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Thursday,
April 5, 2012. Chaos and violence continue, the national conference
does not take place, KRG President Massoud Barzani makes clear that the
Kurds will not be put off any more, al-Hashemi continues his diplomatic
tour, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon calls for Iraq to halt
executions, and more.
Oil, if
Iraq didn't have it, the illegal war might never have started in 2003.
Oil continues to be a source of violence and conflict within Iraq. For
example, an apparent bombing has stopped a pipeline. Ali Berat Meric and Emre Peker (Bloomberg News) report
that the Kirkuk-Yumurtalik pipeline is not transporting oil to Turkey
currently after a bombing took place within Turkey damaging the
pipeline. Orhan Coskun (Reuters) reports, " There
were three almost simultaneous explosions at separate points along the
pipeline in the Idil area, a Turkish security official said."
There's
violence and the conflict? At this point, that's primarily between the
central-government in Baghdad and the Kurdistan Regional Government.
Nouri took the ongoing disagreement to a new level this week when his
government accused the Kurds of selling blackmarket oil to the
government of Iran. Alsumaria TV reported
the Kurdistan Alliance denied the charges and accused Deputy
Prime Minister of Energy Hussein al-Shahristani of declaring war on
them and they are calling for him to apologize to the Kurdish people
for his accusations. As RT noted,
the Kurds were already unhappy with Baghdad over a $1.5 billion debt
that they say the centeral-government owes them and that the refusal to
pay led the KRG to halt their Baghdad oil deliveries at the start of
the week after ten consecutive months of no payment from Baghdad. Alsumaria quotes
KRG Natrual Resources Minister Ashti Hawrami telling the press,
"Kurdistan Government will not resume oil export before it reaches a
comprehensive agreement with Baghdad about payment methods and dues to
oil companies in the Region. Kurdistan Government will only resume oil
export when it reaches a general agreement with Baghdad." The editorial board of The National offered:
This
is, above all else, a political disagreement. And it's a disagreement
that is harming both sides. Kurdish leaders are asserting their
autonomy that, in terms of state institutions and security forces, is
already a fact on the ground. A charitable view is that Mr Al Maliki is
trying to unify a national energy sector; an alternative explanation is
that Baghdad is trying to monopolise national resources for the
exclusive benefit of his constituency.
The
casualty in this case is the national economic project. After more than
three years of haggling, Iraq's oil law seems no closer to being
passed, which in turn harms foreign investment in the sector. Baghdad
objects to the deals the KRG has struck independently with oil majors;
on Monday, Exxon Mobil confirmed that it had frozen an exploration
contract in the Kurdish region because of pressure from Baghdad.
ExxonMobil may or may not have confirmed that. Reuters notes today,
"The central government now says that Exxon has written to it twice
since early March to say that its deals with the Kurds have been
suspended. The Kurds say Exxon has not halted work in Kurdistan and
have challenged Baghdad to publish Exxon's letters." And the battle
over ExxonMobil is being watched as the Reuters points out:
Oil
majors are now waiting on the sidelines, watching the outcome of
Exxon's balancing act between Baghdad and Arbil, the northern capital.
France's Total is the latest company to provoke Baghdad's ire by
acknowledging interest in Kurdistan. "What companies are trying to do
is get to the point where they are investing in the north and the
south," said one industry source working in Iraq. "But at the moment
they cannot do that. And that is what you have to build in when you
decide whether to move in or not. You balance the risks."
So the status of the ExxonMobil deal with the KRG is not known at this point. What is known?
Relations
between Erbil and Baghdad were strained even before the controversy
over the Exxon Mobil deal flared anew. Kurdish President Massoud
Barzani delivered a stinging speech on Thursday in Washington that
ripped into Maliki as an autocrat.
"Iraq is facing a serious crisis," he said. He insisted that oil deals struck in the autonomous Kurdish region were legal.
KRG
President Massoud Barzani spoke in DC this afternoon at a Washington
Institute for Near East Policy event. His speech was delivered in
Kurdish and translated.
