http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/2/3/61911/26777
Summaries: Safia Taleb Al Souhail's father was killed in 1994 in Lebanon. Safia's sister, Nora, blames the United States because her father was planning a coup against Sadaam Hussein. According to Nora, the United States got wind of the coup attempt and, because they did not trust Safai's father, tipped Sadaam Hussein off about the attempt. Sadaam had her father killed.
Then suddenly, Safia becomes a favored daughter of a group that is pushing the PNAC line in 2003. She starts schleppnig the "we must take out Sadaam now" story, and becomes a spokesperson for Iraqi women, even though she has lived in exile most of her life in Jordan. She returns to Iraq after the invasion under the protection of the CPA to hold a forum on Iraqi women's rights. Next thing you know, she's sitting in the balcony with a purple finger.
Safia Taleb Al Souhail wrote a paper in January of 2003 saying that removing the Weapons of Mass Destruction from Iraq isn't enough. She said that Sadaam's regime must be overturned.
This paper was published by an organization run by Steve Forbes, Jack Kemp, Jeanne Kirkpatrick, Newt Gingrich, James Woolsey, Gary Bauer, Charles Karuthammer, Bill Kristol, Zell Miller, and Richard Perle.
And she is the person representing all of Iraq at the 2005 State of The Union one week after the Iraqi elections.
She was yet another voice for the PNAC before the war started. How she got there would take more resources that I don't have. But she got there and became the photo-op for the world to see.
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by mikel1814 <http://www.dailykos.com/user/uid:2625> on Thu Feb 3rd, 2005 at 07:35:59 CST <http://www.dailykos.com/comments/2005/2/3/61911/26777/32#32>
by mikel1814 <http://www.dailykos.com/user/mikel1814> Thu Feb 3rd, 2005 at 05:19:11 CST
I am always interested in finding out who the people are that are chosen to sit with in the "good seats" at the State of The Union.
Especially after last year, when Chalabi was sitting in the seat. You often wonder who these people are.
So as I'm watching the woman hold up a shaky "peace" sign, finger stained in purple, you are wonder. "Did they fly her in? Wow, that's some crazy symbolism."
So I decided to look around.
Here's what Bush said.
"Eleven years ago, Safia's father was assassinated by Saddam's intelligence service. Three days ago in Baghdad, Safia was finally able to vote for the leaders of her country -- and we are honored that she is with us tonight."
Her name is Safia Taleb Al Souhail.
She works for the "International Alliance For Justice," which no longer has a website that is functioning. [ www.i-a-j.org. ] I tried to do a google search for the site and found a cached version of another one, www.a-i-j.org, which is down now as well and looks like it's been taken over by a defunct porn website. As for www.i-a-j.org, its now a rather generic "antispyware" website.
Beats me. I have my theories about all of these freedom and justice and happy iraqi websites that are oh so slick and oh so American, but I can't draw any conclusions because I have no background in doing so.
I was struck by the line "three days ago in Baghdad, Safia was finally able to vote..."
I did a search and found that she published an article in December of 2003 for the group "Foundation For the Defence of Democracies." [www.defenddemocracy.org]
They seem pretty reasonable when you look at their mission statement on the website.
The Foundation for the Defense of Democracies (FDD) is a non-partisan, non-profit policy institute dedicated to:
Finding the most effective ways to defeat terrorism--and the totalitarian ideologies used to incite and justify terrorism.
Employing strategic communications, education and research to fight terrorism across national, ethnic and religious lines.
Promoting freedom and basic human rights for all peoples.
So, then I went to see who they are, being non-partisan and all.
Board of Directors?
Steve Forbes. Jack Kemp. Jeanne Kirkpatrick.
OK, so far not so balanced.
Distinguished Advisors? Newt Gingrich. R. James Woolsey.
OK, yikes. Still a bit off kilter.
Board of Advisors? Gary Bauer. Charles Karuthammer, (yes the columnist) Bill Kristol. Zell Miller. Richard Perle.
wow. OK and then finally we see who represents the other side on that board.
Donna Brazille. (?) Frank Lautenberg. Chuck Schumer.
All very interesting, strange, but leading me away from my original question. Who is Safia Taleb Al Souhail?
Well I read her piece published under the banner of this group here. It was written in January of 2003. Just before we headed off to war.......
**** [UPDATED: I don't know how to do the fun editorial update but here it is. I found some new information, the plot seems to thicken.
http://www.thetruthseeker.co.uk/article.asp?ID=1379
US Secretly Helped Saddam
Al Bawaba – December 20, 2003
The daughter of a prominent Iraqi opposition leader, who was assassinated in Beirut by Saddam Hussein's secret service in 1994 said she would sue the ousted Iraqi president before three international courts, charging that the U.S. was a virtual accomplice in her father's murder.
Nora al Tamimi, daughter of slain Iraqi opposition activist Taleb al Suhail al Tamimi, said from Beirut in a newspaper interview published Saturday that her father had planned a coup d'etat to overthrow Saddam in 1993, operating from Beirut and Amman.
"Zero hour was set for a certain June day in 1993 to stage the coup when Saddam would have been sponsoring an official event in Baghdad," Nora told the London-based Asharq Al Awsat newspaper in an interview conducted at the family house in Beirut.
"But the Americans, who did not want the coup to succeed possibly because they were certain my father would not go along with their polices, tipped off Saddam about the impending putsch by my father and gave the names of his top aides," Nora said. "All of them died in Saddam's torture chambers."
Sheik Taleb Al Tamimi, who led a million-member Central Iraqi tribe called the Bani Tamim, was shot dead April 12, 1994 at his apartment in Beirut's Ein El Tineh district in an assassination officially blamed by the Lebanese authorities on four Iraqi embassy diplomats, who were detained and then released on the grounds they enjoyed diplomatic immunity, Nora recalled.
Saddam has severed Baghdad's diplomatic ties with Beirut upon the detention of the four.
Nora said she plans to sue Saddam at the United Nations, before the International Court of Justice at The Hague and before the world organization of human rights.
Nora said her sister Saffia, 38, a human rights activist, has already returned to Iraq and is currently making the needed arrangements in Baghdad to recover the family's bank accounts and property, which were confiscated by Saddam in 1968, when her father fled Iraq.
She said the family would return to Iraq soon with the remains of her father for reburial in his native country.
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The names are slightly different, but theses are obviously the same people.
Summary? The Safia's sister blames the United States for not protecting her father and telling Sadaam about a pending coup attempt because they didn't trust Safia's father.
Is the prominent position within current policy a payback to cover some behinds? Perhaps Bill Hemmer wasn't far off when he said "she will soon be the Mayor of Baghdad."......... http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/2/3/61911/26777