L. Paul Bremers Missing Speech

Update:
From : Iraq The Model

After the authority handover at June 28, Ali wrote a post about that event and included a description about Paul Bremer’s farewell speech to the Iraqis. We were surprised that it wasn’t covered by the major media and moreover the Los Angeles times even went as far as saying that Mr. Bremer “ left without even giving a final speech to the country — almost as if he were afraid to look in the eye the people he had ruled for more than a year”.

A day after that Mohammed wrote another post in which he included some of what Bremer said in that speech. Still there was no mention in the media to that speech and some readers started to question- and they have every right to-whether we were not telling the exact truth, as how could it be possible that such a story is not only ignored by all the major media but also some of them reported the opposite in the front page and refused to change their statement!?

[snip]

One of our American readers sent a mail to his local newspaper telling the editor about our story but she said she couldn’t get to our website and she can’t print anything without our permission. I sent a mail giving her the address and the exact link to the posts in question and asked her to publish it, but she didn’t respond!

[snip]

It seems that some people in the major media still think they’re the only ones who have eyes and ears and cameras and that ordinary people cannot have access to the information except from the major media outlets. They underestimated the prevalence and the effect of the internet in connecting people to each other and making the readers in direct contact with real eyewitnesses at the scene of events. I hope this will serve to make them more careful in the future on what to report, or make sure that they report from a place in which there are no bloggers. Here is the L. A. Times correction.
Thanks to all the bloggers who helped to reveal the truth this time, and thank God for the Internet.

L. Paul Bremers Missing Speech
The L.A. Times is one of those newspapers that's so far left that it's wrong. case in point : The Times reports, Iraqi administrator L. Paul Bremer slinked out of Iraq without even saying goodbye. Others report things a little differently.

LATimes(sorry, registration required)
July 4, 2004
Premier Gets Off to Strong Start
By Alissa J. Rubin, Times Staff Writer

"BAGHDAD — Waving a hurried farewell from the steps of a military transport plane, the man whose starched white shirt, cufflinks and desert boots embodied Western authority in Iraq brought the United States' experiment in occupation to an abrupt end last week.
L. Paul Bremer III, the civilian administrator for Iraq, left without even giving a final speech to the country — almost as if he were afraid to look in the eye the people he had ruled for more than a year."

[Read the Whole Thing]

Another entry from The Washington Post. They flatout deny there was a farewill speech.

WaPo(sorry, another pesky registration)

"When he left Iraq on Monday after surrendering authority to an interim government, it was with a somber air of exhaustion. There was no farewell address to the Iraqi people, no celebratory airport sendoff."

Then there's this from an Iraqi blogger :Iraq the Model
[Edited For Length]

Small party and great hopes
"I was on duty-call in the hospital all yesterday and I was in the ward when I heard the news that Mr. Bremer had already transferred the power to the new government two days ahead of the expected date. I was so happy about this news and I couldn’t wait until I finish my tour to celebrate the occasion."

[snip]

"... The hall was busy and everyone was chatting and laughing loud. They had Al-Jazeera on (something I never managed to convince them to stop doing). Then suddenly Mr. Bremer appeared on TV reading his last speech before he left Iraq. I approached the TV to listen carefully to the speech, as I expected it to be difficult in the midst of all that noise. To my surprise everyone stopped what they were doing and started watching as attentively as I was.

The speech was impressive and you could hear the sound of a needle if one had dropped it at that time. The most sensational moment was the end of the speech when Mr. Bremer used a famous Arab emotional poem. The poem was for a famous Arab poet who said it while leaving Baghdad. Al-Jazeera had put an interpreter who tried to translate even the Arabic poem which Mr. Bremer was telling in a fair Arabic! “Let this damned interpreter shut up. We want to hear what the man is saying” One of my colloquies shouted. The scene was very touching that the guy sitting next to me (who used to sympathize with Muqtada) said “He’s going to make me cry!”

Then he finished his speech by saying in Arabic,”A’ash Al-Iraq, A’ash Al-Iraq, A’ash Al-Iraq”! (Long live Iraq, Long live Iraq, long live Iraq)."

Who are you going to believe ?