News & Views 07/23/07

Photo: Baghdad, IRAQ: Iraqi displaced children play outside a camp for displaced people in Baghdad's al-Karrada neighbourhood. AHMAD AL-RUBAYE/AFP/Getty Images

REPORTS – LIFE IN IRAQ

Reporting Under Fire

This week on War News Radio, we hear about the survival tactics of journalist interpreters in Iraq, and how they escape from the war zone. Listen now to Eric Chiang’s report. We also hear about the Iraqi reporters who stay, and the challenges that one of them faced. Listen now to Meredith Firetog’s report. These stories, plus the week’s war news, from War News Radio.

Safety of top Iraq cleric questioned

The safety of Iraq's pre-eminent Shiite cleric is in question after one of his close aides was stabbed to death in the Muslim leader's compound in the holy city of Najaf, a place beset by unsolved murders and believed to be infiltrated by insurgents. Najaf's police chief, Brig. Gen. Abdul-Karim al-Mayahi, said late Sunday that authorities had arrested the alleged killer—a security guard at the compound of the much-revered cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani. An official at the Iranian-born cleric's office said the person arrested may have only played a supporting role in the weekend killing of Sheik Abdullah Falak al-Basrawi. His death came a little over a month after another al-Sistani aide was killed in a drive-by shooting.

….Security at al-Sistani's compound has been stepped up, with more armed guards posted at the entrance, which lies off the city's storied Rasoul street close to the gold-domed shrine of Imam Ali, Shiism's most revered saint. Routine body searches of visitors were markedly more thorough Sunday, and identity documents were examined more carefully, witnesses said. It was immediately clear whether al-Basrawi's killing was part of internal Shiite disputes or the work of Sunni insurgents opposed to the vast influence enjoyed by al-Sistani over Iraqi Shiites and politics. The official at al-Sistani's office also said theft may have been a motive.

Displaced Iraqis Establishing Own Camps

Thousands of Iraqis have been setting up their own improvised displacement camps after fleeing violence in their home areas and being turned away from already overcrowded formal camps. “We didn’t have a choice,” said Muhammad Bilal, 43, who lives in a makeshift camp on the outskirts of Al Hillah, the capital of Babil province in central Iraq. “We tried to get support in three camps near the capital, but we were not allowed in by locals who had already settled there. And the local NGO looking after the families said they couldn’t offer the same assistance to us.” After numerous futile attempts to find a safe place for his family to stay, Bilal and dozens of other men in the same situation decided to set up their own camp. “We decided to sell all our goods, cars and some people who have relatives outside Iraq contributed money which helped us to buy some tents and store some food,” Bilal said. Their initiative has been repeated across Babil province, in Ninawa province in the north and Diyalah province in the east. Local non-governmental groups (NGOs) have welcomed the initiative but say they do not have the funds to support this increasing number of displaced families.

US Choppers Kill - Who? Enemy or Innocents?

This much is agreed upon: at least six Iraqis died overnight Saturday when American attack helicopters pounded a cluster of homes in a dusty, nondescript neighborhood on the northern outskirts of Baghdad. But the story of why those homes were targeted and who was killed depends on the storyteller. The U.S. military said the dead were insurgents and the homes in the Husseiniya district probably served as weapons depots; troops observed seven or more secondary explosions after the air assault. By the military's tally, six fighters were killed and five wounded. Iraqi residents told a different version: the dead came from two Shiite Muslim families who lived in an area controlled by the powerful Mahdi Army militia. The bodies pulled from the rubble, locals say, were ordinary parents killed with their children in the middle of the night. Locals counted 11 corpses - two men, two women, and seven children. Another 10 were injured. Some Iraqi authorities put the death toll as high as 18. ….."I took out with my own hands the bodies of two young children, two men, two adult women and four little girls," said Bassem al Musawi, 30, who lives in the neighborhood. "I don't know why the Americans bombed these homes. I know one was the house of Abu Mustafa. He's a very poor man with only one boy and the rest of his family are girls. And he didn't even have a rifle."

