Iraq bars photographers from scenes of bomb attacks.
“Iraq’s interior ministry has decided to bar news photographers and camera operators from the scenes of bomb attacks, operations director Brigadier General Abdel Karim Khalaf said on Sunday.” BarbinMD notes, “This follows the recent decision by the Iraqi government to no longer release civilian casualty figures. Toss in the U.S. policy of not including the victims of bomb attacks in casualty counts, and soon we will all be able to pretend that there is progress in Iraq.”
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wow, they learned from the Bush administration. restrict free speech and the press…
May 14th, 2007 at 1:24 pmFreedom is on the march!
Why would anyone want to trouble their beautiful minds with such things.
-GSD
May 14th, 2007 at 1:29 pmNow they have a democracy just like ours.
Can anybody say Foxs News Bhagdad?
May 14th, 2007 at 1:30 pmIraq restricts photographers…or the evil US cabal did?
May 14th, 2007 at 1:32 pmadd this to the u.s. restrictions on soldiers accessing and posting on blogs and the recently announced ban on youtube and myspace access, and we’ve got the makings of some serious censorship here… and don’t think for one minute that the bush administration didn’t push the iraqi government to enact this abomination… does anybody but me think that there’s an awful lot of things being put in place for a major crackdown on everything and everybody, perhaps subsequent to another domestic “disaster…?”
May 14th, 2007 at 1:32 pmAnd, yes, I DO take it personally
Freedom is on the march!!!
May 14th, 2007 at 1:32 pmWith this administration we have moved back 40 year’s….We had more coverage and truth in the press during Nam…Funny, with all our technolegy we are less aware now than we were then….I don’t have to wonder why, I know….Because of the evil in this administration we have to work harder at getting the tragic truth out..Impeach now ….Blessings
May 14th, 2007 at 1:35 pm#5. You’re exactly right and it’s just a matter of time before there’s another “terrorist attack”. When it happens, expect marshal law and consolidation of power by the white house. These guys aren’t going anywhere. They have a plan.
May 14th, 2007 at 1:37 pmCan we get some state ordered blindfolds, too?
How about “no talking about the ivilCay arWay” law?
May 14th, 2007 at 1:39 pmYou see? Progress.
Bush was right all along.
Right?
May 14th, 2007 at 1:40 pmThis administration is pathetically (and dangerously) desperate. They’ve got all ten fingers in the dike but she’s ready to blow any day now.
May 14th, 2007 at 1:42 pm.
May 14th, 2007 at 1:42 pmIf the truth makes you like an incompetent idiot, muffle the truthtellers.
.
Bush to Maliki: “Ah you have learned your lessons well grasshopper.”
May 14th, 2007 at 1:44 pmThis is needed badly (not). This way benchmarks can be set up and progress can be shown. So much for numbers not lying! It likewise shows the desperation that is setting in.
May 14th, 2007 at 1:44 pmNo, that didn’t happen in Vietnam either. Perish the thought.
May 14th, 2007 at 1:45 pmCheney
May 14th, 2007 at 1:45 pmThe surge has worked. No more car bombings. Mission Accomplished!!
May 14th, 2007 at 1:47 pmPretty soon the press will be restricted to their hotels, and fed the bullshit of the day from the propaganda ministry.
May 14th, 2007 at 1:50 pmWhat explosion? Oh, that was just some gold miners hitting paydirt!
Enron style accounting now being used in a war zone!
May 14th, 2007 at 1:51 pmDont cha’ just love a FREE DEMOCRATIC iraq?
they do!
May 14th, 2007 at 1:51 pmMaybe we could have an exchange–when the Iraqi Gov’t is on their 2-month break they can come over here and Bush can have is annual August break in Iraq. He can ride his mountain bike through the hell he has visited on the Iraqi people and blow kisses to them as they shower him with flowers and candy.
May 14th, 2007 at 1:52 pmHmmm. Maybe the new surge strategy they claim to have but won’t specify is a strategic bombing campaign driven to simulate sectarian violence? Why would the Iraq military want to shield the rest of the world from data? If anything, the current sentiment reflected in the press pits the Iraq Parliament/military against the US military, which would suggest that they’d want to show the world how the occupation is failing.
This smells fishy. It’s completely counterproductive for Iraq to shield us from verifiable data. If they’re trying to end the occupation, they should want to either show positive progress or share the lack thereof, as a means to gather support for what they’re reportedly pursuing. It doesn’t make horse sense to me, none at all.
May 14th, 2007 at 1:54 pmHooray! Benchmarks will soon be met. Now bring on the g-damn funds!
May 14th, 2007 at 1:56 pmComment by profmarcus — May 14, 2007 @ 1:32 pm
I sympathize with you on the censorship. The truth of the matter is even more painful than the censorship. Here we are thinking that events like this are unique and that Bush is doing something different. That is not the case.
