Saturday, July 14, 2012

Violence, waste and the political crisis continue

Safa Rashed

That's Safa Rashed, Iraqi weighlifter.  12 days until the Summer Olympics kick off in London.  Safa will be one of eight Iraqis competing this year. Another will be Dania Hussein, Iraqi runner.

Dania Hussein


 Hussein will be participating in the 100 meter run.  This will be her second Olympic appearance, she also competed in the 2008 Summer Olympics in Bejing.   We'll again note what  Emily Alpert (Los Angeles Times) reported earlier this week, "For the first time in Olympic history, every country will have a woman competing on its team, including longtime holdout Saudi Arabia, the International Olympic Committee announced Thursday. Brunei and Qatar will also send female athletes to the London Games for the first time."  Again, the Summer Olympics kick off in 12 days.  Screen snaps from this Alsumaria video report.


Dropping back to  yesterday's snapshot:


Earlier this week, Sylvia Westall (Reuters) reported on Iraq's art scene, specifically Baghdad where  some of the  musicians who fled the country earlier are returning. Westall notes the musical history.  Excerpt.
Several nights later Tunisian revolutionary singer Emel Mathlouthi performed at a social club in the capital to an audience of diplomats, Iraqi officials, students and teachers at a concert organised by the French Institute.
Tariq Safa al-Din, the Alwiyah club's president, said it was one of the largest concerts of this kind at the venue in the past decade. Small groups perform Iraqi folk music every week in the garden of the club, founded in 1924.
"This is for the past two years. Before that, you know what it was like in Iraq, nobody used to come to the club," he said.
Mathlouthi's performance was just the beginning of a new era for live music in Baghdad, he said.

Kim Kelly (The Atlantic) focuses more on the present and the emergence of what is thought to be a musical first in Iraq:
She says her name is Anahita, the 28-years-old voice and vitriol behind Janaza, which is believed to be Iraq's very first female-fronted, black-metal band. Allow that notion --Iraq's very first female-fronted, black-metal band -- to sink in for a moment. Her first recording, Burn the Pages of Quran, boasts five distorted, primitive tracks that altogether run just shy of an unlucky 13 minutes. She, along with a handful of other acts hailing from the Middle East, are repurposing black metal's historically anti-Christian ferocity to rail against Islam. In doing so, these bands are serving up another example of how art and dissent can intersect in a region where dissent can sometimes have deadly consequences.


Today Anna Breslaw (Jezebel) reports that The Atlantic article might be a hoax and that the photos accompanying it have been used in publications previously for other metal bands.  We'll include that in Monday's snapshot and any other details that emerge by then.

Turning to today's violence, All Iraqi News reports a shrine bombing outside Babylon Province -- the Shi'ite shrine was under construction -- which claimed the life of 1 construction worker and left four more injured.  The toll would quickly increase and, at present, stands at 2 dead and seven injuredAlso in Babylon, a Sahwa's home was bombed leaving two children injuredKUNA reports an attack on a Mosul checkpoint which left 5 soldiers dead, a roadside bombing outside Falluja which claimed the lives of 3 police officers and left four more dead.  AFP notes the Mosul checkpoint attack (and puts it at the small town of Rashidiyah) and they report that an attack on a Hammam al Alil checkpoint left 2 police officers and 2 bystanders dead.  AKnews, meanwhile, insists that a 22-year-old woman took her own life when their report (by Jamshid Zangana) does not support that assertion.  When saying someone took their own life, you really need a ruling, a note or a loved one.  It's like reporting "neighbors say she was a prostitute." You don't include that if you can't back up that the woman was a prostitute. (The woman accused of taking her own life is not accused of being a prostitute.  That's a reference to a New York Times article we took on years ago which felt the need to note that the dead women were prostitutes because a neighbor said so -- in spite of the fact that Arab media reported the women were all of one family and that's why they lived together.)  At this point, all that is known is that a young woman is dead, that the police are investigating and that there are some nosy, rumor mongering neighbors whose statements are denied by the woman's family.

The political crisis continues.  Nasiriyah reports that State of Law is stating that the Reform Commission will informally meet next week and that it has a working paper which will move on to work teams for additional input.

Al Mada reports more on the Thursday night meeting between Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and Speaker of Parliament Osama al-Nujaifi. Nouri asked that several bills introduced in previous sessions -- included the oil & gas draft -- be considered this session and Osama agreed.   Nouri's office states the main reason for the visit was to offer condolences to Osama on the recent death of a relative.  Whatever they spoke of didn't seem to have much effect on unity.  Al Mada reports that by Saturday, State of Law was stating Osama al-Nujaifi was trying to stop a reconciliation and/by blocking potential nominees for the security ministries.

All Iraqi News states Ammar al-0Hakim is making many suggestions.  Most of them are old.  A new one is for the government to invest in civil society organizations.  Ammar al-Hakim heads the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq which is part of the National Alliance (Shi'ite grouping which also includes Moqtada's political bloc and State of Law among other bodies).

While the political crisis continues, food prices are on the rise and, Al Mada reports, Iraqis note that the Ministry of Commerce has done nothing to address this marked increase in cost.

Meanwhile Iraq continues to have sewage problems.  Ahmed Hussein (Al Mada) reports that al-Rashid Street has gone from a fabled meet-up for intellectuals, writers, celebrities and politicians to a dumping ground for debris and waste.  There are thought to be over 180 historical landmarks in that region and the neglect to the area is raising concern that these vital historical sites may be lost.  Baghdad Governor Salah Abdul Razzaq is calling for the street to be open to car traffic with the belief that this might prevent some of the dumping go on (the thinking appears to be that if cars flow through the street, people will remove the blockage).  Along with being one of the points of interest of Baghdad social life from the fifties through the eighties, the street also dates back to the Ottoman Empire and has historical value from that era as well.


The following community sites -- plus Antiwar.com, Tavis Smiley, Fresh Air and Iraq Veterans Against the War  --   updated last night and today:



In Baltimore, the Green Party has been holding its national political convention.  It wraps up tomorrow.



Jill Stein: As you know, the American people are facing many crises right now.  The political establishment is not fixing this.  In fact, they are making it worse. With our campaign, we intend to turnt he breaking point into a tipping point.

Steve Kilar (Baltimore Sun) reports that Dr. Stein has won the party's nomination:


It was the first national political convention in Baltimore since Democrats nominated Woodrow Wilson in 1912.
"We are the 99 percent, and this is the year we take our country back," Stein said to the crowd gathered in a conference room off the hotel's lobby. Organizers said Saturday that about 350 people registered to attend the national convention.
[. . .]
"Voting for either Wall Street candidate gives a mandate for four more years of corporate rule," Stein said in her nomination speech, lumping President Barack Obama and his opponent, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, as candidates beholden to commercial interests.



The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.


 


I Hate The War

Joel Wing.  Ay-yi-yi. 


Try to be nice . . .

At AK News he wants to dispute the Fund For Peace's scoring of Iraq on the list of failed states and he's such a little baby cum pants that it's enough to make your head explode.  Reading his stupidity is like, three months after an American Idol season completes, reading a 15 page critique of how Randy and company scored the contestants wrong and there must be an AT&T conspiracy keeping viewers from voting.

