US military says it accidentally killed 9 Iraqi civilians in raid south of Baghdad

WHAT A MESS!!!!

US military says it accidentally killed 9 Iraqi civilians in raid south of Baghdad

By LAUREN FRAYER

Associated Press Writer

BAGHDAD (AP) — The U.S. military said Monday that it had accidentally killed nine Iraqi civilians during an operation targeting al-Qaida in Iraq — the deadliest known case of mistaken identity in recent months.

The civilians were killed Saturday near Iskandariyah, 30 miles south of the Iraqi capital, U.S. Navy Lt. Patrick Evans told The Associated Press. Three wounded civilians were taken to U.S. military hospitals nearby, he said.

Evans did not give details about exactly how the people died, but said the killings occurred as U.S. forces pursued suspected al-Qaida in Iraq militants. The incident is under investigation, he said.

Iraqi police said the victims, including two women, were in two houses in the village of Tal al-Samar, which was bombed by American warplanes late Saturday. They were all Sunni members of the al-Ghrir tribe, an officer said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to media.

The U.S. airstrike occurred after an American convoy came under enemy fire in Tal al-Samar and soldiers called for air support, the Iraqi officer said.

Shortly after the incident, American officers met with a Muslim sheik representing citizens in the area, Evans said.

“We offer our condolences to the families of those who were killed in this incident, and we mourn the loss of innocent civilian life,” he said in a statement e-mailed to the AP.

In November, a leader of one of the so-called awakening councils — groups of Sunni tribesmen allied with American forces who are fighting to oust al-Qaida from their hometowns — said U.S. soldiers killed dozens of his fighters during a 12-hour battle north of Baghdad.

The leader, Mansour Abid Salim of the Taji Awakening Council, accused American troops of mistaking his men for militants. The U.S. military admitted killing 25 men, but said they were insurgents operating “in the target area” where al-Qaida was believed to be hiding.

The U.S. military investigated that incident, but the two versions of events were never reconciled.

A month later, the U.S. military said its forces accidentally killed two people during a raid in Baqouba, northeast of Baghdad, and that one of them was later revealed to be an awakening council member.

Iraq death toll ‘over one million’

Um…. hello?  Genocide?

from Al-Jazeera

More than one million Iraqis have died as a result of the conflict started by the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, according to a new survey by a UK polling group.

 

The report was followed by more violence on Thursday, with five people killed and eight injured in a bomb blast in the Kazimiyah neighbourhood of Baghdad, the Iraqi capital.

 

The survey, conducted by UK-based Opinion Research Business (ORB), found that 20 per cent of people in Iraq had experienced at least one death in their household as a result of the conflict, rather than natural causes.

 

The survey consisted of face-to-face interviews with 2,414 adults.

 

The last complete census in Iraq conducted in 1997 found 4.05 million households in the country, a figure ORB used to calculate that approximately 1.03 million people had died as a result of the war.

 

The margin of error in the survey, conducted in August and September 2007, was 1.7 per cent, giving a range of deaths from 946,258 to 1.12 million people. The research covered 15 of Iraq’s 18 provinces.

 

Those missing from the survey included two of Iraq’s more dangerous regions, Kerbala and Anbar, and the northern province of Arbil, where local authorities refused the group a permit to work.

 

Tallys of civilians killed in Iraq since the US-led invasion have been controversial in the past.

 

The Iraq Body Count website estimates the number is under one million, but upwards of between 80,699 and 88,126 people, although US authorities have questioned the site’s methodology and figures.

Baghdad blast 

Those people killed and injured in Thursday’s car bomb attack in Baghdad were passers-by in the street or in three cars that were damaged as they drove past the explosion, the Reuters news agency reported.

 

An Iraqi police officer, said the car was parked about 300 metres from a bus station but it exploded early in the day before passengers had started to arrive.

 

In another attack in Iraq, rockets slammed into a British base in Basra, in southern Iraq, killing at least 10 Iraqis outside the base and wounding three British soldiers.

 

Captain Finn Aldrich, a British military spokesman in Basra, said no major damage was reported on the base, but one of the rockets landed outside the entry gates for Iraqi civilian employees.

 

British troops retaliated, firing six artillery shells towards the launching points, Aldrich said.

Major Rafea al-Ajwadi, a Basra police chief, said the British artillery fire had hit a construction company, killing one employee and wounding five others.

 Aldrich said joint British-Iraqi investigation was under way to determine whether the casualties found at the site of the artillery strikes were civilians or fighters, as well as other details about the attack.

Across America, Deadly Echoes of Foreign Battles

SO sad, but not surprising!!! 

January 13, 2008

War Torn

NEW YORK TIMES  

By DEBORAH SONTAG and LIZETTE ALVAREZ

Late one night in the summer of 2005, Matthew Sepi, a 20-year-old Iraq combat veteran, headed out to a 7-Eleven in the seedy Las Vegas neighborhood where he had settled after leaving the Army.This particular 7-Eleven sits in the shadow of the Stratosphere casino-hotel in a section of town called the Naked City. By day, the area, littered with malt liquor cans, looks depressed but not menacing. By night, it becomes, in the words of a local homicide detective, “like Falluja.”

Mr. Sepi did not like to venture outside too late. But, plagued by nightmares about an Iraqi civilian killed by his unit, he often needed alcohol to fall asleep. And so it was that night, when, seized by a gut feeling of lurking danger, he slid a trench coat over his slight frame — and tucked an assault rifle inside it.

“Matthew knew he shouldn’t be taking his AK-47 to the 7-Eleven,” Detective Laura Andersen said, “but he was scared to death in that neighborhood, he was military trained and, in his mind, he needed the weapon to protect himself.”

