn to fight back and that includes saying, "I understand your anger but your facts are wrong." And, Layla, your facts are wrong. No feminist in the US or England or Canada has hailed the Iraq War as a success for female liberation nor would they. What we have repeatedly noted in the West was that Iraq had a more progressive policy regarding women than any other country in the region and that the invasion actually set the rights of women backwards. In fact, Rebecca was just writing about that last night, before you posted your attack on Western feminists today:
it's women's history month and the recent history for iraqi women isn't a good 1. they were better off before the invasion. they had rights. they were not required to hide themselves away. iraq was a secular state. why is it that women are always the 1s to suffer in any society? it could be us in the united states to lose our rights. it's not as if we have an equal rights amendment in the constitution. even if we did, before the 2003 invasion, iraqis could point to their own constitution and show how women's rights were in it. the true story of women's history appears to be that every day we have to struggle and fight and that's largely just to remain in the same spot. forget getting ahead.
You can be angry, you can lash out any group you want to. But we're not going to play stupid here when you attack feminism and attack it with distortions. As for "you" have to watch? I watched. I watched and wrote about it on Wednesday. Two days later you show up? Welcome to the party, Layla, food's all gone but pour yourself a drink.
Layla's angry, she has every right to be. Her country's been destroyed. There's no band-aid for it. And while we'll understand that, I do not play the game where we're Western feminists so we turn the other cheek while some one attacks us with lies. (Ava and I wrote a piece calling out the refusal to fight back in November of last year.) Had second wave leaders stood up in real time, a lot of lies and distortions wouldn't have taken hold in the last decades. Layla's angry. It's a deep anger and it's completely understandable. And she can lash out if she wants at whomever she wants. But if that lashing out includes a distortion of feminism or feminists, I'm not going to play. I'm not your sin eater. You need to grow up and take accountability for your own actions and that includes knowing who your enemies are. I already raised my children, I'm not going to baby any grown up at this late date.
Turning to England where the Iraq Inquiry today took testimony from Prime Minister Gordon Brown and former UK Secretary of State (2007-2009) Douglas Alexander (link goes to transcript and video option). Brown became the current Prime Minister in June 2007, prior to that he served in Tony Blair's Cabinet beginning in 1997. John Chilcot chairs the Inquiry and he kicked things off in today's hearing.
Chair John Chilcot: It has been borne in on this Inquiry from the outset that the coalition's decision to take military action led directly or most often, indirectly to the loss of lives of many people, servicemen and women in our and the Multi-National Forces, the Iraqi security forces, and many civilians, men, women and children, in Iraq. Still more have been affected by those losses and by other consequences of the action. Given all that experience, I should like to ask right at the outset whether you believe the decision to take military action in March 2003 was indeed right.
Gordon Brown: It was the right decision and it was for the right reasons. But I do want, at the outset, to pay my respects to all the soldiers and members of our armed forces who served with great entourage and distinction in Iraq for the loss of life and the sacrifices that they have made, and my thoughts are with their families. Next week, we will dedicate at the national arboretum a memorial to the 179 servicemen and women who died in Iraq and I think the thoughts and prayers of us are with all the families today.
Sentences two and three might have taken some of the sting out of sentence one were it not for the fact that those assembled had already seen Gordon Brown strut into the room, glad handing and beaming as if he was going to a christening,
You walked into the party
Like you were walking onto a yacht
Your had strategically dipped below one eye
Your scarf it was apricot
You had one eye in the mirror
As you watched yourself gavotte
And all the girls dreamed
That they'd be your partner
They'd be your partner and . . .
You're so vain
You probably think this song is about you
You're so vain
I bet you think this song is about you
Don't you, don't you?
-- "You're So Vain" -- words and music by Carly Simon
And that number one song, which Carly's re-recorded as part of her reimaging classic songs from her canon on Never Been Gone, never had a video. But Carly Simon and Iris Records are having a contest:
BE THE FILMMAKER TO CREATE THE FIRST AND ONLY VIDEO FOR CARLY SIMON'S CLASSIC ROCK SONG "YOU'RE SO VAIN" IN ASSOCIATION WITH AOL MUSIC'S SPINNER.COM
THE GRAND PRIZE WINNER WILL HAVE THEIR VIDEO PREMIERED AT THE 2010 TRIBECA FILM FESTIVAL, FEATURED ON AOL AND MEET CARLY SIMON IN-PERSON
Los Angeles, California. Thirty seven Decembers ago, pop songstress Carly Simon tore up the record charts with her single "You're So Vain." The song captured the number-one slot on both the Billboard Hot 100 and the Adult Contemporary charts, and to this day remains one of the most popular classic rock songs of all time. Perhaps more than any other track in pop music, the song's central mystery captivated the public. Ironically, even with all this speculation, the song has never had a music video to accompany it.
To coincide with her critically-acclaimed latest release, NEVER BEEN GONE, fans and filmmakers are invited to submit a music video to accompany the newly recorded version of "You're So Vain." If you'd like to add elements of the original 1972 version of the song feel free, but your video has to incorporate at least some of the 2010 recording, making the most of the new footage that can be downloaded here.
Carly will screen and judge all of the entries herself. The winning video will be featured on AOL Music's Spinner.com and screened at this years' Tribeca Film Festival in April, where the winner will also have the opportunity meet Carly Simon.
To help fans and filmmakers out, Carly has created a template of optional tools which can be utilized in the creation of the video including recently shot green screen footage, stills, video blogs and more all of which can be found and downloaded HERE.
You can submit your video from February 8th 2010 through April 15st 2010.
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"THIS JUST IN! BARRY O IS HAPPY!"
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Saturday, March 06, 2010
Thursday, March 04, 2010
THIS JUST IN! BARRY O IS HAPPY!
BULLY BOY PRESS & CEDRIC'S BIG MIX -- THE KOOL-AID TABLE
CELEBRITY IN CHIEF BARRY O SUMMONED THESE REPORTERS TO THE WHITE HOUSE TONIGHT AND, WITH A GLEEFUL GIGGLE, CONVINCED HE WAS DOMINATING THE NEWS CYCLE AGAIN.
BARRY O NEEDS U.S. HOUSE REP. JIM MATHESON'S VOTE TO PASS WHAT HE CALLS HEALTH CARE REFORM AND MET WITH MATHESON TO DISCUSS IT . . . THE SAME DAY HE NOMINATED SCOTT MATHESON, JIM'S BROTHER, TO THE FEDERAL COURT'S 10TH CIRCUIT COURT OF APPEALS.
WAS HE CONCERNED ABOUT HOW THE NOMINATION APPEARED TO BE A BRIBE?
"I'M JUST GLAD PEOPLE ARE TALKING ABOUT ME AGAIN," SIGHED BARRY O. "YOU HAVE NO IDEA WHAT IT'S LIKE TO GO FROM THE MOST TALKED ABOUT, MOST WRITTEN ABOUT MAN ONE YEAR TO HAVE EVERYONE IGNORE YOU. I WILL NOT BE IGNORED! I WILL NOT BE IGNORED! I'M LIKE THAT WOMAN WHO BOILED THE BUNNY RABBIT."
FROM THE TCI WIRE:
Thomas E. Ricks: Well, Tommy, I would say you shouldn't believe cause I don't think it's going to happen. I think we're going to have several thousands, several tens of thousands US troops in Iraq on the day President Obama leaves office.
Marcia: Does anyone seem aware of that?
C.I.: The Democrats on the subcommittee are very aware of that. Chair Susan Davis asked specifically what was being studied. I'm quoting her asking about this year-long study, "Do you anticipate that focusing on whether or how? Or a combination of both?" General Carter F. Ham responded that they would use "a survey instrument of the force and of their family" as well as "focus groups some of them specifically trageted to specialzied groups and families" in the military and, last one, outreach through social media to people in and out of the Defense Department.
Marcia: So that sounds good.
C.I.: It does. Too bad it didn't end there.
Marcia: Okay.
C.I.: Joe Wilson, from South Carolina, is the Ranking Member on the Subcommittee. Now we've discussed Susan Davis' question. She hands off to Wilson and he asks if the study can look to see if "current law threatens or undermines readiness in any significant way" and also would it significantly improve the readiness.
Marcia: That's not a 'how,' that's a 'should we repeal'?
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"THIS JUST IN! EDWARDS TO THE BIG HOUSE?"
CELEBRITY IN CHIEF BARRY O SUMMONED THESE REPORTERS TO THE WHITE HOUSE TONIGHT AND, WITH A GLEEFUL GIGGLE, CONVINCED HE WAS DOMINATING THE NEWS CYCLE AGAIN.