Actually, it's much worse than that.  Because what's he's doing is like going back to the season Kelly Clarkson won and offering minute criticism on each season.

Has Iraq improved?

No, it hasn't.  I know that's hard for the likes of Joel Wing to admit.  But it hasn't.  And when he insists that something stayed the same -- we're not picking his nits for him -- so that shouldn't have resulted in a lower score, actually it should.

If you know there are not, for example, enough generators in 2010 and 2011 rolls around and the problem's still the same, that is worsening because you've had awareness of the problem for over a year.

This is not "2+2=4."  We're not talking simple arithmetic.  This is complex analyzing, comparison and contrast, evaluating, etc.

On the security issues, he 'forgets' that Nouri's refused to nominate anyone to head the security ministries.  Now in surveying 2010, that would be a bad thing.  But not as bad as today.  That's because he was only given the power to nominate (made prime minister-designate) in November of 2010.  So for 2010, this is bad but not as bad as going through all of 2011 without nominating.

That's the problem with a baby cum pants, they sit around jerking off in their diapers and their 'facts' are about as firm as as their stubby penises -- which is to say, not at all.

Iraq is a failed state.  It has been that for some time.  There is nothing at present to change that determination and certainly, for 2011, there was nothing to change that finding. You really have to wonder about people like Joel Wing.  Do they even know what a failed state is?

And does he grasp that if he wants to take on the list, he has to take on the list.  Meaning, it wouldn't be enough for him to whine about Iraq's score, he'd have to research the whole damn list.  And that's why it's safe to see him as a Nouri apologists, a State of Law lobbyist and not some obsessive-compulsive.  Someone suffering from O.C. would have already gone about taking ont the whole list and its classification for every nation.  But Joel Wing doesn't do that.  He just wants to whine about Iraq.  And every whine is "It's not that bad!"

So we're left with Nouri apologist and State of Law lobbyist.

At his most embarrassing, he allows that unemployment in Iraq may be at 30% but, he wants to assert, it's been that way for some time.  So it's just "bad" not worse.

Really?  So, by Baby Cum Pants rule of thumb, if you have one year of unemployment at 30% or six years of unemployment at 30% it doesn't matter.

I'd love to see Baby Cum Pants make that argument to a country.  I have a feeling that any group of people would tell you that one year of 30% unemployment in their country (regardless of which country) is bad, but five years of 30% unemployment is not just worse, it is unbearable.

And that's what Baby Cump Pants can't grasp and that's why he's not an expert.  Baby Cum Pants is very good at pointing, he's just lacks the ability to analyze.  It's the difference between a simple computer doing calculations in binary code or artificial intelligence.

Or, to drop back to Shakespeare, "There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, Than are dreamt of in your philosophy" (Hamlet, Act I, Scene V).






It's over, I'm done writing songs about love
There's a war going on
So I'm holding my gun with a strap and a glove
And I'm writing a song about war
And it goes
Na na na na na na na
I hate the war
Na na na na na na na
I hate the war
Na na na na na na na
I hate the war
Oh oh oh oh
-- "I Hate The War" (written by Greg Goldberg, on The Ballet's Mattachine!)


The number of US service members the Dept of Defense states died in the Iraq War is [PDF format warning] 4488.

And, for Lewis who still better be reading this far, yesterday, I noted: "Then you have the May auction which --with a nod to a friend who's a brilliant comedy writer -- I repeatedly hailed as 'a dingo dog with fleas;."  Lewis e-mailed Beth (ombudsperson for this site) and asked her to ask me for "the dingo dog with fleas" story.  That didn't come up while dictating.  That refers to when we sent to a preview of a film.  A friend (actress) had made a very big splash in films ("splash" wasn't a hint to this blind item) as a supporting actress and she had just done her first real lead role. She felt the film was going to be a dud -- she was right -- and wanted to know how bad she was in it.  (To this day, she's never seen the film.  This is back in the nineties, by the way.  She's seen parts of it on TV.)



Making the film was a nightmare.  The male lead -- the actual lead, she was playing "the girl," was and is an asshole.  Today, he wouldn't make homophobic remarks because he'd realize that even Mel Gibson can no longer get away with those.  But back then, he made them all the time.  I can't remember if he was married then or just engaged but he was a closet case.

She knew the love scene would be a pain in the ass because of how he was acting and she asked three of us to visit the set that day for support.  So when he proceeded to be rude to her during the filming of the love scene (he was trashing her looks when he was whispering in her ear) and the director finally called a break (I believe after the 17th take), she was furious.

There were a number of suggestions including eating onions but I felt mine would work best (and it did work).   I said, "When he leans in to whisper in your ear, you whisper ____ ____ in his ear.  That's the name of the boyfriend he just bought the condo for over on La Brea."  She did and he jerked back in shock but  didn't attempt to whisper ugly things in her ear and he never again attempted to give her direction -- hello, she was and remains the only one in the cast who was ever nominated for a respectable award --  or try to humiliate her in some other way in front of the entire crew.


So she made it through the film and her agent and her manager were swearing the film would be a hit and she'd be fine.  The film was not a hit.  To put it mildly.  One of the great bombs of its year.

But we went to an unannounced preview -- my comedy writer friend and I -- because she wanted to know how bad it was.  It was so bad that within six minutes, the audience was talking back to the screen.  By mid-point, some man somewhere in the theater yelled that the film was a dog leading my friend to yell, "It's a dingo dog!" 1st man: "I said it's a dog!"  My friend: "It's a dingo dog!"  New voice, "It's a dog, a dog,  it's a dingo dog . . . with fleas!" And then people started chanting that.

That's how bad the movie was.

It bombed big time, it truly was "a dog, a dog, a dingo dog with fleas!" But my friend the actress looked wonderful and didn't embarrass herself on the screen -- Roger Ebert would offer, when the film was released, that she was the only reason to see the movie.   She has a very nice career today.  He's back where he started (on the small screen) and no one really gives a damn about him and any interest in the show stems from the other cast members of the show.



 The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.











Friday, July 13, 2012

Iraq snapshot

Friday, July 13, 2012. Chaos and violence continue, the US Government Accountability Office has bad news regarding Iraq, the political crisis continues, Bradley Manning gears up for another pre-court-martial hearing, Dr. Jill Stein appears to be on the eve of becoming the Green Party presidential nominee, and more.
 
 
Alsumaria reports today that United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has expressed his concern over the continued political crisis in Iraq and how they hinder efforts at progress within the country.  The Secretary-General made these remarks in a report handed over to the United Nations' Security Council.  Also noting the impasse is Sheikh Abudl Mahdi al-Karbalai, a representative for Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani and Al Mada reports  the Sheikh declared at Friday morning prayers that the Iraqi politicians are unaware of the way the people suffer.
 
As the gridlock continues, Catherine Cheney (Trend Lines via Wolrd Politics Review) offers an analysis of one of the main political players in Iraq, Moqtada al-Sadr:
 
 
Now that he is back in Iraq, Sadr is positioned to play a key role in the next elections. In the midst of a contest for power among Sunnis, Kurds and Shiites that has created political gridlock in Iraq, Sadr has joined with Kurdish and Sunni parties in opposing  Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, a fellow Shiite. But he has to tread carefully to avoid alienating the devout Shiites who form his main base of support.
"The Sadr movement and its durability is something that surprised everybody at first," Duss continued. "Sadr has been written off and counted out countless times since the invasion. He has had his ups and downs. But the fact is that his movement is based upon poor urban Shiites, of whom there are many in Iraq, and as long as he is speaking to and serving that constituency, he is going to continue to have an important political role in Iraq."
 
