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Dec 26 2009 News of Iraq - Why tell only part of the truth?

It's question time again. Today the media showed great alarm about the bombing of innocent Shi'ite pilgrims who died from bombs set by ...? Unknown assailants. Some Western media, including the UK's Guardian,  went so far as to label the bombing 'sectarian', although no evidence of the perpetrators has come forth. 

What most of the media failed to let us know about were today's other 10 bomb blasts, 5 of which were in Baghdad. Why would news outlets hide the truth about the other bombs?

I must admit that I am stumped. What comes to mind are rather simplistic answers, none of which really make sense to me, but maybe one will resonate with you...

1) We are so embarrassed by our failure to shape a reasonably safe environment after expending a trillion dollars [and so many, many lives of innocent Iraqis, not to mention the thousands of Americans who died needlessly in this farce of a war] that we cannot speak of the truth of the horrors we unleashed,

or

2) Owners of the media judge that their reading audience is so ashamed of the actions of the U.S. government that they will not buy newspapers that keep telling the sad truth.

Got any other ideas? Add them as comments or send them on to mail@121Contact.org

Peace to you and yours in these waning days of 2009.

Reported security incidents

Baghdad:
#1: Also on Saturday, three policemen and two civilians were wounded when a roadside bomb struck a police patrol in Baghdad' southeastern district of Zaafaraniyah, the police said.

#2: An Iraqi police official says a roadside bomb has killed three Shiite pilgrims in eastern Baghdad in the latest round of violence to strike worshippers during a revered Shiite observance. The official says Saturday's bomb was planted near a tent that offered drinks and food to pilgrims. He says 16 people were injured. A medical official confirmed the casualty figures.

#3: A member of the Baghdad local council escaped an assassination attempt when an improvised explosive device that targeted pilgrims in the east of the capital city who were heading for the holy Shiite city of Karbala, the council chief said on Friday. “Sabbar al-Saadi escaped the IED blast in the area of al-Maamil. He was rushed to a nearby hospital and his health condition is stable,” Kamel al-Zaydi told Aswat al-Iraq news agency. Meanwhile, a source in Shiite leader Muqtada al-Sadr’s office in Baghdad said Sheikh Amjad al-Saadi, the office’s relations director, and a driver were wounded in the explosion, adding the local officials were inspecting the Husseini processions that were heading to Karbala, where Shiite Muslims are celebrating the Ashuraa.

#4: Three people were killed and seven others wounded when an improvised explosive device (IED) attack targeted a Shiite procession in Baghdad on Friday evening, a security source said.
“The IED left three pilgrims killed and seven others injured in the eastern Baghdad district of al-Rashad, when they were going on foot in a procession heading for Karbala,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.

#5: Two persons were killed and eight others wounded in an improvised explosive device attack that targeted a procession of Shiite pilgrims heading to the holy city of Karbala to celebrate the Ashuraa. “Two civilians were killed and eight others wounded in the attack that took place near the Baghdad al-Jadida (New Baghdad) area, in the southeastern part of the city,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.


Abu Ghraib:
#1: Mahmoud Hussein al-Obiedi, a Sunni chieftain, was killed in a bomb explosion outside his house in Baghdad's western suburb of Abu Ghraib, a local police source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.


Tuz Khurmato:
#1: Elsewhere, a policeman and four civilians were wounded when an explosive charge hidden in a garbage container detonated near a police checkpoint in the town of Tuz Khurmato, some 90 km east of Tikrit, the capital city of Salahudin province in north of Baghdad, a provincial police source said.


Mosul:
#1: Iraqi forces defused a car bomb that was meant to target security forces in eastern Mosul on Friday, a local security source within the Ninewa Operations Command (NOC) said. “The police managed to dismantle a car bomb that was parked in the area of Bazwaya, on the main street that leads to Bartala district, eastern Mosul city, without incident,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency. “The explosive vehicle was meant to target the security forces heading for Bartala that has recently witnessed disputes between Christians and ethnic Shabaks,” the source added.


