The US war in Iraq is officially over!!!

Today marks the day that the last U.S. convoy leaves Iraq, leaving a country that is learning to stand on its own two democratic feet. It has been a long nine years, and has cost Iraq and the U.S. dearly. I hope that Iraq becomes a beacon for the rest of the Arab world on what real political cohesiveness and positive outlooks for the future can bring about for a country, even one devastated by war. Below, a report from Aswat al-Iraq on the last U.S. convoy to leave Iraq and signal the end of a nine year conflict.


BAGHDAD / Aswat al-Iraq: The last US Army convoy has crossed Iraq's borders into Kuwait on Sunday at dawn, officially ending the withdrawal of the American Forces from Iraq.

The final withdrawal comes after 9 years of war and military interference, resulting in the deaths of 4,500 Americans and tens of thousands of Iraqis, Reuters News Agency reported.

"The last US convoy, including 100 American armored vehicles, carrying 500 soldiers, have crossed Iraq's southern desert during Saturday night, on the main highway leading to the Kuwaiti borders," Reuters added.

US Staff Sergeant Christian Schutlz said, prior to leaving Contingency Operating Base Adder, 300 km to the south of Baghdad, and heading for border, “It’s good to see this thing coming to a close. I was here when it started."

"I saw a lot of good changes, a lot of progress, and a lot of bad things too," he added.

Journalistic Freedoms Observatory attacked in Baghdad

The Iraqi JFO is never really far from the headlines. Either they are breaking news in the country, sending reporters out to the frontlines, or rallying cries for freedom of expression. For those of us who have grown up in societies that value and respect the freedom of expression, it's not surprising that it is difficult to imagine not being able to speak your mind.

The JFO played their part in the establishment of a new Iraq in an uncertain post-Saddam era. Having worked with the Voices of Iraq for many years now, I greatly respect the sacrifices that the JFO has had to make over the years to spread the story of every-day Iraqis. When I read of the attack on their central hub, which resulted in the loss of years of work, I was speechless. Such egregious violations of freedom of expression and attempts to hinder its use should be stopped in their tracks. I stand alongside all the employees and beneficiaries of the JFO in saying that I hope the criminals responsible for this are caught swiftly.


Armed raid on "Reporters Without Borders" partner organization in Iraq

BAGHDAD / Aswat al-Iraq: Reporters Without Borders has strongly condemned an armed raid on Wednesday on the Baghdad headquarters of the Journalistic Freedoms Observatory (JFO), its partner organization in Iraq, in which all of the JFO’s computers and archives were stolen.

“A dozen gunmen belonging to private security forces burst into our office near Al-Fardous Square in central Baghdad on Wednesday morning,” JFO Director Ziyad Al-Ajili said.

“They broke down doors and took all the equipment – four laptops, three hard disks, two cameras, two video cameras, walkie-talkies and 10 bulletproof jackets marked Press,” he added.

“They also took all of the JFO’s archives. All of our work since 2004 has disappeared. And before leaving, they vandalized the entire office. The government is behind this attack. The JFO is fighting for media freedom to become a reality in Iraq and, as such, clearly poses a threat to the authorities,” he noted.

Reporters Without Borders Secretary-General, Jean-François Julliard, said “the aim of this criminal raid was to silence an NGO that has been fighting for years for the right of Iraqi journalists to work freely and independently. It has not hesitated to condemn the abuses of the security forces and has often reminded the authorities of their responsibilities.
“We call for an independent investigation into this attack so that those behind it can be arrested and brought to justice. Impunity must no longer be the rule in Iraq, which is a country that aspires to be a democracy.”
"This (Wednesday) morning’s raid came 48 hours before Iraqi journalists are due to hold a big demonstration to press the authorities to fulfil their constitutional obligations to respect free speech and media freedom."
Since its creation in 2004, the JFO has played a key role in defending freedom of expression in Iraq.

Read online here.

Iraqis call for demonstration in Baghdad's Tahrir (Liberation) square Friday, Feb. 25th

BAGHDAD / Aswat al-Iraq: A statement has been released in Iraq on Tuesday, calling on intellectuals, unemployed people, widows and orphans to join together in a broad demonstration in central Baghdad's al-Tahrir (Liberation) Square on Friday, February 25th.

Image Copyright Aswat al-Iraq

The statement, a copy of which was received by Aswat al-Iraq news agency, called on "unemployed Iraqis, intellectuals, toilers, graduates from Iraqi and international universities who became house-keepers and millions of unemployed people, widows and orphans, to head to the streets for huge demonstrations on Friday, February 25th, in central Baghdad's al-Tahrir (Liberation) Square.

The party behind the call for the demonstration called it the "Iraqi Rage Revolution," that will be launched "for change, freedom and geunuine democracy."

The demonstrators, the statement said, shall carry bannerw and slogans, including, "Haven't we kept enough silence?," "Haven't we been patient enough?," and "don't you know that we carry on our backs about 100 billion (b) dollars annually from oil, trade and tourism revenues, and we still eat onions, if available?"

"Thousands of conscious youth have been informed about the planned demonstrations through electronic messages and Facebook," the statement highlighted. 

"These messages have called on the Army and Police forces to become protectors of the Homeland and the People," the statement added.

It called on the Army and the Police to take "similar positions, like their brethren in Tunisia and Egypt, as we are not in the epoch of mobs and dreadful weapons, but the epoch of the pen and the real word, expressing the right of the poor to live decently."

Several Egyptian cities have witnessed a series of protest demonstrations against the regime of President Hosni Mubarak over the past two weeks.
Despite the deployment of Army forces in the main streets, supporters of Mubarak's regime have clashed with the demonstrators about five days ago, killing and wounding dozens of people.

