Baghdad is a smashed city

Baghdad is a smashed city / Dahr Jamail / Tuesday, 29 May 2007
Atlantic Free Press

Below is an email I have just received from my close friend and translator Abu Talat....

Habibi…

Baghdad is a SMASHED city… no roads to drive on… most of them are closed off by concrete obstacles with concertina wire. In addition, the presence of the Iraqi military, who cover their faces with black masks and hold their guns in such a way that when you see them you will definitely be afraid that they will shoot you.

The shops in most of the area I went to see are closed. I asked one of the shop owners I know, 55-year-old Abu Fadhil, since I heard that his shop was robbed. I found his door closed and locked and he was nowhere to be found.

Later, on my way to Sadr City, I found that two of the three roads which lead all the way from south to north Baghdad are either partially or totally closed in some places. You still remember the highways in Baghdad… well now most of them are closed, or at least fenced off with obstacles, yet they say there is some progress in the security situation inside the city! Everyday two or three cars explode across Baghdad, killing big numbers of civilians.

When I returned to my neighborhood of al-Adhamiya, I couldn’t get in unless the soldiers checked my ID and my car, even though the guards are from the same neighborhood and they know me personally. But they had to check it to ensure that no car bombs might happen. Nevertheless, daily mortars shell my neighborhood and those are out of control, despite this concrete wall placed by the Americans which now surrounds our neighborhood. Despite all that they do, they cannot bring security to our small neighborhood.

Needless to say, Baghdad has been changed into THE CITY OF GARBAGE. You can find it everywhere. You can smell the stench of dead bodies wherever you go.

Talking of electricity, there is now only one hour daily. That’s it. From where we’re staying in the city center, in Bab al-Muadham, I can see from the balcony that people sleep nearly naked on their rooftops because it is so hot and there is no electricity to run fans or air conditioners. Thank God that there are two large generators that maintain electricity in our building.

Everyday by 2-3 pm the buildings where we are staying are closed so that no one can leave or enter. That way it is kept secure, and this is how it remains until the next morning.

As far as my family life in this condition, we are as though we are in jail from 2-3 pm until the second morning where the doors are opened at 7 am.

My son goes to the hospital to work, but for the last two days he finds it without any running water. [His son works in Baghdad Medical City, the largest hospital in Iraq] For the last 2 weeks, as he told me, the hospital has been without any air conditioning and almost without patients, although it’s the biggest hospital in Iraq.

My son's wife, who is also a doctor, has to go to another hospital just to try to assist since there is a drastic lack of Gynecologists. She stays in her hospital for three days continuously before my son picks her up with his car on the fourth day to bring her home, in order to insure her safety so she doesn’t have to take a bus or taxi.

As for my daughter, she has not passed out the doorway of this apartment where we are staying for the last week except for one time for some work she had to accomplish.

My wife left here only once, when she went to her job (which she has been on leave from since we left to Syria) in order to apply for a full year vacation. Thank God she got it.

As for me, I found my car ruined, so I had to repair it. For that I called the mechanic to come to my home and repair it, since I couldn’t take the car to him since all the mechanics shops are closed and there is no place to have a car repaired. All of those shops are totally closed.

When I saw the mechanic he said, “We cannot live anymore, and there is no job we can find.”

Dahr, this short letter gives you just a glance of the current situation in Baghdad. With the next letter I will tell you some more.

Can someone explain the continuing silence of politicians, community leaders, religious leaders to the plight of the Iraqi's - we have endless news of kidnapped Soldiers of Misfortune but nothing about the collapse of a civilised nation.

Why is there silence ? Is there no-one with a conscience ... and a voice ?

Pic

A boy sits in the rubble of his destroyed home the day after the May 29th truck bombing of the Mosque and Husseiniyah in al-Amil (southwest Baghdad). Bodies are still being dug from the collapsed buildings and according to hospital spokesemen the death count from the attack is still rising as seriously wounded people brought to hospitals yesterday die of their wounds.