KRG President
Massoud Barzani: My visit to Washington came at the invitation of the
US government in order to talk about the situation in Iraq, in the
wider region, and also the situation between Kurdistan region and Iraq
in detail. Yesterday, during our meetings with the President, the Vice
President and other officials of the US administration, we have talked
about all of these issues in detail. I'm sure many of you know that
the people of Kurdistan have sacrificed a great deal and have shed a
lot of blood for the sake of building a federal, democratic and
pluralistic Iraq. But you always are mindful of the fact that, had it
not been for the US support and assistance, without the sacrifices of
men and women in uniform, the sacrifices that have been made, this
objective would not have been achieved and the regime would not have
been toppled. So we got a golden opportunity to build a new Iraq, an
Iraq that's federa, democratic, l pluralistic, an Iraq that's new and
better. And also to be clear that what's the composition of this new
Iraq? It's three main pillars that constitute Iraq. It's the Kurds,
the Shias and the Sunnis. Having said that, we have to be mindful of
the fact that we have other national minorities living with us, that
they have to be respected, they have to be equally treated. We've got
the Turkomen, the Chaldean Assyrian, the Syriac and also an Albanian
minority. But we also have to realize that in terms of nationalities,
Iraq is made up of two main nationalities: Arabs and Kurds. I can say
that in Kurdistan we have an experience that to a great extent has been
a successful one. I cannot claim that this is an ideal experience
without any flaws or shortcomings. But I can say for sure that the
security stability situation is very good. The economy and social
activies are good. Socially we have made a lot of progress. We in the
region have adopted a tolerant policy. We have not resorted to
revenge and retaliation. We have opened a new page and therefore we
have been able to provide a safe and secure environment and to protect
our people. And for that, we are grateful to the support and
assistance that we have received from own own people but also thanks to
the dedication of the security and law enforcement people. And the
safe and secure environment has been the reason for inviting and
attracting foreign companies and here lately American oil companies
have also started to come to the region and start their investment and
other activities. I will give you some brief examples to show you the
difference that we have made and theprogress that we have made. After
the fall of the regime in 2003, the GDP [Gross Domestic Product] per
capita for individuals in the Kurdistan region was $275 per annum and
now it exceeds $5,000. And also the electricity rate was 57%. It has
reduced or dropped to 16%. Regarding other services and mainly
electricity, we've been able to improve that sector. I can say that
we're almost able to provide electritiy to all the main cities and
townships and rural areas. In certain areas, we have got four hours of
electricity. What has come to the Iraqi Treasury from 2003 until now,
it has exceeded half-of-a-trillion [dollars]. You can check that
information to see what kind of electricity has been provided in other
parts of Iraq which does not exceed three to four hours. There are one
million people under arms [security forces] but still terrorism and the
threat of terrorism continues. Iraq is facing a serious crisis today.
Yesterday, we have discussed that very frankly with the President, the
Vice President and it's going to one-man rule. It's going towards
control of all the establishments of state. So we have got a situation
or we ended up having a situation in Baghdad where one individual is
the Prime Minister and at the same time he's the commander-in-chief of
the armed forces, he's the Minister of Defense, he's the Minister of
the Interior and the Chief of the Intelligence and lately he has sent a
correspondence to the president of the Central Bank in Iraq that that
establishment would also come under the Prime Minister. Where in the
world would you find such an example? We as the people of Kurdistan,
we believe that this government has come to be as a result of the blood
that we have shed and as a result of the sacrifices that we have
contributed. We are eager to see the situation reformed. Therefore,
we will not leave Baghdad for others. So, therefore, we see the
situation in Iraq that it requires to be ruled in partnership -- for
that power-sharing and partnership to consist of the Kurds and the
Arabs -- both the Shia Arabs and the Sunni Arabs. Of course, we have to
be mindful of the fact that the Iraqis themselves have to find
solutions for the problems. When they try to find solutions for
themselves, then their friends in the international community can
help. But if they wait for others, for the outsiders to help solve
their problems, they will wait forever and they will not see
solutions. They have to do it themselves. It's very natural to have
relations with the neighboring countries and also with the
international community. But also specifically with the neighboring
countries in order to exchange views and to exchange ideas about this
but not to give them an opportunity to interfere int he internal
affairs of Iraq or for them to come to solve the problems or for them
to act on behalf of the Iraqi people. The Iraqis have to do it
themselves. But my visit has nothing to do with the other visit it was
separate.
