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POPSThe sleazy advocacy of a leading "liberal hawk" What Galbraith kept completely concealed all these years was that a company he formed in 2004 came to acquire a large stake in a Kurdish oil field whereby, as the NYT put it, he "stands to earn perhaps a hundred million or more dollars." In other words, he had a direct -- and vast -- financial stake in the very policies which he was publicly advocating in The New York Times, The Washington Post, and countless other American media outlets, where he was presented as an independent expert on the region. As Cobban wrote: Galbraith has never expressed any such regrets, and last November, he was openly scornful of Bush's late-term agreement to withdraw from Iraq completely. The revelation that for many years Galbraith had a quite undisclosed financial interest in the political breakup of Iraq may now further reduce the clout, and the ranks, of the remaining liberal hawks.
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POPSHonour killing girl 'wanted love' The court heard Mr Unal was brought up as a Sunni Muslim while the Gorens were from the Alevi branch of the faith. While they came from places no more than 60 miles apart in Turkey, a relationship between the sects "would not have been tolerated". The trial continues.
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POPSIran Media Reporting Arrest of 3 Americans The official said the account came from a fourth member of their group who was feeling sick and had stayed behind in Sulaimaniyah. The Iranian state TV report claimed the four Americans were together when they crossed the border, but "only one returned , while the three were arrested." The discrepancy could not immediately be reconciled. The area where the three disappeared is a popular hiking destination known for a picturesque waterfall and rocky scenery as well as a thick growth of fruit and nut trees. Kurdish officials said U.S. helicopters and Humvees deployed to the nearby city of Halabja to search for the Americans after they were reported missing on Friday but left after it was determined they had been seized by the Iranians. U.S. asks Swiss help in accessing tourists
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POPSNew life for ancient Syrian sculptures more: Fragments were initially reassembled with temporary glue and later more permanently attached with reversible epoxy resin. No metal framework or pins were used. Break marks remain very visible, and no attempt has been made to disguise them. Where large pieces are missing (some since antiquity), roughly shaped inserts have been added, using a mixture of ground basalt, sand and resin, in a slightly lighter shade of grey than the original stone. Some fragments of molten glass and bitumen from the Charlottenburg museum roof have been left on surfaces which will not be visible on display, since they are now part of the history of the sculptures. Conservation work is due to be concluded in October.
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POPSYank Tourist on Kurd-Iran Border Arrested!?
In the news it says (all propaganda distortions) : "Tourist? "Self-ruled Kurdish region? Iran seeking to build nuke weapons? Criticized Iran's disputed elections? The Guardian? Of course (sarcasm mode) we have to start off believing that the war torn Iraq-Iran northern border is a prime spot for backpacking tourist. Then we have to accept that this Kurdish region is "self-ruled." - i.e. that Iraq is broken into pieces already when this would be a Civil War issue. (part of a 'divide and conquer Master Plan, no doubt) Then I suppose there are some "U.S. officials," who say Iran is trying to build nukes but this is Zionist extremist and Republican warmongering and the Obama administration is trying hard, in the face of non-stop international lies - to make a distinction between nuclear Power and nuclear Weapons. Finally, there has been no official U.S. criticism of Iran elections and a deliberate attempt to indicate we should "not meddle." The Guardian? - g
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POPSKurdistan Intensifies Split from Iraq
<<<"This lays the foundation for a separate state — it is not a constitution for a region," said Osama al-Nujaifi, a Sunni Arab member of the national Parliament. "It is a declaration of hostile intent and confrontation. Of course it will lead to escalation." Kurdish officials defended their efforts to adopt a new constitution that defines the Kurdistan region as comprising their three provinces and also tries to add all of hotly contested and oil-rich Kirkuk Province, as well as other disputed areas in Nineveh and Diyala Provinces. Iraq's federal Constitution allows the Kurds the right to their own constitution, referring any conflicts to Iraq's highest court. Susan Shihab, a member of Kurdistan's parliament, said she no longer had faith that the rights of Kurds under the federal constitution from 2005 would be respected. "What is missing the most in the new Iraq is confidence," she said. At the same time, though, some Kurds acknowledge that they have grown frustrated with
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POPSCaptured Al Qaeda Leader Has Close Ties to Saddam Regime The Kurdish daily Kurdistani Nwe has published a 2002 letter from the Iraqi presidency that it says proves that there was cooperation between the regime of Saddam Hussein and Al-Qaeda. The letter, which appeared on the paper's front page, was published by the intelligence apparatus of the Iraqi presidency and discussed an intention to meet with Ayman Al-Zawahiri in order to examine a plan drawn up by the Iraqi presidency to carry out a "revenge operation" in Saudi Arabia. Remember this the next time you see a mainstream media report claiming there was no links between Saddam and Al-Qaeda. To read full post: http://gatewaypundit.blogspot.com/2009/05/ny-times-captured-al-qaeda-leader-has.html
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POPSWomen’s Right Activist Beheaded in Iraqi Kurdistan Democracy seems to have a high price for the most vunerable.We must vigorously demand the arrest and punishment of these murderers by the government of Iraqi Kurdistan. This reactionary government by creating a de facto Islamic state and co-operating with the Islamic forces and exercising tribal and Islamic laws has created a safe heaven for the Islamists and forces of reaction. Women have become the main targets of these forces. These are the conditions that have led to Nahla Hussain’s brutal murder and the US has do more on civil law front, since they destroyed Saddams rule of law.
