'US troops' strike inside Syria

US helicopter-borne troops have carried out a raid inside Syria along the Iraqi border, killing eight people including four children, Syrian officials say.

The official Syrian news agency Sana said the raid took place in the Abu Kamal border area, in eastern Syria.

It said that American soldiers on four helicopters had stormed a building under construction on Sunday night.

The US says it is investigating. It has previously accused Syria of allowing foreign militants into Iraq.

Syria has summoned the US and Iraqi envoys in Damascus to protest at the raid.

"Syria condemns this aggressive act and holds American forces responsible for this aggression and all of its repercussions," a government official said.

If confirmed, the raid would be the first known attack by US forces inside Syrian territory, says the BBC's Natalia Antelava.

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In order to whitewash or to give a "perspective" on the event, the US make sure we know that:

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A US military spokesman could not confirm or deny the reports, saying it was a "developing situation".

The area is near the Iraqi border city of Qaim, a major crossing point for fighters, weapons and money travelling into Iraq to fuel the Sunni insurgency.

Washington has in the past accused Damascus of turning a blind eye to the problem.

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But we have no proof of the problem ("a major crossing point for fighters, weapons and money travelling into Iraq to fuel the Sunni insurgency"), have we? And why bomb a family?... Is this reprisals or a way to create more resentment and more "insurgency" on order to justify more US "presence" in the area?

Report Finds Iraq Water Treatment Project to Be Late, Faulty and Over Budget

A huge American-financed wastewater treatment plant in the desert city of Falluja, which United States troops assaulted twice to root out insurgents in 2004, was supposed to be the centerpiece of an effort to rebuild Iraq, a country smashed by war and neglect, and bring Western standards of sanitation.

Instead, the project, which has tripled in cost from original plans to $100 million and has fallen about three years behind schedule, has become an example of the failed and often oversold program to rebuild Iraq’s infrastructure with American dollars and skill.

The project was so poorly conceived that there is no reliable electricity to run pumps and purification tanks, and no money left to connect homes to the main sewer lines, which now run uselessly beneath Falluja’s streets, according to a report by federal investigators to be released Monday.

The report by the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, an independent federal office led by Stuart W. Bowen Jr., stops short of saying that officials with the United States Army Corps of Engineers, which has primary responsibility for the project, or the American Embassy’s own reconstruction bureau, the Iraq Transition Assistance Office, deliberately withheld information on the problems.

Officials Say U.S. Killed an Iraqi in Raid in Syria

WASHINGTON — A raid into Syria on Sunday was carried out by American Special Operations forces who killed an Iraqi militant responsible for running weapons, money and foreign fighters across the border into Iraq, American officials said Monday.

The helicopter-borne attack into Syria was by far the boldest by American commandos in the five years since the United States invaded Iraq and began to condemn Syria’s role in stoking the Iraqi insurgency.

The timing was startling, not least because American officials praised Syria in recent months for its efforts to halt traffic across the border.

But in justifying the attack, American officials said the Bush administration was determined to operate under an expansive definition of self-defense that provided a rationale for strikes on militant targets in sovereign nations without those countries’ consent.

Together with a similar American commando raid into Pakistan more than seven weeks ago, the operation on Sunday appeared to reflect an intensifying effort by the Bush administration to find a way during its waning months to attack militants even beyond the borders of Iraq and Afghanistan, where the United States is at war.

In a brief public comment more than 24 hours after the special forces strike, an Iraqi government spokesman, Ali al-Dabbagh, said Baghdad rejected raids on its neighbours and did not want to be used as a launch pad.

"The constitution does not allow Iraq to be used as a staging ground to attack neighbouring countries," Dabbagh said, though he also called for an end to insurgent activity in Syria.

The Syrian foreign minister, Walid al-Moualem, last night said Iraqi officials had "started to see the truth" about the raid.

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Meanwhile in the other main theater of biffo...

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One of Britain's most senior military officers warned last night that there was no point in sending reinforcements to Afghanistan until the Afghans themselves were able to control the ground captured by foreign troops.

Lieutenant General Sir Peter Wall, who is responsible for overseeing British military operations, said the notion that "flooding" Afghanistan with a "whole load" more troops was the solution was misleading.

The Afghans had to deliver better governance and build up their own armed forces, he said. There was no point in investing more money and men in the country unless security and economic and social projects were seen to be "inspired by the Afghans themselves", he added. "If we do it for them, it will just not count."

A man accused of being Osama Bin Laden's media secretary has been convicted by a US military jury at the Guantanamo Bay detention centre.

Ali Hamza al-Bahlul showed no emotion as he was found guilty of conspiracy, solicitation to commit murder and making propaganda videos for al-Qaeda.

The 39-year-old Yemeni faces a possible life sentence. He refused to present a defence during the trial.

US Afghan air strike 'killed 40'

Afghan President Hamid Karzai has said about 40 people were killed in a US air strike in southern Kandahar province.

Many more were wounded when a wedding party was hit. US officials confirmed civilian deaths and are investigating.

"We cannot win the fight against terrorism with air strikes," Mr Karzai said in comments directed at US President-elect Barack Obama.

Mr Karzai has repeatedly criticised the high level of civilian casualties in such bombings.

The latest civilian deaths underline the challenges facing the US president-elect and future commander-in-chief.

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Gus: Please man! Dubya! If you are decent enough, just hold up the hostilities for a couple of months and let the next decider make the decisions. That might prevent you being responsible once more for killing another wedding party. Murderer! And please do not claim the "accidental" clausal excuse... It's careless and smacks of reprisal rather than being a "honest" mistake. A mistake like this is never a honest one...

But then I am dreaming you'd wake up to your own outrageous and dangerous stupidity... An impossibility from where you're starting from, unfortunately...  At least, most people of America have woken up...

Let's hope for better days...

Iraq plans to close a camp for Iranian dissidents who used to cross into Iran to mount assassinations and sabotage - a decision that has sharpened political differences between Baghdad and Washington.

Camp Ashraf, about 80 miles north of Baghdad, came under Iraqi control yesterday in a broad security handover that forms part of the US withdrawal agreement concluded late last year.

Iraq's national security adviser, Mowaffaq al-Rubaie, led a delegation of defence and interior ministry officials to the camp last weekend, warning its 2,500 male and 1,000 female inmates that "staying in Iraq is not an option". The Iraqi government said it "is keen to execute its plans to close the camp and send its inhabitants to their country or other countries in a non-forcible manner".

