*IRAQ: latest news and developments

[bigfish]

Gunmen [!?!?!? bf] kidnap 20 policemen south of Baghdad

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...................

 

[Barking_Mad]

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...................

Your point being what?

 

[oi2002]

The Developing Iraqi Insurgency: Status at End-2004 (PDF)
This report gives a cool headed assessment of the insurgency Rummie tried to dismiss as a bunch of dead-enders. There has been a great deal of wishful thinking from the Pentagon on the uprising that suggests either an institution in denial or one more focused on US domestic politics than Iraq.

It says of the makeup of the rebels.

The Sunni insurgents are divided into a complex mix of Sunni nationalists, pro-Ba'ath/exregime, Sunni Iraqi Islamist, outside Islamic extremists, foreign volunteers with no clear alignment, and paid or politically motivated criminals.

These Ba’ath groups are not generally “former regime loyalists,” but rather Sunni nationalists involved in a struggle for current power.

It says of their goals

One broader problem is that the various Sunni insurgent groups ultimate have a nonnegotiable agenda.
...
They cannot reestablish the form of largely secular rule that existed under Saddam, or reestablish Iraq as a country that most Arabs see as “Sunni.”
...
In practice, however, such insurgent groups have a much better vision of what they oppose than what they are for, and limited interest in pragmatic realpolitik.

They’ve run rings round our lumbering strength. Tactically they are improving every day, the arms looted from the dumps we failed to police will supply them for years, their numbers are unknown but are probably rising, and most crucially they’ve far better HUMINT than we have with assets all over the nascent Iraqi military.

The problem is broader. As has been touched upon in Chapter III, the insurgents have good sources in the Iraqi Interim Government and forces, Iraqi society and sometimes in local US and Coalition commands.

It’s not all gloom though it reckons civil war is unlikely.

 

[oi2002]

Another way to kill Kenny

 

[jeff_leigh]

U.S. in Secret Talks with Iraqi Insurgents

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. diplomats and intelligence officers are conducting secret talks with Iraq Sunni insurgents on ways to end fighting there, Time magazine reported on Sunday, citing Pentagon and other sources

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&u=/nm/20050220/ts_nm/iraq_sunni_talks_dc

 

[Barking_Mad]

Insurgents increasingly sophisticated in targeting

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Attacks by insurgents to disrupt Baghdad's supplies of crude oil, gasoline, heating oil, water and electricity have reached a degree of coordination and sophistication not seen before, Iraqi and U.S. officials say. The new pattern, they say, shows that the insurgents have a deep understanding of the complex network of pipelines, power cables and reservoirs feeding Baghdad, the Iraqi capital. The shadowy insurgency is a fractured movement made up of distinct groups of Sunnis, Shiites and foreign fighters, some of them aligned and some not.

But the shift in the attack patterns strongly suggests that some branch of the insurgency is carrying out a systematic plan to cripple Baghdad's ability to provide basic services for its 6 million citizens and to prevent the fledgling government from operating. A new analysis by some of those officials shows that the choice of targets and the timing of sabotage attacks have evolved over the past several months, shifting from economic targets to become what amounts to a siege of the capital.

In a stark illustration of the change, of more than 30 sabotage attacks on the oil infrastructure this year, no reported incident has involved the southern crude oil pipelines that are Iraq's main source of revenue. Instead, the attacks have aimed at gas and oil lines feeding power plants and refineries and providing fuel for transportation around Baghdad and in the north. In an indication of how carefully chosen the targets are and how knowledgeable the insurgency is about the workings of the infrastructure, the sabotage often disrupts the lives of Iraqis, leaving them dependent on chugging, street-corner generators to stave off the darkness and power televisions or radios, robbing them of fuel for stoves and heaters, and even halting the flow of their drinking water.

The overall pattern of the sabotage and its technical savvy suggests the guidance of the very officials who tended to the nation's infrastructure during Saddam Hussein's long reign, current Iraqi officials say. The only reasonable conclusion, said Aiham Alsammarae, the Iraqi electricity minister, is that the sabotage operation is being led by former members of the ministries themselves, possibly aided by sympathetic holdovers.

