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Thursday, September 8, 2011. Chaos and violence continue, Iraq remains
unsecure, Iraq is at risk of panademic, more on the US desire to stay in Iraq
beyond 2011, Tom Hayden shows up to self-embarrass yet again, journalist Hadi
al-Mahdi is assassinated, and more.
In Iraq, a journalist has been murdered. In addition to being a
journalist, he was also a leader of change and part of the movement to create an
Iraq that was responsive to Iraqis.
Al Mada reports Iraqi journalist Hadi
al-Mahdi is dead according to an Interior Ministry source who says
police discovered him murdered in his Baghdad home. Along with being a
journalist, Al Mada notes he was one of the chief organizers of the
demonstrations demanding change and service reform that began on February 25th
-- the day he was arrested by Iraqi security forces and beaten in broad daylight
as he and others, after the February 25th protest, were eating in a restaurant.
The New York Times didn't want to tell you about, the Washington
Post did. And now the man is dead. Gee, which paper has the archives that
matter to any real degree. Maybe it's time to act like a newspaper and not a
"news magazine" with pithy little human interest stories? (That is not a dig at
Tim Arango but at the paper's diva male 'reporter' who went on NPR to talk of an
Iraqi college this week.) So while the Times missed the story (actaully, they
misled on the story -- cowtowing to Nouri as usual), Stephanie McCrummen (Washington Post)
reported: Four journalists who
had been released described being rounded up well after they had left a protest
at Baghdad's Tahrir Square. They said they were handcuffed, blindfolded, beaten
and threatened with execution by soldiers from an army intelligence unit.
"It was like they were dealing with a
bunch of al-Qaeda operatives, not a group of journalists," said Hussam
al-Ssairi, a journalist and poet, who was among a group and described seeing
hundreds of protesters in black hoods at the detention facility. "Yesterday was
like a test, like a picture of the new democracy in Iraq." A
picture of the new democracy in Iraq, indeed. And now one of the four is dead.
But back to that roundup, from the February 28th snapshot:
Over the weekend, a number of journalists were detained during and
after their coverage of the mass demonstrations that took place in central
Baghdad's al-Tahrir Square. Simone Vecchiator (International Press Institute)
notes:["]During a news
conference held on Sunday, four journalists -- Hussam Saraie of Al-Sabah
Al-Jadid newspaper, Ali Abdul Sada of the Al-Mada daily, Ali al-Mussawi of Sabah
newspaper and Hadi al-Mehdi of Demozee radio -- reported being handcuffed,
blindfolded, beaten and threatened by security forces. They also claimed they
were held in custody for nine hours and forced to sign a document, the contents
of which were not revealed to them.
Aswat al Iraq news agency reported that
the journalists will file a court case against the executive authority in
response to the alleged violations of their civil rights.
This episode is
the latest in a series of repressive measures adopted by security forces in
order to stifle media reports about the current political and social
unrest.["]
NPR's Kelly McEvers interviewed Hadi for
Morning Edition after he had been released and she noted he had been
"beaten in the leg, eyes, and head." He explained that he was accused of
attempting to "topple" Nouri al-Maliki's government -- accused by the soldiers
under Nouri al-Maliki, the soldiers who beat him. Excerpt:
Hadi al-Mahdi: I replied, I told the guy who was investigating me,
I'm pretty sure that your brother is unemployed and the street in your area is
unpaved and you know that this political regime is a very corrupt
one.
Kelly McEvers: Mahdi was later put in a room with what he says were
about 200 detainees, some of them journalists and intellectuals, many of them
young protesters.
Hadi al-Mahdi: I started hearing voices of other people. So, for
instance, one guy was crying, another was saying, "Where's my brother?" And a
third one was saying, "For the sake of God, help me."
Kelly McEvers: Mahdi was shown lists of names and asked to reveal
people's addresses. He was forced to sign documents while blindfolded.
