U.S. Briefing on Iran Discredits the Official Line
14 Feb 2007
The first major effort by the Bush administration to substantiate its case that the Iranian government has been providing weapons to Iraqi Shiites who oppose the occupation undermines the administration’s political line by showing that it has been unable to find any real evidence of an Iranian government role. Contradicting recent claims by both Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Secretary of defense Robert Gates that U.S. intelligence had proof of Iranian government responsibility for the supply of such weapons, the unnamed officials who briefed the media Sunday admitted that the claim is merely “an inference” rather than based on a trail of evidence. Although it was clearly not the intention, moreover, the briefing revealed for the first time that the Iranians and Iraqis detained by U.S. forces in recent months did not provide any evidence implicating either the Iranian government or the Islamic Revolutionary Guards in the acquisition of armor-piercing explosive devices and other weapons by Iraqi Shiite groups.

National Security Experts Grim on Terror War
14 Feb 2007
A new survey of more than 100 U.S. foreign policy experts—both Republicans and Democrats, as well as retired military and intelligence professionals—has found deep pessimism over the “global war on terror” and even deeper pessimism over the war in Iraq. According to the survey, the second in the last six months carried out by Foreign Policy magazine and the Center for American Progress, two out of three foreign policy experts oppose President George W. Bush’s plans to increase troop levels in Iraq, while nearly nine out of 10 say the war there is undermining U.S. national security.

Fighters fill humanitarian vacuum
13 Feb 2007
Militia fighters and insurgents responsible for much of the internecine violence in Iraq are also offering humanitarian assistance to their own communities to fill a vacuum left by the government and aid agencies. “It is the minimum that we can do as the Iraqi government is weak. Some people need medical assistance, others food and since they are our followers, we have to support them,” said Ali Jalil, a spokesman for the Mahdi Army, commanded by religious leader Muqtadar al-Sadr and the most powerful Shia Muslim militia in the country. Because of the high levels of insecurity in Iraq, most international aid agencies have left the country – the United Nations moved its agencies to Jordan in August 2003 following two deadly attacks on its Baghdad compound. Now, the Iraqi Red Crescent is the only aid agency working throughout the country, and even they have had their operations hampered by violence and it is becoming increasingly difficult for aid workers to gain access to the needy.

Armed groups occupying hospitals and kidnapping doctors
12 Feb 2007
Iraqi troops, US-led coalition forces and insurgents are all guilty of breaking Geneva conventions that govern the neutrality of hospitals, say health specialists. The increasing risk of being shot or arrested in a hospital in Iraq is preventing ordinary citizens from seeking medical attention. “The Geneva convention states that a hospital is and should remain neutral and accessible to everybody, particularly civilians. Yet, when it’s occupied by armed groups or official forces, people would not have this free and humanitarian access,” said Cedric Turlan, information officer for the NGO Coordinating Committee in Iraq. Turlan said that hospitals are getting caught in the midst of violent clashes between insurgents and US or Iraqi troops, and between Sunni and Shia militias.

More Troops, And More Violence
12 Feb 2007
U.S. troops presence has averaged 142,000 soldiers a month since the occupation began nearly four years ago. Through this period, violence has increased against both them and the Iraqi civilian population. Despite promises of freedom, democracy and liberation, Iraqis have suffered severe deterioration in security, services, infrastructure and social unity since the U.S.-led occupation began. Many Iraqis believe that an increased number of troops will actually make the situation worse.

US, UK and other states must protect Iraqi refugees
11 Feb 2007
Amnesty International today called on the international community to provide effective protection and assistance to nearly two million people fleeing Iraq, in what the UN’s top refugee official Antonio Guterres recently called a “humanitarian disaster.”

Children lured into drugs and prostitution
11 Feb 2007
Violence in Iraq is tearing families apart and destroying the country’s economy, two major factors giving rise to a mass of marginalized street children, child specialists say. Once on the streets, children can easily fall prey to gangs involved in drugs, violence and prostitution. “Children are the first victims of violence and they are particularly vulnerable psychologically speaking. So it’s easy for an adult who would like to do so to manipulate and use children. There was already the case of a child who was used as a suicide bomber in late 2005, for example,” said Cedric Turlan, information officer for the NGO Coordination Committee in Iraq.