This as Al Mada reports the Kurdistan Alliance MP Mahma Khalil  is stating that Nouri's State of Law doesn't want to solve the crisis which is why it has made one threat after another -- early elections, dissolve Parliament, dismiss Speaker of Parliament Osama al-Nujaifi.  Meanwhile Iraqiya states State of Law uses intimdation in an attempt to get their way.  Dar Addustour notes that al-Nujaifi met with Nouri al-Maliki Thursday night.
 
 


Wael Grace (Al Mada) reports on how the Parliament's sessions are often televised but, even so, not everything is televised.  For example, one MP shares that they are often briefed on a bill -- whether it's legal, whether it's sound -- by specialists in the area and these briefings do not get televised.  Some bills are withdrawn and those actions are not televised.  One MP feels that everything should be before the public. Others feel there is too much information being televised while some argue that the experts and specialists appearing before the Parliament to brief them on the bills are unnecessary because the bills result form deals and agreements within Parliament and they don't need any advice with regards to that.  Kitabat notes that it was announced yesterday that 100 MPs will work on drafting a law to limit the three presidencies -- Prime Minister, Speaker of Parliament and Iraqi President -- to two terms only.  Gorran (Change) the struggling third party in the KRG tells Al Mada that they have no position on the issue of term limits.
 
 
Violence continues in Iraq today.  Sameer N. Yacoub (AP) reports a Baghdad home bombing targeting a Lt. Colonel with the Ministry of the Interior -- he wasn't home, his parents were and the 2 are dead. AFP says only the mother died, that the frather was left injured and they note a Tuz Khurmatu car jacking where the driver of the car was murdered and his car stolen.   All Iraqi News adds that bomb attacks targeting Shi'ite mosques in Kirkuk left four people injured.  Al Mada notes the number wounded from the mosque attacks rose to five (three were police officers) and that there were at least two bombs.  In addition, they report four wounded from one family and that two rockets were fired at their home.
 
 
 
Violence can take many forms especially when Nouri remains unable to provide security.  Today it's a bomb attack, tomorrow is tainted water.  Al Mada reports Iraqiya MP Nahida Daini is calling out the promoters of "food terrorism," vendors selling food and beverages that are not safe for human consumption.  The article notes that March 23, 2011 hundreds of tons of damaged food stuffs were discovered in Diyala Prvoince.  Alsumaria reported June 30th (2012) that workers of the Ministry of Health had confiscated over 33 tons of harmful food in Kirkuk Province.
 
In addition to potential problems, there are also current health problems that Iraqis face.  One of the latest is, thus far, unexplained.  A series of people are going blind.  Al Mada reports that the Medical College of the University of Dhi Qar has issued an apology over its failure to participate in the investigation of the recent cases of blindness.  The college states it's unable to participate at this time.  Last week, Dar Addustour reported that six people in Nasiriyah, while undergoing eye exams, were exposed to some form of bacteria that is still unknown at this time but that resulted in their being blinded. The number of people who have been blinded has now risen to 9.
 
 

Today the US Government Accountability Office released [PDF format warning] "IRAQ: U.S. Assistance to Iraq's Minority Groups in Response to Congressional Directives."  According to the report, through November 2011, the US taxpayer has footed the bill for $40 million which was supposed to go towards assisting Iraq's minority population.  [The report breaks down the $40 million as follows: "According to the agencies, USAID provided $14.8 million for the 2008 directive, USAID and State provided $10.4 million for the 2008 supplemental directive; and State provided $16.5 million for the 2010 directive."]  Since Iraq's population is estimated by the CIA to be 31 million, the US government could have skipped the minority issue and given a million dollars to every Iraqi.  So the GAO just completed a 12 month audit (June 2011 to July 2012) to see if USAID was living up to the outlines of Congress' 2008 directive?

Are they?

No one knows.  USAID didn't pass the audit.  The report notes:

Our analysis of USAID documents found that USAID could not demonstrate that it met the provisions of the 2008 directive because of three weaknesses. First, although USAID reported that it provided $14.8 million in assistance to minority groups through existing programs to meet the 2008 directive, its documents could link only $3.82 million (26 percent) of that amount to the Ninewa plain region. The documents linked $1.67 million (11 percent) of the assistance to areas outside of the Ninewa plain region. USAID documents did not provide sufficient detail to determine the location of the remaining $9.35 million (63 percent).
Second, USAID documents generally did not show whether the projects included minority groups among the beneficiaries of the assistance and whether $8 million was provided specifically for internally displaced families. According to USAID officials, the agency generally did not track its beneficiaries by religious affiliation. For $14.7 million of the $14.8 million in assistance, USAID documents did not provide sufficient detail for us to determine that Iraqi minority groups were among the beneficiaries of all of the projects. Only 1 of the 155 projects ($66,707 out of $14.8 million) provided sufficient detail in its documents for us to determine that the assistance was directed to internally displaced families; however, the location of that project was outside of the Ninewa plain region. While USAID documents listed $2 million in funding for a microfinance institution, USAID officials were unable to provide detail on whether all of these loans were disbursed in the Ninewa plain region. 
Third, USAID officials and documents did not demonstrate that the agency used unobligated prior year ESF funds to initiate projects in response to the 2008 directive. USAID could document that the agency used unobligated prior year funds for two of the six programs after the date of the 2008 directive. However, according to USAID officials, the agency did not use unobligated prior year funds for the remaining four programs.


When you can't produce documentation to back up your claims, you have failed the audit.

Which is bad news for Iraq's minorities and for US taxpayers. Robert Burns (AP) notes this cost issue from the report, "A contractor was allowed to charge $80 for a pipe fitting that a competitor was selling for $1.41." There was no oversight.  There will be no oversight.  The State Dept will go before the Congress and make statements about their Afghanistan mission that will be similar to the statements they made about the Iraq mission and, unless Congress gets serious about accountability, you will see the exact same waste and fraud.
 
The State Dept is supposed to provide ongoing oversight of their own personnel. They didn't do that very well and what they found, when they did find something, usually a great deal of time had passed between the crime or violation. Laura Litvan (Bloomberg News) reports, "The agency said work by its investigators and those of other agencies have resulted in 71 convictions and almost $177 million in fines and forfeitures. Kickbacks were the leading type of criminal activity, accounting for 71 percent of indictments, according to the report."


