Wednesday, January 20, 2016

Hillary and top secrets




boyscout







 Isaiah's The World Today Just Nuts  "Boy Scout" features Hillary Clinton and Martin O'Malley.


And Hillary's in the news constantly.


For example, Nancy Cordes and Rebecca Kaplan (CBS NEWS) report:






Hillary Clinton's private email server contained information that was classified at a higher level than "top secret," the inspector general of the intelligence community told members of Congress in a letter obtained by CBS News.
The server Clinton used as secretary of state contained "several dozen emails containing classified information determined by the [intelligence community] element to be at the CONFIDENTIAL, SECRET, and TOP SECRET/SAP levels," the inspector general, Charles McCullough, wrote in the letter, which was first reported by Fox News. "SAP" stands for special access programs, which carry a classification level higher than top secret.
Former CIA Director David Petraeus was sentenced to two years' probation and fined $100,000 for sharing similarly classified information with Paula Broadwell, his biographer and mistress.








Cranky needs to be charged and in prison.


She can't protect secrets.


She needs to have her security clearance revoked.


For ever.
















"Iraq snapshot" (The Common Ills): 




Wednesday, January 20, 2016.  Chaos and violence, the US government plans more US troop deployments to Iraq, the Peshmerga are highlighted in a report by Amnesty -- about their targeting civilians, and much more.



Barack Obama's plan for Iraq is bomb, bomb some more and send US troops in.

That's clear by today's Defense Dept announcement:



Strikes in Iraq
Attack, fighter, and remotely piloted aircraft conducted 14 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 building.
-- Near Haditha, a strike struck an ISIL tactical unit and destroyed two ISIL vehicles.
-- Near Kisik, two strikes struck an ISIL tactical unit and destroyed ten ISIL fighting positions.
-- Near Mosul, three strikes destroyed nine ISIL fighting positions, an ISIL command and control node, and two ISIL assembly areas.
-- Near Ramadi, six strikes struck an ISIL tactical unit, suppressed an ISIL mortar system, denied ISIL access to terrain, and destroyed an ISIL mortar system, three ISIL fighting positions, an ISIL rocket-propelled grenade system, two ISIL vehicle bombs, an ISIL building, two ISIL heavy machine guns, an ISIL tunnel entrance, two ISIL petroleum oil and lubricant trucks and an ISIL front end loader.
-- Near Sinjar, a strike destroyed four ISIL command and control nodes.

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.


And the lack of a real plan for anything more than more of the same is clear in the talk as well.

In an apparent chatty mood yesterday while flying into Paris, US Secretary of Defense Ash Carter talked with reporters. Dan Lamothe (WASHINGTON POST) reveals the chatty Carter declared that more US troops will likely be headed to Iraq ("The president has indicated that wherever there is additional opportunity to make a difference according to the strategy, we'd be willing to do that") and that this is due to the 'success' in Ramadi. Andrew Tilghman (MILITARY TIMES) notes, "U.S. military officials are in high-level talks with the Iraqis about potentially sending hundreds of additional troops to Iraq for training and supporting the upcoming invasion of the Islamic State group’s stronghold in Mosul."
It's no longer just Ash Carter going public, Kristina Wong (THE HILL) reports:
The United States might send more trainers to Iraq to help local forces retake Mosul from the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), a U.S. defense official said Wednesday. 
"The reason we need new trainers or additional trainers is because that's really the next step in generating the amount of combat power needed to liberate Mosul," said Army Col. Steve Warren, a spokesman for the ISIS effort.
Carter's remarks came up in today's US State Dept press briefing moderated by spokesperson Mark Toner.


QUESTION: And in fact, today – I think it was today – Secretary Ashton said – Carter said that they are also looking for Arab countries to participate in the training and equipping and so on. But you talked about the urgency of the situation – we remember as far back as last spring when they were talking about --
MR TONER: Right, Said, but I mean --
QUESTION: -- liberating Mosul and so on.
MR TONER: Right.
QUESTION: But the longer you wait, it seems that the longer that ISIS can also establish roots in the ground.

 MR TONER: Well, I mean, I would argue the opposite. I mean, with the systematic and steady approach that the Iraqi forces – again, with our assistance and with other members of the coalition’s assistance – have been making against ISIL, they’ve been losing ground. They’ve been losing territory. And we’re going to keep applying pressure. That’s something we’ve talked about. But you can’t let – I mean, there’s just an urgency overall. Certainly, cultural preservation is part of it, the preservation of historical sites is part of it. But it’s also, as I said, the constant threat that these innocent civilians under their rule or under their brutal dictatorship are suffering that also lends urgency to our mission.


The 'success' isn't a 'success.'

Iraqi forces are still trying to clear the area of the Islamic State.

Victory was declared before it was earned.

Secondly, as photos of the area demonstrate, the real 'winning' fighter in that battle was . . . War Planes.  US war planes bombing Ramadi.

The city is in ruins.

It is so bad that Iraq's Shi'ite and Sunni leaders are saying no battle can result in the 'Ramadi option' again.

 But a whorish press in the US has allowed the lies of Ramadi to stand so Barack can claim that he's building on 'success.'





    • Amnesty's report was an issue raised in today's State Dept press briefing.


    QUESTION: A mirror image of that story around Mosul, overnight Amnesty International announced a report saying that the KRG Peshmerga – your allies in this fight against ISIS – have begun cleansing Sunni Arab villages that they’ve recaptured from ISIS, but now they’re driving out civilians and destroy – and there’s satellite imagery in the report showing destroyed buildings and large areas – maybe thousands of houses destroyed by your allies.

