The almost nine-year U.S. occupation of Iraq led to the deaths of at least 134,000 Iraqi civilians and contributed to the deaths of hundreds of thousands more. Many in Iraq continue to suffer the consequences of the invasion.
Dahr Jamail talking:
the situation in Iraq today, 10 years after the U.S.-led invasion and occupation began, its just utter devastation. Its a situation where, overall, we can say that Iraq is a failed state. The economy is in a state of crisis, perpetual crisis, that began far back with the institution of the 100 Bremer orders duringunder the Coalition Provisional Authority, the civil government set up to run Iraq during the first year of the occupation. And its been in crisis ever since.
The average Iraqi is just barely getting by. And how can they get by when theres virtually no security across much large swaths of country to this day, where, you know, as we see in the headlines recently, even when theres not these dramatic, spectacular days of dozens of people being killed by bombs across Baghdad and other parts of Iraq, on any given day theres assassinations, theres detentions, theres abductions and people being disappeared and kidnapped? One of the demands, for example, of the ongoing Sunni protests in Fallujah and across much of Al Anbar province is to ban silencer weapons, as they describe them, because there are so many hidden executions happening. Iraq has basically become a lawless state where the government is laughingly referred to oftentimes as the “sidewalks government,” because one of the only things visible that theyve actually accomplished is to install some new sidewalks across parts of Baghdad.
But its really hard to describe the amount of devastation. I mean, were having to talk about a country where, since 2003 began, we can cite the Lancet study that was published in the peer-reviewed Lancet medical journal in 2006, which way back in that time, seven years agoexcuse me, seven years ago now, found 655,000 excess deaths in Iraq. And thats now a grossly outdated study, particularly given the level of violence we saw in 2006, 2007, and the low-level chronic violence that perpetuates to this day.
I think all of this is a direct result ofeither direct or indirectly a result of the U.S. invasion and occupation and the strategy applied. I mean, we saw something come out just last week in a joint investigation of BBC Arabic and The Guardian, which gave hard evidence, insider evidence, of the machinations of the U.S. using retired Lieutenant Colonel James Steele, infamous during the Reagan administration of orchestrating so many of the death squads in Central America along with Negroponte. Well, Negroponte happened to be the U.S. ambassador to Iraq for some of the occupation and, of course, brought in his old buddy James Steele to set up the same types of tactics, the detentions, the types of torture techniques that were seeing rampant across todayacross Iraq today, the blatant attempts to foment sectarian violence, sort of a divide-and-conquer policy. Even Rumsfeld, former Secretary of Defense Don Rumsfeld under Bush, back around 2006, 2007, referred to kind of casually using the “Salvador Option” in Iraq, and thats precisely what he was describing.
So, the sectarianism fomented where, you know, we dont have a natural sectarianism or animosities between the sects in Iraq, but it was only after the occupation began and these strategies were applied by the Bush administration that we saw the violence, the purging in the mixed neighborhoods, that continues to this day, and the sectarianism, and basically turning Iraqis against one another very effectively. And this is a direct result of the Bush administration policy, as well as bringing in Maliki as prime minister himself.
We have to remember that when neoconservative Zalmay Khalilzad was the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, Maliki was basically the guy that the U.S. government and Iran could agree with as having as prime minister. And so, there wasnt a whole lot of democracy involved in that whatsoever. I say, tongue in cheek, he was basically appointed by Zalmay Khalilzad and agreed upon by the powers that be in Iran, and he of course remains prime minister to this day despiteweve had elections that clearly he has not won, yet he remains in power.
James Steele is a veteran of that kind of tactic. This goes way back to the 80s all across Central America, which, you know, he clearly had plenty of opportunity to streamline his techniques. And that type of torture described in the clip that you just played is rampant.
The story that I did, talking primarily about the tactics and strategies being used by Malikis security forces, and particularly within the prisonsfirst of all, we have a situation where detentions across Iraq, primarily in Sunni-dominated parts of Baghdad, as well as in areas like Fallujah, predominantly Sunni cities, where people are being detained, en masse at times, nightly home raids, same type of stuff that the U.S. military used when they were in Iraq. And then the types of torture being described coming out of the prisons is truly horrific: people being hung by their ankles for days at a time while their heads are in buckets of water on the ground; people having their hands tied behind their backs and then hung from their hands for sometimes days at a time; electrical shock being used on peoples limbs, on their genitals, on their tongues; men being raped by broom handles as well as bottles; women in prison being raped. I spoke with one woman released just over a week ago at this point, talking about how she had been in prison for four years and was raped repeatedly by Iraqi forces.
Other types of techniques being usedand again, all of this comes back to the types of workings of Colonel James Steele, where as people are beingmen are being threatened. And I interviewed several Iraqis who said this, that when they were detained, they said, “Look, they threatened me that if I didnt talk and give them the information they wanted or give them some names that would help them acquire the information that they wanted,” that their sisters, their mothers, their wives would be brought in and raped repeatedly in front of them. So, of course people would just start giving them anything that they thought they wanted to hear.
