Iraq closes border post after Syria clashes

Iraq closes border post after Syria clashes | News , Middle East | THE DAILY STAR:

James Steele, David Petraeus And Black Ops In Iraq

Link to new video HERE. Obama describes the retreat from the Iraq debacle as 'this moment of success' at the beginning of the video. Delusion heaped upon horror, heaped upon lies, torture and war crimes.

Nato Lies and Then Lies Some More

NATO lied about the attack statistics in Afghanistan and their surrogates in Chad appear to have lied about the killing of Mokhtar Belmokhtar. 
Needless to say both deceptions were widely promulgated in the western mainstream media.

Hugo Chavez Life In Pictures

US Wasted Billion Upon Billion On Iraq Debacle

Too much money spent in Iraq for too few results - Yahoo! News: "Ten years and $60 billion in American taxpayer funds later, Iraq is still so unstable and broken that even its leaders question whether U.S. efforts to rebuild the war-torn nation were worth the cost."

Commentary - Yahoo News is a US and Israel-friendly News organisation who acted in a cheerleader role during the US occupation of Iraq. They published thousands of pictures every month which could be described as a travelogue for US soldiers. One of them is on the article linked above. They were not so hot on the photo-reportage of victims of aerial bombings and checkpoint 'spray and pray' shootings by US soldiers which were daily events. When they talk about Iraq being a money-wasting shambles (leaving aside a few hundred thousand Iraqi lives) you can multiply that by 100.

Ambush threatens to enmesh Iraq in Syria civil war

Ambush threatens to enmesh Iraq in Syria civil war | News , Middle East | THE DAILY STAR: 
"Nine Iraqi guards were also killed, the ministry added.
Baghdad has consistently avoided joining calls for the departure of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, whom rebels are fighting to overthrow. Instead it says it opposes arming either side and has urged an end to violence by all parties.
But the ambush is just the latest encroachment into Iraq of the bloody and protracted conflict to jeopardise its efforts to remain outside the fray."

Iraq - Tony Blair, David Miliband and Revisionism

Tony Blair said on BBC Radio 4 this morning 'The biggest fallacy of all is that there are those who say that if we had not invaded then everything in Iraq would have been perfect'. In 10 years of blogging, reading, watching and listening about Iraq I have never read or heard of anyone even suggesting that. If you're going to make a straw man argument, you would at least try to make it slightly realistic and credible. Of course nothing was perfect under Saddam. But I'll tell you what - most people had electricity, schools, hospitals, food  on the table and the country had enough psychiatrists to handle the incidence of mental health issues. That is not the case today. Something else not there today is the myriad of the dead and displaced  Iraqis, running into millions. Blair appears (!) to think that the Iraqis that he and Bush killed, and caused to be killed when the sectarian Pandora's box was opened, died happier than those killed by Saddam. Meanwhile, the Blairite disciple David Miliband continues his belated attempts to distance himself from the Hindenberg legacy of his mentor. 

Jimi Hendrix Unheard Studio Recordings

Iraqis' death certificates recorded signs of severe mutilation

Iraqis' death certificates recorded signs of severe mutilation, inquiry hears | World news | guardian.co.uk: 
"Several of the deceased were said to bear signs of torture after their corpses were handed back to their families by British personnel at Camp Abu Naji, while the Iraqi death certificates recorded that one man's penis had been removed and two bodies were missing eyes, the inquiry was told on Monday."

Al-Sweady Inquiry shown Iraq ‘torture’ images

Al-Sweady Inquiry shown Iraq ‘torture’ images - UK - Scotsman.com:
"The Al-Sweady Inquiry is examining claims that UK soldiers murdered and tortured Iraqis after the “Battle of Danny Boy” in Maysan Province, southern Iraq, in May 2004.
It will look at allegations that Iraqis were unlawfully killed at Camp Abu Naji (CAN) on May 14 and 15 2004 and that five Iraqi detainees were tortured and ill-treated at CAN, and again between May 14 and September 23 2004, at a detention facility at Shaibah Logistics Base."

Al-Maliki: Iraq Supports the Will of the Syrian People, Opposes Foreign Interference

Al-Maliki: Iraq Supports the Will of the Syrian People, Opposes Foreign Interference: 

Scene in Northern Iraq Feb, 2013

"This came during a press conference with al-Maliki’s Egyptian counterpart Hisham Qandil on Monday, during which the Iraqi Prime Minister stressed the need for cooperation to prevent foreign interference and finding peaceful solutions, adding that vandalism and the use of arms will lead nowhere; rather they will only sow grudges and allow foreign interference."

