Coincidence?!

95 Policewomen Graduated in Karbala

Rahim Alhaj Nominated for 2008 Grammy Award

Rahim Alhaj Nominated for 2008 Grammy Award

Best Traditional World Music Album
When The Soul Is Settled: Music Of Iraq, Rahim Alhaj with Souhail Kaspar,

Smithsonian Folkways Recordings

Rahim Alhaj, virtuoso oud performer and composer has been nominated for a Grammy Award for his Smithsonian Folkways recording, When The Soul is Settled, Music of Iraq recorded with master percussionist Shouhail Kaspar.

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Mohammed Walks Again

There is no doubt that the war has left America with a bad image, especially among Iraqis who were the most affected by the atrocities of war. Forgetting about the horror of war and those who caused it is not an easy task. Forgiving is even harder. Yet, living in the U.S. has showed me and many other Iraqis that Americans are not as barbarians as we imagined them to be. They don’t fly in warplanes and throw bombs. Instead they are very normal and hospitable, and when asked for help they are always ready.

In 2005, CNN featured one of the victims of the war. Mohammed, then 10-years-old, lost one of his legs when an explosion took place in the street where he was playing along with his friends and little cousin. The 6-year-old cousin couldn’t make it to survive. She died immediately after Mohammed saw her bleeding, screaming, and dying in front of him.

After he was featured on CNN, Elissa Montani, the founder of the Global Medical Relief fund, got in touch with the network to help Mohammed have a new leg that makes him walk again, and change his life. GMRF is an American New York-based non-profit organization is committed to bring hope and help to children who are missing or have lost use of their limbs, have been severely burned, or are otherwise damaged due to the atrocities of war, natural disaster or illness.

When Mohammed and his mother landed in Philadelphia, they were very impressed. “[Americans] are not our enemies,” Mohammed’s mother said in the video posted below. Americans helped them instead of their fellow Arabs, she mentions.

Today, Mohammed is very happy. Finally and after two years of becoming a disabled child, hope found its way to his saddened little heart. He is not only happy, but also grateful.

Thank you GMRF and thanks to CNN that helped both be in touch.

baghdadtreausre@gmail.com

Find CNN's reporting about Mohammed's hope HERE and HERE.

Baghdad Mourns a Fallen Mullah

KNOW, O my friends, that there was once a Mullah who owned today’s news headlines, and who was highly valued in his castle in Baghdad. For years, the Mullah lived happily among his peers in his castle which hosted one of the biggest newspapers in the world. But the Mullah’s lifetime wasn’t that long; his majesty was assassinated this morning by a group of thugs entering his palace.

Mullah Hentish was shot dead this morning by the enemies of his empire. Blackpigs, the enemies of the most important creatures on earth, shot him dead as he barked at his enemy’s Mullahs.

Mullah Hentish was in a very bad mood that day because apparently his housemistress forgot to give him a shower or please him with one of the Monarchy’s female Mullah’s which resulted in his bad mood. He got very angry even at his fellow Mullahs as they were accompanied by their blackpigs. The Mullahs were annoyed and ordered their blackpigs to kill him on the spot. And so the glorious Mullah died in his wounds, bleeding, moaning for help. No one was fast enough to help him.

After the brutal assassination of the Mullah, the state of emergency was announced in all over the empire. A delegation of diplomats visited the scene and promised the housemistress of the castle to punish the blackpigs if found guilty.

Mourning hovered over Baghdad. The sounds of the Azan and the bells from mosques and churches entered through every window in the Baghdad’s houses, announcing the horrifying death of the Mullah. Baghdadis, who have never been sad before, locked up their shops, stopped celebrating Eid, and put on black clothes mourning their beloved Mullah’s death. Cries were heard, sad and heartbreaking: “Oh Mullah Hentish! Oh our savior! May God take revenge from your killers.”

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A Handful of Home Soil

I don’t even know where to start from. What can I say? Really? The sound effects? The characters? The feelings and the emotions? I was imprisoned, or to be specific, I was taken away. Yes, I was taken to a world I have never been to. But was it one world?(I am thinking as I am writing) I don’t really think so. They were three: a world of beautiful and normal life, a world with brutality and inhumanity and a world of peace after mayhem, a real mayhem not like the one I see here when people consider a snow storm mayhem.

I flew like the kite. I ran like the runner. I was like the kite runner, jumping and running on the hills and snow-covered buildings in Kabul. I felt the heartbeats of every child competing in the game. I jumped and cheered when the Ameer and Hassan’s kite won the competition. And I watered my eyes too with compassion, not only because of the horrible scenes in a fictious story, but because they were so real. They were so damn right. They were so horrifying and magnifying. I felt the stone the filthy bearded-man throwing at the woman coming out of the screen hitting my head, running blood allover my clothes. The sounds of the shootings and the fear of looking at the terrorizing rulers of Kabul reminded me with those I encountered. Same clothes, same religion, same filth and same power: those running Iraq with power of religious AK-47s, those whose beards hide a devil in every hair, those who have no mercy even for God Himself. Those who practice the vice and claim doing the virtue.

It has been months since I read the book before the movie came out, yet never forgot the details. Now the movie came out with more vividness of the brutality of life and its fake promises. One scene hit me the most. I didn’t remember reading it in the book. I might have, but not sure. The scene of running away from the Soviets who invaded Kabul. A terrible reminder, a stab, a stone, a beast tearing my healing chest. They ran away from the invaders like we did when my neighborhood fell. They took their bags and documents and left and so we did in reality. The look, the tears, the heartbeats of going to the unknown. The horror of the idea of the possibility of not being able to see home again. It all came in one image reminding me of that day: the sound of the roaring tanks, the image of the camouflage helmets and brown boots.