Al Anbar Prv:
#1: In separate incident, Mallooky al-Jumaily, a police Lieutenant General, was killed in the morning by a bomb explosion in front of his house in the city of Fallujah, some 50 km west of Baghdad, a anonymous source from the city police told Xinhua.

A civilian man was killed on Saturday morning when an improvised explosive device (IED) went off near his house in central al-Falluja district, a local police source said. “An IED planted on the roadside in al-Jumhouriya neighborhood, central Falluja, went off right after a civilian man stepped out of his house, killing him instantly,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.

Dec 5 2009 Iraq Christmas, Iraq Muharram, Iraq has no holiday from death,

The winter 'celebrations' of Muharram and Christmas have arrived in Iraq. The former celebrates a month in which fighting is forbidden (haram), and the latter celebrates the birth of Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace. 14 explosions and a spate of assassinations mark the holidays.

Ah, Baghdad, the City of Peace.

Ah, well, sometimes things don't go the way they should. The violence is once again on the rise and the innocent Iraqis continue to pay the price of the destabilization that the U.S. brought to their nation.

[photo from timesonline]

Now the killing is as complicated as ever.

Factions loyal to the Maliki government point to the violence as a reason maintain a U.S. presence, which coincidentally props up their regime. 

Forces opposed to the Maliki government use the violence as proof that the current regime is unfit to protect the people.

Iran loves an unstable Iraqe because it is no longer a containment to Iranian influence in the region.

Al Qaida, remnants of Baathist cells, disaffected disbanded militiamen, gangs of unemployed, gangs of hopeless...pick and choose. 

And the criminals? They are ecstatic. Kidnappings, especially of children, are on the rise with prices of $100,000 common for the return of a beloved child. There's no politics here, only the ease with which criminals can avoid arrest because of the general chaos. Ditto smuggling, child prostitution, theft, and other lucrative activities that at least have the ability of providing sustenance to the masses of unemployed who see no other viable alternatives. Starvation is a real threat in these days of hopelessness. Don't underestimate the effect of rising crime organizations on the reconstruction efforts. Iraq is not the first nation to watch as criminals fill the security void left by departing occupiers.

And how will it sort itself out? We wont know until the invader leaves and the Iraqis settle their own business. The U.S. government has pressured Maliki to build a unity body to rule the nation, but his willingness to let go of power that way seems nonexistent. 

Leave? [URUKNET]The recently passed 636 billion military spending bill (395 members voted for it, 34 against it) only covers operations through September 30, 2010, and doesn't include the monies US President Obama will need for his Afghanistan 'surge.'  Much of it is for high-tech apparatus that is absolutely useless in the war against small terrorist actions. 

 

The fledgling peace movements within Iraq receive no support from the Obama's administration, and the paltry support that NGO's are able to funnel to the pacifists, reconcilliation movements, etc. is not enough to make a difference.

The solution will probably be bloody but it will be their own solution and they will learn to live with it.

Reported security incidents Dec 25, 2009

Baghdad:
#1: Five people were killed and 22 others wounded when an improvised explosive device (IED) went off in the eastern Baghdad district of Sadr City on Thursday, a local security source said. “The IED went off near a funerary gathering in Sector 42, Sadr City district, eastern Baghdad, leaving five people killed and 22 others wounded,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.

#2: Three people were killed and eight others wounded on Thursday when an improvised explosive device (IED) went off in al-Zaafaraniya, southeastern Baghdad, a local security source said. “An IED went off near a Shiite funerary gathering in the area of Sa’eeda, al-Zaafaraniya neighborhood, southeastern Baghdad, killing three and wounding eight others,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.

#3: One civilian was killed and four others were wounded in a roadside bomb explosion in eastern Baghdad on Friday, a police source said. “The bomb, planted by gunmen in al-Shamaiya region in eastern Baghdad, went off, killing a civilian and injuring four,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.


Diyala Prv:
#1: Unknown gunmen slew on Thursday a prominent figure in Jalawlaa, said a local security source in Diala province. “The victim is Shokor Tayyeb. His daughter, Amal, is a candidate of the Kurdistan Alliance List participating in the upcoming parliamentary election,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency. He said that the armed men stabbed Tayyeb with knives before slitting his throat.


