2006 October 01 | Hanlon's Razor

Iraqi journalists arrested for “offending public officials”

By Hanlon, on October 1st, 2006 at 09:57 PM

This is what, we are told, is progress. That the Iraqis are free now, unlike how they were under the totalitarian Hussein. And now we see that journalists are arrested for saying things that offend the government.

Under a broad new set of laws criminalizing speech that ridicules the government or its officials, some resurrected verbatim from Saddam Hussein’s penal code, roughly a dozen Iraqi journalists have been charged with offending public officials in the past year.

Currently, three journalists for a small newspaper in southeastern Iraq are being tried here for articles last year that accused a provincial governor, local judges and police officials of corruption. The journalists are accused of violating Paragraph 226 of the penal code, which makes anyone who “publicly insults” the government or public officials subject to up to seven years in prison.

Boy, I sure feel like we accomplished a hell of a lot, don’t you? That’s the grand, free, democratic Iraq we worked to hard to build.

Even more pages for Foley

By Hanlon, on October 1st, 2006 at 08:25 PM

Oh wonderful. Politics aside, the fact that there were FIVE pages harassed by this guy, not two, is just disturbing. Not only because it means more victims than I had thought, but because one incidence can be swept under by the leaders with the claim of “it was inappropriate and we stopped it”, but five? Now we’re talking about an epidemic.

His sudden resignation as a Congressman, a position he loved, came only hours after he was confronted with e-mails and AOL instant messages he had exchanged with a pair of teenage boys. ABC News
since has reported that as many as five boys — all congressional pages — have come forward.

There’s one word for that: predator. One instance is disgusting, five is a little beyond my comprehension to be honest. They knew this man was harrassing multiple pages, and continued to support his “I hate child molesters” public image.

You know, that really does make you wonder about the most vocal anti-gay marriage folks. Hm.

[tags]politics, scandals, sex[/tags]

A fantastic analysis of the Foley Scandal

By Hanlon, on October 1st, 2006 at 06:08 PM

I feel awful for laughing at this…

Rep Foley and his creepy messages

Iraq Parliament struggling a bit

By Hanlon, on October 1st, 2006 at 06:05 PM

Remember Iraq? It seems that they’ve got some problems in their parliament. I know watching Hastert and the rest of the redcoats fall is priority #1, but I think remembering ol’ Iraq is fairly important.

Iraqi Shi’ite politicians called for a major cabinet overhaul on Sunday, two days after U.S. troops arrested a bodyguard for a top Sunni leader on suspicion of plotting to bomb the fortified government compound.

…

Bahaa al-Araji, an outspoken senior Shi’ite deputy from the United Iraqi Alliance, parliament’s largest bloc, said on Sunday that the national unity government was “infiltrated by terrorists”, drawing sharp rebukes from Sunni Arab lawmakers.

Methinks things aren’t coming along as well as we’ve been told. It appears that the government is holding together rather tenuously. And a question emerges: if a coup starts up or a revolt of some kind, is the US going to do anything about it? Will Bush force Iraq to have a unity government? Will we keep fighting over and over and over again until they bend to our will?

[tags]iraq, politics, war[/tags]