Ameer’s father didn’t forget the most important thing. He was not as stupid as I was. He was not as naive as I was. He knew it, all the way out of his country. He felt it. As he was leaving, he bent down quickly before the darkness of the oil tanker he was hiding in deprived him from his country’s light, and took a handful of his country's soil, hiding it in his small pocket watch after he kissed it. How lucky he was to do so. How smart he was.

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I am a Muslim

I got this interesting video from an American friend of mine.

I will come back with some interesting ideas after I finish my exams in a few days.

baghdadtreasure@gmail.com

Borders

It’s cold outside. Freezing. Snow has covered the city with its beautiful flakes. Yet, it’s never so cold for the Philadelphians. Their energy increases this time of the year despite the weather’s merciless coldness. In the streets, their colorful winter hats, coats, scarves and thick jackets are their rejection to the cold weather’s tyranny which infected even someone like me who comes from a warm country.

Not too far from Philadelphia lies Wynnewood, a small town filled with beautiful European-style houses, roads and stores. In its major shopping area, a huge bookstore resides. Recognized by its shiny white sign, Borders is considered an attraction point to book lovers and all those who adore knowledge.

Every now and then, my friends and I come to the bookstore’s coffee shop. With its brown walls festooned with pictures of coffee cups images and art portraits, the coffee shop attracts not only us, but many others like a honey jar attracting bees. It’s never boring. People chitchat, drink coffee, read books, do homework, listen to music, and read to their kids.

I fell in love with this place the first time I came in the summer. A friend of mine had classes in the summer and asked me if I could accompany him to Borders where he always studies when he feels bored studying at home. I didn’t reject the idea and never regretted it. I never stopped going since.

I am here sitting in this coffee shop, studying for my final exam week. My friends picked me up and we all went there to study. Once we got in, one might never miss the aroma of coffee, mixed with the smell of the brand new books.

With my headphones on, I am listening to some Arabic music on my laptop. The music hit me, the homesickness, the nostalgia. All I could think of is my friends and family. I wished they were here with me. And for the first time, I didn’t wish I was there with them. There is no such beautiful place to hang out in without fear anymore.

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The Ghosts of Taliban Hover Over Basra Women

It aches me to see one of Iraq’s most famous former cosmopolitan cities falling in the hands of the new Taliban of the era. I have written over and over about how Basra is suffering from the extreme Shiite militias strict rules, yet the city’s transformation is heading from bad to worse.

While women suffer in the date palms-rich city, politicians and government officials are playing a catch-22. Accusations have filled their mouths while actions have no place to be carried out.

After the Christian Science Monitor’s article, and the BBC latest story about how women are abused if found not adhering to strict Islamic rules by the Shiite militias, Reuters broke out a new story in which more than 40 Basra women were killed and tortured simply because they weren’t wearing Hijab. Their bodies were dumped in the full-of-frightened-people streets.

The Basra police chief provided Reuters with the number of the victims. "Some women were killed with their children," Major-General Abdul-Jalil Khalaf, told Reuters. "One with a six-year-old child, another with an 11-year-old."

Khalaf’s account came similar to what Um Zainab told the BBC last month about the situation in Basra. “Two days ago two women were killed in al-Makal district. All these incidents are recorded as 'killers unknown' and the bodies remain unidentified, because no-one dares collect them. People said the women had received a warning beforehand, and that the gunmen then came to their houses and killed them - one of them in front of her kids.” Um Zainab is a woman from Basra who has experienced fear on first hand experience. Like a lot of women in Iraq, she yearns for the secular days where women were free to wear Hijab or not. “I remember back in the 1970s our teachers used to wear miniskirts and have the latest hair-dos. These are terrible setbacks. We don't know what they want, or why they want to take us back 14 centuries.”

These criminal incidents have created a huge debate among people of Basra. Muqtada al-Sadr’s officials and leaders of the Mahdi army were the first to deny their involvement in these incidents. Salam al-Maliki, a Sadr official and a former transportation minister, known of his extreme loyalty to Muqtada al-Sadr and his extreme religious rules argued that the police chief should announce the names of the women found dead, al-Arabiya news reported yesterday. He accused the police of “exaggerating the numbers,” saying that his “[Sadr] movement is not responsible for that.” He added that their main goal is “not to kill women, but to stand in the face of occupation.”

Al-Maliki also said that there are women wearing “unsuitable” outfits in universities including Christian and Muslim women whom they don’t harass or “force to wear Hijab.” Um Zainab thinks the opposite. Her daughter, a college student, told her “that some men [on campus] are watching how women dress and ask them: 'Why are you wearing a skirt and a shirt?' One of her friends who doesn't wear a hijab received a letter threatening her.”

As a response to al-Maliki’s defense of his militia, the Basra police chief told al-Arabiya, “these crimes have not been reported because of the fear of retaliation by the killers.”

In the meantime, British parliamentary report said that British forces have failed to establish security in Basra, Voices of Iraq reported. "The city is dominated by militias and the police force contains (murderous) and (corrupt) elements", the Monday report added.

Stuck between accusations and no actions, women in Basra need urgent help. On this platform, I call on all humanitarian and women organizations to call for an immediate and urgent action to help women in Basra and Iraq in general from falling victims in the hands of the new Talibans. I lost hope in calling on the Iraqi politicians and the government because they are themselves religious extremists who call on imposing strict rules on men and women’s behavior allover the country.

Finally, I leave you with this report from Aljazeera International TV network. It sums up in pictures and interviews what I have already stated above.