Iraq - Truck bomb kills at least 137 - 4 US helicopters KIA

AP report that Maj. Gen. William Caldwell told reporters that the investigations into the crashes of three Army and one private helicopters since Jan. 20 are incomplete but "it does appear they were all the result of some kind of anti-Iraqi ground fire that did bring those helicopters down."

U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad said the massive truck bomb that it was "an example of what the forces of evil will do to intimidate the Iraqi people."

Gee those forces of evil at work again, those must be the forces of evil that Paul Bremer used to write about.

Remember that B/W movie with the beautiful Janet Leigh, craggy Charlton Heston and the 42 year old Awesome Welles ? "A touch of Evil" ?

Hard nosed Mexican-American narcotics investigator Vargas (Charlton Heston) and his beautiful and inoccent wife (Janet Leigh) witness a murder caused by a car bomb. The fillum opens with a famous 3 minute tracking shot which follows the bomb-laden (not Bin Laden !) car as it crosses the border, passes Heston and Leigh, fades into the distance and explodes.

Vargas investigates. He runs foul of the local police authority/ Quinlan (Welles - who wrote the screenplay) - an immense – and immensely corrupt – ex-alcoholic . Convinced that Quinlan is planting evidence to frame an innocent man, Vargas begins probing the big man's own shadowy past and methodology. In the end, Quinlan's hunches prove right while his means to solving the crime are left suspended in murky moral limbo made confusing by very idiosyncratic editing – long takes, grotesque (very) close-ups, overlapping sound and steep angles , which emphasise Welles' corpulance – verging on deep craziness.

Marlene Dietrich plays a cigar-smoking, gypsy, brothel owner, Zsa Zsa Gabor a strip club owner and Dennis Weaver (“McCloud,” ) as a wonderfully crazy hotel night clerk.

Henry Mancini provided a remarkable Mexican / rock musical score.

Evil - bad karma , pal.

PS. Dennis Weaver (dcsd) and wife Gerry founded L.I.F.E (Love Is Feeding Everyone), which fed 180,000 people in Los Angeles each week. President Reagan awarded him the “Presidential End Hunger Award” in 1986.

In 1993, Dennis and Gerry founded the non-profit Institute of “Ecolonomics” - a word Dennis coined to illustrate the necessary synergy between a healthy ecology and a vibrant economy in order to create a sustainable future. In 2003 the Institute embarked on the “Drive to Survive,” where Dennis led a fleet of alternative-fueled vehicles on a cross-country whistle-stop tour toWashington,D.C., with the aim of increasing awareness of the need to reduce the US 's dependence on oil.

More recently, he and singer Willie Nelson joined forces to promote the development and use of farmer-grown biodiesel as a viable alternative fuel.

Good karma.

Iraq - Endgame or Stalemate ? .. or Meltdown ?

Stephen Hadley, security adviser to Dubya sent him a memo about Iraq which "leaked" and caused Maliki to sulk for 12 hours before he would break bread with Dubya in Jordan last week.

He said ;

1 . Shi-ite Prime Minister A - Maliki is too close to Moqtada al-Sadre.

2. Shi-ite Prime Minister A - Maliki is out of touch with reality in Iraq and needs to put more effort into national reconciliation.

Penetrating observations that most readers of the Roanoake Herald could have told him.

Now his heirs and wannabe successors Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, the arch zealot and Shiite theologian, and Vice-President Tariq al-Hashemi, a Sunni, have dropped by the White House.

So as the hitherto notionally unified Iraqi Gubment fragments, Iran steps up support for an extension of the Shi-ite Kingdom which Washington likes to call the Shia Arc. Saudi Arabia have very brusquely told Cheney that they will actively support, finance and encourage the Sunnis in Anbar and Syria is none to covertly supporting the rag tag and bobtail of the Baathists.

... and the UK military forces (the very last remnants of the Coalition of the Unwilling) in the South are readying to make a dash south for the door marked EXIT.

Meanwhile Dozy Dubya says he will reveal his revised Iraq strategy in the New Year.

He may not be afforded that luxury.

IRAQ - Who is fighting whom and why ?

