The vanished Austrian pistols in Iraq

According to a GAO report, 80.000 out of 125.000 Glock Austrian made pistols given by the US to the Iraqi security forces are missing.
Many of them are now in the hands of militiamen, gangsters and criminals, in Iraq and all around the region (including thousands that are being used by a branch of the Turkish mafia).
I made this TV report in a police station of a Shiite neighbourghood of Baghdad. It was aired by Arte on the 20th of April 2008.
Enjoy your viewing.

Freedom for Bilal Hussein

Reporters without borders (RSF) seems to be too busy these days (the Tibetan issue and the Olympics in Beijing –what’s the link please with the advocacy for the press freedom?!) to pay attention to the last developements in the detention of our AP colleague, the Pulitzer prize winner Bilal Hussein.

Last weeks, an Iraqi judicial panel met twice and dismissed all the criminal allegations against the Iraqi photographer. It ordered it release from the US-run military custody where he has been kept for more than two years.

Photo courtesy AP.

AP writes that “the panel ordered a “halt to all legal proceedings” and said Hussein (…) should be “released immediately” unless he is wanted in connection with something else”.

Bilal’s case enlights the problem of dozens of thousands of Iraqi detainees who should benefit from an amnesty law enacted last February, aiming at moving the country towards national reconciliation (a law US officials commented as a major achievement).

The US say that they intend to review the Iraqi judicial panel’s orders before deciding on releasing the prisonners from custody, and stupulate that their U.N. Security Council mandate allows them to detain anyone in Iraq deemed a security risk to coalition or Iraqi forces, even if an Iraqi judicial body has ordered that prisoner freed.

Like most of the detainees, Bilal was never brought to trial, nor Iraqi or US, nor civilian or military.

To follow the case :
The AP’s site on Bilal Hussein
www.freebilal.org

Campaigning for Absolut vodka and a free Tibet

This is the ad that sparked heated comment on many US conservative blogs and web sites. It belongs to a campaign that promotes ‘absolut scenarios’ under the slogan ‘In an Absolut world’. This one, dedicated to the Mexican market, shows a 1830s-era map when Mexico included several Southwestern US states, including California and Texas. An AP wire writes that ‘Mexico still resents losing that territory in the 1848 Mexican-American War and the fight for Texas independence.

But this ad ignited heated comments, like : “In an Absolut world, a company that produces vodka fires its entire marketing department in a desperate attempt to win back enraged North American customers after a disastrous ad campaign backfires,” on web sites like Malkin.

Absolut said the ad was designed for a Mexican audience and intended to recall “a time which the population of Mexico might feel was more ideal.”

“As a global company, we recognize that people in different parts of the world may lend different perspectives or interpret our ads in a different way than was intended in that market, and for that we apologize.

The very same US activists who gained the withdrawal of this campaign by Absolut are probably today demonstrating for the ‘freedom of Tibet’.

Maybe could they consider just for a minute the Chinese stance and understand what it means to have part of what you consider your own territory, based on historical facts, amputated.

The integrity of a national territory is among the most sensitive issues in the international law. This question can not be highjacked by a public relations campaign like the one we are witnessing.

The question is not if I’m advocating for the Chinese or promoting the oppression of the Tibetans. The question is that the future of a territory (and consequently the relationship between two people) should not been adressed through a world opinion campaign that seems better marketed than an ad for Absolut.

At least two good reasons for a succesfull demo of Sadr supporters on Wednesday

Iraqi cleric Moqtada as-Sadr called last week for a mass demonstration this Wednesday, April 9th, to commemorate the fifth anniversary of the fall of Baghdad. Originaly planned in Najaf, this demo was latter relocated in Baghdad in order to ensure a bigger success. Very smartly, Sadr invited all the Iraqis opposing the US-led occupation, whatever their confession, to join the march.

Since, at least two decisions taken by Sadr’s main opponents (namely the US and the Iraqi governement) should bring even more people to the streets. Both show the US unability to translate a temporary improvement on the field to a more sustainable success.

Moqtada as-Sadr. Photo courtesy AP.

The first one is the announcement made by the US State Department to renew for a year the contract of the private security company Blackwater for the protection of the US embassy personals in and around Baghdad.

Originaly, the Iraqi governement had banned Blackwater after the incident in which the company’s guards shot dead 17 Iraqi civilians in September 2007. After pressures from the US embassy, which could not afford to suspend all the moves of its staff waiting for another security company to take over the job, Baghdad eventually accepted to let it work. But an unofficial understanding was concluded, that Blackwater would not be candidate for the renewal of its contract

We must remind that foreign security companies at currently not subject to Iraq law, but at the same time are not governed by US military tribunals, allowing them to operate without regard to any repercussions. Their bad doings jeopardize the US image in Iraq, and therefore the success of their ‘mission’.

The US governement says that the FBI investigation is still under way, and that it sees no reason for a sanction as long as the results are not delivered.

How much money do the US taxpayers spend for political advisers in Iraq ? Obviously, they must be stupid -or not listened to –to let the State Departement take decisions like this one, humiliating the Iraqi sovereignty.

The other good reason to ensure the march’s success is Maliki’s call to disband Sadr’s militia, Jaish al-Mahdi. The Iraqi Prime minister threathened to ban the Sadr movement from elections of its armed body is not disbanded.

This decision answers to the question : how to push a couple of millions of people into illegality, by depriving them of political representation?

The fact is that both the Iraqi president and the Prime minister run militias. From the Badr Brigade to the Kurdish peshmergas, and now the sunni Sahwa (Sons of Iraq), every single Iraqi community has its militias. Why to target especially Jaish al-Mahdi ? Because it aims at the departure of the foreign troops? This is definitely not a fair policy.

If the Iraqi Supreme Electoral Commission issues a new regulation banning parties that operate militias from fielding candidates in the provincial balloting, due this fall, then it would be likely to ban all the major parties from the polls.

If I was Sadr, I would answer easely : ‘disband my guys ? Sure ! But you first…’