Mission & Justice

8/5/08

Iraqis employed at the British embassy in Baghdad’s Green Zone claim to have been sexually abused, the Times has reported. The British Foreign Office has received complaints from an Iraqi cleaner and two cooks that a culture of sexual harassment, abuse and bullying exists at the embassy, the report said Thursday. Accusations have been made against British employees of the US service company KBR which was responsible for catering at several embassies in Baghdad.

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Conor Foley; 6/5/08

The latest charges brought against Tareq Aziz, the deputy prime minister of Iraq under Saddam Hussein, have reignited debate about the legality of the Iraq war. The specific charge that he now faces is of ordering the summary execution of a group of rice merchants. However, the campaign group Indict is also calling for him to be charged with war crimes, genocide, crimes against humanity and the crime of aggression. This final charge, which centers on his role in launching the invasions of Iran and Kuwait, brings inevitable comparisons with the US-led invasion of Iraq five years ago. Indeed, it is difficult to see how a legal distinction between Iraq’s invasion of Iran in 1980 and some of the justifications that supporters of the invasion of Iraq now rely upon.

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6/5/08

Sunni extremists have killed three prostitutes and wounded two others in a brothel attack in the northern city of mosul, Iraqi police said on Tuesday. The insurgents knocked on the apartment’s door Monday and shouted at the women that they had been warned before not to carry out prostitution, said a police official, speaking on condition of anonymity. The militants then opened fire on the apartment, he said, citing testimony from one of the wounded women.

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Linda Heard; 6/5/08

It doesn’t look as though Americans in Iraq are going anywhere anytime soon. Officially Iraq’s sovereignty was handed back to its rightful owners years ago, which means the occupiers remain in the country at the invitation of the Iraqi government. OK, try not to laugh! Fact is the occupying power is digging in for the long haul and there is little the Iraqi leadership can do about it even if it wanted to. When challenged about their supersized, superfortified embassy sprouting on prime land — which one must assume was sequestered rather than gifted by Iraq — and their mushrooming permanent military bases, the Americans cite the postwar German/Japan models. in other words, they are saying the victor has a perfect right to hang around the necks of the vanquished in perpetuity.

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5/5/08

Five years after the invasion of Iraq by allied forces the situation there is no better for Iraqi citizens. Sadly, there are a significant minority of civilians there who claim that things are much worse than when Saddam Hussain ruled, despite his dictatorship. It is a poor reflection on the combined efforts of the allies, principally led by the US, and underscores the complete failure of the US administration to fully prepare for events following its incursion into Iraqi territory. The US points, selectively, to limited areas where a measure of success can be perceived, only to realise that some hours or days later there is a reversal of fortune and the terrorists have taken the initiative and are in control once again. The constant swings of the pendulum of success sap the strength of the military and undermines their efficiency while discrediting their efforts in Iraqi eyes.

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4/5/08

A US rocket damaged a hospital in the Iraqi capital’s violent Shiite stronghold of Sadr City on Saturday, wounding 28 people as American forces claimed to have killed 14 militants in the district. The US military said it used a rocket system in an attack on militants in Sadr City that witnesses earlier reported was an air strike. An AFP reporter at the scene said the district’s main Al-Sadr hospital was badly damaged and a fleet of ambulances was destroyed.

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1/5/08

May 1 marks the fifth anniversary since George Bush, the US president, declared all major military operations in Iraq to be over, in a speech on the USS Abraham Lincoln warship as a banner proclaiming “mission accomplished” hung in the background. However, five years on from the declaration, there have been more than 4,000 US military deaths and hundreds of thousands of Iraqis have been killed or fled the country while the fighting against the presence of US-led troops in the country is ongoing. Here is a selection of comments from George Bush, the US president, and other senior White House figures, on the aftermath of the war in Iraq.

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Editorial: 1/5/08

Tariq Aziz, whose trial began yesterday in Baghdad was always the acceptable face of Saddam’s dictatorship. As Iraq’s long-serving foreign minister and former deputy premier, he moved easily through Western capitals, first securing covert US backing for Saddam’s disastrous war on Iran and later seeking to fend off George Bush’s determination to avenge his father’s post-First Gulf War humiliation and destroy Saddam once and for all. Aziz is a man who knows many secrets, some of them extremely awkward for the Americans. Maybe he will use his trial for the murder of 40 Baghdadi merchants to reveal them. In his own way, Aziz has proved himself a man of some principles. In the wake of Saddam’s capture, the US offered him a pardon if he would testify against his old chief. He refused repeatedly. It could be argued that he is therefore now being tried as much for that loyalty as for the crimes of which he is accused.

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30/4/08

A second US military aircraft carrier has been placed in the Gulf as a “reminder” of the country’s power in the region. Robert Gates, the US secretary of state, made the comments on a trip to Mexico City on Tuesday, but added that the addition was temporary. He said that the move was not an escalation of US forces in the region or a precursor to military action against Iran. “This deployment has been planned for a long time,” he said. I don’t think we’ll have two carriers there for a protracted period of time. So I don’t see it as an escalation. “I think it could be seen, though, as a reminder.”

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Deborah Haynes; 30/4/08

Tariq Aziz, once the international face of Saddam Hussein’s regime, appeared earlier today in a Baghdad court accused of playing a part in the execution of a group of businessmen more than 15 years ago. Mr Aziz, the former deputy prime minister and foreign minister, and seven others are accused of killing 42 merchants in 1992 after blaming them for raising food prices when Iraq was suffering under UN sanctions. He denies the charge. Among his co-defendants is Ali Hasan al-Majid, better known as “Chemical Ali”, who is already on death row. The trial - presided over by the same judge who sentenced Saddam to death in 2006 - is the fourth conducted by the Iraqi High Tribunal, which was set up to try former Saddam officials. Defenders of Mr Aziz, a fluent English speaker and the only Christian among Saddam’s top officials, accused the Shia-led Government of seeking revenge for his refusal to testify against the late dictator.

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