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Friday, December 16, 2011. Chaos and violence continue, Bradley Manning's
Article 32 hearing begins, Nouri's hold on Iraq seems ever more fragile, Tom
Hayden publishes political porn, and more.
A gleeful and pompous Geraldo Rivera (Fox News) announces he's back in
Iraq. I don't think he's been so giddy since he did the 20/20 segment
that was supposed to be an interview with John Travolta (then promoting
Staying Alive) that Geraldo turned into a workout session. If viewers
can be thankful for little else, Geraldo has thus far kept his shirt on. So
lightheaded and deranged, he forgets to note his previous visit to Iraq. March
31, 2003, CNN reported, "The U.S. military said Monday that
Fox News Channel Correspondent Geraldo Rivera was being expelled from Iraq for
divulging details of a future military operation, though later in the day a
Central Command spokesman said he was not sure whether the newsman would be
forced out." The following day, Chris Plante (CNN) would report, "Fox News Channel executives
and the Pentagon reached a deal Monday in which correspondent Geraldo Rivera,
who raised the military's ire when he reported operational details, will leave
Iraq voluntarily rather than be expelled, Pentagon officials told CNN. [. . .]
In the live broadcast, Rivera told his photographer to aim the camera at the
sand in front of him. Rivera then outlined a map of Iraq, and showed the
relative location of Baghdad and his location with the 101st Airborne. He then
showed where the 101st would be going next." Peter Arnett did a journalistic
courtesy and gave an interview to Iraqi television on March 31st. Fox News
personalities immediately began demonizing him on air non-stop. By April 1st,
NBC, MSNBC and National Geographic had all dumped Arnett. Though Arnett gave
out no information that could have endangered anyone, Rivera did. He still
works for Fox News despite violating a US military policy he agreed to when he
entered the embed program. Geraldo was also a war cheerleader. They don't get
punished. They don't have to admit they were wrong. They're allowed to lie and
then lie about lying. That's how it works -- and not just at Fox News (or right
wing outlets -- this is the mainstream, it's the left, it's everywhere, there's
very little integrity in the press).
But on the second hour of The Diane Rehm Show (NPR) today, Diane
and her guests -- Nadia Bilbassy (MBC TV), Robin Harding (Financial
Times of London) and David Ignatius (Washington Post) offered
some reality on Iraq.
Diane Rehm: David Ignatius, the war in Iraq is finally over. In
your view, what has been accomplished?
David Ignatius: Well that's really the hardest question to answer
for Americans and Iraqis with this week's visit to Washington by Iraqi Prime
Minister Nouri al-Maliki. You had to say, in terms of specific commitments
going forward, very little. We have an Iraqi democracy but it's headed by
someone who's widely regarded as no paragon of democracy. He hasn't succeeded
really in reaching out to other Iraqis. I'm struck, Diane, this week, a war
that began famously with shock and awe, as we termed our spectacular bombardment
of Iraq, ended with the muted, somber sense of how difficult this proved to be,
how many mistakes the United States made. And, in the terms of measurable
outcomes, how little the US got out of it, at the loss of nearly 4,500 US
soldiers, 1000,000 -- at least -- Iraqis killed. So it's a painful story but we
would have to say most of all for Iraqis.
Diane Rehm: 32,000 US troops wounded, more than $800 billion spent.
I'm not interested in silly spin. The president's campaign? He' is the
one over it. He decides, he says yes or he says no. You can't claim that he is
downplaying it but his campaign -- this entity over which he has no control --
isn't. Don't create this false wall that doesn't exist. Barack's campaign is
Barack. I'll further point out that Barack did three days of press on this and
that's just this week. So stop pretending that he tried to keep it low key.
Stop pretending?
It was a brave stance to take for an ambitious politician at a time
when American support for war with Iraq was building. He went on to become the
first president to campaign on a promise to end an ongoing American war, and the
peace movement helped put him into office.
