3/15/2017

off the bench, glenn

CAP & NBC News now jointly using the language of treason to announce a "Fifth Column" in the U.S. serving Russia





you know, glenn needs to write about this, not just tweet about it.

elaine's 'john Feffer is a damn liar (and don't e-mail, prick, I won't retract)' and c.i.'s:


  • Iraq snapshot
  • IPS and FOREIGN POLICY IN FOCUS have been removed


  • dealt with this garbage.

    c.i. really called them out in today's snapshot - talking about these idiots screaming treason not even knowing what it means.

    glenn needs to get off the bench and write something.

    the ladies are present and accounted for: elaine and c.i.

    they're out there swinging.

    glenn needs to get in there too.

    (not that elaine or c.i. need or require a man's help - they do nicely all by themselves.)

    when i read elaine's piece last night, i knew it was only going to be a minute or 2 before c.i. added input.  :D

    that's how those 2 are.

    and have always been.

    they are of the same mind.

    and it can be difficult when you're friends with both because sometimes it feels like you're left out.

    but it really is something to see.

    :D

    i love my friends and praise them for their great work.

    and urge glenn to get off the bench already.

    let's close with c.i.'s 'Iraq snapshot:'


    Wednesday, March 15, 2017.  Chaos and violence continue but we spend most of our time denouncing the hysterics and their hysteria on Russia and WikiLeaks.


    I am the ruler of all.

    Apparently.

    Who knew?

    I didn't know it until the angry e-mail over "IPS and FOREIGN POLICY IN FOCUS have been removed" from last night.

    Turns out, if I don't link to something, I have censored them and denied them an audience.

    I am basing my judgment, it is viciously explained to me, on my personal opinion of someone and not on politics.

    I really love it when an e-mailer wants to tell me who I am and what I think.

    I really love that.

    John Feffer, you were delinked last night.

    Were I delinking you for personal reasons, I would have done so in March 2008 after your series of e-mails where you BMW-ed nonstop (Bitch Moaned and Whined).

    You didn't know what you were talking about -- apparently a factory standard on all John Feffer models -- and you thought you could dictate what I wrote.

    Now you learned otherwise back then.

    You've gotten links since and both FPIF and IPS stayed on the links -- mainly because of Phyllis Bennis.

    Now you got called out a lot here because you are so deeply stupid.

    And your FPIF colleagues got called out as well.

    Like when you applauded the massive bombs being dropped on Iraq.

    Remember that little protege you had?

    And you'll published that crap.

    I've heard you've since pulled it from FPIF -- doesn't matter, we quoted enough here when we called it out.  You forever indicted as an idiot who believes in 'precision bombing.'

    I should have delinked you then.

    But Elaine's "John Feffer is a damn liar (and don't e-mail, prick, I won't retract)" was where I learned you were now part of Team Hysteria fostering hate of Russia -- the whole country and people, you couldn't even just limit it to their government because that's the kind of trash you are.


    We'll get to Russia in a second.

    But let's talk the law first because I don't like idiots pretending they know the law.

    We went through that with The Status of Forces Agreement on Thanksgiving 2008.

    We were right.  Others can't say the same.

    Watergate was a break-in of Democratic headquarters by a team of 'plumbers' (Republicans with Richard Nixon's re-election campaign).

    Even if the government of Russia or a Russian person had broken into John Podesta's e-mails (they were leaked, not hacked), that's not Watergate.

    That's as stupid as screaming Julian Assange should be charged with treason.

    Treason?

    Julian's an American citizen?

    No, he's not.

    He's Australian.

    He might be able to commit treason in Australia (nothing WikiLeaks has done rises to the standard of treason in Australia).

    But as a non-American, he can't be guilty of treason in the US.

    It doesn't work that way, you stupid idiots.

    I'm nice here most of the time.

    But when you start talking the law and you can't get it right, you need to stop talking.

    You're not just embarrassing yourself, you are contributing to ignorance.

    It's not that hard to study law.  I did it.  Anyone can.

    Julian Assange jay walking cannot rise to murder.  Julian Assange's WikiLeaks actions cannot rise to treason in the US.

    He is not a US citizen.

    You can bend the law, you can shade it.

    And many do.

    But when you start talking nonsense, I think you need to sit your tired ass down and stop speaking.

    Do the world a favor.

    No evidence proves -- or even indicates -- that the Russian government, the Russian people or some combination of the two hacked Podesta's e-mails.

