OYUN IÇINDE OYUN KERKÜK
Ali Kerküklü
Içindekiler
1. BÖLÜM - IRAK TÜRKLERI
2. BÖLÜM - IRAK KÜRTLERI VE SAHNELENEN OYUNLAR
KUM SAATI YAYINLARI
ISBN 975-6199-97-0
e-mail: info@kumsaatiyayincilik.com
lundi 28 juillet 2008
mercredi 23 juillet 2008
ELECTION CRISIS IN KERKUK IS ENDED
TÜRKMENELİ TV - The Iraqi parliament passed a provincial elections law last Tuesday despite a walkout by Kurdish lawmakers over the details regarding the disputed oil-rich city of Kerkuk.
Deputy Parliamentary Speaker Khalid al-Attiya said it is unlikely any provincial elections will be held this year considering the Kurdish lawmakers' protests.
Kurdish members of parliament have called for a referendum to determine who controls Kerkuk.
Other lawmakers have suggested a power-sharing agreement between the city's Arab, Turkmen and Kurdish residents - a plan that would hand more power to regions and lessen the oversight of the federal government in Baghdad.
Iraq’s parliament had failed many times to approve a draft provincial elections law on because of disagreement over what to do about voting in the disputed oil city of Kerkuk.
Arab residents in the ethnically diverse northern Iraqi city of Kerkuk, protested plans for postponement of the local elections on Tuesday.
The Iraqi parliament delayed a vote on the provincial elections law until Thursday, citing dispute over the status of Kerkuk where Turkmens, Arabs, Kurds, struggle for control over the administration.
The new local elections law was accepted by voting on the election law by one hundred and twenty-seven members of the House of Representatives out of one hundred and forty.
According to parliamentary sources, the item twenty-fourth from the law is concerned about Kerkuk province which provides the postponement of elections in the city and forming a committee comprising four members each from the three main components in Kerkuk and a member of Christians, two of key components of the Council members Deputies as representatives from the ministries of commerce, planning for supervision of the Interior and representatives from the United Nations and the Arab League for sharing civilian authorities, the executive, legislative and sovereign positions and posts in all institutions of Kerkuk, Bringing in military units from central and southern Iraq rather than military forces currently operating in Kerkuk during the Committee's work the problem with the emphasis on the exit of the armed political parties.
The demographic structure of Kerkuk, which is in fact a Turkmen city, has been systematically changed by Kurdish political parties in the area since 2003. However, this fact is being deliberately ignored by the Americans forces.
Kurds, who want to eliminate all the Turkmens from the political arena of Iraq, are doing their best to take control of the areas inhabited by Turkmens.
Their ultimate aim is to control all the oil reserves in the Mosul & Kerkuk area.
The systematic Arabisation process of the Turkmens was first started by the Iraqi government in the 1930s. This policy intensified during the reign of Saddam Hussein. Saddam Hussein implemented this Arabisation policy especially in the Kerkuk region where the majority of the population is Turkmen. On one hand Saddam Hussein settled lots of Arabs in Kerkuk while on the other hand he forced Turkmens living in the area to move to other parts of the country.
http://turkmenelitv.com/v5/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2038&Itemid=43
Deputy Parliamentary Speaker Khalid al-Attiya said it is unlikely any provincial elections will be held this year considering the Kurdish lawmakers' protests.
Kurdish members of parliament have called for a referendum to determine who controls Kerkuk.
Other lawmakers have suggested a power-sharing agreement between the city's Arab, Turkmen and Kurdish residents - a plan that would hand more power to regions and lessen the oversight of the federal government in Baghdad.
Iraq’s parliament had failed many times to approve a draft provincial elections law on because of disagreement over what to do about voting in the disputed oil city of Kerkuk.
Arab residents in the ethnically diverse northern Iraqi city of Kerkuk, protested plans for postponement of the local elections on Tuesday.
The Iraqi parliament delayed a vote on the provincial elections law until Thursday, citing dispute over the status of Kerkuk where Turkmens, Arabs, Kurds, struggle for control over the administration.
The new local elections law was accepted by voting on the election law by one hundred and twenty-seven members of the House of Representatives out of one hundred and forty.
