And WAIT UNTIL YOU SEE who MAY REPLACE HIM!
As suspected, this is another U.S. coup attempt. They didn't like the results of the last election, and the timing is impeccably exquisite since the Obama administration has made no secret of its exasperation with Maliki, as "rumors have been rife lately that the U.S. government was trying to push Maliki into standing aside." That and the amount of coverage it is getting (with a section specially marked "Turmoil in Iraq" in my paper) only confirms my analysis and suspicions. Time to take off the glasses and see things for what they really are.
Related:
Obama Orders Air Strikes on Iraq
Obama Sending Troops Back Into Iraq
Try to think of it as Obama's surge, as he is edging the United States back into a conflict he thought he had put behind him.
"Iraqi forces hold oil refinery after three days of fighting; Prime minister’s future uncertain amid violence" by Hamza Hendawi and Qassim Abdul-Zahra | Associated Press June 20, 2014
BAGHDAD — Iraqi soldiers and helicopter gunships appeared to be holding on after three days of battle against Sunni militants Thursday for control of Iraq’s largest oil refinery, but Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s own fate seemed increasingly in play with political leaders meeting in recent days behind closed doors and discussing his future, a Shi’ite lawmaker said.
Not the way I heard it, but.... I make up my own mind.
The loss of the Beiji oil refinery, some 155 miles north of Baghdad, would be a devastating symbol of the Baghdad government’s powerlessness in the face of a determined insurgency hostile to the West. By late Thursday, the two sides held different parts of the refinery, which extends over several square kilometers of desert.
Yeah, whatever. That's the Jewish war narrative in my flag$hit? So be it.
The tenacious fight for the refinery reflected the government’s desperation to hold on to a shrinking share of the country and stop the momentum of the Sunni extremists, led by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria allied with Sunni tribes and elements of Saddam Hussein’s old Ba’ath Party. It also represented Maliki’s need for a military victory as leaders in both Baghdad and Washington questioned whether he should remain in office.
Just thought that was kind of important. He did win an election.
Shi’ite politicians familiar with the secretive efforts to remove Maliki said two names mentioned as possible replacements are former vice president Adel Abdul-Mahdi, a French-educated economist who is also a Shi’ite; and Ayad Allawi, a secular Shi’ite who served as Iraq’s first prime minister after Hussein’s ouster.
Mahdi belongs to a moderate Shi’ite party, the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council, which has close links with Iran.
He won't be getting it, and Allawi is a well-known U.S. asset.
Also lobbying for the job is Ahmad Chalabi, a Shi’ite lawmaker who recently joined the Supreme Council and was once a favorite by Washington to lead Iraq a decade ago.
I just asked about him, and how disgusting is it that the guy the U.S. set up to support bogus intelligence is the front-runner for the top spot.
Of course, being oil minister all these years wasn't a bad gig, either.
Another Shi’ite from the Supreme Council who is trying to land the job is Bayan Jabr, a former finance and interior minister under Maliki’s tenure, said the politicians, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject.
Nope.
An Iraqi Shi’ite lawmaker, Hakim al-Zamili, said he was aware of a meeting in recent days between Iraqi political leaders and US officials about the issue of Maliki’s future. He said he did not know who attended the meeting.
Zamili belongs to a political bloc loyal to anti-US cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, who has publicly demanded that Maliki, in office since 2006, be replaced.
But Zamili indicated that he thought efforts to replace Maliki should come only after Iraqi security forces beat back the Sunni militants.
‘‘My view is that safeguarding Iraq is now our top priority,’’ Zamili said, referring to the loss of a vast chunk of northern Iraq to the militants in the past week. ‘‘We will settle the accounts later.’’
Mohammed al-Khaldi, a top aide to outgoing Sunni speaker of Parliament, Osama al-Nujaifi, said: ‘‘We have asked the Americans, Britain, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Iran to work toward denying Maliki a new term. The Shi’ite bloc must find a replacement for him.’’
And he still won the rigged vote, huh? I'm not saying he's an angel, but this stinks!
