Tuesday, March 25, 2014

THIS JUST IN! ONCE UPON A TIME . . . !

BULLY BOY PRESS &   CEDRIC'S BIG MIX -- THE KOOL-AID TABLE

OVER 12 HOURS AGO, STORIES LIKE THIS BEGAN APPEARING.

THEY ARE "STORIES" AND NOT "REPORTS" BECAUSE THEY ARE FAIRY TALES.

ONCE UPON A TIME, SOME TIME THIS WEEK, FADED CELEBRITY IN CHIEF BARRY O WILL CURB N.S.A. ILLEGAL SPYING.

FAIRY TALES.

REPORTING TELLS US WHAT'S HAPPENING.

FOR 12 HOURS, THIS STORY HAS DOMINATED THE 'NEWS' CYCLE DESPITE NO ANNOUNCEMENT FROM BARRY O OR THE WHITE HOUSE.


FROM THE TCI WIRE:


Nouri's Iraq has another first.  As with all his other firsts, it's not good news.  Maya Rhodan (Time magazine) reports Iraq has a confirmed polio case, "A six-month old baby near Baghdad was paralyzed as a result of the debilitating virus, which is generally found among children under five years old."  IRIN notes it's been 14 years since Ira had a "confirmed case of the virus."  And they quote the World Health Organization's Iraq mission head, Syed Jaffar Hussain, declaring:

 Knowing that Iraq itself has a lot of security challenges and large amounts of population movement, internally and from outside, this presents a major public health challenge in the country.
We do have a worry that other children may have been infected and that is why we are going door-to-door in the area where this child lives in order to collect samples to see if the virus has spread. 


In other news, Robert Scheer's Truthdig runs a piece  by CIA contractor Juan Cole where Cole insist:


 It just baffles me that failed Neocons like Dan Senor are still given a hearing inside the Beltway.  ABC News actually interviewed Senor, the spokesman for the Bush administration’s illegal invasion and occupation of Iraq on the Crimea crisis!


The necons?  The ones who teamed with conservatives (traditional ones) and Democratic Hawks and neoliberals to sell the illegal war?  Trash like Juan Cole will never call out neoliberals, et al.,  but he'll make sure everyone knows the term "neocon."


As for disappointment?

I think it's disappointing that people who cheered on the illegal war continue to be treated as though they're wise or informed.

I mean people like Juan Cole.

He can fool everyone he wants today but even he knows that when push came to shove he was whoring for the Iraq War.


It was over eight years ago that Steve Rendall called him on it during an interview broadcast on the February 9, 2007 of CounterSpin.

 Steve Rendall: Professor Juan Cole, you've expressed some reservations about US withdrawal from Iraq.  How do you reconcile that with the people poll done by the University of Maryland that finds that strong majorities of Iraqis -- both Shia and Sunni -- want the US out. 

 Juan Cole: Well, first of all, you're misreading my position.  Uh, for a year and a half now I have been maintaining that the US should withdraw from Iraq.  I supported [US House] Representative [John] Murtha's position -- and indeed I believe I preceded it -- which is the US should make an orderly withdraw from Iraq and what I oppose -- and I think anybody should oppose -- and something very worrying -- would be for the US to pull precipitously out of Iraq, just pull up stakes and get out in a rush and let the chips fall where they may because this would be a very bad idea. 


Juan loves to rewrite the record, he loves to reinvent and spin yarns and do everything except tell the truth.

When the illegal war started 11 years ago, CIA contractor Juan wrote that "the removal of Saddam Hussein and the murderous Baath regime from power will be worth the sacrifices that are about to be made on all sides" (click here for Wikipedia and his attempts to justify and rewrite what he wrote).

No one was punished or harmed for advocating for the illegal war which is why it's so shameful that Robert Scheer publishes Cole at Truthdig.  The MSM protected their own and promoted 'left' bloggers who supported the Iraq War so for an outlet like Truthdig to present the lies of Juan Cole is very upsetting.

Lies?

Juan Cole is a damn liar.  He's so very fond of thinking he can intimidate everyone into going along.  I'm not cowed by a pudgy bitch like Juan, so sorry.

He writes today:

 Senor had the unmitigated gall to blame President Obama for “Iraq unraveling”!!

Let’s see.  The American administration of Iraq fired 100,000 Sunni Arabs from their jobs, abruptly abolished the whole Iraqi army, closed all the major state-owned factories, coddled corrupt Shiite politicians, and generally plunged the country into a massive civil war, which at its height was killing 3000 civilians a month and was responsible for 2 million being displaced abroad and 4 million internally, in a country of 26 million.

