BLAD AL_ARAB AUTANI: July 2016

Monday, 25 July 2016

The magic wands in Iraq

The Common Ills

Hamza Hendawi (AP) reports, "For nearly a decade, anyone driving through one of Baghdad's many checkpoints was subjected to a search by a soldier pointing a security wand at their vehicle and watching the device intently to see if its antenna moved. If it pointed at the car, it had supposedly detected a possible bomb."

Huh?

It's the magic wands.

From the May 20, 2013 snapshot:

Violence slams Iraq today.  Brisband Times notes (in a video report), "Washing the blood off the streets, the clear up begins after another deadly day of violence in Iraq."  Fiji Broadcasting Corporation observes, "Baghdad was the worst hit." This morning,  Al Jazeera noted, "Eight car bombs in mainly Shia districts of the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, killed 20 people on Monday."   By the end of the day, AP reported the bombing toll was up to 10 and the death toll to 48 (with over 150 injured). On this AP video report, a Baghdad man states, "We have become accustom to such explosions. We have seen blasts every day. These attacks will never frighten us, God willing." As Baghdad is slammed with bombings, it's worth dropping back to the May 10th snapshot:

Alsumaria reports that cleric and movement leader Moqtada al-Sadr declared his sympathy for the Iraqis who've lost family members as a result of the purchase and use by Nouri's government of 'magic' wands -- which have been known not to work since 2009. Moqtada urged the families who lost loved ones and those who were injured as a result to sue the person who purchased the items. (That would be Nouri.) April 23rd (see the  April 24, 2013 snapshot), James McCormick, the man who made and sold the wands, who was on trial for those wands, was pronounced guilty on three counts of fraud. And still Nouri has allowed -- no, insisted that the wands be used.   May 2nd, McCormick was sentenced to a maxium of 10 years.  Jake Ryan (Sun) quoted Judge Richard Hone stating, "The device was useless, the profit outrageous and your culpability as a fraudster has to be placed in the highest category. Your profits were obscene. You have neither insight, shame or any sense of remorse." And yet last Friday, Ammar Karim (AFP) reported that the 'magic' wands to 'detect' bombs (and drugs and, no doubt, spirits from the other world) are still being used in Iraq. He spoke with a police officer in Baghdad who admits that everyone knows that they don't work but that the police are under orders to use the wands.

Last Saturday,   NINA reported, "Leader of the Sadrist Trend, Muqtada al-Sadr, demanded Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki to apologize and stand before Parliament to answer about the deal of the explosives detection instruments." Moqtada suspects some Iraqis were bribed in this deal and wants names he also demands that the 'magic' wands stop being used immediately stating that they are "an insult to the Iraqis' intelligence." Moqtada and Iraqiya have called for Nouri to appear before Parliament and explain why the wands were purchased, who profited from them and the various details of the deal that was made for them.

Al Mada reports that the Ministry of the Interior claimed today that they would recover all the money spent on the magic wands. Ministry of the Interior Inspector General Aqeel Turaihi states that they have known and acknowledged since October 2010 that the magic wands do not work.

Regardless of whether money is recovered for the purchase, as Moqtada al-Sadr points out, lives have been lost and people have been injured.

So in 2010, it was known that the magic wands were not working? No. It was known before that. May 11th,  Alsumaria reported that new documents from the Ministry of Interior (reproduced with the article) demonstrate that a Ministry committee said the wands were not working and, in 2009, recommended that they not be purchased anymore. There were calls for Nouri to appear before Parliament to answer questions. He needs to. But he has refused all calls so far -- despite the Constitution on this issue. He continues to violate and ignore the Constitution.   Kitabat also coverd the revelations about the 2009 recommendation at length here. May 12th,   Alsumaria reportedParliament's Integrity Committee held a hearing to determine the details surrounding the purchase of these wands and Committee Chair Bahaa al-Araji states that the Integrity Commission appeared before the Committee and offered names of "top officials" involved.  Mohammad Sabah (Al Mada) reported that even after Nouri was personally warned by a British commander "Colonel Powell" that the devices did not work, an order was still place and Al Mada reproduced that order -- it came from Nouri's office. Last Thursday, National Iraqi News Agency reports that Iraqiya MP Nada al-Jubouri is calling for an emergency session of Parliament to address yesterday's bombings, "These repeated security breaches came as a result of the lack of a way to detect car bombs, which claim the lives of people, in addition to the weakness of the intelligence information." May 3rd,Ammar Karim (AFP) reported that despite the wands being found not to work, despite the conviction and sentencing of their seller and maker in a British court, the wands were still being used in Baghdad.  May 2nd, the seller and maker was sentenced:

