CELEBRITY IN CHIEF BARRY O CONTINUES TO HIDE OUT IN AFRICA TO AVOID HIS DOMESTIC SCANDALS.
IN AFRICA, HE'S PRAISED BULLY BOY BUSH. HE ALSO ANNOUNCED A $5 BILLION INVESTMENT IN AFRICA TO FIX ELECTRICITY.
SO AMERICAN TAX PAYERS ARE FOOTING POSSIBLY $100 MILLION SO BARACK CAN TAKE VARIOUS FAMILY MEMBERS TO AFRICA AND, ON TOP OF THAT, HE'S GIVING AWAY $5 BILLION AT A TIME WHEN AMERICANS ARE LOSING FOOD STAMPS AND BEING TOLD THAT EVERY AMERICAN HAS TO SACRIFICE DUE TO A BUDGET DEFICIT.
FROM THE TCI WIRE:
It was not a good day for the US government. The administration looks increasingly incompetent and the US State Dept's becoming a national joke. We'll come back later in the snapshot to the State Dept press briefing but note this remark from AP's Matthew Lee in the midst of the briefing today:
Okay. So let me just do a little quick recap from the most transparent Administration in history. You won’t tell us what you are asking for [Egypitan] President Morsy to do or what you would like to see. The conversations that you have with countries involving [NSA whistle-blower] Mr. Snowden are private and you can’t talk about them. Your conversations with European allies and others about the NSA spying allegations are also private. I don’t know. How would you respond to someone who might say that it appears that the only privacy that this Administration is interested in protecting is its own?
Damning remarks from AP's Matthew Lee. Completely accurate ones, no needed embarrassment for Lee but who the hell is running the US government currently as it spins out of control and veers from one scandal to the next? The incompetence, it's the continued incompetence. Maybe next time, a president doesn't leave the country on an expensive family vacation (look at all the relatives the tax payers paid to go to Africa) when he should be governing. Turning to Iraq . . .
Long before noon in the United States, Iraq had already been slammed with violence. You already had Iraq's National Iraqi News Agency reports the military killed 2 suspects in Mtaibijh, a Mosul roadside bombing left two people injured, another Mosul roadside bombing claimed 2 lives and left a police officer injured, a Falluja roadside bombing injured three people, an armed clash to the west of Mosul left 4 Federal Police and SWAT forces dead and four more injured, a Kirkuk roadside bombing claimed 1 life and left another person injured, and last night a Baquba suicide bomber attacked a cafe leaving 7 people dead and twelve injured. -- last night's bombing has resulted in allegedly tighter security and in "popular cafes in the city of Baquba" closing their doors today. That amounted to 16 dead and twenty-three injured.
But it wasn't news. No US outlet was covering it, the wires weren't covering it. 16 dead just didn't feel like news to them.
Let's zoom in on AFP -- Agence France-Press -- which is the world's oldest wire service, having started in 1835. Prashant Rao is the Baghdad Bureau Chief for AFP. He tweeted about none of the above violence. What was he Tweeting?
Looks like #Snowden will soon be able to fly direct to Baghdad -- perhaps an asylum claim is upcoming? http://bit.ly/12j1KTL
Oh, that's funny. It's good to know that those in charge of news coverage are busy making braying asses out of themselves while ignoring death and destruction around them.
When did he register violence today?
Baghdad got hit by car bombs, suddenly violence mattered. 16 dead and 23 wounded before that didn't mean a damn.
Qassim Abdul (AP) reports 2 car bombgs hit northern Baghdad resulting in 9 dead and twenty-four injured, a Baghdad bombing in a market (followed by a second bombing when people came running to help) left 12 dead and twenty-seven injured, an eastern Baghdad market was hit by a car bomb which claimed 5 lives and left sixteen injured, a car bomb in southern Baghdad left 4 dead and fifteen injured, a car bomb in Baghdad's Hurriyah section claimed 3 lives and left thirteen injured and, in the Amiriyah section, a car bombing claimed 2 lives and left twelve injured. The Amiryah may be the most surprising -- Nouri's got more troops there than a year ago -- more of his troops more of his police. Why? Because of the ongoing protests. The bombing there indicates that security can't provide security. Kareem Raheem, Aref Mohammed, Ahmed Rasheed, Isabel Coles and Andrew Heavens (Reuters) report, "At least 45 people were killed in bomb attacks across Iraq on Tuesday, most of them in busy markets and commercial areas of the capital Baghdad, police and medics said." Detsche Welle adds, "Bombings also occurred in Mosul, Samawah and Basra." In Basra, three bombs targeted the Mnawi Basha hotel, Reuters has video of the aftermath. Al-Manar notes that 4 people were shot dead in Baghdad. Al-Shorfa reports, "Three Iraqi soldiers were killed and five wounded in clashes between Iraqi security forces and al-Qaeda elements who tried to enter Iraq from Syria, Iraqi police in Ninawa province said Tuesday."
With no one claiming responsibilities, various outlets trot out their own pet theories. So Iran's Press TV uses the opportunity to go after rival neighbors, "There has been an upsurge in violence across Iraq recently, and Iraqi authorities say Qatar and Saudi Arabia have had a hand in some of the deadly incidents." And they focus on Shi'ites forgetting the attacks in Amiriyah and near Abu Ghraib (which would be Sunni populations). BBC News goes with, "Violence erupted in April when Iraqi security forces stormed an anti-government Sunni protest in the city of Hawija, killing and wounding dozens of protesters." RTE offers, "A sustained campaign of attacks since the start of the year has increased fears of wider conflict in a country where ethnic Kurds, Shia and Sunni Muslims have yet to find a stable power-sharing compromise." AFP adds, "And while political leaders have pledged to resolve the dispute, with Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki meeting his two main rivals last month, no tangible measures have been agreed. Meanwhile, tensions have persisted in a swathe of territory in northern Iraq that Kurdish leaders want to incorporate into their autonomous three-province region over Baghdad's objections." Jamal Hashim (Xinhua) provides an analysis which includes:
In a bid to contain the country's slide into an all-out sectarian strife, some top politicians from different Iraqi factions, including Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, a Shiite, Parliament Speaker Osama al-Nujaifi, a Sunni, and the Kurdish Maliki's deputy Roj Nuri Shawis, held a meeting on June 1 at the office of the Shiite leader Ammar al-Hakim, head of the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq (ISCI), to discuss the means to end political differences.
The meeting was a sign of breakthrough in the country's political deadlock, but it only yielded limited results on the ground, as violence in June was reduced from 1,045 people killed to 761, and people in Baghdad noticed that some militias which appeared by the spike of violence have again kept low profile.
However, sporadic waves of massive attacks and daily killings continued, as gunmen focused this time on targeting coffee shops, restaurants, football pitches, markets, funeral tents and mosques of both Shiite and Sunni communities.
Of the evening Baghdad bombings, KUNA notes, "A security source from Baghdad operation command told KUNA that one of the biggest bombing targeted a football field at Al-Sha'la area killing 14 people and injuring 18 others. The source added a bomb was hidden inside a box near the football field cause the explosion."
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