Six Years Later: March 19 - Shock & Awe (aka The Beginning of the End)

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At Hussein shrine, nostalgia for a strong leader

Aaron C. Davis/ TWP - Increasing number of Iraqis are visiting Saddam
Hussein's grave in his home town just outside of Tikrit, Iraq

By Aaron C. Davis, Published: May 20


AUJA, Iraq — In what passes for a mausoleum here, the body of Saddam Hussein lies in the middle of a marble octagon, under a giant twinkling chandelier and purple, orange and blue blinking lights. His grave is covered with Iraqi flags, candies thrown by children and bundles of plastic flowers.

It has been four years since the former Iraqi leader was executed, and over that period it has been rare to see any more than a trickle of Iraqis show up to pay tribute in the village where he was born, just outside Tikrit.

MORE


http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/war-zones/at-shrine-to-saddam-hussein-in-iraq-nostalgia-for-a-fallen-leader/2011/05/18/AFvW7u7G_story.html

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When Iraq War Ends, How Many Troops Will Stay?

May 30, 2011

Listen to the Story

javascript:NPR.Player.openPlayer(136796432, 136796427, null, NPR.Player.Action.PLAY_NOW, NPR.Player.Type.STORY, '0')




  Guests
Tim Arango, reporter for The New York Times, covering the war in Iraq, and contributor to the At War blog


Lawrence Kaplan, Contributing editor to The New Republic, and visiting professor at the U.S. Army War College.


May 30, 2011 U.S. military leaders are debating how many troops will stay in Iraq when the war winds down by year's end. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates says some troops will stay for years past the deadline, but Radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr warns that if U.S. troops remain past 2011, his militias will return to violence.


TRANSCRIPT OF INTERVIEW HERE

http://www.npr.org/2011/05/30/136796432/when-iraq-war-ends-how-many-troops-will-stay

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We Are The Terrorists

By Dahlia Wasfi

May 31,

Watch Video here :    http://uruknet.info/?p=m78240&hd=&size=1&l=e


We have an obligation to every last victim of this illegal aggression because all of this carnage has been done in our name. Since World War II, 90% of the casualties of war are unarmed civilians. 1/3 of them children. Our victims have done nothing to us. From Palestine to Afghanistan to Iraq to Somalia to wherever our next target may be, their murders are not collateral damage, they are the nature of modern warfare. They don't hate us because of our freedoms. They hate us because every day we are funding and committing crimes against humanity. The so-called "war on terror" is a cover for our military aggression to gain control of the resources of western Asia.


This is sending the poor of this country to kill the poor of those Muslim countries. This is trading blood for oil. This is genocide, and to most of the world, we are the terrorists. In these times, remaining silent on our responsibility to the world and its future is criminal. And in light of our complicity in the supreme crimes against humanity in Iraq and Afghanistan, and ongoing violations of the U.N. Charter in International Law, how dare any American criticize the actions of legitimate resistance to illegal occupation.

Our so-called enemies in Afghanistan, Iraq, Palestine, our other colonies around the world, and our inner cities here at home, are struggling against the oppressive hand of empire, demanding respect for their humanity. They are labeled insurgents or terrorists for resisting rape and pillage by the white establishment, but they are our brothers and sisters in the struggle for justice. The civilians at the other end of our weapons don't have a choice, but American soldiers have choices, and while there may have been some doubt 5 years ago, today we know the truth. Our soldiers don't sacrifice for duty-honor-country, they sacrifice for Kellogg Brown & Root.

They don't fight for America, they fight for their lives and their buddies beside them, because we put them in a war zone. They're not defending our freedoms, they're laying the foundation for 14 permanent military bases to defend the freedoms of Exxon Mobil and British Petroleum.

They're not establishing democracy, they're establishing the basis for an economic occupation to continue after the military occupation has ended. Iraqi society today, thanks to American "help" is defined by house raids, death squads, check-points, detentions, curfews, blood in the streets, and constant violence. We must dare to speak out in support of the Iraqi people, who resist and endure the horrific existence we brought upon them through our bloodthirsty imperial crusade. We must dare to speak out in support of those American war-resisters, the real military heroes, who uphold their oath to defend the constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic, including those terrorist cells in Washington DC more commonly known as the Legislative, Executive & Judicial branches.

"If There Is No Struggle, There Is No Progress"

Frederick Douglass said

"Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet deprecate agitation, are people who want crops without plowing the ground. They want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters. This struggle may be a moral one, or it may be a physical one, and it may be both ... but it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will."

Every one of us, every one of us must keep demanding, keep fighting, keep thundering, keep plowing, keep speaking, keep struggling until justice is served. NO justice, NO peace.

Dahlia Wasfi was born in the United States in 1971 to an American Jewish mother and an Iraqi Muslim father. She earned her medical degree from the University of Pennsylvania in 1997. Dr. Wasfi speaks out in support of immediate, unconditional withdrawal of American forces from Iraq and the need to end the occupation "from the Nile to the Euphrates." Her website is www.liberatethis.com .


 
http://uruknet.info/?p=m78240&hd=&size=1&l=e

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No dialogue with parties involved in occupying Iraq - Sadrist Trend

5/31/2011 5:39 PM

http://en.aswataliraq.info/Default.aspx?page=article_page&c=slideshow&id=142871

BAGHDAD / Aswat al-Iraq: Sadrist spokesman announced today that "the Sadrist Trend is firm on its stand to not engage in any dialogue with any party involved in occupying Iraq."


This is the first comment from the Sadrists on the U.S.
ambassador's statement about his readiness to have a dialogue with the Sadrist Trend, despite his criticism of the recent parade organized by the Mehdi Army.


Spokesman Sheikh Salah Al-Obaidi told Aswat al-Iraq "we did not, and will not, have any dialogue with the parties involved in occupying Iraq," criticizing the media for not being accurate in its wires.


U.S.
ambassador to Baghdad James Jeffery spoke on Monday with the media, including Aswat al-Iraq, stating that he met some members of the Sadrist Trend in 2005 and this year in the provinces, "but it seems that there is a rigid rule to not have any contact with us," he added.


"We are ready to have a dialogue with anybody who is not accused or convicted of any crimes, but the Sadrists talk with us through guns and rockets, and they have to stop that," he added.


On the Sadrist parade held at the end of last week, Obaidi confirmed its "peaceful and civil" character, which "is not a defiance to the Iraqi government or any other Iraqi political or social party."


The US ambassador criticized the parade and warned from "granting the right for militias," expressing his concern with the speeches made in the parade and regarded them as "an attack against his country."


Thousands of Mehdi Army members paraded last Thursday (26 May, 2011) in Sadr City, in the absence of any military presence, stepping on and burning U.S.
and Israeli flags during the march.


"The speeches made during the parade spoke of their rights to attack us, though we have a legitimate presence according to the will of the Iraqi Parliament," the U.S.
ambassador added.


RM (TI)/SR

http://en.aswataliraq.info/Default.aspx?page=article_page&c=slideshow&id=142871

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Iraq snapshot - June 1, 2011


The Common Ills



Wednesday, June 1, 2011.  Chaos and violence continue, Iraq tops a list yet again but it's not the one you want to be on unless you enjoy being a haven for journalist killers, Iraqiya says no movement until the Erbil Agreement is honored, talks on extending the US military presence in Iraq continue, Iraq War veteran Adam Kokesh plans a meet-up for this Saturday at the Thomas Jefferson Memorial, and more


http://thecommonills.blogspot.com/2011/06/iraq-snapshot.html#links

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Amid talk of democracy, Iraqi activists decry detentions

By Ned Parker and Salar Jaff, Los Angeles Times


'Obama is talking about Iraq as a symbol of freedom,' says one young man angry over the detainment of several demonstrators, whose whereabouts are still unknown. 'We don't have such freedom. Where is it?'

June 1, 2011

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-iraq-protesters-20110601,0,6605508.story

Reporting from Baghdad—

Encouraging the democracy protests sweeping the Arab world, President Obama has presented Iraq as a model for the region — praise that contrasts with the detention of four young activists for days without access to lawyers or their families.

Fellow protesters in the movement demanding better governance, including an end to corruption and improved services, say they worry they are next to be picked up by plainclothes security agents or paramilitary police seeking to crush their demonstrations. The army raided a meeting Saturday about the four and detained at least nine more people, said respected activist Hanna Edwar.

The activists are among a few hundred demonstrators who gather with posters and old bullhorns on Fridays in downtown Baghdad's Tahrir Square, where they are cordoned off by ropes and watched by hundreds of police and soldiers in combat gear. The government remains deeply suspicious of them.

"These people, they know we have only our voices," said Edwar, who meets regularly with members of parliament. "I am expecting the number of detentions will increase."

The day before the arrest of the four young men Friday, the government tolerated a rally by tens of thousands of followers of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada Sadr, many of them former militia fighters, marching in uniform and threatening to go back to violence if U.S. forces stayed in Iraq after this year. No one was arrested.