As it happens Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. wrote, “The most stringent protection of free speech would not protect a man falsely shouting fire in a theater and causing a panic… The question in every case is whether the words used are used in such circumstances and are of such a nature as to create a clear and present danger that they will bring about the substantive evils that Congress has a right to prevent.” This was regarding a 1919 legal case called Schenck v. United States where Holmes ruled that it was illegal to distribute fliers opposing the draft during World War I. Holmes argued this abridgment of free speech was permissible because it presented a “clear and present danger” to the government’s recruitment efforts for the war.
In WW2 Japanese/American citizens were rounded up and imprisoned in concentration camps around the USA by Executive Order 9066. 120,000 American Citizens were imprisoned by the USA after the attack on Pearl Harbor.
I could list points prior to WW1 and after WW2 but I assure you that in the time of war the DOD & President make all of the rules like it or not! Individuality has no place during war time and must be replaced by groupthink! This sounds bad and is bad but in fact even if the war was a legal one there would be no way to get people to fight a war if all we had was individuality. This is why our voices are not heard by TPTB during most wars.
So it appears that during a war dissent can and is outlawed along with civil liberties. Many of the Presidents did exactly that to a greater or lesser degree.
May 14th, 2007 at 2:00 pm#24
May 14th, 2007 at 2:12 pmthank you, mr. saywho, the eternally pessimistic wet blanket.
there’s no hope, and besides, no matter what is done, it will never be good enough, will it?
after the lights go out, and you come struggling up to my campfire in the night of nuclear winter, I’ll feed you, give you a place by the fire, and duct-tape your yap.
Will this apply only to ‘Insurgent’ bombings?
Will American bombings still be reportable?
This must be LaLa policy, who clearly thinks we have only one bombing per day.
Yeah, that’s it. Anything to preserve LaLa’s beautiful mind.
May 14th, 2007 at 2:15 pmThis is not a war. The US military has no enemy in its collective sights. Therefore, this engagement is almost entirely a propaganda campaign chasing the bullet points of a wider effort. I’m convinced that there’s a multi-decade progressive effort afoot designed to cement petroleum resources as the energy industry braces for a shift from these fuels to more scalable and profitable combustibles.
An interesting analogy to cite is the move that Phillip Morris made as their stronghold on cancer research began to crumble. They forcibly diversified by investing in additional ubiquitous products, most notably Kraft Foods, which specializes in staple food products. As they ducked and covered from congressional intervention in their liability cases, they rapidly left nothing more than their name on their tobacco products.
Similarly, the Bush administration is marshalling the crescendo of energy industry as the liability of its exploits, specifically petroleum’s environmental impact, comes to light as a liability to local and regional financial interests via non-federally-supported clean-up activities and charity-supported weather disaster recovery. While the war in Iraq builds a ring of fire around the world’s largest petroleum reserve, the industry wears their green ribbons and circulates propaganda in the form of advertising. Give them time, they’ll soon do the equivalent of the ‘truth.com’ campaign showing how awful the environmental damage done by petroeum fuels is, while continuing to reap trillions in quarterly profits. All this is supplementally fueled by the blood of our undereducated masses. My country, ’tis of thee.
May 14th, 2007 at 2:15 pmWhy don’t they just ban reporting on Iraq altogether?
What war? What Iraq? Everything is fine. Now go drink some beer and watch a reality show like a good’merickan.
May 14th, 2007 at 2:20 pmWhat are all those photographers going to do now?
May 14th, 2007 at 2:20 pmI know! They can go ahead and take pictures of the flag draped caskets of the American KIAs as they arrive home.
They just can’t publish them.
The first casualty of war is always the truth.
May 14th, 2007 at 2:20 pm# 25,
No, no. I read it as a call to action. What saywho wrote is essential true. Nowhere does he/she suggest just to pack it in. So, quit it.
May 14th, 2007 at 2:25 pmIf you can’t see it, it didn’t happen!
May 14th, 2007 at 2:31 pmthank you, mr. saywho, the eternally pessimistic wet blanket.
there’s no hope, and besides, no matter what is done, it will never be good enough, will it?
after the lights go out, and you come struggling up to my campfire in the night of nuclear winter, I’ll feed you, give you a place by the fire, and duct-tape your yap.
Comment by heyzeus — May 14, 2007 @ 2:12 pm
Thanks for the offer heyzeus but you don’t know how to party like its 1999! As far as the thread subject goes the military has always censored most of its activities during war. FUD creeps in from something known as “the fog of war”. I didn’t suggest that I liked it only that Presidents like Abe Lincoln made use of Executive orders to suspend Constitutional liberties. So what Bush is doing is not that unique regarding censorship. He has so many examples to choose from that one could write a book.
May 14th, 2007 at 2:39 pmBAGHDAD - An al-Qaida front group that claims it has captured American soldiers warned the United States on Monday to stop searching for them and suggested it attacked the U.S. convoy as revenge for the RAPE and MURDER of a local teenager last year.