The report notes this background on Iraq:
:


Iraq is ethnically, religiously, and linguistically diverse. Ethnically, Arabs comprise about 75 percent of the population of Iraq, with Kurds comprising around 15 percent and other ethnic groups, such as Turkoman and Assyrians, comprising the remaining 10 percent. Religiously, Shi'a and Sunni Muslims make up 97 percent of the population of Iraq, with non-Muslim groups -- such as Baha'i, Christians, Sabean Mandaeans, and Yazidis -- comprising the remaining 3 percent of the population. Some communities may be an ethnic majority but a religious minority (such as Arab Christians), while other communities may be an ethnic minority but a religious majority (such as Shi'a Shabaks). For the purpose of this report, we refer to the following religious and ethnic communities as minority groups: Anglican, Armenian, Assyrian, Baptist, Chaldean, Coptic, Greek Orthodox, Latin Catholic, Presbyterians, Sabean Mandaean, Shabak, Syriac, Turkoman, and Yazidi. 
Since 2003, Iraq's minority groups have experienced religiously and ethnically motivated intimidation, arbitrary detention, killings, abductions, and forced displacements, as well as attacks on holy sites and religious leaders. In August 2007, coordinated truck bombings killed some 400 Yazidis and wounded more than 700. In August 2009, a series of attacks in Ninewa province killed almost 100 and injured more than 400 from the Yazidi, Shabak, and Turkoman communities. In February 2008, a Chaldean archbishop was kidnapped and killed -- the third senior Christian religious figure to be killed in the city of Mosul since 2006. A series of attacks against Christians occurred in 2010, including an attack in October on a Catholic church in Baghdad that left more than 50 dead and 60 wounded. 


You may notice a major minority group not listed above.

Iraq's LGBT community.  They were not excluded from the 2008 supplemental directive and the 2010 directive should have allowed for the LGBT community. 

Is the Senate failing (Senate Appropriations Committee) or is USAID?

The 2010 directive specifically was about refugee assistance and that should have covered the LGBT community.  But the US government is not doing anything to help that community.  And they get away with that and with doing nothing to protect Iraqi LGBTs from being hunted and killed in Iraq -- "hunted" is the only term for what has repeatedly taken place -- so at what point does the government get their act together?

Obviously, not any time soon.  Because this failed audit should immediately result in Senate hearings but you won't get that.  The failed audit will be greeted with a yawn as Democrats in the Senate rush to protect the White House.

Thing is, the White House should be able to protect itself.  It's Iraq's LGBT population that needs protection.

While the US does nothing, Radio Netherlands Worldwide reports, "The Dutch government has decided to grant aslum to gay Iraqis. Immigration minister Geert Leers says Iraq is no longer safe for homosexuals, lesbians, bisexuals and transgenders. Mr Leers has already announced a temporary halt to the deportation of gay Iraqis last month following an alert from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.  The ministry warned that it was impossible to be openly gay anywhere in Iraq without being at serious risk.  The Iraqi authorities also fail to take any measure to stop discrimination or attacks on homosexuals."
 
 
Around the globe water issues continue to emerge with many warning that the wars of the 21st century will be resource wars with particular emphasis on water. Alsumaria reports a conservation organization held a press conference today in Sulaymaniyah calling on Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and Speaker of Parliament Osama al-Nujaifi to stop the Austrian company that's constructing a damn for neighboring Turkey which will interfere with the flow of the Tirgris River into Iraq.  In other water news, Al Mada notes the Ministry of Water Resources' Muhannad al-Saadi has publicly expressed concerns about the Mosul dam's structural strength in the case of earthquakes.  Experts have stated that the dam could collapse and after Mosul was sunk, the waters would flow to Baghdad --  while the water would not sink Baghdad, they would displace thousands in Baghdad and surrounding areas.  This week, the Ministry of Water Resources noted, "H.E Minister of Water Resources Eng.Mohanad Al-Sady met the Deputy and Member of the Iraqi Parliament Falih Al-Sari to discuss means of providing water shares for arable lands and develop the irrigation and agricultural aspect in the Governorate. During the meeting, H.E affirmed that the Ministry of Water Resources is executing several irrigation projects in all governorates including Al-Muthana governorate and taking the necessary actions to provide water for arable lands in order to insure executing the agricultural plan during summer and winter seasons. The Ministry is about executing Raw Water Transfer Project through pipes for Al-Muthana Governorate to insure preventing encroachment over allocated water share to provid water for drinking, farming and other uses."
 
Earlier this week, Sylvia Westall (Reuters) reported on Iraq's art scene, specifically Baghdad where  some of the  musicians who fled the country earlier are returning. Westall notes the musical history.  Excerpt.
 
Several nights later Tunisian revolutionary singer Emel Mathlouthi performed at a social club in the capital to an audience of diplomats, Iraqi officials, students and teachers at a concert organised by the French Institute.
Tariq Safa al-Din, the Alwiyah club's president, said it was one of the largest concerts of this kind at the venue in the past decade. Small groups perform Iraqi folk music every week in the garden of the club, founded in 1924.
"This is for the past two years. Before that, you know what it was like in Iraq, nobody used to come to the club," he said.
Mathlouthi's performance was just the beginning of a new era for live music in Baghdad, he said.
 
Kim Kelly (The Atlantic) focuses more on the present and the emergence of what is thought to be a musical first in Iraq:
 
She says her name is Anahita, the 28-years-old voice and vitriol behind Janaza, which is believed to be Iraq's very first female-fronted, black-metal band. Allow that notion --Iraq's very first female-fronted, black-metal band -- to sink in for a moment. Her first recording, Burn the Pages of Quran, boasts five distorted, primitive tracks that altogether run just shy of an unlucky 13 minutes. She, along with a handful of other acts hailing from the Middle East, are repurposing black metal's historically anti-Christian ferocity to rail against Islam. In doing so, these bands are serving up another example of how art and dissent can intersect in a region where dissent can sometimes have deadly consequences.
 
 
In England, Tony Blair continues to struggle.  Al Mada carries Lindsey German's column for the Guardian. about War Criminal Tony Blair.  As we noted in yesterday's snapshot:
 
Ed West further argues that Stop the War Coalition's Lindsey German shouldn't be listened to about Tony Blair because Tony Blair got move votes than German.  Uh, that's not how it works but if Ed wants to play it that way let's note.  1) Ed West is nothing, a nobody outside of England.  2) In the US many of us make a point to give Lindsey our attention with any column, interview or speech and that's true around the world.  Where there are people who've made a point to oppose the Iraq War, you'll find people who know of Lindsey German.  Repeating, no one knows Ed West globally, no one cares.  Lindsey German?  A fine example of citizenship lived fully.
 
Again, Lindsey's column was run by an Iraqi paper -- not Ed West's column.  Andrew Johnson (Islingon Tribune) reports "a glitzy 500 [pound] a head fundraiser where former Prime Minister Tony Blair was making his political comeback."  Or trying to.   But life's never easy for a War Hawk responsible for over a million deaths.  Lindsey German and others turned out to make sure Tony know that he -- and his crimes -- were not forgotten.  Excert.
 
"The UN Charter, which this country signed up to, was to save the world from the scourge of war," he [Bruce Kent] said. "It says that no nation can go to war or take military action without the decision of the Security Council, and it can only take that decision after all other measures to avoid war have been exhausted. That didn't happen in Iraq. It was a disgrace."
Sabah Jawad, of the Iraqi Democrats Against Occupation Group, told protesters that there were still terrorist attacks in Iraq.
"In the last few months there have been attacks in Iraq and hundreds of people have been killed," he said. "This is a legacy of the war in Iraq. The tragedy of Iraq is still with us and it's going to be with us for years to come. Our message to Tony Blair is that wherever you go, we're going to be there to remind you of your murderous history. We're not going to forget."
 