Eventually he was released. Mahdi says the experience was worse than the times
he was detained under Saddam Hussein. He says the regime that's taken Sadam's
place is no improvement on the past. This, he says, should serve as a cautionary
tale for other Arab countries trying to oust dictators.
Hadi al-Mahdi: They toppled the regime, but they brought the worst
-- they brought a bunch of thieves, thugs, killers and corrupt people,
stealers.
Madhi had filed a complained with the courts against the Iraqi security
forces, noting that they had now warrant and that they kidnapped him in broad
daylight and that they beat him. Mohamed Tawfeeq (CNN) adds, "Hadi al-Mehdi was
inside his apartment on Abu Nawas street in central Baghdad when gunmen shot him
twice with silencer-equipped pistols, said the ministry official, who did not
want to be identified because he is not authorized to speak to media." Mazin Yahya (AP) notes that in addition
to calling for improvements in the basic services (electricity, water and
sanitation), on his radio program, Hadi al-Mehdi also used Facebook to get the
word out on the Friday protests in Baghdad's Tahrir Square.
Al Mada notes that Hadi has been killed
on the eve of tomorrow's protest. The youth activists took the month of Ramadan
off and announced that they would return to downtown Baghdad on September 9th
(tomorrow). And tomorrow they'll now be minus at least one. Al Mada quotes
Hadi writing shortly before he died on his Facebook page about the
demonstration, noting that it would herald the emergence of real democracy in
the new Iraq, an Iraq with no sectarian grudges, just hearts filled with
tolerance and love, hearts saying no to corruption, looting, unemployment,
hearts demaning a better Iraq and a government for the people because Iraqis
deserve the best and they deserve pride and dignity. The Great Iraqi Revolution notes, "The funeral of
the martyred jouranlist Hady Mahdy, who was killed earlier today will process
from his Karrad home where he was assassinated to Tahrir Square. The funeral
procession will commence at around 9 A.M."
Reporters Without Borders roundly condemns the
well-known journalist Hadi Al-Mahdi's murder in Baghdad today, on the eve of
nationwide protests that he supported. His body was found at around 7 p.m. in
his home in the central district of Al-Karada. He had been
shot twice in the head. There can be no doubt that his murder was politically
motivated.
Offering its sincere condolences to his
family, friends and colleagues, Reporters Without Borders urges the authorities
to quickly investigate this murder and to assign all the necessary resources to
ensure that those responsible are identified and brought to justice. This crime
cannot go unpunished.
Aged 44, a Shiite and married to a Kurd, Mahdi
hosted a talk show called "To whoever listens" on Radio Demozy (104,01
FM). His irreverence, his well-observed criticism that spared no one, neither
the prime minister nor his detractors, and his readiness to tackle subjects
ranging from corruption to the deplorable state of the Iraqi educational system
made it one of the most popular talk shows in Baghdad.
After covering a demonstration in Baghdad's
Tahrir Square on 25 February, he and
three fellow journalists were arrested, threatened and beaten.
Shortly after graduating from Baghdad's
Academy of Fine Arts in 1989, Mahdi fled to Syria and then to Sweden and did not
return until 2007, after nearly a decade in exile. He began hosting "To whoever
listens" for Radio Demozy, an independent station, a year later. (A New York Times profile of Mahdi)
He was the seventh Iraqi journalist to be
murdered since the start of 2011 and the 12th since the United States announced
the withdrawal of its combat troops in August 2010.
Nouri al-Maliki's forces beat Hadi. They are under Nouri's command. Nouri
demonized the protesters all along. He has repeated the slurs in the last weeks
that the September 9th protests are organized by Ba'ahtists, are out to topple
him, are out to turn Iraq into a lawless state and much more. Did Little Saddam
aka Nouri al-Maliki, thug of the occupation, order his forces to murder Hadi?
Regardless, he certainly created the climate for the murder at the very least.
At the more extreme? Little Saddam may be dreaming of becoming the next Augusto
Pinochet.
