[Onthebarricades] IRAQ: Repression and human rights, Sept-Oct 07

[Andy]

*  Sectarian roadblocks: wrong ID, wrong turn can mean death
*  Wounded Iraqis allege massacre by mercenaries
*  Blood for oil:  helicopters will shoot to kill near pipelines
*  Millenarians sentenced to death, long jail terms in vicious crackdown
*  Soldiers caught breaking rules in ACLU inquiry
*  Sunni patients fear hospitals, death squads
*  Iraqis held for long periods without charge
*  Jim Crow reaches Iraq: Iraqis at US bases must use segregated toilets
*  Fallujah abuses, killings, totalitarian regime provoke anger
*  Civilians killed in US air strike near Barquba
*  Basra Islamists wage terror campaign against women

Note regarding millenarian movement:  this mass sentencing is vindictive and 
probably based on simple affiliation in most cases.  It's pretty absurd that 
a millenarian movement is being charged as "terrorism" - still more so the 
violation of international standards by passing death sentences. 
Millenarian movements arise periodically in history wherever people are in 
conditions of desperation; their membership is typically driven by an urge 
for change.  In this case the targets were all military.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,,2166597,00.html

A wrong ID, a wrong turn can mean death


Ghaith Abdul-Ahad
Tuesday September 11, 2007
The Guardian
At a checkpoint leading on to the airport highway in west Baghdad yesterday, 
a policeman blocked the traffic. Dressed in a blue checked-uniform, Kevlar 
helmet, a Kalashnikov slung on his shoulder and a whistle in his hand, the 
last button of his uniform was missing, exposing a hairy stomach that hung 
over his military belt.
The sun was setting quickly and the policeman shouted, blew his whistle and 
pointed his gun at a queue of impatient drivers ordering them to stay in 
line.
Something was happening but none of the drivers of the dozens of cars 
waiting in the early evening heat knew what it was.
About 30 gunmen milled around the checkpoint. Two young men in Iraqi army 
uniforms sat on the front of an armoured personnel carrier. Three men, 
wearing blue shirts and dark blue trousers stood next to a green SUV.
A further dozen gunmen wearing camouflage uniforms, red berets and carrying 
the insignia on their shoulders of the Ministry of Interior commandos stood 
in the shade of concrete blast walls that make the checkpoints.
The commandos are accused of being nothing but a Shia death squad, so when 
one of them, wearing weight-lifting wristbands, passed between cars looking 
at faces the drivers' heads sunk into their chests and they looked away.
One driver suggested that others join him in driving on a parallel road that 
passed through west Baghdad neighbourhoods, assuring others that the area 
had become safe.
"Ami [my uncle] do you want to kill us," one driver said, raising his two 
hands. "The roads are filled with fake checkpoints killing people on the 
haweya [ID card]."
"And what do you know about this checkpoint," answered the man and nodded 
towards the gunmen. "Look at them, they are militiamen."
In that exchange lies the lottery of life in Iraq today. A wrong turn, a 
wrong checkpoint, a wrong ID card can sometimes be the difference between 
life and death.
Baghdad was never a beautiful city but as cars whizz through its emptying 
streets negotiating their way around concrete blocks and checkpoints, the 
city looks more than ever like a battle zone. But despite those indicators 
of a city at war, the question many Iraqis have been asking is whether the 
surge of troops brought in to protect them has made any difference to their 
lives.
With that in mind the Guardian has spent the past two days travelling the 
city, gauging that mood.
In the Yarmouk district, like many areas, wrecks of trucks and cars mingle 
with collapsed metal and sand barriers by the sides of roads. Some people 
have improvised their own security plan by placing tree trunks in front of 
shops to stop suicide bombers parking their cars there.
"Of course, there has been progress," said Ahmad, a taxi driver from 
Qadissya in west Baghdad. "They [the Americans] are painting murals on the 
blast walls now."
Concrete walls and checkpoints have divided Baghdad into isolated 
neighbourhoods ostensibly to prevent militia attacks. On the surface they 
appear to have brought some stability and better security. But in many 
neighbourhoods it has come only through a process of sectarian cleansing - 
Shia driving out Sunni and Sunni driving out Shia.
In Dora, in the south of Baghdad, Sunni extremists have fought street 
battles against Shia militias and have now cleansed the area of its Shia 
residents. The American security plan has divided the northern part of the 
district into fenced neighbourhoods with checkpoints at all the entrances.
"Bodies piled in the street outside my house every morning," said one 
resident, a shopkeeper, remembering the fighting. "We live in an isolated 
area, but at least we have peace ... we don't leave our area because once we 
are on the highway, we have to pass though the commandos' checkpoints and we 
will be killed."
Another resident, a father-of-three, who lives in the south section of the 
divided Dora, in the Mechanik district, says gunmen still roam the streets 
freely.
"I see them in the streets all the time; the American and the Iraqi army 
don't dare to come into our areas, the gunmen only hide when they see US 
planes ... they drive in cars with no windows so they can attack easily.
"Most of them are fighters from other areas who have settled here. I just 
saw two gunmen kidnap a man this morning from the highway; it's my morning 
routine. I have to leave this area, I have to leave but where do I go."
Another area mentioned as an example of progress is Ameriya, a once secular 
neighbourhood in west Baghdad that had become a base for Sunni al-Qaida 
insurgents.
Laith, in his mid-20s, his three brothers and two uncles are working with 
Ameriya Revolutionaries, a local militia that is cooperating with US forces 
to drive al-Qaida gunmen out. "We can walk in the streets now, we have shops 
reopening," he said. "All the al-Qaida fighters have fled into neighbouring 
Khadra'a area."
But just like Dora the sense of security is accompanied by a ghetto 
arrangement.
"When we wanted to bring trucks to clean the area, we had to bring them from 
Ramadi (100km away). Do you think we can bring trucks from Shu'ala [a 
neighboring Shia area] of course not, they are Mahdi army."
The frontlines between Jihad, once a Sunni area and now totally Shia, and 
Ameriya are sealed with blast-walls but mortars are still falling.
"When I leave my area, I have another ID card," say Laith. "Do I dare to 
come with my own? No." He pauses for a second and then says: "But as long as 
I can stand in front of my house, that's fine for me."
Mahmoud, who lives in Karrada, now a Shia neighbourhood, says: "The 
kidnapping is less these days, but the sectarianism is all the same. We are 
strangers in our own city. Baghdad has been divided; I can't cross to the 
west, and I can't cross the canal into Sadr City to the east, this bit of 
Baghdad is my city now."
At the checkpoint on the airport highway the portly policeman was still 
holding up traffic. Ahmad chatted with another driver. "It's too late now; 
where do we get petrol from now?"
"For now?" asked the other driver as he leaned on his old, red Toyota.
"No, for tomorrow," said Ahmad.
"Let's live till tomorrow," said the driver, "and then worry about petrol."
· Ghaith Abdul-Ahad won the James Cameron award for foreign reporting 
earlier this year for his coverage of Iraq

