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D_Raay
02-07-2005, 03:37 AM
Who was the Iraqi Woman in the balcony?

This cursory investigation
demands a deeper look into Ms. Sofia Taleb Al Souhail.
Held up as a shining example of why we've spent $200
billion and wasted 1,500 lives and counting, it looks
upon first glance that she doesn't live in Iraq, has
been affiliated with right-wing organizations, her
father was killed in Lebanon while planning a coup
against Saddam, and her family claims the US was
complicit in his assassination.)

I am always interested in finding out who the people are
that are chosen to sit with in the "good seats" at the
State of The Union.

Especially after last year, when Chalabi was sitting in
the seat. You often wonder who these people are.
So as I'm watching the woman hold up a shaky "peace"
sign, finger stained in purple, you are wonder. "Did
they fly her in? Wow, that's some crazy symbolism."

So I decided to look around.

Here's what Bush said.
"Eleven years ago, Safia's father was assassinated by
Saddam's intelligence service. Three days ago in
Baghdad, Safia was finally able to vote for the leaders
of her country -- and we are honored that she is with us
tonight."

Her name is Safia Taleb Al Souhail.
She works for the "International Alliance For Justice,"
which no longer has a website that is functioning. [
www.i-a-j.org. ] I tried to do a google search for the
site and found a cached version of another one, www.a-i-
j.org, which is down now as well and looks like it's
been taken over by a defunct porn website. As for www.i-
a-j.org, its now a rather generic "antispyware" website.

Beats me. I have my theories about all of these freedom
and justice and happy iraqi websites that are oh so
slick and oh so American, but I can't draw any
conclusions because I have no background in doing so.

I was struck by the line "three days ago in Baghdad,
Safia was finally able to vote..."

I did a search and found that she published an article
in December of 2003 for the group "Foundation For the
Defence of Democracies." [www.defenddemocracy.org]

They seem pretty reasonable when you look at their
mission statement on the website. The Foundation for the
Defense of Democracies (FDD) is a non-partisan, non-
profit policy institute dedicated to:

* Finding the most effective ways to defeat terrorism--
and the totalitarian ideologies used to incite and
justify terrorism.

* Employing strategic communications, education and
research to fight terrorism across national, ethnic and
religious lines.

* Promoting freedom and basic human rights for all
peoples.

So, then I went to see who they are, being non-partisan
and all. Board of Directors?

Steve Forbes.
Jack Kemp.
Jeanne Kirkpatrick.

OK, so far not so balanced.

Distinguished Advisors?

Newt Gingrich.
R. James Woolsey.

OK, yikes. Still a bit off kilter.

Board of Advisors?

Gary Bauer.
Charles Karuthammer, (yes the columnist)
Bill Kristol.
Zell Miller.
Richard Perle.

wow. OK and then finally we see who represents the other
side on that board.

Donna Brazille. (?)
Frank Lautenberg.
Chuck Schumer.

All very interesting, strange, but leading me away from
my original question. Who is Safia Taleb Al Souhail?
Well I read her piece published under the banner of this
group here. It was written in January of 2003. Just
before we headed off to war. I think it's important to
remember the mood of the time, and the debates we were
having.


The first paragraph is what got me.
"As we watch UN inspectors search Iraq for weapons of
mass destruction, I ask, why are there no UN inspectors
investigating Saddam Hussein's crimes against the Iraqi
people? Along with hidden caches of biological and
chemical weapons, Iraw also has hidden tourture
chambers, prisons, and maass graves."

Sound familiar? Does to me. Not only does he have lots
of weapons that he's hiding, the United Nations is a
worthless organization that isn't holding Sadaam
accountable. Hmmm...

The article goes on to explain how bad Sadaam was for
women, which we all know his brutality was second to
none. But what struck me again was that she left the
country in 1968. She returned to the country at some
point recently. I found an article about her return to
Iraq. to hold a Iraqi women's conference in Baghdad in
July "facilitated by the coalition provisional
authority." It seems she was in a group of people that
had "returned" to Iraq with the "facitity" of the CPA.
This was at another pastel colored, sleek website called
"womenforiraq.org"

But here it is again, you click to read more about the
conference in Baghdad...and you go to another blank page
that says "Hopefully /article928.php at www.i-a-j.org
will be up again soon. - 1254726158" And you click the
"home" button and you're right back at that anti-spyware
site. All of these groups are strangely connected to
each other, and this one is now defunct.

Ace42
02-07-2005, 04:19 AM
Didn't you know, it is Al Qaeda that trump up human rights charges, not America,

SobaViolence
02-07-2005, 12:20 PM
that is pretty interesting, D.

on the light side, Saddam was second to lots of people in his brutality.

my fav, Gengis Khan, has him beat hands down. 50,000 direct descendants thanks to his burning loins of passion can not be wrong.

but S-Dog was a big dick and i'm glad he's locked up. too bad america/iraq puppets won't be asking any pertinent questions and just speed up his execution date...saddam's in the know, if you know what i mean.

Echewta
02-07-2005, 12:23 PM
Where is that wacky Saddam any how? Cuba?

ASsman
02-07-2005, 04:45 PM
but S-Dog was a big dick and i'm glad he's locked up.
But, they were better off....

SobaViolence
02-07-2005, 10:42 PM
i think only history can judge that kind of statement...

Ace42
02-07-2005, 11:03 PM
Not really. Quality of life might seem subjective, but not to the point where you cannot make some rational value judgements.

The fact that their homes weren't bombed out for starters. Their were more and better amenities. The death-rate was much lower. Etc etc.

SobaViolence
02-08-2005, 12:17 PM
BUT, something positive may come out of this that was not possible under saddam (devil's advocate)we can't just think about the short term, as hard as that is

ASsman
02-08-2005, 12:31 PM
And what is that? Mcdonalds franchises opening up? Or do you mean the bogus "democracy".

SobaViolence
02-08-2005, 12:38 PM
nothing related to the US...i dunno, i'm just tired of being all pessimistic and hopeless.

things will turn around...

ASsman
02-08-2005, 12:41 PM
If you ask me, it's better than living in blissful ignorance.

Jasonik
02-08-2005, 12:58 PM
HATERZ R KULE

Ace42
02-08-2005, 11:07 PM
BUT, something positive may come out of this that was not possible under saddam (devil's advocate)we can't just think about the short term, as hard as that is

I'd say we cannot say that the ends justifies the means either. That self-same argument could be used to justify the holocaust.

Jasonik
02-09-2005, 03:55 PM
Q: When you go to Iraq looking for WMD and come back with lemons; what do you do?

A: Make lemon juice to put in the wounds of your political opponents.

Bob
02-09-2005, 06:17 PM
hey yeah, what DID happen to saddam? i haven't heard anything about him lately. not that i've been listening

Echewta
02-09-2005, 06:44 PM
Heeeeyyyy yeaaahhhh

Heeyyy yeahhhh

Shake it

Shake it

Ali
02-10-2005, 08:23 AM
Where is that wacky Saddam any how? Cuba?Which one? (http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=31718)

Jasonik
02-10-2005, 02:18 PM
Dan Rather is complicit! (http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/02/26/60II/main542151.shtml)

Qdrop
02-10-2005, 02:26 PM
Dan Rather is complicit! (http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/02/26/60II/main542151.shtml)

????

Jasonik
02-10-2005, 08:59 PM
Which one? (http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=31718)+Dan Rather is complicit! (http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/02/26/60II/main542151.shtml)=????


Exactly.