News & Views 10/20/07

Photo: Thousands of Kurds and supporters take to the streets in Dahuk, a Kurdish city near the border with Turkey, some 430 kilometers (260 miles) northwest of Baghdad, Iraq Thursday, Oct. 18, 2007 to protest the Turkish parliament's decision to authorize the government to send troops across the border to root out Kurdish rebels who have been conducting raids into Turkey. More than 5,000 people packed the streets as they marched to the U.N. offices. (AP Photo)

REPORTS – LIFE IN IRAQ

19 tons of explosives found in Iraq (Reuters)

The cache was discovered west of Tarmiya, some 30 km (19 miles) northwest of the capital Baghdad, in Salahuddin province where Sunni Arab militants have a strong presence. The find was made up of 41,000 lbs of ammonium nitrate and 35 mortar bombs. U.S. forces destroyed the cache. "It's a crippling blow against the enemy, it's really huge," said Peggy Kageleiry, a spokeswoman for U.S. forces in northern Iraq. Car and truck bombs are used on almost a daily basis by militants in Iraqis targeting U.S. and Iraqi security forces and civilians. [This is not the really high-explosive stuff that was looted just after the invasion in 2003. That has not been found, nor used, as far as I know. – dancewater]

Video: Iraqi Teens Work To Help Their Families

The population of Iraq is estimated to be at least 50% under the age of 18. These children and adolescents are in dire straits due to the war. This Eid was no exception, as 15 women and children were killed in an American air raid and a suicide attack near a playground killed at least 1 child and wounded 20 others. But the day after, Iraqi families visited to the Baghdad Zoo, as families might on a holiday in any modern country around the world. Despite the ongoing impact of violence and terrorism that affects all Iraqis, children must even risk their lives to get to school, and many have been forced to leave their friends and country when their families fled Iraq. Unemployment and desperation are leading many Iraqi children and teenagers to work to help feed their families.

One more wound to be cured

When we I was going back home, I found out that the street I used to use was closed and the taxi driver had to change his route and to go through Mansour neighborhood. When I reached 14 Ramadan Street, I swear I Wished to cry. It was Ghosts Street. 90% of the shops were closed including Filis restaurant.I kept moving my eyes looking for the running children, for the mothers shouts addressing the children and the fathers' instructions to their kids "don't run, be ware, watch your steps". Once upon time,this street was one of the most beautiful and full with life. Families used to start coming to the street from sunset and stay there in the different restaurants and cafes until 2 am. Iraqi families used to spend their nights happily in that sweet street but not anymore. Now and according to a close friend who live in the same neighborhood, people who stay late in the street might be targeted by a sniper or an IED explosion. He told me in a very sad voice “laith, my lovely street died”. I don’t know who can bring life back to our lovely streets after the failure of both, the US army and the Iraqi Security Forces. I don’t know when I can take my wife again to have a special launch in Filis restaurant again.

Baghdad reconstruction requires $13 billion

Baghdad provincial council has drawn up a ‘strategic plan’ to reconstruct the war-torn Iraqi capital, a statement by the council said. The statement said the plan was prepared by provincial experts and would need $13 billion to be implemented. The five-year plan has been sent to the Ministry of Planning for approval, the statement added. “The plan covers all sectors and services in the capital,” the statement said. Baghdad has turned into a run-down city with rickety infrastructure. It suffers from shortages of basic amenities and sectarian cleansing of neighborhoods.

Saboteurs blow up domestic pipeline

Saboteurs have blown up a domestic pipeline ferrying crude oil from Kirkuk oilfields to the Baiji refining complex. The Baiji refinery is the largest in Iraq with a capacity of 350,000 barrels of oil a day. But production has slumped since the 2004-U.S. invasion mainly to sabotage, lack of maintenance and corruption. The refining complex at Baiji, nearly 300 kilometers north of Baghdad, relies mainly on Kirkuk crude further north. But the pipelines carrying the crude and those transferring the refined products to the rest of the country pass through some of the most restive areas in Iraq. Baiji itself is a violent town with anti-U.S. rebels mounting daily attacks on oil tankers and transport vehicles using the highway linking Baghdad to Turkey.

