Rumsfeld's Iraq Crusade

Everyone know (by now) that Iraq was devastated by a group of politicians who are as religiously extremists as their enemies showed in the past years and through their speeches and announcements. They both share the same madness of readiness to wipe out humankind from the face of the earth to achieve what they believe its god's will.

I was right after all when I applied the lyrics of the song "For the Greater Good of God" on Bush and putting a picture of him depicting that assumption.

GQ magazine revealed that former defense secretary, Donald Rumsfeld used to put quotes and verses from the bible on the cover-sheets of his daily top secret intelligence breifings for former US president, George W. Bush. Some of these reports were presented and delivered to Bush by Rumsfeld himself. These daily briefings were called the “Worldwide Intelligence Update,” one of several intelligence reports compiled overnight and presented in a folder for Mr. Rumsfeld and other officials as they came to work.

Some of these verses are: "commit to the lord whatever you do, and your plans will succeed." Beneath that sentence there is a picture of an american soldier on one knee in front of his weapon and exhaustion/stress appear on his face. Another cover-sheet showed "have I not commanded you? be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the lord your god will be with you wherever you go" and beneath that sentence a highway road sign written on it Baghdad.

Or there is a sentence above the a picture of Saddam giving a speach saying "It is God's will that by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish men." Taken from Peter 2:15. Another is depicting the two giant swords ereacted in "celebrations park" in central Baghdad with some sort of gates, which will be conquered by the righteous nation: Open the gates that the righteous nation may enter, the nation that keeps faith" - Isaiah 26:2

The idea came from Major General Glen Shaffer, an intelligence official. And though the cover sheets started out humorous, as the body count mounted, biblical passages were thought to be more appropriate, according to GQ.

The cover-sheets from the magazine can be found here.

After reading these news, I just had the wish that someone with so much power go to Bush and co., Bin Laden and his associates, Iran and Israeli bunch of fundamentalists, grab them all from the tag of their clothes and drop them into one cubic cage.

The rest should be broadcast on TV around the world, to see what lunatics did to the whole world from east to west.

I am sure they would tear each other up, but at least this will ensure that comfort will be upon millions of people

Peace will be finally be seen on the horizon.

Question For An Asylum Seeker

She told him "how come you Iraqis have been denied asylum by the ministry of Justice, you have the chance to leave voluntarily, and you also have the chance to ask for an amount of money to help you get a new start after return to Iraq, yet, there are a lot of you still here and don't want to go!"

These are the words of a social-worker lady addressing an Iraqi asylum seeker in the Netherlands in one of the camps in the Netherlands.

Arabian / Persian Gulf

I didn’t pay attention until last month when I found out about a group on Facebook that support Google’s Earth decision to put Arabian Gulf instead of Persian Gulf on the water bed separating Iran and Gulf states.

The name has always been contentious between the Arabs and Iranians – this is matter of strengthening identity upon land and sea – more to that, it is about pride and nationalism through history.

Yet, such a dispute on naming was of no importance to the west (or any where else in the world): for centuries, western civilization has its reference to this issue based on their ancient philosopher’s writings, where historic documents, maps (even treaties) used Persian Gulf as the official name. In addition, many important Muslim geographers in early Islam used in their documents two terms: Bahr Faris (Arabic for Persian Sea) or Khalij Faris (Persian Gulf). This has been referred to by many of history and geography books, which indicated that the name in fact came from Arabic/Muslim books. One main reason was that ancient written sources used that name due to the importance and the power that the Persian Empire on many lands used to have on each side of the Gulf, including Iraq and some of what now consists of the Gulf states. With the decline of power of that mighty empire and then its fall to the hands of the Muslim army, there were some focus on the name and by many historians who saw the need to change the name of the gulf to carry instead the name of that of the victorious party i.e. The Arabs.

I won’t go into details about attempts by many powers and countries to change the name to other than the two disputed ones, but I give examples of such attemptes: “Britain Sea” when British forces attempted to take control of the region in late 18 century; the attempt of Iran itself to change the name to “Islamic Gulf” after Khomeini's Islamic revolution – some sort of divertion to the common knowledge, and that a new power is born on the remains of ancient Persia; and there are who simply called it “the Gulf”, as heard by people on street, without attaching it to certain nationality or language or an ethnic group.