"They know what they are doing,'' Alsammarae said. ``I keep telling our government, `Their intelligence is much better than the government's.' ''

 

[Barking_Mad]

worth the read.....

Baghdad Burning

It’s not about a Sunni government or a Shia government- it’s about the possibility of an Iranian-modeled Iraq. Many Shia are also appalled with the results of the elections. There’s talk of Sunnis being marginalized by the elections but that isn’t the situation. It’s not just Sunnis- it’s moderate Shia and secular people in general who have been marginalized.

The list is frightening- Da’awa, SCIRI, Chalabi, Hussein Shahristani and a whole collection of pro-Iran political figures and clerics. They are going to have a primary role in writing the new constitution. There’s talk of Shari’a, or Islamic law, having a very primary role in the new constitution. The problem is, whose Shari’a? Shari’a for many Shia differs from that of Sunni Shari’a. And what about all the other religions? What about Christians and Mendiyeen?

Is anyone surprised that the same people who came along with the Americans – the same puppets who all had a go at the presidency last year – are the ones who came out on top in the elections? Jaffari, Talbani, Barazani, Hakim, Allawi, Chalabi… exiles, convicted criminals and war lords. Welcome to the new Iraq.

Ibraheim Al-Jaffari, the head of the pro-Iran Da’awa party gave an interview the other day. He tried very hard to pretend he was open-minded and that he wasn’t going to turn the once-secular Iraq into a fundamentalist Shia state but the fact of the matter remains that he is the head of the Da’awa party. The same party that was responsible for some of the most infamous explosions and assassinations in Iraq during the last few decades. This is the same party that calls for an Islamic Republic modeled like Iran. Most of its members have spent a substantial amount of time in Iran.

Jaffari cannot separate himself from the ideology of his party.

Then there’s Abdul Aziz Al-Hakim, head of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI). He got to be puppet president for the month of December and what was the first thing he did? He decided overburdened, indebted Iraq owed Iran 100 billion dollars. What was the second thing he did? He tried to have the “personal status” laws that protect individuals (and especially women) eradicated.

They try to give impressive interviews to western press but the situation is wholly different on the inside. Women feel it the most. There’s an almost constant pressure in Baghdad from these parties for women to cover up what little they have showing. There’s a pressure in many colleges for the segregation of males and females. There are the threats, and the printed and verbal warnings, and sometimes we hear of attacks or insults

 

[Barking_Mad]

U.S. Feeling Pressure To Rebuild Fallujah

FALLUJAH, Iraq -- A few days before U.S. ground forces invaded her city in early November, Raja Hamdi Hussein locked the gate of Taburak primary school, where she is director of girls, and fled to Baghdad to wait out the assault.

When she returned this month, she looked around the school and cried, Hussein said in her small office, cold from the wind that was blowing in through shattered windows. The white walls were covered with messages that U.S. troops presumably left when they searched the premises for insurgents and weapons.

"Fallujah Kill Bodys," one message read. "USA No. 1," said another. And on a wall behind her, next to framed verses from the Koran, the Islamic holy book: "We came. We saw. We took over all. P.S. To help you."

 

[Barking_Mad]

Bit more on the talks between the Iraqi resistence and the US, here

What do the insurgents want? Top insurgent field commanders and negotiators informed TIME that the rebels have told diplomats and military officers that they support a secular democracy in Iraq but resent the prospect of a government run by exiles who fled to Iran and the West during Saddam's regime. The insurgents also seek a guaranteed timetable for U.S. troop withdrawal, a demand the U.S. refuses. But there are some hints of compromise: insurgent negotiators have told their U.S. counterparts they would accept a U.N. peacekeeping force as the U.S. troop presence recedes. Insurgent representative Abu Mohammed says the nationalists would even tolerate U.S. bases on Iraqi soil. "We don't mind if the invader becomes a guest," he says, suggesting a situation akin to the U.S. military presence in Germany and Jap.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Kurdistan & Kirkuk

Rostam [said]: ''Kirkuk is part of Kurdistan. When we win, we'll make Kirkuk the safest and richest city in the Middle East. We have struggled for more than 35 years for Kirkuk. Next year we'll have new elections in Kirkuk, and we'll return Kirkuk to Kurdistan.'' He meant the three-province Iraqi Kurdistan Hussein had created, but he also meant, beyond that, the ancestral lands of the Kurds, which stretch from Syria across much of eastern Turkey and into Iran, as well as a large portion of Iraq.