He's referring to Barack's stupid 2002 speech which did not oppose going to
war with Iraq, it opposed rushing to war. Barack didn't say no to war, he said
the case wasn't yet made. He would spend the next years -- check the New
York Times archives especially in 2004 and WHORE Tom knows this -- changing
his stance. But in 2002, he wasn't running for national office, not even the
Senate. And there's no way in hell his state legislature district would have
supported him unless he took some stance -- no matter how tiny -- against the
drums of war. Also, the peace movement helped put him into office? No, the
Cult of St. Barack did. A lot of dirty whores like Tom Hayden who never made an
honest buck and, in fact, would be depending on charity today were it not for
the ridiculous and unmanly move of demanding millions to end a marriage. Greedy
little whore, that's Tom-Tom.
In the years leading up to the 2008
election, there were at least 10 national antiwar demonstrations that drew more
than 100,000 participants each. The movement helped Rep. Barbara Lee to rise
from a lone war opponent in Congress to the leader of a bloc of as many as 200
representatives calling for an end to the wars in Iraq and/or Afghanistan. Those
combined forces -- the peace movement and lawmakers who opposed continuing the
Iraq war -- created a political climate that enabled Obama to end the Iraq war
over the objections of many in the Pentagon and most of his Republican
presidential rivals.
What a trashy whore. Tom's not going to be welcomed into the DNC. He has
no real money left (not to throw around on donations which is all the DNC would
want from a low life like Tom to begin with). Whores tend to spend other
people's money a bit too quickly. So he'll always be on the low rung he's lived
since his divorce. But he seems to believe that if he just lies long enough,
the DNC will embrace him. Seriously?
After Barack repeatedly -- in 2007 and 2008 -- ridiculed "Tom Hayden
Democrats" -- publicly ridiculed them, the little whore Tom thinks he's ever
going to rise even one tiny step up the ladder? Please.
Reality, as everyone knows, Barack was planning to keep thousands of US
troops in Iraq. Iraq wouldn't grant immunity from the Parliament. (Nouri was
prepared to grant it himself.) So what happened then? They followed the deal
the Bush administration negotiated in November 2008. Tom's praising George W.
Bush. You kind of get the feeling that for a few more of the millions Jane earned
while Tom relaxed on his ass and cheated, for just a few more, he'd blow George
W. Bush in downtown LA at high noon. And swallow with a smile.
Another reality? Negotiatons never ended. This week Osama al-Nujaifi
publicly declared that the Parliament was prepared to give "partial immunity."
A step up from the stance in October of no immunity. That's what negotiations
do, they see each side stake out a position and then see if they can move closer
to one another's position as talks continue. Nouri has stated -- and Panetta
told the Senate Armed Services Committee he felt it would happen -- that they
can pick up the issue of "trainers" in the new year.
Want some reality from the press that few offered this week? David S. Cloud and David Zucchino (Los Angeles
Times) observed, "The Obama administration had adopted its own version
of the Bush administration claim that the conflict was worth the cost because it
helped free Iraq from Hussein." We'll pick back up with The Diane Rehm
Show when Nadia gets honest or closer to it. If she's only now aware of
the 4.5 million internal and external Iraqi refugees which have been in the news
since 2006, that doesn't say very much for her information base level (her
intelligence level is brutally low but we'll address that on Sunday).
Nadia Bilbassy: In research I've been doing for the last week about
the war, I came across something really striking. I mean, looking at -- looking
at -- just to give you an example -- I found that, for example, 2 million people
are internally displaced inside Iraq. Two and a half million refugees are
outside the country in neighboring countries like Syria and like Jordan.
Twenty-three precent of Iraq is under -- live under poverty line, that's $2 a
day. This is a rich country that's sitting on the second largest oil resource
in the world. They have -- 34,000 doctors left the country and forty-percent is
the unemployment level. So, in a way, yes, they got a democracy in terms of the
process of voting but this government, as David said, where the strong man like
Prime Minister Maliki still holds the ministry of national security and defense,
unable to bring somebody into the country -- into the government.
As Al-Maliki visited Washington on Monday and Tuesday, seven people
died in shootings and explosions in Iraq itself, seen by many Iraqis as having
been motivated by sectarian considerations.
On Tuesday, two bombs set off a blaze at an oil pipeline in Basra,
Iraq's main oil refinery in the south of the country.
