News & Views 12/22/07

Photo: U.S. army soldiers from Blackfoot Company, 2nd Battalion, 23rd Infantry Regiment, interrogate a handcuffed suspect in the village of Towakal, on the northern outskirts of Muqdadiyah, in the volatile Diyala province, about 90 kilometers (60 miles) north of Baghdad, Iraq, Saturday, Dec. 22, 2007. The soldiers from Blackfoot Company went into Towakal in order to do a house searching mission, but when they reached their objective, they discovered that almost all the houses in the village were systematically destroyed and abandoned. (AP Photo/Marko Drobnjakovic) [No further information to be found on all the houses that were destroyed. - dancewater]

REPORTS – LIFE IN IRAQ

Disaffected Iraqis spurn dominant Shiite clerics

Two years after helping to bring to power a government led by Shiite religious parties, Iraq’s paramount Shiite clerics find their influence diminished as their followers criticize them for backing a political alliance that has failed to pass crucial legislation, improve basic services or boost the economy. “Now the street is blaming what’s happening on the top clerics and the government,” said Ali al-Najafi, the son of Bashir al-Najafi, one of four leading clerics collectively called the marjaiya. [I do think the Iraqi people are very unhappy with how the Iraqi government is running the place, but I do not think they will turn their backs on their clerics. This is fantasy, although it may be a US goal for the country. – dancewater]

An extraordinary message of hope and humanity from the dangerous parish of Baghdad

Since the fall of Saddam, being a Christian has been a dangerous thing to be in Iraq. Most of those with money have long since fled to Syria, Jordan and further afield. Those who are left are usually poor or widowed – or both. In Basra, Archbishop Imad al-Banna has cancelled all Christmas celebrations in protest at the continuing violence against his congregation. We are fortunate. Last week we were able to hold a Christmas bazaar and it was a huge success. These are not normally part of an Iraqi Christmas, but all the women in our church now belong to the Mothers' Union and have learned of such events from the British-based organisation. It was a small but significant step back to normality for a city where life continues to be, in so many ways, grim. A visitor to the bazaar asked where all the men were. We have only six in our congregation. I responded in a matter-of-fact way: "Oh, most of them have been killed." I wasn't being blasé. In the past three years, 11 of my staff and all of my original church leaders have been murdered. The pain is still raw. The women still wear black, and when the fathers are killed we have to support each family. There is no other way.

Life 'better' under Saddam says vicar of Baghdad

Life was 'better' for Christians in Iraq under the regime of Saddam Hussein than it is today, according to the only Anglican vicar working in Baghdad. Canon Andrew White, vicar of St George’s Church in the capital of Iraq told Times Online that day-to-day life was ‘a lot easier’ for Christians when the vicious dictator Saddam Hussein was President of the country. But he said he still believed removing him was the right thing to do, for the sake of the long-term future of the country and its inhabitants. “It is still very difficult," he said . " Not like it was under Saddam, it was a lot easier just day - to - day living. There are threats to these our people all the time. They know who the Christians are."

Sacrifice

The Eid al Adha, the festival of Sacrifice, started Wednesday, and Thursday and Friday. The Sunni Muslims woke up the morning of Wednesday to do their Eid prayer and listen to the sermon, or Khutba, before donning new clothes and visiting family and friends with gifts and money for young children. Sadrists, followers of the Shiite Sadr family, awoke on Thursday to begin their holiday and followers of the supreme Shiite leader in Iraq, Grand Ayatollah Ali al Sistani, repeated the ceremony on Friday. They could not agree upon the start of the Eid that marks the end of the holy Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca. Sacrificing an animal whose meat is largely distributed to the poor commemorates it.

UNICEF: Iraqi children need more help

With threats of poor malnutrition, disease and interrupted education, an estimated two million Iraqi children are looking for basic humanitarian relief, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) said. "Iraqi children were frequently caught in the crossfire of conflict throughout 2007. Insecurity and displacement continues to cause hardship for many in the most insecure parts of the country and further eroded access to quality essential services country-wide. Iraq remains volatile; however conditions begin to allow for more a concerted effort to deliver assistance," read a UNICEF report published on its official website on Friday. Quoting UNICEF’s Special Representative for Iraq Roger Wright, the report said, "Iraqi children are paying far too high a price… While we have been providing as much assistance as possible, a new window of opportunity is opening, which should enable us to reach the most vulnerable with expanded, consistent support. We must act now."

REPORTS – IRAQI MILITIAS, POLITICIANS, POWER BROKERS

Iraq 'to end' US-backed patrols

Iraq will not allow US-backed neighbourhood patrols to become a "third force" alongside police and the army, Iraq's defence minister has said. Gen Abdel Qader Jassim said the Sunni-dominated patrols should be integrated into the regular Iraqi security forces. The patrols have been credited with the recent drop in violence in Iraq. But Shia leaders fear the patrols will turn against them after US troops leave Iraq, correspondents say.