Thanx young men

About two hours ago, our national soccer team won the match of the quarter final against Vietnam in Asia championship and now we passed to the semi final match. Our forward star Younis Mahmoud got the two goals, they were both great goals but the second one was the most beautiful one in the whole championship. Mahmoud celebrated by kissing the Iraqi flag he puts on his left hand. he took us to a new world where no politicians could ever take us too because Younis Mahmoud is a real Iraqi man while our politicians are only politicians having two citizenships, they are never pure Iraqis and they will never be ones.I just wanted to say thank you very much our young men, thank you for pleasing all the Iraqis, thank you for unifying all the Iraqis, thank you for being so loyal Iraqis. Thank you Youonis for your great efforts, Thank you Karrar, Thank you Nash'at, thank you Abbas and thank you all. GOD Bless Iraq, GOD Bless you young men, GO Forward men and get the golden cup to return smile back to the drooping lips of your people.

Photos: Signs in Baghdad

REPORTS – IRAQI MILITIAS, POLITICIANS, POWER BROKERS

Syria intervenes to cancel Iraq rebels meetings

A large meeting of Iraqi rebel groups that was due to be held in Damascus on Monday was cancelled at the behest of Syria, delegates said. Hundreds of delegates, including members of the banned Iraqi Baath Party, officers in Saddam Hussein's now defunct security forces and anti-U.S. tribal leaders, had gathered in Damascus to work out a joint programme for groups opposed to the continued presence of U.S. forces in Iraq. "The Syrians gently made it clear that this is not the time for this," a senior Baath Party member told Reuters. "The Americans and their Iraqi government clients are intensifying their lies that Syria is behind terrorism and attacks on innocent Iraqis, which we all condemn." He was speaking at a meeting to announce the cancellation of the conference at a hotel in the outskirts of Damascus. The decision did not go down well with most participants, especially those who had travelled from Iraq.

Authorities plan to issue special IDs to Baghdad residents

In a bid to reduce sectarian violence, the Iraqi authorities have decided to issue special IDs to Baghdad residents to make it easy to identify militants, a senior military officer said. "The aim is to easily differentiate between true residents of Baghdad and strangers and militants who come from other provinces to carry out terrorist attacks," Brig Qassim al-Mousawi, spokesman of the commander-in-chief of the Iraqi armed forces, said. "Nine security centres will be opened in Baghdad soon to issue these IDs, five on the western side and four on the eastern side, and these centres will be run by the US army, Iraqi security forces and local officials in each neighbourhood," al-Mousawi said. He did not specify when the authorities would issue these new IDs, which would bear a person’s full name and address. However, a former senior army official criticised the plan. "The Iraqi government and US army are skirting around the problem instead of getting to the bottom of it," said retired Brig Fadhil Salman Abdul-Muhaimen, who served nearly 30 years in the former Iraqi army. "Terrorists, militants, insurgents or whatever they call them not only come from outside Baghdad, they are also residents of Baghdad," Abdul-Muhaimen said.

Living Becomes Hard in a Dead City

Heavy U.S military operations, sectarian death squads and al-Qaeda militants have combined to make normal life in Baquba, 50 km northeast of Baghdad, all but impossible. Movement from the city to another destination is extremely dangerous. Kidnappings have become rampant in a lawless city where government control is only a mirage. Lack of security and mobility have meant severe shortages of fuel, food, medical supplies and other necessities. The central market in the city of about 325,000 has vanished. It is not just the shopping that is gone. People used to meet acquaintances in the market to socialise and sometimes do business. The ongoing violence has ended all that. The market has become scattered around city districts. Many shop owners have reopened smaller shops within their houses, and abandoned their business locations. About two or three persons have been killed or abducted in the market daily on average in recent weeks. This had started to happen even before the U.S. military operation Arrowhead Ripper was launched last month with the intention of targeting al-Qaeda forces. Now residents say it is much worse. "The troops have closed all the outlets from the city, and never allow cars to move," Amir Ayad, a 51-year-old assistant professor in the sciences college at Diyala University told IPS. "To get my college, I have to get a cart as other people do. It is five kilometres, and it is better than walking."

