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VOICES
NEWSLETTER # 44 (January / February 2006)
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2006:
A year of action against war and occupation?
The "withdrawal" fraud
US "terrified" of
UK withdrawal
"Fallujah is a prison"
Is Iran next?
A UN replacement force?
Iraq's oil: crude designs
Elections
Less troops, more bombs
Broken bones and daily beatings
Polls
Operation Steel Curtain
Before "Steel
Curtain"
Torture, death-squads and detention
Take action!
Resistance round-up
Resources
Why we oppose the occupation
2006:
A year of action against war and occupation?
As the US continues to pursue a policy of aerial bombardment
and “Iraqification” (ie. training an Iraqi proxy
force to fight on its behalf) that is pushing Iraq ever closer
to full-blown civil war - and as the British Government prepares
to deploy thousands more troops to Afghanistan - the UK anti-war
movement needs to make 2006 a year of action against occupation.
Why action?
Several 2005 opinion polls found a majority of the British public
supporting the withdrawal - though not necessarily the immediate
withdrawal - of British forces from Iraq (Project on International
Policy Attitudes, 14 Oct). However, as US author and activist
Rahul Mahajan notes, ‘“opposition” … as
expressed in answers to [such] poll questions, means very little;
what matters is political opposition, things that genuinely
make it more difficult for those in power to continue on their
course, or that make alternatives seem preferable’ (EmpireNotes.org,
31 Oct).
The moral case
Clearly, even in the case of Iraq, such pressure cannot be
generated overnight. However, we can and should start building
towards
it by waging an aggressive campaign at the grassroots to publicise
the ongoing horrors of the occupation – with its torture
and mass detentions, its airstrikes and refugees - and to make
the moral case for withdrawal (which, at its core, is fairly
simple - see here). At the same time the occupation of Afghanistan – long
forgotten by the anti-war movement – needs to be made an
issue.
From words to deeds
For over a year now the US has been able to attack towns and
cities in Iraq with almost no response from the anti-war movement.
We need to change this dynamic, ‘mov[ing] from words to deeds … [to]
build a movement the government cannot ignore’ (Stop the War Coalition,
Sep/Oct ’02) while deploying the full range of activist tools – from
postcards to civil disobedience - to recapture the activist energy of late 2002
/ early 2003 and to push the question of British support for the occupation(s)
back to the centre of British political life.
The
"withdrawal" fraud
‘Our mission in Iraq is to win the war’ (National
Strategy for Victory in Iraq, November 2005)
While the US and British governments hope to begin
a partial withdrawal of forces this year, the Bush
administration remains committed to achieving “complete
victory” in Iraq (BBC, 30 Nov 05). An escalation of the air war (see below)
and more sectarian violence are the likely outcomes.
‘Barring any major surprises in Iraq, the Pentagon tentatively plans to
reduce the number of US forces [in Iraq] … early [in 2006] by as many as
three combat brigades, from 18 [in late Nov 2005], but to keep at least one brigade “on
call” in Kuwait in case more troops are needed quickly’ (Washington
Post, 23 Nov). It also hopes to be able to ‘drop the total number of troops
from more than 150,000 [at the end of Nov 2005] to fewer than 100,000, including
10 combat brigades, by the end of [2006].’
Meanwhile the UK is planning to ‘cut the number of British troops in southern
Iraq by 5,000 from the current total of about 8,500, with the remaining forces
moving back to five or six strategically placed camps’ (Sunday Times, 20
Nov) – even as it prepares to send 3-4,000 more British troops to Afghanistan,
where military intelligence officials fear they ‘could sustain losses on
a scale not seen since the Falklands war’ (Sunday Times, 1 Jan).
‘A
decade of commitment’
Such plans should not be confused with the first stages of a genuine disengagement
from Iraq. Indeed, a high-level Pentagon war planner told Seymour Hersh that ‘he
ha[d] seen scant indication that the President would authorize a significant
pullout of American troops if he believed that it would impede the war against
the insurgency’ (New Yorker, 5 Dec 05).
Last year, a much-touted article in Foreign Affairs advocated a shift to a so-called “oil
spot strategy” in Iraq, requiring ‘at least a decade of commitment
and hundreds of billions of dollars and … longer US casualty rolls’ (Sept/Oct
04). Bush’s Nov 05 National Security Strategy for Victory in Iraq ‘all
but formally endorsed a modified version of that approach as official policy’ (Telegraph,
3 Dec 05).
Increasing sectarianism
Central to the National Security Strategy is the training of an Iraqi proxy force
capable of carrying out a “clear, hold, build” approach: ‘us[ing]
large military contingents to “clear” areas of insurgents; garrison[ing]
US and Iraqi troops in these areas in order to “hold” them (instead
of the more usual policy of withdrawal); [and] engag[ing] in a “build” strategy
of reconstruction and long-term control’ (Paul Rogers, OpenDemocracy.org,
15 Dec).
Yet, as US author and activist Rahul Mahajan observes (EmpireNotes.org, 5 Dec),
this strategy ‘not only depends on sectarianism but [also]drives the sectarian
dynamic further’ as the US is forced to use mainly Shia and Kurdish forces
to fight a predominantly Sunni insurgency. A low-level civil war is already raging
in some parts of the country and, since Jul, ‘more than 20 towns around
Baghdad have gradually but unmistakeably begun segregating’ as a result
of sectarian killings and intimidation ‘with districts of the capital following
the trend’ (Times, 25 Nov).
