A Washington Post Column Talks about Iraqi Bloggers and Journalists

David Ignatius, one of the world’s most famous and most credible journalists, wrote a piece today [Friday 31, 2006] about the coverage of the news from Iraq. In his column, which appears in The Washington Post, Ignatius talked about how journalists work in Iraq and the challenges they face in reporting all sides of the story from here. In addition to that, Ignatius talked about the Iraqi bloggers who are trying to picture the situation from Iraq and portray it for the world to see. In his column, he appears to be one of the few foreign journalists who realize and appreciate the role of the Iraqi journalists in getting the news to the outside world. “Western journalists in Baghdad depend increasingly on our Iraqi colleagues, who are some of the bravest reporters in the world,” he told his readers in his column today.

In the same time when we thank Ignatius for his understanding and appreciation of our work, we encourage the Iraqi bloggers, inside and outside Iraq, to “blog on” and continue the marvelous work they are doing to voice out our situation and do their part of contributing to the future of Iraq.

You can read David Ignatius’ column here.

In appreciation to Ignatius’ column, this entry was posted by 24 Steps to Liberty and Baghdad Treasure
Feeh

Rehearsing Hell In A Baghdad Street!

It is a perfect example of the traditional image of Hell we have in our minds. Five-foot height flaming fire spots a few yards apart from each other lightning up the dark and quiet street. In front of you, only the small red lights of cars. They look like demons’ eyes gazing at you through a curtain of smoke. Every time you ignore them and your mind leaves the scene, they come closer to you. You hit the brakes in panic.

Driving in this street after six p.m. makes every thought of killing, kidnapping, insurgents, and everything bad idea become present in your mind. That is what the Iraqis see every night. They drive through thick black smoke, although they don’t see the color of the smoke because it is dark, they almost choke in it while lining up before the checkpoint waiting to be waved through. But where too? Just to struggle again to find a way home through the cement-barrier- blocked smaller streets. And to be trapped in what? Gunmen clashing with Iraqi security forces, so then you have to find another street that doesn’t take you home with bullets in your head.

This is not a thrill movie. This is on the ground and real life. This is al-Rabie street, or Jamiya neighborhood. I once wrote about the street in an entry about the Sunni neighborhoods in Baghdad. I said that the median in this street was messed up and destroyed, but never replaced. That was in January 17, 2006. Still, the situation didn’t change. The median is still destroyed, and the rubble is still in there zigzagging the cars willing to drive in the street. I couldn’t resist the curiosity to know why, so I used my clever way of pretending stupid to know what the deal was!

I was told, by informed people, that the reason why the municipality workers only took the old median off and stopped the “reconstruction” efforts is that “armed men” warned the workers that if they try to build a new median, they would be targeted and hunted down! Is that enough for you to know? Well, it wasn’t for me, so I asked: Why? But to answer this question, I was taken to the northern entrance of the street to see the reason; Dirt heaped over three graves right in the middle of the two-lane street, a wooden stick on each told people of their presence. The graves are for unknown people, who were killed in clashes with the security forces, people said. Some believe that they are innocent people caught in fire. Clashes between armed men and security forces in this western area of Baghdad is almost a daily event. Regardless whom the graves hide, the municipality workers were prevented from finishing their work because the graves might be wiped out.

So that makes the horror in the residents life not only at night, because they wander among graves at daylight too. Can you imagine? Passing in the street to find three graves, not even built, to remind you that you shouldn’t forget that you are in Baghdad.

“Don’t smile. Don’t forget. Don’t hope. Don’t be optimistic. The people in the graves did, and here they are.” Isn’t that what I and others think when we see that?

At night, which in this context mean just after 6pm, you don’t see people walking in this street. You just see the garbage collected during the day piled up in front of shops and set in fire. Why? Because the insurgents threatened the government trash cleaners to be killed if they enter the street and collect garbage. Why? Because insurgents hide IEDs and other explosives in the garbage waiting for security forces patrol or a government member convoy to pass by, then they detonate the load targeting them. Trash cleaners have found many IEDs before they explode and informed the security forces about them and they were defused. Insurgents of course didn’t like that so they prevented the trash cleaners from collecting garbage in this street. What do shop owners do? They burn their garbage. Where? Right in the middle of the street.

The insurgents control the western side of the capital. The rest of Baghdad is controlled by armed militias. This is a fact!

The western part of Iraq is controlled by insurgents. The rest of Iraq is controlled by militias. This is a fact!

The Iraqi politicians are fighting over power. It is always the case with Iraqi politicians since Iraq existed. This is a fact.
The Iraqis are waiting for this to end and have a normal life. It will not be soon. This is a fact.

