Psyche, Science, and Society

“Democratic” Iraq set to arrest police officer for truth telling

From Editor & Publisher:

he Interior Ministry acknowledged Thursday that an Iraqi police officer whose existence had been denied by the Iraqis and the U.S. military is in fact an active member of the force, and said he now faces arrest for speaking to the media.

Ministry spokesman Brig. Abdul-Karim Khalaf, who had previously denied there was any such police employee as Capt. Jamil Hussein, said in an interview that Hussein is an officer assigned to the Khadra police station, as had been reported by The Associated Press.

The captain, whose full name is Jamil Gholaiem Hussein, was one of the sources for an AP story in late November about the burning and shooting of six people during a sectarian attack at a Sunni mosque.

The U.S. military and the Iraqi Interior Ministry raised the doubts about Hussein in questioning the veracity of the AP’s initial reporting on the incident, and the Iraqi ministry suggested that many news organization were giving a distorted, exaggerated picture of the conflict in Iraq. Some Internet bloggers spread and amplified these doubts, accusing the AP of having made up Hussein’s identity in order to disseminate false news about the war.

Khalaf offered no explanation Thursday for why the ministry had initially denied Hussein’s existence, other than to state that its first search of records failed to turn up his full name. He also declined to say how long the ministry had known of its error and why it had made no attempt in the past six weeks to correct the public record.

Hussein was not the original source of the disputed report of the attack; the account was first told on Al-Arabiya satellite television by a Sunni elder, Imad al-Hashimi, who retracted it after members of the Defense Ministry paid him a visit. Several neighborhood residents subsequently gave the AP independent accounts of the Shiite militia attack on a mosque in which six people were set on fire and killed.

Khalaf told the AP that an arrest warrant had been issued for the captain for having contacts with the media in violation of the ministry’s regulations.

Hussein told the AP on Wednesday that he learned the arrest warrant would be issued when he returned to work on Thursday after the Eid al-Adha holiday. His phone was turned off Thursday and he could not be reached for further comment.

Hussein appears to have fallen afoul of a new Iraqi push, encouraged by some U.S. advisers, to more closely monitor the flow of information about the country’s violence, and strictly enforce regulations that bar all but authorized spokesmen from talking to media.

At last George Bush has gotten control of the Iraqi media:

At the weekly Interior Ministry briefing on Nov. 30, Khalaf cited the AP story as an example of why the ministry had decided to form a special unit to monitor news coverage and vowed to take legal action against journalists who failed to correct stories the ministry deemed to be incorrect.

Add comment January 4th, 2007

Antiwar protesters take on Democrats as escalation looms

In a warning shot that the Democrats will not be given a free pass on the war, Democratic pro-war booster rep. Rahm Emanuel was drowned out by antiwar protesters led by Cindy Sheehan.

Led by Cindy Sheehan, the mother of a slain soldier, the protesters chanted “De-escalate, investigate, troops home now” as Democratic Caucus Chairman Rahm Emanuel, D-Ill., began outlining the Democrats’ plans to ban lobbyist-funded travel and institute other ethics reforms. The press conference was held in the Cannon House Office Building in an area open to the public.

Emanuel finally gave up trying to be heard over the chants, and retreated to a caucus room where Democrats were meeting.

Sheehan says she has nothing against lobbying reform, but she and her fellow anti-war activists want Democrats to know they will keep pressuring Congress to end the war in Iraq.

“We wanted the Democrats to know they’re back in power because of the grass roots,” Sheehan says.

Meanwhile, the New York Times reports that key Congressional Democrats are divided on Bush’s plans to escalate the war:

Some key Senate Democrats say they could consider supporting a short-term increase in American troop levels in Iraq, a stance that reflects division within the party and could provide an opening for President Bush as he prepares to announce his revised plan for Iraq as early as next week….

Senator Carl Levin, the Michigan Democrat who will lead the Armed Services Committee, said he would not “prejudge” the president’s proposal. While he would oppose an open-ended commitment, Mr. Levin said, he would not rule out supporting a plan to dispatch more troops if the proposal was tied to a broader strategy to begin reducing American involvement and sending troops home.

Evidently, 3 1/2 years of ever-increasing disaster has taught the Democrats only marginally more than it’s taught the President. They’re still open to being convinced that escalating will lead to anything other than death and destruction. Or is it only their potential destruction at the polls that they care about?

Add comment January 4th, 2007

Reports Saddam executed by militia

A New Zealand paper is reporting that Saddam was actually executed by militias, as it appeared, and not by government staff:

Another Iraqi official says the hanging was supposed to be carried out by hangmen employed by the Interior Ministry, but that militias infiltrated the executioners’ team

A Kuwaiti source reports that the noose is in the hands of Muqtada Al-Sadr. Perhaps not surprisingly, a Kuwaiti businessman is attempting to buy it from al-Sadr as a souvenir.

The Bush administration concluded another one of their magnificent “own goals” in staging the execution. At this rate, the Iraqi ball will be in California before Bush notices. Of course, the ever-escalating catastrophe that is Iraq means that the Iraqis can’t be so oblivious.

[Thanks to Juan Cole for this.]

Add comment January 4th, 2007