REPORTS – US/UK/OTHERS IN IRAQ

Iraq: al-Qaeda stages military parade in Diyala village

Militants linked to al-Qaeda are reported to have staged a military parade in the village of Miqdadiya, in Diyala province north of Baghdad, to demonstrate their viability in the face of a massive US offensive in the area.

Saudi prince sponsoring terrorist groups

The Baztab Internet site reported that Saudi Prince Bandar bin Sultan is supporting the so called Mujahedin Khalq Organization and also al-Qaeda and Fath al-Islam now operating in Lebanon. The site said that in an MKO congress held recently in the groups Ashraf military camp in Iraq, Prince Bandar donated $750,000 to the exiled group in the presence of former Iraqi Baath leaders, intelligence officers, several members of al-Qaeda and the armed group Ansar al-Sunna. Prince Bandar, who served for 20 years as Saudi ambassador to the US, maintains close ties with US President George W. Bush and is known affectionately within that family as "Bandar Bush".

U.S Air Force, Navy seeing growing duty in Iraq

The decision to send thousands of airmen and sailors into nontraditional assignments such as convoy duty reflects growing personnel shortages as the armed forces try to sustain the highest troop levels of the war.

UK Army doctors in Baha Mousa case 'colluded in cover-up'

Doctors who examined Baha Mousa, a 24-year-old Basra hotel worker who was kicked and beaten to death in British custody in 2003, have been reported to the General Medical Council. The move follows allegations that army doctors who treated the detainees colluded in a cover-up by misdiagnosing and failing to properly document the extent of prisoners' injuries. Doctors who examined Baha Mousa said in legal evidence that they saw no injuries on his body, except "a little dried blood" around his nostril. However, a post-mortem found that Mr Mousa had 93 injuries. Photographs of his corpse show clearly his face, chest and upper body covered with contusions and bruising. The details of Mr Mousa's injuries and his medical inspections are outlined in a 383-point dossier submitted to the Ministry of Defence by Phil Shiner of Public Interest Lawyers, who is acting on behalf of the former detainees. The dossier will increase the pressure for the Ministry of Defence to hold a full public inquiry into the abuse and torture of Iraqi civilian prisoners in Basra by UK troops.

Destabilizing Iraq, Broadly Defined

Be careful what you say and whom you help -- especially when it comes to the Iraq war and the Iraqi government. President Bush issued an executive order last week titled "Blocking Property of Certain Persons Who Threaten Stabilization Efforts in Iraq." In the extreme, it could be interpreted as targeting the financial assets of any American who directly or indirectly aids someone who has committed or "poses a significant risk of committing" violent acts "threatening the peace or stability of Iraq" or who undermines "efforts to promote economic reconstruction and political reform" in the war-torn country. The executive order, released Tuesday, was designed to target "perpetrators of violence in Iraq including Shiite militia groups linked to Iran, Sunni insurgent groups with sanctuary in Syria, and other indigenous Iraqi insurgent groups," said Molly Millerwise, a spokeswoman for the Treasury Department, which will determine who is in violation of the order. The move follows similar Bush orders to freeze assets of members or associates of al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups and former Iraqi government officials, Millerwise said. "It fills in the cracks," she added. White House press secretary Tony Snow offered further clarification at a briefing on Tuesday: "What this is really aimed at is insurgents and those who come across the border . . . or anybody who is caught providing support or poses a significant risk of providing support to those who may come across the border."

.... What happens then to the Shiite Iraqi American who sends money or speaks out in support of humanitarian efforts by Moqtada al-Sadr's political party? We'll have to wait and see. Though Millerwise said the Treasury Department already has some names in mind for the list, they will be disclosed only after their assets under U.S. control are frozen.

