JUNE 2007

ZNet Commentary
REBELLION IN THE BRITISH ARMY June 05, 2007
By John Pilger

An experienced British officer serving in Iraq has written to the BBC describing the invasion as "illegal, immoral and unwinnable" which, he says, is "the overwhelming feeling of many of my peers". In a letter to the BBC's Newsnight and Medialens.org he accuses the media's "embedded coverage with the US Army" of failing to question "the intentions and continuing effects of the US-led invasion and occupation". He says most British soldiers regard their tours as "loathsome", during which they "reluctantly [provide] target practice for insurgents, senselessly haemorrhaging casualties and squandering soldiers' lives, as part of Bush's vain attempt to delay the inevitable Anglo-US rout until after the next US election." He appeals to journalists not to swallow "the official line/ White House propaganda". In 1970, I made a film in Vietnam called The Quiet Mutiny in which GIs spoke out about their hatred of that war and its "official line/White House propaganda". The experiences in Iraq and Vietnam are both very different and strikingly similar. There was much less "embedded coverage" in Vietnam, although there was censorship by omission, which is standard practice today.

What is different about Iraq is the willingness of usually obedient British soldiers to speak their minds, from General Richard Dannatt, Britain's current military chief, who said that the presence of his troops in Iraq "exacerbates the security problem", to General Michael Rose who has called for Tony Blair to be impeached for taking Britain to war "on false grounds" - remarks that are mild compared with the blogs of squaddies.

What is also different is the growing awareness in the British forces and the public of how "the official line" is played through the media. This can be quite crude: for example when a BBC defence correspondent in Iraq described the aim of the Anglo-American invasion as "bring[ing] democracy and human rights" to Iraq. The Director of BBC Television, Helen Boaden, backed him up with a sheaf of quotations from Blair that this was indeed the aim, implying that Blair's notorious word was enough.

More often than not, censorship by omission is employed: for example, by omitting the fact that almost 80 per cent of attacks are directed against the occupation forces (source: the Pentagon) so as to give the impression that the occupiers are doing their best to separate "warring tribes" and are crisis managers rather than the cause of the crisis.

There is a last-ditch sense about this kind of propaganda. Seymour Hersh said recently, "[In April, the Bush administration] made a decision that because of the totally dwindling support for the war in Iraq, they would go back to the al-Qaeda card, although there's no empirical basis. Most of the pros will tell you the foreign fighters are a couple of per cent and they're sort of leaderless . . . there's no attempt to suggest there's any significant co-ordination of these groups, but the press keeps going ga-ga about al-Qaeda . . . it's just amazing to me."

Ga-ga day at the London Guardian was 22 May. "Iran's secret plan for summer offensive to force US out of Iraq", said the front-page banner headline. "Iran is secretly forging ties with al Qaeda elements and Sunni Arab militias in Iraq," wrote Simon Tisdall from Washington, "in preparation for a summer showdown with coalition int- ended to tip a wavering US Congress into voting for full military withdrawal, US officials say." The entire tale was based on anonymous US official sources. No attempt was made to substantiate their "firm evidence" or explain the illogic of their claims. No journalistic scepticism was even hinted, which is amazing considering the web of proven lies spun from Washington over Iraq.

Moreover, it had a curious tone of something-must-be-done insistence, reminiscent of Judith Miller's scandalous reports in the New York Times claiming that Saddam was about to launch his weapons of mass destruction and beckoning Bush to invade. Tisdall in effect offered the same invitation; I can remember few more irresponsible pieces of journalism. The British public and the people of Iran, deserve better. John Pilger's new book, Freedom Next Time, is published by Nation Books in the US. Pilger REBELLION IN THE BRITISH ARMY Jun 05

MAY 30th 2007:
Britons were seized at a government building near Baghdad's Sadr City suburb, a Mehdi Army stronghold. The five men - a computer expert and four bodyguards - were taken from the finance ministry building in Baghdad. The kidnappers wore police uniforms and staged the capture without firing a shot, senior Iraq officials said.

The four kidnapped security guards were working for Canadian-owned security firm Gardaworld. The company is one of the biggest suppliers of private security in Iraq, and is mainly staffed by Britons. The computer expert was working for Bearingpoint, a US management consultancy which has worked on development projects in Iraq since 2003.