5 years
Moreover, according to the International Institute for Strategic Studies, ‘it
w[ill] take “five more years at least” for Iraq to generate the 300,000-strong
army it need[s] to fight the insurgency on its own’ (FT, 26 Oct) and so ‘[s]ubstantial
numbers of American troops will have to stay in Iraq well beyond the end of the
Bush Presidency’(Times, 26 Oct).
A “realistic goal”
Given the ‘collision between public desire for a near-term resolution in
Iraq and Bush’s insistence on a long-term commitment … [Bush’s]
most realistic goal may be to manage widespread frustration about the war from
growing into a powerful anti-war movement,’ Washington Post staff writer
Dan Balz writes (25 Nov).
Though it is likely to be a disaster for Iraqis, this “realistic goal” – and
the need to address ‘grave concerns within the military about the capability
of the US Army to sustain two or three more years combat in Iraq’ (New
Yorker, 5 Dec) – is the true rationale behind the new “withdrawal” strategy.
US "terrified" of
UK withdrawal
A
total withdrawal of UK forces from Iraq – as
opposed to the partial withdrawal currently envisaged
- could have a major impact on America’s
ability to continue the occupation.
'
US and Iraqi leaders [have been] pressing their
military allies in Iraq to postpone withdrawing
troops’ from the country (Boston Globe,
20 Nov). Bulgaria and Ukraine withdrew in Dec
and the Netherlands, Poland, South Korea
and Italy ‘have reduced or plan to reduce their troop commitments’ (USAToday.com,
28 Dec).
A huge difference
“
Militarily, the contingents that are there don’t make an enormous amount
of difference,” Charles Heyman, a senior defense analyst at Jane’s
Information Group told the Globe. “But from a political perspective, they
make a huge amount of difference. The White House can point to a ‘coalition
of the willing.’ Their departure chips away at the Americans’ ability
to project this as a major international effort in Iraq.”
The UK’s role, in particular, is crucial. Indeed, according to one UK defence
official, “The Americans are terrified [that the UK] will be ready to withdraw
[from Iraq] before them and then the rest of the coalition, the Australians and
other countries, will disappear and they will be left on their own” (Sunday
Times, 20 Nov).
"Fallujah is a prison"
As more information continues to trickle out about the devastating
Nov 2004 US
assault on Fallujah, the mainly Sunni city remains ‘virtually a police
state, with random checkpoints and frequent street patrols by marines and Iraqi
soldiers, largely Shiite Arabs’ (New York Times, 14 Nov).
White
Phosphorus
In Nov the US was forced to admit, confirming contemporaneous press reports,
that white phosphorus – a substance that ‘burns down to the bone
in contact with skin’ - had been “used as an incendiary weapon” during
the Nov 04 offensive (Guardian, 16 Nov). However, their claim that it had been
used solely against “enemy combatants” was difficult to believe.
On 8 Nov 04, as the offensive began, the American Forces Press Service reported
officials as estimating that between 50,000 and 60,000 people - and only 5,000
to 6,000 “insurgents” - were left in the city.
"clear, hold, build"?
Meanwhile, the State Department’s chief policymaker for Iraq, James Jeffrey,
has been pointing to Fallujah as a positive example of the United States’ “clear,
hold, build” strategy (see here), claiming that, following the Nov 2004
offensive, the city has been “held in a sophisticated way”: “We
brought the population back. . . then went down the list of everything - schools,
medical centres, sewerage, water, roads, electricity, the whole gamut of services
- to give the population a sense that they had a future” (Telegraph, 3
Dec).
In reality, ‘[o]nly 170,000 people – half the original population – have
returned’ and ‘of the swift reconstruction promised by the Iraqi
Government there are only sporadic signs in wealthier areas’ (Sunday
Times,
18 Dec).
Shocking devastation
Returning to the city over one year after the attack, Hala Jaber writes that
it is ‘impossible not to be shocked by the devastation. Huge areas of what
were once homes have been flattened. On countless street corners, mountains of
rubbish spew plumes of black smoke into the air. Fields of rubble stretch for
as far as the eye can see.’
Following the offensive more than 700 bodies – including 550 women and
children -were recovered from the rubble in just a third of the city’s
27 neighbourhoods (UN Integrated Regional Information Network, 4 Jan 05).
$700
Today, in place of reconstruction ‘there are [mostly] women like Rasmiya
Mohammed Ali, crouching in the ruins of her home, chipping away with a small
hammer at broken breeze blocks salvaged by her sons, aged seven and eight,’ Jaber
writes (Sunday Times, 18 Dec).
“They did not even give us a tent. What can I do but clean and clear these
stones so that we can rebuild our home,” Ali - a mother of five who received
only $700 compensation after her home was destroyed during the Nov 04 offensive – explained.
According to the city’s mayor ‘only 20% of the compensation promised
has reached the city.’
Lockdown
Furthermore, according to residents ‘goods trucked into town must wait
hours or days for inspection at one of the entry checkpoints, and this often
raises prices … choking the economy so badly that many people struggle
to survive’ (Newsday.com, 26 Nov).
“We feel Fallujah is a prison,” Mohammed, a restaurant manager, told
Newsday, ‘show[ing] the plastic identity card, issued by US Marines, that
Fallujans must show at checkpoints to enter the city.Marines take retina scans
and all 10 fingerprints of every resident when issuing
the cards.’ “Are we criminals?” he asks.
