News & Views 11/08/07

Photo: Women laborers collect straw used to make bricks in a brick factory on the outskirts of Najaf, 160 kilometers (100 miles) south of Baghdad, Iraq, Thursday, Nov. 8, 2007. As the ongoing conflict in Iraq often disrupts the country's economy, most manual laborers work long hours and in extreme conditions for low wages. (AP Photo/Alaa al-Marjani)

REPORTS – LIFE IN IRAQ

Iraqis prepare for fuel shortages ahead of a cold season

Aside from bombings, Iraqis have an extra concern every winter; stocking enough amounts of home heating oil in preparation for the four-month-long cold season, which usually ranges from chilly to frosty across Iraq's cities. Even in the country with the third largest oil reserves in the world, poorer people have trouble finding sufficient energy resources to keep going especially as December approaches. 'In the past years we have lived through incidents and events that could not cross people's mind in a country that floats over crude oil,' said 51-year-old Hassan Hady of the troubles Iraqis face during fuel shortages. 'But at least this year there is more oil available in the stations, unlike previous years,' added Hady, holding his ration card's 'white oil' vouchers as he queued up among hundreds of Baghdadis at a fuel station on Palestine Street to get his winter's quota of heating oil. People in Baghdad, however, might be among the luckiest this year. The petroleum product used by people to heat their homes, usually by fuelling building furnaces, is not available across other areas in Iraq where according to Oil Minister Hussein Shahristani,'the quotas of white oil were distributed in most cities but delayed in Ramadi and Baquba where the security status is volatile.'

Makeshift theatre emerges from bombed Iraqi street

On a street showing the scars of a suicide bombing, Baghdad theatre lovers emerged from the shadow of violence to gather around a makeshift stage on Thursday and revive the ancient city's long cultural heritage. Taking advantage of a recent drop in violence, about 250 people watched the one-off performance of a play based on the works of Ghaib Tuma'h Farman, one of Iraq's best-known novelists who left in the 1940s to study in Egypt. Written by director Haider Muna'thar, the play "A Window on a Shadow of the Deceased" opens with a dream sequence from which Farman, played by famous Iraqi actor Sami Abd-al-Hamid, wakes up back in Iraq. "What we did today was not only a play for entertainment but it is also a letter sent by Iraqi artists who want to say that culture is still available in Iraq and in the soul of Iraqis," Muna'thar told Reuters. Information about the play was spread by word of mouth through Baghdad's arts community, the performers unwilling to broadcast it through more conventional means for fear of attracting would-be bombers.

Iraqi press warns of sectarian sedition

Iraqi newspapers gave prominence in their Thursday issues to what they described as calls for inciting sectarian and ethnic sedition inside and outside Iraq. In an editorial entitled 'Believers' dialogue and sectarian violence,' the editor-in-chief of the independent daily al-Sabah al-Jadid, Ismail al-Zair, wrote about anti-Wahhabist sentiments which he said have recently grown among some Iraqi groups. "These groups are the outcome of fatwas (religious edicts) issued by some Muslims who regard Shiite Islam as infidelity," the author said. "These groups want us to engage in an ethnic and sectarian war against the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia." "To tell the truth, I think we should better unmask those who trade in Iraqi blood and finance the killings and bombings," al-Zair concluded.

REPORTS – IRAQI MILITIAS, POLITICIANS, POWER BROKERS

Iraq's Maliki ends effort to bring back Sunni bloc

Iraq's Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has given up trying to bring the country's largest Sunni Arab bloc back into his fractured government, officials said on Thursday. The Accordance Front withdrew its six ministers from the cabinet in early August after saying Maliki had failed to address the bloc's demands for a greater say in government. The move underscored the deep sectarian divide in Iraq, which has hobbled decision making and slowed progress on key laws Washington wants passed to boost reconciliation between warring majority Shi'ites and minority Sunni Arabs. Maliki had pressed the Accordance Front to return to the cabinet in a letter in early August, government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh told Reuters. But after waiting three months for a reply, the government officially removed five of the ministers from their posts last week, Dabbagh said. The decision received little publicity. "We cannot keep these ministries empty," Dabbagh said.

