News & Views 05/11/07

REPORTS – LIFE IN IRAQ

Portraits of Grief

FROM his cramped storefront in central Baghdad, Mazin Farouq gets a clear picture every day of what's going on in his country. Actually, he gets dozens. Farouq, 37, runs a photo lab in the Iraqi capital, and he cherishes printing images of smiling subjects and celebrations. Graduations. Weddings. A baby's first steps. Even the occasional racy shots of a frolicking couple. But these days most of his orders are daily reminders of Iraq's bloody civil war: memorial portraits of "martyrs" or grisly prints of the latest carnage — car bombings and torture victims. The tiny photo shop is an open shutter onto Iraq's woes, and Farouq has reluctantly plunged into a somber new specialty. "Almost all my work now is focused on martyrs," he said. "This job is my mirror to know what is going on in my country. And things are getting worse." He held up a picture of a little girl with a stuffed animal at her feet and scanned the image into a 10-foot-long photo processor. "This one just came in today. She was killed by a car bomb with her parents." He shook his head. "The photo is brand new. It was taken just a couple of days before she died."

MEDIA ORGANIZATION PREPARES SAFETY STRATEGY FOR JOURNALISTS

The International Federation of Journalists, which is hosting a meeting in Iraq to devise a national safety strategy for journalists and media staff, today condemned the killings of three journalists and their driver, who were reportedly tortured and shot in Northern Iraq.

Iraq Journalists in Danger

Here is a statistical analysis of journalists killed in Iraq since hostilities began in March 2003, as compiled by the Committee to Protect Journalists. CPJ considers a journalist to be killed on duty if the person died as a result of a hostile action—such as reprisal for his or her work, or crossfire while carrying out a dangerous assignment. CPJ does not include journalists killed in accidents, such as car or plane crashes, unless the crash was caused by aggressive human action (for example, if a plane were shot down or a car crashed trying to avoid gunfire). Nor does CPJ include journalists who died of health ailments. Capsule reports detailing each death are available by following the links below.

we have none but patience ....

Peace be upon you…. I haven't written for a long time, I no longer have the temperament to write. I don't know; is it because of the silly, frustrating news from Baghdad, the continuance of violence, killings, the bloodshed of the innocent Iraqis, the plundering of the Iraqi wealth; or because I am busy with the people and their distress, for I receive calls from families in Baghdad or Amman asking for medical or humanitarian aid, or from Iraqi hospitals calling for help, asking for the most simple supplies, like Insulin, which was supposed to be available in all Iraqi hospitals, being the responsibility of the Iraqi Ministry of Health. Or they might ask for the medical Oxygen bottles, manufactured in Baghdad, but the bad security conditions prevent the medical supplies from reaching hospitals situated on the outskirts of Baghdad, or farther…. My mind is confused; I don't know where to start every day… I thought I'd write down the items I follow up in a small notebook so I would remember them everyday… Ok; I'll try to organize my thoughts. There are some water purifying units sent from an organization www.iraqwaterproject.org

I work with them as a volunteer in Amman, bought to be sent to Iraqi hospitals. Up till now, we sent six units, as follows: Al-Qa'aim Hospital, Falluja, Samara, Al-Diwaniyah, Hadeetha, and Al-Ramadi. And I cannot describe my suffering and anguish to conclude each shipment; going between telephone calls to Iraq, sending daily e-mails to the doctors, following up buying the units here, then sending them either by cars or by plane to Baghdad, then the worries and waiting, until they notify me that the shipment arrived to Baghdad, then arranging a way to send it on to its final destination. Sometimes, the doctor I was arranging things with would disappear, like what happened in Samara. I don't know where the man has gone; all news of him were completely cut off, no e-mail, no phone calls, and I don't know whether he traveled away, was arrested, or killed…

Blasts Hit Baghdad Bridges

Suicide bombers in Iraq have struck police checkpoints on two bridges in a co-ordinated attack in a mainly Shia area south of Baghdad, killing at least 22 people and wounding 60. Police said five policemen were among the dead. Suspected al-Qaeda fighters have carried out a series of attacks on bridges in Baghdad in recent weeks. Police on Friday said the first bomber damaged the old Diyala Bridge and a nearby police station. Minutes later, a few kilometres away, another attacker detonated his explosives-laden truck bomb on the new Diyala Bridge.

