The Bilum

Ladies and gents, I present to you the President, the Prime Minister and the National Assembly combo jumbo Mr. Zalmay Khalil Zadeh… No one will ever leap off, sneak away or take a nip out from his Bilum, and if one ever dares then it’ll fall like a Sparrow egg down a eucalyptus tree.


BC – exclusive (GZ watch):

Today Mr. Zalmay Khalil Zadeh Is considered one of the strongest 'unbidden' men on the planet. A genuine ‘Apocalypse Now’ character but with a Percy Cox flavor that sits on 115,000.00 Million Barrel of crude Oil and 3,170.00 Billion Cubic Meter of Natural Gas, and behind him one the largest and most powerful armies in the world – Jaish Al-Pentagon, to rule a nation of 25 Million people, and all is line with a UN resolution. But when he sleeps he’d probably keeps (the spy) Ms. Gertrude Bell’s memoirs under his little pillow.

Mr. Zadeh’s normal day is one hake of a drama. No laws, No rulings, No legislations, not even a trivial announcement is passed without his personal judgment and his approval, and especially in two areas; security and the reconstruction of Iraq.

In security Mr. Zadeh personally administrates, with the help of specialized six U.S. military advisors and on daily basis, the security situation (Baghdad has generally been crafted out into 6 security zones). The interior as well as the defense ministers are being briefed every other day or every 3 days of how, where, when and ‘whom’ will be at the well-indicated streets checkpoints – No loitering is allowed - and if there are concerns to be raised then they are absolutely futile. In many instances when the interior ministry acted on its own discretion the entire ministry was literally prosecuted by Mr. Zadeh. Conversely, the interior ministry syncs daily with Mr Zadeh on the outcome of the events according to a ‘check list’ and a ‘progress report’ fashioned by the U.S. military advisors.

Every main road, avenue, and major-street is monitored by the invaders authority (similar to any wireless telecom marketing schemes) and with the help of mainly 1 US & 2 UK based private security companies who hire foreigners of Middle-Easterner origins too. A lot of security breaches and streets incidents (car & road bombs, ambushes, assassinations) have gone without immediate retaliation, if ever, due to Mr. Zadeh’s ‘insightfulness’, wisdom and other logistic reasons! The invaders army can do the job any time but everyone has its fair share!

Any raids, security operations, counter –terrorism maneuvers to be taken up by the national guards or the interior ministry are solely overseen, supervised and directed by Mr. Zadeh’s team, who, also, maintains a labyrinth of well-established and ‘direct’ channels with clients range from ‘good’ Baahtists, ‘rough’ elements of Al Tayar Al Sadri, a few groups of the resistance (7 nos.), the Iranians in Baghdad and overseas! to western tribes like Albu Essa, Albu Jasim, Albu Saleh, Al-Huraimat and even with Mr. Harith Al-Dhari’s reps.!

After each parliamentary assembly and within 48 hours our PM will ‘report’ to Mr. Zadeh, holding files in hands he briefs him about the session and to receive the blessing on all that was said and must be done. In many instances Mr. Zadeh would reject and veto at point blank any parliamentary ruling and especially those related to the security situation. The recent failed plan of security (together forward with Zalmay Zadeh), which was totally blamed on our PM, was in fact stitched to the last thread knot by Mr. Zadeh’s team. The poor PM shouldn’t really be found culpable because he probably hitherto has no clue to how it was never worked out!

Mr. Zalmay Zadeh’s current place is everything Saddam or the late Edie Amin had dreamt of: a democratically elected assembly in an Oil rich country with a formidable army that is a constant threat to neighboring countries, all under his undisputed command and is well-pledged by a superpower and agreed upon by the UN.

But Baghdad still is a 3 way allocated Free Zone; 75% is US/Baathist and 25% is Sadri as well as Iranians and all are engaged in the deadly musical chair game.

Reference to the reconstruction of Iraq, Mr. Zalmay Zadeh simply loathes Mr. Ahmed Al Jalabie since the latter took a senior position in the panel for the reconstruction of Iraq (similar poles repel each other!).

