OCTOBER 2006
- **"The United Nations office in Baghdad says that Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, the Iraqi prime minister, has ordered the country’s medical authorities to stop providing the organization with monthly figures on the number of civilians killed and wounded in the conflict there, according to a confidential cable Oct 21st New York Times
- from AngryArab.blogspot.com
- the woman i was
- baghdad, Iraq
An Iraqi Tear
My Iraqi female
student friends in 1960s
Iraqi students in 2006
comment:Here it is, the New World Order,
unfolding before our very eyes in Iraq. This is their
plan. A microcosm of the elitists vision for global
governance using one government, one currency, 2 general
classes of people (besides the super-elite who actually
run the show) and a whole lot of fomenting strife between
the different factions of religion, region, race, creed,
etc... The US and British special ops have been caught
repeatedly doing this by all types of press and
journalists and insider whistle blowers. Not even a
question about our strategy in Iraq anymore. directinfo
IRAQ NEWS (UPDATED)
**DIWANIYA
An indefinite curfew has been imposed in Diwaniya, a mainly Shia town, following the destruction of a US tank during the clashes.
Militants launched rocket-propelled grenades (RPG) against the troops who raided the house of Kifah al-Greiti, a commander of Moqtada Sadr's Mehdi Army militia, the Associated Press news agency says, quoting an Iraqi army officer.
"An M1A2 Abrams tank was struck by multiple RPG
rounds and was severely damaged," the US military
statement said. Iraqi and US troops then "engaged
the enemy forces and killed approximately 30 of the
terrorists", it said. It said coalition and Iraqi
forces had suffered no casualties. 
A curfew was imposed. Local eyewitnesses said American helicopters were rocketing parts of the town. "There is an American tank on every corner of Diwaniya," one resident told Reuters news agency. "Nobody slept in Diwaniya last night. The fighting was very fierce," he said.
Our Baghdad correspondent says tensions have been high
in the area since fierce fighting in August between the
Mehdi Army and Iraqi government forces and US
troops.Whatever the case, the people fighting the
Americans in Diwaniya are clearly not Sunni militants,
who form the bulk of the insurgency against the coalition
forces and the Iraqi government, our correspondent says.
BBC WORLD NEWS excerpt.
Aid worker for American charity killed in Baghdad
Jeff Severns Guntzel, Electronic Iraq, 10
October 2006
In a statement released today by Michigan's Life for
Relief and Development (LIFE), the organization announces
the murder of one of its key humanitarian aid workers in
Iraq: Abdel-Sattar Abdullah Al-Mashhadani.
The slain aid worker was the Director of Programs for the
LIFE Baghdad Office. He oversaw many of LIFE's
humanitarian projects in Iraq, including the opening of
medical clinics, renovating schools, and more recently
completing a major water treatment plant project in
southern Iraq, in partnership with UNICEF.
According to the organization, al-Mashhadani received a
"sectarian death threat" last Friday, ordering
him to leave his house. Al-Mashhadani immediately packed
up his belongings and the next sent his family away, and
called a taxi for his own departure.
According to eyewitnesses cited in the LIFE statement,
al-Mashhadani, after showing his ID at "a checkpoint
run by one of the sectarian militias," was pulled
from the car with his driver and "taken away and
killed in cold blood by shots to the head, execution
style."
"Many who had worked with Abdel-Sattar describe him
as being a quiet, polite and kind man," the
organization notes. "He was 43 years, and is
survived by his four children, his pregnant wife who is
expecting to deliver in 2 months, and three
brothers."
"Our staff members in Iraq are really risking their
lives everyday to do the badly needed humanitarian work
that the country desperately needs, said LIFE CEO Dr.
Khalil Jassemm. "In the end, Abdel-Sattar paid the
ultimate price. He will be greatly missed."
LIFE, which describes itself as an organization that
"provides medical and relief supplies to civilian
populations around the world, without regard to race,
color, creed, or ethnic origin," is "the only
American humanitarian organization that is working all
throughout Iraq" and was founded in 1992 by
Iraqi-Americans.
Iraqi
education system on brink of collapse
Peter
Beaumont in Baghdad
Wednesday October 4, 2006
The Guardian
Iraq's school and university system is in danger of
collapse in large areas of the country as pupils and
teachers take flight in the face of threats of violence.
Professors and parents have told the Guardian they no
longer feel safe to attend their educational
institutions. In some schools and colleges, up to half
the staff have fled abroad, resigned or applied to go on
prolonged vacation, and class sizes have also dropped by
up to half in the areas that are the worst affected.
