Jun

27

Imperial Life in the Emerald City

June 27, 2007 | 2 Comments

Do you know how many people were killed in Iraq today? Neither do I. I lost count. I lost hope. I read the numbers in the articles and I hear them during the news casts, but they don’t register with me anymore. There is only one emotion involved: anger. After reading Rajiv Chandrasekaran’s award winning book on the first year in Iraq, Imperial Life in the Emerald City: Inside Iraq’s Green Zone, the anger has morphed into rage. There is nothing I can write today that can possibly describe how good this book is. I’m using the word ‘good’ liberally, and for that reason, you should finish reading this post, and then proceed to the nearest library or bookstore to get this book. Yes, it’s that good, and yes, it’s that important for you to read.

Rajiv is the Washington Post’s former Baghdad bureau chief, spending the most time in Iraq before, during, and after the military invasion among all Western journalists. His writing puts you in the heart of the action. It begins with the first drums banging for war, and chronicles the most insider events that occurred after the fall of Baghdad. Rajiv takes you inside the Green Zone, where American soldiers and civilian workers stroll freely in Saddam’s palaces and indulge in everything ‘American’, with little regard to what is happening a couple of miles beyond the fortified ministate that is the Green Zone, otherwise known as: The Emerald City.

Rajiv tells us stories of utter incompetence, lack of preparation, political wrangling, and relentless politicking. As you read this book, you feel as though you are sitting in the large mess hall among the fresh college grads who have been given jobs way beyond their skills, from running ministries to selling state industries. They were given these jobs because they “adhered to the President’s vision for Iraq”, meaning most of them had worked for the Republican National Committee, had strong connections to right wing conservative politicians, or simply proved that they loved Bush enough to be able to work at the CPA (Coalition Provisional Authority). Here’s one of the many examples of this blatantly politicized employment process:

Once the Americans arrived, the job of rehabilitating Iraq’s health-care system fell to Frederick M. Burkle, Jr., a physician with a master’s degree in public health and postgraduate degrees from Harvard, Yale, Dartmouth, and the University of California at Berkeley. Burkle was a naval reserve officer with two Bronze Stars and a deputy assistant administrator at the U.S. Agency for International Development. He taught at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, where he specialized in disaster-response issues. During the first Gulf War, he provided medical aid to Kurds in northern Iraq. He had worked in Kosovo and Somalia. And in the lead-up to the invasion of Iraq, he had been put in charge of organizing the American response to the expected public health crisis in Iraq. A USAID colleague called him the “single most talented and experienced post-conflict health specialist working for the United States government.”

A week after Baghdad’s liberation, Burkle was informed that he was being replaced. A senior official as USAID told him that the White House wanted a “loyalist” in the job. Burkle had a wall of degrees, but he didn’t have a picture of himself with the president.

Burkle’s job was handed to James K. Haveman, Jr., a sixty-year-old social worker who was largely unknown among international health experts. He had no medical degree, but he had connections. He had been the community health director for the former Republican governor of Michigan, Jon Engler, who recommended him to Wolfowitz.

You will read about Custer Battles, a company that was created by a couple of thieves who created bogus proposals and did not provide to the military or the CPA what they were asked for, but received millions of dollars for doing just that.

Two months later, Custer Battles representatives accidentally left a spreadsheet on a conference table after a meeting with CPA officials. There, in black and white, were the numbers showing the company had billed the CPA $9,801,550 for work that had cost $3,738,592–a markup of 162%. There was the helipad in Mosul, for instance, that took $97,000 to build but was invoiced at $175,000. William Baldwin, Custer Battles’s facilities manager, wrote in an e-mail that “every line intem on that invoice” was “false, fabricated, inflated.”

You will read about government contractors who use internationally outlawed bullets that cause monumental damage and can do so because nobody is watching them.

You will read about Jerry Bremer, a novice who had no experience in post-conflict situations, but was hired for political reasons. His vision for Iraq was nothing close to the realities on the ground. When requesting “supplemental funding” for the occupation, Bremer requests millions of dollars for zip codes and wireless internet service for Iraqis who don’t have electricity, running water, food, or medicine.

You will read about the internal fighting between the State Department and the Petagon, CPA control over the first Iraqi-run “independent” television channel, the incompetent fool put in charge of running the higher education system, the 1970 tourist guide to Iraq that a CPA staffer used to study the country he was supposed to fix, the disasters of de-Baathification, the lies and incompentence that were ever present as electricity returned to below Saddam-time levels, and many more horror stories that will leave you pushing your jaw back up to your mouth and pulling your eyes back in their sockets.

