If you thought US troops were withdrawing from Iraq, the following amy be of interest:
Though the Iraq War has long since become an after-thought amid Obama Administration claims that the “drawdown” in on track, the Pentagon is reporting today that Secretary of Defense Robert Gates has approved a request to send about 1,000 additional troops to Iraq. The latest report comes less than a week after it was revealed that the Pentagon has added thousands of additional contractors to Iraq, ostensibly to replace US troops during the drawdown.
More at: http://news.antiwar.com/2009/09/15/us-sending-1000-more-troops-to-iraq/
Sunday, 20 September 2009
Sunday, 13 September 2009
More news than ever
As media organisations scale down their operations in Iraq, there is no shortage of news about the ongoing effects of the six and a half year occupation of this country. Real concerns about the brutality of US-trained security forces continue to be voiced:
2 Iraqis slain in Baghdad raid by U.S.-backed security forces
LA Times reports (September 10th): Iraqi forces, backed by U.S. soldiers, entered a residential street in southeast Baghdad's Zafaraniya district early Wednesday during a security sweep. When the mission was over, two men were dead and their relatives and neighbours were accusing the Iraqi forces of murder.
Relatives and neighbours said troops set off explosives that knocked down the gates and doors to a home, where they detained an Iraqi military intelligence officer and killed two civilians. Their bodies were discovered with dog bites and gunshot wounds on a kitchen floor, which was streaked with blood, the witnesses said.
More at:
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-iraq-raid10-2009sep10,0,5056741.story
In Iraq's prisons, a culture of abuse
Christian Science Monitor reports (September 13th): In a room thick with heat and sweat, light from a small window falls on rows of squatting prisoners and plastic bags of belongings hung from nails on every inch of the wall. The guard explains that 74 men live in this room, which is roughly 10 by 20 feet. A further 85 are usually in the corridor, he adds, while 12 are kept next to the toilet.
This is Hibhib prison on the outskirts of Baquba, the dusty, volatile capital of Diyala Province roughly 40 miles from Baghdad.
It is just one of the prisons in the province where detainees and US forces allege overcrowding, lengthy pretrial detention, and torture used to extract confessions. While the conditions here may be more severe than elsewhere in the country, Iraq's national detention system as a whole has been harshly criticized by Western human rights organizations.
An Interior Ministry official who was inspecting Diyala prisons told the Monitor that the ministry "sent a committee to visit Rusafa, and it is not good. It is the same as the jails in Diyala Province, the same breaches of human rights."
"Yes, there is violence" in Diyala jails, the official confirmed, on condition of anonymity. "There are violent punishments, they hang them from their arms, beat them with sticks and [punch them], kicking, [using] electricity, stubbing out cigarettes on the skin." He described a practice, also detailed by former prisoners, in which prisoners are forced to drink water and then prevented from urinating by a method too unpleasant to be described here.
More at:
http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/0912/p08s01-wome.html
To regularly access these and other stories, sign up to the Iraq Occupation Focus Newsletter, produced as a free service for all those opposed to the occupation. In order to strengthen our campaign, please make sure you sign up to receive the free newsletter automatically – go to: http://lists.riseup.net/www/info/iraqfocus.
2 Iraqis slain in Baghdad raid by U.S.-backed security forces
LA Times reports (September 10th): Iraqi forces, backed by U.S. soldiers, entered a residential street in southeast Baghdad's Zafaraniya district early Wednesday during a security sweep. When the mission was over, two men were dead and their relatives and neighbours were accusing the Iraqi forces of murder.
Relatives and neighbours said troops set off explosives that knocked down the gates and doors to a home, where they detained an Iraqi military intelligence officer and killed two civilians. Their bodies were discovered with dog bites and gunshot wounds on a kitchen floor, which was streaked with blood, the witnesses said.
More at:
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-iraq-raid10-2009sep10,0,5056741.story
In Iraq's prisons, a culture of abuse
Christian Science Monitor reports (September 13th): In a room thick with heat and sweat, light from a small window falls on rows of squatting prisoners and plastic bags of belongings hung from nails on every inch of the wall. The guard explains that 74 men live in this room, which is roughly 10 by 20 feet. A further 85 are usually in the corridor, he adds, while 12 are kept next to the toilet.
This is Hibhib prison on the outskirts of Baquba, the dusty, volatile capital of Diyala Province roughly 40 miles from Baghdad.
It is just one of the prisons in the province where detainees and US forces allege overcrowding, lengthy pretrial detention, and torture used to extract confessions. While the conditions here may be more severe than elsewhere in the country, Iraq's national detention system as a whole has been harshly criticized by Western human rights organizations.
An Interior Ministry official who was inspecting Diyala prisons told the Monitor that the ministry "sent a committee to visit Rusafa, and it is not good. It is the same as the jails in Diyala Province, the same breaches of human rights."
"Yes, there is violence" in Diyala jails, the official confirmed, on condition of anonymity. "There are violent punishments, they hang them from their arms, beat them with sticks and [punch them], kicking, [using] electricity, stubbing out cigarettes on the skin." He described a practice, also detailed by former prisoners, in which prisoners are forced to drink water and then prevented from urinating by a method too unpleasant to be described here.
More at:
http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/0912/p08s01-wome.html
To regularly access these and other stories, sign up to the Iraq Occupation Focus Newsletter, produced as a free service for all those opposed to the occupation. In order to strengthen our campaign, please make sure you sign up to receive the free newsletter automatically – go to: http://lists.riseup.net/www/info/iraqfocus.
Wednesday, 9 September 2009
The myth of disengagement
Iraqi Journalist Detained for a Year Without Charge by US Forces Despite Iraqi Court Order
Democracy Now! Reports (September 2nd): A year ago, US and Iraqi forces raided the home of Iraqi journalist Ibrahim Jassam, a freelance photographer working for Reuters. Soldiers seized his computer hard drive and cameras. He was led away, handcuffed and blindfolded. For the past year the US military has held Jassam without charge. Ten months ago, the Iraqi Central Criminal Court ordered his release for lack of evidence, but the US military refused to release him, claiming he was a “high security threat.”
Read more at:
http://www.democracynow.org/2009/9/2/iraqi_journalist_detained_for_a_year
Democracy Now! Reports (September 2nd): A year ago, US and Iraqi forces raided the home of Iraqi journalist Ibrahim Jassam, a freelance photographer working for Reuters. Soldiers seized his computer hard drive and cameras. He was led away, handcuffed and blindfolded. For the past year the US military has held Jassam without charge. Ten months ago, the Iraqi Central Criminal Court ordered his release for lack of evidence, but the US military refused to release him, claiming he was a “high security threat.”
Read more at:
http://www.democracynow.org/2009/9/2/iraqi_journalist_detained_for_a_year
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)