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Pacifica Reports From Iraq

 

Pacifica Correspondent Aaron Glantz is making his second trip to Iraq since the fall of Saddam Hussein. He will be filing a series of reports from Iraq, exclusively for Pacifica.org, called Pacifica Reports From Iraq.

Below is a list of these reports:

15 American soldiers came machine guns drawn and took a poster of Muqtada al-Sadr from 17 year old Ali Hakim's cigarette stand -- one of many raids against the clerics image.May 12 - US Army vs. the Posters of Muqtada al-Sadr
Iraq – US soldiers, backed by tanks and helicopters, launched a fresh attack today against fighters loyal to the firebrand cleric Moqtada al-Sadr in the Iraqi city of Kerbala. The Associated Press reports up to 25 Iraqis and seven US soldiers were wounded in the battle, which began only hours after Iraqi leaders had agreed on a proposal aimed at ending the US standoff with Mr Sadr's Mahdi army militia... more

 

Zahara Ibd Ali's son has been in American custody for months. The US military won't tell her if he's alive or dead.May 5 - More Abuses from the Gates of Abu Ghraib
Abu Ghraib, Iraq – President George W. Bush continued his efforts to contain outrage over the torture scandal at Baghdad’s Abu Ghraib prison – formerly Saddam Hussein’s most notorious lock-up. Speaking to the Pentagon-run Arab satellite station al-Hurra (the freedom), Bush said reiterated he was “appalled” at broadcast images of Iraq’s naked and hooded. He pledged a full investigation and accountability for what he insisted were the actions of a few... more

 

Two senior Sheiks are carried into the revered shrine of Imam Ali shrine in Najaf a day after they being shot in the head by the US military while attending a meeting in the office of the Babylon Human Rights AssociationMay 4 - Killing the Followers of Sadr
Baghdad, Iraq -- Dozens of followers of Muqtada al-Sadr sing songs of martyrdom as they carry the coffins of two of their slain comrades into the shrine of the revered Imam Ali in the Iraqi Holy City, Najaf. Every night, Sadr's fighters engage in pitched battle with the US military which has placed its tanks and soldiers just outside the city limits. But that's not where these men died... more

 

A volunteer medical team exhumes the body of a middle aged woman buried in the front yard of a single family home. The US Marines bombed her car as she was fleeing Fallujah with her husband.May 3 - Fallujah Begins to Bury Its Dead
Baghdad, Iraq -- A team of local volunteers in surgical masks lift the rotting corpse of a middle aged woman from its shallow grave in the front yard of a single family home. The owner of the house explains the woman has been lying dead in his front yard for three weeks. He says an American war-plane bombed her car as she fled the city with her husband, who is buried in the garden of the house next door. The destroyed remains of the car still smolder a few meters away from his front door... more

 

62 year old Sheik Abu Yasin Al-Zawi the day he was freed from American military custody. "They kept me in a very small cell without any type of bed or blanket," he explains. "The soldier didn't allow me to wash for prayer and they put a hood over my face.April 30 - More American Air Attacks on Fallujah
Baghdad, Iraq -- George Bush says he'll "take care" of the soldiers who photographed themselves laughing, lording over naked bodies of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib -- formerly Saddam Hussein's most notorious lockup, which currently holds about 15,000 prisoners. Speaking at a White House Rose Garden during an appearance with Prime Minister Paul Martin of Canada he said: "Their treatment does not reflect the nature of the American people. That's not the way we do things in America."... more

 

The head of Fallujah's besieged Askerie neighborhood says last nights AC-130 gun-ship attack fired "rockets on civilians and non-civilians."April 28 - More Horror Stories from Abu Ghraib
Baghdad, Iraq -- US Marines launched a fresh assault on the besieged Iraqi city of Fallujah today, sending in air strikes and tanks. Shelling and fierce exchanges of gunfire broke out in mid-afternoon in the northwestern district of Golan, already pounded overnight by a heavy airborne AC-130 gunship, first used in Vietnam... more

 

The American assault is precariously close to the shrine of Imam Ali, the holiest site in Shia Islam.April 27 - America Attacks Najaf
Baghdad, Iraq -- U.S. troops backed by helicopter gunships have entered the holy Shiite city of Najaf, clashing with the Mehdi Army of anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. The US military says 64 Iraqi fighters were killed, though hospital officials in Najaf told the Arab satellite network al-Jazeera most of the 28 injured received from the clashes appear to be civilians... more

 