The reconstruction of Iraq (100% financed by Iraqi Oil money) is 99.99% accessed, designed, resourced, and executed by American companies and Mr. Al Jalabie is not so keen on the issue, especially when it come to portions are not being ‘fairly’ distributed. (Kurdistan’s biz. barons and war lords and Al Hakim’s cartels maintain their own pall north and south respectively)

Ministries (all are sectarian inclined & oriented) are being given crumbs to do some ‘extra’ works, and in unorthodox and pathetic fashion. For instance, the Ministry of Electricity is given X money to buy an attached list of items! So in a way the ministry is turned into a local purchasing department. Of course, our ministries corruptions can reasonably be comparatively-associated with those in Liberia.


BC believes that in the end the concept remains a simple loose-stringed Bilum that nurtures, nourishes and protects those who could be fitted inside that little spatial. How long this string will hold and not give way? Still remains to be seen.

Republic of Congo

AL-Tarrar:

So this is how it looks and feels but instead in the midst of a hardware jungle.

Today everyone seemed to want to either fly away from this country or staying locked in at home forever. It’s never felt as screwed up in our enchanting hell as it is today.

People for the first time are openly and nonchalantly talking about coup d’etat and how the invaders are planning to reenact the battle of Baghdad over and over again until they’d eventually get it right! Of course, all warring parties are betting on the goose to fulfill their own goals.

BC has previously made it clear that a martial law with parliament power sharing has been thought of and championed by a few ‘advisors’ and until security is restored ‘by default’. However, this in reality has already been employed and no one seems to notice, really. Martial law is peanuts to what we see everyday. The other day my friend told me that they have diffused a side-road bomb in the neighborhood by a laser I yawned at him. And people couldn’t care less if Hitler, Churchill, Ho Chi Minh, Roosevelt or Jassim Al-Agrah is running the barn.

Our government has literally been privatized by sects and militias, and the ministries and the institutions have been subcontracted through nepotism to opportunists, stash hoarders and gangs’ concierge; and Baghdad has been partitioned into boroughs for privately contracted thieves and the rest are sect-proprieties.

NO ONE WILL EVER IMAGINE HOW IT’S LIKE OVER HERE. It is tribal economies; preferential capitalism and outdated system of capital gains; 19th century civil war land-appropriations, solid privileged elitists, and Hehela style syncretism, and those are a few to mention.

Our PM is on his way to the US, why?!

Instead he should come and leisurely walk down the Cornish of Adhamiya, window shop at the posh Mansour high streets and take his family to Um Al-A’ras for weekend getaway!!

The buzz in Al-Thawra city (Sadr)

After a short but heavy confrontation with the American forces during today’s early hours around the 7th section in Al-Thawra city, Al-Sadrs’ constituencies have been dealt with yet two more blows but this time from the Takfiris when a suicide bomber triggered himself off near a crowded market in the Jamila area at 9:15 am and a bit later an explosive went off near a municipality office (total 50 nos. killed)

Al Tayar Al Sadri echoed their constituencies’ angry thoughts and they believe that there are three obstacles hurdling the way of the national reconciliation, which are the Saddamists, the Takfiris and the invaders who all share the same goals:

1. to remain in power.
2. disrespect for holly shrines.
3. violent crimes against civilians and unethical prisoners interrogations.
4. eternal hatreds towards neighboring countries.
5. similar expansionist ideologies, and
6. the eradication of Al Tayar Al Sadri

The majority of people in the city deem that the suicide bombers are being let into their area by ‘slipping’ through checkpoints, and that shows that there are elements in the national guards who are working closely with the Takfiris.


Of course, Al Tayar Al Sadri wasn’t making any comparison with its own scope of work because the argument would have had major black holes!

BC Headlines … from our humble democracy

1. The followers of Estan Hwair (the ex-head of the US- backed Sunni militia) blamed Iranian agents for his murder in Ameriyat AL Fallujha.

2. Streets Streaks - eyewitness
Adhamiya has turned into a ghost district. You hardly find anyone apart from Jaish Al Adhmiya in the streets with or without the curfew. The shops are open for less than two hours a day.

