August, 27 2008, 06:51pm EDT
For Immediate Release
Contact:
Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020, (202) 421-6858; or David Zupan, (541) 484-9167
Biden and Dividing Iraq
WASHINGTON
Reuters
recently reported: "Across racial and religious boundaries, Iraqi
politicians ... bemoaned Democratic presidential contender Barack
Obama's choice of running mate, known in Iraq as the author of a 2006
plan to divide the country into ethnic and sectarian enclaves."
VERA BEAUDIN SAEEDPOUR
Editor of Kurdish Life and the International Journal of Kurdish Studies,
Saeedpour is available for a limited number of in-depth interviews. She
said today: "Remember when Biden based his candidacy in the Democratic
primary on his plan to partition Iraq? Alas, the plan was not of his
making. It was made in Israel as part of a larger plan to 'break up the
Sea of Arabs,' in other words to divide the Middle East along ethnic
and sectarian lines in order to guarantee Israel regional hegemony. The
messenger was Council on Foreign Relations head Leslie Gelb, who
boasted that he had persuaded Biden to come aboard during a
three-and-a-half hour hold-over in an airport lounge. ..."
AARON GLANTZ
Author of the book How America Lost Iraq and co-author of the upcoming book Winter Soldier Iraq and Afghanistan,
Glantz reported extensively from Iraq as an unembedded journalist from
2003 to 2005. He has been covering U.S. war veterans since his return.
Glantz said today: "Very few politicians have been wrong more on Iraq
than Biden. He was wrong when he voted for the invasion of Iraq and and
his ideas for managing the occupation of Iraq have been consistently
awful. His efforts to force the Bush administration to split Iraq in
three has helped fan the flames of civil war. Iraqis have been hopeful
about the possibility of change that would come with the election of
Barack Obama, but in Biden they will actually get someone with a record
worse than George Bush."
A nationwide consortium, the Institute for Public Accuracy (IPA) represents an unprecedented effort to bring other voices to the mass-media table often dominated by a few major think tanks. IPA works to broaden public discourse in mainstream media, while building communication with alternative media outlets and grassroots activists.
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