According to parliamentary sources, the item twenty-fourth from the law is concerned about Kerkuk province which provides the postponement of elections in the city and forming a committee comprising four members each from the three main components in Kerkuk and a member of Christians, two of key components of the Council members Deputies as representatives from the ministries of commerce, planning for supervision of the Interior and representatives from the United Nations and the Arab League for sharing civilian authorities, the executive, legislative and sovereign positions and posts in all institutions of Kerkuk, Bringing in military units from central and southern Iraq rather than military forces currently operating in Kerkuk during the Committee's work the problem with the emphasis on the exit of the armed political parties.
The demographic structure of Kerkuk, which is in fact a Turkmen city, has been systematically changed by Kurdish political parties in the area since 2003. However, this fact is being deliberately ignored by the Americans forces.
Kurds, who want to eliminate all the Turkmens from the political arena of Iraq, are doing their best to take control of the areas inhabited by Turkmens.
Their ultimate aim is to control all the oil reserves in the Mosul & Kerkuk area.
The systematic Arabisation process of the Turkmens was first started by the Iraqi government in the 1930s. This policy intensified during the reign of Saddam Hussein. Saddam Hussein implemented this Arabisation policy especially in the Kerkuk region where the majority of the population is Turkmen. On one hand Saddam Hussein settled lots of Arabs in Kerkuk while on the other hand he forced Turkmens living in the area to move to other parts of the country.
http://turkmenelitv.com/v5/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2038&Itemid=43
Kerkük'te Çözüm Sinyali
Irak Parlamentosu, yerel seçim kanunu tasarısını Kürt İttifakı milletvekillerinin meclisi terk etmesine rağmen, oyladı ve kabul etti. Irak Parlamentosu, uzun zamandır tartışılan yerel seçimler yasa tasarısını kabul etti. Kürt İttifakı milletvekillerinin Meclis Başkanı Mahmud el Meşhedani'nin gizli oturum kararını protesto ederek meclisi terk ettiği oylamaya 140 vekil katıldı. Tasarıya 127 vekil 'evet' oyu verdi. Yasanın yürürlüğe girmesi için Cumhurbaşkanı Celal Talabani ve iki yardımcısı tarafından onaylanması gerekiyor. Cumhurbaşkanlığı Konseyi, tasarıyı tekrar görüşülmek üzere meclise iade edebiliyor.
Tasarının görüşülmesi sırasında en büyük tartışma Kerkük konusunda yaşandı. Kürt İttifakı milletvekilleri geçtiğimiz hafta, yerel seçimlerin Kerkük'te de yapılması gerektiğini vurgulamış, alternatif girişimleri protesto ederek meclisi terk etmişti. Türkmen ve Araplar 2003 yılındaki işgalin ardından kentteki demografik yapının ciddi biçimde değiştirildiğine dikkat çekerek, oylamanın Kerküklülerin iradesini yansıtmayacağını savunuyor. Kabul edilen yasa tasarısı Kerkük'teki Arap, Türkmen ve Kürt gruplardan her birinin yönetimde yüzde 32 oranında temsil edilmesini öngörüyor. Bu formülü birkaç ay önce Cumhurbaşkanı Celal Talabani kendisini ziyaret eden Türkmen heyetiyle görüşmesinde gündeme getirmişti. Türkiye'nin de desteklediği bu formüle önce sarı ışık yakan Kürt yetkililer, meclisteki görüşmeler sırasında blok halinde karşı çıktı.
Irak'ta yerel seçimlerin Eylül ayında yapılması planlanıyordu. Kabul edilen yasa tasarısı onaylansa bile seçimlerin en erken Aralık ayında yapılabileceği ifade ediliyor.
http://www.kerkukgazetesi.com/HaberDetay.aspx?Dil=1&Id=Hab633523605016250000&Konum=3
Tasarının görüşülmesi sırasında en büyük tartışma Kerkük konusunda yaşandı. Kürt İttifakı milletvekilleri geçtiğimiz hafta, yerel seçimlerin Kerkük'te de yapılması gerektiğini vurgulamış, alternatif girişimleri protesto ederek meclisi terk etmişti. Türkmen ve Araplar 2003 yılındaki işgalin ardından kentteki demografik yapının ciddi biçimde değiştirildiğine dikkat çekerek, oylamanın Kerküklülerin iradesini yansıtmayacağını savunuyor. Kabul edilen yasa tasarısı Kerkük'teki Arap, Türkmen ve Kürt gruplardan her birinin yönetimde yüzde 32 oranında temsil edilmesini öngörüyor. Bu formülü birkaç ay önce Cumhurbaşkanı Celal Talabani kendisini ziyaret eden Türkmen heyetiyle görüşmesinde gündeme getirmişti. Türkiye'nin de desteklediği bu formüle önce sarı ışık yakan Kürt yetkililer, meclisteki görüşmeler sırasında blok halinde karşı çıktı.
