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Iraq
Prominent Iraqi Blogger Snatched from Home
2019-10-18
[AnNahar] Armed men in uniform seized a prominent Iraqi blogger from his home on Thursday, one of his relatives told AFP, after a wave of deadly anti-government protests earlier this month.

The authorities have not confirmed reports of Shujaa al-Khafaji's arrest. The gunnies who allegedly snatched him from his home did not identify themselves or hand over an arrest warrant.

Khafaji uses his Facebook page al-Khowa al-Nadifa (Those Who Have Clean Hands in Arabic) to publish posts on political and social issues. The page has some 2.5 million readers in Iraq.

Last month, he had faced cyber harassment after a string of attacks on military bases the Hashed al-Shaabi, the paramilitary force dominated by pro-Iran
...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan, the abbreviation IRGC is a cognate form of Stürmabteilung (or SA), the term Supreme Guide is a cognate form of either Shah or Führer or maybe both, and they hate Jews Zionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol...
groups.

"On Thursday, at 5:30 am (0230 GMT), a group of men in special forces uniform broke into his house and took him in the direction of the al-Muthanna airport prison," in central Baghdad, a relative of the blogger told AFP on condition of anonymity.

Iraq was gripped by anti-government protests between October 1 and 6, during which 110 people, mainly demonstrators, were killed in festivities with the security forces.

At the time, unidentified gunnies in uniform raided several local television stations, destroying their equipment and intimidating their staff.

Journalists and activists also received threats, mostly by phone.

The authorities say they are probing these incidents, but some in Iraq accuse the state of complicity.

Influential Shiite leader Moqtada Tater al-Sadr
... the Iranian catspaw holy man who was 22 years old in 2003 and was nearing 40 in 2010. He spends most of his time in Iran, safely out of the line of fire, where he's learning to be an ayatollah...
, who has called on the government to resign, wrote on Twitter that "any act of aggression (against journalists or activists)... by the state constitutes an attack on freedom of speech".

"It is impossible to silence the free media... The attackers must be held accountable for their actions," he added.

Citing Khafaji's disappearance, prominent blogger Ali Wajih said in a Twitter post that Iraq was "on a highway to a new republic of fear".

He also claimed to have lost touch with another online activist, Maytham al-Helu.

"I don't know where the state wants to go with this kind of messages, especially when it claims it is not targeting bloggers, journalists and activists," Wajih said.

Khafaji's friends said on Facebook that before he was snatched "he had been followed and all the phones and computers at his home seized."
Posted by:trailing wife

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