But the types of torture is ongoing. Its rampant. Its one of the driving factors as to why were seeing massive Friday protests now, well into the three month, across Al Anbar province and the Adhamiyah district of Baghdad, where Sunnis are demanding a halt for the detentions, a halt of the so-called Article 4, which is the legislation passed and being used in the Iraqi government thatbasically where they took a page out of the Bush playbook of giving them carte blanche to arrest anybody for any reasons under the guise of terrorism charges, of suspected terrorism, and then they can be held indefinitely. I spoke with people both at Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch about this, and they said one of the problems now is, its the detentions and the being held secretly is so rampant now by the Iraqi security forces that there isnt really even a need for secret prisons anymore. Remember a ways back, we hadit all came out that there were secret Maliki prisons. Well, now, today in Iraq, theyre referringtheyre being referred to by a lot of Iraqis as “secret prisoners,” because people are being detained, their families arenttheres no law requiring that the families be notified, nobody knows where these people are. They can be held in any prison anywhere in broad daylight, because no name is being registered anywhere. So, literally, we have untold numbers of people being detained, being treated horrifically.
And as people in Fallujah have told me, they said, “Look, we think that the Maliki regime tactics are even worse than the Americans,” because when the Americanswhen they detain people, there was at least hope that they would eventually be released, and likelihood that they would. Under Maliki, that hope is gone; theres not a hope. The Fallujahns also referred to as the Americans therefore being at least somewhat more merciful than the tactics being employed by the Maliki regime, because people are being detained and not being heard from again, except in one instance, I interviewed the mother of a young man. He was 17 years old when he was detained. He was held for a year and a half. They never could find him, until she received a phone call from him saying, “Look, Ive been a prisoner in these prisons, and Im getting one last phone call to say goodbye to you, because tomorrow Im going to be executed.”
The U.N. special rapporteur covering this topic has calledactually over a year ago, called for the Maliki administration to cease and desist all executions that are planned, because there is no fairno due process happening in Iraq. Theres no trials happening, basically kangaroo courts for some of those that are going to be executed and on death row. And absolutely, since the death penalty was reinstated, its just been a flood of executions, and the current number of known people that the government admits to on death row is 3,000 people. Sometimes were seeing as many as 12 to 20 executions on any given day. Non-Iraqi citizens have been executed, including people from Syria and Saudi Arabia. Women are being executed, as well as people who are under the age of 18. So, its clearly out of control. Human rights groups like Human Rights Watch, who I spoke with about this, have all called for a cessation of the ongoing executions that are happening, because, really, the Maliki government is just, you know, carrying these things out with impunity, so to speak.
And so, you know, I contacted someone within Iraqs Ministry of Justice, and the spokesperson who basically said, “Look, weif something happens in the United States, we see that theres so much outcry. You know, like the crimes of 9/11, for example, theres so much outcry, and people want to see people punished.” And he said, “Why isnt it the same for Iraq?” was his justification. And, in fact, he went on so far as to say, “We have a right to do this. And, in fact, I think that in order to bring more comfort to the families of the victims of crimes, we should have public hangings and public executions in Iraq.”
Overall, the country has seen a massive increase in cancer rates from the 1991 Gulf War up to present, even according to official Iraqi government statistics. In 1991, for example, there were 40 registered cases of cancer out of 100,000 Iraqis. By 1995, four years after that war, that number had jumped to 800 out of 100,000 Iraqis.
The most recent statistic, Ill end with, before I get into Fallujah. And what these images are showing is that in 2005 we saw 1,600 Iraqis with cancer out of 100,000, so a massive escalation that continues.
And going on to Fallujah, because I wrote about this a year ago, and then I returned to the city again this trip, we are seeing an absolute crisis of congenital malformations of newborn. There is one doctor, a pediatrician named Dr. Samira Alani, working on this crisis in the city. Shes the only person there registering cases. And shes seeing horrific birth defects. I mean, these are extremely hard to look at. Theyre extremely hard to bear witness to. But its something that we all need to pay attention to, because of the amount of depleted uranium used by the U.S. military during both of their brutal attacks on the city of 2004, as well as other toxic munitions like white phosphorus, among other things.
And so, what this has generated is, from 2004 up to this day, we are seeing a rate of congenital malformations in the city of Fallujah that has surpassed even that in the aftermath ofin the wake of the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki that werethat nuclear bombs were dropped on at the end of World War II. So, Dr. Samira Alani actually visited with doctors in Japan, comparing statistics, and found that the amount of congenital malformations in Fallujah is 14 times greater than the same rate measured in the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan in the aftermath of the nuclear bombings. These types of birth defects, she saidthere are types of congenital malformations that she said they dont even have medical terms for, that some of the things theyre seeing, theyve never seen before. Theyre not in any of the books or any of the scientific literature that they have access to. She said its common now in Fallujah for newborns to come out with massive multiple systemic defects, immune problems, massive central nervous system problems, massive heart problems, skeletal disorders, babys being born with two heads, babies being born with half of their internal organs outside of their bodies, cyclops babies literally with one eyereally, really, really horrific nightmarish types of birth defects. And it is ongoing.