As Usual, We Shouldn’t Agree With Each Other!

I have witnessed the first session of the Iraqi, full-term parliament yesterday. I was in the same room in which the lawmakers announced the formation of the Iraqi Council of Representatives and saw and heard the members swear the oath. It was amazing, in different ways!

I was at the Convention Center very early in the morning. I was fooled to be there at 7am, they told me they will not allow anyone into the center after 7. Of course I had to spend the night before in the Green Zone because the Iraqi government imposed a curfew yesterday to secure the day for the first session of its long-awaited parliament. The government is not able to secure the city, so the best solution is to prison all Iraqis and prevent those who are with the government from celebrating the event and empty the streets!

I had to wait for a long time before the event starts. The lawmakers started to show up at 9:30am. Music played in he background, it was the Iraqi anthem, Mawtini [My Homeland.] It is always touching to hear this music in such events, and I’ve been to many of them in the last three years.

The gathering was in a huge theater-like room in the Convention Center. The stage was almost empty. There was a banner middling the stage that said “Who conduct their affairs by mutual consultation.” Ten Iraqi flags were in the background too, a desk with three chairs , and a podium.

Iraqi politicians and Iraqis, who have nothing to do with politics but the salary, came to the room and started the traditional cheek kissing and handshaking, and some hugs too. They looked very happy and optimistic. They all smiled.

“The enemies of Iraq spared no means to kill the Iraqis and destroy the infrastructure,” said the chairman of former National Assembly, Hachim Hasani, a Sunni, “despite all, we were able to achieve what we wanted and planned for…. This is a glorious day in the history of our people and nation.”

Then he formally dissolved the former national assembly and “handed the flag” to the new council of representatives’ oldest member, Adnan Pachachi, a 83-year-old secular politician.

“The country is going through a difficult period and big crisis,” Pachachi said in his speech advising the council’s members to “prove to the world that a [civil] war is not going to happen in Iraq,” and to learn the lesson of the past three years and not to “allow the ethnic and religious loyalty to weaken our will.”

Pachachi kept talking about the faults of the politicians indirectly. He talked about the ethnic divisions in the country and how the bombing of the shrine in Samarra last month “threatened a national crisis to come to destroy Iraq.”

He kept suggesting and advising the politicians on how a national unity government is very important to lead Iraq and save it from a civil war. I was looking at Jafari, the current PM, and Mulla Hakim, leader of the Supreme Council for the Islamic revolution in Iraq, or SCIRI. They weren’t comfortable with what Pachachi was saying, because as I said before, they think they inherited Iraq from their parents and no one can decide its future but them. They were whispering to each other each time Pachachi said a sentence including “far from ethnic and religious divisions,” they didn’t like what he was saying. I could sense it from several feet distance.

“We represent the people,” Pachachi said, “we will not be able to serve the people if we keep hiding in our ethnic shelters. The most important task for the council is to evaluate the validity of the government. People are waiting for a government that all the blocs in the council participate in. it is the time to be far from ethnic divisions and loyalty to certain parties. A..” and here, the smile that was on Mulla Hakim’s face when he came in the room disappeared and an angry face replaced it.

“This is the first session of the parliament. The issues of forming a government come later. You shouldn’t say that,” he interrupted Pachachi shouting. “Allow me Sayid,” Pachachi said. “This is not right,” Hakim said shaking his head.

“In the early years of my youth,” Pachachi continued, “I prayed that God extends my life to see a democratic, stable Iraq in which Iraqis enjoy their rights regardless what their religious and ethnic backgrounds are. This dream has not been achieved yet. The path is still long ahead.”

Then he continued his speech. And the members afterward swore the oath. But here, another Shiite objected.

“The oath we repeated is not the same one in the constitution,” Humam Hamoudi, a member of SCIRI said. “There are two words that are changed.”

Can you imagine how I felt that moment! I didn’t know if I should cry, smile, laugh, or spit on my country’s lawmakers from where I was [in the theaters balcony.] and show them how every Iraqi would feel if they hear these objections. [because Hakim’s objection wasn’t heard on TV. He didn’t use a microphone when he spoke.] Here is what I was thinking “come on men. It’s only the first session. We are not asking for much. Just say that you are the new parliament. Is that too hard for you to agree on? Well, fuck you and fuck me if I believe there will be a ‘national unity government’ if you don’t even agree that you exist.”

Then the convinced the Shiite lawmaker that the words were changed in the papers that were distributed to the 275 parliament members [basically a typo,] but that the man who said the oath and they repeated after used a copy of the constitution to read.