BARRY O NEEDS U.S. HOUSE REP. JIM MATHESON'S VOTE TO PASS WHAT HE CALLS HEALTH CARE REFORM AND MET WITH MATHESON TO DISCUSS IT . . . THE SAME DAY HE NOMINATED SCOTT MATHESON, JIM'S BROTHER, TO THE FEDERAL COURT'S 10TH CIRCUIT COURT OF APPEALS.
WAS HE CONCERNED ABOUT HOW THE NOMINATION APPEARED TO BE A BRIBE?
"I'M JUST GLAD PEOPLE ARE TALKING ABOUT ME AGAIN," SIGHED BARRY O. "YOU HAVE NO IDEA WHAT IT'S LIKE TO GO FROM THE MOST TALKED ABOUT, MOST WRITTEN ABOUT MAN ONE YEAR TO HAVE EVERYONE IGNORE YOU. I WILL NOT BE IGNORED! I WILL NOT BE IGNORED! I'M LIKE THAT WOMAN WHO BOILED THE BUNNY RABBIT."
FROM THE TCI WIRE:
Starting with the CBS Evening News with Katie Couric from yesterday:
Katie Couric: Now turning to Iraq which holds Parliamentary elections on Sunday and insurgents are doing everything they can to disrupt them. Today there were three suicide attacks in Baquba, northeast of the capital. At least 32 people were killed, 55 others injured. From Baghdad tonight, here's Elizabeth Palmer.
Elizabeth Palmer: With three days to go before the Iraqi election, this is the violence everyone was dreading. Two suicide bombers detonated their explosive packed cars outside Baquba's police stations wrecking lives, buildings, cars and water mains. Then authorities say a third bomber rode in an ambulance to the hospital and waited until he was surrounded by the wounded before blowing himself up. Almost 19 million voters are eligible to head to the polls on Sunday to elect a 325 member Parliament but election fever here is tempered by election fear. Everyone remembers the huge truck bombs last fall in the heart of Baghdad that killed more than 150 people. Extremists have promised more violence to disrupt the political process so the government is running TV ads warning that so-called criminals are plotting mass murder and asking people to be hyper-vigilant. And on the street, security forces with extra patrols and check points are working hard to set the stage for an election that if it goes smoothly will reinforce Iraq's indepedence and stability. Not only that, if all goes well and a new Iraqi governemnt takes power in a peaceful transition that will allow 46,000 US combat troops to begin their pull-out almost immediately. Elizabeth Palmer, CBS News, Baghdad.
You can click here to watch the segment. NBC Nightly News had time for "Comic Relief" -- 'reporting' on a web video. A video which they refused to air. They reported on it, refused to air it. It advocates for something (consumer rights), Brian Williams explained. But, having wasted all of our time with the report, he then went on to plug the Nightly News website. Nightly News didn't think they should broadcast it . . . on TV but they were happy to broadcast it online. So Brian Williams used air time to self-promote while Diane Sawyer, over at ABC's World News had time to plug for Dominos. It only takes a second to note Domino's 4th quarter but if you're also doing an advetorial for them, you include plenty of shots of pizza and claims that their new ad campaign was responsive to the people and . . . Well, it doesn't leave you much time for actual news. For more on yesterday's bombings, you can see this article by Marc Santora (New York Times).
Bombings targeted Iraq again today. BBC News reports two voting centers in Iraq were targeted with suicide bombings. BBC's NewsHour states it is believed that the bombings were attempts at targeting soldiers who were voting today (early voting which means voting began on the 4th and not ont he 5th as I had repeatedly stated -- my error and my apologies). Khalid al-Ansary, Waleed Ibrahim, Fadhel al-Badrani, Mohammed Abbas, Khaled Farhan, Sherko Raouf, Mustafa Mahmoud, Ayla Jean Yackley, Jack Kimball, Aref Mohammed, Alistair Lyon and Andrew Roche (Reuters) note 12 dead in the two bombings and a third explosion with 35 police and soldiers left injured and 22 civilians wounded.
Sahar Issa (McClatchy Newspapers) reports a fourth Baghdad bombing, a sticky bombing, which left one person injured and a Nineveh Province home bombing which injured two women and the home belonged to "Nawaf Saadoun Zaid, head of Unity of Iraq Coaltion in Nineveh (the coalition is headed by incumbent interior minister Bolani)".
This morning on the first hour of NPR's The Diane Rehm Show, USA Today's Susan Page (guest host) spoke with Nancy A. Youssef (McClatchy Newspapers), Lawrence Korb (Center for American Progress) and former reporter Thomas E. Ricks about Iraq elections.
Susan Page: You know, here's an e-mail we've gotten from Tommy from Raleigh, North Carolina. He writes us, "For all my hope in 2008, I'm becoming disillusioned. Senator Obama campaigned against the war in Iraq. He promised that if he were elected, he would end the war and bring home the troops. More than a year into his presidency, he's failed to keep his promise. Since he hasn't kept even easy promises with easy time frames -- such as closing Gitmo within a year -- why should we believe his currently promised timetable for pulling out of Iraq?" You know, I'm not sure closing Gitmo was such an easy promise but, Tom, you know this message from Tommy is one I expect we would hear from any number of Obama voters.
Thomas E. Ricks: Well, Tommy, I would say you shouldn't believe cause I don't think it's going to happen. I think we're going to have several thousands, several tens of thousands US troops in Iraq on the day President Obama leaves office.
Susan: And --
Lawrence Korb: Let me say something about Obama. He promised to get the combat troops out so I think evidently a lot of people didn't read the platform and he also said he was going to increase the presence in Afghanistan. Those were part of his campaign promises --
Susan: Well he did say combat troops but I don't think that was the message that people heard.
Lawrence Korb: I understand. A lot of people thought "Elect Obama, you're out of Iraq and wind down in Afghanistan, we can get back to dealing with the problems at home." There's no doubt about that. But, again, I think that he did say combat troops.So far --
Thomas E. Ricks: I hate that phrase combat troops. There is no pacifist wing of the Marine Corps or the 101st Airborne. And I think it's effectively a lie to the American people. When they hear "I'll get combat troops out," what they hear is "No more American troops will die" -- and that is blatantly untrue. And I think the sooner the president addresses that, the better for him.
Susan Page: And we had Vice President [Joe] Biden say just the other day that while we're going to withdraw combat troops, the troops that we leave behind are guys who will be able to shoot straight -- in other words, people who could instantly be made into combat troops if the circumstances require that. What do you think about that, Nancy?
Nancy A. Youssef: Well I think it has to -- the broader question becomes: If Iraq does break into some level of violence, what is the role of the 50,000 troops there? Do they sit idly by? Do they let -- do they intervene? Do they put themselves in harm's way? And what can 50,000 troops do? We -- At the peak, there were 172,000 troops to bring down the sectarian violence. What can 50,000 troops, who aren't supposed to be doing combat, really do? It's going to be a difficult predicament at that point if-if in fact some level of violence returns.
Lawrence Korb: I think Vice President Biden was also trying to say that we can protect our own troops because, again, you get back to the question of casulties, yes, we have 50,000 but this not, you know, a group of people who can't do anything so if anything happens and they come after us we can protect ourselves.
We included Korb's crap and that last statement by him above was nothing but crap. He needs to stick to reality and now what he wishes would be said. That's a huge problem for Korb. Asked a direct question by a caller who said she'd take her answer off the air, Korb declared, "I do think the real question she was raising . . ." Her question was basic: Iraq currency. She most likely asked it because of the currency switch prior to the Iraq War. But Korb always knows best and ignored her question. Korb's a damn idiot.
But administration officials also acknowledged that the bigger worry for the United States was not who would win the elections, but the possibility that the elections -- and their almost certainly messy aftermath -- could ignite violence that would, at the least, complicate the planned withdrawal.
In part for that reason, "we're not leaving behind cooks and quartermasters," Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. said Wednesday in a telephone interview. The bulk fo the remaining American troops, he said, "will still be guys who can shoot straight and go get the bad guys."
Gen. Ray Odierno [. . .]
Nancy Youssef and Susan Page were interpreting it correctly. Lawrence Korb is the idiot who can't listen. Which is rather telling, isn't it? Freud wrote of the criminal's compulsion to confession and when you combine that with projection, you understand a passage excerpted above that we'll again note:
Lawrence Korb: Let me say something about Obama. He promised to get the combat troops out so I think evidently a lot of people didn't read the platform and he also said he was going to increase the presence in Afghanistan. Those were part of his campaign promises --
Susan: Well he did say combat troops but I don't think that was the message that people heard.
