BULLY BOY PRESS & CEDRIC'S BIG MIX -- THE KOOL-AID TABLE
BITCH BARRY. HOW THE TIMES HAVE CHANGED.
HE WAS ONCE BELOVED.
NOW THE CELEBRITY IN CHIEF IS SEEN AS A CROOK AND IT'S NOT JUST IN AMERICA.
IN HONG KONG TODAY, PROTESTERS CARRIED SIGNS DENOUNCING BARRY O INCLUDING "FREE SNOWDEN, ARREST OBAMA." DESPITE THE DOWNPOUR, HUNDREDS TURNED OUT TO SHOW SUPPORT FOR WHISTLE-BLOWER ED SNOWDEN AND OPPOSITION TO BARRY O.
AND RON PAUL'S AMONG THE MANY CALLING OUT BARRY O'S CLAIM OF 'EVIDENCE' THAT THE SYRIAN GOVERNMENT USED CHEMICAL WEAPONS.
HE USED TO BE SO BELOVED.
THEN PEOPLE GOT TO KNOW HIM.
"WHY DO YOU THINK MY MOMMY SENT ME AWAY TO HAWAII?" WHIMPERED BARRY O TO THESE REPORTERS. "THE MORE PEOPLE GET TO KNOW ME, THE MORE THEY HATE ME."
POOR BITCH BARRY.
FROM THE TCI WIRE:
Yesterday, a Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee held a hearing on
human rights in Russia. Why? Because we're all so damn concerned about
human rights? Please. Russia is blocking the US on the United
Nations' Security Council with regards to Syria. The hearing was little
more than mua roi nuoc (a centuries old Vietnamese tradition of water puppetry).
In that hearing, you have everything that is wrong with the United
States government. Resources are wasted not just to allow the
government to poke their nose in everything, resources are used to
penalize anyone who doesn't fall in line with the US government.
Resources are wasted to defocus and ignore pressing US issues. That
hearing was a Subcommittee hearing and presiding was the always
ridiculous Senator Barbara Boxer.
Committee Chair Robert Menedez is also becoming a joke -- not because
the US Justice Dept stayed silent, until after the senator's November
re-election, on Menedez' employment of a criminal who also happened to
be a foreign national and undocumented worker. Menedez is a joke
because he wastes US tax dollars and refuses to do his job. He only
holds hearing on human rights if it's a country that the US is in
conflict with.
Syria? Oh, yeah, Menedez can schedule a hearing on that. He can waste all of our time on that. Where's the hearing on Iraq?
The US taxpayer isn't watching millions of US tax dollars be spent in
Russia each day. But, among foreign countries, the biggest budget item
for the State Dept, billions each year, is Iraq. So where's the Iraq
hearing. None so far in June and none on the schedule. None in May.
None in April. None in March. None in February. None in January.
In the [PDF format warning] "Department of State and Other International Programs" Fiscal Year 2014 budget issued by the White House,
* Includes $6.8 billion for the frontline states of Iraq ($2.1
billion), Afghanistan ($3.4 billion), and Pakistan ($1.4 billion),
including $3 billion in base funding and $3.8 billion in Overseas
Contingency Operations funding. The Budget prioritizes core diplomatic
and development activities to ensure strong, lasting partnerships with
these countries and to promote stability.
* The Budget continues to support U.S. security, diplomatic and
development goals in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq while scaling down
funding for operations and assistance, consistent with U.S. policy.
Now that's just some of what the State Dept wants for Iraq. Let's move
over to DoD. DoD's requesting money for Iraq in Fiscal Year 2014. Just
for the Office of Security Cooperation - Iraq?
"Addendum A Overseas Contingency Operations"
explains to us the amount is $200,000,000. Although they make it much
smaller by repeatedly referring to it -- not just in tables, which
would be understandable, but in text as well -- as ".2" -- because
they're doing billions (in tables, there's no excuse for rendering that
way in text). 200 million dollars.
What could 200 million dollars do in US cities in the next fiscal year?
It's just part of what the Defense Dept 'needs' in Iraq -- you know,
the country the press and White House press secretary keeps insisting
the war is over in. It's noted, "The OSC-I is the critical Defense
component of the U.S. Mission Iraq and a foundational element of our
long-term strategic partnership with Iraq." This doesn't cover the
Special Ops troops in Iraq or the 'counter-terrorism' efforts in Iraq.
No one will see that money spent in the United States and, apparently,
Congress will provide no oversight as it is spent overseas.