REPORTS – IRAQI MILITIAS, POLITICIANS, POWER BROKERS

Iraqi Lawmakers Call for US Timetable

Radical Shiite politicians pressed Thursday for legislation demanding a timetable for the withdrawal of U.S.-led troops and a freeze on the number of foreign forces already in the country - even as the U.S. Congress debates the fate of the troubled mission. The proposed Iraqi legislation, drafted by the parliamentary bloc loyal to anti-American Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, was signed by 144 members of the 275-member house, according to parliamentary officials. The Sadrist bloc, which holds 30 parliamentary seats and sees the U.S.-led forces as an occupying army, has pushed similar bills before, but this would be the first time it persuaded a majority of lawmakers to sign on. The measure has not yet been introduced in parliament and was unlikely to be passed in its present form. But the signatures reflected growing disenchantment among the lawmakers over U.S. involvement in Iraq and the government's failure to curb the violence in the country.

Interview: Iraq Kurd leader on oil law

To Iraq's Kurdish leadership, the issue of how to apportion the third-largest pools of oil in the world is "a make-or-break deal" for the country as a whole, a top official told United Press International. "The oil issue for us is a red line. It will signify our participation in Iraq or not," Qubad Talabani, son of Iraqi President Jalal Talabani and the Kurdistan Regional Government's representative to the United States, said in an interview from his Washington office. The KRG and the central Iraqi government reached a deal in February on the hydrocarbons framework - though not on other key companion bills - and a self-imposed deadline of late May seemed possible to meet.

But the Iraqi Oil Ministry, at a meeting it set up last month in Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates, with other Iraqi oil experts and politicians, unveiled the annexes to the hydrocarbons law - its list distributing control of oil fields between central and KRG control - and a law re-establishing the Iraq National Oil Co., which Kurdish leadership automatically rejected. "This sets us back to square one, a point that's unacceptable to us. We're trying to modernize Iraq, build a new Iraq, built on new foundations, new policies. The symbol of this new Iraq will be how it manages its oil infrastructure," Talabani said. "And if people want to revert back to Saddam-era policies of a state-controlled oil sector with no accountability, with no accountability to the Parliament or the people of the country, with no oversight except from by one or two, then I'm sorry, that is not the Iraq that the Kurds bought into. That is not the Iraq that the Kurds would want to be part of. If a centralized oil regime is imposed on us, we will not participate in the state of Iraq," Talabani said. "And we have to make it absolutely clear to our friends in Washington, to our brothers in Baghdad, this is a make-or-break deal for Iraq."

Majority of Iraqi Lawmakers Now Reject Occupation

On Tuesday, without note in the U.S. media, more than half of the members of Iraq's parliament rejected the continuing occupation of their country. 144 lawmakers signed onto a legislative petition calling on the United States to set a timetable for withdrawal, according to Nassar Al-Rubaie, a spokesman for the Al Sadr movement, the nationalist Shia group that sponsored the petition. It's a hugely significant development. Lawmakers demanding an end to the occupation now have the upper hand in the Iraqi legislature for the first time; previous attempts at a similar resolution fell just short of the 138 votes needed to pass (there are 275 members of the Iraqi parliament, but many have fled the country's civil conflict, and at times it's been difficult to arrive at a quorum).

Debate Ends With A Slap In Iraq Parliament

As Washington pressures Iraq's parliament to cancel its two-month summer break and focus on passing laws, Thursday's session indicated that many lawmakers need a long break. The governing body's Sunni Arab speaker, Mahmoud Mashadani, slapped another lawmaker after being accused of not paying sufficient heed to the plight of Shiite Muslims displaced by sectarian violence. "Damn you!" Mashadani said before hitting Hussein Falluji, a lawmaker from a rival Sunni party. The altercation began when Shadha Mousawi, a Shiite lawmaker, complained that the government was ignoring the plight of several hundred Shiites who have been in the southern city of Karbala since mid-April after having fled their homes in Diyala province. Diyala is a stronghold of Sunni Muslim insurgents. At one point as Mousawi was speaking, Mashadani smiled. "How can you smile during such a time?" Mousawi said. Other lawmakers began joining her in calls for action to assist the displaced people, infuriating Mashadani. He declared the meeting adjourned and headed for the door. Falluji chided him for leaving and for surrounding himself with bodyguards, suggesting Mashadani was not important enough to warrant such security. Mashadani then lunged at Falluji and slapped him. Bodyguards separated the two men. It was only last month that Mashadani led calls for greater unity among lawmakers after a bombing in the parliament building that killed one lawmaker.