The government's actions raise the specter of a security apparatus that tolerates little dissent by people not affiliated with religious parties or any of the major groups in government. It also speaks to the limits of American influence in a country where the U.S. still has nearly 50,000 troops and has served as the main architect of the country's new democracy and sponsor of those in power.

The government has been far from clear about the status of the four activists. First it said they were being held by military intelligence. Then it denied that, adding that there was no record of any protesters being arrested. Baghdad's military command issued a statement late Tuesday saying that the four had been picked up with fake IDs in the same neighborhood as the demonstrations — a charge the men's supporters called ludicrous. The men's families were told they would be taken to see them Wednesday at a military intelligence prison.

Edwar said the nine others detained Saturday were probably being held in the same place.

The detained activists' friends, mostly young people who met through Facebook, spent Sunday and Monday stealthily putting up posters about the four around university campuses.

A U.S. Embassy spokesman said he was not aware of the case or whether it had been raised with the Iraqi government.

A senior U.S. military officer, speaking on condition of anonymity, was critical of the U.S. response to the Iraqi government since a wave of protests began in February.

"People fully expected to hear from the embassy here and the president what they heard them say in other places: 'We side with the demonstrators on the issue of reforming government, making government better in the provision of services and fighting corruption," the officer said. "How hard is it for us to side with people on those issues? And yet, we stood by and were very silent, and when we spoke it very weak."

Obama, in his speech last month, acknowledged that Iraq would face setbacks, but said it would play an important role in the region if its progress continued.

"In Iraq, we see the promise of a multiethnic, multisectarian democracy. The Iraqi people have rejected the perils of political violence in favor of a democratic process, even as they've taken full responsibility for their own security," he said.

Sitting at a cafe Tuesday, two protest organizers who go by the code names Mohammed Guevara and Hussein Baghdadi in the hopes that will help them avoid arrest, laughed bitterly about Obama's speech.

"Obama is talking about Iraq as a symbol of freedom," said the one who goes by Guevara. "We don't have such freedom. Where is it?"

The activists' movement began coalescing in online debates about politics and religion, and at a rally in support of secularism in December after police raids on bars and a writers club that served alcohol.

People were beaten at a Feb. 25 rally, and dozens were arrested. Those who persisted found themselves being followed by security agents.

The pair interviewed Tuesday said the events of Friday started with a text message from Muayad Taieb, a 29-year-old actor and director who said he had been picked up by national police. Five friends at Tahrir Square decided to look for him. Three of them, Ali Jaff, Jihad Jalil and Ahmed Baghdadi, were first approached by a man in civilian clothes who tried to tackle one of them, and then confronted with soldiers who pointed assault rifles at their heads and pushed them into an ambulance.

"We don't call this detention. It was a kidnapping," said the activist who called himself Hussein Baghdadi. "Detentions have rules, including a warrant of arrest."

The arrests last weekend have left activists with a deep sense of fatalism. The one who calls himself Guevara, a chubby, bearded 26-year-old, has taken to reciting verses from an old Lebanese song: "In my hand there is an old olive branch and my coffin is on my back. I am not afraid of dying."

- ned.parker@latimes.com

Jaff is a staff writer in The Times' Baghdad bureau.


http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-iraq-protesters-20110601,0,6605508.story

 

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Iraq Arrests Seen as Effort to Squelch More Protests


By JACK HEALY and MICHAEL S. SCHMIDT


June 2, 2011

BAGHDAD — Iraqi security forces arrested more than a dozen activists here over the past week in a sweep that rights groups called a pre-emptive strike to prevent a flickering reform movement from springing back to life.

Elsewhere in Iraq, in Ramadi, the capital of Anbar Province west of Baghdad, a series of explosions on Thursday aimed at security forces killed 15 people and wounded 20, local officials said.

The detentions in Baghdad came just days before the government faces a self-imposed deadline to demonstrate improvements in services and government reforms. Some analysts have said that if this date passes without significant reforms, there could be new rounds of reinvigorated demonstrations.

By Thursday, security forces had released most of those detained, according to an Iraqi human rights activist, who said that four remained in jail.

The Baghdad Operations Command, the capital security force controlled by Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, denied it had arrested anyone for demonstrating. In a statement on its Web site, the force said the four men still being detained had been arrested for carrying fake identification cards, an allegation their family members dismissed as ludicrous.

The youth protest movement, in which demonstrators thronged the streets of major cities last winter, demanding better government services and an end to corruption, had quieted to a near whisper lately, its momentum sapped by harsh security measures, dozens of arrests and a gradual ebb in public interest.

As part of the government’s two-pronged response, promising reforms while cracking down on dissent, Mr. Maliki cut his salary in early March and gave his cabinet 100 days to make progress in tackling the crumbling infrastructure and sputtering economy.

MORE

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/03/world/middleeast/03iraq.html?_r=1&pagewanted=print

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Media Keeps Iraq Tyranny on Down Low

John Glaser, June 02, 2011

http://www.antiwar.com/blog/2011/06/02/media-keeps-iraq-tyranny-on-down-low/

Iraq has been perhaps the least covered country in the Middle East throughout the Arab Spring. Popular protests and demonstrations there have been discreet, but only relative to Egypt, Tunisia, Yemen, Syria, etc. This comparative quiet is no excuse for the near white-wash in coverage.

We can speculate as to why massive popular protests in Iraq have not been sustained. The risk assessment facing Iraqis wanting to protest for freedom and democracy is decidedly more threatening given the fact that the tyranny they are living under is not merely a client state of the U.S., being bolstered with loads of aid. It is a country still under occupation from the world’s most dominant and militaristic superpower, with some 50,000 troops and tens of thousands more contractors. The consequences protestors have faced elsewhere could be vastly more calamitous in Iraq.

Hence the very reason Iraq should be constantly in the headlines. The media are having a tough enough time keeping U.S. support for Arab dictatorships on the down low. With the suppression of Iraqi democracy on the front pages, it’d be too difficult to avoid making U.S. imperialism a primary inquiry in the news on the Arab Spring. But suppressing Iraqi democracy is precisely what Operation Iraqi Freedom has brought. Here’s Ted Galen Carpenter at The National Interest:

The Iraqi government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is increasingly corrupt and autocratic. Aside from periodic elections with competing parties, the new Iraq is beginning to resemble the old Iraq under Saddam Hussein. Maliki’s bureaucrats routinely harass both foreign and domestic media outlets that dare to expose his administration’s abuses.

Disturbing evidence of such repression has been building for at least the past two years, but matters escalated dramatically in February with the regime’s shocking brutality. As with many other countries in the Middle East, demonstrations broke out in Iraq demanding, among other things, an end to the Maliki government’s rampant corruption. Those demonstrations culminated with a “Day of Rage.” Although the demonstrations even on that day were mostly peaceful, security forces killed at least twenty-nine participants.

They also rounded up dozens of journalists, writers, photographers, and intellectuals who had been involved in organizing the rallies. The Aldiyar Television station, which had telecast footage of the demonstrations, reported that security forces arrested seven employees, including a director and an anchorman, and closed the studio.


This is what the war, cripplingly expensive in both blood and treasure, has resulted in for the people of Iraq. Indoctrinated talking heads still speak of it bringing democracy. The more honest, albeit nauseatingly obedient, simply say nothing. And so we have a blind spot in reporting on Iraq, where U.S. tyranny is clearest.


http://www.antiwar.com/blog/2011/06/02/media-keeps-iraq-tyranny-on-down-low/

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Iraq: Protest Organizers Beaten, Detained

Security Forces Should Stop Targeting Activists


Human Rights Watch

HRW, June 2, 2011

http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2011/06/02/iraq-protest-organizers-beaten-detained

(Tunis) - Iraqi authorities have detained, interrogated, and beaten several protest organizers in Baghdad in recent days, Human Rights Watch said today. Iraqi authorities should stop the attacks and charge or release those being held, Human Rights Watch said.

In Iraqi Kurdistan, a protest organizer, Isma'il Abdullah, was abducted, stabbed, and beaten on May 27, 2011. The Kurdistan government should make sure its promised investigation of the episode is thorough, fair, and transparent, and leads to the prosecution of those responsible, Human Rights Watch said.

"Authorities in Baghdad and in Iraqi-Kurdistan are keeping their citizens from demonstrating peacefully," said Joe Stork, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. "Iraq needs to make sure that security forces and pro-government gangs stop targeting protest organizers, activists, and journalists."

Several activists in the capital told Human Rights Watch that they believed that the increased security at Baghdad's Tahrir Square and the recent arrests were an attempt to head off reinvigoration of public protests, amid efforts by various small protest groups to work together. They said that neighborhood officials had warned them that security forces had made increased inquiries into the activists' whereabouts and activities over the past two weeks.