Irak'ta yerel seçimlerin Eylül ayında yapılması planlanıyordu. Kabul edilen yasa tasarısı onaylansa bile seçimlerin en erken Aralık ayında yapılabileceği ifade ediliyor.
http://www.kerkukgazetesi.com/HaberDetay.aspx?Dil=1&Id=Hab633523605016250000&Konum=3
mardi 22 juillet 2008
INDEPENDENT JOURNALIST KILLED IN KERKUK
Kurdish journalist killed in Iraq
The Associated Press
Tue, Jul 22, 2008 (1:54 a.m.)
Iraqi police say gunmen have killed a Kurdish journalist near the northern city of Kerkuk.
Soran Mama Hama, a 23-year-old reporter for the Kurdish-language magazine Leven, was shot late Monday. Police say the motive is unknown.
But the head of a local journalists' union blames the killing on gangs trying to silence reporters who want to expose corruption. Latif Satih Faraj calls the killing a "criminal act" aimed at halting "the free speech of independent journalists in Kerkuk."
The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists says at least 129 journalists and 50 media support workers have been killed in Iraq since the U.S. invasion in 2003, not including the most recent death.
http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2008/jul/22/kurdish-journalist-killed-in-iraq/
The Associated Press
Tue, Jul 22, 2008 (1:54 a.m.)
Iraqi police say gunmen have killed a Kurdish journalist near the northern city of Kerkuk.
Soran Mama Hama, a 23-year-old reporter for the Kurdish-language magazine Leven, was shot late Monday. Police say the motive is unknown.
But the head of a local journalists' union blames the killing on gangs trying to silence reporters who want to expose corruption. Latif Satih Faraj calls the killing a "criminal act" aimed at halting "the free speech of independent journalists in Kerkuk."
The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists says at least 129 journalists and 50 media support workers have been killed in Iraq since the U.S. invasion in 2003, not including the most recent death.
http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2008/jul/22/kurdish-journalist-killed-in-iraq/
IRAQI PARLIAMENT PASSES PROVINCIAL ELECTIONS LAW
By Reidar Visser (www.historiae.org)
22 July 2008
The law on the Iraqi provincial elections was passed by the Iraqi parliament on 22 July. The adopted text largely reflects earlier drafts that have been circulating for weeks and months, with certain important amendments and clarifications:
• The hybrid system of lists and individual candidacies (single-person lists) is maintained. The adoption of this system means that the focus to some extent shifts from parties to politicians: voters can vote for a party list, or a specific person on a party list, or an individual candidate on a single-person list. However, the counting rules with no transferability mechanisms for “redundant votes” (i.e. surplus votes that accrue when a single-person list has reached the necessary number of votes required to secure election) still create a certain bias towards the established parties, because only multi-person lists will accumulate “party scores” that can give them additional shares of the last remaining seats.
• The female quota remains purely aspirational and has been subjugated to the increased focus on individual candidacies: there is a requirement to the parties about nominating a certain proportion of women high on the lists, but this “enhanced visibility” notwithstanding many voters will vote for individuals on lists rather than the lists themselves. A murky paragraph authorising the electoral commission to take undefined steps to secure a 25 per cent female representation after the elections appears to have been removed.
• The ban on the use of religious symbols survives in a slightly more general version: the use of pictures or propaganda for persons who themselves are not candidates is disallowed. Hence any party that wishes an ayatollah to grace its elections poster needs to convince the cleric in question about the virtues of serving as a councillor in one of the Iraqi governorates. Also the ban on the use of places of worship for election campaigning purposes is upheld, alongside an unchanged and still highly hypocritical "ban" on the participation of parties who maintain militias.
• The explicit mention of the 1 October 2008 deadline has been removed, and options for dealing with delays have been expressly mentioned: the existing councils will in that case continue to serve. The requirement of conducting the elections in a single day remains.