Karbala:
#1: An improvised explosive device went off near a Shiite procession of pilgrims visiting the holy city of Karbala for the Ashuraa but nothing was said about possible casualties, according to eyewitnesses on Thursday. “A blast targeted a Husseini procession in the area of Bab Baghdad on Maytham al-Timar street in Karbala city. The blast, based on initial information, was the result of an IED,” the Aswat al-Iraq news agency correspondent reported.

Twenty-two Shiite pilgrims were killed or wounded when three gas cylinders exploded in the holy Shiite city of Karbala on Thursday, a security source said. “Three gas cylinders that were used to prepare dinner meals for the pilgrims reviving the Muharram 10th anniversary, or Ashuraa, exploded near a Husseini procession, leaving a number of them killed or wounded,” the security source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.

#2: A roadside bomb wounded four civilians in Kerbala, 80 km (50 miles) southwest of Baghdad on Thursday night, police said


Shirqat:
#1: Gunmen opened fire on a local pro-government militia checkpoint on Thursday night, killing one and wounding two others in Shirqat, 300 km (190 miles) north of Baghdad, police said.


Kirkuk:
#1: Unidentified gunmen opened fire southwest of Kirkuk city, killing a civil servant of the electricity department in al-Rashad district, a senior security source in Kirkuk said on Thursday. “Gunmen in a vehicle opened drive-by fire on the civilian who was also in his car,” Brig. Sarhad Qader, the chief of the Kirkuk Districts’ Police Department (KDPD), told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.


Sinjar:
#1: Three Peshmerga forces were killed on Friday and ten were wounded in a car bomb explosion in Sinjar, according to a security source. “A car rigged with explosives went off on Friday (Dec. 25) targeting A Peshmerga forces vehicle patrol between al-Rabieaya and Sinjar districts, western Talafar, killing three and injuring ten,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.

A suicide bomber detonated a car laden with explosives and killed one soldier from the minority Kurds' Peshmerga military and wounded 14 others near Iraq's border with Syria in northern Nineveh province, said Khaled Abdala, a local leader from the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP). A different source from the KDP said the explosion was not a suicide attack, but a remotely detonated car bomb, and put the toll at one killed and 10 wounded.


Mosul:
#1: A high-ranking member of former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein's Baath Party was on Friday fatally shot in a suburb of the northern Iraqi town of Mosul, witnesses said. Ahmed Kamel al-Badrani, a former officer in Hussein's feared military intelligence apparatus, was gunned down in front of his home in the western Mosul district of Amil, witnesses told the German Press Agency dpa.

#2: Update Two people died late Thursday of wounds sustained in the suicide explosion that targeted chairman of the Talafar council, raising the fatalities to four, a medical source said on Friday. “The two bodyguards were seriously wounded in the explosion that took place last Monday (Dec. 21),” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.

#3: US forces killed an insane man in west of Mosul city, a security source said on Friday. “The forces killed an insane man late Thursday (Dec. 24) in Tal Abta district, west of Mosul,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency. “The 17-year-old young man appeared in front of the US patrol holding a plastic gun,” he said, noting that the forces thought he is a gunman and killed him.

#4: Update The final toll of the double explosions in the city of Hilla on Thursday rose to 25 dead and 105 wounded, a police source said on Friday. “A police force managed to defuse a number of bombs in the same area on Thursday (Dec. 24),” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency. “The explosions killed 25, including 14 policemen, and wounded 105, including 35 cops,” he added. A police source had said yesterday (Dec.24) that 12 persons were killed, including member of the Babel council Neaamat al-Bakri, and 50 others were wounded, including Commander of anti-explosive department Colonel Taleb al-Shemri and two of his aides, when a car bomb and an improvised explosive device went off in central Hilla.

#5: Three employees were killed on Friday by unknown gunmen in western Mosul, a police source said. “Unknown gunmen opened fire on a number of the census employees in al-Hay al-Senaai region, western Mosul, killing three of them,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.

