BBC Website

harry perkins · Post by **harry perkins** » Mon Jul 30, 2007 11:15 am

https://www.bbc.co.uk/

Don't know if they even noticed the irony; the main news item highlighted as I write is that 1/3rd of Iraqis need urgent humanitarian aid, the second is a quote from Brown: "World owes US a debt for its leadership in the fight against international terror".

Mandy · Post by **Mandy** » Mon Jul 30, 2007 1:19 pm

Thanks Harry. The number of ironies these days is great. Here is a few more from this morning :

----------------------

US accused of fuelling arms race with $20bn Arab deal

GUARDIAN Mon, 30 Jul 2007

Plan to sell $20bn of weaponry to Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states opens US to accusations of fuelling arms race.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx » World » Middle East » Saudi Arabia

US envoy accuses Saudis on Iraq

BBC Mon, 30 Jul 2007 06:33:53 GMT

US ambassador at the UN Zalmay Khalilzad says Saudi Arabia is undermining efforts to stabilise Iraq .

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx » World » Middle East » Iraq

Third of Iraqis 'need urgent aid'

BBC Mon, 30 Jul 2007

Nearly a third of Iraqis are in need of immediate emergency aid, according to a new report by aid agencies.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx » World » Middle East » Iraq

Iraq faces alarming humanitarian crisis

BBC Sun, 29 Jul 07 23:50:09 BST

A report by Oxfam has found Iraq is facing a humanitarian crisis of alarming scale of severity, the BBC's David Loyn says.

harry perkins · Post by **harry perkins** » Mon Jul 30, 2007 2:03 pm

Now the humanitarian item has been replaced by "Corruption 'mars Iraq rebuilding'"
Brown is still up there.

Mandy · Post by **Mandy** » Mon Jul 30, 2007 4:50 pm

Here's another irony (or is it just "bad timing") from today (taken from https://www.spiderednews.com) :

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Blow to Brown plan to extend detention beyond 28 days after Parliamentary committee finds no evidence to justify holding people beyond current 28-day limit

Australian police hit back over arrest of bomb plot suspect. Scotland Yard accused of sending wrong information. Freed man tells of trauma suffered during custody
-----------------

Mandy · Post by **Mandy** » Mon Jul 30, 2007 4:52 pm

harry perkins wrote:Now the humanitarian item has been replaced by "Corruption 'mars Iraq rebuilding'"
Brown is still up there.

The "corruption" story sounds like "spin" .. i.e. blame the Iraqis (without mentioning the "bad" overseas contractors .. or BILLIONS which vanished under the US "provisional Iraqi government" with at least one plane loaded with Iraqi money transferred from the US being flown to another country and disappearing) .. but the aim is to say that it is honestly NOT the US/UK Governments' faults.

Note the graph at the bottom which shows the Emergency Humanitarian Assistance given dropped hugely from 2003 to 2006 (when the situation on the ground has gotten worse). Britain's contribution for 2006 seems v. low (possibly $5M .. but hard to read on the graph it is so small)

major.tom · Post by **major.tom** » Tue Jul 31, 2007 12:15 am

Mandy wrote:Plan to sell $20bn of weaponry to Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states opens US to accusations of fuelling arms race.

This was an interesting story that broke yesterday. The most interesting part of it was that this decision was tied to an increase by $30 Billion dollars in military "aid" to Israel. So in essence, Saudi Arabia is bankrolling arms for Israel.

I read the story on some other news sites (CBC, CTV, the Guardian) -- some mentioned the figure being given to Israel, some didn't. But they all mentioned the increase.

More weapons are hardly what the region needs.

nekokate · Post by **nekokate** » Tue Jul 31, 2007 12:23 am

Mandy wrote:The number of ironies these days is great. Here is a few more from this morning :

----------------------

US accused of fuelling arms race with $20bn Arab deal

GUARDIAN Mon, 30 Jul 2007

Plan to sell $20bn of weaponry to Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states opens US to accusations of fuelling arms race.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx » World » Middle East » Saudi Arabia

US envoy accuses Saudis on Iraq

BBC Mon, 30 Jul 2007 06:33:53 GMT

US ambassador at the UN Zalmay Khalilzad says Saudi Arabia is undermining efforts to stabilise Iraq .

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx » World » Middle East » Iraq

Third of Iraqis 'need urgent aid'

BBC Mon, 30 Jul 2007

Nearly a third of Iraqis are in need of immediate emergency aid, according to a new report by aid agencies.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx » World » Middle East » Iraq

Iraq faces alarming humanitarian crisis

BBC Sun, 29 Jul 07 23:50:09 BST

A report by Oxfam has found Iraq is facing a humanitarian crisis of alarming scale of severity, the BBC's David Loyn says.

I hate to burst your bubble, but do you really know what the definition of irony is? Those comparisons you made are not ironic, they are merely headlines saying the same thing but in different words...

Salim201 · Post by **Salim201** » Tue Jul 31, 2007 1:24 pm

no there is a sense of dramatic irony at least, when you employ those sort of contrasts and the inconguity in reason which is evident provides a certain rhetorical effect! I would call it irony..?

Mandy · Post by **Mandy** » Tue Jul 31, 2007 3:23 pm

nekokate wrote:I hate to burst your bubble, but do you really know what the definition of irony is? Those comparisons you made are not ironic, they are merely headlines saying the same thing but in different words...

I don't see it like that. These are different stories in the mosaic of what is going on.

The "irony" I see is that the is US accused of fuelling the arms race with $20bn of weaponry sales to Saudi Arabia, but Saudi Arabia at the same time is being accused by a US envoy of "undermining efforts" to stabilise Iraq, where a "third of Iraqis 'need urgent aid' and where "Iraq faces alarming humanitarian crisis"

Thus, if taking US words at face value, the US can be seen to be "rewarding" their ally in the region even when the ally is undermining US efforts in Iraq and thus causing suffering to the Iraqi people.

Though I agree this is no reward, but a punishment for the whole region, except Israel who will get free weaponry, whilst Saudi Arabia is bound to pay in petro-dollars for over-priced weaponry which can never be used independently of the US.

Salim201 · Post by **Salim201** » Wed Aug 01, 2007 12:39 am

https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6918936.stm

just wanted to point out that the suffixed statement of this article is concise and hugely necessary and I applaud the BBC, which is rare, for at least providing some important context to a news report. I regret that this would never be reported in this format on TV or radio, but there is certainly more leverage online.

the statement reads: The Israeli military has suspended from duty an entire army company following the shooting of an unarmed Palestinian man in the West Bank on Thursday.

And the article is then followed by: Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967. It has settled about 430,000 people in the area, including Jerusalem, in contravention to international law.

Hebron and the surrounding area are a regular source of tension and violence.

It is the only place in the West Bank where a small community of Jewish settlers lives in the heart of a Palestinian city.