Head bowed, Mr. Sepi scurried down an alley, ignoring shouts about trespassing on gang turf. A battle-weary grenadier who was still legally under-age, he paid a stranger to buy him two tall cans of beer, his self-prescribed treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder.

As Mr. Sepi started home, two gang members, both large and both armed, stepped out of the darkness. Mr. Sepi said in an interview that he spied the butt of a gun, heard a boom, saw a flash and “just snapped.”

In the end, one gang member lay dead, bleeding onto the pavement. The other was wounded. And Mr. Sepi fled, “breaking contact” with the enemy, as he later described it. With his rifle raised, he crept home, loaded 180 rounds of ammunition into his car and drove until police lights flashed behind him.

 “Who did I take fire from?” he asked urgently. Wearing his Army camouflage pants, the diminutive young man said he had been ambushed and then instinctively “engaged the targets.” He shook. He also cried.

“I felt very bad for him,” Detective Andersen said.

Nonetheless, Mr. Sepi was booked, and a local newspaper soon reported: “Iraq veteran arrested in killing.”

Town by town across the country, headlines have been telling similar stories. Lakewood, Wash.: “Family Blames Iraq After Son Kills Wife.” Pierre, S.D.: “Soldier Charged With Murder Testifies About Postwar Stress.” Colorado Springs: “Iraq War Vets Suspected in Two Slayings, Crime Ring.”

Individually, these are stories of local crimes, gut-wrenching postscripts to the war for the military men, their victims and their communities. Taken together, they paint the patchwork picture of a quiet phenomenon, tracing a cross-country trail of death and heartbreak.

The New York Times found 121 cases in which veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan committed a killing in this country, or were charged with one, after their return from war. In many of those cases, combat trauma and the stress of deployment — along with alcohol abuse, family discord and other attendant problems — appear to have set the stage for a tragedy that was part destruction, part self-destruction.

Kurdish Minister Says Turkey’s Attacks Are Self-Defeating

by Vivian Salama

PostGlobal – WashingtonPost.com

The Turkish military has stepped up attacks against Kurdish rebels hiding in the mountains of Northern Iraq. Warplanes have carried out a number of cross-border raids to target the thousands of militants whom the military suspects are taking shelter in the predominantly Kurdish part of Iraq. In response to the bombings’ displacement of numerous Kurdish Iraqi families, Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has ordered the government to pay one million dinars (approximately US$ 815).The strikes followed an agreement between the United States and Turkey to share intelligence on the activities of the Kurdish Workers Party (PKK), which was labeled a terrorist organization by both Turkey and the United States. The semi-autonomous Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) – an important U.S. ally – has lobbied in Washington and Ankara against a military incursion. The escalating situation in Northern Iraq is expected to dominate the agenda when President George W. Bush hosts Turkey’s President Abdullah Gul at the White House on Jan. 8.Kurdish officials condemn Turkey’s attacks, saying they have done little to quell PKK activities and have only delayed a viable solution. Meanwhile, a PKK leader in Northern Iraq has vowed to take his people’s battle for autonomy deep within Turkey’s borders.

Falah Mustafa Bakir, the Minister of Foreign Affairs for the KRG, says the attacks are a violation of Iraqi sovereignty. He spoke to Vivian Salama from Irbil on December 31st.

Excerpts:

Vivian Salama: At least three hundred Turkish commandos have reportedly raided Northern Iraq. What is the official response to this by the Regional Government of Kurdistan?

Falah Mustafa Bakir: The Kurdistan Regional Government of Iraq demands that Turkey end immediately its military actions in Iraq. The entire political leadership of Iraq — Arabs and Kurds — is united in condemning Turkey’s attack on our territory, which is in violation of Iraqi sovereignty. Turkish forces should not be operating in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. Military action moves us farther away from a solution, not closer.

Information that emerged last week suggests that President Bush may have made a deal with President Erdogan during his Nov. 5 visit to Washington, under which the Turks would get a green light to attack PKK bases. You have repeatedly made reference to Kurdistan’s strong ties with the United States. What is your reaction to this information? Were you aware of such an agreement?

The Kurdistan Regional Government of Iraq counts itself among America’s best friends and allies in Iraq and the Middle East. I do not know about a “green light,” but we were aware of the widely reported agreement between the United States and Turkey regarding intelligence-sharing about the PKK.

Washington should understand the dangerous precedent and negative consequences of allowing Turkey, or any of Iraq’s neighbors, to take military action in Iraqi territory. We are appealing formally to the United States — as a close friend of the KRG, Iraq, and Turkey — to use its good offices to demand an immediate end to Turkish military action and to support a peaceful diplomatic solution to this long-running conflict. The U.S. has an important role to play in protecting the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Iraq and in bringing all parties to the table to seek a peaceful solution.

Kurdish officials have traveled to Ankara in an attempt to dissuade Turkey from taking such actions. Still, Turkey went ahead with the raids. What does this tell you about Turkey’s willingness to cooperate with the KRG?

The KRG does not support the PKK in any way, and therefore our territory and our people should not be accountable for PKK violence against Turkish citizens and soldiers. Indeed, we have condemned these acts of violence by the PKK. Furthermore, the KRG, both publicly and privately, has made clear that it is ready to work with Turkey on a comprehensive political solution to the problem of the PKK. KRG Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani has formally offered talks with Ankara in a multi-lateral context — that is, including Turkey, US, and Iraqi officials. You would have to ask Turkish officials why they spurn KRG offers of dialogue and cooperation on the PKK and other issues, and instead resort to military force against our region of Iraq. Despite recent Turkish actions, we still are open to a political solution and willing to sit down at any time and in any place to seek a peaceful solution. It is not too late for diplomacy to succeed.