BBC World News

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A lot of the Iraqi people think that there’s a secret plan to destroy the Iraqi community and to deplete the country from the intellectuals to ruin any plan or chance to re-establish the infra structure of the country.Which is of course would be something not far from the truth, since that situation would give the American forces the right to stay longer and to deplete the country from its own natural resources.What’s happening now, that intellectuals of doctors, lawyers, managers… all the good people are either getting threats to leave the country or getting kidnapped and killed and either ways all are leaving the country, it’s all following a specific pattern..Anonymous

AL-SARAFIA BRIDGE DESTROYED IN BAGHDAD
04.22.2007

[Editor’s note: This piece originally appeared on the Iraq Rabita site. April 22nd 2007 This piece, which is a little dated, is about an important bridge that was recently destroyed in Baghdad.]

Some eyewitnesses reported that the explosion was very huge and caused four cars to fall into the Tigris witch were passing over the bridge. The river-police were trying to rescue people from those cars.

Our correspondent spoke with a policemen who confirmed that 12 people get killed and 30 injuries as well as sounds of the explosion were reported as being heard across Baghdad.

The Al-Sarrafya Bridge, located in the heart of Baghdad, is one of the oldest and most famous bridges in the capital. This bridge makes easy to reach to Baghdad University, Al-Mistensirya University, medical city, and Al-Karkh republican hospital as it connects the Al-a’atefya region and Al-Sarrafya.

Coincidence or American connection?

Another eyewitness reported says as follows:

I distressed today in the early morning as every Iraqi nobleman were distressed with this criminal accident, this time the target was (Al-Sarrafya bridge)… this, leads to collapse a big part of the bridge, and to say nothing about the human damage left behind among killed, wounded, and shocked.

I’m not here to tell a story as what press news were reporting it with passion but I would like to mention on some points leaving the comment on this subject to you:

1. 1 - The time of the explosion and its harshness and the way of it doesn’t goes too far from the explosion of the sepulcher of the two Imams (Samara’a explosion).

   2 - Not a human being can deny the supposition that the operation of the bridge was done after the curfew end, and every eyewitnesses assured that the explosion done in a smart way that’s needed along time of work.

   3 - The explosion was very huge and heard in all of Baghdad, and that is a sign of the huge amount of squib material that used in it and its type that used in this explosion (remember Samara’a explosion), to know that the explosion happened after less than 24 hour from the American occupation forces show a new Iranian weapons found in Iraq.

   4 - Where were the coterie of Baratha temple and what surround it from death squids, the sectarianism, and the ING’s?

   5 - As Samara’a… AL-Sarafya bridge is an strategic bridge that serve all Iraqi people without any special sect because its connect many and common areas, and there is no profit to any sect to do such thing.

   6 - The current political circumstances is too strained, government disagreement, AL-Sadir forces threatening to withdraw from the Government, splitting in coalition, storm disagreement with the proximity country…it is the same circumstances that happened before Samara’a explosion.

By
Kamal Al-Jubouri

HOW THE BAGHDAD EMBASSY WAS BUILT
By DAVID PHINNEY

In the months following September 2005, complaints began coming in to the US State Department that all was not well with its most ambitious project ever: a sprawling new embassy project on the banks of the ancient Tigris River. The largest, most heavily-fortified embassy in the world with over 20 buildings, it spans 104 acres-- comparable in size to the Vatican.

Soon after the State Department awarded $592-million building contract to First Kuwaiti General Trading and Contracting in July 2005, thousands of low-paid migrant workers recruited from South Asia, the Philippines and other nations poured into Baghdad, beginning work to build the gargantuan complex within two years time. But sources involved in the embassy project tell Slogger that during First Kuwaiti's rush to the finish the project by this summer on schedule, American managers and specialists involved with the project began protesting about the living and working conditions of lower-paid workers sequestered and largely unseen behind security walls bordering the embassy project inside the US-controlled Green Zone.

The Americans protested that construction crews lived in crowded quarters; ate sub-standard food; and had little medical care. When drinking water was scarce in the blistering heat, coolers were filled on the banks of the Tigris, a river rife with waterborne disease, sewage and sometimes floating bodies, they said. Others questioned why First Kuwaiti held the passports of workers. Was it to keep them from escaping? Some laborers had turned up "missing" with little investigation. Another American said laborers told him they were been misled in their job location. When recruited, they were unaware they were heading for war-torn Iraq.

After hearing similar allegations during much of 2006, Howard J. Krongard, the State Department's inspector general, flew to Baghdad for what he describes as a "brief" review on Sept. 15. He now reports that the complaints had no substance.

"Nothing came to our attention," he wrote in a nine-page memorandum posted recently on the State Department's Web site. More importantly, after interviewing an unstated number of workers from the Philippines, India, Nepal and Pakistan, Krongard said no evidence was found of labor smuggling, trafficking or other abuses. Krongard makes no mention of an ongoing investigation by the US Justice Department of First Kuwaiti and others for such alleged practices and other matters.