The lawmakers in general were optimistic. The translated the objections over silly things as “democracy.”

I asked Barham Salih, a member of the Kurdish coalition some questions and some of what he said was “the situation is very dangerous. The politicians have to work to form a national unity government. We tried to rule the country with two teams, the Shiite alliance and the Kurdish coalition, but regretfully we failed. This country cannot be ruled without a consensus. We cannot continue with the old platform. There are dangerous political complexities and the country is bleeding as long as the political and security crisis continues.” I said to myself “well, here is a real Iraqi who talks politics.” So I asked Jafari, the PM, what he thinks it takes to achieve stability and form a government. He said “if the political leaders worked seriously and were committed to the constitution, I don’t think it takes more than a month to form a government.”

And since I heard this answer, I am wondering; what if the politicians kept ignoring the people and only minded their salaries and benefits? What if they don’t work “seriously?” And if it takes a month to form a government when everything is right and when people work “seriously,” how long does it take in Iraq?

Teeti Teeti, Mithil Ma Rihti Jeeti!

[the title is in Iraqi dialect. It basically means ‘after all, nothing has changed!]

Iraqi political and religious leaders are going through the most embarrassing and sensitive political test since the current government of Jafari’s was seated in late April 2005.

According to the Iraqi constitution effective now, but I don’t know until when, the Iraqi political blocs that won seats in the new parliament was supposed to form the new full-term Iraqi government. But here we are, three months after the elections and the government is not yet finished with talks over choosing a prime minister, which is the first step in forming a government.

According to the Iraqi version of politics, the parliamentary group that won the biggest number of seats should nominate a name for the prime minister post. On the ground, that means the one to pick the PM’s name is the United Iraqi Alliance, or UIA, the Shiites widest collection of politicians and Mullas [clergymen] that won 128 seats in the parliament and then joined by two more, which made the total they’ve got is 130.

A few weeks ago, the UIA chose its candidate for the post, who is Ibrahim Jafari, Iraq’s prime minister who was seated late April 2005. Ibrahim Jafari heads his own party, which is called Dawa party. There were many disagreements and talks over this candidate because half of the UIA favored another one, Adil Abdul Mehdi, the current vice president. Adil Abdul Mehdi is a member of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, or SCIRI, which is the most powerful Shiite group in Iraq and owns a military wing called Badr Organization. Voices rose over who to choose as Iraq’s next four-year prime minister.

UIA, which is headed by Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, leader of SCIRI, and includes Dawa Party, Sadr trend of Muqtada Sadr, Fadhila party [which basically was no one and suddenly became “very influential” just to balance the political grounds in Iraq] and other mini-Shiite parties in addition to a group that call themselves “the independents” but in fact the have inherited nothing from this adjective, but the name!

Inside this UIA, members argued for days and nights, and appealed to outsiders, like the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, to try to find a way out of the problem they've created for themselves. Before they named their candidate, there was a rather very long, yet unneeded argument and disagreement between SCIRI and Dawa Party. Dawa Party wanted Jafari, and Sadr trend supported this decision. While SCIRI wanted their candidate, Abdul Mehdi, to get the PM post, and Fadhila party supported this decision. The independents in UIA had their own candidate!

Days and nights were spent by killing more Iraqis and American soldiers, more assassinations, more inflation, more deaths, more instable nights that Iraqis had, and still have to endure, before the UIA shyly decided. They tried to make it a consensus-based decision just to pretend that they are up to their title [United Iraqi Alliance] but no luck, they already split and have several candidates for one position. They had to appeal to voting inside the “United” alliance. Of the 130 votes, Jafari got 64 votes, Abdul Mehdi got 63, two members didn’t cast and one was absent. And who was the absent in the “United” alliance? The candidate of the “independents.” Because he couldn’t have the chance to take his share of Iraq, so he was upset and didn’t want to participate in solving the problem that is leading to kill more Iraqis because the instability in the country. “Hell with the Iraqis. I am not getting what I was promised to get before I come back from London,” I believe he said to himself. [He was a powerful candidate for the prime minister post two years ago, but couldn’t get it also and Ayad Allawi got it]

Therefore, the “united” alliance nominated Jafari to get the post. He won by one seat only.