3. Streets Streaks - eyewitness
Abu Der’ra has been in the shade in Al-Thawra city (Sadr) for the past week!

4. Streets Streak (eyewitness)
On a cheerful note, Bab Al-Mu’dam and Al Fadhal districts have celebrated the ‘back to harmony’ after 3 weeks of vicious cycle of political violence that claimed 95 lives. People celebrated on drums rhythm!

5. Streets Streaks (eyewitness)
Al Sulaik area is another autonomous ‘Fort District’ in Baghdad where an own homegrown army protects its boundaries.

6. According to the health ministry on average 54 nos./day are the political violence-related deaths in Baghdad alone for the month of July whereas 50 nos./day in June, but the morgue has received 1000 nos. during the last 18 days!

7. Mr. Al Hashimi’s (vice president) guards have been accused of trying to free a Takfiri from a hospital where he was being treated for a shot wound.

8. The Minister of Culture has been accused of waging sectarian war against the Shiites, again!

9. A few fear that Mr. Al Malaki’s anticipated trip to Washington might bring unanticipated surprises for the PM!

10. Al Tayar Al Sadri says that Abu Al-Bussam area has been under attack by Saddamists for a few weeks and now it's the invaders’ turn in killing innocent people there.

11. The unemployment has reached a level at which the entire active population could be considered without jobs


….. And so far this is as good as it gets!

Coup d'état

Deep throat:

Mr. Alawi and Mr. Al Mutlaq have been pushing the invader’s authority to give the green light for a Coup d'état. The parliament would be dissolved and a Martial Law will be introduced to curb the out-of-control violence in the country.

A moment of reflection

Today there is a true chance for a moment of contemplation for both the Lebanese and Israelis to draw back from their hardware, just for brief moments, and look at the bigger picture. They are the only two true democratic systems in the middle-east yet are engaged in a war!

I have been, all along, waiting for both the US Congress and Bin laden (Takfiris) to pass their judgment on the current conflict, and as expected the former approved the war and the latter has simply disappeared from the scene in the fight against the evil of all times, Israel (Perhaps his taped voice will emerge later from the hidden mountains!)

Today’s war is between two democratic countries that both cherished their political systems for years. And the warring parties at both sides are well represented in their home parliaments. Yet this same war is part of the ongoing remapping plan of the middles-east by the US, which shows that the plan is not about democratization process but rather acculturation of the worst kind – the war machine kind.

We have come to see that the US and a few men in Europe have teamed up with dictatorships in the region – Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Egypt for a proxy war against Syria (another dictatorship) and Iran by means of which the damaging of true democratic systems (a lesson for Mr. Al-Malaki & the Iraqis), which is in reality a wicked act that shows lack of ethics or principles and any respect to democracies.

This is an opportunity not to be missed for both warring parties to look into their own internal affairs instead of relying on global myths and phony Shamanization. Perhaps it is time for Israel to refrain from the purification war of the dead David Ben-Gurion against the Palestinians, and begin to establish infrastructure of trades with their future neighbors instead of slipping into the inflationary trade of cults and armaments, which will further drag them into the abyss. And for the Lebanese to invest in their own people – as they truly can, rather than worrying about Al Saud’s interest rates fluctuations, or Mr. Al-Assad’s bad moods. The Lebanese should realize that their country is the only true democratic Arabic country in the region and they must keep it so.

This post-Victorian trauma, which is quite evident in the character of the flaky, moustache-stricken Mr. Bolton of the USA, is a demonstration of a true broken vision of both the Bush Admin and the Democrats for the region, and an illustration of illiterate – philosophies, and obsolete Segmentary tribal mentalities towards the people of the middle –east.

Jaish Al-Adahmiya marks the beginning of ‘Coerced Federation’

BC Exclusive – Security Source:

Streets Streaks (Eyewitness):


Jaish AL-Adhamiya has become a full-fledged army and an irreversible reality.

The US has finally given the blessing for the Sunnis to heed for their religious leaders’ call of last week and form Al-Adhmiya Army.

Recruiting began yesterday and until this very hour where men in Adhamiya have been called upon to enlist for the official army, and to arm-guard their positions near their homes or else risk their houses getting burned down!