Lawrence Korb: I understand. A lot of people thought "Elect Obama, you're out of Iraq and wind down in Afghanistan, we can get back to dealing with the problems at home." There's no doubt about that. But, again, I think that he did say combat troops.So far --
Lawrence Korb is blaming the American people. They're just too stupid, he politely says, to know what's what. Barack said "combat troops." Did he, Larry? Did he you piece of s**t, Reagan reject?
Ava, Kat and I were speaking on campuses to groups truly opposed to the illegal war and we would have to unpack that lie daily. And we caught him saying it at two events: "We want to end the war now!" At his little praise tent circuses, his little "Oh Come Let Us Adore Me" events, he would say that. And the crowd would go crazy. Men and women would tear up. Barack damn well knew what he was doing and Larry Korb needs to stop lying. I know that's hard for Larry, but he needs to stop.
We're not even at the distinction of "combat troops" right now. We're at the reality. And Larry wanted to 'correct' the listener didn't do much of a 'correction' did he? Did Barack break his campaign promise:
All together: "YES HE DID!"
All together: "YES HE DID!"
The campaign promise was one brigade a month out of Iraq on his first day in office. That was the promise and that promise was broken. Larry's a damn liar. And I'm damn well not in the mood. In the Friday, March 7, 2008 snapshot, we noted:
Obama still lacks the leadership to take control of his campaign -- that would have required firing Power. Instead she resigned indicating that he's unable to run a campaign as well as unable to tell the truth. Power -- who also went to work for Obama in 2005 when he was first elected to the US Senate (November 2004) -- also had to deal with the BBC interview she'd given. Barack Obama has not promised to pull ALL troops out of Iraq in 16 months. He has promised the American people that "combat" troops would be removed. But promises, promises (as Dionne Warwick once sang) . . .
Stephen Sackur: "You said that he'll revisit it [the decision to pull troops] when he goes to the White House. So what the American public thinks is a commitment to get combat forces out within sixteen months, isn't a commitment is it?"
Samantha Power: "You can't make a commitment in whatever month we're in now, in March of 2008 about what circumstances are going to be like in January 2009. We can'te ven tell what Bush is up to in terms of troops pauses and so forth. He will of course not rely upon some plan that he's crafted as a presidential candidate or as a US Senator."
Which would mean Mr. Pretty Speeches has been lying to the American people. (Add the "AGAIN!")
Her rise was swift, her fall even faster. Our Modern Day Carrie Nations took part in the "Bring the troops home and send them to Darfur" nonsense. [For more on that nutso crowd, see Julie Hollar's "The Humanitarian Tempatation" (Extra!).] Despite presenting herself recently as against the Iraq War from the start, the public record has never backed that up. But it is true that she wanted wars in Africa and was selling them under "humanitarian" guise. "Stop the killing!" she cried but if she really wanted to stop the killing, she might have tried to speak out against the ongoing genocie in Iraq (which has also produced the largest refugee crisis in the world). She didn't care about that. Probably because it demonstrates that sending armed forces in is not an answer. Again, if Barack Obama had any leadership abilities, he would have announced today that he fired his longterm advisor. He did not, she resigned. (She foolishly doesn't grasp that this is her Alexander Haig moment and there is no comeback.) Power was not a campaigner, she was a high level, longterm foreign policy advisor being groomed to be the next Secretary of State. As Krissah Williams (Washington Post) notes, Senator Clinton's response to Power's BBC interview was to note Power's agreement that Obama's pledge to have "combat" troops out in 16 months was never more than a "best-case scenario". Hillary Clinton: "Senator Obama has made his speech opposing Iraq in 2002 and the war in Iraq the core of his campaign, which makes these comments especially troubling. While Senator Obama campaigns on his [pledge] to end the war, his top advisers tell people abroad that he will not rely on his own plan should he become president. This is the latest example of promising the American people one thing on the campaign trail and telling people in other countries another. You saw this with NAFTA as well."
An explosive bit of news in the middle of a campaign. The Washington Post reported on it, the Boston Globe as well. And the rest? Two days later at Third we offered, "Editorial: The Whores of Indymedia" which noted:
So determined to not only avoid the reality but also smear Hillary Clinton, Air Berman (The Nation) spent Friday digging through Meet The Press transcripts. The allegedly anti-war Nation magazine has yet to tell their online readers of the revelations broadcast on BBC.
Truthout, so quick to editorialize that Hillary Clinton should drop out of the race, has no story up about the revelation. BuzzFlash is working overtime to smear Hillary Clinton but has nothing to say about Bambi's Iraq realities. Common Dreams is avoiding the subject as is The Progressive, CounterPunch, Truthdig, go down the list. All have time to smear Hillary, none have time to tell the truth about Bambi's 'pledge.' Where is Tom Hayden!
Remember when Americans Against the Escalation (or whatever the name of that faux grassroots 'movement') imploded? There was Tommy, mere second later, writing about it online at The Nation. A call to the magazine got the story pulled but it resurfaced a day later, on Sunday, in a slightly different form with an additional note tacked on. Certainly Bambi's non-pledge is as important as the implosion of a non-peace group.
Truthout, so quick to editorialize that Hillary Clinton should drop out of the race, has no story up about the revelation. BuzzFlash is working overtime to smear Hillary Clinton but has nothing to say about Bambi's Iraq realities. Common Dreams is avoiding the subject as is The Progressive, CounterPunch, Truthdig, go down the list. All have time to smear Hillary, none have time to tell the truth about Bambi's 'pledge.' Where is Tom Hayden!
Remember when Americans Against the Escalation (or whatever the name of that faux grassroots 'movement') imploded? There was Tommy, mere second later, writing about it online at The Nation. A call to the magazine got the story pulled but it resurfaced a day later, on Sunday, in a slightly different form with an additional note tacked on. Certainly Bambi's non-pledge is as important as the implosion of a non-peace group.
They ignored it. In fairness to Tom Hayden, July 4, 2008, he suddently discovered the Samantha Power BBC interview and wrote about it for the first time. And then he claimed the media ignored it (Boston Globe and Washington Post covered it) and that Hillary's campaign ignored it. Tom-Tom's a damn liar. Hillary's campaign called it out the day of, they issued press releases the following Monday (BBC aired the interview on a Friday), they talked about in conference calls with the press. Do you know the reaction? Andrea Mitchell laughed. Now maybe she was laughing at David Corn who exploded and started yelling and called it dirty politics for the Hillary campaign to bring it up. There was no doubt in anyone's mind who 'reporter' David Corn was supporting. His tantrums, his attacks, his threats, his non-stop errors made it very, very clear. If Tom-tom wants to blame-blame, he can take it up with David Corn who did more than anyone to kill that story. He shrieked like a banshee. No one was ever more shrill. David Corn turned every press conference into a performance piece and it was appalling.
Why does it matter? It matters because that's how reality got buried by the press -- especially Panhandle Media which Korb's organization is a part of. (Panhandle Media has to beg for money -- Pacifica, for example -- because they can't make it any other way. They're the bums on the street corner.) Don't you dare blame the voters. The voters were never told about Power's interview. Panhandle Media wouldn't allow it. (Amy Goodman, the Queen of Beggar Media, never covered it on Democracy Now!) Those liars, passing themselves off as objective and truth tellers, are the ones who deceived the American people. It's why they ignore the Iraq War now. Because there's lots of blood on their hands.
Don't you dare blame the voters when the press -- All Things Media Big And Small -- worked overtime to give Barack one excuse after another. And when they could join thousands of others in the Cult of St. Barack and hear the Christ child proclaim, "We want to end the war now!" At his revival meetings, he said "NOW!" No, he thundred, "NOW!" Speaking to the New York Times, he said "combat troops" -- and like Ricks, Michael Gordon called that nonsense out and did so to Barack's face. Ricks' finest moment was the section excerpted. Nancy A. Youssef had many fine moments (and we may grab another tomorrow). Lawrence Korb was a non-stop embarrassment including his ridiculous claim on Afghanistan that "they" wanted "us" to invade. Did they? That's not how I remember and I really doubt that's how history will.
Before we move on to the elections, Susan Page noted on air that The Diane Rehm Show had won the Shorty Award for brief news for their Twitter Account and that Diane thanked all the show's Twitter followers. So congratulations to Diane and her crew on their award.
[. . .]
