CELEBRITY IN CHIEF BARRY O HAS EMBARRASSED HIMSELF, THE COUNTRY AND HUMAN RIGHTS YET AGAIN. THIS TIME IT'S THE BUNGLED STEPS THAT BETRAYED CHEN GUANGCHEN.
WHAT'S AT STAKE IS THE LIVES OF CHEN AND HIS FAMILY.
AND BARRY O'S REVEALED AS NOT READY YET AGAIN.
THE REVELATION COMES AS THE COUNTRY LEARNS OF YET ANOTHER LIE IN HIS DREAMS OF MY FATHER BOOK -- BARRY O MADE MUCH OF A RACIAL ARGUMENT HE HAD WITH A WHITE GIRLFRIEND AFTER THEY SAW A PLAY -- NOW THAT THE GIRLFRIEND HAS COME FORWARD WITH HER DIARIES AND THEIR LETTERS, BARRY O ADMITS HE LIED.
HE LIES IN HIS OWN BIOGRAPHY. HE LIES ABOUT BIG THINGS, HE LIES ABOUT SMALL THINGS. HE'S A COMPLETE FAKE.
FROM THE TCI WIRE:
Mosaic News (Link TV, link is text and video) picks
up Al-Alam's report: "Iranian Defense Minister Brigadier General Ahmad
Vahidi said that the deployment of US F-22 figher jets to the United
Arab Emirates is 'a harmful move' that undermines the region's
security. The US said the deployment was a normal adjustment of US
forces in the region, following their withdrawal from Iraq. As part of
its continuing efforts to dominate the Persian Gulf region, the US
announced the deploymnet of F-22 fighter hets in the UAE. US officials
confirmed that the fighters were deployed in the UAE's al-Dhafra Air
Based." Meanwhile the Wilkes Journal-Patriot reports
181 members of the the National Guard's 875th Engineer Company will
be deployed to Kuwait over the "summer for a nine-month assignment."
Today, Alsumaria reports the
Christian Church Saint Khanana, in Dohuk Province, was vandelized and
some items stolen. This is the latest in a series of attacks on
religious minorities in Iraq since the start of the Iraq War in
2003. Monday, Aid to the Church in Need reported,
"Luis Sako, the Chaldean Catholic Archbishop of Kirkuk, in northern
Iraq, has joined with fifty representatives of Sunni Islam, Arab tribal
leaders and local government representatives in speaking out against
violence and terror. On the Archbishop's initiative, they signed a
document entitled 'Let us build bridges for peace', which was released
on the 26.4.2012. The signatories pledge to live together in peace in
Kirkuk, which is an object of contention between Kurds and the central
government in Baghdad. In a meeting with the Catholic charity Aid to
the Church in Need (ACN), Archbishop Sako explained his most recent
action to promote on-going dialogue by saying, 'We Christians have a
mission of peace and reconciliation that extends to all people, not just
Christians'."
Last March, the United States
Commission on International Religious Freedom released their 2012
Annual report [PDF format warning, click here] and Iraq made it (again) onto the list of "countries of particular concern. The section on Iraq opens with:
The
Iraqi government continues to tolerate systematic, ongoing, and
egregious religious freedom violations. In the past year, religious
sites and worshippers were targeted in violent attacks, often with
impunity, and businesses viewed as "un-Islamic" were vandalized. The
most deadly such attacks during this period were against Shi'a
pilgrims. While the Iraqi government has made welcome efforts to
increase security, it continues to fall short in investigating attacks
and bringing perpetrators to justice. It also took actions against
political rivals in late 2011 that escalated Sunni-Shi'a sectarian
tensions. Large percentages of the country's smallest religious
minorities -- which include Chaldo-Assyrian and other Christians, Sabean
Mandaeans, and Yazidis -- have fled the country in recent years,
threatening these ancient communities' very existence in Iraq; the
diminished numbers that remain face official discrimination,
marginalization, and neglect, particularly in areas of northern Iraq
over which the Iraqi government and the Kurdistan Regional Government
(KRG) dispute control. Religious freedom abuses of women and
individuals who do not conform to strict interpretations of religious
norms also remain a concern.
Along
with attacks on pilgrims and churches, the report notes attacks on
businesses operated by Christian and Yazidi persons such as "liquor
stores, restaurants, and hair salones." Violence and the targeting of
religious minorities have caused many to leave. The report notes:
Half
or more of the pre-2003 Iraqi Christian community is believed to have
left the country. In 2003, there were to be 800,000 to 1.4 million
Chaldean Catholics, Assyrian Orthodox, Assyrian Church of the East
members, Syriac Catholics and Orthodox, Armenian Catholics and Orthodox,
Protestants, and Evengelicals in Iraq. Today, community leaders
estimate the number of Christians to be around 500,000. Other
communities also have experienced declines. The Sabean Mandaeans report
that almost 90 percent of their small community either has fled Iraq or
has been killed, leaving some 3,500 to 5,000 Mandaeans in the country,
as compared to 50,000 to 60,000 in 2003. The Yazidi community
reportedly now numbers approximately 500,000 down from about 700,000 in
2005. The Baha'i faith, which is estimated to have only 2,000 adherents
in Iraq, remains banned under a 1970 law, and Iraq's ancient and once
large Jewish community now numbers fewer than 10, who essentially live
in hiding.
