News & Views 11/07/07

Photo: A man, who was wounded in a suicide car bomb attack, talks on his mobile phone as he waits to receive treatment in a hospital in Kirkuk, 250 km (155 miles) north of Baghdad, November 7, 2007. The attack wounded 12 civilians, police said. REUTERS/Slahaldeen Rasheed (IRAQ)

REPORTS – LIFE IN IRAQ

Is it really independent?

This question came to my mind when one of my friends wanted to go home to Falluja city west of Baghdad. He lives there but he works in Baghdad . He received a call from his brother telling him to come today to Falluja. My friend took his stuff and went quickly to the bus station. About half an hour later, he came back because he forgot the most important thing among his stuff, he forgot to take his Falluja ID. Yes and if you want to know what is the Falluja ID, I would say its an ID issued by the US army only and specifically for the residents of Falluja city. I don’t want to know why the US army decided to issue these IDs but I only want to the answers of the following questions. Is it something legal that the US army issue IDs for Iraqi people? Its very normal and legal to issue work IDs for the Iraqis who work for example with the US army but its not acceptable at all to issue IDs for the residents of any Iraq by the US army or even the US government because this is Iraq, its not California. What makes me really sad that the Iraqi politicians keep repeating “Iraqi is a united independent country”. Is that true ? Then why do the people of Falluja have two IDs, the Iraqi ID and the American issued ID. The picture shows the ID issued by the US army. I just covered the name and the picture of my friend and by the way the arabic word says (Falluja )and the two Arabic words bellow it say (ID Card).

Official: 46,000 Iraqis back in October

Brig. Gen. Qassim al-Moussawi, the Iraqi spokesman for a U.S.-Iraqi military push to pacify Baghdad, said border crossings recorded 46,030 people returning to Iraq in October alone. He attributed the large number to the "improving security situation." "The level of terrorist operations has dropped in most of the capital's neighborhoods, due to the good performance of the armed forces," al-Moussawi told reporters in the heavily-guarded Green Zone. Al-Moussawi did not give numbers of Iraqis returning home before October. The latest figure comes as Iraq's neighbors, particularly Syria and Jordan, have tightened their borders to Iraqis fleeing the turmoil in their own country. Syria is home to at least 1.2 million Iraqi refugees, and Jordan has about 750,000. [Some of them are returning because they have run out of money. Some are returning because Syria and Jordan are tightening the requirements for Iraqis to stay there. 46,000 are back – only 4,354,000 to go. Of course, the dead are not coming back, ever. – dancewater]

Iraq: Building a water purification plant in the province of Babil

Polish Humanitarian Organisation (PHO) started a new project aiming at improving water quality and sanitary conditions in Iraq. Water purification plants (WPP) are the only source of potable water in towns and villages of Babil. In the 80's over a thousand of those plants were built. In the 90's due to both improper management of Iraqi authorities and lack of funds the WPP system was almost completely destroyed what caused a major aggraviation of sanitary conditions in the region. No access to safe water increased death rates, mostly among young Iraqis. A quarter of children deaths is caused by the lack of access to clean water and proper sanitary conditions. In 2006 Polish Humanitarian Organisation repaired seven water purification systems and then hand them over to the local community. [Vets for Peace also are working on water treatment plants in Iraq. – dancewater]

A Baghdad neighborhood returns to life

To many in Amariyah, it seems little short of a miracle. Just six months ago, this mostly Sunni neighborhood was one of the centers of al-Qaida in Iraq operations. The district in western Baghdad was hit by more than a dozen bombings and shootings some days. Few people dared to venture onto the streets. On Tuesday, women shopped and men drank tea in sidewalk cafes. Occasionally, U.S. soldiers walking the streets were greeted with salaams and smiles. What is happening here reflects similar trends across Baghdad and parts of Iraq, where civilian and U.S. military casualties have dropped sharply in the past two months. But the speed of the turnaround in places such as Amariyah has taken almost everyone — including U.S. military forces in the area — by surprise.

