Dahr Jamail

Long columns of trucks wait at the Jordanian border to carry their loads of supplies into war-torn Iraq. When Iraqi drivers wish to enter Jordan, they now wait up to 18 days to be allowed in. The al-Karama border is a land of waiting, but not just for the truck drivers. There have been others … Continue reading “No Man’s Land Along the Iraq-Jordan Border”

At long last, the culminating session of the World Tribunal on Iraq is upon us. As a witness providing testimony, I’m being interviewed by many outlets. Today, one of them was by reporters for one of the larger newspapers in Turkey, Yeni Safak. I’ll leave the reporters nameless, for reasons you’ll soon see. The newspaper … Continue reading “Censoring the Carnage”

AMMAN – Ahlam Najam just needed a job. At 25, she had a university degree in education but could not find work as teacher. When Kellogg Brown and Root (KBR), a subsidiary of the U.S. firm Halliburton, offered her a job as a security guard at a U.S. base in Iraq, she took it. On … Continue reading “Desperate for Work, Blind to Dangers”

Suicide bombers unleashed another day of hell across Iraq today, killing at least 18 and wounding over 67. Four of them struck Iraqi security forces, along with U.S. military convoys around Baghdad. Despite the huge, U.S.-backed Iraqi security operation throughout the capital city, attacks there continue unabated. The small city of Rawa (near al-Qa’im) was … Continue reading “Who Cares About Iraqis?”

The mayhem continues in Iraq, with at least 40 people dead today including five U.S. soldiers in Diyala province, as the meltdown of the failed U.S.-led occupation continues. Two suicide bombers detonated themselves after walking into a crowd of police officers in Hilla, south of Baghdad. The policemen were demonstrating outside the mayor’s office to … Continue reading “‘This Is the Freedom America Has Brought Us’”

Yesterday Iraq’s Minister of Defense, Sadoun al-Dulaimi, announced that starting Saturday 40,000 Iraqi troops will seal Baghdad and begin to “hunt down insurgents and their weapons.” Baghdad will be divided into two main sections, east and west, and within each section there will be smaller areas of control. There will be at least 675 checkpoints … Continue reading “Death and ‘Sketchy Details’ in Iraq”

AMMAN – As with the siege of Fallujah six months back, U.S. claims over the siege of the Iraqi town al-Qa’im are being challenged now by independent sources. The U.S. military claims a “successful” end to the week-long operation earlier this month around al-Qa’im, a town about 320km west of Baghdad close to the Syrian … Continue reading “Observers Challenge US Claims About Iraq Siege”

As if to add insult to injury, with over 400 Iraqis killed in violence during the first two weeks of the newly sworn in Iraqi “government,” U.S. Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice made a surprise one-day visit to the newest U.S. colony. After visiting northern Iraq, which has been spared the brunt of the ongoing … Continue reading “A Welcome Parade of Seething Anger”

BAGHDAD – Wrapped in his brown abaya, Sheik Sayak Kumait al-Asadi, a spokesman in Baghdad for the revered Shi’ite cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, is angry and forceful when speaking of both the U.S. occupation and the suffering of the Shi’ites under the regime of Saddam Hussein. Above him hangs an ornately framed poster of … Continue reading “Shi’ites and Sunnis: What Divides, What Unites”

These are the stories that will continue to emerge from the rubble of Fallujah for years. No, for generations… Speaking on condition of anonymity, the doctor sits with me in a hotel room in Amman, where he is now a refugee. He’d spoken in the UK about what he saw in Fallujah, and he is … Continue reading “‘How Are These People Going to Feel About Americans?’”