Family Feud at ITM?

A few days ago, I noticed that the links on Iraq the Model (one of the most read Iraqi blogs) had changed around a bit. So, being curious, I went to Google and pulled up a cached copy of their blog from January and compared it with today, and found a few very interesting things: the Fadhil brothers had not only added a few links, they also rearranged a couple, and deleted some:

• They deleted the link to their own brother Ali's blog, along with A Star from Mosul, Kurdistan Youngs, and Iraq & Iraqis. Ali's blog used to be at the top of their links section.
• They moved Neurotic Iraqi Wife's blog to the top of the links section.

It is easy to understand why they moved Neurotic Iraqi Wife to the top of the list - after all, she's an Iraqi expat who decided to move back to Baghdad, and I can see why the Fadhil brothers would like that. It is also easy to understand why they deleted Kurdistan Youngs and Iraq & Iraqis - after all, these blogs had gone for several months without being updated by their owners.

But, deleting their brother Ali's blog and A Star from Mosul is much more interesting, since both of these blogs are regularly updated, and both are very popular in their own right. Let's think about this: a blogger may add a link to another blog for many reasons. But, they will only delete a link for two reasons, one being that they see the other blog is not being updated, and the other because they disagree with something the other blogger wrote, and no longer want their blog to advertise the presence of the other blog.

For A Star from Mosul, it's hard to say why the Fadhil brothers might have taken their link to it down. Perhaps they don't like that Najma's father has been critical to US troops on his blog, or maybe they don't like something Najma wrote herself. Who knows? What is more interesting, though, is taking down the link to their own brother's blog. Now that is an action that provokes some curiosity.

For Ali's blog, I am betting this has something to do with the whole Spirit of America (SoA) and Friends of Democracy (FoD) scandal that Ali dredged up on his blog. You may recall that Ali, Omar, and Mohammed were all involved in Friends of Democracy (and helped found it). A few months ago, after visiting the US with his brothers, Ali inexplicably quit ITM to start his own blog, and just a few weeks ago, Ali told the world that he had quit ITM because he had become suspicious of the motives of SoA. Evidently, his brothers (who still work with SoA) must have really taken offense to that so much that they took his link down. Personally, I'd have to be very angry to take down the link to my own brother's blog, and it seems the Fadhil brothers were that angry. It would be interesting to know if Ali even talks to his brothers these days after airing that scandal on his blog.