Headlines from electronicIraq.net

Iraq's Struggling Health Care System (Part 1): What They Asked For, They Did Not Get
19 January 2007
The convoy of flatbed trucks picked up its cargo at Baghdad International Airport last spring and sped northwest, stacked high with crates of expensive medical equipment. But instead of being delivered to 150 brand-new Primary Health Care centres (PHCs) as originally planned, the Eagle Global Logistics vehicles were directed to drop them off at a storage warehouse in Abu Ghraib.Not only did some of the equipment arrive damaged at the warehouse, one in 14 crates was missing. The shipment was fairly typical: roughly 46 percent of some 70 million dollars in medical equipment deliveries made to the warehouse last spring had missing or damaged crates or contained boxes that were mislabeled or not labeled at all. Even if the equipment finally makes it through the bureaucratic logjam, lack of trained personnel to operate it, especially outside major cities, will severely limit its utility. The Army Corps had written a 15-day training plan into the contract, but over time, this had been whittled down just three days. Iraqi Ministry of Health officials have given up hope that any training at all will accompany the sophisticated equipment.

Democracy Languishes, but Neo-Con Strategy Lives
19 January 2007
The Project for the New American Century may have effectively closed up shop two years ago and its key neo-conservative allies in the administration, such as Scooter Libby and Douglas Feith, may be long gone, but the group's five-year-old Middle East strategy remains very much alive. This is not the "Wilsonian" strategy of transforming Iraq into a model of democracy and pluralism that will then spread domino-like across the entire benighted region of autocrats, monarchs and theocrats whose oppression and backwardness have, in the neo-con narrative, been the main cause of anti-U.S. Islamic extremism. On the contrary, that "idealist" vision has largely disappeared from the administration's discourse, particularly over the past year as Iraq slipped steadily into sectarian civil war, despite having been enthusiastically embraced by George W. Bush and his neo-conservative supporters after their early justifications for war in Iraq - Saddam Hussein's alleged weapons of mass destruction and ties to al Qaeda - proved unfounded.

Kurdistan, low in violence but lacking services
19 January 2007
Unlike other parts of the country, the three-province autonomous northern region of Kurdistan is not the Iraq of roadside bombs and beheadings. It is relatively safe and well-protected by an experienced security force. Locals and foreigners alike can walk around freely and there is even an active nightlife. "Have you seen the other parts of Iraq? It's spectacular. It's peaceful," states a website advertisement to lure tourists and investors to Kurdistan, which consists of Sulaymaniyah, Dahuk and Arbil provinces. "Welcome to Iraqi Kurdistan where democracy has been practiced for over a decade. This is not a dream. It's the other Iraq," adds the advertisement. However, not all Kurds are in accordance with the picture painted of their region by advertisements or politicians.

Call for determined action by authorities after five more media employees killed
18 January 2007
Just weeks after the UN security council's adoption of Resolution 1738 on the protection of journalists in armed conflicts, a new string of killings of journalists in Iraq has underlined the urgent need for the Iraqi government to take determined measures to protect its country's media personnel, Reporters Without Borders said today. A total of 146 journalists and media assistants have been killed since a US-led coalition invaded Iraq in March 2003.

U.S. Offers Scant Help to Fleeing Refugees
18 January 2007
With some two million of its citizens having fled to other countries and another 1.7 million internally displaced, Iraq has become one of the world's biggest and fastest growing humanitarian crises for which the United States should take far more responsibility, according to human rights groups and other experts. The administration of President George W. Bush, which is currently spending roughly 30 million dollars a day on military operations in Iraq, has earmarked only 20 million dollars for Iraqi humanitarian needs in bilateral aid for all of 2007, the administration's senior refugee official, Assistant Secretary of State Ellen Sauerbrey, told a Senate hearing Tuesday. It has also granted refugee status to only 466 Iraqis since 2003, she told the Senate Judiciary Committee.

The War Becomes More Unholy
18 January 2007
A stepped up military offensive that targets mosques, religious leaders and Islamic customs is leading many Iraqis to believe that the U.S.-led invasion really was a 'holy war'. Photographs are being circulated of black crosses painted on mosque walls and on copies of the Quran, and of soldiers dumping their waste inside mosques. New stories appear frequently of raids on mosques and brutal treatment of Islamic clerics, leading many Iraqis to ask if the invasion and occupation was a war against Islam. Many Iraqis now recall remarks by U.S. President George W. Bush shortly after the events of Sep. 11, 2001 when he told reporters that "this crusade, this war on terrorism, is going to take a while."

An Iraqi Parliamentarian Considers 'The Surge'
18 January 2007
Nadim al-Jabiri, a professor of political science at Baghdad University, a member of Iraq's parliament, and the head of the Islamic Virtue Party, considers the the new Bush administration strategy for Iraq, and warns the new strategy will "legitimize the Iraqi armed resistance to the occupation," will "destroy all non-violent options," and "could lead to increasing the civil violence, and might even spark an Arab-Kurd civil war." Moreover, al-Jabiri writes, "Increasing the U.S. troops will show Iraqis that the U.S. administration is against setting a timetable for withdrawing all the occupation forces."