Alhurra-Iraq TV satellite channel confirms Hai AL Jihad killings

BC-

Alhurra-Iraq TV satellite channel has confirmed BC news regarding Hai Al-Jihad crime. The TV reported that 14 Shiites were amongst the victims.

Estan Hwair is dead

He was the head of the US-backed Sunni militia (previously anti-US resistance) who got killed by implanted car bomb in Ameriyat Al Fallujah two days ago.

Mr. Estan Hwair was from Albu Essa tribe of Al-Dulaim. Albu Essa is considered one of the elite western tribes and a higher clan in the segmentary tribal castes. During the rule of Saddam Albu Essa had looked at Saddam’s affiliate tribes as fairly lower kinship-linage in the social order. Albu Essa is considered somewhat a liberal tribe in terms of social conducts and, also, amongst pre-2003 Baahtists.

BC has previously reported that the invaders have tied efforts with certain Sunni resistance to combat other militias and especially the Takfiris. Albu Essa has been engaged along with two other tribes in fierce city combats with armed forces in Fallujha and have sustained heavy loses. The US forces had previously pulled out of the city in its entirety to leave the field open for the Iraqis to fight it out. However, today, and on the light of Mr. Hwair death, the US forces have returned back into their pervious posts in the Fallujah city.

Mr. Estan Hwair's funeral was attacked with mortars and the national guards had engaged in fierce fighting with armed men during the procession.

Mainstream media fuels the fury

BC -

Following up on our report about Hai Al Jihad killings, BC has further investigated how the sectarian crime related deaths are being reported and the findings are startling.

The responsible people at the Forensic Division in Baghdad say that when any killings take place and corpses start to come in, many bodies would be without any identifications and/or heads attached. And they add that they don’t have the slightest idea about the victims' sectarian affiliations!

Furthermore, the media simply ‘assumes or believes’ that the dead are either Shiites or Sunnis depending on the area where the crime is being reported!, and, also, on the few identifications (names) found on some corpses including those without heads! Bear in mind, sectarian names in Baghdad are quite hypothetical. For instance, BC knows a Sunni family of 6 nos. with what is considered Shiite names.

Another example, if the bodies had turned up headless in Sunni areas, then it is ‘reckoned’ that they are of Shiites because this would be a Takfiri style murder. So if the Takfiris (supposedly Takifirs!) decided to compliment the killings just to jack up the numbers, then who would be able to confirm if those who got hacked were all Shiites?

In other words any Sunni or Shiite gets killed and end up unidentified headless body in a Sunni area would be considered a Shiite!!

DNA testing is not implemented yet and especially for those hundreds of unknown headless dead bodies who are being sent to Nejef every week for mass burying: How we would know that those dead bodies are solely of Shiites?!

Only the media reports the killings! And the government as well as the invaders ‘do the body count’ from the GZ.

It seems that the killers have been relying on the mainstream media to report the crimes based on people/faction/area (thanks to the constitution), which helped the crafting out of today’s Baghdad demography of faction/area, and further helped the perpetrators to forge their goals.

When People lose their loved ones no one can ever imagine how chaotic and sickening the situation becomes. As people disappear their families commence searching first with the police, then later at prisons and if they don't find them they start going to the Forensic Division everyday and for weeks on the hope that their loved ones will turn up in one piece and eventually put to rest in peace, however, many bodies (Shiites and Sunnis) will never show up and will be listed as missing!

At the Forensic Division the ambience is terrifyingly pathetic. No one knows what, who, where and why. Many men and women waiting there searching for fathers, sons, and brothers. People stand outside the gate every morning waiting for new fresh bodies. A lot times the authorities leave the bodies outside because there aren’t enough places to keep them in. It is a hellish ordeal


BC wonders why when Mr. Bush slipped into Iraq he did not have the time to stop over at the Forensic Division on his way to his PR photo session with the PM?!

Hai Al-Jihad death wasn't uni-sectarian!

BC - Exclusive:

BC has investigated Hai Al-Jihad massacre of 40 Sunnis by supposedly Shiite militias and it turned out that the armed militias have targeted both Sunnis and Shiites, as there were Shiites amongst the dead of whom they were never reported of in the news.

