Photo: Supporters of Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr chant slogans and display his posters during a rally in Baghdad's Sadr City November 24, 2007. Several thousand people took to the streets on Saturday chanting slogans pledging support for Moqtada. REUTERS/Kareem Raheem (IRAQ)
REPORTS – LIFE IN IRAQ
Saturday: 32 Iraqis Killed, 40 Wounded
Routes into Kirkuk sealed off
Main routes in and out of Kirkuk were sealed as military forces launch a major security operation in the northern Iraqi oil city. Despite several large security dragnets in the past, car bombs or suicide attacks have significantly increased violence in the city. Iraqi police and army units combed the city, searching homes and raiding other buildings suspected of harbouring insurgent elements. The raids come amid a 12-hour curfew in the city.
Iraqi school guard, wife beheaded as children watch
Three suspected al Qaeda militants, including two sisters, beheaded their uncle and his wife, forcing the couple's children to watch, Iraqi police said on Friday. The militants considered that school guard Youssef al-Hayali was an infidel because he did not pray and wore western-style trousers, they told police interrogators after being arrested in Diyala province northwest of Baghdad. The three cousins executed Hayali and his wife Zeinab Kamel at the all-boys school in Jalawlah in Diyala province, village police chief Captain Ahmed Khalifa said. [More evidence for my theory that the people of Iraq are now – thanks to the occupation and war – bat shit crazy. – dancewater]
Iraqi children bear the burden of an uncalled-for war
Looking at photos of Iraqi children maimed by the war makes the conflict unforgettable. Reflecting on the causes that led to that war makes it unforgivable. Slowly but steadily new information is coming out on the effects of the war on children, and how it has affected not only their health but also their quality of life and prospects for the future. One child dies every five minutes because of the war, and many more are left with severe injuries. Of the estimated 4 million Iraqis who have been displaced in Iraq or left the country, 1.5 million are children. For the most part, they don't have access to basic health care, education, shelter or water and sanitation. They carry on their shoulders the tragic consequences of an uncalled for war. "Sick or injured children, who could otherwise be treated by simple means, are left to die in the hundreds because they don't have access to basic medicines or other resources. Children who have lost hands, feet and limb are left without prostheses. Children with grave psychological distress are left untreated." That is the assessment of 100 British and Iraqi doctors.
Contractors
I just want to ask where is the role of the government represented by the minister of finance who should know all these things and the Iraqi people put the budget in his hands. making the street full with dust and chaos. Drivers have only one lane to take while the rest of the street from both sides have been dug and left . The street itself is unpaved as the workers didn’t pave it in a previous period when they dug to change the water pipes ! . I asked myself the question the people ask in the whole country : why this great interest in replacing and making pavements rather than building schools, hospitals , new buildings for the ministries, new houses or apartments for those who still have no place to live while each minister and official has three big houses in addition to mansions and the headquarters of their parties .I also forgot that most of those officials have flats and houses in other countries to spend most of the time with their families and realatives there rather than Iraq, the place where they get money from.
Look at Main Iraq Contractor Fraud Cases
Major cases involving alleged contractor fraud in Iraq, Kuwait and Afghanistan.
- LEE-DAVIS: Maj. Gloria Davis allegedly told Army investigators before her death in December 2006 that she received $225,000 in bribes from Kuwait-based businessman George H. Lee and his son. Army investigator also said she knew of other payments by the Lees to U.S. contracting officers. No charges filed, but military seized Davis' bank accounts and suspended Lee and his company from doing business with government.
- MAJ. JOHN COCKERHAM: Federal grand jury in Texas last August indicted Cockerham, his wife Melissa and sister Carolyn Blake on bribery, conspiracy and money-laundering charges, accusing them of taking at least $9.6 million in bribes in 2004-05 while Cockerham was contract officer in Kuwait. Largest bribery case to emerge so far in investigation into contractor fraud.
- LT. COL. BRUCE HOPFENGARDNER: Hopfengardner pleaded guilty in June to conspiracy to commit money laundering and wire fraud. Sentenced to 21 months in prison and fined $144,500 for accepting cash and gifts while serving in Iraq.