Yesterday the Military Personnel Subcommittee of the US House Veterans Affairs Committee held a meeting, I discussed it with Marcia last night for her site:
Marcia: So today, was it the full committee? Or was it a subcommittee?
C.I.: It was a subcommittee, it was the Military Personnel Subcommittee. "When it comes to repeal, the question is not whether but how and when," Susan Davis declared at the start of the meeting she chaired.
Marcia: I was just going to ask you about that. Susan Davis is from California. Is she really a yes vote on repeal?
C.I.: Yes, she is. I'm not going to go through everyone, okay? There are some that are on the fence and that people are advocating with and I hope it's successful -- and I'm advocating to two on the House Armed Services Committee, trying to explain why repeal is so important and so important now. But Susan Davis is a firm "yes" on this issue.
Marcia: Can I get one more strong yes and then I won't ask again.
C.I.: Sure. Loretta Sanchez, also from California, is a firm yes. Her vote is not in question. This is a military service member and readiness issue for her as well as a dignity and rights issue.
Marcia: Was she at the hearing? And what did she say?
C.I.: She did attend the hearing.
Marcia: I know I said I'd just ask once but can I ask one other thing: Are all Republicans opposed to this?
C.I.: No. How many will stand by that in a vote, however, I don't know. See, I agree with you completely that if you want to repeal, you do it. You don't need to study a year. But Dems will lose seats in Congress in the elections this year if the normal pattern holds. They may lose control of one of the two houses. They may not but they, historically, will lose seats, historical pattern. So what does that mean? Super-majority has become the Democratic Party's mantra. When they lose seats, a year from now, and this study comes back, what happens? I think we'll hear from some leadership, "We can't do this. We don't have the votes." Now if they lose control of one house, they may very well not have the votes. But that's why you can't wait a year on this. If it's going to be repealed it needs to take place now.
C.I.: It was a subcommittee, it was the Military Personnel Subcommittee. "When it comes to repeal, the question is not whether but how and when," Susan Davis declared at the start of the meeting she chaired.
Marcia: I was just going to ask you about that. Susan Davis is from California. Is she really a yes vote on repeal?
C.I.: Yes, she is. I'm not going to go through everyone, okay? There are some that are on the fence and that people are advocating with and I hope it's successful -- and I'm advocating to two on the House Armed Services Committee, trying to explain why repeal is so important and so important now. But Susan Davis is a firm "yes" on this issue.
Marcia: Can I get one more strong yes and then I won't ask again.
C.I.: Sure. Loretta Sanchez, also from California, is a firm yes. Her vote is not in question. This is a military service member and readiness issue for her as well as a dignity and rights issue.
Marcia: Was she at the hearing? And what did she say?
C.I.: She did attend the hearing.
Marcia: I know I said I'd just ask once but can I ask one other thing: Are all Republicans opposed to this?
C.I.: No. How many will stand by that in a vote, however, I don't know. See, I agree with you completely that if you want to repeal, you do it. You don't need to study a year. But Dems will lose seats in Congress in the elections this year if the normal pattern holds. They may lose control of one of the two houses. They may not but they, historically, will lose seats, historical pattern. So what does that mean? Super-majority has become the Democratic Party's mantra. When they lose seats, a year from now, and this study comes back, what happens? I think we'll hear from some leadership, "We can't do this. We don't have the votes." Now if they lose control of one house, they may very well not have the votes. But that's why you can't wait a year on this. If it's going to be repealed it needs to take place now.
Marcia: Does anyone seem aware of that?
C.I.: The Democrats on the subcommittee are very aware of that. Chair Susan Davis asked specifically what was being studied. I'm quoting her asking about this year-long study, "Do you anticipate that focusing on whether or how? Or a combination of both?" General Carter F. Ham responded that they would use "a survey instrument of the force and of their family" as well as "focus groups some of them specifically trageted to specialzied groups and families" in the military and, last one, outreach through social media to people in and out of the Defense Department.
Marcia: So that sounds good.
C.I.: It does. Too bad it didn't end there.
Marcia: Okay.
C.I.: Joe Wilson, from South Carolina, is the Ranking Member on the Subcommittee. Now we've discussed Susan Davis' question. She hands off to Wilson and he asks if the study can look to see if "current law threatens or undermines readiness in any significant way" and also would it significantly improve the readiness.
Marcia: That's not a 'how,' that's a 'should we repeal'?
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Wednesday, March 03, 2010
THIS JUST IN! EDWARDS TO THE BIG HOUSE?
BULLY BOY PRESS & CEDRIC'S BIG MIX -- THE KOOL-AID TABLE
AS RUMORS CIRCULATE THAT JOHN EDWARDS, ONE TIME SENATOR, ONE TIME DEMOCRATIC PARTY VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE, PART-TIME BRECK GIRL AND FULL-TIME SLIME MIGHT BE INDICTED BY THE GRAND JURY, EDWARDS TELLS THESE REPORTERS HE'S GOT A BACK UP PLAN.
"BLAME HILLARY," EDWARDS DECLARED AND THEN, SEEING OUR STUNNED FACES, HE REPEATED, "BLAME HILLARY."
"IT WORKED SO WELL FOR ME AND BARACK DURING THE PRIMARIES. I'LL JUST BLAME HER AND SAY SOME SEXIST STUFF -- AND BARACK WILL BACK ME UP -- AND THEN THE COUNTRY WILL ATTACK HER AND FORGET ALL ABOUT ME."
Today suicide bombers target Baquba in Diyala Province. Marc Santora (New York Times) reports, "The attacks began with two car bombings targeting government buildings, followed by an attack on a local hospital where victims from the earlier explosions were being treated." Press TV describes the city as "bathed in blood after a third explosion struck a hospital swarming with casualties from two car bombs". Ernesto Londono and Hassan Shimari (Washington Post) explain, "The initial explosion, a car bomb, targeted an Iraqi police station about 9:45 a.m. in a western district of Baqubah, the provincial capital, according to Maj. Ghalib Aativa, a police spokesman. The detonation ripped through a nearby building and reduced it to rubble." Mohammed Tawfeeq (CNN) adds, "Two minutes later, a second suicide car bomb went off near the party headquarters of former Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari in central part of the city." NPR's Mark Memmott has posted an audio report by NPR's Quil Lawrence and we'll note Lawrence on the third bomber, "In what has become a familiar pattern a third attacker dressed as a police man entered the hospital where emergency workers had carried the wounded and detonated a suicide vest in the middle of the crowded ward." Charles Levinson (Wall St. Journal) offers of the third bombing, "It was the final bomber, however, who caused the most casualties, by donning a military uniform, pretending to be wounded and riding an ambulance back to the hospital where he blew himself up, said Capt. al-Karkhi, killing many of the wounded from the first two bombs." Hilmi Kamal, Alistair Lyon and Michael Christie (Reuters) add, "The bomber had tried to target the provincial police chief, who had been visiting the hospital, but security guards stopped him. Many people were killed or wounded. More chaos erupted as the police chief's bodyguards shot randomly in the air." Richard Spencer (Telegraph of London) reports, "" Caroline Alexander (Bloomberg News) offers, "Baquba, a mixed Sunni and Shiite Muslim city, is the provincial capital of Diyala and lies about 40 miles (64 kilometers) northeast of Baghdad. The blasts were the deadliest to hit Iraq since Feb. 5 when at least 40 Shiite pilgrims were killed on the last day of a religious festival near Karbala, south of Baghdad." Sahar Issa (McClatchy Newspapers) provides these numbers, "The explosions killed at least 33 people and injured 55 most of whom were policemen. Toll may rise because of the serious injuries sustained by many of the wounded, Iraqi police said." Andrew England (Finanical Times of London) explains that "the violence may damage the credibility of Nouri al-Maliki, the prime minister, who has sought to portray himself as the leader responsible for the security gains." Hannah Allam (McClatchy Newspapers) quotes Diyala police spokesperson Maj Ghalib Atiyah al Jubouri stating, "The timing is a message to prevent people from participating in elections because it happened just a few days before the general voting and less than 24 hours before the special vote for security forces. We feel people will challenge this message and reject it." Liz Sly and Usama Redha (Los Angeles Times) note that "a spokeswoman for the governor promised that polling centers would be secured on election day and that a curfew on vehicles would prevent bombings." Kim Landers and Ben Knight (Australia's ABC News) inform, "This is not the massive Al Qaeda [in Mesopotomai] had been threatening. [. . .] Curfews are about to go in place all over the country and police are voting early to be ready for the poll. The capital Baghdad is on high alert and is expected to shut down almost coompletely in the days ahead of the vote."
