mercredi 6 mai 2009

US soldiers proselytizing in Iraq and Afghanistan (video)

US soldiers' Bible group in Afghanistan - 05 May 09

Extended footage shot by Brian Hughes, a US documentary maker and former member of the US military who spent several days in Bagram near Kabul.

The material, which appears to show the Christian soldiers apparently discussing the conversion of Afghans, was obtained by Al Jazeera's Bays, who has covered Afghanistan extensively.



To watch the video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MbJ63Y4R0dA

Human Rights Violations in Northern Iraq

Who Will Say “Stop” to the Human Rights Violations in Northern Iraq?

Khanzad Barwari


21 April 2009,

The USA Department of State has recently issued World Report of Human Rights Violations in 2008. This report included widely the human rights violations in the Kurdish regional administration as well. Hence, it is revealed out once again that this region, which has been presented as "the most secure, democratic and respectful to the human rights", is in fact the area of humanity crimes.

In the part of "Illegal Arrests and Deaths" of this report, it is stated that an innocent young person of 15 years old was killed by the police in July 2008 in the village of Sreshma of Khalifan district; the officials of non-governmental organizations in the region have been prevented from visiting the prisons; torture has been done in the prisons although it is banned by law, and even the methods of torture by electricity and cold water, which causes little scars on the body, have been used. It is claimed that more than 107 people have been tortured in the prisons of the region, but the real number is more than this one as the concerned authorities are not able to pay visits to the prisons.

In the part of "Violation of Press and Political Freedoms", it is indicated that most of the newspapers and magazines have been serving to the ruling parties of KDP and PUK; especially the journalists who criticize the government have been threatened in the Kurdish region -for example Jalal Talabani filed Hawlati newspaper on January 26, 2008 because of its criticisms against himself. It is also indicated that the report of the Union of Journalists also stated that the law enforcement bodies have been using force against the journalists, and the journalist Sharzad Sheykhani has been kept arrested for one month due to the disagreement between himself and the governor of Irbil.

According to the report, there are also efforts to hinder the political freedoms; while there is legal freedom of forming organizations and holding marches in the Kurdish region, these freedoms are violated; the KDP and PUK have been exerting pressure on the citizens in order to make them member of their party; the trade, contractor works and tenders in the region are under the control of the KDP and PUK and the political and economic affairs are conducted through the kinship relations.

In the part of "Racial Discrimination and Human Trafficking", there are also some surprising findings. The report states that chastity murders are very widespread in the Kurdish region. In the period of January-July 2008, 77 women were victims of chastity murders and 211 women of self-immolation. In the period of January-November 2008, 154 women were killed in Irbil. The people in the region are not unfamiliar to the mores murders. In the year of 2007, 528 women were also died due to the same reason. The non-governmental organizations indicate that these numbers are higher than the stated ones and the real number of the cases are concealed by the Kurdish authorities.

This kind of reports reveal, in fact, the real face of the KDP and PUK which claim the leadership of the Kurds, and use all the means of the region to their own benefits and exert any kind of pressure and violence to this aim. Even though the Kurdish regional administration denies these claims, there is a need that the world public opinion and concerned organizations give ear to the voice of the people in the region.

By/ khanzad Barwari
kerkuk.net /özel

mardi 5 mai 2009

Mulla 'Uthman al-Musili (Musullu Hafız Şaşı Osman Efendi)

http://iraqimaqam.blogspot.com

Hijaz Gazel - Mulla 'Uthman al-Musili
Iraqi Maqam المقام العراقي
Hijaz Ghazel (Hicâz Gazel) Mulla 'Uthman al-Musili (Musullu Hafız Şaşı Osman Efendi) c. 1920, Istanbul, Turkey.

Rare recording of Iraqi musician, Sufi icon, and maqam reader Mulla 'Uthman al-Musili (1854-1923) singing a Turkish gazel in Maqam Hijaz, recorded in Istanbul, c. 1920.

تسجيل قديم و نادر للملا عثمان الموصلي يغني غزل بالتركية على نغم مقام حجاز، تسجيل أسطوانة من اسطنبول سنة ١٩٢٠

Mulla 'Uthman al-Mawsili: blind prodigy, talented poet and composer, Quran recitor and protégé of the great Sufi master Abu-l Huda al-Sayyadi al-Rifa'i and the Ottoman Sultan 'Abdul-Hamid II.

He learned the art of Maqam al-'Iraqi from the greatest Baghdadi musicians at the time, the famed Turkmen virtuoso Rahmat Allah Shiltegh (1798-1872), Hajj Abdullah al-Kirkukli, and Amin Agha ibn al-Hamamchiyya.