Whether
they leave their homes for other areas of Iraq or leaves their homes and
leave Iraq, the targeting of religious minorities has added to the huge
refugee problem that the Iraq War created. The report notes that 1.5
million Iraqis remain internally displaced and that, of the population
outside Iraq, Sunnis make up approximately 57% even though "they are
approximately 35 percent of Iraq's total population."
Among the targeted groups have been women and those who are seen as 'different' for any number of reasons. The report notes:
In
the past year, human rights groups continued to express concern about
violence against women and girls, including domestic violence and honor
killings, throughout Iraq, including in the KRG region, as well as about
pressure on women and secular Iraqis to comply with conservative
Islamic norms, particularly relating to dress and public behavior. In
recent years, women and girls have suffered religiously-motivated
violence and abuses, including killings, abductions, forced conversions,
restrictions on movement, forced marriages, and other violence
including rape. Individuals considered to have violated extremists'
interpretations of Islamic teachings, including politically-active
females, have been targeted by Sunni and Shi'a extremists alike.
In
a positive development, the KRG region enacted a law in June making
family violence a crime, subject to imprisonment and/or fines, and
establishing a special court for such cases; the law's coverage includes
abuse of women and children, female circumcision, forced or child
marriage, nonconsensual divorce, the offering of women to settle family
feuds, and female suicide if caused by a family member.
In
late February and early March 2012, reports emerged of numerous
killings and threats targeting young people perceived as homosexual or
who dressed in the so-called "emo" goth style, particularly in Baghdad.
The number killed reportedly ranged from six to more than 40.
Preceding the violence, the Iraqi Interior Ministry posted a statement
on its Web site in mid-February that it was "launch[ing] a campaign to
stem the 'Emo,'" whom it called "Satan worshippers," although after the
killings were widely reported, the Ministry claimed that the statement
was misunderstood. Many obvservers attributed the attacks and threats
to Shi'a militias. However, a representative of Grand Ayatollah Ali
Sistani condemned the killings as terrorism and cleric Moqtada al-Sadr,
whose Mahdi Army militia was suspected in past attacks on homosexuals,
denied involvement. According to Iraq press reports, Al-Sadr called emo
youth "unnatural" but said they should be dealt with through legal
means. The U.S. embassy reportedly raised its concerns with the Iraqi
government.
Good for the US
Commission on International Religious Freedom for including the
targeting of Iraqi youth. That story was breaking when the report was
being written and they still managed to include it -- putting it far,
far ahead of the UN Secretary-General's Special Envoy refusing to use
the term "gay" when speaking to the Security Council to update them on
Iraq.
On the religious minorities, Saturday, Jane Arraf (Al Jazeera) reported on the Yazidi New Year.
Jane
Arraf: For the Yazidi, this is the start of year 6,762. They come
from mountain villages, from towns and cities in Iraq, Syria and Turkey
-- and from Europe -- to celebrate the New Year. Yazidis believe in
the same God as Muslims, Christians and Jews but they believe they were
the first people God created. Along with Babylonian rituals and
elements of other religions, they worship the sun.
Yazidi woman: We light this rope to bring good. And anyone who lights a flame here, goodness will come to him.
Jane Arraf: It's a closed religion and misunderstood.
Baba
Sheikh Kerto Haji Ismael: Twenty years ago, there were no satellite
channels and no mixing with other people. That's why people can have
some suspicion about others. Since the Yazidis were a small religious
minority, that's why they face misunderstandings. Now things are more
clear.
Jane
Arraf: Images like this [a snake stretched across the outside wall of a
temple] are part of the reason other Iraqis are suspicious of the
Yazidi. A snake is believe to have saved the prophet Noah. Inside this
cave is a sacred spring. Nearby is the tomb of Shayk Adi [ibn Musafir
al-Umawi] a 12th century Suffi saint who reformed the Yazidi religion.
As dusk approaches, they light the flames that are a central part of
their faith. This isn't just the New Year, they believe it marks the
creation of the world including the four elements. For Yazidis, the
most important of those is fire. On New Year's Day, the Yazidi faithful
-- along with Kuridsh Muslim and Christian leaders -- pay their
respects to the Prince of the Yazidis [Mir Tahsin Ali]. Like the Kurds,
the Yazidi were pressured to declare themselves Arab under Saddam
Hussein. 150 of their villages were taken. In the last 30 years, up
to half the Yazidi community has left for Europe where there are fears
the religion won't survive.