The liberation of the Iraqi Kurds, for which they have paid a heavy price, seemed within reach, and with the Iraqi election it looked as if an altogether new kind of Iraqi politics might be born at last. Yet, listening to Mam Rostam, it also seemed possible that this election might be the beginning of the end for a unified Iraq. Thanks to multiple accidents of history -- the uneasy presence of Sunni and Shiite Arab minorities; an embittered local ethnic group, the Turkmens; meddlesome neighboring countries with their own restive Kurdish populations; and, not least, control of about 40 percent of Iraq's known oil reserves -- the city of Kirkuk, population about 850,000, is where all the pieces of Iraqi politics come together, or where they may well fall apart.....

....Preliminary national results showed the Kurds with an outsize share, thanks to Sunni Arab nonparticipation. Locally, Rostam considered the election a success, ''despite the deep aversion the Turkmen and the Sunni Arabs had for democracy and the will of the people.'' He predicted that Kirkuk's provincial council, with a fresh Kurdish majority, would ''try to remain part of Iraq.'' He said, however, that ''once they realize that the Iraqi government does not help them, or, let's say, does not do enough to help Kirkuk stand on its feet, they will ask to join Kurdistan and enjoy the privileges the Kurds enjoy at the moment.''

Rostam [...] foresaw independence. ''Kurdistan is not yet an independent state,'' he told me, ''but why should we not have the right to have an independent state of our own like all the other small countries?''

 

[mk12]

Moqtada Al-Sadr calls for unity

Al-Sadr in call for unity

Sayed Moqtada al-Sadr called for calm on Sunday following suicide bombings on Iraqis and said the first priority after last month's elections should be for occupation forces to leave.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Life under US occupation.......worth the full read.

Soldiers sometimes rough despite risk of antagonizing friendly Iraqis

BAGHDAD, Iraq - American soldiers barged into the house at midnight. A bomb had exploded on the highway out front earlier that day, killing an Iraqi national guardsman. "I want some answers," Sgt. 1st Class Glenn Aldrich demanded through an interpreter as he shoved the homeowner out his front door. The man's wife and children watched, sobbing, from a side room. Hadn't this guy seen something? The Iraqi swore to God he hadn't.

As two soldiers with rifles stood by, Aldrich yelled into the man's face and whacked the ground with a metal baton that the Americans called a "haji-be-good stick."

"If I'm out here, and I get shot at, I'm shooting every house near me!" Aldrich, 35, yelled in his booming former drill sergeant's voice. "Because you aren't helping me catch the bad guys, and if you're not helping me, you are the bad guy."..........Aldrich recounted how a group of soldiers used fists and an electric stun gun to punish an Iraqi teenager who'd flashed his middle finger. "I've got 200,000 Iraqis I've got to control with 18 people," Aldrich said, referring to his platoon's patrol sector. "So I've got to command respect. And unfortunately, all that hearts and minds stuff, I can't even think about that."

At another point he added: "There are things I have to do out here that I can't explain to my chain of command, and that the American people would never understand."

.......

Early in their tour, someone from Charlie Company thought he saw gunshots from a roof while he was manning a defensive position along one of the base walls. The troopers poured heavy weapons fire into the house. The next morning, soldiers arrived to find several female members of a family dead - and one little girl alive, clinging to her dead mother. Some of the men broke down in tears, the soldiers said.

"I will never forget that girl raising her head up," said Staff Sgt. Victor Gutierrez of Los Angeles.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Iraqi Died While Hung From Wrists

SAN DIEGO - An Iraqi whose corpse was photographed with grinning U.S. soldiers at Abu Ghraib died under CIA interrogation while suspended by his wrists, which had been handcuffed behind his back, according to investigative reports reviewed by The Associated Press.