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Palestine

The last time I read a comic book was when I was in middle school in Iraq. The books I read were all about Superman and Batman (translated into Arabic) and some like Juha or Sindbad of the Arabian Nights which were series in children magazines like Majalati and al-Mizmar. Previously, comic books for me were more like an entertainment tool for kids and teenagers only. Yet, today I discovered that it’s more serious than how I expected it to be.

One of my classes is called “Rhetorical Theory of Place.” In this course, we read different kinds of books that deal with the philosophy of the term “place” and how this theory could be applied into writing. One of the books suggested by the professor was called “Palestine.”

“Palestine” is a graphic non-fiction novel written and drawn by Joe Sacco about his experiences in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip in December 1991 and January 1992. Sacco gives a portrayal which emphasizes the history and plight of the Palestinian people, as a group and as individuals.

The novel is no easy to read. Though it’s a comic book, it has a lot of details that could not be easily digested by people who’ve never experienced displacement and suffering. Sacco’s main goal in the book is to confront a reality unfamiliar to his American audience. Throughout the book, he declares that his main visit to the Palestinian territories is to focus on how people live there in such harsh conditions under the occupation. He was even asked by an Israeli woman that he should “be seeing [their] side of the story too.” He comments, “And what can I say? I say I’ve heard nothing but the Israeli side most all my life, that it’d take a whole other trip to see Israel, that I’d like to meet Israelis, but that wasn’t why I was here…”

Sacco’s drawings were amazingly alive. They make you picture the whole thing as if you were there. The smallest details were carefully and accurately written and drawn. He included a detailed, quoted historical background, supported by flashbacks narrated by him and his real characters through the conversations which he was part of.

I myself enjoyed the book very much. Although most of the incidents took place in the Palestinian territories, Sacco gives us a good picture of the Israeli part as well. The question of peace is of course presented. The story is full of amazing details and events. If you haven’t read it yet, go read it. It’s worth reading. If you already did, I would love to share my opinion with you on the comments section.

baghdadtreasure@gmail.com

Newlywed Terrorists

At an Iraqi army checkpoint, a newlywed couple was ordered out of their car at a Baghdad. The police and army members were shocked when they discovered that the blushing bride was really a man, CNN reported.

The couple were not newlyweds, they were wanted militants trying to sneak past security in disguise, the Iraqi defense ministry said in a statement. The video and the CNN news article say it all.

Official: Bride, groom stopped in Iraq actually terror suspects

BAGHDAD (CNN) -- Soldiers manning a checkpoint near Baghdad stopped a wedding convoy to find that the purported bride and groom were wanted terror suspects, an Iraqi Defense Ministry official said Monday.

The Army set up the checkpoint last week in the Taji area, about 12 miles (20 kilometers) north of Baghdad.

The soldiers became suspicious of the convoy because its members -- save the "bride" -- were all male and because one of the cars in the convoy did not heed orders to stop, the official said.
Also, soldiers said, the people in the car seemed nervous and the groom refused to lift his bride's veil when soldiers asked him to, according to the official.

Soldiers ordered everyone out of the car, the official said.

Upon inspecting the convoy, soldiers found a stubbly-faced man, Haider al-Bahadli, decked out in a white bride's dress and veil.

Bahadli was wanted on terror-related charges, as was his groom, Abbas al-Dobbi, the official said.

Two other terror-related suspects were detained as well.

First Iraqi Cardinal Named by Pope

Cardinal Emmanuel III Delly is the first prelate in Iraq in modern times to be named a cardinal by the Roman Catholic Church.

Read the New York Times Article.

What's the Difference?

It was in 2000 when the Baathist professor of the “National Education” came to our classes and threatened us the students to be dismissed from the university if we don’t join al-Quds Army, an army of civilians Saddam formed to “liberate Palestine from the Zinists.” A sophomore in college at the time, I couldn’t but think of how to get away from this. It was the second time that happened to me.

I stared at the professor and recalled what happened a fewyears earlier when I was in high school. My school was controlled by Uday Saddam Hussein who was in charge of the “Fidayee Saddam,” a paramilitary force established by the Baathist regime. The force consisted of adults and teenagers’ branches. We were supposed to join “Ashbal Saddam,” the teenagers’ branch, by force.

The “National Education” Baathist teachers came to take us by force to the buses that were lined up on campus. I ran away from classes, but no, all gates were closed. I didn’t know what else to do. I thought if I join the force, it means I will not be able to see my family and study for several months. I recalled my parents’ advice the night before this happened. They told me to do my best to run away, even if it takes climbing the school fence to run away. They sensed something wrong was going to happen.

It was easy to be out of sight. My high school was the biggest school in size in all over Baghdad. I went to the second soccer field. No games were on since students were being led to the buses that were going to the barracks. I reached the fence behind the soccer field, but it was very high that I couldn’t climb easily. I wanted to jump and extend my hands to reach the top, but I couldn’t. The school’s dean who was appointed personally by Uday Saddam Hussein made sure to put barbed wires all over the fence. Yet, I never gave up. I searched for bricks and I found some. I put one above the other until I was able to reach half the fence. Then I grabbed some of my books and put them on the barbed wires. Unfortunately, one of them fell just when I reached the top. I hurt my right hand, but it wasn’t a deep cut. It was a scratch. Then I jumped off the fence to the sidewalk. I ran with all my power before the inspectors reach me. They were at the corner of the streets catching students running away. Finally, I made it home! At night, my friends were all given military haircuts and shown on TV, wearing military uniforms.

When the college professor spat his poison and left, I decided to do the same as I did in high school. This time, I was taller, faster, and stronger to run away.

I will never join an army… Over my dead body!

So, right when the break started, I went to the main gate. I peered right-then left. There were buses ready to take us to go to the barracks. Same old thought came to my mind. I immediately jumped over the metal, thin-barred gate. Luckily, no inspector was there. I later found out that their threats were not serious. They just wanted students to be afraid and get onto the bus to join the army. They never dismissed any student who did not enlist.

