Iraqi Oil Minister Assassinated

[HR_Pufnstuf]

Breaking... Fox News.

[Renew Deal]

1. Is that Chalabi?

Or not yet?

[Norquist Nemesis]

18. That's what I thought, but he was Acting Oil Minister

apparently before this guy was named on a permanent basis.
:shrug:
from a google search:
http://newstandardnews.net/content/?action=show_item&itemid=1759
Chalabi Named Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister, Acting Oil Minister

Apr 29 - After Iraq’s new government failed to name a permanent oil minister Thursday, the coveted post was given on a temporary basis to Ahmed Chalabi, the repatriated former exile who admitted giving the Bush administration and members of the media false information about Saddam Hussein’s weapons programs before the 2003 invasion.

Chalabi, who was also named as a deputy prime minister by Ibrahim Al-Jaafari, the country’s new prime minister, told Reuters he might be oil minister for only a short time, but one of his aides suggested that political disagreements over the selection of permanent ministry leaders might leave Chalabi in the position indefinitely.

-snip-

[IndianaGreen]

2. Senior Iraqi oil official killed (BBC)

Senior Iraqi oil official killed

A senior Iraqi oil ministry official has been shot dead by attackers in Baghdad, officials say.

Ali Hameed was killed outside his home as he left for work, the sources say.

Details are still sketchy, but Reuters news agency is reporting that Ali Hameed was a director general at the country's oil ministry.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4561269.stm

[Erika]

4. Bush will call this irrelevant

and declare "Don't worry, be Happy" as the new Iraqi national song. Halliburton declares Bush as a visionary in this new song because he's looking into the future, not the past. OK. We've been doing that for a couple of years.

[bemildred]

10. Seems we're getting about one a day now, dead ministers, I mean. nt

[daleo]

3. Not a job a sane person would want.

Talk about painting a bulls-eye on yourself.

[Erika]

5. But I bet his kickbacks were unbelieveable

That's how Bush/Cheney even got those people into the posts.

[Disturbed]

6. Ahmed Chalabi has an army...

gaurding him so he will be more difficult to assasinate.

[The_Casual_Observer]

7. Chalabi lives in the green zone I think.

[ConfuZed]

8. Just another day in iraq...

I thought he was assassinated the other day actually lol

[cprise]

13. tvlicensing.biz are pro-Murdoch freepers

I suggest you quit spreading their BS around.

If you do not want to do your part to maintain an independant & populist public service like th BBC, then why don't you move to the US where the media is entirely under commercial control?

Why not just say you are ANTI-BBC, and that you are against an organization who's funding model allows them to take on an out-of-control government?

Why not just join the 'free-staters' or move to a place like Antarctica where there is no compulsory anything? Then everything you do will be a totally free choice.

Why not ask the BBC news to be like PBS news: Cowering stuffed shirts who break no new stories on their own and have commercials on all their channels.


It limits the range, diversity and pluralism of public debate.

You can't get more deranged than this. A 100% commercial news market ultimately turns fascist. The cry of "limiting choice" has become the favorite code words of Murdoch and commercial conglomerates to do away with all regulation. And liberals are forever supposed to become tongue-tied at the mention fo those words. I don't think so.

The BBC has become similar to the NHS - capable sometimes of great heroics but mainly a filthy nationalised provider ...

for a nation like the UK that has top-notch healthcare and news media due to its public institutions, this attitude is beyond redemption.

[ConfuZed]

19. ...Removed

I saw the sig in another forum so I put it mine I don't live in the UK so I'm not aware of the "politics" but I removed the sig none the less.

[cprise]

21. Was just a (strong) suggestion... but thanks!

:hi:

We could spend all day reading rightwing websites about the 'injustices' of having to pay taxes, and it would amount to the same thing.

The nice thing about a flat license-fee for just TV, is that the broadcaster that runs on these funds necessarily has a different focus than government and industry on many issues. Governments with progressive taxes sometimes develop a heavy bias in favor of the wealthy because that's where so much of their money comes from, and the commercial media has the same bias (mostly owned by the wealthy) so they tend to push government toward intensifying that bias. That is what happened in the USA.

The source of a group's money is what determines its focus and biases over the long haul. For instance, CNN started out rather liberal because of its founder Ted Turner, but he was eventually ousted by the influence of wealthy shareholders. Now look at CNN. The same could even happen with Air America Radio over time-- they will probably drive out the people who are critical of corporate power.

Making a portion of the 4th Estate (media) financially populist adds a valuable point of view that helps keep these robber-barons in check.

[leftchick]

9. Update... Not Chalabi...

If I remember right Chalabi has his own security detail of a few dozen. He knows he is hated in Iraq.

BEIJING, May 19 -- Gunmen have shot and killed a senior Iraqi Oil Ministry official in Baghdad.

Local police said Ali Hameed, director general at the Oil Ministry, was killed Thursday outside his home as he was leaving for work.

Meanwhile, a roadside bomb killed two policemen in Baquba, north of Baghdad.

Insurgents have stepped up assassinations of Iraqi officials and suicide bombings since a new government was announced late last month, killing more than 400 people.


http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2005-05/19/content_2976376.htm

[reality based]

11. How well did the deceased get along with Chalabi? n/t

[Hand]

12. Ah... good question!

If I catch your drift, perhaps it wasn't the bad ole terraists, but Chalabi's private army of thugs that did this one. Wouldn't surprise me a bit.

[reality based]

14. I think there is plenty of terror being dispensed from all sides

in that unfortunate land. The uncertainty of the identity of the perpetrators is a part of the terror. Mr Chalabi is a grand master of deception among people whose very survival has depended on how well they practice the art. Cheney and his puppet are mere amateurs in this area, needing an army of press sycophants to pull off their stunts successfully. I have no idea about this particular incident and wondered what links Chalabi had to the murdered official since he seems to be hanging around the oil ministry these days.

[wabeewoman]

20. Riverbend talks about Chalabi's

private army of thugs attacking people in her latest post. Apparently its common knowlege in Iraq.

[Corgigal]

15. Damn that Newsweek

Probably offended at one of the advertisements in this weeks addition. No one is safe.

[Straight Shooter]

16. I honestly believe Chalabi is a dead man walking.

He doesn't have paranoid bush's army of protection, and that grenade in Georgia was a live grenade, despite all the initial spin. We don't know how many attempts there have been, because the Monkey Palace is totally hush-hush that anyone may *gasp* want to cause harm to the world's most paranoid man (bush).

All it takes is one sniper with excellent aim and it's bye-bye Chalabi. In fact, who's to say that sniper wouldn't be with Negroponte's squad ...

[ckramer]

17. How come this guy wasn't living in the GreenZone? eom