BAGHDAD (Reuters) – The crack of shots fired by unseen snipers echoed on Monday through Baghdad’s wholesale Shorja market, a day after U.S. Senator John McCain held up his visit there as one sign of improving security in Baghdad.
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“Who said there was security?” asked carpet salesman Abu Ammar, 55, who said he sold McCain a $60 Turkish rug.
“I told him there were snipers who were really harming us,” he said, sitting behind his large office desk. “I told him the plan had improved security but Shorja still wasn’t fully safe.”
Read Snipers back at Baghdad market after McCain visit
by Mussab Al-Khairalla | April 2, 2007 | The Boston Globe
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OLBERMANN::LARRY JOHNSON (EX-CIA) EXCORIATES ST.McCAIN
Provided By: jstully
Johnson says that McCain and Lindsey … Johnson says that McCain and Lindsey Graham are both military guys and should know better than to stage a goddamned photo-op in the middle of a dangerous market so they can score five-dollar rugs from a merchant who will probably be killed for his “collusion” with the enemy.
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Read What John McCain Didn’t Tell You
by Larry C Johnson (bio/blog: NO QUARTER) | Apr 02, 2007
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Remember that Baghdad market visited on Sunday by Senator John McCain to show how calm things are? James Hider of the London Times writes, , “21 Shia market workers were ambushed, bound and shot dead north of the capital. The victims came from the Baghdad market [Shurja] visited the previous day by John McCain, the US presidential candidate, who said that an American security plan in the capital was starting to show signs of progress.”
Read: 21 Shiites from McCain’s Market Killed. 3 US Troops Killed Massive Truck Bomb at Kirkuk21 Shiites from McCain’s Market
by juan cole (reposted) | Apr 3rd, 2007 |
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John McCain’s sunny stroll through a Baghdad market earned ridicule from Iraqis and American reporters alike. His campaign for president may never recover.
Read Has ‘Straight Talk’ By Media Derailed McCain?
by Greg Mitchell | April 04, 2007 | Editor and Publisher
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On the same day Mr McCain was in Baghdad where he toured a local market and said that his ability to walk freely through the city showed that “things are better and there are encouraging signs”.
Traders from that same market later contradicted his account, saying that they had told the delegation about the mortal danger they faced. The security surrounding Mr McCain’s visit — where he was protected by helicopters, armed guards, snipers and a bullet-proof vest — was, they said, “abnormal”.
Read Cancer fears cap bad week for McCain as he looks for old magic
by Tom Baldwin in Washington | April 5, 2007 | Times Online, UK
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Baghdad residents expressed astonishment at Mr. McCain’s rosy remarks, saying that he visited the marketplace, the scene of numerous deadly bombings, under unrealistic conditions. Democrats and antiwar bloggers ridiculed him for blindly supporting the administration’s so-called surge policy.
Mr. McCain, in an interview to be broadcast on CBS News’ “60 Minutes” on Sunday, acknowledged that his critics were right. “Of course I am going to misspeak and I’ve done it on numerous occasions and I probably will do it in the future. I regret that when I divert attention to something I said from my message, but you know, that’s just life.”
Read McCain Says He Erred on Iraq Security
by JOHN M. BRODER | April 7, 2007 | The New York Times