The Belfast Telegraph notes that [James] McCormick "showed no reaction as he was told his 'callous confidence trick' was the worst fraud imaginable."  Jake Ryan (Sun) quotes Judge Richard Hone stating, "The device was useless, the profit outrageous and your culpability as a fraudster has to be placed in the highest category. Your profits were obscene. You have neither insight, shame or any sense of remorse."

The use of these 'magic' wands in Iraq still is criminal.

And yet, even with the court verdict, Iraq continued to use these useless magic wands.

The wands did nothing to protect anyone.

Nothing.

According to Hamza Hendawi (AP), the wands are no more but they've sung that song before.

Isaiah's latest THE WORLD TODAY JUST NUTS "Debbie's Parting Words" went up last night.

New content at THIRD went up late last night:

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

Iraq

Hejira

The Common Ills

The violence never ends in Iraq. Paul Armstrong (CNN) reports, "Terror once again struck the streets of Iraq's capital Sunday, after a suicide bombing killed at least 21 people in a residential neighborhood in northern Baghdad." In other violence, the US Defense Dept announced today:

Strikes in Iraq
Fighter aircraft conducted four strikes in Iraq, coordinated with and in support of the Iraqi government:
-- Near Habbaniyah, a strike struck an ISIL tactical unit and destroyed an ISIL fighting position.
-- Near Qayyarah, a strike struck an ISIL tactical unit and destroyed two ISIL mortar systems, 12 ISIL rockets, 19 ISIL rocket rails, seven ISIL oil tankers, and an ISIL assembly area and denied ISIL access to terrain.
-- Near Ramadi, a strike struck an ISIL tactical unit and destroyed an ISIL fighting position, an ISIL vehicle, and an ISIL weapons cache.
-- Near Sultan Abdallah, a strike destroyed an ISIL weapons storage facility.

Task force officials define a strike as one or more kinetic events that occur in roughly the same geographic location to produce a single, sometimes cumulative, effect. Therefore, officials explained, a single aircraft delivering a single weapon against a lone ISIL vehicle is one strike, but so is multiple aircraft delivering dozens of weapons against buildings, vehicles and weapon systems in a compound, for example, having the cumulative effect of making those targets harder or impossible for ISIL to use. Accordingly, officials said, they do not report the number or type of aircraft employed in a strike, the number of munitions dropped in each strike, or the number of individual munition impact points against a target. Ground-based artillery fired in counterfire or in fire support to maneuver roles is not classified as a strike.

More and more, people are pointing out the need for the political crises to be addressed. This was a point that US President Barack Obama made June 19, 2014. But the US government has done nothing to address this issue.

It has only dropped bombs and more bombs.

When the Islamic State loses Mosul, it doesn't leave Iraq.

It was a threat before it seized cities.

The Iraqi government's incompetence and its persecution of Sunnis allowed the Islamic State to flower across Iraq.

That's still not being addressed.