Given the failure that accompanied Jafari’s government and the year-long, no-achievements-what-so-ever accomplished since Jafari took position to lead this already falling apart community, other influential parties in Iraq disagreed with this decision and demanded to change the candidate. These parties include the Kurdistan Coalition, which is the main Kurdish grouping that won 53 seats in the parliament, the Iraqi Accordance Front, which is the Sunnis main block in the political process and has won 44 seats in the parliament, and other smaller parties with fewer seats in the parliament in addition to the Iraqi National Slate, which is headed by former prime minister Ayad Allawi and has won 25 seats in the parliament, which is still discussing the subject.

What is happening now is that those who oppose Jafari say they will not support a government headed by him. And Jafari doesn’t want to withdraw, because I think he believes that he inherited Iraq from his mother, like Saddam did 40 years ago. Last week, a Kurdish politician told me that even if the alliance insists on naming Jafari to the post, the Kurdish coalition, the Sunnis group, Allawi’s group, and other parities, which all together make a total of 140 seats, the politician said, they will all veto this candidate and will not accept him. [Which they basically could do if they make 140 votes in the parliament]

Note: according to the Iraqi constitution, the prime minister cannot be officially named until he gets two thirds of the votes in the Iraqi parliament.

The UIA on its turn is saying Jafari wouldn’t be changed “because the UIA is the biggest bloc in the parliament and the PM is a UIA issue and no one has to intervene in it” and hell with the Iraqis.

By now, I have to say that the Iraqis are not stupid enough to want Jafari to head their government for four more years. Not after 11 months of increasing car bombs, assassinations, arrests, raids, instable economy, and every ugly thing you could think of that Jafari’s government has played a big role in imposing it on Iraqis.

Jafari today told reporters in a news conference that “I abide by my people’s interests and wills in my work.” But has he asked his people whether they want him or not? I doubt he did.

Saddam Hussein came into power in the early 1970s as a vice president and stayed in power until the Iraqis allowed the United States Army to enter Iraq and help them to topple Hussein and his regime. Along the years Hussein was in power, he and his Baath party arranged demonstrations and rallies that forces people to go to the streets calling Hussein’s name and supporting him. Over the years, I’ve witnessed Baath party members come into classroom in schools and universities to lead the students to busses parked not far from the schools to take them to one street of Baghdad, usually was 14th of Ramadhan street, to go and chant “yes yes Saddam Hussein.” “we sacrifice our souls and blood for you, Saddam.” And “all Iraq chants, Saddam is the glory of the country.” And other stupid chants that are famous only in the Arab countries and other dictatorships in the world.

Yesterday, the same thing was repeated. In Babil province, south of Baghdad, people were led to the streets to chant Saddam-style slogans, but in Jafari’s name and in the UIA’s name. People went to the streets to show that they support Jafari and they want him to be the prime minister of the next government. But Jafari and his group didn’t play it well. Saddam was more convincing to the misinformed public. He took Iraqis from all the provinces to the streets to call and chant his name and for his support, while Jafari could only get poor people from Babil. And today he says he does what his people want.

Well here is a question to your face Jafari: Why do you think people closer to you, say in Baghdad, didn’t go to the streets and asked you to be the Prime Minister? Why didn’t we hear people in Mosul, Salahudin, Anbar, Kirkuk, Erbil, Sulaimaniya, Duhok, Maysan, Kut, Diwaniya, Basra, Samawa, and other provinces of Iraq go to the streets and begged you to be the Prim Minister?

Today, the politicians couldn’t agree on when the new Iraqi parliament should convene. Only one session to tell people that “you sacrificed yourselves and your families and left your houses in Dec. 15, 2005 and went to polling stations, and we appreciate that and here is your reward. A new Iraqi parliament.” But now, they couldn’t agree. According to the Iraqi constitution, the president and his two deputies should all agree on the date of the first parliament session, which is only to introduce the parliament to the world. But it seems that it is too damn difficult that three Iraqi politicians agree. THREE. And you know why? Because one is a Kurd, one is a Sunni, and one is a Shiite. Huh!! “National Unity Government” my ass!!

Again, all this is happening and politicians are busy cutting the Iraq-shaped cake to satisfy their greed, while Iraqis are losing more of their loved ones. Iraqis were targeted and killed when Jafari left the country to visit Turkey and have some rest in its spas and beautiful weather. Iraqis are being killed while the leaders of the Iraqi Accordance Front are visiting the gulf countries and enjoy their 8-star hotels and supermarkets.

Three years of waiting for the full-term government and the politicians are still fighting over power and positions. Well, to be more accurate, since 1963 Iraqis are waiting for their politicians to agree and to put what the Iraqis want as their priority. Since then, the Iraqis are waiting for someone to come and ask “how can I serve you?” and stop hearing the common question “how can you benefit me?”