1,000s – 10,000s – 100,000s – …

April 9, 2007

THOUSANDS of Iraqis have draped themselves in national flags and marched through the streets of two Shiite holy cities to mark the fourth anniversary of Baghdad’s fall.
Link

Tens of thousands of people waving Iraqi flags staged a peaceful rally in the southern city of Najaf
Link

Hundreds of thousands of Iraqi Shias have demonstrated in the holy city of Najaf, …
Link

One seldom knows if there is ignorance or intentional lowballing of such numbers. Sometimes it is both. A usual scheme for U.S. print media seems to be this: the headline will have the smallest number, the lede will include a medium number and buried in some quote down in paragraph 12 or so will be the real number.

Anyway – it is good that Iraqis are still proud of their flag – a symbol that has not split on sectarian lines and may heal some differences. A smart move by the radical, anti- american, diabolic al-Sadr.

Posted by b on April 9, 2007 at 21:28 UTC | Permalink

Comments

here’s some video coverage scroll

Posted by: annie | Apr 9 2007 21:52 utc | 1

I find remarkable that Muslims would commemorate an anniversary according to the Gregorian calendar. The year according to the Muslim calendar is about 11 days shorter than the Gregorian so the Muslim anniversary happened more than a month ago, ergo the demonstrations are directed to the American public.

Posted by: jlcg | Apr 9 2007 22:50 utc | 2

b
don’t be so surprised ‘western journalism’ is so cretinous & corrupt it can barely count the fingers on their own hands

Posted by: remembereringgiap | Apr 9 2007 22:59 utc | 3

b
I must be getting cynical reading moa…Saw the headline in Yahoo News saying “Thousands of Shiites call for U.S. to leave Iraq” and knew without reading the article that there were probably more than a hundred thousand marchers.
From one of your links…”Reuters journalists estimated the size of the crowd at tens of thousands, while organisers said the number was far greater. The U.S. military said aerial surveillance pictures showed that 15,000 took part.”
Also, read news stories of marchers being delayed in Basra so they could not get to Najaf.

Posted by: SimplyLurking | Apr 9 2007 23:30 utc | 4

The complicit media is the pulse of THIS ADMINISTRATION abroad and more so at home. Until one understands that there will be no break-through, no readdress, no justice.
“You could get a journalist cheaper than a good call girl, for a couple hundred dollars a month.” – CIA operative discussing with Philip Graham, editor Washington Post, on the availability and prices of journalists willing to peddle CIA propaganda and cover stories.

Posted by: Uncle $cam | Apr 10 2007 5:53 utc | 5

Noted today in the Slogger:

Meanwhile, unsubstantiated rumors were abound in Najaf that the life of senior Shi’ite cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali Al-Sistani was in danger and that he was transferred in an ambulance to the general hospital of Najaf after he complained from chest pain and lost consciousness twice, according to the Al-Badeel Al-Iraqi and Al-Melaf Net websites. An anonymous Iraqi physician told the Iraq News Agency that Sistani’s bureau is attempting to prevent the news of Sistani’s health deterioration from leaking out to the media for “internal Shi’ite considerations,” adding that Sistani is in intensive care with full medical supervision. Other residents said that the government smuggled the aging cleric out of the city for fear that he would be attacked by Sadrist followers who were rallying in the hundreds of thousands in Najaf, while other senior clerics were placed under close protection.

Not sure what to make of this, either a re-play on Sistani’s trip to London the last time Sadr and his boys blew into town, or something more interesting. At any rate I thought their relationship was on the mend, perhaps (Sistani) even endorsing the current demonstration in Najaf. Allowing Sadr to assume his own “activists” inclinations as he retreats into the “quietists” mode. It would blow a lot of minds if Sistani passed the torch to Sadr.

Posted by: anna missed | Apr 10 2007 7:58 utc | 6

With these chlorine trucks being used for terror bombing I was afraid that the reaction would be the banning of chlorine – thise seems to be nearly done now: Twelve trucks laden with chlorine held at Tribil crossing-point

Customs authorities at Tribil crossing-point on the Iraqi-Jordanian borders held 12 trucks laden with chlorine, a governmental source in Tribil customs said on Monday.
“Customs authorities at Tribil crossing-point have held for several days 12 25-ton trucks laden with chlorine imported from Jordan to be used for water purification projects in Baghdad and other provinces,” the source, who preferred to be unnamed, told the independent news agency Voices of Iraq (VOI).
“The step came in accordance with interior ministry’s instructions because a number of these trucks have come under looters attacks on the highway between Baghdad and Tribil, west of Anbar, on the borders with Jordan,” he noted.
“The delay was to secure their way to Baghdad,” the source added.
A number of bombing attacks took place in the last weeks using trucks laden with chlorine, killing 35 persons and poisoning 350 others.

