"What is important to realize is that (1) the Maliki administration, instead of leaving the Basra campaign as something to be eventually forgotten about, has instead explicitly locked itself into a military confrontation with the Sadrists, and (2) the decision to take this course was made in Washington, and the real declaration of war was the Gates comment. Since this is something that risks reigniting fitna in the country, it is important to realize where the decision was made to ignite this...."
To find that out, go here!
"Our Forgotten Shame in the Green Zone"
"April 13, 2008
I’ll admit it, I did not remember either. Even though we reported the story last year, so much has happened in Iraq that somehow I, too, had forgotten. The story, like so many others, had been swept under the proverbial rug by the corporate media, and within a day or so the world forgot about the Filipino workers in Iraq.
But a few days ago, I received a personal email from an officer serving in Iraq and housed in the Green Zone, and the story came back to me, full blast. Just a few words in the message reminded me of the forgotten horror that must be added to the countless crimes this administration is committing in Iraq.
This time around, I don’t want the story to become lost in the endless melee of death and destruction that defines this useless war. I just want to put it out into the public consciousness once again, so we don’t simply forget what is going on. This time around, it has to get some real attention.
The original story involved the First Kuwaiti General Trading and Contracting Company, the firm that was awarded a nearly $600 million contract to construct the ridiculously ostentatious US Embassy compound in the Green Zone. It also involved the recruitment of thousand of foreign laborers to work on this behemoth that was to be the largest diplomatic mission in the world.
It also focused on Filipinos who were lured by offers of good jobs in Kuwait, and then transported to Iraq against their will to work in Iraq. I will not detail the entire story here because it is available at sites such as the Migrants News Monitor. I will, however, reprint the statements of two former American civilian contractors of a Kuwaiti company who testified before the House Committee on oversight and government reform on allegations of waste, fraud and abuse in the construction project.
According to the testimony of John Owen, "Conditions there were deplorable, beyond what even a working man should tolerate. Foreign workers were packed in trailers tight. There was insufficient equipment and basic needs – stuff like shoes and gloves. If a construction worker needed a new pair of shoes, he was told, 'No, do with what you have’ by First Kuwaiti managers. The contract for these workers said they had to work 12 hours a day 7 days a week, with some time off on Friday for prayers."
At the same hearing, Rory J. Malberry testified that he was asked to escort 51 Filipino nationals to the Kuwaiti airport and make sure they got on the same flight that he was taking to Baghdad. "Many of these Filipinos did not speak any English," he told US congressmen. "When we got to the Kuwait airport, I noticed that all of our tickets said we were going to Dubai. I asked why? The Kuwaiti manager told me that because Filipino passports do not allow Filipinos to fly to Iraq, they must be marked as going to Dubai."
And boy, did that ever make the front pages and the network news! Sure, it did
Of course, the rest is history because the workers are still there.and predictably, nothing came of the testimony, and nothing was ever done to investigate the fate of the Filipinos or any other foreign workers who serve at the behest of wealthy contractors in Iraq. And, just as predictably, the story was forgotten and the abuse and deception disappeared into the fog of war.
Until just a few days ago, when I received an email from a US Army Captain who was recently assigned to Green Zone. It began:
Hi. Here I am almost in to the middle of my tour of Operation Endurance Iraqi Freedom
And only a few lines later, here’s what the Captain wrote:
I had the opportunity to visit some of the areas where the Filipino people live. These people are here to do our laundry and to clean our bathrooms and showers . They are very hard working people who have to live in very sad conditions.
They have been placed in little trailers that have small beds and they are not allowed to go out of their working places alone. They must be escorted back and forth from their work place to their 'homes' .and they must be at their gate by 10 o’clock. Filipinos have their own place to eat, travel in their own buses and they have no recreation or any other activities other than work and are not permitted to interact with others here.
And as I read the message, I remembered. And then I was ashamed to have forgotten.
I don’t know what good it does to remember. Oh, I’ll write the required letters and make the usual phone calls to legislators and other useless people to stir the pot a bit and see if anyone cares. But right now I am determined to remember the story and the people and the ugliness of what we have wrought.
And maybe you will remember, too."