    MR TONER: Yeah, no, we’re aware of the report, David, and obviously take it very seriously. We’re looking at its allegations and contents. And I can’t comment at this point on any of the particular claims except to say that as government forces liberate territory from ISIL throughout Iraq, there must be security for all civilians to prevent the actions of those who would take advantage of the conflict to commit crimes or engage in any way in vendettas.
    Please.
    QUESTION: A Pentagon spokesman said on the same incident this morning that any questions about whether this would affect the U.S.’s relationship with the government in Kurdistan, that’s a question for you guys. Could you anticipate that there will be questions – that there will be conversations with President Talabani about what KRG forces have been doing?
    MR TONER: I mean, I can anticipate that – we have a relationship with the government of Kurdistan that we can talk about these issues, and these are ongoing concerns and issues that we’ve talked about not just with respect to Kurdish forces but throughout Iraq. And frankly, the new government in Iraq has, we believe, made an effort in – as these new territories are liberated from ISIL to bring back stability, reconstruction; to rebuild hospitals, schools, et cetera so that people can return and feel safe in returning to these liberated areas. That’s absolutely a key component of our strategy.



    Of the new report, TELESUR reports:


     Peshmerga forces in northern Iraq, trained and equipped by the United States, are allegedly razing Arab towns liberated from the Islamic State group. A human rights group is accusing the armed forces of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) of carrying out a deliberate campaign to prevent the return of Arabs to towns in Iraq once occupied by the Islamic State group, a practice it says may amount to war crimes.



    War Crimes.

    And yesterday's snapshot noted the War Crimes of the Shi'ite based government out of Baghdad as it went after Sunnis.


     Iraqi civilians are under attack and the Islamic State is only one threat to them.

    Jared Malsin (TIME) reports:
    The kidnapping last week of three Americans in Baghdad underscores the central but volatile role of predominantly Shiite, pro-government militias in the ongoing crisis in Iraq.
    U.S. and Iraqi officials confirmed to Reuters on Tuesday that the three American contractors who disappeared are being held by a militia, so far unnamed. The incident is the latest illustration of how militias often allied with Iran remain an unpredictable element in Iraq’s shifting landscape of power, posing a dilemma both for the government in Baghdad and for the U.S.-led coalition battling ISIS.



    Sunday, Mohammed Tawfeeq (CNN) broke the news that 3 Americans were missing in Iraq. Monday,  CBS NEWS and AP report, "A group of Americans who went missing over the weekend in Iraq were kidnapped from their interpreter's home in Baghdad, according to an Iraqi government intelligence official."


    Senator Marco Rubio is running for the Republican Party's presidential nomination.  NBC NEWS reports that Rubio has floated that Iran was behind the kidnapping and insists that Barack's responsible for motivating "people to grab Americans because, you know, if you grab a group of Americans you can get something from Barack Obama."


    Meanwhile the Shi'ite attacks on the Sunnis continue.
    8 hours ago
    �� Graphic: terrorist Iraqi army/militiamen setting dead bodies on fire purportedly in Diyala province - .
    View media
    83 retweets 25 likes



    These are Iraqi forces.  Even the militias are Iraqi forces because Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi brought them into the fold.


    Haider's been a failure as prime minister.


    That becomes more and more evident.


























    • Posted by at

    Tuesday, January 19, 2016

    What Janet Hubert said


     Isaiah's The World Today Just Nuts   "We Survived" went up Sunday and was one of four comics he did on the Democratic Party debate.


     "Boy Scout" and "Accountability"


    wesurvived







    Janet Hubert used to be on THE FRESH PRINCE OF BEL-AIR.


    And she's responded to Jada Pinkett Smith's whine of how she'll boycott the Oscars (because husband Will didn't get nominated).




    First of all, Miss Thing. Does your man not have a mouth of his own with which to speak? And, the second thing is — girlfriend, there are a lot of shit going in the world that you all don’t seem to recognize. People are dying, our boys are being shot left and right, people are hungry, people are starving, people are trying to pay bills, and you’re talking about some muthaf— actors and Oscars. It ain't that deep.
    And here’s the other thing. For you to ask other actors and other blacktresses and black actors to jeopardize their career and their standing in a town you know damn well you don’t do that. And, here’s the other thing, they don’t care. They don’t care!
    I find it ironic that somebody who has made their living and has made millions and millions of dollars from the very people that you’re talking about boycotting just because you didn’t get a nomination, just because you didn’t win? That’s not the way life works, baby. Okay? And it’s very suspect to me.
    And I seem to recall, hmmm, 26 maybe 27 years ago, 25 whatever it was, I don't even remember, I do remember at option time coming to you and saying "you know what Will, you're the star of the show, why don't we all get together and with you maybe we can all get a little raise. Maybe the network will think that since the show is such a hit and you being the star of the show, your influence will help us greatly. Like they did on Friends. Like white shows do! Remember that? Do you remember that? Because I do. Hmm. And your response to me was "my deal is my deal. And your deal is your deal.
    Well karma must be a b— because now here you are, you've had a few flops. There are those out there who really deserved a nod and Idris Elba was one of them. Lord have mercy! Beasts of No Nation was incredible that man is an incredible actor. You are not. Maybe you didn't deserve a nomination. I don't think frankly you deserved a Golden Globe nomination with that accent but you got one. Just because the world don't go the way you want it to go doesn't mean you can go out and start asking people to sing "We Shall Overcome" for you.
    You ain't Barack and Michelle Obama. And y'all need to get over yourselves. You have a huge production company that you only produce your friends and family and yourself. So you are a part of Hollywood, you are part of the system that is unfair to other actors. So get real
    Now for those of you who say, "Ms Hubert, here she goes being bitter" B— please, its not about being bitter its about being right. You know some of us have got mortgages to pay, we got bills to pay, we have bigger shit to worry about than the Oscars.




    Amen.


    "Iraq snapshot" (THE COMMON ILLS):




    Tuesday, January 19, 2016.  Chaos and violence continue, the United Nations notes abuses by the Iraqi government and by the Islamic State which the press rushes to reduce to abuses by the Islamic State, and much more.



