Corporate impunity

Blackwater Suit Tossed 7 Years After Deaths

AP report (January 25^th): A federal judge has tossed a lawsuit that blamed the security company formerly known as Blackwater for the deaths of four contractors killed in a grisly 2004 ambush on the restive streets of Iraq.

U.S. District Judge James C. Fox said court-ordered arbitration fell apart because neither side was paying the costs of that process, so he decided to shut the case nearly seven years after the killings.

http://www.military.com/news/article/blackwater-suit-tossed-7-years-after-deaths.html

From Azzaman

Iraqi security forces on arrest campaign against Baaquba intellectuals

Azzaman reports (January 26^th): In a fresh crackdown, Iraqi security forces have arrested more than 100 intellectuals from the restive Province of Diyala of which Baaquba is the capital.

The crackdown comes amid reports of an upsurge in security in the province which groups resisting U.S. occupation and the current government have turned into a stronghold.

Among those arrested are four top medical professors teaching at the Diyala University’s Medical College, professors Mazen Razzouqi, Adel al-Hussaini, Ali al-Husaini and Bahaa Abed.

http://www.azzaman.com/english/index.asp?fname=news\2011-01-26\kurd.htm

Protests as Blair gives evidence

AP report (January 21^st): Former Prime Minister Tony Blair offered an emotional apology for the deaths of soldiers and civilians in Iraq, as he testified Friday to Britain's inquiry into the war. Some bereaved relatives heckled the former prime minister as he expressed his remorse.

Members of the audience shouted: "Too late, too late," while two women turned their backs on Blair, and then walked out. An official brought tissues into the hearing for another woman who burst into tears.

"Your lies killed my son, I hope you can live with yourself," Rose Gentle, whose 19-year-old son Gordon Gentle was killed while serving in Basra, southern Iraq, in 2006, shouted as Blair completed about four hours of testimony.

"You're a disgrace to your office and our country," Reg Keys, whose son was killed in 2003, shouted as Blair left.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110121/ap_on_re_eu/eu_britain_iraq_inquiry

Two stories from Azzaman

Iraqi government to purchase armoured limousines worth $75 million for members of parliament

Azzaman reports (January 21^st): The Iraqi government has decided to spend nearly $75 million from the country’s oil revenues to purchase armored limousines, one for each of the 325 members of parliament.

The high salaries and perks senior Iraqi officials get are fueling anger in Iraq and there has been a storm of protest from local media.

http://www.azzaman.com/english/index.asp?fname=news\2011-01-21\kurd.htm

Iraqi Turkmen tell U.S. ambassador to stop meddling in domestic affairs

Azzaman reports (January 19^th): Iraqi ethnic Turks, known locally as Turkmen, have asked U.S. ambassador to Iraq, James F. Jeffrey, to stop meddling in Iraqi internal affairs.

A statement by the Turkmen Front, a political umbrella for ethnic Turks in Iraq, accused Jeffrey of heightening ethnic and sectarian tensions in the disputed oil-rich province of Kirkuk.

http://www.azzaman.com/english/index.asp?fname=news\2011-01-19\kurd.htm

'Torture, homicide rife in US prisons'

Press TV report (January 23^rd): New documents obtained by the ACLU show "unjustified homicide" of detainees and concerns about the condition of confinement in American prisons. The documents reveal how four Iraqi detainees were executed by a group of US soldiers and then pushed into a Baghdad canal in 2007. 

One of the investigating documents says a wounded detainee was killed by an unnamed sergeant, who walked into the room where the detainee was lying wounded and “assaulted him … then shot him twice thus killing him.” 

The soldier then asked the other troopers present at the scene to lie about the incident. 
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/161485.html

Baghdad gets less than one hour of electricity a day

Azzaman reports (January 15^th): Iraq’s capital, Baghdad, home to more than six million people, hardly gets one hour of non-interrupted electricity supplies every 24 hours.

The city has plunged into darkness with the country’s national grid still unable to increase supplies despite billions of dollars in investments.

Seven years after the 2003-U.S. invasion, power production in the country is still below levels reached under former leader Saddam Hussein.

http://www.azzaman.com/english/index.asp?fname=news\2011-01-15\kurd.htm

Upcoming event

Wednesday 9^th February, 7pm, Public Meeting: IRAQ – THE FORGOTTEN OCCUPATION, with Haifa Zangana, Norwich Central Baptist Church,  Duke Street, Norwich NR3 3AP.