This is C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot" for today:
Thursday, July 28, 2022. Moqtada al-Sadr orders cult to riot and take over Parliament, Lauren Boebert can't stop spreading hate, and much more.
Iraq today? Protesters? Demonstrators?
Think about it, we'll come back to it.
Today, on the 32nd anniversary
of the signing of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), Vice
President Kamala Harris hosted a roundtable conversation with disability
rights leaders to discuss access to reproductive health care. The
meeting built on the Vice President’s engagements on reproductive rights
with health care providers; faith leaders; constitutional law, privacy,
and technology experts; advocates; and state attorneys general, and it
followed recent meetings that the Vice President has convened with state
legislators and local leaders in Indianapolis, Indiana; Richmond,
Virginia; Charlotte, North Carolina; Atlantic City, New Jersey;
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; and Orlando, Florida. Vice President Harris
also convened legislators from Florida, Indiana, Montana, North Dakota,
and Nebraska in Washington D.C. to discuss the reproductive rights
challenges in those states.
Vice
President Harris discussed how disparities in health care access
continue to exist in our country for people with disabilities, and she
conveyed that those challenges are being exacerbated following the
Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade.
The participants shared stories of challenges that are
disproportionately facing people with disabilities as it relates to
reproductive health care and abortion access.
Vice President
Harris emphasized the Administration’s commitment to protecting
reproductive rights and shared how the Administration will continue to
fight for the bodily autonomy and self-determination of all individuals
with disabilities. The participants discussed how there is significant
work to be done to fulfill the promise of the Americans with
Disabilities Act, and Vice President Harris thanked them for their
leadership in shining a spotlight on the need for equity and access. She
spoke about the importance of coalition-building in the movement to
protect reproductive care for all people.
Participants:
- Dior Vargas, Disability Rights and Mental Health Advocate
- Maria Town, American Association of People with Disabilities
- Lydia Brown, President and CEO at Autistic Women and Nonbinary Network
- Robin Wilson-Beattie, Disability Sexual and Reproductive Health Educator
- Sam Crane, Legal Director at Quality Trust for Individuals with Disabilities
Back to Iraq.
Goons follow orders to attack an institution?
In the US we call it what it is: A riot. In fairness, a number of idiots -- mainly in media -- call it a coup or an attempted one. In the US, we even launch a media-geared Congressional investigation.
But in Iraq, when Moqtada al-Sadr orders his goons to take over Parliament, they're just "protesters" and "demonstrators" -- read the press, that's what they're calling them.
Hundreds of followers of Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr broke into the Iraqi Parliament building in central Baghdad to protest against the nomination of Mohammed Shia' al-Sudani for the post of Prime Minister.
The riot police fired tear gas canisters and warning shots to disperse the protesters, but there were no clashes between the protesters and the security forces, an Interior Ministry source told Xinhua news agency.
Many videos aired by TV channels and social media showed dozens of demonstrators inside Parliament building waving Iraqi flags and chanting slogans hailing Moqtada al-Sadr.
Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi urged in a statement the protesters to withdraw from the building immediately.
Al-Sadr told the demonstrators to end the protest in a tweet late Wednesday night, saying "your message has arrived... Go back to your homes safely".
They broke into the building on Moqtada's orders and didn't leave until he told them the message had been delivered and to go home?
It was a riot in a federal building and it was planned by, instigated by and overseen by Moqtada al-Sadr.
Riot.
CNN, you can't have it both ways though goodness knows you try to "Hundreds of angry protesters . . ."
AL BAWABA notes:
ALJAZEERA offers these bullet points:
- The demonstrators, estimated to have been in the hundreds, oppose the nomination of a rival Iran-backed alliance’s candidate for prime minister.
- Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, a former minister and ex-provincial governor, is the pro-Iran Coordination Framework’s pick for premier. Al-Sadr has rejected his candidacy.
- “Al-Sudani just represents a very convenient excuse for Muqtada al-Sadr to voice his displeasure with the entire Coordination Framework and the political system in Iraq,” Marsin Alshamary, a research fellow the Harvard Kennedy School, told Al Jazeera. “He would have done this if anyone else were nominated. Al-Sudani actually represents one of the least controversial figures from the Coordination Framework.”