In today’s “New Iraq,” and almost five years after the U.S.-led invasion, similar incidents are still taking place on university campuses. Students are forced and threatened to join certain activities and do certain things beyond their desire. Yet the threats are serious now. Death…

Newsweek's Baghdad correspondent Babak Dehghanpisheh wrote a detailed article about how Shiite militias control campuses and how they gun-force students celebrate Shiite religious ceremonies. In his article he narrates a story of a Mahdi Army fighter assigned to “guard” the Mustansiriyah University campus, and how he and his men harassed a Sunni college student because he didn’t want to stay and celebrate the religious ceremony. Two of the student’s classmates were kidnapped and one was found dead.

Dehghanpisheh describes the reasons why al-Mustansiriya University, once was one of the most secular and liberal amongst its peers in the country, has become in this condition. He writes:

Students and professors say the government-appointed security force for the campus, the Facilities Protection Service, is largely made up of Mahdi Army fighters, loyal to Moqtada al-Sadr. Posters of him and his father, Mohammed Sadeq al-Sadr, are dotted around campus; pro-Sadr (and anti-American) graffiti is spray-painted on walls. The faculty includes many Sadr supporters; most teachers who don't like the new regime have either left or learned to keep their mouths shut. "Mustansiriya is a university totally controlled by the Sadr faction," says a Shiite instructor there. "Before, nobody could speak ill about Saddam. Now nobody can speak ill about Moqtada."

Then Dehghanpisheh goes on in detailing how this militia control has affected school and professors.

On religious holidays, local clerics descend on the campus with bullhorns to preach, and female students, whether Shiite or Sunni, are warned they'll go to hell if they don't wear a hijab. Secular professors say the creeping religious influence is affecting student behavior. Recently a group of Shiite students beat their chests to protest poor dorm conditions—"the same way they do during [the Shiite festival of] Ashura," says one professor. "I was shocked."

So what has happened to the “New Iraq”? Is this is the freedom Bush has promised Iraqis with? Isn’t this the same government Bush supports that is supporting these militias in university campuses? In the video that I posted in my previous entry, he said “If you lived in Iraq and had lived under a tyranny, you’d be saying, God, I love freedom — because that’s what’s happened. And there are killers and radicals and murderers who kill the innocent to stop the advance of freedom. But freedom is happening in Iraq.” I lived under tyranny and lived under his freedom. I don’t see any difference. I think Bush’s freedom and Saddam’s are alike. We were harassed under Saddam as students, and today’s students are harassed under the new “free” rule.

Read the Newsweek article HERE.

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Depraving the word "Freedom"

This morning, I came across something that left my head want to explode. In a press conference with the French President, Bush gave one of his biggest lies in the 21st century. I know we are still in the beginning of this century, but I really believe that he is one of the most eloquent liars the world would ever witness. He was asked about Iraq by a reporter and his answer was like this:

Q: Thank you, Mr. President. My question is on Iraq. Mr. President, this morning you talked at length about Afghanistan, Iran, but not Iraq. And I wanted to ask both of you, is France reconciled with the United States, the United States is reconciled with France? So what about Iraq? Can France, for instance, help to get out of the Iraqi quagmire? And President Bush, where do you stand on Iraq and your domestic debate on Iraq? Do you have a timetable for withdrawing troops?

BUSH: I don’t — you know, “quagmire” is an interesting word. If you lived in Iraq and had lived under a tyranny, you’d be saying, God, I love freedom — because that’s what’s happened. And there are killers and radicals and murderers who kill the innocent to stop the advance of freedom. But freedom is happening in Iraq. And we’re making progress.

What "freedom" he was talking about? Invading a country, abusing its people, bringing terrorists to its land and causing massive immigrations and murders is freedom? This man has even depraved the word and made every freedom-lover hates it because of his comments. We hated tyranny, yes. But what came after was worse and cannot be called “freedom.”

I wonder if the refugees I mentioned in my previous post are saying “God, I love freedom!!”

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“Take us Back Home”

Iraqi refugees inside Iraq, are facing terrible living situations due to the reluctance of the Iraqi government to provide them with the necessary living equipments. According to Radio Sawa, the Iraqi government allocated $125 M to displaced Iraqis inside and outside the country, yet “no one has received a [cent] yet” from the money that was supposed to be paid six months ago, according to Sallama al-Khafaji, the Prime Minister advisor. In a conference held for the displaced families, al-Khafaji told Radio Sawa that the ministry of finance justifies that by having no mechanism to distribute this money.

At the al-Manathira refugee camp, One of the refugee camps in the country, the living conditions for Iraqi refugees are harder than anyone could imagine, despite the humanitarian aid provided to them. Families are in a helpless situation because they will live the winter in the wilderness.

A reporter from the Azzaman newspaper visited the refugee camp and wrote about what these refugees go through. I have translated the article since there is no English version of it.

Al-Manathira Refugees Talk about their Sufferings

Living in tents is unbearable … Winter has no mercy

Najaf—The refugees at al-Manathira refugee camp demanded the Iraqi government to put an end to their suffering and find solutions for their problems before winter in which it would be hard for them to keep living in [tents] in the wilderness, under severe cold conditions.

A number of the refugees said, “we were left in this miserable camp all summer enduring the hot days without water or electricity.” They added that it is very hard to live in tents due to the hot and cold weather. The tent is a [bedroom], kitchen, and living room. Each family lives in a tent.

The refugees demanded the government to ensure their return to their homes and all the necessary living conditions.

Al-Manathira refugee camp, located 24 KM south east of Najaf, includes 240 families (1800 people).

