"She might just be the bravest Iraqi woman ever."—continued

By way of follow-up to the story of an Iraqi woman who was allegedly gang-raped, about which I wrote yesterday, River has the details of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's reaction. Basically: "Al Maliki is claiming the rape allegations are all lies. Apparently, his people simply asked the officers if they raped Sabrine Al Janabi and they said no. I'm so glad that's been cleared up. … Maliki did not only turn the woman into a liar, he is rewarding the officers she accused. … It was less than 14 hours between Sabrine's claims and Maliki's rewarding the people she accused. In 14 hours, Maliki not only established their innocence, but turned them into his own personal heroes."

As River points out, it's madness to think that any Iraqi woman would "publicly, falsely claim she was raped" under the current circumstances. Meanwhile, reports yesterday said that an initial hospital report on what was presumably a rape kit done at a US military hospital in the Green Zone "confirmed what she had said." But today, "Al-Maliki's office released what it said was a medical report indicating no signs of rape. The grainy document was marked as page two of three and did not have the name of the patients or any of her personal details." Al-Maliki also fired Ahmed Abdul-Ghafour al-Samaraie, "a top Sunni official who had called for an international investigation into the rape allegations," though Al-Samaraie disputes "al-Maliki's right to fire him, arguing that only Iraq's Presidential Council—which comprises President Jalal Talabani and his two deputies—has that authority."

So, it's basically a giant mess which has now disintegrated into more Sunni v. Shiite bickering and recriminations, and lost in the middle is a woman who has not recanted her accusation and has a medical report saying she was raped, but has nonetheless been deemed a liar and a fraud by her government, without so much as the most cursory investigation.

Feel the freedom spread.