 
Moving over to the US where Bradley Manning's court-martial is scheduled to begin September 21st.  Monday April 5, 2010, WikiLeaks released US military video of a July 12, 2007 assault in Iraq. 12 people were killed in the assault including two Reuters journalists Namie Noor-Eldeen and Saeed Chmagh. Monday June 7, 2010, the US military announced that they had arrested Bradley Manning and he stood accused of being the leaker of the video. Leila Fadel (Washington Post) reported in August 2010 that Manning had been charged -- "two charges under the Uniform Code of Military Justice. The first encompasses four counts of violating Army regulations by transferring classified information to his personal computer between November and May and adding unauthorized software to a classified computer system. The second comprises eight counts of violating federal laws governing the handling of classified information." In March, 2011, David S. Cloud (Los Angeles Times) reported that the military has added 22 additional counts to the charges including one that could be seen as "aiding the enemy" which could result in the death penalty if convicted. The Article 32 hearing took place in December.  At the start of this year, there was an Article 32 hearing and, February 3rd, it was announced that the government would be moving forward with a court-martial.  Bradley has yet to enter a plea and has neither affirmed that he is the leaker nor denied it.
 
 
 
 

Next week the soldier and his defense team will be back in military court in Fort Meade, Maryland, in the latest of a succession of pre-trial hearings to hammer out the terms of the eventual court martial. Previous engagements have led to sparky interactions between Coombs and the army prosecutors seeking to condemn Manning possibly to spending the rest of his life in military custody.

The most significant discussion at next week's proceedings will revolve around the precise legal definition of what "aiding the enemy" means – specifically its allegation that Manning "knowingly gave intelligence to the enemy". The judge presiding over Manning's trial, Colonel Denise Lind, has ruled that the soldier must have had "actual knowledge" that he was giving intelligence to enemy for the charge to be proven.

Coombs will next week attempt to gain further clarification that would raise the legal bar much higher. In his motion he argues that it is a truism in the age of the internet, any posted material is potentially accessible to anybody.

 
 
In Baltimore, the Green Party is holding their national political convention.  Tomorrow, Jill Stein is expected to become the Green Party's presidential nominee.  Today, Amy Goodman (Democracy Now! -- link is text, audio and video) spoke to Jill Stein about a number of issues.  Excerpt.
 
AMY GOODMAN: You are Dr. Jill Stein, so let's talk about healthcare. As Romney continues to vow to end so-called "Obamacare," the Republican-controlled House passed a repeal of the measure, but the Democrats in the Senate say they will not allow this to pass there. Speaking on the House floor, House Majority Leader—House Majority Leader Eric Cantor and Democratic Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi traded barbs over the law.
REP. ERIC CANTOR: We are trying to end the era of Washington-controlled healthcare. We believe, as do most of the American people, that it's patient-centered care is our goal. That's where we need to start. We start along the path towards that goal by repealing Obamacare.
REP. NANCY PELOSI: American people want us to create jobs. That's what we should be using this time on the floor for, not on this useless bill to nowhere—bill to nowhere, that does serious damage to the health and economic well-being of America's families.
AMY GOODMAN: That's Nancy Pelosi and Eric Cantor trading barbs on the House floor. Dr. Jill Stein, interestingly, you are from Massachusetts, from Lexington, so even as Mitt Romney attacks President Obama over his healthcare plan, it was very much modeled on Romney's healthcare plan when he was governor of your state of Massachusetts.
 
DR. JILL STEIN: Exactly, yes, and we've had Romneycare, aka Obamacare, in effect in Massachusetts for five years. So, there's a track record here. And, you know, that track record is very problematic. Romneycare, Obamacare, helped some people, and it hurt other people. It basically pits the very poor against the near poor. And that's not a solution.
And this whole debate, I think, misses the point, which is that we can actually solve this problem. There is also a track record of success: it's called Medicare. Instead of spending 30 percent of our healthcare dollar on waste and wasteful insurance bureaucracy and paper pushing, we can take that 30 percent, squeeze it down to 3 percent—that's what the overhead is in Medicare—and then use that incredible windfall to actually expand healthcare and cover everyone. So, you know, Medicare works. People like it. It's been tampered with, and we need to fix it and create an improved Medicare, but it actually works, and we have the track record all over the world, really, of just about every developed nation.
 
AMY GOODMAN: So, just dropping the "over 65" from Medicare?
 
DR. JILL STEIN: Exactly, right. Let's make it from the point of conception on, you know, that we're basically covered cradle to grave. And --
 
AMY GOODMAN: How could the U.S. afford that?
 
DR. JILL STEIN: Well, it actually is a money saver. And we know that because of that 30 percent waste, that is part and parcel for our privatized healthcare system now, 30 percent of your healthcare dollar is paying for those elaborate forms that you have to fill out, you know, every time your insurance changes or every time you see a provider. There's a mountain of minutiae that goes into the tracking of payments. Instead of tracking who's using what and who pays for it, let's just pay for healthcare, and let's cover it as a human right.
 
Jill Stein's announced running mate, Cheri Honkala, also appeared.
 
AMY GOODMAN: Why did you choose Cheri Honkala?
 
DR. JILL STEIN: Well, Cheri stands out as the leading advocate for poor people, for justice, for the fight against predatory banks, for the fight against mortgage foreclosures, fighting on behalf of children most at risk, fighting for justice and for a fair economy. And Cheri is an incredibly inspired human being and mother, who was a homeless single mother and who began to take over empty buildings, saying, "There are buildings that are -- there are homes that are empty there, and there are people like me who are sleeping out on the street. What's wrong with this picture? I'm going to go sleep in that empty home." And, you know, Cheri's -- Cheri is unstoppable and, I think, exemplifies the fighting spirit that is alive and well across America that we hope to give voice to in this campaign, that is what this is about.
 
AMY GOODMAN: Well, the P word is certainly one that's not really very much talked about --
 
DR. JILL STEIN: Exactly.
 
AMY GOODMAN: -- by the presidential candidates: "poverty." Cheri Honkala, we're used to seeing you ahead of marching at the presidential conventions, marching for poor people's rights in this country, now being chosen as a vice-presidential candidate. Your feelings today?
 
CHERI HONKALA: It's very exciting. I think I'm prepared to take on this challenge. I was absolutely shocked when I was chosen, but I think it's a real statement of the Stein campaign. And it meant so much to people across the entire country. Once the announcement was made, I literally received hundreds of letters, not just from people in this country but from folks around the entire world.
 
AMY GOODMAN: Was it a hard decision to decide to do this?
 
CHERI HONKALA: It was definitely the hardest decision I've ever made in my life, because I have a family out there. And I -- you know, I have two sons, and they're used to their mother bringing attention to them in the various different choices that I make. And I asked my 10-year-old, Guillermo, and he immediately did the happy dance in the living room, so I knew it was a go.
 