Shia against Sunni
In the past year, U.S. forces have used various Iraqi forces to help control
the city - many of them Shias from southern Iraq - and their activities have
been ‘heightening sectarian strains’ (Sunday Times, 18 Dec). ‘Sunni
residents claim [Iraqi troops] routinely break in to their shops at night for
supposed security operations. Many complain of verbal abuse from Shi’ite
soldiers. Random arrests are said to be commonplace.’
‘Troops enforce a 10pm curfew, but residents say they get off the streets
soon after dark to avoid the dangers of nervous soldiers at checkpoints’ (Newsday.com,
26 Nov). A particular problem has been shootings and arrests by Iraqi troops
of boys as young as twelve. “I saw the bodies of three boys, neighbours
of mine, who got shot by soldiers who saw them running in the street,” Mohammed
said.
ACTION
* Voices’ special four-page full-colour Remember Fallujah
information sheet is available on-line at www.rememberfallujah.org.
* An event entitled Naming the Dead – a mass act
of civil disobedience against the occupation, in violation of
the new
restrictions on “unauthorised” protests near Parliament – will
take place on 2 April 2006, the second anniversary of the first
siege of Fallujah (see here).
Is Iran next?
‘If Israel does not get there first, the United States
may launch military action against Iran in the fairly near future,’ Paul
Rogers, Professor of Peace Studies at the University of Bradford
writes (OpenDemocracy.net, 30 Dec 05).
A recent report in the Sunday Times - citing ‘military sources’ – claimed
that ‘Israel’s armed forces have been ordered … to be ready
by the end of March for possible strikes on secret uranium enrichment sites in
Iran’ and that ‘[d]efence sources in Israel believe the end of March
to be the “point of no return” after which Iran will have the technical
expertise to enrich uranium in sufficient quantities to build a nuclear warhead
in two to four years (11 Dec).
The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency is due to present his next
report on Iran in early March.
A UN replacement force?
The anti-war movement is united in opposing
the US/UK occupation of Iraq. But it has been divided over quite
how or when to end
that occupation. Now there is an opportunity for at least part
of the movement to unite around a core set of demands that may
have the support of the public in both Iraq and the occupier
nations,’ Milan Rai and Maya Evans write (www.j-n-v.org,
17 Dec 05):
The
UN option
‘ Since September 2003, Justice Not Vengeance has been arguing
that unconditional, immediate withdrawal carried with it a real
risk of intensifying the suffering of the Iraqi people, and that
therefore rapid withdrawal of US-led forces should be accompanied
by the introduction of an independent international security
force that could lessen the risks of civil war and uncontrollable
violence.
‘In the Guardian [on 15 December 2005] for the first time that we are aware
of, the UN option in the exact form that we have been proposing it has been put
forward as a demand by a political force associated with the main part of the
Sunni resistance.
the association of muslim scholars
‘Harith al-Dari, Secretary General of the Association of Muslim Scholars,
has
demanded:
- the withdrawal of US-led forces,
- their replacement by UN forces,
- the formation of a temporary UN administration with an interim Iraqi government,
and
- genuinely independent elections held under UN auspices
‘The Association has been described as ‘by far the most important
hardline Sunni Arab political organization’, which claims to speak for
those engaged in anti-occupation struggle, and whose ‘broad ideology shows
that it tries to represent a broad spectrum of insurgent groups’ (‘The
Association of Muslim Scholars in Iraq’, Middle East Report, Winter 2005)
‘In other words, a political grouping representing a broad spectrum of
the Iraqi Sunni resistance (not, of course, the minority al-Qaeda fanatics) is
publicly demanding UN replacement of US forces as the preferred solution for
their country. The indications are that this may well be acceptable to the Shia
majority also [see JNV briefing US/UK Out: UN In, 26 July 2005, available
on-line
here].
Majority support
'It is also highly likely that this option would command majority support
in
the
main occupier nations, Britain and the United States – though the UN option
has never been posed in any national opinion poll that we are aware of.
‘There is, therefore, a real opportunity now for the international anti-war
movement to unite around support for the Association of Muslim Scholars’ exit
strategy.
‘Individuals and groups inside and outside Iraq who wish to be part of
this new international grouping are invited to contact Justice Not Vengeanceat info@j-n-v.org’ or tel. 0845 458 9571.
Iraq's oil: crude designs
‘Iraqis face the dire prospect of losing up to $200bn of
the wealth of their country if an American-inspired plan to hand
over development of its oil reserves to US and British multinationals
comes into force [in 2006]’ (Independent, 22 Nov).
A new report from
Platform shows how ‘[a]t an oil price of $40 per barrel,
Iraq stands to lose between $74 billion and $194 billion over the lifetime of
the proposed contracts’ with companies likely receiving ‘rates of
return from investing in Iraq … rang[ing] from 42% to 162%, far in excess
of [the] usual industry minimum target of around 12%’ (Crude Designs:
The
Rip-off of Iraq’s oil wealth, Nov 2005).
Platform’s 46-page report is available on-line
at www.crudedesigns.org. Printed copies are available from the
Voices office for £3 incl p&p.
Elections
Iraq has seen two major votes
since our last newsletter: the 15 Oct constitutional referendum
(see Voices #43 for background);
and the 15 Dec election for a 4-year parliament. Both saw voting
take place largely along ethnic and sectarian lines.
Furthermore, the success of religious
parties in the Dec election indicated that ‘Islamic fundamentalist movements are ever
more powerful in both the Sunni and the Shia communities’ (Independent,
21 Dec).
However, despite widespread Iraqi opposition to the presence
of occupation forces
(see here), the new government will – like its predecessor – remain
dependent upon US firepower for its survival and unable to call for the departure
of foreign troops.