The opportunity to transform and rebuild Iraq was there, but it was miserably squandered. Experienced and knowledgeable staff were widely available, but they were rejected or fired because they weren’t loyal enough to the GOP and Bush’s Iraq agenda. The US tax-payer money was available too, but it was strewn around to well-connected corporations that never met the standards or end products they promised to the US officials.

The first year after the US invasion of Iraq laid the foundation for what we see today: a crippled economy, a crippled population, and a crippled ‘government’. There was nothing done right from the start, and now it’s too broken to fix. Put the sects and ethnicities aside, the utter incompetence of the US government in first year in Iraq is unforgivable.

What went wrong?! Read the book and you’ll know.

Jun

21

Fatah’s Abu Ghraib and US Ups Aid for Israel

June 21, 2007 | 7 Comments

More developments on the current situation in the Occupied Territories as news continues to surface about what really occurred during the past two weeks, as well as what the future holds for this conflict.

The first item should not surprise anyone. The US has decided to reward Israel for it’s good behavior and it’s continued successful occupation of Palestinian land and oppression of the Palestinian people.

In a White House statement issued following Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s visit to Washington, President George W. Bush pledged to increase US military aid to Israel over the course of the next decade. An American team will land in Israel in July to finalize the deal. Israel currently receives an annual $2.4 billion in military aid.

“I am strongly committed to Israel’s security and viability as a Jewish state, and to the maintenance of its qualitative military edge,” said Bush in the statement.

As Gaza recovers from the turmoil over the past two weeks, evidence of Fatah’s torturous activities are coming to surface. A notorious intellegince service building reminiscent of the now infamous Abu Ghraib is now under Hamas control and available for the public to visit the “chamber of horrors.”

The headquarters of the Fatah-controlled security force in Gaza have been open to the public since last Thursday. Every day is open house now.

For years the complex was a symbol of the horror disseminated by the security forces that reported directly to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. This is where Hamas men were taken after Fatah had arrested them. Some of those lucky enough to be eventually released reported that they had been tortured. Others disappeared forever.

Last, but certainly not least, the two faced Arab regimes are planning to meet to discuss the recent developments, under the auspices of King Mubarak who never misses an opportunity to take attention off of his regime’s countless human rights violations (most recently in the early rounds of parliamentary elections):

Egypt moved forcefully Thursday to isolate Hamas, calling a regional summit next week including the Israelis and Palestinians and shunning contacts with the militant group after its takeover of Gaza.

Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia have said the sole legitimate Palestinian government is the West Bank-based Cabinet formed by Abbas, who dissolved the power-sharing government between his Fatah group and Hamas following Gaza’s fall.

Egypt moved its embassy from Gaza to the West Bank, and Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit indicated Cairo was shunning Hamas officials.

The plan is to restart the peace process. If history is any indicator, they will have some meetings, make some statements, and a couple pledges, and then go back to oppressing their own subjects while the US will continue to pledge more aid to Israel.

That’s all folks! Stay tuned for the next episode of Looney Tunes.

Jun

20

Good Reads on the Palestinian Crisis

June 20, 2007 | 4 Comments

What Hamas Wants by Ahmed Yousef (NY Times)

The events in Gaza over the last few days have been described in the West as a coup. In essence, they have been the opposite. Eighteen months ago, our Hamas Party won the Palestinian parliamentary elections and entered office under Prime Minister Ismail Haniya but never received the handover of real power from Fatah, the losing party. The Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, has now tried to replace the winning Hamas government with one of his own, returning Fatah to power while many of our elected members of Parliament languish in Israeli jails. That is the real coup.

West chooses Fatah, but Palestinians don’t by Saree Makdisi (LA Times)

Palestinians, frankly, see a lot of hypocrisy in the West’s anti-Hamas stance. Since last year’s election, for example, the West has denied aid to the Hamas government, arguing, among other things, that Hamas refuses to recognize Israel. But that’s absurd; after all, Israel does not recognize Palestine either. Hamas is accused of not abiding by previous agreements. But Israel’s suspension of tax revenue transfers to the Palestinian Authority, and its refusal to implement a Gaza-West Bank road link agreement brokered by the U.S. in November 2005, are practical, rather than merely rhetorical, violations of previous agreements, causing infinitely more damage to ordinary people. Hamas is accused of mixing religion and politics, but no one has explained why its version of that mixture is any worse than Israel’s — or why a Jewish state is acceptable but a Muslim one is not.