    Today, the US Defense Dept announced:


    Strikes in Iraq
    Attack, fighter, and remotely piloted aircraft conducted 21 strikes in Iraq, coordinated with and in support of the Iraqi government:
    -- Near Huwayjah, a strike struck an ISIL headquarters. 
    -- Near Kisik, two strikes produced inconclusive results.
    -- Near Mosul, five strikes struck an ISIL tactical unit and an ISIL headquarters and destroyed an ISIL heavy machine gun, four ISIL fighting positions, and an ISIL cash collection point.
    -- Near Qayyarah, a strike struck an ISIL tactical unit and destroyed three ISIL fighting positions.
    -- Near Ramadi, nine strikes struck an ISIL tactical unit, damaged an ISIL petroleum oil and lubricant tank, and destroyed two ISIL fighting positions, an ISIL sniper position, an ISIL tactical vehicle, an ISIL bunker, and an ISIL tunnel entrance. 
    -- Near Sinjar, three strikes struck an ISIL tactical unit and destroyed two ISIL fighting positions, an ISIL heavy machine gun, and an ISIL assembly area.
    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 a 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.

    On the topic of air strikes, a new United Nations [PDF format warning] notes:



    On 22-23 May, UNAMI/OHCHR received a report that airstrikes hit al-Najjar, al-Rifai and Sahaa areas in western Mosul in Ninewa, allegedly killing 30 civilians and wounding 62 others, including women and children.  UNAMI/OHCHR was not able to verify this report.
    On 3 June, an explosion due to an airstrike in Kirkuk's Hawija district allegedly killed several ISIL fighters and civilians.  Some reports indicated that the structure was a storage facility for chemical fertilizers, while others reported that the warehouse was being used to build vehicle-borne IEDs.  A member of the Kirkuk Provincial Council was quoted by multiple local sources as stating that around 150 individuals, including women and children, were allegedly killed and wounded in the blast.  Pictures and videos have emerged in media and online showing an area purporting to be the blast site that has been almost completely flattened.  UNAMI/OHCHr was not able to verify the authenticity of the photos or the videos, nor the number of civilian casualties.
    On 8 June, local sources reported that an airstrike in Mosul, Ninewa, caused 33 civilians casualties.  The report alleged that several residential neighbourhoods in al-Zuhour district were hit, killing 20 civilians, including seven children and nine women, and wounding 13 others, mostly women.  The source claimed that there were no ISIL members in the affected neighbourhoods. UNAMI/OHCHR was unable to verify the status of all the casualties nor who was responsible for the airstrikes.
    On 11 June, an airstrike reportedly hit an ISIL target near a market in Hawija, Kirkuk.  According to a source, 10 civilians were killed and wounded in the incident.  Other reports mentioned more than 60 civilians killed and over 80 wounded.  UNAMI/OHCHR was unable to verify the exact number of casualties nor who was responsible for the airstrike. [In an article published by the Associated Press, a US Air Force official acknowledged the Hawija airstrike was by US forces, with no confirmation of civilian casualties. (accessed 11 June 2015).]

     On 23 June, a house was allegedly targeted by an airstrike in Baiji district, Salah al-Din, which killed six civilians (including four children) and wounded eight others.  The house was reported to have been located close to a mosque which, at the time of the attack, was occupied by ISIL.  A local source from Baiji stated that the house was hit by mistake and that the target was the ISIL-occupied mosque.  The source however could not confirm who carried out the airstrike.
    According to a source, on 1 July, 17 civilians, including our children and six women, were reportedly killed in an airstrike conducted in the al-Rifaie area of western Mosul, Ninewa.  11 other civilians were reportedly wounded.  UNAMI/OHCHR was unable to verify the status of all the casualties nor who was responsible for the airstrike.
    On 31 July, up to 40 civilians may have been killed and over 30 wounded when three houses allegedly sheltering IDPs was hit by airstrike in Rutba, west of Ramadi, Anbar.  Official sources confirmed the incident and the number of casualties, which included 18 women and 11 children (under 14 years old).  The houses were targeted by military jets after receiving information that ISIL elements were allegedly inside the houses.  The governor of Anbar called for an immediate investigation of the incident.  On 3 August, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General (SRSG) in Iraq and Head of UNAMI issued a press release expressing serious concern at the reported airstrike, and called on the Government of Iraq to investigate the incident.
    On the afternoon of 18 August, a man and his 12 year-old daughter were reportedly killed when an airstrike hit al-Minassa street, northern Mosul. The airstrike allegedly targeted a vehcile carrying three assistants to ISIL leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and a judge of an ISIL self-appointed court, who were all killed.  Around midnight on 24 August, an airstrike targeted a vehicle carrying ISIL elements in the Majmoua Thaqafiya area of northern Mosul.  The atack reportedly killed nine civilians, including one woman and a child, and wounded three other civilians.
    In the early morning of 1 August, military jets allegedly carried out airstrikes in Zargali village, Warti sub-district of Rawanduz district, Erbil Governorate.  The airstrikes killed at least eight invdividuals and wounded 16.  Zargali village is home to around 27 families.  According to witnesses interviewed by UNAMI/OHCHR after the attacks, their village was attacked by Turkish military jets on suspicion that combatants from PKK or the Kurdish Workers' Party were present in the area.  However, they denied this and indicated that PKK combatants reside in a camp in the Qandil mountains.  The interviewees added that four different attacks occured on 1 August (from 3h50 a.m. to 6h35 a.m.).  The first attack reportedly consisted of two strikes; the second attack consisted of a single strike; the third and fourth consisted of four rockets each which hit simultaneously.  After the initial attacks, some residents left their homes and sought shelter in a nearby farm.  However, witnesses alleged that the ensuing attacks were directed at them and other fleeing residents.  Some individuals who tried to assist those wounded were killed or wounded by the later attacks.  The attacks destroyed six houses and killed farm animals.
    On 3 September an airstrike hit a bridge in Jazeera al-Khaldiya, around 20 kilometres east of Ramadi, Anbar, killing 46 civilians and wounding 20.  Another source confirmed the incident but stated that the casualties were ISIL members. UNAMI/OHCHR was not able to confirm the number of casualties or their status.  On the same day, another airstrike reportedly hit a residential area in easter Ramadi, killing 28 civilians.  A single source reported this second incident and UNAMI/OHCHR was unable to verify it.
    In the early morning of 20 September, an airstrike hit the al-Ghabat area of Mosul city, as a result of which five civilians (including two women and one girl) from one family were killed.  The family members were inside their homes at the time, which was close to an ISIL headquarters.  When that
    headquarters was hit, weapons and other equipment inside exploded, causing damage to nearby homes and killing the family. Other sources reported that four civilian died in the attack (a 48-year-old man, a 20-year-old man, a 37-year-old woman, and a 13-year-old girl) while two civilians were seriously wounded . 
    On 29 September, an airstrike was reported to have hit the former Sunni endowment building next to the Ninewa Governorate building, in central Mosul. According to some sources, the attack allegedly killed eight civilians (including two women) in addition to 19 ISIL fighters. Around 10 minutes later, as civilians were gathering in the area, another airstrike allegedly hit the same location, killing 12 civilians (including two children and a woman) and wounding seven, some critically. Other sources reported higher casualty figures. 
    On 5 October, an airstrike mistakenly targeted a civilian house in Atshana village, east of Hawija and southwest of Kirkuk , that belonged to the Mukhtar of the village, killing eight persons from the same family, including several women and children and the Mukhtar himself. At 10h30 a.m. on 20 October, seven civilians were killed -- including three women and two children -- and one was seriously wounded when the minibus in which they were travelling was hit by an airstrike. The victims were all members of one family and were travelling from al-Qawsiyat village in Wana sub-district, Tal Kaif district, to Mosul.