Baghdad Arrests

On May 28, soldiers in four Humvees and two other unmarked vehicles approached the offices of the human rights group Where Are My Rights in Baghdad's Bab al Mu'adham neighborhood, as members met with fellow protest organizers from the February 25 Group. Members of both groups told Human Rights Watch that soldiers raided the building with guns drawn, took away 13 activists in handcuffs and blindfolds, and confiscated mobile phones, computers and documents.

One detained activist who was released on May 29 told Human Rights Watch that during the raid a commanding officer introduced himself as "from Brigade 43"of the army's 11th Division and said another officer was "from Baghdad Operation Command."

"They did not show any arrest warrants and did not tell us why we were being arrested," this activist said:


A female activist complained and asked to see warrants, and they told her to "shut up and get in the car." They blindfolded and handcuffed us, and while they were doing this, they asked, "Why are you having these meetings? Do you really think you can bring down the government?" And they asked who was supporting us.
The activist said that the army took the people it arrested to a detention facility at Division 11 headquarters, where they were interrogated both as a group and individually. "Once we were there, they hit us with their hands in the face, neck, chest, and arms while we were still blindfolded," the activist said. "They kicked us everywhere they could reach. They did not use batons on me, and they talked to each other about not leaving marks or bruises on us."

The released activist and several members of both organizations said security forces are still holding nine of the activists and have released four without any charges. "I asked what crimes we had committed, and asked again about arrest warrants," said the released activist. "They never answered either question."

On May 27, men in civilian clothing detained four student protesters - Jihad Jalil, Ali al-Jaf, Mouyed Faisal, and Ahmed Al-Baghdadi - near a peaceful protest at Baghdad's Tahrir Square, witnesses said. "When [the protesters] started to struggle, uniformed security forces joined in to help the abductors," one witness told Human Rights Watch. "I saw Jihad [one of the protesters] dragged across the ground. A soldier pointed an AK-47 against Jihad's head and cocked it, threatening to shoot him if he moved. People started panicking and running."

In the confusion that followed, some witnesses said they saw security forces push the four protesters into an ambulance that sped away, though others were not sure what happened to them. Members of two of the students' families told Human Rights Watch that authorities would not tell them where they had been taken, despite multiple inquiries. The brother of one said, "We talked to officials from the Interior Ministry, the 11th Division, the Baghdad Brigade, and other prisons. They all say they do not have him and don't know anything about him."

Human Rights Watch received no response from a government spokesman to requests for information about the four protesters' whereabouts. On May 31, state-run Iraqiya TV broadcast a Baghdad Operation Command statement saying security forces had arrested the students for carrying forged IDs and not for participating in protests.

One of the detained students, a frequent protest organizer, had been chased by unknown assailants 10 days earlier and had been afraid to sleep at home since, a family member told Human Rights Watch, "He called us a few times, but would not tell us where he was staying, because he was convinced that security forces were after him and would come arrest him if they were tapping the phone line."

According to witnesses and media reports, there was a significantly larger presence of government security forces on May 27 than at other weekly Friday demonstrations that have taken place since February 25 over the chronic lack of basic services and perceived widespread corruption.

Kurdistan Abduction

In the Kurdistan attack, in Sulaimaniya, a group of eight armed masked men, some in military clothes, grabbed Abdullah, 28, an organizer and frequent speaker at Sulaimaniya protests, as he was buying a phone card at about 12:05 a.m. on May 27, and whisked him away in an unmarked Nissan patrol car. Abdullah told Human Rights Watch that after they drove for a half-hour, the men pulled him out of the vehicle into a field, where they covered his head, stabbed his arm, and pounded him with their fists and butts of their pistols and rifles.

During the beating, he said, when one of the assailants suggested they kill him, others said they "needed an order from above."  One assailant left to make a phone call and when he returned, he told the others "not to kill me but to do something very bad to my face." They removed the cover from his head and one of the gang "beat my face with the Kalashnikov many times until my nose was broken."

At about 2 a.m., he said, they dumped him on the outskirt of the city. Before they left, he said, "they threatened me to never participate in any protests and I should be thrilled that they didn't kill me this time."

Abdullah said that after he filed a police complaint the following day, government and security officials called him and promised to investigate.

On May 29, Hakim Qadir Hamajan, director of Sulaimaniya's security forces, told Human Rights Watch, "We condemn all such acts of violence. The investigation is ongoing, and no information can be released yet, but we are working to find whoever is responsible and bring them before the courts to be prosecuted."

Abdullah had gone into hiding in mid-April after receiving threatening phone calls and text messages because of his protest involvement. He said he had re-emerged six weeks later because he believed he was no longer at risk after hearing that officials and opposition parties would be discussing Kurdistan's political crisis.

Background

Iraqi authorities have taken several steps to eliminate protests in the capital from public view. On April 13, officials issued new regulations barring street protests and allowing them only at three soccer stadiums.

In late February, Iraqi police allowed dozens of assailants to beat and stab peaceful protesters in Baghdad. In the early hours of February 21, dozens of men, some wielding knives and clubs, attacked about 50 protesters who had set up two tents in Tahrir Square. During nationwide February 25 protests, security forces killed at least 12 protesters across the country and injured more than 100. On that day, Human Rights Watch observed Baghdad security forces beating unarmed journalists and protesters, smashing cameras, and confiscating memory cards.

Security forces of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) and its ruling parties have used repressive measures against journalists and demonstrators since the start of the daily protests in Sulaimaniya on February 17 seeking an end to widespread corruption and greater civil and political rights. On March 6, masked men attacked demonstrators and set their tents on fire in Sulaimaniya. On April 18, security forces seized control of Sara Square, the center of Sulaimaniya's protests, and have prevented further demonstrations.

On April 27, the KRG issued a 19-page report of its investigation into the violence during the previous 60 days of demonstrations. It concluded that violence was committed by both security forces and protesters, and that "the police and security forces were poorly trained in handling it appropriately."

Iraq's constitution guarantees "freedom of assembly and peaceful demonstration." As a state party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, Iraq is obligated to protect the right to life and security of the person, and the right to freedom of expression, association, and peaceful assembly.


http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2011/06/02/iraq-protest-organizers-beaten-detained
 

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Iraq snapshot - June 2, 2011



The Common Ills



Thursday, June 2, 2011.  Chaos and violence continue, Adam Kokesh prepares for the Dance Party this Saturday at the Thomas Jefferson Memorial, the Iraqi government releases false totals for May (and the press doesn't say a word), the continued effects of Nancy Pelosi's decision to sell out the peace movement, and more


http://thecommonills.blogspot.com/2011/06/iraq-snapshot_02.html

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Iraq snapshot - June 3, 2011




The Common Ills



Friday, June 3, 2011.  Chaos and violence continue, Iraq is slammed by bombings, activists demonstrate in Baghdad's Tahrir Square despite intimidation efforts by security forces, Adam Kokesh gears up for his dance party, and more.
 

http://thecommonills.blogspot.com/2011/06/iraq-snapshot_03.html#linkshttp://thecommonills.blogspot.com/2011/06/iraq-snapshot_03.html#links

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An Open Letter to the Troops:

You’re Not Defending Our Freedoms


By Jacob Hornberger


http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article28246.htm

Dear Troops:

June 03, 2011 "fff" - May 31, 2011 -- Yesterday — Memorial Day — some people asserted, once again, that you are “defending our freedoms” overseas.

Nothing could be further from the truth. Those people are just repeating tired old mantras. The reality is that you are not defending our freedoms with your actions overseas. In fact, it is the exact opposite. Your actions overseas are placing our freedoms here at home in ever-greater jeopardy.

Consider your occupation of Iraq, a country that, as you know, never attacked the United States, making it the defender in the war and the United States the aggressor. Think about that: Every single person that the troops have killed, maimed, or tortured in Iraq had absolutely nothing to do with the 9/11 attacks.

Yet, the countless victims of the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq have friends and relatives, many of whom have become filled with anger and rage and who now would stop at nothing to retaliate with terrorist attacks against Americans.

Pray tell: How does that constitute defending our freedoms?

It was no different prior to 9/11. At the end of the Persian Gulf War, the troops intentionally destroyed Iraq’s water and sewage facilities after a Pentagon study showed that this would help spread infectious illnesses among the Iraqi people.

It worked. For 11 years after that, the troops enforced the cruel and brutal sanctions on Iraq that killed hundreds of thousands of Iraqi children. (See “America’s Peacetime Crimes against Iraq” by Anthony Gregory.) You’ll recall U.S. Ambassador to the UN Madeleine Albright’s infamous statement that the deaths of half-a-million Iraqi children from the sanctions were “worth it.”

By “it” she meant the attempted ouster of Saddam Hussein from power. You will recall that he was a dictator who was the U.S. government’s ally and partner during the 1980s, when the United States was furnishing him with those infamous WMDs that U.S. officials later used to excite the American people into supporting your invasion of Iraq.

