Unanswered Questions

Once again, hell opens its gates and windows on Baghdad and claims the Lives of over 100 Iraqi men, women and Children, and leaving hundreds wounded. From the dust, rubble and the water mixed with soot and blood, a big question mark emerges preceded by the words “ Why ” and More Importantly who is behind it.

In order to try to answer these questions, we should look to what preceded those bloody bombings and then, we try to get a suspect or even do the Impossible and understand what stands behind this Madness.

Earlier this Month there was a bank robbery, which took place in Baghdad. 8 guards were killed and the robbers turned up to be lead by the Iraqi Vice president’s security officials. And they even used official security cars in the robbery. The money ( minus300 Million Iraqi Dinnar which was split among the robbers) was retrieved but the guards, even though they were surrounded at the Newspaper office of that Vice president, but they were not handed out to the proper Authorities. The Prime minister said that they should be handed out to the proper Authorities. The Minister of Interior, who refused to do a cover Up for that robbery after knowing that the guards of that Vice president are involved, stood fast so that Justice is served. This incident has occupied the mind of the Iraqi public opinion through out the Past 20 days. An Iraqi Journalist working at the state owned Newspaper Al-Sabah, wrote an Article Under the title ( 800 000 Blankets) suggesting that the 8 billion Iraqi Dinnar, which were robed from the Bank , was enough to Buy 800 000 blankets, to be distributed by the party of that Vice president on voters in preparation to the coming parliamentary elections next January. Were these bombings that took place today, intended to occupy the Iraqi public opinion with a new thing other than the Bank Robbery? Or was it to get revenge from the Minister of Interior, since he will be the first to be blamed over what is going on?

Prime Minister Maliki has said that he might not join the Shiat alliance in the coming elections. He might form his own “national” alliance. He also went to the extent of describing the Sectarian Alliances as “part of History”. Were those bombings intended to bring down Maliki and his National project? Are they to prove that the Maliki Government is unable to provide security after the American withdrawal from the Iraqi cities?

Maliki Just paid Syria a Visit yesterday. Made some security agreements and among the things he asked the Syrian for were handing over some of the Wanted , former regime elements, who are blamed for the insurgency and violence in Iraq, to the Iraqi government. He also wanted Syria to encourage the tens of thousands of Iraqi refugees in Syria, to return to the now safer Iraq. Maliki also met with Iraqi community in Syria and some of those who were initially invited were not let into the reception hall (about 15 of them) to meet Maliki. Were those wanted elements behind the Bombings as a response to Maliki ? was that a message to the Shiat Ministry ( Finance) and the Kurdish Ministry ( Foreign affairs) from the Sonni Arab insurgency?

Finally, many Iraqi officials accused Saudi Arabia lately of standing behind the latest bombings in Iraq. They also said several times that neighboring and regional powers are trying their best to affect the results of the upcoming elections. Maliki also said on the 10th of this month that we should expect more Violence as we get closer to the elections. The Holy Month of Ramadan is only few days away and there will be strict security measures during that month. Did the Islamic fanatic made their strike before the security forces tighten its grip during the Holy Month? Did the crazy Jihadies, who came with Orders from Saudi Arabia (as Iraqi officials said), are blowing them selves in Iraq during the holiest month for more blessings?

If you got any idea or a Clue to answer those questions please write to me for I could not see through the dust, smoke and soot filling the Iraqi Air. So that I can give an answer to those people, whom I saw late this evening searching through the rubble for their loved ones.

Major Event in Baghdad

For those who did not watch the Late Show with David Letterman last night, I will tell you what happened. The Beatles’ Sir Paul McCartney showed up at the Ed Sullivan Theater for the first time, after decades from the Beatles performance in the late sixties on the same theater. Not only that, Sir Paul McCartney went on the marquee of the Ed Sullivan Theater and preformed to a crowd of hundreds, if not thousands, who spread on all directions on the Broadway street, to see the music icon perform couple of his songs. This is a great by all measures. So big that Bruce Willis came and read the Top 10 list, at the showoff ways he is spending this summer, at the top of which was” I agreed to do a lame top 10 list just to meet Paul McCartney “ . This is how big this event was.

By now, you might be wondering what that got to do with Baghdad, to which this blog is dedicated. Well, as I was enjoying the performance of Sir Paul McCartney on the Ed Sullivan Marquee, along with the hundreds of people on Broadway Street, I was shocked to actually see that there are cars passing in front of the Ed Sullivan Theater. The Taxi cabs were driving among the crowds, who were barricaded by police and behind steel barriers. For a resident of Baghdad to see this large crowd of people and cars are passing freely among them, it is our worst nightmare. For us, any of those cars is a potential bombed car.

