IRAQ      

Zeyad  Kasim             HEALING IRAK 

 Tales From Iraq

 Secret plan to keep Iraq under US control

  Three Nights at the Airport "Prison"

  The Baghdad Death Map  

  another terrible murder

  Belligerent taxi drivers in Amman

 Amman 

Monday, October 27, 2008
                                                      Tales From Iraq

Three Iraqi contractors were bidding for a contract for the construction of a wall around a local municipal council. The first contractor proposed a bid of $1000 ($400 for construction materials, $400 for the laborers, and a profit of $200). The second contractor proposed $700 ($300 for materials, $300 for workers, and a profit of $100). The third contractor offered a bid of $2700. The head of the municipal council angrily asked the contractor why he proposed such a high bid. "It's very simple," said the contractor, smiling. "A thousand for me, a thousand for you, and we'll give the $700 to the second contractor to finish the job."


Zeyad

Thursday, June 05, 2008   Secret plan to keep Iraq under US control ZEYAD KASIM
America currently has 151,000 troops in Iraq and, even after projected withdrawals next month, troop levels will stand at more than 142,000 – 10 000 more than when the military "surge" began in January 2007. Under the terms of the new treaty, the Americans would retain the long-term use of more than 50 bases in Iraq. American negotiators are also demanding immunity from Iraqi law for US troops and contractors, and a free hand to carry out arrests and conduct military activities in Iraq without consulting the Baghdad government.

The precise nature of the American demands has been kept secret until now. The leaks are certain to generate an angry backlash in Iraq. "It is a terrible breach of our sovereignty," said one Iraqi politician, adding that if the security deal was signed it would delegitimise the government in Baghdad which will be seen as an American pawn.

The US has repeatedly denied it wants permanent bases in Iraq but one Iraqi source said: "This is just a tactical subterfuge." Washington also wants control of Iraqi airspace below 29,000ft and the right to pursue its "war on terror" in Iraq, giving it the authority to arrest anybody it wants and to launch military campaigns without consultation.



George Bush, Dick Cheney and their advisors may want to look up the unpopular Anglo-Iraqi Treaty of the last century between Great Britain and the nominally independent Hashemite Kingdom of Iraq, which gave Great Britain military and political privileges in Iraq that are similar to what the US is seeking today, including the right to build unlimited military bases and complete freedom of movement of British troops in Iraqi territories and airspace.

They may also want to look up how that treaty ended, as well as the fate of the Iraqi prime minister responsible for signing the treaty (and later the Baghdad Pact). The PM, who was incidentally named Nuri al-Sa'id, tried to escape Baghdad in a woman's dress on 14 July, 1958--when the Iraqi army led by Colonel Abdul Karim Qassim staged a coup against the Hashemite monarchy--but he was captured, shot, tied with ropes, dragged on the streets, mutilated beyond recognition by Iraqis who hit the corpse with slippers, and then hung from a building in central Baghdad and later burned. Zeyad 6/05/2008


 

Thursday, August 09, 2007                    Three Nights at the Airport "Prison" ZEYAD KASIM



Then an officer came to us and told us that we aren't going to enter Amman in the most humiliating way of speaking and walked away. I tried to talk to him but he closed the door in my face. I was so angry of the way he treated us; we are locked in a small room now, and my wife is scared of closed places. She was so scared and she began to cry hysterically. I felt that she will die if she stayed like this and again there was nothing I can do. This really makes me hate my self when I can do nothing. I knocked on the door many times but no one answered. It's like a prison, I shouted: don't let us in, just let us out, get us back to Iraq, I don't want to be humiliated like this. There was no answer; they just ignored us again.

After an hour of my wife crying; her eyes are so swelled now. Then another humiliating officer talked to us like we were dogs: "Get the hell out of here and go to that room," he pointed. We walked and we saw a dirty corridor with blankets and 3 small rooms. You will sleep the night here, he said. He pushed all of us and locked the door. At this time I wish I could kill one of them for the humiliation we received from them. All of us were so scared from the idea that we will sleep in a jail for the first time in our lives for no crime we did, just because we are Iraqis. Why does everyone treat Iraqis like this? We are humans. We aren't aliens. We are not animals to be put in jail for no crime.

