Thursday, March 02, 2006
“IRAQI IS NOT BOSNIA” x 4
An extraordinary Australian television performance from jabbering Robert Fisk:
Somebody at the moment is trying to provoke a civil war in Iraq. Someone wants a civil war. Some form of militias and death squads want a civil war.
But who are these people, Robert? Who? WHO?
The real question I ask myself is: who are these people who are trying to provoke the civil war?
Indeed; who?
Now the Americans will say it’s Al Qaeda, it’s the Sunni insurgents. It is the death squads. Many of the death squads work for the Ministry of Interior. Who runs the Ministry of Interior in Baghdad? Who pays the Ministry of the Interior? Who pays the militia men who make up the death squads? We do, the occupation authorities.
So ... coalition forces are trying to start a civil war? Is that what Fisk is saying?
I’d like to know what the Americans are doing to get at the people who are trying to provoke the civil war. It seems to me not very much.
These are some serious matters you’re hinting at, Bobby. Got anything to back them up?
What is going on in Iraq at the moment is extremely mysterious. I go to Iraq and I can’t crack this story at the moment. Some of my colleagues are still trying to, but can’t do it.
Could be the story they’re chasing doesn’t exist.
It’s not as simple as it looks. I don’t believe we’ve got all these raving lunatics wandering around blowing up mosques. There’s much more to this than meets the eye. All of these death squads that move around are part of the security forces. In some cases they are Shiite security forces or clearly Sunni security forces. When the Iraqi army go into Sunni cities they are Shiite soldiers going in. We are not making this clear. Iraqi troops, we’ve got an extra battalion. The Iraqi army is building up. The Iraqi army is split apart. Somebody is operating these people. I don’t know who they are. It’s not as simple as we’re making it out to be.
Actually, you’re not making it out to be very simple at all.
What I’d like to know is who is running the Interior Ministry? Who is paying the Interior Ministry? Who is paying the gunmen who work for the Interior Ministry?
Fisk is the only journalist on earth who files television reports in triplicate.
I go into the Interior Ministry in Baghdad and I see lots and lots of armed men wearing black leather.
Sure you’ve got the right address?
Who is paying these guys? Well, we are, of course. The money isn’t falling out of the sky. It’s coming from the occupation powers and Iraqi’s Government ...
A second ago you wanted to know who was paying the Black Leather Death Squads of Iraq; now you claim to have known all along. What gives?
Iraqi is not Bosnia. Iraqi is not Bosnia. Iraqi is not Bosnia. Iraqi is not Bosnia.
He’s jammed!
Just because I can’t give you the detail, like, of who ordered this death squad, doesn’t prevent us saying that something is wrong with the narrative we’re being given the press, from the West, from the Americans, from the Iraqi Government.
Odd how Fisk’s speculation always hints at some dark, unfathomable coalition conspiracy.
There is something going wrong. Iraqis are not suicidal people. They don’t go around blowing up mosques every day. It’s not a natural thing for them to do.
Not exactly clarifying things, is he?
And, of course the Americans are also accusing Syria of supporting the insurgents or letting them cross the border. But I think it it’s much more complicated than that.
Of course ...
For example, my sources in this area, who are pretty good, tell me that the Americans have already talked to the Syrians and are trying to do a deal with them to try and get the Syrians to help them over the insurgency and the price of Syria’s help, I’m told, is that the Americans will ease off on the UN committee of inquiry into the murder of ex-prime minister Rafiq Hariri, here in Beirut, only a few hundred metres from here, on the 14th February last year ...
This review of Fisk’s rambling seems right on the money. Click here for video.
UPDATE. The Mysterious Black Leather Men strike:
Iraqi security forces have arrested a suspect in the 2004 kidnapping and beheading of a Japanese backpacker, officials said Thursday.
The Interior Ministry identified the suspect as Hussein Fahmi, a 28-year-old al-Qaida in Iraq operative arrested over two months ago in western Baghdad.
Fahmi confessed to carrying out 116 beheadings, including that of 24-year-old Japanese backpacker Shosei Koda, ministry official Maj. Raid al-Mafraji said.
Fahmi, who is of Egyptian and Palestinian descent, was captured by the Interior Ministry’s counterinsurgency Wolf Brigade after a tip from local residents, al-Mafraji said. “We managed to arrest three other terrorists with him and seized a huge amount of weapons,” he said.
It’s not as simple as it looks. There’s much more to this than meets the eye. I don’t know who they are. It’s not as simple as we’re making it out to be. There is something going wrong. It’s much more complicated than that, etc etc.