Even more troubling than the security weaknesses has been the
erosion of the fragile political process established under the US occupation,
which has been eroding since the formation of the current governing coalition in
Iraq.
Many Iraqis believe that Al-Maliki is pursuing his own sectarian
agenda that focuses on consolidating Shia power and monopolising control of the
state and security forces under his Daawa Party.
Al-Maliki's failure to preserve a multi-ethnic political
accommodation in Iraq has increasingly pushed the country's Sunni minority
population to demand semi-autonomous status.
Let's discuss the provincesnd the semi-autonomous issue. Iraq is a country
composed of 18 provinces. Three are semi-autonomous (Erbil, Dahuk and
Sulaymaniyah) and they form the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG). The other
15, at present, are under the control of the Baghdad-based government. Thursday,
October 27th, Salahuddin Province's council voted to go
semi-autonomous. Monday, Diyala Province's council
passed a decision for the province to become semi-autonomous. Xinhua
explains: Iraqi constitution says 'one or more governorates
(provinces) shall have the right to organize into a region based on a request to
be voted on in a referendum submitted in one of the following two methods:
First: a request by one-third of the council members of each governorate
intending to form a region. Second: a request by one-tenth of the voters in each
of the governorates intending to form a region."
Al
Mada notes that 30 residents of Diyala Province staged a
protest which quickly turned into a sit-in. The protesters were registering
their objection to the decision for Diyala Province to move to semi-autonomy. Sam Dagher (Wall St. Journal) notes that
protests took place in Baquba yesterday for the third day in a row -- with
"hundreds" participating. Alsumaria TV adds,
"Sadr movement stated, on Thursday, that Diyala Region's declaration was
advanced in a provocative and challenging way. Head of Diyala Province is
spurring discord between the province's different components, the movement
accused while asserting that the Iraqi Central Government is responsible for
demands to establish federal regions." Bryar Mohammed (Zawya) adds, "Baghdad is trying to
bully Diyala Province out of trying to become an autonomous region, AKnews has
learnt. Suhad Hayli from the Iraqiya List party says he expects the Iraqi
government will use force to quash the autonomy demands of the Province to the
north east of Baghdad, bordering Iran. Diyala Provincial Council's demand for
regional autonomy was announced two days ago, almost two months after another
Sunni dominated province Salahaddin called for the same." On Salahuddin
Province, the Kurdish Globe notes the events
leading up to the October vote:
The
provincial council of Salahadin last October unanimously supported making the
province an autonomous region after the dismissal of faculty members from the
University of Tikrit and mass arrests in Salahaddin province. Last October, the
Baghdad Ministry of Higher Education dismissed 140 faculty members from the
University of Tikrit in Salahaddin Province. The ministry pointed out that "it
was simply following the parliamentary directive on "de-Baathification." Later,
Iraqi security forces started an operation in the central and southern
provinces, arresting former members of the Baath Party and accusing them of
plotting a coup against Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's government after
the complete withdrawal of U.S. troops at the end of this year.
The arrest came after Maliki received information from
former Libyan interim leader Mahmoud Jibril, whose rebel forces obtained
documents indicating that former Libyan President Moammar Gadhafi tried to
support an attempt by Baath members to overthrow the Iraqi government.
That's one problem Nouri faces. There are many more. Many, many
more.
Monday, November 28th,
a car bomb was detonated near Parliament -- apparently targeting Speaker of
Parliament Osama al-Nujaifi and members of Parliament. Nouri al-Maliki was no
where near the building (he was out of the country) and not scheduled to appear
in the building that week; however, his spokesperson and then Nouri himself
began insisting that the bombing was an attack on him. Al
Mada reports that Parliament's investigation committee noted
yesterday that it was a suicide car bombing which claimed the life of the
driver, that none of the four people who've been taken into custody on suspicion
of involvement work for the Parliament and that early signs are a group of
people (men and women) based in Baghdad and Anbar Province were behind the
bombing.