http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/meast/09/19/iraq.fateful.day/index.html?section=cnn_topstories

Wounded Iraqis: 'No one did anything' to provoke Blackwater

* Blackwater guards shot people in the back, Iraqi lawyer says

* Everyone, whether on foot or in a vehicle, was a target, laborer says

* Street strewn with bodies, including children and elderly, man says

* "It was every man for himself," wounded man says

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- It was last Sunday in western Baghdad. Helicopters
circled overhead while armed guards, privately hired by the U.S. government,
were conducting an ordinary mission to protect U.S. State Department
employees.

But within minutes there was an explosion, a hail of gunfire, and bodies in
the streets.

The Iraqi Interior Ministry says at least 10 Iraqis were killed and 10
wounded. Another government spokesman, Ali al-Dabbagh, told CNN that at
least 20 people died, with 35 wounded.

So what happened on that day on a square in the Mansour district of Baghdad?

It depends on whom you ask.

Blackwater USA, the private security firm at the center of the controversy,
says its employees simply defended themselves against armed attackers.

Two men hospitalized with gunshot wounds disagree. They say the guards fired
on people for no reason.

Hasan Jaber Salman lies in Yarmouk Hospital, bandages covering gunshot
wounds in his back.

Salman says he is a lawyer who was headed from a courthouse to the Ministry
of Justice when he found his route blocked by four armored Blackwater SUVs.

The roadblock soon caused a traffic snarl, so armed Blackwater guards began
waving at the drivers, telling them to turn around and leave the area.

"So we turned back, and as we turned back they opened fire at all cars from
behind," Salman said. "All my injuries, the bullets are in my back.

"Within two minutes the security force arrived in planes -- part of the
security company Blackwater. They started firing randomly at all citizens."

Blackwater, in a statement issued after the incident, denied that gunfire
came from aircraft. "The helicopters providing aerial support never fired
weapons," it said.

The firm also said its employees "acted lawfully and appropriately in
response to a hostile attack."

But Salman claims the attack was unprovoked.

"No one fired at them, they were not attacked by gunmen, they were not
targeted by an explosion," he said. VideoWatch the survivors describe what
happened >

The firing continued until Salman's car crashed into a police checkpoint and
flipped over, he said, adding that eight bullets struck his car and four
struck him.

"My left shoulder is broken ... and my arm is broken. I had a surgery. ...
They opened up my stomach," he said. "I swear to God no one did anything to
them at all."

The lawyer said he intends to sue Blackwater, which he already did in 2005
after his son was involved in a similar incident outside al-Muthana Air Base
near Baghdad's international airport. That lawsuit has not yet been
resolved, he said.

Laborer Abul-Raheem Amir said he was on his way to a job when the minibus he
was in got caught in a traffic jam caused by an explosion.

"A security company called Blackwater, they got out and kept on firing
randomly at people, starting with the people walking or working the street
-- even the traffic policeman, even the people who work in the area," Amir
said.

"People at first thought we were safe in the minibus, but when they realized
they were not, they started getting out and went to other places to save
themselves," he recounted. "Unfortunately that did not work. As they got
out, people were shot and killed."

He said he tried to make a run for it after the driver and two women next to
him on the minibus were shot.

"I ran about 50 meters [about 55 yards] and then was shot, the first bullet.
Still I kept running, but the second bullet dropped me to the ground. ... It
broke my bones, and the third one made me start crawling."

Some people helped get him off the street and away from the carnage. The
shooting lasted for about a half-hour, and there were some 30 bodies in the
street, he said.

"I remember people strewn on the streets, children, elderly, young men,
elderly women. ... The street turned into the street of the dead, a
graveyard," he said.

"There was nothing I could do. Every man was for himself."

Amir wonders what the Blackwater employees were thinking.

"Is this some kind of a show of force for them to flex their muscles?" he
said. "Are they doing this to us, the victims, so they can advertise and
promote their abilities through the Western media? ... Is their mission to
protect one person by killing 10 unarmed people? And if they are protecting
two people, then they shoot 100 unarmed people. ... Is this Vietnam? ...