Economic sovereignty?
Iraqis will also have to contend with the fact that the interim Iraqi government
has already entered into a long-term agreement with the International Monetary
Fund (IMF). Indeed, barely a week after the election the Fund concluded a $685m “standby
arrangement” with the outgoing government (FT, 29 Dec).
While the precise terms of the arrangement – which commits Iraq to following
a list of IMF economic policies and meeting certain targets – are not yet
clear, ‘fuel prices have [already] increased fivefold [since the election]
mostly’ because of cuts in subsidies as part of the deal – moves
that could hurt millions of poor Iraqis (LA Times, 28 Dec).
The free market champion
Meanwhile the ‘[n]umber one favourite’ for the key role of Prime
Minister is the current vice president Adel Abdel Mahdi, a member of the Supreme
Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (Guardian, 15 Dec). ‘[A] French-educated
former Maoist turned U.S.-backed champion of free market economy in post-war
Iraq,’ Mahdi is probably the sort of Islamist that the US can do business
with (AFP, 29 Jan 05)
Less troops, more bombs
‘A key element [in President Bush’s plans to reduce
the number of US troops in Iraq], not mentioned in [his] public
statements, is that … departing American troops will be
replaced by American airpower,’ Pulitzer Prize-winning
investigative journalist Seymour Hersh reports (New Yorker, 5
Dec).
‘Quick, deadly strikes by U.S. warplanes are seen as a way to improve dramatically
the combat capability of even the weakest Iraqi combat units.’
The number of airstrikes surged in the last third
of 2005, from a monthly average of 25 up to the end of August to 62 in Sept,
122 in Oct
and 120 in Nov (Washington
Post, 24 Dec). Furthermore, according to the US Air Force chief of staff unmanned
Predator aircraft are now attacking targets in Iraq or Afghanistan “almost
every day” (AP, 12 Dec).
A senior military planner told Hersh that at present the “bulk” of
targeting was “adaptive” ie. ‘supportive bombing by prepositioned
or loitering warplanes that are suddenly alerted to firefights or targets of
opportunity by military units on the ground.’
500,000 tons
Of course, airstrikes have already played a major role in the invasion and occupation.
Indeed, by 10 Nov 2004 the 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing alone had dropped “more
than 500,000 tons of ordnance” on the country (Navy Newsstand).
Moreover, despite official denials, there is little real doubt regarding the
human cost of such attacks: an Oct 2004 Lancet survey which concluded that there
had been at least 100,000 excess Iraqi deaths since the invasion also found that‘[v]iolence
accounted for most … [such] deaths and [that] air strikes from coalition
forces accounted for most violent deaths.’
Bombing: the human cost
17 Oct 2005: Following airstrikes in Ramadi that residents and hospital workers
claimed killed 39 civilians, including 18 children, ‘distraught and grieving
families [at the city’s hospital] f[i]ght over body parts … staking
rival claims to what they [believe] to be pieces of their loved ones’ while
the ‘ fly-covered bodies of three children and a woman l[ie] on the ground
outside, with no room left in the hospital’s refrigeration units’ (Washington
Post, 18 Oct).
At a funeral on the east edge of Ramadi one man tells the Post that the dead
include his 4-year-old son, Saad Ahmed Fuad, and his 8-year-old daughter, Haifa
Ahmed Fuad, but that he has been unable to find one his daughters legs and had
had to bury her without it. ‘[US] Colonel Gronski sa[ys] that no civilians
had been killed in the strikes’ (NYT, 18 Oct).
3 Jan 2006: A US airstrike in the Baiji area, 155 miles north of Baghdad, kills
a family of twelve in their home, according to a security officer with Salahuddin
governorate (WashingtonPost.com, 3 Jan). A special correspondent for the Post ‘watch[es]
as crews remove the bloody body of an older woman, her head covered in a black
scarf, and two younger women in nightclothes with their heads uncovered for sleep.’ Rescuers
also bring out the bodies of three boys, wrapped in the blankets in which they
had been sleeping.
Broken bones and daily beatings
US occupation forces have continued to torture and abuse Iraqis
long after the May 2004 Abu Ghraib scandal.
According to U.S. Army interrogator Specialist Tony Lagouranis,
who was based at Forward Operating Base CALSU in North Babel,
south of Baghdad, between August
and November 2004 – well after Abu Ghraib - one of the marine units he
worked with ‘would go out and do a raid and stay in the detainee’s
homes, and torture them there. They were far worse than anything that I ever
saw in a prison. They were breaking bones. They were smashing people’s
feet with the back of an axe head. They burned people’ (DemocracyNow.org,
15 Nov).
"Still going on now”
Similarly, last year three soldiers with the US Army’s 82nd Airborne division
described how their battalion - which was deployed at Forward Operating Base
Mercury, just outside Fallujah, from Sept 2003 to April 2004 – had ‘routinely
used physical abuse and mental torture [of detainees] as a means of intelligence
gathering and for stress relief’ (Human Rights Watch, 17 September). Daily
beatings were incorporated in preparation for interrogations and broken bones
occurred “every other week.”
“After Abu Ghraib things toned down,” one of the soldiers explained
but “[i]t is still going on now the same way, I am sure. Maybe not as blatant
but it is how we do things.”
Polls
Two recent polls paint a complex picture of Iraqi opinion, but
both show overwhelming opposition to the occupation.