#6: Police found the body of a woman who had been suffocated to death in western Mosul, police said.

#7: An attacker threw an explosive at an Iraqi police patrol, killing one civilian and wounding another in central Mosul, police said.


Al Anbar Prv:
#1: Two gunmen were arrested while attempting to plant an improvised explosive device (IED) in central al-Falluja city on Thursday, a local security source said. “The Falluja police forces, acting upon intelligence tip-offs, arrested two gunmen while emplacing an IED near a checkpoint in al-Andalus neighborhood, central Falluja,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.

#2: A sticky bomb exploded on Friday inside a car in eastern Falluja, without leaving casualties, a police source said. “The bomb, stuck to a civilian vehicle, went off on Friday morning (Dec. 25) on a road in al-Karma district, eastern Falluja, without causing casualties,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.

#3: Anbar emergency police chief survived an attempt on his life on Friday morning in southern Falluja, according to a police source. “Unknown gunmen on Friday morning (De. 25) opened fire on the motorcade of Colonel Ghazi al-Dulaimi using light weapons in al-Aameriya district in southern Falluja,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency. “Policemen clashed with the attackers and managed to injure and arrest one of them,” he added. “The colonel was not hurt, while the gunmen fled to unknown place,” he said.

Dec 11 2009 The Parents Circle, Palestine, Israel, Iraq and the USA

Remember The Parents Circle?

They are still working hard at reconciliation. Last night I went out in the dropping temperature to see their exhibit, "Cartoons in Conflict" and got to hear Robi Damlen (Israeli) and Marzan Faraj (Palestinian) speak of transforming the pain of losing their loved ones into works for peace. Their new focus on getting into classrooms and reaching out to young Palestinian/Israeli children is obviously dear to my heart.

I heard them speak through their tiredness, coming off a flight from London, I think. The calendars they are selling make excellent holiday gifts and all of the monies collected go to their youth education initiative. At only twenty bucks a pop it's a nice way to send a gift in two directions at once.

How long will it be before reconciliation comes? to Palestine/Israel, to Iraq's population, to the many factions that split our world into fragments of discord? 

The exhibit will run Thursday to Sunday, 12pm – 7pm December 10 through Dec 23, 2009

6 West 26th Street
New York 
NY  

Please support the efforts of The Parents Circle. Visit the exhibit and let them know they are not alone.

In loving kindness,
Bruce and Noor

Dec 9 2009 GroundZero in Baghdad

                       

New York City September 11 2001          Baghdad December 8 2009

So you must have some idea of what they are going through now; of what we unleashed upon them;

of what we are about to unleash upon the innocent of Afghanistan.

Violence is not really the answer. The pain and devastation we inflict will not make us safer.

Please, Mr. President, bring our troops home and use the great money for works of peace, not death.

In loving kindness,
Bruce and Noor

Dec 8 2009 Baghdad erupts in Bombs-a precursor to Afghanistan's future? Dear President Obama

Just as the Iraq's leaders put the final touches on rules to govern the upcoming elections, Baghdad erupted in a spate of bombings which at last rough count have killed over 125 people and wounded over 450 [BBC News]. Mosul and Anbar also reported deaths and maiming from bombings and assassinations.

All indications are that alQaeda is behind the latest violence [BBC News, NYTimes]. Thankfully the Iraqis no longer turn to sectarian revenge for these attacks. They have come to know alQaeda as the enemy, and not each other. Unfortunately the Maliki government seems unable to stop these deadly and disruptive attacks, further weakening both the government's credibility and the general feeling of security that had been growing in recent months. 

While civilian deaths in 2009 are about 1/4 the highest levels of 2006-7, the current rise is disconcerting and destabilizing. The next elections are scheduled for March, 2010 and will require stability if they are to be accepted as valid. 