I walked and I saw another man in one of the rooms. He was very classy. He smiled kindly when I entered. I asked, did they return you also? How long have you been here? He said, "Yes they did and this is the fifth time they return me. I don't want to enter the land of dogs "he meant Jordan" all I want is my money; all my money is there, and I want to draw it, but the dogs didn't let me in. Tell your wife that there is no need to cry like this for the land of the dogs, and if she continues crying they might tell her some words that she will not like and will never forget. This happened before and I have seen it."

Of course not only my wife was crying but all the women in the "Jail" or what the Jordanians call the Waiting Hall. All the men had red eyes. They struggled to keep the tears in their eyes, and I was one of them. I don't know why they were so sad; may be some of them for the price of the ticket $644 which was lost, maybe for the business and opportunity they have lost, but for me it's for the humiliation and disrespect I have seen, for the way Jordanians treat Iraqis.
zeyad

          Saturday, June 30, 200          The Baghdad Death Map      ZEYAD KASIM


Iraqis Offer Their Own Security Assessment of Baghdad Neighborhoods.
In their distinctive style of morbid humor, resourceful Baghdadis are circulating emails presenting their own personal assessment of the security situation in the capital. The detailed lists of what neighborhoods and areas are safe and what to avoid completely, because of Mahdi Army or Al-Qaeda activity or the random car bomb, are quite different from those found in Iraqi government or U.S. military statements. As many parts of the capital have become no-go zones for members of either the Sunni or Shia sect – or sometimes for both, it is a challenge for Baghdadis to identify areas where they are able to move freely and areas where they should better stay out.

The following is a translation of one such email making the rounds among residents of Baghdad and on Iraqi Web forums. The sarcastic email, which was written in Iraqi slang, attempts to classify the districts of Baghdad based on their level of danger. According to the author, the safest neighborhoods are the ones where the odds of staying alive are 50%:

 

My family told me that our house in Baghdad was searched by U.S. troops early this morning. My mother said at least a dozen soldiers entered the house through the kitchen door, which was open - she had just woke up but my father and my brother Nabil were still asleep. Nabil has a detailed account in the comments section of his last post.

According to their description, the soldiers were civil and well-mannered. They were just asking if my family had any weapons. My mother said, "No, we have nothing. Not even a knife." One soldier pointed to the kitchen and said, "Obviously you have knives." They also tried to give them a phone number so they could report insurgent activity.

Then they searched my grandmother's and uncle's house next door. Some of them sat in our garden, while my mother and father were sitting behind them on the patio drinking tea and reading a newspaper (there was no electricity and it's hot inside). My mother said two soldiers suddenly turned and pointed their weapons at my mother and father for no particular reason. They stayed in that position until their fellow team members finished the search and they left.


Zeyad

  Sunday, October 22, 2006 Zeyad    another terrible murder

Nabil    An Innocent life of a young hair styler woman had to end like that.....

As what Eye witnesses told me...
She was on her way home... after she closed up her shop.. around 5:30 pm.... she hired a taxi... just at the time that she got inside the taxi car...
A civilian car with four young men inside it.. just blocked the way on the taxi.. one of the young men..(As they said.. they doubt if he is over 18 yo... they meant that the age of those boys is certainly under 18).. came out of the car.... and headed to the taxi car... brought that woman out of the taxi by force... put a black plastic sack on her face... and he assassinated her.
for what??? why did they kill her??? no one knows....

later about 8:20 pm an Iraqi Army patrol came and picked up the dead body.  Nabil

 Zeyad                                                               Belligerent taxi drivers in Amman

Longtime readers know that I’m quite fascinated with taxi drivers. A couple of days ago I was in a taxi on my way to the U.S. embassy in Amman. What follows are tidbits from the conversation that went between the taxi driver and myself.

Taxi driver: What business might you have at the American embassy? I swear that I would never ever want to set foot in that country. In fact, a former American consul once offered my whole family citizenship. I have no need for it.

Me: Really? How come?

He then recounted an implausible story about the American consul renting or vacationing in a property that belongs to his family, and how he was so grateful for their services in the end that he offered green cards for the whole family, or something to that effect.

