War On You: Breaking Alternative News » Iraq

Afghan elite ‘plundered $900m’ from leading bank Published on 02-01-2011

WarOnYou — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 01:24:27 +0000

Afghan elite ‘plundered $900m’ from leading bank

Business is on brink of collapse after its funds were treated ‘like personal accounts’

By Julius Cavendish in Kabul

Tuesday, 1 February 2011

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Large Leak of Documents ‘Reveal Slow Death of Middle East Peace Process’

WarOnYou — Tue, 25 Jan 2011 23:29:58 +0000

I have no idea what to make of this. It’s massive and I haven’t looked and any of the documents yet. Here it is, but, as always, with a grain of salt… or CAST LEAD as the case may be.

Via: Guardian:

The biggest leak of confidential documents in the history of the Middle East conflict has revealed that Palestinian negotiators secretly agreed to accept Israel’s annexation of all but one of the settlements built illegally in occupied East Jerusalem. This unprecedented proposal was one of a string of concessions that will cause shockwaves among Palestinians and in the wider Arab world.

A cache of thousands of pages of confidential Palestinian records covering more than a decade of negotiations with Israel and the US has been obtained by al-Jazeera TV and shared exclusively with the Guardian. The papers provide an extraordinary and vivid insight into the disintegration of the 20-year peace process, which is now regarded as all but dead.

—

More: The Story Behind the Palestine Papers

The revelations from the heart of the Israel-Palestine peace process are the product of the biggest documentary leak in the history of the Middle East conflict, and the most comprehensive exposure of the inside story of a decade of failed negotiations.

The 1,600 confidential records of hundreds of meetings between Palestinian, Israeli and US leaders, as well as emails and secret proposals, were leaked to the Qatar-based satellite TV channel al-Jazeera and shared exclusively with the Guardian. They cover the period from the runup to the ill-fated Camp David negotiations under US president Bill Clinton in 2000, to private discussions last year involving senior officials and politicians in the Obama administration.

The earliest document in the cache is a memo from September 1999 about Palestinian negotiating strategy. It suggests heeding the advice of the Rolling Stones: “You can’t always get what you want, but if you try sometimes you might find you can get what you need.” The final one, from last September, is a Palestinian Authority (PA) message to the Egyptian government about access to the Gaza Strip.

The Palestine papers have emerged at a time when a whole era of Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, starting with the Madrid conference in 1991, appear to have run into the sand, opening up the prospect of a new phase of the conflict and potentially another war.

In particular, they cover the most recent negotiations, before and after George Bush’s Annapolis conference in late 2007 – when substantive offers were made by both sides until the process broke down over Israel’s refusal to freeze West Bank settlement activity.

The bulk of the documents are records, contemporaneous notes and sections of verbatim transcripts of meetings drawn up by officials of the Palestinian negotiation support unit (NSU), which has been the main technical and legal backup for the Palestinian side in the negotiations.

The unit has been heavily funded by the British government. Other documents originate from inside the PA’s extensive US- and British-sponsored security apparatus.

The Israelis, Americans and others kept their own records, which may differ in their accounts of the same meetings. But the Palestinian documents were made and held confidentially, rather than for overt or public use, and significantly reveal large gaps between the private and stated positions of Palestinian and, in fewer cases, Israeli leaders.

The documents – almost all of which are in English, which was the language used by both sides in negotiations – were leaked over a period of months from several sources to al-Jazeera. The bulk of them have been independently authenticated for the Guardian by former participants in the talks and by diplomatic and intelligence sources.

Posted in Dictatorship, Perception Management, War | Top Of Page

How the US let al-Qaida get its hands on an Iraqi weapons factory In an exclusive extract from his new book, A History of the World since 9/11, Dominic Streatfeild explains how despite expert warnings, the US let al-Qaida buy an arsenal of deadly weapons – then tried to cover it up

WarOnYou — Sat, 08 Jan 2011 00:13:03 +0000

How the US let al-Qaida get its hands on an Iraqi weapons factory

In an exclusive extract from his new book, A History of the World since 9/11, Dominic Streatfeild explains how despite expert warnings, the US let al-Qaida buy an arsenal of deadly weapons – then tried to cover it up

Comments (142)

Dominic Streatfeild
The Guardian, Friday 7 January 2011
Article history

Iraqi soldiers inspect weapons seized in Yusifiyah, 16 Nov 2008. Photograph: Khalid Mohammed/APHaki Mohammed and his brothers were shovelling manure on their farm in Yusifiyah in the spring of 2003 when the soldier arrived. Dishevelled and distressed, the man had run a great distance. “Please,” he entreated, “are you true Arabs?”

A History of the World Since 9/11
by Dominic Streatfeild
Buy it from the Guardian bookshop

The Iraqis, raised in a culture of obligatory hospitality towards needy strangers, immediately understood the subtext. The man needed help. Even had he not been a soldier (Haki thought he recognised the uniform of a Special Republican Guard), they were honour-bound to offer assistance. “Of course,” Haki assured the man. “What is it you need?”

The soldier held out his AK-47. “Take it.” He indicated the webbing around his waist, stuffed full of charged magazines. “Take them all. I don’t want them. But I need a dishdasha or a robe. Anything that isn’t a uniform.” Then the soldier started to undress.

The Mohammeds were indeed good Arabs. They fetched a dishdasha and the man slipped it on. Then, without warning, he flung the ammunition and the rifle down and ran off into the desert. Bemused, the Yusifiyans examined his belongings. He wasn’t a Republican Guard at all. His uniform, bereft of rank badges, was that of a rarer outfit: Manzaumat al-Amin, the Iraqi military’s security and protection agency.

A small, nondescript town of a few thousand souls 25km south-west of Baghdad, Yusifiyah is known for its rich soil, which enables the production of potatoes famous throughout Iraq for their size and flavour. The singer Farouk al-Khatib was born here. But that’s about it. For those uninterested in either potatoes or Iraqi popular music, there’s little of interest: farms criss-crossed by irrigation ditches, a great deal of sand, and not much else.

Yusifiyah‘s obscurity, however, together with its convenient location – less than 30 minutes’ drive from Baghdad airport – make it perfect for certain purposes: hiding things, for example. Things you’d rather no one ever knew about. Secret things.

Sure enough, 15km to the south lies a big, big secret. The secret dates back to 1977, when the then-president Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr ordered the construction of a vast munitions plant outside the town. Built by the Yugoslavs, the factory was originally to be named after Bakr himself, until Saddam Hussein seized power in 1979. In a fit of patriotic zeal, the fledgling dictator named it after the Iraqi general Qa’qaa ibn Umar, who in the seventh century inflicted a most glorious massacre on the Persian army in the second battle of Qasidiya: Al Qa’qaa.

Weapons inspectors who visited the facility were dumbstruck by the scale of the place. “Huge,” comments one senior figure familiar with the site. “The biggest chemical plant I’ve ever seen.” Covering an area of 36 square km, containing 1,100 buildings and employing more than 14,000 staff, the site was essentially a secret, self-sufficient city, 10 times the size of New York’s Central Park – in the middle of the desert. It even had its own power station.

Saddam was so pleased with the facility that, when the Iran–Iraq war broke out in 1980, he built a number of other weapons factories nearby. Soon, Nahir Yusifiyah, the sparsely populated crescent-shaped region surrounding the town, was teeming with facilities engaged in the manufacture of free-fall aircraft bombs, small arms, ammunition, scud-missiles, as well as nuclear centrifuge development and bio-warfare experiments: all huge, clandestine weapons sites with their own research staff and agendas.

An outside view of the Qa’Qaa complex. Photograph: Anmar Falih/APFrom the outside there was little to indicate what was going on in Qa’qaa. Surrounded by tall earthen walls, all that was visible was a series of chimney stacks producing huge plumes of acrid brown smoke. Employees in the facility were not allowed to speak about it; nobody else was allowed in. To Yusifiyans, however, it was obvious the plant made military equipment of some sort: repeated explosions emanated from within the walls when things went wrong, and from the facility’s test ranges when things went right.

At the heart of this big, big secret lay further secrets, some so huge they bordered on the preposterous. In the late 80s, the facility was involved in the construction of the largest rifle in the history of the world: a monstrous weapon with a 150m barrel and the ability to shoot a 600kg projectile into space. The Supergun required 10 tonnes of propellant for each shot – doubtless the reason why research was underway at Qa’qaa, where the explosive material was to be made.

Unfortunately, even this state-of-the-art facility was not up to the task. At the end of the decade, suppliers were sought for a pair of compounds that the facility was unable to synthesise purely: RDX (the basis for a number of explosives, including C4) and PETN (used in small-calibre ammunition and Semtex). The materials, ordered from eastern Europe via Chile, arrived in shipments of hundreds of tonnes.

Then the project stalled. In 1991, following the Iraqi rout in Kuwait, inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) gained access to Qa’qaa, where they found 145 tonnes of pure RDX and PETN. On a whim, one enterprising inspector asked technicians whether they had imported any other explosives of note. Qa’qaa staff exchanged glances and shuffled their feet, before leading him to a series of bunkers containing hundreds of drums of an off-white, crystalline powder. About as highly explosive as high explosive gets, High Melt Explosive (HMX) is used to detonate nuclear warheads. Qa’qaa had nearly 200 tonnes of it. The IAEA moved all the explosives to secure bunkers on the south-west corner of the facility, then closed the doors with tamper-proof seals. And there the 341 tonnes sat for more than a decade.

Of course, inhabitants of Yusifiyah and the surrounding towns had no idea about any of this. In Saddam’s time, there were many things one didn’t inquire about. But that was before the curious incident of the soldier, the rifle and the dishdasha.