Just watched on TV , Bush fears 3 missing troops being tortured
theres one way to hurt his popularity ratings then
May 14th, 2007 at 2:58 pmNowhere does he/she suggest just to pack it in. So, quit it.
Comment by wwz
Ask him what he (Saywho) thinks about oil shortage… Then apologize to Heyzeus.
May 14th, 2007 at 2:59 pmNo credit on the story?What about the link to a daily KOS thread? Cross blog editorial? I think just stating the facts does wonders. Why have comments if your going to state the obvious? Toss in? It’s like Rachel Ray or Emeril doing the news. A little sarcasm to help us cope with the redundant patheticness we get from the administration should be left to the Jon Stewart show.
May 14th, 2007 at 3:01 pmAsk him what he (Saywho) thinks about oil shortage… Then apologize to Heyzeus.
Comment by Juan C — May 14, 2007 @ 2:59 pm
Hey Juan C,
You don’t have to order people around like that do ya? I’m not keeping a secret or pretending that you know anything about fossil fuel. I’m not an optimist and since I have no swings I’m not a pessimist. Unlike you Juan C, I’m a realist. While you debate if the glass is half full or empty I just drink the water.
It is no secret that we are running short on energy in the world contrary to anything you might post Juan. Anyone can tell when they open any utility bill or go to the gas pump that we are in it deep now. Way back when in July 1979 Jimmy Carter optimistically stated that we need to change what we are doing during his “Sweater Speech” and for his troubles he was not reelected.
Twenty-Eight years later and we find out that Jimmy was a realist and people don’t like the truth now just like they didn’t then. Yes, I believe that we are on the verge of extinction but that is not pessimistic at all. Based on the facts like nuclear waste in drinking water, starvation, poverty, war, disease, loss of bees, GM foods, religious upheaval, superstition, violence, crime, resource depletion all point to ONE culprit. MANKIND and his 6.7BILLION children.
What is the fix? Juan hates this but I think that they are doing a population cull as we speak. I think there will be forced sterilizations. I think violence will rise. I think our fate is sealed and if there are survivors there life will be the harshest. I think we should pray for a quick death if death should come. Always live each day like it was our last. Spoil our kids. That sort of thing! One way or another the party is OVER Juan C & Co.
PAX
May 14th, 2007 at 3:26 pmWe already have disinformation and misinformation; now we have no information. There will be, however, any number of White House minions and repugs who will tout all the “progress” being made in Iraq. There will be no photos to tell us otherwise; the soldiers have had their email curtailed; and the war correspondent reports will be censored first, then overshadowed by the number of “positive reports” from the politicians.
There would be no other way to assure that the public does not object when, in September, the “surge” is extended again and “more time” is needed.
One would think that the msm would be incensed at this further dictatorial censorship of the press, but nary a peep from them; their complicity is part of the plan.
May 14th, 2007 at 3:39 pmWeren’t all these censorship announcements made as soon as Cheney left Iraq?
May 14th, 2007 at 3:41 pmD’ya think there’s a connection?
After all, with all those nice $5 rugs, it would be a shame not to sweep something under them…
May 14th, 2007 at 4:16 pmHow ’bout dat BUSH DEMOCRACY…
…de TROOPS is dyin’ fer…
…in Iraq?
May 14th, 2007 at 4:36 pmComment by SKdeA #39
“TOUCHE!”
May 14th, 2007 at 5:02 pmWeren’t all these censorship announcements made as soon as Cheney left Iraq?
D’ya think there’s a connection?
Comment by Marie
Yep, I was just thinking the same thing.
May 14th, 2007 at 5:46 pmOh boy, oh boy, oh boy!!
This sounds like real progress. Yea!!
I’ll bet Petraeus is writing his progress speech right now (with assistance from Condi, Dickie, Henry K, Rummy, and dubya’s dog.
May 14th, 2007 at 7:42 pmGo somewhere more useful one would hope.
The pictures of bombings aren’t published right now. I don’t know what you think is changing but it isn’t significant.
Have you ever seen an NBA game ? All the flashes going off continually ? Well if only one tame shot makes it into the paper and the rest are never seen what difference does it make if the rest aren’t taken.
BTW I donated to crisispictures before it died. But you really are kidding yourself if you think this here is significant or meaningful.
You are complaining about pictures being kept out of a pool from which none are ever published to start with.
May 15th, 2007 at 9:55 amHot Flashes And Panic Attacks
I couldn’t understand some parts of this article, but I guess I just need to check some more resources regarding this, because it sounds interesting.
April 6th, 2008 at 4:25 pmTeen Girls Teen Chat Teen Panties
I can not agree with you in 100% regarding some thoughts, but you got good point of view
April 11th, 2008 at 5:06 am