The first, a secret August 2005 poll commissioned by the UK Ministry
of Defence - the results of which were leaked to the Sunday
Telegraph (23 Oct) – found
that 82% of Iraqis “strongly opposed” the presence of coalition troops
and that 45% ‘believe attacks against British and American troops are justified’ (rising
to 65 per cent in the British-controlled province of Maysan). Less than 1% of
Iraqis ‘believe[d] coalition forces [we]re responsible for any improvement
in security’ and 67% ‘fel[t] less secure because of the occupation.’ 72% ‘d[id]
not have confidence in the multi-national force.’
The second, conducted in Oct/Nov 05 by Oxford Research International for five
major media outlets (including the BBC), found Iraqis remarkably optimistic about
their own personal lives (which 71% described as ‘very good’ or ‘quite
good’) but less so about how things were going for Iraq as a whole (53%
said ‘quite bad’ or ‘very bad’). As with the MoD poll
a large majority (65%) opposed the presence of occupation forces.
Attitudes towards withdrawal were more ambivalent however, with security being
the main consideration: 45% said occupation forces should leave either immediately
(25.5%) or after the Dec elections (19.4%); with 46.5% saying that they should
remain ‘until security is restored’ (30.9%) or ‘until Iraqi
security forces can operate independently’ (15.6%). However, those polled
were not offered the option of replacing the existing occupation forces with
an independent international security force - a choice that might well have commanded
majority support across the board.
Operation Steel Curtain
“This is not a hearts and minds battle. This is a fight for
survival. There are a lot of knuckleheads here that need to die.
You’re just crunching heads” (Col Stephen T Davis,
commander of Marine Regimental Combat Team 2 in Anbar province,
New York Times, 5 Dec)
On 5 Nov 3,500 US and Iraqi soldiers launched Operation
Steel Curtain – the ‘largest
assault the marines have conducted since their invasion of … Fallujah last
[November]’ (NYT, 7 Nov) – attacking the town of Husayba in western
Iraq with ‘ferrocious torrents of automatic weapons fire, tank rounds
and 500-pound aerial bombardments.’
The
marines found most houses abandoned and local volunteers with the Iraqi Red
Crescent Society estimated that some 4,000 people had been
displaced in
the week before the offensive (IRIN, 7 Nov). American commanders told the media
that they were ‘due to go through every one of the 4,000 buildings in
the town and surrounding areas’ (Independent, 7 Nov).
Bombing Husaybah
According to the US military ‘[i]n the eight days preceding [Steel Curtain],
US airstrikes destroyed at least 11 safe houses in and around Husaybah, killing
at least nine of al Qaeda’s top local leaders and more than a dozen other
members of the group.’ However, following an aerial assault on the village
of Baidah, near Husayba, on 31 Oct ‘residents and hospital officials
from the area … disputed key elements of the military version’ claiming
that only one of the three houses attacked had been used by al Qaeda in Iraq
and that ‘[n]umerous civilians were killed in the raids’ (WP, 1
Nov).
"Forty people were killed in the bombing, including nine women
and children,” Ammar Marsoumi at Husaybah hospital told the Post. A doctor
in the nearby town of Ana, said his hospital had received 17 wounded, including
a 4-year-old girl whose mother was killed in the attack.
"They destroyed Qaim"
On 6 Nov ‘[s]cores of terrified Iraqis fled [nearby Qaim], waving white
flags and hauling their belongings to escape a second day of fighting’ after
it too was attacked (AP, 6 Nov). ‘[R]esidents said coalition forces warned
people by loudspeakers to leave on foot because troops would fire on vehicles.’
An official in the city (the subject of a major US offensive in May 05 – see
Voices #41) ‘said 76 houses and four schools had been destroyed … two
mosques had been severely damaged in the city [and] [w]ater, sewer and electric
systems also suffered major damage.’ “They destroyed Qaim, Americans
bombed everything, our houses are destroyed, our children are victims and we
want a solution,” one resident told Reuters (Democracy Now.org,
7 Nov).
Destroying qaim hospital
On 7 Nov Qaim general hospital was attacked (Inter Press Service, 29 Nov). “40%
of our hospital was wrecked and the doctors residency was completely smashed,” one
doctor claimed. “Then, on the next day they continued with the other 60%
of the hospital, including the emergency room and staff residency. Even our ambulances
were targeted by the soldiers.”
The offensive then ‘continued into neighbouring Karabila on Nov 10’ before ‘mov[ing]
downriver to Ubaydi’ (NYT, 16 Nov), where, once again ‘most of the
residents had already fled before the siege’ (NYT, 15 Nov).
On 12 Nov ‘doctor Sanif al-Ani, who works for the Red Crescent (IRCS) in
the Qaim area, told Reuters that they had unearthed at least 54 bodies [from]
the rubble [in Qaim], including some women and children.’ Four days later
IRIN reported that ‘[a]ccording to witnesses on the ground, nearly 40 percent
of the residents of al-Qaim … [we]re living in the nearby city of Rawa,
in improvised camps organised by the IRCS’ and that ‘health officials
and refugees [we]re bracing for the onset of winter, which [wa]s expected to
aggravate the already desperate medical situation.’
After Steel Curtain
On 2 December, as ‘[a]bout 2,000 American troops and 500 Iraqi soldiers,
continued their push … to root out rebels in the rural region east of Hit,’ 300
marines and 200 Iraqi soldiers launched an offensive in Ramadi (NYT, 2 Dec).