And now we deepen our engagement in Afghanistan, supporting a repression of the various Taliban groups and their allied alQaeda cells. As we ramp up our efforts we create more recruits for alQaeda by our violence. More and more innocent civilians will die from our weaponry and each will bring more into the fold that hate us deeply enough to join forces with the Taliban and alQaeda. When we pull out they will be on the rise again--no matter how long we stay. That is the sad ugly truth. The Taliban, unlike alQaeda, are native to Afghanistan and so do not inspire the 'resistance mentality' we saw in Anbar as the Awakening Councils took up arms against alQaeda in Iraq. While some tribal leaders have resisted the Taliban, they are few in number and rarely successful in stopping the Taliban from taking over large areas of the country.

Our destruction of Iraq's innocent civilians, their culture, infrastructure, and security should not be replicated in Afghanistan. Our incursion into Iraq has cost us lives, liberty, and a great deal of money. It has also generated more enemies who are against the U.S. and willing to kill innocent Americans while they seek revenge. We have no need to do this again in Afghanistan.

Dear Mr. President,

Please do not use violence to try and alter the political situation in Afghanistan. We can predict the result: more deaths of innocent civilians which generate more enemies of the U.S. who are willing to kill us for revenge. And the dollar cost: about 10 billion US dollars a month!

We should take half the military budget and put it to aiding the Afghans with civilian, infrastructure, and training programs. We can help build schools, hospitals, and roads. Then we can use the other half, about 5 billion US dollars per month, to help Americans into jobs, better health care, and improved education.

We can become a model for peaceful solutions, and not an example of the folly of violence.

In loving kindness,
Bruce Wallace
121Contact.org

Nov 17 2009 Fight Taliban or care for thousands who hunger in the U.S.?

We weren't going to post Wright Salisbury''s latest article because it doesn't talk about Iraq. We deplore the American penchant for denial, and each new debacle seems to enable the U.S. public to ignore the disasters we have caused in the past. In some ways our incursion into Afghanistan serves to take our minds off the devastation we brought to the Iraqi people. 

Our use of violence in Afghanistan as well as Iraq helps us ignore the growing number of American families who simply do not have enough to eat. We are talking about some 49 million Americans, according to U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack.

However, Wright's impassioned piece deserves to be read. We agree with him. We think  you should take the time to see if you do also. And if so, then take at least the minimal action of letting your elected representatives know how you feel. It will only take you a few minutes, and the lives you save and the pain you help avoid will be worth it.

Boots on the ground or food on the table?

 ... and a house to live in, and clothes to wear, and affordable health care?  Which is it going to be, President Obama?

 

At $1,000,000 per year to put a soldier in Afghanistan and unemployment topping 10%, which do we value more — fighting a war almost certainly doomed to failure or feeding, clothing, housing and providing health care to our own people?

 

Seems like a no-brainer, doesn’t it?

 

Think outside the box, Mr. President

 

Just because you inherited two wars from your mentally- and morally-challenged predecessor, you are not obliged to continue them.  Back in the 60’s, people used to ask, “What if they gave a war and nobody came?”  That was in the Vietnam era, when young people were being drafted.  Lyndon Johnson sat in the White House suffering severe depression as people marched out front, chanting, “Hey, hey, LBJ. How many kids did you kill today?”

 

He was so depressed, he declined to run for another term, and Richard Nixon became the next president. Hardly an improvement.

 

But that did put an end to the Selective Service System.  From then on, if we fought a war, we would not draft college kids.  We would use our National Guard, which was peopled by middle class folks who wanted to earn a little extra money.

 

Do something unprecedented: Use your head.

 

I’m serious.  No one has ever declared a war over before his country was definitively defeated.  No one.  Not Germany, not England or Spain or Portugal of France.  Be the first to admit that your country can’t win a war and, more than that, recognize your error and end the war in Afghanistan and our continued presence in Iraq.

 

You have every excuse in the world, and except for a few right wing nuts, you would be applauded for saving the country from disaster.  If you need a reason to give the American people for the decision, here are six reasons, any one of which alone provides sufficient grounds for ending the war.

 

1) Our allies don’t want to send more than token forces, if that.  What do they know that we don’t?  Well, for one thing, they know the war is very unpopular with their people.  A majority of Americans also think we should get out of Afghanistan.