• With this piece of legislation, the formal “Lebanonisation” of Iraq has reached an unprecedented magnitude. Elections for Kerkuk have been postponed, but a power-sharing formula for the interim period has been envisaged in which key positions will be distributed between Kurds, Turkmens, Arabs and Christians in accordance with a percentage formula of 32-32-32-4. Security forces from “the centre and the south” of Iraq will take charge of Kirkuk militarily in this period, while a committee of politicians will have until the end of the year to explore solutions to the conflict over the city. In a conundrum to Iraqi and Arab nationalists, it seems as if the insistence on the hated logic of quotas (muhasasa) in this case has been the most effective means of countering Kurdish nationalist ambitions.
• In a similar feast of ad hoc ethno-religious cake-sharing, the “final provisions” of the law allocate a certain number of “minority” seats in certain parts of Iraq, without specifying the procedures for their election. In Baghdad there will be three seats, presumably mostly for Christians; in Mosul 2 seats, specified for Yazidis and the Shabak respectively; in the Kurdish areas two seats in each governorate (likely to go to Christians), and in Basra one seat which will probably go to a Chaldean or a Sabaean.
In many ways, the current version of the law for the provincial elections serves to underline the growing confidence of a group of centralist Shiite politicians around Nuri al-Maliki. It challenges the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq (ISCI) with the ban on the use of religious places of worship in elections campaign, while at the same time does not give the Kurds what they want regarding Kerkuk – Kurdish representatives ultimately abstained from the final vote, where some 127 out of 140 members of parliament reportedly supported the law. Interestingly, complaints about the voting procedure for the law itself prompted criticism from Kurds and UIA independent Khalid al-Atiyya alike, suggesting that the presidential veto may once more come into play in Iraqi politics in relation to this piece of legislation.
http://www.historiae.org/muhafazat.asp
22 July 2008
The law on the Iraqi provincial elections was passed by the Iraqi parliament on 22 July. The adopted text largely reflects earlier drafts that have been circulating for weeks and months, with certain important amendments and clarifications:
• The hybrid system of lists and individual candidacies (single-person lists) is maintained. The adoption of this system means that the focus to some extent shifts from parties to politicians: voters can vote for a party list, or a specific person on a party list, or an individual candidate on a single-person list. However, the counting rules with no transferability mechanisms for “redundant votes” (i.e. surplus votes that accrue when a single-person list has reached the necessary number of votes required to secure election) still create a certain bias towards the established parties, because only multi-person lists will accumulate “party scores” that can give them additional shares of the last remaining seats.
• The female quota remains purely aspirational and has been subjugated to the increased focus on individual candidacies: there is a requirement to the parties about nominating a certain proportion of women high on the lists, but this “enhanced visibility” notwithstanding many voters will vote for individuals on lists rather than the lists themselves. A murky paragraph authorising the electoral commission to take undefined steps to secure a 25 per cent female representation after the elections appears to have been removed.
• The ban on the use of religious symbols survives in a slightly more general version: the use of pictures or propaganda for persons who themselves are not candidates is disallowed. Hence any party that wishes an ayatollah to grace its elections poster needs to convince the cleric in question about the virtues of serving as a councillor in one of the Iraqi governorates. Also the ban on the use of places of worship for election campaigning purposes is upheld, alongside an unchanged and still highly hypocritical "ban" on the participation of parties who maintain militias.
• The explicit mention of the 1 October 2008 deadline has been removed, and options for dealing with delays have been expressly mentioned: the existing councils will in that case continue to serve. The requirement of conducting the elections in a single day remains.
• With this piece of legislation, the formal “Lebanonisation” of Iraq has reached an unprecedented magnitude. Elections for Kerkuk have been postponed, but a power-sharing formula for the interim period has been envisaged in which key positions will be distributed between Kurds, Turkmens, Arabs and Christians in accordance with a percentage formula of 32-32-32-4. Security forces from “the centre and the south” of Iraq will take charge of Kirkuk militarily in this period, while a committee of politicians will have until the end of the year to explore solutions to the conflict over the city. In a conundrum to Iraqi and Arab nationalists, it seems as if the insistence on the hated logic of quotas (muhasasa) in this case has been the most effective means of countering Kurdish nationalist ambitions.
• In a similar feast of ad hoc ethno-religious cake-sharing, the “final provisions” of the law allocate a certain number of “minority” seats in certain parts of Iraq, without specifying the procedures for their election. In Baghdad there will be three seats, presumably mostly for Christians; in Mosul 2 seats, specified for Yazidis and the Shabak respectively; in the Kurdish areas two seats in each governorate (likely to go to Christians), and in Basra one seat which will probably go to a Chaldean or a Sabaean.
