Gay Killings--Iraq's New Surge

Iraq's New Surge: Gay Killings

As the world hails Iraq's supposed return to normality, the country's militias -- the same ones that spent years waging a sectarian civil war -- have found a new, less apparent target: men suspected of being gay. The systematic killings, which began earlier this year, reveal the cracks behind Iraq's fragile calm. Iraq's leaders may talk of security and democracy from behind barbed wire in the Green Zone, but the surge of murders against gay men is a stark sign of how far Iraqi society still has to go.

Iraqi Gays Targeted, Being Killed

Human Rights Watch: Iraqi Gays Targeted, Brutally Killed

The number of deliberate attacks against homosexual men in Iraq has risen precipitously this year at the hands of Iraqi militias and death squads, according to a report released today by an international human rights organization.

New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) interviewed nearly 50 gay Iraqi men for the report, publishing their harrowing stories about the crackdown on gays and documenting the wide-reaching campaign of targeted executions, kidnappings, abductions, death threats and torture of gay men and men suspected of homosexual conduct.

The 67-page report, entitled "They Want Us Exterminated: Murder, Torture, Sexual Orientation and Gender in Iraq," says the killings have spread from the Baghdad neighborhood of Sadr City to many cities across the Middle East country, with Baghdad experiencing the most severe "killing campaign." Human Rights Watch estimates several hundred men have died from homosexual targeted attacks.

HRW says Iraqi police and security forces have done little to investigate or quell the violence against Iraqi homosexuals and many Iraqis doubt the government's sincerity and success to purge key officials with militia ties. According to the report, no arrests or prosecutions have been announced and the human rights watchdog says it has heard of accounts of police complicity in abuse, which ranges from harassing "effeminate" men at checkpoints, to possible abduction and extrajudicial killing.

"Iraq's leaders are supposed to defend all Iraqis, not abandon them to armed agents of hate, said HRW's Scott Long, Director of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Rights Program, in a statement. "Turning a blind eye to torture and murder threatens the rights and life of every Iraqi."

The men interviewed by HRW described how corpses have been dumped in the garbage or hung as warnings on the street. According to testimonies, the attackers invaded homes, abducted men and interrogated and brutalized them to extract names of other people suspected of homosexual conduct. The doctors who spoke with HRW researchers said they have found mutilated bodies with their anuses glued shut.

HRW says many of the Iraqis interviewed in the report believe the Mahdi Army, the militia led by Moqtada al-Sadr, the radical Shiite religious cleric, bears primary responsibility for the murders and spearheaded the killings earlier this year. Mahdi Army spokesmen have "promoted fears about the 'third sex' and the 'feminization' of Iraq men, suggesting that militia action was the remedy," according to the report.

Iraqi men who have acclimated to Western fashion trends are viewed as less "manly" and often singled out as homosexuals by religious and militia groups. Iraqi men who wear their hair long, shave their facial hair or dress in tight, fitted clothing become targets by religious militias. Cafes and barbershops once frequented by homosexuals have also come under attack. According to Hamid, an Iraqi interviewed in the report, murderers and thieves are respected more than gay people.

Consensual homosexual conduct between adults is allowed under Iraqi law but illegal in all countries surrounding Iraq except Jordan and Turkey. Islam forbids homosexuality. HRW says the targeted killings were committed without evidence or trial.

Iraqi homosexuals did not live in fear or feel forced to leave their homes and villages when former president Saddam Hussein ruled the country, says Hossein Alizadeh of International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission. Homosexual men faced death threats and warnings after the 2003 U.S. invasion, Alizadeh said, because Saddam's ouster left power vacuums for religious militias.

Iraq to Execute Gays!

Iraqi LGBT reports that Iraq is preparing to execute about 128 people for the "crime" of being gay!
Stop Execution of Gay Iraqis

Guess this is the "democracy" that the supporters of Bush's illegal invasion of Iraq promised us? Actually, this is a Shiite government like Iran's which can thank the U.S. for putting into power.

UPDATE: Two Gay Men Killed in Baghdad
BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraqi police say the bodies of two gay men have been found in Baghdad's Shiite slum of Sadr City after a leading cleric repeatedly condemned homosexuality.
A police official says the two men were believed killed Thursday by relatives who were shamed by their behavior.
The killings come after Shiite cleric Sattar al-Battat repeatedly condemned homosexuality during prayers, saying Islam prohibits homosexuality.
The official says no family members have claimed the bodies or demanded an investigation.
The killings come weeks after Iraqi police found four bodies near Sadr City with the word pervert written on their chests.

