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.
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.