The speech was
a declaration of the need for the Kurdish leaders to do what is best
for the Kurdish people. This was a message to Baghdad and Nouri, of
course, but it was also a message to the White House and making clear
that pretty words and empty promises will not be accepted by the
Kurdish politicians any longer because the Kurdish people deserve more
than that.
This was clear in the question
and answers that followed. For example, in reply to questions from
Barbara Slavin about the oil issue and whether the KRG might move from
semi-autonomous to autonomous (breaking completely with Baghdad),
Barzani replied through his translator:
We
have been waiting for the last six years for promises that were not
delivered, for agreements that were not honored. We have waited and
everytime they give us an excuse. Once they say that there are
elections in Baghdad, another time, elections in the region. Once
there is election in the United States. Then there is the Arab Summit,
etc., etc. We have found out that we have passed six years waiting for
these promises to be delivered. We cannot anymore wait for unfulfilled
promises and undelivered promises. There has to be a specific and
determined timeline for this to be delivered. We got tired of this and
we are fed up with that. Therefore, what we will do is that we will
work on the preferred option to work with the other Iraqi groups to
find a solution. If not, then we go back to our people and to put all
of these realities inf ront of our people for the people to be free to
make their own decision. As far as the issue of the oil is concerned,
in 2007, when we were working and we reached an agreement on a draft
oil hydrocarbons law, we both agreed that if that law did not pass in
the Parliament until May that same year that both sides -- the KRG and
the federal government -- are free to continuing signing contracts with
international oil companies. Therefore, whatever we have done in the
region, we have not violated the Constitution. We have acted legally
and Constitutionally within the framework of the Constitution.
Did
you pay attention to all the excuses that have been given to the Kurds
to wait? Including a US election? This speech was a declaration of
independence on the part of the Kurds. The basic premise Massoud
Barzani has outlined is: We will not be bound by empty words no matter
who speaks them.
Many of the remarks were also
directed at Nouri al-Maliki. Today was the day Nouri was supposed to
demonstrate what a leader he was. The political crisis would finally be
addressed via a national conference with the various political blocs
participating. News of the conference's death emerged yesterday. The
political crisis (Political Stalemate II) has been ongoing since at
least December 2010. Political Stalemate I (eight months of inaction
following the March 7, 2010 elections) ended only when all parties
agreed to the US-brokered Erbil Agreement. This agreement found all
blocs making concessions. Nouri wanted to remain prime minister, so he
agreed to practically any demand/request on any other issue. Having
been made prime minister-designate, he immediately began saying that
the Erbil Agreement would have to wait on certain things -- for
example, he said, it would take time to create the independent national
security commission to be headed by Iraqiya's Ayad Allawi (Iraqiya won
the most votes in the election). These things would be a matter of
days. But as the weeks progressed, he made clear the promise to resolve
the issue of Kirkuk wasn't going to be dealt with by calling off the
planned census at the start of the December. As December was winding
down, he was moved from prime minister-designate to prime minister and
it was clear to many that the Erbil Agreement was being tossed. Nouri
went a few months claiming it would be implemented, give it time.
Stalling is Nouri's tactic, after all. Then his lackeys -- in Iraq and
the US -- began putting forward the argument that Nouri didn't have to
abide by the Erbil Agreement it was illegal (many US lackeys were too
ignorant of the law and used the term "unconstitutional" -- there is
nothing in Iraq's Constitution that outlaws the Erbil Agreement or
anything similar to it, the ignorant most likely would have used the
term "extra-Constitutional" if they had any education in the law). The
problem with the ignorant making legal arguments is that although they
are highly amusing they fail to grasp that law is carried through.