A group of Shiites – workers for local contracting company, of whom BC knew in person, who were on the scene during the crime act, were pulled out of their vehicles and executed based on their sectarian affiliation! The Shiite survivor could not come forward and talk bout it fearing for its live.

Iraq is being driven into a civil war, and the indicators are showing that ‘all’ those who are involved are preparatory factors for the looming war.

Biden Meinhof

BC -

As Senator J. Biden is still working on his scrabbles, he managed to toss in yet another letter, an i, to complete an anagram and gain a bigger score, which in reality portrays the word of mouth coming from the mainstream America of the puny morass world of Iraq.

It doesn’t come as a surprise for BC to know that Mr. Biden has recently made it clear to Mr. Zalmay Khalilzadeh that Mr. Al-Malaki’s short-sighted plan for national reconciliations is doom to fail unless Mr. Al-Malaki speaks directly with the Sunnis armed forces and, simultaneously, the US would make sure that the Shiite militias brought down to their knees.

The strange thing is that the Bush Admin is quite silent about Mr. Biden’s recent effort in his on-going scrabbles game, and what it is becoming clear that Mr. Biden’s ‘i’ letter fits the anagram perfectly: Sunn(i)-Sh(i)ite c(i)vil war.

Perhaps Mr. Biden would like to see it done and over with before 2008 so the next Democrats presidential candidate wouldn’t have to inherent a burden but, mind you, he/she might swallow the Republicans’ poisonous bait of ‘national security & war on terror’ and to steal the show for another 4 years!

Oil Watch

CRUDE OIL @ USD 78.00/Barrel

The Plan

BC has acquired a copy of the plan (allegedly acquired by an infiltrator!) that the Prime Minister spoke of yesterday in the parliament, in which it details the conquering of west of Baghdad by armed forces. The Plan and the PM’s speech have apparently fueled an arms race amongst the warring parties as they are seemingly embracing for a full scale civil war.

The plan, which calls for US cooperation, is even more comprehensive to explicitly talks about the burning of entire areas like Al Thawra and Al Shoula as well as Al Ghazaliya. It points out the precise methods of using fuel trucks, bomb-stuffed live stocks and incognito cleaning workers; conventional weapons, assassinations (in names and titles) and incrimination methodologies. Also, it details some extraordinary ways of handling the vital areas and the different situations in Baghdad and Nejef.

TV stations, major mosques and schools, bridges and roads (in names and vivid details) are to be controlled and some others to be bombed in order to isolate civilians who will be coerced into fleeing to their affiliated sectarian areas, and some others must be killed at all costs!

The PM vowed to crush such plan, which in turn escalated the intensity amongst the political power hubs.

AL-Thawra city (Sadr) update

The city is in high alert. Young men have been called upon and told to take up arms to defend the city from “American and Saddamist forces”!!

Sadrist high-ranking officials think that Abu Der’ra will be a pretext for a Fallujah style genocide.

NEWS FLASH

BC -

A source close to the resistance has confirmed to BC that an agreement has already been reached between the resistance and three battalions of the National Guards as well as a regiment of the American forces to give a major blow to the militias!!

BC couldn’t verify yet the info.

Iraq Kurdistan resident visa for Iraqis

BC-

The autonomous government of Iraq Kurdistan passed a law that stipulates a sponsorship resident visa for all non-Kurds Iraqis when residing in north of Iraq, the Iraq Kurdistan!

WANTED! - update

The picture of Abu Der’ra – a Jaish Al-Mahdi renegade and one of the most dangerous men in Baghdad - was posted today, but BC believes this picture is of his assistant Sheik Ammar.

Update 9-7-06 :

BC confirms that the above picture is not of Abu Der’ra as mentioned here

Also, the info brought up in the same link is not quite accurate.

Witchcraft Phlegm

BC - Analysis:

During the invasion of the Soviet Union of Afghanistan in the early 80s the US & Saudi financed Takfiris and Salafis had terrorized Kabul with suicide bombers, and hijacking and killing innocent people by chopping their heads off and dumping them on secluded roads. They, also, waged one of the most brutal and nasty bombing campaigns and political assassinations in the history of Afghanistan. Then the free world media did not cover these medieval crimes, and if Al Jazeera & FOX satellite news existed at that time then they would have probably quoted the Reagan Admin by referring to those murderers Takfiris and Salafis as Freedom Fighters.