T: Now, two of my sons own businesses in America. We’re planning to visit them in about four months. They always speak of Niagara Falls. I really want to see those Niagara Falls. I want to see what the fuss is about. Do you know what they say about them? I heard that the water falls in a shape that resembles an arc. Allah be praised.

Z: So you are planning to go, after all.

T (ignoring the remark): It’s ridiculous the way they treat us at their embassy here. So many questions and so many investigations. They think we’re all Osama bin Ladens. No, my friend, we’re not like that at all.

Z: …

T (changing tone and peering at me strangely): You’re Iraqi?

Z: Yep.

T (complimenting me): ’Ala rasi.

[Long pause.]

T: So from which of the Iraqi governorates are you from?

Z (fully realising the intent of the question): Baghdad.

T: Baghdad. Oh, Baghdad. The capital of Al-Rashid.

[Another pause.]

T (peering at me again and predictably asking): Are you a follower of the Imamiya?

Z: No, I’m not.

T (with evident relief and a trace of a smile): So you’re Sunni? You’re not Shi’ite?

Z: Yes, you can say so.

The man looked happy now. He started bashing the Shia and their beliefs, lecturing me on how the Shia detest the companions (Sahaba) of the prophet, on how they loathed A’isha, one of the prophet’s wives (the one he married when she was just 9), and on how evil they all are.

T: So do they openly disparage the prophet’s companions in their mosques? Do they condemn Omar through loudspeakers?

Z: No, they don’t. It’s only in their literature.

T: I see. And how is it in Baghdad these days?

Z: Not very pretty, as you can see from the news.

T: I guess it isn’t. If only the lion Saddam was free. He would crush those ragtag militias in a few hours. Heh. We’ll watch how that wannabe Nuri Al-Maliki would flee for his life, that son of a bitch.

Z: …

I usually try not to get into an argument with such people. It would be counter-productive. Most of the time, I try to get them comfortable enough to reveal more of their opinions, unless I’m dead bored and I just sit back and listen to their monologues.

T: You know, when Saddam’s daughters sought refuge in Jordan, his majesty the king offered them one of his palaces and 50 million Dinars [about $70 million]. I think two of them are still here, while the third is in Qatar.

Z (nodding): …

T: One of my relatives used to work as a truck driver between Jordan and Iraq. He was once near the Iraqi Central Bank in Baghdad, and there was an enormous explosion that targeted an American patrol there. You know what the media reported? They said that 20 Iraqis were killed and dozens injured. But I swear that 45 American soldiers were killed in that explosion. This is always the case. The Mujahideen never miss their target. Do you see their videos on Al-Jazeera? They never miss.

***
It’s a common belief among Arabs who are sympathetic to the insurgency in Iraq that the media does not report real numbers of American casualties, or that American soldiers who are not yet naturalised U.S. citizens are not counted among them. This was most evident in the case of the Jordanian family at Al-Salt, which celebrated the martyrdom of their son in Iraq. It was reported that he detonated himself near a police station in Hilla, where dozens of Iraqis were lining up as volunteers to join the police. The blast also killed and wounded civilians at a crowded market nearby. When the martyrdom celebration caused a diplomatic crisis with the Iraqi government and embarrassed Jordan, the terrorist’s family stated that they were informed that their son had actually killed dozens of American soldiers, not Iraqi civilians.

 Zeyad

IRAQ                             Zeyad       symptoms of an Iraqi invasion.

Monday, July 10, 2006

 Zeyad                                                                       Amman 

Wednesday, June 14, 2006

   I arrived at the Queen Alia airport at Amman around 8 PM Monday. Believe it or not, I was at the Baghdad airport before 1 PM, even though the flight was scheduled at 4. Most of the time was spent navigating security checkpoints and getting clearance to enter the airport.
 

There were 2 or 3 Iraqi army checkpoints which checked IDs, passports and tickets, followed by another with dogs sniffing the vehicle, a Sonar test for the vehicle, then a small facility where Iraqi security guards frisked me and meticulously went through my suitcase. I noticed while I was being checked that the vehicle was being searched again. After that, we set out on the highway around the runways, flanked by Saddam’s former Radhwaniya and Abu Ghraib palaces, and what I assume to be the US airport detention camp. We just went through a final tiny, dog-sniffing, frisking, suitcase-searching checkpoint before we entered the passengers terminal.