Meaning if I argue the Erbil Agreement is illegal, I'm not just giving
Nouri permission to ignore it, I'm arguing that Nouri's second term as
prime minister is illegal because that resulted from the Erbil
Agreement. Logic is not a skill that the lackeys possess. By
last summer, the Kurds were tired of waiting for Nouri to implement the
Erbil Agreement and began demanding that he do so. Iraqiya, Moqtada
al-Sadr and others joined that call. The national conference was
supposed to address the Erbil Agreement. Speaker of Parliament Osama
al-Nujaifi and President Jalal Talabani both began calling for a
national conference on December 21st. Nouri was the stumbling block. He
said one wasn't needed. He also argued that it shouldn't be a called a
national conference. Then he argued that all political blocs shouldn't
be invited, just some. He tried to argue in February that any such
conference should be confined solely to the three presidencies
(Talabani, Nujaifi and Nouri). He argued about what should be on the
agenda and what shouldn't. He argued so much that the conference that
many once thought would take place in January kept getting kicked back
and kicked back. As March loomed, Nouri began insisting that the Arab
League Summit (March 29th) would have to be the focus and that any
national conference would have to wait until after that.
All
that stalling. Stalling was brought in Barzani's speech
today. Tomorrow, we'll try to cover more of the questions and answers
that followed his speech (Article 140 if nothing else). But we'll move
over to another political problem. Salah Nasrawi (Al Ahram) reports
that Iraqiya continues to be opposed to US President Barack Obama's
nominee for US Ambassador to Iraq. They see him as too close to Nouri
making him "biased" and they also see him as "unfit" and hostile to
Iraqiya as well:
Iraqi media outlets
reported that in his letter to Congress Allawi accused McGurk of
"meddling in Iraq's internal affairs," including in efforts to weaken
the bloc's negotiating position with Al-Maliki.
The
letter detailed how McGurk had managed to convince about a dozen mostly
Shia members to quit the Iraqiya bloc, a move that led to criticisms
that it was a purely Sunni group and denied it the character of a
secular alliance.
Nouri
was mentioned today by more than Barzani. Iraqi Vice President Tareq
al-Hashemi is currently on a diplomatic tour of countries in the
region. Since late December, Nouri has been attempting to arrest him
for 'terrorism.' al-Hashemi has stayed in the KRG as a guest of
Talabani and Barzani. He has visited Qatar and Saudi Arabia thus far
and has repeatedly stated that he intends to return to the KRG as soon
as his diplomatic tour is over. Middle East Online reports today:
In
an interview with the pan-Arab Al-Jazeera network aired late on
Wednesday, Hashemi said the accusations against him of running a death
squad "have a sectarian dimension," noting that he is the "fifth Sunni
figure to be targeted" by Iraq's Shiite-led government.
"More
than 90 percent of the detainees in Iraq are Sunnis," said Hashemi, who
pledged to return to Iraq to carry out his vice presidential duties
despite Maliki's demands for him to face trial.
Hashemi
sharply criticised Maliki, saying that "corruption in the country is
widespread" and warning that the prime minister's policies were
threatening "the unity of Iraq."
Alsumaria notes that Jalal Talabani is calling for a new date to be set for the national conference.
Fresh
off it's being ranked number three for most executions in one year [see
Amnesty International report entitled [PDF format warning] " Death Sentences And Executions 2011."], the government of Iraq gears up to kill more people. Al Rafidayn reports a Babylon court has sentenced two former military officers to death for murder and theft. Louis Charbonneua (Reuters) reported
yesterday evening that United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon was
expressing concern over the death penalty worldwide and specifically in
Iraq which, according to the report, executed 80 people from December
2011 to February 2012 versus 68 from January 2011 through November
2011. (In eleven months, they put 68 to death; in December, January and
February, they managed to put 80 to death.) He called for Iraqi to put
in place "a moratorium on the use of the death penalty." In Amnesty
International's " Death Sentences And Executions 2011," they explained:
The
government of Iraq rarely discloses information about executions,
especially names of those executed and exact numbers. According to
Amnesty International information, at least 68 people were executed in
Iraq, including two foreigners and three women. Hundreds of people were
sentenced to death; 735 death sentences were referred to the Iraqi
Presidency for final ratification between January 2009 and September
2011, of which 81 have been ratified. Most death sentences were
imposed, and executions carried out, on people convicted of belonging
to or involvement in attacks by armed groups, including murder,
kidnapping, rape or other violent crimes.