He composed dozens of profane and religious songs that can be heard throughout the Arabic and Islamic world; many of these compositions and songs were later unjustly attributed to his students or labeled as "folklore").

Please click on the link below
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJOx3OdvYEA

dimanche 3 mai 2009

Sayin Ersat Hurmuzlu on Al-Arabiya TV

Bugun Saat 10.30 Irak vaktile Al-Arabiya Telvizyonu panorama programina, Sayin Ersat Hurmuzlu'ile yeni kabine degisikligi hakinda bilgi verecek. ilgilere duyurulur.

Saygilar, Afsin Hurmuzlu

Les Espions de l'Or Noir, par Gilles Munier


Envoi de "Les espions de l'or noir", dédicacé par l’auteur
France: chèque de 29 euros (22, 40 + 6,10 de port en enveloppe spéciale)
à l’ordre de : AFI - 7, rue de Sarzeau - 35700 Rennes
(tarif sur demande pour les envois à l'étranger)

Table des matières, commentaires et questions posées à l’auteur sur : http://espions-or.noir.over-blog.com/

samedi 2 mai 2009

Obama's Iraq - The Picture of Dorian Gray

April 28, 2009
The Picture of Dorian Gray
Obama's Iraq
By JEREMY SCAHILL
http://www.counterpunch.org/scahill04282009.html

Remember when Barack Obama made that big announcement at Camp Lejeune about how all US combat troops were going to be withdrawn from Iraqi cities by June 30? Liberals jumped around with joy, praising Obama for ending the war so that they could focus on their “good war” in Afghanistan.

Of course, the celebrations were and remain unwarranted. Obama’s Iraq plan is virtually identical to the one on Bush’s table on January 19, 2009. Obama has just rebranded the occupation, sold it to liberals and dropped the term “Global War on Terror” while, for all practical purposes, continuing the Bush era policy (that’s why leading Republicans praised Obama’s plan). In the real world, US military commanders have said they are preparing for an Iraq presence for another 15-20 years, the US embassy is the size of Vatican City, there is no official plan for the withdrawal of contractors and new corporate mercenary contracts are being awarded. The SOFA Agreement between the US and Iraq gives the US the right to extend the occupation indefinitely and to continue intervening militarily in Iraq ad infinitum. All it takes is for the puppets in Baghdad to ask nicely…

In the latest episode of the “Occupation Rebranded” mini-series, President Obama is preparing to scrap the June 30 withdrawal timeline.

As The New York Times reports: “The United States and Iraq will begin negotiating possible exceptions to the June 30 deadline for withdrawing American combat troops from Iraqi cities, focusing on the troubled northern city of Mosul, according to military officials. Some parts of Baghdad also will still have combat troops.”

According to the Times, the US is playing with the definition of the word “city” when speaking of withdrawing combat troops from all cities:
There are no plans to close the Camp Victory base complex, consisting of five bases housing more than 20,000 soldiers, many of them combat troops. Although Victory is only a 15 minute drive from the center of Baghdad and sprawls over both sides of the city’s boundary, Iraqi officials say they have agreed to consider it outside the city.

In addition, Forward Operating Base Falcon, which can hold 5,000 combat troops, will also remain after June 30. It is just within Baghdad’s southern city limits. Again, Iraqi officials have classified it as effectively outside Baghdad, so no exception to the agreement needs to be granted, in their view.

Combat troops with the Seventh Field Artillery Regiment will remain in the heart of Baghdad at Camp Prosperity, located near the new American Embassy compound in the Green Zone. In addition to providing a quick reaction force, guarding the embassy and noncombat troops from attack, those soldiers will also continue to support Iraqi troops who are now in nominal charge of maintaining security in the Green Zone.

Camp Victory is of tremendous strategic importance to the US occupation. In addition to the military’s share of Baghdad International Airport, it includes four bases—Victory, Liberty, Striker and Slayer—as well as the US-run prison “Camp Cropper.” That’s where the US keeps its “high value” prisoners. While the US officially handed control of Forward Operating Base Freedom to “Iraqi control,” the US military is keeping the swimming pool.