That is their job, to provide oversight. Not only has Menedez failed
to provide oversight on Iraq, he's failed to provide oversight on the
State Dept. This week's scandal about alleged wide-spread use of
prostitution by State Dept officials and employees, pedophilia by the
same and a drug ring that State supposedly ran in Iraq (runs in Iraq?),
have gotten no attention from the Menedez.
As someone who reads the Iraqi press, let me steal Barack's "let me be
clear," you get off your damn ass and you clear up the drug thing
immediately. Iraqi media has been covering an alleged huge increase in
drugs for several years now. Smart representatives of the US government
would hear rumors of an alleged US State Dept drug ring in Iraq and
say, "Damn, we better investigate this real quick before the rumors
spread and Iraqis are saying, 'They brought drugs into our country!' If
we don't get to the bottom of this immediately, then -- true or false
-- this is going to be another 'CIA brought cocaine in' scandal!"
That's when you provide oversight -- not just because the truth needs to
be known but also, in case the rumors are completely unfounded, so that
you can kill them quickly before they spread like wildfire. Now why
might there be a scandal on this?
Maybe because there's no Inspector General for the State Dept?
Mendez is aware of it. With the Committee's Ranking Member Bob Corker, he drafted a letter to the White House on that this week:
We are deeply concerned that the two lead agencies carrying out the
international programs and activities of the United States, the
Department of State and the U.S. Agency for International Development
(USAID), have been operating without permanent Inspectors General for a
considerable period of time. The Department of State has not had an
Inspector General since 2008 and USAID has had a vacancy since 2011.
Inspectors General play a crucial role in identifying ineffective
programs, process weaknesses, and wasteful spending that undermine
public confidence in government.
It is critical that your administration provide this committee with
highly qualified nominees who can function independently and objectively
in these positions in the near future. In a recent hearing before this
committee, Secretary Kerry testified that he would like to see the
Department of State’s Inspector General vacancy filled quickly and noted
that the White House had recently selected a highly qualified nominee.
It has been over a month since that hearing and we await the nomination.
It is vitally important that the Inspectors General are able to
function independently and objectively. The Government Accountability
Office (GAO) has, since 2007, documented the lack of adherence to proper
auditing standards and the lack of independence and autonomy within the
Department of State’s Office of Inspector General (OIG). In particular,
GAO has noted that the Office is led by “management and Foreign Service
officials [, which] is not consistent with professional standards for
independence;” the “use of Foreign Service Officers ... to lead OIG
inspections resulted in, at a minimum, the appearance of independence
impairment;” and the “OIG relied on inspections rather than audits to
provide oversight coverage resulting in gaps to the audit oversight of
the department.” It is imperative that the next Inspector General at the
Department of State resolves these matters and protects the
independence and credibility of the OIG.
When there are no IGs and there is scandal and you're the Committee over
the State Dept, you call for hearings. You put Russia and the other
Executive Branch grudge f**ks on hold and you provide the supervision
that's lacking.
Protests have been ongoing in Iraq since December 21st. The protests continued today. Iraqi Spring MC noted the turnout in Baquba
and that the spokesperson for those with special needs stated, "Disability
will not keep us from rejecting injustice, tyranny and government
repression." Iraqi Spring MC also notes that the people turned out in Baghdad and in Ramadi. National Iraq News Agency reports,
"Thousands of citizens flocked since early hours of the day from from
different parts and cities of Anbar Province to sit-ins of Falluja and
Ramadi, to participate in Friday unified prayer." NINA also notes police were deployed and set up checkpoints in Falluja and Ramadi, imposing "tight security measures in the sit-ins squares." Iraqi Spring MC reports that Nouri's forces surrounded the platform at the Baquba sit-in in an attempt to frighten the protesters. NINA notes
that in Samarra, Imam Diab Hamid called on the security forces to stop
using security forces against the people and the Imam told the
demonstrators that "several weeks ago you voted to replace UN
representative in Iraq, Martin Kobler, and now the oppressor has been
relieved of his post" (UN Secretary-General announced this week Kobler
will be moving onto the Congo). The Imam congratulated the protesters
on their peaceful accomplishments. In Diyala the call was to preserve the unity and security. In Balad Ruz, there was the call to continue the peaceful sit-ins. In addition, Kitabat reports that in Ramadi there is a call for Nouri al-Maliki to come to the sit-in and dialogue with the protesters.
What sparked this wave of protests? Oh, the Senate Foreign Affairs has
never seen fit to explore that or acknowledge what's taking place in
Iraq. That would be oversight and, under Menedez, they don't do
oversight. It's sad that the Committee Vice President Joe Biden once
led could, and did, in 2008, explore that the future of Iraq might mean
Nouri using weapons on his own people. That's come to pass, that's no
longer a projection or a prediction. And it's come to pass without any
oversight from the Committee that Senator Robert Menedez chairs.