Time has went by, the rise of Arab nationalism in mid 1960’s calls by Arab countries to change the name to Arabian Gulf, or Arab Gulf, became louder than ever. With the oil booming in the region and businesses became the core engine behind interests from east and west - that gave some countries to feel the power and control of the region with such economic weapon, the dispute over the name reached a higher level, each side write the desired name in their dealings with other countries.

That did not force the non-Arabic speaking countries or written books to change the name.

The dramatic change in modern history Iran, and since the 1979 Khomeini revolution, the country was considered the ultimate enemy of the western civilization

Forget about Bush’s axis of evil, we know the story and what was planned

Iran became the biggest threat to the interests of the west in the region, especially the Unites States (because Germany and France, for example, did good business after the change of the regime in Iran).

To some extent, Iran’s influence diminished – or was only propaganda? This was achieved when a mad man called Saddam Hussain launched a bloody and very costly war that lasted for 8 long years. The west was backing Saddam with everything, militarily and propaganda wise.

Yet, the name of that bed of water did not change on the maps and books of history in Europe and else where.

Back to Facebook group: One of the members on that group neglected what is written in most of modern history books all around the world, and said "who cares what history books else where would say. Jerusalem is the capital of Palestine, this is a known fact, however, this has never been mentioned or written in history books published else where!"

Valid argument, isn't it?

Many agree that the decision by Google Earth by putting "Arabian Gulf" instead of "Persian Gulf" is politically motivated i.e. something to do with the ongoing tension between the United States and Iran - one way of “punishing” Iran.

I, for one, used to hear the word “Persian Gulf” in ALL movies I have seen in my life. The first time I heard the word "Arabian Gulf" in a Hollywood movie was in “Transformers” (2007), when a military official disclosed information about an attack (by un-identified object) on “military base in Qatar” located on “the Arabian Gulf”.

Apologies on Bush's Behalf

On September 22, 2006 I wrote a post on how George W Bush owes the world an apology for everything he has done during his two term presidency. Today I read an article on the independent written by British journalist and political analyst Robert Fisk where he echoed my words but in different context. He started the article with US intelligence reports and gave an example of these report about a possible kamikaze-style air attack on a US navy base at a south Pacific island location. The only problem was that no such navy base existed on the island and no US Seventh Fleet warship had ever been there. In all seriousness, a US military investigation earlier reported that Osama bin Laden had been spotted shopping at a post office on a US military base in east Asia. The point Robert Fisk wanted to make by putting forward such examples was to illustrate the kind of mess Barak Obama inherited from his predecessor. He asks "how is Barack Obama going to repair the titanic damage which his vicious, lying predecessor has perpetrated around the globe and within the US itself?"

Fisk wrote that:
Obama has got to close Guantanamo. He's got to find a way of apologising to the world for the crimes of his predecessor, not an easy task for a man who must show pride in his country; but saying sorry is what – internationally – he will have to do if the "change" he has been promoting at home is to have any meaning outside America's borders. He will have to re-think – and deconstruct – the whole "war on terror". He will have to get out of Iraq. He will have to call a halt to America's massive airbases in Iraq, its $600m embassy. He will have to end the blood-caked air strikes we are perpetrating in southern Afghanistan – why, oh, why do we keep slaughtering wedding parties? – and he will have to tell Israel a few home truths: that America can no longer remain uncritical in the face of Israeli army brutality and the colonisation for Jews and Jews only on Arab land. Obama will have to stand up at last to the Israeli lobby (it is, in fact, an Israeli Likud party lobby) and withdraw Bush's 2004 acceptance of Israel's claim to a significant portion of the West Bank. US officials will have to talk to Iranian officials – and Hamas officials, for that matter. Obama will have to end US strikes into Pakistan – and Syria.

In this case, Mr Fisk is suggesting that Obama would not only clean up the mess, but also take the responsibility of standing in front of the whole world and apologize on Bush's behalf.

However, Fisk has his doubts:

But Obama's not going to be able to make the break. He wants to draw down in Iraq in order to concentrate more firepower in Afghanistan. He's not going to take on the lobby in Washington and he's not going to stop further Jewish colonisation of the occupied territories or talk to Israel's enemies. With AIPAC supporter Rahm Emanuel as his new chief of staff – "our man in the White House", as the Israeli daily Maariv called him this week – Obama will toe the line. And of course, there's the terrible thought that bin Laden – when he's not shopping at US military post offices – may be planning another atrocity to welcome the Obama presidency.