Looting by the truckload

For Haki and his brothers, Operation Iraqi Freedom had started in the early hours of 3 April 2003, when they were woken by the sound of low-flying aircraft. Moments later, the first American artillery shells zipped overhead, eliminating with pinpoint accuracy the Republican Guard checkpoints and roadblocks around Yusifiyah, in effect neutralising all threat of resistance.

By sunrise, American tanks were trundling north up Highway 8 towards Baghdad Airport. Ali, one of Qa’qaa’s senior administrators, recalls the invasion well. “The Americans came in on the second or third of April,” he says. “There was no fighting. Most of the soldiers and officers just took off their uniforms and ran away.”

It took Haki Mohammed next to no time to deduce that the man who showed up on his doorstep had come from the secure compound at Qa’qaa, and an even shorter time to figure that, if the soldiers had left, the site was unguarded. For a quarter of a century, the facility had been off-limits. Here, finally, was an opportunity to find out what had been going on in there.

Haki’s neighbours had the same idea. “Lots of people went in,” he recalls. “They destroyed the fence and they went in that way . . . There was no army, no guards, nothing.” The period between the guards fleeing and the first Yusifiyans breaching the compound was remarkably short. “About an hour,” he says. By the afternoon of 3 April, the largest explosives plant in the Middle East was open to all-comers.

A week after the first Yusifiyans breached Qa’qaa’s perimeter fence, the US 101st Airborne Division pitched camp just outside the facility. There appears to have been no briefings about the site. The soldiers’ attention was elsewhere: the 101st was itching to get to Baghdad. As far as the troops were concerned, they were sitting on their behinds while higher-ups attempted to jump the queue, to manoeuvre their own divisions into the capital for a share of the glorious victory. They were missing the show.

And what a show it was. On 9 April, the day before the 101st arrived at Qa’qaa, US troops had taken the capital, symbolically pulling down the statue of Saddam Hussein in Firdos Square. The image, broadcast around the world, delighted the commander-in-chief back in Washington. “In the images of falling statues,” President Bush later announced, “we have witnessed the arrival of a new era.”

Unfortunately, by the time the 101st arrived in Baghdad on 11 April, the foundations of the new era were looking distinctly shaky. As the troops settled in to the capital, news began to break that the city was descending into an orgy of lawlessness and looting. Reporters told of mobs roaming the city, stealing everything that wasn’t nailed down.

Back in Yusifayah, Haki was unable to contain his curiosity any longer. Many of his neighbours had been into Qa’qaa and had returned with fantastic stories of all the useful bits and pieces lying about. He decided to take a look for himself. On 6 April Haki and his cousins and friends piled into a grey Kia minibus, hung a white flag from the window to placate passing American troops, and made their way to the main gate. Finding it open, they drove in to the compound.

Hundreds of Yusifiyans were roaming around inside. They were gutting the place. Some targets were easier than others. Trucks vanished fairly quickly. The first few were simply hotwired and driven away. When locals realised there was no rush, however, they became more brazen, using the stolen trucks to return and carry away further loot. The next day they came back for more. “Lathes, machine tools, electrical generators,” says Haki. “They were even taking the iron posts from the buildings.” Qa’qaa was assaulted from all sides. From the north-west came the Yusifiyans; from the north-east, the inhabitants of Mahmudiyah.

Some of Qa’qaa’s senior staff lived in an executive employees’ compound just west of the town. When the power went out after the Americans passed by, they returned to the complex to fetch an electrical generator. By the time they arrived, two days before the Saddam statue ceremony, Mahmudiyans were operating a market inside the walls, selling and bartering plundered goods. Ali, the site administrator, was flabbergasted at the scale of the operation. “It was astonishing, the way they managed to steal such big pieces of kit. Some of them were using cranes.” He shakes his head. “They even took the electrical cables. They dug them up from the ground and took them. The water pipes. Everything.”

As yet, however, the looters had not discovered Qa’qaa’s real treasure: the vast stockpiles of HMX, PETN and RDX. We know they had not discovered the explosives because of a somewhat fortuitous event. On 18 April, two weeks after the looting began, a pair of American journalists did.

Discovery of the high explosives

Over the course of the month that they had been embedded with the 101st Airborne, reporter Dean Staley and cameraman Joe Caffrey had seen more than their fair share of action. Now, however, they were stuck. At the end of the second week in April, the 101st had established their base a mile south-east of Qa’qaa, from which they serviced Black Hawk helicopters and ferried military bigwigs around. A week later, they were still there. With no obvious route to Baghdad, the journalists’ chances of an exclusive were growing slimmer by the minute. So when, on the morning of 18 April, a sergeant and a warrant officer offered them the opportunity to tag along on a trip outside the camp, they were all ears.

A US soldier inspects barrels of explosives, 2003. Photograph: AP”It was a sightsee,” recalls Caffrey. “Non-sanctioned. They basically decided on a whim, because they weren’t assigned to fly that day, to check out the base.”

Within a quarter of an hour, they started finding things. Paved roads. Watchtowers. Perimeter fences. And, within them, munitions of every possible shape and size. There were fat bombs, thin bombs, cartoon-style bombs with big fins and, lying in the hot morning sun, bombs that appeared to be leaking corrosive brown material. Some of them were as big as Volkswagens.

Outside one bunker, the soldiers and the journalists stopped. A length of thin steel wire snaked around the lock, the chain and the hinges of the door, secured by a copper disc the size of a coin.

Clearly, the wire wasn’t strong enough to keep anyone out. So what was it for? The soldiers wondered aloud whether it wasn’t so thin because it was meant not to be seen, that it was a booby trap. In the end, curiosity prevailed. One of them broke the disc apart and the wire fell away. Nothing happened. They walked in.

There were no warheads in this bunker. Only crates of what appeared to be chemicals. And some strange-looking drums. Cautiously, the soldiers opened one. Inside was a clear plastic bag containing coarse powder. Caffrey went in for a look. “It was very flour-like, yellow, bright yellow in colour.” Further bunkers also contained the yellow, flour-like substance. In fact, the more the journalists looked, the more they found. Many of the buildings appeared to be filled with it: in one corner there might be 30 crates or boxes, in the other, 60 or 70 barrels. The quantity was staggering. “What is this stuff?” one of the soldiers murmured.

For a moment the soldiers and the journalists had the same idea. Had they accidentally discovered Saddam’s WMDs? No one knew. But just in case, Caffrey filmed it all.

While Caffrey, Staley and the soldiers were exploring the bunkers outside Yusifiyah, officials at the IAEA headquarters in Vienna were becoming increasingly concerned. Prior to the invasion the agency had told the Americans of the dangers of allowing the security situation to collapse. Two weeks after the start of the war, Jacques Baute, the head of the Iraq nuclear inspection teams, visited the US mission to advise, again, that the weapons sites needed protection. He specifically mentioned Qa’qaa. Just days before the invasion, he told officials, inspectors had inventoried the facility’s HMX, RDX and PETN stores and ensured that the seals were still intact. This kind of materiel, the Frenchman suggested, should be kept out of the hands of looters. There was no reaction.

Privately, IAEA officials wondered whether the Americans really understood what they were doing. Qa’qaa had made the propellant for the Nasser 81 artillery rocket programme, itself at the heart of the administration’s case for war. On 3 May, an internal memo at the IAEA warned that, if Qa’qaa was not secured, the result could be “the greatest explosives bonanza in history”.

The arrival of al-Qaida

Initially, looters at Qa’qaa had targeted consumer goods such as fridges and air-conditioners. Although munitions had been taken, no one really knew what to do with them. It soon dawned, however, that they might be intrinsically valuable. Weaponry was rapidly emerging as a second currency.

“After the invasion, we started seeing these Arabs, these foreign fighters,” recalls Haki, “Palestinians, Egyptians, Libyans.” Most Yusifiyans were wary of these new arrivals, but a number of local tribes took them in: “Karagol, Jenabies, Rowissat . . .”

Yusuf, an emerging leader in the insurgency who belongs to one of these tribes, confirms the story. “We allowed the Arabs into our houses and our farms. We welcomed them properly. Some of them even married our daughters.” The fact they were Arab strangers was sufficient to ensure hospitality, but these foreigners had extra pull. They were fedayeen. They were al-Qaida.

They also informed the tribes that some of Qa’qaa’s contents were considerably more valuable than rocket launchers and pistols. It wasn’t long before Yusuf finally stumbled upon Qa’qaa’s real treasure. “We found something that we didn’t recognise. It was like a powder. It was stored in specific conditions, in special barrels.” Yusuf had no idea what it was, but he thought he might as well take some. Only later would he learn that it was pure, crystalline high explosive.

Following the rush to appropriate munitions, Yusifiyans had to figure out where to store their loot. Many hid it in their homes. This soon led to tragedy. Rival groups fired rocket-propelled grenades into each other’s houses, knowing they were full of explosives. Accidents also led to fatalities. One of Yusuf’s barns blew up.

After a few such incidents, the powder was decanted into flour sacks, then dispersed and loaded into subterranean potato stores. Portable air-conditioning units were installed to keep it cool. By 8 May 2003, when the Pentagon’s Exploratory Task Force arrived at Qa’qaa to search for WMDs, all of the PETN, RDX and HMX was gone.

Yusifiyah became a boomtown. Each potato sack of the explosive formula went for $300 (£194) to $500 (£325). “People from Yusifiyah had never seen a dollar bill. They certainly hadn’t seen a $100 bill,” says Haki. “But when [the Arabs] arrived, everyone was talking about tens of thousands of dollars. We started seeing people holding bundles of wads of dollars.”

In this seedy, lottery-win atmosphere, locals rushed to spend their hard currency, throwing lavish weddings, buying cars, trucks and houses. Some used their share of the cash to travel. The sensible ones didn’t return.