One former labor foreman at the embassy site who recently read Krongard's review called it "bull shit." Another former First Kuwaiti employee viewed it as "a whitewash."

Meanwhile, Justice Department trial attorneys Andrew Kline and Michael J. Frank with the civil rights division have been contacting former First Kuwaiti employees and others for interviews and documents, but declined to comment on the investigation other than to say they are looking into allegations of labor trafficking.

WORKERS DIVERTED TO IRAQ

Dozens of migrant workers from Nepal and the Philippines have previously accused First Kuwaiti of pressuring them to work in Iraq under US military contracts against their wishes. Late last year several Americans also claimed they boarded separate chartered jets in Kuwait loaded with work crews holding boarding passes to Dubai, but the planes then flew directly to Baghdad. Just this week, another American reported to Slogger that he was told by workers from Ghana on the embassy site that they were led to believe they would have jobs in Dubai but were then taken to work in Iraq.

First Kuwaiti general manager Wadih al Absi flatly dismisses the accusations as unfounded and false.

"I am telling you that First Kuwaiti has never violated any visa violations or forced people to work," he said during a telephone interview last January. "In the coming months you will see that First Kuwaiti is the best company working in the Middle East."

Since landing the Baghdad project, the State Department has given First Kuwait some $200 million more in embassy work in Africa, India and Indonesia. The company is now said to be competing for another large US embassy in Lebanon.

Had Krongard visited earlier than last September and unannounced, he may have witnessed something very different then what his memorandum relates. A half-dozen Americans who worked on the embassy project now say the inspector general saw nothing inappropriate because the problems had been cleaned up in anticipation of his Sept. 15 inspection and because of complaints and inquiries from the news media.

LIVING TWENTY IN A TRAILER

"Most of the allegations (from the Americans) were true before he arrived," claims Juvencio Lopez, who says he was a high-level project manager under the US State Department over the course of 2 years. During a telephone interview last weekend, he said the laborers "had their backs to the wall," and had been living 20 to a trailer. Protests over First Kuwaiti's bad food, abusive treatment from managers and unsafe working conditions were routine among many of the 2,700 workers during much of 2005 and 2006

"There were strikes and sit-downs every month," Lopez says. He left Iraq in November 2006 and is now home in San Antonio, Texas. "Sometimes there were almost riots."

Lopez vividly recalls a First Kuwaiti security guard unholstering his 9mm handgun and walking among the squatting protestors telling them to get back to work. Had the guard fallen or workers tackled him to the ground, the gun might have gone off. Lopez said he immediately reported the incident to First Kuwaiti. "Someone could gotten killed or injured."

On another occasion, a company manager roughed up a Filipino worker, sources say. All of the other Filipinos nearby began loudly protesting as bewildered workers from other countries watched. "The workers were from 36 different countries and they everyone spoke a different language," Lopez says.

One of First Kuwaiti's new improvements includes the workers medical clinic, complete with pharmacy, emergency room, x-ray machine, and dental suite, all of which appeared just weeks before the inspector's general visit, according to several witnesses. "Every month the clinic wasn't there, they were saving money...but it got to be an embarrassment," Lopez says. "I was away, but when I returned in November, it was there."

That wasn't what former Army emergency medical technician Rory Mayberry found in March 2006. First Kuwaiti had hired Mayberry as a medic under a subcontract with MSDS, a two-person, minority-owned computer consulting company outside Washington, DC. Recommended to First Kuwaiti by contractor Jim Golden who oversees the embassy project for the State Department, MSDS had never before provided medical services or worked in Iraq.

Once arriving at the construction site, Mayberry says he found the most basic of medical needs missing and that clinics lacked hot water, disinfectant and hand washing stations. Mayberry also claims that workers' medical records in total disarray or nonexistent, beds were dirty and the support staff was poorly trained. Prescription pain killers were being handed out "like a candy store ... and then people were sent back to work," to operate heavy equipment or climb scaffolding, he adds.

Several workers had died prior to Mayberry's arrival, perhaps because of improper diagnosis, and he recommended an investigation. Days after reporting the problems to First Kuwaiti and the State Department, Mayberry was taken off the site and discharged.

More than six months later, the inspector general discovered the clinic clean and well-organized and with several medical staff members. "The medications were neatly arranged and appeared to be labeled in both English and Arabic. Medical staff members we interviewed said they were not aware of any medical unit visits by workers for injuries related to beatings or abuse."

Krongard also noted that the food is "quite good" with "six different dining facilities serving Egyptian, Philippine, African, Lebanese, Pakistani and Indian cuisines to meet the different tastes of most of the workers."