Iraq's Maliki hails mass prisoner release

Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki hailed the release of 450 detainees from U.S. detention centres on Thursday and urged them to help improve security in the country. The Shi'ite prime minister spoke to rows of prisoners at Camp Victory, a giant U.S. base near Baghdad's airport. Many of the men squinted in the sun and wore what appeared to be military-issue checked shirts. "We want them to turn back ... to participate in the process of building and developing this country," Maliki told reporters. "Security is the golden key," he said. "We will move strongly to make 2008 the year of construction and services." Thursday's ceremony marked one of the largest U.S. detainee releases this year. Around 350 prisoners were freed from U.S. custody on Oct. 17 in a move marking the end of the Muslim month of Ramadan.

Mahdi Army accused of killing spree in Iraq shrine city

"The Mahdi Army murdered and tortured and kidnapped people under Sharia law," the statement said. "They are the cause of the deaths of hundreds of people. They also committed numerous violations of human rights in Karbala." The statement marks the first time the Iraqi authorities have directly accused Iraq's most powerful Shiite militia of carrying out killings. Karbala, home to some of Shiite Islam's holiest shrines, was the scene of a slaughter in August when suspected Mahdi Army militiamen clashed with police and turned a major pilgrimage into a bloodbath which killed 52 people. Just days later, Sadr announced a six-month suspension of the activities of his militia.

…….So far this year, the police chief said, 92 men and 22 women have been killed by the militia. Three police officers and 25 policemen have been killed. "The Mahdi army carried out 15 robberies and 53 abduction operations. They planted 11 roadside bombs." The police statement and comments appear to have been prompted by accusations by the Mahdi Army that police in Karbala two weeks ago shot dead two children of militiamen. The statement said in fact the children had been killed because the militiamen had used them as human shields. [That last statement sounds familiar, doesn’t it? For what it’s worth, I know some in the Muslim Peacemaker Team in Karbala, and he seems to think that Sadr is an okay guy. – dancewater]

Interior ministry probes alleged human rights violations in Karbala

The Iraqi Ministry of Interior said it had sent an inquiry committee to probe into alleged police human rights abuses reported by a local TV station, a senior official from the ministry said on Thursday. "An inquiry committee, headed by Major General Fakher Marshoosh, was sent to Karbala province to investigate into allegations of torture by a local police officer of a family in the province," the head of the ministry's National Command Center, Major General Abdul Kareem Khalaf al-Kanani, told the independent news agency Voices of Iraq (VOI). Al-Kanani did not provide further details, but indicated that the committee will take strict measures if human rights abuses by police personnel are committed. The Iraqi satellite channel al-Sharqiyya showed pictures of a family from Kirkuk alleging torture by a major in the local police.

Kurdish speaker meets AIPU secretary general

Kurdish parliament's Speaker Adnan al-Mufti discussed with the Arab Inter-parliamentary Union Secretary General Nour El-Din Boushkoug the recent preparations for holding the Arab parliaments meeting in Arbil next year, al-Mufti's media advisor said on Thursday. "Al-Mufti discussed with the Arab Inter-parliamentary Union Secretary General Nour El-Din Boushkoug on Wednesday night in the Kurdish parliament's seat the recent preparations to hold the Arab parliaments meeting in Arbil next year," Tareq Gohar told the independent news agency Voices of Iraq (VOI). "The meeting was attended by senior Kurdish officials as well as a number of experts and advisers," he added. For his part, Adnan al-Mufti told the VOI that "holding the meeting Arbil is very important to update the Arab parliaments with the stability, security and prosperity in Iraq's Kurdistan region." The Arab Inter-parliamentary Union (AIPU) is an Arab parliamentary organization composed of parliamentary groups representing Arab Parliaments. It was born in the wake of the October war of 1974, as a result of the atmosphere of Arab solidarity and Arab joint action, which encouraged Arab cooperation through political, professional and other institutions.

Iraq Plans to Confront Security Firms on Guns

The Iraqi interior minister said Wednesday that he would authorize raids by his security forces on Western security firms to ensure that they were complying with tightened licensing requirements on guns and other weaponry, setting up the possibility of violent confrontations between the Iraqis and heavily armed Western guards. The tightening of the requirements followed a shooting in September by one of those firms, Blackwater, that Iraqi authorities said left 17 Iraqis dead. “Every company will be subject to such examination, and any company that does not follow the law will lose its license,” the minister, Jawad al-Bolani, said of the planned raids. “They are called security companies. They are not called violate-the-law companies.” During a tour of the Interior Ministry compound in eastern Baghdad, Iraqi government officials also said for the first time that they accepted estimates by American oversight officials that some 190,000 pistols and automatic rifles supplied by the United States to Iraqi forces in 2004 and 2005 were unaccounted for.

REPORTS – US/UK/OTHERS IN IRAQ

Will 'armloads' of US cash buy tribal loyalty?

Inside a stately guesthouse on the grounds of Saddam Hussein's palace in Tikrit on the banks of the Tigris, sheikh Sabah al-Hassani jokes that the initials "SH" of the former dictator etched on the walls are his. "I have a weakness for Cuban cigars, French cologne, and Spanish-made loafers," he says with a wide grin. Since June, Mr. Hassani, who claims to be one of the princes of the legendary Shammar tribe, which numbers nearly 7 million across the Arab world, says he has received at least $100,000 in cash and numerous perks from the US military and the Iraqi government. With his help, at least $1 million has also been distributed to other tribal sheikhs who have joined his Salahaddin Province "support council," according to US officers. Together, they have assembled an armed force of about 3,000 tribesmen dubbed the "sahwa [awakening] folks." All of these enticements serve one goal: To rally Sunni tribes and their multitude of followers to support coalition forces. The payments are a drop in the bucket given the billions spent annually in Iraq by the United States. And paying tribes to keep the peace is nothing new. It was one of Mr. Hussein's tools in his selective patronage system designed to weaken and control all institutions outside his Baath party. The British also tried it when they ruled Iraq last century. But the strategy is fraught with risks, including the serious potential for wars among the tribes themselves and the creation of militias in die-hard Sunni Arab lands where many continue to question the legitimacy and authority of the Shiite-led central government in Baghdad. "[The US military] threw money at [the sheiks]," says Col. David Hsu, who heads a team advising Iraq's armed forces in Salahaddin, Saddam's home province. He shows recent digital photographs he captured of smiling sheikhs holding bundles of cash as they posed with US military officers. "You are basically paying civilians to turn in terrorists. Money was an expedient way to try to get results."

Other Blackwater Case Drew Little Scrutiny

Last Feb. 7, a sniper employed by Blackwater USA, the private security company, opened fire from the roof of the Iraqi Justice Ministry. The bullet tore through the head of a 23-year-old guard for the state-funded Iraqi Media Network, who was standing on a balcony across an open traffic circle. Another guard rushed to his colleague's side and was fatally shot in the neck. A third guard was found dead more than an hour later on the same balcony. Eight people who responded to the shootings -- including media network and Justice Ministry guards and an Iraqi army commander -- and five network officials in the compound said none of the slain guards had fired on the Justice Ministry, where a U.S. diplomat was in a meeting. An Iraqi police report described the shootings as "an act of terrorism" and said Blackwater "caused the incident." The media network concluded that the guards were killed "without any provocation." The U.S. government reached a different conclusion. Based on information from the Blackwater guards, who said they were fired upon, the State Department determined that the security team's actions "fell within approved rules governing the use of force," according to an official from the department's Bureau of Diplomatic Security. Neither U.S. Embassy officials nor Blackwater representatives interviewed witnesses or returned to the network, less than a quarter-mile from Baghdad's Green Zone, to investigate.

….Abood, a short, stocky man who speaks halting English, said he learned from the Justice Ministry that snipers from a U.S. security company -- not insurgents -- had shot the guards. He drove in a Humvee with one of his lieutenants to the ministry. The Blackwater guards were gathered in the traffic circle, he said, preparing to leave. Most were stocky, with goatees and small communication devices in their ears. "I told them, 'I want to speak with the guy who is in charge of this unit,' " he said. The Blackwater guards started toying with him, Abood said. "He's in charge," said one, pointing at one of his colleagues. "No, he's in charge," said another. "They didn't care what I was saying," Abood said.

US Bill Calls for Contractors To Exit Iraq

An Illinois congresswoman yesterday proposed the rapid withdrawal of hundreds of armed security contractors who provide protective services for the State Department in Iraq. Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D) introduced legislation that she said would call for the phasing out of some 800 armed contractors who work for Blackwater, DynCorp International and Triple Canopy in Iraq over the next six months. She proposes that the contractors be replaced with military or diplomatic security personnel or military police. "There's been major examples of how these companies adversely affect the mission," Schakowsky said. "They jeopardize our uniformed men and women, and they jeopardize the morale of our troops. They strain our diplomatic relations. They're unaccountable." The contractors have come under increased scrutiny on a variety of issues, including their billing records and their use of force, leading many congressional leaders to push for more oversight and accountability.