After reading the article, I felt sorry for Barak Obama, there are high expectations of him to make the real change by the whole world, and not only by the US people - one can check a number of Iraqi bloggers and how they expressed their happiness to the result of the US elections last week. I hope there won't be any regrets by Mr. Obama after some time when he finds out that the burden is bigger than anyone would think or imagine.

By the way, I didn't know that a new US legislation will be issued by the Bush administration soon that would ensure that all British citizens will no longer be able to visit America without special security clearance.

full article here.

Sowar Magazine: Project Minute 22

This is interesting, a project is arranged and organized by Sowar Magazine, about taking a single photo at the exact same time in the Arab world i.e. On Friday 22 August 2008 at exactly 2:22 pm Lebanon local time. The reason for choosing number 22 because there are 22 country members in the League of Arab States. If you live in any of those countries, you can be a part of this project at the following local times:

Egypt - 2:22pm
Iraq - 2:22pm
Jordan - 2:22pm
Lebanon - 2:22pm
Saudi Arabia - 2:22pm
Syria - 2:22pm
Yemen - 2:22pm
Libya - 1:22pm
Sudan - 2:22pm
Morocco - 12:22pm
Tunisia - 1:22pm
Kuwait - 2:22pm
Algeria - 12:22pm
UAE - 3:22pm
Bahrain - 2:22pm
Qatar - 2:22pm
Oman - 3:22pm
Mauritania - 11:22am
Somalia - 2:22pm
Palestine - 2:22pm
Djibouti - 2:22pm
Comoros - 2:22pm

The pictures will be published in a special edition of Sowar Magazine. The pictures will also be posted online. Anyone can join, and any camera can be used.

Joining this project is through the Minute 22 Facebook Group. A reminder would be received before the event, in addition to other updates.

Requirements:
- You must be in one of countries mentioned above to take the photo
- The photo should include at least one person (i.e. no plain landscape or architecture photos)
- Maximum size of the photo should be 3MB
- Please submit ONLY one picture
- The deadline for submitting photos is August 30, 2008
- Email the photo to minute22@sowarmag.com and copy/ paste the following text in your email message (please write the country and city in the subject header as well):

FULL NAME:
COUNTRY:
CITY:
DESCRIPTION:

I HEREBY EXPRESSLY AGREE WITH THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS FOR SUBMISSION OF THE PHOTOGRAPHS FOR THE MINUTE 22 SOWAR MAGAZINE PROJECT, AS PUBLISHED AT: http://www.sowarmag.com/minute22/termsandconditions.htm

House of Saddam

House of Saddam is a four episodes TV drama that charts the rise and fall of Saddam Hussein from 1979 to 2003. A co-production between BBC Television and HBO films, the series began on Wednesday 30th July on BBC Two in four parts. I watched episode one of the show, till now, and first impression is having actors with comics-like facial resemblance to the real persons was deliberate - Saddam was much more skinnier that Yigal Naor when he was vice president - Saddam started to gain weight during the Iraq-Iran war. This also include all other characters in the entire show, such as a teenager look-alike Barzan (Saddam half brother), a plumpy funny Ali Hasan Al Majid, and a big headed gloomy-faced Tariq Aziz. Having a handsome Hussain Kamel Al Majid (played by whom I consider a genies and brilliant young Egyptian actor Amr Waked) can prove more to this formula.

Another thing I was not comfortable with while watching the first episode is the way English was spoken: 99% of the actors speaks English with Iraqi or middle eastern accent (including the same typical grammatical mistakes used), with Arabic words thrown here and there in every sentence, such as habeebty (beloved one for a woman) or Ammo (uncle). It is like I am hearing Ahmed Chalabi speaking during an interview with CNN or BBC.

The substance of historic material chosen for such a drama work intended for TV viewers is new, which is good to shed light on some details that only known to book readers or to an Iraqi who used to be close or attached personally to these events! Yet, there were many changes to the real events. I don't know if such deviations were made to inject some more dramatic aspect to the show, or the writer was referring to false references! For example, Adnan Khairalla, Saddam's brother-in-law, was not Iraq's minister of defense in late 1970's. In addition, Hamdani (in real, his name was Adnan Al Hamdani) was among other Iraqi politicians who have been detained and executed collectively after the notorious revolutionary command council meeting in July 1979. He was not shot in the head by Saddam himself at the latter's house as we saw it in the show.