The Iraqi Red Crescent has established the first refugee camp for the tens of thousands of civilians who have fled the American onslaught on Fallujah.April 26 - Fallujah Siege Yields It's First Tent City
Baghdad, Iraq -- New families seem to arrive every hour at the Iraqi Red Crescent refugee camp in West Baghdad. The camp -- the first tent city erected as a result of the American assault on Fallujah holds more than 50 families, a small fraction of the tens of thousands of civilians forced to flee their homes. These families are the most desperate -- unable to find housing with with family or friends... more

 

Private security guards employed by ERINYS International guard Iraq's entire oil infrastructure. Their lawyer is the same man picked by the Bush Administration to prosecute Saddam HusseinApril 22 - More US Money and Clout for Chalabi Family
Baghdad, Iraq -- This US occupation authority announced its choice to prosecute Saddam Hussein this week: Salem Chalabi -- the nephew of Iraqi National Congress Chief Ahmed Chalabi, whose organization had been funded by the Central Intelligence Agency for more than a decade before last year's war. But the Bush administration's choice of Saddam's prosecutor isn't the only way the Chalabi is benefiting from the occupation... more

 

April 20 - Prisoners of War in Iraq
Baghdad, Iraq -- Iraqi insurgents have taken their first American soldier prisoner since the fall of Saddam Hussein. Private First Class Matt Maupin, was assigned to the Army Reserve's 724th Transportation Company, based at Bartonville, Ill., near Peoria. In footage first shown Friday on the Arab Satellite Channel al-Jazeera, Maupin did not appear hurt but was surrounded by insurgents who offered to exchange him for imprisoned Iraqis. The US military is currently holding more than 20,000 Iraqi's behind bars... more

 

Dr. Safa Ali Hassan runs the pharmacy at Baghdad's Kindi Teaching Hospital.April 19 - Drugs in Short Supply in Baghdad Hospitals
Baghdad, Iraq -- A long line of patients snake towards to door of the pharmacy at Yarmuk hospital in Baghdad's primarily Sunni neighborhood, al-Monseur. A worried woman holds the hand of her 21 year old son and clutches a small packet of pills. Ten tablets of Thyroxin, enough for ten days. It's the first time she's been able to find the drug in four months... more

 

The Bush Administration likes to characterize Muqtada al-Sadr as a radical fringe terrorist linked to Osama bin Laden, but his following across Iraq is widespread. His picture -- and that of his revered father -- is hung in almost every martket.April 14 - American Troops Surround Holy City
Baghdad, Iraq -- Iraq's Grand Ayatollah Sayyid Ali al-Husseini al-Sistani has warned the Occupation forces not to assault the holy cities of Karbala and Najaf. In a statement, Sistani said the religious authority should use its weapon to defend Iraqis rights in case the Occupation forces entered the two cities. American troops have surrounded Najaf -- which holds the shrine of revered Imam Ali and are threatening to invade it... more

 

This Baghdad doctor has spent the last week working in one of Falluga's emerging clinics. His story is one of mass graves caused by the US militaryApril 13 - US Marines Shoot Ambulances in Fallujah
Baghdad, Iraq -- Speaking from his ranch in Crawford, Texas the President the United States, George W. Bush told reporters American soldiers have acted against, quote: "lawlessness and gangs" in Iraq in the past week. The American theater commander in Fallujah told Britain's Guardian newspaper 95 percent of those killed in the assault on the city are armed militants. But that's not the story coming from Fallujah's temporary emergency clinics... more

 

Among those forced to flee the invasion of Fallujah is this family of 58 which gathered in the city a week ago to celebrate a wedding.April 12 - More than 600 Killed in Fallujah
Baghdad, Iraq -- The story of Yusuf Fakri Amash is the story of Fallujah. The 11 year old boy just escaped from Fallujah with his family. But not before the US military killed his best friend. "Ahmed was in my class," he says. "He was younger than me. He was standing next to the wall of the secondary school. He was trying to cross the street and he was hit by a bullet. The American troops fired the bullet... more

 

American tanks continue their siege of Baghdad's Sadr City while the American Army lays siege to Fallujah.April 7 - The Dead Keep Piling Up In Iraq
Diala, Iraq -- The dead keep piling up in Fallujah. More than 200 Iraqi dead in the last 24 hours -- Hospital officials report sixteen children and eight women were reported killed when warplanes struck four houses late last night. 40 more Iraqi's died when American helicopter gun-ships fired on a neighborhood mosque while it was filled with worshippers. 30 American soldiers are also dead... more

 