In comparison to that great, Ed Sullivan Theater, event, there is a pilgrimage to the Shrine Of Imam Kadhum in Baghdad taking place right now. The preparations to this great Baghdad Event started 3 days ago. Tents were set up on the streets of Baghdad (even on the Major Highways) and I literally mean ON the streets not on the side of it. Major streets were shut down. Entire neighborhoods were sealed off, including my neighborhood, just because they are unfortunate enough to be on the route to the shrine. This siege, which will last for another couple of Days, is imposed on over one third of the city of Baghdad. Just to visit a shrine of a guy who died centuries ago. While we are celebrating a guy who died centuries ago, the entire world is celebrating the 40^th anniversary of Apollo 11 mission, which landed a Man on the Moon.

All what I want to say, is that Major events could take place without actually stopping life , traffic and confining people to their houses for days, especially when there are 12 Imams in Shaisim , and their Birth, Death , Arbain ( 40 days after the death) and even the wounds of some Imams are celebrated. I have to disagree with some clergymen, who would answer those who tell them that all of this is causing discomfort and inconvenience to people by saying “the people actually rubbing the dirt off the shoes off the pilgrims and putting it over their heads for Blessing” . No sir, life should not freeze and people should not be locked up, just because there is a pilgrimage taking place. Not even for Sir Paul McCartney.

the Fragile situation

Living in the buffer zone or what you may call no man’s land between Baghdad’s Sunni -dominated Adhamiyah district and the Sadr City area dominated by the Mahdi Army, which is a Shia militia, I know how bad tensions between the two sides can get. I remember a couple of years ago when sectarian fighting – one might even call it civil war - was at its peak.

At the time, mortars and Russian-made Grad artillery missiles flew back and forth between the two areas in north Baghdad. Whenever there was a bombing in Sadr city, the Mahdi Army would retaliate, lobbing mortars into Adhamiyah. The tit-for-tat assaults eventually led to construction of massive concrete blast walls to separate the two districts and the two sides.

For many Baghdad residents, a string of recent bombings in the city’s neighborhoods has resurrected memories of those bad old days. And those attacks are putting people on edge – again.

The other night, following a major bombing in a busy Sadr City market that killed more than 60 people and injured 120 others, I went to dinner at an open-air café in Adhamiyah near the Grand Mosque of Abu Hanifa. It was a couple of hours before the midnight curfew. Unlike other nights, when procedures at the checkpoints leading to Adhamiyah tend to be relaxed by this late hour, Iraqi Army soldiers were asking almost every driver to step out of his car and open the trunk for checking.

Just ahead of me, some men in a white 1988 Chevrolet Celebrity started throwing beer cans out windows and pouring out glasses of Scotch, as they got closer to the checkpoint. They clearly feared they might get in trouble for drinking.

Later, as we sat at the café having our dinner, we noticed an Iraqi soldier with a nickel-coated AK47, standing nearby, nervous but vigilant. “Whose GMC is this?” he shouted, pointing to a large, shiny Suburban parked at the curb a couple meters from us. “We’ll be done in a minute,” a customer sitting at a table with some friends yelled back. “Come and have dinner with us.” The soldier was not amused. “You said the you will only pick up some sandwiches,” he barked. “Move it!”

Meanwhile, Iraqi military Humvees drove up and down Adhamiya’s main street. You could tell they were on high alert in the wake of the recent bombings, including one in the Karada district as well as the Sadr City incident. Also, the alert level has been raised ahead of the withdrawal of American combat troops from Iraqi cities, which comes at the end of this month.

Later, as we were leaving Adhamiya, just about a half-hour ahead of curfew, authorities at the checkpoint were still requiring people to leave their cars for a quick check. All the activity was a reminder of how fragile the situation in Baghdad, and Iraq, remains - and how quickly things can go downhill.