Iran ‘Fooling’ U.S. Military
11 Feb 2007
New evidence is emerging on the ground of an Iranian hand in growing violence within Iraq. As the United States heads for a confrontation with Iran over allegations of Iranian involvement in bombings, the massacre in Najaf last month indicates that Iran could be working also through the Iraqi government, local leaders in Najaf say. The slaughter of 263 people in Najaf by Iraqi and U.S. forces Jan. 29 provoked outrage and vows of revenge among residents in and around the sacred Shia city in the south. The killings have deepened a split among Shias. Iran is predominantly Shia, one of the two main groupings within Islam along with the Sunnis. Iraq has for the first time a Shia-dominated government, comprising groups that have been openly supportive of Iran. The people killed were mostly Shias from the Hawatim tribe that opposes the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq as well as the Dawa Party. These two pro-Iranian groups control the local government in Najaf and the government in Baghdad.

Baghdad Surges into Hell: First Results from the President’s Offensive
11 Feb 2007
In his Iraq policy address on January 10, President Bush promised three new initiatives: a “surge” of American troops accompanied by a new “clear, hold, and build” strategy in Sunni insurgent strongholds; an offensive against Shia militias, particularly the Sadrist Mahdi Army which “U.S. military officials now identify as the greatest security threat in Iraq”; and forceful action to prevent Iran from further increasing its influence in Iraq and the Middle East. Events in the last few weeks make it clear that all three prongs of this strategy are being enacted, even while the Congress is engaged in a prolonged debate over its (non-binding) opposition to the “surge” part of the new regional plan.

Kurds Reluctant to Send Troops to Baghdad
11 Feb 2007
Since Tuba Ali’s son Sarko left Sulaimaniyah for Baghdad last month to take part in the new security plan for the capital, she rarely misses a television news bulletin, anxious for the latest on the troubled city. Ali, 48, says she is very upset that her son is getting involved in the campaign to end Baghdad’s sectarian violence. “Kurdish forces should not have been deployed [there] because we don’t have anything to do with the.. city,” she said. A 3,000-strong contingent of Kurdish troops will form part of the Iraqi army deployment in the city, but Kurds in the north are not happy about their involvement. They say restoring stability to Baghdad is not their concern and fear they may be dragged into a sectarian conflict. So far, Kurds – who comprise about 17 per cent of Iraq’s population – have stayed out of the predominantly Sunni-Shia conflict ravaging the capital and much of the country. The Baghdad military operation, involving tens of thousands of US and Iraqi troops, is the latest attempt to deal a blow to the insurgents and militias that are holding the city to ransom.

Reprieve for Officer Who Denounced “Immoral War”
8 Feb 2007
The court-martial of the first commissioned U.S. military officer to refuse to serve in Iraq ended abruptly Wednesday when the military judge overseeing the proceedings declared a mistrial over a technicality. At issue, according to the judge, Lt. Col. John Head, was an agreement first Lt. Ehren Watada signed admitting that he failed to deploy to Iraq when his unit was sent there, as well as confirming that he gave several antiwar speeches for which the military had charged him with “conduct unbecoming of an officer.” In his decision, Col. Head said the agreement amounted to a “confession”, but in exchanges with the judge in open court Lt. Watada disagreed.

The State Department’s Rosy Deception on Iraq Refugees
8 Feb 2007
eIraq’s Noah Merrill responds from Amman to a State Dept. release on Refugees: “A press release by the State Department dated February 6 describes the creation of a new task force on Iraqi refugees created by Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice. Here, close to a million Iraqis, forced to flee violence in their neighborhoods and throughout their country, try to keep a low profile and scratch out an existence in a climate that is neither welcoming nor supportive. As more and more Iraqis are displaced inside and outside Iraq, the attitudes of host governments are becoming more and more hostile.”

