The New York Times finally reports on the results of the troop increase in Baghdad, which seems to have brought a measure of safety to some of the most dangerous areas of Iraq's capital – but Kirk Semple and Alissa Rubin's A1 article Wednesday ("Sweeps in Iraq Cram Two Jails With Detainees") ignored that angle in favor of concern over…crowded Baghdad jails.
"Hundreds of Iraqis detained in the Baghdad security crackdown have been crammed into two detention centers run by the Defense Ministry that were designed to hold only dozens of people, a government monitoring group said Tuesday.
"The numbers suggested that the security plan’s emphasis on aggressive block-by-block sweeps of troubled neighborhoods in the capital had flooded Iraq's frail detention system, and appeared to confirm the fears of some human rights advocates who have been predicting that the new plan would aggravate already poor conditions.
"The disclosure came as violence continued to tear through Iraq, including a double suicide-vehicle bombing in Tal Afar that killed at least 55 people, the authorities said, and the murder of two Chaldean Christian nuns in Kirkuk."
The second half of the article catches up on all the recent violence in Iraq, but interestingly, not the violence in those targeted Baghdad neighborhoods. Could it be because the "aggressive block-by-block sweeps" are having a positive effect on public safety? Apparently, that's not newsworthy.
The rest of the story is filled with anecdotes of violence -- notice the nicely played cheap shot on Bush.
"In the most destructive of the two suicide attacks in Tal Afar on Tuesday, the bomber was driving a truck partially filled with sacks of flour for bread that concealed his explosives. He started handing out the sacks to people, saying it was free aid. But as a crowd gathered around his vehicle, he detonated the bomb.
"An Iraqi police colonel said at least 55 people had died and 183 had been wounded.
"Salih al-Qadu, the president of the main hospital in Tal Afar, said his staff had received 50 bodies and more than 100 wounded people. 'We are still getting more injuries, so I can’t give you the death toll now,' he said late Tuesday.
"The hospital had called to Mosul for emergency supplies, he said, but gunmen turned back the vehicles carrying the supplies."
"Tal Afar was once cited by President Bush as an example of American military success in Iraq."
For more examples of New York Times bias, visit Times Watch.
—Clay Waters is the director of Times Watch, an MRC project tracking the New York Times.
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Comments Policy
Dem optimism:"In every s
March 28, 2007 - 14:02 ET by Airforce_5_ODem optimism:
"In every silver cloud there is a grey lining."
Hahahahaha! This is the NY
March 28, 2007 - 14:12 ET by The Wicked ConservativeHahahahaha! This is the NY Times at it's finest. When Giuliani was lowering crime in NY by putting criminals in jail they would lament about the increased population in the jails. Headlines read something like "Rise in Inmate Population Despite Drop In Crime." Well no kidding. The NYTards can't make the connection that keeping criminals off the street will result in fewer crimes being committed. After all if we would just talk to them and try to understand them surely they'd stop breaking the law.
Politics is supposed to be the second oldest profession. I have come to realizes that it bears a very close resemblence to the first.
- Ronald Reagan
It never ceases to amaze me h
March 28, 2007 - 14:37 ET by PKIt never ceases to amaze me how the bunch in New York used to curse St. Rudy even though there were about 12,000 more of them there to curse him because of his policies.
This bunch shouldn't complain now because the old line iraquis did have methods of cutting down prison populations that they were complaining about.
Think about it: They will either build larger prisons or buy bulldozers.
Try this one. We have to take
March 28, 2007 - 15:10 ET by Airforce_5_OTry this one.
We have to take care of the criminal for it is our fault he is there.
reply to wicked conservative
March 29, 2007 - 01:02 ET by JudithOooooH, can we talk? OFF WITH YOUR HEADS, then we'll talk.
That's right NYT, we should
March 28, 2007 - 14:13 ET by dscottThat's right NYT, we should release all the jailed prisoners and let them do their thing, or not bother sweeping up the killers, this way you can keep complaining that we're losing the fight against terrorism in Iraq. You've got it both ways, complaining about over crowded prisions filled with killers by claiming victimization or complaining about killers murdering innocent Iraqis in the market place with bombings. Yeap, if it bleeds it leads, a sure way to sell papers.
“The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane.” – Marcus Aurelius
BAGHDAD - Two truck bombs sha
March 28, 2007 - 14:40 ET by blarsenBAGHDAD - Two truck bombs shattered markets in Tal Afar on Tuesday, killing at least 63 people and wounding dozens in the second assault in four days on a predominantly Shiite Muslim city hit by a resurgence in violence a year after it was held up as a symbol of U.S. success.
