Who is feeding the details of the Baghdad mass kidnapping to the news media? It was first reported yesterday that 70 to 80 Iraqis in old and new Iraqi National Police uniforms stormed the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research/Scholarships and Cultural Relations Directorate building. Once inside, they locked all the women into a bathroom. Then they kidnapped 100 to 150 male employees in 30 trucks which had been driven up to the building. At least that was the story on Tuesday morning. By last night, it was reported that most of the hostages had been freed unharmed. Then the details of the story changed.
By late last night, the number of hostage takers had been adjusted to 20, the number of kidnap victims lowered to a few dozens. This morning, Baghdad officials told CNN that only about 20 abducted were found in police raids around Baghdad. The fate of the others still unknow. Is there no way of doing more rigorous fact checking before details get published in the media? It seems that the utter chaos in Iraq can be sensed through the bungling of the news coming out of the country.
But pardon me for asking: how come the kidnappers wore recently issued uniforms, specially designed by the U.S. to be difficult to copy? This brazen operation suggests without a shadow of a doubt that there was official involvement. Five top Police officers are being held , including the police chief of the Karrada district where the abductions occurred. There are even suspicions that the daylight kidnapping was ordered by the Interior Ministry.
What a mess. The Minister of Higher Education has closed all universities for the time being. Is this all we have accomplished there? Closing the institutions of higher learning is like switching off the light. That is the real tragedy in this whole story. One day at a time, before our very eyes and in front of our troops, Iraq is moving back to the Dark Ages. The freedom and hope we were going to bring to the Iraqi people have turned into meaningless promises. I am deeply ashamed that our government has helped to magnify their misery. We all collectively owe the citizens of Iraq an apology.
0 comments:
Post a Comment