The Lebanese food was always good, sources say, because all of First Kuwaiti's top managers are Lebanese and they ate there along with the American managers. There was a pecking order based on nationality, race and class, Paul Chapman said. He worked nine months for a subcontractor to First Kuwaiti and is now home in South Carolina. Chapman recalls seeing workers walk a mile to stand in line where rice, stew and flatbread were served from the back of truck. Food was ladled from marmite food containers. "I'd see them eating along side the road or near their trailers."

But what bothered Chapman more was the disappearance of seven workers from India, Pakistan and the Philippines who were listed as "missing" on First Kuwaiti rosters. Fearing they may have been killed and dumped into the Tigris, he began pressing embassy officials overseeing the project to investigate. "They told me to forget about it because the workers had probably found other jobs."

Since workers were rarely allowed outside the project area, it was a mystery how they would have found other jobs. Even more puzzling was that they may have left without passports. First Kuwaiti keeps most passports locked up in a storage room.

In October, workers from Ghana on the embassy site told Chapman that they expected to get jobs in Dubai but were then sent to Iraq. Chapman wanted to report these incidents to the inspector general but says he was discouraged from doing so.

'EVERY US LABOUR LAW BROKEN'

Supplementing Krongard's review, the coalition Multi-National Force inspector general in Baghdad also interviewed 36 workers from seven different countries at the new embassy site in December. The MNF-I IG claimed it found no evidence to indicate the presence of severe forms of labor trafficking, but did find a workers from Nepal, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka reported deceptive hiring practices by recruitment agencies in their home countries. The said they had been promised higher pay, shorter hours and days off. "A large majority of workers" from the Indian subcontinent incurred recruiting fees of up to one year's salary.

Chapman and others also claim that standard safety procedures on the project frequently went unobserved. Many worked without safety harnesses when off the ground and had no hardhats or boots. Work clothes were dirty and tattered. Those that had them had only one set of work clothes so they were rarely washed. They became dirty and tattered, causing rashes and sores.

Some worked in sandals, others in bare feet. "They had their toes curled around the rebar like birds," Lopez remembers.

"Every US labor law was broken," says an American labor foreman, John Owens, who adds that he never witnessed a safety meeting. Once an Egyptian worker fell and broke his back and was sent home. No one ever heard from him again. "The accident might not have happened if there was a safety program and he had known how to use a safety harness," charges Owen, who left the embassy project last June.

Still, Lopez believes that First Kuwaiti is one of the best companies he has ever worked with, adding "I wish I could bring the company here" to the United States. He talks in global terms and explains that many Americans are not accustomed to working on an international stage where workers come from impoverished countries and are eager to work under any conditions. "Just look at where the workers came from," he says. "They were much better off in Baghdad."

Own offers a different take on the workers he supervised. After having worked construction on US embassy sites in Armenia, Bulgaria, Angola, Cameroon and Cambodia, nothing compares to the mess he saw in Baghdad. "I've never seen a project more fucked up."

David Phinney is a journalist and broadcaster based in Washington, DC, whose work has appeared in The Los Angeles Times, New York Times and on ABC and PBS. He can be contacted at: phinneydavid@yahoo.com.

www.iraqslogger.com

Tigris River becoming a graveyard of bodies

Report, IRIN, 10 May 2007

BAGHDAD (IRIN) - The River Tigris has long been a symbol of prosperity in Iraq but since the US-led invasion in 2003, this amazing watercourse has turned into a graveyard of bodies. In addition, the water level is decreasing as pollution increases, say environmentalists.Pollution in the river is caused by oil derivatives and industrial waste as well as Iraqi and US military waste, they say.

The river was one of the main sources of water, food, transport and recreation for the local population but after four years of war and pollution, it has been transformed into a stagnant sewer, according to environmentalists."The situation is critical. The river is gradually being destroyed and there are no projects to prevent its destruction," said Professor Ratib Mufid, an environment expert at Baghdad University."A large part of the river has been turned into a military area, forcing families to leave their homes around the riverbanks and close restaurants. Fishermen are prohibited from fishing where the river passes through the capital and all vessels are banned in the area," Mufid said.
The river is contaminated with war waste and toxins, and residents of the impoverished Sadr City suburb are often left with no alternative but to drink contaminated water from the Tigris. This is why, specialists say, many Sadr City residents are plagued by diarrhea and suffer from recurring kidney stones.

In the hot dry summer months, when the water level drops, mud islands can be seen, and water levels appear to be decreasing every year."The problem of decreasing water flow starts in Turkey's Taurus mountains. Between there and Kurdistan, many dams have been built which help to decrease the water flow. The idea [of dam-building] was to prevent floods which over the years affected northern communities, but the consequence can now be seen with nearly half the previous water flow," Seif Barakah, media officer for the Ministry of Environment, said.

