.Photo: BAGHDAD, IRAQ - JULY 19: Iraqi men sit in a crowded room on the floor in a Iraqi government holding pen July 19, 2007 at Forward Operating Base Justice, a joint US-Iraqi base in Baghdad, Iraq. (Chris Hondros/Getty)
REPORTS – LIFE IN IRAQ
Photo Gallery: Overcrowding Creates Deplorable Conditions
1000 Detainees Pack Space Meant for 300 at FOB Justice.
Iraq protests at Turkish shelling of N.Iraq
Turkey's army heavily shelled Kurdish rebel targets just inside the border of northern Iraq on Wednesday, Kurdish officials said on Thursday. Iraq's government condemned the latest shelling of its semi-autonomous Kurdistan region and urged Turkey to hold talks to resolve Ankara's concerns about rebels from the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) who are based in the border area. Jabar Yawer, deputy minister for security forces in Iraq's Kurdistan, said about 100 shells were fired around the town of Zakho in northern Iraq. No one was hurt but many residents were forced to flee, he told Reuters. The barrage followed the killing of three Turkish soldiers when their vehicle hit a rebel landmine near the border with Iraq, he said.
108 Iraq Experts Call For Oil Law Change
More than 100 Iraqi oil, economic and legal experts sent a letter to Iraq's Parliament urging it to consider their critique of the draft oil law. A senior Iraqi government official was also given a copy and agreed with the technocrats' assessment. "With our conviction for the need of a law to organize the upstream sector and its development, and due to its extreme importance, we emphasize the importance of acting steadily," the letter states, "and not rushing its issuance before enriching it with more discussions and carry out amendments that ensure the interest of all the Iraqi people." The letter calls for a strong central government arm in maintaining and developing Iraq's vast oil and gas sector, though with the "participation of the regions and the governorates in the operations of planning, implementation and management within a comprehensive vision that ensures the maximum benefits for the whole people of Iraq."
Trench Proposed Around Kirkuk
U.S. and Iraqi officials Tuesday announced a ban on truck traffic into Kirkuk and proposed digging a trench around the northern city, where a series of bombs killed at least 76 people a day earlier. The idea of encircling the city with a trench underscored fears that the violence in Baghdad and neighboring Diyala province will overtake the once-peaceful north as increased U.S. troop levels drive insurgents from the capital. Police in a village in Diyala said Tuesday that they suspected that Sunni Muslim militants chased out of the provincial capital of Baqubah were to blame for the slaying of 28 Shiite Muslims. At a meeting in Kirkuk, officials announced the indefinite truck ban and the digging of the trench, which already had been planned on the southwestern and western edges of the city. There was no indication of when the project would be finished. Similar plans have been suggested for Baghdad but never have come to fruition. [I propose we build a trench around the White House and all of Congress, including the Senate and Representatives office. Then cut their phone, cable and electrical lines. I bet they will wake up and start restoring our Constitution in no time. – dancewater]
Grim tattoo subculture emerges amid daily violence
"My age is the same as the olive tree," reads the blue tattoo on Qaisar Tariq al-Essawi's left shoulder. Al-Eassawi, 36, got the tattoo so his family and close friends could recognise his remains if he ended up in a morgue. "I selected this wording because only my family and close friends know about our olive tree which was planted by my father when I was born," al-Essawi, a father of two boys, told IRIN in Baghdad. One response to sudden and violent death which has become commonplace in Iraq's turmoil, is the emergence of a new subculture - the etching of tattoo identities on people who fear becoming an unclaimed body in a packed morgue. It is more than just another grim footnote in a nation brimming with sad stories. It points to how deeply war and sectarian bloodshed have transformed the way Iraqis live today and confront the constant possibility of death.
…."I sold my car, my wife's gold and some of our furniture to raise the US$10,000 ransom they asked for, and we gave it to them," said al-Jabouri, a father of six. "Next day, one of them called and said 'you idiot your daughter is in the morgue as she was killed in a car bomb explosion 10 days ago'," he said. A police officer who requested anonymity called such groups 'human vultures': "They attend the scenes of bomb blasts to steal mobile phones, money and watches from the dead and badly hurt," he said. He blamed organised criminal gangs "who recruit policemen sometimes" to carry out such things, and they prefer maimed bodies that are very hard to identify. "This is normal in such circumstances," said Abdul-Jabar Mohammed Amin, a Baghdad-based social researcher at the al-Mustansiriyah university. "With all the daily suffering - what with poor services, explosions, bloody scenes everywhere you go and criminal acts - Iraqi society is almost finished," Abdul-Jabar said.
