REPORTS – LIFE IN IRAQ
The Sights and Sounds of Taking An Iraqi Poll
VIDEO: From hope to despair in Baghdad
Pessimism 'growing in Iraq'Iraqis have little confidence in their own government and the US-led coalition forces, a major survey has shown.
Third of Iraqi Children Now Malnourished
Caritas Internationalis and Caritas Iraq say that malnutrition rates have risen in Iraq from 19 percent before the US-led invasion to a national average of 28 percent four years later. Caritas says that rising hunger has been caused by high levels of insecurity, collapsed healthcare and other infrastructure, increased polarisation between different sects and tribes, and rising poverty. Over 11 percent of newborn babies are born underweight in Iraq today, compared with a figure of 4 percent in 2003. Before March 2003, Iraq already had significant infant mortality due to malnutrition because of the international sanctions regime. Caritas Iraq has been running a series of Well Baby Clinics throughout the country. Currently it provides supplementary food for 8000 children up to 8 years and new mothers. The Caritas clinics help the most vulnerable, and the health crisis they face is much worse than the national average.
HOMETOWN BAGHDAD
Three short videos on life in Iraq for ordinary Iraqis.
HOMETOWN BAGHDAD
Powerless: The electricity is out.
Iraqis See Hope Drain Away
Jobs gone and schools closed. Marriages delayed and children mourned. Markets bombed and clean water in short supply. Speaking freely now a dangerous act. And hope lost. Four years after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, Iraqis describe daily lives that have been torn apart by spiraling violence and a faltering economy. The bursts of optimism reported in a 2004 public-opinion survey taken a year after the invasion and another in 2005 before landmark legislative elections have nearly vanished. Face-to-face interviews with 2,212 Iraqis — a survey sponsored jointly by USA TODAY, ABC News, the British Broadcasting Corp. and ARD, a German TV network — find a nation that in large measure has fragmented into fear. Six in 10 Iraqis say their lives are going badly. Only one-third expect things to improve in the next year. That represents a dramatic deterioration in just 16 months, a reflection of how the security situation and quality of life in Iraq have unraveled. In an ABC News poll in November 2005, seven in 10 Iraqis said their lives were good and nearly as many predicted things would get better. Now, said Zaid Hisham, "You worry about everything." The 29-year-old Shiite engineer has postponed plans for his wedding until he can find a job. He and other Baghdad residents were interviewed by USA TODAY to supplement the poll findings. "When I go out, my family calls me every five minutes or whenever there is an explosion — there are many — to see if I am still alive. It's worry, worry all the time. You can't see your future, and you can't even try to put an outline for your future." "We are in hell," said Solaf Mohamed Ali, 38, a Shiite woman who works in a bank.
……In all, more than one in six Iraqis say someone in their own household has been physically harmed by violence, and nearly half have a close friend or immediate family member who has been injured. Even some of those whose sect suffered under Saddam recall that time fondly. "I miss those good old days," said Jasim Mahmood Rajab, 60, a Shiite businessman. "I had my work and my social life, and now — nothing. I'm ready to pay everything I have to sit at Abo Nowas Street and eat fish at night." Before the war, Abo Nowas Street, which runs along the Tigris River, was lined with outdoor cafes. They are shuttered now. "I always talk to other girls in the bank remembering our old days when we were going shopping, or even walking in the streets," Solaf Mohamed Ali said. "Now we speak about all those things like a nice dream that is hard to get."
Accounts Differ On Raid In Baghdad
The U.S. military, Iraqi government officials and witnesses here offered conflicting accounts Tuesday of whether several people killed during a Baghdad raid Monday night were armed insurgents or civilians gathered at a mosque. According to a U.S. military statement, Iraqi soldiers assisting in a search for insurgents entered the Imam al-Abass mosque in Hurriyah, a formerly mixed Baghdad neighborhood that is now a stronghold of the Shiite Mahdi Army, before 9 p.m. Monday. About 50 people were detained as a search of the area continued. They were later released, the military said. After the search, the statement said, a separate group of about 20 armed men attacked Iraqi and U.S. soldiers with rocket-propelled grenades and guns. The soldiers returned fire, killing three insurgents; three other armed men were detained, the military said. Military aircraft participated in the raid but did not fire, the statement said. But Col. Mahmoud Abdul Hussein of Iraq's Interior Ministry said six civilians were killed and seven wounded when U.S. helicopters fired on homes after coming under attack from armed men. Another ministry spokesman, Sami Jabarah, said late Tuesday that the casualties had risen to eight killed and 11 wounded. Two witnesses described indiscriminate shooting, but no helicopter fire, by U.S. forces that resulted in the deaths of at least six civilians, including some armed guards. …… Nassar al-Robae, leader of Sadr's political faction in Iraq's parliament, said the incident demonstrated that the security crackdown is not working. "It increases fears that what is being done is not security and stability but chaos, only chaos," Robae said. He said Hurriyah residents told him that civilians were killed in the raid and that American helicopters bombed the area.
