We have not been Liberated

[darkbeaver]

[FONT=Verdana,Arial] [/FONT]​

[FONT=Verdana,Arial]
[/FONT]​

[FONT=Verdana,Arial] [/FONT][FONT=Verdana,Arial]
[/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana,Arial] [/FONT][FONT=Verdana,Arial]We have not been liberated[/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana,Arial] [/FONT][FONT=Verdana,Arial] Haifa Zangana[/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana,Arial] [/FONT] [FONT=Verdana,Arial] [/FONT]

​

[FONT=Verdana,Arial]The first two photos are Iraqi female students in 1963-1964; the third photo is Iraqi female students in 2006!! In other words the Iraqi women before and after "liberation"…[/FONT][FONT=Verdana,Arial]

March 6, 2007

Women's basic rights are being rapidly eroded in Iraq and occupation forces seem to have forgotten their promises of empowerment.

[/FONT][FONT=Verdana,Arial]The regime in Baghdad's Green Zone is busy organising a celebration of a different kind for this year's International Women's Day on 8 March. Among its highlights will be the execution of four Iraqi women. This follows on from its decision to honour four of its Iraqi officers accused of raping a young woman Zainab Abbas Hussain al-Shummary. The office of prime minister had forged an American medical report. Long gone are the colourful parades of Iraqi women commemorating their achievements. Now we only have parades of death, where the "liberated" and "empowered" Iraqi women and girls, covered head to toe with hijabs and abayas, will queue at police stations, prisons, detention camps, hospital's "fridges" and crowded morgues looking for the disappeared, kidnapped or their assassinated loved ones.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana,Arial]Briefing MPs on the latest situation on Iraq, on the eve of invading Iraq, Prime Minister Tony Blair, his eyes glowed with messianic determination, said: [/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana,Arial]"I know the innocent as well as the guilty die in a war. But do not let us forget the 4 million Iraqi exiles, the thousands of children who die needlessly every year ... Let us not forget the tens of thousands imprisoned, tortured or executed by his [Saddam's] barbarity every year. The innocent die every day in Iraq - victims of Saddam - and their plight too should be heard."[/FONT]
​

[FONT=Verdana,Arial]Indeed, let us hear the plight of Iraqi people, especially women. [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana,Arial]Let us start by talking death sentence. Bearing in mind that executions of women were formally prohibited under Iraqi law from 1965 on the grounds that women are life-givers and life-nurturers.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana,Arial]The four women sentenced to death and in imminent danger of execution are Samar Sa'ad 'Abdullah, Wassan Talib, Zeynab Fadhil, and Liqa' Qamar. Ages 25-31. They were tried individually for murder, kidnapping, and the murder of several members of Iraqi security forces in Baghdad. All denied the accusations and Amnesty International is questioning the circumstances which led to the sentences by the central criminal court of Iraq (CCCI) between 2005-2006. Two of the women have young children with them: Zeynab Fadhil has her three-year-old daughter, Liqa' Qamar her one-year-old daughter, who was born in prison. The death penalty was reinstated in August 2004 by the "sovereign" interim government. According to Amnesty International, during 2006 at least 65 men and women were executed.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana,Arial]In issuing these sentences in the absence of law and order, carrying out arbitrary arrests and detaining suspects for years without charge or access to lawyers, the Iraqi regime seems to enjoy a convenient amnesia of times when all of its members used to condemn the previous regime for sentencing people to death without proper judicial procedure.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana,Arial]Now we have this: [/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana,Arial]"Reports of torture, ill-treatment and lack of judicial process at the hands of Iraqi authorities continue. Adequate safeguards against torture and ill-treatment are not in place in Multinational Force detention facilities, and thousands continue to be held without charge or trial."[/FONT]
​

[FONT=Verdana,Arial]United Nations Assistance Mission in Iraq (UNAMI) reported in December 2006 that, [/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana,Arial]"Law enforcement agencies do not provide effective protection to the population of Iraq and increasingly militias and criminal gangs act in collusion with, or have infiltrated the security forces. Operations by security and military forces, including by MNF I, continued to result in growing numbers of individuals detained and without access to judicial oversight."[/FONT]
​