Meanwhile, bored with waiting for the Americans to establish security and tired of living without electricity, sewerage, clean water and other basic facilities, Iraqis turned in their droves to jihadist organisations, then attacked coalition troops. More violence meant less reconstruction, which led to more dissatisfaction, more anti-American sentiment and more violence. The insurgency became self-fuelling.

Throughout the summer of 2003, the insurgents’ bombing campaign increased. In November, with attacks on coalition forces running at more than 1,000 a month, a classified Defence Intelligence Agency report finally stated the obvious: the vast majority of munitions used in the attacks had been pilfered from weapons sites that coalition troops had failed to protect.

In September 2003, a month after the bombing of the UN building in Baghdad (an attack in which munitions from Qa’qaa appear to have been used), Ali, who had worked at Qa’qaa for 14 years, was invited to the Green Zone to confer with the US military. The meeting had been called to discuss how best to get Iraqi industries back on their feet. Ali had other plans.

After the conference, he pulled the senior US general to one side and explained that he had come from Qa’qaa and that it had been severely looted. He then handed the general a dossier containing his senior staff’s assessment of the damage. Such was the extent of the looting, the report stated, it had to be assumed that all explosive materiel inside the facility – not just the RDX, PETN and HMX – had gone. The total quantity was staggering.

“We told him that we had lost 40,000 tonnes,” Ali recalls. “The gunpowder, anything that burned energetically, could be used as an explosive, so you could consider that part of the missing explosives.” If the general was concerned, he concealed it well, especially when Ali informed him that among the looted munitions were 1,000 suicide-bomb belts manufactured at Saddam’s orders in February 2003. “There was no reaction. He took the records and didn’t say anything.”

Political bombshell

The Iraqi Islamic Army was one of the insurgent groups formed in the wake of the US invasion. Abu Shujaa, one of its founders, sits in an armchair and thinks for a moment. “One of the operations we did was the attack on the al-Amyria police station. This was in October 2003. We received information from our intelligence service that one of the high-profile military generals would be there. We decided to use a car bomb.”

Shujaa is a hard man to track down. After a month of negotiations in Baghdad, we found him through intermediaries, and intermediaries of intermediaries. Shortly after our interview, he fled Iraq for Syria.

“We used two cars: Nissan Patrol 4x4s that had previously belonged to the Iraqi Special Services. We used TNT and the explosives taken from the western bunkers of Qa’qaa. They had been removed and hidden in western Baghdad, near Abu Ghraib. In total, we used about 24kg, which we mixed with the formula [powder from Qa'qaa] to make the explosions more effective. The formula was available through the farmers to the west of al-Radhwania and al-Rashid area [Yusifiyah is in this area]. Most of the explosives had been taken and hidden in flour sacks near the railway tracks.”

Shujaa’s first car detonated outside the police station at 9.45am on 27 October 2003. Passerby Hamid Abbas was killed, along with his daughters Samar (25) and Doniya (16) and his one-year-old granddaughter. “The other car didn’t explode,” continues Shujaa. “The explosives were a bit moist. They had been stored in a place that was too humid. Although the amount that had been taken from Qa’qaa was very large, we were concerned that we would finish it all if we didn’t use it wisely. So after that we decided to mix a little more TNT with the formula, in case it was too humid.”

IAEA staff in Vienna were livid about the Americans’ failure to contain the explosives. Munitions sites in Iraq had been heavily looted, but the Americans would not allow the IAEA to visit them; it was reliant on secondhand news. When nothing was heard about Qa’qaa, inspectors chased up the interim government directly. What had happened to the sealed RDX, PETN and HMX? Was it safe?

A year later, on 10 October 2004, Jacques Baute, the agency finally received a one-page letter from the Iraqi Planning and Following-up Directorate: “The following materials, which have been included in Annex 3 (item 74) registered under IAEA custody, were lost after 9-4-2003, throughout the theft and looting of the governmental installations due to lack of security.” The letter contained a table detailing the “lost” materiel: 5.8 tonnes of PETN, 141.233 tonnes of RDX and 194.741 tonnes of HMX. At last, the truth: 341 tonnes of high explosive were missing.

The letter created consternation. What was the agency supposed to do with it? The American presidential election was three weeks away. If the IAEA went public with the news, it would look as if the agency – supposedly apolitical – was taking a swipe at the Bush administration. If, on the other hand, it sat on its hands, it would be open to charges of sabotaging the campaign of Bush’s opponent, John Kerry. Potentially, the letter was a political trap.

IAEA director Mohamed ElBaradei attempted a compromise, contacting the UN security council. The explosives were gone, he told them. There was every chance the news would leak. Perhaps, however, it was possible to keep a lid on it for a while, giving the coalition a chance to try to find some of them before the news broke.

The diplomatic approach came to nothing. On 14 October, the agency received a call from CBS’s 60 Minutes in New York. The programme had managed to obtain a copy of the letter. So had the New York Times. Realising the cat was out of the bag, the next day the IAEA officially informed the US-led Multinational Force (MNF) that the explosives were missing. News of the report made it almost immediately to Condoleezza Rice and the president. David Sanger of the Times hastily drafted an article, while travelling with the president on Air Force One in the last days of the election campaign. No date was set for its publication.

Then, suddenly, the story leaked. On Thursday 21 October – 13 days before the presidential election – Chris Nelson, the author of a respected Washington political online report, received an anonymous phone call. A huge quantity of high explosives had gone missing, he was told. They had been stolen. They were being used to attack US troops. Nelson did some checking, discovered the story stood up and posted it on the internet that weekend.

Sanger, still waiting for the editors of the Times to publish his exclusive, discovered that the story was leaking on Sunday. The article went out the next morning: “Huge Cache of Explosives Vanished from Site in Iraq.” Shortly after the newspaper hit the streets, Bush’s chief political strategist Karl Rove swept into the media area of Air Force One and started shouting at Sanger. “Rove came and screamed at me in front of all the other reporters,” he says. “Declared that this had been invented by the Kerry campaign.” Apparently, the report had hit a nerve.

It was at this point that the story of the looting of Qa’qaa got really dirty.

Bush administration cover-up

With the presidential election just eight days away, it now became crucial for the White House to neutralise the story. If voters suspected that American GIs were dead because of sheer official incompetence, they might be tempted to vote the wrong way. Evangelistic certainty and moral clarity were one thing; US soldiers dying needlessly in the sand in a faraway country was quite another. Had the explosives been stolen? Why had they not been protected? Had there not been enough troops?

The looting of Qa’qaa raised a whole swathe of issues that the Bush administration was not keen to address. Not this close to an election, anyway. Over the course of the next week, the White House deployed a number of tactics to make it go away. The first tactic was simply to assert the story was untrue. There were different angles of attack. One was that the explosives had not been there in the first place. Various figures were presented to show that the IAEA had got its sums wrong. In conjunction with this argument came a second, more formidable one: that the explosives had been there, but Saddam had moved them prior to the war.

The Pentagon brandished satellite photos of heavy trucks at Qa’qaa the day before the US invasion began. To bolster its case, the Pentagon wheeled out Colonel David Perkins, commander of the troops that took the area in April 2003. According to Perkins, it was “highly improbable” themateriel had been stolen after the invasion. “The enemy sneaks a convoy of 10-tonne trucks in,” Perkins asked rhetorically, “and loads them up in the dark of night and infiltrates them in your convoy and moves out? That’s kind of a stretch too far.”

Donald Rumsfeld agreed. “Picture all of the tractor trailers and forklifts and caterpillars it would take,” the secretary of defence told Voice of America. “We had total control of the air. We would have seen anything like that.”

Even if the explosives had been there at the time of the invasion, the administration argued, they had probably been destroyed by US troops. Another officer was wheeled out. Austin Pearson of the 24th Ordnance Company had visited the site on 13 April 2003 and removed 250 tonnes of ordnance, including TNT, detonator cord and white phosphorous rounds. The materiel had later been destroyed. There were photographs of the operation, Pentagon spokesman Larry di Rita told journalists, “which we may provide later”.

Finally, the administration added another point: even if the materiel had been at Qa’qaa, even if it had been looted, the loss wasn’t significant. Iraq had been awash with munitions at the end of the war. Some 402,000 tonnes of armaments had been destroyed. It was estimated that Iraq’s total holdings were in the region of 650,000 tonnes. Compared with this vast figure, 341 tonnes was a paltry 0.06%. The New York Times was making a mountain out of a molehill.

On this issue there was a double deception. Qa’qaa’s administrators had already informed the US, in writing, that the sum total of munitions looted from their facility was not 341 tonnes but 40,000. On this accounting, the missing explosives constituted more than 6% of all explosives in Iraq, a very great deal more than 0.06%, in fact.

Further statistical manipulation was afoot, too. While the missing materiel from Qa’qaa was pure high explosive, the 402,000 tonnes destroyed by US forces included some very heavy objects that contained no explosives at all. “[The Pentagon] was trying to compare the weight of the guns and stocks and metal and all of that stuff,” says a senior weapons-intelligence analyst. “They were counting tanks and guns and bazookas – metal – as opposed to the raw explosive that can be directly used . . . It’s an absolutely dishonest comparison.”

On Friday 29 October, Osama bin Laden succeeded where the White House’s spin doctors had failed. The first videotaped message from the al-Qaida leader for more than a year pushed the looted explosives story out of the public eye. Four days later, Bush won a second term in office.