…..Ismail Hussein mixed cement across the street from a line of shops blown up by the U.S. military after a huge cache of arms, ammunition and explosives were discovered there in late summer. Hussein greeted a passing U.S. military patrol as he rebuilt a curb in front of a relative's home, shaping the fresh concrete with a trowel. A few months ago, he might have been shot by insurgents for this modest effort, as they tried to discourage anything that smacked of reconstruction. Now the violence has ebbed to the point that U.S. forces — in the absence of much help from Iraq's Shiite-dominated central government — have begun planning to rebuild. Water mains have been ruptured or cracked by bombs and the passing U.S. tanks and 25-ton Bradley armored vehicles. Sewers are clogged with refuse and, Capt. Gallagher said, some human remains. Sunni residents are afraid still to go to the area hospital, run by Shiites, complaining of poor treatment and the fear of Shiite death squads. So the U.S. military authorities plan to build a health center using a building designated for dental offices by the regime of Saddam Hussein.

….U.S. military leaders are currently paying FAR the equivalent of a $300 monthly salary for about 260 of its members to provide security. FAR has received permission to distribute the total grant among more than double that number of its members, the military says.

….Lt. Col. Dale Kuehl, commander of the 1st Cavalry Division's 1st Battalion, 5th Cavalry Regiment, has said that at least two members of FAR were former allies of al-Qaida. Others, he has said, were part of the Islamic Army in Iraq, the 1920s Revolution Brigades and Tawhid and Jihad — all Sunni insurgent groups responsible for past attacks on U.S. troops in Iraq. Asked about this, Abed said that "not all" members of his group were former insurgents. But Kuehl, 41, from Huntsville, Ala., and other military officials here argued that any successful counterinsurgency requires recruiting supporters from the ranks of former adversaries. Several U.S. military officers here said there had been no suspected insurgent attacks on U.S. troops in Amariyah since early August. [They could have achieved the same ends years ago by paying the Iraqi army’s, and Iraqi government employee’s, salaries. – dancewater]

Spy cameras set up in Baghdad to counter insurgents

Iraq's security forces have set up 250 "spy" cameras across the war-ravaged city in a bid to flush out insurgents and criminals, an official said on Wednesday, warning that more are on the way. Brigadier General Qasim Atta, spokesman for the Baghdad security plan, told a press conference that the cameras had proven effective in fighting insurgency in the central shrine city of Karbala, where they were installed in May. "These cameras are very high-tech. They can store images for up to five years," Atta said. This is the first part of the project. More cameras will be installed over a period of time."

Kirkuk's Arabs paid to pack up

It is a volatile city, but one that is vital to Iraq's future, and Kirkuk is now facing its toughest test yet. Just weeks before a scheduled referendum on the city's future, Arab residents are being paid to pack up and leave. It is a controversial scheme, tied up in the struggle over which community should have control of Kirkuk and its huge oilfields.

Kirkuk blast casualties up to 17

Casualties from the suicide bombing that ripped through the headquarters of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) in southern Kirkuk reached 17 wounded, a medic from Kirkuk Hospital said on Wednesday. "Kirkuk Hospital received 17 wounded, all of whom except for one are in stable condition," the medic, who preferred to remain unnamed, told the independent news agency Voices of Iraq (VOI). A car bomb explosion targeted the headquarters of the KDP, led by Iraq's Kurdistan President Massoud al-Barazani, on Wednesday afternoon.

Baghdad to host 2nd int'l filmfest

The Association of Iraqi Filmmakers Without Borders is scheduled to host the second Baghdad International Film Festival in December. The Baghdad film festival seeks to put Iraqi productions on the world cinema map and, more importantly, to confirm the right of the Iraqi people to a secure, stable life, a message expressed by the festival's logo, Salah Sarmini, a film critic, said. The Paris-based Syrian film critic is in charge of selecting the films that will compete in the event from December 16 to 19, DPA reported. After the US-led invasion of the country in 2003, the French Foreign Ministry has sponsored the festival, which was launched for the first time in 2005. Festival participants are required to chronicle stories about peace, justice, democracy and intercultural dialogue.

