"Known Unknowns" in Baghdad: Was Key Iraqi General Fired? Our Government Won't Say

[demobabe]

On the Ides of March, a general was toppled. Maybe.

The Iraqi news website Azzaman reported Thursday that Lt.Gen. Qanbar, the Iraqi commander in charge of the joint U.S.-Iraqi military operation in Baghdad, had been mysteriously fired by Prime Minister Maliki.

Qanbar had just given a press conference the day before claiming that the new strategy is working. He also seems to be highly regarded. Perhaps things were not going so well in Baghdad after all.

Azzaman has proved reliable in the past, but we decided to verify the firing since no other media sources have reported on the story. Besides, how hard could it be to find out if a key Iraqi general had been fired by the Prime Minister?

The Department of Defense refused to comment. A spokesperson for CENTCOM seemed willing to help but said news trickled slowly to the Florida-based headquarters where I had called. Instead, he said to contact the Combined Press Information Center in Baghdad (which is essentially the military’s propaganda branch in Iraq).

A few minutes later I was talking to a military official in Baghdad. He said that America does not comment on actions by the Iraqi government since "Iraq is a sovereign nation." Instead of challenging this assertion, I decided simply to rephrase my question: "Has the American military been told about the general’s firing?"

A long pause. Then he told me that the American military is a very large organization and he couldn't say...

More here: http://www.buzzflash.com/articles/analysis/190

[whistle]

1. Oh please....Donald Rumsfeldicktenstein is gone, don't resurrect his

....disinformation phrases, thank you.

[demobabe]

2. Huh?

I have no clue of what the heck you're talking about.