 
Again, Stein is expected to be named the nominee tomorrow.  Here is the schedule for Saturday and Sunday:

SATURDAY, JULY 14
Nomination Day
Location: Holiday Inn Inner Harbor, 301 West Lombard Street, 410-685-3500
http://www.innerharborhi.com
Floor plan: http://www.innerharborhi.com/pdf/doc-floor-plans-1307996293.pdf

8 am: Media check-in. Location: Holiday Inn lobby.

9 am: Press briefing and news conference with Green presidential candidates Roseanne Barr and Jill Stein. Location: 12th Floor, Harbor II Room.

9 am: The on-stage Nomination Day program begins. Location for all nomination events: Chesapeake Room on the first floor.

10 am: Guest speakers

10:15 am: Platform Approval

11:30 am: Speeches by Presidential Candidates

11:40 Roseanne Barr

11:55 Jill Stein

12:05 pm: Lunch

1:00 pm: Doors open

1:45 pm: The afternoon plenary begins

1:55 pm: Keynote speaker Gar Alperovitz, historian and political activist (
http://www.garalperovitz.com), on the Green New Deal; guest speakers

2:48 pm: State roll call and voting for the nomination. Times for events after this are tentative, depending on how long it takes to complete the nomination process.

3:40 pm: Presidential campaign speech

3:55 pm: Vice-Presidential nomination and speech

4:10 pm: Speech of the 2012 Presidential Nominee

4:30 pm: END

8-11 pm: Fundraiser for Jill Stein in the Chesapeake Room. Media invited.

SUNDAY, JULY 15
No media events are scheduled.


Public Transportation:

The University of Baltimore is across the street from Penn Station (Amtrak, Maryland Transit trains) and a few blocks to the west on Mt. Royal Avenue from the University of Baltimore - Mt. Royal Light Rail station.

The Holiday Inn Inner Harbor is a short half block from the University Center-Baltimore Street Light Rail station.

Baltimore Light Rail:
http://mta.maryland.gov/light-rail
Map: http://mta.maryland.gov/sites/default/files/light-rail.jpg


Presidential candidates' web sites:

Jill Stein
http://www.jillstein.org
 
 
 
 
 
 

USAID fails audit

Violence continues in Iraq today.  Sameer N. Yacoub (AP) reports a Baghdad home bombing targeting a Lt. Colonel with the Ministry of the Interior -- he wasn't home, his parents were and the 2 are dead. All Iraqi News adds that bomb attacks targeting Shi'ite mosques in Kirkuk left four people injured.

Today the US Government Accountability Office released [PDF format warning] "IRAQ: U.S. Assistance to Iraq's Minority Groups in Response to Congressional Directives."  According to the report, through November 2011, the US taxpayer has footed the bill for $40 million which was supposed to go towards assisting Iraq's minority population.  Since Iraq's population is estimated by the CIA to be 31 million, the US government could have skipped the minority issue and given a million dollars to every Iraqi.  So the GAO just completed a 12 month audit (June 2011 to July 2012) to see if USAID was living up to the outlines of Congress' 2008 directive?

Are they?

No one knows.  USAID didn't pass the audit.  The report notes:

Our analysis of USAID documents found that USAID could not demonstrate that it met the provisions of the 2008 directive because of three weaknesses. First, although USAID reported that it provided $14.8 million in assistance to minority groups through existing programs to meet the 2008 directive, its documents could link only $3.82 million (26 percent) of that amount to the Ninewa plain region. The documents linked $1.67 million (11 percent) of the assistance to areas outside of the Ninewa plain region. USAID documents did not provide sufficient detail to determine the location of the remaining $9.35 million (63 percent).
Second, USAID documents generally did not show whether the projects included minority groups among the beneficiaries of the assistance and whether $8 million was provided specifically for internally displaced families. According to USAID officials, the agency generally did not track its beneficiaries by religious affiliation. For $14.7 million of the $14.8 million in assistance, USAID documents did not provide sufficient detail for us to determine that Iraqi minority groups were among the beneficiaries of all of the projects. Only 1 of the 155 projects ($66,707 out of $14.8 million) provided sufficient detail in its documents for us to determine that the assistance was directed to internally displaced families; however, the location of that project was outside of the Ninewa plain region. While USAID documents listed $2 million in funding for a microfinance institution, USAID officials were unable to provide detail on whether all of these loans were disbursed in the Ninewa plain region. 
Third, USAID officials and documents did not demonstrate that the agency used unobligated prior year ESF funds to initiate projects in response to the 2008 directive. USAID could document that the agency used unobligated prior year funds for two of the six programs after the date of the 2008 directive. However, according to USAID officials, the agency did not use unobligated prior year funds for the remaining four programs.


When you can't produce documentation to back up your claims, you have failed the audit.

Which is bad news for Iraq's minorities and for US taxpayers.


The report notes this background on Iraq:
:


Iraq is ethnically, religiously, and linguistically diverse. Ethnically, Arabs comprise about 75 percent of the population of Iraq, with Kurds comprising around 15 percent and other ethnic groups, such as Turkoman and Assyrians, comprising the remaining 10 percent. Religiously, Shi’a and Sunni Muslims make up 97 percent of the population of Iraq, with non-Muslim groups -- such as Baha’i, Christians, Sabean Mandaeans, and Yazidis -- comprising the remaining 3 percent of the population. Some communities may be an ethnic majority but a religious minority (such as Arab Christians), while other communities may be an ethnic minority but a religious majority (such as Shi’a Shabaks). For the purpose of this report, we refer to the following religious and ethnic communities as minority groups: Anglican, Armenian, Assyrian, Baptist, Chaldean, Coptic, Greek Orthodox, Latin Catholic, Presbyterians, Sabean Mandaean, Shabak, Syriac, Turkoman, and Yazidi. 
Since 2003, Iraq’s minority groups have experienced religiously and ethnically motivated intimidation, arbitrary detention, killings, abductions, and forced displacements, as well as attacks on holy sites and religious leaders. In August 2007, coordinated truck bombings killed some 400 Yazidis and wounded more than 700. In August 2009, a series of attacks in Ninewa province killed almost 100 and injured more than 400 from the Yazidi, Shabak, and Turkoman communities. In February 2008, a Chaldean archbishop was kidnapped and killed -- the third senior Christian religious figure to be killed in the city of Mosul since 2006. A series of attacks against Christians occurred in 2010, including an attack in October on a Catholic church in Baghdad that left more than 50 dead and 60 wounded. 


You may notice a major minority group not listed above.

Iraq's LGBT community.  They were not excluded from the 2008 supplemental directive and the 2010 directive should have allowed for the LGBT community. 

Is the Senate failing (Senate Appropriations Committee) or is USAID?

The 2010 directive specifically was about refugee assistance and that should have covered the LGBT community.  But the US government is not doing anything to help that community.  And they get away with that and with doing nothing to protect Iraqi LGBTs from being hunted and killed in Iraq -- "hunted" is the only term for what has repeatedly taken place -- so at what point does the government get their act together?

Obviously, not any time soon.  Because this failed audit should immediately result in Senate hearings but you won't get that.  The failed audit will be greeted with a yawn as Democrats in the Senate rush to protect the White House.

Thing is, the White House should be able to protect itself.  It's Iraq's LGBT population that needs protection.

