Strange, however, is the connection between the bombing the of al-Askariya shrine in Samarra and who benefited the most from it. Al-Sadr, that�s who. It should not be a surprise that one of the many theories surrounding the attack is that it was staged by Iranian agents, loyal to a fundamentalist regime whose religion is pure power. And whose intention is to ignite sectarian strife in neighboring Iraq.
We know right off the bat, as I already explained, that there is no chance in hell that it was the Sunnis. Ironically, though the Sunnis have been the ones throughout the entire affair to denounce the attacks, it was al-Sadr who organized the mass extra-judicial killings of hundreds of Sunnis afterwards. It was his Medhi Army militia, along with men infiltrated into the Interior Ministry through the UIA, who ran people off the streets in fear to their homes, and attacked dozens of Sunni mosques. He was the first to call for revenge, yet he was the one praised for brokering compromise between the Shias and Sunnis afterward. Throwing dry leaves on the sectarian fires, just like the bombing in Samarra, has only helped al-Sadr. The Shias have taken advantage of it in order to stress the importance of a government with them in charge and the importance of having their own federal region, things they may have had to compromise on otherwise.
Via Instapundit, where there’s more.
Let’s just call it now shall we…come spring we’ll be in Iran pacifyin’ the hell out of everything that moves.
An interesting read:…”Atomic Iran” (How the Terrorist Regime Bought the Bomb and American Politicians)…Jerome R. Corsi…food for thought.
Weird that no one so far has taken credit for this bombing.
The timing and execution of this event has given rise to speculation in Iraq that it was undercover British SAS soldiers.
Civil war where? There? No. Not there.
Here: West Bank, occupied by the so-called Palestinians. +
thursday, march 02, 2006
Palestinian Civil War Watch
Palestinian militants fire guns near parliament.
RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) – Palestinian gunmen fired shots in the air outside parliament in the West Bank town of Ramallah on Thursday to demand a greater role in decision making for the former ruling Fatah movement, witnesses said.
They said about 20 masked militants of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, an armed wing of President Mahmoud Abbas�s Fatah party, fired sporadic volleys into the air outside the gate of the Palestinian Legislative Council. +
via LGF
So logical. Makes real sense. Democracy in Iraq and Afghanistan? Hell No! Iran will be next! What to do? What to do? Al-Sadr
It was called ‘the golden dome’, because it was literally clad in gold! GOLD! Photos posted on the ‘net that were taken in daylight, show that all of that gold cladding is now gone! Where did it go? How many people, and how long did it take, to remove it?
It did not take twelve hours to bore holes in the columns that held up that dome,in order to place explosives!
Veritas Odit Moras (Seneca). Truth Hates Delay.
“In a fundamental way “the truth” is something no
one can expect government to provide on our behalf.
Once the public expected it of the newspapers.”
The internet/blogosphere delays not. +
Passing faces
The power of private individuals to move around information is pretty amazing. Reader G. sends facsimiles of the death warrants Saddam Hussein is accused of signing in Iraq. In his enclosing letter, Reader G. adds “the executions of 148 people had been carried out and that some of the named people were mistakenly released instead of being executed, and that other prisoners not on the list were executed by mistake!” The facsimiles are shown below.
…
From two synoptic sources, we get complementary information of the same subject. Now here’s a link to a Reuters story describing the presentation of the very documents described above.
Chief prosecutor Jaafar al-Moussawi presented documents he said were death certificates of Shi’ites who were rounded up and executed following an assassination attempt on Saddam’s life in 1982.
He also presented a document which he said contained Saddam’s handwriting. The document, according to Moussawi, said four men had been executed by mistake and that two men had been released, also by mistake.
Looking more subdued than in previous rowdy proceedings, Saddam challenged the authenticity of the documents.
On Tuesday, after a two-week break during which the 68-year-old former president staged a hunger strike, prosecutors presented what they said was a death warrant signed by Saddam in 1984 for 148 men from the Shi’ite town of Dujail.
Prosecutors hope such documents can establish a direct link between Saddam and atrocities by proving a chain of command in connection with the execution of the 148 men.
The Reuters story actually has far less detail than Iraq the Model, but it confirms the readers account about some prisoners being executed or released “by mistake”. Nowhere to be found in the Reuters report, however, is Iraq the Model’s report that about 48 convicts had died under torture before they could be executed, and that’s an historical mystery waiting to be solved.
Commentary
It struck me that without Iraq the Model the fate of those 48 tortured men might never have been known to the non-Iraqi audience. Not that it would bring them back, but “information warfare” in the sense of speaking the truth in the face of the lie or remembering what would otherwise have been forgotten is by definition a private act. It’s an outcome of free speech. In a fundamental way “the truth” is something no one can expect government to provide on our behalf. Once the public expected it of the newspapers. Here are the famous last lines between CIA badguy Higgins (Cliff Robertson) and CIA goodguy Turner (Robert Redford) as Turner takes his expose to the New York Times in the movie Three Days of the Condor.
Higgins: Turner! How do you know they’ll print it? You can take a walk, but how far if they won’t print it?
Turner: They’ll print it!
Higgins: How do you know?
Roll credits.
But in those far-off days we knew, we knew they would print it. Or did we? +
http://fallbackbelmont.blogspot.com/2006/03/passing-faces.html
In Memoriam: Lest We Forget.
Cpl. Paul James Davis. +
Proud dad mourns soldier killed in crash
Last updated Mar 2 2006 05:19 PM EST
CBC News
A Nova Scotia man says he’s very proud of his soldier son, who turned down an assignment in Canada to join his friends in Afghanistan.