Iraq: Marines Can Get Away With Killing Civilians

A military tribunal at Camp Pendelton, released Cpl. Trent Thomas this week without ordering him to prison, despite his conviction in the murder of an Iraqi civilian last year in Hamdaniya, Iraq. Thomas is typical of most American soldiers charged with murdering Iraqi civilians. In Thomas’ case, the civilian was kidnapped and murdered in cold blood. There are even many who believe that there are far more cases of Iraqi civilians who are murdered by American soldiers, but that those cases are hushed up to minimize the embarrassment. I mean, let’s face it. American Marines allegedly came to Iraq to topple the government of Saddam Hussein that was involved in the murder of Iraqi civilians. How would it look if it turned out that more Iraqi civilians might be murdered at the hands of their so-called liberators than killed at the hands of the so-called dictator, Saddam Hussein? Yet, even when American soldiers are caught red-handed and can’t avoid prosecution — most cases take months and even years before the facts are even made public and prosecutions can be made — most are released with minor punishments.

COMMENTARY

Iraq, the vets' view

AFTER FOUR YEARS of war, most Americans still remain sheltered from the day-to-day realities of the occupation of Iraq, especially its effects on Iraqis. With reporter Laila Al-Arian, I spent the last few months interviewing 50 combat veterans, and in thousands of pages of transcripts, they told a brutal story. With extraordinary honesty, these veterans — medics, MPs, artillerymen, snipers, officers and others — revealed disturbing patterns of behavior by American troops: innocents terrorized during midnight raids, civilian cars fired on when they got too close to supply convoys and troops opening up on vehicles that zip past poorly marked checkpoints, only to discover that they'd shot a 3-year-old or an elderly man. The campaign against a mostly invisible enemy, many veterans said, has given rise to a culture of fear and even hatred among U.S. forces, many of whom, losing ground and beleaguered, have, in effect, declared war on all Iraqis. The interviewed vets, who served in 2003, 2004 and 2005, emphasized that indiscriminate killing of civilians was carried out by a minority within their ranks. But most also agreed that such killings rarely spark investigations and almost never incur punishment. Checkpoints, according to more than two dozen troops who manned them, have become particular flashpoints for violence. "This unit sets up this traffic control point, and this 18-year-old kid is on top of an armored Humvee with a .50-caliber machinegun," said Geoffrey Millard, 26, of Buffalo, N.Y., who served in Tikrit as assistant to a general and often sat in on high-level briefings on such actions. "This car speeds at him pretty quick, and he makes a split-second decision that that's a suicide bomber, and he … puts 200 rounds in less than a minute into this vehicle. It killed the mother, a father and two kids. "They briefed this to the general," Millard said, "and they briefed it gruesome. I mean, they had pictures…. And this colonel turns around to this full division staff and says, 'If these [expletive deleted] hajjis learned to drive, this [expletive deleted] wouldn't happen.'"

Yes to Recriminations Against Iraq Policymakers

This is a bad sign because it is apparently the beginning of the effort to let the Bush administration off the hook. His defenders will insist that things would have gone swimmingly if only the Iraqi politicians had been more responsible. “What are we supposed to do when you have to deal with people like that?” the war party is already asking. This defense must be nipped in the bud. The disaster that is Iraq is the fault of Bush and former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, who stampeded the American people into war with tales of weapons of mass destruction, and the conservative intellectuals who pressed their case for an unprovoked imperial war so the United States could remake the Middle East. They unleashed the violence that takes place there now, having sent the military in without regard for the reaction a Western invasion and occupation would ignite. They are responsible for the deaths. As Randolph Bourne, a critic of U.S. entry into World War I, said, “Willing war means willing all the evils that are organically bound up with it.”

A Really Bad Case of Neocon Reality

Reality mugs us all, in the end. In those heady post-9/11 days when the America’s stunned acquiescence made the neoconservative dream of limitless executive and US power seem eminently attainable, the gang running the White House grew fond of quoting pundit Irving Kristol’s aphorism: “A neoconservative is a liberal who’s been mugged by reality.” In this smug formulation, “reality” was understood to mean violence and power — epitomized both by the terrorist attacks that brought down the Twin Towers in a hail of falling bodies and burning rubble, and by the planned US response in Afghanistan and (later) Iraq. To the neocons, “reality” was bombs, blood and fire — the transformative effects of shock and awe. In a much-quoted 2004 New York Times Magazine article, journalist Ron Suskind described a 2002 conversation with a senior Bush adviser — widely assumed to be Karl Rove — who added an extra gloss to Kristol’s aphorism, making it clear that “reality” can mean different things to different people. As Suskind relates the story: “The aide said that guys like me were ‘in what we call the reality-based community,’ which he defined as people who ‘believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality.’ I nodded and murmured something about enlightenment principles and empiricism. He cut me off. ‘That’s not the way the world really works anymore. We’re an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you’re studying that reality — judiciously, as you will — we’ll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that’s how things will sort out. We’re history’s actors ... and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.”’