The truth is that 9/11 furnished U.S. officials with the excuse to do what their sanctions (and the deaths of all those Iraqi children) had failed to accomplish: ridding Iraq of Saddam Hussein and replacing him with a U.S-approved regime.

That’s what your post-9/11 invasion of Iraq was all about — to achieve the regime change that the pre-9/11 deadly sanctions that killed all those children had failed to achieve.

No, not mushroom clouds, not freedom, not democracy, and certainly not defending our freedoms here at home. Just plain old regime change.

In the process, all that you — the troops — have done with your invasion and occupation of Iraq is produce even more enmity toward the United States by people in the Middle East, especially those Iraqis who have lost loved ones or friends in the process or simply watched their country be destroyed.

In principle, it’s no different with Afghanistan. I’d estimate that 99 percent of the people the troops have killed, maimed, or tortured in that country had absolutely nothing to do with 9/11.

Why did you invade Afghanistan or, more precisely, why did President Bush order you to do so?

No, not because the Taliban participated in the 9/11 attacks and, no, not because the Taliban were even aware that the attacks were going to take place

President Bush ordered the troops to invade Afghanistan — and, of course, kill Afghan citizens in the process — because the Afghan government – the Taliban — refused to comply with his unconditional extradition demand. You will recall that the Taliban offered to turn bin Laden over to an independent tribunal to stand trial upon the receipt of evidence from the United States indicating his complicity in the 9/11 attacks.

Bush responded to the Taliban’s offer by issuing his order to the troops to invade Afghanistan, kill Afghans, and occupy the country. In the process, U.S. officials installed one of the most crooked, corrupt, and dictatorial rulers it could find to govern the country, one who is so incompetent he cannot even hide the manifest fraud by which he has supposedly been elected to office.

In the process of installing and defending the Karzai regime, the troops have killed brides, grooms, children, fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, sons, daughters, uncles, aunts, cousins, friends, and countrymen, most of whom never attacked the United States on 9/11 or at any other time. They simply became “collateral damage” or “bad guys” for having the audacity to oppose the invasion and occupation of their country by a foreign regime. (It should be noted for the record that U.S. officials considered these types of “bad guys,” as well as Osama bin Laden and other fundamentalist Muslims, to be “good guys” when they were trying to oust Soviet troops from Afghanistan.)

Was there another way to bring bin Laden to justice? Yes, the criminal-justice route, which was the route used after the 1993 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center.

That’s right. Same target, different date. In fact, the accused terrorists — Ramzi Yousef in 1993 and Osama bin Laden in 2001 — were ultimately located in the same country, Pakistan.

In Yousef’s case, he was arrested some three years after the attack, brought back to the United States, prosecuted, and convicted in federal district court. He’s now serving a life sentence in a federal penitentiary.

No invasions, no bombings, no occupations, no killing of countless innocent people, no torture, no war on terrorism, and no anger and rage that such actions inevitably would have produced among the victims, their families, and friends.

In bin Laden’s case, we instead got a military invasion and occupation of Afghanistan, where the troops have killed, maimed, tortured, and hurt countless people who had nothing to do with the 9/11 attacks.

How in the world have your invasions and occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq defended our freedoms here at home? Indeed, how have the assassinations and bombings in Pakistan, Yemen, Libya, and who knows where else defended our freedoms?

All these things have accomplished is keeping foreigners angry at us, thereby subjecting us to the constant and ever-growing threat of terrorist retaliation here at home. As I have pointed out before, the U.S. military — that is, you, the troops — have become the biggest terrorist-producing machine in history. Every time you kill some Iraqi or Afghan citizen, even when accidental, ten more offer to take his place out of anger and rage.

That’s the same thing that was happening prior to 9/11. In fact, there were some, including those of us here at The Future of Freedom Foundation, who were warning prior to 9/11 that unless the U.S. Empire stopped what it was doing to people in the Middle East (including the deadly sanctions on Iraq, the support of Middle East dictators, the stationing of U.S. troops near Islamic holy lands, and the unconditional money and armaments to the Israeli regime), Americans would be increasingly subject to terrorist attacks. On 9/11, we were proven right, unfortunately. (See Blowback: The Costs and Consequences of American Empire by Chalmers Johnson.)

How does the constant threat of terrorist retaliation arising from your actions in Iraq and Afghanistan make us freer here at home, especially when you — the troops — are responsible for engendering the anger and rage that culminates in such threats, owing to what you are doing to people over there?

Consider also what the U.S. government does to our freedoms here at home as a direct consequence of the terrorist threat that you, the troops, are producing over there. It uses that threat of terrorism to infringe upon our freedoms here at home! You know what I mean — the fondling at the airports, the 10-year-old Patriot Act, the illegal spying on Americans, the indefinite detention, the torture, the kangaroo tribunals, Gitmo, and the entire war on terrorism — all necessary, they tell us, to keep us safe from the terrorists — that is, the people you all are producing with your actions over there.

In other words, if you all weren’t producing an endless stream of terrorists with your invasions, occupations, torture, assassinations, bombings, and Gitmo, the U.S. government — the entity you are working for — would no longer have that excuse for taking away our freedoms.

This past Sunday, the Washington Post carried an article about American wives who were recently greeting their husbands on their return from Afghanistan. Newlywed Anne Krolicki, 24, commented to her husband on the death of one of her friends’ husband: “It’s a pointless war,” she said.

That lady has her head on straight. She’s has a grip on reality, doesn’t deal in tired old mantras, and speaks the truth. Every U.S. soldier who dies in Iraq and Afghanistan dies for nothing, which was the same thing that some 58,000 men of my generation died for in Vietnam.

Please don’t write me to tell me that you all are good people or that you’re “patriots” for simply following whatever orders you are given. All that is irrelevant. What matters is what you are doing over there. And what you are doing is not defending our freedoms, you are jeopardizing them

Sincerely,

Jacob G. Hornberger - President - The Future of Freedom Foundation - www.fff.org

 
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article28246.htm

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Iraqi FILTH

by Layla Anwar

An Arab Woman Blues, June 5, 2011

http://arabwomanblues.blogspot.com/2011/06/iraqi-filth.html

I was not sure if I should title this post IRAQI Filth or IRAQ'S Filth. I settled for the former.
I felt there is a subtle nuance, maybe not so subtle.

The difference is not so subtle since anyone can claim to be an Iraqi nowadays, or even become one since thousands of non Iraqis have been given the nationality - namely Iranians, but not everyone IS an Iraqi.

I found the difference not only not so subtle but even profound. Iraq as a land, has always been a fertile one, a generous one, since times immemorial. Bad weeds sprout in fertile lands, that is a fact, but a loving laborer is quick to remove the bad weeds and cultivate fruitful harvests in lieu.

There is no loving laborer left in Iraq. The land is left barren, and all kinds of bad unwanted parasitic weeds have grown instead, feeding off remains. A parasitic weed that self propagates feeding on its own excrements...

It was allegedly reported that Saddam Hussein once said - Iraq is one big gutter, and I am the one who keeps the lid on. He was right.

It turns out that the Iraqi gutter has overflown, breaking the drains, leaking through pipes, swelling over dams, swamping the land and turning it into one huge sewage...

I may continue this later, but right now I am taken with a violent bout of nausea...



http://arabwomanblues.blogspot.com/2011/06/iraqi-filth.html



 

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Iraq for Sale: The War Profiteers


by grtv


The story of what happens to everyday Americans when corporations go to war.


Acclaimed director Robert Greenwald (Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price, Outfoxed) takes you inside the lives of soldiers, truck drivers, widows and children who have been changed forever as a result of profiteering in the reconstruction of Iraq. Iraq for Sale uncovers the connections between private corporations making a killing in Iraq (Blackwater, Halliburton/KBR, CACI and Titan) and the decision makers who allow them to do so.

Originally released in 2006.

HERE

http://tv.globalresearch.ca/2011/06/iraq-sale-war-profiteers

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U.S. troops brace for withdrawal along Iraqi road


By Michael S. Schmidt


New York Times


Posted: 06/06/2011 06:09:00 PM PDT
Updated: 06/06/2011 09:25:38 PM PDT


BAGHDAD -- Even as the U.S. military winds down its eight-year war in Iraq, commanders are bracing for what could be the most dangerous remaining mission: getting the last troops out safely.

The resurgent threat posed by militants was underscored Monday when rockets slammed into a military base in eastern Baghdad, killing six service members in the most deadly day for U.S. forces here since 2009. In recent weeks, insurgent fighters have stepped up their efforts to kill U.S. forces in what appears a strategy to press the U.S. to withdraw on schedule, undercut any resolve to leave troops in Iraq, and to win a public relations victory at home by claiming credit for the U.S. withdrawal.

U.S. commanders say one of the gravest threats to the 46,000 troops here is that they could become easy targets for insurgents as they begin their final withdrawal this summer and head for the border along a 160-mile stretch of road cutting through the southern desert into Kuwait.