Besides the Sunnis, many of Maliki’s former Kurdish and Shi’ite allies have been clamoring to deny the prime minister a third term in office, charging that he has excluded them from a narrow decision-making circle of close confidants.
‘‘We wanted him to go, but after what happened last week, we want it even more,’’ said Mahmoud Othman, a veteran Kurdish politician.
Okay, same fate as Saddam, 'eh?
Maliki said this week that the newly elected Parliament will meet within days to elect a new president who will, in turn, ask the leader of the chamber’s largest bloc to form a new government. His State of the Law bloc won 92 of the chamber’s 328 seats in the April 30 election. He needs a majority of at least 165 lawmakers.
It took Maliki several months after the 2010 parliamentary elections to cobble together a government.
The prime minister, who has long faced criticism for not making his government more inclusive, has been adopting conciliatory language in recent days toward Sunnis and Kurds. He said the militant threat affects all Iraqis regardless of their ethnic or religious affiliation and called on Iraqis to drop all ‘‘Sunnis and Shi’ite’’ talk.
Maliki also made a show of meeting Tuesday with Shi’ite, Sunni, and Kurdish leaders. A statement issued after the meeting said they agreed to set aside differences and focus on ‘‘national priorities.’’
--more--"
Related: Iraqi leaders maneuver to replace prime minister
The name that keeps coming up is.... take a seat, please.... Ahmad Chalabi, the guy I just asked about!
And to give him some help....
"US will put 300 advisers in Iraq; Obama keeps option of targeted strikes; sends Kerry to seek diplomatic solution" by Matt Viser and Bryan Bender | Globe Staff June 20, 2014
WASHINGTON — President Obama announced Thursday that he is sending 300 military advisers to Iraq, and that he is dispatching Secretary of State John F. Kerry to the region in search of a diplomatic solution, as sectarian violence escalated in the nation where Obama had vowed to end US combat.
:-(
“There’s no military solution inside of Iraq . . . not one that’s led by the United States,” Obama told reporters in the White House briefing room after a lengthy meeting with his national security team.
As he ponders airstrikes and sends in "advisers." What a lying sphincter.
The two moves underscored the uncertainty surrounding how to end the latest conflict in Iraq, where the last US troops pulled out in 2011 amid hope that the nation’s political leaders could form a unified government.
Would have been nice had U.S-backed ISIS not started it, huh?
Then again, I suppose the elite of Bo$ton need to have it read this way. Otherwise, they are monsters.
Instead, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, a Shi’ite, is widely viewed as widening the sectarian divisions with Sunni Muslims, which in turn created the environment in which Sunni insurgents have overtaken Mosul and some other Iraqi cities, and are threatening Baghdad.
I was told they were a juggernaut that then stalled and Baghdad was safe in just the last few days, so WTF?!!
As a result, Maliki’s level of support with the White House and Congress has been diminishing rapidly in recent months.
And then ISIS arrives!
In his remarks, the president warned Maliki that more needed to be done to include minority groups in the Iraqi government. Obama did not respond directly when asked at a White House press conference whether he had confidence in Maliki.
More evasion implying guilty involvement.
“It’s not our job to choose Iraq’s leaders,” Obama said. “Part of what our patriots fought for during many years in Iraq was the right and the opportunity for Iraqis to determine their own destiny and choose their own leaders. But I don’t think there’s any secret that right now at least there is deep divisions between Sunni, Shia, and Kurdish leaders.”
(Blog editor's chin drops to chest at the incorrigible delusion or disingenuousness of the man)
The turmoil has put the Obama administration in a difficult position as the White House weighs how much to intervene in a conflict Obama had opposed from the start.
Oh, did he? I don't recall him leading any protests; all I remember is his 2006 Senate campaign comment that he thought it was a bad idea. He sure as hell wasn't leading any protests. Then again, within the world of the elite pre$$ bubble and cup-de-sac that is probably accurate.
Obama emphasized he was not sending combat troops, but he left open the possibility that the US could escalate its military involvement. The 300 military advisers could take on an intelligence-gathering role that could guide military strikes.
