Iraq Won’t Be Going to Beijing
Sectarian battles for control of Iraq's national team between Shiites and Sunnis have led the International Olympic Committee to block Iraq from participating in the Summer Games in Beijing. The ban was upheld Thursday after the Iraqis failed to meet a deadline to appeal the decision, thereby losing a chance to generate considerable PR and/or pride for the wounded country.
Sectarian battles for control of Iraq’s national team between Shiites and Sunnis have led the International Olympic Committee to block Iraq from participating in the Summer Games in Beijing. The ban was upheld Thursday after the Iraqis failed to meet a deadline to appeal the decision, thereby losing a chance to generate considerable PR and/or pride for the wounded country.
Rock Solid JournalismAP Via Google:
In May, the [Iraqi] government dissolved the National Olympic Committee. Among the claims was it was illegitimate because it lacked a legal quorum — but four members of the committee, including its chief, were kidnapped two years ago and their fates are unknown.
There is also a potential sectarian rift. Iraq’s Youth and Sports Ministry is dominated by Shiites, while the NOC includes several holdovers from the Saddam-era Olympic Committee, once run by his feared eldest son, Odai.
The International Olympic Committee denounced the order as “serious interference” in what is supposed to be an independent body and demanded the government respect the NOC’s autonomy.
In 2026, amid chaos and the nonstop flurry of headlines, Truthdig remains independent, fact-based and focused on exposing what power tries to hide.
Support Independent Journalism.
Seventeen people have died in the outbreak, all of them in and around Wuhan; close to 600 have been infected.
In return, Beijing would buy more U.S. farm products and increase Americans companies' access to the Chinese market.
The papers also show how Beijing is pioneering a new form of social control using data and artificial intelligence.
Even as the latest violence winds down, a fundamental divide suggests the protests in the former British colony are far from over.
China also agrees to buy $40 billion to $50 billion in U.S. farm products in a limited trade deal.
The FBI is concerned that universities, as recruiters of foreign talent and incubators of cutting-edge research, are vulnerable targets.
You need to be a supporter to comment.
There are currently no responses to this article.
Be the first to respond.