Posted by: b | Apr 10 2007 14:46 utc | 7

Not really new to most here but some details: U.S. protects Iranian opposition group in Iraq

An Iranian opposition group based in Iraq, labeled a terrorist organization by the United States, gets protection from the U.S. military despite Iraqi pressure to leave the country.
…
The U.S. State Department considers the MEK a terrorist organization — meaning no American can deal with it; U.S. banks must freeze its assets; and any American giving support to its members is committing a crime.
The U.S. military, though, regularly escorts MEK supply runs between Baghdad and its base, Camp Ashraf.
“The trips for procurement of logistical needs also take place under the control and protection of the MPs,” said Mojgan Parsaii, vice president of MEK and leader of Camp Ashraf.
…
The MEK denies it is a terrorist group. Both Iran and the Iraqi government, however, accuse the group of ongoing terrorist attacks, and the Shiite-dominated Iraqi government wants it out.
“We gave this organization a six-month deadline to leave Iraq, and we informed the Red Cross,” said Shirwan al-Wa’eli, Iraq’s national security minister. “And presumably, our friends the Americans will respect our decision and they will not stay on Iraqi land.”
For now, however, the United States continues to protect MEK.

Posted by: b | Apr 10 2007 14:49 utc | 8

It would blow a lot of minds if Sistani passed the torch to Sadr.
is sadr next in line? also, why would sistani need to be protected from sadr’s followers? i wasn’t aware they had a conflict of interest.

Posted by: annie | Apr 10 2007 15:10 utc | 9

Nahrain Net’s correspondent reported that the 14 km main street between Najaf and Kufa was “colored with the colors of the Iraqi flag raised by millions of demonstrators,”
hmm

Posted by: annie | Apr 10 2007 15:14 utc | 10

@annie – 9
Sadr does by far not have the rank needed to follow Sistani. There are about ten or so Grand Ajatollahs in Iraq that could follow him. He also has some sons that could follow him though I don’t know their rank as scholars.
It will be quite a contest as the job comes with the right to distribute millions in donations. Also Iran will try to get in a Qom Ajatollah of their liking. They will pull every string possible for that. The process is a bit like getting tenure.
Sadr may have an inofficial say in the process has he can provide the people needed to support the new selected guy.

Posted by: b | Apr 10 2007 16:02 utc | 11

A smart move by the radical, anti- american, diabolic al-Sadr.

b, I’ve always noticed this with al-Sadr. A rough Google search shows that over 40% of the hits prepend ‘radical’ to al-Sadr’s name. Is he made of ozone?

Posted by: biklett | Apr 10 2007 17:23 utc | 12

>b, I’ve always noticed this with al-Sadr. A rough Google search shows that over 40% of the hits prepend ‘radical’ to al-Sadr’s name. Is he made of ozone?
At least they’re not prefacing his name with the term “fire-brand” any longer. Almost 100% of reports, including by fairly respectable reporters, used to use this term.

Posted by: johnf | Apr 10 2007 17:53 utc | 13

12, 13 – yes, certainly a set-up – all the sectarian killings in Baghdad are notched up on Sadr, while SCIRI actually controls the forces who were reported to do this.
But Hakim has visted the White House and doesn’t call for the U.S. to leave – Sadr does, so he is bad …

Posted by: b | Apr 10 2007 18:19 utc | 14

Didn’t mean to imply that Sadr would replace Sistani as (the) ranking ayatollah (b is right there) — but that Sadr would be might become the standard bearer of Sistani’s “activist” political persona.
The two have become much closer recently with Sistani trying to get Sadr out from under the murder (of his teachers son al Khoie) charges.

Posted by: anna missed | Apr 10 2007 19:10 utc | 15

OT?:
From Geoffrey Gorer, ‘Africa Dances’, 1935, p, 78:
French West Africa is extremely sparsely populated. With an area about 8 times of that of France, it has a pop. of less than a third of the mother country. According to the last census it had a pop. of 14 millions. Despite the efforts that I have made directly or indirectly I have not been able to show the movement of the pop.; but the figures given by Marcel Sauvage in his articles on French Equatorial Africa (and adjacent system with a similar method of Gvmt.) which he published in l’Intransigeant, Aug, 1934, under the title, Les Secrets de l’Afrique Noire, are sufficiently revealing. In 1911 French Equatorial Africa had 20 million Negro inhabitants, in 1921, 7.5 million, and in 1931, 2.5 million. These figures were given in a responsible French conservative paper and have not been denied; moreover, scattered observations elsewhere, and the prevarications of the information bureau of the colony, makes it almost certain that the almost incredible state of affairs that these figures show — the population reduced by 90% in 20 years – is a sober statement of fact.
The depopulation of French West Africa /ed: overall/ is not proceeding at so vertiginous a rate, but the trend is undoubetdly the same. The drop in population does not only represent deaths, though mortality is extremely high; very great numbers of Negroes emigrate to English colonies, fleeing from conscription and military service, and forced labor…Within the years 1926-1929 it is calculated that over 2 million Negroes passed from French territory into British Nigeria (…) and the better part of a million to the Gold Coast.
Plus ca change, plus c’est la même chose.