I'm angry as hell, but most Americans are meeting this with the ho-hum of ignorance driven by war weariness; however, AIR STRIKES ARE in the OFFING!
RELATED: While Dwelling on Iraq.....
Not only is the analysis most astute (as always there), the poignant epilogue of a paragraph is most powerful.
“We will be prepared to take targeted and precise military action if we conclude the situation on the ground requires it,” Obama said, stressing that he would consult with Congress if such action is needed.
SIGH!
Kerry is being sent to the region in hopes that he can persuade Iraqis, and those in neighboring countries, to work together for a peaceful settlement.
His track record on peace agreements? Failure. This is nothing but MORE GREENHOUSE GASSING, GLOBAL-WARMING WASTING of TIME!
The White House did not say whether he would meet with Maliki, but Obama said Kerry is planning to leave this weekend for meetings in the Middle East and Europe, where he will consult with allies and partners.
Giving them a heads-up on the airstrike actions is what he will be doing.
The events in Iraq create a trying scenario for Kerry, who initially supported the war but later during his 2004 presidential run criticized President Bush’s handling of the conflict and now finds himself trying to lay diplomatic groundwork that will negate the need for further US military involvement.
I don't even want to.... sigh.
Political divisions in Washington about how to respond to the Iraq crisis continued to escalate as well.
Representative Howard P. “Buck” McKeon, the California Republican who chairs the House Armed Services Committee, said in a statement, “The American people are losing confidence in the president’s stewardship of our national security. Our adversaries and allies lost confidence a while ago.”
And not only that. Everything else, too, this fawning slave and servant of money and Israel.
He called on Obama to take “a comprehensive course of action,” including sending to Congress a proposal outlining the additional military assets he would like to provide to the embattled Iraqi government.
Republican Senators John McCain, of Arizona, and Lindsay Graham, of South Carolina, said they were concerned that Obama was not acting swiftly enough with military force.
Did I mention Repuglicans are no solution?
“The country is descending into sectarian conflict,” they said in a joint statement. “And Iraq’s dependence on Iran is deepening. We must act now to help Iraqis arrest their country’s descent into chaos, or the current crisis may soon spiral further out of control.”
John Negroponte, a former US ambassador to Iraq in the Bush administration who also served as the nation’s director of national intelligence, credited Obama for taking some action to assist the Iraqi government.
OMG, they dragged out a war criminal from the Iran-Contra days as an expert!
But he said “there have been too many pregnant pauses” in US policy toward Iraq and believes the administration must exert far more influence to force the Maliki government to be more inclusive, including by organizing the diplomatic might of Iraq’s neighbors and leading US allies.
As the beacon of democracy in the Middle East has the curtain pulled down.
Some Democrats, meanwhile, said Obama was dangerously escalating US involvement by raising the prospect of US airstrikes.
Not all, though!
Representative James P. McGovern, Democrat of Worcester, said he agrees with Obama that the conflict has no viable military solution, “certainly not one that is led by the United States.”
But he said he has deep reservations about sending up to 300 more advisers, on top of the 275 already dispatched to help guard the US embassy in Baghdad.
He's mine, but I discount him.
“I have questions about the 300 advisers,” said McGovern, who opposed the US-led invasion. “What are they going to be doing? Where are they going to be stationed? There can be a slippery slope.
How we got involved in Vietnam.
So when is the re-invasion? After the 2014 elections?
“I don’t think we should be militarily injecting ourselves again. We already paid a heavy price.”
What about the ones the Iraqis paid and continue to pay, Jim?
McGovern expressed doubts in an interview that propping up the Maliki government will help the situation unless there is a marked change.
Good thing the administration is not doing that. Says they won't do airstrikes until Maliki resigns. Talk about a gun to your head.
“The government is corrupt, brutal, not inclusive,” he said. “By any measure, it is a disaster. If the government of Iraq doesn’t change its attitude, there is nothing we can do.”
Oh, really, is that what "we" are doing? Nothing?
As for the kind of government is, it LOOKS LIKE they got the SAME THING THEY HAD BEFORE the U.S. invasion and occupation, just under a different name!