Original source here.

Domino effect?

A question on the minds of many political analysts is whether or not the ongoing protests in Egypt, and the spark that ignited the flame in Tunisia, will cause a ripple effect throughout the Middle East. As time goes by it appears that this is in fact the case, with protests springing up in Yemen, Jordan, and now Iraq. The fate of the Middle East is an uncertain one; the only certainty at this point is that the people have found their voices, and are shouting at the top of their lungs.

Below is a report from Aswat al-Iraq, on the protests that have sprung up around Iraq.


Iraq's demonstrations  main issue in today's Iraqi newspapers

BAGHDAD / Aswat al-Iraq: The demonstrations that took place in Baghdad and other Iraqi provinces, protesting against a decline of services and unemployment, have been the main issue in Monday's Baghdad newspapers.

"Poor services are the main problems for Iraqi citizens. The Service Ministries announced huge figures for the service industry, yet Iraqi citizens have not seen any results, which in turn is causing despair," said al-Adala (Justice) newspaper, issued by the Supreme Islamic Council's leader, Adel Abdul-Mahdi.

"It is not unsual for such demonistrations to take place against bad services, though the demonstrations that took place in Iraq cannot be compared with those that took place in Tunisia and Egypt as their targets are different. Tunisia and Egypt have demanded radical political reforms, such as rewriting their constitutions, a transition towards democracy, the holding of new elections, etc., whilst Iraq has already surprassed all those demands," it said.

Peaceful demonstrations took place in west Iraq's Ramadi city, demanding the government to achieve services and put an end to unemployment and adminsitrative corruption, whilst others demanded the release of political prisoners in another demonstration in Baghdad. Thousands took to the streets in southern Iraq's Diwaniya city, demanding services and jobs.

In another article, Al-Ittihad (Union), an organ of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), led by Iraq's President, Jalal Talabani, said, "Accusations among different political parties are back to express Iraqis' dissatisfaction in a possibility of finding solutions for their daily sufferings, which has become a very difficult issue."

"Stop playing with words, because the people have understood what is taking place, calling for solutions before it's too late. What has taken place in Baghdad and other provinces are messages from the people, who are asking about the fate of billions of dinars that were supposed to be allocated to services, but in vain," the newspaper said.

"Different government parties have began to feel the seriousness of the people's anger, that cannot be descibed because of intensive violations, especially in the security field," the newspaper added.

Free and Fair...to an extent

My years of experience in working with the Voices of Iraq (Aswat al-Iraq) have really helped me to develop my instincts and writing abilities as a journalist. On top of that, it really gives you an insight into what extent our media is manipulated, how it is achieved, and what types of people are targeted with each new article that is posted. This of course included in the added bonus of knowing what's going on in current events (or at least that's the theory :p).

Today, I posted a story about the elections in Iraq, specifically the results. Now, the process of holding the elections in Iraq has been a point of debate for quite some months now. I love to hackle about the dos and donts, the positives and negatives, with my journalist friend LeAnne. It's advantageous to be able to discuss things like this with someone who is also intricately familiar with how the media is run, not to mention also up to date on current events.

I know that the elections were not "free," but I would always bleat to LeAnne about how it's a great step forward, the people have been granted the ability to express their voice, and are being granted new political freedom that was unheard of during the time of Saddam. She believes it's mostly a farce. I can't disagree, but I maintain my original belief that a corrupt election, while still a huge issue, is better than no election at all.

So my story today, 52 (yes that's right) 52 politicians were completely stripped of any votes they won. Their votes were cancelled. Entirely nullified. And why? Because of their quote unquote "ties" to the former Baath party.

Does this seem ridiculous to ANYONE else but me? That's like discluding politicians in Germany for their rumoured ties to the Nazi party during WWII; who wasn't connected to the Nazi party! The article fails to mention how they were connected, just that they were. This could mean that they were on speaking terms with politicians in the Baath party, once went to a Baath rally, any number of menial things that could be seen as "ties" to the Baath party. Semantics aside, just look at what this says about the elections in Iraq. 52 politicians. It's a staggering number.

It makes me wonder what is going to happen to the votes originally cast for these politicians. Their political parties are not getting the votes...so where are they going? Are they just disappearing? As though they never existed? Or, as is sadly more likely, are they being funnelled into the ruling parties total vote count. Perhaps slightly short of a majority victory?One can only wonder.

What's even better, is that the Iraqi authorities mistrusted the original results of the elections. So what are they doing about it? A manual recount. I'm sure there are NO chances for ballots to slip in there unnoticed. None at all. Manually recounting the votes, totally maintains the elements of a transparent elections. Just to make sure that these votes are correctly counted, the Iraqi's brought in the experts. Representatives from Florida to oversea the voting process. Representatives from the very state that botched the elections that brought George W. Bush into office in the first place. The irony just smarts.

Sadly, Iraq is not the only country to be experiencing this quasi-democracy, Sudan is also a prime example. But that's an entirely different topic.

It's a cruel and sad truth, Iraq appears to be a quasi democratic state , that really is teetering on the brink of civil war caused by sectarian unrest. Most Western news outlets fail to report this, as who to bear the responsibility for destroying a country which ultimately led to the eruption of a civil war. Would the Obama administration do something about it? Would Tony Blair or Gordon Brown? Or would history repeat itself, and watch the Western "peacekeepers" again pull out, and let the Iraqi's deal with the Iraqis? Hey...as long as we have our oil contracts right?

So while I maintain my original belief that to be able to hold an election in Iraq is a monumental step forward, the lack of freedom, let alone fairness, just goes to show how much is left to be done.