Iraq: On Ground Updates
Iraqi Demonstrations Raising Concerns
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
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Map courtesy of CENTCOM
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* NYTimes.com gets us started with the following report... BAGHDAD - It is a date being discussed in Iraq’s tea shops, on television and in the streets with varying shades of hope, fear and cynicism... On Friday, thousands of Iraqis are planning to take to the streets for their own “day of rage,” hoping to harness the popular anger that has swept through much of the Middle East but has failed to gain much traction here... For all the faults of Iraq’s young democracy, the government here affords people more rights than places like Egypt, Tunisia or Libya. After all, about 60 percent of Iraqi voters participated in nationwide elections last March that were widely deemed free and fair, even if they were the start of an agonizing political deadlock that left Iraq adrift for nine months...
Read this report in full at link below...
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* CNN.com Baghdad (CNN) -- Iraqi activists and a gamut of groups ranging from intellectuals to unemployed workers to widows are preparing for large demonstrations Friday in al-Tahrir square in central Baghdad, along with large protests in most of Iraq's provinces... The organizers have used Facebook, Twitter and websites to circulate invitations for demonstrations on February 25, calling them the "Iraqi revolution." A Facebook page called "The Iraqi Revolution" includes still pictures and videos of previous demonstrations in Iraq and claims nearly 20,000 supporters... On Tuesday evening, government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh and Baghdad military operation spokesman Gen. Qassim Atta held a joint news conference regarding the planned demonstrations... "The Iraqi government welcomes any demonstration by Iraqi people as long as it's a peaceful demonstration," said Al-Dabbagh...
Read the full report at link below...
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* The Canadian Press had this report out Tuesday and it goes in part like this... Thousands marched in a northern Iraqi city Tuesday, demanding political reforms and an investigation of the fatal shootings of two protesters last week... The peaceful rally by 5,000 in the city of Sulaimaniyah was a sign of growing frustration with the tight control of two ruling parties over the economy and politics in the self-ruled Kurdish region... Last Thursday, hundreds of protesters inspired by successful anti-government uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt converged on the Sulaimaniyah headquarters of the Kurdistan Democratic Party, which is headed by the president of the self-ruled Kurdish region. Some protesters pelted the building with stones, and security guards opened fire. Two people were killed and dozens injured...
Read the full report at link below...
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My worries are with any Iranian influence that might lie in the underbelly of all this mess, so with that said... We can only pray that all Iranian influence stays back at home, over the border, so as not to even give it a chance to let all hell break loose with these rounds of protest. We’ll know soon enough I guess...
AubreyJ.........
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More to come this Friday & Saturday
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