Thousands of Iraqis on Sunday faced down live gunfire as they poured into the streets of Baghdad in defiance of calls by powerful cleric Moqtada Al-Sadr to stay home.
Throngs of students marched past the Ministry of Education and onto the capital’s Tahrir Square in solidarity with those who have been camped out for the past three months as anti-government demonstrations have paralysed the nation.
Many wore balaclavas or gas masks as they hurdled stones and Molotov cocktails at government forces, occasionally retreating in a frenzy as live fire crackled from the police positions.
As they progressed through one of the city’s main tunnels, the chant “How could you [Al-Sadr'] leave us when the blood is still not cold?”, echoed off the concrete walls.
Having initially supported the demonstrations, a spokesperson for Mr Al-Sadr, who leads one of the country's largest militias and is considered among its most powerful figures, said the cleric had pulled for support for anti-government demonstrators after they insulted a separate rally organised on Friday by Al-Sadr. That demonstration called for the removal of US troops from the country.
The Iraqi people need our support. The very least -- the very least -- we can do is to follow their protests for a better Iraq. Our country invaded Iraq, our country started the war that has destroyed Iraq. We really shouldn't think for on emoment that we can bail out on paying attention to Iraq.
The Iraqi government -- the one the US installed -- is not protecting the protesters.
"Iraq snapshot" (THE COMMON ILLS):
Monday, January 27, 2020. Bernie Sanders leads in Iowa poll, Joe Biden
continues to think he can lie his way out of his decades of attacks on
Social Security, Moqtada al-Sadr reveals himself to be no leader, and much more.
Starting in the US where the race for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination continues. Next Monday (February 3rd), Iowa kicks off the contests with its caucus. Currently? Bernie Sanders is in the lead by a significant margin.
Starting in the US where the race for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination continues. Next Monday (February 3rd), Iowa kicks off the contests with its caucus. Currently? Bernie Sanders is in the lead by a significant margin.
Iowa Emerson College/@7News Poll:
Democratic Caucus:
30% @BernieSanders
21% @JoeBiden
13% @amyklobuchar
11% @ewarren
10% @PeteButtigieg
5% @TomSteyer
5% @AndrewYang
5% @TulsiGabbard
emersonpolling.reportablenews.com/pr/iowa-2020-s…
In a primary, you vote on a ballot and you vote once. In a caucus? You go to your precinct but there are no paper ballots. You vote physically by where you stand -- in which candidate's area. In addition, there can be multiple rounds. After the first round, a candidate's campaign can release its supporters so that they can move to a different candidate. In addition, a voter can decide to move all on their own.
Joe Biden's best chance would be to offer something to another candidate. But who? Senator Amy Klobuchar would be his best bet due to their relationship; however, Amy needs as strong a showing in Iowa as possible to stay in the race so Joe would have to offer a great deal to get her to go along with sending her supporters to him.
As Iowa becomes more and more of a problem for Joe, he still hasn't figured out how to address his efforts to cut/gut Social Security over the years. In fact, he appears to believe this is just another issue he can lie his way out of.
Joe Biden Led Budget Talks Where Social Security Cuts Were On The Table enewsgate.com/joe-biden-led-…
Joe Biden lied again this week about his history on Social Security, here’s a deeper look at the issue. Not only has Biden backed cuts for decades, his closest policy advisor & former chief of staff pushed for cuts and led a pro privatization think tank interc.pt/2utaPDH
Bernie has led the effort against Social Security cuts, raising the retirement age & cutting COLAs for seniors & disabled vets. He wrote the damn bill to expand Social Security - in '15.
Joe Biden has a 40-year history in support of Social Security cuts.
Pretty big difference.
Dear @JoeBiden:
If you want to Cut something... 
Cut your crap.
#SocialSecurity is 
sustainable.
Your endless #wars are what is not sustainable.
#Bernie2020
Cut your crap.
#SocialSecurity is sustainable.
Your endless #wars are what is not sustainable.
#Bernie2020
"When I argued that we should freeze federal spending, I meant Social Security, as well. I meant Medicare & Medicaid. I meant veterans benefits...And I not only tried it once. I tried it twice, I tried it a third time & I tried it a 4th time," Joe Biden
#RollTheTape
Suddenly Joe Biden doesn't want to talk about Social Security anymore.