Professionals in higher education, particularly those teaching the sciences and in health, have been targeted for assassination. Universities from Basra in the south to Kirkuk and Mosul in the north have been infiltrated by militia organisations, while the same militias from Islamic organisations regularly intimidate female students at the school and university gates for failing to wear the hijab. Women teachers too have been ordered by their ministry to adopt Islamic codes of clothing and behaviour. "The militias from all sides are in the universities. Classes are not happening because of the chaos, and colleagues are fleeing if they can," said Professor Saad Jawad, a lecturer in political science at Baghdad University."The whole situation is becoming completely unbearable. I decided to stay where many other professors have left. But I think it will reach the point where I will have to decide.A large number have simply left the country, while others have applied to go on prolonged sick leave. We are using recently graduated MA and PhD students to fill in the gaps.
"What has been happening with the murders of professors involved in the sciences (IN WHOSE INTEREST IS IT TO GET RID OF THEM? WE MAY THINK ABOUT THAT. JB.editor)is that a lot of those involved medicine, biology, maths have fled," says Wadh Nadhmi, who also teaches politics in Baghdad. "The people who have got the money are sending their children abroad to study. A lot - my daughter is one of them - are deciding to finish their higher education in Egypt."
It is not only in Baghdad that the universities are beginning to suffer from the security situation. In Mosul, too, professors complain of a system now approaching utter disarray. Mohammed U a 60-year-old science professor who asked for his full name not to be disclosed, spoke to the Guardian after returning from the funeral of a colleague, a law professor and head of the law faculty, who died in an explosion. "Education here is a complete shambles. Professors are leaving, and the situation - the closed roads and bridges - means that both students and teachers find it difficult to get in for classes. In some departments in my institute attendance is down to a third. In others we have instances of no students turning up at all. Students are really struggling. To get them through at all, we have had to lower academic levels. We have to go easy on them. The whole system is becoming rapidly degraded."
The situation is reflected in many of Iraq's schools. "Education in my area is collapsing," said a teacher from a high school in Amariyah, who quit four months ago. "Children can't get to school because of road blocks. The parents of others have simply withdrawn them from the school because of the fear of kidnapping [a rampant problem with the widespread criminal gangs.] If children have to travel by car rather than making a short journey on foot, we are much less likely to see them. When I left, we had 50% attendance at the school. We see the parents when they come in to ask for the children to have a "vacation" - and they admit they are too scared to let them come. Between September 8 and 28 two members of the staff were murdered. The teaching staff was supposed to be 42. Now there are only 20. Some applied for early retirement or they asked to be transferred to other safer areas."
Ala Mohammed, a high school student from Zafaraniya, had hoped to be going to university this year having completed her high school diploma. But her college is in Adhamiya - a notorious neighbourhood for violence. "The journey is too long and too unsafe. I don't know whether I will be going to college or stay jailed at home."
.................................................................................................................................................
"A nation can survive its fools, and even the
ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within. An
enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known
and he carries his banners openly. But the traitor moves
among those within the gates freely, his sly whispers
rustling through all the alleys, heard in the very hall
of government itself. For the traitor appears not traitor
- he speaks in the accents familiar to his victims, and
he wears their face and their garments, and he appeals to
the baseness that lies deep in the hearts of all men. He
rots the soul of a nation - he works secretly and unknown
in the night to undermine the pillars of a city - he
infects the body politic so that is can no longer resist.
A murderer is less to be feared." - Cicero, 42 B.C.
THE KURDS
The BBC has obtained evidence that Israelis
have been giving military training to Kurds in northern
Iraq.
A report on the BBC TV programme Newsnight showed Israeli experts in Kurdish areas of north Iraq, drilling soldiers in shooting techniques.
Kurdish officials have refused to comment on the report and Israel has denied it knows of any involvement.
The revelation is set to cause enormous problems for the Kurds, not only in Iraq but also in the wider region.
Inside Iraq as well as in the wider region Israel is seen as an enemy of Arabs and Muslims.
No One Dares to
Help
anonymous Report
BAGHDAD buying groceries in my beloved Amariya
neighborhood — On a recent Sunday, I was in western
Baghdad when I heard the sound of an AK-47 for about
three seconds. It was close but not very close, so I
continued shopping.
As I took a right turn on Munadhama Street, I saw a man
lying on the ground in a small pool of blood. He wasn't
dead.
The idea of stopping to help or to take him to a hospital
crossed my mind, but I didn't dare. Cars passed without
stopping. Pedestrians and shop owners kept doing what
they were doing, pretending nothing had happened.
I was still looking at the wounded man and blaming myself
for not stopping to help. Other shoppers peered at him
from a distance, sorrowful and compassionate, but did
nothing.
