News & Views 06/25/07

Photo: An Iraqi man weeps as policemen evacuate a body out of al-Mansur Hotel in central Baghdad. Suicide bombers struck a hotel in the heart of Baghdad and police targets in a wave of bombings on Monday that killed at least 45 people, including tribal leaders who have vowed to fight Al-Qaeda.(AFP/Ali Yussef)

REPORTS – LIFE IN IRAQ

Number Of Iraqis Slaughtered In America's War On Iraq - At Least 655,000 + +

VIDEO: Sectarian Violence is A Daily Experience

Sectarian Violence has been nearly constant in Iraq since February 2006, and actually began to show a steady rise in December of 2005. While dead bodies and execution-killings grab the scarce space provided in our daily newspapers, these are only the most extreme conclusion of Iraq’s problems with sectarian violence. This week we look at one day in Baghdad, February 1st, 2007, when a neighborhood’s calm was ripped apart by a hail of mortar and possibly rocket-fire. ….. The anonymity of such attacks results in yet another particularly difficult issue in a tribal society. When the aggressor or guilty party is not instantly obvious, collective punishment is too often deemed the acceptable response. With little focus on this type of violence, it’s difficult to see how reconciliation between Iraqis can be possible in the short-term.

A life, a friend lost in Iraq's ruins

"Have you heard from Mohammed-Ali recently?" my friend Sami asked me over the phone. "No, I think he is out of the country," I said. "I have been trying to call him, but his mobile has been out of coverage." "Mohammed-Ali has passed away," Sami blurted out. "He went to Egypt, and he died there of a heart attack. He was buried there as well." My immediate thought was not to get too emotional, so as not to upset Sami any further. He is in his late 60s, and he already has suffered two blood clots in the last year that probably were brought on by the stress of the sectarian violence creeping into his neighborhood. "We keep hearing about the deaths of people we know, don't we?" I said, sadly. "Yes we do. This is life, and we have to accept it," he replied. "Mighty God, who would have ever thought he would die there?" I quickly changed the subject, and even made him laugh at the tricks that I and the girl I love have been playing on each other. After we finished talking, I tried not to think about Mohammed-Ali's death too much, afraid I would get no sleep that night. I needed all my strength to face the new day in Baghdad. The next morning, I was relieved that the commute to The Times' office took only about 50 minutes. Usually it takes twice that because of the traffic jams caused by checkpoints. I had enough time for a breakfast with friends from another news organization in the building. Yet, grief for my friend was building up, and I was flooded with memories of him.

Six Tribal Leaders Among 50 Killed

A suicide bomber killed six Iraqi tribal leaders opposed to al Qaeda when he blew himself up at a busy Baghdad hotel, in one of four attacks on Monday that killed 50 people in all, police said. Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said the hotel attack was in retaliation against Sunni Arab tribal leaders who had joined US and Iraqi forces to fight al Qaeda because they were tired of its killing of Iraqis. "The terrorists committed this crime to cover their defeats in Anbar and Diyala provinces at the hands of our military forces and the sons of the tribes," Maliki said in a statement. In the northern oil city of Baiji, 27 people including 13 policemen were killed when a suicide bomber rammed a fuel tanker into protective walls outside a police headquarters, police said. They said 62 people were wounded. The bombings came as tens of thousands of US and Iraqi forces pressed ahead with offensives, in Baghdad and other areas including volatile Diyala province, to deny al Qaeda militants sanctuary in farmlands and towns. Police said a bomber wearing a vest packed with explosives blew himself up in the lobby of the al-Mansour Hotel in Baghdad, where Sunni Arab tribal leaders from western Anbar province who supported the fight against al Qaeda had gathered. The US military and Iraqi police said six tribal sheikhs were among the dead.

