U.S. Silent on Deadly Iraqi Gov't Crackdown on Protests; 300 Arrested in Sweeps Targeting Dissidents

DemocracyNow.org -
While the United States has sharply criticized the Libyan government for brutally cracking down on opposition protesters, it has remained noticeably silent on the recent attacks against Iraqi dissidents. On Friday, tens of thousands of people participated in Iraq's largest protest in years. Although the protests were largely peaceful, authorities fired water cannons, sound bombs and live bullets to disperse crowds as Iraqi army helicopters buzzed overhead, killing an estimated 29 people. Then on Sunday, U.S.-backed Iraqi security forces detained about 300 people, including prominent journalists, artists and lawyers who had taken part in the rallies.

For more on this story, Democracy Now! interviews Iraqi-American blogger Raed Jarrar and Samer Muscati, Iraq researcher with Human Rights Watch.

For the video/audio podcast, transcript, to sign up for the daily news digest, for more coverage of the uprisings across the Middle East and North Africa, visit http://www.DemocracyNow.org.

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Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• iraq
• crackdown
• dissidents
• journalists
• killed
• corruption
• protests
• Raed Jarrar
• Samer Muscati
• human rights watch
• iraqi
• demonstrations
• democracy now
• amy goodman

[oceanbound222]

The US is ONLY outraged when it is in their best interest to be "outraged."  lol

[MustacheVerra]

Very interesting .

Good work.

[bettydavis0004]

If our protests grow larger will they bring troops from other countries to deal with us?

[TheeUnidentified]

Paid for w/US tax dollars. Operation Iraqi Freedom! Remember, it's not *really* fascism when we do it.