In many ways, the current version of the law for the provincial elections serves to underline the growing confidence of a group of centralist Shiite politicians around Nuri al-Maliki. It challenges the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq (ISCI) with the ban on the use of religious places of worship in elections campaign, while at the same time does not give the Kurds what they want regarding Kerkuk – Kurdish representatives ultimately abstained from the final vote, where some 127 out of 140 members of parliament reportedly supported the law. Interestingly, complaints about the voting procedure for the law itself prompted criticism from Kurds and UIA independent Khalid al-Atiyya alike, suggesting that the presidential veto may once more come into play in Iraqi politics in relation to this piece of legislation.
http://www.historiae.org/muhafazat.asp
KARADZIC LIVED FREELY IN BELGRADE USING FALSE IDENTITY AND DISGUISED
BBC:
Karadzic 'worked in Serb clinic'
Mr Karadzic lived freely in Belgrade using a false identity and disguised
Captured Bosnian Serb war crimes suspect Radovan Karadzic was practising alternative medicine and living in Serbia's capital, Belgrade.
He was working in a private clinic in a "very convincing disguise", sporting a long white beard, and calling himself Dragan Dabic, a Serb official said.
He was arrested on Monday near Belgrade after more than a decade on the run.
He is indicted by the UN tribunal for war crimes and genocide over the 1995 massacre at Srebrenica.
A judge has ordered Mr Karadzic's transfer to the UN war crimes court in The Hague, Serbia's war crimes prosecutor Vladimir Vukcevic said.
Mr Karadzic's lawyer, Sveta Vujacic, has said he will appeal the ruling; he has three days to do so.
THE CHARGES
Eleven counts of genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and other atrocities
Charged over the killing of some 12,000 civilians during the siege of Sarajevo
Allegedly organised the massacre of at least 7,500 Muslim men and youths in Srebrenica
Targeted Bosnian Muslim and Croat political leaders, intellectuals and professionals
Unlawfully deported and transferred civilians because of national or religious identity
Destroyed homes, businesses and sacred sites
Rasim Ljajic, the Serbian minister for relations with the international war crimes tribunal in The Hague, said Mr Karadzic had been living very convincingly as a non-Serbian citizen, using false papers.
"The fact that he was involved with alternative medicine, earning his money from practising alternative medicine, shows that he worked. He was working in a private practice and the last place where he had residence was New Belgrade," Mr Ljajic said at a news conference in Belgrade.
"[Mr Karadzic] walked around freely, even appeared in public places. The people who rented him the apartment did not know his true identity," Mr Vukcevic said.
Certain people who had been helping Mr Karadzic had been under surveillance for some time, the officials added.
They said the authorities did not want to reveal any more details of the Monday evening operation so as not to jeopardise efforts to arrest two other war crime suspects on the run, including Mr Karadzic's wartime military leader, Ratko Mladic.
Mr Karadzic had last been seen in public in eastern Bosnia in 1996 and was previously thought to have hidden in Serb controlled parts of Bosnia, Montenegro and Serbia.
Serbian officials give details of Mr Karadzic's capture
The arrest of Mr Karadzic and other indicted war criminals is one of the main conditions of Serbian progress towards European Union membership.
French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, whose country holds the EU's rotating presidency, said a major obstacle to Serbian membership had been lifted.
Mr Karadzic denied the charges against him soon after the first indictment and refused to recognise the legitimacy of the UN tribunal.
The UN says Mr Karadzic's forces killed at least 7,500 Muslim men and boys from Srebrenica in July 1995 as part of a campaign to "terrorise and demoralise the Bosnian Muslim and Bosnian Croat population".
He was also charged over the shelling of Sarajevo, and the use of 284 UN peacekeepers as human shields in May and June 1995.
After the Dayton accord that ended the Bosnian war in late 1995, the former nationalist president went into hiding.
International pressure to catch Mr Karadzic mounted in spring 2005 when several of his former generals surrendered and a video of Bosnian Serb soldiers shooting captives from Srebrenica shocked television viewers in former Yugoslavia.
He had been a close ally of former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, who was himself extradited to The Hague tribunal in 2001, but died in 2006, shortly before a verdict was due to be delivered in his case.
