News & Views 11/27/07

Photo: Young Iraqi orphans at the Iraq House, an orphanage created two years ago to combat the swelling numbers of homeless children in Baghdad's Muslim Shiite slum of Sadr City on Tuesday June 19, 2007. The Iraq House has 25 orphans aged five to 14 and is staffed by five adult men. Most of the orphans are here because one or both their parents were killed in sectarian violence. Others are here because they were abandoned. The local community supports the orphanage by donations. (UPI Photo/Adel Abd Al-Hassan)

REPORTS – LIFE IN IRAQ

US Roadblock Shootings in Iraq Kill 5

U.S. troops fired on vehicles trying to drive through roadblocks in Baghdad and north of the Iraqi capital, killing at least five people — including a child — in two separate shootings, the U.S. military said Tuesday. The shooting in Baghdad took place in a northern neighborhood known to be a Shiite militia stronghold as the driver collected employees of the Rasheed bank, police said. U.S. troops fired warning shots when the bus reached the U.S. roadblock Tuesday and tried to drive through, killing as many as four passengers — including three women, police and hospital officials said. … A Rasheed employee wearing a bloodied white T-shirt who was hospitalized after the shooting said the passengers initially did not know whether the bus had been hit by bullets or bombs. He said U.S. troops immediately came to the bus to help. "Later, we found out that the American forces opened fire at us. But the thing that I cannot comprehend is that the same Americans who opened fire at us, came immediately to help us," the man, who identified himself only as Yasir, told AP Television News. During a U.S. operation Monday against al-Qaida in Beiji, 155 miles north of Baghdad, American troops shot at a vehicle speeding toward a roadblock after firing warning shots, the military said in a separate statement. Two men in the vehicle were killed immediately, and a child traveling with them died later of his wounds. "We regret that civilians are hurt or killed while coalition forces work diligently to rid this country of the terrorist networks that threaten the security of Iraq and our forces," said Cmdr. Ed Buclatin, a U.S. spokesman. Two terrorism suspects were killed earlier in the operation, the military said.

Raid nets $1 mln of forged Iraqi currency

Forged Iraqi banknotes worth about $1 million were seized in a central Baghdad raid on Tuesday, officials said, in what was believed to be the biggest operation of its kind against counterfeiters. Iraqi National Security Minister Shirwan al-Waeli said four people were arrested during the raid by Iraqi soldiers and security ministry officers on a ground-floor apartment in Baghdad's Karrada district. "A huge amount of money was found in the house, more than 1 billion Iraqi dinars," Waeli told Reuters. A Defence Ministry statement said the notes seized amounted to 1.25 billion Iraqi dinars, equivalent to roughly $1 million.

IRAQ: Detentions Escalate in Diwaniyah

Detentions have become commonplace in Iraq, but now more than ever before people are being detained after being accused of membership in "militias supported by Iran." "Hundreds of our men were detained and accused of being militiamen supported by Iran," Mahmood Allawi, a 50-year-old lawyer from Diwaniyah, 160-kilomtres south of Baghdad, told IPS. "We are Arab Shiite and Iran is as much an enemy to us as America! It is Iran that we fear most after our leaders were killed by the so-called 'Iranian supported' militias," Allawi said. There has been a spike in abductions being carried out by U.S. and Iraqi forces in Diwaniyah, capital of Iraq’s Al-Qadisiyah province and home to a population of roughly 400,000. On Nov. 13, the International Committee of the Red Cross estimated that 60,000 people are currently detained in Iraq. U.S. officials claim that the military has been actively fighting against members of the Mehdi Army militia of anti-occupation cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. People here told a different story to IPS. "If they mean the Mehdi Army then they know them well because they worked together for about two years now," Abdul Kazem Hussein, a former Iraqi officer who fled to Baghdad from Diwaniyah recently told IPS. Hussein claimed that the U.S. military had been using members of the Mehdi Army to carry out attacks on Sunnis in Baghdad, as well as areas south of Baghdad, like Diwaniyah. "But they are detaining hundreds of people who have always been afraid of being drilled to death by Mehdi Army murderers," Hussein explained, alluding to a practice used by Mehdi Army members of using electric drills to torture Sunni men they capture. "They are detaining those who have not accepted the influence of Iran in the city," Hussein said. Bassam Al-Shareef, a spokesman for the Shiite party -- Al-Fadhila -- criticized the campaign and warned the Iraqi government of the consequences if the campaign against the Mehdi Army continues this way.