US, Jordan, Syria Must Open Doors to Iraq Refugees
17 January 2007
With the Senate Judiciary Committee holding hearings today on the plight of Iraqi refugees, Human Rights Watch called upon the Bush administration to share the responsibility of protecting refugees fleeing the war in Iraq. The administration should significantly increase the number of Iraqi refugees it will resettle this year and contribute quickly and generously to the UN refugee agency's appeal for financial assistance, Human Rights Watch said. Jordan has shut its border to Iraqi men between the ages of 17 and 35, and a growing number of Palestinian refugees trying to flee Iraq are currently stranded at Syria's border. Human Rights Watch said that Jordan and Syria are violating on a daily basis the most fundamental principle of refugee protection - nonrefoulement, which prohibits the return of refugees to persecution or serious harm.

Anything But a Happy New Year in Iraq
17 January 2007

Iraqis have left a bloody 2006 behind, but the two opening weeks of 2007 do not bode well for the rest of this year. As the United Nations reported a death toll of 34,000 civilians for last year, the non-government organization Iraq Body Count suggested that more than 1,000 civilians have been killed during the New Year already. And that count came before the bombings at Baghdad University Tuesday. The high death toll comes amid heated debates in Baghdad and Washington on the ability of Iraqi and U.S. forces to secure the war-torn country. Many in Iraq doubt that the current strategies could resolve the security and political crisis that the country is sinking deeper into. They see the factors of instability in 2006 continuing into this year.

UN death figures paint a grim picture
17 January 2007
The Iraqi government must move fast to curb sectarian violence and establish the rule of law to prevent the deaths of more innocent civilians, said a United Nations senior official and an Iraqi analyst. On Tuesday the U.N. Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) said just over 34,000 Iraqi civilians were killed last year and nearly 37,000 wounded. "Without significant progress in the rule of law, sectarian violence will continue indefinitely and eventually spiral out of control," Gianni Magazzeni, the UNAMI chief, said as he issued UNAMI's ninth bimonthly report on the human rights situation in Iraq at a news conference in Baghdad. The report, which covered the period of 1 November to 31 December 2006, stated that 6,376 civilians were killed violently in November and December - 4,731 of them in Baghdad - and that most died as a result of gunshot wounds. This breaks down to be just over 100 deaths a day.

Population influx is biggest problem in south
16 January 2007
Iraq's Shi'ite Muslim-dominated southern provinces have witnessed far less violence over the past three years than their eastern and northern counterparts. As a result, hundreds of thousands of Shi'ites have fled south or returned from abroad to seek refuge there, giving rise to a number of militias and making it increasingly difficult for aid agencies to cater to the needs of the displaced. "Aid workers all over the country lack security. In the south, we work in difficult conditions because of the presence of militias," said Mayada Obeid, a spokesperson for South Peace Organization, an NGO based in Basra, some 550km south of the capital, Baghdad, and Iraq's second biggest city. "Sectarian differences have caused the death of many aid workers because people don't understand us when we say we're neutral. They would rather live without assistance than receive aid from people of a different sect."

US air strikes isolate Baqubah villagers
16 January 2007

Hundreds of people have been trying to flee the eastern Iraqi province of Diyala, close to the Iraqi-Iranian border, following a recent offensive by US and Iraqi troops in the area. Although the offensive has ended, scores of families in rural villages were said to be hiding in their houses for fear that air strikes might start again. "During the past week, US forces have been attacking rural areas near Baqubah trying to flush out insurgents. Their air strikes have killed about 14 civilians and led to the capture of dozens of insurgents. But these attacks have caused many people to suffer because of lack of assistance and difficulties in getting to health centers," said Salah Ahmed, media officer for Diyala provincial council.

U.N. Officials Question Iraq's Rough Justice
16 January 2007
The U.S.-backed government in Baghdad is facing harsh criticism from the international community for ignoring calls to adopt a policy of restraint with regard to carrying out death sentences against the members of Iraq's former ruling party. Reacting to the hanging of Saddam Hussein's two close aides Monday, senior U.N. officials and human rights organizations warned that the government must end its policy of executions, which they see as serious violation of international human rights standards. "Those responsible for serious human rights violations must be brought to justice," said Louise Arbour, the top U.N. official for human rights. "But to be credible and durable, the fight against impunity must be based on respect for international human rights standards."