Living in Tents:

Hussein Ibrahim Elaiwi, an official responsible on al-Manathira refugee camp at the Ministry of Displaced and Immigrants in Najaf, says that the refugee camp was established On February 21^st, 2007 by the ministry, supported by the local provincial government, Iraqi Red Crescent, the Red Cross and some humanitarian organizations.

These organizations provide the camp with humanitarian relief. It is also supported by the Sadr Office and the Sayyed Sadr al-Deen al-Qubanchi, the preacher of the Friday prayer in Najaf. Two generators were provided to the camp by the Sadr Office and the Najaf Provincial Council. Out of 120 caravans, 45 were distributed in the area. The Water Directorate in Najaf provided the camp with water.

“Take us Back Home”

“My leg was cut due to terrorist attacks in Abu Ghraib,” said Bakheet Kadhum, a disabled man from Abu Ghraib area. “We were threatened to leave our city. So we decided to immigrate to Najaf for my family’s safety. We live in this tent now with my family members.” He added that the government is not doing enough towards millions of families who are left without water and electricity. “We were left in this tent where we spent all the long hot days without water and electricity. It’s only these days that we received water from the water directorate and electricity from generators sent by the Sadr Office in Najaf. They turn on these generators after sunset only. Living in a tent is very hard. The new caravans will arrive in early next year which means we’ll endure the winter in the wilderness under these tents. We want to go back to our homes.”

Klaib Abdul Zahra, from Tramiyah, said he lived in Najaf city for several months until police came displaced us and destroyed the houses we lived in which made us live in these tents. We are going through sever conditions because it is hard for a human being to live the burning summer and the cold weather in a tent. We left our homes after we were threatened. Each family in this camp lost a relative because of the violence and the terrorism the country is going through. The government didn’t care about us. They left us without salaries or housing lands. We received 9,000 Dinars (about $4) from the provincial council and 100,000 Dinars (about $60) from the Prime Minister. Some of the refugees in this camp have not received any money yet. We hoped the government would help us but it was because of the government we were displaced. When will they care about us?”

---

Radio Sawa reported last week that Iraqi Vice President Tariq al-Hashimi called on the Iraqi families who were forced to leave the country to go back home. “I say it directly and out of responsibility to the people who left due to the security situation to think about coming back home in the near future.” Hashimi did not give any details of how and why he called for the Iraqi refugees outside Iraq to go back home in the near future. He only mentioned that those who were displaced inside the country could go back to the Baghdad western neighborhoods due to “notable improvement in the security situation.”

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A Catastrophe on the Way

In today’s papers and news websites, a new scandal and a predictable catastrophe are revealed to the world. The Iraqi corrupt government, which has done nothing positive since it came to power, wasted $27 Million which was supposed to be used for the reconstruction of the Mosul Dam. According to the BBC, a US watchdog said reconstruction of the dam had been plagued by mismanagement and potential fraud, and that among the faults were faulty construction and delivery of improper parts, as well as projects which were not completed despite full payments having been made.

Due to the corruption and misuse of the funds, the dam is now in serious danger of an imminent collapse that could unleash a trillion-gallon wave of water, possibly killing as much as 500,000 people and flooding two of the largest cities in the country, according to new assessments by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and other U.S. officials, the Washington Post reported. Out of concern, the top US military commander in Iraq, Gen David Petraeus, and US ambassador Ryan Crocker then wrote to Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki urging him to make fixing the dam a "national priority". Recklessly, the government ignored all the calls to save the city from a possible flood, Iraqi authorities say they are taking steps to reduce the risk and they do not believe there is cause for alarm.

This government and parliament need to be spat at for the failure of every thing. No water, no electricity, no fuel, no schools, no safe streets and neighborhoods, and now what? A broken dam! Damn!!! A possible flood! As if the number of Iraqis dying everyday is nothing! How are people in Mosul supposed to digest this news? Flood?! Where would they go? It’s even dangerous to go from one city to the other!

This government must be replaced. All these politicians need to be changed. None of them have even brought up the subject in the parliament session. You know why? Because they were busy fighting and spitting at each other.

baghdadtreasure@gmail.com

Working Class Hero

Awesome song...



They hurt you at home and they hit you at school
They hate you if you're clever and they despise a fool
Till you're so ------- crazy you can't follow their rules
A working class hero is something to be
A working class hero is something to be

When they've tortured and scared you for twenty odd years
Then they expect you to pick a career
When you can't really function you're so full of fear
A working class hero is something to be
A working class hero is something to be

[Working Class Hero lyrics on http://www.metrolyrics.com/]

Vote for the Lion of Mesopotamia

After the tremendous victory the Iraqi Soccer Team achieved in beating Saudi Arabia team and winning the Asian Cup in Soccer, the Iraqi team's captain Younis Mahmoud was nominated for the best-known footballer in the world.

Please take a look and cast a vote for the Lion of Mesopotamia to be the best-known footballer in the world.

Each year, the best footballer in the world (FIFA Player) is elected by national trainers and national team captains. Users of the IFFHS website can now for the second time elect the most popular footballer in the world who need not be the best one. The IFFHS has drawn up the following list of 55 currently active players from 31 countries in all six football continents from which you can cast your vote for the best-known footballer in the world. The result of the users poll will be announced in January 2008, the intermediate results on November 15th and on December 15th, 2007. Votes may be sent until January 3rd 2008.

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As If She Would Care Less!

Condoleezza Rice received a hostile greeting on Capitol Hill yesterday when an anti-war protester waved blood-coloured hands in her face and shouted "war criminal". Telegraph

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VP’s Party Supports, Praises Insurgents Move

On October 11, Six Iraqi insurgent groups took a step towards unifying the factions fighting the U.S. by announcing the creation of a political council. The six groups formed what is called “The Political Council of the Iraqi Resistance.”

