Mission & Justice

15/5/08

Britain has bowed to pressure and said it will open an independent inquiry into the death of an Iraqi hotel worker who was beaten and died in British custody in southern Iraq in 2003. The move follows years of legal wrangling in which the family of Baha Musa and eight other Iraqis who survived the beatings have sought justice. All nine suffered 36 hours of violent interrogation before Musa died with 93 injuries, including a broken nose and ribs. Britain’s ministry of defence admitted in March that its troops tortured and breached the human rights of the men detained at a Basra hotel. The ministry apologised to Musa’s family and the other men, opening the way for potentially large compensation claims.

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14/5/08
A judge in Milan has ruled that Silvio Berlusconi, Italy’s prime minister, can be called to testify in a trial of CIA and Italian spies who are accused of kidnapping a ‘terrorism’ suspect in Milan and flying him to Egypt. Berlusconi is not accused of any crime and would appear as a witness to speak on the issue of state secrets in the case. The 71-year-old billionaire could become the first head of government in the world to testify in criminal proceedings over secret US transfers of “terrorism” suspects, known as renditions. Judge Oscar Magi also ruled that Romano Prodi, Berlusconi’s predecessor, could be called to give evidence.

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13/5/08

The US military says Air Force fighter jets have dropped eight large bombs to destroy an Al-Qaeda in Iraq training base south of Baghdad. The military says yesterday’s airstrikes by two US Air Force F-16s targeted a large area booby trapped with bombs hidden in the ground and in trees.Associated Press Television News footage showed an area covered in palm trees being leveled by powerful bombs. The military says the area in the district of Arab Jabour was used to manufacture bombs, stash weapons caches and train and launch sniper attacks at US military convoys. Meanwhile, American troops fought street battles with Shiite militia in Baghdad’s Sadr City, killing three people on the first full day of a deal to end fighting in the area, a military official said yesterday.

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11/5/08

A woman and a child were among four killed during a US military operation targeting Al Qaida in northern Iraq, the military said on Sunday. The two civilians were killed along with two armed men. The military said it regretted the death of the civilians. The military said US forces fired on a car carrying suspected militants that refused to stop near the northern city of Mosul on Saturday.

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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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