Killers Circulate Unnoticed

"WaPo offers us an excellent example of how it is easy for the public to completely misunderstand what's going on in Iraq. A story today tells readers that Sunnis are being harassed by the Maliki government. If a reader knows just a little about Iraq, he will be persuaded that the winning list of Ayad Allawi, who according to the media might as well be Sunni, is being harassed by the wicked losing prime minister Al Maliki. Sure there are politicians being harassed. Sure there are politcians being threatened. But how the WaPo reporter can know how they worship God mystifies the average Iraqi.

As always, the reporter gets a hint of a rumour and runs with it. There is a fascinating, scary story going on in Baghdad. Residents here have observed that there have been a series of murders of government officials going on for a while. Every so often we hear of an assassination of an official in one ministry or another. The victims are killed in their homes, and the killers use guns with silencers. Nobody knows who is doing it or why.

If you talk to government officials, they all will say they are on some hit list. Of course in many cases it is true, in others it's just some guy trying to appear important. The supporters of Maliki say the ex-Baathists are killing them. The ex-Baathists say it's the Iranians killing them. Whoever is going around assassinating people is obviously a professional. The killer or killers conduct brazen operations in residential neighbourhoods. In one case they went into the man's shower and shot him. Of course the killers escape unnoticed."
IraqPundit