On
16 November, 11 people, including one woman, convicted of
terrorism-related offences, were reported to have been executed in
al-Kadhimiya Prison in Baghdad. Among the executed men were an Egyptian
and a Tunisian national, Yosri Trigui, who was arrested in 2006 by US
forces for his alleged involvement in terrorism-related acts. He was
sentenced to death by the Central Criminal Court of Iraq (CCCI) for his
alleged involvement in a bomb attack in Samarra the same year, in a
trial that did not appear to meet international standards. The
intervention of Tunisian Ennahda leader Rached Ghannouchi had initially
led to a short postponement of the execution.
Trial
proceedings before the CCCI were very brief, often lasting only a few
minutes before verdicts are handed down. Defendants in criminal cases
often complained that "confessions" are extracted under torture and
other ill-treatment during pre-trial interrogation. They were often
held incommunicado in police stations or in detention without access to
their legal representatives or relatives, not brought before an
investigative judge within a reasonable time and not told of the reason
for their arrest. The "confessions" extracted from them are often
accepted by the courts without taking any or adequate steps to
investigate defendants' allegations of torture. The "confessions" are
also frequently broadcast on the Iraqi government-controlled satellite
TV Al Iraqiya, which undermines the presumption of innocence.
Well
look at the Peter Gallaghers emerging from their comas. Yes, while you
were sleeping, Reid Smith and Glovindria Burgess, we were noting the
assault on Iraqi youths. And we'd be thrilled that you showed up, even
all this time later, if you didn't show up and show off your
ignorance. Glovindria Burgess (Policy Mic) wants to offer a catty,
"Emo is understood in the West . . ." You not only don't understand
Emo music (in the US), you don't understand rock music so find
something else to write about. It should be a crime for you to
explicitly flaunt your ignorance. Reid Smith (American Spectator) wants
to focus on what's going on in Iraq with the Emo culture there. So he
repeats a bunch of tired lies and can't even get the lies correct.
What's going on in Iraq is not limited to Iraq. It took place in
Mexico (which kind of refutes all the points Smith and Burgess believe
they're making) and it took place in Egypt, it's part of a culture of
fear and it goes beyond sexuality concerns to sexual identity concerns
for those who are afraid (think US reaction to the hippies --
especially to males with 'long hair' back then). The fear-based
violence will continue as long as idiots like Smith and Burgess are
allowed to prattle on about things they know nothing about. Scott Lang
did an amazing job in 2009 covering the targeting of Iraq's LGBT
community and, no surprise, he wrote (back in March, for the Guardian) one of the most comprehensive and informative pieces on this latest round of targeting Iraqi youth
A
new killing campaign is convulsing Iraq. The express targets are
"emos", short for "emotional": a western-derived identity, teenagers
adopting a pose of vulnerability, along with tight clothes and skewed
hairdos and body piercing. Starting last year, mosques and the media
both began raising the alarm about youthful immorality, calling the
emos deviants and devil worshippers. In early February, somebody began
killing people. The net was wide, definitions inexact. Men who seemed
effeminate, girls with tattoos or peculiar jewellery, boys with long
hair, could all be swept up. The killers like to smash their victims'
heads with concrete blocks.
There is no way to tell how many have
died: estimates range from a few dozen to more than 100. Nor is it
clear who is responsible. Many of the killings happened in east
Baghdad, stronghold of Shia militias such as Moqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi
army and Asaib Ahl al-Haq (the League of the Righteous). Neither,
though, has claimed responsibility. Iraq's brutal interior ministry
issued two statements in February. The first announced official approval to "eliminate" the "satanists". The second,
on 29 February, proclaimed a "campaign" to start with a crackdown on
stores selling emo fashion. The loaded language suggests, at a minimum,
that the ministry incited violence. It's highly possible that some
police, in a force riddled with militia members, participated in the
murders.
It's logical to compare this to the militia campaign against homosexual conduct in 2009, which I documented for Human Rights Watch.