As I said, there are some strong details close to reality about the life of Saddam and people around him, such as the powerful personality of Saddam's mother - I don't know if she went that far of being personally interfering in her son's choices of selecting loyal people around him, though! In addition, the use of advanced technology and people resources on many shots were perfectly recruited - the use of live pictures of Saddam in different places merged with the help of computer effects of that of "the new Saddam among the public".

I laughed big at a scene from the show when Saddam and his son were standing at the top of a hill, in presumably the town of Tikrit, the birth place of Saddam. He was looking with sharp eyes in to the horizon, where a big circled green spot of palms stretched an area down the valley in the middle of the yellow rocky desert. Then he starts telling his son about the glory of Iraq:

"look around, Uday, look around! This is the land between two rivers. The first armies and empires were found here. Do you know that the first law was written here? This is the cradle of civilizations. We are lucky Uday..." But young Uday was distracted by something, and looked bored. He was continiousely moving his head up and around, staring at the emptiness of the high hills surrounding. There comes a pause, silence, with Saddam like lost in his emperial thoughts until Uday turns his head to his father's side and asks with obvious stupidity and wonder on his face:

"Papa? I am hot"

Saddam face turns from that of cogitation to fury when his eyes set on his son. With disgust and hidden rage he asks Uday: "have you heard a word I said?" His rage was clearer when his voice became much louder "... of course you feel hot... we are in the desert... drink some water..." Saddam then walks dissappointed passing his son with large steps, and in Arabic he curses Uday saying "God damn you, and that who gave birth to you" (انعل ابوك لابو اللي بزرك) . He snaps at Uday to follow him and continue "I wished I brought Qusay with me instead".

I see this show as a nice attempt to cover the political rise and fall of a ruthless dictator like Saddam, but for me (and many others I talked to) it is an imperfect work. I didn't watch the followup to the series (episodes 2,3 and 4), but covering more than two decades of brutal tyranny with only four episodes would also mark this work as imperfect. They managed to show how cold-blooded this man used to be, it has been reflected by the main actor excellently, but crafting such a story into a TV drama deserves more than that, and would really be much better if more attention to other small details and segments, especially that there was an obvious and hard effort on digging down massive and detailed historic events clearly taken from people lived within that period or government documentation and footage's (like of Iraq-Iran war and Saddam TV propeganda). I don't believe stories about the makers of the series getting in touch indirectly from Saddam while he was in US custody, or through the lawyers of Tariq Aziz, according to some media sources!

Visa For Iraqis To The Netherlands

Why don't Dutch embassies - or any other embassy of any other country in the world - do one joint effort and put a big sign at their compounds' main gates, saying "No Visa for Iraqis"? This will really save a lot of time and energy for both the Iraqi who is applying for the visa and for the embassy employee. Most importantly, maybe for the Iraqi, it would save a lot of money! ...

No Security Pact!

This is big news! Iraq's Prime Minister comes out with the statement that the long-term security pact between Iraq and the United States has reach a dead end! This news came out days after optimistic voices were heard of a consensus between the two governments and a long time debate about how such an agreement will affect Iraq's sovereignty.

I find the statement by Maliki a bit strong: "...we found that the U.S. demands hugely infringe on the sovereignty of Iraq, and this we can never accept".

Has this decision by the Iraqi Prime Minister anything to do with his latest visit to Iran? maybe and maybe not! Or is it really the conditions put by the US, namely, regarding immunity for its soldiers on Iraqi soil has raised some eyebrows!

As a conclusion, are we going to see more violence in Iraq (as if Iraqis now are not hearing anymore these deafening blasts or the rattling of machine guns day and night! Are we going to see more instability in the northern regions??? Of course not to forget that the same optimistic voices came out from Washington abut the agreement or pact, the same will shout booing Maliki and his government for corruption and lack of strength to deal with violence. It happened before, why not now going through the same circle one more time?

Face From The Past

A couple of days ago, when I was in Paris, and since the early morning I had the feeling that I would see something/someone from my past, from the days I was living in Iraq! As the day went by that feeling was becoming stronger and stronger. In the evening I sat in a restraunt having dinner when that feeling was like a sign, very strong feeling that I will meet or see someone I used to know. I went back to the place where I stay, switched on my laptop and while browsing the Internet I came across a photo of him. The same ugly very pale face pausing smiling - I don't remember him smiling that much! He lost a lot of weight, that was obvious from the picture. He used to be a sort of a symbol of accumulated fat in a body of a human. It didn't take that long for me, kept staring at him and remembering the old days, then I closed the browser.

