News & Views 12/26/07

Photo: An Iraqi soldier stands guard as Iraqi Christians leave after Christmas mass in the Dora neighborhood in Baghdad, Iraq on Tuesday, Dec. 25, 2007. The church was badly damaged by a car bomb two years ago, but worshippers continue to attend mass in what remains of the building. (AP Photo/Loay Hameed)

REPORTS – LIFE IN IRAQ

Turkish Raids in Iraq Kill Hundreds

Turkey’s military has hit more than 200 Kurdish rebel targets in northern Iraq since Dec. 16, killing hundreds of rebels, authorities said yesterday. Up to 175 rebels were killed on Dec. 16 alone in “unprotected buildings” in the mountainous areas in northern Iraq, the military said in a statement posted on its website. The death toll did not include those who were killed in hide-outs and caves, and scores of rebels wounded in the operations were taken to hospitals in Iraq’s northern cities, it said. Other hide-outs and anti-aircraft weapons were struck in a cross-border air assault on Dec. 22, followed by artillery fire from within Turkey. Iraqi officials said the Dec. 16 operation — the first confirmed by Turkey since the US-led invasion in 2003 — violated Iraqi sovereignty.

IRAQ: Displaced in north considering alternative livelihoods

Nearly 4,000 people have fled their homes in Iraq’s northern semi-autonomous region of Kurdistan over the past two weeks in the wake of Turkish bombardments of rebel hideouts, a local official said on 26 December. "Since 16 December when Turkish warplanes renewed their bombing of the borders, nearly 700 families, about 4,000 people, have fled their villages, leaving everything behind," said Mohammed Khalil, a spokesman for the Regional Displacement and Immigration Directorate. Some are beginning to realise that they may not be able to return home soon and are considering alternative livelihoods in the cities and towns to which they have fled. "The villagers’ displacement is still continuing… and could get out of control. Some of these families have lost their cattle or have seen their homes… demolished," Khalil told IRIN in a phone interview.

Iraqi government approves amnesty law (Roundup)

Iraq's government Wednesday approved draft legislation under which thousands of prisoners are to be pardoned. Meanwhile al-Qeada suspects were held in security raids, and a big weapons cache and a spy plane were found. The new legislation, which the government referred to parliament, sets criteria for who is to be released from both Iraqi- and US-run prisons, according to cabinet spokesman Ali al-Dabagh. Some 32,000 detainees are held in detention centres run by Iraqi and multinational troops in Iraq, according to official estimates.

Muslims join Christians for Mass

Outside Mar Eliya church, not much had changed since last Christmas: Concrete blocks still surround the building and guards check the IDs of those entering. But inside, hundreds of Iraqi worshipers — Christians and Muslims — were crammed into the overflowing Chaldean Catholic church Tuesday, celebrating the holiday and the fact that they felt safe enough to venture out of their homes to attend Christmas Mass.

Iraqi Hairdressers Forced Underground

Umm Doha cuts hair and waxes eyebrows in secret from her living room because making women look pretty can get a person killed in her Sunni-dominated Baghdad neighborhood. Hardline Muslim extremists who believe it is sinful for women to appear beautiful in public have forced many beauticians to move their trade underground. Sunni and Shiite militants began blowing up salons roughly two years ago. They killed several stylists and bullied others into putting down their scissors and makeup brushes for good, all in an effort to stamp out what they view as the corrupting spread of Western culture. Besides beauty salons, militants have also targeted liquor stores, barber shops and Christian churches. In the past year, most beauty salons in the Shiite-dominated southern city of Basra went underground, as they did in the Sunni-controlled neighborhood of Dora in west Baghdad.

Reconnaissance Aircraft, Heavy Weapons Seized in Basra

Basra police commander has announced that Basra police have arrested a group of individuals with a small reconnaissance aircraft, video tapes and assorted weapons in their possession. A security source told a press conference Wednesday in Basra that the foreign-made aircraft has been used in "intelligence operations," while the video tapes included documentary materials, as for the weapons "they included heavy weapons, pistols and munitions."

