Ahmad
The Anglo-American invasion of Iraq in 2003 and the subsequent occupation and colonization of the country for the sake of its oil, according to Alan Greenspan, and related geo-political considerations, hane been the most unpopular and illegal acts of imperial brigandage in recent history. Unlike the propaganda claims by its American invaders, Iraq and its people have not welcomed colonial occupation with flowers. On the contrary, from the commencement of the invasion and occupation, Iraqis have put up a very stiff resistance to the American occupation of their country.
The Resitance is one of the finest examples of the spirit of the Iraqi people and despite the terrible cost in lives and the destruction of the country, it has been able to lead the American colonizers into utter confusion. The use of military contractor groups has led to near laissez-faire killings of Iraqi people amd these killings are never punished. The report below gives an indication of the crimes being committed against the people of Iraq. This underscores why Iraq’s fate is our fate; we should call for justice for Iraq, an end to its occupation and for those who are architects of the illegal invasion and occupation of Iraq to be brought to face the International Criminal Court. The piece below is taken from axisoflogic.com.
The paid(and protected) terrorist By Ghali Hassan
On Sunday, 16 September 2007, at least 28 innocent Iraqi civilians, including women and children, wer murdered by (the American) Blackwater mercenary army. The cold-blooded massacre was an unprovoked violence designed to terrorise and strike fear among the Iraqi population living under murderous Occupation.
According to the Iraqi police, survivors of the massacre and numerous witnesses, the Sunday attack at al- Nisoor Square was unprovoked and deliberate. It is just one of the countless cold-blooded massacres of Iraqi civilians by U.S. forces and foreign mercenaries. These massacres were not isolated “incidents”, a euphemism used by the U.S. Government and Western media to describe the murder of innocent Iraqi civilians by U.S.forces and foreign mercinaries. These crimes are virtually an everyday occurrence and have inflicted “significant casualties and property damage” on the Iraqi civilian population.
There are more (military contractors) than foreign soldiers. Their number range from 160,000 to 180,000 working in more than 180 firms (e.g. Titan and CACI International) were involved in torture, abuses and even murder of Iraqi prisoners and Iraqi detainees at U.S. run prisons, including Abu Ghraib.
Of these US state Department firms, Blackwater is the largest, the others are DynCorp and Triple Canopy, with an additional contract worth $15bilion from the Pentagon. Blackwater is deeply embedded in the Bush Administration through its strong ties to the Republican party and the Evangelical Christians. Blackwater are like American’s Brownshirts, and according to author Naomi Wolf; “most(Americans) don’t know that Blackwater has a mandate to start operating in the U.S., and in fact they have already done” so in hurricane-ravaged New Orleans.
In addition to the foreign(military firms), the U.S. Administration has created,armed and financially local militias to foment civil strife and divert public attention and the Resistance away from the Occupation. The U.S. administration encourages and uses the violence to destabilize not only Iraq, but also the entire region and justify U.S. military presence and the ongoing, Occupation of Iraq.
According to a memorandum prepared by U.S. congressional House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, Blackwater (hasa0 been involved in 195 acts of violence from 01 January 2005 through 12 September 2007 (citing Blackwaters’s “incidence reports”). This is an average of 1.4 shootings per week. However, a former Blackwater (operative) who spent three tears in Iraq told NBC News his 20-man team averaged “four or five” deliberate shootings a week or several times the rate of 1.4 shootings a week reported bt the company. The Memorandum noted that in most cases (84 per cent), Blackwater men wer found to have accepted unprovoked and deliberately murdered Iraqi civilians.
Almost all Blackwater crimes against Iraqi civilians went unnoticed and most of the crimes were covered up and forgotten. According to the House Committee memorandum: “ The State Department’s primary response was to ask Blackwater to make monetary payments (and) to put the ‘matter behind us’ rather than to insist upon accountability or to investigate Blackwater personnel for potential criminal liability”. Blackwater is also involved in writing up the State Department’s initial report “ investigating” the September 16th cold-blooded massacre of Iraqi civilians in Baghdad. The aim seemed to be(the) cover-up and conceal(ment of) the murder of innocent Iraqi civilians by foreign mercenaries protecting Occupation officials.