NEWS>>Statement from @fshakir on Biden's Social Security record:
“Joe Biden continues trying to hide his efforts to help Republicans cut Social Security. The facts are indisputable: Biden repeatedly pushed to freeze Social Security funding, cut Social Security benefits..." pic.twitter.com/47pVOHT3wA
Joe Biden went all over the world bragging about how hard he tried to cut Social Security and Medicaid.
This is in China as Vice President.
Now he denies he ever said this.
New: Joe Biden touts his experience as a deal maker. During the Obama administration, he tried to cut a budget deal with Republicans that might have cut Social Security. @arthurdelaneyhp and I have the details of the 2011 talks: huffpost.com/entry/joe-bide… via @HuffPostPol
Joe Biden Caught in Major Lie About His Record on Cutting Social Security @stevedoocy @sandrasmithfox @megynkelly godfatherpolitics.com/joe-biden-caug… via @PoliticsIsDirty
@JoeBiden Stop lying about your awful record. You wanted to cut social security. Your lame excuse about it being "20 years ago" is inexcusable. You lied then and you lie now. I'm a millennial...I grew up on the internet. We're not stupid Joe. We see you. 
In Iraq, the war Joe Biden was on board with and cheerleading continues. And the victims continue to mount. This includes the Iraqi people. This includes Americans.
The Pentagon announced Friday that 34 U.S. service members have been diagnosed with traumatic brain injuries following the Jan. 8 Iranian missile attack on the Al Asad airbase in Iraq. abcn.ws/36u3hh6
Sunday saw five rockets hit inside the heavily fortified Green Zone in Baghdad. REUTERS noted, "Security sources told Reuters that at least one rocket landed inside the U.S. embassy compound and wounded three people. If confirmed, it would be the first time in years that such attacks on the Green Zone, which are regular, have actually hurt staff there." XINHAU reports:
The Iraqi Foreign Ministry said on Monday that the overnight rocket attack on the U.S. embassy in central Baghdad will not affect the flourishing level of strategic relations between Baghdad and Washington.
A statement by the ministry expressed Iraq's keenness on bilateral relations and mutual interests with the United States, and confirmed the ministry's categorical rejection, and its condemnation of the attack that targeted the U.S. embassy with Katyusha rockets.
"The Iraqi security authorities have launched an investigation to identify the perpetrators and bring them to justice, and in order to prevent the recurrence of such violations, which could lead Iraq to be a battleground for external parties," the statement said.
In Iraq, the protesters suffer as well. Over 600 have been killed. The biggest development in the last few days has been Moqtada al-Sadr's walking away from the protesters on Friday evening.
A lot of people are puzzled. Some are outright wrong. Mustafa Habib is outright wrong. He's insisting that Moqtada is this and that and if you were only in Iraq you would see this -- blah, blah, blah. Fact: We were right on the ongoing demonstrations and Mustafa was wrong. Fact: It's good for a reporter in Iraq to praise Moqtada instead of risking his wrath. I don't know why Mustafa's wrong, I just know that he is. Maybe it's just because he's never understood the protests to begin with? Weren't they supposed to have faded back in October? Wasn't that his 'reporting' back then? I like Mustafa but when he starts peering in that crystal ball of his to justify politicians, I lose all interest.
Video circulating of the 'Iraqi SWAT' team that is threatening anyone who speaks against Muqtada al-Sadr. Save #Iraq #IraqProtests #FreeIraq2020 @RepBrianMast @LindseyGrahamSC @AlbertoMiguelF5 @marcorubio
They're from Swat, threatening protesters, defending Muqtada al-Sadr
@OHCHR_MENA @OHCHR_MENA @UNHCRIraq @UNIraq @UNNewsArabic @USAbilAraby @UNHCRIraq @UlricShannon @AmnestyAR
Now | Muqtada al-Sadr's militias in Nasiriyah burn the tents of protesters, dozens of dead and wounded, and a burned bodies !!!
@realDonaldTrump @USEmbBaghdad @SecPompeo @belkiswille @sarahleah1
Sarayya al-Salam militia which belongs to (Muqtada al-Sadr) is responsible for making a MASSACRE in Nassiriya southern Iraq.