This is your measure of success?
blarsen,what is your measur
March 28, 2007 - 14:53 ET by Old Europeblarsen,
what is your measure of success? One bomb boing up is a failure? Is cutting and running your measure of success? Is giving in to terrorists your measure of success? Is not defending your freedom your measure of success? Is quitting your measure of success? Then you are definitely liberal. Sorry about that,
Well, I guess any small victo
March 28, 2007 - 14:56 ET by PeskyDaneWell, I guess any small victory for our enemies is success for him.
I call it continuing to to sl
March 28, 2007 - 14:54 ET by PeskyDaneI call it continuing to to slug it out with the enemy. My measure of success is 3 elections and Sadam hanging from a rope. Haven't seen you in a while, slave. Nice to have you back. Before, we get into it, you DO remember that I totally own you, right?
Blarson,I guess you prefer 63
March 28, 2007 - 15:09 ET by upcountrywaterBlarson,
I guess you prefer 63 AMERICANS at your nearest wal mart?
I believe Blarsen's measure o
March 28, 2007 - 16:41 ET by dscottI believe Blarsen's measure of success is the US pulls out and then the Shiites and Sunnis slaughter each other in a bloody civil war like Northern Ireland in successive revenge attacks. Then he will crow, see it was a civil war and good thing we weren't there. Too bad about all the 100's of thousands of deaths, well you got to break some eggs to make the omelette after all. Isn't that correct Blarsen?
Of course he is going to claim it's a civil war in Iraq now. Hmmm, al Qaeda and Iranian sponsored terrorists formenting revenge attacks as civil war by blowing up innocent people in the market place...an interesting concept of civil war. So does that mean when the home grown (naturalized immigrants) terrorists attacked the London Underground that Britian is in civil war???? So this also means Timothy McVeigh started a civil war in the US with the Oklahoma City bombing, he was after all a born citizen. Isn't that correct Blarsen? I mean Blarsen I am following your logic to it's natural conclusion. That also means since we are in a state of civil war in the US that the lib/Dems are insurgents and your so called freedom fighters, correct? Battling against the evil GW Bush, Cheney and Rove, correct?
“The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane.” – Marcus Aurelius
Iraq Surge
March 29, 2007 - 12:12 ET by pbanks7Their measure of success is getting the US out. Period. Power to the people. Doesn't matter what happens next. Just like Vietnam.
They want another Vietnam - a humiliating defeat. They don't want us to be the only superpower.
They don't see that predictions of the "domino effect" were true. 4-6+ million dead in the aftermath of our departure apparently were just a sorry circumstance, not a predicatable outcome. They still scoff at the domino theory.
They don't see that our abandonment of Vietnam has led to our current situation with Islamic jihad, which we can call the paper tiger effect.
They think people who target and blow up innocent women and children are freedom fighters, even though these terrorists want to install a theocratic fascist government, and to spread jihad throughout the world.
Once again, liberals only see a simple solution to an immediate problem, and ignore any possible negative consequences to their proposed solution.
Ignorance is bliss. It's easier to repeat a mindless slogan than to do some actual research.
Let's also examin your standa
March 28, 2007 - 16:56 ET by dscottLet's also examin your standard measure of success as you just implied with your question. You're implying that no violence at all is the standard of success, not a continual reduction or managable level in violence. Total prevention is your standard. So by your standard, fighting crime in the US is a lost cause, because after all there are thousands of crimes committed every year since the beginning of the Republic over 200+ years ago. So following your ideas/standards to it's logical conclusion, we should disband the police in New Orleans and every other city in the US because they can't prevent crime. Why bother if they can't guarantee the peace, right Blarsen????
If you can acknowledge the silliness of the disbanding the police in the US because even you recognize the point of a police presence is to keep a lid on crime without letting it get totally out of control or the average person taking the law into their own hands, then you should logically recognize that peace is a "process" and not a "destination" or absence of violence.
“The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane.” – Marcus Aurelius
dscott...blars is in favor of
March 28, 2007 - 17:03 ET by bassndudedscott...blars is in favor of police here in the states because his/her life is affected directly. In Iraq, the death of arabs dosent effect his/her ability to move freely around in relative safety. His/her view is that those in Iraq are not worthy of life, liberty or justice, let alone the persuit of happyness. But that they are worthy of bombs in their market places and places of worship and are happy to be killed in their homes, or elsewhere. They look foreward to picking up the body parts of their children. After all, they are only arabs. And their deaths dont bother him/her at all. But he/she is a compassionate liberal.