How do you think such a move by Turkey will impact the (in)stability in greater Iraq, if at all?

Turkey’s actions will only hinder efforts toward stability and national reconciliation in Iraq. This is a delicate time in Iraqi politics, with some progress being made with regard to security. The Kurdistan Region has so far been free of the sectarian violence that has consumed much of the rest of the country. The KRG’s commitment to democracy and the rule of law should be seen as a model for the rest of Iraq. An attack on our region threatens the stability and progress not only of the Kurdistan Region, but of all of Iraq. We hope the Turkish authorities will understand that these attacks will only make the situation worse for all concerned. We want peaceful and productive relations with all our neighbors, especially Turkey, and we are willing to work with them to bring stability to our common border.

What, in your belief, is the solution to the PKK-Turkey issue?

The long-term solution to the PKK problem is political, not military. It is connected to the larger issue of the role of the Kurds in Turkish politics. There has been some progress on the Kurdish issue by the current government in Turkey, but more needs to be done. We hope that Turkey will come to realize this, and that it will also understand that we in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq pose no threat to anyone. Our stability and progress should be seen by all our neighbors as a positive development.

The Other Christmas Rush Is Christians Fleeing Arabia

 As always, I am eager to hear your thoughts!

By Vivian Salama

Newsweek

Jan 14, 2008 Issue 

Christmas is usually a time to celebrate the arrival of Christians in the Holy Land. But this year, as Patriarch Michel Sabbah of the Latin Rite Catholic Church revealed during his Christmas sermon in Bethlehem, local leaders are currently concerned with the opposite phenomenon: exodus. Speaking to the legions of Arab Christians fleeing the region, Sabbah said, “I say to you what Jesus told us: do not be afraid.”But there’s reason to be. Last year, dozens of Christians were slain in Iraq and a Syriac Orthodox priest was beheaded in Mosul. Two prominent Christian Palestinians were recently killed in Gaza. A political stalemate in Lebanon and the increased dominance of Shiite Hizbullah has made Maronites fear their traditional perks, like control of the presidency, are slipping. Even in Egypt, where religion has played little role in government, Christians now worry that the increasing popularity of the Muslim Brotherhood could lead to new restrictions.

Thus many are voting with their feet. There are now just 12 million to 15 million Arabic-speaking Christians left in the Middle East, and this could drop to 6 million by 2025. Countries are being transformed: in 1956, Lebanese Christians made up 54 percent of the country; today they’re about 30 percent. Iraq’s Christian population has fallen from 1.4 million in 1987 to 600,000 today. And Bethlehem, the birthplace of Jesus, was 80 percent Christian when Israel won independence in 1948; now it’s 16 percent. Fred Strickert of Wartburg College estimates that hundreds of thousands of Christian Arabs have been displaced in the recent years, including half a million from Iraq alone. Christian Arabs emigration isn’t new. But according to Drew Christiansen, editor of America Magazine, the tide has increased since the second intifada in the Palestinian territories and the Iraq War. James Zogby of the Arab American Institute says most Christians chose to relocate to Europe and the Americas. Some 75 percent of the United States’ 3.5 million Middle Easterners are Christian, as are large slices in Canada, France, and Brazil. Many new exiles hope to relocate to the United States: no small irony given that the instability they’re fleeing was set in motion by the United States itself.

With the exodus, ancient practices and cultures are being lost, and Middle Eastern Christians risk eventually being “amalgamated into Western Christianity,” says Christiansen. The result will be “a dilution of the diversity of Christian traditions.” But given the life or death choices many Arab Christian emigrants now face, that looks like a small price to pay.

Controversy over Extending South Korean Troop Deployment in Iraq

Just a quick bit of news I received from sources in Seoul, South Korea:

 South Korea‘s Defense Ministry submitted a bill Monday to the National Assembly on extending the country’s troop deployment in Iraq for another year, an official said. The extension plan — which also would downsize South Korea’s deployment by half from the current 1,200 soldiers — is to be referred to the parliament’s defense committee before all lawmakers vote on final approval, said Shim Jung-hee, a parliament official. 

The official name of the Korean troops is “Iraq Peace and Reconstruction Division.” It is also known as Zaytun Division, with “Zaytun” meaning olive, which symbolizes peace, in Arabic. Zaytun Division has been at the center of fierce public disputes between the opponents and the proponents since the very beginning when the Korean government first reviewed dispatching of the troops to Iraq.

The fundamental argument of those who opposed the deployment was that Korea cannot simply send its young people to the deadly country mired in a war triggered by the United States without a clear justification. When the public dissent increased sharply, the government held the deployment and farewell ceremonies unofficially and the troops were secretly sent off to Iraq via Seoul Airport in Seongnam. Students and civic groups opposing the deployment criticized the government and held protests, clashing with the police in front of the airport.  

The Korean government has extended the operation of the Korean troops in Iraq three times thus far, and decided at the security policy meeting at Cheongwadae on October 19 to extend it once again by one year, which would mark the fourth extension. The government cited ROK-US alliance and participation of the Korean companies in Iraqi oil field development and reconstruction as the reasons behind the decision.