Hundreds of men lost their lives then. Gay-identified men have been
caught up in these killings as well, and Baghdad's LGBT community is
rife with fear. Yet there are differences. The current killings target
women as well as men, and children are the preferred victims. It's not
quite true to say, as some press reports have suggested, that "emo" is
just a synonym for "gay" in Iraq. Rather, immorality, western
influence, decadence and blasphemy have come together in a loosely
defined, poorly aligned complex of associations: and emo fashion and
"sexual perversion" are part of the mix.
Again,
if you're trying to find a correlation for what's taking place with
regards to Emo in other countries, especially in Arab countries, your
template is the hippies. There were some who saw them as gay and
lesbian (and there were some who were gay and lesbian, just as there
are some Emo who are) but at the root of the sexual panic that created
in so many reactionaries was the issue of sexual identity (and identity
period) as the hippies exercised and explored freedoms that frightened
others who were conditioned not to question or explore. That those
conditioned to rigid thinking would recoil explorers and adventurers
isn't surprising. And that's not, "Oh, look at the Arab world!" Not
only did a signficant number react that way to the hippies in the
sixties (and a smaller number continue to despise and attack them
today) but there was an organized response to that attempt at freedom.
As Noam Chomsky (Information Clearing House) points out this week while documenting the attack on public education in the US:
Forty years ago there was deep concern that the population was breaking free of apathy and obedience.
At
the liberal internationalist extreme, the Trilateral Commission -- the
nongovernmental policy group from which the Carter Administration was
largely drawn -- issued stern warnings in 1975 that there is too much
democracy, in part due to the failures of the institutions responsible
for "the indoctrination of the young." On the right, an important 1971
memorandum by Lewis Powell, directed to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce,
the main business lobby, wailed that radicals were taking over
everything -- universities, media, government, etc. -- and called on
the business community to use its economic power to reverse the attack
on our prized way of life -- which he knew well. As a lobbyist for the
tobacco industry, he was quite familiar with the workings of the nanny
state for the rich that he called "the free market."
Since then,
many measures have been taken to restore discipline. One is the crusade
for privatization -- placing control in reliable hands.
Back
to Iraq, the fear is why "satanism" isn't the big charge (sorry, Reid
Smith) but "vampirism" is. "Vampires" are even scarier. And the fear
is why the most popular report on Alsumaria's website remains, all
this time later, the February 3rd report annoucning the presence of "vampires in the holy city of Baghdad"
-- vampires who, the report informs you, absorb blood from one another
(from each other's wrists -- and, they argue, that is why the Emo kids
cover their wrists!). It's panic, pure and simple. And -- again refer
to Noam above -- it's not because Iraq is 'backward' (or anymore
backward than the US is) but because a lot of changes have taken place
in Iraq and a lot of people are frightened. That doesn't justify the
attacks on Iraqi youths who are or are suspected of being Emo or LGBT
or both -- nothing justifies those attacks -- but it does go to why
they take place. It has very little to do with those being attacked,
it's a fear inside of the person doing the attacking. All the Emo
and/or LGBT kids are doing is trying to find themselves and their place
in the world -- something universal about young people everywhere
around the world.
And on the topic of Iraqi youth, Karl Kahler (San Jose Mercury News) reports that Iraqi drama students from the American University of Iraq -- Sulaimaniyah have raised "$30,000 to fly to the U.S. this summer to perform at the famed Oregon Shakespeare Festival."
Ahmed al-Nuaimi states, "I really feel like a child on Christmas
morning who is running down the stairs to find his gift, but it is the
gift of a lifetime from the most generous, lovely and kind people I
will ever know." John Darling (Oregon's Mail Tribune) notes
that the deadline was looming and quotes their professor Peter
Friedrich explaining that since the good news emerged they "haven't
slept for two days and are up all night, talking and talking about
what's going to happen in America." They'll appear at the festival from
July 3rd through 8th (off on the Fourth) and Claudia Alick is quoted
stating, "We're going to get them to as many Shakespeare plays as
possible. We're so excited about this project and the festival is
being incredibly generous and providing free arts through the Green
Show." She is the associate producer of the Green Show and that part
of the festival (June 5th through October 14th) is not only open to the
public, it's free of charge. The festival in Ashland, Oregon began in
July of 1935 with the support of the city of Ashland and FDR's Works
Progress Administration and it has been held yearly with the exception
of the WWII years.
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