US President Barack Obama has ordered the closure of the Guantanamo Bay prison camp as well as all overseas CIA detention centres for terror suspects.

Signing the orders, Mr Obama said the US would continue to fight terror, but maintain "our values and our ideals".

Two days after his inauguration, he also ordered a review of military trials of terror suspects and a ban on harsh interrogation methods.

About 250 suspects have been held at Guantanamo Bay for years without trial.

At Mr Obama's request, military judges have suspended several of the trials of suspects at Guantanamo so that the legal process can be reviewed.

'Ongoing struggle'

Mr Obama signed the three executive orders on Thursday, further distancing his new administration from the policies of his predecessor, George W Bush.

He said the Guantanamo prison "will be closed no later than one year from now."

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... restoring "values and ideals".... see toon at top....

Iraq's Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has finished first in provincial elections, strengthening the central government and weakening the religious parties that dominated after the fall of Saddam Hussein. But Iraqis still voted along sectarian or ethnic lines with Mr Maliki's successes all coming in Shia-dominated provinces.

The election commission announced yesterday that the premier's "State of Law" coalition had won 38 per cent of the votes cast in Baghdad and 37 per cent in Basra, Iraq's two largest cities. It also finished first in seven other provinces south of Baghdad. Among the Sunni Arabs, nationalist and secular parties did well.

Mr Maliki will be able to claim that his policy of strengthening the central government, which saw him confront at different times last year the Shia militia of the anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, the US government and the Kurds, has been endorsed by voters. The elections to the powerful provincial councils in 14 out of 18 provinces are seen as a preview for the parliamentary elections in December.

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is it a case of "better the devil you know?"....

and by the way, the US is only loosing about 15 soldiers per month in Iraq... An improvement now steady... The walls of Baghdad mind you are still separating all the ethnicities... See toon at top and comment below it...

A prominent Kurdish politician has defied Turkish law by giving a speech to parliament in his native Kurdish.

Ahmet Turk was addressing his party in parliament when he suddenly switched language from Turkish to Kurdish.

The live broadcast on state TV was immediately cut, as the language is banned in parliament.

Some one-fifth of Turkey's population are ethnic Kurds, but speaking Kurdish in public was banned until the 1990s, as it was seen as a threat to unity.

The Kurdish language is, however, still banned in all state institutions and official correspondence.

Fight for votes

When Mr Turk defied the law, party members gave him a standing ovation. There was praise from Kurds here in the south east too - where people described the speech as a brave move, long overdue. They also called for all restrictions on the use of Kurdish to be lifted.

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see toon at top and the comments below it....

Robert Fisk’s World: Right to the very end in Iraq, our masters denied us the truth

The sentence ‘millions of Iraqis now live free of oppression’ is pure public relations

...

Not so "SM's" reply. Here is another quotation from his execrable letter. "It is important to remember that our decision to take action (sic) in Iraq was driven by Saddam Hussein's refusal to co-operate with the UN-sponsored weapons inspections... The former Prime Minister has expressed his regret for any information, given in good faith, concerning weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, which has subsequently proven to be incorrect."

I am left breathless by this lie. Saddam Hussein did not "refuse to co-operate" with the UN weapons inspectors. The whole problem was that – to the horror of Blair and Bush – the ghastly Saddam did co-operate with them, and the UN weapons team under Hans Blix was about to prove that these "weapons of mass destruction" were non-existent; hence the Americans forced Blix and his men and women to leave Iraq so that they and Blair could stage their illegal invasion. I saw Blix's aircraft still on the ground at Baghdad airport just two days before the attack. Note, too, the weasel words. Blair did not give his information "in good faith", as SM claims. He knew – and the Ministry of Defence knew (and I suppose SM knew) – they were untrue. Or "incorrect" as "SM" coyly writes.

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See potted history above, below the toon... read more of Robert Fisk at the Independent...

Blair lied, Bush lied, Howard lied...

Furious protests threaten to undermine the Iraqi government's controversial plan to give international oil companies a stake in its giant oilfields in a desperate effort to raise declining oil production and revenues.

In less than two weeks, on 29 and 30 June, the Iraqi Oil Minister, Hussain Shahristani, will award service contracts to the world's largest oil companies to develop six of Iraq's largest oil-producing fields over 20 to 25 years.

Senior figures within the Iraqi oil industry have denounced the deal. Fayad al-Nema, the director of the South Oil Company, which comes under the Oil Ministry and produces most of Iraq's crude, said on the weekend: "The service contracts will put the Iraqi economy in chains and shackle its independence for the next 20 years. They squander Iraq's revenues." Mr Nema is reported to have since been fired because of his opposition to the contracts, which he says is shared by many other officials in Iraq's state-owned oil industry.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/iraqi-oil-minister-accused-of-mother-of-all-sellouts-1707906.html

The reception at Guildhall, in London, was also attended by the Prince of Wales, the Duchess of Cornwall and Prince William.

The royals mingled with military personnel and their families and the young prince laughed and posed for photos with eager veterans.

Lance Corporal of Horse James Shaw, 28, of the Household Cavalry in Windsor, was pleased to see Prince William again after training at the same base.

He said: "When we got here, we realised what a momentous occasion it was.

"We've lost a couple of lads out there and it was nice to think of them."

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see toon at top and story below it...

A senior Foreign Office lawyer who quit in protest at the invasion of Iraq will this week lay bare the sharp divisions within the Blair administration and its Whitehall advisers as Britain careered towards war in 2003.

On Tuesday, three days before Tony Blair faces the Chilcot inquiry into the Iraq war, Elizabeth Wilmshurst will make perhaps the most explosive contribution to date by revealing the confusion and infighting between officials and ministers over the legality of deposing Saddam Hussein without United Nations support.

Her first public account of the circumstances leading to her dramatic resignation threatens to permanently undermine the Government's insistence that it was united behind the fateful decision to join the United States in attacking Iraq in March 2003.

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see toon at top and story below it...

From Al Jazeera

Iraqis are scared to travel to Diyala, a province that experiences bombings and killings on a regular basis.