UPDATE: Six Gay Men Shot in Iraq (Clerics Urged Crackdown on Homosexuality

Iraq's Human Toll

Iraq's Shocking Human Toll:

Here's what George W. Bush left behind:
1 million killed
4.5 million displaced
1-2 million widows
5 million orphans

Sunday Roundup

Iraqi JournalistThrows Shoe At Bush During Press Conference: "This is a Goodbye Kiss You Dog!"

Bush: Iraq War is Not Over

More of Bush's Iraq Legacy: NYT Report--$100 Billion Failure to Rebuild Iraq

Colin Powell on Don't Ask, Don't Tell: We Should Definitely Re-evaluate It

Earlier in the Week, Powell Slammed Sarah Palin, Rush Limbaugh and the Republican's Divisive Campaign

Sarah Palin's Church Burned

John McCain is rediscovering his moral compass: McCain Disagrees with RNC Attacks on Obama (Tying Obama to Ill. Gov. Baglojevich).

Gay Iraqi Leader Assassinated in Baghdad

Things are not going so well for gay people in "liberated" Iraq..
Gay Iraqi Leader Assassinated in Baghdad

LGBT publication EDGE writes that in Iraq, “for gays and lesbians at least, times have never been worse.” Peter Tatchell of Outrage! reported on the most recent atrocity on Sept. 25, when an LGBT leader was gunned down:

"This morning, I received news from Iraq that the coordinator of Iraqi LGBT in Baghdad, Bashar, aged 27, a university student, has been assassinated in a barber shop.

Militias burst in and sprayed his body with bullets at point blank range.

He was the organiser of the safe houses for gays and lesbians in Baghdad. His efforts saved the lives of dozens of people.

“Homosexuality was generally tolerated under Saddam,” Hali, founder of Iraqi LGBT, said in 2007. “There certainly was no danger of gay people being assassinated in the street by police. … Life in Iraq now is hell for all LGBT people; no one can be openly gay and alive.”

From Think Progress, Iraqi Gay Leader Gunned Down

Bush/CIA Forged Iraqi Letter

Add FORGERY to the list of impeachable crimes committed by George Bush and Dick Cheney!

In his new book: The Way of the World, Pulitzer Prize-winner Ron Suskind asserts that the Bush White House ordered the CIA to forge a letter from Saddam Hussein’s Chief of Intelligence, Tahir Jalil Habbush, stating that alleged September 11 hijacker, Mohamed Atta, had received his training in Iraq.

The Bush White House and the CIA were getting secret, direct reports from Saddam’s Chief of Intelligence in January 2003 that stated that Iraq had no nuclear weapons program since 1991. When the U.S. invasion started in March 2003, the Bush administration “resettled” the Iraqi Intelligence Chief in Jordan and paid him $5 million dollars in what could be considered “hush money.”

After the Joseph Wilson and Valerie Plame expose in July 2003, that proved that Bush and Cheney were trying to destroy those who were uncovering their lies about Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction and so-called links to the September 11 attacks, a new plot was hatched to cover-up Bush’s bold-faced lies.

The Forged Iraqi Letter: What Just Happened?
by Ron Suskind

What just happened? Evidence. A secret that has been judiciously kept for five years just spilled out. All of what follows is new, never reported in any way:

The Iraq Intelligence Chief, Tahir Jalil Habbush — a man still carrying with $1 million reward for capture, the Jack of Diamonds in Bush’s famous deck of wanted men — has been America’s secret source on Iraq. Starting in January of 2003, with Blair and Bush watching, his secret reports began to flow to officials on both sides of the Atlantic, saying that there were no WMD and that Hussein was acting so odd because of fear that the Iranians would find out he was a toothless tiger. The U.S. deep-sixed the intelligence report in February, “resettled” Habbush to a safe house in Jordan during the invasion and then paid him $5 million in what could only be considered hush money.

In the fall of 2003, after the world learned there were no WMD — as Habbush had foretold — the White House ordered the CIA to carry out a deception. The mission: create a handwritten letter, dated July, 2001, from Habbush to Saddam saying that Atta trained in Iraq before the attacks and the Saddam was buying yellow cake for Niger with help from a “small team from the al Qaeda organization.”

The mission was carried out, the letter was created, popped up in Baghdad, and roiled the global newcycles in December, 2003 (conning even venerable journalists with Tom Brokaw). The mission is a statutory violation of the charter of CIA, and amendments added in 1991, prohibiting CIA from conduction disinformation campaigns on U.S. soil.