While the US does nothing, Radio Netherlands Worldwide reports, "The Dutch government has decided to grant aslum to gay Iraqis. Immigration minister Geert Leers says Iraq is no longer safe for homosexuals, lesbians, bisexuals and transgenders. Mr Leers has already announced a temporary halt to the deportation of gay Iraqis last month following an alert from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.  The ministry warned that it was impossible to be openly gay anywhere in Iraq without being at serious risk.  The Iraqi authorities also fail to take any measure to stop discrimination or attacks on homosexuals."

The Nobel Peace Prize Committee needs to strip Nelson Mandela of his award and give it to Nouri al-Maliki.  So argues an Al Mada columnist tongue-in-cheek.  The column is prompted by ridiculous claims, by attorney Jabbar Freih Kanani, that Iraq has achieved reconciliation and should now be the model for Egypt and other countries in the Arab Spring.  The parody column ends with Nelson Mandela explaining to Nouri that he (Mandela) had walked the path of reconciliation his entire life and how fortunate he (Mandela) is to see Nouri show him how it can actually be done in the blink of an eye.


Wael Grace (Al Mada) reports on how the Parliament's sessions are often televised but, even so, not everything is televised.  For example, one MP shares that they are often briefed on a bill -- whether it's legal, whether it's sound -- by specialists in the area and these briefings do not get televised.  Some bills are withdrawn and those actions are not televised.  One MP feels that everything should be before the public. Others feel there is too much information being televised while some argue that the experts and specialists appearing before the Parliament to brief them on the bills are unnecessary because the bills result form deals and agreements within Parliament and they don't need any advice with regards to that.  Kitabat notes that it was announced yesterday that 100 MPs will work on drafting a law to limit the three presidencies -- Prime Minister, Speaker of Parliament and Iraqi President -- to two terms only.

Al Mada notes that, with the ongoing violence in Iraq, Iraqiya has been calling for retired officers to be re-instated in the security forces and that Nouri's picked up that call with insiders (unnamed) within Nouri's State of Law saying he did so when he realized it could help his political slate's election chances.  In May, he met with officials in Nineveh Province and this is among the provinces where Nouri would, State of Law insiders insist, benefit politically from such an action.  Iraqiya feels Nouri's call is just more empty words and will not be followed up on.  Dar Addustour notes that this is supposed to move forward in Salah al-Din which wants the officials back and that Nouri appears to have provided a green light for the program to start there.


Al Mada reports that Nouri's spokesperson Ali al-Dabbagh declared Monday that whether or not the United Nations releases Iraq from Chapter VII does not matter when it comes to their weapon purchasing.  The United Nations placed Iraq under Chapter VII in 1990 following the attack on Kuwait.  al-Dabbagh insists Iraq will continue to buy weapons including F-16s.  al-Dabbagh insisted that Iraq will use all of its political power and international connections to get out of Chapter VII and that it is unfair for the United Nations to continue to impose reperations costs on Iraq.


At the start of the week, KRG President Massoud Barzani announced the creation (in the Kurdistan Regional Government) of a National Security Council which would, it is hoped, bring greater security to the three northern provinces.  Since then he's been accused of nepotism and wanting to become a dictator by the struggling third party Goran (and by some MPs in Nouri's State of Law).  Al Mada notes that Barzani has responded that the National Security Council would serve all the people in the KRG and that its creation is about meeting the citizens' safety needs.

The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.


 




Michael O'Hanlon: Bending History, Ignoring Facts

Michael O'Hanlon seems bound and determined to embarrass the Brookings Institution and, considering all the damage the centrist think tank has done, maybe we should just root him on in that?

It's a bit hard for a think tank to be seen as non-partisan and above the fray when you have a Michael O'Hanlon forever attempting to inject himself into presidential races.  Some would argue his co-written book Bending History (what an apt title for any volume of history spinmeister O'Hanlon might put his name to) created a confidence crisis for Brookings but the reality is that not only will most Americans not read the book, most won't even hear of it except maybe as an argument for releasing books in a digital format only so that Bending History and other books no one buys can't clog up clearance tables, strip malls and land fills.

By contrast, his "Obama's Iraq Legacy" is online and will be seen by many. After the laughter dies down, hopefully, people will continue to call the nonsense out and, most importantly, to call O'Hanlon out.  It's not that he makes one mistake, it's that he makes many.  It's not that he uses one set of metrics, it's that he uses contrasting ones.

America's Littlest Weak Chinned War Hawk has always wanted to sell the Iraq War and he still has that desire today.

The first laugh out loud moment may be this:


There was some good diplomacy in this time as well, largely spearheaded by Vice President Biden. During the winter of 2010, Prime Minister Maliki seemed intent on exploiting gray areas--and even some not-so-gray areas--in Iraqi election law to ensure he would hold onto power. Biden did much to get him to desist from further electoral shenanigans. Partial recounts in districts where other parties besides Maliki's had done well were, it was agreed, not a good idea. Banning former members of Saddam's Baathist Party from holding office after they had won seats was without legal foundation.


That's false by any standard unless O'Hanlon's allowed to define "winter" as spring, summer or fall.  In the US -- and the article's for a US publication and O'Hanlon's a US citizen -- winter kicks off on December 21st or 22nd and runs through March 21st or 22nd.   So what is O'Hanlon attempting to argue took place in winter?

That Nouri was attempting to block elected officials from being seated?


Presumably that would have to be December 2010.  It can't be early March 2010 because no one was seated until November 2010 (outside of a brief June 2010 session that no one took seriously).  Elections were March 7, 2010 (with early elections -- for groups like the police and the elderly -- starting a few days before).  So since Parliament didn't even sit until November 2010, over eight months after the elections, Joe Biden couldn't have 'fixed' anything in March 2010 with regards to getting Nouri to allow candidates to be seated.  That leaves us with the end of December 2010 through March 2011.

Did Joe Biden ride to the rescue and get candidates seated then?

No.

The Erbil Agreement did that.  The Erbil Agreement was signed off on November 10, 2010.  That's not winter.   November 11, 2010 is when Parliament holds its first real session.

The US facilitated the Erbil Agreement.  We've long noted that.  (The Erbil Agreement was a response to the eight month plus political stalemate.  Nouri's State of Law came in second to Iraqiya.  Nouri still wanted a second term as prime minister despite those results.  He refused to allow the process to move forward -- and the US government backed him -- and pitched an 8 month tantrum.  The Erbil Agreement gave him a second term in exchange for various concessions.)


But this claim that Joe got Nouri to allow people to be seated in the winter is not correct.  Now Joe did talk about candidates -- not elected, this was before the election -- being allowed to run.  Joe made a series of calls on that issue.  In the months leading up to the elections, various political rivals of Nouri's were suddenly tagged "Ba'athists."  They may have been elected to the last Parliament.  But now the Justice and Accountability Commission was saying they were "Ba'athists" and, therefore, could not run for office.  Along with Joe Biden, the United Nations also did a lot of urging and hand holding.  But those are candidates that were allowed to run (and more stayed banned than were allowed to run), not people who were elected.

Michael O'Hanlon doesn't know what he's writing about.

And if Joe Biden convinced -- winter or not -- Nouri that "banning former members of Saddam's Baathist Party from holding office after they had won seats was without legal foundation," then why was this in the Erbil Agreement?  Why was this a concession in the Erbil Agreement?