Surveying the news of the bombings and the current climate, Michael Hastings (The Daily Beast) offers this take:
I've spent a number of months in Iraq covering the run up to the elections, and I'll be there on March 7th to see the results. I've spoken to dozens of Iraqi officials, U.S. diplomatic and military types, scores of Iraqi voters, and some of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's closest friends and advisors. All of which has made me very suspicious of the American claim -- made recently by Vice President Joe Biden when he said Iraq might be one of President Obama's "greatest achievements -- that Iraq's democratic future is sunny, peaceful, and bright.
In fact, I suspect we could be seeing Iraq's final gasp of democracy this weekend, a last purple-fingered salute before the country slips back into a more familiar authoritarianism. It's not this election we need to worry about, in other words -- it's the next one, four years from now.
This uncomfortable truth was hard to ignore after the Iraqi government banned hundreds of candidates -- mostly secular and Sunni leaders -- from running in the election. The move was supported by Maliki, and it took the direct intervention of Vice President Biden to force the Iraqis to ban only 400 rather than the original 500. The Shiite Islamist-dominated government in Baghdad was sending a clear signal to its political opponents: they're not very interested in reconciliation. (The U.S. "surge" strategy was intended to give the Iraqi government what U.S. officials called "political breathing room." The Iraqi government has now made it clear they are going to use the breathing room to choke whatever air is left out of the opposition.) It seems rather unlikely that, in four years from now, when the Americans have even less influence in shaping events, that the Iraqi government will be more willing to share in the democratic way the Americans are hoping for.
This morning Nebraska's Journal Star editorialized, "For some Americans, concern over the future of Iraq has been reduced to one question: When will U.S. troops come home? The national election in Iraq in four days could affect the answer to that question. The issue hits close to home, with 1,300 Nebraska National Guard members slated for deployment to Iraq and Afghanistan this year." Early voting begins March 5th, voting ends Sunday March 7th. Hannah Fairfield (New York Times) offers a look at some of the parties and candidates, Al Jazeera offers a series of basic points about the elections in Q&A form, while BBC News offers three videos of Iraqis speaking about changes in Iraq, we'll note the middle video.
Rob Walker: This is Zeinab Khadum Allwan, born and raised in Baghdad. 19-years-old and tennis mad. Her dream? To become number one -- and not just Iraq's number one.
Zeinab Khadum Allwan: I hope to be a world champion. I'm determined to achieve that.
Rob Walker: But like many Iraqis, Zeinab's life has been turned upside down by violence.
Zainab Khadum Allwan: I was at home and I heard some rockets fall on the neighborhood near us. So I went out to see what was happening. Suddenly, I felt something falling behind me and then it felt like my legs were on fire. And, when I looked, I couldn't see my legs.
Rob Walker: Zeinab's sister and her sister-in-law were killed in the rocket attack. At first, she says she felt depressed and isolated.
Zeinab Khadum Allwan: Before the incident, I was the most active child in the street. My dream was to become a tennis player. The first thing I felt, when I woke up in the hospital and they told me that I'd lost my legs, was that my dream was gone. But then when I told my family I still wanted to play tennis and be a champion, they were very happy because it was my old self coming back. And now, when I hold the racket, I remember the days when I was an active child. I have the same dream ahead of me. The only difference is that I want to achieve that dream in a wheel chair. I try hard not to spend time at my house because, when I'm there, I remember the things that happened there and the things I lost. I dropped out of school after the attack but I hope to go back.
Rob Walker: In a few months Zainab will compete at the Wheel Chair World Cup in Turkey. Her dream is now within reach.
Zeinab Khadum Allwan: I hope I will achieve something. I want to achieve a small victory for the Iraqi people.
Rob Walker: Zainab, like many other young Iraqis, will soon have her first chance to choose a Parliament and a government. She says she hopes the outcome will be what's best for Iraq. Zainab's dreams for the future of going back to school and continuing to play tennis depend in part on Iraq's future after these elections.
Dan Damon (BBC News -- audio link) reports that some Iraqis are syaing they won't vote but others are eager to vote. Two young women share with Damon that they felt it is their duty ("We have to"). In the same report, Jim Muir checks in with the wholesale newspaper market in central Baghdad where paper vendors are present as early as five a.m. to pick up papers. And the newspaper sales have picked up as people in Baghdad attempt to follow the back and forth of the campaigning. Dan Damon feels two people likely to be vying for the position of prime minister (which will be voted on by Parliament, not by the people of Iraq) are Nouri al-Maliki and Ayad Allawi. Today's bombings put a dent (another one) in Nouri's "State of Law" image. In addition, Richard Spencer (Telegraph of London) reports that Ayad Allawi is launching a broadside at Nouri:Mr Allawi, who was the American-backed interim prime minister after the fall of Saddam Hussein and is once again a leading candidate, said he would boycott parliament if he felt the election was fixed. In an interview with The Daily Telegraph, he upped a war of words over the recent banning and arrests of opposition candidates and supporters, saying the present prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, was beginning to assert his authority "just as Saddam Hussein did".
At the New York Times' At War blog, Michael Kamber offers a video interview with Iraqi police officer Thaer Ahmad Farhan whose statements include, "We hope that all Iraqis vote in order to lead the country to a better situation -- economically, socially and to be more prosperous." Among the parties vying for votes is the Ahrar Party:
With only three days to go until voting begins in Iraq's elections, the leader of Ahrar 374 - Ayad Jamal Aldin - urged all Iraqis to get out and vote.
In advance of Sunday's vote, he argued that all Iraqis, regardless of religion, need a government that is focused on delivering better public services and uniting the country.
Ayad Jamal Aldin said: "This government has lost control. We need radical change to throw out the foreigners and corruptors who are intent on dividing us Iraqis.
"These outside influences are responsible for the violence and intimidation that blight the lives of all Iraqis every day. And the violence and bloodshed on our streets is getting worse, because the people around our government are scared of what the people's verdict will be.
"They are fearful of the people of Iraq because they know that on Sunday we, the people of Iraq, have all the power.
"Every Iraqi faces a choice this weekend. You can vote for more violence, more division, and more corruption. Or you can vote for real plans for providing security, unity, and jobs.
"But you must vote. Your vote is your voice. Any Iraqi who does not vote is supporting the decline, division, and destruction of Iraq. Together we can build a strong and united Iraq with security, jobs, and electricity."
For further information, contact:
Ahrar Media BureauTel: +964 (0)790 157 4478 / +964 (0)790 157 4479 / +964 (0)771 275 2942press@ahrarparty.com
About Ayad Jamal Aldin:
Ayad Jamal Aldin is a cleric, best known for his consistent campaigning for a new, secular Iraq. He first rose to prominence at the Nasiriyah conference in March 2003, shortly before the fall of Saddam, where he called for a state free of religion, the turban and other theological symbols. In 2005, he was elected as one of the 25 MPs on the Iraqi National List, but withdrew in 2009 after becoming disenchanted with Iyad Allawi's overtures to Iran. He wants complete independence from Iranian interference in Iraq. He now leads the Ahrar party for the 2010 election to the Council of Representatives, to clean up corruption and create a strong, secure and liberated Iraq for the future.
Middle East Online reports on Nejm Eddine Karim who is a Kurd running in Kirkuk and who states, "I propose that an Arab becomes vice president of Kurdistan and a Turkmen is made prime minister, if we succeed in making Kirkuk part of Kurdistan." Karim is closely connected to Kurdistan despite living in the US until very recently -- whenever Jalal Talabani's bad eating lands him in health trouble and sends him scurrying to the US, he usually sees Karim. In Iraq, Seth Robbins (Stars and Stripes) reports, "As Sunday's national election approaches, the atmosphere has become more tense in Anbar, once a stronghold of the insurgency but more recently a relatively peaceful province. A string of deadly bombings, one of which severely injured the provincial governor, has been blamed on rival camps left out of the government and its lucrative American contracts or on al-Qaida in Iraq, which may be seeking to renew the insurgency as American troops prepare to withdraw."
