NO CELEBRATIONS FOR BARRY O.
AMERICA'S CELEBRITY IN CHIEF KEEPS GETTING LESS AND LESS APPLAUSE.
YESTERDAY IN SAN FRANCISCO, BARRY O WAS CONFRONTED WITH A HECKLER OBJECTING TO THE FACT THAT BARRY O HAS ALREADY DEPORTED MORE IMMIGRANTS THAN BULLY BOY BUSH.
CONFRONTED, BARRY O ATTEMPTED HIS USUAL PLAY -- FAKE AND LIE.
THE ASSEMBLED REJECTED IT AND BEGAN CHANTING "STOP DEPORTATIONS! YES WE CAN!"
AND THE POLLING JUST KEEPS GETTING WORSE WITH HIS LOWEST SO FAR BEING A 37% APPROVAL RATE.
POLLING EXPERT JAIME REGALADO DECLARES, "HE'S AT THE LOWEST POINT IN HIS PRESIDENCY."
SO FAR!
SO FAR, JAIME, THE LOWEST SO FAR!
FROM THE TCI WIRE:
We're starting with the United Nations. We'll be discussing how the UN Security Council is lazy, ignorant and wasteful. But first, Nickolay Mladenov offered testimony this morning. He heads UNAMI and he's UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's representative in Iraq.
He noted early on, "The security situation continued to worsen, with almost daily attacks by terrorist and armed groups against civilians and the Iraqi security forces. Along with rising casualty figures, forced displacement on a sectarian and ethnic basis has re-emerged in several governorates." Today, Jason Ditz (Antiwar.com) reports, "Sectarian bombings continue apace across Iraq in general and the capital city of Baghdad in particular, killing almost 200 in the past week and showing that rather than slowing down, the summer violence is actually speeding up as winter approaches." Mohammed Tawfeeq (CNN) observed Saturday, "The U.N. Assistance Mission for Iraq estimates at least 979 Iraqis -- 852 of them civilians -- were killed in October alone." For a Reuters graph of the UN fatality figures, refer to Geoffrey Ingersoll's report for Business Insider.
And possibly the most important thing he told (read to) the UN Security Council was about the ongoing protests.
Nickolay Mladenov: Protests continued in Anbar, Nineveh, Salah al-Din, Kirkuk and Diayala governorates in the form of unified Friday prayers. Compared to the past reporting period, the protests assumed a lower profile, owning in part to increased attention to the protesters' demands by newly elected local administrations. Indeed, the Anbar Governorate Council elected Sabah Karhout, a member of the Arab Iraqiya party, as its chair, and Ahmed Khalif al-Dulaimi, a member of the Muttahidoun party, as Governor. In Ninewa, the Governorate Council re-elected Atheel al-Nujaifi, a known supporter of the protestors and brother of the Speake of the Council of Representatives [Osama al-Nujaifi], as Governor. On 5 October dialogue between the Government and the protestors resumed following a meeting between the Prime Minister [Nouri al-Maliki] and the Governor of Anbar, who was nominated by the demonstrators to represent their interests. While the meeting was described as positive and fruitful by the Prime Minister's office, no progress has been announced to date in addressing the demonstrators' demands.
Could the lazy foreign (non-Iraq) press register that?
"While the meeting was described as positive and fruitful by the Prime Minister's office, no progress has been announced to date in addressing the demonstrators' demands."
Can they register that? AP, Reuters, AFP, etc, can you register that.
Because these outlets keep pimping the lie that Nouri has met protesters demands.
He's not met them and even UNAMI notes that Nouri's office spins but there is no progress.
The protests passed the 11 month mark last Friday.
The non-Iraq outlets ignored it. But there's a chance, a small one, that AP, AFP, et al might actually report on the protests next month. That's because December 21st will be the one year anniversary of the protests, 12 months of continuous protesting. So there's a chance, a small one, that non-Iraqi outlets might finally give some serious attention to these protests.
If they do, let's hope they remember what the United Nations Security Council was told today: "While the meeting was described as positive and fruitful by the Prime Minister's office, no progress has been announced to date in addressing the demonstrators' demands."
Nothing they've 'reported' in the last months has indicated there are even aware of that reality.
Here's a little more reality from National Iraqi News Agency, Nouri's security forces arrested Sheikh Mehdi Ziad today a "member of the coordinating committees in Samarra and preacher of the sit-in of Samarra." His home was raided and he was arrested "without knowing the reason for his arrest."
As protesters are killed and the leaders are arrested (repeatedly on both), where is the world press?
Prashant Rao heads AFP's Baghdad bureau which should mean he's interested when Nouri's forces arrest the leaders of the protests.
Should mean that.
But there's no Tweet on that.
He did, however, make time to note this very important issue:
- The only solace in being a Bulls fan now is that the Lakers decided they're not interested in contending, by signing Kobe to a $48mn deal.
They do something.
I don't know that anyone would call it reporting, but they do busy themselves with trivia.
Last January, the International Anti-Occupation Network issued a call for support:
The protesters are justly demanding:
1. The immediate release of detained protesters and dissident prisoners.
2 . A stop to the death penalty.
3. The approval of an amnesty law for innocent detainees.
4. The abolition of anti-terrorism laws (especially Clause 4 used to target them).
5. The repeal of unfair rulings against dissidents.
6. Fair opportunities for work based on professionalism.
7.The end of the use of all military command based on geographic areas.
8. The provision of essential services to all areas in Iraq neglected by the state.
9. The holding of all … governmental officials, army or security units who have committed crimes against dissidents accountable, especially those who have violated the honor of women in prisons.