Taking that into consideration, and the cost in blood and treasure, the whole operation can only be described as a colossal failure!
Stephen Miles, coordinator of Win Without War, a coalition of peace advocacy groups, called the announcements a “dangerous retreat from the conditions that the president set for US engagement.”
I no longer believe in any "peace" groups found in a war-promoting, agenda-pushing newspaper, sorry.
Although Obama said combat troops won’t be deployed, the president said the US is prepared to help create joint operation centers in Baghdad and in northern Iraq to share intelligence and coordinate planning.
No, we will call them "special forces" and "advisers" instead! That'll fool 'em!
The additional military advisers will help determine how to advise, train, and support Iraqi security forces.
“American forces will not be returning to combat in Iraq, but we will help Iraqis as they take the fight to terrorists who threaten the Iraqi people, the region, and American interests as well,” Obama said.
I can't wait -- well, really I can, but it's not up to me -- until the first fatal casualty occurs, sphincter!
Still, more US ships are being deployed to the region, senior administration officials said, and US intelligence agencies are developing more information about potential targets.
I PREEMPTIVELY CONDEMN the GOD-DAMN AIRSTRIKES, you bastard!
Also, such pre-positioning is good if you are maybe thinking of widening the whole thing to Iran and Syria, 'eh, 'eh? Uh, uh?
Senator Carl Levin of Michigan, the Democratic chairman of the Armed Services Committee, said the additional advisers were a “reasonable step to enable us to assess the security situation there.”
And when the fuhrer, 'er, president calls for troops?
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What's with the impish smile as if it is some sort of staged photo-op and trick?
"Iraq’s biggest oil refinery is under siege" by Rod Nordland and Suadad Al-Salhy | New York Times June 19, 2014
BAGHDAD — Refinery workers, witnesses, and an Iraqi army officer reported the seizure of Iraq’s biggest oil refinery by Sunni extremists Wednesday after army helicopter gunships failed to repel their attack.
Then I'm being lied to the next day or then? Which one, NYT?
But other Iraqi officials, including the commander of the garrison defending the refinery in Baiji, asserted that fighting was still going on inside the extensive facility, which was shut down by the violence.
Then they must have won. That's a stink for a real people's revolt and all the horse shit we have been fed day after day.
The battle in Baiji, 130 miles north of Baghdad, came as the Obama administration, which extricated US troops from Iraq less than three years ago, was weighing a more muscular response, including airstrikes, to help the besieged government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.
HA-HA-HA-HA-HA!!
After what I read today!
HA-HA-HA-HA!
Yeah, they are "helping" him!
Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said Wednesday in Saudi Arabia that Iraq had asked for US airstrikes, according to Al Arabiya television. That would make Zebari the first top Iraqi official to publicly confirm that request, reported by The New York Times last week.
Sure they did.
If the insurgent takeover of Baiji is confirmed, the facility would be the first operating refinery to fall to the fighters of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria who have swept through much of northern Iraq. They have surrounded the refinery in Baiji for the past week, fighting a battalion of the Iraqi army that had been backed by air support.
IF? IF?!!
The loss of the refinery could deny the Iraq government an important source of fuel and provide the insurgents with a potentially lucrative source of income, assuming that they can ensure its continued operation and sell the fuel, at least in the areas they control. The Islamic State already profits from its control of oil resources in eastern Syria.
In a televised statement, an Iraqi military spokesman, General Qassim Atta, denied that the Baiji refinery had fallen.
“Baiji is now under control of our security forces, completely,” Atta said, appearing on Iraqiya, the state television channel, hours after militant fighters had apparently taken over the refinery.
Another Baghdad Bob?
A local government official in Baiji, and the army commander in charge of defending the refinery, also insisted that Iraqi authorities were still in control, although they conceded that militant fighters had invaded the facility and controlled two of the four main entrances.
The mixed messages are getting me all slick.
“We are fine; we are still inside the refinery and we are fighting,” said Brigadier General Arras Abdul Qadir, the commander of the troops guarding the refinery, reached by telephone Wednesday. Asked how long his troops could hold out, he said, “We will see.”
