The Common Ills: 1/5 of Iraqis living below poverty line

Thursday, August 22, 2013

1/5 of Iraqis living below poverty line

In Iraq, various items have been used to conceal bombs. Sadly, back in June, that included the corpse of a dog. National Iraqi News Agency reports that an attack on Sahwa's Secretary-General Sheikh Abbas Muhammadawi utilized a bomb hidden in a watermelon. The news outlet quotes from a statement Muhammadawi's office issued: "a terrorist group placed an explosive device, yesterday evening, in front of the house of Sheikh Muhammadawi in the west of Baghdad to detonate it when he leaves his house, but the device was discovered before it exploded and the army troops and federal police and local police dismantled it and control the situation. The bomb was placed inside / watermelon / and this is one of the innovative new criminal methods by gangs of death, so we call on citizens to take caution of it." Sahwa, also known as Sons Of Iraq (or Daughters Of Iraq) and Awakenings, are people who were paid by the US military to stop attacking military property and troops -- they are largely Sunni but not just Sunni according to General David Petraeus' April 2008 Congressional testimony.

In other violence, NINA notes attorney Yasser Hadi al-Obeidi was taken at dawn by "gunmen dressed in police uniforms" and his corpse was discovered several hours later, a Kirkuk bombing left two people injured, 2 Iraqi soldiers were shot dead in Mosul, and a Mosul roadside bombing left a police officer and a civilian injured. Through yesterday, Iraq Body Count notes 543 violent deaths in Iraq so far this month.

In other news, Kitabat notes that the Iraqi government has announced 6.4 million Iraqis are living below the poverty line. While the number is probably a great deal higher, with a population estimated at 30 million, today's announcement recognizes 1/5 of the country's population is living below the poverty line. Iraq's GDP in 2010 was $144.214 billion in US dollars, Global Finance notes. That's enough for four billion per Iraqi in Iraq (leaving out the external refugee population). And yet at least a fifth lives in extreme poverty. (Below the poverty line is extreme poverty.)

All Iraq News notes that Nouri al-Maliki has arrived in India, just in time to avoid poverty questions in Iraq.

The BRussels Tribunal notes Sundus Shaker Saleh's lawsuit:

Saleh is the lead plaintiff in a class action lawsuit targeting six key members of the Bush Administration: George W. Bush, Richard Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Condoleezza Rice, Colin Powell, and Paul Wolfowitz. In Saleh v. Bush, she alleges that the Iraq War was not conducted in self-defense, did not have the appropriate authorization by the United Nations, and therefore constituted a "crime of aggression" under international law-a designation first set down in the Nuremberg Trials after World War II. The aim of the suit is simple: to achieve justice for Iraqis, and to show that no one, not even the president of the United States, is above the law. The case is being brought to trail by Inder Comar of Comar Law, a firm based in San Francisco.

Witness Iraq is a website set up by attorney Comar Law to help Iraqi refugees in the US receive some form of justice for the illegal war:

On March 13, 2013, Witness Iraq filed suit against the Bush Administration related to the conduct of key government officials leading up to the war.
The lead plaintiff, Ms. Sundus Saleh, with her children in Jordan:

Click here for a FAQ related to the lawsuits.
Click here to sign a Change.org Petition requesting the Federal Courts to conduct an inquiry into the Iraq War.
Witness Iraq seeks to hold political leaders accountable for the Iraq War, and to document the plight of those who witnessed and survived the Iraq War.

Barack's defending Bully Boy Bush. US tax dollars are being used for that purpose. Comar notes at War Is A Crime:

In court papers filed today (PDF), the United States Department of Justice requested that George W. Bush, Richard Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Colin Powell, Condoleezza Rice and Paul Wolfowitz be granted procedural immunity in a case alleging that they planned and waged the Iraq War in violation of international law.

Plaintiff Sundus Shaker Saleh, an Iraqi single mother and refugee now living in Jordan, filed a complaint in March 2013 in San Francisco federal court alleging that the planning and waging of the war constituted a “crime of aggression” against Iraq, a legal theory that was used by the Nuremberg Tribunal to convict Nazi war criminals after World War II.

"The DOJ claims that in planning and waging the Iraq War, ex-President Bush and key members of his Administration were acting within the legitimate scope of their employment and are thus immune from suit,” chief counsel Inder Comar of Comar Law said.

If sequestration means the government has to tighten its belt, maybe the first step is to let War Criminals pay for their own legal battles?

The following community sites -- plus Cindy Sheehan, The Diane Rehm Show, Antiwar.com, Jody Watley, Ms. magazine, Bat Segundo, Black Agenda Report, ACLU and the Pacifica Evening News-- updated last night and this morning:

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