In other news, last Sunday, Stephen Kalin (REUTERS) reported, "Powerful Shi'ite Muslim cleric Moqtada al-Sadr instructed his followers on Sunday to target U.S. troops deploying to Iraq as part of the military campaign against Islamic State." Mustafa Saadoun (AL-MONITOR) reports:

Before Carter’s announcement on sending more US troops to Iraq, Sadr had hinted in aTV interview July 6 about his intention to target the US Embassy in Iraq by saying, “The [US] embassy has harassed us before and now it is our time to harass it.”
Today, Sadr has a force within the Popular Mobilization Units (PMU) known by the name of the Peace Brigades, which he said were ready to target US forces anywhere in the country. This places the Iraqi government in an awkward position with its US ally, which has been supporting the war against terrorism and signed the Strategic Framework Agreement with Iraq.
What is strange is that Sadr has a political bloc in the Iraqi government and parliament. Iraq has positive bilateral relations with the United States and is working under theStrategic Framework Agreement signed between the two countries in 2011 and voted on by the Iraqi parliament. As per the agreement, the United States is committed to provide support and assistance to Iraq on all levels.

Is Moqtada serious?

Does he have support outside his followers?

Diplomatic efforts, serious ones, would have gone a long way towards allowing for an honest assessment at this point.

I'm traveling in some vehicle
I'm sitting in some cafe
A defector from the petty wars
That shell shock love away
-- "Hejira," written by Joni Mitchell, first appears on her album of the same name

The number of US service members the Dept of Defense states died in the Iraq War is [PDF format warning] 4517 (including 20 in Operation Inherent Resolve which includes at least 3 Iraq War fatalities).

The following community sites updated:

The Daily Jot

THIS JUST IN! DOWNFALL DEBBIE RISES AGAIN!

4 hours ago

Cedric's Big Mix

Debbie brings the Cesspool with her to Philly

4 hours ago

Ann's Mega Dub

Pat Smith on Hillary Clinton

10 hours ago

SICKOFITRADLZ

Stop singing, Danny Boy

10 hours ago

Trina's Kitchen

When the whip comes down

10 hours ago

Kat's Korner (of The Common Ills)

Hillary is her own problem

10 hours ago

Thomas Friedman is a Great Man

Well good for the _____ (Not in praise of Gloria Steinem)

11 hours ago

Oh Boy It Never Ends

STAR TREK BEYOND

11 hours ago

Mikey Likes It!

Jill Stein on foreign policy

1 day ago

Ruth's Report

No the questions do not go away

1 day ago

Sex and Politics and Screeds and Attitude

the new mccarthyism?

1 day ago

Like Maria Said Paz

Tweet of the week

1 day ago

We're trying to finish THIRD before all going to sleep. I hope we do. In the meantime, Isaiah's latest comic goes up after this.

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

Iraq

Iraq snapshot Saturday, July 23, 2016.

The Common Ills

Saturday, July 23, 2016. Chaos and violence continue, secret dealings on behalf of Hillary Clinton get exposed by WikiLeaks, questions arise about where the money for the Iraqi people will actually go, and much more.

Presumed Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton -- or, as Mike bills her, the repulsive nominee -- is back in the news.

‏@cynthiamckinney

You'll see Hillary in the White House With My Vote—When Pigs Fly! Watch her pander to Blacks at the Convention.

56 retweets78 likes

No, not because the War Hawk chose Tim Kaine.

Her cult will look the other way and pretend like Tim Kaine's abortion stance doesn't matter the same way they ignore the way Hillary has chipped away at abortion rights since she first stepped onto the national stage.

No, no one's talking about Tim Kaine because no one -- probably not even his own mother -- has ever found Tim Kaine remotely interesting.

It's WikiLeaks:

‏@wikileaks

RELEASE: 19,252 emails from the US Democratic National Committee https://wikileaks.org/dnc-emails/  #Hillary2016 #FeelTheBern

14,243 retweets11,185 likes

Gee, Bernie Sanders, are you carrying about these "damn e-mails"?

Because you really should.

Theodore Schleifer (CNN) reports:

Nearly 20,000 emails sent and received by Democratic National Committee staff members were released Friday by Wikileaks, with one message in particular raising questions about the committee's impartiality during the Democratic primary.

The revelation threatened to shatter the uneasy peace between the Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders camps and supporters days before the Democratic convention kicks off next week.