    The report's getting some attention.  THE ATLANTIC notes:

     Thousands of civilians in Iraq have been killed, maimed, or displaced over the last two years, according to a new United Nations report. Between the start of 2014 and October 31 of last year, 18,802 Iraqis were killed, 36,245 were wounded, and 3.2 million were displaced. Islamic State fighters have enslaved about 3,500 others, mainly women and children, and forced hundreds of children to fight alongside the group’s militants.  


    CATHOLIC NEWS AGENCY puts it this way, "A new United Nations report has tried to count the civilian toll of continuing conflict in Iraq, largely at the hands of Islamic State militants, and the numbers are 'staggering'."  Ishaan Tharoor (WASHINGTON POST) words it like this, "The United Nations released a report this week detailing the "staggering civilian death toll in Iraq" over the past two years. It found that nearly 19,000 Iraqi civilians have been killed since the Islamic State's insurgency flared at the beginning of 2014, while some 3.2 million Iraqis have been displaced." At USA TODAY, John Bacon offers similar crap.


    Nabih Bulos (LOS ANGELES TIMES) does a little better covering the report:

    The violence has also displaced more than 3 million people, a full third of them school-age children, the report says.
    It also documents a litany of abuses and human rights violations, whether at the hands of Islamic State or the sectarian militiamen fighting alongside the government to reclaim areas under the Sunni extremist group’s control.


    Teresa Welsh (US NEWS & WORLD REPORTS) probably does the best job:


    Iraqi forces and militia members battling the Islamic State group are allegedly responsible for abuses against civilians that have contributed to the chaos in the war-torn nation over a nearly two-year period, according to a new U.N. report.
    Violence in the country has surged since the Islamic State group's rise in 2014: A U.S.-led coalition has been battling the extremists primarily through airstrikes, while security forces and militia members have waged a war further inflamed by sectarian tensions on the ground. According to Tuesday's report from the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, nearly 19,000 civilians have been killed and another 36,000 have been wounded in Iraq between January of 2014 and the end of October last year, with the Islamic State group bearing much of the blame.



    Let's go to the report itself because truth is always the best protection from propaganda:


    Violations and abuses committed by pro-Government forces
    UNAMI/OHCHR has received reports of abuses and violations of human rights and violations of international humanitarian law perpetrated by pro-Government forces.
    ISF and associated forces are bound to respect applicable international humanitarian law in the conduct of military operations.  UNAMI/OHCHR continues to receive information that some military operations appear to have directly targeted civilians and civilian infrastructure  or were carried out without taking all feasible precautions to protect the civilian population and civilian objects.  Reports received by UNAMI/OHCHR also indicate that some associated forces have been operating largely outside of Government control and have perpetrated abuses against civilians, including killings, abductions and destruction of property.


    Iraqi forces and their actions include:



