Tuesday, January 13, 2015. Chaos and violence continue, fear motivates many, Sunnis continue to be targeted, an Iraqi priest bucks the Pope, and much more.
Today, Chris Hayes (MSNBC's
All In with Chris Hayes) noted, "France's lower house of Parliament voted 488 to one to extend French airstrikes against ISIS in Iraq. 488 to one. I recognize those kinds of margins -- the sort of margin the PATRIOT Act passed by and the authorization for the use of military force to invade Afghanistan."
Chris Hayes was grouping fear based decisions (and argued in the program that the answer needed now is not more violence but more thought and examination). Of the fear,
Al Jazeera America notes:
The vote came one week after the most deadly attacks on
civilians in France in decades. On Jan. 8, Ahmed Coulibaly, a man
claiming allegiance to ISIL, killed a policewoman and then took several
hostages at a kosher grocery store near Paris. Coulibaly and four
hostages were killed during a raid by police. That attack was linked to
one conducted on Jan. 7 by Said and Cherif Kouachi, two brothers whom
Coulibaly had known for years, who killed 12 people at a newspaper
office and claimed that they were affiliated with Al-Qaeda's affiliate
in Yemen.
Chris Hayes is far from the only one calling out blind fear.
At Brookings, Daniel L. Byman and Jeremy Shapiro also try to slow the race to fear:
Despite these fears and the real danger that motivates them, the
Syrian and Iraqi foreign fighter threat can easily be exaggerated.
Previous cases and information emerging from Syria suggest several
mitigating effects that may reduce—but hardly eliminate—the potential
terrorist threat from foreign fighters who have gone to Syria. Those
mitigating factors include:
• Many die, blowing themselves up in suicide attacks or perishing quickly in firefights with opposing forces.
• Many never return home, but continue fighting in the conflict zone or at the next battle for jihad.
• Many of the foreign fighters quickly become disillusioned, and a
number even return to their home country without engaging in further
violence.
• Others are arrested or disrupted by intelligence services. Indeed,
becoming a foreign fighter—particularly with today’s heavy use of social
media—makes a terrorist far more likely to come to the attention of
security services.
The danger posed by returning foreign fighters is real, but American
and European security services have tools that they can successfully
deploy to mitigate the threat. These tools will have to be adapted to
the new context in Syria and Iraq, but they will remain useful and
effective.
If people were a little more level headed, maybe they'd question US President Barack Obama's so-called 'plan' for Iraq?
Al Arabiya News notes US Senator John McCain told CNN that the US needed to provide Iraq with "more boots on the ground" and "I mean intelligence. I mean forward air controllers. I mean trainers. I
mean more air assets. I mean across the board an increase."
Well that's a thought. There should be others.
Like, before any other moves are made, how about looking at what's happening?
Barack said back in June that the crises in Iraq required a political solution.
But the White House has done damn little to encourage any political solutions.
They have allowed Iraq to grow ever closer to Iran. What does that mean?
Scott Peterson (Christian Science Monitor) explains one meaning:
The Iranian strategy has resurrected Iraq's Shiite militias and
deployed them effectively against IS on some front lines, those same
militia contributed to tens of thousands of deaths at the peak of Iraq’s
sectarian battles from 2006-2008.
Officials of Iraq’s Sunni
minority say human rights abuses by the Shiite militias are as rampant
now as they were 5 years ago. And they grate at the number of banners
strung up with Iranian revolutionary slogans – against Israel, for
example, or to support religious pilgrims – along with images of Iran’s
previous and current supreme leaders, Ayatollahs Ruhollah Khomeini and
Ali Khamenei.
This picks up on
the report Amnesty International issued in November:
Shi’a militias, supported and armed by the government of Iraq,
have abducted and killed scores of Sunni civilians in recent months and
enjoy total impunity for these war crimes, said Amnesty International in
a new briefing published today.
Absolute Impunity: Militia Rule in Iraq
provides harrowing details of sectarian attacks carried out by
increasingly powerful Shi’a militias in Baghdad, Samarra and Kirkuk,
apparently in revenge for attacks by the armed group that calls itself
the Islamic State (IS). Scores of unidentified bodies have been
discovered across the country handcuffed and with gunshot wounds to the
head, indicating a pattern of deliberate execution-style killings.
