Jailed for 30 years for criticising ‘free’ Iraq
Coming on the heels of the news that US troops arrested an Iraqi journalist on sunday is the story of Kamal Sayid Qadir, who has been jailed for thirthy years for “insulting the Kurdish nation”:
If a writer was jailed for 30 years for exposing government corruption in Iran or Syria, there would be outrage in the US and Britain and demands for military strikes. But when that happens in Iraq there is silence.
George Bush and Tony Blair constantly boast that they have brought freedom and democracy to Iraq.
Yet Kamal Sayid Qadir, a leading Kurdish academic, has been jailed for 30 years after he publicly criticised Massoud Barzani, head of the US backed Kurdish Democratic Party (KDP). The KDP is one of two parties that rule Iraqi Kurdistan.