I went on to another grocery store, staying for about
five minutes while shopping for tomatoes, onions and
other vegetables. During that time, the man managed to
sit up and wave to passing cars. No one stopped. Then, a
white Volkswagen pulled up. A passenger stepped out with
a gun, walked steadily to the wounded man and shot him
three times. The car took off down a side road and
vanished.
No one did anything. No one lifted a finger. The only
reaction came from a woman in the grocery store. In a low
voice, she said, "My God, bless his soul."
I went home and didn't dare tell my wife. I did not want
to frighten her.
........................................
I've lived in my neighborhood for 25 years. My daughters
went to kindergarten and elementary school here. I'm a
Christian. My neighbors are mostly Sunni Arabs. We had
always lived in harmony. Before the U.S.-led invasion, we
would visit for tea and a chat. On summer afternoons, we
would meet on the corner to joke and talk politics.
It used to be a nice upper-middle-class neighborhood,
bustling with commerce and traffic. On the main street,
ice cream parlors, hamburger stands and take-away
restaurants competed for space. We would rent videos and
buy household appliances.
Until 2005, we were mostly unaffected by violence. We
would hear shootings and explosions now and again, but
compared with other places in Baghdad, it was relatively
peaceful.
Then, late in 2005, someone blew up three supermarkets in
the area. Shops started closing. Most of the small number
of Shiite Muslim families moved out. The commercial
street became a ghost road.
On Christmas Day last year, we visited as always —
our local church, St. Thomas, in Mansour. — It was
half-empty. Some members of the congregation had left the
country; others feared coming to church after a series of
attacks against Christians.
American troops, who patrol the neighborhood in Humvees,
have also become edgy. Get too close, and they'll shoot.
A colleague — an interpreter and physician —
was shot and killed by soldiers last year on his way home
from a shopping trip. He hadn't noticed the Humvees
parked on the street.
By early this year, living in my neighborhood had become
a nightmare. In addition to anti-American graffiti, there
were fliers telling women to wear conservative clothes
and to cover their hair. Men were told not to wear shorts
or jeans.
For me, as a Christian, it was unacceptable that someone
would tell my wife and daughters what to wear. What's the
use of freedom if someone is telling you what to wear,
how to behave or what to do in your life?
But coming home one day, I saw my wife on the street. I
didn't recognize her. She had covered up.
.......................................
After the attack on the Shiite shrine of the Golden Dome
in Samarra in February, Shiite gunmen tried to raid Sunni
mosques in my neighborhood. One night, against the
backdrop of heavy shooting, we heard the cleric calling
for help through the mosque's loudspeakers. We stayed up
all night, listening as they battled for the mosque. It
made me feel unsafe. If a Muslim would shoot another
Muslim, what would they do to a Christian?
Fear dictates everything we do.
I see my neighbors less and less. When I go out, I say
hello and that's it. I fear someone will ask questions
about my job working for Americans, which could put me in
danger. Even if he had no ill will toward me, he might
talk and reveal an identifying detail. We're afraid of an
enemy among us. Someone we don't know. It's a cancer.
In March, assassinations started in our neighborhood.
Early one evening, I was sitting in my garden with my
wife when we heard several gunshots. I rushed to the gate
to see what was going on, despite my wife's pleas to stay
inside. My neighbors told me that gunmen had dropped
three men from a car and shot them in the street before
driving off. No one dared approach the victims to find
out who they were.
The bodies remained there until the next morning. The
police or the American military probably picked them up,
but I don't know. They simply disappeared.
The sounds of shootings and explosions are now
commonplace. We don't know who is shooting whom, or who
has been targeted. We don't know why, and we're afraid to
ask or help. We too could get shot. Bringing someone to
the hospital or to the police is out of the question.
Nobody trusts the police, and nobody wants to answer
questions.
I feel sad, bitter and frustrated — sad because a
human life is now worth nothing in this country; bitter
because people no longer help each other; and frustrated
because I can't help either. If I'm targeted one day, I'm
sure no one will help me.
------------------
I was very happy when my eldest daughter married an
American. First, because there was love between them, but
also because she would be able to leave Iraq, and I
wouldn't have to worry about her safety day after day.
She left last year.
If you had asked me a year ago whether I would consider
leaving Iraq, I would have said maybe, but without
enthusiasm. Now it's a definite yes. Things are going
from bad to worse, and I can't see any light at the end
of the tunnel.
Four weeks ago, I came home from work. As I reached my
street, I saw a man lying in a pool of blood. Someone had
covered him with bits of cardboard. This was the best
they could do. No one dared move him.
I drove on.