So, here we go again: the administration full attack mode, calling me names, George Tenet is claiming he doesn’t remember any such thing — just like he couldn’t remember “slam dunk” — and reporters are scratching their heads. Everything in the book is on the record. Many sources. And so, we watch and wait….

Pulitzer Prize-winner Ron Suskind is the author of The Way of the World. See http://www.ronsuskind.com

McCain Makes Another "Gaffe": He's Unqualified to be President!

Once again John McCain makes a "gaffe" on Iraq and the mainstream media covers up for him!

McCain Makes False Claim on Iraq Timeline

In an interview with CBS News' Katie Couric tonight, John McCain made the false assertion that the Surge brought about the so-called Anbar Awakening. Except, as MSNBC"s Keith Olbermann points out, the Surge was announced after the Awakening. Olbermann also explains that CBS News edited the gaffe out of the final interviewed that aired Tuesday night.

As Ilan Goldenberg points out on Huffington Post, this is not just another gaffe, like referring to a non-existent Iraq/Pakistan border, it is a major misunderstanding of Iraq:

"This is not controversial history. It is history that anyone trying out for Commander in Chief must understand when there are 150,000 American troops stationed in Iraq. It is an absolutely essential element to the story of the past two years. YOU CANNOT GET THIS WRONG. Moreover, what is most disturbing is that according to McCain's inaccurate version of history, military force came first and solved all of our problems. If that is the lesson he takes from the Anbar Awakening, I am afraid it is the lesson he will apply to every other crisis he faces including, for example, Iran.

This is just incredibly disturbing. I have no choice but to conclude that John McCain has simply no idea what is actually happened and happening in Iraq."

JOHN MCCAIN IS NOT QUALIFIED TO BE COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF!

Iraqi Prime Minister Backs Obama's Plan!

More bad news for John McCain!
Iraqi PM Backs Obama Iraq Troop Exit Plan

McCain Advisor: "We're F*cked!"

Obama was right all along, and now John McCain is following Obama's lead on getting the focus back on Afghanistan.

McCain Campaign Frustrated with Obama's Trip

McCain Gaffe: Iran/Pakistan Border?

Now who is more trustworthy on "national security" ??

And Obama is getting a pretty good reception from the troops in Afghanistan and Iraq:

Iraq In Crisis

All Hell is breaking loose in Iraq!

U.S. Bombs Basra to Support Iraqi Forces
(Iraqi forces battling Shiite miliias, Dozens of Iraqi police desert to join Mehdi Army in Sadr City!)

Bush Says Iraq Returning to Normal!
President Bush, saying that "normalcy is returning back to Iraq," argued Thursday that last year's U.S. troop "surge" has improved Iraq's security to the point where political and economic progress are blossoming as well."

Hillary Clinton Lies About Iraq (Again)

Hillary Clinton Lies AGAIN About Iraq

953 Bush Administration Lies!

The Center for Public Integrity Documents 953 Lies told by Bush administration officials about Iraq to mislead the U.s. into war. Bush alone accounts for 259 of the "false statements" about weapons of mass destruction and Iraq links to al Qaeda. We used to impeach presidents for less serious lies!

2007: The Worst Year in Iraq

A sad way to end 2007, let's hope 2008 brings good news..

Published on Monday, December 31, 2007 by Inter Press Service
Iraq Progresses To Some Of Its Worst
by Dahr Jamail

WASHINGTON — Despite all the claims of improvements, 2007 has been the worst year yet in Iraq.

One of the first big moves this year was the launch of a troop “surge” by the U.S. government in mid-February. The goal was to improve security in Baghdad and the western al-Anbar province, the two most violent areas. By June, an additional 28,000 troops had been deployed to Iraq, bringing the total number up to more than 160,000.

By autumn, there were over 175,000 U.S. military personnel in Iraq. This is the highest number of U.S. troops deployed yet, and while the U.S. government continues to talk of withdrawing some, the numbers on the ground appear to contradict these promises.

The Bush administration said the “surge” was also aimed at curbing sectarian killings, and to gain time for political reform for the government of U.S.-backed Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.

During the surge, the number of Iraqis displaced from their homes quadrupled, according to the Iraqi Red Crescent. By the end of 2007, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) estimated that there are over 2.3 million internally displaced persons within Iraq, and over 2.3 million Iraqis who have fled the country.

Iraq has a population around 25 million.

The non-governmental organization Refugees International describes Iraq’s refugee problem as “the world’s fastest growing refugee crisis.”