 

2) Our country is not at peril from the Taliban, and Al Queda is a stateless organization that can find sanctuary elsewhere and is doing so.

 

3) What is so special about Afghanistan?  If we are freeing people from oppression, why did we not intervene in Rwanda, where a million people were killed in a war between the Tutsis and the Hutus?

 

4) The government of Harmid Karzai is deeply unpopular and untrusted by the people of Afghanistan, because it is corrupt and shows no tendency whatever to change its ways.

 

5) We can’t allow more of our young people to be killed or wounded in wars of questionable necessity.

 

6) And finally, we can’t afford this war.  Our economy is in tatters.

 

Don’t be fooled by reassurances from our military commanders.  Generals fight.  That’s what they do for a living.  But tell them to stop fighting and they will stop, because you are the Commander in Chief.

 

You decide, Mr. President.

 

Wright Salisbury lost his son-in-law, Edward Hennessy, Jr. in the 9/11 attack.  He is also the founder of The Alliance for Jewish-Christian-Muslim Understanding, Inc., a non-profit organization dedicated to building bridges of understanding between people of different faiths.

 

Nov 14 2009 Bring back the draft and end the wars!

What follows is an open letter by Wright Salisbury whom we came to know as a members of September Eleventh Families for Peaceful Tomorrows. His thoughtful position on the draft is one that we share, and one we hope you will take time to consider.

Wright lost his son-in-law, Edward Hennessy, Jr. in the 9/11 attack. He is also the founder of The Alliance for Jewish-Christian-Muslim Understanding, Inc., a non-profit organization dedicated to building bridges of understanding between people of different faiths.

Bring back the draft and end the wars! by Wright Salisbury

 A brief history of the draft
The United States first employed conscription during the Civil War. Interestingly, since passions in
support of the war were high, only 2% were draftees. Another 6% were paid substitutes. (If a man were drafted, he could pay someone else to take his place.)

After Congress declared war in the World War I, the Conscription Act of 1917 was passed. There
was a lot of resistance to it and almost 300,000 men evaded the draft, mainly through moving and not
leaving a forwarding address.

The Selective Training and Service Act (STSA) of 1940 was passed into law by congress in anticipation of the coming or World War II. 350,000 men evaded the draft in World War II. After that act expired, it was replaced by the Selective Service Act in 1948, requiring all men between 18 and 26 to register for the draft.

After the debacle of the Vietnam War and the passions it aroused in draft-age men, conscription
ended in June, 1973. Since that time, the armed services have relied on enlistees and members of
the National Guard.

Why we should reinstate the draft
Since the end of the Vietnam War, the U.S. has been engaged in many military actions but not until
the Iraq War were National Guard people required to fight on foreign soil. There has been a lot of
discussion about whether the National Guard can be required to fight overseas, and it will be some
time before the legality of sending National Guard troops overseas is resolved. However, the use of
National Guard personnel to fight overseas clearly compromises their main mission, which is to deal
with domestic disasters.

The answer obviously is to reinstate the draft, perhaps under the original terms of the Selective
Training and Service Act of 1940, requiring all men between 18 and 26 to register for the draft. A bill
reinstating the draft under these terms was introduced by Congressman Charles Rangel in 2003 and
was soundly defeated, garnering only two votes. This idea clearly is not popular with congressmen
anxious to keep their seats in Congress. How much more convenient it is for all of us to send other
people to fight our wars.

Reinstatement of the draft, or even a movement to do so, would trigger a necessary national discussion. If a war is worth fighting, it should be the responsibility of all to share in the hardships and
possible deaths involved in the fighting.

I think it is time to begin that discussion in earnest.

Nov 13 2009 Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and Marwa in NYC

NYC is soon to host the trials of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (KSM) and 4 others accused (Khalid actually boasts of his work) of a crime that reshaped our world. One of his victims is heading for NYC this week. It's a long chain of events that led from KSM's planning to Marwa losing her leg, but the steps are clearly connected.

KSM planned, the killers acted, the U.S. was attacked, the Bushmen lied, and we invaded and occupied an innocent nation, terrorizing its innocent civilian population and delivering devastating violence that destroyed lives, limbs, and the cultural fabric of Iraq.