Cpl. Paul James Davis, 28, was killed Thursday when his armoured vehicle flipped over on a road near Kandahar. Six other soldiers and a local interpreter were injured.
“I’m very proud of my son Paul,” said Jim Davis, from his home in Bridgewater. “I believe Paul died serving his country and serving the free world.
…
The armoured vehicles are prone to rollovers on badly pitted or sloping roads because they have a high centre of gravity. In the six years the LAV-III has been in use, there have been a total of 10 rollover accidents.
There are 2,200 Canadian troops in southern Afghanistan, led by Canadian Brig.-Gen. David Fraser.
Davis is the ninth soldier from Canada to die in the Afghan mission. Canadian diplomat Glyn Berry was also killed in January in a roadside attack on his vehicle in Kandahar. +
http://www.cbc.ca/ns/story/ns-davis-afgh20060302.html
Iraqi Catholics Donate to Rebuild Samarra Mosque – Kirkuk Archbishop Tells of Act of Solidarity
Zenit News Agency ^ | March 2, 2006
Posted on 03/02/2006 5:55:17 PM PST by NYer
KIRKUK, Iraq, MARCH 2, 2006 (Zenit.org).- Iraqi Catholics are taking up a collection for the reconstruction of the destroyed Samarra mosque, revealed Archbishop Louis Sako of Kirkuk.
The gesture of solidarity comes in the wake of the Jan. 29 attacks against two churches in Kirkuk, which claimed the lives of a 13-year-old acolyte, Fadi Raad Elias, and other Catholics. Those attacks were linked to the Western publication of cartoons depicting Mohammed.
“We are not facing civil war; it would be the end of Iraq and no one wants this,” said Archbishop Sako.
“Iraqis are aware that Saddam Hussein abused them,” the Chaldean archbishop added. “In particular, his regime killed many Shiites and these people are now seeking vengeance for the injustices suffered up to a few years ago.”
Archbishop Sako told the Italian bishops’ SIR news service that another goal of Shiite violence, since the attack on the Shiite mosque in Samarra, “is to obtain by force more posts in the government.”
The archbishop said he believes that “it is necessary to be at the side of our faithful to give them all possible support. I try to encourage them so that they will not be discouraged. If someone wants us to abandon the country, we will show that we are not afraid, that we are strong and that we are profoundly tied to our country.”
According to the prelate, “Religion has nothing to do with the killings” of the last few days.
He said that he has visited “the Muslim leaders to express to them my total solidarity over the destruction of the mosque of Samarra.” +
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1588940/posts
The most glaring mistake made in Iraq: when Bremer declared al-Sadr an outlaw and a target in April 2004; then simply let him go. Should have blown him to smithereens. Zarqawi may be the leading butcher, but al-Sadr is the ultimate snake, lying in the weeds at the fringes of every bad turn.
Help me understand the general picture.
Abu Musab Al Zarqawi we know to be a dangerous Al-Qaida terrorist leader.
Sayyid Muqtada Al-Sadr is another, but supposedly a dangerous agent and terrorist leader supported by Iran.
Are these wealthy guys dressed all in black driving around with weapons in expensive cars from Syria or Iran or both?
There is supposed to be a warrant out for his arrest via official Al – Iraqiya TV.
This according to:
http://healingiraq.blogspot.com/
I forget the Iraq blogsite now, but they made reference to Al-Sadr as a nasty who would make Saddam look like an alter boy.
It’s odd how things progress. At one time the USA joined with Saddam against Iran and Khomanie.
Now, after the Sunni are subdued somewhat, we find that Iran is supporting the Shiite majority and if things get too far out of balance that way, we will have more of a problem to deal with.
Are you getting a similar picture here?
Yes it is more complex than that, but generally speaking. TG
The dome was destroyed by AQI who have a vested interest in creating the conditions for civil war in Iraq.
The dome was destroyed by AQI who have a vested interest in creating the conditions for civil war in Iraq.
NCF TO mentioned “snake”. Saddam was/is a snake; a butcher of humans. There are many snakes in the underground; these snakes surface at our peril.
There are many heads to sever before the snakes retreat back down to the underground. +
March 03, 2006
�The Head of the Snake�
SULEIMANIYA, IRAQ � Suleimaniya is the most liberal city in Iraqi Kurdistan, partly because of its long-standing and deep ties to nearby Iran, one of the most culturally liberal countries in the Middle East. The Iraqi Kurds I met who have been to Iran wanted me to know � and they want you to know, as well � that the distance between the Iranian people and their hideous regime is galactic. I heard the same refrain over and over again: �Persians are just like us.� In other words, they are liberal, secular, pro-Western, and fed up with tyrants. �Iranians love America,� the Kurds told me. �They have nothing to do with Ahmadinejad.�
All the way back in 1973 Moula Mustafa Barzani, the famous and beloved leader of the anti-Baathist Kurdish resistance, said he wanted Iraqi Kurdistan to become the 51st American state. Nowhere did Barzani�s fierce campaign resonate more deeply than it did in Suleimaniya. Suli isn�t only the cultural capital of the region � its New York, if you will. It also is the capital of Kurdish nationalism. Saddam Hussein called it �The Head of the Snake.�
He answered with genocide. No one in Iraq experienced the full wrath of Saddam�s Black Arabism more than the Kurds. If the Kurds refused to morph themselves into loyal little Baathists, he would erase them from the face of the earth.
The old headquarters of the mukhabarat, the secret police, still stands in one of Suli�s quiet neighborhoods, gutted and pock-marked with bullet holes. +
http://www.michaeltotten.com/archives/001068.html
via instapundit