Hadi had a dream that Iraq could become what so many in the US press
portrayed it as being, a democracy, a place of fairness, a government that
provided for the people. The youth activists will carry on the struggle, as
will be evident tomorrow, but it says a great deal about the stae of Iraq, he
real state of Iraq, that Hadi can be targeted and murdered for wanting what so
many US gas bags and US politicians and liars wnat to insist Iraq already has
and is.
Let's turn to two of the whores: Tom Hayden and Barbara Lee. Take your
tongues out of Barack's asshole and come on down.
In all the years (decades) I've known Tom, I'd say he's verbal. He's not
active. He's really not much of a writer, never has been. But he can give a
speech. Ususally one that self-promotes. I think it was a few months before he
was expelled from the Berkeley commune that I first heard him compared to J.J.
Hunsecker -- an apt comparison, I used to think. But J.J. knew how to read and,
increasingly, it appears Tom-Tom is illiterate.
Two days to late and still unaware, Tom Hayden shows up at The Nation to
flaunt both his own uselessness and Barbara Lee's. If you're late to the
party, see Tuesday and Wednesday's snapshots, my willingness to
spoonfeed today is extremely limited. Tom just discovered about the story Fox
News reported on -- about an option where the White House would keep 3,000 to
4,000 US troops in Iraq. Yes, let's split whores, let's go to Barbara Lee from
Tom's story and then come back to Tom. Baraba doesn't read either -- illiteracy
appears to be a pre-requisite for membership in the Cult of St. Barack. So when
Tom called his girlfriend Barbara Lee to dish about wet dreaming of Barack and
mentioned the fact that the White House is considering keeping 3,000 to 4,000 US
troops in Iraq after 2011, 'anti-war' Barbara Lee insisted it was "a move in the
right direction."
Oh, how the whores have fallen.
Baraba Leeis a fraud. She's a fraud and a fake. When I used to say that,
people would offer defenses. These days the only defense comes from the Cult of
St. Barack. They are the only ones stupid enough to defend 'brave' Barbara
Lee. Everyone else long ago caught on to the reality that Little Ms. I'll End
The Iraq War gave up long, long ago. I can remember so many Congressional
hearings how she'd dash in when the cameras were there, spit out a few
commentaries masquerading as questions, announce with disgust that she had
nothing else for the witness and rush off to whever it was she rushed off to
(not to floor votes, not to another hearing). She'd get her media attention,
her sound byte for back home, and she'd breeze off somewhere else.
Bush was occupying the White House then. So Baraba was against the war.
The same war that today she's fine with because Barack's president. She doesn't
try to end the Iraq War now. She doesn't give the speeches about how we need to
put pressure on the leadership. She doesn't do a damn thing. And nothing I'm
saying here is news to the Out of Iraq Caucus in the House. In fact, most
members cite Baraba Lee as the reason that caucus is no more. She's a liar and
a hypocrite and nothing I could call her here would match what she's called by
her peers in Congress whom she once stood with against the wars.
Leaving any US troops beyond 2011 should be unacceptable to her. But it's
Barack so she's saying "step in the right direction." You go, 'brave' Barabra.
And she'll no doubt pen a strongly worded letter to him calling for more to
leave and then do nothing after he blows her off. Because standing up to Bush
was fun but she's not going to call out Barack.
Moving from the fraud in Congress back to the fraud that never gets
anywhere, Tom's a ___ idiot. Again, check those two snapshots. The 3,000 to
4,000 is one option -- one of several the White House is considering. We've
noted several here throughout the year -- one we noted repeatedly is today an
"AP Exclusive" -- but those following the actual reporting, those doing their
own reading, were aware that there were several options. Tom isn't because
there's no whore like an old whore.
(Tom was not the friend at The Nation that I spoke to Thursday --
mentioned in Thursday's snapshot -- but doesn't he prove my point in that
snapshot that no one at The Nation actually reads? And Tom's not a friend. A
friend is someone I'd invite to my home and I really don't associate with
gigolos and certainly don't invite them into my home -- both due to theft
concerns and infestation issues.)