Posted by: Noirette | Apr 10 2007 19:17 utc | 16

Other residents said that the government smuggled the aging cleric out of the city for fear that he would be attacked by Sadrist followers who were rallying in the hundreds of thousands in Najaf
from the iraqi slogger link.
what is the likelihood of this? this just sounds bizarre.
he is bad …
you mean like this?

Posted by: annie | Apr 10 2007 19:29 utc | 17

No chlorine, no water purification. As sewage treatment is not available anymore in most Iraq cities, and the sewage flows into the same rivers than the drinking water is pulled from, this means Cholera and Typhus epidemia are becoming likely now.
from 2001:
How the US deliberately destroyed Iraq’s water
Global Res.
In no. of deaths, bombs and dirty water (or no water except rain in mud pools) cannot compete. The first may kill (in today’s surveilled warfare), 10, 100, perhaps even some 10,000’s or even more (covered up, or admitted, or whatever) ppl.
Dirty water kills millions, many millions, invisibly – the causes are so multiple… mothers are blamed for not sterilising bottles – etc. etc. Too bad, heh? Well, the soldiers are doing their best….

Posted by: Noirette | Apr 10 2007 19:40 utc | 18

Depressing summary of “reconstruction” from Le Monde diplomatic Iraq: follow the money. The punchline:

The rationale behind the harsh economic sanctions [of ’91 to ’03] was that the Iraqi regime would lose its legitimacy; the Iraqi people would see the state for the corrupt regime it was. The hardship would cause such desperation that the Iraqi people would rise up against Saddam and overthrow the regime. It did not happen under Saddam, but it is happening under the US occupation.

Posted by: PeeDee | Apr 10 2007 20:33 utc | 19

To understand the chlorine attacks, one has to know more about the distribution of purified water in Iraq. Who gets it? Large cities only, or is it a generally available?
If clean water is already restricted to “government-controlled” areas, then the chlorine bombs are a way of undermining those areas. But if water-treatment is widespread, this would be an attack on the population generally.
The first case argues that the insurgents are doing it, the second would confirm that it is the US, through its black-ops teams.
Since chlorine bombs are actually lousy weapons of war, it is clear that the real target is (what remains of) the water system.

Posted by: Gaianne | Apr 10 2007 20:41 utc | 20

I just found this report (pdf) from the Brookings Institution (unknown to me, anyone got any info on them?). Looks well-researched. It holds numbers and more numbers on the iraqi situation. Among other things on page 26 is a table dividing attacks (presumably by iraqis) into three cathegories: attacks on coalition forces, on iraqi security forces and on civilians. From the table I approximate these shares (for 2006 and 2007):
coal/secur/civilians
69% / 20% / 11% (2006)
74% / 18% / 8% (2006)
or to sum it up, even during 2006 most attacks were directed at the occupiers, not fellow iraqis. And a minority of attacks on iraqis was directed at civilian targets.
Found the link from Wafaa’ Al-Natheema.

Posted by: a swedish kind of death | Apr 11 2007 13:22 utc | 21

If clean water is already restricted to “government-controlled” areas, then the chlorine bombs are a way of undermining those areas. But if water-treatment is widespread, this would be an attack on the population generally.
I don’t see much differnece there – it is delegitimization of the government. I don’t see any reason why that should be a black-op.

Posted by: b | Apr 11 2007 13:32 utc | 22

(unknown to me, anyone got any info on them?)
All politicians are liars, and all Institutions are self-serving cabals.
Anyway, I can’t quite get my head around the word Institution without putting the word Mental in front of it.

Posted by: DM | Apr 11 2007 13:42 utc | 23

There were 11 bridges connecting west and east Baghdad – now there are 10 …
10 killed in Baghdad suicide bombing

A suicide truck bomb exploded on a major bridge in Baghdad early Thursday, collapsing the steel structure and sending cars toppling into the Tigris River below, police and witnesses said. At least 10 people were killed.
…
The al-Sarafiya bridge connected two northern Baghdad neighborhoods — Waziriyah, a mostly Sunni enclave, and Utafiyah, a Shiite area.
Police said the attack was by a suicide truck bomber, but Associated Press Television News footage showed the bridge broken apart in two places — perhaps the result of two blasts.

Posted by: b | Apr 12 2007 10:10 utc | 24

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