The PKK is ‘a Political Problem’: an Interview with Kurdistan Foreign Minister Falah Mustafa Bakir

Vivian Salama | 26 Oct 2007 

World Politics Watch Exclusive                                                                      

                                                                      

NEW YORK — Within minutes of the decision by Turkey’s parliament Oct. 17 to approve a potential Turkish military action against members of the Kurdish Workers Party (PKK) in northern Iraq, hordes of Iraqi Kurds poured into the streets in protest. The vote drew sharp criticism from Massoud Barzani, President of the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG), who said the Kurds of Northern Iraq were prepared to fight should Turkish soldiers set foot onto their soil. In an interview with Northern Iraq’s Bahdinan Radio, Barzani added “Saddam Hussein could not even finish the Kurds, so how does Turkey expect to finish them?”

Washington has repeatedly urged Turkey not to enter Northern Iraq. But Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said the decision by the House Foreign Relations Committee Oct. 10 to recognize World War I-era atrocities against Armenians in Turkey as genocide would come at a great cost. “We value this [U.S.-Turkey] partnership greatly but under current circumstances, the task of defending its importance is becoming increasingly hard,” Erdogan wrote in an Oct. 19 Wall Street Journal editorial.

In addition to its status as an oasis of relative peace and prosperity in an otherwise chaotic country, Iraqi Kurdistan has logistical importance for the American war effort in Iraq. Approximately two-thirds of U.S. supplies travel through the region from Turkey. KRG Minister of Foreign Relations Falah Mustafa Bakir was in Washington last week lobbying U.S. lawmakers to oppose a Turkish incursion into Kurdistan. Before traveling to Washington, Bakir met with journalists at Columbia University in New York Oct. 12, where he disputed accusations by Turkey that his government is providing a safe haven for Kurdish separatists. The following is an excerpt from the interview with Bakir, conducted simultaneously by several reporters.
–Vivian Salama 

Turkey accuses your government of cooperating with the PKK by providing sanctuary to them. All the while, there is a lot of saber rattling at the border. What is your response?

Regarding the PKK issue, we understand Turkey’s concern and we respect Turkey’s concern. We are against violence and we do not like to see bloodshed happen. But we believe this problem is a political problem and it cannot be solved through military means. Even the problem in Iraq today is political and therefore needs a political solution. We do not provide sanctuary and we do not provide support for the PKK.We do not allow our territories in Kurdistan in Iraq to be used by any group against any of our neighbors and especially Turkey because we care about our relations with Turkey. We want to improve our relations. We want to enhance that relationship and we’re willing to help if the Turkish government takes a political approach to solve this problem.
*******Click here to read the entire interview

Iraqi refugees swell pressure on Syria’s social services

Iraqi refugees continue to flood into neighboring countries – Syria and Jordan especially.  This is an interesting report fromAl-Jazeera’s English network.  I recommend that you take a few minutes to watch it.

The Iraq insurgency for beginners

FROM SALON.com, A VERY INFORMATIVE BREAKDOWN OF THE OFTEN DAUNTING IRAQI INSURGENCY:

 

Sunni insurgent groups (top row): Jihad Factions of Iraq, Al-Qassas Brigade, Al-Rashedeen Army, Islamic State of Iraq, Mujahideen Army; (bottom row) Islamic Army in Iraq (IAI), 1920 Revolution Brigades, IAI.

A leading expert on the insurgency clarifies who is shooting whom in Iraq, the growing power of al-Qaida, the influence of Iran, and the only thing left for the U.S. to do.

By Kevin Berger

Mar. 02, 2007 | For somebody in America, Evan Kohlmann has a remarkably intimate view of the Iraq insurgency. In 2004, he founded GlobalTerrorAlert.com, a clearinghouse of virtually every communiqué — video, audio, Internet, printed — issued by insurgent groups in Iraq. For three years, Kohlmann has pored through every one of them, with the help of Arabic translators, and emerged with a clear-eyed view of who is fighting whom in Iraq and why. Given his insights, Kohlmann has been put to work as a consultant by the U.S. Department of Defense, the Department of Justice, the FBI and the CIA.

Spending time in Kohlmann’s archives is an extraordinary experience. It strips away the cloudy myths of the insurgency steamed up by U.S. politicians and pundits and leaves you with a bracing portrait of roving insurgent groups, more like neighborhood gangs, with their own identities and insignias, progressively growing more violent. I wanted to talk to Kohlmann for the simple reason that as much as I follow the news about the Iraq war, I have always felt slightly frustrated at not knowing who the enemy really is. Kohlmann says I’m far from alone. And he’s talking about people way over my head. “I find it tragic that people in Washington, D.C., who are the heads of major congressional committees, and deciding things about Iraq, don’t know the difference between Sunnis and Shiites,” he says. Kohlmann insists he is nonpartisan. He spoke from his office in New York.

Every day you look at Iraq through the lens of insurgent videos and Internet postings. What do you see?

A picture of fundamentalism. Shiite fundamentalism clashing with Sunni fundamentalism clashing with American fundamentalism. We have tried imposing things upon Iraq that are totally foreign to it. Now each side is unwilling to acknowledge the right of the other to have a voice in what’s going on. It’s a disaster.

Describe the insurgency.

You have to be careful when you say “insurgency.” You have to distinguish between the Shiite militias and the actual insurgency, which is the Sunni groups. Most of the Shiite militia activity is not directed at the U.S., it’s directed at the Sunnis. The Sunni insurgency, meanwhile, is directed at everyone — the U.S., the Iraqi government, the militias.

The best way to divide it up is into three camps. You have Sunni nationalists, initially a large portion of the insurgency; the moderate Sunni Islamists, who use Islamic terminology and talk about establishing a government based on Sharia law; and you have the Salafists, like the group Al-Qaida in Iraq. To them, the fight is not about preserving the borders of Iraq, it’s about revolution, about rebuilding something completely new on the basis of some kind of idyllic Muslim empire.

What drives people to join the insurgency?

I’ve called up families of fighters and when I ask that question, the response is always the same: Wouldn’t you? They are extremely upset about what’s going on in Iraq. Some of them have a burning hatred for the U.S. They see the U.S. as imposing its will on their countries. Some of them have a burning desire to be a missionary and martyr for Islam. You have people who have broken out of prison and gone to fight in Iraq. It’s now a vacuum sucking in every disaffected voice in the region.

How has the insurgency evolved?

When the U.S. invasion began in 2003, it was mainly Baathists, ex-Iraqi military, and Saddam loyalists. They were Iraqi nationalists, opposed to foreign occupation, who saw Iraq as a competitor with Egypt for the control of the Arab world. It was an issue of national pride. Video recordings and communiqués were coming out from everybody who had an AK-47. But as the war dragged on, some of these groups started coalescing; others were destroyed. Only the strongest, the most hardcore, the best financed, the people with the most training, survived, despite airstrikes and the arrest of their senior leaders by the U.S. military.

Do you call the insurgents “terrorists”?

No. The nationalist insurgents have done a lot of really brutal things. But in general they are people opposed to foreign occupation. If foreign occupation were removed, they wouldn’t necessarily sit down and shake hands with Shiites. But at the end of the day, they would like to see a peaceful Iraq where Sunnis and Shiites can at least coexist with each other. Terrorists are people who set off bombs in marketplaces and deliberately kill innocent civilians for no good reason. Any suicide bombing is a terrorist act. It’s not an insurgent act. There is no military objective in it. The vast majority of suicide bombings that take place in Iraq are either the work of al-Qaida or al-Qaida-linked groups. Al-Qaida are the terrorists.

Who constitutes al-Qaida in Iraq now?

It includes everyone from past conflicts in Afghanistan, Bosnia and Chechnya to people from Saudi Arabia, Egypt, North Africa, Syria and Jordan. A growing number of Iraqis continue to join its ranks every day. The people in the nationalist groups feel intensely hurt to see Iraq being torn apart. This is their homeland. And now their groups are taking on an Islamic tinge or else becoming straight-up jihadist groups controlled by al-Qaida. A lot of people joining the jihadist groups are now convinced there is no future left for Iraq, that the only future left is with al-Qaida, the only people who can protect them is al-Qaida.

David Kilcullen, an astute counterinsurgency expert, told George Packer in the New Yorker that what drives a lot of young men to become jihadists is a “sense of adventure, wanting to be in the big movement of history that’s happening right now.” Do you agree?

Oh, yeah. For some of these guys, it’s like a safari. They see themselves as knights of the round table. In fact, that’s how al-Qaida now sells the insurgency to them: Are you a chivalrous knight or a coward?

Has the U.S. invasion, in fact, strengthened al-Qaida?

Definitely. And this is the depressing thing. The hardcore true believers of al-Qaida at one time were probably 10 percent of the insurgent groups. Now they’re 50 percent. Al-Qaida is growing in places it shouldn’t. You have groups like the Islamic Army of Iraq that have transitioned from being traditional insurgents to extremist ones. Or take a popular insurgent group called the 1920 Revolution Brigades. The very name of the group has a nationalist, not Islamist meaning. And yet very recently, the head of al-Qaida’s Islamic State in Iraq issued a statement in which he said that people from the 1920 Revolution Brigade were now fighting alongside al-Qaida. The U.S. is failing miserably at containing the spread of al-Qaida.

Why are the more moderate Muslim groups siding with al-Qaida?

They have no choice. There’s a group called the Iraqi Islamic Resistance Front. They are far from angels. They recently released a video of supposedly a chemical rocket attack on a U.S. base in Samarra. But they were also the subject of a flier that was being posted around in Ramadi. The flier was signed by al-Qaida and said the Front was working with the Iraqi Islamic Party, the Iraqi government, and so is no longer a legitimate group. The Front was furious. They issued a statement saying, “We’re not working with the government, we’re with you guys, so don’t issue these kinds of accusations.” So there’s a lot of pressure to work with al-Qaida or be targeted by it.

Does that message go out to people on the streets too?

Yeah, sure. That’s the sad thing. If you work with the U.S. or the Iraqi government, you are targeted by al-Qaida. If you work with anyone else, you are targeted by the Shiites. It’s a lose-lose situation. And what’s amazing is this slide has all happened over the past 12 months. It’s pegged to one singular event, the spark, which is the 2006 bombing of the Askariya Mosque in Samarra. Al-Qaida never claimed direct responsibility for it but they did call the mosque the heretical idol and mocked the fact that the Shiites were upset about it. Afterward, it was saying, “We’ve been fighting Shiite militias all along.” To broaden its appeal, it said, “We’re declaring the formation of an Islamic state in Iraq. This is no longer just an insurgent movement. We now have a state that we’re fighting for, so come and join our cause. You’re either with us or against us.” Sure enough, we started seeing more groups edging toward al-Qaida’s jihadists umbrella network.

Would al-Qaida have blown up the mosque if the U.S. wasn’t in Iraq?

There wouldn’t be an al-Qaida in Iraq if the U.S. wasn’t there. The story of al-Qaida in Iraq begins in 2003. We handed al-Qaida exactly what it was looking for, a real war in the Middle East where it could lead the way. Al-Qaida is like a virus. It goes for weak victims and it uses conflicts to breed. Iraq gives al-Qaida a training ground, a place to put recruits in combat. If they come back from battle, you have people who have fought together, trained together, you have a military unit. As Richard Clarke has said, it was almost like Osama bin Laden was trying to vibe into George Bush the idea: “Invade Iraq, invade Iraq.” This was an opportunity they seized with amazing alacrity. As brutal and terrifying as what they’ve done is, you have to acknowledge they capitalized on an opportunity that we handed them.

What happened to the U.S. message of democracy?

It totally failed. The idea of Western-style democracy in Iraq doesn’t appeal to anyone. It was our own myth. We thought that if we get rid of Saddam Hussein, people would come together and celebrate and democracy would reign throughout the Middle East. The people who thought that up are people who think Iraq is like Texas. Iraq is not Texas. To Iraqis, tribal affiliations, religion and family mean a lot more than saying, “I’m from Iraq.” You know we’re doing a bad job of communicating our own message when we’re losing the propaganda war to people who cut other people’s heads off on camera. Think about it: People in one of the most Westernized countries in the Middle East would rather trust al-Qaida than the United States. That’s a terrible sign of things to come.

How many total insurgents are there?

Somewhere in the tens of thousands. I would say al-Qaida, including the various groups in its alliance, has about 15,000 people, probably more. To give you an idea of its strength, consider that it has sacrificed 800 of its own members in suicide bombings. We know that through direct evidence because al-Qaida has videotaped and recorded many of the bombings. And remember, those 15,000 are just on the Sunni side, and constitute just one group out 10 or more.

The U.S. is fighting both the insurgency and Shiite militias, right?

Right. But the Shiites aren’t a simple group either. They have divided themselves into two factions: the pro-Arab Shiites who are Iraqi nationalists and the pro-Iranian Shiites. There have been some incidences involving the Shiite Mahdi Army and the U.S. and British military. But the scope of activity between the Mahdi Army and the U.S. military is minute. The militias pose less of a day-to-day insurgent problem and more of a problem in the way they have infiltrated the Iraqi police force and other Iraqi government services, particularly the Interior Ministry, and how they arranging the murder of Sunnis through those agencies. They are creating instability, and that’s the main reason we’re going after them. It’s also the No. 1 reason why Sunnis fight and are upset: The Shiite militias have essentially taken over the law enforcement and are using it to murder Sunnis.

We invaded Iraq to rectify crimes by Saddam Hussein against the Shiites, right? We wanted to bring him to justice. What the Sunni groups are saying is, “How come there’s no justice to people who are drilling holes in people heads right now? Never mind 20 years ago.” They have a point. Dozens of bodies turn up every day in Baghdad but nobody is paying heed to them. So the Sunnis are saying to the U.S., “If you guys are not going to prosecute the people responsible for this, then we’re going to take matters into our own hands.” And the Shiites are saying the same thing. They’re saying, “You can’t protect us from al-Qaida’s suicide bombers. Your idea of strengthening security is to crack down on the Mahdi Army, who are the only ones preventing suicide bombers from coming into Sadr City. Why should we trust you? We should rely on ourselves. You can’t trust anyone but your own people.” It’s an arms race. It just builds up and up.

How do the militias stack up against the insurgents in number of fighters?

There are probably fairly equal numbers of militiamen to Sunni insurgents, if not more. Given that they’re waging open war with each other, and neither one seems to be winning outright, the answer is that one doesn’t outnumber the other to create an imbalance.

Is a surge of 21,000 new U.S. troops going to help?

I don’t think any number of new troops is going to help unless we’re going to station troops on every single corner of every single street in every single city in Iraq. The problem is the insurgents are not just a foreign force. You’re talking about such a diverse organization and network, where even major groups, when their leaders are killed or captured, still persist. They’re self-sustaining operations.

Look at Fallujah. In late 2004, we pumped that place full of overwhelming military force. We went block by block, street by street, and liquidated the place. We got rid of all the insurgents. We chased al-Qaida out of there. That was undoubtedly a military victory. But was that the end of al-Qaida? No, it moved to other cities, established bases in Ramadi, Samarra and Mosul. And Fallujah itself? It was relatively stable but in the past year has started to fall apart. And once again, insurgents are attacking Fallujah.

What do you make of the recent furor over the New Yorker that the U.S. is taking part in clandestine operations aimed at Iran and Syria and that a “by-product of these activities has been the bolstering of Sunni extremist groups”?

The idea that the U.S. is bolstering Sunni extremist groups in Iraq deliberately is pretty ridiculous and sounds awfully conspiratorial to me. Most of the Sunni groups consider themselves to be antithetical to the very idea of the United States. Even if we were to offer to help them for some strange reason, they would never knowingly work with us. But I can’t say the same for Saudi Arabia and other supposed U.S. allies in the Gulf region, who don’t have any soldiers in Iraq at risk from Sunni insurgents, and who would do just about anything to curb the expansion of Iran.

Contrary to what U.S. leaders are always saying, do you think the insurgency, and militias, have, ultimately, won the hearts and minds of the Iraqi people?

Unfortunately, I do. But I tell you this: Between August and December of 2005, there was a dramatic loss of influence of al-Qaida in Iraq. People associated with groups like the Islamic Army in Iraq, mainstream Sunni insurgent groups, were not so sure about killing people at a polling station. Al-Qaida was threatening to kill anyone, Sunni or Shiite, who tried voting. But the Sunni insurgents were saying, “No, we’re not going to let the Shiites take power willingly. We’re going to try and beat them anyway we can.” At the time, I could see the various Iraq tribes saying, “Forget this, al-Qaida, maybe we can achieve reconciliation with the Shiites.” The U.S. could have capitalized on that friction. But it didn’t. A month went by, there was bickering about the makeup of the government and the results of the election, and we weren’t hands-on enough in trying to broker out some kind of truce. Then came the bombing of the mosque in Samarra and it was too late.

What should the U.S. have done to capitalize on the friction at the time after the elections?

We needed to make sure that the Shiite militias were kept in check. And that’s exactly what we didn’t do. Following the bombing of the mosque, there should have been a serious clampdown. It was a matter of trying to stop the cycle of reprisals. But we did nothing while the Shiites went on a rampage.

Do you think the U.S. should withdraw from Iraq?

I’m afraid not. If we withdraw from Iraq right now, there’s no doubt what will happen. First there’s going to be a war for control of Baghdad and then once Baghdad is ripped to the ground, the battle is going to spread across Iraq. It could potentially be like Rwanda. Right now, hundreds of people are being killed each month, which is awful and horrifying in itself. Imagine if that figure was 100 times bigger. Also, if we withdraw, a widespread war is going to be entirely our responsibility. It’s easy to say it’s Iraqis killing Iraqis. But nobody else is going to see it that way. Everyone is going to affix blame to us. We will ultimately cause a situation that forces us to reinvade Iraq and create even more casualties. It’s an awful Catch 22.

I take it you have little faith in the Iraqi government.

The Iraqi government is a joke. A very sad joke. It’s beset on all sides. It’s been thoroughly infiltrated by militia groups and has no sway whatsover among Sunnis, even moderate Sunnis. It is completely incapable of defending itself, despite whatever bizarre claims Prime Minister Maliki may make. If we were to withdraw, it would collapse. An Iraqi government would only work if it included both Shiites and Sunnis, and there are precious few Sunnis who are working in Iraqi government, and even the ones who do are under constant threat.

So what’s the solution?

We have to give people a reason to stop supporting al-Qaida. And the only way to do that is to punish the people who are harming them. We have to show that democratic forces can also hold up justice. Right now, democracy for Iraqis amounts to Shiites in control of the police force and running everything. The things that might convince Sunnis to move back in the other direction would be a real step at trying to reform the Iraqi police force, the Interior Ministry, and try and bring some of the individuals in those places, which have committed gross crimes, including crimes on the scale of Saddam Hussein, to justice.

Does the Bush administration have the smarts to figure that out?

I’m not sure they do. I thought perhaps, in invading Iraq, they had some long-term view that nobody else could see. But that hope faded very quickly. The Bush administration didn’t reach out to anyone credible when they were asking about, for instance, the connections between al-Qaida and Saddam Hussein. Anybody with any real knowledge of the region would have told them there are no connections between Saddam Hussein and al-Qaida. The only people who believed that nonsense were lunatics.

If I was going to invade Iraq, the first thing I would do is commission the top history experts, top geographical experts, top cultural experts, and sit them down at a table and say, “This is what I’m thinking about doing. Is this feasible?” That was never done. Nobody in their right mind would have taken a look at Bush’s plan and said, “Oh, yeah, that’s going to work.” It’s not possible that it could work. Every historic precedent works directly against Bush’s plan. I know it’s easy to say, but the best solution is not to have invaded at all.

— By Kevin Berger

SAVING HAMIDA

by Vivian Salama

Daily Star Egypt  

CAIRO – Hamida Ali is, in many ways, a typical 9-year old.  She loves to draw.  She enjoys playing with dolls.  She likes to fix her hair.  Still, this young Iraqi girl has endured hardships unimaginable to most adults, let alone children. 

            Even beyond having to live in the war-torn nation, Hamida has come to Egypt on a personal crusade – a fight to live.  Amid the bombings, power-outages and constant hostility in which most Iraqis struggle to find normalcy, a few individuals, both in her homeland and in Egypt, have given this child an inkling of hope that she might live to have a bright future.

            Hamida has a rare condition called hypomagnesia, an abnormal lack of magnesium in the neuronal cells, the impulse-conducting cells that constitute the brain, spinal column, and nerves.  As a result, she experiences convulsions, often more than a dozen times per day, and full-blown seizures several times a week.  What is particularly urgent about Hamida’s case is that three of her seven siblings have died from the condition, two of them were about Hamida’s age when they passed on. 

            Still, she takes her condition with a grain of salt, clinging to her father’s waist the moment she feels the sensation of an on-coming attack.  The frequent convulsions, which first began when she was three months old, last for about a minute, whereby she then goes back to play, without a care.  The more severe seizures often leave her temporarily handicapped, too weary to function.  She is far too enthralled with her “vacation” in Egypt to discuss her health, however, noting her favorite thing about the country is electricity – a luxury in much of Iraq nowadays.

            It is Hamida’s father, Ali, once a soldier in Saddam Hussein’s army and former prisoner of war, who tells of the pains of losing three daughters to this rare illness, and how his family is prepared to do whatever it takes to save Hamida from the same fate. 

“We went to the hospital and they did all kinds of investigations and blood tests, checking calcium or potassium,” he explains.  “In 1994, the fourth one died.  Our first two children died also.  The third child was ok, but then fourth died when she was ten years old.  At that time, I sent four letters to Saddam, the criminal, asking his help.”

Ali, already bitter with the former Iraqi government for, as he explains, unjustly throwing him into prison for illegal possession of a weapon, became even more disenfranchised having to beg the regime he hates for help – and not receiving it. 

“I was trying to get somebody who can raise my voice to the government so they can take care of her case,” he says.  “I wrote to the Ministry of Health about my financial situation and the condition of Hamida and how rare her condition is, but I didn’t get a good response from them.  The bureaucracy was very bad.  I wrote some letters to the Saudi hospital asking them if they can accept treating my daughter.  But there was no answer.  Also I contacted the government hospital in Baghdad but the expenses to go to Baghdad were too much.”

            Having to support a wife and four children, including Hamida, Ali found the expenses too much to bare.  Earning a monthly salary equivalent to $15, the family would begin making sacrifices, dedicated most of their money to young Hamida’s health care as a priority.  “The expenses were a burden.  Recently, we sold our house.  Every time I use to go to Baghdad, it took one day to go, one day to come – and then of course, add several days to stay there, so it was so expensive.  I use to sell everything in my apartment, even my wife’s clothes trying to get money for the treatment.”

            Now living with his wife’s family in Baghdad, Hamida, her parents and three siblings all live in one small room – a small price to pay, they say, if it means being closer to the best health care in Iraq.  The country’s dynamic changed drastically upon the invasion of coalition forces.  For Ali and his family, it was a blessing in disguise since military forces bring with them foreign doctors and international attention.

            “I contacted the Human Rights Association of Babylon,” he recalls.  “A Kuwaiti-based team of American doctors visited southern Iraq, in our neighborhood – Hella.  I took Hamida to them.  The human rights organization told the doctors that Hamida’s condition is a chronic case and they suggested sending her to Egypt for treatment.”

            “Hamida is one of hundreds of cases that we have registered,” explains Aly Al-Saeedy, head of the citizen assistance committee with Human Rights of Babylon in Baghdad.  “The Human Rights Association is doing its best to provide any help to the Iraqi people because the tragedy is huge. The deteriorated security conditions caused charity organizations and NGOs such as the Red Cross to leave Iraq.”

            At the same time, a young Egyptian woman was on a quest of her own.  Having spent some time in Iraq during the early days of the war, Mandi Mourad Fahmy, a translator and reporter, was now back in Egypt to tend to her ailing mother.  Having made many connections, Fahmy felt an overwhelming sense of duty to continue helping the citizens of Iraq from home.   

            “I wanted to go back to Iraq but I couldn’t go back, so I was trying to think of ways to help while I was away,” she explains.  “This guy told me about a few cases so I thought why don’t we bring them here?”

            Hamida wasn’t the first case Al-Saeedy contacted Fahmy about.  The first patient to come from Iraq was a 4-year old girl who has suffered from a hernia in her head since birth.  She was unable to talk or walk, however with an intricate operation – unavailable in Iraq – she could gain those abilities.  “She came and had this operation,” tells Fahmy.  “Now, she’s standing up, her father calls me and tells me.  It’s very gratifying.  Human Rights Association of Babylon wrote to me about this girl, they’re excited about helping.”    

Months later, Al-Saeedy contacted Fahmy once again to inform her about Hamida’s deteriorating condition.  The association explained the situation to the Egyptian Embassy in Baghdad, supplying them with an invitation from Fahmy to come for treatment.  “The embassy was very sympathetic and understanding,” she says.  “[The family] collected whatever money they can, they get donations if they can, and come by land.  It’s difficult for someone who’s sick and dangerous.”

“We were left with two choices.  One option was to watch our children die and accept the reality imposed on us by Saddam’s regime, the occupation and terrorism, the death triangle for Iraqis who have experienced all sorts of suffering over the past 40 years,” says Al-Saeedy.  “The other option was to do our best to find people who can help us treat these children.  Mandi’s face gave me hope.  I found a lot of humanity in that woman.”

The 1,288 kilometer journey took Hamida and her family two days by bus.  Fahmy arranged for Hamida, her father and mother to stay in a rented apartment in Dokki at her expense.  “In Iraq, I don’t think they have the facilities for some tests.  I put them in touch with doctors, I call friends, if I’m working with any one, I asked them if they’re willing to donate.  If they are, fine.  I think God will help us.”

 “Mandi paid for all the living costs and arranged for neurosurgeon,” says Hamida’s father, Ali.  “Hamida went to the hospital twice and each doctor in Egypt use to do his part with all kinds of tests related to his specialty.”

Medical treatment was not free, but doctors lowered their rates given the circumstances.  Fahmy has paid some LE 2800 out of pocket to help the family.  The diagnosis was a chronic inherited case of hypomagnesia, the failure of her intestines to absorb magnesium, which to this day, is incurable. 

 “We have no reached any results,” he says.  “The doctor said she should take a 10 CC injection every three days.  After three days, she got a seizure.  So there was no actual treatment for her case.  There is no test that they didn’t repeat for us here in Egypt.  They suggested to do brain surgery for her, but said she might die in the surgery.  So we decided not to do the surgery.”

“She needs help,” pleas Fahmy.  “We need someone who’s familiar with the case.  We’ve done all sorts of tests.  It’s rare.  Here in Egypt they are not familiar with the case.  I’m told in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Palestine they are familiar with the case.  I hope we can find anyone who knows anything about this case.”

“What I am looking for is the treatment of my daughter Hamida,” says Ali.  “I don’t care if I go to America or any place in Europe.  I really suffered a lot with my other kids who died and I am looking to find a cure for Hamida.”

Hamida and her family recently got back on the bus, and tolerated the long journey back to Iraq, with no cure but enduring faith.  Meantime, Fahmy continues to work with human rights organizations in Iraq to bring people to Egypt who continue to suffer in the war-torn country. 

“If we suffer from something, we think it’s the end of the world,” she insists.  “These people, their whole day is full of suffering.  They have no electricity, no water, no good services.  They deal with it as a normal thing, they don’t complain.  I hope I can bring other people.”

If you have information about hypomagnesia or would like to help Hamida, please contact Mandi Fahmy at Mandim03@yahoo.com