What I Risked as an Iraqi Journalist

An afternoon in August 2004. I was ready to set off for my home in northern Baghdad when two explosions rocked the building that houses the Washington Post Baghdad bureau, where I worked as a correspondent. I peered out the window -- first right, then left -- to locate the smoke from the bombings. Near a Christian church in the central neighborhood of Karrada, I saw a huge tornado-shaped cloud rising into the air. I grabbed my notebook and camera and headed out with the bureau's night-shift driver to cover the bombings. As we arrived at the scene, another bomb exploded in a car parked nearby, scattering shrapnel all over the place, including onto our car. Luckily, we were still inside, and the shrapnel fell only on the hood. People covered in blood ran in all directions, screaming in pain and horror. For the first time, I realized how dangerous my job as a reporter had become. Journalists in Iraq -- and especially Iraqi journalists -- face grave danger every day, and not just from car bombs. The insurgents and militias who control vast areas in Baghdad consider Iraqi journalists to be spies for the government or the U.S. occupation. Working for an Iraqi news agency is dangerous enough, but working for a U.S. media outlet puts you in double jeopardy. In the killers' eyes, we are collaborators with the infidels.

War News Radio

This week on War News Radio, we hear how U.S. service members in Iraq are using Facebook to keep in touch. Then, we learn about Iraq’s Mandaens and their struggle for survival. We’ll also talk about how the war has affected Iraqi artists and their work. In this week’s War News Radio 101, we take a look at the controversy surrounding Iraq’s Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki. Finally, in our A Day in the Life series, we hear from two Iraqi bloggers. These stories, plus the week’s news, from War News Radio.

Iraqis reject Turkish incursion and demand rebels out

The Iraqi people have protested against Turkey's possible cross-border military incursion to flush out Kurdish rebels and called for the closure of rebels' camps in a rare agreement with government officials. 'It is not easy for us to see Turkish forces preparing to attack the Iraqi lands,' said Samer Khaled, a 25-year-old student in Baghdad. Khaled echoed the government's position on the crisis saying that while he understood Turkish fears and that the neighbouring country was entitled to defend itself, he rejected military options. 'We have to cooperate together to oust these elements and to close down their camps once and for all,' he added. A political crisis between the Turkish government and those of Baghdad and the autonomous region of Kurdistan was heightened when the Turkish government received parliamentary approval to launch raids inside Iraq to destroy the Kurdistan's Workers Party (PKK) following an ambush on 13 Turkish commandos and two soldiers in Turkey by members of the rebel group operating from mountainous areas in northern Iraq.

REPORTS – IRAQI MILITIAS, POLITICIANS, POWER BROKERS

Talabani chides Syria over Kurds

Mr Talabani, himself a Kurd, said comments by his Syrian counterpart, Bashar al-Assad, represented "a dangerous crossing of red lines". The Turkish parliament has authorised cross-border raids, but the government says action is not imminent. Ankara blames the rebels for attacks on soldiers and civilians inside Turkey. Both the US and Iraq have urged Ankara to avoid military action which they fear could destabilise the entire region. The president of the Kurdish region in northern Iraq, Massoud Barzani, has rejected accusations that his government provides cover for Kurdish Workers Party (PKK) fighters. Mr Talabani's remarks were published in the pan-Arab daily Asharq al-Awsat on Saturday. "President Assad's remarks are dangerous and run contrary to the spirit of Arab solidarity," the Iraqi president said.

REPORTS – US/UK/OTHERS IN IRAQ

Iraq says foreign fighters continuing to infiltrate

"The Iraqi delegation complained that infiltrations were still continuing from some states," Kuwaiti delegation chief Major General Khaled al-Ossaimi told reporters without naming any country. Syria and Iran have been accused in the past of facilitating the flow of foreign fighters into neighbouring Iraq. Bahraini and Egyptian officials also participated in the gathering, which was to prepare the agenda for the fourth meeting of interior ministers for Iraqi neighbours to be held in Kuwait on Tuesday. Ossaimi said the ministers will study ways to prevent the infiltrations and of fighting terror, besides assessing progress made by the Iraqi government to fight terrorists. They will also review measures taken by various countries to implement resolutions taken by the three previous meetings.