On 13 Dec IRIN reported that ‘[h]undreds of families remain[ed] displaced’ following
the attacks on Qaim and Ramadi, with families refusing to return home because
they feared further offensives. “I can’t return … because I
want my children to have long lives,” one man explained. “The military
will be back and will destroy more houses, and I don’t want my children
to see that.”
Before "Steel Curtain"
‘Over 4500 families were estimated as newly displaced in
October [2005] as a result of military operations in [Iraq’s
western Anbar governorate] … br[inging] the estimated total
number of displaced families [there] to 11,000’(UN-Iraq
Humanitarian Update October 2005, United Nations Assistance Mission
to Iraq (UNAMI)).
‘ According to reports from the World Health Organisation … Medical
doctors were detained and medical facilities occupied by armed forces [during
these operations] … contrary to international law’ (UNAMI Human
Rights
Report, 1 Sept – 31 Oct 2005).
Tal Afar: huge damage
An estimated 1,600 families left Tal Afar – the target of a massive US-led
offensive in Sept 05 (see Voices #43) – during Oct 05 (UN-Iraq Humanitarian
Update October 2005, UNAMI). The exodus took place ‘due to a lack of basic
services and job opportunities in the city’ where ‘water, electricity,
sewage, healthcare, schools and fuel supplies remained disrupted, and assessments
[estimate] that between 20% and 30% of houses and buildings inside the city were
damaged’
Walling-in Samarra
Meanwhile, residents of Samarra – subjected to a massive US-led assault
in Sept/Oct 2004 and now walled in behind a series of earthern berms built by
US forces last summer – ‘complained that the berms and road closures
were strangling the city’ (LA Times, 23 Oct). ‘Idris Shalal, a 33-year-old
taxi driver, said his business had been devastated by the berms. “Working
in this city is impossible nowadays,” he said.’
Torture, death-squads and detention
Last June the Financial Times reported that ‘[m]ass detentions
and indiscriminate torture seem to be the main tools deployed
[by the US and its Iraqi allies] to crush the insurgency’ (29
Jun 05). Little appears to have changed since then.
14,590 prisoners
Indeed, by the end of Dec the US military was holding 14,055
detainees in four prisons in Iraq and a further 535 detainees
at brigade and division level around the country (New York
Times,
25 Dec) - an increase of almost 50% since the beginning of March
2005, when it held just over 10,000 detainees (NYT, 4 Mar 05).
Overwhelmingly
these prisoners are being held without charge or trial:
on 15 Nov the Guardian reported that, of the more than 35,000
Iraqis who had been detained
by US forces since the invasion only 1,300 had been charged with an offence.
Nonetheless, according to the Telegraph the US has now launched a new ‘£30m
programme to expand military prisons’ in Iraq (30 Dec), despite the near-completion
of an earlier $50m prison expansion programme (NYT, 25 Dec).
1,000-plus detention centres
Meanwhile an unknown number of Iraqis are being held by Iraqi forces in ‘1000-plus
detention centres’ across Iraq (Washington Post, 13 Dec).
As far back as Jan 05 Human Rights Watch was reporting that ‘unlawful arrest,
long-term incommunicado detention, torture and other ill-treatment of detainees
ha[d] become routine and commonplace’ in such facilities (25 Jan). However,
it was only following a 13 Nov US raid on a secret underground prison in Baghdad
- run by Iraq’s Interior Ministry - where ‘[s]everal prisoners appeared
to have suffered beatings, and many were emaciated’ (WP, 12 Dec) that a
plan for joint US-Iraqi inspections of Iraqi detention centres was announced.
A subsequent 8 Dec raid on a second facility found evidence of severe torture,
including ‘broken bones, pulled fingernails, cigarettes stamped into skin
and electric shocks’ (NYT, 14 Dec).
Not about human rights
The reasons for these latest developments are worth examining in some detail.
Perhaps unsurprisingly concern for human rights played little if any role.
Indeed, ‘[t]he emergence of a culture of pernicious violence at Iraq’s
interior ministry blossomed in the face of repeated warnings to US and UK officials
[since mid-2004]’ (Observer, 20 Nov) and many of the units that have
been implicated in torture and death-squad-style killings were ‘created,
trained and armed by the Americans’ (Independent, 16 Nov). Some US military
officials explicitly advocate the use of state terror in order to ‘create
a fear of aiding the insurgency’ (see Voices #42).
The notorious Wolf Brigade – which ran the detention centre raided on 8
Dec (Guardian, 17 Dec) – ‘was formed in October 2004 after training
with US forces and first saw action during the widespread disturbances in Mosul
[in late 2004]’ (Independent, 16 Nov). In Nov 2005 the Brigade swept
through Baquabah and arrested some 300 people in a military operation planned
and assisted
by US forces (United Press International, 18 Nov).
Co-opt and control
In reality, the latest US moves appear to have two principal aims: to help
co-opt a section of Iraq’s Sunni community into the occupation project;
and to try and re-establish a greater degree of control over the Interior Ministry.
Since the Jan 05 elections the latter has become the preserve of the Supreme
Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI) – a Shiite group with
whom the US has, at best, an uneasy alliance – and members of SCIRI’s
militia, the Badr Organisation, ‘have flooded into [the] ministry’s
police and commando units, and Sunni Arabs have regularly accused the ministry
of sponsoring death squads’ (NYT, 16 Nov).