- MOHAMMAD SHABBIR KHAN: Khan, U.S. citizen and former director of Kuwait and Iraq operations for Saudi Arabian subcontractor Tamimi Global Co., sentenced last December to 51 months in prison and fined $10,000 after admitting paying kickbacks to former employee of Kellogg, Brown & Root Services Inc. to win $14.4 million food services contract at Camp Arifjan, Kuwait, and $7.4 million subcontract at palace in Baghdad. Stephen Lowell Seamans, former KBR manager in Kuwait, sentenced to a year and a day after admitting taking kickbacks from Khan.
- PHILIP BLOOM: Bloom, American living in Romania, sentenced last February to 46 months in prison after pleading guilty to bribery, conspiracy and money laundering. Admitted bribing military personnel with jewelry, computers, cigars and sexual favors to win contracts. Three Army officers awaiting trial for allegedly steering contracts to Bloom.
Returnees Find a Capital Transformed
Those returning make up only a tiny fraction of the 2.2 million Iraqis who have fled Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003. But they represent the largest number of returnees since February 2006, when sectarian violence began to rise dramatically, speeding the exodus from Iraq. Many find a Baghdad they no longer recognize, a city altered by blast walls and sectarian rifts. Under the improved security, Iraqis are gingerly testing how far their new liberties allow them to go. But they are also facing many barriers, geographical and psychological, hardened by violence and mistrust. Days after she returned from Syria, 23-year-old Melal al-Zubaidi and a friend went to the market on a pleasant night to eat ice cream. It was a short walk, yet unthinkable only a month ago for a woman in the capital. Still, her parents were nervous, and Zubaidi wore a head scarf and an ankle-length skirt to avoid angering Islamic extremists.
Eden restored
Saddam Hussein had scant regard for the largest wetlands in the Middle East, which teem with unique wildlife like the smooth-coated otter, Mesopotamian deer and Basra reed warbler. He saw them merely as a haven for hiding rebels and deserters from the Iran-Iraq War, and in the early 1990s, he ordered them to be drained. By 2003, more than 90% of the Mesopotamian wetlands, dubbed the Garden of Eden, had been lost, and reduced to barren salt pans. Experts feared that the region, home to an ancient people considered the heirs of the Babylonians and Sumerians, would vanish by 2008. Now, with a huge multibillion dollar restoration underway, funded by the US, Canadian and Italian governments and the United Nations environment programme (UNEP) many Ma'dan (Marsh Arabs) are returning to a life that has changed little in 5,000 years. But, after years of urban exile, they are now accustomed to modern life's comforts, such as electricity, television, air-conditioning and wireless internet. To meet old and these newly acquired needs, a two-and-a half-year feasibility study has produced a vision for "New Eden" – a bold masterplan which aims for an "intersection between green technologies and traditional environmental knowledge."
Thousands Roar Support for Sadr in Baghdad Bastion
Shias in their thousands turned out to roar their support for radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr in his Sadr City bastion in east Baghad, some vowing during on Friday prayers even to die for him. The outpouring of fervour follows an operation by Iraqi and US security forces in the central city of Diwaniyah last weekend in which dozens of Sadr’s Mahdi Army militia were arrested. Young and old, some in traditional Arab dress, some in blue and red tracksuits and others draped in white silk, gathered outside Sadr’s office in the centre of the sprawling ghetto for the weekly Muslim prayers. “You all are heroes. You are sons of the Mahdi Army. Follow your leader. This is the way to success,” said Sheikh Hassan al-Hussaini, the cleric’s representative, as he led the prayers. “Yes! Yes! Moqtada. We promise. We promise Moqtada that we are with you,” the crowd shouted their response in unison, raising their hands repeatedly in the air. “We will protect you till the end of our lives Moqtada,” yelled the crowd,many using posters of the popular cleric to shade themselves from the sun.