3,000 is one option, it's not the only option. In fact, if you learned to
read Arabic, you'd know what Nouri's media advisor said about it. But you don't
know because you apparently can't read. If only you couldn't speak imagine how
much better the world would be.
As usual, the faux leader of the peace movement -- who knew the peace
movement had an elderly Gypsy Rose Lee in it? -- wants to call this a win. And
wants to caution that people can't ask for more because, he insists, the economy
is the number one issue and blah, blah, blah.
Old Pock Marks On The Soul really needs to go the
way of other divorcees who cashed out big time on their wealthy exes when making
a living on their own proved too difficult. He's Roxanne Pulitzer without the
ability to write trash (he's just able to live it) and without a body anyone
would pay to see naked.
Kevin Barone (Stars & Stripes)
quotes the former top US commander in Iraq who is now the Army Chief of
Staff, Ray Odierno stating today of the 3,000 proposal, "I will say, when I was
leaving Iraq a year ago, I always felt we had to be careful about leaving too
many people in Iraq. I'm not saying 3,000 to 5,000 is the right number, but what
I would say is there comes a time, and I've said this before, where it becomes
counterproductive," He goes on to also disagree with the notion of leaving a
large force. Which is probably due in part to the fact that he's been among
those advocating within the administration for 20,000 to 12,000 US forces to
remain on the ground in Iraq beyond 2011.
Dar Addustour reports that Haitham
Jubouri, who serves on the Commission on Defense and Security, was among those
receiving a withdrawal time table for US forces. It's not one thing, it's
several options, the paper says, and that it was stressed there is no final
decision as yet. The article then notes US media reports on this issue in the
last two days -- emphasizing the 3,000 to 4,000 US troops kept beyond 2011
option -- and that while the negotiations continue, there's a sense of urgency
when it comes to the US supplying F-16s to Iraq. Al
Mada also notes US media reports and adds that Nouri
al-Maliki's media advisor Ali al-Moussawi has declared that the numbers are not
ones Iraq has proposed or agreed to. Justin Fishel (Fox News) notes Odierno declared
that one of the issues to be resolved in the negotiations would be where US
troops would be staged after 2011 and "Odierno said it's most likely that any
major U.S. base would be located outside of Baghdad."
There are many options being considered. Robert Burns and Rebecca Santana (AP)
report on the option of moving US troops to Kuwait. They cite annonymous
"US officials" who state that Kuwait is being considered as a staging area for
the US military and that it could also be used to keep "a small U.S. combat
force" that could enter Iraq swiftly should a problem arise. And they note that
US military equipment could be left in Kuwai instead of sent back to
America.
We've covered that option repeatedly because it's Joe Biden's option. Joe
was then US Senator and not US Vice President. It was 2007 when he began to
seriously speak of it. It was 2008, two months after he dropped out of the
Democratic primaries, that he raised the issue for the first time seriously in
public. When it became clear, during the transition period as Samantha Power
insisted US troops would not leave Iraq, that post-2011 plans might need to be
considered, Joe brought this idea out. Barack was responsive to it from the
start and one reporter (not mentioned above but he'll know who he is) was cited
as having proposed it to Barack during a 2008 interview. (Barack was giddy at
the suggestion and noted that ___ had suggested it mere months ago.) Hillary
Clinton was not part of the transition team. After Barack was in the White
House and after he nominated her for Secretary of State and she became part of
the administration, she supported this as an option to explore in at least one
meeting.
This much is clear: There will likely be some kind of U.S. military
presence in Iraq after 2012.