[FONT=Verdana,Arial]Indeed, let us hear the plight of Iraqi women.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana,Arial]Within days of the US troops Operation Law and Order, the "surge" plan announced by the Bush administration on January 10, two courageous Iraqi women, for the first time in the Arab and Muslim world, appeared on TV to speak about their rape by Iraqi troops. The first was 20-year-old Sabrin Al Janabi (the initial alias for Zainab Al-Shummary) and the second was Wajda, a mother of 11 from Tal a'far, the northern city. [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana,Arial]The case of Sabrin/Zainab was emblematic of the farce that is Iraqi government. When her tearful statement was aired by al-Jazeera, all media outlets rushed to describe the rape - to fit with the Anglo - American manufactured label of the bloodshed in Iraq - as Sectarian. So the BBC reported the rape saying, [/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana,Arial]"The 20-year-old married Sunni woman says she was taken from her home in Baghdad to a police station, where she was accused of helping insurgents - and then raped by three policemen."[/FONT]
​

[FONT=Verdana,Arial] Not failing to remind its listeners that, "The Baghdad police are predominantly Shia."[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana,Arial]In no time, Al Maliki - not known for his quick response to Iraqi women's plight - issued a statement calling the woman a liar and a criminal and claimed that she was not attacked; fired an official who had called for an international investigation and described the rape as a "horrific crime" and ordered rewards for the officers Zainab accused of raping her.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana,Arial]Forgetting the gang rape by US soldiers of 14-year-old Abeer Qassim al-Janabi and how the soldiers poured kerosene on the girl's body and lit her on fire in an attempt to cover up the crime, the deputy interior minister, Hussein Ali Kamal, said the allegation by Zainab was unlikely because "something like this could not happen because Iraqi forces are operating with US forces at all times." [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana,Arial]Wajda was the second victim raped by Iraqi police when they stormed into her home at the northern city of Tel Afar during Operation Law and Order. In an official statement, Brigade General Nijm Abdullah said that the attack took place during a search for weapons and insurgents. According to Abdullah, a lieutenant and three enlisted men denied the charge but later confessed after they were confronted by the woman, a Turkoman.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana,Arial]The rapes of Abeer, Zainab and Wajda are just few of many other cases documented by Iraqi human rights organisations and UNAMI. According to Mohamed Iraqi MP Al Dainey in a recent interview on Al Sharqiya TV, 1053 documented cases of rape by the occupation forces, militias and Police took place in Iraq since 2003.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana,Arial]In late December 2006, three female students from Mustansiriya University were kidnapped by militias. Despite the payment of a ransom, their bodies were found in a morgue on 22 December bearing signs of rape and torture. Official sources denied the incident but students from the University confirmed it did take place.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana,Arial]Women's basic rights are being rapidly eroded in Iraq. Where is the outcry of Ann Clwyd, who, like Tony Blair, made a very emotional speech in the House of Commons on 26 Feb 2003, to support British government's decision to launch the war? Surely being the prime minister's human rights envoy for Iraq she is aware of the United Nations Mission in Iraq (UNAMI) report which says that violence has not been contained but has continued to claim a very high number of innocent victims? During 2006, a total of 34,452 civilians have been violently killed and 36,685 wounded.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana,Arial]
[/FONT] [FONT=Verdana,Arial] [FONT=Verdana,Arial] :: Article nr. 31169 sent on 06-mar-2007 15:55 ECT
[/FONT][/FONT] [FONT=Verdana,Arial][FONT=Verdana,Arial][FONT=Verdana,Arial]www.uruknet.info?p=31169

[/FONT][/FONT][/FONT]

 

[Kreskin]

Given the situation is it reasonable to expect a women's liberation movement to hit a radar screen? I think we would be asking a lot in the middle of a conflict like this.

 

[darkbeaver]

The plight of women and children are at the center of conflict , the validity of our western radar I think
can be best judged by the appaling record of neglect in covering the story from this angle.:wave:

 

[Kreskin]

When people are getting knocked off by any number of death squads, and chaos is the disorder of the day, the chances of a friendly social order being adhered to is practically none. Do we need a writer to tell us women's rights are being violated amidst this situation? Or kid's, or men's? The SPCA is probably not having a good time either. Lets judge the situation once a reasonable amount of order is in place. The present situation won't go on forever.

