Iraqis stand near the wreckage of a damaged car, after a car bomb exploded in the oil-rich city of Kirkuk, 290 kilometers (180 miles) north of Baghdad, Iraq, Saturday, Oct. 6, 2007. The bomb went off next to a police patrol, injuring four policemen, police said. (AP Photo)
Chart available with links - click here
It is predicted by the year 2008, the number of Iraqi deaths will have reached over 1,300,000. According to this exponential growth in Iraqi death rate, by the year 2012 there will be nearly 4 million Iraqis dead.
Currently as we near the year 2008 there are nearly 4000 USA soldiers dead.
American deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan (click here)
October 4, 2007
The Pentagon has released the names of US service members killed recently in Iraq and Afghanistan. According to an AP count, at least 3,809 members of the US military have died since the Iraq war began in March 2003. At least 28,009 have been wounded, the military says. In Afghanistan, at least 438 US personnel have died and 1,607 have been wounded since the war began in October 2001....
There is nothing but corruption in Iraq. Why would any military mission be successful when it was begun under the ridicule of the world, objection by the UN Security Council and found to be corrupt by the men whom began the occupation?
In Iraq today, the people with the biggest guns, the most volitile explosives and most men in their militias rule 'the street.' There is no right, there is no wrong, there is simply surviving the day and whomever does is unpredictable. The corruption started by Bush and Cheney has propagated an internal struggle in Iraq that leads directly to justified insurgency and rebellion.
Now, today, in the fifth year of occupation, the Iraqi civilians there live and die by the sword. There is no government in Iraq. Iraq has no sovereignty. The sooner the country is divided into defendable provinces the sooner the daily mass killings will stop. It will be up to the provincial governments to bring about 'goverance' if that is possible, with the help of their Holy Men. There are no Iraq contracts to honor, to maitain their is proves a reason to war without end.
Iraq: Shiite Militia Leader Caught (click here)
By KIM CURTIS – 4 hours ago
BAGHDAD (AP) — A Shiite militia leader accused of forcibly removing Sunnis from their homes north of Baghdad was captured in a raid, while another operation in the same area left 25 people dead, the U.S. military said Saturday.
The commander was detained Friday after U.S. forces raided Khalis, a Shiite enclave of 150,000 people in the volatile Diyala province some 50 miles north of Baghdad. The man led a group of 20 insurgents that was allegedly responsible for a July attack in which Sunnis were forcibly removed and their homes and farms were destroyed, the military said, adding no one was killed or wounded.
The commander, who was not identified, also was suspected of ambushing a Sunni van driver, shooting him and throwing his body in the Tigris River, the military said.
Another pre-dawn raid Friday in the same town killed at least 25 people after troops met a fierce barrage while hunting suspected arms smuggling links between Iran and Shiite militiamen. The military described those killed in airstrikes as fighters, but village leaders said the victims included children and men protecting their homes....
Iraq
Iraqi judge tells US of unchecked corruption
3:08PM Friday October 05, 2007
By Susan Cornwell
WASHINGTON - Widespread corruption in Iraq stretches into the government of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, an Iraqi investigating judge told US lawmakers, and an American official said US efforts to combat the problem are inadequate.
Judge Radhi Hamza al-Radhi, who was named by the United States in 2004 to head the Iraqi Commission on Public Integrity, said his agency estimated corruption had cost the Iraqi government up to US$18 billion ($24.21 billion).
Maliki has shielded relatives from investigation and allowed government ministers to protect implicated employees, said the judge, who left Iraq in August after threats against him. He told a Capitol Hill hearing that 31 employees of his agency had been killed.
Radhi said he did not have evidence against Maliki personally, but the prime minister had "protected some of his relatives that were involved in corruption."
One of these was a former minister of transportation, Radhi told the House of Representatives' Oversight and Government Reform Committee.
The US official who testified, Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, Stuart Bowen, said he also saw a "rising tide of corruption in Iraq." He said US efforts to combat it were "disappointing," lacking funding and focus.
Rep. Henry Waxman, the California Democrat who chairs the panel, questioned whether the Maliki government was "too corrupt to succeed" and charged that US efforts to address the problem were in "complete disarray."
He criticised what he said was State Department resistance to the panel's investigation, saying the US government apparently was afraid the corruption revelations "might embarrass or hurt our relations with the Maliki government."
Larry Butler, the deputy assistant secretary of state for Near East affairs, declined to publicly answer questions about whether Maliki had obstructed corruption investigations, saying he could only respond in a closed session.
Waxman called the request "absurd," but the State Department defended Butler's position. Spokesman Sean McCormack said in corruption investigations it was best to handle matters privately at first to protect the rights of those under suspicion.