Again, 3,000 is only one of the proposals being considered. It was the proposal discussed
yesterday on On The Record (Fox News --
link has text and video) by host Greta Van Susteren and Herman Cain who is
running for the GOP's presidential nomination:
VAN SUSTEREN: So I'm not going to ask you
about that, so let me ask you about foreign policy since it was a little bit
short on foreign policy. The big issue is whether or not the president is going
to draw down to 3,000 troops in Iraq. What do you think about that idea if
indeed that is the president's plan?
CAIN: I believe that's a bad idea,
Greta. Once again, this president did not listen to the expanders on the ground.
The commanders on the ground do not agree with that, just like the commanders on
the ground didn't agree with the drawdown in Afghanistan. That's very scary in
terms of foreign policy and our position in the world. So I don't agree with it.
Why? Because the commanders on the ground don't agree with it. They believe it
is too much, too fast. And I believe it is going to leave the 3,000 there
vulnerable.
VAN SUSTEREN: That's what I don't understand. It seems to me
-- I really can't believe the president isn't listening to his commanders. I'm a
little suspicious there are commanders telling him 3,000 is fine. Is there any
reason why you think, if it is true, that he doesn't have any commanders support
him, why would he go ahead and do this, just sort of freelancing without
consulting commanders?
CAIN: Two reasons, in my opinion. One, to carry
out a campaign programs, and secondly to create a distraction. This president
has nothing to talk about in terms of his record on the economy, zero new jobs
created. They are trying to get away from that. So if he -- if next year he can
say we have pulled out all of the troops out of Iraq, then that will give him
something to brag about, along with the taking out of Usama bin Laden. The
American people are not that stupid.
Herman Cain is for continuing the war but he is running for the Republican
Party's presidential nomination. He is a Republican. In 2006, that would be
obvious. In 2011, when so many Democratic office holders are fine and dandy
with the illegal war continuing and a Democratic president attempts to continue
it, it may need clarification that Herman Cain is not a Democrat. On the
Democratic Party side, only Barack at present is running for the White House.
On the Republican side, there are many. Ron Paul is the only candidate in that race
invited to the debates who is promising to end the wars.
Al Rafidayn reports on a doctor's
funeral Monday in Kirkuk -- Dr. Yildirim Abbas Dmarja and his brother -- in a
killing that is part of a wave of targeting doctors and other professionals in
Iraq. This targeting also includes kidnappings. The Director General of Health
in Kirkuk is leading a call for the government to provide protection for
doctors. It is estimated that over a million and a half dollars (US equivalent)
have been paid by families to kidnappers of doctors. Al Sabaah notes that Wednesday also saw a sit-in at a
Kirkuk hospital as doctors and medical staff demanded protection from the
ongoing violence. They also demanded that those responsible be brought to
justice. There's a medical issue taking place in Iraq beyond this and a friend
with WHO brought it to my attention last week: the flu. Al Sabbah reports that Iraq's seen 175 cases of the
flu since the start of the year with 15 people dying so far. The paper notes
that 88 of the cases have been in Baghdad alone. The paper does not note that
some of these have been Swine flu and some have been bird flu. In 2006,
neighboring Turkey saw an outbreak of bird flu (avian flu) which resulted in the
deaths of at least four children. In April 2009, a teenage girl died of bird
flu in the KRG's Sulaimaniyah, hers was the first documented case bird flu in
Iraq. In addition, Al Sabbah notes that Salah Din Province is
dealing with viral hemorrhagic fever. Attempts to comabt it include an
awareness campaign targeting everyone from children in kindergarten through
adults as well as by increasing inspections of fields with livetock, of
livestock and of vendors selling meat. They are warning people not to purchase
meat from street vendors. The Center for Disease Control explains that humans are not
the natural hosts for viral hemorrhagic fever and that the "viruses naturally
reside in an animal reservoir host or antrhopod vector. They are totally
dependent on their hosts for replication and overall survival. For the most
part, rodents and anthropods are the main reservoirs for viruses causing VHFs.