Ruthless, shadowy — and a U.S. ally

“Abu Abed, you’re a hero,” the retired Shiite teacher shouted from the home she had fled last winter, when the bodies of Shiites were being dumped daily in the streets of her Amiriya neighborhood. The fighter, wearing green camouflage and dark wraparound sunglasses, kept walking, his hand swinging a black MP-5 submachine gun. No more than 5 feet 6, with a roll of baby fat, this Sunni Muslim gunman is an unlikely savior of Amiriya: a former intelligence officer in Saddam Hussein’s army, a suspected onetime insurgent, a man who has photos of his brothers’ mutilated corpses loaded in his cellphone. To many Iraqis, Abu Abed is a Sunni warlord whose followers have spilled the blood of Shiite Muslim civilians and U.S. troops. But to the people in Amiriya, he is the man who has, with ruthless efficiency, restored order to a neighborhood where the insurgent group Al Qaeda in Iraq held sway.

Joint force raids IIP headquarters in Baghdad

Vice President Tareq al-Hashimi's (Sunni) Iraqi Islamic Party (IIP) said a joint Iraqi-U.S. force raided the party's headquarters in al-Karkh area in Baghdad on Friday evening and seized 20 weapons. "About 30 soldiers from the Multi-National Force (MNF), aided by several Iraqi army officers, raided the party's headquarters, tampered with its content, broke room doors, and seized 20 Kalashnikov assault rifles," read an IIP statement received by the independent news agency Voices of Iraq (VOI). The statement held the government responsible for the damage caused to the party office, urging it to bring an end to such "illegal" practices.

Defense minister says terrorism went down by 50% in Diala, 30% in Ninewa

Iraqi Defense Minister Abdul-Qader al-Ubaidi said on Saturday that "terrorism" went down by 50 percent in Diala and 30 percent in Ninewa thanks to joint efforts between the ministries of defense and interior. "Joint security efforts by the ministries of defense and interior with backing from the Multi-National Force (MNF) have helped us lessening terrorist operations in Diala province by6 50 percent," said Ubaidi during a press conference in Baghdad with Interior Minister Jawad al-Bulani and an MNF official. "As for Ninewa province, the terrorist operations went down by 30 percent due to weak presence of security divisions there, the inability to carry out security duties and the continued flow of terrorists via Syrian territories," indicated Ubaidi. "The forces from the defense and interior ministries are now focusing their operations on the provinces of Diala and Ninewa, to which the al-Qaeda Organization in Iraq was flushed from Baghdad and al-Anbar," he added.

REPORTS – US/UK/OTHERS IN IRAQ

Turkish planes bomb Kurds in northern Iraq

[Third time in less than a week – dancewater]

Rudd Says Australian Troops to Leave Iraq by June

Poland to End Iraq Mission Next Year

Can Iraqi sites that have survived seventeen centuries survive the US military?
American soldiers in Iraq have been issued with thousands of packs of playing cards urging them to protect and respect the country’s archaeological sites, in an effort to curb the destruction and plunder of Iraq’s antiquities. Each card in the deck is illustrated with an ancient artefact or site, with tips on how to preserve archaeological remains and prevent looting.

COMMENTARY

Nothing Can Justify the Invasion of Iraq: Hornberger

Neo-con supporters of the U.S. government's war of aggression against Iraq are undoubtedly holding their collective breath in the hope that U.S. military forces have finally smashed any further violent opposition to their conquest of Iraq. The attitude would then be, "You see, this shows that we were right after all to invade and occupy Iraq and kill and maim hundreds of thousands of Iraqi people." Meanwhile, the Associated Press is reporting that U.S. soldiers have found mass graves next to a torture center north of Baghdad. In the torture center, chains were attached to blood-spattered walls while a metal bed was attached to an electrical shock system.

Hey, who knows? Maybe the torture center prevented a ticking time bomb from going off? And who's to say that chains, blood-spattered walls, metal beds, and an electrical shock system really constitute torture? Doesn't torture depend on each person's subjective determination of the term? By the way, wasn't there torture in Iraq under Saddam Hussein? I wonder if his justifications for torture were different from those employed by those torturing in Iraq today. I wonder if they were different than those employed by current U.S. torturers.

Quote of the day: And if things weren't crazy enough, we now learn that the U.S. government is helping Turkey to attack Iraqi Kurds in the northern part of the country. Can't you just hear U.S. officials exclaim when some Iraqi survivor of those attacks retaliates with a terrorist attack against the U.S.: "We're innocent! We're innocent! We haven't done anything to provoke this! They hate us for our freedom and values! God bless America!" - Jacob Hornberger