Layla Anwar (An Arab Woman Blues) offers her take on the elections:So let's see how this democratic process is unfolding shall we ?Kurds are at Arabs throats in Nineveh province, where a joint US/Kurdish/Iraqi Forces is patrolling the area...Clownish candidates are continuing their comic show with distributing i.e buying votes, either with cash, guns, sports shoes and carton of eggs...hahahahahaA few revelations, not rumors I promise you.One candidate from INA (the Iranian National Alliance) presented himself as a Doctor...Upon investigation, this Doctor from Mayssan Province, turned out to have never finished university. He did a teacher's training course for elementary classes. And his exams results were shown on TV, he failed miserably in all subjects except PE. i.e Physical Education.Another candidate spent 450'000 Dollars printing posters of his ugly face in Beirut, and shipping them to Baghdad in cartons.The above two are just small examples of the kind of specimens that are ruling Iraq...Middle East Online reports on Nejm Eddine Karim who is a Kurd running in Kirkuk and who states, "I propose that an Arab becomes vice president of Kurdistan and a Turkmen is made prime minister, if we succeed in making Kirkuk part of Kurdistan." Karim is closely connected to Kurdistan despite living in the US until very recently -- whenever Jalal Talabani's bad eating lands him in health trouble and sends him scurrying to the US, he usually sees Karim. Mohammed A. Salih (IPS) reports on the KRG and doesn't see indications that the Kurds will be united after the elections thereby guaranteeing a powerful Kurdish bloc in the Parliament. How true or false that is, no one knows. It's a guess, like any other these days. It's also a guess that depends heavily on what right-wingers see (check out Salih's quoted US sources). Seth Robbins (Stars and Stripes) reports, "As Sunday's national election approaches, the atmosphere has become more tense in Anbar, once a stronghold of the insurgency but more recently a relatively peaceful province. A string of deadly bombings, one of which severely injured the provincial governor, has been blamed on rival camps left out of the government and its lucrative American contracts or on al-Qaida in Iraq, which may be seeking to renew the insurgency as American troops prepare to withdraw." And we'll note this from the Ahrar Party:
In an exclusive interview with Al-Jazeera this afternoon, Ahrar Party Leader Ayad Jamal Aldin reminded voters that the appalling security situation within Iraq was the result of weak political leadership. The first priority of the Ahrar Party once in power would be to pass a new law to end the de-Ba'athification process and to start a true reconciliation within Iraq. This would finally allow the country to put an end to the foreign influences that are controlling the country at present.
Jamal Aldin went on to discuss the relationship with the United States and that he recognized the importance of a strategic relationship with the USA similar to that of other Gulf countries, such as Jordan or Qatar.
When asked how he anticipated incorporating the Federation of Kurdistan into a national parliament, Jamal Aldin responded: "Ahrar is not against the Kurdistan Federation but the central government has to know where they spend the money which is allocated to the region - which amounts to 17% of the total Iraqi budget."
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Tuesday, March 02, 2010
THIS JUST IN! BARRY SAYS HE'S WORTH IT!
BULLY BOY PRESS & CEDRIC'S BIG MIX -- THE KOOL-AID TABLE
CELEBRITY IN CHIEF BARRY O IS STILL OUT OF TOUCH WITH WORKING PEOPLE.
THIS EVENING THESE REPORTERS RELAYED TO HIM THAT HIS HAWAIIAN VACATION LAST CHRISTMAS RESULTED IN SMALL AVIATION ENTERPRISES LOSING $200,000 DUE TO THE FACT THAT HIS VISIT CLAMPED DOWN ON FLIGHTS IN AND OUT.
"THEY'RE WELCOME," SAID BARRY O.
SO THESE REPORTERS EXPLAINED IT AGAIN.
"OH. THEY LOST $200,000. LOST," SAID BARRY O SLOWLY SEEMING TO GET IT. "WELL, SURE, I COST A LITTLE MORE, BUT I'M WORTH IT."
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CELEBRITY IN CHIEF BARRY O IS STILL OUT OF TOUCH WITH WORKING PEOPLE.
THIS EVENING THESE REPORTERS RELAYED TO HIM THAT HIS HAWAIIAN VACATION LAST CHRISTMAS RESULTED IN SMALL AVIATION ENTERPRISES LOSING $200,000 DUE TO THE FACT THAT HIS VISIT CLAMPED DOWN ON FLIGHTS IN AND OUT.
"THEY'RE WELCOME," SAID BARRY O.
SO THESE REPORTERS EXPLAINED IT AGAIN.
"OH. THEY LOST $200,000. LOST," SAID BARRY O SLOWLY SEEMING TO GET IT. "WELL, SURE, I COST A LITTLE MORE, BUT I'M WORTH IT."
FROM THE TCI WIRE:
Yesterday evening, US Gen David Petraeus spoke with Law Professor Mike Newton at Vanderbilt University and the college has posted the talk online. Along with showing a lighter side than many may be used to -- he joked about when he was shot and how "You don't get a Purple Heart for getting shot by your own troops -- unfortunately" and, we'll note, he had the assembled laughing repeatedly. No one laughed -- though maybe they should have -- when he declared Iraq "the most democratic country in the Central Command area of responsibility" ("It might actually be Iraq, believe it or not."). He went to
Gen David Petraeus: What we have done there is been part of the international community, led by the United Nations Assistance Mission in Iraq, other elements that help with election monitoring and guidance and expertise. We have supported the Iraqi development of the security plan which they will carry out. We'll do some enabling, you know, our UAVs will be up, our intelligence gathering platforms, we'll provide a vareity of different forms of assistance. But they'll be the ones securing the polling places. And there will be thousands of polling places in Iraq. I forget how many tens of thousands of candidates there are, by the way. So this is certainly the way we'd like as we approach it. Now again, touch wood, there are threat streams out there, there are challenges -- al Qaeda desperately wants to disrupt this process. There are some other elements in society there that want to intimidate people. But at the end of the day, I think this is again roughly what we'd like to see in other countries. You know, by the way, one of the test questions that somebody gave me in one of these the other day is one that we've asked ourselves: "What's the most democratic country in the Central Command area of responsibility?" Remember those 20 countries? Egypt in the West, Pakistan in the North, Kazakstan in the west, Yemen in the south. It might actually be Iraq, believe it or not. Now you know some will argue Lebanon -- a pretty tough one. It's an itneresting political dynamic there. It's a pretty tough one. If you get it wrong there, you may not see the sun rise again. But, by and large, this is, in that region, an example of some form of representative and responsive governence -- again, touch wood -- that it continues and a strong man doesn't try take over and pull all the reigns of power to himself But I'm not sure that they'll let him. Again to elect the next prime minister will require a cross-sectaraian, cross-ethnic, cross-political coalition. You cannot be elected as a prime minister if you don't pull in -- Obviously it's going to be a Shia. We would suspect -- it's a Shia predominate country, well over 50% are Shia, 20% or so or Sunni, 18 percent or so Kurd, somewhere in there, and then some other minority elements Christians, Yazidis, Shabbat, Turkmen and so on. Well at the end of the day it's going to take one of the major Shia parties, probably pulling in some of the minor Shi'ite parties. It's going to take a major Sunni contribution. And it's going to take the Kurdish parties which tend in national elections to unify. And that's what it will require so it's going to be a team effort.
As Dominic Waghorn (Sky News) observes, "Iraq is preparing to go to the polls in an election that will be turning point for the country, for better or for worse." Waghorn reports from Jordan which is one of 16 foreign countries that voting will take place in. Voting begins March 5th and ends Sunday March 7th. In Iraq, Patrick Martin (Globe and Mail) says that "fear has become the currency of this campaign" and how it is thought to be unlikely that any single political party will win enough seats in the Parliament to appoint a prime minister without entering into coalition sharing agreements with other political parties. Martin informs that Nouri al-Maliki states publicly that he will form an alliance with the Iraqi National Alliance after the election but that's news to them and Sheik Jalal Eddin al-Saghir pronounces it "Impossible" and adding, "There can be no dictator in a true coalition." Gulf News offers a look at the candidates they consider to be contenders for prime minister. War Hawk Kenneth M. Pollack (Brookings Institution) gets one right, "The Iraqi elections are wide open and it is impossible to predict a clear winner with any degree of confidence." Hasan Kanbolat (Today's Zaman via Turkish Press) states, "The most powerful political party in Iraq is Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's Dawa Party. However, nationawide this party can count on only about 20 percent of the vote, so it will have to search for coalition partners." Martin Chulov (Guardian) reports that, while some polling indicates Nouri's State of Law Party will perform well, "it cannot win a majority of the new parliament's 352 seats without one of two post-election coalitions, both of whom say they will not countenance him being renominated as prime minister." Cholov quotes voter Hassan al-Kaisi on the campaigning by all the politicians, "All of them want to talk to us for two weeks every four years. Then they will disappear again behind their barricades, and start counting all the money they have stolen." Marc Santora (New York Times) adds, "Across the country, voters are reaping a windfall as candidates in Sunday's parliamentary elections offer gifts like heating oil and rice. When a candidate recently showed up in a poor village outside Baquba to distribute frozen chickens -- in literal homage to the political slogan 'a chicken in every pot' -- so many people rushed to get the free birds that many left disappointed after the supply ran out."