According to US Ambassador to Iraq, Zalmay Khalilzad, the 13 Nov raid ‘sen[t]
a message to the Sunni community that the Americans were intervening on their
behalf … [and] let the Shiites in the government know that there were limits
to their power, which America was willing to enforce’ (New Yorker, 19
Dec).
Curtailing abuse?
'American commanders are planning to increase significantly the number
of soldiers advising Iraqi police commando units … as a way to exert firmer
control over [them]’ – moves which are being resisted by the current
head of the Interior Ministry Bayan Jabr (New York Times, 30 Dec). “We’re
going to wrap ourselves around them,” a senior US official said of militia
loyalists within the special police. “By hugging the enemy, wrapping
our arms around them, we hope to control them … like we did with the
army,” he
explained (WP, 30 Dec).
Though expanding the number of advisers has been presented as a means to ‘curtail
abuse’, it is, to say the least, far from clear that this will be the outcome.
In May 2005 the main US adviser to the Special Police Commandos - ‘who,
like the Wolf Brigade, have a reputation for brutality’ (NYTimes.com, 9
Jun) – was a man who had spent a good part of the 1980s leading a team
of Special Forces advisers in El Salvador, ‘train[ing] front-line battalions…accused
of significant human rights abuses’ including torture and death-squad
killings (NYT, 1 May).
Take action!
Naming the Dead: Mass Civil
Disobedience Against the Occupation of Iraq
on
the 2nd anniversary of the April 2004 siege of Fallujah
12 noon, Sunday 2 April 2006, Parliament Square
On 2 April 2004 US
forces sealed off Fallujah in preparation for a massive attack
on the city. At least 572 civilians – including
over 300 women and children – were killed in the subsequent
siege.
Join us on 2 April
2006 for the first organised mass act of civil disobedience
against the occupation since the invasion:
an “unauthorised” collective reading of the names
of 1,000 Iraqis who have died as a result of the invasion and
occupation of Iraq, inside the new anti-protest zone around Parliament,
with pictures, giant puppets and much else besides!
A nonviolent direct action training workshop and legal briefing
will take place in London on 1 April.
Naming the
Dead is organised by the Mass Action Group and supported by
a range of groups, including Voices, the London Catholic Worker
.
For more info contact Voices.
London
anti-war action forum
Outraged by the ongoing attacks by US-led forces on
towns and cities in Iraq? Angry about the forthcoming
deployment of thousands
more UK troops to Afghanistan? Want to take action? Then the
London Anti-war Action Forum - a monthly open space for people
who want to organise (and take part in!) actions related to the
so-called “war on terror” - could be the place for
you!
The first two forums will take place from 2-5pm on Sat 21 Jan and Sat 18 Feb
at the London Action Resource Centre, 62 Fieldgate Street, Whitechapel, London
E1 1ES (nearest tube Aldgate East).
The Forum is a joint initiative of the Corporate Pirates, Iraq Occupation Focus,
Justice Not Vengeance, Peace Not War, Rhythms of Resistance and Voices UK.
Contact Voices for more info.
Freedom to protest trials
On 7 Dec anti-war activist Maya Evans became the first person to be convicted
of participating in an “unauthorised” demonstration within 1km of
Parliament, amidst a blaze of publicity that included the BBC, the front-page
of the Independent and the Daily Mail, and Radio 4’s Any
Questions.
At least 22 people have now been arrested under the Serious Organised Crime
and Police Act (SOCPA) which makes organising or participating in such an event
a
criminal offence and at least three more trials are due to take place in Jan
/ Feb / Mar (see here).
Meanwhile picnics continue to take place in the Square every Sunday (www.peopleincommon.org)
and an on-line pledge has been launched for people to commit to ‘form part
of a human chain around the Westminster no protest zone … if 6,000 other
people will join in’ (www.pledgebank.com/protest).
Milan rai speaking tour
Author, activist and voices uk founder Milan Rai will be travelling the UK
on a national speaking tour this April, talking about his forthcoming book 7/7:
The
London Bombings and the Iraq War. Using leaked secret documents to expose
the Government’s lies concerning the causes of the 7 July bombings and
providing deep insights into Islam and the British Muslim communities, 7/7
also explodes
many of the diversionary theories that have been given for the 7 July bombings
eg. that the four men were ‘brainwashed’, that Islam was to blame
etc…
Milan Rai’s previous books include War Plan Iraq and Regime
Unchanged (‘a
magnificent expose of the lies that propelled the criminal attack on Iraq’ – John
Pilger).
Contact voices if you’re interested in having him come to speak to your
group.
Resistance round-up
24 – 29 Oct: Over
70 bell-ringing events across the US and Britain collectively
toll out 100,000
rings to mark the 1st
anniversary of the Oct 2004 Lancet report on excess Iraqi deaths
since the invasion. The latter concluded that at least 100,000
such deaths had already occurred. Here in the UK events took
place in Central London, Northwood, Hastings, Brighton, Edinburgh,
Penzance and Oxford. See www.iraqmortality.org
5
Oct: Flt Lt Malcolm Kendall-Smith is
served with court martial papers for “refusing to obey a lawful command” after
telling his commanding officer that he would not go to Basra
because the war was illegal (Sunday Times, 16 Oct). His court
martial will begin on 15 Mar (Independent, 8 Dec).