10. A U.N.-sponsored population count.
11. An end to marginalization, a stop to agitating divisions between ethnic and religious groups, and a stop to the house raids without legal warrant based on the information of secret informers.
12. A stop to financial, administrative and legal corruption.
13. The combating of sectarianism in all its forms by returning religious buildings and all religious properties to their rightful owners, and the abolishment of law No. 19 of 2005.
The prisoners, the disappeared. Secret prisons in Iraq, false arrests. "False arrest" is the correct term. You're married to Gary and there's a knock on your door one day when Gary's out. You open it, it's the Iraqi police. They want Gary for some reason. You're suspected of no crime but you're hauled off and tossed into the prison and detention system because the Iraqi police can't find Gary. That happens over and over in Iraq.
It's from the US government actually. They started this illegal practice. They did so by having the US military act worse than mobsters -- the mob's a little more respectful of families than the US government which ordered US forces to grab the wives of suspects and throw them behind bars to hold them as hostages until/unless the suspects came forward.
This practice of arresting family members continues. (But there's no effort to release the innocent family member if the suspect comes forward or is caught elsewhere.)
Testifying to the UN Security Council today, Mladenov that UNAMI has been allowed to visit and inspect the prisons and detention centers under the Ministry of Justice. They found, he testified, "overcrowding and lack of adequate health services." He also noted that there was "a lack of special programs for female detainees and prisoners to ensure their reintegration into society after release."
This is a standard comment from whomever is the head of UNAMI. Let's not another one, a more disturbing one, "UNAMI has not yet been granted access to detention centers under the authority of the Ministry of the Interior. UNAMI nevertheless received reports of abuse, mistreatment and, at times, torture of many detainees and prisoners in those facilites prior to charge and transfer to facilities under the authority of the Ministry of Justice, in particular with regard to persons detained under the Anti-Terrorism Law Number 13 of 2005."
Let's be clear, torture is continuing in Iraq.
But let's be even more clear. Outside of Iraq, people often miss this point.
That's especially true with some in the US.
Iraq has a different executive branch system than the US. While cabinet heads, such as Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebaria have their equivalents in the US like Secretary of State John Kerry, there are very real differences.
Chief among them, if John Kerry does a job US President Barack Obama doesn't approve of, Barack will ask for his resignation and Kerry will deliver it. Should Kerry fail to do so, Barack would just cut Kerry out of the loop.
The way things are set up in Iraq are different. Let's pretend John Kerry is an Iraqi. Nouri nominates him to be Minister of Oil. The Iraqi Parliament then votes. If they vote to confirm him, Kerry is the Minister of Oil. If Nouri's unhappy with Kerry's performance, he can ask for a resignation. Kerry can refuse. If Kerry refuses, Nouti's next step is to go to the Parliament and ask them to strip Kerry of his post. Nouri attempted this from the end of 2011 to May 2012 with both Deputy Prime Minister Saleh al-Mutlaq and Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi.
The Parliament refused to do so. Both al-Mutlaq and al-Hashemi remain in their posts until their terms end.
If Kerry refused to step down as Minister of Oil and the Parliament refused to vote him out of that post, Nouri would be stuck with John Kerry.
Nouri didn't feel his Cabinet (violation of the Constituion). He instead did a power grab by refusing to nomiate people to head the security ministries. Ayad Allawi, head of Iraqiya, immediately called it that but the foreign press dismissed that assertion and insisted, in January 2011, that Nouri would fill his Cabinet in a matter of weeks.
Back in July 2012, Mohammed Tawfeeq (CNN) observed, "Shiite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has struggled to forge a lasting power-sharing agreement and has yet to fill key Cabinet positions, including the ministers of defense, interior and national security, while his backers have also shown signs of wobbling support."
Those three positions remain unfilled. All this time later, they're empty. This allows Nouri to control them. He puts a puppet in as 'acting' minister (no approval from Parliament so they have no job protection and do Nouri's bidding).
Nouri doesn't control the Ministry of Justice.
UNAMI was able to inspect and visit the prisons and detention centers under the Ministry of Justice.
But what did Nikolay Maladenov say? "UNAMI has not yet been granted access to detention centers under the authority of the Ministry of the Interior."
That's prisons and detention centers under Nouri's control.
Nouri's refusing to allow the United Nation to have access to those. Nouri and only Nouri because he's over the Ministry of the Interior as a result of his power grab.
We'll note another statement the head of UNAMI made -- this one when he spoke briefly to reporters after (he spoke to the press for less than three minutes).
Nickolay Mladenov: I strongly believe that we need to have a focus on the forthcoming elections that have been scheduled for April 30th. The government and the political parties have agreed to have that date on time and I do believe that it is vital that this date be observed properly by all and UNAMI will continue to invest heavily in in supporting the Electoral Committee in Iraq as well as working close with all the authorities to make sure that the election is done in a proper and transparent manner and in the timeframe that has been stipulated by law.
Of the UN Security Council, Matthew Russell Lee (Inner City Press) reports:
After the UN Security Council much belatedly issued a press statement Monday on the carnage in Iraq, Inner City Press asked the Council's president and then Iraq's Permanent Representative what had taken so long.
Just as the Security Council has not met or even had a briefing about Libya and militias in Tripoli killing dozens of civilians, there is a similar resistance to admitting how un-solved Iraq is after intervention. But Iraq's Permanent Representative Mohamed Alhakim told Inner City Press that his country had been asking the Council to issue a statement.
Inner City Press asked, so it was only the US opposing it?
He replied that, "We wanted a clear" statement. "Sometimes a mixture of different" approaches "and we were against that." We said, "please come up with something unified, strong, target the organizations and countries" behind the terrorism, which "has support of money."
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