The multimammate rat, cotton rat, deer mouse, house mouse and other field
rodents are examples of reservoir hosts. Arthropod ticks and mosquitoes serve
as vectors for some of the illnesses. [. . .] The viruses carried in rodent
reservoirs are tract with urine, fecal matter, saliva, or other body excretions
from infected rodents. The viruses associated with anthropod vectors are spread
most often when a vector mosquito or tick bites a human, or when a human crushes
a tick. However, some of these vectors may spread virus to animals, livestock,
for example. Humans then become infected when they care for or slaughter their
animals." The CDC notes that once a person is infected with viral hemorrhagic
fever, it is possible for the disease to jump from the infected person to
another person.
Why are we noting this? Because a friend raised the issue, yes. But also
because Iraqis are suffering and at risk and because Iraq doesn't need to turn
into a hot zone that then quickly spreads diseases throughout the world
(remember that foreigners in Iraq include people from all over the world
including the United States). We note it because of tomorrow's protest.
Iraqis are calling for decent, livable public services. They don't have
adequate sanitation. Children in Baghdad -- orphans on the street and just
average children as well -- are confronted with garbage, sometimes play on it.
Garbage piled up in the street. Not taken away. Just piled up there attracting
children who will look for things to climb ecause that's what children do, they
explore their surroundings and play. It will also attract bugs and rodents.
The Iraqi people are very fortunate that the failure of the government has not
yet resulted in a pandemic. But as long as the government refuses to address
the issues of sewage and sanitation, Iraqis are at risk of a pandemic at any
moment. Nouri's been prime minister since 2006. The Iraqi government takes in
billions in oil dollars every year. There's no excuse for the failure to
address and solve this issue. It puts Iraqis and the entire region at grave
risk. Should a pandemic break out, it will not be confined to Iraq and it will
not be confined to the Middle East.
While feathering his own nest with Iraqi money, Nouri is a slum lord, one
of the world's biggest slum lords, who refuses to address the health and safety
of the Iraqi people. The US government is not going to do a damn thing about
it. All they're focused on is extending the US military presence in Iraq.
Maybe the neighboring countries can pressure Nouri? Certainly if a pandemic
breaks out in Iraq, then Turkey, Jordan, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Syria will be
among the first countries effected.
The protesters demands in Iraq have never been unreasonable. They're very
basic. Improve the public services (water and electricity and sanitation),
provide jobs, end the government corruption and stop the sinkhole that is the
Iraqi prison-judicial system where families never even know if their loved one
was arrested, let alone if he or she remains alive. These are very basic
issues. That they're demands goes to just how corrupt the government in Iraq
is, that anyone would have to demand these basic needs be met goes to just how
corrupt it is. That's what the protesters have been protesting for months
now.
And it's telling that the likes of Tom Hayden and Barbara Lee have shown no
interest in the needs of Iraqis. They've not spoken out,t hey've not written of
it. They've washed their hands and only show up on the topic of Iraq when it's
time to excuse Barack's latest back-stab.
I didn't know Hadi al-Mehdi. I never met him, I never spoke to him on the
phone. We did exchange e-mails when he was kind enough to correct me on an
issue I had wrong (not the first time I was wrong,, not the last time I will
be). And I'm no expert on himbut what came through in the four or five e-mails
was just how much he believed that the better Iraq the people deserved was
possible. And yet he and what he believed in is invisible in the US and ignored
by so many 'voices' for 'peace' who should have been drawing attention to the
protests in Iraq. Instead, they were ignored. (Antiwar.com and Antiwar Radio
is the only antiwar outlet that covered them.) (Excuse me, Democracy
Now! covered them badly in one segment. Congratulations, Amy Goodman.)
Haid al-Mehdi's dead but there are others who share the dream he had and they'll
carry on the fight for a better Iraq.
