Iraqi Athletes To Compete In Beijing Olympics After All

A last minute deal has saved the careers of two Iraqi athletes who were hoping to compete in Beijing in two weeks. The IOC had previously ruled that the Iraqi Olympic Committee was not an independent organization after the Iraqi government cleaned house:

The decision followed last-minute talks between Iraqi officials and the IOC ahead of today's deadline to submit competitors' names for track and field events. The Olympics begin Aug. 8.

Iraq's National Olympic Committee was dissolved by the Baghdad government in May, prompting the IOC to suspend the country from the Olympics for political interference.

The IOC had insisted the old committee be reinstated even though four members were kidnapped two years ago. Their fates remain unknown.

A compromise was worked out after mediators from Germany and China became involved in talks, and Iraq pledged to hold free elections for its national Olympic committee under international observation.

Iraq is expected to send two athletes to Beijing to compete in track and field events. The decision came too late for five other hopefuls in archery, judo, rowing and weightlifting. The deadline to submit names for those sports expired last week.

Unfortunately, five other athletes will be unable to compete because of the IOC's nonsense.

Further, you have China involved in demanding and negotiating with Iraq over Iraq holding free elections for its national Olympic committee under international observation? The irony is not lost on me, given that China doesn't hold free and fair elections, under international observation or otherwise.

This is, however, politics as usual for the IOC.

UPDATE:
Hypocrisy, thy name is China and the IOC. After demanding that the Iraqi government provide open elections as a precondition to allowing the two athletes to participate that were able to have their names submitted by the deadline, we now learn that the Chinese government is busy censoring the Internet access provided to media outlets covering the Olympics.

Since the Olympic Village press center opened Friday, reporters have been unable to access scores of Web pages — among them those that discuss Tibetan issues, Taiwanese independence, the violent crackdown on the protests in Tiananmen Square and the Web sites of Amnesty International, the BBC’s Chinese-language news, Radio Free Asia and several Hong Kong newspapers known for their freewheeling political discourse.

The restrictions, which closely resemble the blocks that China places on the Internet for its citizens, undermine sweeping claims by Jacques Rogge, the International Olympic Committee president, that China had agreed to provide free Web access for foreign news media during the Games. Mr. Rogge has long argued that one of the main benefits of awarding the Games to Beijing was that the event would make China more open.

The media outlets were told that the government would provide unhampered access.

They lied.

The IOC bought into the lies, and it's now too late.