Iraqi journalist shot to death on her way home from work

A 35-year-old Iraqi journalist was shot to death Sunday on her way home from work in Mosul, officials said, the second female journalist to be killed in the northern city this month. The attack against Zeena Shakir Mahmoud occurred about 3:35 p.m. in the predominantly Sunni Arab neighborhood of Intisar in eastern Mosul, police Brig. Gen. Abdul-Karim al-Jubouri said. It occurred even as Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki marked Iraqi Journalists' Day by acknowledging the high numbers of media workers who have been killed in Iraq, saying their "blood was mixed with the blood of Iraqi people who die every day for the sake of defending Iraq." Mahmoud, a former radio broadcaster, was writing about women's affairs for the Al-Haqiqa newspaper, an organ of the Kurdistan Democratic Party, according to Abdul-Ghani Ali Yahya, head of Journalists Union of Kurdistan. Although she worked for a Kurdish newspaper, she was a Sunni Arab.

Blast kills Iraqi peace poet

The poet Rahim al-Maliki wrote about his dreams of Iraqi unity in a place where such appeals are drowned out by daily bombings. One of them took his life on Monday. Al-Maliki — whose fame grew by hosting two shows on state-run television — was among 13 people killed in a suicide attack at a Baghdad hotel, where he was filming tribal leaders about their decision to join U.S.-led forces in the fight against factions linked to al-Qaida. Four of the tribal sheiks from the western Anbar province were among the victims. In one of his shows, "The Guesthouses of our People," the 39-year-old al-Maliki visited Sunni and Shiite groups and used his poetry to open dialogue about ways to end Iraq's sectarian bloodshed. Al-Maliki's other show on the state-run Iraqiya television was "Feelings," which examined love poetry written in the style he favored: the ordinary Iraqi dialect rather than classical Arabic. Al-Maliki, a Shiite who is not related to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, received several honors in recent years, including the top prize for patriotic poetry in 2006, colleagues said. Under Saddam Hussein, he was imprisoned twice on accusations of criticizing the government and expressing sympathy for fellow Shiites who suffered widespread crackdowns after a failed uprising in the wake of the 1991 Gulf War. He did not publish his work during Saddam's regime, but he read his poems at gatherings — and they were passed along by admirers who memorized the verses.

We will never forget you

To our late colleague Yasser. He was killed on his day off two years ago on Friday June 24, 2005… Yasser we didn’t forget you… I didn’t, no one did. You still live with us and work with us. Do you remember when we had that fight over the sovereignty day? In 2004 the sovereignty day was supposed to be on June 30 your birthday but they changed to another day; my birthday… I still feel guilty for it but you know, as we saw later, it wasn’t real independence or the way we dreamed about. The day you died I had to take photos for your dead body, believe me Yasser I didn’t want to but it was to prove that you weren’t doing any thing wrong… that images comes up when ever your name is mentioned. Your bleeding fingers who couldn’t stop the bullet and the way you slept with the bullet in your head, I can not forget.

what is next

Today, the sentences against the convicts in Anfal crime case had been issued. Three of them was sentenced to death. two for life sentece and the sixth one was released. I watch the trial just to send my report about it. I know it means much for the families of the victims but I think the Iraqi and the American governments should work hard to stop the daily anfal we have in Iraq. I hope that someone send my blog to the Iraqi and the American officials and tell them that the best sentence that satisfy the victims of the Anfal crime case is to prevent more Anfals. try to capture and sue the criminals who committ the daily Anfal. Once peopel would have no more pataience and Im afraid that we might consider Anfal crime a drop in a huge sea of blood. Please Stop the daily Anfals

Baghdad orphanage scandal raises concerns

The 24 boys - most of whom are mentally handicapped and aged 3-15 - were found on 10 June naked in a dark room without windows by US and Iraqi soldiers on a routine patrol. Many of the children were tied to their beds and too weak to stand once released. In a nearby locked room, the soldiers discovered food and clothing which should have been used for the children. Three women, claiming to be the caretakers, and two men, the orphanage director and a guard, were on site when the soldiers arrived. The case has infuriated parents of the children. "If we were living in a normal country, I would have sued these criminals," said the father of two of the boys. "But we are living in complete chaos," he added. The father refused to be identified. He left his children in the orphanage after becoming a displaced person nearly two years ago. "What can we do? They became a heavy burden on us. We decided to send them there and we still can't take them back because of our harsh living conditions," said the father. Ahmed Nasser Abdullah, 44, father of a mentally handicapped boy in another Baghdad orphanage, shared the same sentiments. "I'm totally shocked," he said. Abdullah, a day labourer, left his son at the orphanage about three years ago as he could not afford his son's treatment, but now he has decided to get him back. "Living in severe hardship is better than leaving him in those uncaring hands. Now I understand why they insisted I made an appointment before visiting my son. They make sure the kids are in good shape before a visit," Abdullah added.