Reporting from Diyala Province, Andrew Lee Butters (Time magazine)notes Abdul-Nasser al-Mahdwe, the governor, is "more worried about an elite counterterrroism unit run by Maliki's office, which ihe acuses of arresting scores of opposition politicians and government critics in Diyala." Rebecca Santana (AP) reports on Kirkuk where election excitement/frenzy appears to be at a peak within Iraq as people stand in the streets waving flags and campaign paraphernalia while Gabriel Gatehouse (BBC News) reports, "With less than a week to go until the Parliamentary vote, the streets of Baghdad and other Iraqi cities have become crowded with election posters." Andrew England (Financial Times of London) provides this view of Baghdad, "Security is noticeably tight as the Imams' Bridge, even by Baghdad standards. Pedestrians are frisked from shoulder to toe; vehicles are thoroughly searched at a police checkpoint lined by concrete blast walls and none carrying weapons is allowed to pass."
Today on NPR's Morning Edition, Quil Lawrence discussed various issues of the election with Renee Montagne.
Today on NPR's Morning Edition, Quil Lawrence discussed various issues of the election with Renee Montagne.
Renee Montagne: Now one thing that American officials who are trying to stay out of this, you know, but they have long worried about Arab-Kurdish tension in Iraq. Are you seeing those tensions coming out in the election?
Quil Lawrence: Absolutely, it's almost part of the campaign, particularly in the province of Nineveh, the capital of which is Mosul, in the north of Iraq. There is an extremely -- well, an Arab nationalist governor up there and he won his election essentially by stoking ethnic tensions and we had the same thing break out last month. Governor Atheel al-Najafi decided to take a trip into one of the disputed territories near the city of Mosul. He has every right to go there legally. He's the governor of the province, but he certainly knew that he would be going through a Kurdish town. It's sort of like the Nazi march through Skokie, Illinois, if you ask the Kurds about it. It's extremely inflammatory.
Reneee Montagne: And Skokie, of course, many of its citizens had survived the Holocaust.
Quil Lawrence: Exactly, exactly. That would be the way the Kurds would interpret this. When the governo came through, there were peple who greeted him with eggs and tomatoes and he says that there was even an assassination attempt. His bodyguards grabbed 11 people from the crowd and arrested them and took them all the way back to Mosul.
Rumors are political currency in Iraq. Alalam reports rumors, which Nouri denies, that popular cleric Muqtada al-Sadr would be arrested if he returned to Iraq (he is presumed to be in Iran currently). DPA reports that Nouri and Sadrists are in the midst of an accusation exchange and they quote the spokesperson for the Sadrist bloc, Salah al-Obeidi, stating that the rumors of arresting al-Sadr came from Nouri's office. . Henry Meyer (Bloomberg News) reports Nouri's charging "unspecified neighboring countries of funding his opponents in" the election. Buying elections? We'll again note Martin Chulov (Guardian) report that Saad al-Alusi, formerly of Iraq's National Intelligence Service, has accused Nouri of giving southern tribal leaders huge numbers of guns (apparently 10,000) in order to buy their votes. Nouri's mouthpiece Ali al-Dabbagh insists that, yes, the guns were given, but it was long planned for them to be given so this wasn't a bribe and had nothing to do with the elections. Hassen Jouini (AFP) reports on another candidate vying for votes, Sharif Ali bin Hussein who is a relative, on his mother's side, of Iraq's King Ghazi who rulled from 1933 through 1939. Hussein now heads the Constitutional Monarchy Party in Iraq. Jouini notes, "The realities of Iraq have hampered any effort at campaigning for most would-be MPs, however - violence in the country remains high, despite having fallen markedly from its peak from 2005 to 2007, and candidates fear political assassinations. Sharif Ali is no different. While he has some posters scattered across the capital and conducts interviews with television news stations in his home, he is not organising public rallies or distributing flyers on the street."
KPCC offers another report from Quil Lawrence which includes:
The race even includes a prominent cleric running with his own strictly secular party. Ayad Jamal al-Din studied at the world's most famous Shiite religious schools in Najaf and the Iranian city of Qom. The black turban he wears indicates that his family descends directly from the Prophet Muhammad. But Jamal al-Din says this doesn't mean he wants an Islamic state.
Iran and the theocracy there have hijacked the Shiite turban, he says, adding that he believes the vast majority -- even among clerics -- thinks that Iranian-style government has been a failure. What people in Iraq want is very simple, he says.
"The Iraqi on the street wants security and services. [He] does not think of a secular or religious government, just services and security," Jamal al-Din says.
Ayad Jamal Aldin is the leader of the Ahrar Party and today they issued the following:
The race even includes a prominent cleric running with his own strictly secular party. Ayad Jamal al-Din studied at the world's most famous Shiite religious schools in Najaf and the Iranian city of Qom. The black turban he wears indicates that his family descends directly from the Prophet Muhammad. But Jamal al-Din says this doesn't mean he wants an Islamic state.
Iran and the theocracy there have hijacked the Shiite turban, he says, adding that he believes the vast majority -- even among clerics -- thinks that Iranian-style government has been a failure. What people in Iraq want is very simple, he says.
"The Iraqi on the street wants security and services. [He] does not think of a secular or religious government, just services and security," Jamal al-Din says.
Ayad Jamal Aldin is the leader of the Ahrar Party and today they issued the following:
The leader of the Ahrar Pary 374, Ayad Jamal Aldin, today urged voters not to boycott this weekend's parliamentary elections
He targeted the Iraqi diaspora who will vote on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, with his message of change.
Ayad Jamal Aldin said: "It is vital that every Iraqi living outside the country that can vote, does vote.
"Every Iraqi who does not vote is tacitly supporting the decline, division and destruction of our country. Those who do not vote are choosing an Iraq of violence, intimidation, and sectarianism.
"This government has lost control and is being driven by people determined to divide and destroy Iraq for their own ends.
"There is more violence and more bloodshed today because these influences are fearful of the Iraqi people. They fear us because they know that this weekend, the power is with the people.
"This weekend, every Iraqi gets to make a choice between more of the same - more violence, more division, and more corruption or a change for the better with security, unity, and jobs.
"I urge all Iraqis, regardless of religion or sect, to exercise your power and vote for a peaceful and united Iraq, free from corruption and outside influences."
For further information, contact:
Ahrar Media Bureau
Tel: +964 (0)790 157 4478 / +964 (0)790 157 4479 / +964 (0)771 275 2942
press@ahrarparty.com
Tel: +964 (0)790 157 4478 / +964 (0)790 157 4479 / +964 (0)771 275 2942
press@ahrarparty.com
About Ayad Jamal Aldin:
Ayad Jamal Aldin is a cleric, best known for his consistent campaigning for a new, secular Iraq. He first rose to prominence at the Nasiriyah conference in March 2003, shortly before the fall of Saddam, where he called for a state free of religion, the turban and other theological symbols. In 2005, he was elected as one of the 25 MPs on the Iraqi National List, but withdrew in 2009 after becoming disenchanted with Iyad Allawi's overtures to Iran. He wants complete independence from Iranian interference in Iraq. He now leads the Ahrar party for the 2010 election to the Council of Representatives, to clean up corruption and create a strong, secure and liberated Iraq for the future.
Iraqi voters are also outside the country which is why 16 other countries will have plling stations. Iraq's Sunni vice president Tarek al-Hashemi is in Syria. For those who have forgotten, al-Hashemi vetoed (as a member of the presidency council) an early election law in late 2009 citing the fact that it did not take into account Iraq's large refugee population. Alsumaria TV reports that he "thanked Syria for its 'historic' stand of embracing refugees despite bilateral political rows." Iran's Press TV notes that he "is also expected to meet with representatives of hs countr's expatriates" while in Syria.
While the candidates cannot move freely and many Iraqis are out of the country, the drones will move freely and have free reign in Iraq. Alsumaria TV reports that drones will be used to patrol throughout the elections. Meanwhile Afif Sarhan (IslamOnline.net) reports on Christian candidates in Mosul where Christians are being persecuted with some being murdered (at least 12) and many more fleeing. Candidate Kammar Bashar tells Sarhan, "The only loser in all this violence is our minority which, although representing only 5 percent of the parliamentary seats, is being the first choice for extremists and militants in the northern region."
