This is C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot" for today:
Monday, January 16, 2023. Iraq gears up to face Qatar as the Arab Gulf Cup continues, US troops to remain in Iraq, the CIA doesn't feel they have to follow the laws or to face legal review, the war on the LGBTQ+ community continues, and much more.
Excitement in Iraq as the Arab Gulf Cup resumes today with Iraq facing off against Qatar.
Dhi Qar Deputy Governor Faisal al-Sharifi told Rudaw that the accident occurred due to the dense fog that is clouding the province at the moment.
MEHR NEWS AGENCY says the number killed has risen to 15 with eleven more injured.
In spite of that unfortunate accident, the excitement continues ahead of the game.
They celebrate as the news comes out the US troops are not leaving Iraq. REUTERS reports, " Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed al-Sudani defended the presence of U.S. troops in his country and set no timetable for their withdrawal, in an interview with the Wall Street Journal published on Sunday." Robert Tollast (THE NATIONAL) explains:
In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Mr Al Sudani said that the “elimination of ISIS needs some more time”, when asked about the US troop presence, which has been authorised by the Iraqi government to train the Iraqi army since 2014.
About 2,500 US soldiers remain in Iraq, from a high of over 5,000 during the war against ISIS between 2014 and 2018. The small contingent was deployed to Iraq following a withdrawal of US forces in 2011 after eight years of occupation. At its peak, the force numbered 170,000 in 2007, when Iraq was beset with sectarian violence and fighting between international coalition forces and insurgents.
Chenar Chalak (RUDAW) notes, "The PM’s statement comes despite repeated demands from Iran-backed political groups in Iraq calling for terminating the presence of the foreign forces, including from within the Coordination Framework -of which Sudani is a member-." ALJAZEERA notes, "His statements underlined the difficult tack the prime minister has sought in his dealings with the US and with Iran, which, beyond having substantial sway in domestic Iraqi politics, is also a key provider of natural gas and electricity to the country. The prime minister hailed Iran and Iraq’s close economic and security ties during a visit to Tehran in November."
Eight years of the US fighting ISIS and it still it continues. One year away from a decade. Still it's used as the excuse to continue the ongoing Iraq War. All these years later.
Reminder, DEMOCRACY NOW! has a special event this week:
On Jan. 20, Democracy Now! will live-stream the Belmarsh Tribunal from Washington, D.C. The event will feature expert testimony from journalists, whistleblowers, lawyers, publishers and parliamentarians on assaults to press freedom and the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
Watch here live at 2 p.m. ET on Friday, Jan. 20.
Democracy Now!’s Amy Goodman and Srecko Horvat, the co-founder of DiEM25, will chair the tribunal, which is being organized by Progressive International and the Wau Holland Foundation.
Members of the tribunal include:
Stella Assange, partner of Julian Assange and member of his defense team
Daniel Ellsberg, Pentagon Papers whistleblower
Noam Chomsky, linguist and activist
Jeremy Corbyn, member of U.K. Parliament and founder of the Peace and Justice Project
Chip Gibbons, policy director of Defending Rights & Dissent
Kevin Gosztola, managing editor of Shadowproof
Margaret Kunstler, civil rights attorney
Stefania Maurizi, investigative journalist, Il Fatto Quotidiano
Jesselyn Radack, national security and human rights attorney
Ben Wizner, lead attorney at ACLU of Edward Snowden
Renata Ávila, human rights lawyer, technology and society expert
Jeffrey Sterling, lawyer and former CIA employee
Steven Donziger, human rights attorney
Kristinn Hrafnsson, editor-in-chief, WikiLeaks
Katrina vanden Heuvel, editorial director and publisher, The Nation
Selay Ghaffar, spokesperson, Solidarity Party of Afghanistan
Betty Medsger, investigative reporter
A grim picture of the US and Britain's legacy in Iraq has been revealed in a massive leak of American military documents that detail torture, summary executions and war crimes.