IRAQI REFUGEES

Jordan May Change Iraqi Refugee Laws

Deputy Head of UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) Craig Johnstone said at the end of his first trip to Jordan and Syria that progress had been made on the plight of Iraqi refugees.
Johnstone told IRIN on 22 July he had “very good meetings” with government officials from the two countries. He hoped a change in Jordanian law would allow refugees better access to education and medical facilities. “Within the next week or two [the government] will issue some decree that will ameliorate the situation for the refugees,” he said. At present, a large number of Iraqi refugees have been refused residency in Jordan, restricting their access to domestic services, including education. However, according to Johnstone, the government is in the process of rethinking this policy and he expects an imminent change to grant refugees access to more basic services. Jordan is currently home to up to 750,000 Iraqi refugees. However, following the November 2005 Iraqi-insurgent linked bombing in Amman which killed 60 people, the government has largely blocked the entry of new refugees, a policy Johnstone does not expect to change. “I see very little prospect that they’re going to open their borders any time soon,” he said.

In Syria, which still grants Iraqis entry into the country, Johnstone praised government policy towards the estimated 1.5 million refugees, but expressed concern for the 1,400 Palestinians stranded in makeshift desert camps on the Syrian-Iraqi border. The Syrian government has refused Palestinians entry into the country for fear that it will lead to the inflow of all 15,000 Palestinians in Iraq. Returning from a trip to Al-Tanf and Al-Walid camps, Johnstone described the situation as desperate. ….. He said a third country had been willing to accept the Palestinians but that the proposal had been vetoed by the Palestinian Authority worried that the flight of Palestinians from the region would endanger their right of return.

How to Help Iraqi Refugees

RESISTANCE

Facing the Truth

A marine not only convicted of conspiring to commit kidnapping, larceny, and making false statements; but the murder - MURDER - of an innocent Iraqi man, was given his sentence. He is to receive a reduction in rank and a bad conduct discharge. THIS is what America has become. It is now considered “bad conduct” to murder an unarmed man, knowingly return to the scene to fabricate the appearance of self-defense and hide the facts after the fact. Murdering an innocent Iraqi is now considered “Bad Conduct.”
In 2004 my husband, a ten-year US Army veteran, made a conscious decision to no longer participate in war – he spoke openly of the bad conduct of his commanders in giving orders to soldiers in his unit which not only jeopardized the lives of innocent Iraqis, and children, but also those of the soldiers he served with. For his decision to no longer be part of the destruction, wanton killing, and unjust, immoral action this war has shown itself to be, my husband was accused of being a deserter, faced trumped up, fabricated charges of intentionally missing his unit’s movement, and when the first court-martial attempt failed, was handed additional trumped up charges of larceny for combat pay his command erroneously placed in his paycheck. During a second court-martial attempt he was found guilty of missing movement or not getting on a plane and was sentenced to 15 months in prison, loss of all pay, reduction in rank and a dishonorable discharge. A veteran with ten years of honorable service, who took a stand to no longer participate in an action in which murdering innocents is acceptable is now considered “Dishonorable.” How low do you intend to go, America?

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: “Before, we couldn’t even stand in the doorway of our house, scared that a bullet would come our way. Our children were crying every day and never sleeping,” said Um Khudar, 34, a mother of three living in a camp housing up to 370 people on the outskirts of Al Hillah. “The children are sleeping now, we can sit outside our tents and speak with other people and until now we have food and water donated by some local NGOs. We don’t know what will happen tomorrow, what our destiny is, but at least on some days we can live in a peaceful environment,” she said.