Not Enough
They were playing in their garden – one still a baby running around bare footed on the lawn with his milk bottle in his hand, his sister chasing him with a big fluffy monster making monster sounds – their world falls apart the moment the IED goes off. Does it really matter that they did not have my children's faces? The glass is blown with such force – it is only a fraction of a second – and both are down. How can one continue to be human, filled with human feelings and not withdraw into that inner place were no hurt can follow?? Driving faster than usual, feeling quite unreal, I feel like testing my humanity against some blast wall – just to see if I'm still human. Hot tears come to my rescue, but they are not enough. Not enough.
"Secret Prison" Uncovered in Kadhimiya
A “secret prison,” possibly run by one of Iraq’s powerful militias, has been discovered by the Iraqi government in Baghdad, according to a Slogger source. IraqSlogger has learned from an informed source inside the Iraqi administration that some days ago an off-the-grid prison was discovered in the Baghdad district of Kadhimiya, holding approximately 415 prisoners in its underground facility. The prisoners inside reportedly date back to the tenure of the previous minister of the Interior, Bayan Jabr Solagh, who held that post from 2005 to 2006. The prison was reportedly discovered in Kadhimiya’s fifth district within the last few days, and very few Iraqi officials even at high levels of government know any details about the installation. According to Slogger's source, the facility is said to have contained over 600 people at one time, mostly Sunni Arabs, among them pilots, colonels, generals and other military officers who held positions of influence in the former regime, though many prisoners were also ordinary citizens. Militia groups running the site reportedly execute prisoners periodically, leaving the population of the prison around 415 at the time of its discovery.
REPORTS – IRAQI MILITIAS, POLITICIANS, POWER BROKERS
Out of the Shadows
Dr Zubeidy is a hunted man. His picture has been shown on Iraqi TV as a wanted terrorist. Since Shia militia came to his house in Baghdad to kill him last year - and kidnapped and murdered his brother-in-law when they realised that he wasn't home - he has rarely slept in the same place twice and always carries fake ID. "Fortunately there are many thousands who are also wanted," he says. "But I have had to move 37 times. It has been very difficult for my children in particular - they have often had to change schools and it has had a psychological impact on them. But they understand what this is all about - they're also fighting with me in their own way." A medical doctor in his late 40s, Abd al-Rahman al-Zubeidy was imprisoned under Saddam Hussein for hiding and treating a friend who had got into a fight with an official from Saddam's Ba'athist regime. He was released in a general amnesty in the run-up to the US-British invasion.
Sitting next to him, Abdallah Suleiman Omary, an engineer with a stubbly beard and reading glasses, draws a map of the al-Ghazaliya area of Baghdad, where he was living until recently, in an attempt to explain the impact of the recent US "surge" in troop numbers on areas where Sunni resistance is strongest. "They have now built a concrete wall blocking all but one road into the district from the Baghdad expressway," he says. "To get to my house, you have to pass a bridge with a checkpoint, an American base, a gated entrance and a further four checkpoints in one kilometre. Yesterday, they banned all cars in the area because of the fear of car bombs. "But," he adds, "we are still able to launch attacks. Weapons are brought in by hand. Fighters watch the soldiers until they leave the checkpoints to buy something - then they follow them and kill them."
…."We are the only resistance movement in modern history that has received no help or support from any other country," Omary declares. "The reason is that we are fighting America." The 1920 Revolution Brigades spokesman is an articulate and sophisticated operator, who - if he survives the counterinsurgency and sectarian onslaught - clearly has the potential to become an influential voice in a future Iraq. "Our position is that there are two kinds of people in Iraq: not Sunni and Shia, Kurdish and Arab, Muslim and Christian, but those who are with the occupation and those who are against it." Anyone who takes part in the institutions set up by the occupation, such as the government and parliament, army or police, are regarded as collaborators. "Our organisation began its operations in the first days after the invasion and wherever you find the occupation, you will find us: from Mosul, Baghdad and Samarra to Basra, Hillah and Kirkuk," continues Omary. "Our group has also carried out attacks on British forces in Basra." They are not a Sunni sectarian organisation, he insists: "The military leader of the Brigades is a Kurd. Iraq is for all Iraqis and we only distinguish between those who cooperate with the occupation and those who do not. If my brother cooperates with the occupation, I will kill him - but the innocent must not be touched."
