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POPSSadr Takes Aim at New U.S.-Iraq Agreement Overthrowing occupation is a religious and patriotic duty supported by logic and texts. Therefore it requires no agreement with those who respect neither faith nor promises.” In his message, Sadr stressed that he considers the agreement void even if ratified and asserted that the “faithful will not be bound by it.” He called on the parliament to reject it without the least hesitation so that “Iraq and its people do not get sold out the way other Muslim countries were.” Sadr also announced the formation of the Promised Day Brigade from Sadr movement elements and other sympathetic armed groups in order to fight American forces. Previously Sadr communicated through his spokesmen that there shall be no negotiations with the United States without a timetable for withdrawal on the table. This expected insistence on “resistance” exposes the way Sadr and other Arab “resisters” think and operate.
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POPSIraq on the brink of another Civil War
Whenever and wherever a despot has died and left a country in political limbo, that country has had problems. When Spain and Portugal went through their Nemesis in the 70's and 80's, they had stable European neighbours to call on. Of all the deaths that threatened stability, it was perhaps only Franco who had made provisions for his demise and reinstalled a King to give the population a focal point. Tito made no provisions at all and the result was the worst form of Civil War imaginable, with, one has to remember, the defining of Ethnic Cleansing. Those countries were safe for law abiding people. Armed policemen patrolled most streets and their form of rule and law prevailed. The soft minded liberals infested the emergent countries with wholly unattainable ideals. Ideals that do not even work in a stable democracy like Britain. Why does Liberalism not work? Because there are those out there who wish us harm and the Liberal Elite cannot conceive such a truth.
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POPSTurkish warplanes bomb Kurd bases in northern Iraq There goes the Northern Front: "But on the streets of Turkey, public anger has mounted with each funeral held for the slain soldiers. The anger has turned toward Turkish leaders as well. On Sunday, mourners booed Gul at a funeral in the western city of Eskisehir, and they booed Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan at another funeral in Armutlu village, near the capital."
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POPSStrip of Iraq 'on the Verge of Exploding' Cont.... The long-cherished dream of many of the world's 25 million ethnic Kurds is an independent state that encompasses parts of Iran, Iraq, Syria and Turkey. All but Iraq adamantly oppose Kurdish autonomy, much less a Kurdish state. Iraqi Kurds continue to insist they are not seeking independence, even as they unilaterally expand the territory they control in Iraq.
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POPSA New Era for Kurdish Literature This sounds like a very interesting novel that explores the conflicting interests of politicians and novelists. The author, Bakhtyar Ali, hopes that this novel will herald the end of the subordination of Kurdish writers to politicians. I hope this novel will soon be translated into English and thereby gain a wider readership.
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POPSIranian Trade With Iraq But since Saddam's ouster, there has been deluge of Iranian goods into the country, particularly in the strip from Baghdad to Basra, said anthropologist Hosham Dawod from the French national center for scientific research. "Some sources quote figures such as $8 billion," for the value of Iranian imports in 2008, he said, but added there were no official figures on import levels. 'Iranian products are not truly political tools' - shoppers in the Shiite district of Kadhimiyya in northwest Baghdad snatch up not only Iranian-made cookers, fridges, air conditioning units and generators, but also toys, rugs and medicines.
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POPSIraq Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki demands US withdrawal timetable Mahmoud Othman, a Kurdish MP, said that the issue of immunity for US forces had become a particularly sensitive subject for Iraqis. “We have suffered so much from immunity. Immunity equals committing crimes. In the name of immunity they have killed people, they have their own prisons, they captured Iraqis. We can’t continue like this,” he said.
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POPSU.S. officials condoned Kurdish oil deal From the article.... "Kurdish officials have clashed with Baghdad over the national oil law, which will determine how contracts are awarded and how revenues are distributed. The northern Iraqi region has signed several exploration deals with foreign firms, which Baghdad says are illegal."
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POPSGlobal Muslim Networks, The Gulen Movement Amazingly enough, the Gulen movement has built up a significant presence in northern Iraq, through schools, a hospital and (soon) a university. Although this arena of Turkish-Kurdish conflict is not the easiest environment for a Turkish-based institution, the movement has deftly built up relationships with all the region's ethnic and religious groups. The influence that the Gulen movement has quietly accumulated would be a surprise to some veteran observers of Islam. Asked to name the world's most active Islamic network, many a pundit would think first of the Muslim Brotherhood, whose reach has extended a long way from Egypt, where it began in the 1920s as a movement of resistance to the twin evils of secularism and colonialism. And it remains true that in every Western country (including the United States) where Muslims are politically active, the influence of the brotherhood—or at least of movements that grew out it—is palpable.
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POPS Iraq fears clash between Turkish troops and Peshmerga Present "rumours" in Turkish press: A new "secret pledge" was made between the U.S. and Turkey. According to this, U.S. forces support Turkey's military operations against PKK, while Turkey "secretly" accepts the task that was assigned to Turkey by the U.S. administration: Being the "new security force" in Iraq after the U.S. withdrawal. Truth or just rumours? Only time will tell.
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POPS'Tragic protest' of Iraqi Kurdish women "When Saddam's regime was in power he did everything to subordinate women" "The Anfal Campaign against the Kurds was exactly like that. He actually killed all the men but let the women stay and live that sort of misery with their children. There was 30 years of that kind of rule. It will take a long, long time for that to change. It is a very slow and painful process." The human rights minister in the Kurdistan region admits that immolation is a problem that his government is struggling to deal with There have been attempts to improve education and women's shelters have been built, but it will take years to change long-held customs.
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POPSSaddam's flag no more The Parliament voted 110 to 50 to change the flag at the request of Iraq’s Kurdish minority, who said that it served as a reminder of the cruelty of his regime. (TimesOnline)
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