Al-Kadhimi takes unprecedented steps towards the victims of the demonstrations

[Pitcher]

Al-Kadhimi takes unprecedented steps towards the victims of the demonstrations

 

 

 2020/05/18 13:03:08

 

Shafaq News / Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi ordered on Monday the formation of a government committee to document the number of victims of popular anti-government demonstrations and the ruling political class, in an unprecedented official move.

" Al-Kadhimi instructed to form a committee to put an accurate list of the names of the martyrs, the wounded, and the handicapped who fall in the popular protests, whether protesters or security forces," Al-Kadhimi's office said in a statement received by Shafaq News Agency.

"The planned list will cover the period from October 1, 2019 to the 18^th  of May and it will be published in the media and adopted as a basis for honoring the martyrs and compensating the families of the victims."

" Al-Kadhimi entrusted a specialized committee linked to his office with the task of preparing this list in cooperation with various state institutions and Iraqi and international organizations so as to ensure the accuracy of the information contained therein."

The statement added that "this list, upon its completion, is the first Iraqi official effort to document the victims of the protests."

"The completion of this list comes in fulfillment of one of the basic promises contained in the ministerial curriculum of Al-Kadimi’s government, which the parliament voted on 7^th of current May regarding the initiation of a comprehensive campaign of investigation and accountability regarding the violent events that accompanied the protests, take care of the families of the martyrs and treat the wounded."

The protests against Adel Abdul Mahdi government and the influential parties began in October 2019, and were marred by widespread violence that left between 500 and 600 dead and tens of thousands wounded.

Most of the victims of the protests are demonstrators who fell in confrontations with the security forces and fighters of some of the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) factions close to Iran, as dozens of activists were killed in assassinations by unknown gunmen.

On March 17, Corona pandemic halted the nationwide protest movement, but it resumed again on a limited scale, to pressure Kadhimi’s government to fulfill its pledges.

 

https://www.shafaaq.com/en/iraq-news/al-kadhimi-takes-unprecedented-steps-towards-the-victims-of-the-demonstrations/

[Pitcher]

https://www.thebaghdadpost.com/en/Story/48301/Iraq-s-PM-Al-Kadhimi-faces-four-urgent-challenges
 

Iraq's PM Al-Kadhimi faces four urgent challenges

Iraq has become a country like Lebanon, relying too much on sectarian and ethnic balances. 

New Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi does not have his own power base, so he has to rely on the support that the sectarian and ethnic groups will extend to him. 

Several problems have accumulated since the resignation of the previous Iraqi government and are awaiting solutions. Four of them are more important than the others: The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, the status of the US armed forces in Iraq, the dwindling oil price, and corruption.

COVID-19 is the most urgent issue because it cannot wait. Like the entire international community, Iraq was caught unprepared for the pandemic. As a result of years of war, social unrest, ethnic fights and Daesh, there was a big shortfall in medical facilities, equipment and medical staff, so the country has had to quickly find the missing components for its fight against the virus. 

When Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan phoned Al-Kadhimi to congratulate him for the formation of his government, the only other issue they discussed was COVID-19.

The second important task the government has to deal with is what Washington calls the “US-Iraq Strategic Dialogue.” Baghdad prefers to describe it as negotiations over the status of forces agreement (SOFA).

The date for talks has already been fixed for June 10.Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs David Hale is designated as the negotiator for the US side. On the Iraqi side, there is not even a foreign minister who will be the main person in charge of these negotiations. 

Turkey negotiated a similar agreement with the US in the 1980s. The rights and privileges granted to the US military personnel had proliferated and neither side knew their exact extent. Turkey wanted to compile them in one single text and appointed an outstanding negotiator, Sukru Elekdag, to conduct the negotiations. Thanks to his strenuous efforts, a SOFA was agreed. 

Iraq’s negotiations may prove to be more difficult because the US may have acquired more widespread prerogatives as a result of the close cooperation between the countries since the US military intervention in 2003. Now Iraq has to negotiate and eliminate those prerogatives that it does not want to perpetuate.

The tendency in Baghdad to reduce the prerogatives of the US military has become more acute since Qassem Soleimani’s assassination in January. After this deliberate act of violence, the Iraqi parliament adopted a nonbinding resolution to expel US forces from the country altogether. 

Furthermore, Al-Kadhimi’s government program provides for the preservation of Iraq’s sovereignty. This must be a diplomatic way to tell foreign countries, especially the US and Turkey — and perhaps even Iran — to withdraw their forces from Iraqi territory. 

The Iraqi SOFA is further complicated by the US’ interest in turning Iraq into an outpost for waging attacks and operations against Iran. Therefore, it may prove to be more difficult to negotiate. 