“By
granting its blessing to militias who routinely commit such abhorrent
abuses, the Iraqi government is sanctioning war crimes and fuelling a
dangerous cycle of sectarian violence that is tearing the country apart.
Iraqi government support for militia rule must end now,” said Donatella
Rovera, Amnesty International’s Senior Crisis Response Adviser.
The
fate of many of those abducted by Shi'a militias weeks and months ago
remains unknown. Some captives were killed even after their families had
paid ransoms of $80,000 and more to secure their release.
That same month,
Human Rights Watch's Tirana Hassan reported on the Shi'ite militias for Foreign Policy:
The Khorasani Brigade is a relatively recent addition to the network
of Shiite militias in Iraq -- and despite a similar sounding name, has
no connection to the Khorasan Group, the alleged al Qaeda-affiliated organization that was the target of
U.S. airstrikes in Syria in September. The Khorasani Brigade is just
one of dozens of similar militias that are essentially running their own
show in parts of the country. These Shiite militias are supplied with
weapons and equipment from the central government in Baghdad, which is
now being assisted by a U.S.-led military alliance in its fight against
the Islamic State.
These militias' actions will only exacerbate Iraq's existing
sectarian tensions. The country is no stranger to sectarian violence:
Its Shiite population suffered for decades under the oppressive rule of
Saddam Hussein, and after the U.S.-led invasion in 2003 the country
spiraled into a cycle of revenge violence, culminating in a bloody civil
war in 2006 and 2007. Many accused the largely autocratic rule of
former Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki of fueling sectarian flames.
While the Iraqi central government has virtually no formal authority
over the militias, who act as a law unto themselves, some key
politicians in Baghdad have strong alliances to individual militias. In
October, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi appointed Mohammed Salem
al-Ghabban -- a prominent member of the Badr Organization, a Shiite
political group that controls one of the largest and most infamous
militias -- as interior minister.
Despite being almost completely unaccountable to any official
ministry, the Shiite militias have been tasked by the government with a
key role in the war against the Islamic State. Yet what we saw in
Yengija laid bare the costs of relying on these groups. Beyond the main
road, an entire neighborhood of two-story homes was razed and flattened,
with concrete slab roofs heaped atop piles of rubble. Personal
belongings, children's toys, and furniture peeked out from under the
debris, a poignant reminder of the Sunni Arab families who, until
recently, had lived there. All these families had fled in August when
the militia started battling the Islamic State fighters in the
surrounding area.
So Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and the Christian Science Monitor know the current government run by new prime minister Haider al-Abadi is allowing Shi'ites to target and kill Sunnis but the White House doesn't?
The White House is just completely unaware of what's going on?
There are people being injured and being killed, targeted, and the White House just keeps backing Haider al-Abadi and looking the other way.
Seems to me Barack did that before, didn't he?
Oh, yeah, with Nouri al-Maliki.
He looked the other way repeatedly.
How'd that work out again?
It took Iraq to the precipice.
Where's the political solution?
It won't be found among the Sunni politicians being targeted by the 'new' government of Iraq.
BRussells Tribunal notes the following:
Mr
Al-Zaidi was arrested by Iraqi security forces at 18.00 hrs., on Friday
January 9th near Al-Nasriyah in southern Iraq. This is an appeal for
the immediate and urgent mobilization of your Agencies in securing the
release of the prominent human rights defender, Mr.Uday Al-Zaidi.
Iraq: Mr Uday Al-Zaidi - Appeal of Extreme Urgency.
This
is an appeal for the immediate and urgent mobilization of your Agencies
in securing the release of the prominent human rights defender, Mr Uday
Al-Zaidi.
Mr Al-Zaidi was arrested by Iraqi security forces at 18.00 hrs., on Friday January 9th in
Al-Shatrah city in southern Iraq. Uday Al-Zaidi is internationally
renowned for his courageous and outspoken advocacy against the sectarian
cleansing in Iraq which began with the onset of the “divide and rule”
policy of the US-UK invasion, continued under the occupation, their
Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki and now under his replacement of August
2014, Haider Al-Abadi.
The
urgency and gravity of the situation cannot be over-stressed,
especially as it has been learned that the Iraqi authorities refuse to
disclose Mr Al-Zaidi’s whereabouts thus, in contravention of all
international legal norms, he is denied access to legal representation.