"Enough, enough," he said. "Enough of all that's happening. God's fury is
coming. Enough of this. Enough."


http://www.upi.com/International_Security/Energy/Briefing/2007/09/18/choppers_shoot_to_protect_iraq_oil_power/6157/


Choppers shoot to protect Iraq oil, power

BAGHDAD, Sept. 18 (UPI) -- The Iraqi Defense Ministry has issued a
shoot-to-kill order to helicopter gunners guarding Iraq's vulnerable oil and
power infrastructure.

Azzaman reports the Ministry of Defense has brought in armed helicopters,
possibly Russian, to protect the power and fuel supply to Baghdad.

Iraq as a whole suffers from drought of fuels and electricity, and Baghdad
is especially targeted by insurgents looking to choke the country's capital.

The newspaper reports pilots are to shoot at anyone approaching the oil
pipelines or power lines and towers.

http://www.metimes.com/storyview.php?StoryID=20070902-101914-7503r

10 Iraqi cult members sentenced to death
AFP

September 2, 2007
NAJAF, Iraq --  Ten members of an Iraqi doomsday cult were sentenced to 
death Sunday, and 394 jailed for their roles in a January rebellion against 
Iraqi and US troops that left hundreds dead, police said.

"The criminal court passed judgement on 458 accused," Najaf police chief 
Brigadier General Abdel Karim Mustapha said.

"It sentenced 10 leaders of the Soldiers of Heaven to death, and decided to 
release 54 of them," he said. "The rest were sentenced to jail terms ranging 
from 15 years to life."

In January, the militant sect, dubbing itself the Jund Al Samaa or "Soldiers 
of Heaven," clashed with US and Iraqi forces outside the holy city of Najaf, 
three days ahead of the Shiite Ashura festival.

The fighting left 263 sect followers dead, including their messianic leader 
Dhia Abdel Zahra Kadhim Al Krimawi, also known as Abu Kamar, who believed 
himself to be a descendant of the Prophet Mohammed.

The Iraqi security forces reportedly lost three soldiers and three 
policemen.

After the battle, police rounded up hundreds of sect members and put them on 
trial.

"With today's sentencing, the curtain has fallen on the Soldiers of Heaven 
group," Mustapha said.

Abu Kamar has also claimed to be a descendant of the Imam Mehdi, an 
8th-century imam who vanished as a boy and, who, Shiites believe, will 
return to bring justice to the world.

At the time of the attack, Najaf deputy governor Abdel Hussein Attan said 
that the well-structured group planned to attack senior Shiite clerics and 
seize control of religious sites in Najaf, in a sign the Mehdi was about to 
reappear.


http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L03349199.htm

Iraq judge convicts 400 over cult clashes in Najaf
03 Sep 2007 10:39:09 GMT
Source: Reuters
By Khaled Farhan
NAJAF, Iraq, Sept 3 (Reuters) - An Iraqi judge sentenced 10 people to death 
and 390 others to between 15 years and life in jail over clashes near the 
city of Najaf early this year that killed hundreds, local officials and a 
lawyer said on Monday.
They said the verdicts were handed down on Sunday in the holy Shi'ite city, 
making it one of the biggest mass sentencings in Iraq since U.S. forces 
ousted Saddam Hussein in 2003.
The government had said members of a messianic Muslim cult who were plotting 
to kill top Shi'ite clerics fought battles with Iraqi and U.S. forces near 
Najaf in late January.
Hundreds of people were killed, mostly members of the so-called "Soldiers of 
Heaven". Hundreds more from the group were arrested at the time.
A dozen Iraqi security forces were also killed while a U.S. attack 
helicopter was shot down, killing its two crew.
Ahmed Duaibil, spokesman for the local government in Najaf, told Reuters the 
trials took place over three months at the Najaf police academy where the 
defendants were being held.
A criminal judge was sent to the academy and tried the defendants in groups 
given the large numbers, he said. They were tried on charges related to 
terrorism, he added.
Witnesses were called, the defendants had lawyers and court officials 
attended the hearings, Duaibil added.
A court official in Najaf confirmed that 10 people had been sentenced to 
death and another 390 given jail terms.
One of the lawyers, who declined to be identified for security reasons, said 
he had represented a group who were released for lack of evidence. He also 
confirmed the number of convictions.
The January clashes turned out to be one of the largest battles since the 
U.S.-led invasion but also one of the strangest episodes of the war.
The government said the leader of the group, who claimed to be the Mahdi, a 
messiah-like figure in Islam, had been killed. They said his "Soldiers of 
Heaven" had planned to assassinate top Shi'ite clerics and had to be 
stopped.
Film footage from the scene of the fighting at the time showed a score or 
more bodies dumped in a large room and dozens of others scattered about a 
compound. All were wearing civilian clothes. A large group of survivors 
including women and children were shown surrounded by U.S. and Iraqi troops.
The compound was littered with burnt-out vehicles, including pickup trucks 
mounted with machineguns, an armoured Humvee and a troop-carrier. Buildings 
had been sprayed with machinegun fire.