Radhi said he did not return to Iraq because of threats to his security, but he also suggested Maliki was behind efforts to prosecute him if he went back.
In his statement, he said 31 of his co-workers and 12 of their relatives had been killed because of their work.
"This includes my staff member Mohammed Abd Salif who was gunned down with his seven-month pregnant wife," he said. The body of the father of another worker was found on a meat hook, he said.
Radhi also said it had been impossible for the commission to adequately investigate oil corruption because Sunni and Shi'ite militias had control of the distribution of Iraqi oil.
- REUTERS
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10468141
3 U.S. troops killed in Iraq bombings
BAGHDAD -- Roadside bombs killed three American soldiers Friday, and U.S. and Iraqi forces differed in their accounts of an overnight raid on a suspected hide-out for Shiite Muslim militiamen.
The U.S. military said American forces backed by attack aircraft killed 25 militiamen in the assault on the village of Jizan Imam, about 40 miles northwest of Baghdad. Some Iraqi officials, though, said most of the dead were civilians mistaken for hostile forces.
The U.S. troop deaths brought to at least 3,813 the number of American forces killed in Iraq since the war began in March 2003, according to icasualties.org.
Two of the soldiers died when a bomb detonated near their vehicle in Baghdad, and the third was killed in a bombing in Salahuddin province, north of the capital.
Both attacks involved the lethal armor-piercing explosives that U.S. military officials say are often smuggled in from Iran, which they accuse of supplying, training and providing intelligence to Shiite militias. The Iranian government denies the allegations and rejects claims that members of its Quds Force, a secretive military unit, are operating in Iraq.
The U.S. military said the Friday raid was aimed at a militia commander they alleged had ties to Quds Force agents. A military statement said "an estimated 25 criminals" were killed in a fierce firefight that broke out when U.S. forces raided Jizan Imam.
According to the military account, men armed with assault rifles and grenade launchers opened fire on the U.S. troops. The Americans called in airstrikes and two buildings were destroyed, they said.
However, some Iraqi security forces in the area said the shooting erupted because of confusion over the arrival of the American forces at 1:30 a.m. They said some residents assumed that the troops were attackers and opened fire, sparking the gun battle.
An Iraqi army colonel said four houses were destroyed and that the dead were civilians. He said it was the fourth time the village had been hit by airstrikes.
It is common for U.S. and Iraqi officials to have conflicting accounts of military raids. U.S. military officials say they fire only on known or suspected threats, but Iraqis say the Americans often strafe buildings occupied by civilians, causing casualties.
In southern Iraq, an associate of Shiite cleric Muqtada Sadr was fatally shot in what appeared to be the latest assassination stemming from a bloody rivalry between Shiite militias. The cleric, Sheik Yaser Yasri, was killed Thursday night, said officials in Basra, where Sadr's Mahdi Army is vying for power with the Badr Organization, a militia affiliated with the rival Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council.
Several clerics on each side have been killed, and there are concerns that as British forces reduce their presence in Basra, the bloodshed will increase.
tina.susman@latimes.com
Special correspondents in Baqubah and Basra contributed to this report.
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/asection/la-fg-iraq6oct06,1,5787050.story?coll=la-news-a_section
Investigators: $18B lost over last 3 years to Iraqi government corruption
By Leo Shane III, Stars and Stripes
Mideast edition, Friday, October 5, 2007
WASHINGTON — Rampant corruption in the Iraqi government is funding attacks against coalition forces and stalling reconstruction efforts across the country, U.S. and Iraqi investigators told Congress on Thursday.
The researchers estimate nearly $18 billion has been lost over the last three years through stolen funds, phony reconstruction projects and other illegal activities.
Judge Radhi Hamza al-Radhi, the former head of Iraq’s Commission on Public Integrity, told members of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee that government money has been funneled to sectarian militias and family of lawmakers while vital projects go unfunded.
“When you go to the field or you go to the ground, you don’t see signs of reconstruction,” he said. “You don’t find electricity, you don’t find water, you don’t find fuel.”
Radhi said in several instances he was blocked from prosecuting family and key political allies of top government officials, including Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.
http://www.estripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=49274
Maliki denounces Iraq's top anti-corruption judge
The prime minister responds after the official testifies in the U.S. Congress that Baghdad interfered in his attempts to investigate wrongdoing.
By Tina Susman, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
9:20 AM PDT, October 6, 2007
BAGHDAD -- The prime minister's office today denounced testimony given in Washington by Iraq's top anti-corruption judge, who told U.S. lawmakers that the Iraqi government blocked his efforts to pursue corrupt officials.