17 bodies found in Iraqi mass grave

Iraqi troops have discovered 17 decomposed bodies in a mass grave in north of the Iraqi capital of Baghdad, an Iraqi army officer said. The troops discovered the 'severely decomposed' corpses early Wednesday in an area of brush near a school in Hashimiya, an area west of Baquba, Col. Ihsan al-Shimari said. Many of the bodies were handcuffed and blindfolded. Based on the degree of decomposition, al-Shimari said he believed 13 of the corpses had been there more than three months. The remaining four appeared to have been killed a few days ago, he added. He said more graves would be uncovered soon, because US and Iraqi security forces were for the first time searching some areas that were previously too violent to enter. The discovery came a day after the US military announced that another mass grave had been found in Iraq's western al-Anbar province on Saturday. [And there are 40,000+ UNIDENTIFIED bodies buried in Najaf since March 2003. – dancewater]

Mortar attack kills 2 Iraqi children

A mortar attack has killed two children of a family when it struck their house southeast of Baghdad, wounding three other members. The children, aged four and eight, were members of a Shia family, an officer said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to media. Their father and two brothers were injured in the attack, which occurred around 7 a.m. in Diwaniyah, about 30 kilometers (19 miles) southeast of the capital, police said.

REPORTS – IRAQI MILITIAS, POLITICIANS, POWER BROKERS

Iraqi Kurds sign seven new oil contracts

The autonomous Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) said in a statement posted on its website Wednesday that two production sharing contracts have been signed with OMV Petroleum Exploration, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Europe's OMV Aktiengesellschaft. The deals relate to the Mala Omar and Shorish blocks in the province of Arbil, the statement said. Separately, the Akre-Bijeel block in the Dohuk province has been awarded to Kalegran Ltd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of MOL Hungarian Oil and Gas Plc and Gulf Keystone Petroleum Ltd, a subsidiary of Britain's Gulf Keystone. The Shaikan block, also in Dohuk, has been awarded to Gulf Keystone, Texas Keystone and Kalegran. The Rovi and Sarta blocks were granted to India's Reliance Energy Ltd, it said, without specifying where the blocks are located. Another block in Dohuk province has been awarded to a Western company, the statement said without giving any further details. It added that four strategic blocks in Sulaimaniyah and Arbil provinces were granted to the Kurdistan Exploration and Production Company, a government-owned firm.

New Pro-US Sunni Militia Group

A pro-US Sunni paramilitary force has been announced in a notoriously rough area of eastern Baghdad, local sources tell IraqSlogger. In the Sulaikh area, a “Sulaikh Awakening” (Sahwat al-Sulaikh) group has been formed, locals report, which is cooperating with the Iraqi government against Sunni extremist groups in Sulaikh and surrounding areas. Locals in Sulaikh report that members of extremist groups related to al-Qa’ida in Iraq traveled from neighboring Adhamiya to raid Suleikh, kidnapping 10 civilians. This event prompted locals to begin cooperating with the Iraqi security forces, residents report, and information is flowing to the Iraqi government regarding the whereabouts and activities of al-Qa’ida in Iraq-related operatives.

Sunni, Shiite tribes unite to fight Qaeda

A rare visit by a delegation representing Sunni tribes in the Province of Anbar to the predominantly Shiite Province of Qadissiya is yet another signal that Iraqis are keen to put an end to sectarian strife. The Anbar delegation included major Sunni tribes who have formed a coalition and raised a tribal force to check Qaeda influence in their areas. Anbar was the main stronghold of Qaeda in Mesopotamia but reports say the terror group’s influence there is receding. The delegation held talks with tribal chiefs in Qadissiya Province centered on national reconciliation. Ramadi, Anbar’s provincial capital, was for long a no-go area for Iraqi and U.S. troops as Qaeda fighters were almost in total control of its streets and districts. Diwaniya, Qadissiya’s provincial capital, is currently one of the most restive cities in southern Iraq due to infighting among disparate Shiite militia groups. Sheikh Mohammed Shaalan said both Sunni and Shiite tribes in the two provinces have vowed to bring national reconciliation to success.

Supreme Criminal Court spokesman sacked following Saddam remarks

The Iraqi Supreme Criminal Court has sacked its official spokesman Mounir Hadad, the judge who supervised ex-dictator Saddam Hussein's hanging, news reports said on Wednesday. 'The move came after statements made by Hadad to a newspaper regarding the execution of former president Saddam Hussein,' a source from the court told Voices of Iraq news agency. Haddad is still the head of the Court of Cassation and a judge in the Supreme Criminal Court, but he was dismissed from being the spokesman for it. In an interview with pan-Arab newpaper al-Sharq al-Awsat published last Monday, Haddad said that Saddam was neither brave nor cowardly in the last moments prior to his execution. 'I cannot say Saddam was disparate or cowardly,' Haddad said. 'Nor can I say he was brave and provoke public opinion.' Haddad, a Faili Kurd - belonging to an ethnic minority once persecuted by Saddam - revealed that the ousted dictator was on the day of his death holding a scorched copy of the Koran, which he had always carried.