False Sovereignty

School in the whole world is a place for educating people whether this school is in the USA or in Iraq. But what happened yesterday at one of the schools in Baghdad is so far from education and humanity. A teacher and student in a central Baghdad school told me this story. Yesterday noon, an American squad from the United State Army (about ten to twelve) broke in Al-Mansour preparatory school for one reason or another. We don't have the right to ask them why they came to the school. The soldiers spread in different spots of the school walking towards the back yard which is used as a soccer field. Most of the students were in their classes when the squad came, but still there were many students in the yard who were terrified to see the American soldiers with their guns. One of the students was upset to see the soldiers and he threw a stone and hit one of them. Three soldiers surrounded him kicking him with their boots for some minutes on different parts of his body. Later, a teacher of English said that the captain of the squad told him "next time if students throw stones, we will use our machine guns not the boots". I really hated myself hearing that news as I am a teacher myself. What shall I do if I were there? What shall I tell my students? How can I behave? What excuses will I give for that incident? My brain stops thinking from now on. In 2003 I thought we were getting democracy and freedom, but what happened at that school does not tell the story of freedom.

Video: Iraqi Artisans Still Dedicated to Tradition

Iraq is famous for many things, including woodcrafts. Woodcarving in particular is something well-known in Iraq. Iraqi families such as those of Abu Mustafa Al-Rubaie have been handing their skills down from generation to generation. Iraqi artists are one of many groups who have been the target of violence, such as bakers, academics, and those seen to be connected with the Multi-National Coalition forces. The development of the craft has become rare as well-known artists and professionals of all variety with the means have fled the country. Today there is just one institute still teaching the skills of these Iraqi artisans. The Fine Arts Academy in Baghdad, where many artists have displayed work and taught, continues to provide lessons in woodcarving. Many artists are learning and developing their craft alone, displaying their work primarily in some of the remaining galleries of the Karrada neighborhood.

Bike race brings joy to former Qaeda hotbed in Iraq

About 150 students wearing colourful T-shirts competed in a bicycle race in Falluja on Tuesday, an unimaginable event a year ago in what was once an al Qaeda hotbed and one of Iraq's most dangerous cities. The city's police chief fired the starting shot to set the students from 15 intermediate and secondary schools off on the 5-km (3-mile) race across Falluja, 50 km (32 miles) west of Baghdad. Police motorbikes escorted them along the road and scores of policemen in blue uniforms were deployed around the start and finish lines. "This race made us happy. We needed this because of what we have been through," Ayad Ghaleb Salem, a school teacher, told Reuters. "We have gotten used to a difficult life." Scores of families lined the streets to watch the race and residents of the milled around the riders to congratulate them after the race.

How fragile is Baghdad's calm?

Walid Mahmoud reopened his Napoli Pizzeria last week after shuttering it for more than three years. Situated next to the Green Zone, his restaurant was one of several popular eateries lining a central street that had been a constant target for suicide bombers. Like many Baghdadis, Mahmoud says he is heartened by a recent decline in violence. In October, attacks across Iraq dropped 55 percent; civilian fatalities in Baghdad alone have dropped 75 percent compared with June, according to the US military. But two bombings in the capital since Friday, which killed at least 24 and wounded dozens, were a reminder that the new calm is fragile. In many parts of the city, residents are still arrested by fear, polarized by sectarian divisions, or altogether absent. Even as life reasserts itself in a few upscale areas such as Karrada and Jadriyah, wide swaths of middle-class western Baghdad remain locked down amid uncertainty over whether progress is lasting or is the result of a brief cease-fire between sectarian militias. An arc of neighborhoods there - Furat, Atibaa, Jihad, Amel, Bayiaa, and Saidiyah - will be forever linked to some of the war's worst turmoil. These areas, some of which the Monitor recently visited, will also offer the truest test of the durability of improving security, say American and Iraqi officials.