The third important issue that the Al-Kadhimi government has to tackle is the extremely low oil price. This issue has a special importance for Iraq because about 90 percent of its state income is generated from oil-related activities. 
Voting on two key portfolios — the oil and foreign ministries — was postponed during the parliamentary vote of confidence in Al-Kadhimi’s government. 

This will, of course, complicate things because of oil’s importance to the country’s economy. If the oil price remains at its present low level, Iraq’s economic difficulties will continue to grow and the protests that initiated the political upheaval will become more widespread.

The fourth important issue is corruption. Like in almost all countries in the region, corruption in Iraq is a social phenomenon that disturbs the general public. 

Almost everybody complains about it, but very little is done to come up with a lasting solution. Corrupt practices were banned in Iraq some 3,770 years ago, with severe punishments suggested by the Code of Hammurabi.

More recently, in the 16th century, the poet Fuzuli, who joined the ruling court after Baghdad was seized by the Ottomans, complained in one of his works: “I greeted them. But they did not accept my greeting on the grounds that it was not a bribe.” Al-Kadhimi may not be able to uproot such a deep-rooted tradition, but he can certainly make an attempt in that direction. 

 

[Pitcher]

3 minutes ago, Pitcher said:

Iraq's PM Al-Kadhimi faces four urgent challenges

 

 

Here is another  problem

 

 

https://www.thebaghdadpost.com/en/Story/48298/A-second-wave-of-locust-invasion-hits-Iran-hard
 

A second wave of locust invasion hits Iran hard

Iran’s Crop Protection Agency says currently seven provinces are hit by a large invasion of desert locust. Local officials in the badly affected areas call the natural disaster unprecedented.

Speaking to the state-run Iran Labor News Agency (ILNA), the spokesman of the agency, Reza Mir, disclosed that the provinces of Bushehr, Fars, Hormozgan, Kerman, Khuzestan, and Sistan&Baluchestan have already been under the desert locust attacks for the past few days, while parts of the province of South Khorasan have also been targeted by the invasive swarms. These regions are in the south and southeastern parts of the country.

The total area affected by the attacks has reached a total of about 300,000 hectares, of which Sistan&Baluchestan province with 82,000 hectares has the largest infested area. 

In the meantime, the secretary of the Chabahar Agricultural Trade Union told Iran’s ILNA news website, "Compared with last year, the swarms of desert locusts are much larger, and it is safe to claim that the recent attacks are unprecedented".

This can be considered the second wave of locust invasion this year. In March vast regions of Iran were hit by swarms of locust coming from East Africa.

Officials in April predicted a second wave to hit in May. The invasion reached Iran’s neighboring countries to the east and north.

The United Nations has described this year's locust attacks on East Africa as the worst in recent decades.

The locusts destroy all crops along their way and have been wreaking havoc in various African countries including Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda this year.

According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) desert locusts are a serious threat to food safety in these countries.

[bkeiller]

I am sure they will blame the US for the locusts, too.

[Pitcher]

They already have.  It’s Trumps fault for getting out of the Climate Treaty.  

[Donziman]

Poet Fuzuli (16th century) greeted the court but they would not except his

greeting because it was not a bribe....that is too funny. Hard to change that culture.

[Pitcher]

4 hours ago, Pitcher said:

A second wave of locust invasion hits Iran hard

 

Iraq imposes chicken lockdown after bird flu case is detected 

 

Iraqi government kills 60,000 birds and seals off neighbourhoods in Baghdad to try to contain the Covid-19 contagion 

 

An Iraqi vendor sets loose his chickens and roosters at Al Ghazel market in Baghdad. AFP

The Iraqi government have imposed a lockdown on the country’s chickens, the authorities said on Monday, after discovering one that was infected with bird flu, north of Baghdad.

Meanwhile, the new government of Prime Minister Mustafa Al Kadhimi declared that its priority was to battle the coronavirus, amid woeful conditions of the country’s infrastructure.

Health Minister Hassan Al Tamimi said “contagion enclaves” were found in Baghdad and that the authorities on Monday sealed off some neighbourhoods, without specifying which ones.

The Agriculture Ministry said it had decided to "impose a ban on the movement of poultry and their travel between provinces”, spokesman Hamid Al Nayef told the state news agency.

He said the decision was made after a chicken was diagnosed with the disease in “one of the farms in Nineveh province”.

 

Mr Al Nayef said 60,000 chickens on the property were killed and their carcasses burnt “to prevent the spread of the virus”,

https://www.thenational.ae/world/mena/iraq-imposes-chicken-lockdown-after-bird-flu-case-is-detected-1.1021170

[DinarThug]

42 minutes ago, Pitcher said:

Iraq imposes chicken lockdown after bird flu case is detected 

And In An Immediate Preemptive Move - The Iranian Mullah’s Next Door Have Already Started Choking Their Chickens !  