In October the Syrian government began requiring visas for Iraqis. Until then it was the only country to allow Iraqis in without visas. The new restrictions have led some Iraqis to return to Baghdad, but that number is well below 50,000.

A recent UNHCR survey of families returning found that less than 18 percent did so by choice. Most came back because they lacked a visa, had run out of money abroad, or were deported.

Sectarian killings have decreased in recent months, but still continue. Bodies continue to be dumped on the streets of Baghdad daily.

One reason for a decrease in the level of violence is that most of Baghdad has essentially been divided along sectarian lines. Entire neighborhoods are now surrounded by concrete blast walls several meters high, with strict security checkpoints. Normal life has all but vanished.

The Iraqi Red Crescent estimates that eight out of ten refugees are from Baghdad.

By the end of 2007, attacks against occupation forces decreased substantially, but still number more than 2,000 monthly. Iraqi infrastructure, like supply of potable water and electricity are improving, but remain below pre-invasion levels. Similarly with jobs and oil exports. Unemployment, according to the Iraqi government, ranges between 60-70 percent.

An Oxfam International report released in July says 70 percent of Iraqis lack access to safe drinking water, and 43 percent live on less than a dollar a day. The report also states that eight million Iraqis are in need of emergency assistance.

“Iraqis are suffering from a growing lack of food, shelter, water and sanitation, healthcare, education, and employment,” the report says. “Of the four million Iraqis who are dependent on food assistance, only 60 percent currently have access to rations through the government-run Public Distribution System (PDS), down from 96 percent in 2004.”

Nearly 10 million people depend on the fragile rationing system. In December, the Iraqi government announced it would cut the number of items in the food ration from ten to five due to “insufficient funds and spiraling inflation.” The inflation rate is officially said to be around 70 percent.

The cuts are to be introduced in the beginning of 2008, and have led to warnings of social unrest if measures are not taken to address rising poverty and unemployment.

Iraq’s children continue to suffer most. Child malnutrition rates have increased from 19 percent during the economic sanctions period prior to the invasion, to 28 percent today.

This year has also been one of the bloodiest of the entire occupation. The group Just Foreign Policy, “an independent and non-partisan mass membership organization dedicated to reforming U.S. foreign policy,” estimates the total number of Iraqis killed so far due to the U.S.-led invasion and occupation to be 1,139,602.

This year 894 U.S. soldiers have been killed in Iraq, making 2007 the deadliest year of the entire occupation for the U.S. military, according to ICasualties.org.

To date, at least 3,896 U.S. troops have been killed in Iraq, according to the U.S. Department of Defense.

A part of the U.S. military’s effort to reduce violence has been to pay former resistance fighters. Late in 2007, the U.S. military began paying monthly wages of 300 dollars to former militants, calling them now “concerned local citizens.”

While this policy has cut violence in al-Anbar, it has also increased political divisions between the dominant Shia political party and the Sunnis - the majority of these “concerned citizens” being paid are Sunni Muslims. Prime Minister Maliki has said these “concerned local citizens” will never be part of the government’s security apparatus, which is predominantly composed of members of various Shia militias.

Underscoring another failure of the so-called surge is the fact that the U.S.-backed government in Baghdad remains more divided than ever, and hopes of reconciliation have vanished.

According to a recent ABC/BBC poll, 98 percent of Sunnis and 84 percent of Shias in Iraq want all U.S. forces out of the country.

© 2007 Inter Press Service

Gay Iraqis Become Targets After U.S. Invasion

Here's another thing the Iraqis can thank Bush for:

Gay Iraqis become targets after U.S. invasion of Iraq

published Wednesday, December 19, 2007

Religious extremism sparked by the war in Iraq has left once-comfortable gays in the Middle Eastern country feeling demonized and afraid, The New York Times reported Tuesday.

Outsiders have always been viewed with suspicion in Iraq, but gays were ignored and accepted before American troops invaded in 2003. After the war began, about 400 people were killed for being gay, according to an Iraqi gay rights group, and gays and lesbians were forced to see lovers at night and in secret, according to The Times.

A United Nations report released in January described the growing persecution, torture, and killing of Iraqi gays and lesbians. In 2005, Iraq's highest-ranking Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, issued a decree calling for gays and lesbians to be killed in the "worst, most severe way."

The decree was lifted a year later, but Mohammed and his friends said they still don't feel safe.

"We seem suspicious because we look like a cell of terrorists," Mohammed told The Times. "But we can't tell people what we really are. A cell, yes, but of gays."