REPORTS – US/UK/OTHERS IN IRAQ

US 'responsible for PKK activities'

The Turkish President says the US should be held responsible for the current crisis in northern Iraq and PKK terrorist activities. The United States, as a country that has occupied Iraq 'must lead the fight against all terrorist groups in Iraq, without discrimination," President Abdullah Gul said in a press conference with his Azerbaijani counterpart Ilham Aliyev in Baku. He added the issue of PKK militants in northern Iraq is clear and all parties involved know what steps they should take to counter the threat of terrorism. “Turkey has informed the White House about a whole range of issues related to the threat of terrorism,” he said, adding that Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has expressed Ankara's determination 'to eradicate terrorism'.

US 'to free' 500 Iraq detainees

The US military in Iraq says it will release about 500 detainees on Thursday in a gesture which it says is aimed at fostering goodwill and reconciliation. No details were given about the identity of those to be freed. Sunni Arab politicians have repeatedly complained members of their community are discriminated against and form the majority of those being held. The announcement came a day after US officials in Iraq said nine Iranian detainees would be soon released. Officials have since confirmed that US forces are holding a total of 20 Iranians in custody. US forces are thought to hold about 20,000 detainees in Iraq, many of them for long periods and without being formally charged.

HISTORY

Blair 'Knew Iraq Had No WMD'

TONY BLAIR privately conceded two weeks before the Iraq war that Saddam Hussein did not have any usable weapons of mass destruction, Robin Cook, the former foreign secretary, reveals today. John Scarlett, chairman of the joint intelligence committee (JIC), also "assented" that Saddam had no such weapons, says Cook. His revelations, taken from a diary that he kept as a senior minister during the months leading up to war, are published today in The Sunday Times. They shatter the case for war put forward by the government that Iraq presented "a real and present danger" to Britain. Cook, who resigned shortly before the invasion of Iraq, also reveals there was a near mutiny in the cabinet, triggered by David Blunkett, the home secretary, when it first discussed military action against Iraq. The prime minister ignored the "large number of ministers who spoke up against the war", according to Cook. He also "deliberately crafted a suggestive phrasing" to mislead the public into thinking there was a link between Iraq and Al-Qaeda, and he did not want United Nations weapons inspections to be successful, writes the former cabinet minister. [I knew there were no WMDs in Iraq in March 2003. If there were, they never would have gone in there. – dancewater]

IRAQI REFUGEES

New rules make Syrian border a dead-end for Iraqis

Outside a dusty, nearly deserted border crossing, Iraqis sit on battered suitcases, biding time and growing desperate as they wait to rejoin family members over the border in Syria. "We want to go see our families who are in Syria. The rest of our family, we want to bring them back but they won't let us enter," a woman, who gave her name only as Bushra, told Reuters. Bushra has waited for a visa for 10 days after a trip to Baghdad so that she can join her 10-year-old daughter in Syria. She and scores of other Iraqis who have lined up at the al-Waleed border crossing in recent weeks are just a few of the Iraqis whose hopes of fleeing rampant violence in Iraq have been dashed by new, more stringent immigration rules. The border crossing, normally bustling with travellers, also reflects the stress that the tide of at least 2.2 million Iraqi refugees has placed on neighbouring countries, and which has prompted Syria to impose tighter entry rules for Iraqis. The United Nations estimates that about 4.4 million Iraqis have either left Iraq or been displaced internally. Syria has taken in an estimated 1.4 million to 2 million Iraqi refugees since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003.