The death of the prisoner, Manadel al-Jamadi, became known last year when the Abu Ghraib scandal broke. The U.S. military said back then that it had been ruled a homicide. But the exact circumstances of the death were not disclosed at the time.

In this undated file photo obtained by ABC news and allegedly taken by Sgt. Charles Frederick, Army Spc. Sabrina Harman, of the 372nd Military Police Company, poses with the body of Iraqi detainee Manadel al-Jamadi who is packed in ice at the Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad, Iraq. Al-Jamadi was captured by SEALs during a joint CIA -special operations mission in November 2003. He died a few hours later under CIA interrogation in the shower room at Abu Ghraib prison. (AP Photo/ABC News)

The prisoner died in a position known as "Palestinian hanging," the documents reviewed by The AP show. It is unclear whether that position — which human rights groups condemn as torture — was approved by the Bush administration for use in CIA interrogations.

The spy agency, which faces congressional scrutiny over its detention and interrogation of terror suspects at the Baghdad prison and elsewhere, declined to comment for this story, as did the Justice Department.

Al-Jamadi was one of the CIA's "ghost" detainees at Abu Ghraib — prisoners being held secretly by the agency.

His death in November 2003 became public with the release of photos of Abu Ghraib guards giving a thumbs-up over his bruised and puffy-faced corpse, which had been packed in ice. One of those guards was Pvt. Charles Graner, who last month received 10 years in a military prison for abusing detainees.

Al-Jamadi died in a prison shower room during about a half-hour of questioning, before interrogators could extract any information, according to the documents, which consist of statements from Army prison guards to investigators with the military and the CIA's Inspector General's office.

One Army guard, Sgt. Jeffery Frost, said the prisoner's arms were stretched behind him in a way he had never before seen. Frost told investigators he was surprised al-Jamadi's arms "didn't pop out of their sockets," according to a summary of his interview.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Insurgents Wage Precise Attacks on Baghdad Fuel

Insurgent attacks to disrupt Baghdad's supplies of crude oil, gasoline, heating oil, water and electricity have reached a degree of coordination and sophistication not seen before, Iraqi and American officials say. The new pattern, they say, shows that the insurgents have a deep understanding of the complex network of pipelines, power cables and reservoirs feeding Baghdad, the Iraqi capital....

[T]he shift in the attack patterns strongly suggests that some branch of the insurgency is carrying out a systematic plan to cripple Baghdad's ability to provide basic services for its six million citizens and to prevent the fledgling government from operating. A new analysis by some of those officials shows that the choice of targets and the timing of sabotage attacks has evolved over the past several months, shifting from economic targets to become what amounts to a siege of the capital....

The new pattern of sabotage, he said, lays the groundwork for chaos - a deeply resentful populace, the appearance of government ineffectuality, a halt to major business and industrial activities. The second side - the suicide bombings, assassinations and kidnappings - he said, is aimed in large measure at sowing discord among ethnic and religious groups.

 

[Barking_Mad]

U.S. and Iraqi Forces Continue Offensive

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - U.S. Marines broke down doors and raided houses Monday on the second day of an offensive aimed at cracking down on insurgent activity in several troubled cities west of Baghdad.

Shiites and their clergy-backed United Iraqi Alliance met Monday in Baghdad to renew discussions over who their prime ministerial candidate would be. But instead of narrowing the choices down, the field of potential candidates has grown to four, maybe even five, insiders said.

The two most prominent candidates have been former Pentagon favorite Ahmad Chalabi, a secular Shiite, and Ibrahim al-Jaafari, interim vice president. The race may get more complicated following reports the Shiite's initial pick for prime minister, Finance Minister Adel Abdul-Mahdi, who has close ties to Iran, could become a compromise candidate.

Six explosions boomed through the capital before midday. The cause of the blasts was not immediately known. Footage from Associated Press Television News showed U.S. troops treating an American soldier apparently injured in one of the blasts, which overturned a Humvee in the southern Doura neighborhood.