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/09/04/3612/

Published on Tuesday, September 4, 2007 by the Associated Press
Documents Show Troops Disregarding Rules
by Ryan Lenz
New documents released Tuesday regarding crimes committed by U.S. soldiers 
against civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan detail a troubling pattern of 
troops failing to understand and follow the rules that govern interrogations 
and deadly actions.
The documents, released by the American Civil Liberties Union ahead of a 
lawsuit, total nearly 10,000 pages of courts-martial summaries, transcripts 
and military investigative reports about 22 incidents. They show repeated 
examples of soldiers believing they were within the law when they killed 
local citizens.
The killings include the drowning of a man soldiers pushed from a bridge 
into the Tigris River as punishment for breaking curfew, and the suffocation 
during interrogation of a former Iraqi general believed to be helping 
insurgents.
In the suffocation, soldiers covered the man's head with a sleeping bag, 
then wrapped his neck with an electrical cord for a "stress position" they 
insisted was an approved technique.
Chief Warrant Officer Lewis Welshofer was convicted of negligent homicide in 
the death of Maj. Gen. Abed Hamed Mowhoush following a January 2006 
court-martial that received wide media attention due to possible CIA 
involvement in the interrogation.
But even after his conviction, Welshofer insisted his actions were 
appropriate and standard, documents show.
"The simple fact of the matter is interrogation is supposed to be stressful 
or you will get no information," Welshofer wrote in a letter to the court 
asking for clemency. "To put it another way, an interrogation without stress 
is not an interrogation - it is a conversation."
Welshofer said in the same letter that he was "within the appropriate 
constraints that both the rules of law, and just as importantly - duty, 
imposed on me."
The documents were obtained through a federal Freedom of Information Act 
request the ACLU filed with the military more than a year ago asking for all 
documents relevant to U.S. military involvement in the deaths of civilians 
in Iraq and Afghanistan. Only the Army responded.
Considered against recent cases, including soldiers from the 101st Airborne 
Division convicted of killing detainees in Samarra, Iraq, last year and the 
ongoing courts-martial of Marines accused of killing 24 civilians in 
Haditha, these new examples shed light on the frequency soldiers and Marines 
may disregard the rules of war.
Nasrina Bargzie, an attorney with the ACLU's National Security Project, said 
the documents also show that theres an abundance of information being 
withheld from public scrutiny.
"The government has gone out of its way to hide the human cost of this war," 
Bargzie said. Releasing the documents now "paints at least a part of that 
picture so people at least know what's going on," she said.
The lawsuit seeks to compel the military to produce all documents related to 
all incidents of civilian deaths at the hands of U.S. troops in Iraq and 
Afghanistan since January 2005. The ACLU contends the materials are 
releasable under federal law.
The Defense Department declined to comment on the lawsuit until it could 
review its claims.
Among the files released to the ACLU were the court-martial records for two 
soldiers convicted of assault in the drowning of a man pushed into the 
Tigris for violating curfew and three soldiers convicted in the "mercy 
killing" of an injured teenager in Sadr City.
The teen had been severely injured; one soldier explained that he shot and 
killed the teen "to take him out of his misery."
Other killings included:
- A man shot after a search of his home near Balad uncovered illegal weapons 
and anti-American literature. Immediately after the shooting, according to 
testimony, Sgt. 1st Class George Diaz, who was convicted of unpremeditated 
murder, said, "I'm going to hell for this." Diaz also was convicted of 
mistreating a teenage detainee when he forced the youth to hold a smoke 
grenade with the pin pulled as Diaz questioned him at gunpoint.
- A suspected insurgent in Iraq by Staff Sgt. Shane Werst, who said the man 
appeared to be reaching for a weapon. Werst was acquitted of murder despite 
acknowledging he had fired and then planted a chrome Iraqi pistol on the 
suspect to make his claim of self defense more believable.
In a previously unreported case, Pfc. James Combs was convicted of 
involuntary manslaughter for shooting an Iraqi woman from a guard tower in 
what he claimed was an accident, though court documents and testimony 
indicate his weapon was set to fire multiple shots despite a regulation 
advising against such a setting.
Another previously undisclosed case involved Sgt. Ricky Burke, who was 
charged with murder for killing a wounded man alongside the road following a 
firefight. Staff Sgt. Timothy Nein, a member of Burke's military police 
company, testified he heard Burke say before the shooting, "It's payback 
time."
Burke, a member of the Kentucky National Guard, was found not guilty of the 
charges that stemmed from the same battle that led to the first woman since 
World War II being awarded the Silver Star.
In closing arguments, Burke's attorneys asked the jury to recommend that 
soldiers be trained better for handling detainees. "They are not trained to 
standard," said an attorney not identified in the transcript.
The attorneys also insisted that the rules of engagement are clear and in 
favor of soldiers, contending that the perception of hostility merits deadly 
action.
Michael Pheneger, a retired Army intelligence colonel who reviewed the 
materials for the ACLU, said the documents suggest many allegations of war 
crimes in Iraq are not being made public.
"Wars are messy by their very nature. These are dangerous circumstances, and 
the fog of war is out there," said Pheneger, who served in Vietnam. "But it's 
perfectly obvious that there is no rule of engagement that would authorize 
someone to kill someone in custody."
© 2007 The Associated Press

http://www.iwpr.net/?p=icr&s=f&o=338789&apc_state=henpicr

Sunni Patients Fear Baghdad Wards
Sunnis stay clear of hospitals for fear of being targeted by Shia death 
squads.
By IWPR reporters in Baghdad (ICR No. 233, 19-Sep-07)
For Sunni Arabs in the capital, getting medical treatment can be a death 
sentence.

Public hospitals here are operated by Iraq's Shia-run health ministry and 
allegations are common that hospital staff have helped militia members 
abduct and kill Sunni patients.

