Thursday, March 30, 2006

Kurdish Journalist Jailed

Informed Comment:

"The proto-fascist mini-state of the Kurdistan Democratic Party in Arbil [Irbil], northern Iraq, has sentenced an Austrian-Kurdish journalist to 18 months in prison for criticizing Massoud Barzani.

Barzani last allied with Saddam Hussein against fellow Kurds as late as 1996, only a decade ago. And you can't criticize him?

If Syria or Iran had done this (not that they don't), there would have been a huge squeal of outrage from the American right. I challenge Instapundit, Andrew Sullivan, and Christopher Hitchens to intervene effectively to get Kamal Sayid Qadir out of Barzani's jail. Here is something all of us, left and right, can agree on, and I hope the Left blogs the hell out of it, too. Will someone please start a blog to count the days Qadir is not free?"

1 comment:

Charles Chapman said...

I have covered this at some length in an article on my weblog entitled, An open letter to the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) from a friend in the U.S.

My weblog, The Is-Ought Problem, primarily covers Iraqi-Kurdistan from the perspective of Western philosophy. I have a number of articles regarding Dr. Qadir, as well as the issues of "honor" killings and fatal fatwas in Iraqi-Kurdistan. The above is only the most recent.

Interestingly, and relevant to your observation, one right-wing webpage, the Middle East Quarterly, has condemned this: Dissident Watch: Kamal Sayid Qadir