News & Views 05/25/07

Photo: An Iraqi cries after US and Iraqi forces raided Baghdad's Sadr City. Radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr made a dramatic return to frontline Iraqi politics, calling for unity and the withdrawal of US troops five months after claims he had fled the country.(AFP/Wissam Al Okaili)

STUPID or LYING or BOTH?

"The level of sectarian violence is an important indicator of whether or not the strategy that we have implemented is working," Bush said May 10. "Since our operation began, the number of sectarian murders has dropped substantially."

REPORTS – LIFE IN IRAQ

Morgue Data Show Increase In Sectarian Killings in Iraq

More than three months into a U.S.-Iraqi security offensive designed to curtail sectarian violence in Baghdad and other parts of Iraq, Health Ministry statistics show that such killings are rising again. From the beginning of May until Tuesday, 321 unidentified corpses, many dumped and showing signs of torture and execution, have been found across the Iraqi capital, according to morgue data provided by a Health Ministry official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release the information. The data showed that the same number of bodies were found in all of January, the month before the launch of the Baghdad security plan. Such killings are a signature practice of Shiite militias, although Sunni insurgents are also known to execute victims. The number of found bodies is a key indicator of the level of sectarian violence, but the statistics also include some who died from causes unrelated to the political situation. Weeks after the security plan was launched in mid-February, Bush administration and U.S. military officials began citing a decline in sectarian violence as evidence of the plan's effectiveness. Although that trend appears to have reversed, the unidentified corpses being collected this year remain far fewer than those found during the peak periods of sectarian strife last year.

…..In April, the morgue data showed, 182 unidentified bodies were discovered in Baghdad. At present rates, May's tally would more than double last month's. Aggregate figures for Baghdad and eight other provinces also show recent increases: In January, 360 bodies were found; in February, 400; in March, 451; in April, 421; and from May 1 to 22, 443.

Graphics: Unidentified Corpses and Mass Casualties

The number of unidentified corpses found in the Iraqi capital a key indicator of sectarian violence is rising following declines in recent months. U.S. and Iraqi officials have cited the declines as a sign of progress for the Baghdad security plan, which began Feb. 14. Security forces also have been unable to curtail mass-casualty attacks, mainly against Shiite targets.

DOMESTIC VIOLENCE AGAINST CHILDREN ON THE RISE

Mental health specialists say there has been an increase in domestic violence against children - largely a result of the violence that has gripped Iraq since the US-led invasion in 2003. They say the violence has affected people's behavior. Before the invasion, there were about 90 psychiatrists in Iraq and some 45 psychologists but today there are fewer than 40 total.

Health Crisis Acute In Iraqi Province

The Americans gave 10-year-old Ayai Emad a Barbie doll wrapped with pink ribbon. Her brother Mohammed, 7, got a Hot Wheels truck. But what they really need they may never get: adequate medical care. The problems of Iraq's medical system since the 2003 toppling of Saddam Hussein are well-documented: doctors fleeing the country, graft, supply shortages, and civilians dying for lack of care or because their hospital came under attack. The International Committee of the Red Cross this month issued its most dire assessment yet about the foundering system. The report concludes that Iraqi healthcare has all but collapsed and that deaths and suffering, already widespread, are increasing. In Al Anbar, military and health officials say, the deep-rooted alienation between the Sunni Arab population and the Shiite Muslim-led government in Baghdad has made the problem even more acute. Wounded Iraqi soldiers and police officers tremble at the prospect of being sent to a Baghdad hospital, where they fear they'll be killed. "I've had some of them almost get off the operating table and try to run away rather than go to Baghdad," said Navy Cmdr. George Dyer, a senior nurse at the trauma hospital at Taqaddum air base. The same is true at the hospital at the U.S. base at Al Asad. At both facilities, about 60% of the patients are Iraqis, many of them security personnel injured by roadside bombs. Once a patient's condition is stable, the goal is to get him or her to an Iraqi facility. "We try to get them to a place where Sunnis are accepted," said Army Maj. Kenneth Grundy, a critical-care nurse at Al Asad. "Sometimes we just can't and we end up holding on to them."

Baghdad diary: Living in fear

"For the first time, I am really thinking we will have to leave." The words of Ali, a friend of mine, recently. He told me how members of Moqtada Sadr's Mehdi militia had recently come knocking at his apartment building. They demanded one of his neighbours give up his flat. They needed it as a safe house, in case US forces came looking for them. The neighbour was cornered, my friend said. He made excuses. "So you don't like the Mehdi," the militia men responded. The man was terrified my, friend said. What could he do? It is all getting too close, he said. The other day, he rushed home from work to move his family out, because a firefight had broken out nearby. "We have gunbattles in the area every two or three days now." Ali is like many Iraqis. He was happy to see Saddam Hussein overthrown. And in many respects life has got much better for him and his family - primarily because he earns far more than he used to as a doctor. The extra cash has made it worth hanging on, despite the constant chaos and violence, the lack of basic services like electricity. He doesn't want me to say what he does now - or his real name - to protect his identity. Talking of electricity, many parts of west Baghdad have not had power or running water for a month now. Petrol queues are also more common again. The line at the nearest petrol station to our house often stretches several hundred metres. The unluckiest can spend several days trying to fill their cars, eking out the last few drops in the tank. But each time they reach the front of the line, the petrol station runs out and they have to start again.