REPORTS – IRAQI MILITIAS, POLITICIANS, POWER BROKERS

Sunni clerics urge Shiites to halt armed march

An influential Sunni clerical organization urged Shiite Muslims on Monday to cancel a march toward a destroyed shrine in an Iraqi central city, warning that such a move will further enflame sectarian hatred. The statement by the Association of Muslim Scholars was in response to a call by radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr for his followers to march July 5 to Samarra's Askariya shrine, which was bombed for a second time June 13. Such a march by Shiites in predominantly Sunni area could lead to more sectarian violence between the two Muslim sects. Thousands of Sunnis and Shiites have been killed in sectarian killings in the past two years. "We want you to be aware that this step in this current situation is not suitable and its risks are clear to everyone," the Sunni association said in the statement. "The goals behind this movement are very dangerous. There are some parties who want to make use of your feelings of love for these shrines to have their ambitions of tearing Iraq's unity and provoking a nonstop sectarian dispute among its people." "The citizens of Samarra will consider this huge march in their city as an invasion on their areas, and the parts who pushed you might attack you as well, and the blame would be fall on Samarra's people," the statement said. "We appeal you to forsake this demonstration now for the sake of your country, your unity and Islam," The letter said.

Iraqi checkpoints no obstacle for insurgents flush with cash

As if the daily suicide bombings and kidnappings are not enough, US forces and their Iraq counterparts are battling a hidden but no less lethal danger -- corruption. At a recent meeting of US commanders, Iraqi security chiefs and local officials, frank words were exchanged on the ease with which insurgents can slip through checkpoints as long as they have the money to pay. So what's it worth to render an Iraqi security checkpoint a waste of time? About 200 dollars (148 euros), according to one local official. "No terrorist goes through the checkpoints," Iraq General Faisal Kassem Elewi boasted during the meeting in the southern Baghdad neighbourhood of Rashid, on the edge of one of the most dangerous parts of Iraq. "If you pay 200 dollars it's OK," muttered the official beside him, apparently frustrated with the efforts of Iraqi troops in the area. The general had just finished telling a US officer, Major Tim Davies, that he would succeed where everyone else, including the combined military forces of the United States, had failed. "We have to clear this area. When I was transferred here nobody cared. Now it is safe again," he said, with his black moustache bristling and sporting a red beret. "I promise you this area is going to be cleared of terrorists." The mainly Sunni Muslim district of Rashid lies on the edge of the so-called "triangle of death," a notorious region of Sunni unrest south of the capital.

Shhh . . . There Is Corruption In Iraq

Senior Iraqi cabinet members over a six-month period blocked investigations and prosecutions of corruption within their ministries valued at $35 million, using a Saddam Hussein-era law meant to shield officials from political abuses of the justice system, according to a recent memo by an official at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki reinstated the law, under which no governmental corruption case can be instituted against an Iraqi minister or former minister without the minister's permission. The ministers can, in turn, selectively immunize their subordinates, thus protecting them from being prosecuted for corruption. As a result, more than 48 investigations or prosecutions initiated between September 2006 and February 2007 by Iraq's Commission on Public Integrity (CPI) were stopped, according to the March 11, 2007, memo prepared for the embassy's Anti-corruption Working Group. It warns that the number 48 may be an understatement, since ministers asked to see if the immunity law may apply "simply hold on to the cases indefinitely thereby de facto blocking the trial." The already blocked cases involved possible corruption at 11 ministries and the government's Central Bank. These included probes of contracts aiding rehabilitation of the devastated Iraqi economy, for power plant repairs, bridges and oil production equipment; the theft of dozens of oil trucks carrying a half-million dollars' worth of oil; and "violations" of a contract for armor vests, the memo stated. At a House Judiciary Committee hearing last week, Stuart W. Bowen Jr., the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction, said Maliki's reestablishment of the law - known as Article 136(b) of the Criminal Procedures Code - "effectively creates an undemocratic bulwark against the enforcement efforts to fight corruption in Iraq." During his recent visit to Baghdad, Bowen said use of the law came up in discussions in which CPI personnel told him "about political interference with the work of these Iraqi anti-corruption entities."