The remains of a US military vehicle in Baghdad's Showle neighborhood. One of the results of the crack-down on the movement of radical Shi'ite cleric Muqtada al-SadrApril 7 - American Apache Helicopters vs. Iraqi Residential Neighborhoods
Baghdad, Iraq -- Hundreds of young men fire machine guns into the air as their comrades carry the coffin of a dead boy into Baghdad's abu Hanifa Mosque. Last night -- while the American Army dug trenches around Fallujah -- the Sunni resistance struck Iraq's Capital City, falling on an American Hum-Vee patrol. The US Army responded with Apache attack helicopters. The only victim: a young boy standing unarmed in front of the mosque watching the action unfold... more

 

15 year old Ali Hussein was shot in front of his house during the American military crackdown on radical Shi'ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. At least 75 Iraqis are dead, hundreds are injuredApril 5 - Going After al-Sadr
As the U.S. military attempts to apprehend radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and crush his army of angry -- mostly poor Shi'ite men, 15 year old Ali Hussein lies in a hospital - an American bullet lodged in his gut. He's barely able to lift his head, but he wants to say a few words to the American reporter: "I was standing in my door-way and I was shot,"... more

 

5,000 Turkish Kurdish guerillas are hiding in small camps in the Qandil Mountains of Northern Iraq. Turkey wants the American Army to bring them out.April 2 - Will the US Army Attack the (Turkish) Kurds?
Baghdad, Iraq -- American soldiers could be on the verge of fighting another war in the Middle East. In Washington for meetings with US military leaders, the Deputy Chief of the Turkish Army General Staff demanded the US Army start fighting against against approximately 5,000 Turkish Kurdish guerillas... more

 

US troops in tanks and hum-vees patrol Baghdad's streets day and night. But they don't seem to be making the city any safer for regular Iraqis.April 1 - The Grisly Deaths of Thousands of Iraqis
Baghdad, Iraq -- American officials have been quick to condemn yesterday's killing of three American contractors in Fallugah. The charred remains of the contractors, retired military men working for North Carolina's Blackwater Security Consulting were pulled from the wreckage of their burning car by jubilant Iraqis who beat them with sticks before dragging them through town... more

 

The locked doors of one of Iraq's most important Shi'ite newspapers with a new sign left by the American Army.March 30 - US Troops Close Another Newspaper
Baghdad, Iraq -- A US military Apache helicopter circles over the shuttered offices of the Shi'ite newspaper - al-Hawza. A sign on the pad-locked gate indicates anyone who enters will be arrested. The paper's editors and reporters are in hiding -- seeking to avoid arrest and indefinite detention... more

 

An Iraqi police officer calls out numbers indicating which families will be allowed to see their loved ones inside abu Grahb prison. The prison used to be Saddam's most-feared lock-up. Today American soldiers keep watch over more than 10,000 political prisonersMarch 26 - More than 10,000 Iraqi's Still Inside Saddam's Most-Feared Prison
Anu Ghraib, Iraq -- Noon-time and dozens of families have gathered outside Abu Grahb prison seeking a chance to get an appointment for the their loved ones. They gather around the razor wire that surrounds the prison. Each holds a scrap of paper with a number. If their number is called, they are allowed to go inside. Ali Ahmed's brother is among those incarcerated here... more

 

15 year old Ahmed Itar Hassen was one of 73 Iraqi farmers seized by American forces in a sweep 9 months ago, and only one of two releasedMarch 23 - US Increasing House Demolitions and Indefinite Detentions In Iraq
Baghdad, Iraq -- Two thousand Iraqi's marched through the center of Baghdad today to protest Israel's killing of Hamas leader Sheik Ahmed Yassin. It's a demonstration that's not surprising given the increased cooperation... more

 

Thousands of Sunni and Shi'ite rally in Baghdad on the one year anniversary of the American occupationMarch 19 - One Year of Occupation
Baghdad, Iraq -- Friday afternoon and the mosques of Baghdad open up. Two weeks after bomb blasts in Baghdad and Karbala killed hundreds of Shi'ite pilgrims, thousands of Shi'ite and Sunni men converge Aritar Square addressed by what Iraq's clergy hope will become a united stand against the Americans... more

 

American soldiers guard the rubble of what was the Lebanon Hotel.March 18 - From the Wreckage of the Lebanon Hotel
Baghdad, Iraq -- Ambulances rush to the scene as American troops pull bodies from the rubble of the Lebanon Hotel. One soldier on top of a tank points his machine gun at me and screams no reporters. At least twenty people are dead. Most of them Iraqi. Survivors gather a block away... more

 