Torture and murder

News of Bush’s glorious second victory left Yusifiyans cold. Haki and his neighbours had other concerns. Top of the list came the recently arrived Arab strangers. For al-Qaida, Yusifiyah was important not only because it was home to Iraq’s largest armaments facilities, but also because it was strategically extremely well positioned. Eventually, the mujahideen fighters settled in the area permanently. For the locals, the situation rapidly became intolerable. Instead of buying explosives, the Arabs simply took them, forcing potato farmers to store the materiel in their underground bunkers, then killing them later. “Those guys started ruling the whole area,” says Haki. “They weren’t guests any more.” In fear of his life, the farmer fled to Baghdad to become a security guard.

In 2004, al-Qaida established a camp inside the Qa’qaa complex itself. “We had a firing range, like a tunnel. It was used to shoot small-calibre bullets,” says Ali. “It became a training camp for terrorists.”

Anyone entering the facility without permission was killed. Al-Qaida spread horror stories about its activities, intimidating locals into collaborating. An execution room was set up with a makeshift gallows. Yusuf was part of the operation. “We used to kill people in terrible ways, torturing them to give al-Qaida more influence.” Mutilations, murders and decapitations were filmed and copies were distributed around Yusifiyah to discourage dissent.

The violence increased. Anyone suspected of attempting to join the Iraqi military or police was executed. Shias were executed. People with Shia names were executed. People who did anything regarded as Shia-like were executed. When Haki’s uncle was caught smoking a cigarette, al-Qaida broke all his fingers with a hammer. Then they killed him.

Soon even Yusuf recognised that things had gone awry. “We realised that al-Qaida hadn’t come to rescue us. They were killing all kinds of people, saying they were atheists and that they idolised statues,” he recalls.

When Haki returned from Baghdad in 2005, he found the main road into town littered with corpses, bound, tortured and shot. “We hadn’t seen anything like this before in our lives. It was like a horror film.”

By 2005, commentators were dubbing the Yusifiyah region the “Triangle of Death”: the most dangerous sector in all Iraq. Palm-tree plantations were rigged with explosives to bring down low-flying helicopters; soldiers were abducted, tortured and murdered. Bombs went off everywhere.

It was, of course, no coincidence that Nahir Yusifiyah was so favoured by insurgents. It was where all the weapons were.

Iraq to remove some checkpoints from Baghdad

WarOnYou — Tue, 28 Dec 2010 22:11:19 +0000

By The Associated Press
Tuesday, December 28th, 2010 — 2:21 pm

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Iraqi PM pushes to remove some of the hundreds of checkpoints across Baghdad

Iraq’s leaders are investigating the possibility of removing some of Baghdad’s hundreds of much hated checkpoints because of the improving security situation, said the city’s military spokesman Tuesday.

Maj. Gen. Qassim al-Moussawi said that Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has asked commanders to evaluate the security situation in Baghdad and decide which of the roughly 870 checkpoints that dot the city can be removed.

The checkpoints are manned by Iraqi soldiers and police and designed to catch insurgents, but they also slow down traffic in the already congested city.

As security has improved, the prime minister started last year to remove some of the concrete blast walls that snake their way across the city, dividing neighborhoods and protecting buildings. The blast walls and checkpoints give the city, slowly recovering from years of violence, the air of being under a military occupation.

The decision is fraught with risk. Last year the removal of some of the walls was followed by a series of deadly blasts targeting government institutions, killing hundreds of people and some of the concrete barriers went back up.

Baghdad residents generally abhor the checkpoints which can make life unbearable for people going to work or school. Each Baghdad resident has a story about being stuck at a checkpoint for an hour or more.

“Checkpoints are a useless measure because they just ask people ‘Are you carrying weapons?’ and they say no and they check the trunk and that’s all,” said 19-year-old taxi driver Lwaa Adnan, who carries students to Baghdad University every day.

When asked how many checkpoints he passes through on a daily basis, Adnan counted at least six he must negotiate to get from his neighborhood in northern Baghdad to the university in the southern part of the city.

Another driver described in frustration of how high-ranking government officials in their security convoys with lights flashing bypass the long line of vehicles at the checkpoints while regular citizens are forced to stew, sometimes for hours.

Even more frustrating, is that most Baghdadis don’t even consider the checkpoints to be remotely effective.

Security forces at the checkpoints use a wand-like, handheld mechanism made in the U.K. that is supposed to be able to detect explosives in passing vehicles but has been widely discredited. British authorities have banned its export to Iraq and Afghanistan after a report raised serious questions about it.

“This explosives detector just points if you have cleaning supplies or perfume in your car,” said Amnea Waleed, a 23-year-old college student.

Iraqi officials maintain the machines are useful, and say that checkpoints have their place in maintaining security.

The captain in charge of one checkpoint in the Karradah neighborhood said less than a week ago his men found a bomb attached to the undercarriage of a minibus and defused it.

But Capt. Odai Hamid Allah Ali said he understands drivers get frustrated at having to wait in line and that removing the concrete blast walls and checkpoints could help bring back some of Baghdad’s once fabled beauty.

Al-Moussawi said a committee tasked with evaluating the security situation would make a recommendation to al-Maliki in a week on whether some checkpoints can be removed and if so how many. The prime minister will make the final decision.

Associated Press writer Qassim Abdul-Zahra contributed to this report.

Source: AP News

Mochila insert follows…

Iraq to remove some checkpoints from Baghdad

Iraqi PM pushes to remove some of the hundreds of checkpoints across Baghdad

REBECCA SANTANA
AP News

Dec 28, 2010 12:08 EST

<br/>

The checkpoints are manned by Iraqi soldiers and police and designed to catch insurgents, but they also slow down traffic in the already congested city.

Even more frustrating, is that most Baghdadis don’t even consider the checkpoints to be remotely effective.

“This explosives detector just points if you have cleaning supplies or perfume in your car,” said Amnea Waleed, a 23-year-old college student.

Iraqi officials maintain the machines are useful, and say that checkpoints have their place in maintaining security.

The captain in charge of one checkpoint in the Karradah neighborhood said less than a week ago his men found a bomb attached to the undercarriage of a minibus and defused it.

Associated Press writer Qassim Abdul-Zahra contributed to this report.

Source: AP News

<br/>

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Iraq, Afghanistan among ‘most corrupt’ nations

WarOnYou — Wed, 27 Oct 2010 02:15:56 +0000

Iraq, Afghanistan among ‘most corrupt’ nations

AFP

October 26, 2010

BERLIN — Iraq and Afghanistan on Tuesday came near the top of a closely watched global list of countries perceived to be the most corrupt, despite efforts to stamp out graft in the war-torn nations.

Nearly three-quarters of the 178 countries in Transparency International’s annual survey scored on the sleazier end of the scale, which ranges from zero (perceived to be highly corrupt) to 10 (thought to have little corruption).

“The results indicate a serious corruption problem,” the Berlin-based non-governmental organisation said.

“Allowing corruption to continue is unacceptable; too many poor and vulnerable people continue to suffer its consequences around the world,” said TI’s president Huguette Labelle in a statement.

“There should be nowhere to hide for the corrupt or their money,” she added.

The head of the group’s German section, Edda Mueller, said the overall international situation was “very worrying”.

She added that percentage of countries below average was “a very bad signal for attempts to solve global problems.”

Iraq was fourth from top of the most corrupt ranking, Myanmar shared second place with Afghanistan and lawless Somalia was considered the world’s most corrupt country, with a score of 1.1.

“There are clear indications that the more unstable a country is, the higher the level of corruption,” Mueller told AFP.

She stressed the need for the international community to put credible governing structures in place in so-called “failed states.”

“That is at least as important as billions in development aid,” she said.

At the other end of the scale, Denmark, New Zealand and Singapore were seen as the nations least blighted by corruption, scoring 9.3 points.

They were followed by Finland, Sweden, Canada and the Netherlands.

Certain countries were singled out for an improvement in their fight against graft, notably Chile, Ecuador, Macedonia, Kuwait and Qatar.

Mueller said that the performance of these countries should serve as hope and inspiration for countries like Afghanistan and Iraq.

“There is still hope. We put in some countries that have improved their score precisely to show that there is the chance to improve and that it is possible.”

Criticised for going the other way, however, were the United States, the Czech Republic, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Madagascar and Niger.

The United States was 22nd on the list, while Greece and Italy came in at 78th and 67th respectively. China was level with Greece.

TI said corruption was hampering efforts to combat “the world’s most pressing problems” such as the financial crisis and climate change.

The watchdog also noted that of the 36 countries that have signed the OECD’s anti-bribery convention forbidding greasing the palms of foreign officials, “as many as 20 show little or no enforcement of the rules.”

This sends “the wrong signal about their commitment to curb corrupt practices,” TI said.

:: Article nr. 71188 sent on 27-oct-2010 01:09 ECT
www.uruknet.info?p=71188

The Power of Community

Elizabeth Young — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 20:36:32 +0000

By Katherine Smith

In September 2006, the world experienced a paradigm shift when a strong lobbying effort by grassroots organizations effectively derailed an initiative: A move that was tantamount to a declaration of war on Iran.

U.S.: Iran Resolution Shelved in Rare Defeat for Israel Lobby

In a significant and highly unusual defeat for the powerful American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) the Democratic leadership of the House of Representatives has decided to shelve a long-pending, albeit non-binding, resolution that called for President George W. Bush to launch what critics called a blockade against Iran.

But an unexpectedly strong lobbying effort by a number of grassroots Iranian-American, Jewish-American, peace, and church groups effectively derailed the initiative.

The decision by the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Rep. Howard Berman, to shelve HR 362 marked an unusual defeat for AIPAC, according to its critics who charged that the resolution was designed to lay the groundwork for the Bush administration or any successor administration to take military action against Iran.

A nuclear confrontation with Iran was avoided in 2006 because a small number of people with the power of community were enough to convince our Government not to take the world to the point of no return.