Palestinians must have hope to move forward by Mona El-Farra (check out her blog)

In 2006, Hamas won free and fair elections on a platform that promised clean and efficient government. But Israel and the West meddled with our democratically elected choice by imposing devastating economic sanctions. How would Americans feel if a foreign power expressed its dissatisfaction with your elected government in this way? Our economy and our livelihoods have been destroyed, reducing many of us to poverty.

Jun

19

Classic Divide and Conquer

June 19, 2007 | 4 Comments

One of my favorite things to do is ‘watch’ the media after a certain event and see how the creative minds start playing on words. With the recent turmoil in the Occupied Territories, the ‘buzz words’ are all too common. From ‘Hamastan’ to ‘Fatahland’ to ‘West Bank First’, when the word comes out, the rest of the media latch on to it and forget about every other word in the dictionary. By now you’ve probably heard most of them. By now you realize that most of them don’t make sense and are being used to sensationalize the news more than anything else. In my view, the way the media plays on this terminology, especially with regards to the conflict in Gaza and the West Bank, only serves to create more tensions and play on the divisions that have resulted from the recent events. And that’s just the media.

The politicians too like to play on these words. They also like to put their words into action. Thankfully, there are some people who see beyond these failed policies. Maybe Iraq has opened up our eyes to the realities of civil war and how we can be the cause of it. Let me point you to a couple of good pieces that highlight the dangers of pumping up Fateh against Hamas at this sensitive time.

In the Washington Post, Robert Malley and Aaron David Miller write in “Don’t (West) Bank on It“:

Having embraced one illusion — that it could help isolate and defeat Hamas — the Bush administration is dangerously close to embracing another: Gaza is dead, long live the West Bank. This approach appears compelling. Flood the West Bank with money, boost Fatah security forces and create a meaningful negotiating process. The Palestinian people, drawn to a recovering West Bank and repelled by the nightmare of an impoverished Gaza, will rally around the more pragmatic of the Palestinians.

They add that this will not happen, and that Hamas’ isolation since its election has only garnered more anger towards the US than the Islamic party.

The diplomatic equivalent of the medical precept is do no harm. Since Hamas’s electoral victory, U.S. policy has helped strengthen radical forces, debilitate Palestinian institutions, undermine faith in democracy, weaken Abbas and set back the peace process. Why ask for more of the same?

An editorial in the Financial Times urges the West not to pick sides:

An international response to these woeful events is now coming into view. But the path signalled by the US and Europe looks dangerously close to an attempt to micromanage and to pick sides in an internal Palestinian dispute.

The west’s attitude has been hypocritical. First, the US and Europe encouraged elections, but when Hamas won, they cut off direct aid. Now the European Union is likely to resume direct aid to an emergency government set up by decree.

Behind the new international consensus is the goal of making the West Bank an exemplar of the benefits of co-operating with the west and renouncing terrorism. There is also a desire to limit contacts with Gaza to providing humanitarian aid and ensuring that essential staff are not left destitute. The champions of this approach are the US and Israel, but, as the biggest donor to the Palestinians, the EU also matters.

This of course, will not happen. The idea is that the West Bank will become a ‘model’ and the Palestinians in Gaza will be so jealous that they will reject Hamas’ influence.

With Hamas, which the White House regards as a terrorist group, now firmly in control of Gaza, the Bush administration is pursuing what some have called a “West Bank first” strategy in which money, aid and international political recognition would be heaped on the West Bank, enabling Mr. Abbas to develop a showcase government there that would attract support from ordinary Palestinians.

Naive assumptions indeed. The fact is, Fateh has been in power for decades and has not been able to make either the WB or Gaza a ‘model’. Why should we believe that they will suddenly shape up and actually allow the millions of aid dollars they receive to benefit the Palestinians? Why should we believe that they will suddenly be able to negotiate deals with Israel to loosen some restrictions in the West Bank such as the checkpoints? This is all wishful thinking. Worse, it’s outright deception that the Palestinian people will not fall for because they have first hand experience of Fateh’s tactics and it’s governing ability.

In the Guardian, Jonathan Freedland does a good job of explaining the reasons why the ‘West Bank First’ option will not work:

It sounds logical enough. Nurture a flowering Fatahland while pariah Hamastan withers away. But it is surely a delusion. The first and most obvious danger is that the more generous the west is to Abbas, the more his credibility will be destroyed.

Besides, the whole idea rests on a series of faulty assumptions. First, it assumes that Israel will indeed come through with the goodies it promises. On this, the record is not encouraging.