Iraqi refugees in Lebanon face prison and deportation

The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) puts the number of Iraqi refugees in Lebanon at 50,000 people, of whom only 8,476 are registered. Another 500 are being held in prison, it says, merely for violating immigration rules. “This is a question of human rights,” said UNHCR regional representative Stéphane Jaquemet. Having not signed the UN’s Convention relating to the Status of Refugees, introduced in 1951, Lebanon does not grant asylum to refugees, despite the presence on its territory of more than 400,000 Palestinians. The overwhelming majority of Iraqi refugees and asylum seekers - 95 percent according to UNHCR figures - are smuggled into Lebanon across the porous border with Syria. Once inside, such Iraqis have no legal status, and lacking protection under international law, are subject to detention and deportation. “Over 500 asylum seekers and Iraqi refugees are being held in Lebanese prisons,” Jaquemet said. Despite Lebanon’s failure to sign the 1951 convention, authorities still have a duty of care towards Iraqi asylum seekers, he added. An agreement has been reached between the UNHCR and the government that makes deporting Iraqi refugees more difficult. However, Jaquemet said that in response the authorities were keeping Iraqis arrested on immigration violation charges in prison well past their sentences.

How to Help Iraqi Refugees

ANOTHER Way to help: The Collateral Repair Project

COMMENTARY

Mad Cow Nation: America's Willing Surrender

Michael Massing has written a very important story about at very important truth: [See below] the main reason that the American people are so deeply uninformed about the reality of the war of aggression being waged in their names in Iraq is that they do not want to know.

Massing shows that the rigorous self-censorship practiced by the American people and the media is actually worse than the machinations of Big Brother in Orwell's 1984; at least in that fictional world, the draconian repression of reality was imposed by force at the hands of an all-powerful state – but today we are doing it to ourselves. Not that the Bush Regime isn't giving Big Brotherism the old college try, but as Massing points out, there are too many venues and formats of information dissemination for the state to control it all, especially in the United States, where many vestiges of freedom remain. Yet one of the most disheartening aspects of American society today is how very little use the people make of those freedoms they still have.

Indeed, Massing's observations on Americans' self-censorship – the surrender of the awareness of reality in exchange for self-regarding fantasy – have implications far beyond war reportage. In our time, we are witnessing a society voluntarily surrendering its liberties, its rights – its gumption – to a harsh and malevolent authority. We are witnessing a society surrendering its pride and its moral core to torturers and thieves, liars and killers. And it is a willing surrender, as if vast swathes of the American people are relieved that they can finally lay down the burdens and responsibilities of freedom.

We are the Thought Police

Orwell's Big Brother never showed up. Instead of centralized Iraq war propaganda, we have an America in which the public and the press jointly impose their own controls.

……How can such a critical feature of the U.S. occupation remain so hidden from view? Because most Americans don't want to know about it. The books by Iraqi vets are filled with expressions of disbelief and rage at the lack of interest ordinary Americans show for what they've had to endure on the battlefield. In "Operation Homecoming," one returning Marine, who takes to drinking heavily in an effort to cope with the crushing guilt and revulsion he feels over how many people he's seen killed, fumes about how "you can't talk to them [ordinary Americans] about the horror of a dead child's lifeless mutilated body staring back at you from the void, knowing you took part in that end." Writing of her return home, Kayla Williams notes that the things most people seemed interested in were "beyond my comprehension. Who cared about Jennifer Lopez? How was it that I was watching CNN one morning and there was a story about freaking ducklings being fished out of a damn sewer drain -- while the story of soldiers getting killed in Iraq got relegated to this little banner across the bottom of the screen?" In "Generation Kill," by the journalist Evan Wright, a Marine corporal confides his anguish and anger over all the killings he has seen: "I think it's bullshit how these fucking civilians are dying! They're worse off than the guys that are shooting at us. They don't even have a chance. Do you think people at home are going to see this -- all these women and children we're killing? Fuck no. Back home they're glorifying this motherfucker, I guarantee you."

…..In most wars, nations that send their men and women off to fight in distant lands don't want to learn too much about the violence being committed in their name. Facing up to this would cause too much shame, would deal too great a blow to national self-esteem. If people were to become too aware of the butchery wars entail, they would become much less willing to fight them. And so the illusion must be maintained that war is a noble enterprise, that the soldiers who wage it are full of valor and heroism, that in the end their intentions are good and their actions benign.

RESISTANCE

Students Call Protest Punishment Too Harsh

A school superintendent's decision to suspend, and perhaps expel, about two dozen students who took part in a protest against the Iraq war at a suburban high school drew criticism Tuesday from the students and their parents, who demanded that their children be allowed to return to classes.

Quote of the day: Truth is not only violated by falsehood; it may be equally outraged by silence. ~ Henri Frederic Amiel