    Police raids and arbitrary arrests
    UNAMI/OHCHR received reports of IDPs, mostly from Kirkuk city, who were able to access safe areas but were subjected to arbitrary arrests in raids by security forces.  For example, on 3 June, security forces in Kirkuk conducted a raid in the Wahad Huzairan neighbourhood in Kirkuk city and arrested 71 IDPs on suspicion of terrorism or trespassing public grounds.  The arrested individuals were from Salah al-Din, Anbar, Basra, Diyala and Baghdad.  Such raids and arrests were frequent in the southern neighborhoods of Kirkuk city where there was a large number of IDPs.  The arrested individuals were oftentimes released after a day or two in detention.
    On 16 July, security forces in Kirkuk conducted a raid in the Khadhra'a area, in the southwest part of the city.  Reportedly conducted as a precautionary measure, the raid took place the eve of the Eid holidays.  Seventy-nine individuals were arrested, most of whom were IDPs residing in Kirkuk city.  The security authorities allegedly had received information about suspected terrorist activities before and during Eid holidays.  Seventy-nine individuals allegedly had received information about suspected terrorist activities before and during Eid holidays.  The arrested individuals were released within two days and without any charge.
    On 27 August, police forces conducted a raid in al-Askari neighbourhood, in the southeast of Kirkuk, and arrested 53 individuals, most of whom were IDPs.  They were detained in Domiz polic station and were released after a security screening and background check.
    On 1 September, 42 individuals, most of whom were IDPs, were arrested during a raid in the Wahed Huzairan neighbourhood, a predominatly Sunni Arab area in Kirkuk city. A total of 31 individuals were arrested for not being registered, not having identification documents, or having fake documents.  Eleven others were reportedly wanted for suspected affiliation with ISIL.
    On 22 September, security forces conducted a raid in Quriya area of Kirkuk city.  According to sources, the raid was conducted in neighbourhoods close to the Kirkuk government building, including Quriya, Shatorlu, Ommal Square, Almas and Sahat Tayran.  A total of 68 IDPs from different governorates were arrested, with a significant proportion coming from Tuz district in Salah al-Din.  They were arrested for various reasons, including illegal entry into Kirkuk, failure to register with the Ministry of Displacement and Migration (MoDM), and failure to present proper identification.  Another source stated that security concerns prompted the raid based on the proximity of a large number of IDPs to the Kirkuk government building.  According to security sources, all 68 were released on 22-23 September.


    The report also notes:


     Unlawful killings
    UNAMI/OHCHR received a number of serious allegations of unlawful killings committed by ISF and associated forces.  These incidents included alleged attacks and reprisals against persons believed or perceived to support or to be associated with ISIL.
    For example, on 9 June, a video was posted in social media showing a group of men, wearing what appeared to be Iraqi Federal Police uniforms, burning a cadaver and shouting sectarian chants. Sources informed UNAMI/OHCHR that the corpse was found near al-Alam sub-district in Salah al-Din, during the operations to liberate Tikrit, in February.  In the video, those seeting fire to the body were heard saying the deceased's name and that he was a Saudi citizen.  They were also heard saying that this was a gift for the people of al-Hasa and Qatif (areas in Saudi Arabia where there are a significant number of Shi'a Muslims).
    In a similar incident, a video was posted online purporting to show members of the Shi'a Imam Ali Brigades burning the body of a man hanging by his feet in the town of Garma, northeast of Fallujah, in Anbar.  In the video the perpetrators accused the man of being a member of ISIL.  According to a local source, the video was shot in the town of Garma.  According to another local source, the man killed was a member of ISIL from Fallujah.  UNAMI/OHCHR could not independently verify the incident nor the authenticity of the video.


    And it notes:


     Abductions
    UNAMI/OHCHR received reports of abductions allegedly perpetrated by pro-Governmnet forces against Sunni tribes or individuals.
    For instance, on 16 July,  a group of Asa'ib Ahl al-Haq (AAH) members entered Jalludiyat village in Dujail district in Tikrit in Salah al-Din, and abducted 12 civilians from the Kharzraj tribe (which is a Sunni tribe) reportedly due to a tribal conflict between two families.  The brother of a tribal leader was among those abducted.
    On 17 July, unidentified armed men abducted a civilian in the al-Askari area of Tuz Khurmatu district in Salah al-Din.  The victim was a Sunni Arab IDP from Sulaiman Beg sub-district, south of Tux Khurmatu.  On 18 July, unidentified armed men abducted another civilian in the al-Askari area.  The second victim was also an IDP from the Sunni Arab community from Hilewat village in Tuz Khurmatu district.  Sources strongly asserted to UNAMI/OHCHR that militia members were behind both these abductions.
    On 28 July, armed militia members abducted three civilians on the main road between Abu Saida sub-district and Baquba.  The victims were Sunni Arabs from the Zuherat tribe and included the son of a tribal leader.
    On 1 September, armed militia members wearing black uniforms stopped police and army vehicles that were transporting at least 40 detainees, all Sunni Arabs from Salah al-Din.  The militia stopped the convoy near Balad district, Salah al-Din, after firing warning shots into the air and at the tires of the vehicles.  They then physically assaulted an disarmed the security forces.  The abductees have been arrested in June for terrorism-related offenses and had been detained in the Brigade 17 Iraqi Army detention centre in Dujail, Salah al-Din.  Reports further stated that, at the time of their abduction, the detainees were being transferred to Baghdad.
    In the early morning of 27 September, a convoy of 20 pick-up trucks carrying masked gunmen in military uniform arrived in the Alb-Tua'ma area of Hujjaj village, in Baiji district, Salah al-Din, and forcibly took at least 28 civilians from the area -- which is inhabited by members of the al-Jubour tribe.  The victims were all males from the al-Jubour tribe.  A source indicated that they were taken in a systematic manner, based on a list of names produced according to intelligence and security information.  All abductees allegedly had current or past affiliation with ISIL or family connections associated with ISIL.  Other sources reported that the masked gunmen who took the civilians were militia.
    On 22 October, PMUs abducted at least 175 civilians from the Askari and Tin areas of Tuz Khurmatu district, Salah al-Din.  The victims were Sunni Arabs, who had been displaced to Tuz Khurmatu since June 2014.  The operation started at sunset, with people grabbed during house-to-house searches and in the streets, taken to PUMs facilities in Sulaiman Beg and Yengija village, and kept there for two days for questioning.  On 23 October, the bodies of three abductees (a Police officer and two civilians) were reportedly found in the Askari area.  Around 130 of the abductees were released; the others remained captive at the time of reporting.  The operation was conducted without arrest warrants or coordination with local authorities.



    There's more and we'll be noting a little bit more tomorrow.

    But it's past time to grow the hell up.


    The mock outrage over ISIL's actions?

    Tonight ABC aired a Marvel promo for an hour -- Captain America at 75.  And it included a million and one lies.  Chief among them, how brave it was for Captain America -- the comic book hero -- to take on Adolf Hitler.