In a statement, Prime Minister Nouri Maliki called Radhi Hamza Radhi's claims "false statements" aimed at tainting Maliki's reputation. The statement accused Radhi of a professional and ethical breach, saying he abandoned his job and left the country without Maliki's approval.
Maliki said Radhi had left Iraq after coming under suspicion for corrupt activities himself.
The statement was sparked by testimony to the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee in Washington. Rep. Henry A. Waxman, a California Democrat, has accused Bush administration officials of covering up corruption and wrongdoing in Iraq, both by the Iraqi government and by State Department contractors such as Blackwater USA.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-iraq7oct07,0,3870397.story?coll=la-home-center
Judge Radhi Testifies on Iraqi Corruption; GOPers Attack
David Corn Fri Oct 5, 12:15 AM ET
The Nation -- On Thursday, former Judge Radhi al-Radhi, Iraq's top anticorruption official until he was recently forced out by the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, appeared before the House government oversight committee and described what had become of people who had worked for him at the Commission on Public Integrity as they investigated crime and fraud within the Iraqi government:
Thirty-one employees have been killed as well as at least twelve family members. In a number of cases, my staff and their relatives have been kidnapped or detained and tortured prior to being killed. Many of these people were gunned down at close range. This includes my staff member Mohammed Abd Salif, who was gunned down with his seven-month pregnant wife. In one case of targeted death and torture, the security chief on my staff was threatened with death many times. His father was recently kidnapped and killed because of his son's work at CPI. His body hung on a meat hook. One of my staff members who performed clerical duties was protected by my security staff, but his 80-year-old father was kidnapped because his son worked at CPI. When his dead body was found, a power drill had been used to drill his body with holes. Waleed Kashmoula was the head of CPI's Mosul branch. In March 2005, a suicide bomber met with Waleed in his office...and then set off his vest [bomb], killing Waleed....My family's home has been attacked by rockets. I have had a sniper bullet striking near me as I was outside my office. We have learned the hard way that the corrupt will stop at nothing.
Minutes later, Republicans members of the committee were suggesting there was nothing unusual or shocking about corruption in Iraq. "Corruption is not a new phenomenon," remarked Representative Tom Davis, the senior GOPer on the panel. Another committee Republican, Representative Darrell Issa, huffed, "We're not surprised a country that was run by a corrupt dictator...would have a pattern of corruption." And Republican Representative John Mica noted that corruption plagues many democratic countries, including the United States. Mica cited Watergate and the prosecution of Reagan administration officials, and he claimed that the Clinton administration had "the most number of witnesses to die suddenly."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/thenation/20071005/cm_thenation/3240234
Panel told State Department lacks plan to fight Iraq corruption
By Dan Friedman CongressDaily October 4, 2007
The State Department lacks a functional plan to fight corruption in Iraq, despite increasing crime in the government that harms U.S. reconstruction efforts, according to a House Oversight and Government Reform Committee memorandum released Thursday.
Current and former State Department officials told the committee that many embassy officials are not "serious about going forward on" anti-corruption efforts, the memo says. State employees report that "almost no one shows up" at meetings of the U.S. Embassy's anti-corruption working group.
Oversight and Government Reform Chairman Henry Waxman, D-Calif., said the department's attempts to stem corruption "are dysfunctional, underfunded and a low priority."
Government Accountability Office Comptroller General David Walker and Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction Stuart Bowen offered similar assessments, calling lack of coordination the key problem. Walker said U.S. efforts to build up the Iraqi government's capacity are characterized by "multiple U.S. agencies leading individual efforts without an overarching direction from a lead entity or a strategic approach."
"Congress, we believe, should consider conditioning future appropriations on the existence of such a strategy," Walker said, in a statement highlighted by Waxman.
http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/1007/100407cdpm2.htm
Waxman: State Dept. Muzzling Evidence Of Iraqi Corruption To Avoid ‘Embarrassing’ Maliki
Last month, House Oversight Committee Chairman Henry Waxman (D-CA) wrote to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. In the letter, Waxman objected to the State Department’s “instruction to its officials that they cannot communicate with the Committee about corruption in the Maliki government.” unless the Committee treat that information as classified and “withhold it from the public.”
In a hearing before the Committee on corruption within the Iraqi government, Government Accountability Office Comptroller David Walker criticized this lack of transparency, saying he knew of multiple “highly questionable” instances of “retroactive” classification:
Quite frankly, I’ve seen at least two circumstances within the last two months, where both the State Department, this being one, and the Defense Department attempted to retroactively classify something that had been made available publicly and in some cases, were on the World Wide Web, which is obviously, I think, highly questionable.