 

     

[TexasMike1958]

6 hours ago, Pitcher said:

https://www.thebaghdadpost.com/en/Story/48301/Iraq-s-PM-Al-Kadhimi-faces-four-urgent-challenges
 

Iraq's PM Al-Kadhimi faces four urgent challenges

Iraq has become a country like Lebanon, relying too much on sectarian and ethnic balances. 

New Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi does not have his own power base, so he has to rely on the support system" rel="">support that the sectarian and ethnic groups will extend to him. 

Several problems have accumulated since the resignation of the previous Iraqi government and are awaiting solutions. Four of them are more important than the others: The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, the status of the US armed forces in Iraq, the dwindling oil price, and corruption.

COVID-19 is the most urgent issue because it cannot wait. Like the entire international community, Iraq was caught unprepared for the pandemic. As a result of years of war, social unrest, ethnic fights and Daesh, there was a big shortfall in medical facilities, equipment and medical staff, so the country has had to quickly find the missing components for its fight against the virus. 

When Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan phoned Al-Kadhimi to congratulate him for the formation of his government, the only other issue they discussed was COVID-19.

The second important task the government has to deal with is what Washington calls the “US-Iraq Strategic Dialogue.” Baghdad prefers to describe it as negotiations over the status of forces agreement (SOFA).

The date for talks has already been fixed for June 10.Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs David Hale is designated as the negotiator for the US side. On the Iraqi side, there is not even a foreign minister who will be the main person in charge of these negotiations. 

Turkey negotiated a similar agreement with the US in the 1980s. The rights and privileges granted to the US military personnel had proliferated and neither side knew their exact extent. Turkey wanted to compile them in one single text and appointed an outstanding negotiator, Sukru Elekdag, to conduct the negotiations. Thanks to his strenuous efforts, a SOFA was agreed. 

Iraq’s negotiations may prove to be more difficult because the US may have acquired more widespread prerogatives as a result of the close cooperation between the countries since the US military intervention in 2003. Now Iraq has to negotiate and eliminate those prerogatives that it does not want to perpetuate.

The tendency in Baghdad to reduce the prerogatives of the US military has become more acute since Qassem Soleimani’s assassination in January. After this deliberate act of violence, the Iraqi parliament adopted a nonbinding resolution to expel US forces from the country altogether. 

Furthermore, Al-Kadhimi’s government program provides for the preservation of Iraq’s sovereignty. This must be a diplomatic way to tell foreign countries, especially the US and Turkey — and perhaps even Iran — to withdraw their forces from Iraqi territory. 

The Iraqi SOFA is further complicated by the US’ interest in turning Iraq into an outpost for waging attacks and operations against Iran. Therefore, it may prove to be more difficult to negotiate. 

The third important issue that the Al-Kadhimi government has to tackle is the extremely low oil price. This issue has a special importance for Iraq because about 90 percent of its state income is generated from oil-related activities. 
Voting on two key portfolios — the oil and foreign ministries — was postponed during the parliamentary vote of confidence in Al-Kadhimi’s government. 

This will, of course, complicate things because of oil’s importance to the country’s economy. If the oil price remains at its present low level, Iraq’s economic difficulties will continue to grow and the protests that initiated the political upheaval will become more widespread.

The fourth important issue is corruption. Like in almost all countries in the region, corruption in Iraq is a social phenomenon that disturbs the general public. 

Almost everybody complains about it, but very little is done to come up with a lasting solution. Corrupt practices were banned in Iraq some 3,770 years ago, with severe punishments suggested by the Code of Hammurabi.

More recently, in the 16th century, the poet Fuzuli, who joined the ruling court after Baghdad was seized by the Ottomans, complained in one of his works: “I greeted them. But they did not accept my greeting on the grounds that it was not a bribe.” Al-Kadhimi may not be able to uproot such a deep-rooted tradition, but he can certainly make an attempt in that direction. 

 

 

Challenge #1...RV currency

Challenge #2...Revalue the Dinar

Challenge #3...See Challenge #1

Challenge #4...See Challenge #2

[Pitcher]

I think what you heard was not choking of the chickens,

it was their wife Beating the Hamburger meat.  

 

 

[DinarThug]

June - U Were A Little Rough On The ‘Cleavor’ Last Nite !  

 

 

     

[DinarThug]

15 hours ago, DinarThug said:

June - U Were A Little Rough On The ‘Cleavor’ Last Nite !  

Unfortunately Ken Osmond The Actor Who Portrayed Eddie Haskell Has Passed Away - He Had Retired Several Years Ago As An LA Police Officer !  