"Our forces were attacked today and we were just sitting still," said Col. Douglas Crissman, who is in charge of U.S. forces in four provinces of southern Iraq, and is overseeing highway security in them. "What is going to happen to the threat when we line up our trucks to leave and start moving out of the country?"

MORE

http://www.mercurynews.com/politics-government/ci_18218543?source=rss&nclick_check=1

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Tomgram: Peter Van Buren, How Not to Withdraw from Iraq

Posted by Peter Van Buren at 9:10am, June 7, 2011.

http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175401/tomgram%3A_peter_van_buren%2C_how_not_to_withdraw_from_iraq/#more


Iraq?  Where’s that?  Most Americans no longer seem to know and evidently could care less, but don’t tell that to Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, various key military figures and Washington officials, or some of the neocons, warrior-pundits, and liberal war-fighters circling them. They continue to relentlessly promote Iraq as a mission-never-accomplished-but-never-to-be-ended experience.  Somehow, two decades after our Iraq wars began, they still can’t get enough of them.  Learning curve?  Don't even think about it.  It’s as if they’re trapped in that old Thomas Wolfe novel, You Can’t Go Home Again.

For more than a year now, a crew of lobbyists eager to abrogate the withdrawal agreement the Bush administration negotiated with the Iraqis have been dropping the broadest of hints.  Should the Iraqis ask, they say, the U.S. military must stay in that country (whatever war-ending pledges President Obama might once have made).  General Martin Dempsey, the newly appointed Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, is typical.  Only weeks before the president picked him, he reaffirmed his support for “keeping American troops in Iraq beyond December if requested by Iraqi leaders.”  And when Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki nonetheless continued to insist on sticking to an end of 2011 withdrawal date for all U.S. troops (and assumedly for emptying those monster military bases the Pentagon sank billions of dollars into), top Washington officials began pleading, wheedling, and undoubtedly pressuring him in all sorts of ways to change his mind.  Now, he’s provisionally done so.

Many are the explanations offered in Washington for why it's our duty not to leave, each one feebler than the next.  Iraq is not “stable” enough for us to go (as if our invasion and occupation weren’t significantly responsible for that country's instability), or the Iraqis have no real air force and so can’t yet defend their country from potential external foes.  (Of course, Iraq once had a powerful air force, but the Bush administration consciously refused to rebuild it, taking it for granted that the country would have all the air power it needed in the form of the U.S. Air Force.)  Or consider the latest explanation: on the eve of his final tour of the imperium -- he gets to withdraw, but Washington doesn’t -- retiring Secretary of Defense Gates insisted that the U.S. military should stay to make the Iranians miserable.

Ah well, any port in a storm.  As it happens, Iraqi politicians are well known for talking themselves silly and delaying action interminably, so whether the U.S. military actually leaves or not may come down to the wire, and a moving wire at that.  Even then, if Maliki ends up saying no, there’s one small problem: we still won't actually be leaving, a point vividly made by Peter Van Buren, author of the upcoming We Meant Well: How I Helped Lose the Battle for the Hearts and Minds of the Iraqi People, who spent last year embedded with the U.S. military in Iraq while working for the State Department. (To catch Timothy MacBain’s two-part TomCast audio interview in which Van Buren discusses Washington going through withdrawal over Iraq and the mercenaries it’s leaving behind, click here, or download it to your iPod here.) Tom

Occupying Iraq, State Department-Style

A Frat House With Guns in Baghdad

By Peter Van Buren


MUCH MORE WITH MANY LINKS

http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175401/tomgram%3A_peter_van_buren%2C_how_not_to_withdraw_from_iraq/#more

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“We weren’t really waiting”: A Fuse 100 Days Long

Maliki Runs Out of Days

Iraq Left

June 7, 2011
http://iraqleft.wordpress.com/2011/06/07/we-werent-really-waiting-a-fuse-100-days-long/



Maliki Runs Out of Days

June 7th has been called 'The Day of Retribution’ by Iraqi grassroots organizers. Nation-wide protests and sit-ins are planned against the US occupation as well as Nouri al-Maliki’s regime, coinciding with the Prime Minister’s own deadline, set exactly 100 days ago, to address Iraq’s protest movement’s demands. "Changes will be made in light of the evaluation results," Maliki said in a statement in late February, referring to his cabinet members and their performance.

In response, a recently released call to action by the grassroots organization 'Popular Movement to Save Iraq’ expresses a broadly held sentiment among Iraqis: the government’s promises are not to be trusted. "We admit that we weren’t really waiting, and didn’t hold out during this time. We were organizing actions with other organizations before and during the countdown to June 7th." Seeing the date as a marker to draw more dissatisfied Iraqis into the protest movement, the statement continues: "But the end of the 100 day period, [with the government] having achieved nothing whatsoever, was the fuse we were waiting for, for those that were giving al-Maliki a chance, and were waiting for reforms from him, his government and corrupt parliament, to come out and demonstrate with us."

The actions and demonstrations mentioned above have varied in their size, intensity and intent. Over the past 100 days, Friday demonstrations in Baghdad’s Tahrir Square have been a constant, sometimes swelling to involve thousands of participants whose grievances included the shocking lack of services like reliable electricity after nearly a decade of a new regime. Crucially though, demands have also often included the immediate withdrawal of the US occupation forces, the release of political prisoners, and the revocation of the sectarian constitution. (These facts are often omitted by the little coverage Iraq receives. A May 29th story by the new agency 'Aswat al-Iraq’ for example, only mentions protestors "demanding an end of corruption, the improvement of public services and living standards of the people, as well as putting an end to unemployment in the country.")

Mosul - April 25th

These broader-aimed protests were most prominent during a 20-day long sit-in in the northern city of Mosul, launched on April 9th, 8 years to the day after Baghdad fell to occupying forces. Iraqi blogs and facebook pages are attempting to marshal the energy of that sustained action for June 7th, recalling that it grew to the tens of thousands, contained a lively, celebratory air including political poetry and theater performances, and even pushed the governor of Mosul, Atheel al-Najifi, to openly defy Maliki’s forces and defend the right of Iraqis to demonstrate. In response to Maliki’s threats of a clampdown – backed by live ammunition –  nearly the entire city (Iraq’s second largest) went on a general strike on May 25th, and for one of the first times the magic words of the Arab spring were heard in Iraq "The people want the downfall of the regime!"

Another significant development in the Iraqi protest movement is the coordination between groups, as well as the clarity of their demands. Mainly through facebook, a consistent source of photos, videos and statements has become 'The Media Office of The Great Iraqi Revolution and the February 25th Revolution Coalition.’ This is in addition to their launching of an Arabic-language website on May 19th [www.iraqirevolution.com] that includes exposés of corrupt politicians and profiles of organizers and activists.

Finally, in a joint statement signed by several groups, such as 'Movement to Liberate the South [of Iraq]’, 'The Organization of Students of a Free Iraq’, 'The National Organization of Tribal Leaders of the South and the Central Euphrates’, 'Movement of Rising Iraqis’, 'Coalition to Support the Iraqi Revolution’ and 'Movement of Iraqi Youth’ a positive alternative to Iraq’s present reality begins to emerge: "[We] are not returning to our homes until al-Maliki steps down, the occupation leaves, corrupt politicians are held accountable, face trial, and the parliament is disbanded. We call for the formation of a transitional government of technocrats that can run the country for a temporary period, and after a period of no more than 6 months, they will set up transparent elections without regional or outside interference. [We] and the other organizations in coalition have decided not to enter into this transitional government, and limit our work to organizing sit-ins and demonstrations only, to bring down the occupation government."

Whose "Regime"?

Observers of the Iraqi protest movement cannot help but notice that its numbers would swell whenever there was a visit by a US diplomat to the green zone. February 25th’s 'Day of Rage’ followed hints from the US state department that US forces may need to remain, while many slogans in all over Iraq’s public squares were keyed to statements Joe Biden, John Kerry or Robert Gates had recently made. A key development in this regard was Nouri al-Maliki’s shift from denying the possibility of a US troop presence past the 2011 year-end deadline agreed upon in 2008’s 'Status of Forces Agreement’, to saying on May 10th: "You want to make me say yes or no before I gather the national consensus?" al-Maliki retorted. "I will not say it."

This combination then — of demands very similar to those of other pro-democracy movements in the Arab-world, political freedoms, transparency and lack of corruption, and due process rather than arbitrary force exercised by the police,  along with a powerful call for self-determination against a US occupation that has lasted longer than 8 years, and a clear Iranian influence on the Maliki-led coalition government —  makes Iraq unique, and makes Maliki’s regime especially glaring in its lack of legitimacy.

The writing reads in the currency reads: "I am Iraqi - June 7th", "6/7 We are waiting for you. Don't be late"

As Uday al-Zaidi, brother of shoe-throwing journalist and lead organizer of the 'Popular Movement to Save Iraq’ puts it:  "What we want is dignity. If you look, when the protests began in Baghdad, we were not [just] asking for electricity or government subsidies. You hear here and there that these people are just looking for work, or job opportunities. They are wrong. We are a country that has lost its dignity and freedom. That is why our central demand is and will continue to be an end to the occupation, and an end to this political process which is built on a sectarian quota system."