Iraqi Count Downs

Few days ago I noticed that there is couple of count downs and one count up (if there is such a thing as a count up) on the Iraqi TV stations.
The first count down is at Al-Diyar TV one of the Many Iraqi satellite TV stations which emerged right after the war. The count down if for the Iraqi provincial councils’ elections, due for Next February 2009. This election is one of the Major Mile stones n Iraqi politics and the election campaign is really starting strong and the results are really highly anticipated. Even though, the Iraqi people are really frustrated from the performance of both the Local and Central government, and many have expressed that they would never go to another election and vote for any one again, yet they also realize if they do not then they will end up with the same inefficient and corrupt politicians and officials. In addition to that, the result of this elections, if it was fair and not tampered with, will be a good indication for what the picture is gone be like in the coming general elections by the end of 2009.it will be more like the Golden Globe awards which will tell you what you should expect at the Academy awards night.
The count up which I mentioned earlier is how many days the Iaqi Journalist ( Monthadhar Al-Zaidi) , the guy who “assaulted” Bush with his shoe, is being held up by the Iraqi Authorities. Al-Baghdadyia TV , which Zaidi works for, have his picture on the top left corner of the screen. The word “ Waiting” is underneath the Picture and next to it is the Number “ 19” which is how many days have past since the incident. There is a similar count up on the Lebanese Future TV run By Al-Hariri with the Number 1418, which are the days since Rafiq Al-Hariri, the former Lebanese PM, was assassinated and the words “ for Lebanon sake” next to it. Hope that Zaidi’s count up would not reach this figure..Or he might.
The other more interesting count down was the one on Sumaria TV. They had a clock on the screen counting down till it gets to the New Year’s eve. This might not sound really interesting since al the whole world will be counting down the hours, minutes and seconds till the ball drop at Time square announcing the arrival of 2009. What makes this count down special and Unique is what is written next to it. “Till sovereignty” is what was written next to the count down clock. How is that? Because once the clock strikes midnight on Dec 31st the security pact between Iraq and the United States of America becomes in action.
Why would there be a count down for sovereignty, aren’t we already a sovereign Nation? Let me tell you about the one time when I went to the President Office at the Green Zone for a press conference back in 2004. Back then It Was Ghazi Al-Yawir the President. I thought that since he is the president of Iraq, then his office would be at the green domed Iraqi Republican Palace. You could not imagine how surprised and humiliated I was when I was taken to some Building at one corner of the Greene zone which could be nothing but a Gardner house. A kitchen with few rooms in an area, which is not more than 200 Square meters, of the one level house which is called the presidential office. The Iraqi West Wing. While the great and lavished Republican Palace is now the American Embassy. That is probably why when President Talabani became a president of Iraq, e had his office out side the Green Zone, in one of Saddam’s former palaces on the River Tigris. Even Talabani could not humiliate him self and stay at the Gardener House.
Well… not any More. Today January 1st 2009 the Green zone was handed over to the Iraqi authorities. More importantly the republican Palace is No longer the American Embassy. All I can say is this is just another step towards Sovereignty and there are many more to take.

HOW TO DO BUSYINESS IN BAGHDAD

One night, few years ago I fancied a hand watch at a store in Baghdad. Few days later, I took a friend of mine who was, unlike me, good in Bargaining and went to the store to get that watch. The guy at the store did not budge off his position regarding the price of that watch which was really cheap. My Friends efforts went in Vain, but it was I who actually managed to get that watch in a price less than the asked price. No, I did not “Make him an Offer that he can’t refuse” in Marlon Brando’s tactic at the Godfather. I simply talked to him in the manner that every Iraqi understands. I simply Said to the seller “ do you really expect me to go back home with the watch and tell the people at home that I actually bought the watch for the asked price!”. The Man immediately realized the sense in what I was saying (as an Iraqi) and sold me the watch for 14000 Iraqi Dinnar in stead of the 15000 the guy was asking for in the first place. Back then the difference was less than a Dollar.
You might ask what made me remember this incident. Well when I saw the Iraqi Government sending the back the Final draft of the security draft to Washington for last minute changes, this incident jumped to my mind immediately. The draft was fine for the Iraqi Government and they would have said yes to it at that Moment, but this would have made them look bad that they have actually said yes without a little bargaining.
This security pact, which was initially said that it would organize the presence of the troops in Iraq or as it is known by the name ( SOFA), suddenly changed to become the pact to organize the withdraw of the Foreign troops from Iraq. It set the date of the end of July 2009 for the American troops to pull out of the Iraqi cities, and the date of 31/12/2011 for them to pull out of Iraq.
Well this should come as great news to the people who were calling all along for a withdraw time table of the troops from Iraq, regardless what that time would be. Among those who were calling for this time table where Crazy Moqttada’s group ( the Sadrists), the association of the Muslim scholars and hard line sonnies. Iran and Syria were also were calling for such withdraw. That is why it came as a surprise that all the above mentioned people were against this practically withdraw pact. The Iraqis where split into 2 factions, those who are pro the Pact which would automatically make them Pro American and those who were anti the Pact which would also automatically make them Pro Iranian. Many Iraqi officials where just in the middle of this ordeal, if they said Yes to this pact then they will be stained that they are favoring America and if not then they are taking Iran’s side. That is quite understandable because this agreement would basically make Iraq a strategic Ally of the United States.
When the Government actually approved the final draft of the agreement, after the last minute touches, and sent it to the Iraqi Parliament to ratify it, the Fun started. The Sadrist raised hell during the initial reading of the pact at the parliament by shouting and then beating on the desk with File Boxes and finally physically attacking the other members of Parliament who were reading out the draft of the pact. The scene repeated it self at the voting on the agreement with minor changes, like the Black scarf that the Sadrist MPs wore as sign of mourning and the Banners which each of them , especially the female street venders they call Sadrists MPs, which read “ No, No to the Agreement”. On the other hand, the accordance front ( the sonni block at the parliament) refused to pass the pact without some extra bargaining so they came up with this lame “ political reform document” which they read, voted on and passed right before the security pact.
The security (or the withdraw) pact, since the official Name of it in Arabic is the withdraw pact, by 149 votes.
Now as an Iraqi I feel safer that the security pact has been signed since I woke up on Thursday morning on the sound of an explosion followed by gunshots, and no one reported because they were busy covering the parliament and the Bombay attacks, and was not able to sleep later at night because of the sound of American helicopters hovering over my neighborhood all night till the next morning.

