DESPITE ANNOUNCING YESTERDAY THAT HE WOULD BOMB THE WHITE HOUSE (SEE
"Barack tentatively agrees to bomb White House" AND "THIS JUST IN! BARACK AGREES TO BOMB SELF!"), THE DAHLIBAMA OF WAR HAS FAILED TO TAKE ACTION.
REACHED FOR COMMENT BY THESE REPORTERS, BARRY O EXPLAINED HE WAS PARTLY PARALYZED DUE TO PUBLIC OPINION.
"SIX IN TEN AMERICANS DON'T WANT ME TO BOMB THE WHITE HOUSE," HE STATED.
CONSIDERING THE WAY HE WAS TANKING IN RECENT POLLS, THAT WAS SURPRISING.
BUT BARRY O EXPLAINED, "OH, NO, IT'S NOT ME THAT THE AMERICAN PEOPLE ARE WORRIED ABOUT, IT'S THE WHITE HOUSE. NOT SINCE THE WAR OF 1812 HAS IT BEEN DEMOLISHED. JAY CARNEY TAUGHT ME THAT. SO I'M LOOKING FOR AN ARBY'S OR CHIC-FIL-A TO MAKE THE SECOND WHITE HOUSE. I'LL MOVE IN THERE AND BOMB IT. PROBABLY."
FROM THE TCI WIRE:
Lukman Faily is the Iraqi Ambassador to the United States. Today he used Twitter to take questions and provide answers. Some were fairly basic questions about Faily himself, having to do with his experiences and his plans. Sara Miller asked one of those.
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@failylukman How many countries have you lived in? Do you have a favorite?#AskIraq
Sara Miller
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@sarainthecity I've lived in 5 countries. Iraq is home; Japan is close to my heart and I hope US is closer#AskIraq
Lukman Faily
Cecily Hilleary wondered if he might take part in competitions while in the United States, specifically in marathons.
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@FailyLukman A light question: Will you be running in any US marathons while you're here? Registration for 2014 Boston is open!#AskIraq
Cecily Hilleary
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@VOAHilleary yes, certainly will join. I was told the Boston will open in October. I'm staying away from MarineCorp marathon!#AskIraq
Other questions were more to do with the relationship of the US and Iraq such as the following two exchanges.
bamboozler
Why is Iraq still requesting help and aid of the US? @failylukman #AskIraq
Retweeted by Lukman Faily
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@emilyannnelson Iraq is not asking for foreign aid but for political, security cooperation as a strategic partner to the US#AskIraq
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@FailyLukman Mr Lukman, any news about future weapon deals with the US, including possibly Apaches or UAVs etc?
A W
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@HateExtremists we're in process of purchasing $10b in US military equip. We're natural allies; military cooperation part of that#AskIraq
It's a shame Faily wasn't asked to define exactly what sort of security cooperation in Iraq that Nouri's government is seeking from the US government. In the weapons exchange, one of the first signs that the Twitter hang was not all lollypops took place as Shirin Nariman Tweeted a question.
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@FailyLukman@HannahAllam@HateExtremists is this purchases aims to be used to supress more#Iraqis and also killing Iranian dissidents
Shirin Nariman
She received no answer to her question. This would become a pattern throughout the Twitter exchange especially with regards to the topic of Camp Ashraf.
However, claims that the ambassador "ducked" questions about Camp Ashraf are untrue. He responded to two questions on the Ashraf community.
James Lee
.@GlobeHop we await Prime Minister's special committee results to be released once full investigation completed #AskIraq
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@klamustin we are awaiting the PM's special investigative committee on the event#AskIraq -
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@klamustin we condemn murder of Ashraf residents. In constant negotiation w/special envoy@UNiraq for resettlement outside of Iraq#AskIraq
Let's define the Camp Ashraf community for those who may not be familiar with it. As of this month, Camp Ashraf is empty. All remaining members of the community have been moved to Camp Hurriya (also known as Camp Liberty). Camp Ashraf housed a group of Iranian dissidents who were welcomed to Iraq by Saddam Hussein in 1986 and he gave them Camp Ashraf and six other parcels that they could utilize. In 2003, the US invaded Iraq.The US government had the US military lead negotiations with the residents of Camp Ashraf. The US government wanted the residents to disarm and the US promised protections to the point that US actions turned the residents of Camp Ashraf into protected person under the Geneva Conventions. This is key and demands the US defend the Ashraf community in Iraq from attacks. The Bully Boy Bush administration grasped that -- they were ignorant of every other law on the books but they grasped that one. As 2008 drew to a close, the Bush administration was given assurances from the Iraqi government that they would protect the residents. Yet Nouri al-Maliki ordered the camp repeatedly attacked after Barack Obama was sworn in as US President. July 28, 2009 Nouri launched an attack (while then-US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates was on the ground in Iraq). In a report released this summer entitled "Iraqi government must respect and protect rights of Camp Ashraf residents," Amnesty International described this assault, "Barely a month later, on 28-29 July 2009, Iraqi security forces stormed into the camp; at least nine residents were killed and many more were injured. Thirty-six residents who were detained were allegedly tortured and beaten. They were eventually released on 7 October 2009; by then they were in poor health after going on hunger strike." April 8, 2011, Nouri again ordered an assault on Camp Ashraf (then-US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates was again on the ground in Iraq when the assault took place). Amnesty International described the assault this way, "Earlier this year, on 8 April, Iraqi troops took up positions within the camp using excessive, including lethal, force against residents who tried to resist them. Troops used live ammunition and by the end of the operation some 36 residents, including eight women, were dead and more than 300 others had been wounded. Following international and other protests, the Iraqi government announced that it had appointed a committee to investigate the attack and the killings; however, as on other occasions when the government has announced investigations into allegations of serious human rights violations by its forces, the authorities have yet to disclose the outcome, prompting questions whether any investigation was, in fact, carried out." Those weren't the last attacks. They were the last attacks while the residents were labeled as terrorists by the US State Dept. (September 28, 2012, the designation was changed.) In spite of this labeling, Mohammed Tawfeeq (CNN) observed that "since 2004, the United States has considered the residents of Camp Ashraf 'noncombatants' and 'protected persons' under the Geneva Conventions." So the US has an obligation to protect the residents. 3,300 are no longer at Camp Ashraf. They have moved to Camp Hurriyah for the most part. A tiny number has received asylum in other countries. Approximately 100 were still at Camp Ashraf when it was attacked Sunday. That was the second attack this year alone. February 9th of this year, the Ashraf residents were again attacked, this time the ones who had been relocated to Camp Hurriyah. Trend News Agency counted 10 dead and over one hundred injured. Prensa Latina reported, " A rain of self-propelled Katyusha missiles hit a provisional camp of Iraqi opposition Mujahedin-e Khalk, an organization Tehran calls terrorists, causing seven fatalities plus 50 wounded, according to an Iraqi official release." They were attacked again September 1st. Adam Schreck (AP) reported that the United Nations was able to confirm the deaths of 52 Ashraf residents.
The idea that Nouri can investigate the attack is ludicrous. Not only have we mocked the idea, the United Nations has insisted that an independent investigation is needed.
Ambassador Faily Lukman did briefly address the Ashraf community. If you've read the entire Twitter conversation, you know he spent more time on that issue than any other.
But he also ignored questions on Camp Ashraf (as he did when the woman asked about whether US-acquired weapons would be used to suppress the Iraqi people -- a serious question which should have been answered). We've used Lukman Fairly's Twitter feed for the above exchanges and not the Twitter feed for the conversation itself. You have to page down and page down and page down repeatedly through one message after another about the Ashraf community.
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