In an interview with Al Jazeera (15th December
2014) he described graphically, at length, the reality of the
humanitarian catastrophe resulting from the government’s brutal
systematic sectarian edicts.
Afterwards
he said that he was “expecting” anything as a result. Warned to take
extreme care in his movements, he determined to attend the funeral of a
friend and was arrested.
His
witness to Iraq’s ongoing tragedy has been tireless and international.
On 19 March 2013 he received the BRussells Resistance Award.
In
May 2011, invited by the Madrid-based Spanish Campaign Against the
Occupation and for the Sovereignty of Iraq, talking at venues in a
number of cities he showed visuals, the reality of: “… killing of
children, raping of women and men, secret prisons, daily humiliations”,
of families assassinated by U.S bombs over eight grinding years. “An
image is worth a thousand words. These images show what the occupation
has done for us”, he said.
“Since
2003, there have been a million deaths and four million orphans … Iraq
is a wealthy country. But its people, us, have to dig in the garbage to
try and survive.”
He also called for an end to the corruption under Prime Minister al-Maliki – and returned to Iraq.
In
January that year in Iraq he addressed the dishonour of the Iraqi
people manifested by a government: “ … representing their groups,
militias and parties, and their masters abroad.” He talked of the
“defilements” of Iraq in ever deepening crisis” and “tyranny.”
Nouri Al-Maliki is now Vice President of Iraq.
Sabah
Al-Mukhtar, President of the Arab Lawyers Association and Vice
President of the Geneva International Centre for Justice states starkly
of Mr Al-Zaidi’s detention:
“This is a very serious matter. They will slaughter him.”
Representation
to the Iraqi government at the highest level is incumbent on all those
to whom humanity and human rights is utmost priority. No time can be
wasted. Rivers of blood have bled, literally, from Iraqi feet and
bodies, from Abu Ghraib to the innumerable secret prisons. Delay will
near certainly be death.
It
is also incumbent upon the UN and all other relevant international
organizations that pressure be brought on the Iraqi Authorities for Mr
Al-Zaidi’s immediate release. Prime Minister Al-Abadi’s personal
responsibility for Mr Al-Zaidi’s safety is paramount. His release could
be a turning point for Iraq. Any other outcome a further slide into the
abyss, with human rights and international law counting for even less
than their woeful international post-invasion standing.
1.http://warresisters.wordpress.com/iraq-reports-analysis-and-interviews-on-movement-building-now/“we-will-protest-until-the-occupiers-leave-”-an-interview-with-uday-al-zaidi/
--
Dirk Adriaensens
Member BRussells Tribunal Executive Committee
No one asks the White House about these types of issue.
It's just not done.
And it wasn't done in Nouri's second term.
Which goes a long way towards explaining why Barack thought he could get away with backing Nouri for so long.
There's no effort to build a political solution in Iraq.
Did Barack get distracted?
Or did he never really give a damn about Iraq becoming a cohesive and unified country?
Today, the outgoing
US Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel spoke to troops at Whiteman Air Force Base:
Q: Good morning, sir. My name's Sergeant Hooper. I'm with the 495th Fighter Group.
SEC. HAGEL: Where are you from?
Q: I'm originally from Pleasant Hill, Missouri.
My question today has to do with the campaign, the continued fight
against ISIL. Do you foresee the campaign going from an air campaign to
possibly putting more boots on the ground?
SEC. HAGEL: Thank you. It's a good question.
I start in answering your question this way. What's going on in Iraq,
in Syria, but if you take the larger sweep of the Middle East and North
Africa, it's complicated for many reasons.
The people in those areas, let's take Iraq, because that is a
functioning government. They are going to have to sort this out. We can
help them. We are helping them. We will help them. We've got a coalition
of over sixty countries that are fighting ISIL and helping those
governments and those countries and those people fight ISIL. Our
physical presence in Iraq, as you all know, is very limited: to
training, to equipping, to assisting.
No, I'm sorry, it's not limited "to training, to equipping, to assisting."
Among other things, the presence also backs and provides cover for another prime minister who is overseeing the slaughter Sunnis.
Meanwhile,
Margaret Griffis (Antiwar.com) reports 105 dead across Iraq from violence and 61 more injured.