The U.S.( Bush)Government pays Blackwater $1,222 per day for one Blackwater “Security Specialist”, which “amounts to $445,891 per contractor” per year. In addition, they use the latest and most lethal weapons. According to Jeremy Scahill, author of Blackwater: the Rise of the World’s Most Powerful Mercenary Army, foreign mercenaries in Iraq are even using “experimental ammunition” that U.S. forces are not allowed to use. The bullets made of “blended metal” are designed to shatter on impact, creating “untreatable wounds” and completely destroying that section of the victim’s body. Foreign mercenaries are not subjected to any Iraqi laws, and are immune from prosecution.
Immunity from prosecution for crimes committed in Iraq, including killings Iraqi civilians, is not coincident. The so-called Order 17 issues by U.S. proconsul, Paul Bremer in June 2004 as a remainder of Iraq’s fake sovereignty under Occupation grants sweeping immunity to foreign mercenaries and outlaws working for the Occupation in Iraq. Order 17 is simply a licence to kill.With a U.S installed puppet government in Baghdad, the murders of Iraqi civilians will remain unpunished and protected unless Order 17 and the likes are abolished.
The puppet government has acknowleged that “Iraqis do not understand how a foreigner could kill an Iraqi and return a free man to his own country”. In April 2004, Blackwater (operatives) were involved in indiscriminate shooting of the peaceful Iraqi protesters in Najaf. The crimes weren’t even reported. A video( America’s Private Army) on youtube showed a Blackwater thug describing Iraqi civilians they are murdering as “fuckin” niggers. In a 2005 video posted on GlobalResearch, British mercinaries were shown shooting at Iraqi civilians “for entertainment”. So far, no one has been brought to justice for killing Iraqi civilians, and all those who committed crimes against Iraqi civilians have been smuggled out of Iraq.
Furthermore, in March 2003, when Iraqis killed four Blackwater mercenaries in Fallujah in retaliation for the killing of 18 Iraqi civilians, the U.S. army took revenge. In April 2004, the City of 300,000 people was besieged by U.S. marines and their collaborators. As a result, subsequent U.S. attacks lasted several months and a violent invasion in November left Fallujah deliberately destroyed. More than 6,000 innocent civilians were murdered in cold blood by U.S. marines and collaborators. Today the City, like many Iraqi cities and towns, remains a ghost town and most of its population is displaced refugees.
Iraqi civilians have become preys for “trigger happy” foreign mercenaries and U.S. troops. The murder of innocent Iraqi civilians has been normalized, and murder charges against U.S. soldiers and mercenaries accused of killing Iraqi civilians have been dropped in order to encourage recruitment of soldiers and foreign mercenaries. More than a million innocent Iraqi civilians, mostly women and children, have been killed as a result of this illegitimate murderous Occupation and the 2003 illegal act of aggression perpetuated by war criminals aiming at dominating the world by force. Let’s not forget that the war on Iraq is a war crime against humanity.
As I write these lines, U.S. occupying troops backed by aircraft attached a town north of Baghdad at dawn on Friday (05 October 2007) killing at least 25 innocent civilians and injuring more than 28. On Thursday, the U.S. military admitted that it had killed five women and four children in a raid by fighter jets on a house in small Iraqi village of Babahani. The Pentagon had initially reported the killing “seven suspected insurgents” in the airstrip on the civilian neighbourhood.
Two days earlier, U.S. helicopter gunshot attacked a neighbourhood in Baghdad and killed atleast seven civilians. The U.S. army in Iraq is in itself a foreign mercenary army different only from other foreign mercenary armies that it provides the soldiers with uniforms and uses them to protect state power.