Blackwater Attempted to Take Iraqi Military Aircraft out of Iraq

Blackwater USA tried to take at least two Iraqi military aircraft out of Iraq two years ago and refused to give the planes back when Iraqi officials sought to reclaim them, according to a congressional committee investigating the private security contractor. Democratic Rep. Henry Waxman, chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, wants the company to provide all documents related to the attempted shipment and to explain where the aircraft are now. In a letter sent Friday to Erik Prince, Blackwater's top executive, Waxman said he learned of the 2005 attempt from a military official who contacted the committee. That official is not identified in the letter, nor is the type of aircraft. Waxman also is seeking a sweeping amount of information about Blackwater's business, including its contracts with the federal government, profits made since the company was founded a decade ago, Prince's personal earnings since 2001, and details about the payments to the families of Iraqis killed by Blackwater personnel.

Blackwater to be phased out of guarding U.S. diplomats in Iraq

Troubled military contractor Blackwater USA is likely to be eased out of its role of guarding U.S. diplomats in Iraq in the aftermath of a shooting last month that left 17 Iraqi civilians dead, U.S. officials said Friday. While no decisions have been finalized, Blackwater's role in Baghdad is likely to be taken over by one of two other contractors who provide security for the State Department in Iraq, the officials said. They are Triple Canopy and DynCorp International. "There will be some sort of disengagement process, but it won't be that they're shown the door," said a State Department official. "As one builds down, another builds up."

HISTORY

Iraqi teen's family says he was tortured

An Iraqi family has begun a legal fight for a British probe into the death of their 17-year-old son, who they say was tortured and killed by British soldiers. Hamid al-Sweady was one of several people arrested after a gunfight between an insurgent group and the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders. His family says when his body was given to them for burial it bore marks of torture and had a mark around his neck as if he had been hanged, The Scotsman reports. …… Public Interest Lawyers, the group representing the Sweady family, presented statements from the 17-year-old's uncle, who said his body was unrecognizable, and another detainee who described hearing him screaming. The family says the teenager had been a student and was not involved in insurgent activities.

IRAQI REFUGEES

Awaiting justice

It is impossible to estimate how many Iraqis still in Iraq may yet need to seek safety for their families away from the occupation and away from Iraq. The manner in which the occupation has sought to distort the composition of the Iraqi nation, causing the displacement of well over one sixth of Iraq's population, and principally its middle class, followed by predictable moves to trap the rest, as if to punish them for holding on, appears telling of US intent in Iraq.

BARE SURVIVAL IN SYRIA: What is today the district of Sayida Zeinab on the outskirts of Damascus is home to a shrine dedicated to the granddaughter of the Prophet Mohamed. Muslim pilgrims the world over have for centuries visited her shrine, situated inside a mosque erected in her honour. It is said that Sayida Zeinab was until recently a quiet, rural quarter, well beyond the capital's reach. But following Israel's occupation of the Golan Heights in 1967, thousands fleeing the occupation made their way, homeless and landless, to Damascus. To begin with, they lived in tents, perhaps in the hope that they would soon return home. It became apparent, however, that they had been stripped of their land, a region described by its natives as the most beautiful in Syria for many years to come. Theft by brute force and the imposition of an illegal regime of Israeli settlements that survives today necessitated for these refugees attempts at setting up a new, albeit hopefully temporary, life and to wait in dignity for their return.

Instead of tents, many of the displaced and their descendants would live to this day in buildings constructed with little planning, in a quarter that is now sprawling, generally badly serviced, crowded and, since the US-led invasion of Iraq, welcoming thousands of new tenants, this time from another land. "Baghdad, Baghdad!" call out drivers who line Sayida Zeinab's main street, waiting for customers. There are scores of taxi companies specialised in making the 15- to 18-hour trip to the Iraqi capital, charging anything between $100 to $800 per passenger, depending on how easy or difficult it is to cross the border. There is generally no lack of clients. This is because Sayida Zeinab, where living costs are lower, has the highest concentration in Syria of Iraqi refugees.

How to Help Iraqi Refugees

ANOTHER Way to help: The Collateral Repair Project

COMMENTARY

No holiday here

The Iraqi Turkomen Front (ITF) said that should Iraq break into federal states, it would ask for a Turkmeneli, or Turkomen homeland, to be set aside. But the ITF added that it was still committed to a united Iraq. The number of Turkomen in Iraq was 560,000 in 1957, when the country's population totaled six million. In that same year, most Kirkuk inhabitants were Turkomen. Now Iraq has a population of around 26 million, but Kurdish officials maintain that the Turkomen are only a few thousand in number.