REPORTS – US/UK/OTHERS IN IRAQ

US: Biased Shiites moved from Iraq force

[Under Google News, they listed this as “Biased Sunnis”. It is a wonder that they get anything right. – dancewater]

More than a third of Iraq's national police battalion commanders are now Sunni after a purge of Shiites who had a sectarian bias, a U.S. general said Monday. Despite improvements, he predicted it will still be years before Iraqi forces are capable of securing the country by themselves. Speaking to Pentagon reporters from Iraq, Army Brig. Gen. Dana Pittard said he had been saddened to see the destruction in one province where the number of U.S. forces had been reduced too soon. "We cannot be in a hurry to withdraw our coalition forces," he said, using Diyala province north of Baghdad as an example. Pittard this week ends his tour as day-to-day head of the effort to train Iraqi army soldiers, police, national police, border guards and other security workers. "The growth of the Iraqi security forces over the past couple of years has really been quite dramatic in many ways," he said by video conference. Among improvements: Iraqi officials have recruited Sunnis to the national police command, a group that a year ago was almost entirely Shia. The national police have been known for their ties to Shiite militia. Pittard said that since October, officials had removed seven of nine brigade commanders — five because of sectarian bias. One of two division commanders is now Sunni, as are four of nine brigade commanders and 9 or 10 of the 27 battalion commanders, he said.

Serving America's 'Muslim army'

Arab-Americans have been fighting in Iraq since the very beginning of the conflict there. Many simply see it as their duty to serve their homeland, America. Others who have ended up on the frontlines in the so-called "war on terror" have suffered a crisis of conscience, having had to fight fellow Arabs and Muslims as the "enemy". Three Arab-American marines tell their stories. …Born to a Palestinian father and American mother, Mohammad Khaled joined the US Marines in 2000 to pay for his education. Three years later he found himself in Iraq. He left in 2006, after an incident in which he was left stranded while trying to save three children from incoming fire. He now works as a car salesman.

I'm a Palestinian American. I'm proud of what I am. Unfortunately the government kicks in, which is like the military - and your heart starts splitting in half. Ironically, our enemy usually is somewhere in the Middle East - it's my cousins, my family. I was drawn to the Marines not necessarily by the action, but by the discipline and the order - how the military life is. It is not civilian; it has rules and regulations. I really thought this would do it for me. I thought I would do four years of active service - I didn't even know about the inactive reserves; I did not know that you really sign up to eight years, not four. When you get to Nashville, everything changes. A recruiter reminds me of what I do right now, as a car salesman. I'm trying to sell you a car, whether you like it or not. I'd like you to like it, because it'll make my life easier. But I know you need wheels. I'll be honest - I think it was kind of like brainwashing. You start wanting to believe that you're going there to help. When I was a kid, I was one of those guys that threw rocks at the Israelis, and I was really good at it. I became so good at it I became famous for it. Seriously, the only thing that got me out of trouble was my American passport. In the summer of 2004, we were in the city of Haditha in Iraq, in a convoy tippy-toeing around. We were so scared, it wasn't funny. I was shaking. As we passed the Haditha Middle School, we got a shower of rocks. They were flying off my flak jacket and my helmet. I felt so tiny, and so fogged-up with emotion. Because that kid throwing rocks used to be me. A rock hit me at the heart. I kept it.

