Video Diary: Iraqis Shooting Each Other17 Apr 2007This installment of the Hometown Baghdad project is a fitting introduction to the series of 45 short web documentaries. If you’re not yet hooked on the series, start here. The excitement Ausama and Saif feel as they unpack and begin to use their cameras to ‘shoot Iraqis’ is palpable.
Sadr’s Rising Star to Eclipse Bush’s Surge?16 Apr 2007“What must worry Washington more than the massive size of the demonstration on April 9,” writes veteran analyst Dilip Hiro in this important piece, “was its mixed Shiite-Sunni composition and nationalistic ambience. The prospect of Sadr’s appeal extending to a section of the Sunni community, with the tacit support of grand ayatollah Ali Sistani, is the nightmare scenario that the Bush administration most dreads. Yet it may come to pass.”
Video Diary: Last Resort16 Apr 2007This installment of the Hometown Baghdad project is deceptively simple: friends meeting at a pool in an abandoned mansion to swim. “It’s hot weather,” Ausama says at the beginning, “so we’ve gotta go to the pool.” Everybody knows the unwinding of a good swim. Imagining all that is going on outside the walls of the abandoned mansion gives that unwinding powerful new meaning.
Thousands without food and supplies due to failing distribution system16 Apr 2007Thousands of Iraqis are going without food and basic supplies as the country’s food distribution infrastructure crumbles, according to a new report. The country’s Public Distribution System (PDS), set up in 1995 as part of the UN’s Oil-for-Food program, has been hit by insecurity, poor management, corruption and a lack of political will.
US and UK Bear Special Duty to Aid Refugees16 Apr 2007Iraq’s neighbors are closing off escape routes to Iraqi asylum seekers, just as the international community has begun to respond to the 2 million refugees from the war, Human Rights Watch said in a briefing paper released today. As high-level officials, including ministerial-level representatives for Iraq and all countries in the region, meet in Geneva on April 17, 2007 for a conference to coordinate the international response to Iraqi refugees and internally displaced people, Iraq’s neighbors are refusing entry, imposing onerous new passport and visa requirements, and building barriers to keep refugees out. In cases, they are also expelling Iraqis back to Iraq, Human Rights Watch said.
UN Refugee Agency Turns Spotlight on Iraqis16 Apr 2007Nearly four million Iraqis have been displaced in and outside their country since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, making it the largest exodus of people in the Middle East since the creation of Israel in 1948. The United Nations refugee agency, UNHCR, on Tuesday will convene a two-day conference in Geneva to address Iraq’s deepening humanitarian crisis.
Sexual cleansing: Gov’t denies gays are targets of killings16 Apr 2007The Iraqi lesbian and gay community and NGOs dealing with gay issues have called for urgent action to protect gays and lesbians in the country. The groups say that the number of victims of “sexual cleansing” is growing on a daily basis. “In the past three months, more than 30 gays have been executed in Baghdad. The bodies have been found tortured, mutilated – sometimes with signs of rape,” said Mustafa Salim, spokesman for the Rainbow for Life Organization, a Baghdad-based gay rights NGO.
Moving 9 Million Tons of Gear Out of Iraq15 Apr 2007When American forces finally leave Iraq, it will be a “move from hell.” That’s according to a Newsweek article that puts the tally of US equipment shipped to Iraq over four years at 9 million tons.
Where Al-Qaeda Reigns15 Apr 2007Refugees from Baquba city who have now found shelter in Damascus describe their hometown as a “dead city” where armed men roam the streets and al-Qaeda reigns. Dahr Jamail speaks to Baquba residents who have fled their home city for Damascus.
Top Wolfowitz Postings Went to Iraq War Backers15 Apr 2007Of the top five outside international appointments made by embattled World Bank president Paul Wolfowitz during his nearly two-year tenure, three were senior political appointees of right-wing governments that provided strong backing for U.S. policy in Iraq. Wolfowitz, who became the Bank’s president in June 2005, has long insisted that his own role as deputy defense secretary under U.S. President George W. Bush, in which he was a key architect of the Iraq war, would never influence his decisions at the Bank.
Video Diary: Symphony of Bullets15 Apr 2007In this installment of the Hometown Baghdad project, Adel, Ausama and Saif let us listen and look out their windows. Gunfire is constant. Days are spent laying low inside the house. Classes are missed. The young men also display their own guns, kept to defend their families from the constant and unpredictable violence outside. Watch for an unexpected moment of levity at the end.
Endgame: Iraqi Insurgents Press For Final Blow15 Apr 2007“Iraq’s Sunni insurgency is not going to patiently wait for American will to collapse,” writes Adam Elkus. “They know that they can strike a fatal blow at public support for the war and possibly shorten the conflict, preserving their strength for the inevitable internecine feuding that will result after an American withdrawal.” In this lucid piece, Elkus examines insurgent tactics and opportunities and how these may erode American public support for a gradual withdrawal.
Cobban on the “Iraq War Czar”15 Apr 2007Read Cobban on the administration seeking an “Iraq war czar” intended to better link the president to General Petraeus in Baghdad.
Video Diary: Abdullah Leaves12 Apr 2007In this installment of the Hometown Baghdad project, we get a brief but intimate and powerful glimpse at the emotional impact of Iraqis leaving friends behind in Baghdad for the relative security of another country. Millions of Iraqis have done it. Some predict more than a million more will flee this year.
Mourning the bridge…12 Apr 2007With headlines constantly depicting the human carnage, we lose site of the carnage of infrastructure and symbols.
Claims Detail Grim Civilian Toll12 Apr 2007Newly released documents have made public hundreds of claims for damages by Iraqi civilians requesting compensations for the death and injury of family members as a result of operations by Coalition Forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. The ACLU, which filed the Freedom of Information Act request for the documents, points out that the Defense Department has instituted numerous policies to limit the dissemination of information about casualties. The newly released documents show that the families of more than 500 Iraqi civilians killed by U.S. soldiers have asked for compensation for their dead relatives but only a third have been granted it.
Breaking the Army11 Apr 2007President George W. Bush’s ongoing “surge” of some 35,000 troops to add to the 140,000 already deployed in Iraq is highlighting growing concern, particularly among the military brass, that the U.S. army is overstretched and fast becoming “broken”.
Video Diary: Songs of Pain11 Apr 2007“You can join a band or you can join a militia. The important thing is that you do something.” That’s Adel, a young Iraqi devoted to metal. The angst and therapy of metal music has perhaps no more fitting home than Baghdad. Adel explains why in this installment of the Hometown Baghdad project.
Video Diary: Powerless10 Apr 2007In this video diary, produced by the Hometown Baghdad project, we get a sort of meditation on power. Not political power, but electrical power. Iraq is a country run on generators. The government supplies only a few hours of electricity a day. It’s a factor rarely considered when attempts are made to understand Iraqi life in a time of war.
Demonstrations and Delusions9 Apr 2007Hundreds of thousands of Iraqis demonstrated against the occupation yesterday. The White House is dismissive.
Electronic Iraq