Insurgents form political front to plan for US pullout
Leaders of Iraqi groups say attacks will go on until Americans leave. Seven of the most important Sunni-led insurgent organisations fighting the US occupation in Iraq have agreed to form a public political alliance with the aim of preparing for negotiations in advance of an American withdrawal, their leaders have told the Guardian. In their first interview with the western media since the US-British invasion of 2003, leaders of three of the insurgent groups - responsible for thousands of attacks against US and Iraqi armed forces and police - said they would continue their armed resistance until all foreign troops were withdrawn from Iraq, and denounced al-Qaida for sectarian killings and suicide bombings against civilians. Speaking in Damascus, the spokesmen for the three groups - the 1920 Revolution Brigades, Ansar al-Sunna and Iraqi Hamas - said they planned to hold a congress to launch a united front and appealed to Arab governments, other governments and the UN to help them establish a permanent political presence outside Iraq. Abu Ahmad, spokesman for Iraqi Hamas said: "Peaceful resistance will not end the occupation. The US made clear it intended to stay for many decades. Now it is a common view in the resistance that they will start to withdraw within a year. "
….The insurgent groups deny support from any foreign government, including Syria, but claim they have been offered and rejected funding and arms from Iran. They say they have been under pressure from Saudi Arabia and Turkey to unite. "We are the only resistance movement in modern history which has received no help or support from any other country," Abdallah Suleiman Omary, head of the political department of the 1920 Revolution Brigades, told the Guardian. "The reason is we are fighting America."
Iraqi Military Base Lacks Fuel, Power
A shortage of electricity and fuel at an Iraqi military base has led to deteriorating equipment, difficulties with medical care and spoiled food that sent Iraqi troops to the hospital, a U.S. report says. The assessment, delivered by Stuart W. Bowen Jr., the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, said the Al Rasheed Brigade facility was not receiving enough electrical power from the city grid and was relying on generators. But contractors were not supplying enough fuel to keep the five generators going, leading to failures in the wastewater processing and refrigeration systems. In the most significant incident, the report said 300 Iraqis were hospitalized with intestinal illnesses after eating bad food. The report added that "emergency medical care is severely affected by insufficient power."
Gorilla Suit
In both countries, even the proxy governments want the superpower to stop killing their people. In Afghanistan, according to the Observer — where the new head of NATO operations, American Gen. Dan McNeill, is nicknamed “Bomber McNeill” — President Hamid Karzai has condemned the coalition’s careless use of extreme force and its attitude that Afghan lives are “cheap.” And a British officer, commenting on the carnage of the Helmand Province air strike, said, “Every civilian dead means five new Taliban.” In Iraq, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said the U.S. had no business raiding Sadr City and, as AP reported, declared: “The Iraqi government totally rejects U.S. military operations ... conducted without a preapproval from the Iraqi military command. Anyone who breaches the military command orders will face investigation.” And here we are, back at home with our poll numbers and our consciences. The political process is broken; the war and the undisclosed agenda — permanent U.S. occupation of a strategic region — have, if not complete political immunity, then at least what seems like indefinite opportunity to pursue a failed strategy. Maybe things will turn around!
REPORTS – US/UK/OTHERS IN IRAQ
Head of Islamic State of Iraq an invention, U.S. military says
The Iraqi to whom even al Qaida paid homage was a creation of the leader of al Qaida in Iraq, Abu Ayub al Masri, and that group's most senior Iraqi leader, Khalid Abdul-Fattah Dawoud Mahmoud al Mashhadani, Brig. Gen. Kevin Bergner said. He said Mashhadani, whom U.S. forces in Mosul nabbed on July 4, briefed his captors in detail about "Baghdadi" — how he was created and used over the past year. The reason for inventing "Baghdadi" was to put an Iraqi face on a foreign-led group, Bergner said. Al Qaida's leadership is believed to be mainly foreign while its fighters are largely Iraqi. "Baghdadi," whose tribal name, al Hashemi, denoted that he was a descendant of the prophet Muhammad, was portrayed as the perfect candidate to lead Islamic State of Iraq.