"It is still not a safe place" was what many people told Al Jazeera's Zeina Khodr on a visit to Diyala, despite the fact that Iraqi security forces and US troops have a heavy presence in the area, particularly in Baquba, the provincial capital.

But soon US troops will leave and those who are meant to protect are viewed with suspicion.

"The Iraqi police is infiltrated by armed groups," Abdel Hussein Ali Damouk, Diyala's police chief, told me.

"We have made a number of arrests including officers.

"We are now checking the background of each policeman ... the problem was they were hired by security agencies without any security checks because we needed a force in place as soon as possible."

Such an admission coming from the head of the force is an indication of the challenges ahead, just months before US combat troops withdraw under an agreement with the Iraqi government.

The man who led UN weapons inspectors in Iraq before the 2003 invasion is set to appear before the war inquiry.

Hans Blix was a key figure in the months before the war as his team sought to determine the extent of Saddam Hussein's weapons programme.

He is likely to be asked whether war could have been prevented if his inspectors had been given more time.

He has subsequently accused the UK and US of "over-interpreting" intelligence on weapons to bolster the case for war.

...

The Iraq inquiry was accused on Monday of been "too easygoing" in grilling witnesses about the lead-up to the war.

Carne Ross, a former UK diplomat to the UN, told the BBC that Sir John Chilcot was running a "narrow" investigation, with the standard of questioning "pretty low".

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see toon at top and article below it...

By TIMOTHY WILLIAMS and YASMINE MOUSA

MOSUL, Iraq — Members of Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia have been holding up blood banks and hospitals at gunpoint, stealing blood for their wounded fighters rather than risk having them arrested at medical facilities, according to Iraqi doctors, employees at health centers and the Sunni insurgents themselves.

Iraqi health officials say the raids have been occurring for some time in provinces with large Sunni Arab populations and appear to signal an insurgency desperate to safeguard its core group of fighters. But the insurgents have a diminished ability to intimidate hospital staffs into caring for them directly and dwindling support among fellow Sunni Arabs, including doctors, the officials said.

The Iraqi security force members that guard medical facilities have often stood idly by as the armed robberies take place, according to workers. This has reinforced doubts about Iraq’s ability to take on even a diminished insurgency as the United States continues to reduce its troops in the country.

Hadad Hamad, a doctor in Anbar Province, said the raids occurred in western Iraq as early as 2005, when “Al Qaeda fighters burst into Al Qaim Hospital’s blood bank, seized large quantities of blood and took it” to a nearby village, apparently to treat their wounded.

The hospital, near the Syrian border, continues to be the focus of Qaeda raids. This summer, the hospital was ordered closed for several days to protect workers after doctors and other staff members had received death threats for refusing to cooperate with Al Qaeda’s demands for blood and other aid.

What is not clear, however, is whether the stolen blood would do an injured person any good. Imperfectly matched blood can prove fatal. “Even if you had the same blood type, you’d have to make a perfect match,” said Dr. Yaseen Ahmed Abbass, director of the Red Crescent Society in Iraq. “It is not an easy procedure.”

But some Iraqi doctors working in Sunni areas believe that Al Qaeda has its own specialists who perform blood transfusions and treat shrapnel and bullet wounds — and carry out more gruesome procedures as well.

In nearly three hours of testimony, Hans Blix gave a fascinating word picture of the war factions in the British and American governments. It was a testosterone-driven team seemingly bent on action – or "high on military" as he colourfully put it. "Were they (the Iraqis) a danger?" he asked rhetorically. "No they were not – they were prostrate. So what we got from this was anarchy, and it was an anarchy worse than tyranny."

Blix stated several times yesterday that he thought that Tony Blair had been "sincere." He had hoped always to get full backing from the UN, but in the end had been "taken prisoner on the American train" to military action. He said that the case put forward by the Blair government was based on "a very constrained legal explanation... You see how Lord Goldsmith [Blair’s Attorney-General] wriggled about and how he, himself, very much doubted it was adequate."

Dr Blix was long the bête noir of the Bush neo-cons, and Vice President Cheney tried to get him sacked several times.

Read more: http://www.thefirstpost.co.uk/66424,news-comment,news-politics,was-iraq-leader-saddam-hussein-a-danger-to-the-world-no-says-blix#ixzz0uxdeb3Ix

Saddam Hussein's foreign minister and close ally has accused Barack Obama of "leaving Iraq to the wolves". Giving his first face-to-face interview since the fall of Iraq in 2003 from a Baghdad jail, Tariq Aziz said he had been encouraged when Barack Obama became president, but had since decided he offered no alternative to his predecessor, George W Bush.

Watching TV from his cell, Aziz had been dismayed to see Obama preparing to pull out of Iraq. He said: "[Obama] cannot leave us like this. He is leaving Iraq to the wolves. When you make a mistake you need to correct a mistake, not leave Iraq to its death."

Aziz is currently serving a 15-year-sentence at a small prison in Baghdad. Visited there by the Guardian, he was apparently in good health and had nothing but praise for his Iraqi jailers.

The former foreign minister, considerably aged but with his trademark dark-rimmed glasses still in place, admitted his former regime had made "some mistakes" but refused to be disloyal to his old boss, saying he would not criticise him from a jail cell.

Aziz, who was Saddam's right-hand man for decades, said: "I will not speak against Saddam until I am a free man. If I speak now about regrets, people will view me as an opportunist."

"I don't say that I am a great man and that I was correct in everything that I did," he admitted. "But I am proud of my life because my best intention was to serve Iraq. There were mistakes though, there were things that were not completely correct."

While Aziz refused to elaborate on those mistakes, he did say his own surrender to US forces in 2003 was an error. He revealed he had said goodbye to Saddam in a suburban Baghdad home before contacting the Americans to arrange a deal whereby his family was allowed safe passage to Jordan – where they remain – and he gave himself up.

Torture. Corruption. Civil war. America has certainly left its mark

When you invade someone else's country, there has to be a first soldier – just as there has to be a last.

The first man in front of the first unit of the first column of the invading American army to reach Fardous Square in the centre of Baghdad in 2003 was Corporal David Breeze of the 3rd Battalion, Fourth Marine Regiment. For that reason, of course, he pointed out to me that he wasn't a soldier at all. Marines are not soldiers. They are Marines. But he hadn't talked to his mom for two months and so – equally inevitably – I offered him my satellite phone to call his home in Michigan. Every journalist knows you'll get a good story if you lend your phone to a soldier in a war.

