Blog Archives - FRB-I

BRAIN DEAD IRAQ

31/10/2015

Iraq's bloody chain of events continues to flush out the country's intellectual capital. Many academics have quit in search of meaningful life.

In the late 20th Century, Iraq’s academics and intelligentsia were renowned throughout the world. Even after the calamitous events of the 1990-1991 Gulf War and the subsequent crippling sanctions regime imposed upon the Iraqi people, Iraqi academics were in demand and readily accepted by international institutions.

This tradition of intellectual excellent stretches far back into the history of the lands associated with modern day Iraq. Trailblazing philosophers, scientists, mathematicians and jurists have long flourished in the Land of the Two Rivers, as Iraqis affectionately call their country.

Who can forget such intellectual giants such as the 9th Century polymath al-Kindi, and the mathematical genius of al-Khwarizmi whose innovations in algorithms modern technology is indebted to. Thank the scholars of Baghdad’s House of Wisdom before you thank Steve Jobs for your iPhone.

WHAT WOULD HUSSEIN DO?

31/10/2015

Tallha Abdulrazaq reflects on Hussein's legacy - asking how would he be responding to the turmoil currently plaguing the Middle East?

Muharram, the first month of the Islamic calendar, is observed across the Muslim world in a variety of different ways, for a number of different reasons and on different ends of the spectrum of joy and sorrow.

For the Sunnis, they mark Ashura, literally “the tenth” day, with fasting on the day and the day before it in order to show gratitude toward God for destroying Pharaoh and saving Moses and the faithful. To them, it is a day of celebration and joy.

For the Shia, it is a time of sorrow and mourning, expressed in different ways, and Ashura is considered the day that Hussein bin Ali, the grandson of the Prophet Muhammad, was killed at the Battle of Karbala by the forces of Caliph Yazid bin Mu’awiyya.

THE VICTIMS OF THE OPPRESSED

31/10/2015

Last week, Amnesty International published a scathing report about the Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) committing war crimes against non-Kurdish Syrians in al-Hasaka and al-Raqqa governorates.

The PYD, often seen as the Syrian offshoot of Turkey’s PKK terrorists, have had their dirty laundry aired after Amnesty exposed their ethnic cleansing campaign against predominantly Arabs and Turkmens, likely in order to create an ethnically homogenous Kurdish-controlled region in areas of northern and north eastern Syria.

This latest report is among a growing body of literature by human rights organisations, including Human Rights Watch, that expose how Kurdish nationalist groups of all flavours and from all geographies are committing crimes motivated by racist nationalist ideologies. Will the world take action like they did for the Yazidis? Not likely. It is simply much too inconvenient.

Although the United States government has stated that it is looking into reports of Kurdish ethnic cleansing campaigns in Syria, there is every chance that this could all soon be swept under the rug. After all, America’s Kurdish allies in Iraq have repeatedly committed crimes against their Arab and Turkmen neighbours, and nothing has ever happened.

VIOLENCE AND ITS CAUSES

27/10/2015

There are many explanations, theories and models for why people join militant groups. The pathways are said to be complex, the reasons multi-faceted. An entire field of academic study has emerged out of the search for the causes of violent extremism.

Yet no political scientist, sociologist, economist, historian or psychologist has discovered a universal formula. Nor is there a scholarly consensus on what factors – or combinations of factors – are important. The places in which political violence happens are too different, the individual circumstances too varied.

That doesn’t mean that nothing meaningful can be said about the causes of violent extremism. Many powerful explanations revolve around deep-seated grievances, the spread of extremist ideologies, or social dynamics. One factor that is frequently overlooked – perhaps because it seems too obvious to mention – is violence itself.

According to the Global Terrorism Index, which is published by the Institute for Economics and Peace and draws on data from the University of Maryland, 82 per cent of all terrorist incidents in the years 2000-13 took place in just five countries: Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Nigeria, and Syria. More than a hundred countries, by contrast, experienced no terrorism at all.

CLASSES SWELL IN IRAQ CAMPS AS TEACHERS LEAVE FOR EUROPE

27/10/2015

In this Wednesday, Oct. 7, 2015, file photo, 20-year-old teacher Wafa teaches fourth-grade students at a makeshift school at the Kawergosk refugee camp, in Irbil, northern Iraq. With the school year just kicking off in Iraq, schools like this one are scrambling to accommodate the refugee students left behind. Nine of Kawergosk’s teachers fled to Europe this summer and the remaining teachers are doubling up on students. (Seivan M. Salim, File/Associated Press)

A violent Iraq encourages more and more teachers to continue their profession abroad.
By Bram Janssen | AP October 26

KAWERGOSK, Iraq — The young Syrian refugees at the Kawergosk refugee camp in northern Iraq have already lost so much — and now they’re losing their teachers.

One after another, school teachers have packed up and left for Europe — searching for opportunity, safety and a better life.

With the school year just kicking off in Iraq, schools like this one are scrambling to accommodate the refugee students left behind. Nine of Kawergosk’s teachers fled to Europe this summer and the remaining teachers are doubling up on students.

Mizgeen Hussein, 28, is among those teachers left behind. A refugee from Derik, Syria, Hussein admits that despite her commitment to the students, she would leave if she had the money.