REPORTS – IRAQI MILITIAS, POLITICIANS, POWER BROKERS
Iraq nullifies Kurdish oil deals
Iraq's oil ministry has declared all crude contracts signed by the Kurdish regional authorities with foreign companies null and void, a government official said on Saturday. "The ministry has nullified all contracts signed by the Kurdistan Regional Government," the official told AFP, asking not to be named. "They will not be recognised." The government in Iraq's northern autonomous Kurdish region has signed 15 exploration and exportation contracts with 20 international companies since it passed its own oil law in August, infuriating the Baghdad government. Oil Minister Hussein Shahristani has in recent weeks angrily denounced the Kurdish authorities for signing the contracts before the national parliament approves a new oil and gas law, declaring them "illegal". The government official said the minister had now gone further and nullified all the contracts and had warned the foreign companies involved that they would be blacklisted.
REPORTS – US/UK/OTHERS IN IRAQ
U.S. blames Shiites in new Iraq violence
Four members of an Iranian-backed Shiite cell confessed to bombing a public market in central Baghdad, a U.S. spokesman said Saturday. He also blamed Shiites for recent attacks on U.S. bases, raising fears that a three-month truce by the most feared Shiite militia may be at an end. [They always blame someone else. – dancewater]
PM: Poland to end Iraq mission in 2008
Poland's new prime minister outlined ambitious plans for the next four years in his inaugural address Friday, saying he plans to withdraw troops from Iraq next year but also push for stronger relations with NATO. Tusk said that, by the end of next year, Poland would withdraw its 900 troops from Iraq, where it leads an international contingent of about 2,000 soldiers from 10 nations in the south-central part of the country.
Al-Qaida 'Rolodex' found in Iraq raid
A September raid near the Syrian border uncovered what U.S. military officials term "an al-Qaida Rolodex" of hundreds of foreign fighters in Iraq. A senior U.S. military official in Baghdad has confirmed to CNN that the raid netted documents listing the identities of more than 700 foreign fighters believed to have entered the country in the past year. The official said the documents, along with other intelligence, indicated that as many as 60 percent of the foreign fighters were from Saudi Arabia and Libya, CNN reported.
IRAQI REFUGEES
UNHCR says time not right for large-scale Iraq repatriation
Amid media reports that thousands of refugees are going back to Iraq, the UN refugee agency said on Friday that while improved security conditions were welcome it was not yet time to promote, organize or encourage returns. Spokeswoman Jennifer Pagonis told journalists in Geneva that UNHCR was ready to assist people who have decided, or will decide, to return to Iraq voluntarily, but the agency believed that large-scale repatriation would only be possible "when proper return conditions are in place – including material and legal support and physical safety." She added that "presently, there is no sign of any large-scale return to Iraq as the security situation in many parts of the country remains volatile and unpredictable." According to a survey conducted by UNHCR staff in Syria, there are many reasons for returns to Iraq other than considerations of improved security. Most of some 110 Iraqi families interviewed said they were returning because they were running out of money and/or resources, they faced difficult living conditions or because their visas have expired.
How to Help Iraqi Refugees
ANOTHER Way to help: The Collateral Repair Project
COMMENTARY
My Colleague, the 'Terrorist'
At long last, prize-winning Associated Press photographer Bilal Hussein may get his day in court. The trouble is, justice won't be blind in this case -- his lawyer will be. Bilal has been imprisoned by the U.S. military in Iraq since he was picked up April 12, 2006, in Ramadi, a violent town in a turbulent province where few Western journalists dared go. The military claimed then that he had suspicious links to insurgents. This week, Editor & Publisher magazine reported the military has amended that to say he is, in fact, a "terrorist" who had "infiltrated the AP." We believe Bilal's crime was taking photographs the U.S. government did not want its citizens to see. That he was part of a team of AP photographers who had just won a Pulitzer Prize for work in Iraq may have made Bilal even more of a marked man. In the 19 months since he was picked up, Bilal has not been charged with any crime, although the military has sent out a flurry of ever-changing claims. Every claim we've checked out has proved to be false, overblown or microscopic in significance. Now, suddenly, the military plans to seek a criminal case against Bilal in the Iraqi court system in just days. But the military won't tell us what the charges are, what evidence it will be submitting or even when the hearing will be held.
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.
Quotes of the day: "Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from a religious conviction." --Blaise Pascal
Photo: Supporters of Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr chant slogans and display his posters during a rally in 
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