The groups- whose attacks against the Iraqi civilians, the government and the American troops never stooped since the insurgency was formed- announced their complete rejection to the Iraqi law, and decided to continue attacks against the U.S. military there.

The groups who conducted attacks against Iraqi civilians and infrastructure was welcomed and supported strongly by the Iraqi Islamic Party, headed by the Iraqi Vice President Tariq al-Hashimi. In a statement sent to journalists today, the IIP praised the groups’ step of establishing this umbrella organization.

The complete statement is translated below. For Arabic, see posted image.

Statement No. 159 issued by the Iraqi Islamic Party About the Establishment of the Political Council of the Iraqi Resistance:

After the establishment of the Political Council for the Iraqi national resistance groups, the Iraqi Islamic Party reviewed the Program of the Council, and announced its support to the project.

The Iraqi Islamic Party has long enough called the national [resistance] factions for the necessity of announcing their political project so that the pure blood wouldn’t go in vain, and to make these factions start their first step to end the occupation and achieve the sovereignty for Iraq and Iraqis and liberate [Iraq] from all kinds of occupation.

We hope that this council would be open to accept all factions who didn’t affect their Islamic and national reputation, and even include all political [movements] on the Iraqi soil to make this project a national comprehensive one.

We call for the Arab and Islamic governments, committees, and international organizations to cooperate with the political council and recognize it, as it is a representative of an important component in the Iraqi society. Supporting the council will be a factor in stabilizing the country and the restoration of its sovereignty.

We would like to announce that we support any national project that may rescue Iraq and serves its people and unity.

The Political Office

Although almost all of us know how supportive the IIP is to terrorism, but I’ve never expected them to have that nerve and announce their support this way.

So, the insurgents are going to rescue Iraq? Ha! What a joke.

baghdadtreasure@gmail.com

Click on picture to get a bigger size.

Are We Ready Yet?

Ammar al-Hakim, the son of the Shiite Muslim cleric and politician Abdul Abdul Aziz al-Hakim has been very active these days. The “second Uday,” as some Iraqis like to call him, is promoting for the foundation of the federal southern region of Iraq. On the first day of Eid al-Fitr, the Muslim holiday that marks the end of the holy month of Ramadan, Hakim Jr. led the Eid prayer at the Supreme Iraqi Islamic Council’s Headquarter, a former government compound in Baghdad’s high-scale neighborhood of Jadriyah.

The turbaned young man, who apparently is preparing to take over his father’s leadership, stood behind a glass square-shaped podium and addressed hundreds of his party’s supporters. “I call on our people to form their regions, starting from the South of Baghdad Region to all other regions, as it is an Iraqi interest, decision and will.”

Let’s see if I can discuss this issue from different angels. Federalism has proven its success in several countries like the United States, the United Arab Emirates, Australia, Canada, Russia, etc. Iraq has already experienced a successful praise-worthy federal region in its Kurdish northern region, known as “Iraqi Kurdistan.” Looking at the successful experience, I keep wondering if this could be the same if applied in the other regions of Iraq. The other question I keep thinking about is whether this time is the right time to apply it.

Iraq is going through a strong sectarian division carried out by Sunni insurgents and Shiite militias whose main job is basically to kill and destroy the lives of the innocent civilians psychologically and physically. Amidst this horror, there are several things that are needed to be done prior to thinking about federalism, in order to think of how to shape the structure of the country in the next step. I believe that federalism needs a strong, loyal government, not like the one ruling Iraq now. Almost all the political parties have proved to all Iraqis that they have never felt loyal to their country. Instead, revenge and power seizing is what they came for from their exile.

The southern part of Iraq is dominated by Shiite Muslim parties. These parties which include the Supreme Iraqi Islamic Council, Fadhila Party and the Sadr Movement are in a high-level competition of who is going to control that region first. When Hakim Jr. called again for the federalism in southern Iraq, he was attacked by the other two parties who basically accused him and his party of “agreeing with the American partition plan,” according to Salah al-Ubaidi, the Sadr spokesman in the holy city of Najaf, in reference to the Biden resolution that was passed on Sept. 26. Fadhila Party who controls some oil-rich areas in southern Iraq, criticized Hakim’s decision which came in “an inappropriate time,” according to Basim al-Sharif, a leader in the Party.

Hakim’s opposition didn’t end at the Shiites' end. Ahmed Abu Reesha, the Anbar Awakening leader who succeeded his brother who was murdered by al-Qaeda a few months ago, declared his opposition to that call. Abu Reehsha’s opposition came as Hakim Jr. visited the former in Anbar province, a long with Hadi al-Amiri, the leader of the Badr troops militia. Some sources told al-Hayat newspaper that most of the conversation between Hakim and Abu Reesha was concentrated on establishing the “Western Iraqi Region and the Southern Region.”

Let’s suppose that all these factions sit down and agree on creating federal regions in Iraq. The question that comes to my mind is will there be a unified government that would be “central” and representative of the entire country? Will the oil and mineral wealth be distributed fairly to all regions without the exclusive income going to where they exist?

As all these issues continue to lash out, the living circumstances of people have gone into a sharp decline, which resulted in an almost complete deprivation of electricity, fuel and clean water which are considered simple life requirements provided in any country including Iraq itself under Saddam’s tyrannical regime. The Americans have become crippled and unable to make all these politicians whom they brought from exile to agree on anything. The US Senate passed a resolution to divide Iraq into three ethnic federal regions believing that without this solution they “will have no chance for a political settlement in Iraq and, without that, no chance for leaving Iraq without leaving chaos behind.”