THANK YOU AMERICA

Since the start of the presidential election campaign I had some reservation on Barak Obama, especially on issues like Iraq. I was more of a Clinton supporter. But once Clinton was out of the picture , it became obvious whom I would rather see at the white house. Probably you would think that this is only because I’m an Iraq and electing a new president at the white house who would have a direct effect on my country and that is why I’m concerned. It is true to an extent. One morning as I was driving to work, had the radio on BBC Arabic. They had a talk show and they were receiving calls and comments from all over the Arab world reflecting on the American elections. One caller from Sudan, as I recall, said that it is gone be impossible for Obama to be elected. “ do you really believe that America is let a black man of a Muslim back ground be elected as its president” the guy said on the radio. “It is impossible” he added.

At that very particular moment I really wished that Obama would win just to prove to that Man in Sudan and the rest of the Arab world how wrong they could be, by making such prejudice remarks and judgments.

Through out the campaign, as the reports were talking about Obama’s double digits lead over the war veteran McCain, that caller from Sudan was always in the back of My mind. And when one day in the streets of Manhattan , during my visit to the US, I saw a black man who had to wait for 20 minutes to get a taxi and Taxi drivers refuses to stop for him just because he is black , and this is in 2008, that man from Sudan was in the back of my mind. Seeing that first hand shock my faith in all what America stands for. That is other what we, as Iraqis, have seen through out the past 8 Bush’s years on the white house.

On November 4^th, what was considered impossible by many, did happen. A black man called Barak Hussein Obama became the 44^th president of the United state of America. Every body agreed that it was a historical moment. It is not a historical moment Just because an African American man has been elected as a president of the United States. It is a historical moment because you Americans have given the whole world a valuable lesson in democracy and the power of the people’s will , when you all chanted “ yes we can” and proven that man from Sudan wrong . Your march to the polling centers did to democracy what no tanks, fleets or warplanes were able to do. It brought back faith in America as a super power and in democracy. So …Thank you America.

HISTORY LESSON

For the past 2 days, I have been watching a DVD called “ Hitler- the rise of Evil”. It talks about the rise of the most notorious dictator that the world ever known. As an Iraqi, who lived in Iraq for the past 3 decades, I could not help but notice the remarkable resemblance between the realities I lived, and still living in this little country called Iraq.

I still remember the striking resemblance between the German dictator and our own home grown dictator, Saddam Hussein. The police state he created and the Militarized society and the wars that brought disasters to Iraq and to the entire region. The liberties which were frozen, and most importantly, the psychopath manner of ruling. The one and only feared leader to whom we are supposed to sacrifice our “ souls and blood”.

Ironically, that dictator was removed by almost the same Allies, USA and UK ( with the absence of if not rejection of Russia and Free France) .

This was the most obvious resemblance that any one watching the movie can see. The other resemblance is that those 2 dictators are now long gone and only became part of history and became subjects for historians to study and derive lessons from those eras.

But the lesson that we did not learn is that dictators could come from democratic states and even through elections.

Moqttada Al-Sader another psychopath, just like Hitler managed to get 25 seats in Parliament, after democracy was introduced into Iraq. His SAS ( the Mahdi Army) managed to strengthen its grip on the entire nation, and made every one in Iraq forced to deal with this 28 year old retard , and even giving him 6 ministerial portfolios in the first elected Iraqi Government.

Just like Chancellor Hitler, Moqttada knew how to use democracy for his benefit and put the entire country captive to his will. …Lesson Learned??!!!

You might think that such resemblance is only applicable to little countries like Germany or Iraq, where democracy was only young.

Adolf Hitler decleared “Ability act” after the building of the Reichstag (German parliament) was burnt by a supposedly Dutch communist. Rings any bells? Something like the “Patriot Act” announced by President Bush after 9/11, were some liberties were “ frozen” during the “War on terrorism”.

The DVD end s with a remarkable quotation of the Anglo- Irish statesman, Edmund Burke( 1729 -1797) saying “ the only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing” . I hope by writing this blog I did something.