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POPS Witness To Genocide: Account Told By 12 Year-Old Kurdish Survivor
Two boys, between the ages of seven and ten, were blindfolded before they were shot. On average, each adult was shot nine times, each child four times. (Courtesy US Army Corps of Engineers, St. Louis District ) In May 1988, a prison guard checked Taymour Abdullah Ahmad's name off a list and directed him to a bus idling in the Popular Army camp in Topzawa, southwest of Kirkuk. The camp was one of Iraq's grimmest prisons. During his month-long internment there, the 12-year-old Kurdish boy watched guards beating male prisoners senseless with lengths of coaxial cable. He had seen four children weaken and then die of starvation. He stood helplessly as a guard stripped his father to his undershorts and led him off to his death. So Taymour was not sorry to see the last of Topzawa. He did not know that the paper in the guard's hand was an execution list. The buses idling in the prison courtyard looked like ambulances. But this, Taymour soon discovered, was a cruel illusion;
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POPSWhat’s The Arabic Word For “Chutzpah“? A remarkable, and clearly unselfconscious degree of impudence is expressed by SFB’s employer, however: “Al-Baghdadia television demands that the Iraqi authorities immediately release their stringer Muntazer al-Zaidi, in line with the democracy and freedom of expression that the American authorities promised the Iraqi people,” it said in a statement. “Any measures against Muntazer will be considered the acts of a dictatorial regime,” it added. Golly, but that’s rich Bush Shoe Attacker Detests America http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=081215101512.zc72xjiu&show_article=1
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POPSIraqi Parliament Passes U.S. Security Pact November 27, 2008 The pact was backed by the ruling coalition's Shi'ite and Kurdish blocs. Sunni Arab lawmakers gave their approval on the condition that a national referendum on the pact be held by July 30. But a number of deputies remain fiercely opposed to allowing U.S. troops to stay three more years in the country. A bloc of 30 lawmakers loyal to anti-U.S. Shi'ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr chanted protests and held banners at today's session. Under the deal, all U.S. military bases are to be turned over to Iraq following the U.S. withdrawal. It will also ban the United States, which currently holds some 17,000 detainees in Iraq, to hold prisoners indefinitely without charge. The pact is valid for three years, but either party can terminate it with one year's notice. U.S. President George W. Bush on November 27 congratulated the Iraqi government on passing the pact. Compiled from agency reports Source: http://www.rferl.org/content/Iraq_Parliament_Passes_US_Security_Pact/13537
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POPSSadr Takes Aim at New U.S.-Iraq Agreement Overthrowing occupation is a religious and patriotic duty supported by logic and texts. Therefore it requires no agreement with those who respect neither faith nor promises.” In his message, Sadr stressed that he considers the agreement void even if ratified and asserted that the “faithful will not be bound by it.” He called on the parliament to reject it without the least hesitation so that “Iraq and its people do not get sold out the way other Muslim countries were.” Sadr also announced the formation of the Promised Day Brigade from Sadr movement elements and other sympathetic armed groups in order to fight American forces. Previously Sadr communicated through his spokesmen that there shall be no negotiations with the United States without a timetable for withdrawal on the table. This expected insistence on “resistance” exposes the way Sadr and other Arab “resisters” think and operate.
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POPSIraq on the brink of another Civil War
Whenever and wherever a despot has died and left a country in political limbo, that country has had problems. When Spain and Portugal went through their Nemesis in the 70's and 80's, they had stable European neighbours to call on. Of all the deaths that threatened stability, it was perhaps only Franco who had made provisions for his demise and reinstalled a King to give the population a focal point. Tito made no provisions at all and the result was the worst form of Civil War imaginable, with, one has to remember, the defining of Ethnic Cleansing. Those countries were safe for law abiding people. Armed policemen patrolled most streets and their form of rule and law prevailed. The soft minded liberals infested the emergent countries with wholly unattainable ideals. Ideals that do not even work in a stable democracy like Britain. Why does Liberalism not work? Because there are those out there who wish us harm and the Liberal Elite cannot conceive such a truth.
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