Prince
Mir Tahsin Ali: The older people won't leave the religion but we fear
for the new generation when the sons and daughters go to new European
schools, our customs will become different.
Jane
Arraf: By most estimates, there are fewer than a million Yazidi in the
world. It's a small religion, sturggling to survive in a modern world
while keeping ancient traditions alive. Jane Araff, Lalish, northern
Iraq.
Turning to violence, Alsumaria notes a former military colonel was attacked in Mosul and shot dead and that a staffer in Ayad Allawi's office was assassinated -- stabbed today while he was near the National Accord Movement headquarters. (Another source tells Alsumaria the staffer was shot dead.) AFP states it was a stabbing and identifies the staffer as Latif Ramadan Jassim. And Alsumaria notes TV reporter Rashid Majid Hamid was injured by a sticky bombing of his car in Baghdad.
Hurriyet Daily News observes, "From Somalia
to Syria, the Philippines to Mexico, and Iraq to Pakistan, journalists
are being targeted for death in record numbers, and in brutal ways. In
fact, this year is shaping up to be the most lethal for journalists
since the International Press Institute (IPI) began keeping count 15
years ago." The attack on the journalist comes as a new report on the
attack on journalism in Iraq is released. The Journalistic Freedoms Observatory has released the report
covering the last twelve months and they've found an increase in
violence and restrictions and attempted restrictions on journalists.
They note an American journalist was arrested and helf for five days
without any legal justification while Iraqi journalists were detained in
various ways and also attacked and kidnapped by armed groups. At
least 3 journalists were killed in the 12 months and at least 31 were
beaten -- usually by military and security forces who were sometimes in
civilian clothes. 65 journalists were arrested.
It's a very bleak picture. In addition there are various bills proposed that supposedly 'protect' journalists but actually erode the rights of journalists. The Ministry of the Interior's spokesperson Adnan al-Asadi declared that journalism can be "a threat to domestic security" and that journalsits shouldn't report on any arrests or killings without the express permission of the Ministry of the Interior. (Clearly, Retuers must agree with that policy since they abolished their daily Factbox that used to cover violence in Iraq.)
The three journalists who died in the 12 months were: Hadi al-Mahdi who was killed by a gunshot to the head while in his Baghdad home, Kameran Salah al-Din who was killed by a sticky bomb attached to his car (in Tikrit) and Salim Alwan who was killed by a bombing in Diwaniya.
AFP notes the report states. "JFO has documented a noticeable increase in the rate of violence against journalists/media workers and restrictions imposed on their work."Multiple bills are being introduced by the government, which threaten to severely limit freedom of the press, general freedom of expression and Internet use."
It's a very bleak picture. In addition there are various bills proposed that supposedly 'protect' journalists but actually erode the rights of journalists. The Ministry of the Interior's spokesperson Adnan al-Asadi declared that journalism can be "a threat to domestic security" and that journalsits shouldn't report on any arrests or killings without the express permission of the Ministry of the Interior. (Clearly, Retuers must agree with that policy since they abolished their daily Factbox that used to cover violence in Iraq.)
The three journalists who died in the 12 months were: Hadi al-Mahdi who was killed by a gunshot to the head while in his Baghdad home, Kameran Salah al-Din who was killed by a sticky bomb attached to his car (in Tikrit) and Salim Alwan who was killed by a bombing in Diwaniya.
AFP notes the report states. "JFO has documented a noticeable increase in the rate of violence against journalists/media workers and restrictions imposed on their work."Multiple bills are being introduced by the government, which threaten to severely limit freedom of the press, general freedom of expression and Internet use."
Freedom
of expression in journalism doesn't mean creative fiction. In the US
where journalists are supposed to have the right to practice their trade
without restrictions, some self-censor and some just tell outright
lies. V. Noah Gimbel (Foriegn Policy In Focus) notes how the Newseum willfully distorts reality and insults a journalist who died covering the Iraq War in the process:
I
was looking for updates on the case of slain Spanish cameraman José
Couso, murdered by U.S. troops in Baghdad in 2003 as part of a
coordinated attack on the independent media, when I came upon a
so-called memorial to Couso on the Newseum's webpage. I wrote a comprehensive piece on the Couso case last year, and a follow-up piece when the indictments against the soldiers responsible were re-issued last fall.
Far from memorializing Couso, the Newseum article repeats de-bunked falsehoods that even the army had backtracked on in 2003.
Far from memorializing Couso, the Newseum article repeats de-bunked falsehoods that even the army had backtracked on in 2003.
Gimbel goes on to explain how the Newseum distorts Couso's death.
