Iraqi activist taken up by Bush recants her views

[emad]

Iraqi activist taken up by Bush recants her views
By Andrew Buncombe
Published: 28 August 2005

She was the Iraqi activist who became a symbol of the possibility of a brighter future for Iraq.

Back in February, with blue ink on her finger symbolising the recent Iraqi election in which she had just voted, Safia Taleb al-Souhail was invited to sit with the first lady, Laura Bush, and listen to the President claim in his state of the union address that success was being achieved in Iraq. Her picture went round the world after she turned to hug Janet Norwood, a Texas woman whose son had been killed in Iraq.

But now it appears Ms Souhail, an anti-Saddam activist who became Iraq's ambassador to Egypt, may be having second thoughts about the "success" she celebrated with a two-fingered victory sign.

Having seen the negotiations for the country's constitution fall into disarray and the prospect of a secular constitution severely undermined, she expressed her concerns last week.

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article308604.ece

[Greeby]

1. Remember the Repukes with the purple finger thing?

They looked like they could barely restrain themselves from turning it into sieg heils

[Joy Anne]

2. purple fingers

Many of the Iraqis with purple fingers didn't look all that happy in the pictures I saw. I wondered at the time if penalties were at hand for people without purple fingers, liking getting shot.

[Jara sang]

3. The purple finger thing was just a public relations thing

A bunch of propagandist bullshit. The whole thing stank of "Old Shoe" from "Wag the Dog" That whole thing was hatched by some right-wing thinktank to give people warm fuzzy feelings about Iraq. The whole thing was for the Americans public perception about Iraq and NOTHING to do with the Iraqi people themselves. When are americans going to realize that this war is being waged against them almost as much as it is against the Iraqi people.

[MaineDem]

4. Propaganda...she was used for propaganda

THis needs to be kicked everywhere!