60 year old Aftow Khafood with her 13 year old daughter in Benslawa refugee camp outside Arbil, IraqMarch 17 - On the Anniversary of Halabja
Benslawa, Iraq -- The Bush Administration likes to talk about Halabja. On March 16, 1988, the Iraqi military dropped deadlyserin gas on the Kurdish city of Halabja instantaly killing 5,000 civilians and making the rest of the area's population refugees. In Halabja yesterday for anniversary comemorations, US Administrator Paul Bremer said... more

 

American cruise missiles destroyed Musla Ibrahim's house and two of his neighborsMarch 16 - America Bombed This House
Domiz, Northern Iraq -- 25-year old Musla Ibrahim stands atop the remains of his house. The rubble is twenty feet high in parts with iron rods sticking out of stray cinderblocks every which way. A year ago, American cruise missiles destroyed this house and two of his neighbors. 8 of Musla's cousins perished in the blasts, two more were injured... more

 

Kirkuk General Federation of Trade Unions President Nozad Ismael Salim stands in the lobby of his union's headquarters. March 10 - Oil Workers Want Some Oil Money
Kirkuk, Iraq -- Dick Cheney's old company Halliburton may have gotten more than $2 billion for the "reconstrutcion of Iraq," but that doesn't mean the contract's benefits are trickling down to the average Iraqi. Even the average Iraqi oil worker... more

 

teenagers at Arbil's Sheelan Intermediate SchoolMarch 8 - The Authors of Iraq's New "Constitution"
Arbil, Iraq -- Even Ahmed Chalabi knows today's constitutional signing ceremony isn't the real deal. The head of the Iraqi National Congress -- who was airlifted to Baghdad by the US military last April -- is the same man who fled Jordan in the trunk of a car after being convicted of stealing $350 million from that country's national bank. Now his signature is on Iraq's new governing document -- along with two dozen others hand-picked by the Bush Administration. ... more

 

a Turkish soldier keeps watch in Arbil, IraqMarch 4 - The Other Occupation of Iraq (Part One)
Arbil, Iraq -- Looking at the faces of the troops behind the razor wire-fenced four-floor military compound in the center of the Northern Iraqi city of Arbil, at least one fact becomes immediately apparent: its not just George Bush and his "coalition of the willing" that are occupying Iraq. The man in the watch-tower is Turkish and so is his commanding officer. But they're not in the mood to talk... more

 

March 3 - Who's Backing the Terrorists?
Kirkuk, Iraq - Who's backing the terrorists? That's a question many here are asking after Tuesday's twin bombings of Shi'ite religious celebrations in Baghdad and Karbala. Most people don't seem to think it's al-Qaeda... more

 

Kurdish flag flying in norther IraqMarch 1 - Welcome to Iraqi Kurdistan
"Welcome to Iraqi Kurdistan" says the sign at the Iraq's Northern border crossing in Zakho. The Kurdish flag flies nearby. There's a life-sized portrait of Kurdistan Democratic Party leader Massoud Barzani where Saddam Hussein's portrait used to be. Kalashnikov-toting peshmerga guerilla fighters maintain regular check-points on the main roads. There isn't an American soldier in sight... more

 

Feb 25 - Iraq's Oil; Turkey and America
How greedy can Washington get when it comes to Middle East oil? Apparently the combined efforts of the Bush Administration and Wall Street don't stop with oil-rich countries like Iraq, Iran, and Saudi Arabia... more

 

Feb 23 - Human Rights Activist Ahmet Faruk Unsal
Ahmet Faruk Unsal is a member of the Turkish Parliament from the ruling Islamic AK (Justice and Development Parti). A driving force behind the Turkish Parliament historic refusal last year to allow George Bush to launch a second front on Iraq from Turkish soil, Unsal is also a human rights activist and a board member of Amnesty International. We spoke to him at his office in the capital Ankara... more

 

Feb 20 - Kurdish Leader Won't Be Free
The Bush Administration likes to think its allies in the Middle East are democratic. Asked today by Fox News if there "was ever a Muslim country that respects minorities" Rumsfeld replied "you need look no further than Turkey for a Muslim country that has a democratic system, a system that's respectful of people in the country of differing religions and differing views." ... more

 

Aaron GlantzIn 2003 Aaron Glantz spent 6 months traveling through Turkey, Jordan, and Iraq for Pacifica's Peacewatch and Free Speech Radio News. Aaron is also helping to implement Free Speech Radio News' international outreach and training program. As part of this program, he has provided training to journalists who are now reporting for FSRN from India, Turkey, Jordan, Indonesia, and South Korea.

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