Why the protests? The failure to implement the power-sharing agreement
(the US-brokered Erbil Agreement) that ended the eight-month plus
political stalemate of 2010. The failure to fix public services (while
spending billions on weapons). The issue of the disappeared, Nouri's
attacks on his political rivals in Iraqiya, and other longstanding
issues. But the spark that got people into the streets (again)? Human Rights Watch's Sarah Leah Whitson:
Following an outcry against revelations of abuse of women detainees and
the arrest of several bodyguards of the popular Sunni finance minister,
the government promised in January to reform the judicial system,
including reviewing the cases of 6,000 people who have been detained but
not tried or even ordered released, in some cases for years, under the
country’s antiterrorism law, and initiating an inquiry into widespread
allegations of forced confessions and reliance on secret informants.
And in addition to the abuse of females in Iraqi prisons, Nouri's forces
have repeatedly attacked the protesters. Most infamously there was
the Tuesday, April 23rd
massacre of a sit-in in Hawija when Nouri's federal forces stormed it. Alsumaria noted Kirkuk's Department of Health (Hawija is in Kirkuk) announced 50
activists have died and 110 were injured in the assault. UNICEF informed
the world that 8 of the dead were children and twelve more children
were left injured.
Neither Menedez nor Boxer felt the need to hold a hearing on that.
There concern for 'human rights' are based not on actual atrocities but
on geography -- location, location, location!
Nouri's attacks on the protesters haven't stopped. From yesterday's snapshot:
Jason Ditz (Antiwar.com) notes:
The Iraqi military’s violent attacks on Sunni Arab protesters weren’t
the panacea that Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki was expecting them to
be, but it also cost the army 1,070 troops, according to officials.
The troops, ethnic Kurds, mutinied when they were ordered to attack a
Sunni Arab town where protests were taking place, and then refused to
attend “disciplinary re-training” meant to ensure that they wouldn’t
hesitate to attack Iraqi towns if ordered in the future.
AFP reports
that Tuz Khurmatu Mayor Shallal Abdul explains the troops are still in
their same positions, they're just now working for and paid by the
Peshmerga -- the elite Kurdish fighting force.
Nouri's attacks on the Iraqi people are so out of control that over a
thousand members of the Iraqi military defect to the Peshmerga and
that's not cause for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to hold a
hearing on Iraq?
Tuesday, Human Rights Watch issued a call:
Iraqi
authorities should immediately investigate evidence that federal police
executed four men and a 15-year-old boy on May 3, 2013, south of Mosul.
Witnesses last saw the victims in the custody of the federal police 3rd
Division, commanded by Gen. Mehdi Gharawi, who had been removed from
his post as a federal police commander following claims he was
implicated in torture and other abuses but was later reinstated.
Villagers found the bodies of the five in a field three kilometers from
East Mustantiq village on May 11, near where federal police were seen
taking them immediately after their arrest. A witness said the bodies
had multiple large gunshot wounds, and machine gun shells were found in
the vicinity. But photos leaked to the media by a police officer show
police officers with the bodies in a less decomposed state than they
were when the villagers found them.
"The apparent police role in the machine gun execution of four men and a
boy requires an immediate investigation and the prosecution of those
responsible," said Sarah Leah Whitson,
Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. "That these killings may
have been committed by a unit under a commander once implicated in
torture shows why abuses can’t be swept under the rug and forgotten."
When exactly is the Senate Foreign Relations Committee going to provide oversight on Iraq?
April set a record for the most violent deaths in Iraq in five years . .
. until May came along and set a record for the most violent deaths in
Iraq in five years.
All Iraq News reports 1 Sahwa leader was shot dead outside his Shurqat home today. NINA notes a Tikrit roadside bombing claimed the life of 1 police officer and left another injured, a Kirkuk bombing injured one police officer, and Nineveh Province candidate Muhannad Ghazi al-Murad was shot dead today as he left a mosque. Alsumaria notes a bombing targeting an truck load of oil left one civilian dead. Through Thursday, Iraq Body Count counts 195 violent deaths so far for the month.
And no concern from the Senate Foreign Relations Committee? Just waive
the billions on through for next year, provide no oversight at all,
right?
As they repeatedly fail to provide oversight, they do get that they look
like a joke, right? They do get that the world sees Iraq falling
further apart (as a direct result of the US-led invasion) and sees talk
of 'human rights' from the US as laughably hypocritical, right?
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