 

Ken Osmond, Eddie Haskell on "Leave It to Beaver," has died at 76

     

 

MAY 19, 2020 / 10:16 AM / AP

 

Ken Osmond, who on TV's "Leave It to Beaver" played two-faced teenage scoundrel Eddie Haskell, a role so memorable it left him typecast and led to a second career as a police officer, died Monday.

 

Osmond died in Los Angeles at age 76, his family said. No cause was given.

"He was an incredibly kind and wonderful father," son Eric Osmond said in a statement. "He had his family gathered around him when he passed. He was loved and will be very missed."

 

 

In this Sept. 27, 2007 file photo, former child actor Ken Osmond, from "Leave It To Beaver," is shown during a cast reunion in Santa Monica, Calif. DAMIAN DOVARGANES / AP

 

Ken Osmond's Eddie Haskell stood out among many memorable characters on the classic family sitcom "Leave it to Beaver," which ran from 1957 to 1963 on CBS and ABC, but had a decades-long life of reruns and revivals.
 

Eddie was the best friend of Tony Dow's Wally Cleaver, big brother to Jerry Mathers' Beaver Cleaver. He constantly kissed up to adults, flattering and flirting with Wally and Beaver's mother, and kicked down at his peers, usually in the same scene. He was the closest thing the wholesome show had to a villain, and viewers of all ages loved to hate him.

"He was a terrific guy, he was a terrific actor and his character is probably one that will last forever," Dow told The Associated Press on Monday.

 

 

In this Sept. 27, 2007 file photo, seated, from left, Jerry Mathers, Barbara Billingsley and Tony Dow, and, standing from left, Frank Bank and Ken Osmond, pose for a photo as they are reunited to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the television show,"Leave it to Beaver," in Santa Monica, Calif. AP PHOTO/DAMIAN DOVARGANES

 

"He was one of the few guys on the show who really played a character and created it," Dow added, chuckling as he mimicked the evil laugh Osmond would unleash when his character was launching one nefarious scheme or another and trying to pull Wally and his younger brother Beaver into it.

Mathers said he will greatly miss his friend of 63 years.
 

"I have always said that he was the best actor on our show because in real life his personality was so opposite of the character that he so brilliantly portrayed," Mathers said on Twitter.

Osmond was born in Glendale, California, to a carpenter father and a mother who wanted to get him into acting. He got his first role at age 4, working in commercials and as a film extra, and got his first speaking role at 9, appearing mostly in small guest parts on TV series.

 

The role of Eddie in season one of "Leave It to Beaver" was also supposed to be a one-off guest appearance, but the show's producers and its audience found him so memorable he became a regular, appearing in nearly 100 of the show's 234 episodes.

Osmond returned to making guest appearances on TV shows including "The Munsters" in the late 1960s, but found he was so identified with Eddie Haskell that it was hard to land roles.

He would soon give up acting and become a Los Angeles police officer for more than a decade.

 

"I was very much typecast. It's a death sentence," Osmond told radio host Stu Stoshak in a 2008 interview on "Stu's Show." "I'm not complaining because Eddie's been too good to me, but I found work hard to come by. In 1968, I bought my first house, in '69 I got married, and we were going to start a family and I needed a job, so I went out and signed up for the LAPD."

LAPD Chief Michel Moore paid tribute to Osmond's police service.

 

"Ken may have been a famous TV star," Moore said in a statement, "but his real life role as Los Angeles Police Officer was where he made his biggest impact. After his successful run on one of the most popular shows of all time, he chose to protect and to serve the residents of Los Angeles, and I'm proud to have been able to call him a law enforcement partner."

 

Dow, who was a lifelong friend of Osmond's said, "His motorcycle cop stories are terrific."

He recalled his favorite involved Osmond and his partner chasing down and cornering 

a robbery suspect who turned and shot Osmond in the stomach before his partner wounded the man. Although Osmond's bulletproof vest absorbed most of the impact, he still had to go to the hospital.

"And he had to ride in the same ambulance with the guy who shot him," Dow recalled being told.

 

He would return to TV in 1983, when "Leave It to Beaver" reruns were having a heyday, appearing in the TV movie "Still the Beaver."

A revival series, "The New Leave It to Beaver," came next, with Osmond reprising the role of Haskell alongside Dow and Mathers from 1983 to 1989. Osmond's real-life sons with wife Sandra Purdy, Eric and Christian, played Haskell's sons, who shared their father's smarminess on the series.

In 2014 Osmond would co-author a memoir reflecting on his life as Haskell. It was titled, "Eddie: The Life and Times of America's Preeminent Bad Boy."

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/ken-osmond-death-eddie-haskell-leave-it-to-beaver-age-76/

Edited May 19, 2020 by DinarThug