Omar Othman, 24, a Sunni who works in a car parts shop, was hit by a bus on 
his way home from work in December 2006, badly injuring his leg. His father 
believes he only narrowly escaped a worse fate.

On admittance to the al-Kindi hospital in a Shia region of the capital, Omar's 
surname - typically Sunni - marked him as a target.

"The staff started looking at me suspiciously. I felt I was threatened. No 
one approached me or treated me," said Omar, who called his father to say 
where he was.

"I went into the hospital like a madman," his father, Abdullah, a retired 
police officer, recalled, describing how he rushed from one ward to another 
before a security guard called him by name.

"Aren't you Abu Othman?" the security guard asked.

"Yes, I am," he replied. "Who are you, and how do you know me?"

"You were my boss when I was a police officer before you retired," said the 
security guard.

The father told the guard he was looking for his son. The guard said one of 
the doctors had written on a small piece of paper "a virus is here", and 
believed it was in reference to Omar.

"These sons of bitches will kill him," the guard told Omar's father.

The security guard asked Abdullah not to move or speak to anyone until his 
son was moved out of the emergency ward and into an isolated room. From 
there, Omar's father transferred his son to a hospital in a part of the city 
with a strong Sunni majority.

"He had surgery there and survived," said Abdullah. "If I had been late, my 
son would have definitely died."

The ministry of health refused to answer questions about the alleged 
incident.

But other media have described similar cases. In November last year, Britain's 
Channel 4 television broadcast a documentary about the death squads. The 
programme showed photos of 14 Sunnis abducted from a hospital in Baghdad, 
then forced into a rubbish container and shot dead.

Last December, a Sunni surgeon was quoted in The Sunday Times as saying that 
in some hospitals porters and cleaners who support the Mahdi army, a militia 
loyal to the Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, offered doctors 300 US dollars to 
identify Sunni patients.

"I found that many patients were dying. Most were well and ready to walk out 
of the hospital. Instead, they left in wooden boxes," the surgeon told the 
newspaper.

According to him, most of the support staff in the hospitals comes from the 
Shia slums of Sadr City, a stronghold of the Mahdi army, a group which has 
been accused of leading Shia death squads. In one case, he said, two 
patients from the mainly Sunni Diyala province were placed on trolleys to be 
taken to the x-ray department. The patients were never seen again.

Such stories are common, and several Sunni officials accuse Iraq's health 
system of having links to Shia militias or death squads.

Shatha al-Abbusi, a member of parliament from the Sunni Iraqi Accord Front, 
said, "There is organised terror by militias [who are] assassinating Sunni 
Arabs in hospitals."

Health personnel from other hospitals in Baghdad confirm such incidents. A 
number of doctors in al-Yarmuk hospital, who requested anonymity for 
security reasons, confirmed that their hospital witnessed several killings 
of Sunnis in November and December of 2006. One doctor said two died as a 
result of insulin overdoses.

"When I checked the treatment papers, this injection was missing," said the 
doctor.

A female doctor working in a health centre in the al-Dakhiliyyah 
neighbourhood of Baghdad said that armed militias stormed the facility in 
civilian clothes and took a Sunni patient and a medical assistant.

The numerous and detailed accounts of relatives, doctors and nurses appear 
to corroborate a US intelligence report from December 2006, which said 
hospitals had become command centres for the Mahdi army, and Sunni patients 
were being dragged from their beds. The report was denied by Iraq's health 
minister, Ali al-Shamari, who is a Sadr loyalist.

In February 2007, US and Iraqi forces raided the health ministry in 
Baghdad's al-Rasafa district and arrested Hakim al-Zamili, the deputy health 
minister from the Sadr movement. He was charged with funneling money to 
Mahdi fighters who allegedly used the ministry's cars and ambulances to 
kidnap and kill Sunnis.

A statement issued by the US army maintained that health ministry officials 
were involved in the killing of Sunnis with the help of a Shia militia.

Since then and thanks to a crackdown on militias in Baghdad, the activities 
of death squads have been restricted. Several leaders of the Mahdi army are 
believed to have fled to Iran. And those who stayed behind went into hiding, 
avoiding any media contact out of fear that they would be arrested or 
targeted by American forces.

