Wednesday, July 14, 2021

Editorial: Iraq's embarrassing prime minister

 Iraq's Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi can't do a thing to protect the protesters but let the kidnapped Ali al-Midkam be released by his kidnappers and Mustafa rushing to the hospital for a bedside photo-op.

He Tweets a photo and then lies to the Iraqi people this Tweet, right here:


رئيس مجلس الوزراء يطمئن على صحة الصحفي والناشط علي المگدام في احدى مستشفيات بغداد، بعد أن حررته القوات الأمنية من خاطفيه .
Image
Image
Image

 

 He claims in the Tweet that Ali was rescued by the Iraqi forces.  He lies.  He lies to the American people.  He hasn't corrected his lie.  Sura Ali (RUDAW) reported on Sunday:

 

Ali al-Mikdam, activist and journalist, was tortured by his kidnappers before they released him, according to a source close to him. The source said Mikdam was not freed by security forces, as has been reported.
 
Mikdam, 22, is an Iraqi activist who participated in the October 2019 protest movement and a campaign to end impunity that is planning demonstrations inside and outside the country for July 18. He was in Baghdad this week and went missing on Friday evening.
 
The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Mikdam's kidnappers let him go, leaving him close to the al-Dora highway south of Baghdad. Mikdam made his way to the nearest security checkpoint where they brought him to hospital.
 
Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi visited Mikdam on Saturday night in hospital, checking “on the health of journalist and activist Ali al-Mikdam in one of Baghdad’s hospitals after security forces released him from his kidnappers,” the PM's office tweeted.

 
The source told Rudaw English on Sunday that “Ali was severely tortured, he cannot walk, and security forces don’t want us to say that he was not liberated by them."


Mustafa's a failure as a leader and he's facing re-election in October.  He lies and he fails and he fails and he lies.