Marwa lost her right leg in a US bombing raid that killed her sister Azra. She was 16 years old.  

Like many Iraqi children, Marwa no longer goes to school. She was flown to Germany where she received her first prosthesis, paid for by Jürgen Todenhöfer using proceeds from his book "Why do you kill, Zaid?"

On the recommendation of the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), Todenhöfer provided Marwa with some money to enable her to open a small grocery shop. Because Sadr-City is controlled by the Mahdi Army, an Iraqi paramilitary force created by the Shi’ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, fixtures and fittings for the shop had to be smuggled to Marwa’s house in the back of an ambulance.

She needs a new prosthesis, having outgrown the original. The best are in the U.S. and Todenhöfer and the IOM are flying her to New York City so she can receive the best device, and the best medical and rehabilitative care available.

She'll be staying in Brooklyn, at the house of a generous soul who has opened her doors and extended her family for the duration of Marwa's stay here. Some of New York City's growing Muslim/Iraqi population have volunteered to provide transportation, translation, and much deserved entertainment.

If  you would like to help, make a check out to Bruce Wallace, mail it to:

Bruce Wallace
121Contact
523 72nd Street
Brooklyn NY 11209

and we'll see that 100% of your gift is delivered directly to Marwa.

Nov 11, 2009 Blackwater bribery? A mother's pain? Occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan?

The linkages are clear enough.

When a nation steps outside the law, people lose their foundation of trust. Yeah, I think about getting swept up one day; cut off from communication; lost to the 'free' world...and sometimes it really happens and some families are caught in the maelstrom of unknowing, perhaps forever.

One cannot value the word of a nation that lies its way into occupation, bribes its way past mercenary atrocities, hides it ways of rendition, torture, and assassination. One cannot value the judgment of a nation that pours over 10 billion dollars a month into occupation efforts while 45 million Americans are unable to adequately feed themselves.

It is time to stop the lying--to other and to ourselves.

It is time to end the occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan.

It is time to end the lawlessness of the U.S. government.

 

Indefinitely Detained

 

By Talat Hamdani

 

 

 “Harsh tactics” or torture, the threat of indefinite detention, whisking people to other countries without recourse, actions that our government has adopted, have left many Americans in a state of acute apprehension and often in outright fear. What happened to Salman Hamdani is still a question in the mind of his mother. Until we can say these actions are completely rejected by our government, the fears will remain.  We must reject extra-Constitutional activities once and for all.

 

 

It’s almost too painful to remember everything; the chaos, my first-born being ripped away from me was too much to bear.  When we couldn’t reach him and he didn’t come home on September 11, we knew that he had gone to the Trade Center to help.

 

He was still fresh at his research job at Rockefeller University in Manhattan . At age 23 he had just graduated from Queens College , was applying for medical school and was in the final throes of an NYPD police cadet training program.   Gentle and caring, he worked as an ambulance driver while studying and, as a certified paramedic, we were certain he went where he could use his skills to aid others.

 

Many calls came from the victim’s family center in the following days; the callers said they were investigators.  They kept asking the same questions over and again, calling sometime late into the night.  ”Where was Salman going?” “Who was he going to meet that day?” “When did he leave the house?”

 

Two weeks later someone came into my husband’s store in Queens and said he had seen our son’s picture on an MTA wanted poster from the “Terrorist Task Force”.  We were stunned.  Salman came here with us as an infant from Pakistan ; his two younger brothers were born here our chosen country.   He was deemed suspect, it seems, because he was a chemistry major in college, was born in Pakistan , and was Muslim.

 

We were overrun by reporters.  For the most part, they were fair and refrained from wild conjecture in their reporting, except for the NY Post, whose sensational headline blared “Missing or Hiding?” under Salman’s picture, and claimed someone saw him later that day uptown.  Then people came from the Bureau of Criminal Investigation and searched our house.