"Hi, you guys," Corporal Breeze bellowed. "I'm in Baghdad. I'm ringing to say 'Hi! I love you. I'm doing fine. I love you guys.' The war will be over in a few days. I'll see you soon." Yes, they all said the war would be over soon. They didn't consult the Iraqis about this pleasant notion. The first suicide bombers – a policeman in a car and then two women in a car – had already hit the Americans on the long highway up to Baghdad. There would be hundreds more. There will be hundreds more in Iraq in the future.

The spate of attacks came as the ancient Christian communities here were agonising over whether to stay in Iraq or try to leave.

Since 2003, the Christian population - then estimated at somewhat less than a million - has dwindle to roughly half its size, following a number of bomb attacks on churches and abductions or killings of priests and other Christians.

The emigration has continued, and it would be surprising if it does not accelerate further, despite calls from Church and political leaders in Baghdad for Christians to remain.

The bombings showed that the militants are capable of carrying out co-ordinated attacks in different parts of the city against targets of their own choosing.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-11724378

see toon and story at top

Iraq's president has refused to sign off on a death sentence for the country's former foreign minister, Tariq Aziz, who was found guilty of crimes against humanity.

Iraq's high tribunal passed a death sentence on Aziz, once the international face of Saddam Hussein's government, late last month.

Saddam's former deputy was found guilty of "deliberate murder and crimes against humanity" over a crackdown on Shiite religious parties in the 1980s, and was sentenced to death.

He has already been in jail for nearly eight years and is in poor health.

Iraq's president, Jalal Talabani, says he will not sign the execution order because he is a socialist and because Aziz is an Iraqi Christian and an "old man" who is already over 70.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/11/17/3069380.htm

Here, at yourdemocracy, we're against the death penalty. There is no religious overtone to it, just that "lawfully" killing someone else whatever their crime is a no-no... The death penalty shows a crooked sadistical bent that even criminals may not have...

March 19 marks the eighth anniversary of the invasion of Iraq, a nation that had no weapons of mass destruction and was not involved in the 9/11 attacks.

It was sold to the American public as a war to defend our nation and free the Iraqi people.

US deputy secretary of defence Paul Wolfowitz said our soldiers would be greeted as liberators and that Iraqi oil money would pay for the reconstruction.

Vice president Dick Cheney said the military effort would take "weeks rather than months". And assistant defence secretary Ken Adelman predicted that "liberating Iraq would be a cakewalk".

Eight years on, it's time to look back at that "cakewalk".

More than 4,400 Americans have died as a result of the invasion and occupation of Iraq – more than the 3,000 killed on 9/11.

Over 32,000 US soldiers have been seriously wounded, many kept alive thanks to the miracle of modern medicine. But those numbers don't tell the half of it.

Stanford University and Naval Postgraduate School researchers who examined the delayed onset of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) found that by 2023 the rate of PTSD among Iraq war veterans could rise to as high as 35 per cent.

And for the second year in row, more soldiers committed suicide in 2010 than died in combat, a tragic but predictable human reaction to being asked to kill – and watching your friends be killed.

In 2008, Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz and Harvard University's Linda Blimes put the cost of the Iraq war at roughly $3tn, or about 60 times what the Bush administration first said the invasion would cost.

While a staggering figure, Stiglitz and Blimes now say that their estimate "was, if anything, too low".

In an update published last fall in The Washington Post, they note that the war not only drove up the federal debt, but helped drive the skyrocketing oil prices that contributed to the crashing of the global economy.

According to the National Priorities Project, the money the US government spent destroying Iraq could have provided annual salaries for 12.5 million teachers or paid the annual healthcare costs for 167 million Americans.

When elected officials tell us our nation is bankrupt, we should tell them to bring our war dollars home.

The people who have suffered the most from the Iraq "cakewalk" are Iraqi citizens.

For an invasion sold as an act of liberation and of "profound morality" by propagandists like Jeffrey Goldberg, the US and its allies sure managed to kill a staggering number of those they were liberating.

The organisation Iraq Body Count (IBC) has documented at least 99,900 violent civilian deaths as a direct result of the US-led invasion.

But that's an extremely conservative estimate based largely on deaths reported in Western media, an approach bound to undercount the massive death toll from the invasion.

Indeed, as WikiLeaks revealed last October, the US government covered up the violent killings of more than 15,000 Iraqi civilians – killings that weren't reported by any Western paper which amounted to roughly 20 per cent of IBC's official count at the time.

Unfortunately, the number of dead Iraqis is likely a lot higher than IBC's count.

A 2006 study  by researchers at Johns Hopkins University published in the Lancet medical journal found that in just over three years there were 654,965 "excess Iraqi deaths as a consequence of the war", with Iraq's death rate more than doubling due to gunfire – the leading cause of mortality – as well as lack of medicine and clean water.

Then a 2008 analysis by British polling firm Opinion Research Business estimated "that over 1,000,000 Iraqi citizens have died as a result of the conflict which started in 2003".

Thirteen years of bombings and sanctions crippled the infrastructure and basic services of what was once a wealthy country.

Then came the 2003 invasion, which destroyed electrical plants, sewage systems, water treatment facilities, hospitals and more.

Eight years later, the living conditions in Iraqi are worse than under Saddam Hussein, with the country plagued by a continued lack of electricity, clean water, medical care and security.

Iraqis wonder why - after the most powerful country in the world invaded and spent billions on reconstruction - they are still living in the dark.

According to the United Nations Refugee Agency, since 2003 "more than 4.7 million Iraqis have fled their homes, many in dire need of humanitarian care" – hardly an endorsement of life in the "liberated" nation.

Many Iraqis fled to Iran, Jordan and Syria, while roughly 1.5 million fled to other parts of Iraq, the majority of whom "have found no solutions to their plight", according to the UN.

In the aftermath, millions will never be able to return.

Women in Iraq have been particularly hit by the invasion and occupation. The Iraqi government estimates there are up to 3 million widows in Iraq today.

Meanwhile, violence against women – including honour killings, rape and kidnapping – has increased, forcing many to remain at home and limiting employment and educational opportunities, according to a new Freedom House report.

"A deep feeling of injustice and powerlessness sometimes leads women to believe that the only escape is suicide," the report notes.