In other explosive news, Al Mada
reports that Iraqiya has announced it is breaking off talks
with the ruling bloc. Iraqiya is the political slate that came in first in the
March 2010 elections. The results of the March 7th elections, even after Nouri
al-Maliki bitterly contested them and stamped his feet until a few post-election
votes were tossed his way, were that Iraqiya still came in first and Nouri's
political slate State of Law still came in second. Iraqis do not elect their
prime minister, the Parliament does. Per the Constitution, Ayad Allawi, the
leader of Iraqiya, should have had first crack at forming a government. First
crack? You become prime minister-designate and then have thirty days to name a
Cabinet (nominate people for positions and have Parliament vote in favor of
them). If you can't accomplish that in 30 days, per the Constitution, a new
prime minister-designate is supposed to be named.
Political Stalemate I
ended in November of 2010 with the Erbil Agreement hammered out
in Erbil between the major political blocs (and the US) whereby every
one was supposed to make concessions. The Kurds would get to keep Jalal Talabani
as president. They thought they would get three vice presidents. Iraqiya won the
elections in March 2010 and the political bloc was headed by Ayad Allawi. Nouri
wasn't stepping down and the White House was backing Nouri. For Nouri to remain
prime minister, Allawi was promised he would head a new, independent council
over security issues. He was also promised that the Iraqiya candidates demonized
as Ba'athists and forced out of the 2010 elections by Nouri's friends would have
their names cleared.
On November 11th, the new
Parliament held their first real session. They voted Osama al-Nujaifi Speaker of
Parliament (he was from Iraqiya and that was part of the Erbil Agreement), Jalal
was named president and Nouri was named prime minister designate (but we were
all informed in the following days that this was 'unofficial' -- once named
prime minister-designate, you have 30 days, per the Constitution, to put
together a Cabinet and get the Parliament to sign off on each member). But what
of the security council? What of clearing the names of the falsely
accused?
That would come, State of Law insisted, in time.
Allawi
and a number of Iraqiya members walked out. They should have refused to
participate from that day forward. Instead, they foolishly believed promises
(from both State of Law and the White House). Nobember 25th, Jalal
'officially' named Nouri prime minister-designate.
Nouri had created
Political Stalemate I by refusing to surrender the prime minister post. He'd
done that for eight months. In that time, he should have had some ideas about a
Cabinet. But Nouri's problem was he over-promised to get support. So when it was
time to name a Cabinet, suddenly the Cabinet had more ministers and deputy
ministers than it had previously (from 37 in 2006 to 42 in 2010). And he still
couldn't keep his promises to everyone.
December 22nd, the
Constitution was tossed by the wayside and Nouri was allowed to move from prime
minister-designate to prime minister because he'd assembled a kind of
Cabinet. He named 31 out of 42 ministers and people pretended that was good
enough. He had failed to meet the Constitutional mandate of naming a Cabinet but
everyone looked the other way.
He refused to name the security posts:
National Security, Interior and Defense. His defenders (including the White
House) swore those posts would be named in a matter of weeks. His detractors saw
the refusal as part of a pattern of power grabs on Nouri's part and stated he
wouldn't fill the posts. This is the start of Political Stalemate II.
Six days from now, it will be a year since Nouri was wrongly (per the
Constitution, per the vote) named prime minister. And Iraq still has no
Minister of Defense, Minister of Interior or Minister of National Security.
When announcing that talks were over, Al Mada notes Iraqiya stated that they had
given up a great deal for the good of Iraq but there was no compromise from
another. That's a reference to Nouri's State of Law as well as the coalition he
now heads. In giving up the right to prime minister, Iraqiya was promised (and
the Erbil Agreement is in writing) that an independent security commission would
be created and that Ayad Allawi would head it. That's among the many broken
promises Nouri made to keep his claws on the post of prime minister.
Warren Oleny: Feisal Istrabadi is a dual Iraqi- U.S. citizen. He
was Iraq's Deputy Ambassador to the United Nations. He drafted the country's
interim constitution. He is now Director of the Center for the Study of the
Middle East at Indiana University. Mr. Ambassador, thank you very much for
being on our program.
Ambassador Feisal Amin Rasoul Istrabadi: My pleasure to be with you
again.
Warren Oleny: Why did you sever yourself from the current
government of Iraq? You're no longer the ambassador and you're here at Indiana
University.
Ambassador Feisal Istrabadi: I am. Well Indiana University happens
to be my alma mata anyway. But, at the time, in 2007, I left at the height of
the sectarian violence in Iraq. And I simply felt [clears throat], excuse me, I
simply felt that the government and many entities in the government were
complicit in the ethnic cleansing of Baghdad and other places throughout the
country and I felt no longer able to speak on behalf of that government so I
left.
Warren Oleny: Are you concerned that that sort of thing will
continue now that American troops are gone?
Ambassador Feisal Istrabadi: I very much am concerned as your
previous guests also were discussing. The current prime minister, Nouri
al-Maliki, has made a number of moves which indicate that he intends to
continue to act against particularly the Sunnis of Iraq. And this, of course,
is likely to lead to further deterioration in the country and most likely lead
to further violence. It's a very, very worrisome sign to me.
. . .
[Clip of Barack Obama speaking on Monday, specifically this, "Mr. Prime
Minister, you've said that Iraqis seek democracy, 'a state of citizens and not
sects.' So we're partnering to strengthen the institutions upon which Iraq's
democracy depends -- free elections, a vibrant press, a strong civil society,
professional police and law enforcement that uphold the rule of law, an
independent judiciary that delivers justice fairly, and transparent institutions
that serve all Iraqis." but click here for full remarks.]
Warren Oleny: Feisal Istrabadi, how close is Iraq to achieving the
kinds of thing that we just heard the president describe?
Ambassador Feisal Istrabadi: If this is a check list of what Iraq
needs to do to establish the rule of law and Constitutional democracy, Iraq is
failing on each of those items. Let me start with, being a lawyer, what's
nearest and dearest to my heart, the judiciary. The judiciary has become a
rubber stamp for the government. Constitutional cases -- a number of
Constitutional cases have been decided by the Iraqi judiciary, in each case,
given Maliki precisely what he wants. He has maintained control over the
Interior Ministry which controls the -- he is acting Interior Minister, in fact
-- which controls the-uh-the-uh internal security structure. He is, Nouri
al-Maliki is, acting Defense Minister which controls the army. And he is also
acting Minister of State Security. So he has the entire state security
infrastructure, he has direct control over the entire state security
infrastructure which, if you'll recall, is the way that Saddam Hussein rose to
power in the 1970s -- precisely by controlling the state security
infrastructure. We are repeating the same lessons of Iraq's past unfortunately.
Each of these criteria, ticked off by President Obama, is a cause for deep
concern for anybody concerned about democracy and the rule of law in Iraq.
Warren Oleny: Is there anything the Obama administration should be
doing differently from what it is?
Ambassador Feisal Istrabadi: Well, I mean, that's hard to say
because obviously it's influence is somewhat waning. The critical mistake the
Obama administration made occurred last year when it threw its entire diplomatic
weight behind supporting Nouri al-Maliki notwithstanding these very worrisome
signs which were already in place in 2009 and 2010. The administration lobbied
hard both internally in Iraq and throughout the region to have Nouri al-Maliki
get a second term -- which he has done. Right now, the betting there's some
question among Iraq experts whether we'll ever have a set of elections in Iraq
worthy of the name. I mean, you can almost get odds, a la Las Vegas, on that
among Iraq experts. It's a very worrisome thing. What can they do in the
future? Well I suppose it would be helpful, it would be useful, if we stopped
hearing this sort of Happy Talk coming from the administration -- whether
its Jim Jeffreys in Baghdad, the US Ambassador or whether it's the president
himself or other cabinet officers. We're getting a lot of Happy Talk, we're
getting a lot of Happy Talk from the Pentagon about how professional the Iraqi
Army is when, in fact, the Iraqi Army Chief of Staff himself has said it's going
to take another ten years before the Iraqi Army can secure the borders. So it
would help, at least, if we would stop hearing this sort of Pollyanna-ish -- if
that's a word -- exclamations from the administration about how swimmingly
things are going in Iraq and had a little more truth told in public, that would
be a very big help to begin with.
Al
Sabaah reports that Allawi met with Iraqi
President Jalal Talabani on Tuesday and that they discussed various topics
including oil-rich, disputed Kirkuk.
Jalal is an increasingly unpopular
figure in the KRG -- which is why Massoud Barzani's competing political party
continues to have greater support and why the new emerging Goran party continues
to grow. Jalal's popularity won't be helped by the news that Dar Addustour reports: There's been
no reduction in his salary or in the salaries of the vice presidencies. Not only
that, the promised (in February) bill was never voted on by the
Parliament.
In January and early February, scattered protests began to
alarm Nouri al-Maliki. The protesters wanted improved basic services (potable
water, dependable electricity, etc.), jobs and for the government to stop
"disappearing" people. The protesters were also noting the vast corruption in
Iraq and how an election had been held but the president, vice presidents and
prime minister remained the exact same people who held the posts before the
election.
Facing this discontent as discontent raged throughout the
region (most prominently in Egypt), Nouri attended to head off the protests (and
Moqtada al-Sadr rushed in to help Nouri) by promising a number of things. He
would solve the corruption in 100 days -- just give him 100 days, Moqtada
insisted -- and, right now, Nouri would promise reductions in government
salaries, including his own. His salary was never reduced nor was
Jalal's.
More broken promises from Nouri (and Iraq's First Lady Moqtada
al-Sadr).
Polling brings more bad news for Nouri. Al
Sabaah reports on a poll of Iraqis in which 70% say that they
do not have access to all items the ration cards are supposed to provide. That's
bad enough but it gets worse. All of Nouri's February promises of improvement?
The people aren't seeing it. 80% of Iraqis say that there's been no efforts to
repair the sewage systems in the areas that they live in, 68% state that there's
no improvement in the water. Meanwhile Al
Mada reports on a poll by the Arab Center for Studies which
found that most in the MidEast region feel Iraq will be the next country hit by
the "Arab spring."
This is not good news for Nouri who rightly feared in
February that the Iraqi people were more than just disappointed in him. On the
issue of the "disappeared" -- arresting peole and disappearing them so that
families have no idea if their loved ones are even alive, that's not been
addressed and Nouri's latest crackdown on "Ba'athists" (he sses them everywhere)
only reminded Iraqis of the lack of improvement.
Reuters notes two police officers were
injured in a Falluja shooting, that the Baghdad "convoy" of Baghdad security
spokesperson Qassim al-Moussawi was attacked and one bystander was left injured,
and, dropping back to last night, a Kirkuk sticky bombing injured one student, a
Kirkuk roadside bombing injured one Iraqi military officer and a Mosul home
invasion left 1 police officer dead.
In the US, Bradley Manning's
Article 32 hearing began today at Fort Meade, Maryland. Monday April
5th, 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." Manning has been convicted in the public square despite
the fact that he's been convicted in no state and has made no public statements
-- despite any claims otherwise, he has made no public statements. Manning has
been at Quantico in Virginia, under military lock and key, for months. In March,
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. David E. Coombs
is Bradley's attorney and he provided a walk through on Article 104.
Today, Ellen Nakashima (Washington Post)
reports, Coombs requested that Lt Col Paul Almanza step down as presiding
officer in the hearing due to the fact that, in addition to the military,
Almanza also works for the Justice Dept which has an ongoing WikiLeaks
investigation. Almanza refused to recuse himself. Scott Shane (New York Times) adds, "Mr.
Coombs appealed the recusal decision to the Army Court of Criminal Appeals and
asked the court to halt the hearing until it could rule. A decision on a
possible postponement could come as early as Saturday, when testimony is
scheduled to resume at 10 a.m." Nancy A. Youssef (McClatchy Newspapers' Miami
Herald) offers, "Making his first court appearance, Manning sat
unemotionally behind the defense table wearing dark-rimmed glasses and a combat
patch from the 10th Mountain Division on his Army uniform. He stared ahead, not
glancing at the row of supporters sitting behind him and his defense team, which
includes two military lawyers. After 19 months in military custody at Fort
Leavenworth, Kan., he appeared thin but healthy."
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