Via the Agonist, which is once again a many-times daily read for me:

Editor-in-chief of U.S.-funded Iraqi newspaper quits, complaining of American control

On a front-page editorial of the Al-Sabah newspaper, editor-in-chief Ismail Zayer said he and his staff were ''celebrating the end of a nightmare we have suffered from for months ... We want independence. They (the Americans) refuse.''

Al-Sabah was set up by U.S. officials with funding from the Pentagon soon after the fall of Saddam Hussein last year. Since its first issue in July, many Iraqis have considered it the mouthpiece of the U.S.-led coalition, along with the U.S.-funded television station Al-Iraqiya.

This is big news. I watched Citizen Kane for the first time last night -- Orson! Oh man; fuck Hollywood for breaking that artist -- and so the permutations are coming hard and fast. The main takeaway, though, is that the Editor (and apparently most of the senior staff) of our own Pentagon-funded "friendly" paper walked off the job after publishing a scathing front-page attack on the very existence of the US occupation. This is not a good sign for the occupation, but maybe it will wake some heads up in DC that (guess what?) a growing majority of Iraqi people don't want us over there anymore.

By the by, if you find yourself inexplicably hungry to know what is actually going on around the world (and you can stomache the bad news, because while there is love and joy all over I'm sure, it doesn't often make news) then the Agonist should be on your short list of places to visit. I got hooked during the war, and now that the war seems to be back, so am it.