 

In early October, exhausted and depressed, our family made the pilgrimage to Mecca to pray.  Returning later that month, we were questioned by our Congressman. Rep. Ackerman, who suggested that Salman might have been detained by the immigration service, giving us hope that he might still be alive and only detained.  Maybe the poster was meant to mislead?  Maybe the government agencies weren’t coordinated?

 

We contacted the White House and the FBI, but only received form letters in return. Only then we learned that Salman’s name was included in an heroic context in Section 102 of the Patriot Act, which was passed on October 26, 2001 .

 

Six months after the event, on March 20, 2002, at 11:30 PM, two police officers came to our house and told us that his remains were identified through DNA testing at about the same time that the Patriot Act was passed, and almost the same day that we had returned from Mecca,… three months earlier.

 

We picked up his remains the next day.  When I asked for proof that this was actually Salman’s remains, the Medical Examiner told us, “Go get yourself a lawyer.” We had two choices: to take the remains and the death certificate, accepting what they told us, or to leave them there and have nothing.  We had been through too much and we chose the former. 

 

The months of stress were too much for my husband, who succumbed to a heart attack a few months later.  Without his good counsel, a terrible thought has crept in to my mind since then.  Was Salman detained and tortured?  Where did he really die?  Why was he lauded in the Patriot Act while he was being investigated as a suspected terrorist? Why did the authorities wait six months to tell us his remains were found?  I will live with these doubts and questions until I die.

 

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Oct 29 2009 Iraq-Afghanistan: U.S. Troops dying in a wasted effort

Whether in Iraq or Afghanistan, American troops are dying and suffering for a false assumption. Social revolution cannot be imposed by external force. When the will of the people rises to the challenge then, and only then, will great change occur. To assume otherwise is to ignore the facts on the ground.

What we actually accomplish is this: we continue to inspire more and more young people to become our enemies, join violent radical groups, and plan revenge against us.

It is time for Americans to wake from the dream of an all mighty USA whose bullets and bombs can transform the world into a unified Eden of Democracy. Our violent efforts push the world away from more peaceful tomorrows.

Obama recently decided to reduce humanitarian/social/infrastructure aid to Iraq while increasing our military presence, and costs, in Afghanistan. He's got a bit of waking up to do himself. And the price we pay for his sleepwalking is the blood of our soldiers, of innocent Iraqis, of innocent Afghanis, and a growing army of people who hate us enough to use violence against us. 

Call your representatives in government today. Let them know you support rapid and complete withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq and Afghanistan.

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The Afghan activist and author Malalai Joya said it plainly:

"Democracy will never come to Afghanistan through the barrel of a gun,
or from the cluster bombs dropped by foreign forces. The struggle will be
long and difficult, but the values of real democracy, human rights and
women's rights will only be won by the Afghan people themselves. So do not
be fooled by this façade of democracy."

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September Eleventh Families for Peaceful Tomorrows member Terry Greene was also clear as quoted in  Brian MacQuarrie's Boston Globe piece of October 29, 2009:

Terry Greene of Cambridge had just dropped her son at school when she heard on the radio that a second tower at the World Trade Center had been hit by an airliner. At that moment, on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, Greene knew that the tragedy in New York was no accident.

(Suzanne Kreiter for the Boston Globe)

TERRY GREENE, whose brother died in the Pennsylvania crash of United Flight 93 on Sept. 11, 2001

A short time later, Greene heard that United Flight 93 had crashed in a field in Shanksville, Pa. “My first reaction was, ‘Good, it didn’t hit another target,’ ’’ Greene recalled.

But Greene’s world soon began to dissolve when a brother called with the news that another sibling, Donald Freeman Greene, was on that plane. “I can’t really describe how dark and horrible that was,’’ Greene said.

Eight years later, as a roiling debate unfolds about US strategy in Afghanistan, Greene said she feels no need to sacrifice more American troops in a country where the 9/11 attacks were hatched.

“There has to be a way to build more bridges rather than destroy them,’’ Greene said. “I think the media assume that the families want revenge, like that’s respecting the family and the family member’s memory.’’

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Call your representatives in government today. Let them know you support rapid and complete withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq and Afghanistan.