Perhaps sensing how vulnerable the top of the pyramid is, Iraqi police (and sometimes military) have launched a severe crackdown in the run-up to June 7th, arresting, questioning and sometimes torturing activists and their supporters. The crackdown has been so blatantly repressive, that even international human rights organizations, that have often been very quiet about Iraq, like Amnesty International have released condemnations, and calls for the release of the detained, like prominent blogger Ahmed Alaa al-Baghdadi.

The tactics though, seem to be outrunning the repression, with the method of writing meeting spots and dates on currency (pictured above) for wide dissemination, which was a very effective strategy most recently in Egypt, where, like in Iraq, the vast majority are without access to 'facebook.’

Extending the metaphor, Uday al-Zaidi adds "This has shown us once and for all that terrorism and the Iraqi government are two sides of the same coin."

http://iraqleft.wordpress.com/2011/06/07/we-werent-really-waiting-a-fuse-100-days-long/





 

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Iraq snapshot - June 6, 2011


The Common Ills


Monday, June 6, 2011.  Chaos and violence continue, Tikrit is again slammed with a bombing, 5 US soldiers die in Iraq, the 100 Days end approaches, a feminist calls out Nouri's attack on NGOs, Jay Carney gets asked about Iraq and goes all uh-uh-uh-uh deer in the headlights, and more.

http://thecommonills.blogspot.com/2011/06/iraq-snapshot_06.html





 
 

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Iraq snapshot - June 7, 2011



The Common Ills



Tuesday, June 7, 2011.  Chaos and violence continue, the Commission on Wartime Contracting is surprised by the State Dept's decision to use contractors who already have problems with record keeping, the 100 Days end, and more.


http://thecommonills.blogspot.com/2011/06/iraq-snapshot_07.html
 

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Posted on Tuesday, 06.07.11


Iraq's Chalabi, who sought invasion, now wants US out


By LAITH HAMMOUDI
McClatchy Newspapers




BAGHDAD -- Ahmed Chalabi, the Iraqi politician who played a key role in persuading the administration of President George W. Bush to invade Iraq and overthrow dictator Saddam Hussein in 2003, said Tuesday that it's time for U.S. forces to go home.

"Are Iraqis ready to carry the responsibility for their country?" he asked rhetorically during a panel discussion held with political supporters at his family compound in Baghdad. "Is Iraq ready to be its own master?

"We want to be the masters of ourselves and to carry our responsibilities in this region," Chalabi said.

Chalabi's presentation comes as Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki struggles with whether to ask the U.S. to stay on past the Dec. 31 withdrawal date both countries agreed to three years ago. Al-Maliki has taken no position, but he promised last month to seek advice from military experts and Iraqi political leaders and to make a decision by July 30 on whether to ask U.S. forces to remain.

To date, only the followers of Shiite Muslim cleric Muqtada al-Sadr had come out publicly opposed to extending the American stay, with most Iraqi politicians remaining mum on the topic. Whether Chalabi's formal opposition will matter is unclear. Although he's a member of Iraq's parliament from the largest political bloc, he doesn't lead that bloc.

Still, there is, if nothing else, an irony in Chalabi's avowed opposition to asking the Americans to stay longer. It was Chalabi's Iraqi National Congress that provided much of the false information, including allegations that Saddam was developing weapons of mass destruction and had ties to al-Qaida, that the Bush administration used to justify the 2003 invasion. Nearly all of the information the INC provided turned out to be untrue



Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/06/07/2255757/iraqs-chalabi-who-sought-invasion.html#ixzz1Oi4bC5z0

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Iraq: Million signature campaign to demand U.S. forces departure taking place soon, MP says


Aswat al-Iraq



http://www.uruknet.info/?p=m78489&hd=&size=1&l=e

June 9, 2011

BAGHDAD / Aswat al-Iraq: A million signature campaign, to demand the departure of the U.S. forces from Iraq is scheduled to take place in all Iraqi provinces in the forthcoming few days, Legislature Maha al-Douri from al-Ahrar (Liberals) Bloc has announced on Thursday.

"The forthcoming few days shall witness the launching of a campaign to gather millions of signatures, demanding the departure of the occupation forces, to cover all Iraqi provinces," Douri told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.

She said that "the campaign shall be shared by a large action team, comprising university professors, Members of Parliament, students, employees, as well as political, legal and tribal personalities, to gather the million signatures, along with holding popular meetings, to demand the departure of the occupation forces and non-extension of their presence by the government or the parliament, under any form."



SKH (ST)

http://www.uruknet.info/?p=m78489&hd=&size=1&l=e
 

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Iraq snapshot - June 9, 2011


The Common Ills



Thursday, June 9, 2011.  Chaos and violence continue, DoD finally names the 5 US soldiers killed in Iraq on Monday, Leon Panetta appears before the Senate Armed Services Committee, Panetta states "a request like that," US military staying in Iraq past 2011, "you know, is something that I think will be forthcoming at some point," weapons inspector David Kelly's 2003 death remains in the news in England, and more.


MORE

http://thecommonills.blogspot.com/2011/06/iraq-snapshot_09.html

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Iraqi Officials: US Congressional Delegation ‘Not Welcome’

Demands for War Compensation, Threats of War Crimes Investigation Cloud Visit

by Jason Ditz, June 10, 2011

The United States has officially worn out its welcome in Iraq. Throughout eight years of occupation the US-backed government appears to have grown tired of taking the endless array of Congressional delegations and spokesman Ali Dabbagh today declared that the current delegation is “not welcome” in the country

MORE

http://news.antiwar.com/2011/06/10/iraqi-officials-us-congressional-delegation-not-welcome/

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Protest All You Can -- O'Aisha.

by Layla Anwar

http://arabwomanblues.blogspot.com/2011/06/protest-all-you-canoaisha.html

June 10, 2011

An Arab Woman Blues, June 10, 2011

Today, Friday, some courageous, brave Iraqis are venturing out again, to protest...

I don't want to be like the dampening waters from a dam that has overflowed...but...

Protest all you can... all you want...but know, you are late...it's called Late. Do we need to have the same discussion over and over again ?

Where were you, when B52's f**ked our souls? Where were you when we packed in haste, hiding our names, tattooed on our legs, our hips, our bellies ?

Did you run after the Omar's, after the Othman's, the Bakr's, the Aisha's ?

I am Omar, I am Aisha, I am....

I am here...watching you...I have one Omar missing... the missing Omar...his name was Omar...Omar, Omar, Omar...

I was told Omar's death is a public holiday in Iran...they gave me the date, it did not coincide with my Omar's.


I am Aisha, that is my real name...I was the youngest...Aisha...in Arabic, it means the "One who lives"... I live and my name is Aisha...I love my name...I totally love my name...

Even though a few weeks ago, I went to a government public hospital...I was feeling unwell...the doctor asked me --- sweet girl, what is your name ? I said Aisha - the one who lives.

He closed my file. I still see the pages being smashed one against another, crashing one on top of another, like waves, hitting a shore, with nowhere to go...

He said : Aisha, your name is Aisha ?! I nodded my head...he became a God...the God of my neighborhood, all dressed in black...with a turban around his head. I felt God must hate me for my name...I was ordered out of the hospital... My name is Aisha - the one who lives, again and again...

I was chosen by Allah, to be the last wife, the last witness, the last one...I am Aisha - the one who lives again and again...

Protest all you can. Hold my name - Aisha.

Hold Omar, Hold Bakr, Hold Othman, Hold Ali --- hold them by their robes...and don't let go. They are all behind me - Aisha - the one who lives, again and again.


http://arabwomanblues.blogspot.com/2011/06/protest-all-you-canoaisha.html


 

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Iraq snapshot - June 10, 2011



The Common Ills



Friday, June 10, 2011.  Chaos and violence continue, protesters in Baghdad are attacked, Ahmed Chalabi and Nouri al-Maliki are engaged in a curious dance, some Sunni militia groups may be brought into the government, and more

http://thecommonills.blogspot.com/2011/06/iraq-snapshot_10.html

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Pro-government demonstrators attack protesters in Baghdad

By Ned Parker and Raheem Salman

At least four men were beaten, say pro-democracy activists, and Iraqi soldiers stood by as armed government supporters, some reportedly bused in, attacked them.

June 10, 2011

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/iraq/complete/la-fg-iraq-protests-20110611,0,6887075.story

Reporting from Baghdad—
Government-sponsored demonstrators, some armed with clubs, attacked pro-democracy protesters Friday in Tahrir Square and paraded pictures of Prime Minister Nouri Maliki's chief rival, Iyad Allawi, with a red X slashed across his face.