On Fourth Anniversary, Press Marks Deadliest Toll
Four years after the U.S.-led invasion to topple Saddam Hussein, Iraq remains the deadliest country in the world for the press as local journalists continue to suffer disproportionately from the violence, research by the Committee to Protect Journalists shows.
Iraq: A Country Drenched in Blood
Four years to the day after US and British troops invaded Iraq, its people are full of fear. Iraqis often have a look of half-suppressed panic in their eyes as they tell how violent death has touched them again and again. "I have fled twice in the past year," said Kassim Naji Salaman as he stood beside his petrol tanker outside the town of Khanaqin in central Iraq this weekend. "I and my family used to live in Baghdad but we ran for our lives when my uncle and nephew were killed and we moved into a house in the village of Kanaan in Diyala." Mr Salaman hoped he and his family, all Sunni, would be safer in a Sunni district. But almost everywhere in Iraq is dangerous. "Militiamen kidnapped my brother Natik, who used to drive this tanker, and forced him into the boot of their car," he continued. "When they took him out they shot him in the head and left his body beside the road. I am frightened of going back to Kanaan where my family are refugees because the militiamen would kill me as well." Iraqis expected their lives to get better when the US and Britain invaded with the intention of overthrowing Saddam Hussein four years ago today. They were divided on whether they were being liberated or occupied but almost no Iraqis fought for the old regime in 2003. Even his own Sunni community knew that Saddam had inflicted almost a quarter of a century of hot and cold war on his own people. He had reduced the standard of living of Iraqis, owners of vast oil reserves, from a level close to Greece to that of Mali. No sooner had Saddam Hussein fallen than Iraqis were left in no doubt that they had been occupied not liberated. The army and security services were dissolved. As an independent state Iraq ceased to exist. "The Americans want clients not allies in Iraq," lamented one Iraqi dissident who had long lobbied for the invasion in London and Washington. Guerrilla war against the US forces by the five million strong Sunni community erupted with extraordinary speed and ferocity. By summer 2003, whenever I went to the scene of a bomb attack or an ambush of US soldiers I would find jubilant Iraqis dancing for joy around the pools of drying blood on the road or the smouldering Humvee vehicles.
…….. Earlier this month the US, with much fanfare, sent 700 soldiers to Diyala to restore government authority. It fought a ferocious battle with insurgents in which it lost two armoured "Stryker" vehicles. But, as so often in Iraq, in the eyes of Iraqis the presence or absence of American forces does not make as much difference to who holds power locally as the US military command would like to believe. Supposedly they are supporting 20,000 Iraqi security forces, but earlier this year it was announced that 1,500 local police were to be fired for not opposing the insurgents. At one embarrassing moment US and Iraqi military commanders were claiming at a video-link press conference that they had a firm grip on the situation in Baquba when insurgents burst into the mayor's office, kidnapped him and blew it up.
REPORTS – IRAQI MILITIAS, POLITICIANS, POWER BROKERS
'Ghost Troops' Still Help Fill Iraq's Lacking Ranks
More than three years and $15 billion into the U.S. effort to rebuild Iraqi forces, "ghost soldiers" still help fill Iraq's army ranks and no one knows how many trained policemen remain on the job, the Pentagon and U.S. government investigators report. The Government Accountability Office says the most serious problems lie in the logistics - supplies, maintenance, transport - of Iraqi security forces. One example: The police have more than 1,000 U.S.-made trucks whose computerized systems are beyond the skills of the Iraqi mechanics who repair them. Since soon after the 2003 U.S. invasion, the training of new military and police forces has been presented as vital to the U.S. military's handing over the counterinsurgency fight to the Iraqis. A GAO assessment of the record thus far isn't encouraging. "Even though the number of Iraqi forces has grown and more have taken the lead for security operations, violence in Iraq increased significantly through the end of 2006," Joseph A. Christoff, international affairs chief for that congressional auditing office, said in testimony last week to a U.S. House subcommittee. In its latest quarterly Iraq report, the Pentagon said 328,700 Iraqis have been trained for the security forces, including 136,400 soldiers - more than double the numbers of two years ago. But it added in the next sentence that the "actual number of present-for-duty soldiers is about one-half to two-thirds of the total due to scheduled leave, absence without leave, and attrition." Many Iraqis go on authorized leaves for days to deliver their cash pay to their families. The Pentagon said Iraq's defense and interior ministers also are aware of "ghost" soldiers and policemen who exist only on paper - a fraudulent device by which units can receive additional per capita resources, and corrupt officials can collect nonexistent recruits' pay.