Finally, Blackwater’s mercenaries and other foreign mercenaries are part of U.S. military Occupation and there are accountable to the Uniform Code of Military Justice. If not, they should be prosecuted in U.S. courts. Iraq is a “sovereign” state, then anyone who has committed crimes in Iraq should be subject to prosecution in Iraqi courts. Under the U.S. Federal Criminal Code, which also define terrorism, the massacres of innocent Iraqi civilians by foreign (Blackwater) mercenary in Iraq were deliberate acts of terrorism different from other acts of terrorism.
Those interesting dimension of politics
A week can be a very long time in politics; that ha become a common place statement now. The past week has been a truly noteworthy one for the Nigerian political elite, as a denouncement of a sort was reached at many levels. Of course, the eventual expulsion of Particia Olubunmi Etteh was just a matter of time for any discerning observer of the cloak and dagger world of politics.
It was also good to hear that the former Speaker singled out the Nigeria media as the main source of her travails. I think the Nigerian media as the main source of her travails. I think the Nigerian media has acquitted itself very well in that long-running controversy around the renovation scandal in the House of Representatives. The media kept at the story, we stayed on top of the intrigues, and in the process opened up all the apertures to the depth of rot and sleaze which characterize Nigeria’s political system. What the Nigerian media has done in that case is in tune with the constitutional role of the media, which obliges the media to hold the institutions of government accountable to the Nigerian people.
For Mrs Patricia Olubunmi Etteh, the persistence of the media was “an enemy action”, which eventually led to her removal as the Speaker of the House of Represntatives.It was in the same manner that former President Olusegun Obasanjo and all those connected with the third term agenda found the Nigerian media such a nut to crack really. But by exposing the sleaze in the House of Representatives or exposing the third term agenda, the Nigerian media merely played the role expected of us by the Nigerian constitution. The importance of the institution of the media as a leading element of civil society was also clearly reinforced as that institution which stands up squarely to defend the interest of the Nigerian people.
Underlining the various issues of politics that we are witnessing playing themselves out today is the need to break the yoke of authoritarian control of the political space, which has been the lot of Nigeria since 1999. Obasanjo and his garrison politicians ruled Nigeria with an iron fist and consequently made it difficult to evolve genuinely democratic expression within the nation’s political process. Because recruitment of leadership did not need the most basic elements of transparency, often Nigeria became saddled with the lowest common denominator in the choices foisted on us as a people. The worst culprit in this strange scenario has been the ruling PDP, especially when Obasanjo ruled the roost. The political process has therefore been caught up in the crises of conquest of the PDP began soon after the 2003 elections.
It is quite clear that the impostors at the head of the PDP led by “Garrison Ali”( to borrow the apt description by our Nobel Laureate, Wole Soyinka), did not read the mood within the house of Representatives and neither did they understand how disgusted the Nigerian people have been with the bullying tactics of the Obasanjo era. Doctor Amadu Ali responded to the exposure of the sleaze around Patricia Olubunmi Etteh by hurling threats at members of the House of Representatives, and without even allowing th process of investigation to commence, he declared that Etteh was not guilty of any crime. It was the flippancy of Ali amongst several other factors, which eventually hardened the resolve of the opposition elements within the Integrity Group to press on with the effort to terminate Etteh’s leadership of the House. The Obasanjo group within the PDP badly miscalculated the desire for a radical move away from the Obasanjo method in the practice of politics in the new era. Obasanjo’s style is far too reviled for Ahmadu Ali and the enforcers to get their way with the members of the political elite.
The revolt against the directives issued by the PDP in respect of Etteh’s place as the Speaker and when that failed to shift the grounds of the opposition, the PDP apparatus moved to impose a candidate as the successor speaker of the House of Represntatives. But even in that process, Doctor Amadu Ali and his fellow travelers got eggs thrown in their faces. Ordinarily, the revolt in the National Assembly should tell the PDP apparatchiks that they have become a total liability to members of the party and Nigerian in general. It was therefore not a surprise to learn that members of the Integrity Group have resolved to carry their offensive to the convention to choose a new leadership for the PDP. I think this is a particularly fortuitous moment in Nigeria’s political life. The issues are very interesting, as they come together so very telling.