Groups of rowdy young men, some said by Western sources to have been bused in by Maliki's Islamic Dawa Party, roamed the streets armed with sticks and other weapons. At least four men were badly beaten and several women were assaulted, said pro-democracy activists who have held weekly rallies at the downtown square since February, inspired by the populist movements that first swept Tunisia and Egypt.


The violence, which echoed street attacks in the years leading to the creation of Saddam Hussein's authoritarian state, bodes ill for Iraq's emergent democracy, which President Obama recently described as a success story.

The attacks on peaceful protesters also raise questions about how much freedom of expression will be tolerated by the Maliki government after the remaining U.S. forces leave Iraq by year's end.

The incident comes as state television airs the purported confessions of suspects in a brutal sectarian massacre during the height of the bloodshed in 2006. About 70 Shiite Muslims were killed when an armed Sunni Muslim group stormed a wedding party in Taji.

One of the confessions, which some believe were coerced, is accompanied by graphic images showing the victims, bound and gagged, lying on the bank of the Tigris River, and then, after they were shot, their blood turning the water red.

The pro-government rallygoers, estimated at 1,000, demanded that the killers be executed.

It didn't take long for the demonstrators to turn on the pro-democracy activists. At least one group of men assaulted 10 women, allegedly groping and clubbing them, and others were beaten before they fled.

The assailants had steel pipes, knives and guns, and soldiers present did not intervene, pro-democracy activists said. Instead, the activists said, they offered juice and food to the pro-government forces.

"We were about 10 women standing on the same place we used to stand each Friday carrying our signs, the same we carry every week. After about two minutes, a person came to us, I can describe him as pro-government person, and asked us to leave that place because it is for the people supporting Nouri Maliki," said Jannat Bassem, a women's rights activist.

"We refused to withdraw. This man was wearing a black shirt; then three persons in plainclothes came with him. After we refused, one of them pulled one of the signs we were carrying and started to hit us with them it."

Among those threatened Friday was Ali Jaff, one of four democracy activists detained two weeks ago and released Tuesday.

"They surrounded us and their crowds began to push us," Jaff said. "We noticed that there were people wearing plainclothes carrying walkie-talkies."

Some activists retreated down the street to Firdos Square, the plaza where a statue of Saddam Hussein was torn down days after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. A small group of men sat on the grass there, some saying that they had been beaten in recent days.

One of the men was on crutches, his leg in a cast. He said that at last week's protest a few soldiers asked him for a smoke and then threw him into a car, where they broke his leg. He said he was so scared that he didn't go to a hospital for two days.

Police cars circled and about a dozen buses filled with pro-government tribesmen passed, taunting the activists from the windows.

After the activists had been chased from the square, two government ministers and a military spokesman from Maliki's coalition joined the pro-government rallygoers and did not mention the beatings or the inflammatory pictures of Allawi.

"Today the tyrants crossed all lines," Allawi said later.

- ned.parker@latimes.com

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/iraq/complete/la-fg-iraq-protests-20110611,0,6887075.story
 

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Iraq After Maliki's "100 Days": An Interview with Iraqi Organizer Uday al-Zaidi


by Ali Issa


Jadaliyya, June 10, 2011


http://www.uruknet.info/?p=m78527&hd=&size=1&l=e



On February 27, 2011, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki gave his parliament 100 days to "reform" their sometimes totally nonfunctional ministries or face consequences, in response "to people’s demands" as he put it. Those demands have taken the form of some of the least noted events of the Arab Spring: large mobilizations in Baghdad's Tahrir Square; mass acts of civil disobedience and a general strike in Mosul; and the resignations of several governors all over Iraq, including two Basra governors. The Iraqi state has responded violently, with curfews, live ammunition, and wide scale arrests (signaled by Iraqis calling March 18th, "The Friday of Prisoners"). That deadline for reform ended June 7th, and many Iraqi civil society leaders are preparing for renewed protests this summer, calling Friday June 10th, the "Friday of Resolution and Departure." One such organizer is Baghdad-based Uday al-Zaidi, leader of an organization called "The Popular Movement to Save Iraq" and the brother of journalist Muntazer al-Zaidi, who gained renown for throwing his shoes at then president George W. Bush.

The past three months have also seen a large shift in al-Maliki's position on the presence of US troops in Iraq, from insisting on their scheduled withdrawal at the end of 2011, to allowing for the possibility of signing a new agreement extending their stay after "a national referendum." Iraqis have been discussing at length what they see as this double crisis of legitimacy of the present Iraqi government: an utter lack of ability or interest in providing the most basic of services; as well as obedience to both a deeply unpopular military occupation as well as regional forces. Grassroots organizers meanwhile have seen this as an opening to make their protests really have an impact. In the following interview, Uday discusses his brothers, what he thinks has been driving these protests, who is participating, as well as the most prominent demands. The interview was conducted and translated by Ali Issa on May 25th, and was edited and produced by Joyce Wagner. For more on organizing in Iraq, click here.  http://iraqleft.wordpress.com/


The Shoe Thrower's Brother from JOYCE! on Vimeo.

WATCH HERE

http://www.uruknet.info/?p=m78527&hd=&size=1&l=e


 

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Official: Billions missing in Iraq may be ‘largest theft of funds in national history’


By Stephen C. Webster


Monday, June 13th, 2011 -- 1:09 pm

HERE

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/06/13/official-billions-missing-in-iraq-may-be-largest-theft-of-funds-in-national-history/

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Iraq snapshot - June 14, 2011



The Common Ills



Tuesday, June 14, 2011.  Chaos and violence continue, 2 US soldiers are announced dead, a hostage situation takes place in Diyala Province, torture and War Crimes may get investigated in the US, torture and War Crimes may be buried in a British inquiry, the VA stalls, evades and stonewalls a House Subcommitteee, are active duty soldiers be giving the time needed to heal, and more



http://thecommonills.blogspot.com/2011/06/iraq-snapshot_14.html

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Iraqis take to the streets


The Common Ills

June 17, 2011

http://thecommonills.blogspot.com/2011/06/iraqis-take-to-streets.html

It is Determination Friday in Iraq as activists take to the streets to demand a responsive government. Protests have been going on in Iraq this year since January. The college students and Iraqi youth began organizing around Friday's a designated day for protest each week. In Baghdad, citizens have turned out in strong numbers. All screen snaps are of the protest in Baghdad today and from videos posted at Revolution of Iraq.


MUCH MORE

http://thecommonills.blogspot.com/2011/06/iraqis-take-to-streets.html



 

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Iraq snapshot - June 16, 2011


The Common Ills


Thursday, June 16, 2011. Chaos and violence continue, US companies rake in the dough in Iraq, Allawi accuses Nouri of terrorism, a power player in Iraq praises Nouri and then cuts him off at the knees, the US press corps disgrace themselves to publicly slobber over Robert Gates and they all agree to keep it off the record (I didn't), Iraqi activists gear up for tomorrow's protests, Moqtada's fading strength is noted, and more.


http://thecommonills.blogspot.com/2011/06/iraq-snapshot_3294.html
 

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Iraq snapshot - June 17, 2011



The Common Ills



Friday, June 17, 2011.  Chaos and violence continue, Iraqis take to the streets to protest, tensions continue to fester between Nouri and Allawi, in the US, Bob Filner wonders where the VA money is going, US mayors call for an end to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and more


http://thecommonills.blogspot.com/2011/06/iraq-snapshot_17.html

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Missing Iraq money may be as much as $18 billion

By David Ferguson
Sunday, June 19th, 2011 -- 1:58 pm
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/06/19/missing-iraq-money-may-be-as-much-as-18-billion/

In 2004, the Bush administration flew twenty billion dollars of shrink-wrapped cash into Iraq on pallets. Now the bulk of that money has disappeared. The funds flown into the war zone were made up of surplus from the UN's oil-for-food program, as well as money from sales of Iraqi oil and seized Iraqi assets. Recent estimates had the amount of missing money at about $6.6 billion, but according to Al Jazeera, Iraqi Parliament Speaker Osama al-Nujaifi says the figure is closer to three times that amount.

Officials were supposed to distribute the money to Iraqi government ministries and U.S. contractors tasked with the reconstruction of Iraq, but it now appears that the bulk of the cash was stolen in what may be one of the largest heists in history.

The Iraqi government argues that U.S. forces were supposed to safeguard the cash under a 2004 agreement, making Washington responsible for the money's disappearance. Pentagon officials claim that given time to track down the records they can account for all of the money, but the U.S. has already audited the money three times and no trace of what happened to it can be found.

Al Jazeera says that it has been unable to find any documents whatsoever accounting for the money's disappearance. Some believe that U.S. officials absconded with the money, but it's more likely, sources say, that corrupt Iraqi officials used the funds to line their own pockets.

To date, it's estimated that the Iraq War has cost the United States more than a trillion dollars


http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/06/19/missing-iraq-money-may-be-as-much-as-18-billion/

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A Wound That Will Never Heal...


by Layla Anwar

An Arab Woman Blues, June 20, 2011
http://arabwomanblues.blogspot.com/2011/06/wound-that-will-never-heal.html

God works in the strangest of ways....He, She, It expresses itself in the multitude..and in Silence...

God is God...and I am me.

God is never wounded...theoretically so. Since He is omnipresent and omnipotent...

I beg to differ.

God was crucified in 2003, when you forfeited your conscience.

Since, it's been a downhill ride... God's name is called upon 5 times a day and once on a Sunday..God laughs at you.

He's saying - I don't need your rituals today, I need your Truth.

The Truth that no one would utter no more...the truth that was, that is...the truth that remains...hidden under heaps of politically correct covers, under blankets of forgetfulness - the truth of the greatest armada since world war II, as per the acknowledgment of one of your highest Pentagon officials.

What for ? is the question I keep asking myself... No WMD's, no ties to Al-Qaeda...literally an innocent people and an innocent country...What for ?

Oil, your alternative websites cry...drink the f**king oil. Drink it.

Why...is a question that keeps harassing me...that robs away my sleep...why is a question that turned 5 million children into orphans....


Why is the question that harasses me like an unwanted hand that gropes me in the dark...

I can't take your silence, I cant take your deafness..I can't take any of it...8 years on....You cover up the shouts, and in my ears they reverberate. They keep reverberating. They shake my being...until justice is done...until the wound accepts to heal...


http://arabwomanblues.blogspot.com/2011/06/wound-that-will-never-heal.html


 

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Bombings kill 25, injure 30 in Iraq

Tue Jun 21, 2011 6:37AM



File photo shows people at the scene of a car bomb attack in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, June 20, 2011.


Twenty-five people have been killed and 30 injured when two car bombs exploded outside the residence of a local governor in central Iraq.

MORE

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/185608.html

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America: Get Out of Iraq Before It’s Too Late


By Ashour Al-Somary:



June 21 2011 "Information Clearing House" - The history of the United States is as black as coal. Neither the world nor particularly the Japanese will ever forget the tragedy of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Neither the world nor particularly the Vietnamese will ever forget the horrific massacres and the scorched earth policy in that noble country. Neither the world nor the Iraqis will ever forget the repugnant crimes America has committed and continues to commit that are disgraceful on a humanitarian level and were carried out under the most evil policy the world has ever known. Not even the children of Iraq would be deceived by the tricks of American policy, as it has become clear to those both near and far that the new Middle East project for which the Americans have been campaigning is nothing more than an American Middle East that will see no stability. The only things prevalent in it will be rivalry, difference, the destruction of its countries’ economies, the shedding of the blood of its peoples and the shattering of its social value.

The model Iraq, which many Iraqis have been taken in by, is nothing but a fragmented, split, destroyed and backwards Iraq with a group of agents and traitors in charge of running it — traitors who have defaced Iraqi life in every conceivable way. The model Iraq that the United States wants is one governed and run by a group of moving Zionist puppets who prostrate themselves toward America and worship her just as the puppets who govern the Arab Gulf countries and other Arab countries do. The model Iraq is an occupied Iraq that has lost both its independence and sovereignty, is manipulated by organized crime gangs and has ceaselessly wasted the blood of its people. Its lands are barren and dry, and its water is scarce. Its people are deprived of the most basic natural rights of life, and the fear of an unknown destiny pursues them wherever they go. Its people have left their homeland heading to the four corners of the earth in search of the freedom they have lost, in search of the safety and security they have been deprived of as a result of the oppressive policies of the puppet agents that the American intelligence circles and Mossad brought with them. The Iraqis are displaced even within their own homeland, fleeing from a different penitential organization that delights in the blood of innocents.

The al-Qaida organization was built at the despicable right hand of America in Afghanistan. America: Who but you allowed al-Qaida to enter Iraq? Who but you suppressed the souls of the innocents in Iraq, America? Who but you played on the string of sectarianism, America? Iraq would not know Sunni, Shia, Muslim, Christian, Arab, Kurd, etc. ... Iraq would not know ... contested areas if it wasn’t for the vilest constitution the world has ever known and Bremer putting his filthy hands into the mix so that the Iraqis are no longer aware of the entrance to their lives nor of the exit from them. America, you and the devil are two sides of one coin. America, all Iraqis — except your industries and agents and those who benefit from your being in Iraq — spit in your grim, black face. All Iraqis, except those you tempted with your devilish methods to enter Iraq as agents of your intelligence agency, are filled with spite, hatred and anger at your presence, and they in no way want you to stay in Iraq. They will deal with you in a new way that will require from Iraq and the Iraqis a high level of intention, a raised head and inviolable dignity; you will bow down to Iraq and to the people, and they will only bow to the victorious one. America, our oil is our own; our resources are our own. Leave our country, America! Because we are determined with the help of Allah to cleanse our pure land of your filthy impurity and for Iraq to return to being a beacon in the region, a repository of peace in the world and a warm embrace for all honorable Iraqis.

As for the agent puppets who were content to fall into the arms of the Americans and Mossad, they have entered the greatest form of treachery through the widest of its doors, and Iraq and the Iraqis will reject them in this life, and hell fire awaits them through the widest of its doors in the next life. Just like those before them, they will reap nothing but curses wherever they go.

Kitabat, Iraq

Translated By Thomas Coleman -  Edited by Heidi Kaufmann - Iraq - Kitabat - Original Article (Arabic)

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article28386.htm

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Iraq snapshot - June 21, 2011



The Common Ills



Tuesday, June 21, 2011.  Chaos and violence continue, Diwaniyah slammed by twin bombings, the big meet-up yesterday results in a lot of hot air today, Moqtada wants to use Iraqi forces to take out his rivals, the US gets a new Secretary of Defense, and more.
 

http://thecommonills.blogspot.com/2011/06/iraq-snapshot_21.html

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Loss of Illusions.

by Layla Anwar


An Arab Woman Blues, June 22, 2011

http://arabwomanblues.blogspot.com/2011/06/this-is-blog-about-iraq-not-massage.html

This is a blog about Iraq not a massage parlor...am not here to massage your balls. Am not here to ease it on you...am here to try to ease it on me. Do you finally get it ?

Some american whore writes to me, am always impressed when they manage to get it right the first time with correct spelling, then I remember the auto correct option...the american wankers write to tell me I should not have a chip on my shoulder. They preach to my head like on a Sunday...the motherf**kers...But am always impressed when the american asshole manages it without spelling mistakes...after all English is his/her first language..then I remember the auto correct option.

So motherf**kers, did you auto correct yourselves since ? I think not.

f**k the american..the worthless piece of crap...the silent piece of garbage, who allows anything in his name as long as he gets his tax return and as long as she gets laid.

This junk does not interest me...I am interested in something, in someone else...I am interested in observing the loss of illusions...

I am interested in seeing its footprints on our bodies, on our faces, on our being...the american cvnt and his/her would be problems do not interest me. I care f**k all for them.

I like to observe the loss of illusions, tracing itself like some missing map, on faces...I like to see it engraving its name on skins, coiling into a wrinkle, I like to see it manifest itself in the non verbal...I like to spot it, corner it, and make it speak...

Resistance. I see it all the time.

I see it in the lines around a pursed lip, that has remain pursed for ever..I see it in a sigh exhaled in the smoke of a burning cigarette, I see it in a head that veiled itself trying to recapture illusions, I see it in eyes begging but too proud to admit...I see it, I hear it in voices, in the unspoken...

I see it missing in dictionaries and in thesauruses, the loss of illusions...It has no definition, no synonyms...

Loss of illusions....illusions about You, about Us, about the All...

Loss of illusions, written on my skin, tattooed in red ink...loss of illusions, the necessary illusions to keep going, to keep believing....

I search for new ones - in dumpsters, in orphanages, in the streets, in the unspoken, in the silent prayer, in the sigh that no one hears...I search for it in the face wrinkled by war, beneath a veil of fear, I search for it...

You ripped my illusions about life, about you...I am grateful. Now I see the Truth.


http://arabwomanblues.blogspot.com/2011/06/this-is-blog-about-iraq-not-massage.html


 

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Federal Reserve Shipped Billions to Iraq Which Were Then Stolen... Involved in Other Unsavory Activities




by Washington's Blog


 
 
Global Research, June 23, 2011


HERE

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=25370

[bigron]

Iraq snapshot - June 22, 2011



The Common Ills



Wednesday, June 22, 2011.  Chaos and violence continue, Barack continues to lie with pretty words the press sucks up, it's time to combat his war lies and not just on Iraq, State of Law has already broken the pledge they made this week, more officials are targeted in Iraq (and a mayor is killed), we note the US Army suicide data for the month of May, Troy Yocum continues hiking to raise awareness of veterans issues, and more


http://www.uruknet.info/?p=m78881&hd=&size=1&l=e