@USTreasury @StateDept must sanction #Mullah_Atari Muqtada al-Sadr.
Khaled Yacoub Oweis (THE NATIONAL) reports:
Populist cleric Moqtada Al Sadr has turned against the Iraqi uprising, withdrawing protection to demonstrators and strengthening a government crackdown to crush the protest movement.
The uprising, which is demanding the removal of the entire political class, has undermined the influence of Iran, Mr Al Sadr’s patron.
In the past three days, attacks by security forces and Iran-backed militia, who overran protest centres in Baghdad and other cities in the south, killed at least 17 civilians and wounded 250, civil activists and the Iraqi High Commission for Human Rights said.
The attacks came after Mr Al Sadr said on Friday that he would no longer interfere in the protest movement.
Pro-Sadr militiamen, who had provided limited protection to the demonstrators, particularly in Baghdad and Basra, withdrew from the streets.
The demonstrations also denounced what many Iraqis regard as Iranian tutelage, in contrast to the narrative of Mr Al Sadr and other pro-Iran politicians, who blame Iraq’s ills on the US.
MIDDLE EAST MONITOR ONLINE reports:
A
leader in Iraq’s populist cleric Muqtada Al-Sadr’s movement, Asaad
Al-Nasiri, yesterday split from the movement announcing his support for
thousands of anti-government protesters.
On
Saturday, Al-Sadr ordered the freezing of Sheikh Asaad Al-Nasiri’s
membership in the body for disobeying orders to stop involvement in the
anti-government protests.
Al-Nasiri,
who is close to Al-Sadr, said in a statement: “I will take off the
turban for the love of Iraq and the city of Nasiriyah and the
revolutionaries, and I am with the Iraqis.”
This is the first split in Sadr’s movement following its leader’s decision to end the movement’s involvement in the protests.
Friday, Moqtada has his cult bussed into Baghdad -- yeah, it's a cult. For awhile there, Moqtada was building a movement. But he trashed that. Now he'd announced his 'million man march' (originality has never been Moqtada's strength) a week prior to it taking place. Protesters who had been protesting for months were dismayed and stated that publicly. They were trying to address Iraq's problems. They want all foreign troops out of their country. But the deadline was approaching, for a new government, and they felt Moqtada's latest move would distract from their months long efforts.
There are some who argue that's why Moqtada staged the march. As a leader or 'leader' of the ongoing protests, he was revealed to be a failure. The government wasn't listening to Moqtada. The argument goes that he bailed on the protesters so that he could pretend they were the failures and not him.
At any rate, he bailed on them. And he lost his power. He might regain it. He might not. Right now, he's a pathetic individual. He's insulted the protesters because some of them denounced his march -- he's insisted that they are paid tools of the US government.
Over 600 of them have been killed by security forces and Moqtada hurls that blood libel?
Thousands of Iraqis join protests despite cleric Moqtada Al-Sadr asking them to go home telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/01/2… via @telegraphnews
At best, Moqtada is currently irrelevant. At worst, he is a direct threat to the safety of the protesters.
Watch how the gun fire was aimed at the protest square in Nasriyah last night ##Iraq #IraqProtests شاهد كيف كان الرمي المباشر على الخيم في الناصرية
The aftermath of Militia attack on protesters in #Nasriyah last night
After burning their tents by the militias lastnight, Iraqi protestors in #Nasiriyah start building rooms of bricks instead to show defiance to the insurgents. Protests go on until all demands are executed. @UNIraq @washingtonpost @hrw @CNN @SecPompeo @MPPregent #IraqProtests
[In photos] Anti-govt protests in Iraqi capital Baghdad aa.com.tr/en/pg/foto-gal…
New content at THIRD:
- Truest statement of the week
- Truest statement of the week II
- A note to our readers
- Editorial: BBC screws up again
- TV: What develops
- Ty's Corner
- Who the F**K asked you?
- Tweets of the week (international)
- Mustafa Habib reports on Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Si...
- Tweet of the week (domestic)
- This edition's playlist
- Iraq: Protest death toll surges as security forces...
- Highlights
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3 hours ago
TV: What develops
5 hours ago