In the first place, the president of the country faces a legitimacy challenge arising out of the flawed process which produced him; and in fairness to the man, he recognizes that his occupation of the highest political office has alienated the Nigerian people as well as having devalued, if not discredited, the political process. Given the weight of his position, he chose to operate within some parameters of decency contrary to what his sponsors had probably hoped for. I think that Malam Umaru Yar’ Adua realized that the circumstances in Nigeria has become so delicately poised that it was not possible to continue with the old ways of doing things. That is why observance of due process became the reigning mantra of the past few months. At least, that posture has earned some sympathy from the aggrieved people of Nigeria who are still angry at the way that the aggrieved people of Nigeria who are still angry at that combination of the PDP, INEC and security forces massively rigged the 2007 elections.
In trying to respond to the new realities in Nigeria, Umar Musa Yar’ Adua’s posture has emboldened those who want a break with the authoritarian approach which has damaged the nation’s political process. On the other hand, the Obasanjo clique has watched with increasing alarm the gradual disintegration of the “house of horror” which they craftily and cynically constructed over the past couple of years. The removal of Etteh has shown that it was possible to even rout the Obasanjo tendency once and for all. A coalition of some sort has built, salivating for the blood of of the old dictator and all that he ever stood for. All those that Obasanjo did wrong, ridiculed or disgraced now have common cause to demystify the disgraced despot. The arena of struggle has moved firmly into the recesses of the PDP.
This is the background to understand the plea by “Garrison Ali” THAT Obasanjo be forgiven for all the crimes he might have committed against individuals in the course of his disastrous eight years of power. Amadu Ali has been forced by circumstances to pretend to be eating humble pie. He has been forced by the dizzying pace of events to confront the new reality which is unfolding even within the PDP. The older order that Dr Amadu Ali represents is so discredited that all tendencies are massing to do away with it once and for all. If the media is to be believed,even Malam Umar Yar ‘Adua is so exasperated by the Obasanjo tendency within the party that he might not be disposed to wielding the big stick on their behalf in the contest for the soul of the party. In case, a wily political operative that he is, Umar if he is seen to be openly endorsing the platform which Obasanjo represents in the present circumstances.
Unfortunately for all of us, we cannot ignore the goings-on within the PDP.It remains the biggest political machinery in our country even if it is a discredited, authoritarian, vote-rigging contraption. The truth is that it came into being in the first place within the context of some lofty idealism at its inception. It turned into a danger against democracy in the hands of Obasanjo and his gang. So, if the Integrity Group and other elements want to build a new coalition to rescue the “rational kernel” within the PDP, we can only wish them well for the sake of our democratic process. I hope that translates into a decisive defeat for all the candidates sponspored by Obasanjo, starting from Sam Egwu.
One of the most interesting statements affirming the intention to help democratic survival in Nigeria came from Honorable Justice Katsina- Alu in the judgement which reinstated Rotimi Amaechi as the Governor of Rivers State. The learned Justice had underlined the fact that the judiciary will not allow technicalities of law to becloud the substantial issues of justice in the nation’s judicial process. It is a point that we must applaud, because it could open an avenue to the building and consolidation of a democratic culture in our country. An activisit judiciary is helping us to unravel the regime of President Olusegun Obasanjo.
In the midst of all of these developments, I am tempted to conclude by talking about the “Atiku Abubakar effect” on the nationa’s political process. The former Vice President turned to Nigeria the other day to confront clearly difficult times within the political coalition which he cobbled together as a survival platform. The roots of that platform must be located in the truly spirited fight which the Turankin Adamawa led against led against Obasanjo’s third term agenda. It is testimony to his incredible political staying power and his dogged belief in the judicial process that Atiku Abubakar took his battle against the vindictive politics and illegal use of excutive power by former president, Olusegun Obasanjo. Case after the other, the illegalities were nullified by the courts. I think this affirmation of belief in the rule of law became Atiku Abubakar’s greatest contribution to our political process and democratic consolidation. Those indeed are the interesting dimensions to politics.