Many Iraqi women who fled to neighbouring countries have found themselves unable to feed their children.

Just to make ends meet, tens of thousands of them – including girls 13 and under – have been forced into prostitution, particularly in Syria.

"From what I've seen, 70 per cent to 80 per cent of the girls working this business in Damascus today are Iraqis," one refugee told The New York Times. "If they go back to Iraq they'll be slaughtered, and this is the only work available."

The US military dropped thousands of bombs across Iraq laced with depleted uranium, the radioactive waste produced from manufacturing nuclear fuel.

Valued by the military for its density and ability to ignite upon impact, depleted uranium bombs continue to kill years after they've been dropped.

In Fallujah, which was bombarded more than anywhere else in Iraq, British researchers uncovered a massive increase in infant mortality and rates of cancer, with the latter exceeding "those reported by survivors of the atomic bombs that were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki," according to The Independent.

And it's not just Fallujah facing a cancer epidemic. Al Jazeera reports that in the central Iraq province of Babil, reported cancer cases rose from 500 in 2004 to 7,000 in 2008.

And in Basra, the last 15 years have seen childhood leukemia rate more than double, according to a  study published last year in the American Journal of Public Health.

Saddam Hussein was a bad guy. Yet his worst crimes, including the 1980 invasion of Iran, came when he was backed by the US government, which was well aware of his penchant for torture and extrajudicial killings – talents American officials were fine with as as he was slaughtering Iranians.

Now, his US-backed successor, prime minister Nouri al-Maliki, is torturing and killing those who speak out against his rule. All he hasn't done is invade that other, not-yet-liberated member of the "Axis of Evil".

Inspired by the mass actions that took down US-backed strongmen in Egypt and Tunisia, thousands of Iraqis have taken to the streets to protest the al-Maliki government – only to be greeted with live ammunition.

On February 27, more than 29 protesters, including a 14-year-old boy, were gunned down by the Maliki-run security forces in Iraq.

Meanwhile, four journalists in Baghdad report that they, along with hundreds of protesters, were "blindfolded, handcuffed, beaten and threatened with execution" for being insufficiently pro-regime.

The charges of abuse come after WikiLeaks revealed further evidence that Maliki has been using the power of the state – and Shia death squads – to torture and murder his political opponents.

Life in the new Iraq isn't a whole lot different than life under Saddam. Given the protests sweeping North Africa and the Middle East, it seems invasions and foreign military occupations just aren't as effective as nonviolent protest at promoting reform.

When it wasn't completely sold as a humanitarian mission, the Bush administration cast the war on Iraq as a response to the 9/11 terror attacks, scaring the American public into submission with vials of faux-anthrax and concocted tales about Iraq's ties to al-Qaeda.

Yet, as US intelligence agencies recognised after the invasion, "the Iraq war has made the overall terrorism problem worse", in the words of one American official.

Indeed, there was no better recruitment ad for terrorists than the images the Bush administration and its allies providing foreign troops who were destroying Iraqi society.

And there's no better way to create a committed enemy than to kill someone's family - or in the case of Abu Ghraib, to humiliate and torture – sometimes to death – an innocent loved one.

Once you get past all the rationalisations, the invasion of Iraq was just like any other war. It necessitated teaching young men and women to believe that it's morally acceptable to take kill.

And a 2007 army investigation spurred by the massacre of two dozen Iraqi civilians in Haditha said as much.

"Statements made by the chain of command during interviews for this investigation, taken as a whole, suggest that Iraqi civilian lives are not as important as US lives, their deaths are just the cost of doing business, and that the Marines need to get 'the job done' no matter what it takes," wrote Maj. Gen. Eldon Bargewell in the report.

People typically don't want to kill other human beings. They must be conditioned to dehumanise the enemy and believe that murdering is not just okay - but also just.

Basic training involves destroying a person's ability to empathise with the "other" for the good of the nation (or rather, its rulers). But that ability doesn't just suddenly reemerge when the war is over. And unfortunately, that's evidenced by the alarming incidents of domestic violence committed by returning veterans.

The invasion and occupation of Iraq continues to affect lives after veterans of the war rejoin civilian life as police officers and husbands, as foremen and fathers. The lesson that violence is an acceptable means to achieve one's ends is not one soon forgotten.

But violence isn't just legitimised at base camp; it's legitimised by the Obama administration's failure to hold accountable those who took the country into an illegal war of aggression.

Those war criminals – the likes of George Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Condoleezza Rice and Karl Rove – are all enjoying successful book tours and reaping hefty speaking fees, while the man who allegedly exposed war crimes, Bradley Manning, is behind bars being tortured.

There's a lesson there – one that doesn't speak well for our system of government. And it suggests that our political establishment will continue to drag us into wars of choice in the future. After all, they won't be fighting or paying the consequences of combat.

On this shameful anniversary, let's not forget that despite president Obama's promise to leave Iraq, the US still has 50,000 troops there, thousands of private mercenaries and dozens of military bases, with generals not-so-subtly hinting at a permanent presence.

We should demand the president close those bases and bring the troops home. We should prosecute those responsible for sending them. And we should apologise to the Iraqi people for the misery the US government has wrought.

The damage of war has been done. But the US must begin making amends to Iraq by leaving.

Medea Benjamin is cofounder of CODEPINK: Women for Peace and Global Exchange. Charles Davis has covered Congress for NPR and Pacifica stations, and freelanced for the international news wire Inter Press Service.

http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/opinion/2011/03/201132173052269144.html

from the BBC

"This," a leading American supporter of President George W Bush wrote in a British newspaper back in February 2003, just before the invasion of Iraq, "is our imperial moment".

He went on to argue that the British had no right to criticise America for doing what they themselves had done so enthusiastically a century before.

But America's imperial moment did not last long. And now, seven years later, the US is criticised for just about everything that happens here.

Opinion is evenly divided between those who are glad to see the Americans go, and those who criticise them for leaving too soon and potentially laying Iraq open to fresh sectarian violence.

It is a pattern that every occupying power becomes used to. America, it seems, cannot do anything right - not even getting out.

Most of the arguments in favour of invading back in 2003 have come to nothing.

Many Iraqis welcomed the overthrow of Saddam Hussein - 50% regarded the invasion as a liberation, according to a BBC poll taken in 2004, while 50% regarded it as an occupation - but nowadays it is hard to find anyone who sees America as Iraq's friend and mentor.