America pulling the plug on its freelancers?
It should be noted that the "unmasking" of al-Baghdadi yesterday follows weeks and months of reports, in some cases only hints, of US-forces local alliances with not only Sunni tribal fighters, but also break-away elements from the major Sunni national resistance groups, a process that has given rise to a whole series of reorganization-announcements from the resistance groups. Is it possible that US-alliances with Sunni tribal and resistance elements has made enough progress that it can now be "institutionalized" in the same way that the the anti-Hizbullah strategy in Lebanon, and the anti-Hamas strategy in Gaza have been "institutionalized"? The US invaded Iraq and then used Shiite groups to harass the Sunnis (and in particular the Baathists); now it is using Sunni groups to harass the Shiites (and in particular the Sadrists) in order to complete the dismemberment of Iraq. The role of the takfiiris and the salafis in this process has been to keep the flames of sectarian strife burning. Possibly, having done their job, they aren't needed any more.
American troops leave injured Aussie for dead
AN Australian private security operator was left for dead by US forces in southern Iraq after he was seriously wounded during an ambush. The Americans actually refused to provide a helicopter evacuation flight after they were told the wounded man was Australian, sources told the Daily Telegraph. The Queenslander was eventually delivered to Basra air base by a British road convoy more than seven hours after the attack, suffering severe leg and abdominal injuries. Three of his Iraqi colleagues, including an interpreter, died during the attack on June 25.
US Military Urged to revise Tarnished “Brand”
Like the maker of an out-of-favor car or sneaker, the U.S. military needs a new "branding" campaign to earn civilian support in Iraq, Afghanistan and other hot spots, a report for the Pentagon said on Tuesday. "We will help you" could be the pitch, said the 211-page survey by RAND Corp., a nonprofit research group that carries out many studies for the Defense Department. [“We will help you die sooner rather than later” could be possible slogan. – dancewater] It said said the U.S. military "brand" had been tarnished by, among other things, images of Abu Ghraib prison; the U.S. military detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba; and post-invasion gaps in getting Iraqi civilians electricity and clean water. U.S. forces should heed product "positioning" and branding lessons from such consumer-savvy powerhouses as Lexus, Ritz-Carlton hotels and Nike, said the report. The study was ordered by the U.S. Joint Forces Command, which helps steer military modernization. "It's not just a matter of putting the right 'spin' on U.S. military actions," said Todd Helmus, a behavioral scientist and the report's lead author. "It's synchronizing what we say with what we do." [This would mean they would have to stop being hypocrites. – dancewater]
US marine guilty of Iraq killing
A US marine has been found guilty of kidnapping and conspiring to murder an Iraqi civilian shot dead during an overnight raid near Baghdad last year. Cpl Trent Thomas was the first of eight members of an infantry unit to go on trial for the killing of Hashim Ibrahim Awad, 52, in Hamdaniya in April 2006. The Purple Heart recipient, who was acquitted of premeditated murder, faces a maximum sentence of life in prison. Cpl Thomas withdrew his plea of guilty in February after having an "epiphany". The decision was based on a belief that he had lawful authority for his actions.
US draws new Iraq-Al Qaeda link
The US military says it caught the man who ties Osama bin Laden's network to Iraq. The US military on Wednesday added new grist to the Bush administration's claims that the Al Qaeda that American forces are battling in Iraq is an extension of the group that was behind the 9/11 attacks. At a press conference in Baghdad, Brig. Gen. Kevin Bergner said the military had nabbed the seniormost Iraqi leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq, a man he said was the link between that outfit and Osama bin Laden. The news appeared to further indicate a connection between Al Qaeda in Iraq and the global network, though many critics are skeptical. Analysts and some Iraqi officials say the groups share goals and ideology, but there is little evidence of tactical guidance from Mr. bin Laden or his colleagues. "The Americans have been playing up the role of Al Qaeda in the context of the insurgency.... Al Qaeda is clearly an important segment in the counterinsurgency campaign, but it's not the only one. It may not be the biggest quantitative factor but qualitatively they are important," says Martin Navias, a counterterrorism expert at the Centre for Defence Studies at King's College in London. Mr. Navias says there is a physical connection between "Al Qaeda central and Al Qaeda in Iraq." [Uh-huh. – dancewater]
COMMENTARY
OPINION: U.S. Crimes: Business as Usual in Iraq
After four years of failure in Iraq, the country has learned many lessons from the war. Almost all of them are nearly as wrong as the hallucinations of George Bush and Dick Cheney. Perhaps the hoariest myth of the mainstream war critics is the claim that the occupation failed because we didn’t send enough troops. Closely related is some underlying idea that our troops over there spend their time reading to sick Iraqi orphans while crazy Arabs try to kill them and each other. On my first trip to Iraq, in January 2004, it took about half a day to discover that, contrary to press accounts of the time, the occupation was failing. What was difficult for me to put together, and to credit when I did, was that the primary proximate cause was not the lack of a government and widespread anarchy and neglect in society, not apprehension over potential neocolonial appropriation of Iraqi resources and economic restructuring, and not even generalized resentment over foreign occupation by a hated enemy widely considered responsible for the devastation of Iraqi society through the sanctions in place from 1990 to 2003 – though all of these considerations were present. It was the behavior of the American troops.