Kick Out The Occupation and Sectarian Gangs From Iraq
On this day we are commemorating the 4th year of the U.S.-led war on Iraq. This war that brought us nothing but carnage, poverty, and more than two million displaced people. This is Bush's promised democracy to Iraqis. Today, after four years of destruction, the Bush administration has announced its new strategy in Iraq by sending more troops to cause more agony as if the current devastation is not enough. The present situation such as a sectarian war that transformed the entire society into a military camp is the product of the discriminatory policy that was plotted by the evil minds of the White House and Pentagon to plant hatred and division among people. Therefore, the Zarqawi fatwa to kill the Shiites and Almahdi army retaliation to kill Sunnis have come as a fruit of this policy. This policy prolonged the occupation under the pretext of war on terror to keep dominating the world.
REPORTS – US/UK/OTHERS IN IRAQ
UN Chief OK After Explosion Near Conference
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon was unharmed but ducked behind the podium after a rocket landed near Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's office Thursday while the two men were speaking to reporters at a news conference. An Associate Press reporter ran outside and saw a crater one-meter in diameter about 50 meters from the building where the news conference was in progress. Two cars were damaged. Al-Maliki security officials said it was a rocket attack. Small chips of debris floated down from the ceiling above the U.N. chief after the big explosion rattled the building in the Green Zone. He looked frightened, casting his eyes right and left as he rose after ducking below the podium where he was standing and answering questions. Al-Malik said "nothing's wrong" as one of his security men started to grab the prime minister. Within minutes the two men resumed their news conference. They ended the question and answer session minutes later. [Video on this website. Maliki did not flinch. – dancewater]
Inside the International Zone
One of the most spoken languages in the International Zone is Spanish. Peruvian Spanish, in particular. In fact, it's security contractors from Peru who fill many of the security jobs around the IZ. A few words of Spanish will serve the visitor well when trying to negotiate passage through one of the countless checkpoints and guard shacks. They are friendly enough, if they get to know you, and many are often eager to practice their English skills on those who pass through their gates. Also staffing many of the checkpoints is a contingent of soldiers from Georgia. The formerly Soviet state, not the Peach State. They, of course, speak Georgian or Russian, making communication at those checkpoints significantly more difficult. Some of the most recognizable landmarks in the IZ–after the crossed swords of the Hands of Victory monument–are Saddam Hussein's former palaces. Now most are shattered shells of buildings, fenced off and condemned. Some are still standing, like the palace currently holding the American Embassy. A massive new U.S. Embassy is under construction, but it won't be finished for a few years. Meanwhile, the embassy staff conducts business in the former palace, complete with glass chandeliers and a large dictator-kitsch mural of scud missiles en route to a distant target. Scattered around the T-barrier labyrinth are duck-and-cover shelters, made from the same concrete as the barriers, and designed to protect International Zoners during mortar attacks. These come often without warning. There is no sound until the whump of the blast wave and the crack of the exploding shell. Insurgents, militia elements, and disgruntled citizens often lob mortars on the IZ. It's nearly impossible to miss. American officials are reluctant to speak about mortar attacks inside the Green Zone for fear of alerting insurgents to the accuracy and effectiveness of their attacks. So many of the attacks go unreported. The summit meeting earlier this month between officials from Iran, Syria, Iraq, and the United States, held just outside the IZ, was a target of one such attack. In fact, insurgents were raining mortars on the IZ all morning. I felt one mortar concussion coming from an open field on the other side of a road while driving to interview a brigadier general about the progress of reconstruction. Our interview was interrupted twice by mortar alarms. The explosive shells fell every few hours during the day, landing one lucky strike on a building where the summit was being held.