The growing influence of Iran, where homosexuality is sometimes punishable by death, has also alarmed Iraqi gays and lesbians.

"I want to get out, but not just out of Iraq, out of the Middle East," Rafi, a 25-year-old law student, told The Times. "To a country that has respect for human rights. And for us. It will never be possible here." (The Advocate)

Dems Cave on Iraq War (Again!)

Oh Dear, not again!
Democrats Cave on War Funding I know, the Dems don't have enough votes to overcome filibuster theats from Republicans, but couldn't they at least put up a fight and MAKE the Repubs actually filibuster (i.e. stay in the senate and hold up legislation) so the American people can see who is actually blocking progress in the Senate? Instead, Democrats are in Disaray! Great "leadership" Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi!

Wiretapping, torture, illegal military occupation, dropping the hate crime bill, and now this...
Are the Democrats TRYING to force progressives to leave and join the Green Party?!

Congress and Bush Fail Country

Poor George Bush's approval ratings have been on a steady decline for sometime, but now the "Democratic" Congress is joining him down in the low approval ratings. Approval of Congress is at its lowest in a decade, now even lower than Bush's approval rating! Why? Marianna Huffington correctly blames Tyrannosaurus Democrats. As I predicted, Nancy Pelosi and and the "moderate" Democratic leaders would fail to live up to the expectations of voters by not being tough enough in taking on Bush, the military, business and the other "special interests" that control Washington. It has been business a usual. And the main reason for the low approval of Congress must be the failure of the Democrats to stop Bush's illegal occupation of Iraq. The D. C. Democrats have failed to respond to the base of the Democratic Party, and the majority of Americans, and end the Iraq military occupation. By providing Bush & Co. with more funds, they must now join with Bush in owning the illegal war they approved and funded. And as I predicted, Pelosi is a disappointment.

Democrats Cave In on Iraq Funding

Democrats Cave on Iraq Funding

Well, as expected our "Democratic Leaders" in Congress caved in to Bush (who has a 28% approval!) and took out all timetables in the Iraq Funding bill. Great job Pelosi!! The Democrats who support this bill may think they are doing the politically expedient thing, but they will face some angry Democratic voters--I hope! Jimmy Carter caved in, now the Democrats in Congress are caving in. It's PATHETIC! This is why the Democratic Party fails over and over again--the "leadership" of the party is barely distinguishable from the Republican Party on many issues, like mlitary spending.

Mission Impossible

It's the Fourth Anniversary of George W. Bush's "Mission Accomplished" speech, and he continues to lie. Today he vetoed the funding bill Congress sent to him because it included a "nonbinding" resolution with a timetable to withdraw U.S. troops in a year. Using Orwellian logic, Bush and the GOP are accusing the Democrats of witholding funds to the military and U.S. troops, even though it is BUSH who is blocking the funding bill, NOT the Democrats.

Following the Karl Rove/GOP playbook, Rudy Giuliani warned that if the Democrats win in 2008, they will retreat from the "war on terrorism" and put the U.S. on the defensive rather than an offensive position on the "war on terror." How can Bush and the GOP keep getting away with this BIG LIE. Do we have to remind them and the American people that it was BUSH and the GOP who allowed the terrorist attack on 9/11 to take place? Richard Clarke and several other former members of the Bush adminstration have testified that BUSH did not even discuss terrorism before 9/11! Cheney's terrorism task force NEVER MET! Bush ignored repeated warnings from the intelligence community about a terrorist attack. BUSH, was the President almost a year before 9/11 and HE failed to protect and defend the U.S., and he has used 9/11 and the perpetual "war on terror" to gain "political capital." Bush and the GOP have weakened the U.S. military, and have aided the growth of terrorism world wide. Terrorism has INCREASED in Iraq since the illegal U.S. invasion and occupation. Bush is a LIAR. He has used the military and U.S. troops and they have paid the price for his incompetence.

Mission Accomplished.

U.S. Military; Felons, But No Gays

Amazing, according to this post by Aaron Belkin on Huffington Post, there has been a surge in the number of felons admitted into the U.S. military since the Iraq war began, while they have fired over 11,000 gay soldiers and personnell, including 1,000 considered "mission critical" and over 300 foreign linquists, which there is a critical shortage of. Guess that is what they call "miliary intelligence"..

Happy New Year/3,000 U.S. Soldiers Dead in Iraq

The U.S. soldier death toll in Iraq reached 3,000 today.

Happy New Year