Not gall, mind you, but unmitigated gall.

That's a strange argument to present but because Dan Senor is correct in the argument.  But before we move to facts -- those things that cause Juan to break out in hives -- let's just examine what Dan Senor did that was so wrong.

According to Juan Cole, 'historian,' it is wrong for Senor or anyone to blame Barack for the state of Iraq.

If Barack can't be blamed for it, he also -- pay attention  -- can't be praised.

But in January 2010, Uninformed Boob Juan Cole was declaring the Iraq War was over and Barack had won it.


I wouldn't have called the Iraq War ended then (it's ongoing even now) and I wouldn't have declared Barack had won it.

At that point, I'd already called Barack out for entering into negotiations with terrorists (League of Righteous) and agreeing to release their leaders (so that they'd turn over British hostages -- all but one was turned over as a corpse).  And I'd called him out for lying about the Status Of Forces Agreement.  But, in  January 2010, I never said, "He is losing the war!"

In March 2010, it would be different.

That's where Barack ensured the current state of Iraq.

Parliamentary elections took place.  Even with the media (western media) in his pocket, Nouri and his State of Law still lost to Ayad Allawi's Iraqiya.  Nouri screamed voter theft and insisted on a recount which didn't change the results.

So Nouri decided he'd just refuse to step down.  He refused for 8 months (this was the political stalemate and Iraq set the world record at the time for the longest duration between an election and the formation of a government).

During this time Barack backed him.  More than that, he had US officials broker The Erbil Agreement.  The legal contract provided Nouri with a second term as prime minister in exchange for Nouri agreeing to certain demands of the political blocs.  For example, the Kurdistan Regional Government demanded that Article 140 be implemented (referendum and census on disputed and oil-rich Kirkuk).

Barack had no business overriding the votes of the Iraqi people or going around the country's constitution to provide Nouri with a second term.


And the man who planned her life
Commanded all that followed
Well they bellowed  and they hollered
And they threw each other down
-- "Memorial Day," written by Carly Simon, first appears on her album Spy


Today's problems stem from this.  It was Barack's decision (urged on by Samantha Power) and he owns it.  It cannot be explained away or wiped away.

The administration got the blocs to sign on by insisting the contract had the full backing of the White House.  Vice President Joe Biden gave his word personally to Iraq President Jalal Talabani.  And the day after the contract was signed, when, in the session of Parliament, it appeared Nouri was refusing to honor it, Ayad Allawi walked as did many other members of Iraqiya.

At which point -- pay attention, Juan Cole -- Barack personally called Allawi and made promises that led to Allawi returning to Parliament and ending the walk out.


But Nouri refused to honor the contract.  He used it to get his second term and then his lawyer and his spokesperson both began announcing the contract was illegal (it probably was -- it was extra-constitutional) and so Nouri didn't have to honor it.

By the summer of 2011, aware that the White House and Barack were not backing the contract they insisted they would, the Kurds, Moqtada al-Sadr and Allawi went public demanding that Nouri follow the contract.

He refused.

In April of 2012, they began publicly exploring a vote of no confidence in the Parliament.  Moqtada made clear publicly that Nouri could stop the effort at any point by implementing The Erbil Agreement.

He didn't and, per the Constitution, the groups began gathering the signatures needed for a no confidence vote.  They got the needed number and then some.

The vote would take place.

But the White House was pressuring Jalal, insisting the vote could not be allowed to go forward.  They offered (empty) promises and made demands.  Suddenly, Jalal announced that it was his job (it wasn't) to verify every signature.  On top of that, he created another new step not in the Constitution, "Did you mean to sign it?"  Clearly, if the signature was their own, they meant to sign it.

But Jalal would insist that several, during the verification process, stated they would not sign it today.  So he was striking their signatures.

That's not how it works.

They don't have to vote against Nouri in the vote but if they signed it, they signed it.  Change of heart (due to the spread of US money) doesn't let you undo your signature.

The people spoke in 2010, they did not want Nouri.  The US re-installed him via a legal contract they swore (in November 2010) that they would back.  By 2011, the White House was ignoring it (and also insisting it didn't matter since Nouri had promised publicly not to seek a third term -- Nouri's a whore, his word means nothing).  In 2012, Kurds, Shi'ites and Sunni politicians agreed to pull together and use the means provided in the Constitution to recall Nouri. The White House demanded this not happen.

Juan Cole is a liar.

All of the above has brought Iraq to the brink yet again.




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