    It's a comic book hero.

    It's not a person.

    More importantly, a magazine decrying a foreign leader is always easy to do -- especially when the domestic government is against the foreign leader.

    They also wanted praise, please note, for taking on Richard Nixon.

    But Nixon wasn't shown in the comic book.  And our 'witness' told us that everyone knew it was Nixon even though Nixon wasn't shown.

    Again, it's easy to slime a foreign leader.  (When they're despised -- justifiably so in the case of Hitler -- it's even easier.)  Guts might have been showing Richard Nixon when Captain America was decrying him -- guts for the artists doing the comic but not for the comic book hero who, again, is not a real person.

    The Islamic State is a terrorist organization.

    Documenting their abuses should be easy and something anyone can do without any great ethical challenge.

    The United Nations report notes consistent patterns of abuse by the Iraqi government.

    That needs to be spotlighted, it needs to be front and center.

    You do not excuse away a government committing crimes against its own civilians.

    You do not act as though that's nothing or that it's a sidebar.

    It is the prime story.

    Again, the Islamic State is a terrorist organization.

    As such it commits crimes against people -- that's what makes it a terrorist organization.

    The Iraqi government is supposed to serve (and protect) all the Iraqi people.

    When it instead targets its own people, that is news.


    The failure to properly report this goes a long way towards the growing divide between Arabs and others.  Arabs watched from 2010 on forward as the Iraqi government openly targeted Sunnis.  They saw little to no objection to this persecution.

    The United Nations puts out a report that documents crimes by a terrorist organization (ISIS) and crimes against Sunnis by the Iraqi government and the western media again ignores the crimes of the Iraqi government or offers a brief sotto voice aside.

    This is not acceptable.

    It is silencing those suffering at the hands of the Iraqi government.

    It is saying that Arabs are disposable and crimes against them can be ignored.

    The most important piece of journalism on Iraq today is by Ahmed Rasheed and Saif Hameed (REUTERS) and it opens:

     Iraq's parliament suspended its meeting on Tuesday amid protests by Sunni Muslim MPs over violence that targeted their community in eastern Iraq and left dozens killed in apparent retaliation for anti-Shi'ite bombings claimed by Islamic State.
    Sunni lawmakers urged Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi to disband and disarm the Shi'ite militias which they accuse of being behind the latest attacks in and around the town of Muqdadiya, 80 kilometres (50 miles) northeast of Baghdad.

    Raad al-Dahlaki and Nahida al-Daini, two Sunni MPs from Diyala province where Muqdadiya is located, said 43 people had been killed over the past week and nine mosques fire bombed. Salah Muzahim, another MP, said the toll was over 40 dead.



    The walk out is major news by itself.  The reasons for it, the background there is even more important.

    Nouri al-Maliki's second term as prime minister of Iraq (2010 to 2014) is all about targeting Sunnis.  As Hillary Clinton noted in Sunday's Democratic Party debate, "If there is any blame to be spread around, it starts with the prime minister of Iraq, who sectarianized his military, setting Shia against Sunni."

    This is not minor and the persecution continues under Haider al-Abadi.

    It also needs to be noted that the militias are now the government.  As prime minister, Haider has brought them into the fold.

    The Iraqi government also includes the KRG and Amnesty International has a new report noting the abuses there.  We'll explore that report in the next snapshot.

    But when a government targets the civilians, that's news.  It's also outrageous and abuse that must be called out.


    The following community sites updated:

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    • Posted by at

    Monday, January 18, 2016

    Roberta Flack






    closingargument


























    Sunday,  Isaiah live blogged the Democratic Party's debate and that's his "The Closing Argument" -- capturing the disgusting Hillary.


    I can't believe we have no candidate this year willing to run as a peace candidate.


    Barack wasn't really a peace candidate.


    But he posed as such in 2008 and?


    He won the party's nomination and the general election.


    How sad that no one wants to act as a peace candidate today.


    Anyway, watched a Showtime documentary on Roberta Flack today.  (Streamed it online.  I believe it's just called ROBERTA FLACK.)


    It was really informative.


    And I loved how Dionne Warwick was there sharing and offering her own take (such as Aretha Franklin makes you sweat, Roberta makes you think).


    Roberta herself talks about playing the organ (in her Methodist church).


    If you're a Roberta fan (I am), I really recommend that you check out the documentary.


    My only real complaint.


    They don't know when to shut up and let us hear Roberta.


    This was most obvious when she was singing Laura Nyro -- performing a Nyro song ("Save The Country") at the piano in a club early in her career.


    And we can't hear the song because we're stuck with these men talking and talking (about how some guy once yelled for Roberta to sing a song about Jesus).




    ROBERTA FLACK: KILLING ME SOFTLY was the title and it's a BBC World documentary






    "Iraq snapshot" (THE COMMON ILLS):




    Monday, January 18, 2016.  Chaos and violence continue, 3 Americans are missing in Iraq, the Sunnis continue to be persecuted, the Democratic Party's presidential contenders talk ISIS, and much more.



    Yesterday, Mohammed Tawfeeq (CNN) broke the news that 3 Americans were missing in Iraq. This morning, CBS NEWS and AP report, "A group of Americans who went missing over the weekend in Iraq were kidnapped from their interpreter's home in Baghdad, according to an Iraqi government intelligence official."

    Where were they kidnapped from?

    Some are calling it a "brothel" which may or may not be the case.  As Richard Spencer (TELEGRAPH OF LONDON) explains:
    Others suggested it was a place known for “illicit” parties involving alcohol - something that would not be illegal in Baghdad. But in strict Sunni or Shia areas some residents might describe such a place as a brothel whether it was or was not.
    [. . .]
    The three Americans may have been caught up in one of the periodic sweeps of Baghdad by the Shia militias, who can be as violent as their Sunni jihadist counterparts. In one raid 18 months ago, 25 women were shot dead by militiamen who raided a house said to have been used as a brothel in the east of the city. 