8
Nov: The trial of the Pit Stop Ploughshares
Five – members
of the pacifist Catholic Worker movement who non-violently disarmed
a U.S. navy war plane in the run-up to the 2003 invasion – collapses
for the second time after it is revealed that the judge had attended
George W Bush’s 2001 inauguration. A new trial date has
been set for 5 Jul. See http://warontrial.com/
16
Nov: JNV activist and author Milan
Rai is sentenced to 28 days imprisonment for refusing to pay
compensation to the Foreign
Office for a Nov ’04 protest against the then-imminent
attack on Fallujah. His fascinating prison diary can be read
on-line at www.j-n-v.org.
18
Nov: Fourteen US peace activists – including Voices’ co-founder
Kathy Kelly - are arrested outside the offices of Aero Contractors
near Smithfield, NC, attempt-ing to deliver an indictment accusing
the company of providing planes and pilots for the CIA’s
program of extraordinary rendition, flying terror suspects to
locations where they will likely be tortured (www.stoptorturenow.org).
15
Dec: Witness Against Torture – a group of 25 Christian
peace activists – ends five days of marching and three
days of fasting, outside the US Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay.
Marcher Matt Daloisio says, “We are only 25 people, but
we represent millions of concerned brothers and sisters throughout
the world” (www.witnesstorture.org)
Resources
New
book
Insurgent Iraq: al Zarqawi and the New Generation by
Loretta Napoleoni (Constable, 2005, £7.99)
An interesting if flawed analysis of the Iraqi insurgency. The
biographical material on Zarqawi (comprising roughly the first
half of the book) is probably the most
interesting section. However, Napoleoni’s failure to provide an adequate
account of her sources leaves the reader unable to determine how much credence
to give to some of her more interesting claims eg. her assertion that Zarqawi
decided to target Iraq’s Shi’ites in order to forestall the development
of a strong nationalist movement that would have left him on the fringes. The
book also shows clear signs of having been put together rapidly and there are
several serious confusions eg. in her use of the term al Qaeda itself (which
she never defines), and in her bizarre claim that Moqtadr al-Sadr’s followers
started the insurgency in April 2003.
New writing
What I heard about Iraq in 2005 by Eliot Weinberger.
An update to his brilliant
What I heard about Iraq (see Voices #43), Weinberger uses a series of carefully
selected quotes from Iraqis, soldiers and policy makers to paint a devastating
picture of the last 12 months of occupation. Like its forerunner, this is crying
out to be adapted for use by the anti-war movement. As it happens, both pieces
are available free on the London Review of Books web-site (www.lrb.co.uk) and
a worldwide day of readings is scheduled to take place on 20 Mar for the 3rd
anniversary of the invasion.
New postcard
Support Brian Haw
It is now more than 4½ years since Brian Haw began his epic one-man 24-7
vigil in Parliament Square, protesting against British foreign policy towards
Iraq and promoting his message of peace.Whilst he has thus far successfully resisted
all official attempts to get rid of him – including the creation of a new
criminal offence aimed at him – further moves to squish his demo are likely.
It is therefore crucial for the thousands of people around the world who support
his right to be there to raise their voices in his defence.
Voices has produced a new campaign postcard to Home Secretary
Charles Clarke, demanding an end to the attempts to criminalise
Brian’s protest. Copies are available FREE from the voices
office.
Hinzman
update
US war resister Jeremy Hinzman – the first US soldier to
apply for asylum in Canada – will have his case reviewed
by Canada’s Federal Court this February (CBC News, 11 Nov).
His claim was originally turned down in March 2005.
The final outcome will determine whether or not other US soldiers
will be able to find sanctuary in Canada. Between 1965-1973 more
than 50,000 draft-age Americans
made their way to Canada, refusing to participate in another immoral war in
Vietnam and, according to Hinzman’s attorney, roughly 200 other service
personnel are already hiding in Canada waiting to see how his case plays out
(AP, 31 Dec).
Copies of voices FREE campaign postcard to the Canadian High Commissioner,
urging the Canadian government to grant sanctuary to US war objectors, are
available from the office.
Web-sites
Democracy Now! – www.democracynow.org
Stellar independent US radio show, focusing on international
news and current affairs. Broadcast every week day, all shows
(dating back to 1997) are archived on the site, and can be watched/listened
to using RealPlayer (itself available free on-line). The site
also includes transcripts for recent shows.
International
Security Monthly Briefings - www.oxfordresearchgroup.org.uk/paulrogers.htm.
Indispensable monthly overviews of the “war on terror” from
Paul Rogers, Professor of Peace Studies at the University of
Bradford.
News digest
Watching the Warmakers – www.watchingthewarmakers.org.uk
Excellent, free “war on terror” news digest e-mailed
out on a weekly basis by the Brighton Hands Off Forum. Formatted
for printing on double-sided A4.
Why
we oppose the occupation
• The
US and UK have no moral right to be in Iraq following
the illegal
2003 invasion.
•
Because US-led forces have been one of
the main causes of violent death in Iraq since
the 2003
invasion (A Dossier of Civilian
Casualties 2003–2005,
IraqBodyCount.org, July 2005)
•
Because US forces – and the US-trained
and funded Iraqi Army – are currently pursuing
a policy in which ‘mass detentions and
indiscriminate torture appear to be the main
tools’ (FT, 29 June 05).
• Because the occupation is making a full-blown
civil war in Iraq more not less likely.
• Because the occupation is acting as a major recruiting
agent for al-Qaeda and related groups, endangering
both Iraqis and those of us here in the UK
• Because, according to the available polls, a
clear majority of Iraqis are opposed to the presence
of occupation forces in their country (Sunday
Telegraph, 23 Oct 05; Oxford Research
International,
5 Dec 05).
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