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/KHA038247.htm

FEATURE-Frustrated Iraqi teenagers rue long detentions
01 Oct 2007 11:54:16 GMT
Source: Reuters
By Haider Salahudeen
BAGHDAD, Oct 1 (Reuters) - Teenager Ali Mohammed has been in an overcrowded 
Iraqi youth detention facility for five months.
He says he has no idea what led him to be considered a security threat and 
struggles with a speech impediment as he tells his story.
"They told me they would only question me for five minutes and I have been 
here since the 25th of April," the lightly-moustached and bare-footed 
Mohammed stuttered.
"I suffer from epilepsy, a weak spine and a speech defect."
Mohammed's case is just one of thousands of prolonged detentions that 
underline the Iraqi judicial system's struggle to sift through the large 
number of detainees held in Iraq.
Tareq al-Hashemi, Iraq's Sunni vice president, visited western Baghdad's 
Ahdath youth detention centre last week in an effort to highlight the woeful 
state of detainees.
Expressing surprise at Mohammed's detention, he asked what information he 
was likely to provide under questioning given his speech defect.
"How are they going to interrogate him?" he told a group of journalists as 
he toured Ahdath where alleged security detainees are kept with all the 
others.
Cases of lengthy detention without charge are an embarrassment to a 
government that says it promotes human rights and whose members, exiled or 
persecuted under Saddam Hussein's rule, criticised abuses carried out by his 
security forces.
GOVERNMENT PROMISE OF ACTION
One boy, an orphan barely in his teens from the city of Falluja, was 
detained after he stole a mobile phone in a busy area of central Baghdad 
where he collected scrap aluminium cans.
"I've been here for three months and I don't know why I am here," the young 
boy said.
Midhat al-Mahmoud, head of the Supreme Judicial Council, said the system was 
working hard to reduce the long delays for some detainees to receive a 
trial.
"We had a problem with (detainees in) Baghdad, but now we have 44 
investigative judges and five criminal courts who are all working beyond 
their hours," Mahmoud said.
Deputy Prime Minister Barham Salih told a news conference on Saturday after 
holding a meeting to tackle the detainee issue that the government is 
serious in speeding up legal procedures to ensure innocent people are 
released soon after detention.
Government figures show 2,661 detainees have been sent to court since a 
security crackdown in the capital began in February. The figures also show 
that more than 4,000 have been released from Iraqi prisons in the same 
period, though it was not clear if those releases were all in Baghdad.
"We want to cooperate with this humanitarian and legal issue through legal 
procedures only. We don't want this issue to be politicised because it would 
oppress the citizens who for one reason or another ended up in these 
prisons," Salih said.
"There is a problem in Iraqi prisons. It's not shameful to acknowledge a 
problem, it's shameful to ignore it." (Additional reporting by Mussab 
Al-Khairalla)

http://www.azzaman.com/english/index.asp?fname=news/2007-09-04/kurd.htm
U.S. holding 22,000 Iraqi prisoners

By Laith Jawad

U.S. invasion troops detain more than 22,000 Iraqis in their prisoner camps
across the country, senior government officials say.

The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said many of those
languishing in U.S. jails are innocent and have been incarcerated for long
periods without trial or charges.

Most of the prisoners come from central Iraq where an anti-U.S. rebellion is
raging. The region is predominantly Sunni.

Vice-President Tareq al-Hashemi is leading the campaign to free the
prisoners and see to it that U.S. prisoner camps meet international
standards and that the jailers respect prisoner rights.

Hashemi is determined to have all the innocent Iraqis in U.S. jails freed as
quickly as possible, one official said.

The officials said there are currently more jails in Iraq than under former
leader Saddam Hussein.

The Iraqi government has no jurisdiction over U.S.-administered jails and
has no say in U.S. troops' military operations which normally result in
arbitrary and summary arrests.

The U.S. has agreed to release 50 Iraqi prisoners a day during the holy
month of Ramadan. But the number falls short of Hashemi's expectations who
wanted to see most of the prisoners released.

Hashemi is said to have demanded U.S. troops pay reparations to prisoners
arrested without charges.

Hashemi's adviser, Omer al-Jibouri, said the government has reached what he
called 'a working paper' with U.S. occupation troops under which U.S.
jailers violating human rights will be persecuted.

Jibouri did not say how the government will punish U.S. troops at a time
they are immune from prosecution and trial by Iraqi courts.

Azzaman, September 4, 2007



AT U.S. BASE, IRAQIS MUST USE SEPARATE LATRINE
Mike Drummond
McClatchy Newspapers
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/homepage/story/18685.html

FORWARD OPERATING BASE WARHORSE, Iraq - The sign taped to the men's
latrine is just five lines:

"US MILITARY CONTRACTORS CIVILIANS ONLY!!!!!"

It needed only one: "NO IRAQIS."

Here at this searing, dusty U.S. military base about four miles west
of Baqouba, Iraqis - including interpreters who walk the same foot
patrols and sleep in the same tents as U.S. troops - must use
segregated bathrooms.

Another sign, in a dining hall, warns Iraqis and "third-country
nationals" that they have just one hour for breakfast, lunch or
dinner. American troops get three hours. Iraqis say they sometimes
wait as long as 45 minutes in hot lines to get inside the chow hall,
leaving just 15 minutes to get their food and eat it.

It's been nearly 60 years since President Harry Truman ended racial
segregation in the U.S. military. But at Forward Operating Base
Warhorse it's alive and well, perhaps the only U.S. military facility
with such rules, Iraqi interpreters here say.

It's unclear precisely who ordered the rules. "The rule separating
local national latrines from soldiers was enacted about two to three
rotations ago," Maj. Raul Marquez, a spokesman for the 3rd Brigade
Combat Team of the 1st Cavalry Division, from Fort Hood, Texas, wrote
in an e-mail. That was before his brigade or the 3rd Stryker Combat
Brigade of the 2nd Infantry Division, from Fort Lewis, Wash., the
other major combat force here, was based at Warhorse.

There's also disagreement on the reason.

Marquez cited security. "We are at war, and operational security
(OPSEC) and force protection are critical in this environment,"
Marquez wrote. "We screen all our local nationals working and living
in the FOB, however, you can never know what's in their mind."

Other soldiers traced the regulations to what they called cultural
differences between the Iraqis and the Americans.

"We've had issues with locals," said Staff Sgt. Oscar Garcia, who mans
Warhorse's administrative hub. "It's not because we're segregating."

Garcia said some Iraqis squatted on the rims of unfamiliar
American-style toilets or had used showers as toilets, forcing private
contractors who maintain the facilities to clean up after them.