Other accounts from Baiji said the insurgents had total control. A refinery worker reached by telephone who gave only his first name, Mohammad, said the refinery had been attacked at 4 a.m. and workers had taken refuge in underground bunkers. An unknown number of natural gas storage tanks were set ablaze. After taking heavy losses, the troops guarding the facility surrendered, at least 70 were taken prisoner, and the refinery workers were sent home unharmed, he said.
An Iraqi army lieutenant from Baiji, also reached by telephone and speaking on the condition of anonymity, said he had fled his unit when it became clear that it would not be able to resist the Islamic State’s forces.
Eyewitnesses in the area also reported seeing militant checkpoints controlling access to the sprawling refinery area and smoke rising over the complex from numerous fires.
The attackers had besieged the refinery for the past week, after most of the surrounding Salahuddin province had fallen under their control.
Atta, in his televised statement, said Iraqi forces were continuing to fight in Baiji, and he praised the efforts of one air force pilot in particular in staving off the insurgents.
“The air force is in the battle against them, with the support from the Golden Division of the special forces,” he said, referring to an elite unit that is reportedly under the prime minister’s direct control.
“We will continue our operations, and we will not let anyone from ISIS take one foot of our lands,” he said.
And you will receive no help from the U.S. until Maliki resigns.
Atta also said Iraqi forces were making gains in several areas in Salahuddin and Nineveh and had retaken the city of Tal Afar, which was reported to have fallen to the militants Monday.
Uh-oh.
He depicted a military situation that contradicted most reports from the field so far, saying that Iraqi forces had regained the initiative.
It reads like an AmeriKan newspaper!
“Now our forces are becoming stronger,” he said. “Now we are the ones who are taking the initiative and making the attacks, instead of defending.”
So far, the fighting has largely been isolated to cities in the north, including Mosul and Tikrit, where Islamic State fighters have taken control.
When are they rolling into Baghdad with al-Baghdadi at the head?
--more--"
Yup, as the price of oil is going up -- Brent crude’s increase, a benchmark used to price international oil used by many US refiners, was fueled by an attack by insurgents on Iraq’s largest oil refinery. The refinery makes fuel for local consumption, and none of the violence has threatened crude oil production or exports. But the upheaval is casting a shadow over future crude supplies from the country, which has been rebuilding its energy infrastructure -- the bastards in Washington are talking about a gas tax increase.
Who stole it all hey, and why have prices been going up again?
Just in case you forgot the fraud cover for all this:
"War crimes charges for Iraqi held at Guantanamo" by Ben Fox | Associated Press June 19, 2014
GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba — A Guantanamo prisoner accused of being an Al Qaeda military commander was getting his first day in court Wednesday since being captured and taken to the US base over seven years ago.
A military judge arraigned Abd al-Hadi al-Iraqi on five war crimes charges, largely for organizing attacks on US and allied forces in Afghanistan. He faces up to life in prison.
There is your IRAQI-9/11 CONNECTION!
You know, the recent re-rolling of retreaded shit propaganda lately has really been offensive and insulting as well as pathetic. These war propagandists have nothing left in their marketing satchel!
Hadi, an Iraqi who moved with his family to Afghanistan, listened calmly as charges were listed. He did not enter a plea.
His only statement of any length was to request additional civilian lawyers ‘‘because of what’s going on with Afghanistan and Iraq,’’ and because one of his military lawyers will be leaving the service this year.
How would he know what is going on being held in that place? Please don't tell me we have another staged and scripted fiction presented by the propaganda pre$$ as real.
The charges against Hadi, a 53-year-old native of Iraq, include denying quarter and treachery and are based on the legal theory that he was not a legitimate soldier and violated international laws of war as he plotted and carried out a series of deadly attacks until his capture in Turkey in October 2007.
Military lawyers for Hadi say he was more Taliban soldier than terrorist and that at least some of his alleged conduct should be viewed as the legitimate defense of his adopted homeland.
Time four me to remove myself from the courtroom.
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Also see: The Other Side of Iraq