 

[darkbeaver]

But that's my point Kreskin there can be no order without the women and children, they are the target
of war. The article points out that what is billed as liberation is in reality gross violation of human rights
and a bloody mess. A resonable ammount of order imposed by this occupying power will resemble
the other liberated conflict zones freed by the same power, the death squads will function for years and years till any indiginous resistance is crushed, see the salvador option see central and south America what order do they enjoy? Among the targets that must be removed are the intelligentsia, the clergy and the teachers.Those elements represent the base of the previous order and they must be removed to make room for the new, but the new looks after the interests of the invader and not the natives. So the reasonable ammount of order you mentioned is subjugation by a forign power.That externally imposed order would not be acceptable to me in Canada and it's not acceptable in Iraq either.It has no validity except force of arms.:wave:

 

[iARTthere4iam]

Seems weird to state that women and children are the target of war. The US didn't attack Iraq to kill and maim women and children, Saddam was a terrible dictator but his long lasting reign provided social stability. I agree that women and children are affected and not in any positive way. I would disagree that women and children are the target. I do believe that when social stability is lacking these groups suffer because the basic structure that provides for their safety is broken. Stability comes in many forms, in Canada we have a democratic social rule-of-law structure that provides peace and security and we are able to take the pains to ensure that we recognize civil rights, in Iraq Saddam's brutal rule provided the civil stability, anyone breaking that stability paid a hefty price because of Saddam's brutality. The structure may be different but the stability is what provides the environment for security. The chaos of Iraq is perfect for those that are trying to hide hideous actions against women.

 

[darkbeaver]

If you want to win at war you must target the domestic base, and that's women and children, bombing missions on civilian targets are most successful when the factory workers are destroyed, similarly you burn villages and rape and pillage driving the enemys base away.

Happyness lies in conquering your enemies, in driving them in front of you, in taking thier property, in savouring thier despair, in raping thier wives and daughters. Genghis Khan

Genghis had some expertise in the matter.

 

[mabudon]

ahhhh "to hear the lamentations of their women", as Conan (Ahnuld S) said in the film- was that who you were paraphrasing, Beav ???

 

[MikeyDB]

It must be remembered that the stated objective of the American invasion force was to eliminate an enormous stockpile of weapons of mass destruction. This notion that there was some altruistic intent behind the invasion is as disingenuous as pretending that destruction of the “threat” of that enormous pile of weapons of mass destruction was the actual intent.

America supplied Iraq with weapons and “intelligence” to battle the Iranians and in harmony with its own practices of chemical warfare in other nations over the past fifty years the United States had no qualms in supplying technical expertise and materiel to assist Iraq in prosecuting its war with Iran. The toxification of arable land, devastation of chemical warfare directed at Iran and the Kurds was perfectly acceptable to the United States. Just as acceptable as the death and devastation caused by economic embargoes and trade sanctions put into effect against Iran and many other nations around the world over the past fifty years…that has killed hundreds of thousands of men women and children and the on-going toxification of nations through the U.S. use of depleted uranium ordinance.

America has never despite involvement in nearly two hundred invasions… “interventions” including regime change…sponsored coups and support for “American friendly” dictatorships (Suharto, Pinochet etc.) really concerned itself with altruism…of any kind.

From Nicaragua and Haiti to any number of actions undertaken by the self-declared “world-cop”, the quality of life and the manifestation of freedom and security flowing out-of these actions has been minimal. America is about securing its control over resources and if that effort happens to involve devastation of the infrastructure of the “evil-doer’s” and support for oppressive regimes that slaughter thousands upon thousands…that’s the price the people of the United States of America are content to tolerate in pursuit of their greed.

That Canada has sent troops to Afghanistan in support of America’s petroleum wars is strong indication that Canadians as well support the wholesale slaughter of any indigenous population that stands as obstacle to the appetite Canadians entertain for emulating the consumerism of the United States of America.

Women's “rights” and the whole issue of domestic policies regarding the welfare of women and children has never been a concern or issue with the American war-machine. America’s own preparedness to practice illegal violence on it’s domestic population should tell the world that the issues of the use of chemical weapons, torture and illegal detention and kidnapping from Ruby Ridge and Waco through the Philadelphia bombings and assault on protesters at various economic “summits” are acceptable strategies internally …so no one should be surprised at America’s disdain and disregard for the Geneva Conventions and any and all other forms of law international or domestic that interfere in the corporate fervour for global control.

A recent poll conducted in twelve nations around the world indicated that the world regards Israel and the United States as the greatest threat to world peace, and cites these two nations as the engine behind terrorism and conflict throughout the world.

Does anyone really believe that the people of the United States either care about what the people of the world “thinks” about them or is concerned in the least that children and women suffer for America’s greed?

America never has and never will.

America and Americans are concerned only with their personal well-being and continued prosperity…even if that means destruction of the whole planet….

America is about death not life. America celebrates the freedom to kill and destroy long before it’s concerned with flimsy artsy-fartsy concepts like women's rights….

 

[darkbeaver]

ahhhh "to hear the lamentations of their women", as Conan (Ahnuld S) said in the film- was that who you were paraphrasing, Beav ???

Other way arround Mabudon, I think, ahnould stole the line from Ghengis.:wave: