News & Views 11/22/07

Photo: Relatives grieve near the bodies of men killed by al-Qaeda insurgents in Baghdad November 22, 2007. Al Qaeda militants killed at least eight members of a neighbourhood police patrol in southern Baghdad on Thursday after shooting two Iraqi soldiers and stealing their vehicle, police said. (Ali Shatti/Reuters)

REPORTS – LIFE IN IRAQ

Thursday: 63 Iraqis Killed, 26 Wounded

Iraq sees "catastrophe" with new cholera cases

Iraq is facing a health "catastrophe" in the capital Baghdad, with reports of cholera rising sharply over the past weeks to more than 80 new cases , the Health Ministry said on Thursday. Most of the new cases have been reported in the eastern part of Baghdad, especially in poor areas routinely deprived of water and other basic services, an official at the ministry said. One cholera death was recorded in November, in addition to another death in September, said the official, who asked not to be named. "We have a catastrophe in Baghdad," she said. In western Baghdad, six people at a government home for the disabled were confirmed to have the disease, she said. Another girl at the al-Hanan Institute for the Severely Disabled died from the disease. The Health Ministry official blamed a lack of proper sanitation for the cholera cases at the institute. Cholera, which is normally caused by consuming water or food containing the Vibrio cholerae bacterium, causes diarrhoea and can swiftly kill its victims. The official said that six governmental hospitals suffer from unsafe water supplies, including Yarmouk, one of Baghdad's chief hospitals.

The violence falls but the sewage continues to rise

At the sight of an American soldier the mothers, holding on to their restless children, rose up as one. When was the rubbish and raw sewage going to be cleared off the streets, they wanted to know. The germs and the stench were posing a health hazard to their sons and daughters, they said. After a sharp drop in violence in Baghdad, attention is turning to the wretched state of the city's basic services and its threat to public health. Embedded with US army patrols in the south of the city, the Guardian has witnessed streets turned into foetid green cesspools and open sewers, where children kick footballs and ride bikes. Stray dogs roam on swaths of ground piled high with discarded household waste, concrete debris, burnt-out cars and other decaying rubbish.

Armed Women Transform Baghdad Neighborhood

The sounds of celebration echo on the streets of Baghdad's deadly Adamiyah neighborhood for the first time since the U.S. invasion. Former Sunni insurgents - today America's greatest allies in defeating al Qaeda in Iraq - enjoy a recent victory that left eight suspected terrorists dead. The U.S. now fights alongside their old Sunni enemy - and calls them “volunteers,” CBS News chief foreign correspondent Lara Logan reports. Some people call them America's militia. “It's not a militia,” said Lt. Col. Jefferey Broadwater, of the 3rd Squadron, 7th Cavalry Regiment. What’s the difference? “These guys are under contract, they've been trained by the Iraqi government,” Broadwater said. A U.S. contract that includes a highly unusual weapon: local Sunni women - some 52 of them in Adamiyah - paid with American tax dollars to protect the schools, hospitals and anything else the neighborhood needs.

Tearful Iraqi refugees return, hoping for safety

Scores of Iraqi refugees, encouraged by a lull in violence, returned in buses and cars to Baghdad on Wednesday, many in tears as they were reunited with their families. "If it was not for the trouble we would have never left Iraq," said an old woman, tears rolling down her face after meeting her family at a bus station in western Baghdad. "We were hurt a lot." Relatives embraced the returnees, who brought suitcases and other belongings in a sign they intended to stay permanently. One child walked away from the bus with a red bicycle. Displacement and Migration Minister Abdul Samad Sultan told Reuters that 1,600 people were returning to Iraq every day. As many as 2 million Iraqis have taken refuge in other nations, mainly Syria and Jordan. "Many of those who came back are people who owned houses that were taken from them (during their absence)," Sultan said. He said the ministry was coordinating with the leaders of a joint U.S.-Iraqi security operation in Baghdad to help the refugees get their homes back. International aid agencies say the number of people being displaced in Iraq still exceeds the number of returnees.

REPORTS – IRAQI MILITIAS, POLITICIANS, POWER BROKERS

IRAQ: Infighting Increases Instability

Increasing conflict and finger pointing between leading Shi'ite political blocs are heightening instability in war-torn Iraq. "It is said in the Arab world that if thieves were not seen while stealing, they would be seen while dividing the loot," Wayil Hikmet, an Iraqi historian in Baghdad told IPS. "That is what goes for the accelerating collapse of the Iraqi political system that was made in the USA. The thieves of the Green Zone are now giving me and my colleagues good material to write down for the coming generations," Hikmet said, referring to new scandals floating to the surface of the political scene in recent days. The Supreme Islamic Council in Iraq (SICI) led by Abdul Aziz Al-Hakim, and The Sadr Movement led by anti-occupation cleric Muqtada Al- Sadr are accusing each other of committing serious crimes against humanity in the southern parts of Iraq. In early September, clashes between Sadr's Mehdi Army militia and the Badr Organisation militia of SIIC erupted in the holy city of Kerbala, 100 kilometres southwest of Baghdad.

Maliki's public feud with Sunni official highlights Iraq's divisions

The sniping is incessant, the skirmishes bruising. For months, the verbal warfare between Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, a Shiite Muslim, and his Sunni vice-president, Tariq al-Hashemi, has been escalating. Now Iraqi politicians and American diplomats and analysts fear that the very public feuding between two of Iraq's most influential leaders will doom even the minimal hopes that exist for progress on a host of key benchmarks — such as holding provincial elections and equitably sharing oil revenues. "This is not merely about personalities quarreling over something trivial," said Anthony Cordesman, an expert on the Middle East for the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C. "It's about control of the state. ... It's about basic interests, factional and sectarian, and survival." Despite a dramatic decline in violence, there's been no sign of reconciliation among Iraq's leaders and no progress on many key issues, according to U.S. and Iraqi assessments.

Sunnis fight Sunnis, and Americans, southeast of Baghdad

Sunni insurgents dressed as Iraqi Army troops stormed a Sunni village southeast of Baghdad at dawn on Thursday, witnesses said, killing at least 11 people during a three hour firefight before U.S. and Iraqi soldiers drove them off. More may have been killed. A hospital worker counted 11 dead, including three Iraqi soldiers, but a local sheik said 20 corpses remained scattered throughout the village. The village, Howr Rajab, has been the site of fierce struggles between two rival Sunni groups, the homegrown Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, which the U.S. authorities say is foreign-led, and members of Sunni Awakening, who are allied with the American forces here. The head of Howr Rajab's Awakening Council, Sheik Maher al-Maenee, said 50 attackers burst into the village from three entry points at 6:30 a.m. One local said the insurgents overran an Iraqi Army checkpoint and commandeered two tanks. The attackers wore Iraqi Army fatigues, Maenee said, and Awakening Council uniforms stolen during previous raids. Iraqi troops fought back, killing at least three insurgents, and the fighting continued until 9:30 a.m., when U.S. soldiers arrived by air and in Humvees. The attackers fled south toward Busaifi, an area considered an Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia stronghold.

Dhari: Quds is in Our Hearts

Secretary General of the Association of Muslim Scholars in Iraq (AMSI) Sheikh Dr. Hareth al Dhari gave a speech at the international Quds Meeting held in Istanbul organized by Al Quds International Institution, The Foundation of Volunteer Organizations of Turkey (TGTV) and The Union of NGOs of the Islamic World (UNIW).

…. So, if we are talking about the Zionist occupation to Palestine and about the foreign projects in Lebanon, Sudan and Somali we have to talk about the tragedy in Iraq and who is behind such procedure and performance in Iraq and in Afghanistan. Yes we should talk in all our Arab and Islamic countries. So in such a way our talks will be a bit of fair and justice. Furthermore we should make such talks that concern all Arabic and Islamic countries of course including Iraq in order to exhibit the truth and to build the right foundation that will set from the efforts of the nation. These efforts of the nation's sons will bring us a good hope for a bright future in the benefit of the nation. So I say Iraq is moving towards the right course – by the assistance of Allah – the obstacles replaced by the occupation and its puppets in Iraq will be vanished. Iraqi issue will end with the victory in any case; will return among their Arab and Islamic nation. To all who reject the negotiation with occupation and invaders must reject not only the Palestine issue but the Iraqi issue also. They should not negotiate with Americans on the Iraqi territory and on behalf of the Iraqi people as if there is no men in Iraq or their sons are orphans needs an external guardian...We should be fair and justice in our speech. Who harms Iraq will be in preparation to harm others of Arabs and Muslim brotherhood. Who will cooperate with occupiers against Iraq will never serve the nation even a single part of it.

Denounces of the Occupation of AMSI

National Liberation and Salvation Assembly denounced the occupation of headquarters of the Association of Muslim Scholars in Iraq (AMSI) and Umm Al Qura Radio Station based on Umm Al Qura Mosque in Baghdad by the Sunni Awqaf Diwan forces. At the statement the Assembly described the reoccupation of the headquarters of the Association of Muslim Scholars in Iraq (AMSI) as a part of the schemes of the occupation and his government. The Assembly of National Liberation and Salvation told that this attack and occupation comes in framework of schemes that aims to escalate the sedition targeting the forces opposed to the occupation including the Association of Muslim Scholars in Iraq (AMSI). Because the Association of Muslim Scholars in Iraq (AMSI) is known by its fixed position rejecting the occupation.

REPORTS – US/UK/OTHERS IN IRAQ

Foreign militants 'from US allies'

Around 60% of all foreign militants who entered Iraq to fight over the past year came from Saudi Arabia and Libya, according to files seized by American forces at a desert camp. The files listed the nationalities and biographical details of more than 700 fighters who crossed into Iraq from August last year, around half of whom came to the country to be suicide bombers, the New York Times reported today. In all, 305, or 41%, of the fighters listed were from Saudi Arabia. Another 137, or 18%, came from Libya. Both countries are officially US allies in anti-terrorism efforts. In contrast, 56 Syrians were listed and no Lebanese. Previously, US officials estimated that around a fifth of all foreign fighters in Iraq came from these two countries. US officials have also long complained about Iranian interference in the affairs of its neighbour, accusing Tehran of shipping weapons for militants over the border. However, any assistance does not appear to extend to people, the paper said, reporting that, of around 25,000 suspected militants in US custody in Iraq, 11 were Iranian. No Iranians were listed among the fighters whose details were found.

U.S. Says Attacks in Iraq Fell to Feb. 2006 Level

The American military said Sunday that the weekly number of attacks in Iraq had fallen to the lowest level since just before the February 2006 bombing of the Shiite shrine in Samarra, an event commonly used as a benchmark for the country’s worst spasm of bloodletting after the American invasion nearly five years ago. ……Military officials said the attacks were directed against American and Iraqi forces, as well as civilians. But since the source for the data is American military reports, and not the Iraqi government, the figures do not provide an exhaustive measure of sectarian violence. …..The data released Sunday cover attacks using car bombs, roadside bombs, mines, mortars, rockets, surface-to-air missiles and small arms. According to the statistics, roughly 575 attacks occurred last week. That is substantially fewer than the more than 700 attacks that were recorded the week that Sunni militants set off a wave of sectarian violence in Iraq by blowing up a Shiite shrine in Samarra in February 2006. And it represents a huge drop since June when attacks soared to nearly 1,600 one week. [Anyone remember January 2006 as a peaceful and happy time in Iraq? No, me either. – dancewater]

IRAQI REFUGEES

Iraqis need travel visa before entering Jordan

Iraqis will have to get a visa while in Iraq before heading for the Jordanian borders, the Jordanian ministry of interior said. In a statement, the ministry said the visas will only be valid for six months. Those overstaying their residence have to pay a fee for each extra day, it said. Jordan and Syria have imposed tough travel restrictions on Iraqis fleeing violence and ongoing military operations in their country. There are more than 2 million Iraqis on the move inside Iraq. Many of them have nowhere to go as several Iraqi provinces are refusing to welcome internally displaced people.

Lack of money, visa problems prompting Iraqi refugees to return home

Lack of funds and the Syrian government’s refusal to renew their visas, more than the perception of improved security in Iraq, are prompting some Iraqi refugees in Syria to return to Iraq, according to personal refugee accounts and figures from the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR).

How to Help Iraqi Refugees

ANOTHER Way to help: The Collateral Repair Project

COMMENTARY

Holocaust Denial, American Style

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad's flirtation with those who deny the reality of the Nazi genocide has rightly been met with disgust. But another holocaust denial is taking place with little notice: the holocaust in Iraq. The average American believes that 10,000 Iraqi civilians have been killed since the US invasion in March 2003. The most commonly cited figure in the media is 70,000. But the actual number of people who have been killed is most likely more than one million. This is five times more than the estimates of killings in Darfur and even more than the genocide in Rwanda 13 years ago. The estimate of more than one million violent deaths in Iraq was confirmed again two months ago in a poll by the British polling firm Opinion Research Business, which estimated 1,220,580 violent deaths since the US invasion. This is consistent with the study conducted by doctors and scientists from the Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health more than a year ago. Their study was published in the Lancet, Britain's leading medical journal. It estimated 601,000 people killed due to violence as of July 2006; but if updated on the basis of deaths since the study, this estimate would also be more than a million. These estimates do not include those who have died because of public health problems created by the war, including breakdowns in sewerage systems and electricity, shortages of medicines, etc.

