• News out of Iraq

I'm launching a new topic here as I've had a request from a member for a new thread about the nature/quality/reliability of the media reports coming out of Iraq.

I'll leave it up to the member to post the first item.

keza

I would like to be challenged on news coming out of Iraq. But all I can find is articles that are second-hand reports, or Pentagon hand-outs made to look like news.

It would seem all the journalists in Iraq  are  just staying in the hotel rooms inside the Green Zone.

Are there any independent news reports coming from outside Baghdad?

Maybe the major media is moving on. But  there should still be stories coming from other sources.

I hear nothing much from Fisk nowadays. He used to wander about the place. He is still there, I think. But he isn't leaving his room. I don't blame him!

The place seems very dangerous. If there wasn't such a pre-occupation in the west to describe the daily attacks as the work of dead-enders, one could be forgiven for thinking there is a civil war going on over there.  There is no way 150,000 soldiers can control 25 million ppl when there is civil war, that is for sure.

I wonder if King George III had latched on to the idea of an election, he might have stopped the American Revolution and defeated Washington. Washington: "Drat! They have called an election. Lets all surrender!"

Doesn't sound right does it?

America claimed it had got rid of the Baathist power structure. America had got rid of it only from direct power. Now the Baathists on the outside looking in. And that is proving to be a disaster for the stability of the country. I don't think a lot of exiles being voted in, by locals who barely recognize who they are voting for, will make much difference to the insurgents.

Unembedded journalist Dahr Jamail says: "Without a doubt the pentagon is lying every day."
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article8331.htm

There is no way of telling that as no other reports, except localized blogs, are coming out Iraq.

Certainly a few stories coming out through the American media of late are suspicious. I may end up with egg on my face, but I wish I had a dollar for every time the CPA or Pakistan "nearly" captures Osama or Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

Just the other day the new Iraqi security forces under American occupation were claiming they had surrounded Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. Again.

http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=46061

It may sound paranoid, but I duly noted the front page news was about the newly elected Iraqi parliament giving democracy a bad name about the same time. Quite often when Pakistan claims to be within metres of capturing Osama, there is generally some scandal brewing with their government as well. Selling nuclear weapans to rogue states, for instance.

It has been a while since a western journalist has done any street interviews anywhere outside the Green Zone. And precious few inside it too.

I did see one on Sixty Minutes last night. Journalist Richard Carleton asked locals if they wanted the Americans to stay or leave. Everyone of them said: "Leave". That is the first time I have seen or heard a western journalist talking to everyday Iraqis for quite some time. What surprises me is we are being told how popular all this election business is for the local population.

America is still bombing targets from the air. After 2 years of occupation, that is a sure sign things are failing. That we don't see independent news is just another sign. Apparently, no civilians died in Fallujah in the November/December 04  attack. Amazing.

Do you read the Iraqi blogs?  If you go to Healing Iraq  you will find links to over 40 Iraqi bloggers.

It's also worth reading the Kurdish websites eg  the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan

There is sometimes interesting news at the website of the Iraqi Prospect Organisation

The IPWR (Institute of War and Peace Reporting) has a section on Iraq and is also involved in training programs for local journalists. 

 Iraq Capacity Building Addressing the major challenges in Iraq, IWPR seeks to train fresh voices untainted by the old regime and to incubate new Iraqi-led institutions, including a major new Iraqi Media Institute, envisaged as a critical platform for Iraqi civil society.

 

 

Another website worth visiting is Labour Friends of Iraq - a site that was established by people who initially opposed the war.  Here's part of their mission statement:

 LFIQ includes those who opposed and those who supported military action but are united in supporting Iraq's struggle for democracy and labour rights.

 

History will not forgive us if we fail to give solidarity to Grassroots Iraq as its long-suffering people seek a federal, democratic, pluralist, and unified Iraq, in which there is full respect for the political and human rights of all.

 

 

We will encourage support for the IFTU and the labour interest through fact-finding trips, publications, seminars, fund-raising, speaker tours, regular electronic bulletins and on our website. We will encourage mutually beneficial cultural, social, political and economic links with progressive Iraqi organisations.