Ironically, what could happen is that Gaza will become the more safe and stable of the two. Already, it seems that Hamas is doing well at providing security by collecting weapons through house to house searches and encouraging residents to get back to their normal lives. With Dahlan’s gangs no longer roaming the streets, many people in Gaza are finally able to get back to their daily routines. That is, before the fuel supply runs out thanks to the Israeli company that stopped providing it to Gaza. But the reality of the situation is that Hamas has been able to keep things running for the past 18 months since the international community imposed sanctions on the Palestinian people.

Palestinians have endured a lot. And hopefully, they can overcome this pressure to divide them and further destabilize the Occupied Territories. Then the focus can be shifted back to the real cause of this turmoil: the illegal Israeli occupation that has rendered the territories incapable of being governed in any realistic or independent way.

Jun

17

You Do Democracy, We Do Hypocrisy

June 17, 2007 | 7 Comments

Let’s review the latest:

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has sworn in a new emergency government that excludes his Islamist rivals, Hamas, who have seized control of Gaza.

Mr Abbas also issued decrees enabling new Prime Minister Salam Fayyad to rule without parliamentary approval and outlawing all of Hamas’s armed forces.

Mr Fayyad’s predecessor, Ismail Haniya, has said the new government is illegal.

Israel’s government said a non-Hamas administration would create a fresh opportunity for a partnership in peace.

Right, so a non-democratic administration would create opportunities for peace. Why was nothing accomplished before Hamas came into power? Oh yeah, back then it was “Yasir Arafat” that was the problem. But wait, what about when Abbas was in power? Nevermind, he’s the lame duck puppet, it’s not fair to blame him for acheiving nothing. Maybe we should give him a second chance?

The US has also said there will be no obstacles to re-engaging with the new Palestinian government.

Ok, so let’s go around preaching democracy, but when it doesn’t float our boat, then we say scrap it and let’s stick with the dictatorships. Maybe we should get back to using that darn Road Map. Nevermind, the Israelis don’t like it. Maybe we should try Mapquest.

In an unprecedented move, the sole supplier of fuel to the Gaza Strip, Israeli company Dor Alon, in cooperation with the Israeli ministry of defence, has ceased to supply fuel to Gaza. Israeli sources announced on Sunday that the company decided to halt supply in the aftermath of the internal Palestinian conflict and Hamas ascension to power in the strip.

The Israeli government has denied the reports and claimed that were Dor Alon to cease supply to Gaza, it would be set to lose millions of shekels in revenues.

Israeli observers estimate the fuel to run out in the Gaza Strip within 2 or 3 days if Israel does not resume its supplies.

Well, maybe it’s not enough to just starve those damn Palestinians. We might as well cut the fuel supply so they won’t be able to cook whatever scraps of food they have or move from one place to another. It’s not like they have jobs anyway, they might as well stay home and wait for their death.

The media advisor of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), Adnan Abu Hasnah, warned of a humanitarian disaster in the Gaza Strip if the Israel-imposed siege continues.

“The situation was bad before this new crisis and if the closure continues, there will be a humanitarian disaster,” said Abu Hasnah.

Hasnah added that UNRWA has food reserves to last for just three weeks in the Gaza Strip. “We don’t want to use these food reserves as they are allocated for services to 870,000 Gazan refugees,” he said.

Right. Moving on.

A decree signed by Mr Abbas allowed him to swear in the new cabinet and gave it the power to make decisions without the approval of parliament, in which Hamas has a majority.
A second decree outlawed a Hamas paramilitary force, the Executive Force, and other “militias” linked to the group.

Approval of parliament? PUH-LEEZ! We’re beyond those ‘democratic’ procedures. Oh, and Dahlan’s milita? They’re not so bad, really. They need not be included in the decree.

Israel will recognise a Palestinian government that does not contain ministers from Hamas, Ehud Olmert said before departing for a visit to the US.

Great. The Hamas problem has been solved. Now let’s go get some money from those Yankees! YEEEEEEEEHAAAAAAAWWWWW!

Now THAT’S what we call chutzpah.

Jun

15

Are You HAPPY Now???

June 15, 2007 | 11 Comments

I don’t know what to think anymore. Don’t know who to blame. Who’s at fault? I think we’re competing with Africa at the moment, with regard to civil wars. The Middle East that is. It begs the question, who benefits from this?

Arab dictators? The US? Israel? Strategic allies? Or is the Arab people?

I have so many thoughts that I can’t possibly convey them coherently. So I’m just going to write what’s on my mind without much regard for writing style.

- When the news broke that Hamas had taken over Fatah controlled ministries and areas, CNN.com wrote that Hamas has taken the first step to declaring Gaza an Islamic state. One question: they won the elections in Jan 2006, if they wanted to declare an Islamic state, wouldn’t they have done it then? It’s amazing how just adding that little fabrication can make the story so much more juicy, “taking the first step to declaring an Islamic state“…oooooooooooh!

