WHAT'S A GIRL TO DO AFTER FUNNY OR DIE?
GO SHOPPING!
PRINCESS BARRY O FELL INTO THE GAP WHERE HE FOUND A LOVELY, PINK, WOMEN'S BLOUSE.
EVEN WITH THOSE SAGGY MOOBS, WE'RE SURE IT WILL LOOK GREAT ON HIM.
NEXT UP?
HE'S HAD HIS EYES ON A KICKY PAIR OF THIGH HIGH BOOTS FOR WEEKS NOW!
FROM THE TCI WIRE:
Why can't, in the US, grown ups have a conversation without a bunch of partisan b.s.?
Maybe because the media refuses to inform.
Alice Fordham's joined NPR (a free lancer who worked previously for The Times of London, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times and Christian Science Monitor among other outlets during the Iraq War). Between her nonsense and David Green's idiotic introduction on Morning Edition (NPR) to Fordham's bad report, it's hard to know which is worse.
Both operate under the premise that the assault on Anbar Province is appropriate.
International law and treaties beg to differ.
But not only does NPR ignore the law -- including the long established Geneva Conventions -- they also refuse to talk about how things got so bad in Anbar.
If you're a community member or regular or even semi-reader of the Iraq snapshots, you do know what's going on. But if you read through the comments -- the ones they allowed -- to Fordham's bad 'report,' you know a lot of people have no idea what's going on but they are so quick to offer 'insight' -- and it's all connected to Bully Boy Bush.
If you depend on NPR's 'reporting' on Iraq, you're dazed and confused. In fact, we'll be honoring one of NPR's biggest moment of lying about Iraq in the next few weeks. We called them out real time. No one else bothered. They aired a report that undermined democracy and violated every ethical journalistic principle. It also didn't get the facts accurate.
Here's the closest they got to honest on Morning Edition today:
FORDHAM: Zaid Al-Ali, who recently published a book, "The Struggle for Iraq's Future," says that the problems are broader than that. In Sunni-dominated places like Anbar, they won't be solved by security measures alone. He thinks that chronic unemployment also needs to be addressed and, more importantly, entrenched sectarian practices by the security forces. Detention without charge and torture are far more common in places like Anbar, he says, which feeds hatred of the government.
ZAID AL-ALI: It's been a major issue because there is a lot of abuse of detainees in Iraq. And there are a lot of cases - everyone knows about this, this is not a secret - there are a lot of cases of people being detained for no reason and for very long periods of time, without access to attorneys, without access to judges, without access to any type of recourse. And that really needs to change extremely urgently.
Wow.
That's enough to make people take to the streets and protest.
Oh, wait, it did.
Since December 21, 2012, protests have been ongoing in Iraq.
Why are they protesting?
Still not getting why Alice Fordham, if she's going to report on Anbar, needs to mention the protests?
Let's go to Human Rights Watch, "Government security forces had withdrawn from Anbar province after provoking a tribal uprising when they raided a Sunni protest camp in Ramadi on December 30, killing 17 people." This is how the assault on Anbar begins.
If Alice Fordham and NPR want to report on the assault, they're required to note how it started.
Are their terrorists in Anbar?
I'm sure there are just as many terrorists in Anbar as there is anywhere -- including in the NPR newsroom.
But what made people wearing masks (or at least scarves covering the lower half of their faces) go out into the streets of Anbar?
Nouri's assault on the protesters.
That was only one assault, there have been so many more.
Let's again note Sunil Patel's strong piece at Fair Observer which includes:
As violence in Fallujah escalates to near-unprecedented levels, the entire narrative of the fighting seems to evade a number of key points. Namely, this fighting was not precipitated by the capture of Sunni strongholds by al-Qaeda or the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIS).
The precursor to the fighting between Iraqi government forces and Sunni tribesmen of Anbar was a result of a ruthless policy of repression, aimed at nationwide protest camps opposing government measures on public services, counterterrorism, illegal house raids and a perpetuation of sectarian violence, as well as a number of other policies that continue to marginalize Sunni communities.
The Ramadi protest camps in al-Anbar have been at the center of demonstrations for the past year. It was on December 30 — a week after Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki had threatened to "burn down" the camps — that special forces (SWAT) and the army descended upon the Ezz and Karama Square to crush protests, which had gained momentum after the arrest of Sunni MP Ahmed al-Alwani and the murder of his brother and five of his security guards.
Two witnesses reported to Human Rights Watch that SWAT and the army had arrived in a procession of military Humvees, pick-up trucks, and armored vehicles to clear the squares. All this just seven hours after Defense Minister Saadoun al-Dulaimi had negotiated the release of Alwani on the condition that the camps were to be cleared within 48 hours.
This is not the first attempt by government forces to clear protest camps. In April 2013, SWAT and the army opened fire on more than a thousand protestors in Hawija, south of Kirkut, killing 50 people and leaving 110 injured. The event passed without as much as a whimper in the press, let alone widespread condemnation.
An e-mail noted that the link on "protestors in Hawija" is "worthless and goes to a 2005 report."
Take it up with Fair Observer, I don't edit people's links for them.
But we have covered it in real time so I'll provide those links. January 7th, Nouri's forces assaulted four protesters in Mosul, January 24th, Nouri's forces sent two protesters (and one reporter) to the hospital, and March 8th, Nouri's force fired on protesters in Mosul killing three.
All of that and more appeared to be a trial run for what was coming, the April 23rd massacre of a peaceful sit-in in Hawija which resulted from Nouri's federal forces storming in. Alsumaria noted Kirkuk's Department of Health (Hawija is in Kirkuk) announced 50 activists have died and 110 were injured in the assault. AFP reported the death toll rose to 53 dead. UNICEF noted that the dead included 8 children (twelve more were injured).
In February 2013, Nouri put on a show about 'listening' to the protesters.
He never did.
The ridiculous press trumped his statements as facts.
How stupid is the press today?
Even 30 years ago, his remarks would have been treated as words and the press would have taken a wait-and-see posture. Instead, they hollered "End of story!" When it wasn't.
Nouri's refusal to meet the demands of the protesters, his desire to attack them physically and with words (he's called them "terrorists" since 2011).
Now his failed promises are just stripped of the story by the likes of Alice Fordham.
This isn't reporting.
This isn't even bad reporting.
It's misinformation.
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