Nikolai at Lenin’s Tomb points out another American Cultural Ignorance faux pas committed in renaming their infamous Iraqi torture center:
At the behest of the IGC, Abu Graibh prison has been renamed , Camp Redemption. I shit you not. Hmmm. Where can they have got that idea from?
Could it be a reference to the old regime, which was, after all the Ba’ath (Redemption) Socialist Party of Iraq?
Remember Operation Iraqi Liberation (OIL)?
Abu Aardvark posts a development I had missed and points out an interesting aspect of al-Jazeera.
Following the American lead in attacking al Jazeera and cracking down on press freedom, “Saudi Arabia’s highest religious authority issued a “fatwa” or religious edict Thursday banning Muslims from watching Qatar-based al-Jazeera TV.” Now, the Bush administration might object to al Jazeera because it sees it as an anti-American force in the region, while the Saudis see it as “”Zionist television,” but really… you say tomayto, I say tomahto.
Anyway, the real point of the Saudi edict – and the crippling blind spot of the Bush administration – comes here: the fatwa bitterly attacks al Jazeera because it “hosts “so-called reformists who have a podium for airing their poisonous ideas.”” This is the side of al Jazeera which the Bush administration always misses: as much as it challenges American foreign policy in the region, it challenges the repressive status quo in the Arab world far more. If the Bush administration were serious about promoting Arab reform – which I don’t believe that they are in the slightest – then they would recognize al Jazeera’s power in mobilizing pressures for change from within.
Emphasis mine. So, the Bush administration and the most repressive country on the planet’s highest religious hardliner both hate al Jazeera, think it interferes with their agendas, and want to ban it.
Stuart Hughes on Ahmed Chalabi passing American intel to Iran:
CBS is reporting tonight that Ahmed Chalabi is accused of passing highly-classified US intelligence to Iran. Newsweek has already reported as much. If the information Chalabi gave Tehran is on a par with the “intelligence” he fed to the Pentagon, the US has nothing to worry about.
Oh, and for anyone in the market for Right-Wing Stuff, Stuart has a link, in case your “Peace Through Superior Firepower” bumper sticker is getting tatty. I hear they’re having a Discontinued Items sale on this one.
Eli at Left I highlights the hypocrisy of the New York Times reporting on Chalabi’s disinfo while never mentioning Judith “Kneepads” Miller, NYT’s very own Chalabi Receptacle.
Alan at Southerly Buster also weighs in on the Times’ hypocrisy and the Iran-Chalabi connection, “Perhaps these genius intellectuals should go back to the boring art of fact-checking. Perhaps, if one member of the axis of evil could use the Cabal’s intellectual prejudices to get them to attack another member of the axis of evil then the whole axis was not all that, well, axial.”
A new entry in the Iraq: I’m Lovin It series: (Part IX: Muppet Government) at The Decadent West.
The posters at Rafah Kid Rambles have been working hard to keep us apprised of events in Gaza. There are too many excellent posts and unique photos to list them all, just read the entire thing. Don’t miss the bit about the Rabbi Dov Lior ruling which Lawrence of Cyberia slices and dices here.
Christopher Albritton of Back to Iraq is back in Iraq, reporting from Baghdad.
Jim Henley reminds me that none of us AntiWar.com bloggers (Not even Matt!) have blogged congratulations for Matt Barganier’s selection as the new editor at AntiWar.com. Congratulations also to the AntiWar staff for acquiring such talent!
Micah Holmquist figures the US troops in Iraq are ahead of the Afghanistan troops in the Wedding Bombing competition.
Readers of prominent political blogs may have noticed a survey going on the past week or so by blogads. The results are interesting and include some surprises, such as the fact that according to blogads’ survey of 17,159 blog readers, 79% of all blog readers are men. Thanks to Tim Dunlop at the road to surfdom for posting the link to the survey results.
Patriotboy is looking for a second wife at Single Republican.com. Also, Republican Jesus weighs in on the Iraq torture photos.