Another soldier at the administrative hub who declined to give his
name or rank cited conflicts over hygiene habits. "We can't accept
people washing their feet where I brush my teeth," he said.

"It's to keep problems from happening," said Army Capt. Janet Herrick,
a public affairs officer. "It's a preventive measure . . . so no one
gets belittled."

But the Iraqis who're paid $80,000 to $120,000 a year for their
interpreting services are offended.

"It sucks," Ahmed Mohammed, 30, said of the latrine policy. He called
the signs - in English and Arabic - "racist."

He's worked as an interpreter for the U.S. military since 2004. He's
college educated and well versed in the ways of Western plumbing. He
said Warhorse was the only American base where he'd encountered
U.S.-only signs on latrines and country-of-origin restrictions on
dining hours.

"I live in the same tent with 80 Americans," he said.

Mohammed works for L-3 Titan Group, a unit of New York-based L-3
Communications. He declined to have his picture taken for publication.
He fears for his life. He said his brother was killed last year in
Baghdad for working for an American company.

Mohammed has sold his house and has squirreled away enough money to
buy visas for his family of four. He said he intended to quit soon and
emigrate to Germany. The latrine policy is part of the reason, he said.

L-3 officials didn't respond to a request for comment.

"On one hand we're asking Iraqis to help us," often at great risk,
said Laila al Qatami, spokeswoman for the American-Arab
Anti-Discrimination Committee in Washington. "But at the same time
we're saying, 'We want to keep you at a distance.' It's a mixed
message we're sending.

"I don't understand having separate bathrooms. It seems to go against
everything that the United States stands for."

IRAQ: ANGER BUILDS IN BESIEGED FALLUJAH
Ali al-Fadhily
Asia Times
http://atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/IF06Ak07.html

FALLUJAH, Iraq - The city that was mostly destroyed by the US military
operation Phantom Fury in November 2004 has been under curfew for more
than two weeks, with no signs of relief.

Located 70 kilometers west of Baghdad, the city made headlines when
four Blackwater security mercenaries were killed and their bodies
horrifically mutilated on March 31, 2004.

That April the city was attacked by the US military, but resistance
fighters repelled occupation forces. That set the stage for the
November siege that left about 70% of the city destroyed and turned a
quarter of a million residents into refugees.

A recent spike in attacks against Iraqi and US forces in and around
the city has prompted harsh measures by the US military, including
imposing curfews, limiting movement in and out of Fallujah, and
setting up more checkpoints throughout the city - moves which have
greatly angered residents.

On May 19, most of these measures, perceived by many people here as a
form of collective punishment, began to be more strictly enforced.

"Americans and their Iraqi collaborators are blaming us for their
failure in controlling the city and the whole country," Ahmed Alwan of
a Sunni religious group, the Muslim Scholars Association, told Inter
Press Service (IPS). "This kind of collective punishment only means
slow death to the people of the city and is adding to their agonies
that have continued since April 2003."

As the US occupation continues with no end in sight and the level of
violence and chaos increases daily, more and more people believe that
violence against the occupation is the solution.

"Day by day we find more people believe in violence as a best solution
to face American war crimes," said a human-rights activist in
Fallujah, speaking on condition of anonymity. "To impose a curfew in a
city that was already destroyed more than once is indeed a major crime
against humanity."

Many people in Fallujah believe the harsh tactics are revenge by US
troops and the George W Bush administration for the city's attitude
against the occupation.

"We know what they are doing and why they are doing it," said a local
community leader, also speaking on condition of anonymity because he
feared US reprisals. "They hate this sacred city because it was the
first to stand against their dirty occupation since it started."

On a side street of Fallujah, a man with his face covered by a kefiyeh
, commonly worn by resistance fighters to hide their identity, stopped
an IPS reporter and said he wanted to "deliver a message to the
sleeping world".

"Fallujah City has become a symbol for all Iraqis and all good people
in the world who decided to fight this monstrous American occupation,
and no siege will stop the great victorious resistance that represents
the voice of all Iraqis who believe in Allah and in the dignity of
Iraq," he said. "We can see the world is sleeping while America is
conducting a dirty plan to enslave all the human beings on earth."

Residents told IPS how their lives are being affected by the ongoing
US-Iraqi government crackdown.

"They [Iraqi security forces] are dividing the city into sections in a
way that does not allow people to move and make their living," said
Jabbar Amir, a shopkeeper in the main market area. "It takes me four
checkpoints to reach my shop, and most of the week I cannot make it
there. This new security force is worse than the Americans - who give
them full support regardless of what they do to people."

The US military brought in members of the Shi'ite Badr militia and the
Kurdish Peshmerga militia to run patrols and checkpoints throughout
the city after the devastating November 2004 siege. Many residents
believe that this was an act of provocation and an attempt to foment
sectarian conflict.

Concrete walls have been set up by the US military to partition the
city into small areas, possibly in advance of a new wave of raids by
occupation forces.

The US military is now supported by an Iraqi security force known as
the "Anbar revolutionary force", which is accused of carrying out
dozens of executions during the past months, as well as detaining
hundreds of young men for no obvious reason.

"Human life is worth nothing in Fallujah these days," said Jameel
Nassir, a 21-year-old university student. "The government soldiers
executed so many young men, just like what happened in Haditha, and
the new security force conducted massive killings against us while
Americans pay both armies millions of dollars to do the dirty work for
them."

This sentiment is common now in Fallujah.