Teacher’s Killings Turn Sunni Iraqis Against al Qaeda

The revolt in Iraq against the occupation has been confined hitherto to the five- million-strong Sunni community. The growing unpopularity of al-Qa'ida in Iraq among the Sunni is partly a revulsion against its massacres of Shia by suicide bombers that lead to tit-for-tat killings of Sunni. It is also because al-Qa'ida kills Sunni who have only limited connections with the government. Those killed include minor officials in the agriculture ministry, barbers who give un-Islamic haircuts and garbage collectors. The murder of the latter is because it is convenient for al-Qa'ida to leave large heaps of rubbish uncollected on roadsides in which to hide mines. The most visible sign of the revolt against al-Qa'ida in Iraq is along the roads passing through the deserts of Anbar province to the west of Baghdad to Jordan and Syria. In recent weeks, the road to Syria has been controlled by members of the Abu Risha tribe, led by Mahmoud Abu Risha and supported by the US. It may be al-Qa'ida has overplayed its hand. In January, its leaders announced the establishment of the Islamic State of Iraq (ISI) based in western Iraq. That united resistance groups sympathetic to al-Qa'ida. The ISI began to purge resistance activists disagreeing with its line. Sunni families were forced to make contributions and send some of their young men to fight alongside the ISI. The Iraqi insurgency is notoriously fragmented and its politics are shadowy. By one account, the ISI got chased out of Mosul in the north soon after being formed and took refuge in the Himrin mountains south of Kirkuk. Though shaken, it remains effective under the leadership of Omar al-Baghdadi, a former army officer.

ISI chief reportedly had Saudi-intelligence connections

Conflicts Forum has published two articles by its Baghdad correspondent, one on the ISI and the other on the Reform and Jihad Front, both of them required reading for anyone trying to follow events in Iraq, because they both include a lot of new information about the Sunni armed groups in Iraq. Since there are a number of new points raised, I would like to elaborate first on just one of them, lest it get lost in the shuffle. It has to do with the leader of the Islamic State in Iraq, Abu Omar al-Baghdadi. After writing about recent defections from the ISI, the correspondent writes:

That the remnants of the ISI remain strong and are able to mount successful operations throughout the Baghdad region is due to their experienced and dedicated leadership. The Emir of the state, Omar al-Baghdadi — who some American officials claim was killed on May 1 — is known as an effective strategist. Baghdadi, high on America’s list for capture or assassination, is a former Iraqi officer who left Saddam’s military in 1999 for Afghanistan and returned in 2002 through the border with Kurdistan. Our sources in Anbar Province report that Baghdadi had, for many years, close ties with the Saudi intelligence services.

……… Meanwhile, just as an illustration of the currency of this idea of US/Gulf-region influence on Sunni extremists in Iraq: The idea was elaborated recently by the Baathist writer Salah al-Mukhtar, whose article dealing with this topic I summarized here.

Al-Mukhtar wrote:

Once [the Americans] understood that they had well and truly fallen into the Iraqi trap, from which they wouldn't emerge safely unless they could come up with an elaborately thought-out scheme, started putting moles in specific factions, and via these moles they offered the groups generous material and PR support. This enhanced the credibility of these moles, and raised their profile and role within these factions, and some of them came to have leadership roles within those factions.

……….. The points here are (1) that attacking Shiites was a bone of contention between the ISI and the nationalist resistance groups; (2) the ISI is led by a person who has had close ties with the intelligence agency of the biggest US ally in the Gulf. [Which is Saudi Arabia. Hersch has reported that the bush administration is funding extremist Sunni groups in Saudi Arabia with no clear reasons for what that is supposed to achieve. The Sunni extremists being funded in Lebanon are supposed to attack Hezbollah and blame it on al Qaeda. Oh, they are also funding Fatah, and promoting violence in Palestine. – dancewater]