But they'll do so with less and less attention from the US 'peace'
groups. Why/ Because a Democrat's in the White House. So now Democrats are as
embarrssing as Republicans were when they repeatedly tried to sell "success" in
Iraq. They sold it for their man Bush. Democrats now sell it for their man
Barack. Hero worship never built a peace movement. Real leaders -- Ghandi,
MLK, etc -- rejected hero worship. I think it was with Abeer that it became
very clear that the Democratic pretense of caring about Iraqis was revealed to
be pure lies. When 14-year-old Abeer was gang-raped by US soldiers while one US
soldier murdered her five-year-old sister, murdered her parents and then
murdered her, set her body on fire to try to destroy the evidence, when all this
came out, when the Article 32 heairng was held, when the court martials were
held, when Steven D. Green's trial was held in Kentucky, where was The
Progressive, where was The Nation, where was In These Times, where was Democracy
Now? Silent. Alexander Cockburn did write a few paragraphs about it ione
column -- I'll credit his CounterPunch for that, not The Nation. After months
of complaints and public shaming, feminist or 'feminist' Katha Pollitt finally
found time to write about Abeer in a half-sentence.
But would she have if I hadn't made fat jokes about her here and her
friends hadn't begged me to remove those jokes and I hadn't agreed to? If that
had happened would Katha have ever written even that half-sententce about
Abeer?
Judging by all that's gone down since, I doubt it. Pay attention, if you
need to motivate Katha to 'cover' an issue,aim some fat jokes her way. It's the
only thing that will get her off her, yes, fat ass.
I'm just not in the mood for the liars and the whores these days. It's not
just that their whoring for Barack means that the Iraq War does not end. It's
also that their whoring means that Iraqis suffer in every way imaginable
including suffering in silence because exposing the realities of Iraq might harm
Barack's election chances.
And aren't the dreams and desires of a vain man withe ating disorders so
much more important than twenty-five to thirty Iraqi people? Isn't it more
important to secure that second term for Barack to continue the wars and
continue Guantanamo and destroy Social Security (and the economy) than the Iraqi
people ever having any peace?
You can speak in soothing tones about how you objected to the sanctions in
the 90s all you want. Until you're ready to call out the War Hawk Barack,
you're just another whore promoting war and destruction.
Reuters notes a man shopping in Mosul
was shot dead and a Mosul bombing injured one Iraqi soldier.
Meanwhile, northern Iraq is being bombed and shelled by the armies of two
countries: Iran and Turkey. Iran is allegedly targeting the PJAK (Kurdish rebels
fighting for independence with Iran) and Turkey is allegedly targeting the PKK
(Kurdish rebels fighting for independence in Turkey). In the meantime, both are
killing and wounding civilians and tearing up the region from which people are
fleeing -- farmers and shepherds especially -- due to the non-stop bombings. Aswat al-Iraq reports that
"hundreds" demonstrated in Erbil yesterday against the continued attacks from
both countries and that "demonstrators raised the Kurdish flags and photos of
the victims of Turkish-Iranian bombardments, that led to the killing of a
complete family." Alsumaria TV reports,
"Anti Iranian Kurdish party, the Party of Free Life of Kurdistan (PJAK), said
that the Iranian shelling has killed its deputy military leader and announced
that its fighters killed 123 members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards during
clashes between the two parties this month." In protest of the bombings, Aswat al-Iraq reports, Iraq's
Parliament today suspended their "session for half an hour" at the request of
Parliament's Kurdish coalition.
"I remember Baha all the time," Daoud Mousa
tells BCC News (link is video). "I look He's -- Baha -- in my heart. I
love Baha. He's good son." His 26-year-old son was tortured and killed by the
british military, receiving over 93 documented wounds in less than 48 hours. The
white wash was released today and there's not space to cover it and I don't have
the energy, I'm sorry. We covered it this morning here and I'll try to grab it in tomorrow's snapshot. Justice
was not done and hopefully tomorrow we'll be able to note Iraqi reaction -- at
present there's nothing but Al Jazeera predicting what reaction will be to the
findings from the inquiry into Baha's death (a 'few bad apples' went off the
reservation is the cover story).
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