Amazingly, some journalists and editors - and of course some politicians - dismiss such measurements because they are based on random sampling of the population rather than a complete count of the dead. While it would be wrong to blame anyone for their lack of education, this disregard for scientific methods and results is inexcusable. As one observer succinctly put it: if you don't believe in random sampling, the next time your doctor orders a blood test, tell him that he needs to take all of it. The methods used in the estimates of Iraqi deaths are the same as those used to estimate the deaths in Darfur, which are widely accepted in the media. They are also consistent with the large numbers of refugees from the violence (estimated at more than four million). There is no reason to disbelieve them, or to accept tallies such as that the Iraq Body Count (73,305 - 84,222), which include only a small proportion of those killed, as an estimate of the overall death toll.

Of course, acknowledging the holocaust in Iraq might change the debate over the war. While Iraqi lives do not count for much in US politics, recognizing that a mass slaughter of this magnitude is taking place could lead to more questions about how this horrible situation came to be. Right now a convenient myth dominates the discussion: the fall of Saddam Hussein simply unleashed a civil war that was waiting to happen, and the violence is all due to Iraqis' inherent hatred of each other. In fact, there is considerable evidence that the occupation itself - including the strategy of the occupying forces - has played a large role in escalating the violence to holocaust proportions. It is in the nature of such an occupation, where the vast majority of the people are opposed to the occupation and according to polls believe it is right to try and kill the occupiers, to pit one ethnic group against another. This was clear when Shiite troops were sent into Sunni Fallujah in 2004; it is obvious in the nature of the death-squad government, where officials from the highest levels of the Interior Ministry to the lowest ranking police officers - all trained and supported by the US military - have carried out a violent, sectarian mission of "ethnic cleansing." (The largest proportion of the killings in Iraq are from gunfire and executions, not from car bombs). It has become even more obvious in recent months as the United States is now arming both sides of the civil war, including Sunni militias in Anbar province as well as the Shiite government militias. Is Washington responsible for a holocaust in Iraq? That is the question that almost everyone here wants to avoid. So the holocaust is denied.

IRAQ: Executions Not Leading to Reconciliation

The executions of former regime officials are creating greater division, rather than reconciliation, among Iraqis. Special courts formed by the American occupation authorities in Iraq are issuing death sentences -- like that carried out on former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, on 30 December 2006 -- on what many Iraqis are interpreting as a political basis. "Executing Saddam cost Iraqis a lot of hatred and more division between the sects, " Walid Al-Ubaidi, post-graduate law student at Baghdad University told IPS. "Now they [U.S.-backed Iraqi Government] are executing the Ex-Minister of Defense, Sultan Hashim Ahmed, who was very well known for being a professional general who led the Iraqi army against Iran," Al-Ubaidi said, stressing that, "This man represents a symbol for the Iraqi army that defended Iraq." On 24 June 2007 the Iraqi High Tribunal found Ahmed guilty of presiding over the killing of thousands of Kurds during the Anfal campaign in the 1980s. Several legal delays, and more recently a delay for a religious holiday, have postponed the execution.

RESISTANCE

We Support the Troops Who Oppose the War

On the weekend of 13-15 March, 2008, Iraq Veterans Against the War will assemble history's largest gathering of US veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as Iraqi and Afghan survivors. They will provide first hand accounts of their experiences and reveal the truth of occupation. We support Iraq Veterans Against the War and their Winter Soldier: Iraq & Afghanistan Investigation. Join us in supporting the effort to reveal truth in the way that only those who lived it can.

Please go to this website to sign the petition.

Hip- Hop Music by young children: Soldier, Soldier

“Soldier, soldier, fight another day, your wife and kids are in the USA” This is a song about coping with the absence of parents who are deployed to Iraq. The song is #2 on the play list of songs on the right side of the website.

Quotes of the day: Throughout history, it has been the inaction of those who could have acted; the indifference of those who should have known better; the silence of the voice of justice when it mattered most; that has made it possible for evil to triumph ~ Haile Selassie