Bush and Saddam
Should Both Stand Trial, Says Nuremberg Prosecutor
Aaron Glantz
OneWorld US
http://us.oneworld.net/article/view/138319/1/4536
Aug. 25, 2006
SAN FRANCISCO, Aug 25 (OneWorld) - A chief prosecutor of
Nazi war crimes at Nuremberg has said George W. Bush
should be tried for war crimes along with Saddam Hussein.
Benjamin Ferencz, who secured convictions for 22 Nazi
officers for their work in orchestrating the death squads
that killed more than 1 million people, told OneWorld
both Bush and Saddam should be tried for starting
"aggressive" wars--Saddam for his 1990 attack
on Kuwait and Bush for his 2003
invasion of Iraq.
"Nuremberg declared that aggressive war is the
supreme international crime," the 87-year-old
Ferencz told OneWorld from his home in New York. He said
the United Nations charter, which was written after the
carnage of World War II, contains a provision that no
nation can use armed force without the permission of the
UN Security Council.
Ferencz said that after Nuremberg the international
community realized that every war results in violations
by both sides, meaning the primary objective should be
preventing any war from occurring in the first place. He
said the atrocities of the Iraq war--from the Abu Ghraib
prison scandal and the massacre of dozens of civilians by
U.S. forces in Haditha to the high number of civilian
casualties caused by insurgent car bombs--were highly
predictable at the start of the war.
Which wars should be prosecuted? "Every war will
lead to attacks on civilians," he said. "Crimes
against humanity, destruction beyond the needs of
military necessity, rape of civilians, plunder--that
always happens in wartime. So my answer personally, after
working for 60 years on this problem and [as someone] who
hates to see all these young people get killed no matter
what their nationality, is that you've got to stop using
warfare as a means of settling your disputes."
Ferencz believes the most important development toward
that end would be the effective implementation of the
International Criminal Court (ICC), which is located in
the Hague, Netherlands.
The court was established in 2002 and has been ratified
by more than 100 countries. It is currently being used to
adjudicate cases stemming from conflict in Darfur, Sudan
and civil wars in Uganda and the Democratic Republic of
the Congo. But on May 6, 2002--less than a year before
the invasion of Iraq--the Bush administration withdrew
the United States' signature on the treaty and began
pressuring other countries to approve bilateral
agreements requiring them not to surrender U.S. nationals
to the ICC. Three months later, George W. Bush signed a
new law prohibiting any U.S. cooperation with the
International Criminal Court. The law went so far as to
include a provision authorizing the president to
"use all means necessary and appropriate,"
including a military invasion of the Netherlands, to free
U.S. personnel detained or imprisoned by the ICC. That's
too bad, according to Ferencz. If the United States
showed more of an interest in building an international
justice system, they could have put Saddam Hussein on
trial for his 1990 invasion of Kuwait.
"The United Nations authorized the first Gulf War
and authorized all nations to take whatever steps
necessary to keep peace in the area," he said.
"They could have stretched that a bit by seizing the
person for causing the harm. Of course, they didn't do
that and ever since then I've been bemoaning the fact
that we didn't have an International Criminal Court at
that time."
Ferencz is glad that Saddam Hussein is now on trial.
Saddam Hussein. This week, the Iraqi government began to
try the former dictator for crimes connected to his
ethnic cleansing campaign against the Kurds. According to
Human Rights Watch, which has done extensive
on-the-ground
documentation, Saddam's Ba'athist regime deliberately and
systematically killed at least 50,000 and possibly as
many as 100,000 Kurds over a six-month period in 1988.
Kurdish authorities put the number even higher, saying
182,000 Kurdish civilians were killed in a matter of
months. Everyone agrees innumerable villages were bombed
and some were gassed. The surviving residents were
rounded up, taken to detention centers, and eventually
executed at remote sites, sometimes by being stripped and
shot in the back so they would fall naked into trenches.
In his defense, Saddam Hussein has disputed the extent of
the killings and maintained they were justified because
he was fighting a counter-insurgency operation against
Kurdish separatists allied with Iran. When asked to
enter a plea, the former president said "that would
require volumes of books." Ferencz said whatever
Saddam's reasons, nothing can justify the mass killing of
innocents.
"The offenses attributable to ex-president Hussein
since he came to power range from the supreme
international crime of aggression to a wide variety of
crimes against humanity," he wrote after Saddam was
ousted in 2003. "A fair trial will achieve many
goals. The victims would find some satisfaction in
knowing that their victimizer was called to account and
could no longer be immune
from punishment for his evil deeds. Wounds can begin to
heal. The historical facts can be confirmed beyond doubt.
Similar crimes by other dictators might be discouraged or
deterred in future. The process of justice through law,
on which the safety of humankind depends, would be
reinforced."