I had already spent about an hour going through security, and I discovered that I had to wait at the terminal for the earlier Iraqi Airlines flight to leave before checking in at the desk and weighing my luggage.

The scene at the airport terminal vaguely resembled an experience at the Allawi Al-Hilla bus station. Passengers shouting and complaining that they had booked a flight but their names were not on the list. An Iraqi Airlines desk clerk was trying to solve their problem in between wiping his forehead every 10 seconds. Every now and then, he would give a vacant stare in the midst of passengers huddled around him, reassuring them that there would be a seat for everyone because not all who booked a flight would arrive in time. It appeared that Iraqi Airline agents usually sell an extra dozen tickets or so for each flight, in what it terms ‘reserve’ seats, in order to compensate for people who don’t turn up for their flights. Most of the time it works, but sometimes people have to spend a night at the airport to be added to another flight that has empty seats on it.

Thankfully, my name was on the list. I worked really hard to get that ticket in time this week, since IA flights were all booked until mid July.

There are only 2 IA flights to Amman each day, and another for the Royal Jordanian Airlines. IA tickets are at $622, while RJ’s are at $960.

Ran into a couple of interesting characters at the airport terminal. Head of the Sunni Religious Endowments Board, Abdul Ghafour Al-Samarra’i, and the head of the Iraqi Accord Front, the aging Dr. Adnan Al-Dulaimi. I recognised Dulaimi’s figure and headcap dozens of meters away. He slowly limped to the gateway, surrounded by bodyguards in beige suits. I was standing alone in the middle of the terminal, and while he walked by he nodded at me and greeted me with a ‘Salamu Alaikum’. Nice, I was thinking, he’s going to stand in line like everyone else. But he was ushered into the gateway by Iraqi policemen and airport security.

We weighed our luggage, stamped our passports and headed into the waiting terminal. Interestingly, foreigners, mostly American, were all sitting on one side of the terminal, while Iraqi passengers were on the other. We waited for another hour here and went through just one teensy search before the flight left at 6 PM, 2 hours after its scheduled time.

The plane did the obligatory spiral ascent above the airport to reach the right altitude before leaving the area. A precautionary measure to avoid insurgent anti-aircraft missiles from the nearby Radhwaniya, Abu Ghraib and Yousifiya areas. A few first-time Iraqi passengers were not familiar with the procedure, and I tried hard to ignore the curious middle-aged bald man next to me who kept leaning against me to peer out of my window. I sat in the back to keep away from families, but the man’s wife and kids saw to it that I wouldn’t enjoy a half-hour nap.

Jordanian customs officers were a bit more rigorous in their questions at the Amman airport this time. After learning about the purpose of my visit, they asked for my college acceptance letter and other visa-related documents. Then they strangely asked about my tribe and residence location in Baghdad. He seemed happy to know I was from a Sunni tribe. I can only assume, though I may be mistaken, that Jordanian authorities are trying to limit potential Iraqi Shi’ite immigration to Jordan.

Jordan rarely grants permanent resideny to Iraqis nowadays. But most Iraqis go around it by paying fines, leaving the country for a few days then returning to renew their temporary residency, or by settling illegally. I have dozens of relatives and friends living here for the last 2 years or so.

I was given 2 weeks. The officer insisted that it was enough for the visa application procedure.

I checked in at the US embassy this afternoon. I was only asked for the visa fee cheque and they gave me the application forms and an interview appointment on July 3.

I met an old college friend at the embassy. He was also accepted in an American college, but he mentioned that he was applying for the second time at the embassy, having been refused a visa the first time.

I guess I’m just going to have to bide my time in Amman for now. My family is planning to leave to Syria in about 2 weeks to spend the summer. I’ll try to hook up with them later after I get the result of the visa application.

Amman is the same as I left it last time. An ever expanding bustling city that gives the false impression of modernity and a progressive, enlightened society. Yet, every Jordanian I spoke to thinks that Zarqawi is a martyr. One taxi driver frankly told me that one should not rejoice over Zarqawi’s death, for one simple reason: Americans and Iraqis are happy about it.

That about sums it up.  Zeyad :

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