No News On Iraq!!

It is the same curious man I see him at work from time to time. a couple of weeks ago we had lunch together – among other colleagues. We talked about everything, as usual, joked about different things, and before the end of the lunch I could see the question written in his eyes. He managed to steel some silence in between the different subjects and jokes and dropped the question: “how are things in Iraq? It has been some time since the last time I saw some news about Iraq? and with semi-confidence he added "I heard it is getting better and better... I think the new troops surge last year helped improving the situation after all!”

That question reminds me of a story a cousin of mine told me long ago. He used to study in the United Kingdom from late 1970’s to late 1980’s when he went back to Iraq – something he regret to this day, as far as I know because instead of having the government taking advantage of his expertise and higher education in the field of technology, he has been dumped for years to come as a soldier in the Iraqi army. After a period of depression like sitting alone in a dark room, eating very little and smoke more than a coal train can make, his father managed to get him serve military services in the capital Baghdad till the end of the second gulf war where he was released afterwards, arranged his traveling papers and left Iraq for good to this day.

In mid 1980’s that cousin of mine decided to spend his New Year’s vacation with his faily and among his relatives in Iraq. During that time Iraq was engaged deeply in the war against Iran and more and more lives were eaten up by this slaughtering machine called warfare. On one of these days, I was at his house, and he told me how someone sent a letter to the BBC wondering why is that no more coverage for the war between Iraq and Iran as it used to be in the early years?

Back to today and seeing the same question being popped up, also from a person who lives in the west, I decided to follow the news here on Iraq more carefully, not that I don't follow the news in Iraq, but I decided to check out different channels and focus mainly on Dutch news. The man was right, the coverage of the news in Iraq compare it to the real events on the street is far from being the same!

It did not bother me when that colleague asked me about the lack of news about Iraq on TV. What bothered me most is my colleague's comment about the improvement of the situation when he said "... I guess the new troops surge last year helped improving the situation after all..." That was like a slap on my head, because from the news we get from people we know in Iraq and what we read on the internet the situation did not improve, not even a little, because there is still self-suicide attacks, still people are being killed, still men and women are fleeing the country in thousands... so I don't see the improvement whatsoever that make the western public believe in such, and that the U.S. government did find the solution to the problem when they added more troops. Not to forget the new propaganda in these days about the "Armageddon of Iraq" that has began a couple of days ago, where the last battle will be taken place in Mosul (north of Iraq) to get rid of the Al Qaeda forever! However, I believe more pumping into the war propaganda is needed, especially that "Iron Man" or "Indiana Jones" latest blockbusters do carry more interesting action scenes indeed.

Yet, I am not a clairvoyant, so I can't say when will be the big end scene (Like in any other movie where we see an end to the story) but I am sure there will be another big action scene close to the presidential elections in the United States... we will see suddenly Bin Laden broadcasting another of his threatening messages, we will see the danger alert level in the United States rises to Red because of a possible terrorist attack, we will see rising in the number of suicide attacks and more policemen get killed...etc All part of the same tragic reality show: just a dynamic movement of events ups and downs with whatever situation that maybe. However, one thing remains static for certain: More Iraqis are either displaced or killed!

media strike image courtesy of Sfinal

Vacation & Memories

An Iraqi friend went for a week visit to the United Arab Emirates last month. Two days after his arrival I decided to call him and see how he's doing, he was not in a good mood, because first thing happened at the airport was a fight with a security officer that according to my friend was not polite at all. I was surprised because as far as I know the security and passport officers are not rude, on th econtrary, they are very calm and very polite. Anyway, after few minutes of that phonecall, I received an SMS message from him. He said in it: how come most of men in this country have Uday beard-style - that is very carefully light shaven! He meant as a joke, of course, but it rang a bell in my head when he mentioned Uday, of course, Uday is Saddam Hussain's son who was killed in a fight against the US forces in Mosul, north of Iraq.

I laughed when he sent me that message and made me think a little deeper about such a remark from someone who left Iraq a very long time ago and this was his firt visit to an Arab country in almost two decades. How an flash back like that struck in his head when he saw the men in the streets on Dubai and Abu Dhabi with their traditional customs walking and driving around.

I came to one conclusion: no matter the years passed, sad and bitter memories remains hidden in the back of someone's mind but they won't be erased from someone's rain. It would suddenly comes up to the surfice because of a some situation. The bigger problem is the psychological affect that follows: Our friend did not have pleasent memories about his life in Iraq before, thus did not enjoy his vacation. He told me that after he arrived back to Europe by phone.