O'Hanlon is aware of that, right?  He doesn't write like he is, he writes like an uninformed idiot.

Novembe 11, 2010 was Parliament's first session.  Iraqiya leader Ayad Allawi staged a walk-out in the midst of the meeting.  The US intervened and Iraqiya went back in.

(Not all of Iraqiya walked out.  Speaker of Parliament Osama al-Nujaifi was one of the ones who did not walk out.)

Can O'Hanlon tell us why Allawi walked out?

He walked out because this part of the Erbil Agreement was already being postponed.  Oh, we can't do that right now, insisted State of Law.  Give us a week or so.  And right then and there, Allawi saw that Nouri was not going to honor the agreement.  A side deal got him to honor that aspect of it.  But Allawi was correct, Nouri trashed the agreement.  He used it to get a second term and then refused to honor it (refused to create an independent national security commission, refused to follow the Constitution and implement Article 140, etc.).

O'Hanlon's got a really lame piece of fiction. But it works better as (bad) fiction than it does as a history of what happened.

O'Hanlon then wants to insist:


The progress represented by the surge, the Sunni awakening, the Basra and Sadr City offensives, and related developments in the latter Bush years was solidified during Obama's tenure. The Iraqi civil war as such is over. Violence is down more than 90 percent relative to 2006 and early 2007 levels. Electricity production is up more than 50 percent, and international energy firms are bidding enthusiastically to help develop new oil fields.

The progress represented by the surge, the Sunni awakening, the Basra and Sadr City offensives, and related developments in the latter Bush years was solidified during Obama's tenure.


No, they weren't.  You're a damn liar.  Last week, Nouri made a big show of announcing that Sahwa ("Awakenings," "Sons of Iraq"/"Daughters Of Iraq") would get the pay that they haven't been receiving for some time.  And possibly they now will.


But that doesn't change the fact that Nouri was supposed to integrate them into the security forces and those that couldn't be integrated would be given government jobs.  Nouri's never done that.  Not only that, the US was paying them long after they were supposed to have stopped -- and, yes, that's under Barack.  Also, it's not like O'Hanlon to ever contradict a government official so he might want to rethink that "Sunni awakening."  David Petraeus now heads the CIA.  He didn't always. At the April 8, 2008 Senate Armed Services hearing he was General David Petraeus, then the top US commander in Iraq, and he explained Sahwa.



In his opening remarks, Petraues explained of the "Awakening" Council (aka "Sons of Iraq," et al) that it was a good thing "there are now over 91,000 Sons of Iraq -- Shia as well as Sunni -- under contract to help Coalition and Iraqi Forces protect their neighborhoods and secure infrastructure and roads.  These volunteers have contributed significantly in various areas, and the savings in vehicles not lost because of reduced violence -- not to mention the priceless lives saved -- have far outweighed the cost of their monthly contracts."  Again, the US must fork over their lunch money, apparently, to avoid being beat up.  

"Shia as well as Sunni." That's Petreaus's testimony.

Back to O'Hanlon.

The Iraqi civil war as such is over.

One press report after another in recent months has noted Iraqi fears that it was about to restart or has included observations that the attacks are attempts to get it to restart (see especially AP's reporting out of Iraq).


Violence is down more than 90 percent relative to 2006 and early 2007 levels.

You can only say "violence is down" if you make 2006 and 2007 your base.  There's no reason to do that -- as we've pointed out forever.  That's not the start of the war.  That's the ethnic cleansing. Violence is increasing, the United Nations counted over 400 deaths from violence last month alone.

O'Hanlon should stop whoring because even Brookings can only take so much.



Electricity production is up more than 50 percent,

In what world?  O'Hanlon's living in a different world than most people.   From yesterday's snapshot:


Hadeel al Sayegh (The National) reports today, "Iraq's economic development is being held back by a critical shortage of electricity - with businesses and homes across the country forced to endure blackouts of as long as 15 hours a day."  al Sayegh offers another article today which provides a walk through on what that means to one business:


At least four times a day, Hadi Ahmed leaves his Baghdad home and goes out into the sweltering heat to restart his generator.
"We are dying in this heat," he says. "I feel like every day this country is going backwards. The lack of electricity is destroying my business."
Mr Ahmed spends about US$3,000 (Dh11,018) a month producing electricity to power a plastics factory that manufactures household items. He says he can afford to operate the factory at only a third of capacity.
"Out of six machines, because of the current circumstances, I only have two operational," said Mr Ahmed.


Back to O'Hanlon:


 and international energy firms are bidding enthusiastically to help develop new oil fields.


Really?

Because you've got an ExxonMobil deal from October that's not proceeding at present because Nouri's trying to kill it.

Then you have the May auction which --with a nod to a friend who's a brilliant comedy writer -- I repeatedly hailed as "a dingo dog with fleas."  From May 31st:



None of that plays well on the international stage and while big business traditionally doesn't care about human rights even some of them can afford to point to that in ignoring the auction which was always going to underwhelm because it was a dingo dog with fleas.  It's day four of a yard sale.  Nothing worth buying is being offered.   They should see it as a success that Sinan Salaheddin (AP) reports that they got one offer ("Four deals attracted no bidders and a fifth for oil exploration in southern Iraq was withdrawn [. . .]")  A year ago, the offerings would have sold despite being disappointing.  But the reason they would have sold was because companies wanting to get a toe-hold in Iraq or improve relations with Nouri to work towards a better deal later on would have snapped up the properties.  But with Crazy Nouri of the Oil Markets, there's not enough trust in the future of Iraq right now for companies to waste seed money.  


I guess there are facts and then there are what O'Hanlon calls 'facts.'  The two never match up but do allow O'Hanlon to commune with his creative muse.


This is an awful article.  We could do an entire snapshot on his nonsense.  We may do that today depending upon whether I can stomach more of that nonsense.  We've been so bogged down refuting his 'facts' that we haven't even had time to refute his argument which is also wrong.


Maybe we'll grab that in the snapshot.  The following community sties -- plus Pacifica Evening News, Cindy Sheehan, Antiwar.com and Susan's On The Edge -- updated last night and this morning:





Iraq Veterans Against the War notes this upcoming event Monday, July 23rd, 7:00 pm at Lutheran Church of Reformation in DC (212 E. Capitol St.):

Join cultural pioneer Phil Donahue for a dialogue and Q&A following a screening of his acclaimed documentary Body of War, an intimate and transformational feature film he co-directed about the true face of war today. The film follows Tomas Young, 25 years old, paralyzed from a bullet to his spine - wounded after serving in Iraq for less than a week. Body of War is Tomas' coming home story as he evolves into a new person, coming to terms with his disability and finding his own unique and passionate voice against the war. Learn more at: www.bodyofwar.com
“Superb documentary! Almost unbearably moving.”
- Time Magazine

“Impossible not to like... Remarkable”
- New York Times

This event is also part of our D.C. Peacebuilding Advocacy Days.
$10 suggested donation; no one turned away for lack of funds, contribute what you can.

Co-Sponsored by: Alliance for Peacebuilding, Friends Committee on National Legislation, Iraq Veterans Against War, Peace X Peace


The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.