Another full-blown idiot: Rice defends U.S. policy despite Mideast strife

Eleven months after saying the world was witnessing "the birth pangs of a new Middle East," U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice defended U.S. policy in the face of strife in Iraq, Lebanon and Gaza. Rice was ridiculed for having made the remark last July during the war between Israel and Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon by critics who believe the Bush administration has drastically undermined the stability of the Middle East. Asked about the comment at a news conference with French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, Rice on Sunday argued Iraq was better off for the 2003 ousting of Saddam Hussein as was Lebanon for the 2005 departure of Syrian troops from its soil. "Democracy is hard. And I see it is especially hard when there are determined enemies who try and strangle it," Rice said when a reporter referred to her "birth pangs" remark and asked how the "the baby" was doing nearly a year later.

Audit of KBR Iraq Contract Faults Records For Fuel, Food

KBR, the government contracting firm formerly under Halliburton, did not keep accurate records of gasoline distribution, put its employees in living spaces that may be larger than warranted and served meals that appeared to cost $4.5 million more than necessary under a contract to perform work in Iraq, according to an audit by a government oversight agency. The report, to be released today by the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction, addresses a sliver of a $22.5 billion contract that KBR won to provide services for the U.S. military. The inspector general's office focused on four services that KBR was paid to provide in Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone: supplying gasoline, food services, and housing and various morale and recreation services. The inspector general faulted the U.S. government for not closely monitoring KBR. As a result, the report said, "KBR's operations may have resulted in excessive government costs and high risk that government resources could have been used improperly." The inspector general and other audit agencies have pointed out previous shortcomings of KBR and the government in overseeing the logistics contract. In November 2004, KBR didn't provide details of the costs it spent on a contract. In October, the inspector general's office criticized KBR for labeling costs, labor rates and internal processes as proprietary information when it was needed to ensure competition and oversight.

COMMENTARY

History: American Exceptionalism in Iraq

This link contains a video of how the sanction under Clinton impacted Iraqi children. The video was made by Greg Palast.

OPINION: Thinktank berates Iraq policy and warns of country's collapse

Iraq can only survive if a functional and legitimate state is rebuilt from the ruins of war and occupation, drawing on the lessons of the collapse of British-ruled Basra, an influential thinktank warns today. Overall, says the International Crisis Group, it is not enough just to resolve the confrontation between Sunni Arabs, Shia and Kurds. And if the US and Britain continue backing the same Shia political actors, the likely outcome will be the country's break-up into myriad fiefdoms. "Far from building a new state," their Iraqi partners "are tirelessly working to tear it down". In a powerful critique of current policy, the ICG insists it is vital to avoid repeating the experience of Basra, where UK forces implemented a security plan, Operation Sinbad, similar to the current US-led surge in Baghdad. "The answer to Iraq's horrific violence cannot be an illusory military surge that aims to bolster the existing political structure and treats the dominant parties as partners," it adds bluntly. Operation Sinbad was a "superficial and fleeting" success, and ended with British troops being driven off the streets in what was seen as an ignominious defeat by the city's militias, now more powerful and unconstrained than before. Some British data about its achievements, particularly about improved police performance, "defies credibility", the group notes.

The key failure in Basra, argues the report, has been the inability to establish legitimate government to redistribute resources, impose respect for the rule of law and ensure peaceful transition at the local level - a lesson it says has to be learnt across Iraq as a whole. "Basra's political arena remains in the hands of actors engaged in bloody competition for resources, undermining what is left of governorate institutions and coercively enforcing their rule. The local population has no choice but to seek protection from one of the dominant camps. Periods of stability do not reflect greater governing authority so much as they do a momentary - and fragile - balance of interests or of terror between rival militias." [And the whole reason the US/UK went in there is to have a bloody competition for resources, and control such resources. So, the newly violent forces are just following in their footsteps. – dancewater]