Anbar Tribe Fights al Qaeda in Iraq

Ali Hatam Ali al Suleiman sat in a high-backed leather chair in his Baghdad office, proud of what the Anbar Salvation Council has done. The council, a group of leaders from the Dulaim tribe, Iraq's largest, is driving the al-Qaida in Iraq group from what had been sanctuary in Anbar province. For four years, the province has been a battleground between the extremist group and U.S. forces. Innocent people from the tribes have been killed, mostly by al-Qaida but also by American troops, he said. "The service we are providing is fighting al-Qaida and militias with no mercy," he said. "They corrupted our religion; they misinterpreted our values. We are Iraqis - not Sunnis and Shiites. We don't threaten to bomb and to kill; all we wanted was our dignity and to live." Two hours with Suleiman, a Sunni Muslim, provided an insight into why - after so many years without progress - Anbar is now a bright spot in the frustration that is Iraq. They also gave a warning that the problems of American policy won't end when the last al-Qaida fighter is gone. Suleiman said the American bid to remake Iraq had failed, and warned that the United States must rebuild Anbar or suffer the consequences. [Of course, it will be a long, long time for the al Qaeda types to be gone if the bushies are funding them from Saudi Arabia. And this guy is dreaming if he thinks the bushies will rebuild Anbar. They won’t even rebuild New Orleans. – dancewater]

REPORTS – US/UK/OTHERS IN IRAQ

Iraq “Jihad TV” Mocks Coalition

An Iraqi satellite TV channel has started to air Hidden Camera Jihad, a video compilation of attacks on US-led coalition forces in Iraq that has appeared on internet message boards since late 2006. Al-Zawraa TV, which is known for airing videos of attacks by insurgent groups on US forces, recently started airing the programme as part of the channel's staple output of insurgent clips, patriotic songs urging jihad, or holy war, against "occupier forces", and documentary films often of a pro-Sunni, anti-Shia and anti-US slant. The programme, purportedly produced by the Global Islamic Media Front (GIMF), is a pastiche of the style of hidden camera TV shows popular in the US, editing together insurgent-shot clips of attacks on coalition troops complete with a laughter track, sound effects and mocking English-language captions. Hidden Camera Jihad first appeared on internet message boards in September 2006 and joins other GIMF video productions that praise Osama Bin Laden, al-Qaeda and other militant groups.

COMMENTARY

In Iraq, The Play Was The Thing

“We think America did a great thing by toppling Saddam,” Ayad told me, speaking for himself and his family. “But now they should hand us the country and leave.” I asked him whether he fears that an American withdrawal might allow the Sunni insurgents to strike harder in Shiite areas. “We outnumber them,” he said. “And with the support of our Iranian brothers, we can take the Sunnis.” “And then what?” I replied. “Then the Shiites will rule Iraq.” Ayad believes that there is no problem in establishing an Islamic government in Baghdad styled after that of the Iranian Republic. The Sunnis, he said, have “oppressed us since the days of the Prophet, and now it is our chance to hit back and rule.” According to Ayad, a Shiite takeover in Iraq would set a good model for the Shiites of Lebanon, where they number about a third of the population, and Bahrain, where they are a majority. “Perhaps the Shiite minority in Saudi Arabia will act too, rid themselves of the Sunni oppression against them, and rule or at least separate themselves from Riyadh and create their own state,” my friend argued. It is exactly this possibility that has made the Sunni Arab regimes fear a Shiite regional revolt and moved some to support the Sunni insurgency in Iraq or at least to voice their resentment of the Iraqi Shiite government, which is seen as being biased against Iraqi Sunnis. “But we are Iraqis,” I told Ayad. “We are Arabs. We have our cultural differences with the Persians. We don’t even speak the same language.”

Wariness, Not Hatred, Keeps Civil Wars Going

When you look at the history of human warfare, civil wars always stand out. They invariably last longer than wars between nations, and they often claim more lives. When they end, they are more likely to result in one side having annihilated the other. Pundits and political scientists have long believed that civil wars are deadlier than wars between nations because they involve ancient historical and ethnic animosities. Conflict between Shiites and Sunnis in Iraq or between Serbs and Croats in the former Yugoslavia have always existed, according to this argument, and the violence has been punctuated only by brief interludes in which a Saddam Hussein or a Marshal Tito ruthlessly suppresses the fighting. But Barbara Walter, a scholar at the University of California at San Diego, has a different take. Between 1940 and 2005, 54 percent of the wars between nations ended in negotiated settlements whereas only 24 percent of civil wars did. When Walter studied the details of each conflict, however, she found that far from the picture of ruthless enemies intent on fighting to the finish, adversaries in 94 percent of the civil wars had drafted cease-fire accords. Nearly half these conflicts involved serious peace negotiations. Why did the vast majority of these opponents fail to find peace?