IRAQI REFUGEES

IRAQ-JORDAN: Burying the eye to heal the mind

Abdullah Hussein (not his real name) could not contain his emotions when the doctor handed him his son's left eye after it was surgically removed. "What is left of my son? His legs are gone and now I carry his eye in my hands to bury it," the Iraqi man told the doctor before bursting into tears. Hussein’s son, seven-year-old Ali, lost half his face and both legs in a Baghdad explosion early this year. The boy is receiving treatment at a hospital run by Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), the French NGO, which has rented a ward in a Red Crescent Society hospital to treat Iraqi war victims. The group focuses on reconstruction surgery of facial injuries, including fractures; bone, skin and soft tissue defects, bone loss and severe burns. Ali’s eye will be replaced by a plastic one.

Syria to let US in to screen refugees

Syria has agreed to allow U.S. interviewers into the country to screen Iraqi refugees for admission to the United States, clearing a major obstacle to the Bush administration's resettlement program, the State Department said Thursday. The move follows a late October visit to Damascus by senior U.S. envoys who won permission for Department of Homeland Security staff to travel to Syria to vet Iraqi refugees awaiting clearance to enter the U.S., said David Welch, the assistant secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs. Syria, home to between 1.2 million and 1.4 million Iraqi refugees, had for months refused to issue visas to the interviewers amid deepening tensions between Washington and Damascus over alleged Syrian support for extremists, interference in Lebanon and suspect nuclear activity that appears to have prompted an Israeli airstrike. Welch made the announcement in congressional testimony in which he also raised Washington's persistent concerns on the other issues, none of which he said had yet been resolved. "Syria has committed to issue visas to DHS adjudicators, who, in the coming weeks, will be interviewing hundreds of Iraqis referred by UNHCR (The UN High Commissioner for Refugees) to the US Refugee Resettlement Program," he said in his prepared remarks.

How to Help Iraqi Refugees

ANOTHER Way to help: The Collateral Repair Project

COMMENTARY

OPINION: On The Kahl Essay

The overall assumption behind the Kahl essay is that the US has at least four specific aims in Iraq, and that they are all altruistic. They are: (1) Helping create and maintain a "stable equlibrium" in the sectarian and regional sense (the recent centerpiece of that being the arming of Sunni tribes in Anbar); (2) Degrading AlQaeda in Iraq; (3) preventing genocide; and (4) deterring any further extension of Iranian influence, so as to "prevent any wider conflict". Naturally there is a lot wrapped up in this, but the first and most important point to notice is that no one in the Arab world thinks those are American objectives. On the contrary, on point (4), states of the Gulf think it highly likely there will be a US and/or Israeli strike against Iran, contrary to Kahl's point about preventing any wider conflict. Palestinians and Israelis are convinced there will be an American supported military attack on Gaza once the Annapolis conference is over, something that contributes skepticism about this idea of "preventing genocide" as a policy objective in and of itself. War in south Lebanon is less immediately anticipated, only because the defenders are seen as much more capable and dangerous (as opposed to a feel-good bombing attack on Iran, or a gallant attack on civilian areas of Gaza). The condition of Iraq, in the view of people who are bracing for the effects of this bellicose American-Israeli policy, is completely secondary and derivative. Moreover the idea of a set of altruistic aims and objectives there seems ludicrous.

What then to make of the Kahl essay? If you look at some of the sensible remarks in his Mother Jones interview of last month it seems hard to take him as a regime propagandist, for the current regime, that is. On the contrary, the idea suggests itself that he is an ideologue for the coming Democratic administration. Because if you assume that a Democratic administration is going to abandon the warlike ambitions with respect to Gaza, South Lebanon, Syria and Iran, then his altruistic package of Iraq aims and objectives might arguably make sense. But how likely is that? Democrats are just as AIPAC-compliant as Republicans; and the remarks of the "mainstream" Democratic candidates for president indicate they intend to outflank the Republicans on Iran and other defence issues to the right, not to the left. So what sense does it make to try to shape Democratic party opinion with respect to Iraq on the basis of assumptions about regional policy that will seem just as ludricous under a Democratic administration as they do now under the Republicans?

Quote of the day: "No man is great enough or wise enough for any of us to surrender our destiny to. The only way in which anyone can lead us is to restore our belief in our own guidance." -- Henry Miller (1891-1980) Source: The Wisdom of the Heart, 1941