Our un-elected officials got the message, that the perils of a nuclear confrontation with Iran could mean the end of life for everyone here on earth. Congress refused to go along with the Bush Administration’s plans for military action against Iran.

Just two years later, the power of community stopped congress from attacking Iran.

Iran 2010

If you aren’t up to speed about the most dangerous move towards nuclear war the world has seen since the 1962 Cuba Missile Crisis, visit the critically acclaimed Global Research website founded by Michel Chossudovsky, Professor of Economics at the University of Ottawa and Director of the Centre for Research on Globalization.

Chossudovsky writes:

The US and its allies are preparing to launch a nuclear war directed against Iran with devastating consequences and this military adventure in the real sense of the word threatens the future of humanity.

The international community has endorsed nuclear war in the name of World Peace. “Making the World safer” is the justification for launching a military operation which could potentially result in a nuclear holocaust.

Iran, a country with a non-existent nuclear weapons capability and an air force that belongs in a museum, is not a threat to either nuclear power with a presence in the Middle East, the United States or Israel. [1]

The community of grassroots Iranian-American, Jewish-American, peace, and church groups have proven over and over, when we cooperate with each other we can make a difference.

The Powers That Be (TPTB) knew the day would come when the people would realize the power they have when they work together for their own survival.

Be it growing our own food in cooperation with our neighbors or lobbying the U.S. government with the truth about Iran, it only takes a small number of us to make a difference. [2]

Normally I don’t recommend those “take action” campaigns, the ones that tell us, “it’s not too late, click-here to importune our “elected” representatives with emails and faxes.” But in this case our emails and faxes attest to our power…of community. [3]

Start by contacting the Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton and demand she honor the commitment made by President Obama during the 2007 Democratic debate when he said that he would, “As president, be willing to meet without preconditions with Iran’s leaders, and that the notion of not talking to one’s foes was ridiculous.” [4]

E-mail President of the United States, (202) 456-1414 Phone, (202) 456-2461 Fax
E-mail The Secretary of State, (202) 647-6575 press 1 to leave a comment

“In nuclear war all men are cremated equal” Dexter Gordon

We can do this, we did it in 2006, 2008 and we can do it in 2010.

Katherine Smith, PhD mandrell2010@gmail.com

Footnotes:
[1] Israel has enough plutonium to make up to 200 nuclear weapons. Who’s Telling the Truth About Iran’s Nuclear Program? by Muhammad Sahimi

[2] [Excerpt From Grandmother Scores Huge Victory over Monsanto]

And the question that scares Monsanto to death:

Why don’t I and all of my neighbors just grow our own food…on one square foot of land?

The conversation at Starbucks is no longer about which stocks or houses are going up (or down) but which vegetables sprout the fastest and how many crops can one get in before winter. Now when someone mentions planting a bush permanently they are not talking about how to bury our last president but the best way to plant super bush beans in the spring.

Quit worrying about HR 875, going to jail or getting fined $1 million for growing your own food; that has to be disinformation.

Even if there were enough food police there aren’t enough judges and prosecutors to enforce such a ridiculous law.

What the Monsanto lobby is really afraid of is that one day we will wake up and realize if we work together as a community and cooperate with each other then they will have no power over us.

[3] Those “take action”- campaigns that appeal to our selfish and divisive nature don’t work. These are going around the internet:

Subject: Sign the letter to Google. Tell them to stop being evil and protect the free and open Internet.

Subject: Hi — this is Jason Rosenbaum, a new campaigner at the PCCC. I’ve got some urgent news. Can you sign our promise to oppose cuts in Social Security and then ask your representatives to sign on as well?

All they accomplish is to reinforce our feelings of helpless and isolation. They create negative energy, consider a typical rant:

“These people have been robbing us for years. I don’t for the life of me know why we keep sending the same people that keep doing the same things over and over again. We need to empty Washington! Send them home in wholesale fashion. Take the profit out, of public service and put the public service, back in!”

[4] Mr. Obama first made waves with his views on Iran policy in 2007, when he said during a Democratic debate that he would, as president, be willing to meet without preconditions with Iran’s leaders, and that the notion of not talking to one’s foes was “ridiculous.”

Since becoming president, Mr. Obama has pursued diplomacy, but his stance has become steadily more confrontational. Iran’s Nuclear Program, The New York Times

The Maxine Waters Investigation: What is Iran Doing in this Picture?

Elizabeth Young — Sat, 07 Aug 2010 20:55:47 +0000

By Katherine Smith

The timing of an investigation by the House Ethics Committee, which on August 2, 2010 formally brought a case against Congresswoman Maxine Waters, one of America’s most enduring liberal and fierce Anti War politicians, and the WikiLeaks of tens of thousands of Army documents related to the war in Afghanistan may be connected.

Speculation by bloggers, including John Young of Cryptome.com, and an expose at The Intel Hub that the WikiLeaks is part of a disinformation operation, and that the documents themselves could even be fake, should put every left leaning American on Yellow alert.

Fox News wasted no time exploiting the WikiLeaks documents to further vilify Iran, pointing out that the documents indicate the U.S. belief that Iran is arming the Taliban insurgency. This adds another layer to Fox’s steady stream of propaganda that has flowed over the years advocating for an attack on the country, and stands as a reason why some believe the leak was staged. WikiLeaks documents– disinformation or not– are being used for anti-Iran propaganda, OpEdNews

Google trends confirm the news coverage has shifted from the BP Gulf Oil Spill to a debate over the non-Arab sovereign country of Iran. [1]

An investigation marginalizing the most virulent anti war democrat in congress at a time when the U.S. is openly considering a raid on Iranian’s (non-existent) nuclear weapons program, could be the most dangerous move towards nuclear war the world has seen since the 1962 Cuba Missile crisis.

Congresswoman Waters responded immediately to the baseless charges, “The record will clearly show that in advocating on behalf of minority banks, neither my office nor I benefited in any way, engaged in improper action or influenced anyone.”

The committee, which apparently is dragging it’s feet on the investigation of the alleged impropriety that took place 18 months ago, recently announced it could not determine a date for the hearing.

August 4, 2010, Congresswoman Water’s office called on the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct to schedule an adjudicatory hearing and to release to the public all documents related to her.

“I feel strongly that further delay in the scheduling of the hearing violates the fundamental principles of due process, denies my constituents the opportunity to evaluate this case, and harms my ability to defend my integrity.

Therefore I am waiving my right to keep the Committee’s findings confidential so that the public to be fully informed about this matter and I am able to present my case, my constituents and all Americans will understand that I have not violated any House rules.”

The failure to release the allegations against Congresswoman Waters has resulted in a media circus of speculation based only on a report prepared by the controversial Office of Congressional Ethics.

You will recall Public opinion was deeply divided on Bush’s 1990 Gulf policy, and the decision to invade Iraq was made by the US Senate via a narrow five-vote margin.

An investigation of any kind (especially one that is over events that took place in 2008) of the most outspoken voice of reason in the U.S. House of Representatives on the issue of U.S. aggression in the Middle East should put all Americans on Red alert.

And if you want more proof of a concerted effort to paint Iran, a country with a non-existent nuclear weapons capability and an air force that belongs in museums read on. [2]

On August 3, 2010, the U.S. State Department rebuffed a call from Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for direct talks with President Barack Obama. In the same week of the anniversary of the unnecessary bombing of Nagasaki and Hiroshima, Hillary Clinton proposes the ultimate hypocrisy by suggesting that Tehran pay more attention to the international concerns over its nuclear program. [3]

Just two days later, the U.S. State Department released their latest report on terrorism and claims that Iran remained the, “most active” state sponsor of terrorism, and its support for terrorist and militant groups throughout the Middle East and Central Asia had a “direct impact” on international efforts for peace and stability.

This report on terrorism should be questioned because in 2001 the senior director for Middle East affairs in the National Security Council is quoted as saying:

“The State Department and NSC officials met secretly with Iranian diplomats in October, 2001 to discuss “how to effectively unseat the Taliban and once the Taliban was gone, how to stand up an Afghan government.” [4]

Normally I don’t recommend those “take action”- campaigns: the ones that tell us, it’s not too late, click-here to importune our “elected”- representatives with emails and faxes.

However, a confrontation with Iran is different.

A World War III would be terminal, and therefore it is imperative we make our voices heard.

Contact Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton and demand she honor the commitment made by President Obama during the 2007 Democratic debate when he said that he would:

“As president, be willing to meet without preconditions with Iran’s leaders, and that the notion of not talking to one’s foes was ridiculous.” [5]

What’s worse than turmoil in the Middle East asked a blogger, “A radioactive turmoil in the Middle East.

E-mail President of the United States
Call President Obama (202) 456-1414
Fax the White House (202) 456-2461

E-mail The Secretary of State
Call Hillary Rodham Clinton (202) 647-6575 press 1 to leave a comment

Albert Einstein understood the perils of nuclear war and the extinction of life on earth, which has already started with the radioactive contamination resulting from depleted uranium. “ I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.”

Katherine Smith, PhD mandrell2010@gmail.com

Footnotes:

[1] Recent developments have turned the Middle East into the center of international attention. Iran, as the Persian Gulf region’s only non-Arab nation, Israel, as the world’s sole Jewish state, and a host of fragile Arab countries, who are being immersed in the waves of the West’s economic turmoil, find their destiny intertwined, with each party trying to surmount the other. All this makes for an interesting, yet worrying, rivalry in the Middle East.

