Antiwar.com Blog

MOSUL, IRAQ: An Iraqi man stands next to three unidentified bodies with a yellow note placed in the mouth of one of the bodies accusing them of being Kurdish peshmerga fighters, in Mosul, 370 kms north of Baghdad, 21 November 2004. (UJAHED MOHAMMED/AFP/Getty Images)

Well, the sun’s been down for 3 hours in Baghdad now, so this should be the final Dead Body in Mosul tally for Friday: 21. Total number of bodies found in the last week: 41. (Correction: 21 appears to be the number for Thursday and Friday combined.)

The picture on the left, showing bodies found November 21, is graphic. Click the thumbnail to enlarge.

Iraq in Pictures has more photos.

UPDATE: Iraq in Pictures has today’s photos up from Mosul.

Zarqawi aide arrested in Mosul! Really! Just because Iraqi Minister of State Qassim Dawoud was full of merde when he announced the capture of Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, doesn’t mean he’s always wrong. Right?

Iraqi security adviser Kassim Daoud told a news conference Iraqi national guard soldiers had found a chemical laboratory in the former rebel stronghold of Falluja that was used to “prepare deadly explosives and poisons”, although US Marines in the city were sceptical evidence of the manufacture of chemical weapons had been found.

“They also found in the lab booklets and instructions on how to make bombs and poisons. They even talked about the production of anthrax,” Mr Daoud said.

Mr Daoud also said one of Zarqawi’s lieutenants, who he identified only as Abu Saeed, had been captured a few days ago in Mosul.

I don’t know why anyone reports this stuff, let alone why it’s all over the newswires. You’d think nothing else was going on.

These aren’t the droids you’re looking for….

David Frum complains about CAIR’s attempted suppression of his free speech. Maybe Frum would like to team up with Juan Cole to protest such tactics. Drop him a line and let’s see: dfrum@aei.org

Frum also writes the following:

Speaking of free societies: The faking of the election in Ukraine should remind Europeans that they face more serious threats and much closer to home than the reelection of George W. Bush. To borrow an observation of Radek Sikorski’s, independent Russia can be a normal country with a democratic future: Russia plus Ukraine is the Russian empire, which can never be a democracy. And it was precisely the issue of Ukrainian independence – and thus Ukrainian democracy – that was at stake this weekend. The integrity of Ukrainian elections is not just an internal Ukrainian matter: It is a portent for the future of all Europe and all the West.

Russian empire? Russian empire?! He’s joking, right?

(Hat tip: Jim Henley.)

Here are some interesting factoids gleaned from Iraq Pipeline Watch, a website run by the Institute for the Analysis of Global Security which bills itself as “the world’s only non-profit public educational organization focusing on energy security.”

In 2003, starting June 12, there were 37 attacks on Iraqi pipelines, oil installations, and oil personnel.

In 2004, there have been 163, so far. In November, through today, there have been 24, for an average of one per day. November also marks the first time oil wells have been set afire. There are currently 6 burning, all in the Khubbaz field, west of Kirkuk.

The Israeli government appears so eager to facilitate the Palestinians’ election of a replacement for Arafat that they’re going to allow international election observers into Occupied Palestine. The IDF, however, will not withdraw, so I suppose the observers will be required to sign the Israeli “We have the right to kill you” visa.

Steve Erlanger (NYT/IHT) writes of the international observer concession:

It was another indication that Israel, after the death of Yasser Arafat and under new pressure from the West for movement on the peace process, does not want to be seen as putting obstacles in the way of the Palestinians exercising their right to vote.

Which is ridiculous. Israel and the US have been putting obstacles in the way of the Palestinians exercising their right to vote for many years. Lawrence of Cyberia points out:

Remember that in response to Bush’s Rose Garden speech of June 2002, in which he called for the election of a new leadership “not tainted by terror”, the PA called President Bush’s bluff and scheduled elections for 20 January 2003. But with Arafat riding high in Palestinians public opinion polls after the Muqata siege in fall 2002, it quickly became obvious that if the elections were held, Arafat would be re-elected. And President Bush’s new-found commitment to Palestinian democracy died a sudden death. Because let’s be honest, this Administration’s commitment to bringing “democracy” to the Middle East does not really envisage democracies that vote for anyone other than our preferred candidate. All of which explains why there was a resounding silence from the US when the PA asked for pressure on Israel to allow voter registration to take place in the reoccupied Palestinian cities. Ha’aretz ran a series of articles discussing openly how there was no chance that the Palestinians were going to be allowed to organize elections, if there was any danger that Arafat would get a new mandate, e.g.:

The real reason why the Israeli authorities, with the support of the United States, will not permit Palestinian elections is that they do not want Arafat to be reelected….So the PA can go on making all the preparations and its senior officials can talk as much as they wish about democratic processes and procedures, but as long as it’s clear that Arafat will win, elections are not likely to take place.

— Danny Rubinstein, The Other Elections; (Ha’aretz, 16 Nov 2002).

That was what killed off the 2003 Palestinian elections.

There’s more, read the whole thing. Well, it will be interesting to see what happens if the Palestinian people don’t elect Mahmoud Abbas, like they’re supposed to. Andrew Schamess has more.

For anyone interested in the lawsuit threatened by MEMRI against Professor Juan Cole (Repressive MEMRI on AWC frontpage), there’s both a well-written comprehensive defense and a set of links to other blogs supporting Cole at Abu Aardvark’s place.

In short, if you do decide to take Professor Cole to court over the allegation that you cherry-pick the Arab media to offer a highly warped perspective of Arab discourse, expect to lose. The trial would be exceedingly helpful to the general good of discrediting you by shining light on your translation and selection practices.

Cheerfully yours,
the aardvark

American Amnesia on MEMRI:

MEMRI, the Middle East Media Research Organization, hasn’t received attention here at American Amnesia for one simple reason: it’s a compost of specious translations of worst-of-the-worst opinion pieces coming out of the Arabic press. Think of an organization dedicated to translating into Arabic the Jerry Falwells, Bob Jones, and other scraps of ideological detritus bobbing around in our local papers, and you’ve got MEMRI’s mission and net worth.

For those that are unfamiliar with MEMRI, it’s a group of translators whose work poses as a “bridge” to the language gap between the West and the Middle East. The fact that it bridges something is sufficient for most people without knowledge of the language…never mind where it leads you.

I think Yigal Carmon is going to regret SLAPPing this particular hornet’s nest.