- Protesters carried portraits of al-Sadr and chanted slogans in his support. They only cleared parliament and went home after he asked them to on Twitter, saying their message had been received.
Hundreds?
Hundreds. Apparently, even the cult was reluctant to show for this action. Friday is a day of worship in Iraq. So when Moqtada's cult comes out after Friday service, they're really not doing much at all but the international press always pumps them up. On a regular week day he can't even turn out thousands.
It's been nine months (almost ten) since Iraq held elections. Still no prime minister or president has been named. Moqtada failed repeatedly to form a government before finally throwing in the towel -- which is always his m.o. -- a few weeks ago.
Maybe his cult should have been storming his headquarters months ago?
Ali Almikdam Tweets:
Former prime minister and forever thug Nouri hits the streets with a gun after the Parliament is occupied.
The move was described by Iraqi analysts as an attempt by Iraqi leader Moqtada al-Sadr to block the path of his rival, former Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, or any of his allies, to head the government.
Sudani is closely linked to Maliki.
Well-informed Iraqi sources tell The Arab Weekly that Sadr fears the repercussions that his movement might suffer from the premiership of any figure who is loyal to Maliki.
Such repercussions might include the dismantling of the Sadrist security and political apparatus and the sidelining of Sadrists in government and curtailing their financial clout.
By sending his supporters en masse onto the streets, Sadr seems intent on avoiding his past mistakes dealing with Maliki. Sadrists have not waited long to apply intense street pressure on their movement's main rival with whom they see the showdown as an existential battle.
The Sadrists remember the operation launched by the Maliki government in March 2008 against the Mahdi Army militia led by Moqtada al-Sadr. The fighting at that time lasted nearly three weeks and ended with the surrender of the Mahdi Army and the defeat of Sadr.
What has further fuelled the Sadrists’ fears were the most recent audio leaks of statements by Maliki, in which he hints at a internecine Shia war to eliminate Sadr whom he describes as ignorant, spiteful and bloodthirsty. “He is a coward who robbed the country”, Maliki is heard saying about Sadr.
Let's turn back to the US and wind down with this from Jacob Crosse (WSWS):
As of this writing, 28 women have filed federal civil rights lawsuits alleging they were assaulted, raped and harassed at the Clark County Jail, located in southern Jefferson County, Indiana, last October during a “night of terror” overseen by indifferent and paid off prison guards.
In the lawsuits, the first of which was filed by 20 inmates in June, the
second which was filed by eight more inmates this past Monday, the
women allege that former corrections Officer David Lowe provided keys to
at least one male inmate which allowed him and several other prisoners,
under the watchful eye of Clark County jail officers, to enter the
female pods beginning the night of October 23, 2021 and into early hours
of October 24.
The lawsuit alleges that for over two hours jail
security staff did nothing to stop the male inmates from going into the
female pods and harassing, intimidating, assaulting and raping the
female prisoners. The lawsuit alleges that despite the security cameras
working and several security officers on duty, male inmates, with their
faces covered, were allowed to freely enter the women’s cells and go on a
rampage.
“Amazingly, even though there were surveillance cameras
positioned in locations that showed the male detainees accessing the
women’s Pods, and even though the incident involved multiple male
detainees and dozens of victims over an extended period of time, not a
single jail officer on duty that night came to the aid of the Plaintiffs
and the other victims,” the most recent lawsuit states.
One
of the plaintiffs in the federal lawsuit, known as Jane Doe 1, alleged
that “multiple male detainees using the keys obtained from Lowe, entered
Pod 4 (E) where they raped, assaulted, harassed, and intimidated Jane
Doe 1, resulting in significant emotional and physical injuries,
including but not limited to nightmares, bleeding, vaginal tears, and
genital herpes.” The lawsuit says that multiple prisoners held her in
place and told her to “keep quiet” while one inmate raped her.
Several
other plaintiffs alleged similar injuries. While at least 28 women have
come forward, one of the lawyers involved in the lawsuits says that
there are more victims.
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