Due to the illness of Abdul-Aziz Al-Hakim, his son Ammar delivered the Eid sermon at the Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI) headquarters last Saturday. He called for a federal state in southern Iraq, saying that such an arrangement wouldn't imperil the unity of the country. "I call on the sons of our people to form their own provinces, starting from the province that is south of Baghdad to all other provinces. This is an Iraqi interest, an Iraqi decision, and an Iraqi resolve. We remain committed to maintaining the unity of Iraq as a land, people and government," Ammar Al-Hakim said.

A few weeks ago, Moqtada Al-Sadr and Abdu-Aziz Al-Hakim decided to stop the fighting between the Mahdi Army of Al-Sadr and the Badr Forces of SCIRI in order to stem Iraqi blood. Sadr supporters are incensed by Ammar's recent statements. Ammar is "flirting with the US scheme to divide Iraq," said one source close to Al-Sadr. Sami Al-Askari, adviser to the Iraqi prime minister, said that, "federalism in the south would lead to fighting among the Shias themselves due to economic differences and disagreement on numerous matters."

First steps

“When you are surrounded by nothing but failure, then any success you can achieve will have a magnified effect,” writes historian Bashir Nafie in an overview of Iraqi politics. His starting point is the recent announcement of a six-faction resistance alliance (the gist of which was to unite two MB-related factions with the four-faction Iraqi-Islamist Reform and Jihad grouping led by the Islamic Army in Iraq). A small step, to be sure, says Nafie. But look at what is going on in the other camps. The initial push from the National Pact proposed by Tareq al Hashemi (for instance he talked to Sistani about it) has quickly died, the problem here being that Hashemi, for all his occasional displays of courage, refuses to see things as they are. Under foreign occupation, proposals and visions and so on will inevitably be mutually conflicting, moreover they will, each of them, benefit from only the narrowest of popular support. Proposals based on “good will” alone in these circumstances will go nowhere. There needs to be a “central political force” with broad support (and Nafie doesn’t find it necessary to spell out the obvious, namely that this includes rejecting the foreign occupation).

A Tale of Two Atrocities

The recent public outrage over the conduct of Blackwater Security mercenaries in Iraq, after an unprovoked massacre of at least 17 Iraqi civilians in western Baghdad has been heartening; unfortunately, there has been virtually no attention a far more important concurrent development -- the ongoing collapse of the military prosecution in the Haditha massacre. Paul Bremer's decision at the eleventh hour before his departure in June 2004 to set all private contractors in Iraq above the law (they are not subject to Iraqi law, U.S. military law, or U.S. civilian law) stands out as one of the more cynical decisions of a war that has redefined cynicism, and attention to that fact is a positive development. At the same time, however, all the attention is being focused on an extremely minor issue. The U.S. military has possibly killed more civilians in a single incident than all the mercenary companies operating in Iraq in the last several years. According to Iraq Body Count, the first U.S. Marine assault on Fallujah in April 2004, claimed the lives of at least 600 Iraqi civilians, out of a total of at least 800 people. That number is actually cited in a report by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform regarding Blackwater, but its implications are hardly appreciated.

………The hearings have been a circus. First of all, they were held in Camp Pendleton, California, rather than in Iraq, so the Iraqis who witnessed the events couldn't testify. Second, the families of the victims refused requests by military interrogators to exhume the bodies for forensic evidence. Third, Lt. Col. Paul Ware, who presided over the hearings, has been both excessively sympathetic to the defendants and excessively concerned with the effect that the verdicts will have on future Marine operations. Fourth, some rather odd plea bargains have been made. Most recently, Ware recommended that all charges of murder (originally 13 counts) against Wuterich be dropped and replaced with charges of negligent homicide only for seven of the murdered women and children (many of them shot in their beds) -- and has added that he doesn't think Wuterich would be convicted on those charges either.

Quote of the day: "I was increasingly compelled to see the war as an enemy of the poor and to attack it as such." MLK April 1967