Turning to the topic of Christian refugees (a number of whom are also Sunnis), a
benefit concert will take place at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Paris in Tempe, Arizona:
"I Am Here" mass and concert
Sunday, January 25 at 4:30pm
Music Director Kim Scoggin and the OLMC Music Ministry presents the
"I Am Here" mass and concert, Sunday, January 25th. Mass at 4:30pm,
concert immediately following. Guests include Tom Booth, Ike Ndolo,
Joyce Coronel, Fr. Felix Shabi, and special guest Suzy Vulcana (from
American Idol). A free will offering will be taken. Proceeds from the
concert to benefit the persecuted Chaldean Christians in Iraq.
Fr. Felix Shabi, a native of Iraq and corbishop of the Chaldean
Catholic Church in Arizona, will celebrate 4:30pm mass on Sunday,
January 25. The OLMC CD release concert will follow the mass. The
plight of the persecuted Chaldean Catholics by ISIS will be explained by
Joyce Coronel.
Proceeds from the concert will go directly to Iraq to help the
persecuted Catholic faithful. This will be an evening full of praise,
worship and gratitude for our rich Catholic faith!
The OLMC CD "I Am" will be on sale for $15.00. Cash, Check, Debit and Credit Cards accepted.
The Catholic Sun reports on how the planned concert came about:
Kim Scoggin, music director at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Parish,
decided to do something about it. She’s planned a Jan. 25 concert at
the parish featuring well-known Catholic musicians Tom Booth, Ike Ndolo
and the OLMC choir. Proceeds from the concert will go toward assisting
the Chaldean Catholics who remain in Irbil.
Scoggin said she was listening to Immaculate Heart Radio when she heard
Patrick Madrid interview Bishop Sarhad Y. Jammo about the situation.
Bishop Jammo leads the St. Peter Chaldean Catholic Diocese headquartered
in El Cajon, Calif. Scoggin had already decided she wanted to take
action to help the displaced Christians, but the bishop’s words
galvanized her.
The
Iraqi Christian Relief Council notes "approximately one million Assyrian Christians have been forced to become refugees inside and outside of Iraq" since the start of the illegal war.
Christian Caryl (Foreign Policy) offers one million Iraqis "lived in Iraq at the start of the war, [but] only about 250,000 remain in the country today."
This has gone out throughout the never ending Iraq War. For those who wrongly think it's a recent development, journalist and former Human Rights Watch researcher
Daniel Williams offered a history lesson at the Washington Post last September:
No, it is because, for Christians in Iraq, the
past three months have been the climax of 11 years of hell. We Americans
have short memories (that goes for you, too, in the “Bush Was Right”
crowd), but it’s worth noting that Christians began having serious
problems within a year after the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003.
Sometimes it was the work of al-Qaeda, sometimes Sunni insurgents pining
for the return of Sunni control of Iraq. Sometimes it was Shiite
militias fighting the Sunnis but finding time to persecute Christians.
First came assaults on stores that sold alcohol. Then, in August 2004, bombs were placed outside five churches
in Baghdad and Mosul. Eleven people died. Two more churches were bombed
in November, and Christians began to flee to Kurdistan, Jordan and
Syria. Since then, at least 60 churches in the country have been bombed. The latest was in Baghdad on Christmas Day last year.
The Christian refugees include people like Father Noel Gorgis who is now with St. Peters Chaldean Church in El Cajon, California. Iraq's Patriarch Louis Raphael I Sako has insisted that Father Noel -- and other Iraqi priests who have left Iraq -- must return to Iraq.
KUSI explains, "Last week, Pope Francis agreed with Father Noel and said he and other
priests do not need to comply with Sako's order."
The structure of the Catholic Church means that Pope Francis' decree should have settled the matter and ended the dispute; however,
Tony Perry (Los Angeles Times) reports that Sako is not respecting either the decree or the authority of the Pope and has declared, "We have been there for 2,000 years. We have a mission and a role, and if a future exists for the Chaldean Church, it is not in the diaspora but in Iraq. If all the families leave, and even the priests, the entire history and Chaldean Christian patrimony will vanish." Perry notes that there are 14 Chaldean priests currently seeking refuge in the US.
iraq
the los angeles times
tony perry
amnesty international
human rights watch
antiwar.com
margaret griffis