The leaks, from January 2015 to May 2016, feature Democratic staffers debating everything from how to deal with challenging media requests to coordinating the committee's message with other powerful interests in Washington.

Michael Sainato (OBESERVER) points, out, "In its recent leak of 20,000 DNC emails from January 2015 to May 2016, DNC staff discuss how to deal with Bernie Sanders’ popularity as a challenge to Clinton’s candidacy. Instead of treating Sanders as a viable candidate for the Democratic ticket, the DNC worked against him and his campaign to ensure Clinton received the nomination." Tom Hamburger and Karen Tumulty (WASHINGTON POST) add, "One potential complication is that Sanders’s supporters are crucial to Democratic hopes of retaining the White House in the fall. They bring to the contest both passion and a potentially vast donor base."

And when not attempting to derail the Bernie Sanders campaign, the e-mails reveal attempts at subverting journalism.

Queen Bee Debbie Wasserman Schultz, for example, cannot handle criticism anymore than she can handle bathing.

She sees this item in a brief from an MSNBC newsletter (sent to all who sign up for them):

>>> On Wednesday, MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” co-host Mika Brzezinski called for DNC Chair Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) to “step down” over her handling of this year’s Democratic presidential primary. >>> After playing a clip of Wasserman Schultz, Brzezinski said, “This has been very poorly handled from the start. Ot has been unfair, and they haven’t taken him seriously, and it starts, quite frankly, with the person that we just heard speaking. It just does.” >>> Brzezinski added of Wasserman Schultz, “She should step down.” >>> Brzezinski’s co-host, former Republican Congressman Joe Scarborough wondered why Sanders would “get in line” for the Democratic Party, given that they “rigged the entire thing,” and that if he was in Sanders’ position, “I’d say, ‘Go straight to hell, I’m running as an independent.'”

Wasserman Shcultz then copies that item and fires an e-mail off to Chuck Todd:

On May 18, 2016, at 9:19 AM, "hrtsleeve@gmail.com" wrote: > >> Chuck, see below. I would like to discuss this with you today. Can you reach out to Luis to schedule a call? Thanks. >> DWS >>

She titles this e-mail "Chuck, this must stop."

Todd is trying to spin this as just the normal thing that can happen when you do coverage.

That's a lie. There's nothing normal about him declaring this of Mika in an e-mail to Debbie's DNC staffer (Communications Director Luis Miranda):

I don't know. She can do 180s after these calls. It can't get worse

Who's paying Chuck Todd?

I thought it was ComCast but it appears he believes he's being paid by the Democratic National Committee.

In that e-mail, he's just a little bitch, isn't he? "She can do 180s after these calls. It can't get worse."

So good to know Chuck's got the backs of the other NBC employees.

He was contacted in his position as the Political Director of NBC News.

If he's going to sell out employees, he better advise NBC News and ComCast of that decision.

The media was entirely too close with Clinton and her campaign. This is Marcia's "Fire Kenneth Vogel:"

As this report details, POLITICO 'reporter' Kenneth Vogel made a deal with the DNC that they would see his article before he submittted it to his editors and, not only that, he also then asked for their thoughts.
This is not reporting.
And who knows how many other 'reporters' made similar deals?
A pall is cast on all journalism and the only answer is to fire Kenneth Vogel for violating journalistic integrity and ethics.

Hillary loves to claim the press is against her and her cult loves to make that claim as well.

But Hillary's always used the press. Ava and I'll probably address how she got what was coming to her in the 90s after what she did. It seems history has been forgotten there.

Turning to Iraq, Hannah Allam (MCCLATCHY NEWSPAPERS) surveys the scene:

The news sounded just as good this week as it did in 2007: With U.S. backing, Iraqi forces have pushed savage extremists out of key territories in what seems to be a turning point in the campaign to rout the insurgency.
The lesson of 2007, however, was that such victories can be fleeting. The jihadist movement that today is known as the Islamic State found fertile ground in areas the U.S. government thought had been pacified.
Now, diplomats and analysts warn, the same toxic mix of a security vacuum and sectarian governance could threaten the gains against the Islamic State that the Obama administration touted this week at gatherings in Washington of officials from the anti-Islamic State coalition.

Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/nation-world/national/national-security/article91377042.html#storylink=cpy

We've been noting the lack of attention given to a political solution for over two years now.

The White House is all on board with sending more US troops into Iraq, more weapons there, more everything military.

That's the only thing they've done.

Today, the US Defense Dept announced:

Strikes in Iraq
Rocket artillery, attack, fighter and remotely piloted aircraft conducted 10 strikes in Iraq, coordinated with and in support of the Iraqi government:

-- Near Albu Hayat, a strike destroyed an ISIL mortar system.

-- Near Habbaniyah, a strike struck an ISIL tactical unit and destroyed an ISIL fighting position.

-- Near Mosul, three strikes struck three ISIL tactical units and destroyed an ISIL vehicle, an ISIL unmanned aerial vehicle, an ISIL mortar system, ISIL-used engineering equipment, an ISIL tunnel system, and two ISIL assembly areas and suppressed and ISIL rocket position.

-- Near Ramadi, a strike destroyed an ISIL tactical unit and an ISIL fighting position.

-- Near Tuz, a strike struck an ISIL tactical unit and destroyed an ISIL vehicle and an ISIL fighting position.

-- Near Ar Rutbah, a strike struck an ISIL vehicle-borne bomb storage facility.

-- Near Qayyarah, a strike destroyed an ISIL vehicle.

-- Near Sultan Abdallah, a strike destroyed an ISIL weapons storage facility.

Task force officials define a strike as one or more kinetic events that occur in roughly the same geographic location to produce a single, sometimes cumulative, effect. Therefore, officials explained, a single aircraft delivering a single weapon against a lone ISIL vehicle is one strike, but so is multiple aircraft delivering dozens of weapons against buildings, vehicles and weapon systems in a compound, for example, having the cumulative effect of making those targets harder or impossible for ISIL to use. Accordingly, officials said, they do not report the number or type of aircraft employed in a strike, the number of munitions dropped in each strike, or the number of individual munition impact points against a target. Ground-based artillery fired in counterfire or in fire support to maneuver roles is not classified as a strike.

Dropping back to Thursday morning's snapshot;

Sorry to interrupt the chorus of "We Are The World" but how will it be ensured that the money goes to those in need?

Kerry's comments included, "The goal of our pledging conference is to raise money to help Iraqis in four priority areas: humanitarian aid, de-mining, immediate stabilization, and longer-term recovery."

These would have been questions to pursue but Elise Labbot didn't.

CNN's reporter got the first question -- when you're the State Dept's pet you get those sort of favors -- and immediately turned a briefing on Iraq into Turkey.

No one was surprised.

When everyone's whispering -- true or false, I don't know -- that you're sleeping with John Kerry, presumably, you're calling the shots. He is after all married (to a very good friend of mine, so watch your back, Elise, if the rumors are true and say prayers of thanks that you don't live in China). And if the rumors aren't true, stop pretending flirting is part of a reporter's arsenal.

Iraq's attending this conference with government officials. Presumably their hands are out.

And Iraq is one of the most corrupt countries in the world and has been for over a decade -- see the rankings on Transparency Index.

‏@bbclysedoucet

Great to meet university students - they're angry at Iraq's politicians for stealing their future. @BBCWorld #iraq 

17 retweets26 likes

Yes, the students are angry, as are the people of Iraq.

Iraq is an oil rich country raking in billions in oil revenues each year -- billions more than they have millions of people. Yet government corruption is so great that this oil rich country now has to beg the International Money Fund for dollars. You don't catch oil rich Saudi Arabia doing that.

Where is the money going?

That's an important question also in terms of who benefits.

It is an important question.

And it got asked in Friday's State Dept press briefing moderated by spokesperson Elizabeth Trudeau:

QUESTION: It seems the State Department did a great job hosting all those international conferences on Iraq.