What follows is part of a transcript freely and widely available on the web, of a US Army Press Conference on the 19th October,2006. The US forces apprehended Sheikh Mazen al-Saedi at his house, he was apparently involved in death squad activity that killed hundreds of Sunnis , according to US intelligence, and so he was arrested.

Sheikh Mazen al-Saedi was released the following day at the express request of the Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki .The sheikh signed a conditional waiver as he was released.Iraqi interior ministry vehicles took him to his Shiite movement's offices in the Kadhimiya district of Baghdad.

"He was released," confirmed Sadr spokesman Hamdallah al-Rikabi, accusing US forces of trying to provoke the movement into armed confrontation.

IRAQ OPERATIONAL UPDATE BRIEFING BRIEFER: MAJOR GENERAL WILLIAM CALDWELL, USA, SPOKESMAN, MULTINATIONAL FORCE-IRAQ LOCATION: COMBINED PRESS INFORMATION CENTER, BAGHDAD, IRAQ TIME: 8:00 A.M. EDT DATE: THURSDAY, OCTOBER 19, 2006

Q Paul Schemm, AFP. Slightly off-topic, there was a Shi'ite leader, a member of Muqtada Sadr's movement, that was arrested a few days ago. I think his name was Sheikh Mazen al-Saedi or something to that extent. He was apparently involved in death squad activity that killed hundreds of Sunnis, as the U.S. had figured out, according to their intelligence, and so he was arrested. Then there was a bit of a furor about it, and then Maliki ordered him to be released, which he was, subsequently released, though privately members of the U.S. military have said this is one of these people driving this sectarian conflict we're seeing.

And my question to you is, obviously we understand that the prime minister doesn't want the U.S. military going into Sadr City to address the militia thing there, and you do have -- but you do have your targeted operations. How can you try to stop these -- this sectarian killing if the prime minister does not allow you to arrest the people involved with them? Thanks.

GEN. CALDWELL: Well, in fact the prime minister actually has given us tremendous leeway in being able to conduct operations in support of specific targets. But we recognize the fact that we're here at the request of a sovereign nation, and anything we do in this nation, we do need to clear with the prime minister, I mean, and the government officials. I mean, we're not an autonomous operation here. We're here at their request. We're operating as guests in this country. Any kind of left and right limits that the prime minister wants to impose upon us, we need to abide by. I mean, this is his nation, after all. It's not ours.

And so what you heard was exactly correct. On October 17th, in the early morning hours, there was a raid conducted. There were several people detained, of which -- the sheikh was one of them.

And he was released the next day at the request of the prime minister, and so that did happen.

Q But my question is: Would these --

Q Is this making your job more difficult? And do you think you can actually succeed in your stated objectives if the prime minister doesn't let you arrest people?

GEN. CALDWELL: Well, I think what you have to realize, the prime minister is working at a much higher level. He's working at a national level dealing with strategic issues. He's engaged in a lot of dialogues that are going on at this point, and for us to second guess him and to try to ascertain why he did or did not make a particular decision, we have to respect the right of, one, he is the elected official, he is the prime minister of this nation, and that if he makes that decision, he has a lot of other information which we probably are not privy to in making that determination.

So the sheikh just before he was released did acknowledge the fact that he understood why he had been detained, because of involvement in suspicious activity, and that he signed a conditional release promising to support the government of Iraq and disavow future acts of violence as he was released.

Yes, sir.

Q Kirk Semple from The New York Times. Can you shed any light on the discussions that led to the sheikh's release or the conditions for his release?

GEN. CALDWELL: I think to get anything further I'd probably just refer you back to the government of Iraq because they're the ones we were responding to the prime minister's request, he was released. The sheikh did sign a conditional waiver as he was released, and probably beyond that, I should just let the government of Iraq take and answer those questions.

You will look in vain for this story in the US / European Press.

The Baker report has one interesting sentence in it - the rest is pointless verbiage.

Page - 23 Experts estimate that 150,000 to 200,000 - and perhaps as many as 500,000 - barrels of oil per day are being stolen.