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"Dead" in Baghdad

Readers of MPS, and other blogs, will have become aware of Iraqi blogger, Ali Safeya Al-Moussawi who contributed to the blog "Alive in Baghdad". Ali was a critical "player" in bringing to the world the realities, and the facts, in relation to Iraq.

As Global Voices explains:

"It is with great sadness that I report the death of an Iraqi blogger. Ali Shafeya Al-Moussawi was a contributor to the video blog, Alive in Baghdad. He was killed while at home, during a raid by the Iraqi National Guard in his street. Ali took 31 bullets between the chest and head and died immediately. Ali was not the only victim of that raid. Hussain, his neighbour, was found dead. Hussain's brother and nephew have disappeared too.

Ali is survived by his mother and sister. Alive in Baghdad are collecting donations to help the family with the funeral costs."

The complete "report" can be read here. Contrast the honesty of what Ali "reported" to the world - which the media didn't, given that its reporters were either embedded with the military or afraid to go out in to the field, preferring to stay in the safety of downtown Baghdad hotels - with the fanciful reporting of how things are in Iraq by the Murdoch press:

"By any measure, the US-led surge has been little short of a triumph. The number of American military fatalities has been reduced sharply, as has the carnage of Iraqi civilians; Baghdad as a city is functioning again; oil output is above where it stood in March 2003 but at a far stronger price a barrel; and, the acid test, many of those who fled to Syria and Jordan are returning home.

The cheering must be accompanied by caveats, of course. Security certainly has improved, but it remains fragile."

Oh yeah!!!!

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