April 9, 2007

Wildly Different Estimates on Najaf Rally

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I blogged earlier about the thousands of Moqtada al-Sadr followers who protested the fourth anniversary of the fall of Baghdad in Najaf today.

Well, it appears there is a major dispute over how many “thousands” were actually there. According to this CNN article, the U.S. military’s estimate is “5,000 to 7,000.” According to this Reuters article that I cited earlier, it is “tens of thousands.” And according to this Agence France-Presse article and this BBC article the number of participants is in the “hundreds of thousands.” If that’s true, did the military really think they were going to fool anybody with that “5,000 to 7,000” nonsense?

Hoo-boy. Who to believe? We’ll keep digging…

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A full one-third of our annual fundraising comes in this month alone. That’s risky, because a strong December means our newsroom is on the beat and reporting at full strength—but a weak one means budget cuts and hard choices ahead.

With just hours left, we need a huge surge in reader support to get to our $400,000 year-end goal. Whether you've given before or this is your first time, your contribution right now matters. All gifts are 3X matched and tax-deductible.

Managing an independent, nonprofit newsroom is staggeringly hard. There’s no cushion in our budget—no backup revenue, no corporate safety net. We can’t afford to fall short, and we can’t rely on corporations or deep-pocketed interests to fund the fierce, investigative journalism Mother Jones exists to do. That’s why we need you right now. Please chip in to help close the gap.

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