Iraqi Premier Gives Sobering Account of Insurgency

[Barrett808]

Iraqi Premier Gives Sobering Account of Insurgency
By EDWARD WONG
Published: October 5, 2004

BAGHDAD, Iraq, Oct. 5 — In his first speech before the interim national assembly here, Prime Minister Ayad Allawi gave a sobering account today of the threat posed by the insurgency, saying the country's instability is a "source of worry for many people" and that the guerrillas represent "a challenge to our will."

Dr. Allawi, who has tried hard to cast himself as a tough and confident leader since taking office in late June, asserted that general elections would go ahead in January as planned, but acknowledged that there were significant obstacles standing in the way of security and reconstruction. The nascent police force is underequipped and lacks the respect needed from the public to quell the insurgency, he said, and foreign businessmen have told him they fear investing in Iraq because of the rampant violence here.

The tone of the speech was a sharp departure from the more optimistic assessment Dr. Allawi gave to the American public on his visit to the United States last month. At his stop in Washington, Dr. Allawi made several sweeping assertions about the security situation in Iraq, including that the only truly unsafe place in Iraq was the downtown area of Falluja, the largest insurgent stronghold in Iraq, and that only 3 of 18 provinces had "pockets of terrorists." Dr. Allawi did not directly contradict those statements in his appearance today, but his words reflected a darker evaluation of the state of the war.

"It is true that the security situation in our country is the first concern for you, and maybe for your inquiries, too," Dr. Allawi said to the roughly 130-member national assembly, which asked him combative questions following his speech in the nearly hourlong session. "It is true that it is a source of worry for many people concerned about the future of Iraq and the process of democracy in Iraq."

(more)

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/05/international/middleeast/05CND-IRAQ.html?oref=login&adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1097011626-T6rRk5sClcQQCKkK3CLaOA

[BootinUp]

1. Ya mean he didn't want to appear delusional to Iraqis

Like he did here?

[DenverDem]

2. And if you don't believe him, he will shoot you in the head.

Murderous bastard. No wonder busholini inc loves him so much.

[daleo]

3. This sounds like his real concern

"...foreign businessmen have told him they fear investing in Iraq because of the rampant violence here."

[Tempest]

4. Kerry needs to address this

Allawi gives a rosy picture to Americans, but a realistic assessment to his own people.

[Disturbed]

6. "His own people"

What people are those?

This is a US Puppet Regime. Without the US Force it would last about an hour. Allawi is a dead man walking. If the US Forces left he would be dead in under an hour.

If there was a real election in Iraq next week Allawi would lose to anyone else running. Saddam would get twice as many votes. If al Sadr ran for PM he would win by a major majority. Of course, if al Sistani threw his hat in that ring he would win with al Sadr second.

[Tempest]

9. His own people - Iraqis

The assembly doesn't operate in a vaccum.

The speech is going to get airplay in Iraq.

[central scrutinizer]

11. exactly

just to counter Bushco's absurd statement that the polls in Iraq are running more favorably than the ones taken in Murika.

[movonne]

5. I wonder why he didn't say this when he gave his speech???

[w4rma]

7. One set of information for everyone else. Another set for American voters

American voters get the fake/propaganda set.

[Tesibria]

8. how quickly we forget -- because Rove didn't WRITE this speech!!

Letter from Barbara Boxer to *

http://www.congress.org/congressorg/bio/pr/?id=347&pr=09302004150708

Dear Mr. President: I want to express my profound dismay about reports that officials from your Administration and your reelection campaign were “heavily involved” in writing parts of Prime Minister Ayad Allawi’s speech which he delivered to a Joint Session of Congress last week.
...
The article in today’s Washington Post (“U.S. Effort Aims to Improve Opinions about Iraq Conflict”) makes a number of claims implying that your Administration is seeking to control news coming out of Iraq in an effort to help your reelection, and I hope that you’ll let me know whether these claims are accurate.

The article asserts that:

· “The U.S. government and a representative of President Bush’s reelection campaign had been heavily involved in drafting the speech given to Congress last week by interim Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi.” ...
· Prime Minister Allawi was “coached and aided by the U.S. government, its allies and friends of the administration” including Dan Senor, a “former spokesman for the who has more recently represented the Bush campaign in media appearances.” ...
· Dan Senor “also helped Allawi rehearse in New York last week.” ...
· “The U.S. Embassy in Baghdad and British Foreign Service officials also helped Allawi with the text and delivery of his remarks.” ...
· The United States Agency for International Development “will restrict distribution of reports by contractor Kroll Security International showing that the number of daily attacks by insurgents in Iraq has increased.” ...
· “Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld’s office has sent commanders of U.S. military facilities a five-page memorandum titled ‘Guidance to Commanders’” which informs them that the Pentagon “is sponsoring a group of Iraqi Americans and former officials from the Coalition Provisional Authority to speak at military bases throughout the United States starting Friday to provide ‘a first-hand account’ of events in Iraq.” The memo encourages commanders to “seek local news coverage, noting that ‘these events and presentations are positive public relations opportunities.’” ...
...

[grasswire]

10. Send Peggy Noonan...

...to write for him, Karl. He obviously can't keep things straight, and she'd probably welcome the experience!

[PATRICK]

12. An old phenomenon still possible

Such as stumping one way wearing certain clothes and speaking a certain style in one region, then tacking the opposite way in another while trolling for votes. TV and media exposure did ruin the most insulting cases of forked tongue playacting by stumping pols, yet the beat goes on.

Anyone of course could note the difference- cynical reporters did and maybe even reported it somewhere in the back pages- and it did not matter. When the masses clearly see the lie and it becomes front page then the start to pay. In the absence of any dominant news source the archipelago of headlines, sound bytes, "legs", repetition and pre-emption is still making rubes of us all.

It isn't hard to see the game and get outraged. It is impossible to undo the pollyanna lies once the people's main mood has been set by the headlines. Why, even within the truncated stories farther in one could get a brief taste of critical thinking, a flavor of balance just enough to confirm that the reader is being wisely informed, but not enough at all to undo the emotional hit upon opinion the lead lines and lies have imposed upon the soft putty of the morning paper and exhausted evening news crowd.

So bad has the situation become that the entire media is operating on autopilot with the nose for news being led by the nose. No one cares about critical thought or the truth. it is compartmentalized. It is a tailored victim to proven methods of CIA manipulation. It is about the war for the surface opinion that creates deep and dumb lasting prejudices- all the while self-satisfied that the detail noise takes care of all the messy decision justification for us.