Who Was That Woman in the Balcony?

A reader at Daily Kos did some investigative work on the Iraqi woman who was granted a seat in the priviledged section at the SOTU speech this past January. According to the President of the United States:

Eleven years ago, Safia's father was assassinated by Saddam's intelligence service. Three days ago in Baghdad, Safia was finally able to vote for the leaders of her country -- and we are honored that she is with us tonight.

The woman is Safia Taleb Al Souhail, daughter of Sheik Taleb Al Souhail. Mr. Al Souhail was assassinated in Lebanon in 1994, but the murder was never investigated or tried in Lebanon.
One such article that appeared in Al Bawaba in October of 2003 explains a bit more. Ignoring all of the bias and unsupported assumption, the article states thus: Safia's father was the leader of a tribe that plotted an overthrow of Saddam's dictatorial government. Eventhough he was ready to do covertly in 1993 what the U.S. military did in 2003, his well-laid plans were destroyed when his cohorts were captured by Saddam's henchmen and tortured to death.

Why is it that our lackluster press didn't mention anything about this bit of history? It would have placed Bush's comments in a much clearer perspective. Of course, there may be ulterior motives working here, but, without more evidence, it's grist for the conspiracy mills.

My own meager attempts to glean more information about the infamous Iraqi woman led me to a page that holds transcripts of several of Safia's speeches given on behalf of the Alliance Internationale pour la Justice (the very organization that the Daily Kos reader had trouble finding).

Nonetheless, Safia does say some alarming things. First, she outlines the horrific plight of pregnant women in Iraq:

Pregnant women are committing suicide because of neuro psychological damages inflicted upon them as a result of the use of chemical and biological weapons...

Hokey smoke! It's almost as disturbing as a story I heard a long time ago about Saddam's henchmen removing newborns from their incubators and leaving them to die, which was later revealed to be false. In any event, the claim of "neuro psychological" injuries was not supported by any other information. Only the careful followers of alternate media would not be shocked at her revelations. The first Gulf War was a significant contributor to defects and sickness, from both the Iraqi populace and the soldiers on the ground.

Safia's referenced speeches were delivered a full decade after the smackdown. In that war, a lot of depleted uranium ammunition (DU) was used. It is also well-known that there are a lot of complications which may arise from exposure to the uranium:

...kidney damage, cancers of the lung and bone, non-malignant respiratory disease, skin disorders, neurocognitive disorders, chromosomal damage, and birth defects...

It is entirely possible that Safia's accounts were caused by the left-over DU. And, since Iraq had been subjected to many years of sanctions, the availability of proper treatment grew steadily worse after the conclusion of the first Gulf War, which would have exacerbated the problem considerably.

Second, Safia's speeches seem to have drawn material directly from the now-debunked Bush administration's war propoganda:

There is no doubt that the Iraqi government has Weapons of Mass Destruction and used them massively against the Iraqi people and against its neighbor Iran. The US State Department’s Annual Report on terrorist groups has documented the Iraqi regime harboring and sponsoring of terrorist groups. Also, it has been reported that the Iraqi regime has links to Al Qaida terrorists.

It's no wonder that she was able to get a special seat, and a special mention, at the SOTU.

So, what about the mysterious Alliance Internationale pour la Justice? I went to whois.org and discovered this about the site(www.i-a-j.org):

Domain ID:D104925694-LROR
Domain Name:I-A-J.ORG
Created On:24-Sep-2004 08:59:59 UTC
Last Updated On:24-Nov-2004 04:00:32 UTC
Expiration Date:24-Sep-2005 08:59:59 UTC
Sponsoring Registrar:Intercosmos Media Group Inc. (R48-LROR)
Status:CLIENT DELETE PROHIBITED
Status:CLIENT TRANSFER PROHIBITED
Status:CLIENT UPDATE PROHIBITED
Registrant ID:ODN-136173
Registrant Name:INS CONSULT
Registrant Organization:INSCONSULT
Registrant Street1:Nam.Sv.Anny 34
Registrant Street2:
Registrant Street3:
Registrant City:Trencin
Registrant State/Province:SK
Registrant Postal Code:911 01
Registrant Country:SK
Registrant Phone:+421.421326401576
Registrant Phone Ext.:
Registrant FAX:+421.421326401576
Registrant FAX Ext.:
Registrant Email:insconsult@stonline.sk

Intercosmos Media Group is certainly not the Alliance Internationale pour la Justice; they're another provider of internet services and products. The group, however, probably has a presence, since they were a part of a meeting sponsored by the IMS. Their website, as I discovered, is currently experiencing some weird difficulties.

In the end with these facts in mind, it becomes apparent that Safia Taleb Al Souhail is not a woman who spent much time in Iraq since 1968 and, while nobly calling for an end to human rights violations in Saddam's Iraq, used the Alliance Internationale pour la Justice to publish lackey-derived claims for unknown ends. What the press should investigate (yeah, right) are the possible ends to which Safia has been working.

Almost looks like another Chalabi.