US Ambassador Ryan Crocker said last month that what ultimately happens in places like Jihad and other traditionally Sunni-Shiite - but currently segregated - neighborhoods is "critical" for the trend to "continue and solidify." While violence is down, true peace seems conditional on resolution of a number of explosive issues. Tens of thousands of displaced families hope to return to their homes, and families expect to receive compensation for members who were killed and for damage to property. Yet the Iraqi government has made no meaningful initiatives to push the process ahead. In some areas, hundreds of ex-Sunni insurgents and even a few Al Qaeda-linked fighters are on the US military's payroll as neighborhood guards. Shiite fighters with the Mahdi Army are also present, to a much smaller extent, in others, but are standing down for now, ordered by radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr to freeze their activities.

REPORTS – IRAQI MILITIAS, POLITICIANS, POWER BROKERS

Al-Najaf hosts first conference of Iraqi Shiite, Sunni scholars

A 200-member delegation representing the Iraqi Sunni scholars arrived at the office of Shiite Mentor Ayatollah Ali Al-Sistani in the southern Iraqi city of Al-Najaf to mull ways to defuse tension between the two sides. Under the title of "the first national conference of Shiites and Sunnis" the event kicked off Tuesday with other Shiite leaders in the city, such as Ayatollah Mohammad Saeed Al-Hakim, Ayatollah Ishaq Al-Fayyadh and Ayatollah Bashir Al-Najafi, attending. The conference drew participations from the Shiite Waqf in Iraq, the religious scholars of Iraq's Kurdistan, Baghdad, Basra, Al-Muthanna, Al-Nasseriya, Al-Kut, and Al-Diwaniya. Sunni leaders are expected to appeal for halting the activities of Shiite armed groups in southern Iraqi cities, informed sources believe. Welcoming the Sunni sholars to Al-Sistani office, Al-Najaf Jumaa Imam Sadr-Eddin Al-Qabanji said the world was looking forward to the conference to issue a strong signal about Iraq's national unity.

UPDATE: Iraq KRG Oil Min: To Sign 20 E&P Contracts By Early '08

The Kurdistan Regional Government is expecting to sign exploration and production contracts with around 20 more companies by the first half of next year, KRG Natural Resources Minister Ashti Hawrami said Tuesday. The new contracts would come as tension escalates in Iraq over how the country's massive oil and gas resources should be managed, with the central government - backed by the U.S. administration - pushing for more centralized control. The relationship between the autonomous Kurdish government and Iraq's federal government deteriorated Tuesday as Iraq's oil minister accused the Kurds of using military force to prevent Baghdad from developing an oil field in the north of the country. A KRG spokesman said "no one" was blocking any development in the region. Iraq Oil Minister Hussein al-Shahristani has called contracts the KRG has already signed with companies such as TNK BP (TNBP.RS), a Russian company in which BP Plc (BP) holds 50%, and OMV (OMV.VI), "illegal," while Hawrami says the regional governments are allowed to sign deals under the current constitution. "Dr. Sharistani, he is wrong, plainly wrong," Hawrami said. "We are a federal region...(he) can't do anything...we don't need his approval," he said.

Speaking at a press briefing here, Hawrami said that several of the new contracts could be signed by mid-December, following a trip to Texas. He declined to comment on which companies the KRG was planning to sign contracts with. "Significant companies are negotiating with us now," he said. Once the contracts are all signed - doubling the number of firms currently in the Northern Iraq region - around $10 billion in exploration and production investment could lead to an boost of around one million barrels a day in the long term, Hawrami said. The KRG was also planning for an additional $4 billion in downstream investments to help solve power and fuel shortages. Introduction In early November, a team of Afghan journalists went to Musa Qala at the invitation of the Taleban. It was the first time since the insurgents took over the town in February that the media had been allowed in. IWPR’s reporters came back with different, sometimes conflicting impressions.

Top cleric al-Sistani urges Shiites to protect Sunnis

Top Shiite Cleric Ali al-Sistani urged Shiites to protect their Sunni brothers and defend them, head of south Iraq's scholars body said on Tuesday. Shiekh Khaled al-Mulla said at a press conference held in Najaf after the visit made by a delegation of Sunni and Shiite clerics to al-Sistani, "The top cleric asserted on the sanctity of Iraq's blood, urging Shiites to protect and defend Sunnis." Sistani said in the two-hour meeting "I'm a servant for all Iraqis and there is no difference between Sunnis, Shiites, Kurds, or Christians."