So that one piece of memory because of seeing something/someone somewhere would erase the meaning of joy and would make old scars become fresh again! That's how I can perceive that whole experience.

Detainees

This is video of detainess somewhere in Iraq ... that's only what I have to say!

Captain Iraq

Below is the latest work by, Lattuf, a cartoonist from Brazil. His work is inspired by Captain America comics character who fought the Nazis during world war II.

Is it really that hard for humanity to persecute those who committed crimes against humanity that we are desperate for a super hero to act on our behalf?

Another Change In Iraq's Flag

After the fall of the Saddam’s regime, news broke out of adopting a new Iraqi flag instead of the current one, which became a taboo after Saddam put Allah Akbar “God is Great” on the flag on the eve of 1991. The flag caused big opposition and rejection, mainly because of its similarity to the flag of Israel! Today the parliament discussed a draft legislation related to the same issue with the recommendations (from the Kurds) to change the font to Kufi (Arabic font) and the color of the word “Allah Akbar” from green to yellow. The parliament also discussed a new legislation to make each star of the three centered in the Iraqi flag to represents Peace, Tolerance and Justice, instead of what has been perceived for decades as the three principles of Ba’ath party: Unity, Freedom and Socialism. A few days ago, I read in the news that a competition is in the preparation to come out with a new anthem and design for the flag! Does the discussion in the parliament means that no competition will go on and that the flag will go through face lift only?

Iraqi TV After 2003

It is really amazing to find out that there are 28 Iraqi satellite channels exists today. At least this is what I managed to count so far. All these channels were launched after the end of war, and the fall of the Iraqi regime in 2003. The former Iraqi regime used to prohibit the use of a sattelite dish - Anyone caught owning a dish on the roof of his house will face punishment and imprisonment, one of them I heard had such a fate was an old neighbor of mine. The Iraqi government had two ground channels and one official satellite channel. The sattelite channel has been bombed by the US during the last war. I still remember the final images from that channel, particularly, the repetition of a song by young Iraqi singer, Qasim Al Sultan, carrying a golden Klashinkof, standing in the middle of old and young soldiers, and singing for Iraq - after the war there were many romurs that this singer was shot dead for singing that song! After the end of the war, the wave of "independent" channels began with the launch of Alsharqiya TV, a channel made and still managed by Saad Al Bazaz (former head of Iraqi TV and owner of Azzaman newspaper). The channel also sponsored financially by Sheikhs from the United Arab Emirates. When Alsharqiya began broadcasting, it brought a smile on the faces of many Iraqis, especially those living abroad for so many years, because it carried the same spirit Iraqi TV used to have during the 1970 and the 1980s (if I can describe it in such a way correctly).

However, Alsharqiya became one of many channels, when the US government decided to have its own media means in Iraq, by launching AlHurra, which runs on the same frequency the ex-official Iraqi satellite TV used to run on before the fall of the regime. Al Hurra was clearly a CNN but in Arabic, so the effort was put to launch another channel, Al Iraqiya, which became the official TV station for "new Iraq"! With the flow of money coming from all directions into Iraq - regardless of the financiall or political profit can be gained, the number of satellite channels increased rapidly. We have now Al Furat, which is sponsored by Abdel Aziz Al Hakim. There are other Shiite orientated channels, such as Al Zahara, Ahl Al Beet, Karbala and Salam TV. However, other ethnic groups in Iraq decided to follow suit and have their own echo heard through the ether: Some of them were there before the fall of the regime of Saddam, such as Kurdistan TV, and KurdSat - The latter began during the late 1990s advertising late night half naked girls, and a telephone number with Arabic and Kurdish text on top of the screen!

Most of Iraqi channels are trying so hard to be colorful with the variety of shows they broadcast; Al Diyar TV, for example, focuses on domestic issue in Iraq more than anything else. Also, there is Al Fayhaa TV, a channel launched first from the United Arab Emirates after the fall of the regime, and played a big role during the last elections and during the trail of Saddam in the past two years, by broadcasting live interviews and live phonecalls with ordinary Iraqis from around the globe, which I think put the cast of that channel into problems and caused it suddenly to diminish with its popularity later on! Worth noting other TV channels trying so hard to boost their popularity among the wave of Iraqi and Arabic satellite channels, such as Afaq, alsumaria and Baladi. In addition, there are regional satellite channels, such as Salah Il Dien TV, which gives news and information on the activities taking place in that province.