Perhaps the cold war then was much important in terms of ideological values and capital gains than to pay attention to the tens of acid-burnt women faces, and to a few hundreds of headless, blue-colored and rotten bodies found dumped in some third world country’s roads, a country, which, after all, is inhabited by lower caste of the world social order!

After the fall of Kabul in the hands of the ‘Takfiri liberators’ came the rise of the US-backed Hekmatyar while, simultaneously, the crimes of the Islamic fundamentalists were making headlines for the first time in the free world.

In today’s Iraq the US has finally given in (instead of loser denial) to their fate in this grim history re-visited, and realized that to live with a Hekmatyar rule, after all, can’t be that bad as they had already catered to it before, and, also, can’t be hard to achieve if the existing blue prints are to be slightly modified.

The current US admin have recognized that the Baathists and the western tribes were born, raised and staying in Iraq. And if they have lost the battle of 2003 then they are far from losing any war here. So why not the US bet on those who can deal with and control these neo-Takfiris than swinging the cradle of those whose main crying agony is for some history figure that died in the seventh AD?

Ideologically the Baath is a secular party (mainly from western tribes), and right after the fall of Baghdad they decided to hit anyone that could avenge their previous viciousness to include Iraqis of all walks of life (Sunnis and Shiites) and specially those suspected to be cooperating with the new government(s). And as the conflict equation was transformed into a sectarian struggle of Sunni-Shiite (unlike Baathist - non Baathist) the Baathists or Saddamists as referred to today, have eventually encouraged links with fanatic Islamists and Takfiri groups (similar to the US policy in Afghanistan in the 80s), whose primary ideological goal is the eradication of the invaders and, this time, the Shiites too.

In their private meetings the Baathists insist on the necessity to keep the situation as chaotic and unstable as possible because they deem that this is the best way (a fire wall) to defend themselves and to stay safe, which proved to be working.

What is taking place in Baghdad today is the beginning of Baghdad beyond the US physical presence. The Baathists have divided the city into sectors and mainly east and west (professionals and vocationals). Head of each city division is responsible for executing the plans that are set by the Baath party leaders, and the objective is the annihilation of the Shiite working and elite classes in the Sunni stronghold, from carpenters (45 nos killed), Bakers (100 nos killed), to Doctors (more than 30 killed), professors & educators (more than 600 nos. killed), and the well-crafted list, also, includes engineers, judges, school principals, and public servants and even icemen and butchers!

During the mentioned process severe civic codes are being implemented as a display of fear in terms of strict attires and looks for young women and men, prohibition of music and alcohol etc. (the Baathists had already practiced these strict rules 1972 thru 74)

The plan is set to target an increase in population of 65% Sunnis in Baghdad and later in Iraq within 25 years – when Mr. Bush, Mr. Cheney and Mr. Rumsfeld are probably dead. It is shear madness; however, this constitution-driven ambitious plan can be a way out for the US Admin if the cards are played right.

The Bush Admin’s main worries are Iran, The Takfiris, The resistance and, of course, the Democrats.

The scenario is if a strict Hekmatyar style regime (totally anti Iranians) with a number of parliamentary seats could control the Takfiris, and become a negotiating mouthpiece for the resistance, and, also, could restore the stability and security back, then there is absolutely no qualms in defeating the Democrats in every major election there is.

Also, the Takfiris can always come handy to be unleashed to castigate those naughty Shiites who either work behind doors with the Iranians, or run counter-gangs operations.

But first the invaders must fairly restrain the Solaghite death squads, assail Mr. Al-Sadr’s power and perhaps exterminate him, and negotiate with the curmudgeon Mr. Al Hakim. As for the Kurds, the wife of Darius – the emperor of old Persia, once said: the Kurds’ best friend is the mountain.