The Struggle to Study at a Baghdad University
7 Feb 2007
The Los Angeles Times today profiles two female students at Baghdad’s Mustansiriya University. Zala Ghefori, 31, is a doctorate student in Arabic who lives in the university’s dorm with 175 other women. The once co-ed student body is now mostly women (young men are favorite targets of militias and insurgents). Fatima Selami, 29, is working on a doctorate in mathematics at Mustansiriya.

Top UN Official: Iraqi Displacement Largest in Region Since Palestinian Crisis of 1948
6 Feb 2007
Speaking in Jordan as part of a week-long tour of the region to highlight the plight of displaced Iraqis, the United Nations High Commissioner on Refugees, Antonio Guterres, said today that the scale of displacement of Iraqis represents the largest long-term population movement in the Middle East since the crisis created for Palestinians following the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948. Asked about the potential for resettlement of Iraqi refugees to countries outside the Middle East, Guterres emphasized that resettlement was “not an option” for the majority of Iraqi asylum seekers, given the sheer scale of the problem. To illustrate, he cited the statistic that roughly 50,000 refugees were resettled worldwide last year, compared with the more than 750,000 that UNHCR estimates to reside in Jordan alone.

Bombs over Baghdad: The Pentagon’s Secret Air War in Iraq
6 Feb 2007
A secret air war is being waged in Iraq—often in and around that country’s population centers—about which we can find out little. The U.S. military keeps information on the munitions expended in its air efforts under tight wraps, refusing to offer details on the scale of use and so minimizing the importance of air power in Iraq. But expert opinion holds that the forms of aerial assault being employed in that country, though hardly covered in our media, may account for most of the U.S. and coalition-attributed Iraqi civilian deaths there since the 2003 invasion. While some aspects of the air war remain a total mystery, Air Force officials do acknowledge that U.S. military and coalition aircraft dropped at least 111,000 pounds of bombs on targets in Iraq in 2006.

The Circle is Tightening
6 Feb 2007
David Smith-Ferri, just back from visiting with Iraqi refugees in Jordan, analyzes President Bush’s primary justifications for sending more US troops to Iraq.”To an Iraqi person in Amman who is fleeing a death threat and whose extended family remains exposed to the swirling chaos in Baghdad, talk of danger to American lives must surely seem cruel and laughable. Many of the Iraqis I met in Amman told me ‘Life in Baghdad is impossible.’ How will people still living in Baghdad, faced with a daily threat of violence and the impossibility of protecting and providing for their families, react to President Bush’ urgent concern to protect the American people? How will they react to the notion that the American occupation is advancing liberty across a troubled region?”

The “Surge”
5 Feb 2007
President George W. Bush spent months deliberating on a new plan for Iraq, repeatedly postponing an address to the nation where he would push his new strategy, ending months of speculation about who he was listening to on his “listening tours” of policymakers, war makers and think tanks. He delivered his eagerly awaited speech on January 11, 2007. There was an overwhelmingly negative response to President Bush’s speech and his plan to send more than 20,000 additional U.S. troops to Iraq. From the streets to the halls of Congress, dissent was quick and strong. The debate and the administration’s attempt to follow through with its controversial plan is ongoing.

Lt. Ehren Watada: The First Commissioned Officer to Refuse Deployment to Iraq
5 Feb 2007
Lt. Ehren Watada is the first commissioned U.S. officer to refuse deployment to Iraq. Facing court martial, Watada in a 2006 speech to a Veterans for Peace gathering:”Today, I speak with you about a radical idea. It is one born from the very concept of the American soldier (or service member). It became instrumental in ending the Vietnam War – but it has been long since forgotten. The idea is this: that to stop an illegal and unjust war, the soldiers can choose to stop fighting it.

Violence Distressing Mental State of Iraq’s Population
5 Feb 2007
Bullets and bombs are killing thousands of civilians every month in Iraq while the psychological impact of the ongoing violence is affecting the mental health of millions and is a major cause for concern for future generations, psychologists say. In a privately funded study entitled ‘Psychological effects of war on Iraqis’, the Association of Iraqi Psychologists said out of 2,000 people interviewed in all 18 Iraqi provinces, 92 percent said they feared being killed in an explosion. Some 60 percent of those interviewed said the level of violence had caused them to have panic attacks, which prevented them from going out because they feared they would be the next victims. “It is a very serious result because of the ongoing violence in Iraq. These psychological symptoms of the population could bring disastrous consequences to their present and future lives. Some parents might change their behavior towards their children and vice-versa,” Ala’a al-Sahaddi, vice-president of IPA, said.

Explosions Destroying People and Infrastructure
5 Feb 2007
Since the US-led occupation of Iraq began in 2003, hundreds of explosions have rocked the country, killing thousands of civilians and causing serious damage to vital infrastructure. There are no official statistics on the total number of people who have been killed or injured specifically in bomb explosions and suicide attacks. However, at the end of January officials at the Iraqi Ministry of Interior said the 20 deadliest bomb attacks in the country since 2003 had killed 1,750 people and injured 3,100. In addition to the deaths and injuries caused directly by bombs, millions of civilians are suffering as a result of the havoc wreaked on the country’s infrastructure by such explosions, which have made it extremely difficult for the government to provide crucial public services.

Iraqi Journalists Seen as Enemies of Government
5 Feb 2007
“In Iraq,” writes Baghdad-based newspaper editor Luuai Majeed Hassan, “as a rule, officials have no understanding of the role of the press and treat journalists as the enemy. At the national level, ministers and senior officials sometimes speak to the press, so you can get some information. At the local level, the situation is much more difficult. When local government officials talk to the press, they always demand that you publish any information they give you exactly as they provided it – using the same order, format and context. If you do not do this, you will be banned from entering the particular office concerned, or even from the entire building. In effect, you will be boycotted. Should you decide to publish nothing at all, officials will think that you are plotting against them and are conspiring with their enemies.”

Iraq Leads Another Bloody Year for the Press
5 Feb 2007
It was another dangerous year for the press around the world as the number of killed and imprisoned journalists rose in 2006, according to an annual report by the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists. The report, “Attacks on the Press in 2006,” documents numerous cases of violence and censorship directed at the press last year. According to the report, 55 journalists were slain in 2006 for reasons directly relating to their work, up from 47 in 2005. For the second year in a row, the report says, Iraqi journalists represent the majority of those killed.

Officer Who Wouldn’t Serve Goes on Trial
5 Feb 2007
Supporters of the first commissioned U.S. officer to refuse to serve in Iraq plan to pack the courtroom at Fort Lewis, Washington where First Lieutenant Ehren Watada faced a court martial Monday. “If more officers like Lt. Watada come forward and said they wouldn’t order their troops into a war that’s morally wrong that means fewer enlisted people like myself will come back injured or killed,” former Marine Corp medic Chanan Suarez-Diaz told a packed house of activists Sunday evening in the basement auditorium of the First Congregational Church in nearby Tacoma.

Every day the kidnappers said they’d kill me…
5 Feb 2007
Ibraheem Jaffer, 10, was kidnapped and held hostage for three weeks until his parents paid the ransom demand. “I’m 10 years old and was born in Baghdad. Two months ago, I was kidnapped and was released three weeks later after my family paid a ransom to the kidnappers. I was leaving my school, the Kadhimiya School, at the usual time of 11.45 a.m. but my father was late picking me up because sometimes the traffic here is terrible. When I looked in front of me, I saw two men with guns coming towards me. They forced me to get in their car. I started to cry. I could hear my teacher shouting from the school gate for help saying I was being kidnapped but it was too late. They blindfolded me with a black cloth and one guy sat right next to me in the back seat.”

War objector’s freedom of conscience must be respected
5 Feb 2007
Pending the trial on Monday 5 February of Ehren Watada over his refusal to participate in the Iraq war, Amnesty International stated that a guilty verdict would be a violation of internationally recognized rights to conscientious objection.