Almost 400,000 secret US army field reports have been passed to the
Guardian and a number of other international media organisations via the
whistleblowing website WikiLeaks.
The electronic archive is believed to emanate from the same dissident
US army intelligence analyst who earlier this year is alleged to have
leaked a smaller tranche of 90,000 logs chronicling bloody encounters
and civilian killings in the Afghan war.
The new logs detail how:
•
US authorities failed to investigate hundreds of reports of abuse,
torture, rape and even murder by Iraqi police and soldiers whose conduct
appears to be systematic and normally unpunished.
• A US helicopter gunship involved in a
notorious Baghdad incident had previously killed Iraqi insurgents after
they tried to surrender.
• More than 15,000 civilians died in
previously unknown incidents. US and UK officials have insisted that no
official record of civilian casualties exists but the logs record 66,081
non-combatant deaths out of a total of 109,000 fatalities.
The numerous reports of detainee abuse, often supported by medical evidence, describe prisoners shackled, blindfolded and hung by wrists or ankles, and subjected to whipping, punching, kicking or electric shocks. Six reports end with a detainee's apparent deat
The Biden administration has been saying all the right things lately about respecting a free and vigorous press, after four years of relentless media-bashing and legal assaults under Donald Trump.
The attorney general, Merrick Garland, has even put in place expanded protections for journalists this fall, saying that “a free and independent press is vital to the functioning of our democracy”.
But the biggest test of Biden’s commitment remains imprisoned in a jail cell in London, where WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has been held since 2019 while facing prosecution in the United States under the Espionage Act, a century-old statute that has never been used before for publishing classified information.
Whether the US justice department continues to pursue the Trump-era charges against the notorious leaker, whose group put out secret information on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Guantánamo Bay, American diplomacy and internal Democratic politics before the 2016 election, will go a long way toward determining whether the current administration intends to make good on its pledges to protect the press.
Now Biden is facing a re-energized push, both inside the United States and overseas, to drop Assange’s protracted prosecution.
But what the US government is fighting right now is to avoid CIA actions being examined by a court of law. Kevin Gosztola (SCHEER POST) reports:
The Central Intelligence Agency and former CIA director Mike Pompeo notified a federal court in New York that they intend to push for the dismissal of a lawsuit that alleges that they were involved in spying against attorneys and journalists who visited WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in Ecuador’s London embassy.
Both the CIA and Pompeo maintain that the “allegations in the complaint do not establish a violation of the Fourth Amendment [right to privacy].”
In August 2022, four Americans who visited Assange in the embassy sued the CIA and Pompeo in his individual capacity: Margaret Ratner Kunstler, a civil rights activist and human rights attorney; Deborah Hrbek, a media lawyer, represented Assange or WikiLeaks; journalist John Goetz, who worked for Der Spiegel when the German media organization first partnered with WikiLeaks; and journalist Charles Glass, who wrote articles on Assange for The Intercept.
The filed complaint alleged that as visitors Glass, Goetz, Hrbek, and Kunstler were required to “surrender” their electronic devices to employees of a private company called UC Global that was contracted to provide security for the embassy. What they did not know was that UC Global “copied the information stored on the devices” and allegedly shared the information with the CIA, and Pompeo allegedly authorized and approved the action.
Security contractors required the attorneys and journalists to leave their devices with them, which contained “confidential and privileged information about their sources or clients.”
In other news, Ashley Iasimone (BILLBOARD) reports:
Maren Morris got emotional as she fulfilled a “decade-long dream” of serving as a guest judge on RuPaul’s Drag Race.
The country star appeared on Friday’s (Jan. 13) episode of the series and that night tweeted: “I’ve done some cool s—. #DragRace is rivaling it all. Getting my jacket framed next to my Grammy. It is DONE.”
In a post-episode Untucked clip, Morris was teary-eyed as she spoke from her heart to the room.