Waxman added that the State Department has prevented its employees from even mentioning corruption in the Iraqi government:
http://thinkprogress.org/2007/10/04/waxman-corruption-hearing/
Displacing Iraqis in significant numbers from their homeland is considered a form of genocide. The war needs to end. The American war in Iraq is genocidal and this is more proof of it.
October 6, 2007
Op-Ed Contributor
Save the Gnostics
By NATHANIEL DEUTSCH
THE United States didn’t set out to eradicate the Mandeans, one of the oldest, smallest and least understood of the many minorities in Iraq. This extinction in the making has simply been another unfortunate and entirely unintended consequence of our invasion of Iraq — though that will be of little comfort to the Mandeans, whose 2,000-year-old culture is in grave danger of disappearing from the face of the earth.
The Mandeans are the only surviving Gnostics from antiquity, cousins of the people who produced the Nag Hammadi writings like the Gospel of Thomas, a work that sheds invaluable light on the many ways in which Jesus was perceived in the early Christian period. The Mandeans have their own language (Mandaic, a form of Aramaic close to the dialect of the Babylonian Talmud), an impressive body of literature, and a treasury of cultural and religious traditions amassed over two millennia of living in the southern marshes of present-day Iraq and Iran.
Practitioners of a religion at least as old as Christianity, the Mandeans have witnessed the rise of Islam; the Mongol invasion; the arrival of Europeans, who mistakenly identified them as “Christians of St. John,” because of their veneration of John the Baptist; and, most recently, the oppressive regime of Saddam Hussein, who drained the marshes after the first gulf war, an ecological catastrophe equivalent to destroying the Everglades. They have withstood everything — until now.
Like their ancestors, contemporary Mandeans were able to survive as a community because of the delicate balance achieved among Iraq’s many peoples over centuries of cohabitation. But our reckless prosecution of the war destroyed this balance, and the Mandeans, whose pacifist religion prohibits them from carrying weapons even for self-defense, found themselves victims of kidnappings, extortion, rapes, beatings, murders and forced conversions carried out by radical Islamic groups and common criminals.
When American forces invaded in 2003, there were probably 60,000 Mandeans in Iraq; today, fewer than 5,000 remain. Like millions of other Iraqis, those who managed to escape have become refugees, primarily in Syria and Jordan, with smaller numbers in Australia, Indonesia, Sweden and Yemen.
Unlike Christian and Muslim refugees, the Mandeans do not belong to a larger religious community that can provide them with protection and aid. Fundamentally alone in the world, the Mandeans are even more vulnerable and fewer than the Yazidis, another Iraqi minority that has suffered tremendously, since the latter have their own villages in the generally safer north, while the Mandeans are scattered in pockets around the south. They are the only minority group in Iraq without a safe enclave.
When Mandeans do seek refuge in the Kurdish-dominated north, they report that they are typically viewed as southern, Arabic-speaking interlopers, or, if their Mandean identity is discovered, persecuted as religious infidels. In Syria and Jordan, Mandeans feel unable to practice their religion openly and, after years of severe deprivation, some have begun to convert simply in order to receive aid from Muslim and Christian relief agencies.
Mandean activists have told me that the best hope for their ancient culture to survive is if a critical mass of Mandeans is allowed to settle in the United States, where they could rebuild their community and practice their traditions without fear of persecution. If this does not happen, individual Mandeans may survive for another generation, isolated in countries around the world, but the community and its culture may disappear forever.
Of the mere 500 Iraqi refugees who were allowed into the United States from April 2003 to April 2007, only a few were Mandeans. And despite the Bush administration’s commitment to let in 7,000 refugees in the fiscal year that ended last month, fewer than 2,000, including just three Iraqi Mandean families, entered the country.
In September, the Senate took a step in the right direction when it unanimously passed an amendment to a defense bill that grants privileged refugee status to members of a religious or minority community who are identified by the State Department as a persecuted group and have close relatives in the United States. But because so few Mandeans live here, this will do little for those seeking asylum. The legislation, however, also authorizes the State and Homeland Security Departments to grant privileged status to “other persecuted groups,” as they see fit.
If all Iraqi Mandeans are granted privileged status and allowed to enter the United States in significant numbers, it may just be enough to save them and their ancient culture from destruction. If not, after 2,000 years of history, of persecution and tenacious survival, the last Gnostics will finally disappear, victims of an extinction inadvertently set into motion by our nation’s negligence in Iraq.
Nathaniel Deutsch is a professor of religion at Swarthmore College.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/06/opinion/06deutsch.html?ref=opinion
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