OPINION: America is just starting to wake up to the awesome scale of its Iraq disaster
Iraq is over. Iraq has not yet begun. Two conclusions from the American debate about Iraq, which dominates the media in the US to the exclusion of almost any other foreign story. Iraq is over insofar as the American public has decided that most US troops should leave. In a Gallup poll earlier this month, 71% favoured "removing all US troops from Iraq by April 1 of next year, except for a limited number that would be involved in counter-terrorism efforts". CNN's veteran political analyst Bill Schneider observes that in the latter years of the Vietnam war, the American public's basic attitude could be summarised as "either win or get out". He argues that it's the same with Iraq. Despite George Bush's increasingly desperate pleas, most Americans have now concluded that the US is not winning. So get out.
….In history, the most important consequences are often the unintended ones. We do not yet know the longer term unintended consequences of Iraq. Maybe there is a silver lining hidden somewhere in this cloud. But so far as the human eye can see, the likely consequences of Iraq range from the bad to the catastrophic. Looking back over a quarter-century of writing about international affairs, I can not recall a more comprehensive and avoidable man-made disaster.
An Occupation of Iraq Is Not Ours to Choose
With typical U.S arrogance, our Congress, and the White House, now debate if, how, and when, to leave Iraq, and also about how many troops we should leave for a "training force", if we are to leave troops there. What they are blind and deaf to is the cold and bloody fact that the people of Iraq have already spoken, and they have told us to get ALL of our troops out in a very loud voice. Nowhere in the discussion is heard a word about how the citizens of Iraq feel about our genocidal presence. You'd think that the USA wasn't guilty of an illegal war. A small band of egomaniacs plotted to destroy Iraq, and now the choice of whether to stay there or not isn't ours to make. Any U.S. soldier that is forced to stay in Iraq is likely to be killed, if left behind, and any Iraq citizen that complies with those troops, is also subject to be killed. There is only one way to leave Iraq, and that is completely. Once our troops are out, we are obliged, on our knees, to assist in rebuilding what the criminals that created this war have destroyed. Many people say that we should leave troops there, but to do so is to sentence those troops to hatred and the likelihood of a violent death because of what we have done. We have no right to leave any U.S. presence in Iraq. It is a well established fact that attacking Iraq was a war crime, and to sit back now and debate how much control we are entitled to is disgusting, and a very sick joke.
IRAQI REFUGEES
The List
Here you will find background on the crisis faced by Iraqi refugees, specifically those who aided the United States in its attempt to rebuild Iraq. They rejoiced at the toppling of Saddam, and signed up to help. Their belief in America has now made them the most hunted class in Iraq, where they flee routine death threats, abduction, assassination, torture, and extortion. Their faith in American democracy cost them their country. Now they need our help. You can join the struggle to honor Iraqis' sacrifices through this website. The List partners with the law firms of Holland & Knight, Proskauer Rose and Amnesty International USA in an unprecedented effort to advocate for hundreds of our Iraqi allies now seeking refuge in the United States.
How to Help Iraqi Refugees
RESISTANCE
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: Even though we have used terrorists to promote a genocidal foreign policy, the terms have been narrowly defined to preclude them from being applied to American or NATO actions. - Peter Chamberlin
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