And shelastly, to really give you an idea of the scope of the problem, is that this is happening now at a massive rate. And she said her being the only person cataloging and registering cases, with no help from Baghdad, who is denying that theres some sort of problem like this in Fallujahshe said that she could probably safely estimate that the number of cases, as high as the rate that shes seeing, could probably be doubled, because so many people are having their babies at home and just taking care of it. You know, most of these babies are being born dead, and then theyre not reporting it whatsoever. So, this is an ongoing crisis. And the rate has not increased since last year, but its not decreased, either. It was stillwhen I talked to her last year, it was 14 times greater rate of malformations in newborns as compared to the aftermath areas of the nuclear bombings in Japan, and its the same when I spoke with her about this one week ago.
The Pentagon has admitted to using several hundred tons during the ’91 Gulf War. It’s hard to get official figures from them from this currentthe most recent war, where certainly theyve admitted that it was used, but weyou know, figures range anywhere from another couple of hundred tons upwards to 800 tons. Theres been no official statement, that Ive seen anyway, from the Pentagon talking about the effects of these weapons either on the Iraqi civilian population or members of the U.S. military who use them, like the person in the clip that you played earlier.
International law is very clear about these types of weapons: Any weapon that is known to have a lasting negative impact on the civilian population in the general area where it is used is technically a banned or a highly restricted weapon. And in this case, these types of weapons should not be allowed to be used. As I reported back in 2004, when it came out that white phosphorus was indeed being used in Fallujah, thats another restricted weapon where the Geneva Conventions state very clearly that if there are anya possibility of any civilians in the area where it is going to be used, it is not allowed to be used. So therethe Geneva Conventions are very, very clear about these.
And this brings up a broader point about the war. As we heard in an earlier clip from Michael Moore talking about the illegality of the war, its good to hear this brought back into the discourse. Another individual, Robert Jensen, wrote an extremely poignant piece about the illegality of the war for Truthout just yesterday. And I think its important that we all remember on the anniversary that this was a war that violated the Geneva Convention. It is a crime against peace, according to the Nuremberg Principles. And all those responsibleBush, Cheney, Wolfowitzall the architects of the war, if the U.S. was indeed a member of the International Criminal Court, should be handled accordingly. And I think its important that we remember the illegality of this and that this continues and that these crimes, started 10 years ago, that were perpetuated against the Iraqi people, that we see now most blatantly in these birth defects of these people in Fallujah, should never have even happened.
at the height of the sectarian bloodletting in 2006, 2007, there were over four million refugees, roughly half of them in the country, half of them who had fled the country, largely to Syria and to Jordan. To this day, according to official Iraqi government statistics, theres 1.1 million internally displaced persons in Iraq. The majority of those are in Baghdad. Most of them have fled from sectarian cleansings of the aforementioned years and from the mixed neighborhoods where they had used to live or the mixed villages, and into oftentimes primarily Sunni areas, seeking refuge.
So, theyre not getting really any help whatsoever from the government. Theyre living in horrible situations. And it was really a poignant thing to witness, Amy, because despite these people living in really difficult conditions, oftentimes living amongst giant piles of garbage, you walk in, and as per Iraqi Arab custom, youre offered a drink, although even in so many of these cases people only had literally a glass of water that they couldthey could offer you, despite the fact that theyre living with no government assistance and help, and basically no hope for a future, of “Where are we going to go from here? How is the situation in any way going to improve for us?” when things look so bleak, with a government in gridlock, and it looking like were poised for another massive increase in sectarian violence.
as bad as things were under Saddamand we have to keep in mind this perspective of Saddam in the wake of a brutal eight-year war with Iran and then the genocidal sanctions for 13 years, from 1991 up until the beginning of this invasion in March 2003as bad as it was under Saddam, with the repression and the detentions and the torture and the killings, the overall feeling of Iraqis today, in Baghdad and other places in Iraq where I went this trip, was that things are much worse now. Theres lessfar less security. You dont really know where you can go and what you can do and know that youre going to have any kind of safety. “Any time that we send our kids out to school now,” is what I was told, “we dont know for sure on any given day that theyre going to come back.” And so, the prevailing sentiment is that, yes, it was good initially to have Saddam removed, but people are still concerned with basic things like security, an economy stable enough to be able to have a job to work, to have food and provide something for your family. And these things just no longer exist today in Iraq. So the prevailing sentiment is that its far worse now even than it was under Saddam Hussein.
— source democracynow.org
Dahr Jamail, investigative journalist who has just returned from Iraq. He was one of a handful of unembedded journalists to extensively cover the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, and has spent a year reporting from Iraq between 2003 and the 10th anniversary of the war. His most recent stories for Al Jazeera include “Malikis Iraq: Rape, Executions and Torture” and “Iraq: Wars Legacy of Cancer.” Hes also the author of Beyond the Green Zone: Dispatches from an Unembedded Journalist in Occupied Iraq and The Will to Resist: Soldiers Who Refuse to Fight in Iraq and Afghanistan.