The John Birch Society calls McCain's Baghdad Market Visit "a
disgustingly sick joke."

"...they had been made unwilling victims of a disgustingly sick joke."
-- John F. McManus, President of The John Birch Society.

http://www.jbs.org/node/3316

Merchants Challenge McCain's Cheery Assessment of Conditions in
Baghdad
By John F. McManus
Published: 2007-04-04 15:42
ARTICLE SYNOPSIS:

Senator John McCain led several other members of Congress on a
fact-finding trip to Baghdad. After touring the central market place,
he and the others issued upbeat reports about the great progress our
troops are making. The next day, the area's merchants angrily told
reporters that McCain's description of the situation was totally
inaccurate.

Follow this link to the source article: "McCain Wrong On Iraq
Security, Merchants Say"

COMMENTARY:

It happened to be April 1st when the Arizona contender for the GOP
presidential nomination donned a Kevlar vest and went for a walk
around Baghdad's central market. There were plenty of U.S. reporters
and photographers documenting the event. And when McCain offered his
rosy assessment about the "encouraging signs" he claimed to see on
April Fool's Day, his remarks were dutifully sent throughout
America.

One day after McCain's remarks reached the merchants whose market
place has been a regular target of suicide bombers, several complained
bitterly. Shopkeeper Jassim Faiyad told reporters that the senator's
entourage was accompanied by an extra detail of more than 100 soldiers
in armored vehicles, attack helicopters circling overhead, military
personnel directing traffic away from the area, and sharpshooters
aiming weapons from rooftops. He said, "They paralyzed the market when
they came. This was only for the media."

The Shorja market place has been attacked so often - more than six
times in the past year - that numerous merchants have closed their
businesses, and customers who still dare to frequent the area have
been forced to alter their normal shopping habits. Rug merchant Aboud
Sharif Kadhoury, whose shop suffered damage in a February bombing, and
who incurred shrapnel wounds himself, said of the visitors, "They
asked about our conditions, and we told them the situation was bad."

Ali Youssef used to sell glassware from a sidewalk stand near Mr.
Kadhoury's shop. He eagerly countermanded what McCain reported,
"Everybody complained to them. This area is very dangerous. They
cannot secure it." He lost everything in the February attack.

McCain and the congressmen who accompanied him dared to paint a
remarkably different picture. Indiana Congressman Mike Pence told
reporters, "The most deeply moving thing for me was to mix and mingle
unfettered." He obviously didn't feel "fettered" by the Kevlar body
armor he wore at the time.

Another merchant named Abu Samer assessed the event and McCain's
commented, "He is just using this visit for publicity." Offering a
further opinion of McCain's motives, he added, "They just take a photo
of him at our market and they will just show it in the United States.
He will win in America and we will have nothing."

None of the Baghdad merchants knew that in America, April 1st is
the day when Americans play jokes on each other. Had any been aware of
that traditional practice, they might have figured out that they had
been made unwilling victims of a disgustingly sick joke.

================
Twenty-one Shia Workers from McCain's 'safe' Baghdad market murdered

http://newstandardnews.net/content/i.../bulletin/6860

Workers from McCain's 'safe' Baghdad market murdered

Twenty-one Shia market workers were bound and shot dead north of
Iraq's capital. The victims came from the same Baghdad market visited
the previous day by Sen. John McCain, who said that the American
security plan in the capital was starting to show signs of progress.
McCain took a heavily guarded tour of Baghdad's oldest market,
purportedly to prove that point. Vendors denied the market was safe.
It is not clear if the murdered vendors actually met McCain during the
jaunt he took with Sen. Lindsey Graham and Reps. Mike Pence and Rick
Renzi.