Juan Cole Comment: Der Spiegel Proves al-Maliki Story Correct
Senator Barack Obama is in Iraq for consultations with American military commanders and Iraqi leaders. Despite all the talk about Iraq being "calm," I'd like to point out that the month just before the last visit Barack Obama made to Iraq (he went in January, 2006), there were 537 civilian and ISF Iraqi casualties.
In June of this year, 2008, there were 554 according to AP. These are official statistics gathered passively that probably only capture about 10 percent of the true toll.That is, the Iraqi death toll is actually still worse now than the last time Obama was in Iraq! (See the bombings and shootings listed below for Sunday).
The hype around last year's troop escalation obscures a simple fact: that Obama formed his views about the need for the US to leave Iraq at a time when its security situation was very similar to what it is now! Why a return to the bad situation in late 05 and early 06 should be greeted by the GOP as the veritable coming of the Messiah is beyond me. You have people like Joe Lieberman saying silly things like if it weren't for the troop escalation, Obama wouldn't be able to visit Iraq. Uh, he visited it before the troop escalation, just fine.
The troop escalation, which actually allowed the ethnic cleansing of the Sunnis of Baghdad and the expulsion of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis from the country, has largely been pushed as propaganda by the White House and the AEI. Here's an example of how their propaganda works.
As is usual with news it does not like, the Bush administration attempted to muddy the waters this weekend regarding the interview of PM Nuri al-Maliki with Der Spiegel in which he expressed approval of Barack Obama's plan to get US troops out of Iraq within 16 months of next January. Al-Maliki told Der Spiegel in response to a question about how long US troops would be in his country,
'Maliki: As soon as possible, as far as we're concerned. U.S. presidential candidate Barack Obama talks about 16 months. That, we think, would be the right timeframe for a withdrawal, with the possibility of slight changes.
SPIEGEL: Is this an endorsement for the US presidential election in November? Does Obama, who has no military background, ultimately have a better understanding of Iraq than war hero John McCain?
Maliki: Those who operate on the premise of short time periods in Iraq today are being more realistic. Artificially prolonging the tenure of US troops in Iraq would cause problems. Of course, this is by no means an election endorsement. Who they choose as their president is the Americans' business. But it's the business of Iraqis to say what they want. '
Ali al-Dabbagh, who is usually described as al-Maliki's spokesman but actually seems to work for the CENTCOM or Pentagon Middle East command, was trotted out to make vague statements about Der Spiegel's having mistranslated or misinterpreted what al-Maliki said.
This denial was issued through CENTCOM! When the original demand came from al-Maliki for a timetable for US withdrawal, it was al-Dabbagh who reinterpreted it as a 'time horizon.' Al-Dabbagh was contradicted by National Security Counsellor Muwaffaq al-Rubaie, who seems actually closer in this thinking to al-Maliki. My guess is that al-Dabbagh has been recruited by some agency in Washington, DC, to explain away al-Maliki's statements whenever they contradict Bush's.Der Spiegel stood by its story.
The text of Der Spiegel's statement is here. It turns out that the translator involved works for al-Maliki, not for Der Spiegel, and so presumably knew what the prime minister's words meant in Arabic. And for the piece de resistance, it turns out that Der Spiegel has an audiotape of the Arabic of the interview, which they leaked to The New York Times. Sabrina Tavernise and Jeff Zeleny write:
' But the interpreter for the interview works for Mr. Maliki’s office, not the magazine. . . The following is a direct translation from the Arabic of Mr. Maliki’s comments by The Times: “Obama’s remarks that — if he takes office — in 16 months he would withdraw the forces, we think that this period could increase or decrease a little, but that it could be suitable to end the presence of the forces in Iraq.” He continued: “Who wants to exit in a quicker way has a better assessment of the situation in Iraq.” '
But you see, it does not matter that al-Maliki actually said what he said. It does not matter that Der Spiegel can prove it. All that matters is that the Goebbelses around Bush and Cheney have managed to muddy the waters and produce doubt, taking the hard edge off the interview. Even AFP, the usually skeptical French wire service, asserted that al-Maliki had "denied" the accuracy of the Der Spiegel interview!
Of course, al-Maliki has done no such thing. CENTCOM ventriloquising al-Dabbagh engaged in the denial, and a very vague one at that.
That is the way propaganda works, to obscure the truth and ensure it can be denied. Some wingnut even tried to pressure me to retract the little sentence I had written on the affair yesterday, on the grounds of "al-Dabbagh's" mendacious and ridiculous assertions. Our information system is so corrupt and easily manipulated that even a clumsy ploy can obscure the truth and bully the journalists.