August 5, Google Alert – Nuclear
AP Exclusive: Iran defiant in nuclear documents
Nuclear powers remember Hiroshima, The Press Association
UK PM Makes Policy Slip, Says Iran Has Nuclear Weapon, Wall Street Journal
Senate Committee Delays Action on New START Treaty, Voice of America
Poll: Arab majority believes nuclear Iran helps Mideast, Jewish Telegraphic Agency

[2] Who’s Telling the Truth About Iran’s Nuclear Program? by Muhammad Sahimi
Since February 2003, Iran’s nuclear program has undergone what the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) itself admits to be the most intrusive inspection in its entire history. After thousands of hours of inspections by some of the most experienced IAEA experts, the Agency has verified time and again that (1) there is no evidence of a nuclear weapons program in Iran, and (2) all the declared nuclear materials have been accounted for; there has been no diversion of such materials to non-peaceful purposes. Iran has a clean bill of health, as far as its nuclear program is concerned.

July 7, 2008 04:24 AM H. Con. Res. 362 – through efforts, Iran seeks to establish regional hegemony, threatens longstanding friends of the United States in the Middle East, and endangers American national security interests.

Regional hegemony is not achieved with Iranian army that has been designed solely to defend Iran, and an air force that belongs in museums.

To summarize: it is clear that practically every paragraph in the Senate and House Resolutions have factual errors, lies, exaggerations, and half-truths. Iran can be criticized on many grounds, particularly in the area of respect for human rights. But, Iran is not a threat to the United States or to Israel. It is not anywhere close to having the capability for manufacturing nuclear weapons, even if it wanted to.

Therefore, the American public must recognize these Resolutions for what they really are: War Resolutions proposed and pushed by neoconservatives in both the Democrat and Republican parties, various pro-Israel lobbies, and their allies.

It is crucial that the American public act now, today, by calling their congressional representatives before these “declarations of war” against Iran are passed. If we do launch an unprovoked attack on Iran the results will most probably be horrific to all sides, if not to the entire world.

[3] U.S. dismisses Ahmadinejad’s call for direct talks with Obama

[4] President Ahmadinejad of Iran has denied the charges that his government supports Taliban insurgents.

Prior to Ahmadinejad’s coming to power, while the U.S. planned the invasion of Afghanistan, Iran helped organize the Northern Alliance against the Taliban. Though the U.S. has downplayed Iran’s role in the early days of the war, U.S.soldiers and officials have conceded that Iranian forces were present with the Afghan rebels in 2001. In his 2006 article, “How Neocons Sabotaged Iran’s Help on al-Qaeda” author Gareth Porter wrote:

“After the Sept. 11 attacks, U.S. officials responsible for preparing for war in Afghanistan needed Iran’s help to unseat the Taliban and establish a stable government in Kabul. Iran had organized resistance by the Northern Alliance and had provided arms and funding at a time when the United States had been unwilling to do so.”

The article quotes Flynt Leverett– senior director for Middle East affairs in the National Security Council at the time– who said that State Department and NSC officials met secretly with Iranian diplomats in October, 2001 to discuss “how to effectively unseat the Taliban and once the Taliban was gone, how to stand up an Afghan government.”

The State Department’s policy planning staff wrote a paper in November 2001 recommending that the U.S. pursue more formal cooperation with Iran in fighting al-Qaeda. Yet collaboration with Iran in Afghanistan would have involved equal sharing of information about al-Qaeda between the two countries, and since the Bush administration had already decided to include Iran on its “axis of evil” hit-list by then, the U.S. turned its back on the idea.

As Neocons use the WikiLeaks story of Iranian efforts to hamper the U.S. occupation of its neighbor in order to push their agenda, no doubt they will overlook the fact that in 2007 the CIA received presidential approval to mount a covert operation to destabilize Iran’s government. It’s even less likely that they’ll mention that Iran’s democratically elected government was overthrown by the CIA and replaced by the heavy-handed Shah– a U.S. puppet– when it wanted to nationalize its oil fields back in 1953.

Such facts aren’t convenient for a U.S. government trying to seize the moral high ground while biding its time for the right moment to launch another unprovoked attack on a sovereign nation. WikiLeaks documents– disinformation or not– are being used for anti-Iran propaganda, OpEdNews

[5] Mr. Obama first made waves with his views on Iran policy in 2007, when he said during a Democratic debate that he would, as president, be willing to meet without preconditions with Iran’s leaders, and that the notion of not talking to one’s foes was “ridiculous.”

Since becoming president, Mr. Obama has pursued diplomacy, but his stance has become steadily more confrontational. Iran’s Nuclear Program, The New York Times

Mossad Does Interrogations in Iraqi Jails: Human Rights Group

WarOnYou — Sun, 23 May 2010 07:12:44 +0000

Mossad Does Interrogations in Iraqi Jails: Human Rights Group

Xinhua

May 22, 2010

The Arab Organization for Human Rights (AOHR) said on Saturday that Israel’s intelligence agency Mossad is interrogating Arab prisoners in Iraqi jails.

“I received calls from Jordanian prisoners at Iraqi jails and they informed us that Mossad is interrogating them and other Arab prisoners in jails in Iraq,” Abdul Karim Shreideh, head of the prisoners and detention centers committee at AOHR, said in a press conference in the Jordanian capital of Amman Saturday.

“The prisoners said Mossad gives them the option to work with the agency as their agents and thus be able to leave the prisons or remain in jail,” Shreideh told reporters at the conference held to launch the AOHR’s annual report on situation of human rights in Jordan in 2009.

According to the organization, there are 33 Jordanians jailed in Iraq and thousands of Arab prisoners in Iraqi jails.

In the press conference, the AOHR President Hani Dahleh urged the Jordanian government to intensify steps to secure the release of Jordanians jailed abroad.

There are 250 Jordanians jailed in Syria, 41 in Saudi Arabia, 37 in Israel, seven in the United States, five in Iran and one in Kuwait.

The Jordanian government has repeatedly stressed that the issue of Jordanians jailed abroad tops its priorities and that it is exerting its utmost efforts to follow up on the issue.

Link: english.cri.cn/6966/2010/05/22/53s571455.htm

Ominous “Carl Vinson” Sign

Robert Singer — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 18:49:33 +0000

Recent Headlines:

Jan 12, 2010 – U.S.S. Carl Vinson Sets Off Towards San Diego
Jan 14, 2010 – The USS Carl Vinson is expected to arrive off the coast of Haiti today

Are not directly related to The Most Important Issue in the History of the Universe and

The 2001 Invasion of Iraq… That Was Called Off… When the Twin Towers Collapsed

Paul O’Neill’s revelations that the Bush administration planned to invade Iraq long before September 11, 2001 have been widely publicized. The decision to invade Afghanistan and Iraq was made in July 2001 and the plans were on Bush’s desk by Sept 9. [14]

During the 2008 Presidential election a comment about “John McCain’s Dirt on the Cross Lies” appeared on greenusa.blogspot:

“I served in the Navy as a Nuclear Plant Operator for over 14 years. I served onboard the USS Texas (CGN-39) in Operation Desert Storm. I served onboard the USS Arkansas (CGN-41) in support of Operation Desert Fox. I was a crewmember of the USS Carl Vinson (CVN-70) when airplanes struck the Twin Towers on 9/11, and our ship was the first ship that was flying attack missions into Afghanistan in support of Operation Enduring Freedom.” [15]

Some time later I read the following:

On September 10th the USS Carl Vinson (CVN-70) chopped (turned around) in the straits of Hormoz, went to Battle Condition II, and prepared to invade Iraq. The order to stand down came 5 hours after the 2nd tower collapsed. [16]

The USS Carl Vinson was in the Persian Gulf with orders to invade Iraq, logic would dictate the invasion would go forward when the buildings collapsed and not be called off.

Hence, if you want the answer to the Most Important Issue in the History of the Universe you better be reading and listening to someone telling you: :

Why the invasion was called off after the second tower collapsed and
What the dip of the Earth’s magnetic field at the precise moment of the alleged first plane “impact” has to do with “what really happened.”

Footnote:
[14] Going back all the way to the Bush administration’s build-up for invading Iraq, there has been much written and said about the reasons for the invasion. Now Paul O’Neill’s revelations that the Bush administration planned to invade Iraq long before September 11, 2001 have been widely publicized. Iraq Was Surviving the Sanctions, Why They Wouldn’t Wait By Tom Jackson

[15] August 20, 2008 John McCain’s Dirt on the Cross Lies, http://greenusa.blogspot.com/2008/08/john-mccains-dirt-on-cross-lies.html

[16] Note: Strategic information about the USS Carl Vinson (CVN-70) is classified by the U.S. Military. If the Carl Vinson wasn’t ordered to Battle Condition II, let someone from Naval Command come forward and dispute that:

Ship control stations were fully manned
All lookout stations were fully manned
All detection apparatus manned

Water-tight Integrity Watch posted

“Chopped” is a naval term used when a ship changes course. I can no longer find this post on the Web. Personal Web sites and blogs come and go, and it’s common knowledge that technology exists to scrub content off the web.
Posts, blogs and comments just don’t disappear. Posts, blogs and comments are scrubbed…from the Internet

Obama Foreign Policy Advisor Calls For US to Shoot Down Israeli Jets

WarOnYou — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 23:42:48 +0000

09-20-2009 • Gateway Pundit

Now Brzezinski, who advises Obama on foreign policy, is calling for the US to shoot down Israeli jets. Brzezinski is known to be anti-Israel.
The Weekly Standard Blog reported:

In a little noticed interview with the Daily Beast (presumably little noticed because serious people don’t read the Daily Beast), Zbigniew Brzezinski suggests that Barack Obama do more than just refuse to support an Israeli strike on Iran’s nuclear sites — the American president must give the order to shoot down Israeli aircraft as they cross Iraqi airspace:

DB: How aggressive can Obama be in insisting to the Israelis that a military strike might be in America’s worst interest?