Chicago Blues - Johnny Young

This track, 'My Baby Walked Out in 1954' was on the first blues album, and second album, I ever bought - Modern Chicago Blues. Still got it. Pristine.

What happened to the woman who revealed dirty tricks on Iraq war vote?ws | The Observer

Ten years on what happened to the woman who revealed dirty tricks on Iraq war vote? | World news | The Observer:

Somewhere - Jimi Hendrix

The lost single 'Somewhere' was released a few weeks ago. It is HERE or HERE. People, Hell and Angels, a new album of unreleased material, comes out tomorrow. More to follow.

How the world forgot about Iraq

Ten years on from the war, how the world forgot about Iraq - Middle East - World - The Independent: 

"The record of failure of post-Saddam governments, given the financial resources available, is astounding. One of the reasons many Iraqis welcomed the fall of Saddam in 2003, whatever their feelings about foreign occupation, was that they thought that his successors would restore normal life after years of sanctions and war. To their astonishment and fury this has not happened, though Iraq now enjoys $100bn (£66bn) a year in oil revenues. In Baghdad there is scarcely a new civilian building to be seen and most of the new construction is heavily fortified police or military outposts. In Basra, at the heart of the oilfields, there are pools of sewage and heaps of uncollected rubbish in the streets on which herds of goats forage."

Iraq - The Bloody Debacle In A Nutshell

New Left Project | NLP Blog | The Depths of Nick Cohen’s Humanitarianism: 

"Fallujah, Abu Ghraib and all the other atrocities and egregious examples of casual disregard for Iraqi life came as a shock to no-one who was prepared to acknowledge the reality of Western power based on its track record, rather than invoke a fairyland version of it as "the armed wing of Amnesty International". Cohen even praised Donald Rumsfeld's mini-me Paul Wolfowitz for his commitment to democracy and human freedom. The same Wolfowitz who as ambassador to Indonesia played a key role in supporting the mass murdering dictator General Suharto, whose savage oppression of the East Timorese barely differed from the Ba'athist crushing of the Kurds. "

Mali - Attentat-suicide contre un check-point à Kidal

Iraq’s political crisis deepens after finance minister quits

Iraq’s political crisis deepens after finance minister quits - International - Scotsman.com: "“I am presenting my resignation in front of you. I do not care about a government that does not respect the Iraqi blood and its people,” Mr al-Issawi told thousands gathered to protest against what they see as unfair treatment and discrimination against their sect by prime minister Nouri al-Maliki’s government. The resignation has to be formally endorsed by Mr al-Maliki, leaving Mr al-Issawi’s status in government unclear for now."

Iraq War Cannot Be Justified - Prescott

The invasion of Iraq in 2003 “cannot be justified”, Lord Prescott – who was then deputy prime minister – has said.He told BBC One’s This Week he had backed the Iraq War because he believed George Bush had a plan to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
He said he could not “just disown it” but he now thought the war was wrong.
Meanwhile, Foreign Secretary William Hague has written to cabinet members urging them not to discuss the the justification for the Iraq war.
The invasion of Iraq led by US troops, in coalition with the UK and other nations, began on 20 March 2003.
Lord Prescott said that, ahead of the invasion, Prime Minister Tony Blair had been keen “to get the Americans in” on the UN’s approach to dealing with Iraq.
He said that, after Mr Blair had sent him to the US to talk to Vice-President Dick Cheney, he told the PM it was clear “They’re going to go in without you; whether you come with them or not, it doesn’t matter to the Americans – they’re getting ready”.

Lord Prescott added: “But I tell you something that persuaded me. You know Bush was quite prepared to have a plan for Israel and the whole problem in regard to Palestine and he promised. “And, therefore, that plan was something.”But Lord Prescott said the plan “fell apart as it often does in American politics because the influence domestically is too great”.
He said that, despite these factors, “at the end of the day, Tony Blair obviously said to himself, ‘I’ve promised to do this and I’m going to do it’ – and that’s today’s consequences”.

Lord Prescott added: “And I have to be part in that – I can’t just disown it. I go through my thoughts trying to justify it, but that’s… it cannot be justified as an intervention.”

La Femme à la Manche Jaune, by Jean-Baptiste Carot

Unlike the Titian earlier, this really is a masterpiece in my opinion. Rarely seen, the painting once belonged to the actor Edward G Robinson and to Lucien Freud.

Venus In Furs

The Titian painting, Venus With A Mirror is the image which inspires Severin in Von Sacher Masoch's novella, Venus in Furs. This in turn inspired the song by the Velvet Underground. I like the song but not the painting which is ugly to my eyes. Unusual for a Titian painting. The scale seems out too. Unless he was implying visually that she would pack a good right hook with that big Popeye right forearm. Not sexy.