As I was scanning the news from the uprising today, CNN was playing Ben Wedeman’s report from Benghazi, Libya and at one point they show the masses and masses gathered a few days ago, all chanting ” Al Sha’ab u’reed isghat al nizam (the people demand the end of the regime).” Wedeman says he does [...]

Even with the al Maliki government imposing a curfew on Baghdad, raiding organizers offices, and warning that protests might be the site of car bombs or might be the work of “Saddamists” and “Al Qaeda,” thousands gathered in the streets across Iraq to demand clean water, food, electricity and an end to corruption.

Iraqis are planning to take to the streets this Friday in a mass Day of Wrath. Demonstrations from Sulimaniyah and Mosel in the North to Fallujah, Baghdad, Kut and Basra have called for an end to corruption and the provision of essential services as well as protection for the rights of journalists.

At Baghdad’s Tahrir Square, one of the students camping there to demand essential services and rights was killed by thugs suspected to be associated with the Ministry of the Interior – a ministry that in the past has often been closely associated with death squads, torture and violence.