OPINION: Fleeing Our Responsibility

Last month an Iraqi couple working for the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad were kidnapped and executed. Their deaths were not acknowledged by the State Department, and the media made little mention of the murders. They are among the most recent of thousands of cases in which Iraqis affiliated with the United States have been forced into hiding, tortured or, often, killed. I found myself thinking of this husband and wife last week, as World Refugee Day passed, and struggling with a terrible contradiction. The United States is the world's most generous contributor to refugee relief, and we have always taken the lead on resettling refugees. [I am not convinced that either one was ever true, but it surely is not true today. – dancewater] Yet our country has done the bare minimum to help these Iraqis facing death and exile. Instead of clearing the way for their resettlement, we have blocked their path to safety with bureaucratic barriers and political hurdles. President Bush should look to another Republican president, Gerald Ford, as an example of executive leadership in addressing refugee crises. In 1975 President Ford asked me to direct an interagency task force charged with resettling Indochinese refugees in the United States. Between May 1 and Dec. 20, 1975, we evacuated and resettled more than 131,000 Vietnamese who were at risk of persecution.

IRAQI REFUGEES

"This uncertainty is killing me from inside"

"I arrived in Jordan three years ago hoping to have a better life, away from threats and fear of the unknown. My children - sons Haidar, 9, and Jabar, 12; and daughters Yasmin, 6, and Huda, 10 - were also very happy to come because they could go to school again without being afraid of abduction or being killed in an explosion. I thought to myself: A good job and schools for my children will put my life back on the right track. "Now I am living with my children in a modest apartment in Amman hoping to move to a third country. "When I first landed in Amman I was excited because I stopped being afraid of tomorrow. But within a few months, I felt I had become addicted to worrying about anything and everything. Now I face deportation at any moment, meaning I might be sent back to face death again. My children are deprived of education because with my US$120 salary a month I cannot afford fees for private schools [which range from US$500 to $7,000 a year], and public [government] schools say they have no room for foreigners. Sometimes I wish I had been killed along with my family in the war. At least we would not have suffered and been humiliated this much. "This uncertainty is eating me from inside. My only fault in life is being an Iraqi. I do not want a fancy car and a highly paid job. I only want a sense of normality, like any other human being but this seems to be a very difficult thing to achieve when you are an Iraqi living in Iraq or as an Iraqi refugee.

'50,000 Iraqi refugees' forced into prostitution

It's Monday night in a dingy club on the outskirts of the Syrian capital. Two dozen girls are moving half-heartedly on the dance floor, lit up by flashing disco lights. They are dessed in tight jeans, low-cut tops and knee-high boots, but the girls' make-up can't disguise the fact that most are in their mid-teens. It's a strange sight in a conservative Muslim country, but this is the sex business, and it's booming as a result of the war in Iraq. Backstage, the manager sits in his leather chair, doing business. A Saudi client is quoted $500 for one of the girls. Eventually he beats it down to $300. Next door, in a dimly lit room, the next shift of girls arrives, taking off the black all-covering abayasthey wear outside and putting on lipstick and mascara. To judge from the cars parked outside, the clients come from all over the Gulf region - many are young Saudi men escaping from an even more conservative moral climate. But the Syrian friend who has brought me here tells me that 95 per cent of the girls are Iraqi. …I met Fatima in a block of flats operating informally as a brothel in Saida Zainab, a run-down area with a large Iraqi population. Millions of Shias go there every year, because of the shrine of the prophet Mohamed's granddaughter. "I came to Syria after my husband was killed, leaving me with two children," Fatima tells me. "My aunt asked me to join her here, and my brothers pressured me to go." She didn't realise the work her aunt did, and she would be forced to take up, until she arrived. Fatima is in her mid-20s, but campaigners say the number of Iraqi children working as prostitutes is high. Bassam al-Kadi of Syrian Women Observatory says: "Some have been sexually abused in Iraq, but others are being prostituted by fathers and uncles who bring them here under the pretext of protecting them. They are virgins, and they are brought here like an investment and exploited in a very ugly way."

How to Help Iraqi Refugees

Iraq Moratorium Day – September 21 and every third Friday thereafter

"I hereby make a commitment that on Friday, September 21, 2007, and the third Friday of every subsequent month I will break my daily routine and take some action, by myself or with others, to end the War in Iraq."

Quote of the day: The politicians in this world... have at their command weapons of mass destruction far more complex than their own thinking processes. – Charley Reese