Disease alert after sewage system collapses
15 January 2007
Residents of Iraq's capital, Baghdad, are at risk of contracting a range of waterborne diseases as the city's sewage system has collapsed after four days of heavy rain, the country's health ministry said on Monday. For nearly a week now, 45-year-old teacher Jassim Abdullah has been forced to buy bottled water for his family's daily use at an expense that his meager income barely covers. "We can't use tap water for drinking or cooking. It's all sewage. That is why I have put aside 100,000 Iraqi dinars [about US $75] to buy water for cooking and washing," said Abdullah, a father of five girls, from Baghdad's poor neighbourhood of Hurriyah.

A Tribute to Yasin
15 January 2007
A courageous and talented journalist, IWPR contributor Yasin al-Dulaimi was recently killed in a roadside bombing. Yasin, 36, died of severe head injures on December 26 after being hit by a roadside bomb in the Baghdad neighborhood Kadhimiya. He was driving home when the device, targeting a US convoy, went off. He died at the scene. He's the second IWPR contributor to have fallen victim to the conflict. Last April, trainee journalist Kamal Anbar was killed when US and Iraqi troops raided a neighborhood in the capital.

A New Real Estate Market in Iraq: The House Swap
15 January 2007
Thousands of families have now been displaced by both Sunni and Shia insurgents. Abdul-Khaliq Zangane, a parliamentary deputy and member of the parliamentary committee on displaced and migrants, says that through November 2006, around 100,000 families had been forced from their homes. As a result, a new phenomenon has emerged: Sunni and Shia families swapping houses. Real estate agents provide lists of available property, facilitating swap arrangements. When Abdul-Fatah heard about the housing exchanges, she immediately started looking for a Sunni family displaced from the capital willing to take her house in Baquba. After many inquiries, she found a real estate agent in the Mashtal neighborhood of southeastern Baghdad with a list of uprooted Sunni families looking to swap properties. She made a deal with a family that had left the neighborhood after receiving threats from Shia militants. According to their arrangement, the two families agreed to exchange their houses until the security situation gets better, each taking their own furniture.

Violence against Syrian refugees increasing
15 January 2007
Thousands of Syrian refugees and residents in Iraq face increasing violence and lack of assistance from local NGOs, according to rights groups. According to the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), there were 686 registered Syrian refugees in Iraq at the beginning of January. Of these, 584 were Syrian Arabs, who mainly live in the Baghdad and Ninewa governorates, and 102 were Syrian Kurds, who live in the three northern governorates of Iraq - Ninewa, Dahuk and Arbil. "In addition to the Syrian refugees registered with UNHCR, we believe there are about 1,000 Syrians in the capital and 500 in different places in Iraq, especially Mosul and Kirkuk," Saeed said. "Every Syrian in Iraq is scared because of the violence they are facing and most of them have no financial means to leave the country. Also, most of them have built their lives here or are married to Iraqis," he said. Iraq's Syrian Arab refugees arrived in waves between 1954 and 1993, following a succession of coup d'etats that changed the balance of power there and led to the persecution of Syrians of opposing political views.

Anbar province Iraq's worst for violence
15 January 2007
Of Iraq's 18 provinces, Anbar has witnessed more fighting and killing than any other since the US-led occupation of Iraq began in 2003. While US forces flushed out a number of Sunni insurgent groups there in military operations in 2004 and 2005, the insurgents have returned and escalating violence has prevented NGOs and aid agencies from reaching people who desperately need food and medical supplies. Anbar residents say that ever since former president Saddam Hussein was overthrown, they have lived in constant fear. According to counter-insurgency experts, many young insurgent recruits were trained in six towns in Anbar: al-Qaim, Haditha, Anah, Hit, Fallujah and Ramadi. As a result, these five towns have witnessed particularly heavy clashes resulting in the deaths of hundreds of local citizens and the destruction of thousands of shops, schools, houses and government buildings.

Journalist murdered in Mosul, another found dead in Baghdad
15 January 2007
Reporters Without Borders expressed its horror at the murder of freelance journalist Khoudr Younes al-Obaidi, shot dead as he returned to his home in Mosul, northern Iraq, on 12 January 2007. The killing comes eight days after the discovery of the body in Baghdad of Ahmed Hadi Naji, 28, an occasional cameraman for the Associated Press, who went missing on 30 December 2006. These two deaths bring to 141 the number of journalists and media assistants killed in Iraq since the US invasion in March 2003.

Bush's Iraq Plan: Goading Iran into War
15 January 2007
"President Bush's address on Iraq was less about Iraq than about its eastern neighbor, Iran," writes analyst Trita Parsi. "There was little new about the U.S.'s strategy in Iraq, but on Iran, the president spelled out a plan that appears to be aimed at goading Iran into war with the U.S. While Washington speculated whether the president would accept or reject the Iraq Study Group's recommendations, few predicted that he would do the opposite of what James Baker and Lee Hamilton advised. Rather than withdrawing troops from Iraq, Bush ordered an augmentation of troop levels. Rather than talking to Iran and Syria, Bush virtually declared war on these states."

Check toppers-tap.com
for details.

Private Reply to -=Topper=- (new win)