Photo: Iraqi people gather to mourn the dead as the coffin is carried high, for those who died during clashes in the holy city of Karbala, 80 kilometers (50 miles) south of Baghdad, Iraq, on Friday, July 27, 2007. The clashes between Shiite militia fighters and U.S. soldiers, early this morning, left nine people dead and nearly two dozen wounded, local officials said. (AP Photo/Ghassan al-Yassiri)
REPORTS – LIFE IN IRAQ
US troops battle Kerbala militia
Clashes between Shia militiamen and a joint US-Iraqi force have left nine people dead in an Iraqi holy city. Around 23 people were wounded in the fighting in Kerbala as US and Iraqi troops carried out a pre-dawn raid. Shooting began as the US-Iraqi force moved in to arrest figures from the Mehdi Army, which is loyal to the radical cleric Moqtada Sadr. South-central Iraq has been riven by battles between rival Shia militias and US and Iraqi forces in recent months. Several civilians were reported to have been killed in the clashes, which saw helicopters called in to support the US troops. A spokesman for a political group linked to the Mehdi Army told the AFP news agency that three of the dead were fighters from the Shia militia. The US military, which usually stays out of Kerbala, has not commented on the incident.
Just a tale to tell
I miss my son I miss my home I miss green grass and beautiful flowers in my garden
I miss my extended family, we can't visit any more I miss our gatherings on Thursdays
I miss walking to the roundabout, with my kids, for exercise every evening
I miss Mutanebbi Street on Friday mornings, where I bought countless second-hand books – the only kind there are.
I miss al-Ilwiya Club lunches on Fridays and Bingos on Tuesday evenings
I miss going to the swimming pool and being emmersed in water
I miss shopping around midnight I miss my life
I thank God for my daughter and my son
I thank God that I am able to support them through my job and needn't beg a living from my male relatives (as is customary if I am jobless)
I thank God for good health and strength …… But I still miss my life – and I know that the life I knew here in Baghdad is gone forever and all that remains is a tale to tell… to those who don't know the Baghdad that I knew.
VIDEO: Life in a Palestinian Refugee Camp in Iraq - "Abu Mazen! Are We Not Your People?"
REPORTS – IRAQI MILITIAS, POLITICIANS, POWER BROKERS
Iraqi VP says Baghdad security plan no longer legal
Iraqi Vice President Tareq Al-Hashemi criticized Thursday the security plan imposed in Baghdad and said it was no longer legal after the suspension of emergency laws. The vice president's statement comes after two booby-trapped cars went off Wednesday afternoon while civilians crowded in the streets to celebrate the Iraqi national football team's qualification for the Asian Cup finals. …..Meanwhile, the vice president had said in a meeting with US Ambassador Ryan Crocker yesterday that the Baghdad law enforcement plan was no longer legal after the suspension of the emergency laws in the country. Hashemi's office issued a statement Thursday saying the vice president discussed with the US official the "clear violations" of human rights in Iraq and called for setting up an independent committee to draw light to the extent of this humanitarian catastrophe.
Iraqi government in deepest crisis
Iraq is in the throes of its worst political crisis since the fall of Saddam Hussein with the new democratic system, based on national consensus among its ethnic and sectarian groups, appearing dangerously close to collapsing, say several politicians and analysts. This has brought paralysis to governmental institutions and has left parliament unable to make headway on 18 benchmarks Washington is using to measure progress in Iraq, including legislation on oil revenue sharing and reforming security forces. And the disconnect between Baghdad and Washington over the urgency for solutions is growing. The Iraqi parliament is set for an August vacation as the Bush administration faces pressure to show progress in time for a September report to Congress. At the moment, Iraqi politicians are simply trying to keep the government from disintegrating. On Friday, top Iraqi officials were set to convene in the Kurdish north for a crisis summit, in the hopes that talks held outside of Baghdad's politically poisonous atmosphere may bring some resolution to the current political standstill. President Jalal Talabani and his two deputies, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and the president of the semiautonomous Kurdish region, Massoud Barzani, were set to meet at the Salaheddin summer resort at the end of a difficult week.
REPORTS – US/UK/OTHERS IN IRAQ
When a contractor fires in Iraq, justice fails victim
After one of his personal bodyguards was shot dead by a Blackwater USA security contractor last Christmas Eve, Iraqi Vice President Adil Abdul-Mahdi assured the U.S. ambassador that he was trying to keep the incident out of the public eye. Nevertheless, Abdul-Mahdi told the ambassador, he hoped the contractor would be brought to justice because Iraqis would not understand how a foreigner could kill an Iraqi and be spirited back home a free man. Seven months later, the contractor has not been charged with any crime. Internal correspondence between the U.S. and Iraqi governments over the Dec. 24 shooting, released under the Freedom of Information Act, sheds additional light on an international incident that could test the murky legal status of civilian contractors in Iraq.