Ban on shipping, fishing

Military forces have banned shipping and fishing in the river, and many families who depend for their income on fishing have been deprived of their means of survival. "Many fishermen have been killed trying to fish at night because they encountered insurgents looking to plant bombs on the riverbanks. It is still possible to find some men trying to fish, but it is rare," Barakah said.
During the day, military boats can be seen making their daily patrols, and in more secure areas, such as those near the fortified Green Zone, snipers are on guard 24 hours a day preventing insurgents from entering the zone.

Dead bodies

Every day local police haul bodies from the Tigris bearing signs of torture. Locals who live near the river constantly see floating bodies.

The situation is even worse in Suwayrah, a southern area of the capital, where the government has built barriers with huge iron nets to trap plants and garbage dropped in the river but now this is also a barrier for bodies."Since January 2006 at least 800 bodies have been dragged from those iron nets, and this figure does not include those collected from the central section of the river. Most of the bodies are unidentified and buried without family claims," said Col Abdel-Waheed Azzam, a senior officer in the investigation department of the Ministry of Interior.According to Azzam, 90 percent of the bodies found in the river show signs of serious torture. "Because of the state of the bodies, it is not useful to try to have an autopsy done, and if the bodies are not claimed within 24 hours they are automatically buried," he said.

Highly polluted

During Saddam Hussein's regime people caught dumping garbage in the river were punished, but today mountains of rubbish can be seen on the riverbanks; and these affect the normal watercourse and pollute the area."With dams decreasing the water flow, the salt level rises and in conjunction with the high level of pollutants dumped in the river by northern cities, this reduces oxygen levels, making an unpropitious environment for any living being," Barakah said.

Fishermen said that years ago it was easy to catch a fish in the river but today even if you use nets it is practically impossible to catch a fish and many can be found floating, having died of pollution and lack of oxygen."Today, the only fish you can catch are those floating and which died from pollution after ingesting toxic waste and eating rubbish," said Ateif Fahi, 56, a fisherman in the capital, Baghdad.

This item comes to you via IRIN, the humanitarian news and analysis service of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. The opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect those of the United Nations or its Member States. Reposting or reproduction, with attribution, for non-commercial purposes is permitted. Terms and conditions

I drew a map explaining with all what happened… it begins firstly from Salih’s Guards… those Guards were thinking that there is some militia were attacking them so they throw a grenade on the U.S. forces… actually the U.S. forces were only patrolling… that’s the whole story… all of what happened was a misunderstanding from both side… but lets see what the Americans did to the neighborhood.

House #1:

This house belong to Salih Al-mutlak… there was 5 guards in the house… 2 of them escaped in the head of Sallam’s house… one of them killed… the rest 3 escaped to house Num 4… one of them died by a grenade thrown by the U.S. Forces… House Num 1 was completely destroyed… it had been attacked by 4 missiles from the choppers + the gun firing from the machine guns.

House #2:

This house is the Salih Al-mutlak next door… the main door and the wall was destroyed and there were no injury.

House #3:

It is a building on the main street… the second floor was a store and it had been burned because of the gun firing.

House #4:

It is the house where the 3 guards were hiding in its garden… the U.S. forces throw a grenade and kill one of the guards.

House #5:

This house is belong to a poor family… through the battle… one of them get injured… so the rest of the family went outside the house to call for help… when they are outside the house and exactly at the main door… the U.S. forces shoot the family… four of them were killed (the father, his two sons, his daughter)… the injured one died after awhile…

House #6:

This house belongs to Christian family… the father is aged 80 living with his son… (after they destroyed Salih Al-mutlak House… the U.S. forces begin the second attack on Guards of Sallama)… the tank entered house num 6 by destroying the gate and its wall… the 80 aged man was calling them to stop but they didn’t listen to him… they took out his cloth + his son both remained outside in cold weather … and the U.S. forces stole the house… (They stole a big mount of money + laptop + camera + some other stuff)

House #7:

This house was empty… but the guards of Sallama were using it… U.S. forces entered this house and explode its door and they shoot every room in it.

House #8:

The house of Sallama… She is a V.I.P but she is not at the house… she put her guards and blocking the roads… that’s it… (I couldn’t get info about this house because of the Guards)

House #9:

The American destroys the main gate by a bomb… and entered in its garden only… (The car of this house was destroyed too)

House #10:

This house was also has a gun firing by the chopper… we can see the wholes that made by the choppers on the walls of the house and on the street. (The car was destroyed too).