The trend has already started in other provinces. The US forces have all of the sudden pulled out of Fallujah! And there is a major battle taking place in Ameriyat Al Fallujah between the elite tribes of Albu Essa and the Takfiris (will brief our readers later).

This 'Nero' reality is underway and has already been institutionalized. The world community should understand that there will be a day when a Saddam alter ego is democratically elected in power. Ample similar examples are found today in central Asia.

Al-Thawra city (Sadr) update

Telecon. – Eyewitness:

Abu Der’ra has been apprehended and is in government custody.

Eminent Domain a la carte

BC -

It is infuriating, exasperating and sickening feeling that the Iraqis go through each time they find out that those who had been are being simply replaced with those who want to be, and without any commitment to a real change.

Just like the old ways when the government of Saddam used to confiscate lands off of the unwanted and sell them cheap to preferential clients, the current political power hubs are trying very hard to emulate and even outwit the past.

As if it’s not enough that the GZ was a Saddam’s ex-stronghold, and the houses that have been occupied by Saddam’s clients are replaced with those of the current political figures, of whom some have not paid a single Dinar for the rightful owners during the past three years (especially those houses in the posh El-Emirat Street of Al Mansour District) Now we have the trend extended to the other provinces.

Below, is a deed dated March 22, 2005 that illustrates the selling of a prime property in Nejef to Mr. Al-Hakim by the government, when Mr. Adel Abdul Mahdi was the finance minister, at 1% the actual market price per square Meter! And what is maddening is that the land was used by the Baath party!! which either means that there are rightful owners to the land, or the land belongs to the people and should not be disposed of until a new law is passed by the parliament regarding the Baath party previous property laws.





I guess those who abide by institutional segmentary constitutions and cultures are brutish and static, and only ‘gifts’ and give-away can liberate them from their follies.

Kuwait parliamentary elections: NO women & NO Oil, just dry well of cargo cults

Al Tarrar:

The first women participation in Kuwait parliamentary elections has certainly drawn much publicity and disappointment as women have failed to secure a single seat in the parliament.

However, and far from the frivolous women emancipation movement, Kuwait’s opposition alliance of mostly Islamic fundamentalists, ‘liberals!’ and nationalists, which swept to victory in the parliamentary elections on June 30th, are quite busy in pertinent issues in hands, such as rejecting the government plan to raise oil production capacity in the light of reports that the country’s reserves are half the official figure!

The international Oil newsletter Petroleum Intelligence Weekly (PIW) reported in January that proven reserves were only 24 billion barrels (down from approx. 99 billion barrels) and the rest were probable reserves that include those in the eternal disputed borders with Iraq.

I remember back in fall 1990 when a Baathist capitalist had praised Saddam’s government for having invaded Kuwait, and he said to me “(Kuwait’s) royal families are living in 5 stars hotels in Paris and London and their country is falling in the hands of the gays and Islamists – referring to Kuwait’s democratic process at that time, and just before Saddam rampaged their country.

The news of Kuwait’s trickling Oil reserves, which was kept in the dark for 16 years - thanks to Saddam’s invasion! – comes in parallel with Iraq is back to full Oil production, when not long ago the Oil pipelines were being constantly sabotaged by the ‘resistance’ to stop the looting of our resources. In our country the Oil pipelines, since the dawn of Oil production and until today, are protected by tribes and for some reason it just happened that these tribes are back in good shape to get a good grip to securing those Oil pipelines!

I guess the PM’s limited amnesty plan comes with its valid incentives … How silly of me, how could I think otherwise? But I wonder what if Al-Thawra city (Sadr) had an Oil pipeline extended underneath?! Perhaps then Abu Der’ra would be busy protecting rather than destructing! And in this wonderful deregulated economy, I won’t be surprised that those heroic tribes may soon become Oil protectors that’d work closely with global conglomerates like Halliburton and Chevron to save the free world economies from ruins.

Well, back to the main topic, alas for the Kuwaiti women, I really hope that one day they will be able to win parliamentary seats and even become a majority…perhaps when the Oil runs out. Come to think of it, it’s not a bad idea.

Stay Course

1968


2006

Douri in Eden

BC -

News came through an Iraqi source that Mr. Izzat Al-Douri is in Yemen for some times where he is undergoing a chemotherapy treatment.