Militants announced the release of a pair of kidnapped Indonesian journalists missing since last week in a video delivered anonymously to Associated Press Television News. The Indonesian Foreign Ministry confirmed that the two had been freed.

In Ramadi, U.S. Marines fanned out across the city, setting up checkpoints, searching cars and sealing off sections of the city to prevent people from entering or leaving as they carried out raids. Soldiers began the operation on Sunday, slapping a nighttime curfew on the city.

 

[Barking_Mad]

US dead stands at 1483. US injured stands at nearly 11,000.

Iraqi dead and injured, unknown.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Violence Trumps Rebuilding in Iraq

Skyrocketing security costs have forced American officials here to slash about $1 billion from projects intended to rebuild Iraq's shattered infrastructure, dealing another blow to U.S. plans to pacify Iraq by improving basic services.

Army Having Difficulty Meeting Goals In Recruiting

The Army began the fiscal year in October with only 18.4 percent of the year's target of 80,000 active-duty recruits already in the pipeline. That amounts to less than half of last year's figure and falls well below the Army's goal of 25 percent.

Australia commits 450 more troops to Iraq to protect Japanese

ustralia will send an extra 450 troops to Iraq to help protect a Japanese humanitarian mission in the south and bolster the country's transition to democracy, Prime Minister John Howard revealed.

Car bomb blast kills four in Baghdad

A car bomb exploded near the headquarters of a major Kurdish party in Baghdad on Tuesday killing Three Iraqi soldiers and one civilian and wounding 30 others, medical sources said.

 

[oi2002]

Suburban Guerrrilla says they don't count the green carders.

Hired security contractors, or mercenaries, and recruits who are not citizens who enlisted to obtain a "green card," are not counted or mentioned. A large number of the green card recruits are from Mexico and Central America. There are no organizations to look after their rights or help them once they're in Iraq. Most of them are buried in Iraq when killed.

I was looking for something from the US millitary on numbers this admits to 1%. Given that about 4% of the US population is illegal, and the US millitary is not meeting its recruitment targets this kind of off the books cannon fodder is likely to get popular.
U^UcTYWVVZV]USMC Trainiing cut

The Marines are shortening their predeployment training from 23 days to 11 in order to rush more Marine units into battle in Iraq. Under the old system, 10 battalions were trained over a six-month period. Under the new schedule, eight battalions can undergo the combat training in two months.

Although the predeployment training includes how to use grenade launchers, automatic weapons and the heavy .50-caliber machine gun, not every Marine actually gets to fire them in the course. A shortage of money and the need to collapse the time frame are offered as the reasons for running through the training schedule before every Marine can experience every weapon.

All the support troops need full combat training to cope with Iraq rather than just the combat guys and they're desparately trying to train the Iraqis at the same time. Here we have an army storing up trouble.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Republican offers view on Iraq after trip

South Carolina U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, back from a weeklong journey overseas, offered the sobering assessment Friday that American troops will be in Iraq for years and casualties are likely for some time to come.

Graham vowed to push to increase the size of the military, attracting recruits through bonuses and benefits. But, he said, there is no need for a draft.

He also said the United Nations and NATO should assume a larger role in Iraq.

"Saddam Hussein literally raped his country," the Republican lawmaker said. "Americans have to understand that, just as in Japan and Germany, it will take years to go from a dictatorship to a democratic government."

Graham returned from his third trip to Iraq on Thursday. He told reporters in a conference call that he is encouraged by the recent elections there.

"The Iraqi people are more empowered but the security situation is worse," he said. "We had a lot less freedom to move around. In many ways in terms of security it is not better off than all."

 

[slaar]

Savage Car Bombing Kills over 100, Injures Many More

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/4303629.stm

At least 105 people have been killed in a massive car bomb south of Baghdad, local medical officials say.
At least 130 others have been wounded in the blast in Hilla, 100km (60 miles) south of the capital.

The car, reportedly driven by a suicide bomber, exploded near a queue of people applying for government jobs.

Iraqi insurgents are waging a violent campaign against US-backed authorities, targeting anyone associated with the government.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Turkey deploys 1,357 troops in Northern Iraq

ANKARA, March 3 (Xinhuanet) -- Turkey has deployed 1,357 military personnel in northern Iraq to fight against members of the outlawed Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK), said Turkish National Defense Minister Vecdi Gonul on Thursday. Gonul was quoted by semi-official Anatolia News Agency as saying, "Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) have deployed 1,357 personnel in northern Iraq to fight against the PKK, gather information regarding the developments in the region and work as liaison officers under US forces in Kirkuk, Mosul and Tal Afar." He added that such cross-border operations have been staged to pursue the terrorists in northern Iraq since 1992.

The PKK, which strives for an independent Kurdish state in southeast Turkey, launched an armed campaign against the Turkish government in 1984, and over 30,000 people, mostly Kurds, were killed in the violence. Fighting dropped off significantly in 1999 when PKK commander Abdullah Ocalan was captured, but the PKK called off a unilateral ceasefire in 2004, threatening to wreck the fragile peace in the area. The Turkish government refuses to negotiate with the group, listing it as a terrorist

 

[Barking_Mad]

US Dead stands at 1,502

 

[Barking_Mad]

U.S. used banned weapons in Fallujah - Health ministry

An official in Iraq's health ministry said that the U.S. used banned weapons in Fallujah. Dr. Khalid ash-Shaykhli, an official at Iraq's health ministry, said that the U.S. military used internationally banned weapons during its deadly offensive in the city of Fallujah. Dr. ash-Shaykhli was assigned by the ministry to assess the health conditions in Fallujah following the November assault there. He said that researches, prepared by his medical team, prove that U.S. occupation forces used internationally prohibited substances, including mustard gas, nerve gas, and other burning chemicals in their attacks in the war-torn city.

The health official announced his findings at a news conference in the health ministry building in Baghdad. The press conference was attended by more than 20 Iraqi and foreign media networks, including the Iraqi ash-Sharqiyah TV network, the Iraqi as-Sabah newspaper, the U.S. Washington Post and the Knight-Ridder service.

Dr. ash-Shaykhli started the conference by reporting the current health conditions of the Fallujah residents. He said that the city is still suffering from the effects of chemical substances and other types of weapons that cause serious diseases over the long term. Asked whether limited nuclear weapons were also used by U.S. forces in Fallujah, Dr. ash-Shaykhli said; "What I saw during our research in Fallujah leads me to me believe everything that has been said about that battle.

"I absolutely do not exclude their use of nuclear and chemical substances, since all forms of nature were wiped out in that city. I can even say that we found dozens, if not hundreds, of stray dogs, cats, and birds that had perished as a result of those gasses." Dr. ash-Shaykhli promised to send the findings of the researches to responsible bodies inside Iraq and abroad.

Fallujah residents said napalm gas was used

During the U.S. offensive, Fallujah residents reported that they saw "melted" bodies in the city, which suggests that U.S. forces used napalm gas, a poisonous cocktail of polystyrene and jet fuel that makes the human body melt. In November, Labour MPs in the UK demanded Prime Minister Tony Blair to confront the Commons over the use of napalm gas in Fallujah.

Furious critics have also demanded that Blair threatens the U.S. to pullout British forces from Iraq unless the U.S. stops using the world's deadliest weapon. The United Nations banned the use of the napalm gas against civilians in 1980 after pictures of a naked wounded girl in Vietnam shocked the world. The United States, which didn't endorse the convention, is the only nation in the world still using the deadly weapon.

 

[militant atheist]

Friendly fire

BBC are reporting that US forces have shot and injured freed Italian hostage Giuliana Sgrena by firing on the convoy carrying her!

 

[jeff_leigh]

BBC are reporting that US forces have shot and injured freed Italian hostage Giuliana Sgrena by firing on the convoy carrying her!

she was wounded and the Italian intelligence officer who was bringing her to safety was shot dead as they approached an american checkpoint

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/685D3ACE-CBB7-4E7A-9FBF-84C49733CC50.htm

 

[someoneelse]

US abuse whistleblower sent for psychiatric test

US abuse whistleblower sent for psychiatric test

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200503/s1318789.htm

......Upon returning to his battalion's base at Balad, Iraq, he asked his company commander to investigate the abuses he witnessed.

He said instead, the company commander accused him of lying and threatened to have him examined by a psychiatrist if he did not withdraw the request in 30 seconds.

When he refused to withdraw the request, the company commander confiscated his weapon, withdrew his security clearance, placed him under 24 hour surveillance, and had him examined by the psychiatrist....

 

[Barking_Mad]

Video Shows U.S. Soldiers in 'Ramadi Madness' Abuse

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Army soldiers in Iraq filmed themselves kicking a gravely wounded prisoner in the face and making the arm of a corpse appear to wave, then titled the effort "Ramadi Madness" after the city where it was made. The video, made public on Monday, was shot by Florida National Guard soldiers. They edited and compiled it into a DVD in January 2004, with various sections bearing titles such as "Those Crafty Little Bastards" and "Another Day, Another Mission, Another Scumbag."

The soldiers' unit served in the restive Sunni Muslim city Ramadi, about 70 miles west of Baghdad, before returning home a year ago. The video's existence had been revealed in Army documents obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union under court order through the Freedom of Information Act. The Pentagon did not release the video, saying it believed it had been destroyed. But a Florida newspaper, The Palm Beach Post, obtained it and posted some of it on its Web site on Monday.

The ACLU has obtained thousands of pages of documents from the Pentagon and said they show an pattern of widespread abuses of detainees by military forces in Iraq. Digital pictures that were disclosed last year of U.S. soldiers abusing prisoners at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison drew international condemnation. Soldiers depicted in the new video would not face criminal charges, the Pentagon said.

One section of the video showed a bound and wounded prisoner sprawled on the ground, and showed his bullet entry and exit wounds. At one point, a U.S. soldier kicked the prisoner in the face. Army documents quoted a soldier at the scene as saying he "thought the dude eventually died. We weren't in any hurry to call the medics."

Videos here - http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/content/news/epaper/2005/03/06/m16a_videoscene_0305.html

 

[Barking_Mad]

Displaced Arabs from Kirkuk in need of supplies

DIWANIA, 7 March (IRIN) - Nearly 600 families camped in Diwania, 77 km south of the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, are living in poor conditions and in need of supplies, according to local aid agencies. The internally displaced people (IDPs) were living in the oil-rich city of Kirkuk and say they were forced out by returning Kurds. Iraqi Red Crescent Society (IRCS) officials told IRIN that the situation was critical and the government should take urgent action.

"They should open their eyes to those people, many Arabs are displaced in the south and they have the right to have at least a house to live in," Firdous al-Abadi, a spokeswoman for the IRCS, told IRIN in Baghdad. "They were forced out from Kirkuk but they don't have anywhere to go and no one to help," she added.

Arabs, who were brought to Kirkuk by Saddam under his Arabisation programme, which started in the 1970s, have been displaced for months. The Kurds were initially kicked out of the city when Saddam decided to place Arabs in wealthier areas as part of the programme.

The IRCS recently sent a convoy to the area, carrying blankets, tents, medical supplies and food items. But according to the organisation much more is required and homes should be provided urgently before the coming summer. Many other families are living in abandoned schools and government buildings in the area. The places can be seen surrounded by rubbish and to get potable water they have to walk nearly 2 km.

According to the IRCS, although they have no report on the medical situation, local doctors complain that in time diseases will spread due to the open living spaces and rubbish nearby. The IRCS is still using supplies sent by the French Embassy last month, which gave them 20,000 blankets and other items. But they say more is needed. Displaced families in the area say they are very worried about their future and claim that they haven't received any help from the Iraqi government.