Save a SeAL, club a liberal!!
I just love it when one of yo
March 28, 2007 - 17:25 ET by waka wakaI just love it when one of you sheds crocodile tears for a poor old A-rab! They're too dangerous to fly on our planes or have the right to habeas corpus, but we should have our troops getting blown up for their sakes in Iraq. Too perfect!
Reality has a well known liberal bias.
Excuse me, whether they are A
March 29, 2007 - 08:19 ET by dscottExcuse me, whether they are Arabs or Kurds or Turkmen or whatever other ethinic division, the people of Iraq are human beings, those people have a basic human right to live in peace and not be terrorized whether by a single tyrant like Saddam or a mob of murderers run by al Sadr or OBL. Obviously you haven't bothered to watch the news showing the suffering of these people, they cry over their loved ones just like any other human. You just don't get it do you?
On the separate issue of airplane travel, so you think it is effective preventative security to search babies, little children and old grannies? You obviously must be one of those dolts who believe every container coming into the country can be searched. The logical course of action with limited resources is to search those who are of higher probability to carry a bomb or hijack a plane. Do babies, little children and old grannies come to mind as high probability persons??? I think not and I believe most "reasonable" people would agree with me on that issue.
“The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane.” – Marcus Aurelius
Gee blarsen, I come back af
March 28, 2007 - 17:11 ET by MightyMouthGee blarsen, I come back after a few hours and see you have had your fanny kicked around the room... AGAIN!... What kid?, no further comments?
"There are two types of people in this country; those who provide freedom and those who enjoy it." MM says...
Blarsen:Is your measure of su
March 28, 2007 - 18:02 ET by BDBlarsen:
Is your measure of success thirty years of jackbooted thugs sucking the life out of the peoples of South east asia under the PAVN Flag?
Was the liberal inspired abandonment of Vietnam a SUCCESS in your opinion?
Measure of Success
March 28, 2007 - 22:16 ET by Jerry MackBlarsen: My measure of success in Iraq is a feeling of reassurance that when we leave Iraq the bombers and i.e.d. makers will not come to the United States. It can be spun all day and night by the Msm and politicians that it is a civil war in Iraq. But the words that I hear by these Cut and runners describing whether or not the bombers will follow the troops to the U.S. is "probably not". How do they reach this conclusion? I have never heard one peice of proof to back this conclusion by these hot air generators. Have you? Please share it with me! Is "probably not" good enough for you?
Do I know that they will come here? No, but I am not sure that they will not because they have been here before and caused a lot of deaths and injuries.
blarsen
March 29, 2007 - 01:04 ET by JudithNuck off troll
Dems are always whinning ab
March 28, 2007 - 14:56 ET by TrueSoldierDems are always whinning about overcrowded jails so this is nothing new. Just look at out here in Washington state. The Dems are so against jails in general here are some of the penalties that are given out if a early release felon violates there parole:
"Under the new policies, community-corrections officers will have
specific punishment guidelines for offenders who have violated the
terms of their prison release. Those might include an apology letter, a
book report and increased support-group meetings for low-risk offenders." (quoted form the Seattle Times)
It's really disgusting how le
March 28, 2007 - 15:48 ET by mostlymoderateIt's really disgusting how left-wing publications will moan and groan about overcrowded prisons; however, they will disregard the "reasons" for overpopulation:
Prisons in Baghdad: the "reason" for an overpopulated prisons is that there a LOT of damn terrorists!!!
Prisons in America: the "reason" for overpopulated prisons is illegal immigration and a degenerate "subculture" that is growing faster than we can handle
typical
March 28, 2007 - 15:58 ET by RowaneYou KNOW the New York Slimes has to come to the aid of their allies, the terrorists, their American and Iraqi opponents are, appearantly being a bunch of big meanies to put these poor folks in jails so crowded.
< / moonbat >
What would surprize me would be the New York Slimes standing up for ANY traditional American Value whatsoever. These numbskulls would back the devil himself against America. I think a dead fish would come back and jump off the slimes if it were being used to wrap it in.
NY Times, what's you're alternative
March 29, 2007 - 00:56 ET by nkviking75So what are we to do? Should we summarily execute these people to save jail space? That would have the Times howling. Should we wait until we can build enough prison space? The Times would call that a naked display of imperialism. Or we could just leave these poor, opressed people alone and let the Times call the war a failure and call for Bush's impeachment. Say, I think I know what you want, you clever NY Times!