Meanwhile, future plans are being laid for other US bases. Camp Prosperity is going to house US contractors and other personnel, while at Camp Union III housing is being built for several thousand soldiers, trainers and advisers.
What is abundantly clear is that there are enough cosmetic changes going on in Baghdad intended to make it look like the occupation is ending, while continuing it. Again, from the Times:

The Green Zone was handed over to Iraqi control Jan. 1, when the agreement went into effect. In addition to the United States-Iraqi patrols, most of the security for the Green Zone’s many checkpoints and heavily guarded entry points is still done by the same private contractors who did it prior to Jan. 1.
“What you’re seeing is not a change in the numbers, it’s a doctrine change,” said First Sgt. David Moore, a New Jersey National Guardsman with the Joint Area Support Group, which runs the Green Zone. “You’re still going to have fighters. Every U.S. soldier is trained to fight.”

The Iraq occupation is like The Picture of Dorian Gray. No matter what public face the Obama administration attempts to present, it only grows more heinous with each passing day.

Jeremy Scahill, an independent journalist who reports frequently for the national radio and TV program Democracy Now, has spent extensive time reporting from Iraq and Yugoslavia. He is currently a Puffin Writing Fellow at The Nation Institute. Scahill is the author of Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army.His new website is RebelReports.com

vendredi 1 mai 2009

Kurdish security forces arbitrarily detain, torture people, Amnesty International says

14 April 2009

Rights report cites abuses in Kurdish Iraq

Kurdish security forces arbitrarily detain, torture people, Amnesty International says
Government has made progress in human rights, but problems remain, agency says
Honor killings, other attacks on women need to end, it says
Journalists have been detained, beaten and harassed by security forces, report says


(CNN) -- The Kurdish region of Iraq has seen gains in human rights, but security forces "regularly abuse their authority" and women continue to be targets of violence, Amnesty International said Tuesday.

The international human rights group drew the conclusions in a report titled "Hope and Fear, Human Rights in Kurdistan Region of Iraq."

Amnesty International report on Kurdistan region (PDF)

The Kurdish region has been an island of relative stability during the Iraq war, and the report said it has "witnessed growing prosperity" and has made progress in human rights. But serious problems remain, Amnesty said.
Asayish forces, as the local security forces are called, arrested and arbitrarily detained people, "including some who were tortured or forcibly disappeared and whose fate and whereabouts remain unknown," the report said.

The report said the torture included electric shocks, sleep deprivation, kicking, suspension by the wrists and ankles, and beatings with fists, cables and batons.
Malcolm Smart, Amnesty's director of the Middle East and North Africa Programme, said the Kurdistan Regional Government "must take concrete steps to rein in these forces and make them fully accountable under the law if recent human rights gains are to prove effective."

Amnesty said that Kurdish authorities have also failed to control the security wings of the Kurdistan Democratic Party and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, the two major Kurdish political movements that make up the regional government.

The report, based on research from a fact-finding mission last year, said the Kurdistan Regional Government has made progress in human rights, citing, for example, the release of political prisoners detained without charges or trial.

It also cites legislation expanding freedom of expression and measures that strengthen women's rights, and said several agencies are working to monitor and prevent violence against women.

But Smart said problems such as "arbitrary detention and torture, attacks on journalists and freedom of expression, and violence against women" haven't ended and "need urgently to be addressed by the government."

As for abuse against women, authorities must "redouble their efforts to overcome discrimination and violence against women," he said, "and end the vicious cycle of so-called honor killings and other attacks on women by men who wish to subordinate them."

According to official records, the report said, at least 102 women and girls were killed between the beginning of July 2007 and the end of June 2008 in the region.

"These include an unknown number of 'honor killings' -- women who were killed by male relatives because their behavior was considered to have infringed traditional codes of 'honor.' Victims of 'honor crimes' include women who have objected to being forcibly married as well as women who were found having telephone contact with a man without approval of their family," the report said.
The report said 262 women and children "died or were severely injured in the same period due to intentional burning, including suicides. Some women were reported to have been burned to disguise a killing."

The report cites one woman who was strangled to death apparently by her brother "because of her suspected relationship with another man." A 17-year-old female "was shot dead after she sought a divorce from her husband." A 13-year-old girl burned herself to death "to escape forcible marriage to an adult man."

"Such cases show how much more still needs to be done by the KRG authorities to give women and girls effective protection against violence from those who wish to control their behavior or force them into marriages against their will," Smart said.

"No effort should be spared to prosecute and imprison those who commit violence against women, and to make clear that those who perpetrate these crimes cannot escape justice."

The report also said that emerging independent press outlets that have criticized the KRG or have focused on the security forces, human rights violations and government corruption have been harassed. Journalists "have been detained, beaten and harassed" by security forces, and several newspapers have been sued by the KRG

http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/meast/04/14/kurdistan.rights/index.html