    Even if John Feffer had evidence that offered 100% proof that the allegation was true, it would still not be Watergate.

    You stupid idiot.

    Watergate was the abuse of power by a sitting president.

    Do you not get that?

    Are you really that stupid?

    What makes me really mad is Feffer isn't that stupid.  He's lying and he knows he is but he also knows he's trolling for big Dem monies and this is the way to do it.

    Well whore your ass, John, but don't whore the law.

    He is a cheap liar and look at the archives and you'll see I do not tolerate liars about the law.


    Didn't do it when people were saying no crime was committed by the outing of Valerie Plame.

    Didn't do it when everyone was misrepresenting what the SOFA said.


    Here's Robert Parry (CONSORTIUM NEWS) on the hysteria:

    But the anti-Russian frenzy gained unstoppable momentum with the U.S. election in 2016. The Democrats, liberals and neoconservatives were horrified at the shocking upset of their presidential choice, Hillary Clinton, by the boorish and buffoonish Donald Trump.

    After this bitter defeat, the losers looked for scapegoats rather than order up a serious autopsy on how they lost to the “unelectable” Trump, i.e, by choosing a corporate candidate who was associated with neoliberal economics and neoconservative war policies. Blaming Russia became the easy excuse that could unify the various pro-Clinton camps.

    Parry is one of the people Feffer attacked.

    Robert's right.

    Stephen F. Cohen is right.  Glenn Greenwald is right.

    John Feffer isn't the only hysteric out there.  He is the first I've seen to misrepresent the law.

    And I'm sure the misrepresentation can be traced back to some attorney that The Debra Messings linked to.

    There were idiots misrepresenting the law in Plame Gate as well -- idiots who were attorneys.  And there were attorneys who misrepresented the SOFA as well.

    The US has too many attorneys while also having too few honest ones.

    Watergate was abuse of power.

    Here's a clue for you if you're getting this nonsense from Elizabeth Holtzman: Elizabeth Holtzman struggles with the truth.

    Ask her about how she saved war resisters of Vietnam.

    Oh, wait, that never happened.

    Despite her own campaign promises, despite her claims at the start of Jimmy Carter's administration -- I believe they're still available at THE NEWSHOUR, Liz.

    And what about all of her great work on Iraq.

    Remember those two years where she fueled everyone into voting for Democrats because they would end the war.

    They didn't.

    And she moved on to other topics, didn't she?

    Unlike many, I've never blamed Liz for Geraldine Ferraro's Congressional loss.

    I don't believe anyone owns someone else's vote nor do I believe that we need fewer candidates.

    But The Debra Messings do -- yet they embrace Liz.

    Just another example of their grave hypocrisy.


    The Democratic Party elected to run a candidate who was hugely disliked.

    Some will whine, "She was running high in the polls in early 2013."

    Hillary goes up and down in the polls.

    People feel sorry for her -- because she's so pathetic -- and then she'll open her mouth and they'll remember all over again why they loathe her.

    That is the history of her polling.

    Equally true, the 2008 campaign saw Democrats like Keith Olbermann destroy Hillary in such a way that no way in the world could she run 8 years later and win.  He -- and others -- called her a racist, said she was calling for Barack Obama to be killed, etc., etc.

    Hillary's e-mails were her own mistake.

    And then she made it worse by lying repeatedly about them.

    That made it a never ending story.

    "I only carried one device."

    How many lies did she tell?

    Which just reminded people of how they could not trust her.

    If the process hadn't been rigged, Bernie Sanders would've won the nomination.

    If that had happened, I think there's a good chance he would have won the presidency.  (He might not have.)

    But instead of addressing Hillary's faults and mistakes, instead of addressing the need to reform the process, hell they won't even call for abolishing the electoral college (while refusing to shut up that Hillary won the popular vote -- doesn't matter as the electoral college is the deciding factor) --

    Instead of any of that, they want to deflect to Russia.

    They want to defocus on the real issues.

    They apparently don't care that they are fueling war.

    But then, they don't care that the Iraq War continues -- or the Afghanistan War -- or that more US troops have been sent into Syria -- or what the US government is doing to Yemen.

    BLACK AGENDA RADIO is part of BLACK AGENDA REPORT and is hosted by Glen Ford and Nellie Bailey.

    Two weeks ago, they spoke with activist and Green Party vice presidential candidate Ajamu Baraka.

    Ajamu Baraka:  At a moment when we have an opportunity to actually rebuild an anti-war movement here in this country, yet again -- instead of getting to the point where we can talk about that, begin to talk about what we need to do to in fact to build that movement, we are caught up in these diversionary politics of 'the Russians did it.'  So many of us are not caught up in this and we are moving towards trying to put in place new structures. I'm involved in a conversation right now building what we are calling The Black Alliance for Peace which is an attempt to try to revive the Black anti-war movement, the Black anti-war presence.  We think that we have a perfect opportunity now -- now that the people are waking up out of this 8 year stupor -- to bring the Black community back to where we used to be at one point as the most consistent anti-war population in this country.   But it is difficult to do that, Glen, when our people are getting caught up in this anti-Russian hysteria also.  And they are -- some of them also are beating the war drums uncritically.


    This week, they spoke with Sara Flounders.

    Sara Flounders: Many, many people can see the need for an independent movement.  If you're going to in any way oppose the war policy that's going on right in front of you and the 'trade agreements' that send millions of jobs for corporate profit, it becomes clear to a lot of people the need for an independent movement.   


    The Democrats in Congress haven't ended any of the wars.

    We're edging closer to the 14th anniversary of the start of the Iraq War.

    John Conyers, a nation turns its lonely eyes to you.  Where are you?

    Did they blackmail you into silence with what they had on your wife?  Or did you just stop caring about the Iraq War?

    Barbara Lee, what's muted your voice and action on the issue?

    The Iraq War continues.

    Billions of US tax dollars are spent on it.

    Where's the Congressional oversight -- forget outcry, where's the oversight even?

    Day 149 of The Mosul Slog.

    What can they brag of?


    Iraq forces retake Mosul train station: police








    A train station?


    Hmm.

    We just don't care about the Iraqi people, do we?






    : 16,229 families (97,374 individuals), displaced from in last 19days btw Feb 25 & March 15, as tracked by .







    The World Health Organization noted this week:

    According to International Organization for Migration data, since 17 October 2016 to 09 March, 224,298 persons have been displaced from Mosul; refer to graph 1 for the displacement timelines. Of these more than 57,000 persons are displaced from west Mosul alone since 18 February 2017. WHO and other health partners are supporting the delivery of primary health services in the displaced camps by providing medicines and other medical supplies.



    UNICEF notes:


    • Military operations to re-take western parts of Mosul city started on 19 February 2017. The UN estimates that around 750,000 civilians are still residing in the western section of the city. Humanitarian actors are deeply concerned about the situation of civilians, including 412,000 children.
    • Since 19 February, more than 31,500 people (14,800 children) are newlydisplaced from West Mosul. The majority of people have been directed into new IDP camps in south Ninewa.
    • Since 17 October 2016, UNICEF has supported the delivery of multi-sectoral emergency response packages for 851,220 individuals (142,847 families) in retaken communities in northern Ninewa, including water treatment tablets, high energy biscuits and hygiene items for adults and babies.
    • In February, RRM consortium partners reached 79,721 vulnerable people on the move including 37,469 children across six governorates including Ninewa.
    • UNICEF-supported water trucking of up to 3.6 million litres of daily water ensured continued supply of safe water for East Mosul and the UNICEF supported camps in Dahuk, Erbil, and Ninewa
    • 320 schools have reopened in eastern Mosul allowing 258,000 children to return to school. In February, UNICEF provided learning materials including science and maths kits to 87 of the East Mosul schools, reaching 73,780 children (31,890 girls)



    June 19, 2014, Barack Obama, then president of the United States, declared that the only hope, the only solution for Iraq, was a political solution.

    But though daily bombings have taken place from US war planes, the US government has done nothing to assist the Iraqis with political inclusion.

    The persecution of the Sunni people -- the same persecution that gave rise to ISIS -- continues.


    This is not progress.


    The following community sites -- plus BLACK AGENDA REPORT and Jody Watley -- updated:






















  • 3/14/2017

    they are insane

    i hope there's no proof for any number of reasons.

    but, yes, chief among them is this:



    Senate Dems scared there's no evidence on Trump/Russia to meet expectations recklessly created by MSNBC & IC pundits



    so great if it all exploded in their damn faces.


    carrying on like they had proof when they still have nothing.

    Shaheen is the same Senator who introduced bill that Senate should declare if Russia committed "act of war"



    i can't stand shaheen.

    she's a fake ass.

    i thought that when amy goodman had her on 'democracy now' in the summer of 2008 - during the dems political convention.

    she was so obviously lying.

    and amy let her get away with it because ... well, that's amy goodman for you.

    queen gatekeeper.

    existing to fuel people into the democratic party.

    she's such a fake.

    no wonder she got on so well with shaheen.


    let's close with c.i.'s 'Iraq snapshot:'


    Tuesday, March 14, 2017.  Chaos and violence continue, The Mosul Slog continues, the silence over the Iraq War continues -- John Conyers, where have you gone?, and much more.



    It's day 148 of The Mosul Slog.

    Mar 13 conducted 20 strikes consisting of 104 engagements against ISIS in Syria & Iraq
     
     



    The bombing of Iraq started in August of 2014 and continues daily.


    Possibly since Barack Obama no longer overseas it, we might be able to get honest about it now?


    More civilians die from (US) airstrikes in Mosul than (Russian) airstrikes in Aleppo, says . Why no outrage?
     
     



    It would appear that a large number of people who should be speaking out can't because elected persons in the Democratic Party have yet to give them their marching orders.


    That's the difference between ethics and partisanship -- you're witnessing it right now.

    And the difference between courage and silence?

    Look at 'leaders' like John Conyers and Barbara Lee who cower instead of speaking out as the suffering of the Iraqi people is set to hit the 14 year mark in mere days.


    The Mosul Slog continues with little criticism while tiny steps are treated as huge progress. ALJAZEERA runs John Davison's REUTERS report, "Iraqi forces battling ISIS/ISIL faced tough resistance from snipers and mortar rounds on Monday as they tried to advance on Mosul's Old City and a bridge across the Tigris River in their campaign to retake it."  XINHAU reports:



    Iraqi forces on Monday liberated two neighborhoods from the Islamic State (IS) militants in the western side of Mosul, while the troops continued fighting fierce urban warfare in the old city center, the Iraqi military said.
    The commandos of the Counter-Terrorism Service (CTS) completely freed the neighborhoods of Nafet and New Mosul in the western side of the city, locally known as the right bank of the Tigris River, which bisects Mosul, the Joint Operations Command (JOC) said in a statement.

    The recapture of the two neighborhoods brought the CTS troops closer to the western edge of Mosul's densely populated old city center, where hundreds of thousands of civilians are believed to still be trapped under IS rule.



    And here's some video of yesterday.

    MUST WATCH: A chain of suicide car bombs followed by an airstrike inside city captured on video by Federal police units.
     
     






    Brett McGurk is giddy about the operation, as FRANCE 24 explains:

    IS "is trapped. Just last night, the 9th Iraqi army division... cut off the last road out of Mosul," said Brett McGurk, the US envoy to the anti-IS coalition.
    "Any of the fighters who are left in Mosul, they're going to die there," he said. "We are very committed to not just defeating them in Mosul, but making sure these guys cannot escape."




    Trapped?


    Maybe that would be a term better used for the civilians still in Mosul, the ones the Iraqi government told not to leave.


    Battle for Mosul: Iraqi forces battling ISIL face tough resistance 600k civilians trapped 200k residents displaced
     
     



    Why would you ever tell civilians not to flee an area you planned to attack?


    Why would you ever do that?

    And why would the world just sit there with a blank stare as you did?


    The Mosul Slog has created a refugee crisis.



    This is what it looks like to flee for your life from .
     
     



    And now it's time for house-to-house searches -- a time when even more abuses tend to take place.  Meanwhile Human Rights Watch issues an alert which includes:



    The Iraqi interior ministry is holding at least 1,269 detainees, including boys as young as 13, without charge in horrendous conditions and with limited access to medical care at three makeshift prisons, Human Rights Watch said today. At least four prisoners have died, in cases that appear to be linked to lack of proper medical care and poor conditions and two prisoners’ legs have been amputated, apparently because of lack of treatment for treatable wounds.
    Two detention centers are in the town of Qayyarah, 60 kilometers south of Mosul, and the third at a local police station in Hammam al-Alil, 30 kilometers south of Mosul. At least one detainee has been held in Qayyarah for six months, with many others detained since November 2016. According to the Qayyarah prison staff, at least 80 of their detainees are children under 18, with the youngest being 13. Children are in Hammam al-Alil as well.
    “The deplorable prison conditions in Qayyarah and Hammam al-Alil show that the Iraqi government is not providing the most basic detention standards or due process,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. “Iraqis should understand better than most the dangerous consequences of abusing detainees in cruel prison conditions.”
    On March 3, 2017, Human Rights Watch visited two of three houses in Qayyarah the Iraqi government has been using since retaking the area in August to detain men and boys suspected of being affiliated with the Islamic State (also known as ISIS). On March 12, researchers visited the local police station at Hammam al-Alil, which is holding 225 people accused of varying crimes, including ISIS-affiliation, in four rooms. Human Rights Watch was unable to interview detainees, but spoke to prison staff.
    The prisons are under the authority of the Interior Ministry’s intelligence service, which provides services there together with the Justice Ministry. Staff said that Iraqi security and military services combatting ISIS hand over people they detain to the intelligence service, which holds the detainees in the facilities while individually interrogating them.
    The intelligence service then takes the detainees before an investigative judge to assess whether there is enough evidence to bring charges for supporting ISIS under Provision 4 of the Federal Iraqi Counterterrorism Law (no. 13/2005). The judge then either orders their release or transfers the detainees to Baghdad to face charges.
    Prison staff in Qayyarah said they had released about 80 detainees and transferred another 775 to Baghdad by early March 2017. Iraq’s Criminal Procedural Code (no. 23/1971) requires detaining authorities to bring detainees before an investigative judge within 24 hours. But Qayyarah prison staff said they had held some detainees for as long as four months, while Human Rights Watch learned of the case of the man held without charge for six months.
    Prison staff in Qayyarah said that the investigative judge had cleared at least 300 men for release who are now being held unlawfully after the National Security Service, a security body under the prime minister with a mandate to screen people fleeing ISIS-controlled areas, intervened. Security forces’ failure to comply with a judicial order for release is a crime under Iraqi law. If the security forces are failing to comply with judicial orders in a systematic manner as part of a state policy to ignore such orders and detain people arbitrarily, this could represent a crime against humanity.
    Prison staff in Hammam al-Alil said they had released 115 detainees and transferred another 135 to Baghdad. They said they have been holding at least 60 men since the detention site opened in November, 2016.
    The prison staff and Justice Minister, Haidar al-Zamili, who met with Human Rights Watch on February 2, 2017, said that detainees held on terrorism charges have no right under the counterterrorism law (no. 13/2005) to communicate with their family during the investigation period, and that the Qayyarah detainees have not been allowed to communicate with their families. A local judge overseeing the cases told Human Rights Watch that once a detainee has been brought before the investigative judge, they have the right to contact their families, but that family visits are being delayed because of the delays in bringing detainees before the judge.
    They also said that despite the Iraqi constitution and Criminal Procedure Code (no.23/1971) guaranteeing detainees the right to a lawyer during interrogations and hearings, none had been provided with a lawyer present during their interrogations and many did not have a lawyer during their hearings before the investigative judge.
    Human Rights Watch observed that the facilities are all extremely overcrowded, so that no detainee can lie down to sleep. Because of the overcrowding and lack of proper ventilation, the makeshift prison cells are overheated, with an incredible stench. Detainees at the Hammam al-Alil prison called out to the visiting Human Rights Watch researchers, begging them to crack open the door because they said they could not breathe. The detainees have either no time or minimal time outside their cells, eat inside their cells, and have no access to showers and limited access to bathrooms. The facilities have no medical support, contributing to the deaths and amputations, prison staff said.
    While the staff said they were trying to improve conditions, they could not reduce the overcrowding. The overcrowding may have been exacerbated due to a temporary freeze, in early 2015, on transfers of prisoners to Baghdad due to the cost of such transfers, a Qayyarah court official told Human Rights Watch on March 11, 2017. He said that the transfers had resumed in mid-January. Prison staff in Hammam al-Alil said that on March 11, they were asked to accept another 11 prisoners but refused, saying there was simply no more room.
    One interrogator in Hammam al-Alil said that he sometimes beats ISIS suspects, and an observer who visited the prison in February 2017 said he witnessed the ill-treatment of three detainees.
    Detainees charged and convicted may still be entitled to release under the General Amnesty Law passed in August 2016 (no.27/2016), staff said. The law offered amnesty to anyone who joined ISIS or another extremist group against their will, and did not commit any serious offense, like torture or killing. The head of the Iraqi parliament’s legal committee, Mohsen al-Karkari, told Human Rights Watch during a meeting on February 7, 2017, that it was a roundabout way to limit the scope of the wide-reaching Iraqi counterterrorism law and release of thousands of terror suspects. According to the Justice Ministry, authorities have released 756 prisoners since the law was passed.
    Human Rights Watch learned from a reliable source that the Iraqi government had sent a committee to review conditions in the facility a few weeks before the Human Rights Watch visit. The committee promised to send up to 20 more interrogators from Baghdad, to speed up investigations. On March 2, 2017, 10 interrogators had arrived at the Qayyarah prisons.
    The evidence documented by Human Rights Watch strongly suggests that conditions at the Qayyarah and Hammam al-Alil facilities are hazardous, unfit to hold detainees for extended periods of time, and do not meet basic international standards. As a result, holding detainees there probably amounts to ill-treatment. The state of the facilities and severe understaffing pose severe risks to the prisoners, the prison administration, and the local community.
    The authorities should transfer all detainees from these facilities to official prisons built to accommodate detainees, and equipped to meet basic international standards. Until that happens, the Interior and Justice Ministries should, as an urgent priority, improve the conditions, and speed up the investigative process so that it can transfer the prisoners out of the facility as quickly as possible. The ministries should provide all detainees a medical screening upon arrival, and ensure access to medical care.
    The authorities should also ensure that there is a clear legal basis for detentions, that all detainees have access to legal counsel, including during interrogation, and that detainees are moved to facilities accessible to government inspection, independent monitors, relatives, and lawyers, with regular and unimpeded access. They should immediately notify families of the detention of their loved ones and under which authority, promptly take detainees before a judge to rule on the legality of their detention, and immediately comply with any judicial order for release.
    Judges should order the release of detainees or prisoners being held in inhuman or degrading conditions.
    When prosecuting children alleged to have committed illegal acts, they should be treated in accordance with international juvenile justice standards. International law allows for authorities to detain children pretrial in limited situations, but only if formally charged with committing a crime, not merely as suspects. The authorities should release all children not yet formally charged.

    “The Iraqi authorities should immediately release the children it is holding in these hellholes unless they promptly charge them with a crime,” Whitson said. “Iraq should recognize and treat children accused of ISIS affiliation as the victims of illegal and unconscionable recruitment and exploitation by the group.”



    Brett McGurk's ignoring that as well.  But he did make time to meet with the President of the KRG.


    Reviewed campaign, praised performance, & offered condolences for losses, in meeting today w/President Barzani.
     
     
     



    Hopefully, he addressed politics since elections in Iraq are not far off.

    Mustafa Habib (NIQASH) reports:


    For some time now it has been clear that Iraq’s Shiite Muslim militias have political ambitions. The militias were formed by volunteers in 2014 in order to fight the extremist group known as the Islamic State, but have since become a semi-official part of the Iraqi military.
    Comments made by influential leaders of the various Shiite Muslim militias often have the same impact as statements made by senior politicians and military, and it’s been clear for some time that they plan to use their popularity and importance to enter politics.
    As the fight to push the Islamic State, or IS, group out of the country proceeds, and looks likely to end in success sometime in the next few months, the militias are looking toward their political futures.

    “The militias will be present in politics in the same way they were present on the battlefield,” Qais al-Khazali, leader of one of the most feared and respected militias, the League of the Righteous, said last week. “In the same way that we win the battle against the IS group, we will win the fight against corruption and unemployment. Because the militias exist thanks to God’s will.”
    Sources say that most recently the various militias had been negotiating alliances between themselves that they could capitalize on in upcoming Iraqi elections.
    “Over the past few days there have been closed door meetings held to discuss the future of the militias and how they will participate in the elections,” said one source, who had to remain anonymous due to the secretive nature of the meetings. The militias discussed participating in Iraq’s upcoming provincial elections, currently due to be held in September 2017, and then federal elections, due to be held in April 2018. The idea of putting them all together on one electoral list was floated by Iranian advisers.

    However, there are a lot of obstacles to getting the various militias, which are far from a homogenous group, to cooperate. Political tactics are very different from those on the battlefield.


    The US government is in bed with the League of Righteous -- Barack made sure of that in his first year when he released their leaders as a deal to get 4 British corpses and 1 surviving British hostage released.

    The US government has done so much to destroy in Iraq (but last week's award given to Queen Raina of Jordan is supposed to wipe away all of that?).


    Certainly, the rights of women were among the things the US government destroyed.




    I got to meet the great Iraqi pioneer Suad Al Attar today. She was the first Iraqi artist to hold a solo exhibition in Baghdad in the 1960s.
     
     






    New content at THIRD:


    And the following community sites -- plus BLACK AGENDA REPORT and Jody Watley -- updated:




  •