The Mahdi Militia: Quiet But Not Gone

In the east Baghdad neighborhood patrolled by Capt. Mike Juarez and the men of Charlie Company, 1-8 Cavalry, Iraq's most feared militia is keeping its head down. Since Moqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army declared a unilateral cease-fire at the end of August, the Americans have been able operate freely in some of Baghdad's worst areas, and have faced very few serious attacks. But in Juarez's neighborhood, as elsewhere, the militia retains an insidious weapon: a presence within the Iraqi government's security forces. On a recent night patrol Juarez and his men went door to door, discussing everything from electricity to security with residents. One home had a picture of Sadr, the militia chieftain, on display in the living room. It turned out that the man of the house was a member of the Iraqi security forces. In the back-and-forth that followed, the man told the Americans that he did not work with the militia, and did not have any colleagues who did either. Eventually, though, he said he might know a few cops or soldiers whose loyalties lie with the Mahdi Army ("Jaish al-Mahdi" in Arabic, "JAM" in the parlance of U.S. soldiers). The Americans left the man with a phone number to call so he could leave anonymous tips.

Bush, Maliki Sign Pact on Iraq's Future

President Bush reached a deal yesterday that is intended to lead to a more normalized, long-term relationship between the United States and Iraq by the time he leaves office, but it left unsettled the question of how many and how long U.S. forces would remain. Bush and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki signed the declaration of principles during a secure videoconference as part of an effort to move forward 4 1/2 years after a U.S.-led coalition invaded Iraq and toppled Saddam Hussein. The declaration calls for the current U.N. mandate to be extended one year, then replaced at the end of 2008 by a bilateral pact governing the economic, political and security aspects of the relationship.

REPORTS – US/UK/OTHERS IN IRAQ

Bush commits troops to Iraq for the long term

The Bush administration formally committed America yesterday to a long-term military presence in Iraq, pledging to protect the government in Baghdad from internal coup plots and foreign enemies. The cooperation pact, endorsed by George Bush and the Iraqi prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, during a video conference yesterday morning, will set the agenda for a future American relationship with Iraq, the administration's adviser on Iraq and Afghanistan, General Douglas Lute, told reporters at the White House. "The two negotiating teams, Iraq and the United States, now have a common sheet of music with which to begin the negotiations," Lute said. The military, economic and diplomatic agreement would commit US forces to defending the government of Iraq from internal and external threats as well as fighting al-Qaida and "all other outlaw groups regardless of affiliation", according to the declaration of principles released by the White House yesterday. In return, Iraq pledged itself to "encouraging the flow of foreign investments to Iraq, especially American investments, to contribute to the reconstruction and rebuilding of Iraq". The promise was immediately seen as a potential bonanza for American oil companies.

Texas oilman Wyatt sentenced to year in prison

Texas oilman Oscar Wyatt, 83, was sentenced to one year and one day in prison on Tuesday for conspiracy in the UN oil-for-food scandal, becoming the most prominent figure jailed over corruption in the program.

IRAQI REFUGEES

Iraqi Refugees: Challenges for Iraqis Detained in Lebanon

Every refugee crisis creates tragic stories, but in the case of the Iraqi refugees in Lebanon, part of the tragedy lies in how absurd people’s situations become. A visit to the Rumieh prison in Beirut confirmed this. Meeting with Iraqis who are imprisoned in Rumieh is heartbreaking, as their stories are tragic, and even more so in that they are all so common and similar. The Iraqis we met were either victims of or threatened by violence, and felt that their only choice was to leave Iraq, often on a moments notice. Rumieh prison now houses over 400 Iraqis, nearly all of whom were arrested for being in the country illegally. In the prison, over a hundred prisoners share a room no bigger than 35 square meters. We met with 6 Iraqis of all faiths (sunni, shia, christian) who were arrested for being in Lebanon, and who are now sharing cells and space with common Lebanese criminals. One man, much older than the majority of the inmates, had owned a factory in Baghdad and was forced to leave because of his religion. He purchased what he thought was a legitimate visa from an Iraqi government official, only to be arrested in Beirut when trying to fly to Europe. The man was clearly humiliated by his plight, and the anguish on his face was apparent. Other Iraqis shared similarly distressing stories. One person was arrested for trying to sneak back out of Lebanon to go back to Iraq. He left Iraq after receiving a death threat, but decided to go back to support his family, risking his life by returning to the center of the violence. He now sits in jail, unsure of his future, and unable to communicate with his loved ones. Two brothers we met with shared their separate stories - the one was tortured by Saddam, the other by the Mehdi army. One man was threatened because he used to help his father sell liquor, and said he would only return when he could drink in the streets. Another laughed when we asked if he wanted to go back to Iraq- "I’d go to Darfur before I go to Iraq" was his answer.