Nor has the overthrow of Saddam Hussein led to a general domino effect towards democracy throughout the Middle East.

On the contrary, America's position in the Middle East has been visibly eroded.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-11135500

Five US soldiers have been killed in central Iraq, the US military has said.

It gave no further details but Iraqi sources said there had been a rocket attack on Camp Victory on the outskirts of Baghdad.

Washington officially ended combat operations in Iraq last August, leaving fewer than 50,000 US troops in Iraq.

US fatalities have been rare, although two US soldiers died when an Iraqi soldier opened fire on them in a training exercise in January.

The US soldiers' role is to advise and assist Iraq's security forces in fighting insurgents.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-13666607

see toon and story at top...

Iraq will ask the US to keep a troop presence in the country beyond an end-of-2011 pullout deadline, the probable next US defence secretary has said.

Outgoing CIA director Leon Panetta said he had "every confidence that a request like that will be forthcoming".

Mr Panetta was speaking at a US Senate committee considering his nomination.

The US currently has about 47,000 troops in Iraq, none in a combat role. Under a 2008 deal, they are expected to leave by 31 December 2011.

Inducements?

"It's clear to me that Iraq is considering the possibility of making a request for some kind of (troop) presence to remain there (in Iraq)," Mr Panetta told the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) on Thursday.

He added that when Baghdad does make such a request, Washington should say "Yes".

Mr Panetta did not say how many troops would be involved or what they would do.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-13722786

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The emperor's clothes were sawn with many loose threads... see toon and story at top.

Osama al-Najai, the Iraqi parliament speaker, has told Al Jazeera that the amount of Iraqi money unaccounted for by the US is $18.7bn - three times more than the reported $6.6bn.

Just before departing for a visit to the US, al-Najai said that he has received a report this week based on information from US and Iraqi auditors that the amount of money withdrawn from a fund from Iraqi oil proceeds, but unaccounted for, is much more than the $6.6bn reported missing last week.

"There is a lot of money missing during the first American administration of Iraqi money in the first year of occupation.

"Iraq's development fund has lost around $18bn of Iraqi money in these operations - their location is unknown. Also missing are the documents of expenditure.

"I think it will be discussed soon. There should be an answer to where has Iraqi money gone."

The Bush administration flew in a total of $20bn in cash into the country in 2004. This was money that had come from Iraqi oil sales, surplus funds from the UN oil-for-food programme and seized Iraqi assets.

Officials in Iraq were supposed to give out the money to Iraqi ministries and US contractors, intended for the reconstruction of the country.

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2011/06/201161962910765678.html

Colin Powell was the US secretary of state on September 11, 2001,  serving as then-President George Bush's point man on the world stage.

Powell made the case for war with Iraq at the United Nations.

On behalf of the administration, Powell said Saddam Hussein was trying to buy raw material from Africa to build nuclear weapons and he gave an elaborate description of an Iraqi weapons programme, that as it turned out, never existed.

Now, Powell says the US government got it wrong.

In part one of a two-part interview, Al Jazeera's Tony Harris sat down with Powell to talk about his regrets at being the face of false intelligence.

http://english.aljazeera.net/video/americas/2011/09/2011910141014776656.html

Gus: YES! intelligence on Iraq was FALSE, not faulty... Big admission or error to "follow the script so far" by Powell?... See story and toon at top...

CAIRO — Al Jazeera, the pan-Arab news network controlled by Qatar, named a member of the Qatari royal family on Tuesday to replace its top news director following disclosures from the group WikiLeaks indicating that the news director had modified the network’s coverage of the Iraq war in response to pressure from the United States.

The reshuffling comes as Al Jazeera is under intense scrutiny in the Middle East over its varying coverage of the Arab Spring revolts. Although the network is nominally independent — and its degree of autonomy was itself a revolution in the context of the region’s state-controlled news media when it began in 1996 — many people contend that its coverage of the region still reflects the views of its Qatari owners.

Al Jazeera played an early and influential role in covering — some would say encouraging — the unrest in Tunisia and Egypt last winter. It was even more aggressive in its focus on the regime of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi and the struggles of what it called “freedom fighters” in Libya, where Qatar came to play a major role in supporting the rebellion.

But some people now cite what they see as a double standard in the network’s sensational if not excessive coverage of the unrest in Syria on the one hand, and its relatively negligible coverage of the strife in Bahrain, Qatar’s Persian Gulf neighbor.

United States diplomatic cables disclosed recently by WikiLeaks appear to open a new window into the network’s interactions with Qatar and other governments.

A cable sent by the American ambassador, Chase Untermeyer, and dated October 2005, describes an embassy official’s meeting with Al Jazeera’s news director, Wadah Khanfar. According to the cable, the official handed Mr. Khanfar copies of critical reports by the United States Defense Intelligence Agency on three months of Al Jazeera’s coverage of the Iraq war; Mr. Khanfar said that the Qatari Foreign Ministry had already provided him with two months of the American reports, according to the cable, suggesting a close three-way consultation involving the two governments and the network.

Senior United States officials had often charged during the Iraq war that Al Jazeera’s coverage inflamed anti-American sentiment, but in the cable Mr. Khanfar appeared eager to convince the American official that Al Jazeera was trying to be fair. He said he was preparing a written response to points raised in the intelligence reports, according to the cable, and he urged American officials to keep his behind-the-scenes collaboration a secret.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/21/world/middleeast/after-disclosures-by-wikileaks-al-jazeera-replaces-its-top-news-director.html?hp=&pagewanted=print

see toon and story at top...

From Tom...

How about a moment of silence for the passing of the American Dream? M.R.I.C. (May it rest in carnage.)

No, I'm not talking about the old dream of opportunity that involved homeownership, a better job than your parents had, a decent pension, and all the rest of the package - that's so yesterday, so underwater, so OWS. I'm talking about a far more recent dream, a truly audacious one that's similarly gone with the wind.

I'm talking about George W Bush's American Dream. If people here remember the invasion of Iraq - and most Americans would undoubtedly prefer to forget it - what's recalled is kited intelligence, Saddam Hussein's nonexistent nuclear arsenal, dumb and even dumber decisions, a bloody civil war, dead Americans, crony corporations, a trillion or more taxpayer dollars flushed down the toilet ... well, you know the story. What few care to remember was that original dream - call it The Dream - and boy, was it a beaut!