Federalism is a good thing, yet I believe that Iraqis are not ready for accepting it at the meantime. They will be if the surroundings are changed. The Iraqi politicians need to put hand in hand in order to rebuild their country. They need to get rid of their personal interests and start thinking about the interest of the country as whole. They need to be united in order to defeat terrorism and bring security back. If these things happen, people will be able to think, learn and be aware of federalism and its advantages, because by that time they will trust their leaders and will understand what federalism means. However, if non of this happen, no peace, no stability, no federalism will ever be seen in the near future.

baghdadtreasure@gmail.com

Iraqi Anthem Through History

Over and Over and Over

It seems it won’t be over, will it? After all these screams and criticism against the trigger-happy mercenary contractors, after all the mayhem Iraqis are going through, and after all the failure the government proved, another attack against innocents takes place.

Baghdad… Downtown, hot, grim, scary, miserable, bloody… And yet a brave woman, a simple Iraqi defeated the daily fear and the terrorists’ threats against her gender. Marony Ohanis took to the streets, driving her car in the booby-trapped roads. She was the breadwinner. The only one for her family.

Three daughters, some of them teenaged, were left motherless when mercenaries opened fire on their mother’s car, ripping off her life in the middle of the day. Drilled with bullets, her head was scattered like pieces of shrapnel on the ground. She was gone for ever, like hundreds of thousands of Iraqis who lost their precious lives in the “new, free Eyrak.” Her daughters are left in a merciless life, in a place were terrorism against civilians hovered over every house.

The scene was more horrifying, more detailed by The Washington Post:

"Iraqi police and witnesses at the scene gave differing accounts. Some said the Oldsmobile kept driving toward the convoy while others said it had stopped a safe distance away. They agreed that the car posed no threat to the security guards.

The gunfire sparked chaos on the crowded street as pedestrians ran for cover. A horse pulling a cart, used for selling black-market cooking gas, galloped away without its owner. Traffic policemen believed insurgents were attacking.

"A vehicle got close to them, and they opened fire on it randomly as if they were in the middle of a confrontation," said Ahmed Kadhim Hussein, a policeman at the scene. "You won't find a head. The brain is scattered on the ground."

He added: "I am shaking as I am trying to describe to you what happened. We are not able to eat. These were innocent people. Is it so natural for them to shoot innocent people?"

The Oldsmobile was shot first in the radiator as it passed a plumbing supply shop, employees said. The shooting continued and the car came to rest about 50 yards away, next to a yellow and white median curb marked by broken glass and blood."

I thought we got used to such news, but no. Hell no! This cannot be got used to. This is life. Time flies by quickly. No return. When will time stops? I mean this time, the bloody time, the death-hungry time, the misery, the darkness? Isn’t it enough?

I always thought of these mercenaries as blood-thirsty. I hated them every time I saw them in the streets scaring people. They are no different than al-Qaeda and the militias. They all share a common motto: Kill the Innocent. Eventually, they will run away unexecuted. Their laws give them the right to rob the lives of people. But why? Why won’t they be subjected to death penalty? Haven’t they killed innocents? Why should they enjoy life while they rip off the others’? Is it fair?

baghdadtreasure@gmail.com

Peaceful... Beautiful... Full of Joy...

I received these beautiful photos of Baghdad at night before the war from a friend by email.

Peaceful... Beautiful... Full of Joy...



I miss you my old Baghdad... Damn you Bush. May you never feel peace...

baghdadtreasure@gmail.com

3indi Watan

Does It Make Any Difference?

Spanish daily 'El Pais' published an article which proved that Iraq’s former dictator bargained to leave to exile if he was paid $1 Billion shortly before the U.S.-led occupation to Iraq. The offer has been revealed in a transcript of talks between Bush and the then Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar at the former's Texas ranch.

The confidential transcript was recorded by the then Spanish Ambassador to the US, Javier Ruperez, at the meeting between the two leaders at Crawford in Texas on February 22, 2003, the daily reported.

According to the tapes, Bush was also dismissive of the then French President Jacques Chirac, saying he "thinks he's Mr. Arab".

Here’s my take on this:

There is no need to remind the world of what Saddam had done against Iraqis. Everybody knows how tyrannical he was. So in my opinion, it worked better for me when he was caught and executed. If Bush had fulfilled his offer, imagine how many Iraqis would have gone mad, since they would have seen all their struggle against the tyranny had gone for nothing.

Paying Saddam $1 billion would have caused a lot of anger against the US more than it is now. He ought to have been caught and executed because that’s what he deserved after widowing women, depriving mothers from their sons, and treating people as if they are a piece of crap. What would have my aunt, whose husband and brother-in-laws were kidnapped by Saddam’s Security, said if she had heard that the one who deprived her and her children from their father got rewarded for his crimes?

Reading the article again, I guess the most pissed people would be the Americans. The majority I guess [correct me if I am wrong] didn’t want their country to invade and occupy Iraq, since Iraq had nothing to do with September 11, unlike Afghanistan where the mastermind of the attacks is hiding. If I were an American, I would have been very angry since Bush has spent more than what Saddam asked for. He asked Congress to approve a total of $725 billion in military spending while cutting nearly $80 billion from health and education programs last February, according to the British Timesonline. Recently, the Boston Globe reported that The United States has already allocated more than $500 billion on the day-to-day combat operations of what are now 190,000 troops and a variety of reconstruction efforts.