There are some other channels launched with the help of other countries, such as Turkmen TV (with the support of Turkey of this ethnic group), and to ensure the rights of other minorities, other ethnic groups, such as Christians launched their own TV stations, such as Ashur TV, Bet Al Nahrain TV, and Ishtar TV stations, which shed some light on the activities of Iraqis abroad as well as inside the country.

Other channels were directly hostile towards the US troops, such as Al Zawra, did not have anything but low quality fragments of attacks by armed groups against US forces in Iraq, mostly taken from the internet, mainly, and with a news bulletin running horizontally below the screen announcing the latest news and messages coming across on latest "victories against the occupier". The channel used to broadcast from Egypt, and caused some sort of crisis between Egyptian and US government because the latter wanted to close that channel forever. One other TV channel broadcasting from Egypt, known for its use of advanced TV technology is Al Baghdadia TV. This channel remains the center of attention and in my opinion the only one that can compete with Alsharqiya regarding the nature of shows and news update it brings to the viewers.

By the end of 2006, different types of Iraqi channels were launched. The variety which established competition among TV channels pushed some to launch specialized TV channels. We now see Iraqi channels limited to sport events and news, such as Iraq Sport. In addition, music channels showing young men and women never seen before as singers in video clips now can be seen 24 hours a day. One of these music channels called Vinus - I heard that it is broadcasting from the United Arab Emirates.

One might ask the question: does such channels feed the separation of Iraqis taking into the consideration the ethnic and political crisis we have in Iraq? Some argue that this is the consequences of decades of dictatorship, which resulted now in a chaotic atmosphere, even in the media. Others argue that this democracy and every Iraqi have the right to express his opinion and point of view the way he or she sees suitable. But would that enlarge the gap between anarchy and freedom?

Kuwaiti Analyst View On Al Sahwa

I heard many says that the US has the main role in putting security in Iraq, esepcially, with the clearly witnessed decline in violence, particurly in Baghdad. One Kuwaiti analyst was interviewed on Al Jazeera TV channel today said that the emergence of Al Sahwa, a movement started from the western provice of Anbar, and spread into other Iraqi provinces, such as Mousel and Baghdad to fight Al Qaeda, is mainly due to US support and encouragment. I don't know if this is the same support and encouragment the US offered, which empowered the Shiite militias couple of years ago.

However, this Kuwaiti analyst is entitled to his own point of view but he is in fact denying Iraqis the credit of trying to make their country's future better! This to include reconsuliation and free its cities and villages from outsiders and occupiers. One other thing, this analyst is forgetting that part of the problem in Iraq is the US itself, so how can a problem can be solved with the use of another problem?

Know Your Enemy

Human Weakness

During an interview conducted on Al Baghdadiya satellite TV station with Faisal Al-Yasiri, known Iraqi TV director and former head of Iraqi Television station before the fall of Saddam's Regime, he shed some light on his days during the making of the controversial political show "Al Malef" (the dossier, in English), which is a weekly show consist of an interviews with ministers and government officials from Saddam's regime. Al-Yasiri explained how some ministers were dead afraid of their own answers they used to give to their host on the show. They even asked Al-Yasiri more than once after the recording of the interview to edit them and erase some of their answers so they "won't be misunderstood by others"!

Sadoon Hammady and Mohammed Al Sahaf were the most difficult to interview, according to Al-Yasiri, because both were not happy to be interrupted while answering certain quesiton.

Al-Yasiri described the behavior and attitude of those government officials and ministers at that time as "human weakness". He tells how each minister used to come with stack of papers carried with them behind by their employees accompanying them. These papers were referenced to most frequently when needed during the interview. All this to avoid giving the "wrong" or "inappropriate" answer which might anger Saddam and other people very close to Saddam. They didn't want to trespassing the boundaries Saddam has put before them!

Retirement & Consciousness

Another retired military/intelligence expert decided to come out and admit using harsh treatment to prisoners. How come the notorious Donald Rumsfeld didn’t follow suit like Lieutenant General Ricardo S. Sanchez? It seems that those guys looked in the mirror more often after retirement and decided collectively to take the next step for them to clear consciousness, and to disclose either their disgust with their superior’s policy or admitting doing wrong (soft word for crime against humanity).

P.S. picture is courtesy of Eddi The Yetti

Rasim Al Jumaliy

God bless his soul!