In June of this year, 2008, there were 554 according to AP. These are official statistics gathered passively that probably only capture about 10 percent of the true toll.That is, the Iraqi death toll is actually still worse now than the last time Obama was in Iraq! (See the bombings and shootings listed below for Sunday).
The hype around last year's troop escalation obscures a simple fact: that Obama formed his views about the need for the US to leave Iraq at a time when its security situation was very similar to what it is now! Why a return to the bad situation in late 05 and early 06 should be greeted by the GOP as the veritable coming of the Messiah is beyond me. You have people like Joe Lieberman saying silly things like if it weren't for the troop escalation, Obama wouldn't be able to visit Iraq. Uh, he visited it before the troop escalation, just fine.
The troop escalation, which actually allowed the ethnic cleansing of the Sunnis of Baghdad and the expulsion of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis from the country, has largely been pushed as propaganda by the White House and the AEI. Here's an example of how their propaganda works.
As is usual with news it does not like, the Bush administration attempted to muddy the waters this weekend regarding the interview of PM Nuri al-Maliki with Der Spiegel in which he expressed approval of Barack Obama's plan to get US troops out of Iraq within 16 months of next January. Al-Maliki told Der Spiegel in response to a question about how long US troops would be in his country,
'Maliki: As soon as possible, as far as we're concerned. U.S. presidential candidate Barack Obama talks about 16 months. That, we think, would be the right timeframe for a withdrawal, with the possibility of slight changes.
SPIEGEL: Is this an endorsement for the US presidential election in November? Does Obama, who has no military background, ultimately have a better understanding of Iraq than war hero John McCain?
Maliki: Those who operate on the premise of short time periods in Iraq today are being more realistic. Artificially prolonging the tenure of US troops in Iraq would cause problems. Of course, this is by no means an election endorsement. Who they choose as their president is the Americans' business. But it's the business of Iraqis to say what they want. '
Ali al-Dabbagh, who is usually described as al-Maliki's spokesman but actually seems to work for the CENTCOM or Pentagon Middle East command, was trotted out to make vague statements about Der Spiegel's having mistranslated or misinterpreted what al-Maliki said.
This denial was issued through CENTCOM! When the original demand came from al-Maliki for a timetable for US withdrawal, it was al-Dabbagh who reinterpreted it as a 'time horizon.' Al-Dabbagh was contradicted by National Security Counsellor Muwaffaq al-Rubaie, who seems actually closer in this thinking to al-Maliki. My guess is that al-Dabbagh has been recruited by some agency in Washington, DC, to explain away al-Maliki's statements whenever they contradict Bush's.Der Spiegel stood by its story.
The text of Der Spiegel's statement is here. It turns out that the translator involved works for al-Maliki, not for Der Spiegel, and so presumably knew what the prime minister's words meant in Arabic. And for the piece de resistance, it turns out that Der Spiegel has an audiotape of the Arabic of the interview, which they leaked to The New York Times. Sabrina Tavernise and Jeff Zeleny write:
' But the interpreter for the interview works for Mr. Maliki’s office, not the magazine. . . The following is a direct translation from the Arabic of Mr. Maliki’s comments by The Times: “Obama’s remarks that — if he takes office — in 16 months he would withdraw the forces, we think that this period could increase or decrease a little, but that it could be suitable to end the presence of the forces in Iraq.” He continued: “Who wants to exit in a quicker way has a better assessment of the situation in Iraq.” '
But you see, it does not matter that al-Maliki actually said what he said. It does not matter that Der Spiegel can prove it. All that matters is that the Goebbelses around Bush and Cheney have managed to muddy the waters and produce doubt, taking the hard edge off the interview. Even AFP, the usually skeptical French wire service, asserted that al-Maliki had "denied" the accuracy of the Der Spiegel interview!
Of course, al-Maliki has done no such thing. CENTCOM ventriloquising al-Dabbagh engaged in the denial, and a very vague one at that.
That is the way propaganda works, to obscure the truth and ensure it can be denied. Some wingnut even tried to pressure me to retract the little sentence I had written on the affair yesterday, on the grounds of "al-Dabbagh's" mendacious and ridiculous assertions. Our information system is so corrupt and easily manipulated that even a clumsy ploy can obscure the truth and bully the journalists.
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