    Charges of a bordello should always be considered charges and not reality unless it's confirmed.  If you want to smear your enemies (or justify killing them), militias know the easiest way is to insist the site was a "brothel."

    Of the three Americans, FOX NEWS notes, "One of the Americans is a woman, The Wall Street Journal reports.A police official identified the woman as Iraqi-American Russel Furat. An Iraqi military official told the newspaper the two men kidnapped are Iraqi-American Wael al-Mahdawy and Egyptian-American Amro Mohammed."

    On THE NEWSHOUR (PBS -- link is text, audio and video) tonight, anchor Judy Woodruff noted the events.

     JUDY WOODRUFF:  A key Sunni figure strongly condemned the growing wave of abductions.

     ABDUL-LATIF AL-HIMAIM, Head of Sunni Endowment, Iraq (through interpreter): We reject any kidnap operation. We fully support the government, stability and security. We absolutely condemn and reject anyone who violates the law and disturbs security and stability. We denounce outlawed acts and kidnappings. Such acts are rejected from any party.


    THE WALL STREET JOURNAL'S Matt Bradley Tweets:












  • 3 hours ago
    Leader in Asaib Ahl Al Haq militia denies reports in that they were behind Sunday's kidnappings of 3 Americans.
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    • W.G. Dunlap (AFP) offers, "Kidnappers have recently seized Qataris and Turks, but it has been years since Americans were abducted, and it is Iraqis who have suffered the most from kidnappers seeking ransoms or to settle scores."

    Ahmed Rasheed and Saif Hameed (REUTERS) note that the three are either contractors or trainers and that road blocks have been set up and helicopters are being utilized to search for the three.


    Erin Cunningham (WASHINGTON POST) reviews last week's violence and notes, "Then, on Tuesday, the bullet-riddled bodies of two journalists for Iraq’s Al-Sharqiya TV, a news channel seen as sympathetic to Iraq’s Sunnis, were found outside Muqdadiyah. Sharqiya executives said Shiite militias had killed the reporters at a checkpoint."  Last week, Fred Lambert (UPI) reported on one of the other major attacks, "Shia militiamen conducted reprisal attacks against local Sunnis in Muqdadiya, Iraq, following a double bombing Monday that killed at least 20 people.  The blasts occurred in a cafe and mainly killed and injured militiamen with the Hashid Shaabi, or Popular Mobilization Forces, an Iran-trained Shia Muslim group fighting in Iraq against the Islamic State."


    Today, the US Defense Dept announced:

     Strikes in Iraq
    Attack, fighter and remotely piloted aircraft conducted 25 strikes in Iraq, coordinated with and in support of Iraq’s government:

     -- Near Kisik, three strikes struck two separate ISIL tactical units and destroyed an ISIL fighting position.

     -- Near Mosul, 10 strikes struck four separate ISIL tactical units, an ISIL communications facility, and an ISIL-used culvert and destroyed five ISIL fighting positions, two ISIL assembly areas, two ISIL weapons caches, and an ISIL excavator.

    -- Near Ramadi, eight strikes struck an ISIL tactical unit and destroyed an ISIL vehicle-borne bomb, an ISIL vehicle, an ISIL tactical vehicle, an ISIL command and control node, an ISIL building, cratered two ISIL-used roads, and denied ISIL access to terrain.

     -- Near Sinjar, one strike destroyed an ISIL vehicle.

     -- Near Qayyarah, three strikes struck two ISIL-used culverts and denied ISIL access to terrain.


     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.



    Where is the plan?


    Hillary Clinton's been claiming she has a plan.  She made that claim again Sunday night during the Democratic Party's debate moderated by NBC News' Lester Holt and Andrea Mitchell and featuring Clinton and other contenders for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination -- Bernie Sanders and Martin O'Malley.

    Excerpt from THE WASHINGTON POST transcript:


     MITCHELL: You mentioned Syria. Let me ask you about Syria, all of you. Let's turn to Syria and the civil war that has been raging there. Are there any circumstances in which you could see deploying significant numbers of ground forces in Syria, not just specials forces but significant ground forces to combat ISIS in a direct combat role?
    Let me start with you Secretary Clinton.


    CLINTON: Absolutely not.
    I have a three point plan that does not include American Ground forces. It includes the United States leading an air coalition which is what we're doing, supporting fighters on the ground; the Iraqi Army which is beginning to show more ability, the Sunni fighters that we are now helping to reconstitute and Kurdish on both sides of the border.

    I think we also have try to disrupt their supply chain of foreign fighters and foreign money and we do have to contest them in online space. So I'm very committed to both going after ISIS but also supporting what Secretary Kerry is doing to try to move on a political diplomatic to try to begin to slow down and hopefully end the carnage in Syria which is the root of so many of the problems that we seen in the region and  beyond.



    At her website?


    You can find this:
  • Defeating ISIS. ISIS and the foreign terrorist fighters it recruits pose a serious threat to America and our allies. We will confront and defeat them in a way that builds greater stability across the region, without miring our troops in another misguided ground war. Hillary will empower our partners to defeat terrorism and the ideologies that drive it, including through our ongoing partnership to build Iraqi military and governing capacity, our commitment to Afghanistan’s democracy and security, and by supporting efforts to restore stability to Libya and Yemen.



    • Is that her three-part plan?

    That's all she's got at her website and it's a tiny paragraph in the midst of her national security page.


    What would Senator Bernie Sanders do?


    He declared, "We should -- we should learn -- we should learn from King Abdullah of Jordan, one of the few heroes in a very unheroic place. And what Abdullah said is this is a war with a soul of Islam and that Muslim troops should be on the ground with our support and the support of other major countries. That is how we destroy ISIS, not with American troops in perpetual warfare."