A Blogger’s Report On Iraqi Child’s Medical Needs

The other issue that is hurting and worrying me that I do not sleep at night thinking about … there is an Iraqi child here, four years old, her name is "Eelaff", from Baquba. Her father called me asking for help; she has a malignant brain tumor, which was removed by an operation, and she is now undergoing chemical therapy… I went to visit her at Al-Hussein Cancer Center; I found her with a shaved head, or perhaps her hair fell off because of the chemical therapy, her face was pale. An innocent child of four years, what has she seen of life? I stood and put my hand over her head, reciting a verse from the Quran, or a prayer, I felt the high temperature of her body; she looked at me with withered eyes. Sorrow and sadness burned my heart for what befell her, what befell the children of Iraq because of this dirty war. I couldn't hold myself, and I burst into crying. Her father came to console me, and apologize…. I took some photos of her to send them to some friends, hoping that someone would take pity upon her and send some money to help her father pay her treatment fees. He said he needs some $1500 only to complete the treatment and get her out of hospital. I sent photos and hospital reports by e-mail, but nobody took the trouble to answer, not even with an apology….

NOAH MERRILL TALKS ABOUT THE IRAQ REFUGEE CRISIS

According to The UN High Commissioner on Refugees, in terms of raw numbers, the nearly two-and-a-half million Iraqi refugees displaced because of the war is a bigger crisis than Darfur. It’s also the largest mass migration in the Middles east since the exodus of Palestinians from Israel in 1948. The vast majority of Iraqi refugees have fled to Syria and Jordan, further straining already overstretched infrastructures in two of the region's poorer countries. The result is inflated housing costs, scarce water resources and crowded public health facilities and schools. Well over a million Iraqis are internally displaced. According to The UN High Commission for Refugees estimates that as many as a third of externally displaced refugees now outside Iraq is Christian. [And it really matters not what religion they may follow. They are in need of help. Call or write your congress person today and tell them to support the Responsibility to Iraqi Refugees Act. Or make a contribution to the International Rescue Committee or Direct Relief International or American Friends Service Committee or International Committee of the Red Cross/Crescent or see below. – dancewater]

HOW TO HELP

Very few organizations are working on getting aid to Iraqi refugees, and of those that are, many are too small or too beleaguered to accept individual donations; the Iraqi Red Crescent, for example, has suffered bombings and mass kidnappings, yet its volunteers continue to deliver aid to displaced families inside Iraq. One of the larger relief organizations working with the refugees is the Catholic group Caritas, whose caseworkers I shadowed while in Amman. Bucking the image of the Land Rover-driving aid worker, they made their rounds in an aging gray Honda, its roof eaten through by rust. They visited Iraqi doctors, engineers, and executives desperate for food, heat, or blankets to fend off the desert winter; one family told the crew they had just sold their stove to buy food. Caritas helps a few thousand families a year, but "the demand far outstrips the money available to us," says Magy Mahrous, who oversees the project.

You can make a contribution at: International Catholic Migration Commission, Citibank USA, 153 East 53rd Street, 16th floor, New York, NY 10043. To ensure that the money reaches the Iraqi program, write "Iraq-icmc" on your check.

ICRC Steps Up Humanitarian Response

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) today asked donors for an additional 35 million Swiss francs to allow it to substantially expand its humanitarian work in Iraq. The additional funds requested will bring the organization's total budget for Iraq in 2007 to just over 91 million francs. It will continue to work closely with the Iraqi Red Crescent Society to meet the most urgent needs of the population. "This conflict is inflicting immense suffering on all Iraqis," said Béatrice Mégevand-Roggo, the ICRC's head of operations for the Middle East and North Africa. "People directly affected by the crisis are finding it increasingly difficult to cope. The ICRC is therefore stepping up its work to be able to better respond to needs throughout the country." It would focus on improving health care, the water supply and sanitation services, she added. Part of the funds requested will be used to help the growing numbers of internally displaced people, the communities who host them, and other vulnerable groups including the elderly, disabled people, orphans and female-headed households.