MS TRUDEAU: Thank you. We appreciate it. It was a good team.

QUESTION: No, terrific, and I was very pleased to see the Kurdish – KRG representative was there as well.

MS TRUDEAU: She was.

QUESTION: And that was terrific. And you even raised more money – somewhat more money.

MS TRUDEAU: Over $2.1 billion for Iraq.

QUESTION: And you said, if I recall correctly, 2 billion was the goal. So you raised more than your goal?

MS TRUDEAU: That’s correct.

QUESTION: So I have a question for the next phase.

MS TRUDEAU: Yeah.

QUESTION: Because the Iraqi Government’s a – well, it ranks 161 out of 168 countries for corruption in Transparency International’s index, and it’s not known particularly for its honest government. What mechanisms are in place to make sure that this money is spent correctly, and since the Kurdistan region hosts two-thirds of the displaced persons and the refugees from the war with [the Islamic State], to ensure that the Kurdistan region gets its fair share of the – this humanitarian aid?

MS TRUDEAU: Well, I’d start off by saying that the United States is grateful for each of the countries and organizations who were represented at the conference. As you know, this was a tremendous success, so thanks for recognizing that. These countries and organizations who participated are demonstrating important leadership, and they’re making it possible for Iraqi citizens displaced by [the Islamic State] to return – to choose to return – to their homes, to receive the services they need in order to rebuild their community.
Speaking specifically about the money, because I do want to discuss that a little, pledges from these international donors will go to four critical need areas in Iraq: humanitarian assistance, de-mining, the UNDP Funding Facility for Immediate Stabilization, and the Funding Facility for Expanded Stabilization. The latter, it’s my understanding, functions as a bridging effort between the Iraqi Government and the coalition in areas liberated by [the Islamic State].
In terms of the Iraqi Government’s work on this, our partnership with the Iraqi Government is deep and it’s strong. This is something that we’ve spoken frequently about in our support of the government as they seek to reform their own efforts in doing this, so it’s something that we’re very closely invested in.
In your question on what money is going where, the conference just wrapped up, so I’m not going to get ahead of that. What we will say, which we have always said, is that funding and the support will go through Baghdad, but we are very aware of the impact that certain areas of the country have experienced at the hands of [the Islamic State].

QUESTION: And doubtless you have in mind measures to make sure that Baghdad spends the money appropriately and it doesn’t go into people’s pockets?

MS TRUDEAU: So that’s one of the conversations that we continue to have with U.S. aid regardless of where it goes in the world.

Did you notice Trudeau's long, long response which finally boiled down to "I'm not going to get ahead of that."

She has no answer.

They held a conference, raised money and are now handing it over with no checks or balances on it to ensure that the money goes where it's needed.

This is the country Transparency Index ranked Iraq the 161st most corrupt country out of 167 countries.

RUDAW reports:

The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) is concerned that, while it hosts nearly 2 million internally displaced Iraqis and is a key force on the frontlines in the war against the Islamic State, it will not get its share of the $2.1 billion pledged for Iraq at a conference in Washington this week.
“We are talking to the international community to respect the great responsibility that the Kurdistan Region is facing regarding the ISIS war and the refugee crisis,” Falah Mustafa, head of the Kurdistan Regional Government’s foreign relations department, told Rudaw English.

In other news, XINHUA reports:

Islamic State (IS) militants launched bomb attacks targeting civilians fleeing the militant-seized town of Shirqat in Iraq's Salahudin province on Saturday, killing 13 and injuring 19 others, a provincial security source said.
In one attack, a suicide bomber detonated his explosive vest among a crowd of families in western Shirqat, some 280 km north of the Iraqi capital Baghdad, after they left their homes to seek help from the security forces outside the besieged town, the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.
The blast left 11 people dead and nine others wounded, most of them women and children, the source said.

In another attack, a bomb planted on a road outside Shirqat went off near a group of fleeing families, killing two children and wounding 10, the source added.

The following community sites -- plus Jody Watley -- updated:

Iraq