Let’s speak hypothetically, if Saddam’s offer was fulfilled, would it make any difference? I mean, the main problem started with the foreign terrorists coming from neighboring countries, blowing up their filthy bearded and balloon-belly bodies with explosives against civilians. They were coming anyway whether Saddam was fought or sent to exile. Their main goal was to fight whom they consider the infidels which included not only the Americans but the also the Shiite Muslims. Let’s suppose that that never happened as well, I still think that the situation wouldn’t be better, since the Americans had no real plans before they came. They had no background and no clue about anything in the Iraqi society [Read The Imperial Life in the Emerald City and watch No End In Sight.] So the problems would have still existed.

To conclude, this was something happened in the past. We need to look forward. Looking back at whether Saddam was given money or not won’t solve the problem for both Iraqis and Americans. This new transcript will neither bring Americans their money back, nor will make Iraqis feel any better.

baghdadtreasure@gmail.com

After Diyala, Basra Calls for Help

Basra on the Gulf © All Iraqis Forum

If Iraq’s and Basra’s infamous poet Badr Shakir al-Sayyab had been alive, he would have written the best of his poems, maybe better than the “Rain of the Hymn.”

Basra, Iraq’s second largest city was one of the most important and famous port cities in the region. It was an attractive city where people from different spots on the world used to come and spend a great time there.

I haven’t been to Basrah before, but my information about the port city comes from my father who lived there for five years in the 1960s. He always talks about how great it was, a city with clean streets and squares, high rise buildings, telecommunication, fancy cars, and statues and monuments. Schools and Universities were the shining stars in the city, producing graduates whose country was proud of. Muslims, Christians and Sabians lived in harmony for decades enjoying the prosperity their city possessed at the time until Iraq’s dictator came to power and started an eight-devastating war with neighboring Iran.

Basra was one of the main fronts in the battles during the first Gulf war. The city suffered the bloodshed and the Iranian attacks including the occupation of al-Faw peninsula for two years, until it was liberated later by the Iraqi army in 1988.

Basra’s people were some of the bravest Iraqis who revolted against Saddam in 1991, but with his brutal power Saddam crushed the revolutionaries and buried them alive along with their parents, wives, and children.

Today, Basrah is in its worst shape. The secular, intellectual and metropolitan city is taken over by the al-Fadhila and the Mahdi Army militiamen who are doing whatever they can to destroy the city’s modernized face by turning it into a Shiite version of Talabanic Afghanistan.

The Christian Science Monitor’s Sam Dagher visited Basra recently and wrote what he saw there. Disturbing actions committed by the militias summed up what is going on there, especially with the British Troops leaving, without finishing their job in protecting the city from terrorists they “vowed” to eliminate.

One of the things Dagher reported in Basrah was a clear sign that Basra is falling in the hands of extremists. “The billboard in Umm al-Broom Square was meant to advertise a cellphone service. Instead, it has become a message to those who dare to resist the rising tide of fundamentalist Islam in Iraq's second largest city. The female model's face is now covered with black paint.”

Graffiti scrawled below reads, "No! No to unveiled women."

I guess Iranians were smart enough to take revenge from Iraqis. They were waiting and preparing for this day where instead of Statues of poets in intellectuals, they made sure the militias they support put posters of their filthy clerics who know nothing about modern and liberal life, except it’s a “bad” thing. Dagher writes, “Posters of the leader of Iran's 1979 social and religious revolt, Ayatollah Khomeini, who at the time imposed similar limits on his society, are plastered everywhere in Basra.”

I don’t know whom should people go to in order to eliminate Iran’s poison. If their government is a big friend and ally to this Satanic Country, what can they do? If their government does not support the modern and secular life we enjoyed before?

Let’s count the disasters that are happening in Basra these days according to Dagher and see if the government will do something to stop them:

1- "There is pressure from parties backed by Iran to sideline liberal, secular, and leftist forces," says a labor union leader and a former communist, who, like most people interviewed for this story, did not want to be named for fear of retaliation. "Personal freedoms are being squashed … the fabric of Iraqi society has been ruined."

2- Public parties are banned.

3- Selling musical CDs is forbidden in shops.

4- Those who sell or consume alcohol face recrimination, even death.

5- Artists and performers are severely restricted and even labeled as heretics.

6- A famous city landmark, a replica of the Lion of Babylon statue that stood here for decades was blown up by militants in July. [Doesn’t that remind you with something Taliban did?]

7- Signs ordering women to cover up appear throughout the city. One woman, an Iraqi female activist from Basra, says the notices even threaten death. One banner, she says, said unveiled women could be murdered and no one could remove their bodies from the street.

8- Off-campus picnics and gatherings by Basra University students have been banned since March 2005, when militiamen viciously beat up a group of mixed-gender picnickers.

9- A student at the College of Fine Arts recounted how militiamen led by a turbaned cleric recently descended on their campus threatening to "finish off the dean with two bullets in the head" if the department was not shut down. "They called us immoral gypsies," he says.

10- Journalists and writers, too, say they have to think twice before publishing anything critical. [Freedom of writing!]

11- One Christian woman in Basra says that she has witnessed an exodus of families from traditionally Christian areas like Braiha, Maaqal, and Jumhouriyah over the past two years.

12- Sunnis in Basra have not been as fortunate. Many have been killed or forcefully pushed out from inside the city as part of the sectarian war that has swept the whole country. Most are now concentrated in areas south of Basra.

These criminals are chocking people with their rifles and brutal and bloody actions. Please spread the word. Do whatever you can to help. Let’s make our voice heard. No to Taliban, No to Iran, No to Oppression, No to Radical Muslims, and YES to modernity, Back to Secularism and Liberalism.

To read Sam Dagher’s article, please click HERE.

To Sam Dagher and the Christian Science Monitor: Thank you for bringing us the right picture. Thank you for letting the world know what exactly is going on in one of the “calmest” cities in Iraq. Keep up the great job!

baghdadtreasure@gmail.com