An American dream

It went something like this: Back in early 2003, the top officials of the Bush administration had no doubt that Saddam Hussein's Iraq, drained by years of war, no-fly zones, and sanctions, would be a pushover; that the US military, which they idolised and romanticised, would waltz to Baghdad. (The word one of their supporters used in the Washington Post for the onrushing invasion was a "cakewalk".) Nor did they doubt that those troops would be greeted as liberators, even saviours, by throngs of adoring, previously suppressed Shia strewing flowers in their path. (No kidding, no exaggeration.)

read more: http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2011/11/2011119125417299832.html

see toon and story below it...

The 400 pages of interrogations, once closely guarded as secrets of war, were supposed to have been destroyed as the last American troops prepare to leave Iraq. Instead, they were discovered along with reams of other classified documents, including military maps showing helicopter routes and radar capabilities, by a reporter for The New York Times at a junkyard outside Baghdad. An attendant was burning them as fuel to cook a dinner of smoked carp.

The documents — many marked secret — form part of the military’s own internal investigation, and confirm much of what happened at Haditha, a Euphrates River town where Marines killed 24 Iraqis, including a 76-year-old man in a wheelchair, women and children, some just toddlers. Haditha became a defining moment of the war, helping cement an enduring Iraqi distrust of the United States and a resentment that not a single Marine was ever prosecuted. That is one of the main reasons that all American combat troops are leaving by the weekend.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/15/world/middleeast/united-states-marines-haditha-interviews-found-in-iraq-junkyard.html?_r=1&hp

From Chris Floyd

http://www.chris-floyd.com/component/content/article/1-latest-news/2203-the-wormwood-express-american-war-crime-rolls-on.html

I had much to say about the recent terror bombings in Baghdad, which were framed almost universally in the American media as the result of the withdrawal of the steadying, beneficent hand of the U.S. military. For example, the New York Times spoke of "a country reeling from political and sectarian turmoil that erupted after the departure of the American military."

It is hard to fathom the level of moral blindness -- not to mention the wilful ignorance -- required to write such a statement. To pretend to oneself, much less the rest of the world, that political and sectarian strife has only now "erupted" in Iraq, out of the blue, or more likely, due to the inherent savagery of those poor primitives we liberated -- think what a pathetic, self-deluded wretch you would have to be to hold such an belief. Think what it must be like to lose so much of your humanity and to have your intellect so stunted and diminished. Yet this is the viewpoint of the overwhelming majority of the American political and media elite. No causal connection is made between the unprovoked invasion by U.S. forces and the "eruption" of violence and political chaos in the conquered, broken, blood-soaked land.

A British woman who worked at the top of the US military during the most troubled periods of the Iraq war has said she fears the west has yet to see how some Muslims brought up in the last decade will seek revenge for the "war on terror".

Speaking for the first time about her experiences, Emma Sky also questioned why no officials on either side of the Atlantic have been held to account for the failures in planning before the invasion.

Sky, 44, was political adviser to America's most senior general in Iraq, and was part of the team that implemented the counterinsurgency strategy that helped to control the civil war that erupted in the country. The appointment of an English woman at the heart of the US military was a bold and unprecedented move, and it gave her unique access and insights into the conduct of one of the most controversial campaigns in modern history.

In all, the Oxford graduate spent more than four years in Iraq, including a spell as civilian governor of one of its most complex regions. She met Tony Blair and Barack Obama in Baghdad and earned the trust of senior Iraqi officials, as well as many of the country's leading politicians and community leaders, some of whom remain her friends.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jul/15/iraq-war-briton-us-military

See toon and article at top...

Eventually, the US was forced to admit that amongst its arsenal was white phosphorus - a substance the Pentagon described as a 'chemical weapon' when it was used by Saddam Hussein against the Kurds.

In addition, eyewitnesses claimed the US military used "unusual weapons".

Subsequent investigations have focused on the possible use of depleted uranium by the US for its armour-piercing qualities. The US, however, denies using such weaponry.

Research has shown elevated levels of radioactivity in Fallujah and across Iraq.

Iraqi physicians have also long reported a spike in cases involving severe birth defects in Fallujah since 2004. They have reported children born with multiple heads, serious brain damage, missing limbs and with extra fingers and toes.

A report published in 2011 on the level of uranium and other contaminants in hair from the parents of children with congenital anomalies in Fallujah partly concluded that: "Whilst caution must be exercised about ruling out other possibilities, because none of the elements found in excess are reported to cause congenital diseases and cancer except uranium, these findings suggest the enriched uranium exposure is either a primary cause or related to the cause of the congenital anomaly and cancer increases. Questions are thus raised about the characteristics and composition of weapons now being deployed in modern battlefields."

http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/insidestoryamericas/2012/08/2012815458859755.html

see toon and story at top... As mentioned before on this site, a cocktail of factors can interfere with various degrees, independently of the influence of the separate factors... Some substance may no induce birth defect but a combination of substances will....

see toon and story at top...

Drawing on intellectual and political history of different regions of the world, in a two-part series, Irfan Ahmad discusses the fallacy of and politics behind the current consensus on what constitutes terrorism. He shows how the dominant definition of terrorism as act of violence by non-state actors to induce political change is conceptually flawed and demonstrates how terror has historically been important to most ruling elites and states across time. Based on diverse examples from India, the US, Israel, Indonesia and elsewhere, to this end, the author also shows how the watertight distinction between state and non-state actors is fragile and unsustainable. 

As we approach twelfth year of the West-led war on terror (WOT), it is time to ask: what terrorism is. The more we watch and read about terrorism the less we understand it. The mediatised discourses on terrorism often mystify the phenomenon and politics of terrorism. This article critiques the dominant consensus on terrorism and WOT to pose some unpalatable questions essential for a fair debate. I make three arguments.  

First, the near consensus that terrorism is an act of violence by non-state actors to enact political change through fear is not only dubious and historically untenable it is also unethical as it unqualifyingly legitimises the state violence/terrorism which is responsible for killing far more number of people than those killed by terrorists. 