Brzezinski: We are not exactly impotent little babies. They have to fly over our airspace in Iraq. Are we just going to sit there and watch?

DB: What if they fly over anyway?

Brzezinski: Well, we have to be serious about denying them that right. That means a denial where you aren’t just saying it. If they fly over, you go up and confront them. They have the choice of turning back or not. No one wishes for this but it could be a Liberty in reverse.

No wonder the Iranian regime is so impressed with Brzezinski.

Read Full Story

Undercounting deaths of US soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan

WarOnYou — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 21:59:36 +0000

Undercounting deaths of US soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan

Contractor deaths are rarely reported

by Bernd Debusmann Reuters – 2009-09-10

WASHINGTON, Sept 10 (Reuters) – By most counts, the death toll of U.S. soldiers in America’s wars in Iraq and Afghanistan stood at 5,157 in the second week of September. Add at least 1,360 private contractors working for the U.S. and the number tops 6,500.

Contractor deaths and injuries (around 30,000 so far) are rarely reported but they highlight the United States’ steadily growing dependence on private enterprise.

It’s a dependence some say has slid into incurable addiction. Contractor ranks in Iraq and Afghanistan have swollen to just under a quarter million. They outnumber U.S. troops in Afghanistan and they almost match uniformed soldiers in Iraq.

The present ratio of about one contractor for every uniformed member of the U.S. armed forces is more than double that of every other major conflict in American history, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

That means the world’s only superpower cannot fight its war nor protect its civilian officials, diplomats and embassies without support from contractors.

“As the military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan have progressed, the military services, defense agencies and other stakeholder agencies…continue to increase their reliance on contractors. Contractors are now literally in the center of the battlefield in unprecedented numbers,” according to a report to Congress by the bipartisan Commission on Wartime Contracting in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“In previous wars, the military police protected bases and the battle space as other military service members engaged and pursued the enemy,” said the report.

In listing the 1,360-plus contractor casualties, it said that criticism of the present system and suggestions for reforming it “in no way diminish their sacrifices.”

So why are they not routinely added to military casualty counts? And why should they? A full accounting for total casualties is important because both Congress and the public tend to gauge a war’s success or failure by the size of the force deployed and the number of killed and wounded, according to George Washington university scholar Steven Schooner.

In other words: the higher the casualty number, the more difficult it is for political and military leaders to convince a sceptical public that a war is worth fighting, particularly a war that promises to be long, such as the conflict in Afghanistan. Polls show that a majority of Americans already think the Afghan war is not worth fighting.

Figures on deaths and injuries among the vast ranks of civilians in war zones are tracked by the U.S. Department of Labor on the basis of claims under an insurance policy, the Defense Base Act, which all U.S. contracting companies and subcontractors must take out for the civilians they employ outside the United States.

EXPENDABLE PROFITEERS, ROGUES?

The Labor Department compiles the statistics on a quarterly basis but only releases them in response to requests under the Freedom of Information Act. This can take weeks. The Department gives no details of the nationalities of the contractors, saying that doing so would “constitute an unwarranted invasion of personal privacy” under the U.S. Privacy Act.

Writing in last autumn’s Parameters, the quarterly journal of the U.S. Army War College, Schooner said that an accurate tally was critical to any discussion of the costs and benefits of the military’s efforts in the wars. What’s more, the American public needs to know that their government is delegating to the private sector “the responsibility to stand in harm’s way and, if required, die for America.”

Schooner wrote it was troubling that few Americans considered the deaths of contractors relevant or significant even though many of them performed roles carried out by uniformed military only a generation ago. “Many…concede that they perceive contractor personnel as expendable profiteers, adventure seekers, cowboys, or rogue elements not entitled to the same respect or value due to the military.”

That’s not surprising after a series of ugly incidents involving armed security contractors. They make up for a small proportion of the total (about 8 percent) but account for almost all the headlines that have deepened negative perceptions and prompted labels from mercenary and merchant of death to “the coalition of the billing.”

In the most notorious incident, two years ago, employees of the company then known as Blackwater opened fire in a crowded Baghdad square, killing 17 Iraqis. Five of the Blackwater shooters, who were working for the Department of State, have been indicted on manslaughter and weapons charges.

The Pentagon describes private contractors as a “force multiplier” because they let soldiers concentrate on military missions. Some of the actions of private security contractors could be termed a “perception multiplier.” Such as the after-hours antics of contractors from the company ArmorGroup North America guarding the U.S. embassy in Kabul.

Shaking off the image of rogues became even more difficult for private security contractors after a Washington-based watchdog group, the Project on Government Oversight, accompanied a detailed report on misconduct and morale problems among the guard force with photographs showing nearly nude, drunken employees in a variety of obscene poses and fondling each other.

Whether contractors, even rogue elements and cowboys, should not be counted in the toll of American wars is another matter. Doing so would be part of the transparency Barack Obama promised when he ran for president.

You can contact the author at Debusmann@Reuters.com

Archbishop Tutu: “Arabs paying the price of Germany’s crimes”

WarOnYou — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 08:01:47 +0000

Archbishop Tutu: “Arabs paying the price of Germany’s crimes”

Saed Bannoura – IMEMC

August 28, 2009

In an Interview with Haaretz newspaper, Archbishop Desmond Tutu stated that Israel must learn from the Holocaust that it cannot gain security thought fences, walls and guns.

Archbishop Tutu was commenting of statement made by Israel’s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, in Germany, in which he said that “Israel should always defend itself”. Tutu said that “the regime in South Africa never managed to get security from the barrel of the gun, but got security after recognizing and respecting every person”.

The Nobel Prize laureate made his statement to Haaretz in Jerusalem and “The Elders” concluded their tour in Israel and Palestine, except the Gaza Strip. The Elders are hoping to be able to visit Gaza in the future.

Archbishop Tutu added that the west was consumed with the guilt for what happened to the Jews during the Holocaust, “and they should be, but the people who are paying the price for that are that Palestinians”.

He also referred to a meeting he had in the past with a German ambassador who told him that Germany is guilty for two wrongs; what it did to the Jews, and the current suffering of the Palestinians.

Archbishop Tutu criticized some Jewish groups in the United States who intimidate any person who criticizes the Israeli occupation of Palestine, and accused them of being anti-Semite.

He said that such groups pressured many universities in the United States into cancelling his appearance on their campuses.

Tutu added that this is a very unfortunate issue, and that his opinions are derived from the Torah.

“God created us on his own image”, he said, “God is always in favor of the oppressed”.

Commenting on the a statement made by Professor Neve Gordon, of the Ben-Gurion University, in which he said that selective sanctions should be imposed on Israel, archbishop Tutu stated that sanctions played an important role in fighting apartheid in South Africa.

He added that sanctions are one of the most “psychologically powerful instruments”, and that sanctions “hit the pocket of the government in South Africa, when we had the arms, the embargo, and the economic boycott”.

The Elders visited the West Bank village of Bil’in, near Ramallah, as dozens of Palestinian, Israeli and international peace activists were holding their weekly nonviolent protest against the Annexation.

Archbishop Tutu said that the peace activists in Bil’in remind him of Ghandi, as he managed to overthrow the British rule in India by nonviolent means.

Commenting on some Israeli schools refusing to receive Ethiopian Jews in their schools, Tutu stated that he hopes the Israeli society would evolve.

During the live webcast on the Elders Website, Archbishop Tutu said that he hopes to see a free Palestine and a secure Israel and added that peace is possible.

“We are with yes, and yes, don’t’ give up, don’t give up, peace is possible, and we will be coming to celebrate with you when Palestine is free, and when Israel is free and secure”

Link: www.imemc.org/article/61523

Babylon’s Ancient Wonder, Lying in Ruins

WarOnYou — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 05:20:26 +0000

Babylon’s Ancient Wonder, Lying in Ruins
History Not Served By U.S. Presence

By Nada Bakri
Washington Post Foreign Service
Wednesday, July 29, 2009

HILLA, Iraq — Maytham Hamzah cast his eyes toward the remains of King Nebuchadnezzar‘s guest palace in Babylon, one of the world’s first great cities. He smiled, bitterly.

“They destroyed the whole country,” Hamzah, the head of the Babylon museum, said of U.S. forces in Iraq. “So what are a few old bricks and mud walls in comparison?”

U.S. forces did not exactly destroy the 4,000-year-old city, home of one of the world’s original seven wonders, the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. Even before the troops arrived, there was not much left: a mound of broken mud-brick buildings and archaeological fragments in a fertile plain between the Tigris and the Euphrates rivers.

But they did turn it into Camp Alpha, a military base, shortly after the U.S.-led invasion in 2003. Their 18-month stay there caused “major damage” and represented a “grave encroachment on this internationally known archeological site,” a report released this month in Paris by the United Nations’ cultural agency, UNESCO, says.

The ruins stretch over a rectangular area measuring 2,100 acres along the western banks of the Euphrates. The site consists of Nebuchadnezzar’s palace, which then-President Saddam Hussein rebuilt in the 1980s; the remains of the Temple of Ninmakh; and a palace for royal guests. In addition, there is the Lion of Babylon, a 2,600-year-old sculpture, and the remains of the Ishtar Gate, the most beautiful of the eight gates that once ringed the perimeter of the town. It still bears the symbols of Babylonian gods.

According to the report, which comes after five years of investigation by a team of Iraqi and international experts, foreign troops and contractors bulldozed hilltops and then covered them with gravel to serve as parking lots for military vehicles and trailers. They drove heavy vehicles over the fragile paving of once-sacred pathways.