U.S. forces impose curfew on Falluja till Tuesday

U.S. forces imposed a curfew on the city of Falluja till next Tuesday, a source in the city's local council said on Friday. "U.S. forces alerted the security apparatus in the city that the curfew would begin throughout the city from this afternoon till next Tuesday after the bomb attack that targeted a policeman's house on Friday afternoon," the source, who asked not to be named, told the independent news agency Voices of Iraq (VOI). "Police forces patrolled the city's streets and ordered residents to keep indoor via loudspeakers," he added. "U.S. troops and Iraqi police forces would wage security operations to search for gunmen and car bombs," the source noted. A police source had said earlier that two civilians were killed and nine others were wounded when a booby-trapped car went off targeting a a policeman's house. "A car rigged with explosives parked near a policeman's house in al-Shurta neighborhood was detonated remotely, killing two civilians and injuring nine, including a policeman," the source also said. "The blast caused severe damage to the nearby Saad Ibn al-Moaz mosque and destroyed three houses," he added.

REPORTS – IRAQI MILITIAS, POLITICIANS, POWER BROKERS

SUNNI RESISTANCE RECEPTIVE TO SADR ALLIANCE

Nationalist Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's bid to unite Sunnis and Shiites on the basis of a common demand for withdrawal of US occupation forces, reported last weekend by the Washington Post's Sudarsan Raghavan, seems likely to get a positive response from Sunni armed resistance.

Iraq's Sadr appears in public after long absence

Powerful anti-occupation Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr appeared in public for the first time in months on Friday, presenting himself as a champion of all Iraqis and demanding that U.S. troops get out of Iraq.

Iraqi, British forces kill two Sadrist leaders in Basra

A force from Iraqi and British troops on Friday afternoon shot and killed two leaders of the Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi army in the southern Iraqi city of Basra, a source close to Sadr's office said. "A force from Iraqi army and British troops killed today at 3:00 pm two leading figures from Mahdi army in central Basra," the source, who asked not to be named, told the independent news agency Voices of Iraq (VOI). He added "Mahdi army fighters were seen in all Basra streets and the situation in the city is expected to escalate." Local residents said that one of the two killed persons was the commander of Mahdi army in Basra Abo Qader.

REPORTS – US/UK/OTHERS IN IRAQ

Turkish PM would back Iraq incursion

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan vowed to support any Turkish military incursion in Iraq against Kurdish rebel bases there after a deadly suicide bombing in Ankara blamed on the militants. Upping the pressure on its southern neighbour, Ankara urged Baghdad Thursday to act against the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) holed up in in northern Iraq. "We expect urgent and resolute measures," foreign ministry spokesman Levent Bilman told reporters shortly after reports of more violence with a landmine explosion attributed to the PKK killing six soldiers in the southeast. Erdogan said late Wednesday his government would secure parliamentary authorisation if the army sought to conduct a cross-border operation targeting PKK bases. "It is out of the question for us to disagree on this issue with our... soldiers," he told the private ATV network. "When the time comes, we will take the necessary step, there will be no delay."

THE SHAPE OF A SHADOWY AIR WAR IN IRAQ

Did the US use cluster bombs in Iraq in 2006 and then lie about it? Does the US keep the numbers of rockets and cannon rounds fired from its planes and helicopters secret because more Iraqi civilians have died due to their use than any other type of weaponry? These are just two of the many unanswered questions related to the largely uncovered air war the US military has been waging in Iraq.

COMMENTARY

Human rights slain on US global battlefield: Amnesty

Amnesty International yesterday launched a scathing attack on the United States accusing it of trampling on human rights, and using the world as "a giant battlefield" in its "war on terror." The war in Iraq and the politics of fear being spread by the administration of US President George W. Bush around the globe were fuelling deep international divisions, the human rights group charged. Washington was also guilty of "breathtakingly shameless" double speak, claiming to be promoting human rights while at the same time brazenly flouting international law, the London-based group charged in its 2007 annual report. "Nothing more aptly portrayed the globalization of human rights violations than the US-led 'war on terror' and its programme of 'extraordinary renditions' which implicated governments in countries as far apart as Italy and Pakistan, Germany and Kenya," said the group's secretary general Irene Khan. Last year, evidence revealed how "the US administration treated the world as one giant battlefield for its 'war on terror', kidnapping, arresting, arbitrarily detaining, torturing and transferring suspects from one secret prison to another across the world with impunity," she added. Hundreds of people have now been transferred by the US and its allies through these secret renditions to countries such as Syria, Jordan and Egypt.

Byrd: "Bush's war is turning the sands of Iraq blood red"

The image of America has changed. Around the globe, our friends mistrust us, our word is disputed, our intentions are questioned. Instead of reasoning with those with whom we disagree, we demand obedience or threaten recrimination." And Byrd was prescient in his objection to the Iraq invasion, citing what he believed even then to be corrupt evidence for the war and the fact that Saddam Hussein had nothing to do with the events of September 11. Here's more from Senator Byrd on March 19, 2003:

"The case this administration tries to make to justify its fixation with war is tainted by charges of falsified documents and circumstantial evidence.We cannot convince the world of the necessity of this war for one simple reason: This is not a war of necessity, but a war of choice.

"There is no credible information to connect Saddam Hussein to 9/11, at least up to this point.

"What is happening to this country--my country, your country, our country? When did we become a nation which ignores and berates our friends and calls them irrelevant? When did we decide to risk undermining international order by adopting a radical and doctrinaire approach to using our awesome military might? How can we abandon diplomatic efforts when the turmoil in the world cries out for diplomacy?"

I'm writing about all of this now because of another wonderful speech Byrd gave on the Senate floor just last Thursday in which he eviscerated Bush and his administration on the fight over the war's continuation.

How to Help Iraqi Refugees

Quote of the day: A judge from the United States wrote at the time of the trial of Nazi war criminals in Nuremberg in Germany in 1946: "To initiate a war of aggression is not only an international crime; it is the supreme international crime differing only from other war crimes in that it contains within itself the accumulated evil of the whole."