- It’s clear that Fatah, and more specifically the Fatah cronies who have been swallowing up all the money in the PA, are furious and have reached a boiling point because of the power they lost to Hamas last January. For months now, we’ve heard that the US, Egypt, and even Israel have provided financial and military aid to Fatah and even trained and armed their forces to battle it out with Hamas. If that’s not creating instability, I don’t know what is. If that’s not fomenting civil war, I DON’T KNOW WHAT IS.

- Dahlan and his henchmen miss their BMW’s, they monthly trips to Europe, and their gluttonous lifestyles which they lost at the hands of the Palestinian public during the democratic elections. They are like hungry animals who have been starved and now are willing to do anything to take things back the way they have been for the past few decades.

- Surely, both sides of this battle have committed crimes and atrocities. Humans can easily loose sight of the end goal when politics, greed, money, and power are involved. They turn into criminals easily.

- In the end, I’m not going to say that Palestinians are savages who have turned against one another. DON’T TELL ME that we like to blame others for our own faults.

What is happening in Gaza right now is a DIRECT RESULT of the following:

1. the oppressive Israeli occupation that has imprisoned more than 1.4 million Palestinians in one of the highest density areas in the world, severly limiting access to the outside world, to water, and to the most basic human needs.

2. the brutal sanctions that the international community has imposed on the Palestinian people after they democratically elected Hamas in Jan. 2006.

3. the manipulative leaders of the Arab world who would rather see the occupied territories descend into chaos than stand up in the face of the United States and their strategic interests. Mubarak is relishing the fact that the news in Gaza is overshadowing his government’s own crimes during the 1st round of parliamentary elections. Keep reporting on Gaza, we’d rather not disturb you with news of our transparent, free, and fair elections.

Each and every one of these parties has Palestinian blood on their hands. I can almost hear them snickering, smirks across their faces, as they watch Palestinians go at each other. How patient can a human being possibly be? How much can one possibly handle?

What would I do if I couldn’t visit my sister who lived 20 minutes away because of the whim of an Israeli soldier? What would I do if I could not afford to put food on my table because the world has deemed me an animal for voting for the ‘wrong’ party? What would if I couldn’t move, couldn’t eat, couldn’t work, couldn’t play, couldn’t BREATHE in my own home? What would I do if I was imprisoned in my own home without any charge, without the right to even claim that I am being wronged?

I think I would be satisfied to know that some of the most powerful forces in the world are finally HAPPY NOW.

Jun

11

Photoblog: End the Occupation Protest in DC

June 11, 2007 | 7 Comments

I attended the rally this weekend in front of the US Capitol building to protest the Israeli occupation of Palestinian land and the continued US support for it. I heard about this rally a few months ago, and had hoped that it would be as big as the one in DC a few years ago which attracted about 40,000 people from around the country. This one was not nearly as big, although it was well advertised.

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I’m bad at estimates, but I think I heard the number 5,000 being thrown around. Regardless, the people that showed up were pumped up and excited to be there. The speakers were good, and it was nice to that the organizers chose to include some ‘activist performances’ featuring local artists. The video below gives you a glimpse of that. (More videos of the march here and here.)

I think that people here are better at “reacting” to certain events like the Intifada or the invasion of Lebanon last summer. People forget about the suffering in the occupied territories because the media isn’t talking it about it. And I think many people are simply tired of protesting. Which is not a bad thing, as long as they’re doing something else instead. Something proactive and effective. I personally am not a big fan of those who show up to a rally once a year and forget that Palestine exists the rest of the time.

It’s easy to take the train to the protest, chant a little, carry a sign, and drag yourself home. It’s harder to write letters to your congressmen, to the editors of your local paper, to organize awareness events in your community about the occupatin, to host a documentary film screening at your school, and all the other things that take more effort than a mere 3 hours at a rally downtown. And by far the most important thing we can do for our cause, is educate ourselves about it.

Nothing bothers me more than someone who can’t answer a simple question about the occupation and they go on and on about how much they care for Palestine. If you care that much, pick up a book, read some independent news, follow blogs from Palestine, and learn about the history of this conflict, the current situation, and the future prospects. Attending a protest is but a drop in the sea of activism for this cause. Don’t let your momentum stop there.
Kudos to the organizers and sponsors of the rally, and to those who came out to support this cause.

Click on the thumbnails below to see the full size pictures or visit my Flickr page.

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