Karagoz

A little over one week ago three buses carrying workers - of majority Shiites - were hijacked; one was carrying workers from Thawra city (Sadr), the second from Sho'ula city and the third from Hurriya city. The hijackers murdered all the Shiite workers (based on names and identifications) and spared the Sunni workers. Since this event took place Abu der’ra of Thawra city and his gang commenced making raids on Sunni areas like Al-Fadhal and the New Sulaikh, where he captured Sunni men and either killed them or bartered them with missing Shiites (dead or alive) who were either captured or killed by Sunnis of the Ramadi gangs.

Another event took place 3 days ago when one of the Baghdad- Amman drivers (Shiite) was pulled out of his car by a gang in front of his Sunni woman passenger, and was shot to death while was being called a ‘Shiite dog’, and the gang took the driver’s car away. Later the passenger reported the incident to the driver’s family in Thawra city, and Abu Der’ra made the necessary contacts with a Ramadi gang and asked them to return the ‘favor’ as Abu der’ra had once bartered one of their gangsters alive! The Ramadi gang confirmed that the driver’s corpse will be returned but without the car.

Neither these sordid puppetry stories commenced by opening a Pandora’s Box in 2003 nor they started when the Baath party of Al Baker & Saddam took control in 1968. This may go farther back: "I do not understand the squeamishness about the use of gas. I am strongly in favor of using poison gas against uncivilized tribes!"- Churchill speaking of the Iraqi civilian population.

The Baath party advanced to power at the peak of the Cold War, when the party took the advantage of the fertile progressive thinking of the Iraqi society and its intellectuals at that time, and appealed to the masses through the implementation of scientific socialism (equality), unity and freedom of thoughts from the imperialist forces of the USA who helped Israel in the seven days war of 1967, however, the real play had merely had an intermission to change the Karagoz costumes. And this time the Soviet Union was to accommodate our social derive for progress that quenched our thirst for wonderful social movements like women liberation, the eradication of illiteracy, the continuation of urban planning, free health care and education and many more in return for supplying us with a gigantic arsenal and military hardware! Conversely, the Baath party had strengthened its grip to power through nepotism and fear display, which in reality shows that the party couldn’t care less about our social cohesiveness and progression. And the achievements made then were the fruits of the Iraqis who truly believed in great ideas.

In the early 70s the Baath party committed public crimes under the guardianship of the Soviet Union similar to the public crimes Pinochet of Chile committed under the guardianship of the USA, and it was all part of the same global theater. And the examples are numerous. However, progression means evolution and evolution means new men/women in power, and that, of course, was never on the Baath agenda, which meant it was time to shift course, and as the Soviet once told the late president Nasser of Egypt that the Arabs take off with the Russians and land with the Americans.

In 1977 the progressive thinkers in Iraq were unmercifully dealt with and most were coerced into exile including the progressive Kurds. And the Iraqis, all of the sudden, were faced with the bare and grim reality of returning to tribal mentality and stone-age capitalism instead of picking the fruits of social development and moving into free market economy. And in three years we found ourselves entangled in a war with America’s number one enemy, the ‘fire-worshipers’ of Persia!!

As once said there is no new wave but only the sea. And that goes for the super powers and their seasonal séance trance and theatrical performances. Whether the USSR invaded Afghanistan or the USA invaded Iraq. Whether Bin Laden is a freedom fighter in 1985 or a world terrorist in 2001, whether there is a tyrant Shah or a tyrant Mulla; whether Algeria, Libya and Saudi Arabia are good Muslim countries and Sudan, Palestine and Syria are not; whether Kyrgyzstan is an independent democracy and Lebanon is not, in the end it’s all part of the same Karagoz.

Gangsters of Al-Thawar city and Al Ramadi, or the pro-government gangs of Soulagh are simply a momentary lapse of reasoning in the puppetry story similar to what happened in Rwanda, East Timor, the Balkans, Liberia etc. and their anecdote scenes are being watched with ridicule and satiric by the elite audience, but soon it will be over when the costumes for the new Karagoz get prepared as the show must go on.