"Died hanging from wrists and gagged, with over 25 rib fractures"
"This is my first of a series of diaries about prisoners murdered by US forces. It will tell the story of an Iraqi man who died hanging by his cuffed wrists from a door frame, gagged, and beaten to death by his US interrogators. As the Final Autopsy Report noted:
The remains are received clad in a white shirt, white pajama type pants, and white
undershorts. Feces covers the clothing from the waist down....There is gauze dressing on the left wrist. No other evidence of medical intervention is noted.... The right chest wall has fractures of ribs three through seven anteriorly and ribs six through twelve posteriorly. The left chest wall has fractures of ribs two through nine anteriorly and ribs seven through twelve posteriorly. There are fractures of the lateral aspect of ribs nine and ten on the left side. There is a horizontal fracture through the mid-portion of the body of the sternum."
Yes, our tax dollars are paying for this. Hung up by the wrists and beaten so badly that he not only had over 25 separate rib fractures, many slicing into his lungs, he also had a fractured sternum. The thick, solid bone protecting your heart.
It gets uglier over the fold. It's time to face reality.
Which just so happens to be right here, readers:
"Baghdad slum residents endure street battle hell"
"by Wisam MohammedBAGHDAD, April 12 (Reuters) - Huddled in her house in the Baghdad Shi'ite slum of Sadr City, Salwa Naser recited prayers as gunfire echoed outside.
"My God, my God," the 24-year-old teacher pleaded, "make their fire against us like water."
She is one of 2 million residents of the sprawling district on the eastern edge of Baghdad that in recent weeks has seen some of the worst street battles in the Iraqi capital since U.S. forces drove Saddam Hussein from power in 2003.
Late last month, the government launched a crackdown on the Mehdi Army militia of anti-U.S. Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr in the southern city of Basra.
The clashes, in which hundreds of people were killed, quickly spread north to Sadr's stronghold in eastern Baghdad, turning it into a key front in the five-year-old Iraq conflict.
For weeks, masked militiamen loyal to Sadr have roamed the streets, firing on U.S. and Iraqi patrols and sustaining nightly missile strikes from U.S. drone aircraft.
The continuous fighting has turned daily life for many of the slum's residents into a living hell.
"Our suffering starts at night when the Mehdi Army fighters sneak around the narrow streets and we fear air strikes could happen any minute," said Laith Majeed, 22, a university student.
"The innocent people are always the victims. We cannot sleep at night and we're losing patience. These are the worst days I have lived and I don't think life will ever get back to normal."
As if gunfire, mortars and missiles were not enough, Sadr City has been under a vehicle blockade for the past two weeks that has led to shortages of medicine and soaring food prices.
The blockade was partly lifted on Saturday, allowing some Iraqis who had stayed away since late last month to return.
HUNDREDS WOUNDED
Muhammad Munthir, a doctor who lives outside Sadr City but works at one of its two hospitals, did not dare enter the slum during the blockade for fear of U.S. air strikes.
Imam Ali hospital, where he returned to work on Saturday, and Sadr hospital on the slum's eastern edge, have treated hundreds of wounded in the past week.
More than one hundred people, including Mehdi Army fighters and civilians, have been killed in Sadr City since Sunday.
"Thank God I came today and resumed my work with my colleagues," Munthir said. "I hope this can continue."
Others in Sadr City have been forced to adapt to the fighting, making changes, big and small, to their routines.
A group of boys wearing Real Madrid and Barcelona soccer shirts played dominoes and backgammon in an alley in central Sadr City. The winners were cheered, while the losers were obliged to buy juice or tea for the rest.
"We cannot play football out in the open, it is too dangerous, so we came here to have fun," one said.
Other residents sympathised with the fighters, who have vowed to battle U.S. forces until they are driven from the capital.
"God bless you, God bless you," a woman shouted from her doorway to a group of six militiamen carrying rocket-propelled grenades, rifles and heavy machineguns. "You lift our heads higher and show the world we will fight the occupiers!"
A 12-year-old boy, Mustapha, pleaded with another group of fighters that included his uncle to take him with them into battle, only to be sent home in tears.
In house nearby, children were sleeping despite the gunfire and explosions.
"They've become used to the sound of bombing," their mother said. "Now, they sleep right through it."
Yeah, Iraq is a whole pile better!!