British Troops Pull Out of Base In Basra
British troops in Iraq's southern Basra oil port pulled out of their heavily attacked base in the heart of the city on Tuesday, the first to be handed to Iraqi forces who are slowly taking control of security. Prime Minister Tony Blair said in February that Britain would begin withdrawing a quarter of its 7,000 troops, who are stationed mainly in and around Basra in Iraq's largely stable Shi'ite south, in the coming months. The commander of British forces in southern Iraq, Major- General Jonathan Shaw, characterised the pullout, on the fourth anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, as a repositioning of his troops and not a withdrawal. He dismissed suggestions that British troops had been "bombed out" of the Old State Building in central Basra, a frequent target of mortar attack, saying the pullout was according to a timetable. The troops have moved to Basra airport, the biggest of four bases still in British hands. The others are the Shatt al-Arab Hotel in northern Basra, the British consulate at Basra Palace and the large Shuaiba logistical base west of the city.
It’s STILL the Oil: Secret Condi Meeting on Oil Before Invasion
In all the chest-beating about how the war did badly, no one seems to remember how the war did very, very well — for Big Oil. The war has kept Iraq’s oil production to 2.1 million barrels a day from pre-war, pre-embargo production of over 4 million barrels. In the oil game, that’s a lot to lose. In fact, the loss of Iraq’s 2 million barrels a day is equal to the entire planet’s reserve production capacity. In other words, the war has caused a hell of a supply squeeze — and Big Oil just loves it. Oil today is $57 a barrel versus the $18 a barrel price under Bill “Love-Not-War” Clinton. Since the launch of Operation Iraqi Liberation, Halliburton stock has tripled to $64 a share — not, as some believe, because of those Iraq reconstruction contracts — peanuts for Halliburton. Cheney’s former company’s main business is “oil services.” And, as one oilman complained to me, Cheney’s former company has captured a big hunk of the rise in oil prices by jacking up the charges for Halliburton drilling and piping equipment. But before we shed tears for Big Oil’s having to hand Halliburton its slice, let me note that the value of the reserves of the five biggest oil companies more than doubled during the war to $2.36 trillion. And that was the plan: putting a new floor under the price of oil. I have that in writing. In 2005, after a two-year battle with the State and Defense Departments, they released to my team at BBC Newsnight the “Options for a Sustainable Iraqi Oil Industry.” Now, you might think our government shouldn’t be writing a plan for another nation’s oil. Well, our government didn’t write it, despite the State Department seal on the cover. In fact, we discovered that the 323-page plan was drafted in Houston by oil industry executives and consultants. The suspicion is that Bush went to war to get Iraq’s oil. That’s not true. The document, and secret recordings of those in on the scheme, made it clear that the Administration wanted to make certain America did not get the oil. In other words, keep the lid on Iraq’s oil production — and thereby keep the price of oil high.
Iraq Reconstruction “Less Than Optimal”
The U.S. government must learn from its multi-million-dollar mistakes of poor contract oversight and bad planning in its Iraq reconstruction effort or risk repeating them there and elsewhere, investigators say. The audit released Thursday by Stuart Bowen Jr., the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction, is the first to list in one place the series of mistakes, delays and missed opportunities in a four-year-old Iraq war and reconstruction effort that has cost taxpayers nearly $400 billion. Characterizing the U.S. effort as chaotic and poorly managed, Bowen found the Bush administration's rebuilding effort riddled with problems — from a lack of strategy and unclear lines of authority to confusion and disarray between the Defense and State Departments. Bowen said the two departments must learn how to work more closely together. If their cultures prove too resistant to change, Congress should consider legislation to force better cooperation between them in running future U.S. military and civilian reconstruction efforts. [I would characterize the reconstruction effort as useless at best, criminal at worst. But I think he totally missed the point that the bush/cheney administration did not want the state and defense departments working together at all. “Less than optinal” is quite the understatement. – dancewater]
COMMENTARY
Blaming The Victims: Covering Up Terrorism In Iraq
A recent cover story in the Time magazine (March, 2007, Europe and Asia) by Bobby Ghosh, "Why They Hate Each Other", aimed at removing the Occupation as the generator of violence against the Iraqi people, and portrays the violence as "Iraqis killing Iraqis". This media distortion obfuscates the U.S. monopoly on terrorism and allows the U.S. to use Iraq as a laboratory for terror at the expense of the Iraqi people.
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