    Seriously?

    That's his 'left' answer?

    Not one word about diplomacy?

    Not one word about needing to address the persecution of the Sunnis in Iraq?


  • 10 hours ago
    Iraqi army crimes everyday arrested Iraqis Sunnis civilians without charge or guilt & tortured them
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    • Shia militias crimes معمم شيعي ينهب ممتلكات العوائل السنيه العراقية في ديالى ماذا سيقول للتاريخ عن هذه الصورة
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    Shia militias crimes looting properties of Sunnis civilians in Save sunnis civilians plz
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    • Shia militias crimes عاجل مهم مليشات شيعيه تفجر الان بيوت العوائل السنيه العراقية ببغداد الطارميه وتنادي ارحلوا
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    Shia militias crimes destroyed Iraqis Sunnis civilians houses in Save Sunnis civilians
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    • Like Bernie, Barack Obama also misses this point about the need to address the persecution of Sunnis in Iraq.  Friday, the White House issued the following:

    January 15, 2015 | The White House | Office of the Press Secretary
    President Obama today convened his National Security Council to discuss the intensification of our campaign to degrade and destroy ISIL. The President was briefed on recent progress by Iraqi security forces in taking back Ramadi, and on ways we and our partners in the Global Coalition to Counter ISIL continue to accelerate and integrate the military campaign on all possible fronts in Iraq and Syria.

    The President directed his national security team to continue to intensify ongoing efforts to degrade and destroy ISIL, including by working with our partners to increase our military cooperation, disrupting foreign fighter networks, halting ISIL expansion outside of Syria and Iraq, countering ISIL financing, disrupting any ISIL external plotting efforts, and countering ISIL's propaganda and messaging. The President emphasized that degrading and destroying ISIL will continue to require coordination and cooperation among a wide range of global partners, and the United States is strongly committed to continuing to lead the shared efforts of the Global Coalition to Counter ISIL.



    Not one word about the Sunnis.


    Dropping back to the January 7th snapshot:




    Over the weekend, Karen DeYoung (WASHINGTON POST) reported:

    The current prime minister, Haider al-Abadi, also a Shiite, has given much lip service to inclusion but has made little headway in changing Iraq’s sectarian equation. “All these things have to move in harmony. . . . You can’t simply focus on the military and ignore political factors,” said the senior administration official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal assessments.
    “Our diplomats are working day in and day out” on Iraqi political reconciliation, the official said, “but in some ways it is even more difficult. . . . These are existential questions that the Iraqis are asking themselves.”



    The diplomats are working very hard, are they?

    So Barack got his Iran deal but didn't think to secure the release of American hostages.

    Meanwhile the Iraqi government does as it damn well pleases despite years of promises to institute reconciliation and Barack just hands over anything to them.

    It's difficult, the official told Karen DeYoung.

    It's not that difficult.

    Iraq wants a weapons sale worth $800 million?

    That's a want.

    The White House then tosses out their want.

    The Iraqi government has to give a little or there's no deal.

    That's what deal making is, that's what diplomacy is.

    In June of 2014, Barack publicly declared that the only answer to Iraq's crises was a political solution.

    Yet in August of 2014, he started bombing Iraq.

    He used the US military, his envoy and the State Dept to work on more military means.

    And there's been no progress on the political front.

    None at all.


    In "The debate (Iraq)" at Third last night, we gave Hillary credit for telling some truth:



    At one point, we were all booing.

    Three candidates on the stage and they were all lying.

    All pimping and whoring for imperialism.

    Then to our surprise, one slipped in just a tiny bit of honesty.

    Just a tiny bit.

    And just one.

     [. . .]

     As Hillary briefly notes, "If there is any blame to be spread around, it starts with the prime minister of Iraq, who sectarianized his military, setting Shia against Sunni."


    Who would that be?


    Nouri al-Maliki.

    And if the blame "starts with the prime minister," it actually starts with Barack Obama.

    Nouri did what Hillary's alluding to during his second term.

    He didn't win a second term at the polls.

    The White House -- Barack Obama -- gifted him with a second term via a legal contract (The Erbil Agreement).

    They also backed him until the summer of 2014.

    Despite Nouri's non-stop attacks on the Sunnis in Iraq.



    Not only did Barack give Nouri a second term as prime minister, but Barack also ignored the protesters. Even when they carried signs proclaiming "Obama, if you Cannot Hear Us Can you Not See Us?"  

    And yet Barack stood with Nouri, continued to stand with him.




    Former Governor Martin O'Malley had a strong moment during the Islamic State section of the debate:


    We need to learn the lessons from the past. We do need to provide the special -- special ops advisers, we need -- do need to provide the technical support, but over the long-term, we need to develop new alliances. We need a much more proactive national security strategy that reduces these threats before they rise to a level where it feels like we need to pull for a division of marines.

    And I also want to add one other thing here. I appreciate the fact that in our debate, we don't use the term you hear Republicans throwing around trying to look all vibrato (ph) and macho sending other kids -- kids into combat, they keep using the term boots on the ground. A woman in Burlington, Iowa said to me, "Governor, when you're with your colleagues, please don't refer to my son who has served two tours of duty in Iraq as a pair of boots on the ground." Now, we need to be mindful of learning the lessons of the past. 


    Please don't refer to my son who has served two tours of duty in Iraq as a pair of boots on the ground.


    It's a message the Prime Minister of Australia clearly did not receive.  SKY NEWS reports:

    Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has made the case in Washington that the Iraqi people won't accept coalition boots on the ground in the fight to defeat Islamic State militants.
    'The destruction of ISIL requires a military solution - it requires boots on the ground,' Mr Turnbull said in a keynote speech to the Centre for Strategic and International Studies in Washington on Monday afternoon (US time).
    'But they must be the right boots on the right ground.'









    cnn
    the telegraph of london
    richard spencer





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