How to Help Iraqi Refugees

ANOTHER Way to help: The Collateral Repair Project

How You Can Help Displaced Iraqis

As you know, ElectronicIraq.net is home to the Direct Aid Initiative, a grassroots relief effort that provides funds for crucial medical care for Iraqis displaced by war and chaos. We want to take this opportunity to share with you an exciting new opportunity to include the work of the Direct Aid Initiative in your holiday giving. David Smith-Ferri, a gifted poet and longtime activist who has been visiting Iraq since 1999, has generously offered all of the after-printing proceeds from the new edition of his book, "Battlefield without Borders: Iraq Poems", to benefit the medical needs of Iraqi families through the Direct Aid Initiative. $12 of the $14 book price goes directly to this ongoing effort. "Battlefield without Borders" is a book of poems that grew out of David's encounters with Iraqi people during the last eight years. Many of the poems were written in Iraq and in Jordan, and some of them feature people that DAI is supporting. You can read some of David's poems and purchase the book online at link above.

COMMENTARY

OP-ED: César Chelala

Give Iraqi children their childhood: International Children's Day was celebrated throughout the world on Nov. 20. The United Nations marks this day as "a day of worldwide fraternity and understanding between children." In Iraq, unfortunately, this day was not to be celebrated with much fanfare, as children have become the most vulnerable victims of an unconscionable adult war. One glance at photographs of Iraqi children maimed by the war, and they are unforgettable. One child dies every five minutes in Iraq. Many more are maimed for life. Of the estimated 4 million Iraqis – a number equaling the entire population of Ireland – who have been displaced inside the country or have left Iraq, 1.5 million are children. For the most part, they do not have access to basic health care, education, shelter, water, or sanitation.

Seventy percent of the population lack access to adequate water supplies, and 80 percent lack effective sanitation, conditions that create a breeding ground for intestinal and respiratory infections primarily affecting children. "Children are dying every day because of the lack of essential medical support. The bad sewage system and lack of purified water, particularly in suburbs, has been a serious problem which might take years to solve," warns Ahmed Obeid, an Iraqi health official. Another major concern is malnutrition. Levels among children are continuously increasing; incidents of malnutrition have doubled since the U.S.-led invasion so that Iraq is now on a par with Burundi, the central African country torn asunder by a brutal civil war, and higher than Haiti, the poorest country in the Americas. The number of children born underweight is also higher than before the invasion, according to a report published by OXFAM and 80 other aid agencies. Some 8 million people – approximately one-third of the population – require emergency aid, and more than 4 million Iraqis depend on food assistance. "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.

Media Overhyping Iraqis' Return Home?

Since October, proponents of the "surge" of U.S. troops in Iraq have pointed to a relative decline in death and violence in Baghdad and a huge movement of Iraqis who have fled the country and now are allegedly returning home. But numbers have been funny in the war in the past, and may be twisted again, New York Times correspondent Damien Cave suggests today. "A half-dozen owners of Iraqi travel agencies and drivers who regularly travel to Syria agreed that the numbers misrepresented reality," Cave reports. "They said that the flow of returnees peaked last month, with more than 50 families arriving daily from Syria at Baghdad’s main drop-off point. Since Nov. 1, they said, the numbers have declined, and on Sunday morning, during a period when several buses used to appear, only one came. "The travel agents said that they believed that Iraqis would continue to return to Baghdad from Syria and Jordan but that the initial rush appeared to be over. A United Nations survey released last week, of 110 Iraqi families leaving Syria, also seemed to dispute the contentions of officials in Iraq that people are returning primarily because they feel safer. "The survey found that 46 percent were leaving because they could not afford to stay; 25 percent said they fell victim to a stricter Syrian visa policy; and only 14 percent said they were returning because they had heard about improved security."

Quotes of the day: "Well, yeah, the Constitution is worth it if you can succeed." -Nancy Pelosi, 6/29/07