Second, I argue that we begin writing about the terror of counter-terrorists. It is my contention that counter-terrorists too practice terror. In fact, their terror is deadlier because of their assumed legitimacy, gigantic infrastructure, lethal weapons and sheer reach state terror has. To this end, I discuss "symbolic terror" of the term "new terrorism". In defining contemporary terrorism as distinctly religious, Islamic (often implicit than explicit), the so-called security experts and terrorism scholars perpetuate symbolic terror against Islam.  

http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2012/09/201294115140782135.html

see also : a cheek for a cheek, then a bomb... and read from top of Of Blasphemy...

44
The average daily summer temperature, in degrees Celsius, of Baghdad in summer. Troops reported unbearable heat while fighting in full combat gear.

4,777
The widely accepted total of coalition casualties in Iraq. At least 4,400 of these were American. Australia lost two soldiers, David Nary and Jake Kovco, both of whom died in accidents rather than combat. It is also worth mentioning that over 3,000 US contractors died in Iraq.

57,889
The number of Iraqis granted humanitarian visas in Australia over the last five years. We issued 36,658 humanitarian visas to people from Afghanistan, the second country on the list.

100,000
An extremely conservative estimate of the number of civilians killed in both the initial invasion and the ongoing battle against insurgents. There is no single source for this number, but most estimates range from 100,000 to 170,000.

Read more: http://www.news.com.au/world-news/middle-east/ten-years-on-10-iraq-war-numbers-that-say-it-all/story-fnh81ifq-1226600640511#ixzz2NxzlE07l

Hello, hello what have we got here?...

The merde-och media asking what was the Iraq war about?... Isn't this perversely priceless?... Of all media organisations in the world News International was the most rabid hell-bent in favour of bombing Iraq to smithereens. Whether it was Fox News and that horrid New York Post in the US, the Daily Whatever in the UK and the Daily Mierda in Australia, the merde-och channels pumped glory and patriotism for the war, day-in day-out, like sludge being dredged out of Gladstone harbour to make it more accessible to warships... I mean coal ships...... The Merde-och outfit had the best explicit 3D graphic about Saddam's WMDs including the famous 45 minutes missiles that could wipe out ... Cyprus... of all things...

Well let's say here with no shame that the US b(w)anking system did a good job of that.

And not a single culprit that deliberately sold rubbish as prime valuable assets has been sent to prison... Some of them got medals while others were promoted to fix the mess they had created — creating more mess in the process, so the smart rich could become richer... Ah ah ah...

The merde-och press is a beast burdening the society, far more than dead wood... I don't mean that it is a beast of burden that helps the society with its chores but it is an unnecessary burden that society is dragging along, as a nasty blood-sucking sickening parasite...

Read story at top...

The final breakdown of every tax dollar spent by the United States to rebuild post-invasion Iraq was presented to Congress earlier this month - a down-to-the-nickel analysis of nine years and $60bn worth of waste, arrogance and ineptitude unequalled in American history.

The conclusive report by Stuart Bowen, the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction (SIGIR), was a 186-page document titled "Learning From Iraq”, which followed that misspent money on a tragic joyride through the expensive and embarrassing mega-blunders that have become synonymous with US"nation-building” efforts in Iraq since 2003.

Clearly a must-read for any official in US-occupied Afghanistan, the SIGIR report was based on 220 audits, 170 inspections, hundreds of investigations, and, most compellingly, candid interviews with 44 senior Iraqi officials and US military and congressional leaders, including US General David Petraeus, Senator John McCain and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.

http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2013/03/201332610025946947.html

And this does not take into account the full war budget which itself was a GIGANTIC WASTE OF TIME, MONEY, LIVES.... all of this to get rid of one person called Saddam... Ludicrous. The war mongers, Bush, Blair and Howard, should be in prison or at least doing home detention for the rest of their lives.

As many as 500,000 people have been forced to flee Iraq's second city of Mosul after Islamist militants effectively took control of it.

Troops were among those fleeing as hundreds of jihadists from the ISIS group overran the city and much of the surrounding province of Nineveh.

Iraqi PM Nouri Maliki responded by asking parliament to declare a state of emergency to grant him greater powers.

The US said the development showed ISIS is a threat to the entire region.

ISIS - the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant - is an offshoot of al-Qaeda which now controls considerable territory in eastern Syria and western and central Iraq, in a campaign to set up a militant enclave straddling the border.

'Chaotic situation'

Residents of Mosul said jihadist flags were flying from buildings and that the militants had announced over loudspeakers they had "come to liberate" the city.

"The situation is chaotic inside the city, and there is nobody to help us," said government worker Umm Karam. "We are afraid."

Many police stations were reported to have been set on fire and hundreds of detainees set free.

Iraq crisis: Islamists force 500,000 to flee Mosul

I am nearly in tears... The US goofed this one... We know who their enemy was: their friends... But will they ever wake up?...

26 June 2014 Last updated at 21:22

"God willing within one week this force will be effective and will destroy the terrorists' dens," he said.

He said that the process of buying US jets had been "long-winded" and that the militants' advance could have been avoided if air cover had been in place.

Isis and its Sunni Muslim allies seized large parts of Iraq this month.

Mr Maliki was speaking to the BBC's Arabic service in his first interview for an international broadcaster since Isis - the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant - began its major offensive.

"I'll be frank and say that we were deluded when we signed the contract [with the US]," Mr Maliki said.

"We should have sought to buy other jet fighters like British, French and Russian to secure the air cover for our forces; if we had air cover we would have averted what had happened," he went on.

He said Iraq was acquiring second-hand jet fighters from Russia and Belarus "that should arrive in Iraq in two or three days".

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-28042302

Some 40,000 Christians live in Qaraqosh, a town near Mosul, Iraq. Residents have been gathering daily in 12 local churches as ISIS jihadists advance towards the community. Their existence is a precarious one.

It was the evening of Tuesday, June 10 when Salam Kihkhwa walked into a mobile phone shop in the Qaraqosh city center to purchase more minutes for his phone. Kihkhwa surfs the Internet for several hours each day and was carrying an iPhone 5s in his hand as he navigated his way past brackish puddles on the edge of the road. He set a few wrinkled dinar notes down on the counter to pay for a pack of Winchesters. Just at that moment, he recalls, he heard the scream: "The jihadists are in the city!"

read more: http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/christian-iraqis-live-in-state-of-fear-of-isis-terrorists-a-976971.html