REPORTS – IRAQI MILITIAS, POLITICIANS, POWER BROKERS

Sunni-Kurdish Alliance

There was an interesting political development in Iraq yesterday: the announcement of a new political alliance between the Sunni Iraqi Islamic Party (Tareq al-Hashemi) and the two major Kurdish parties (Masoud Barzani and Jalal Talabani). I haven't seen any coverage of this yet in the English-language media, but it's at least potentially kind of important.

IRAQ: 'Awakening' Forces Arouse New Conflicts

The controversial move of the U.S. military to back Sunni "Awakening" forces has created another wedge between Sunni and Shia political groups. Following disputes between the tribal groups assembled into Awakening forces and the Iraqi government, the creation of these forces has become also a political issue. U.S.-backed Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who heads a Shia political bloc, has adamantly opposed the U.S.-military policy of backing tribal groups and former resistance fighters. To date, the U.S. military has paid more than 17 million dollars to these fighters, whose groups it calls "Concerned Local Citizens" and "Awakening Forces." Each member receives around 300 dollars monthly. Many are former resistance fighters who used to attack occupation forces. These new forces now have a strength of more than 76,000. According to the U.S. military, at least 82 percent are Sunni. It hopes to add another 10,000.

The groups have been credited with chasing foreign fighters out of cities in al-Anbar province to the west of Baghdad, and also from parts of Baghdad. But members of these groups are often accused of extortion, corruption, and brutal tactics. The Shia-led government has opposed creation of groups who might rival its own security forces, which comprise many members of former Shia militias. "We completely, absolutely reject the Awakening becoming a third military organisation," Iraqi defence minister Abdul-Qadir al-Obaidi said at a news conference Dec. 23. He said the groups would not be allowed any infrastructure like a headquarters building which could give them longer term legitimacy. Some Sunni groups also reject these forces. Offices of the Awakening forces have been closed down in Fallujah and Najaf despite warnings from Awakening leader Sheikh Ahmad Abu Risha.

Shiite contest sharpens in Iraq

Posted at the door of Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr’s office recently, a flier denounced the arrests of his followers. Up and down the barricaded street, soldiers and policemen loyal to his Shiite rivals stood sentry, some in tan armored personnel carriers, questioning anyone they suspected of links to the populist cleric. Inside the shuttered office, five guards spoke frankly of their sense of vulnerability and weakness. Once in control of the streets of this southern city of holy sites, the Sadrists said they have been chased underground, their rivals at their heels. The arrests of Sadr’s loyalists are part of a broader power struggle between the two most powerful Shiite factions seeking to lead Iraq: the Sadrists, who are pushing for U.S. troops to withdraw, and the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq, the Bush administration’s main Shiite ally. Given the nation’s majority-Shiite population, this intensifying confrontation could play a major role in deciding Iraq’s future.

President Talabani in Arbil to meet Kurdish counterpart

Iraqi President Jalal Talabani arrived in Arbil on Wednesday morning to meet his Kurdish counterpart Massoud Barzani, an official source from Barzani's office said. "President Talabani arrived in Arbil this morning and will hold a meeting with Massoud Barzani in Salah el-Din resort to discuss a number if issues," the source, who preferred not to be named, told the independent news agency Voices of Iraq (VOI).

REPORTS – US/UK/OTHERS IN IRAQ

Turkey praises US help as jets bomb northern Iraq

Turkey praised the United States on Wednesday for providing intelligence in support of attacks against Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq, as it confirmed its third such air strike in 10 days. "Things are going on well at the moment. Intelligence is being shared" between the two NATO allies, Anatolia news agency quoted President Abdullah Gul as saying. US support "befits our alliance," Gul said, adding: "Both of us are satisfied. This is how it should be. We could have come to this point earlier."

Second Date

Very few media outlets in the US seem to have noticed, but Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmednejad and Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah were back together again the other day on the occasion of the Hajj. Ahmednejad's surprising appearance at the Gulf Cooperation Council summit in early December had set off something of a frenzy of media discussion about whether it meant a possible reconciliation between Iran and its Arab Gulf neighbors. A range of commentators (both officials and pundits) had rushed to pour cold water on those hopes/fears, emphasizing lack of agreement on issues over the sheer fact of the public engagement. Shortly after the Iranian President's visit to Doha, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates led a significant American delegation to an Arab security meeting in Bahrain to rally the Gulf Arabs against the Iranian threat and to re-energize a collective strategy of containment. This second public meeting - reportedly at the Saudi King's initiative - suggests that the Gulf Arab approach to Iran really is shifting despite these American efforts.