Independent Catholic News reports, "Pax Christi International have submitted a written intervention for the 13th session of the Human Rights Council in Geneva which opened yesterday. In the [document], Pax Christi highlights the desperate situation of Iraq's minorities which are in danger of being wiped out." Yesterday's snapshot included:
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) issued a [PDF format warning] four-page report entitled "Iraq Displacement in Mosul, Situation Report No. 1" which notes the 683 families who have fled Mosul between Feb. 20 and 27, and notes that 12 Iraqi Christians have been killed during this time period. (At least one other was wounded but survived a shooting.) The displaced have scattered but the largest number, 331 families, have settled for now in Qaraqosh.
OCHA has released [PDF format warning] "Iraq Displacement in Mosul Situation Report No. 2" which notes the total number of Iraqi Christians fleeing Mosul has now reached 4,320 (720 families -- a 5% increase)
The 720 displaced families are in the two Ninewa districts of Al Hamdaniyah and Tilkaif (204 families) and have also crossed over to Erbil and Dahuk governorates (17 families in Dahuk and 23 families in Ainkawa in Erbil governorate). The number of IDPs in Qaraqosh in Al Hamdaniya district has increased to 278 families (1,668 people) and 35 families (210 people) have moved to Namrood, while the number of IDPs in other Al Hamdaniya districts remains the same as reported on 28 February, i.e. 60 families (360 people) in Bartalah; 66 families (396 people) in Bashiqa; and 22 families (132 people) in Krmales.
Those in Tilkaif town in Talkaif district have decreased from 40 to 16 families; Batnay has increased to 63 families (378 people); Tal Usquf has increased to 91 families (546 people); and Alqosh has increased to 84 families (504 people).
There are protection concerns for the Christian families who have remained in Mosul. Unconfirmed reports indicate that many individuals cannot move freely beyond their homes, such as going to work or attending university, out of fear for their safety. At present, it remains unclear how many Christian families were residing in Mosul before the displacement. Furthermore, the motives for and perpetrators of the killings of 12 Christians during January and February 2010, which triggered the recent displacement, are still not clear.
Independent Catholic News reports, "Pax Christi International have submitted a written intervention for the 13th session of the Human Rights Council in Geneva which opened yesterday. In the [document], Pax Christi highlights the desperate situation of Iraq's minorities which are in danger of being wiped out." Yesterday's snapshot included:
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) issued a [PDF format warning] four-page report entitled "Iraq Displacement in Mosul, Situation Report No. 1" which notes the 683 families who have fled Mosul between Feb. 20 and 27, and notes that 12 Iraqi Christians have been killed during this time period. (At least one other was wounded but survived a shooting.) The displaced have scattered but the largest number, 331 families, have settled for now in Qaraqosh.
OCHA has released [PDF format warning] "Iraq Displacement in Mosul Situation Report No. 2" which notes the total number of Iraqi Christians fleeing Mosul has now reached 4,320 (720 families -- a 5% increase)
The 720 displaced families are in the two Ninewa districts of Al Hamdaniyah and Tilkaif (204 families) and have also crossed over to Erbil and Dahuk governorates (17 families in Dahuk and 23 families in Ainkawa in Erbil governorate). The number of IDPs in Qaraqosh in Al Hamdaniya district has increased to 278 families (1,668 people) and 35 families (210 people) have moved to Namrood, while the number of IDPs in other Al Hamdaniya districts remains the same as reported on 28 February, i.e. 60 families (360 people) in Bartalah; 66 families (396 people) in Bashiqa; and 22 families (132 people) in Krmales.
Those in Tilkaif town in Talkaif district have decreased from 40 to 16 families; Batnay has increased to 63 families (378 people); Tal Usquf has increased to 91 families (546 people); and Alqosh has increased to 84 families (504 people).
There are protection concerns for the Christian families who have remained in Mosul. Unconfirmed reports indicate that many individuals cannot move freely beyond their homes, such as going to work or attending university, out of fear for their safety. At present, it remains unclear how many Christian families were residing in Mosul before the displacement. Furthermore, the motives for and perpetrators of the killings of 12 Christians during January and February 2010, which triggered the recent displacement, are still not clear.
Saturday February 20th, AFP reported that Adnan al-Dahan has become the fifth Iraqi-Christian killed that week (at least one other has been wounded) and that the shopkeeper's corpse was found today in Mosul. His family is among the over 700 that have fled Mosul as Christians have again been targeted. Jane Arraf (Christian Science Monitor) speaks with them including Warda, his widow, who explains why they didn't leave Mosul earlier (her husband had been kidnapped and returned when a ransom was paid), "He said 'if all of us Christians leave, who is going to stay in the land of the prophets and pray in our churches?' He said 'we were all born in Mosul and we will die in Mousl'." (You can also read Arraf's article here.) Independent Catholic News reports, "Pax Christi International have submitted a written intervention for the 13th session of the Human Rights Council in Geneva which opened yesterday. In the [document], Pax Christi highlights the desperate situation of Iraq's minorities which are in danger of being wiped out." Yesterday's snapshot included:
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) issued a [PDF format warning] four-page report entitled "Iraq Displacement in Mosul, Situation Report No. 1" which notes the 683 families who have fled Mosul between Feb. 20 and 27, and notes that 12 Iraqi Christians have been killed during this time period. (At least one other was wounded but survived a shooting.) The displaced have scattered but the largest number, 331 families, have settled for now in Qaraqosh.
OCHA has released [PDF format warning] "Iraq Displacement in Mosul Situation Report No. 2" which notes the total number of Iraqi Christians fleeing Mosul has now reached 4,320 (720 families -- a 5% increase)
The 720 displaced families are in the two Ninewa districts of Al Hamdaniyah and Tilkaif (204 families) and have also crossed over to Erbil and Dahuk governorates (17 families in Dahuk and 23 families in Ainkawa in Erbil governorate). The number of IDPs in Qaraqosh in Al Hamdaniya district has increased to 278 families (1,668 people) and 35 families (210 people) have moved to Namrood, while the number of IDPs in other Al Hamdaniya districts remains the same as reported on 28 February, i.e. 60 families (360 people) in Bartalah; 66 families (396 people) in Bashiqa; and 22 families (132 people) in Krmales.
Those in Tilkaif town in Talkaif district have decreased from 40 to 16 families; Batnay has increased to 63 families (378 people); Tal Usquf has increased to 91 families (546 people); and Alqosh has increased to 84 families (504 people).
There are protection concerns for the Christian families who have remained in Mosul. Unconfirmed reports indicate that many individuals cannot move freely beyond their homes, such as going to work or attending university, out of fear for their safety. At present, it remains unclear how many Christian families were residing in Mosul before the displacement. Furthermore, the motives for and perpetrators of the killings of 12 Christians during January and February 2010, which triggered the recent displacement, are still not clear.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) issued a [PDF format warning] four-page report entitled "Iraq Displacement in Mosul, Situation Report No. 1" which notes the 683 families who have fled Mosul between Feb. 20 and 27, and notes that 12 Iraqi Christians have been killed during this time period. (At least one other was wounded but survived a shooting.) The displaced have scattered but the largest number, 331 families, have settled for now in Qaraqosh.
OCHA has released [PDF format warning] "Iraq Displacement in Mosul Situation Report No. 2" which notes the total number of Iraqi Christians fleeing Mosul has now reached 4,320 (720 families -- a 5% increase)
The 720 displaced families are in the two Ninewa districts of Al Hamdaniyah and Tilkaif (204 families) and have also crossed over to Erbil and Dahuk governorates (17 families in Dahuk and 23 families in Ainkawa in Erbil governorate). The number of IDPs in Qaraqosh in Al Hamdaniya district has increased to 278 families (1,668 people) and 35 families (210 people) have moved to Namrood, while the number of IDPs in other Al Hamdaniya districts remains the same as reported on 28 February, i.e. 60 families (360 people) in Bartalah; 66 families (396 people) in Bashiqa; and 22 families (132 people) in Krmales.
Those in Tilkaif town in Talkaif district have decreased from 40 to 16 families; Batnay has increased to 63 families (378 people); Tal Usquf has increased to 91 families (546 people); and Alqosh has increased to 84 families (504 people).
There are protection concerns for the Christian families who have remained in Mosul. Unconfirmed reports indicate that many individuals cannot move freely beyond their homes, such as going to work or attending university, out of fear for their safety. At present, it remains unclear how many Christian families were residing in Mosul before the displacement. Furthermore, the motives for and perpetrators of the killings of 12 Christians during January and February 2010, which triggered the recent displacement, are still not clear.
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