Iraq: Protesters Beaten, Abducted

23/10/2015

Visible injuries suffered by a protester in Baghdad, Iraq after being detained and beaten with cables by unidentified attackers in civilian clothes on September 18, 2015. Photo taken September 20, 2015. © 2015 Ali Hashim

(Beirut) – Iraqi security forces have repeatedly beaten and violently dispersed protesters during anti-corruption demonstrations since August 2015 without any apparent justification. In some instances, unidentified men in civilian clothes abducted and beat demonstrators. Prosecutors have failed to respond to judicial complaints lodged by victims of these attacks.
“Men claiming to be intelligence officers are attacking and abducting peaceful demonstrators and prosecutors don’t investigate,” said Joe Stork, deputy Middle East director. “Prime Minister Abadi’s endorsement of the protesters’ anti-corruption demands seems not to have reached the security forces.”

On September 18, three groups of men in civilian clothes grabbed, beat, and carried off three activists after they left a demonstration in Tahrir Square in Baghdad, all three activists told Human Rights Watch. The incidents, at about 7:30 p.m., took place between Saadoun and Abu Nuwwas Streets and in plain sight of uniformed Iraqi soldiers operating two nearby checkpoints.

The men first abducted Ali Hashim, a 37-year-old local activist. A second group beat and then dragged away Imad Taha, 50, who ran toward Hashim’s cries for help. And the third stopped and seized Dhirgham Muhsin, 28, as he went toward where he heard Taha being beaten. All three were forced into a Ford pick-up, blindfolded, and handcuffed from behind, then driven to a building a few minutes away, all three told Human Rights Watch.

THE DANGER OF IRAQ'S INFORMANTS

22/10/2015

Reliance on secret informants has resulted in countless cases of 'mistaken identification' of Iraqis whose only crime is sharing their names with wanted criminals.

BAGHDAD — Thaer al-Obeidi, who resides in the Baiji district in Salahuddin province in northern Iraq, was arrested by the Iraqi government forces, because he shares the same name as someone who is wanted by the authorities. Obeidi, who was released in May 2009, spent 19 months in several detention centers within and outside the province since his arrest in October 2007.

It took the security forces five months following his arrest to interrogate him, and he was incarcerated the entire time. He then waited for more than a year before appearing before the court, which decided to set him free because of a lack of evidence.

Just like Obeidi, tens of thousands of Iraqis have been arrested by the country's security forces for having similar names as those wanted or based on information provided by an informant. The latter has been a controversial issue, as they often provide false information, according to a statement by the Higher Judicial Council of Iraq on Nov. 24, 2014, after it revealed that 498 informants in Baghdad alone have been referred to the judiciary for providing false information.

WIKILEAKS REVEALS MALIKI COOPERATED WITH MOSSAD AND IRAN TO GET RID OF IRAQI SCHOLARS

22/10/2015

Al-Jazeera Arabic's black-box investigative documentary exposes Maliki's partnership with Iran and Israel in an orchestrated killing campaign against Iraqi scholars and scientists.

Leaked documents obtained by WikiLeaks and broadcast on Al Jazeera on Tuesday are purported to show that former Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki cooperated with Israeli intelligence services and Iran in order to obtain intelligence that lead to the assassination of hundreds of Iraqi scholars, AlKhaleejonline.com reported.

The assassinations targeted hundreds of Iraqi scholars working in different fields, including nuclear studies, as well as pilots.

Al Jazeera is to broadcast a full investigative film on Thursday named Black Box, which includes details of the assassination of 350 Iraqi nuclear scholars and 80 pilots.

TONY BLAIR WILL HELP US ON IRAQ, 2002 MEMO SAYS

19/10/2015

US memo peels back layers of deception concealing the truth behind Blair's commitment to Bush, to support his Iraq war, in spite of costs.

Former UK PM Tony Blair would support the US if military action was needed in Iraq, a top US official claimed in a memo written a year before the war.

The document, written in March 2002 by ex-US Secretary of State Colin Powell to President George W Bush, has been published by the Mail on Sunday.

It said: "Blair will be with us should military operations be necessary."
A spokesman for Mr Blair said the memo's content was consistent with what he had said publicly before.

SYRIA: US ALLY’S RAZING OF VILLAGES AMOUNTS TO WAR CRIMES

14/10/2015

A fact-finding mission to northern Syria has uncovered a wave of forced displacement and home demolitions amounting to war crimes carried out by the Autonomous Administration led by the Syrian Kurdish political party Partiya Yekîtiya Demokrat (PYD) controlling the area, said Amnesty International in a report published today.The Autonomous Administration is a key ally, on the ground, of the US-led coalition fighting against the armed group calling itself the Islamic State (IS) in Syria.

‘We had nowhere else to go’: Forced displacement and demolitions in northern Syria reveals evidence of alarming abuses, including eyewitness accounts and satellite images, detailing the deliberate displacement of thousands of civilians and the razing of entire villages in areas under the control of the Autonomous Administration, often in retaliation for residents’ perceived sympathies with, or ties to, members of IS or other armed groups.

“By deliberately demolishing civilian homes, in some cases razing and burning entire villages, displacing their inhabitants with no justifiable military grounds, the Autonomous Administration is abusing its authority and brazenly flouting international humanitarian law, in attacks that amount to war crimes,” said Lama Fakih, Senior Crisis Advisor at Amnesty International.

“In its fight against IS, the Autonomous Administration appears to be trampling all over the rights of civilians who are caught in the middle. We saw extensive displacement and destruction that did not occur as a result of fighting. This report uncovers clear evidence of a deliberate, co-ordinated campaign of collective punishment of civilians in villages previously captured by IS, or where a small minority were suspected of supporting the group.” Some civilians said they were threatened with US-led coalition airstrikes if they failed to leave.

Iraq