COMMENTARY

Exclusive - Clinton: "We Need To Stay in Iraq to Protect the Kurds From The Turks"

This is America's nightmare. Just before Christmas, Turkish warplanes (F-16s made in the USA) and helicopter gunships bombed 200 Kurdish targets in northern Iraq, killing 150 people, after dozens of Turkish soldiers were blown up by a large contingent of Kurdish terrorists. There are reports that some 60,000 Turkish troops are massing on the border for a land invasion of "Kurdistan". The bombings continue today. It is a thorny dilemma, emblematic of what is screwed up about our policy in the Middle East. In the 1980s, the US gave Saddam chemical weapons to gas the Kurds. Then we gave the Kurds arms and money to rise up against Saddam; now the Bush administration is giving the Turks military intelligence, money and arms to blast the Kurds.

Ironically, the Turks and the Kurds are the only people in the Middle East who seem to be able to tolerate Americans and now they are in a slowly escalating war with each other. Bill Clinton, in prescient talks to wealthy supporters in the recent campaign, off limits to the press, said, "The two wrinkles in her policy that some of the purists won't like, but I think she is absolutely right, are that she would leave some troops in the Kurdish area in the north because they have reconciled with each other and they enjoy relative peace and security...And if we leave them...not only might they be gone into a long civil war...the Turks might be tempted to attack them because they don't like the fact that the PKK guerrillas sometimes come across into northern Iraq and hide after staging attacks in Turkey." "We don't want that," the former President went on to say.

Top ten myths about Iraq 2007

Myth: Iran was supplying explosively formed projectiles (a deadly form of roadside bomb) to Salafi Jihadi (radical Sunni) guerrilla groups in Iraq. Fact: Iran has not been proved to have sent weapons to any Iraqi guerrillas at all. It certainly would not send weapons to those who have a raging hostility toward Shiites. (Iran may have supplied war materiel to its client, the Supreme Islamic Council of Iraq (ISCI), which was then sold off from warehouses because of graft, going on the arms market and being bought by guerrillas and militiamen.

Muslims send warm Christmas message

More than 100 Muslim scholars have addressed warm Christmas greetings to Christians around the world, a message notable both for what it says and the fact that it was sent at all. The greeting, sent by a group of 138 Sunni, Shiite, Sufi and other scholars who recently proposed a dialogue with Christian leaders, called for peace on Earth and thanked church leaders who have responded positively to their invitation.

Christmas in Diyala, the War Party's 'Model' Province

Reading further into this Reuters report, we learn that this took place in famed Diyala province, the trophy province, if you will, of the War Party, the model of what the “surge” (i.e. escalation) in the fighting has accomplished. We also learn that “The bomber’s target was the checkpoint, manned by members of a local neighborhood watch and the Oil Protection Force, rather than the residential complex. Neighborhood patrols, which are mainly Sunni and include many former insurgents, have been credited by the U.S. military with helping to reduce violence. But they have increasingly come under attack by al Qaeda militants.” Aha! So the War Party is right, after all: the main enemy in Iraq is Al Qaeda, and we’ve supposedly won over the “good” insurgents, now dubbed ”former” insurgents. Oh, but wait ... Aside from the hellish irony of the suicide bomber devastating the site of a funeral, we learn that it was the funeral of a father and son who “had been killed hours earlier in a shootout with U.S. forces. The U.S. military said its troops had killed two ‘armed individuals’ and was investigating whether they were members of a neighborhood patrol.”

Quote of the day: The use of cancer in political discourse encourages fatalism and justifies “severe” measures – as well as strongly reinforcing the widespread notion that the disease is necessarily fatal. The concept of disease is never innocent. But it could be argued that the cancer metaphors are in themselves implicitly genocidal. – Susan Sontag, Illness as metaphor, 1977