I’m a bit behind with my reading. I just want to bookmark this piece by Nir Rosen, written in October I think. He was embedded with an Armored Cavalry Regiment in western Iraq.
The piece is titled “The wrong Ayoub”. It uses the description of a unit forcefully breaking into a guy’s house, wounding him, and arresting him– only later to discover he was the “wrong” Ayoub– to illustrate the atrociously poor level of intelligence the unit was relying on.
This part, at the very beginning, is also very troubling:
- According to a major from the Judge Advocate General’s office working on establishing an Iraqi judicial process, at least 7,000 Iraqis are being detained by US forces. Many languish in prisons indefinitely, lost in a system that imposes English-language procedures on Arabic speakers with Arabic names not easily transcribed.
Some are termed “security detainees” and held for six months pending a review to determine whether they are still a “security risk”. Most are innocent. Many were arrested simply because a neighbor did not like them. A lieutenant-colonel familiar with the process adds that there is no judicial process for the thousands of detainees. If the military were to try them, that would entail a court martial, which would imply that the United States is occupying Iraq, and lawyers working for the administration are still debating whether it is an occupation or a liberation.
Helena,
Hope you’ve had a safe trip to Iran and can tell us about the mood there.
Regarding “The Wrong Ayoub”, I’m not at all surprised. I took a year of Arabic language studies in college. It’s frightfully difficult for English speakers, and though this was in the early 80’s (when the U.S. marriage to ME oil was being consummated), the “popular” language was Chinese. Students seemed to think that East-West trade was the business to be in.
In terms of the thousands of Iraqis languishing in jail, what can one say of an invasion and occupation? Lip-service to the Geneva Conventions aside, the occupiers set the rules, don’t they? There’s proof enough that Allawi is a made man, and Paul Bremer stacked the laws and Iraqi government for the next five years. It is hard to see what kind of national movement could evolve in Iraq capable of rescinding Bremer’s laws. I think we can only expect more of the same.
Always glad to read what you have to say, Helena.
Sadly,
jakbeau
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