"All army and security forces in Fallujah are monsters," Bilal
Ibrahim, a journalist in training in Fallujah, told IPS. "I watched
one of their inhuman acts today and realized how brutal they really
are. A young man jumped in the river for a swim near the hospital, but
he was swept by the current and he was screaming for help. We were
ready to save his life, but soldiers started shooting at us and they
were laughing at the drowning guy until he died."

IPS learned that the young man's name was Mohammed Hikmet and he was a
member of a well-known family in the city.

"They know this will fail in stopping armed attacks against them just
like all their failures, but they want to plant the seed of division
among people in the city and Anbar province," said a city councilman,
speaking on condition of anonymity. "Now our sons are killing each
other in vain while Americans dream of moments of peace that they will
never get as long as they do not show clear signs of intentions to
leave the country for its people."

The man was referring to the numerous attacks against US and Iraqi
forces during the curfew. Many US and Iraqi soldiers have been killed
by car bombs, suicide bombers and mortars that appear to underscore
the failure of imposing more drastic security measures.

Last Thursday, a suicide bomber attacked a police recruiting center in
Fallujah, killing at least 25 people and wounding 50.

As has become the norm in Fallujah, civilians continue to pay the
highest price despite the security measures that are supposed to be
protecting them.

Ali al-Fadhily, the IPS correspondent in Baghdad, works in close
collaboration with Dahr Jamail, IPS's US-based specialist writer on
Iraq who travels extensively in the region.

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,22537835-5005961,00.html

Women, children 'killed in US strike'
Article from: Agence France-Presse
>From correspondents in Baghdad
October 05, 2007 08:08pm
WOMEN and children were among 25 Iraqis killed and 40 wounded in a US air 
strike on a village near the central city of Baquba today, police spokesman 
Khudhayir al-Timimi said.
"Twenty-five people were killed and 40 others wounded, including women and 
children, in the US air strike that targeted al-Jayzani village," Mr Timimi 
said.
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/homepage/story/20234.html

In Basra, vigilantes wage deadly campaign against women
By Jay Price and Ali Omar al Basri | McClatchy Newspapers
Women in Basra are targets for self-styled religious enforcers. | View 
larger image
BASRA, Iraq - Women in Basra have become the targets of a violent campaign 
by religious extremists, who leave more than 15 female bodies scattered 
around the city each month, police officers say.
Maj. Gen. Abdel Jalil Khalaf, the commander of Basra's police, said Thursday 
that self-styled enforcers of religious law threatened, beat and sometimes 
shot women who they believed weren't sufficiently Muslim.
"This is a new type of terror that Basra is not familiar with," he said. 
"These gangs represent only themselves, and they are far outside religious, 
forgiving instructions of Islam."
Often, he said, the "crime" is no more than wearing Western clothes or not 
wearing a head scarf.
Before the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, Iraqi women had had rights enshrined 
in the country's constitution since 1959 that were among the broadest of any 
Arab or Islamic nation. However, while the new constitution says that women 
are equal under the law, critics have condemned a provision that says no law 
can contradict the "established rulings" of Islam as weakening women's 
rights.
The vigilantes patrol the streets of Basra on motorbikes or in cars with 
dark-tinted windows and no license plates. They accost women who aren't 
wearing the traditional robe and head scarf known as hijab. Religious 
extremists in the city also have been known to attack men for clothes or 
even haircuts deemed too Western.
Like all of southern Iraq, Basra is populated mostly by Shiite Muslims, so 
sectarian violence isn't a major problem, but security has deteriorated as 
Shiite militias fight each other for power. British troops in the area 
pulled out last month.
Khalaf, who has a reputation for outspokenness in a city where that can get 
you killed, scoffed at the groups, calling them no better than criminal 
gangs. He said he didn't care if some were affiliated with the militias, he 
planned to crack down on them.
"If there is a red line related to the insurgents and militias, we will pass 
it over, because it's one of the factors that destroy the society," he said.
The violence is displacing the few members of religious minorities in the 
area. Fuad Na'im, one of a handful of Christians left in the city, said 
Thursday that the way his wife dressed made the whole family a target.
"I was with my wife few days ago when two young men driving a motorbike 
stopped me and asked her about her clothes and why she doesn't wear hijab," 
he said. "When I told them that we are Christians, they beat us badly, and I 
would be dead if some people nearby hadn't intervened."
That was enough, he said.
"I'm about to leave the city where I was born and where my father and 
grandfather were buried, because I can't live in a place where we're asked 
about our clothes, food and drink."
Elsewhere in Iraq on Thursday, Mua'awia Jibara, a leader in the tribal 
movement to fight the group al Qaida in Iraq in concert with U.S. troops, 
was fatally injured when a roadside bomb exploded near his convoy southwest 
of Samara. He died in a hospital. Three of his guards also were killed.
Around 10 a.m., the deputy governor of Iskandariyah, about 30 miles south of 
Baghdad, was killed by a roadside bomb that targeted his convoy. Three 
guards also were killed.
There were several incidents of violence in Baghdad. In the eastern part of 
the city, a bomb planted in a minibus exploded about 9:30 a.m., killing four 
people and injuring seven.
Around noon, a car bomb exploded in the Wihda neighborhood of east Baghdad, 
killing three people and injuring eight. A roadside bomb exploded in the 
Waziriyah neighborhood in north Baghdad, killing one person and injuring 
two.
(Price reports for The News & Observer in Raleigh, N.C. Basri is a McClatchy 
Newspapers special correspondent. Special correspondent Hussein Kadhim 
contributed to this story.)
McClatchy Newspapers 2007