“Coming from country music and its relationship with LGBTQ+ members, I just want to say I’m sorry,” Morris said. “And I love you guys for making me feel like a brave voice in country music. So I just thank you guys so much for inspiring me.”
Armando Tinoko (DEADLINE) adds:
Morris has been standing up for the LGBTQ+ community within the country music industry for quite some time. In 2022, she called out country singer Jason Aldean’s influencer wife Brittany Aldean after making comments about the transgender community.
Brittany then made an appearance on Tucker Carlson’s Fox News show where they called Morris a “lunatic” after “The Middle” singer referred to her as a “scumbag human” and “Insurrection Barbie.”
However, Morris turned the narrative around and started selling a t-shirt that read, “Lunatic country music person,” and ended up raising over $100k for the transgender community.
Jordan Robledo (GAY TIMES) quotes Mistress Isabelle Brookes replying, "Just you being here shows that you’re an ally."
The stupidity of people like Jason Aldean's wife always surprises me. No, I don't mean for failing to define herself. She's the second wife and she'll hold onto that title until Jason finds his third wife.
I'm referring to income. I'm referring to career. I've never abused my fans by telling them how to vote or by insulting them. Jason, at one point, had some gay fans. He may still. But I have no idea why the appendage is trying to run them off or allowed to.
There are a lot of gay men and women into country music. Randy Travis wouldn't have had a career without them. Those 'hunky photos' were catering to gay men, not to straight women and Lib Hatcher used those photos to cement a foundation for Randy. And gay men took up Randy before anyone.
You need your fans. You don't have a career without them. You shouldn't take them for granted and you certainly shouldn't hurl hate at them.
But there's a lot of hate out there today. Including in a city of Kentucky. Julia Sandor (WKTY) reports:
There’s been vandalism and hateful posters throughout downtown Lexington.
Members of the LGBTQ+ community see things like this far too often.
It’s something Catherine Taylor, with the Lexington Pride Center, said won’t change them.
“We respect other people’s belief systems, but at the end of the day when you threaten somebody because you don’t agree with what they’re doing, that’s a problem,” Taylor said.
The Lexington Pride Center makes it a point to talk about these issues in the community.
They host a “heart to heart” where people get together to talk about things that happen, like the placement of the hateful signs in downtown Lexington.
“It’s a way of connecting with people that are going through the same things who are LGBTQIA identifying because it is scary,” they said.
They said it feels like they’re constantly on guard, never knowing what could happen next.
And they're right to be concerned when so many are expressing hate and getting away with it. If you missed it, some on the 'left' are working overtime to pretty up hate merchant Marjorie Taylor Greene -- very glad that THE VANGUARD refused to praise that nut job but there are many -- including Glenneth Greenwald -- who have no ethics and who are trying to make her their party hag. Sad when MSNBC has more bravery than Glenneth:
MSNBC host Jonathan Capehart on Sunday confronted GOP House candidate Leon Benjamin Sr. over a 2011 Facebook post in which he likened those in the LGBTQ community to people who are “sick,” have bipolar disorder and are addicted to drugs and alcohol.
“You started this conversation by saying you were ‘running to be a bridge.’ You used the word unity. How is that being a bridge? How is that being a unifier for the 4th Congressional District of Virginia, that most likely has LGBTQ people in that district?” Capehart asked in an interview on his “The Sunday Show.”
MEDIAITE has posted video of the exchange. Robert Tann (SUMMIT DAILY) reports on efforts in Summit, Colorado:
[Superintendent Tony]Byrd stood by the district’s commitment to equity and inclusion, adding: “We have a district theme of ‘we belong.’ We want every single student to feel included in our system, and the LGBTQ community is one of many communities that don’t feel included.”
The October resolution, which did not legislate any new policy outside of what was already established in the district’s equity policy, came as a response to concerns that the Colorado State Board of Education could vote to keep omissions it made to references about LGBTQ people as well as communities of color and other groups in its social studies standards for public schools.
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