U.S. drops Baghdad electricity reports
As the Bush administration struggles to convince lawmakers that its Iraq war strategy is working, it has stopped reporting to Congress a key quality-of-life indicator in Baghdad: how long the power stays on. Ryan Crocker, the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee last week that Baghdad residents could count on only "an hour or two a day" of electricity. That's down from an average of five to six hours a day earlier this year. But that piece of data has not been sent to lawmakers for months because the State Department, which prepares a weekly "status report" for Congress on conditions in Iraq, stopped estimating in May how many hours of electricity Baghdad residents typically receive each day. Instead, the department now reports on the electricity generated nationwide, a measurement that does not indicate how much power Iraqis in Baghdad or elsewhere actually receive.
Baghdad Diarist Speaks Out
After a week of controversy over his columns in The New Republic, the formerly anonymous "Baghdad Diarist" has revealed his identity and apparent lack of creativity in picking a pseudonym. "Scott Thomas" is now Pvt. Scott Thomas Beauchamp. TNR previously identified the pseudonymned Thomas as a "freelance writer and soldier currently serving in Baghdad." A recent column he wrote recounting troubling examples of his fellow soldiers' conduct didn't ring true with some readers, resulting in a firestorm of trouble for TNR. The Weekly Standard's Michael Gordfarb sparked the onslaught, calling it a "mission for milbloggers" to dig into the background of the article, setting of a storm of angry blogging and calls for TNR editor Franklin Foer to reveal the identity of his columnist.
RESISTANCE (All in film)
FILM: The Blood Of My Brother
The Blood of My Brother tells a story of the war in Iraq from a perspective rarely seen. The primary point of view is Iraqi—a family grieving at the tragic death of its eldest son. After years of hard work, Ra’ad, an Iraqi portrait photographer, has saved enough money to open his own shop. On the night of the opening, while volunteering to guard the ancient mosque in Kadhimiya, Ra’ad is shot and killed by an American patrol. Longing for revenge, Ra’ad’s brother Ibrahim dreams of joining the Shia uprising against the American occupation. But as the only male left in the family, Ibrahim must take on the role of breadwinner. “When I see a burning tank, it makes me happy. When I see any Americans or Jews, I want revenge, but I can’t. I have to take care of the house.” While some of his friends leave home to fight the Americans, Ibrahim attempts to continue his brother’s business and provide for his mother and two sisters. The Blood of My Brother takes the viewer behind the scenes of the growing Shia insurgency with scenes of fighting and death on the streets of Sadr City and Najaf. The Blood of My Brother brings war-torn Iraq to life with intimate detail. This is the closest most will ever come to being there, kneeling in prayer amidst a thousand Muslim worshippers, the roar of low-flying Apaches, riding atop a sixty-ton tank, driving with masked resistance fighters to attack American positions, fleeing the threat of an overwhelming response, the blood in the street, a tank on fire, or the cold, distant stare of a dead Iraqi fighter.
Iraq Media Action Project
No End in Sight: US Director’s First Film Probes Iraq War Policy
His documentary, which opens in major U.S. cities on Friday, has earned strong reviews since debuting at January's Sundance Film Festival where it won a Special Jury Prize. "No End in Sight" looks at U.S. policy decisions that led to what many believe is a civil war in Iraq. Separating it from many other Iraq documentaries are interviews with key U.S. officials such as former Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage, who detail problems inside the Bush administration. "I am utterly astonished that, four years after the war, mine is the only film that covers the policy question of, 'What happened here?,' Ferguson said. "In the debate about what to do now in Iraq -- as with any complex issue -- understanding what the real situation is and how we got there is vital to understanding any solution."
Film: War Made Easy
War Made Easy", which is narrated by Hollywood actor and peace activist Sean Penn, begins as an anti-war film that decries the Bush administration's interventionist rationale and misinformation campaigns during the post-9/11 era. Through a montage of video clips from cable news networks, presidential statements, and historical footage from previous U.S. military interventions, it compares the propaganda techniques of the past with the present, and draws striking parallels. Richard Nixon's "Vietnamisation" rhetoric, which expanded the Vietnam War instead of ending it, sounds very similar to President Bush's declaration that "as the Iraqis stand up, we will stand down." The first half-hour of this 73-minute documentary spends too much time explaining to the audience much of what it probably already knows. But it redeems itself by delving into the insidious tactics used by the Bush administration in managing a war of choice, and how the mainstream media colluded with the U.S. government to boost the war effort.
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: "Civil disobedience is not our problem. Our problem is civil obedience. Our problem is that numbers of people all over the world have obeyed the dictates of the leaders of their government and have gone to war, and millions have been killed because of this obedience. . . Our problem is that people are obedient all over the world in the face of poverty and starvation and stupidity, and war, and cruelty" ~ Howard Zinn
Photo: Iraqi people gather to mourn the dead as the coffin is carried high, for those who died during clashes in the holy city of 
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