The report also says that forces built barriers and embankments to protect the base, pulverizing ancient pottery and bricks that were engraved with cuneiform characters. They dug trenches where they stored fuel tanks for their helicopters, which landed near an ancient theater. Among the structures that suffered the most damage, according to the report, were the Ishtar Gate and a processional thoroughfare. Experts also say troops filled their sandbags with soil from a site that was littered with archaeological fragments.

Bricks were looted as well — both those of Babylonian vintage and newer ones that Hussein used to rebuild parts of the ruins. The latter variety was emblazoned with an ode to himself.

“The damage was so great,” said Maryam Mussa, an official from the Iraqi state board of heritage and antiquities, which is in charge of the site. “It would be so difficult to repair it, and nothing can make up for it.”

Spokesmen for the U.S. military in Iraq did not respond to requests for comment. But the military has previously said that looting would have been far worse had it not been for the presence of its troops. The military also said in 2005 that it had discussed setting up the base with Iraqi archaeologists in charge of the site.

The site has been closed to the public since 2003. Facing mounting criticism from archaeologists in Iraq and around the world, troops vacated it in summer 2004. It was reopened this June, despite warnings from experts that the ruins might suffer further damage unless they were first restored and given proper protection.

Many residents of Hilla, a town 60 miles south of Baghdad that sits near the ruins, said they have not been to the site because they can’t bear to see the damage.

“What ruins are you talking about?” said Jawad Kathem, a 55-year-old owner of a small grocery store in the village of Jumjumah, a few miles away. “There is nothing left of it. It was all destroyed and looted.”

“They are occupying forces,” said Sabah Hassan, a 41-year-old resident of Hilla who owns a cafe near the ruins. “Nobody can tell them what to do.”

On a recent day, wind swept across the deserted ruin as Hamzah, the museum’s head, gave a tour to visitors. He recited the history of ancient Babylon with the enthusiasm of someone who had been waiting for years to share his knowledge. The gates of the museum were locked.

“From this room, King Nebuchadnezzar ruled his kingdom,” he said as he waved his hand across a spacious room where Nebuchadnezzar II is believed to have sat. The king turned Babylon into one of the wonders of the ancient world. Historians say he was prouder of his construction projects than he was of his many military victories.

Several efforts to restore Babylon have been announced in the past six years, but none has made progress. Now, with security in Iraq improving, officials hope to start work on a $700,000, two-year project funded by the U.S. State Department to restore the site. The United Nations is also trying to name the place a World Heritage site, a designation that would provide support and protection.

“Of course this is not enough, but it is better than nothing,” lamented Mussa, the site director. “We had hoped that work would start this year.”

On her desk were papers detailing the damage, gathering dust.

Who Will Control Iraq’s Oil?

WarOnYou — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 20:19:41 +0000

Patrick Cockburn
Counterpunch
Friday, June 19, 2009

Furious protests are threatening to undermine the Iraqi government’s plan to give international oil companies a stake in its giant oilfields in a desperate effort to increase its declining oil production and oil revenues.

In less than two weeks time, on June 29 and 30, the Iraqi Oil minister Hussain Shahristani will award service contracts to the world’s largest oil companies to develop six of Iraq’s largest oil producing fields over 20-25 years.

Senior figures within the Iraqi oil industry have denounced the deal. Fayad al-Nema, the director of the South Oil Company, which comes under the Oil Ministry and produces most of Iraq’s crude, said last weekend: “The service contracts will put the Iraqi economy in chains and shackle its independence for the next 20 years. They squander Iraq’s revenues.” Mr Nema is reported to have since been fired because of his opposition to the contracts, which he says is shared by many other officials in Iraq’s state-owned oil industry.

The government maintains that it is not compromising the ownership of Iraq’s huge oil reserves – the third in the world at 115 billion barrels – on which the country is wholly dependent to fund its recovery from 30 years of war, sanctions and occupation. But the fall in the price of oil over the last year has left the government facing a devastating financial crisis in which 80 per cent of its revenues goes to pay for salaries, food rations and recurrent costs. Almost nothing is left for reconstruction and it is finding it hard to pay even for vitally-needed items such as electrical plant from GE and Siemens.

The development of Iraq’s oil reserves is of great importance to the world’s energy supply in the 21st century. They may be even larger than Saudi Arabia’s, as there was little exploration while Iraq was ruled by Saddam Hussein. International oil companies are desperate to get their foot in the door. “Everyone wants to be in Iraq,” says Ruba Husari, an expert on Iraqi oil. “Togethor with Iran this is the only oil province in the world that has great potential. It is a great opportunity for oil companies because nobody knows the size of Iraq’s reserves. Iraq itself needs to know what is under its soil.”

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Iraq’s refugees; the region’s largest displacement crisis goes on

WarOnYou — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 20:18:26 +0000

Iraq�s refugees; the region�s largest displacement crisis goes on

World Vision Middle East/Eastern Europe/ Central Asia office

June 20, 2009

Some 2 million Iraqi refugees across the Middle East will spend a fifth World Refugee Day far from home and even further from any prospect of return or a better life as their needs and rights continue to go largely unaddressed.

‘Exposure to violence, instability and disrupted education characterise the childhoods of many of Iraq’s refugee children � some of whom can no longer call Iraq home because of what they experienced there’, says Siobhan Kimmerle, Programme Director for World Vision in Jordan. ‘We must not turn our backs to their needs, which require long term interventions’, she added.

Lack of prospects for Iraqi refugees to return because of instability, or to integrate into host communities, coupled with the effects of the global economic crisis, including rising food and commodity prices, are exacerbating their sense of vulnerability and displacement in countries like Jordan, which still hosts some 500,000 Iraqi refugees or 8% of its population, according to the UNHCR Global Report 2008.

Jordan’s hospitality and generosity towards refugees has been significant, but so too has the strain on resources such as water, which is already lacking for its own population, as well as its already under-resourced health and education systems. Both the governments of Jordan and Syria claim that hosting Iraqi refugees has cost them up US$1 billion per year, according to the report ‘Realizing protection space for Iraqi refugees: UNHCR in Syria, Jordan and Lebanon, January 2009′.

Despite hosting most of Iraq’s refugees, neither Jordan nor Syria are signatories to the refugee convention. Iraqi refugees are therefore ‘subject to the restrictive legislation applicable to foreigners, diminishing the likelihood that their basic rights are upheld’, claims the same report.

Without access to a residence permit, refugees in Jordan can’t work and their savings are quickly depleted. Many Iraqi refugee families in Jordan’s second city of Zarqa, rely on supplementary food aid because their usual breadwinners can’t find work or wages from the illegal casual work they resort to are low and irregular.

‘Even with the food aid we do not have enough. I have a big family,’ said Um Raed. ‘It’s not adequate, but it helps’, added the mother of six. Her family was one of 1,250 families in Zarqa that received a monthly supplementary food ration from World Vision, funded by the Government of Germany.

‘In our work with refugees around the world, World Vision prioritises the needs of the most vulnerable, especially children,’ said Jeff Hall, Deputy Advocacy Director for World Vision’s Middle East and Eastern Europe Region. ‘We also take special steps to help the displaced live with dignity despite their rather precarious situation.’

Education for Iraqi refugee children in Jordan is also a significant need and key concern for World Vision, which is providing opportunities for informal learning, recreation and psychosocial support to children in the capital Amman, and the cities of Zarqa and Irbid.

“Iraqi children in Jordan are now permitted to attend any school but they are still competing for precious space in overcrowded classrooms, which impacts upon the quality of education children in Jordan receive. Students have also missed a lot of their schooling and need to catch up and then there are some families that can’t afford the transport and school supplies or need their children to work to support the family’, said Siobhan Kimmerle.

‘World Vision is offering an education and recreation programme for 225 children in Zarqa, for example, because without extra tuition in Arabic, English and Maths, these refugee children would really struggle in school’, she added.

According to a February 2008 study by the International Organisation for Migration, there is a growing need for psychosocial and psychological support for the refugee population in Jordan � a need that World Vision is trying to meet through recreation centres and Child Friendly Spaces that give children a safe and structured place to express themselves and experience a fuller childhood.

‘Children need a place where they belong � for Iraqi refugee children in Jordan, home is a foreign concept � so these spaces and the opportunity to interact with other children are very important to their sense of wellbeing and development’, explained Kimmerle.

World Vision’s programmes are currently supporting some 4,000 Iraqi refugees in Jordan, half of whom are children. The organisation plans to provide assistance to around 15,000 refugees and impoverished Jordanians, but requires adequate funding to implement the activities focusing on food aid, education, psychosocial support and vocational training. World Vision’s approach is designed to not only benefit the Iraqi refugees, but also the communities that are hosting them.

Relief and development projects across the Middle East, Central Asia, Balkans and Caucasus are also assisting thousands of refugees and displaced persons with a special focus on children.

Additional information

‘At the end of August 2008 more than 300,000 people were registered with UNHCR in the countries surrounding Iraq. However, it is believed that a total of some one to two million Iraqis are living in these countries, mainly in Jordan and Syria. UNHCR is also involved with an estimated 2.8 million internally displaced persons (IDPs) and some 42,000 refugees, including Palestinians, in Iraq. (UNHCR Iraq Situation Update August 2008)

‘The largest displacement crisis in the Middle East since 1948, of approximately two million Iraqi refugees in the region, the UNHCR estimates that at present Syria hosts 1.2 to 1.4 million Iraqis, Jordan 500,000 to 600,000 and Lebanon 20,000 to 30,000.2 These countries have no specific legislation concerning refugees. (‘Realizing protection space for Iraqi refugees: UNHCR in Syria, Jordan and Lebanon January 2009).

:: Article nr. 55328 sent on 20-jun-2009 17:52 ECT
www.uruknet.info?p=55328

War On You: Breaking Alternative News » Iraq

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