"We are homeless and until now the government hasn't helped us. We went to Kirkuk forced by the Saddam regime and we shouldn't have to be punished for following a law, which if we did not follow we would be killed. We just want our rights as humans," Hassan Abdul, 42, and a father of five, camped in the area, told IRIN.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Five employees of U.S. company kidnapped in Iraq

Baghdad, March 8, SPA - Five employees of the U.S. construction company Bechtel were kidnapped Tuesday on the highway near Tuz, 230 kilometers north of Baghdad, police said. Police said gunmen intercepted a vehicle belonging to Bechtel and abducted all five occupants. The nationalities of the passengers were not immediately known.

Iraqi voters frustrated as parties wrangle

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Many Iraqis who defied suicide bombers to vote in landmark elections now say they regret risking their lives for politicians they say care more about winning top government posts than rescuing the country.

Five weeks after the national assembly polls, Iraqi parties are locked in wrangling over who will get what posts, leaving Iraqis frustrated as violence rages. As politicians from rival sects bicker, a suicide bomber killed 125 people in the town of Hilla last week in the deadliest single attack since Saddam Hussein was toppled in 2003.

"I considered elections as a big Iraqi wedding. I wore my best clothes, but now I feel betrayed," said a 40-year-old unemployed Iraqi who declined to give his name because of fear of attack by insurgents. I am angry and ask myself why did I vote? Why did I risk my life? Everyone seems busy trying to get posts and leave Iraqis to terrorists like the attack on Hilla," he said.

Iraqi government officials billed the elections as a big success after decades of oppression under Saddam's regime. The Islamist Shi'ite United Iraqi Alliance won by a slim majority, giving the sect power after years of Sunni domination under Saddam. Since then, politicians from different party lists have worked to divide up key posts including that of prime minister. But ordinary Iraqis say stability, promised by Iraqi officials as a fruit of democracy, is their number one concern ahead of the demands of rival sects or the question of who will get control of oil-rich cities.

"I feel frustrated and disappointed. It's nearly a month now and the lists couldn't form a government. We want to see the fruit of what we did," said Abdul Amir Najim, 40, an employee at a construction company. We went to elections because we want stability and security. But what we had instead is differences between the parties, withdrawal from alliances and terrorist attacks everywhere."

.....Some Iraqis said the protracted negotiations are a healthy part of democracy, as long as they deliver.

"They are trying to reach a consensus. It's for the benefit of Iraq," said Yihya Ibrahim, 45, a taxi driver. It's part of democracy and the political game. I have no concerns on them being late as long as they reach a result that serves Iraq."

 

[Barking_Mad]

National Guard beat Doctors for beds

The event of the week occurred last Wednesday and I was surprised it wasn’t covered by Western press. It’s not that big a deal, but it enraged people in Baghdad and it can also give a better picture of what has been going on with our *heroic* National Guard. There was an explosion on Wednesday in Baghdad and the wounded were all taken to Yarmuk Hospital, one of the larger hospitals in Baghdad. The number of wounded were around 30- most of them National Guard. In the hospital, it was chaos- patients wounded in this latest explosion, patients from other explosions and various patients from gunshot wounds, etc. The doctors were running around everywhere, trying to be in four different places at once.

Apparently, there weren’t enough beds. Many of the wounded were in the hallways and outside of the rooms. The stories vary. One doctor told me that some of the National Guard began screaming at the doctors, telling them to ignore the civilians and tend to the wounds of the Guard. A nurse said that the National Guard who weren’t wounded began pulling civilians out of the beds and replacing them with wounded National Guard. The gist of it is generally the same; the doctors refused the idea of not treating civilians and preferring the National Guard over them and suddenly a fight broke out. The doctors threatened a strike if the National Guard began pulling the civilians out of beds.

The National Guard decided the solution to the crisis would be the following- they’d gather up some of the doctors and nurses and beat them in front of the patients. So several doctors were rounded up and attacked by several National Guard (someone said there was liberal use of electric batons and the butts of some Klashnikovs).

The doctors decided to go on strike.

It’s difficult to consider National Guardsmen as heroes with the image of them beating doctors in white gowns in ones head. It’s difficult to see them as anything other than expendable Iraqis with their main mission being securing areas and cities for Americans.