:: Some of the readers asked about my opinion about the interviews that GWB gave to Al-Hurra and Al-Arabeya TV channels and since I'm a CIA agent (I'm thinking of leaving them to work for the Mossad. I've heard they pay better), I guess my opinion would be biased, so I decided to offer you some of the responses I saw on the BBC Arabic which offers a comment section for Arab readers to post their opinions about the hot topics. There were about 30 comments today, since it's still fresh on the site. As usual, the comments from Iraqis-in general-contradicted those from other Arab countries, especially Palestine, Syria and Saudi Arabia. I also found that many of the commentators considered President Bush's speech an apology despite the fact that he didn't frankly apologize.
I've selected some of the comments for translation and it's worth mentioning that about 40% of the total number of comments was positive (sorry, I mean they were supportive of the CIA propaganda).
Here are the translated comments:

-"Thank you Sir for apologizing on the abuse of the Iraqi prisoners in Abu Ghraib prison. Here you opened an important file; I think that those criminals who were responsible for the mass graves in my country (who are now in your jails' cells) should apologize for their massacres against the Iraqi people".
Imad Al-Sa'ad - Netherlands.

-"Who reads the reactions of Iraqis will see how surprised they're by the way the Americans can prove that years of Saddam's rule and of his anti-American propaganda can be washed out by time; here we have the president of the greatest nation on earth apologizes for what a small group of pervert soldiers did. And here, the American press proves that it's free to show the truth. We lived with similar pictures for years until they became the basics of every prison's daily life and we never heard an Arabic paper point them out. These are lessons from the western culture entering the hearts of Arabs, whether the Arab leaders liked or not".
Sa'eed - Diwaniyah/Iraq.

-"I think that President Bush should talk to us to fill the gap between us and I wish I could see the Arab leaders talk to us like GWB did"
Jihad Abu Shabab - Germany.

-"I'm very happy to see Iraqis condemning the abuse and defending the rights of the prisoners and this is the first time they do something like this, which was impossible for them to do under the dictator's regime. I think that our Arab brothers should mind their own business and take a look at their own prisons".
N - Jordan.

-"I think that president Bush was honest in what he said. Those abuses do not represent the American people. As a matter of fact, we can find cruel men with no morals in any country; that's why we should not judge a whole nation for the violations of a small group of people and I'm sure that these will get the punishment they deserve. Here I'd like to direct my question to the Arabic media "where were you when Saddam mass-executed my people and used all kinds of torture against us?".
Reemon A'adel Sami -Iraq


-"I think that President Bush's statement will find acceptance from some of the Arabs, while the majority will not be satisfied with his words whatever apologies they included just because he is BUSH and he is AMERICAN. I'm sure that the American officials are more upset by the event than the Iraqis themselves because this doesn't belong to their culture or their ethics as a civilized nation.
I think that the event took more space than it actually deserves and the media are creating a mountain from a grain. It's enough for us to remember Saddam's doings to comment on what recently happened".
Sameer-Jordan.

And here's one comment from the other side (not a CIA agent).
-"No speeches and no apologies can correct what happened. I can’t describe how I felt when I saw the pictures on the Washington Post; is that why they came from far away? Killed thousands and destroyed a whole country claiming that they came to spread democracy and freedom.
Their media campaign will not make us forget what happened. Shame on their foreheads to the end of time".
Ayman-Damascus/Syria.

:: Last Monday, the graduation festival of the 5th grade students of the college of dentistry/Baghdad University was held.
I missed the opportunity to attend this celebration-that usually attracts huge audience from other colleges-but I couldn’t let myself miss watching the fantastic decorations and paintings that every group of students makes. So I went to the college this morning with two of my friends and started to take photos for these paintings which usually contain mocking portraits and funny notes about each member in the group. The students usually spend months and a lot of money to prepare for the celebration; the preparations usually include the (group tent) which is placed in a corner in the college yard and the students gather in this tent (after taking the graduation photo that all the students appear in) with their families and their friends to sing, dance and take more and more photos. And this is an old tradition in my college and many other colleges in Baghdad.

I think I told you in a previous post that there’s an internet café now in my college but I want to add that this café was installed in the hall that used to be the office of the NUIS (national union of Iraqi students) in Saddam’s days. This union was the spying eye of the Baáth party in every college or high school as the union members were strictly, opportunistic Baáthists trying to get higher ranks by writing reports about the ‘suspicious’ students or even professors.

The college cafeteria is one of my favorite places because I can always see activity, normal and somewhat cheerful life there regardless of how bad the situation might sometimes be just outside the walls of this place as if it has magical immunity to politics or security problems. That's why I never miss the chance to visit my college when I'm in Baghdad and especially when I feel down.

Old friends, and a conversation to share.

I was surprised when I saw that the reaction of Iraqis to the subject of prisoners abuse by some American soldiers was not huge as we all expected to see, even it was milder than the one in other Arab countries and especially than that in the Arab media.
I mean about a month ago, we had considerable reactions and somewhat large demonstrations in response to the killing of Hamas leader, and in the mid of maniac reactions from Arab media and people, the absence of large demonstrations and outrage on the streets of Iraq becomes really strange and give rise to questions. Why the Iraqi people are not really upset with this issue?

Is it because of the firm and rapid response from the American officials to these terrible actions?

Or is it because the Iraqi people lack compassion with the majority of these prisoners?
Could it be that the Iraqi people and as a result of decades of torture, humiliation and executions, took these crimes less seriously than the rest of the world?

Or have the majority of Iraqis finally developed some trust in the coalition authorities and in the American army, to sense that these actions must be isolated and will be punished?

I can’t say I have the full answer but I guess it’s a combination of a little bit of all the above.
I can say that at least some Iraqis seemed to have understood the situation and were satisfied with the reaction of the American officials and their promises that the offenders will be punished. While a wide segment of Iraqis seemed indifferent with the issue and only showed their disapproval when they are asked about it, but rarely with what one can call an angry tone, and I’m talking about my personal experience here, as I tried to ask the largest number of people about their feelings before I write about it.
Here I would like to provide a conversation I had with some friends whom I haven’t seen for a long time and met just yesterday. After a few words of greetings that friends usually exchange after not seeing each other for a long time, the conversation turned towards the current situation in Iraq, and as the prisoners abuse issue is the hottest topic nowadays, I started my attempts to discover their points of view about it. They were all upset but they showed satisfaction with the fast and firm reaction of the coalition higher officials and were also impressed by the honesty of the American soldier who reported the abuse and uncovered tha awful behavior of those criminals but at the same time they said that they’re looking forward to “see the offenders get some real punishment, not just directing few harsh words. A sentence for 3 or 4 years in prison will be convenient”. Others showed more understanding to the American law system.
I also noticed that the abuse pictures brought a flashback from the days of Saddam and the way Iraqi prisoners were treated in; a tone of fear was in the voice of my friend “this could happen to me or anyone else. If someone gets randomly arrested (for being near the site of some clashes or violent demonstrations in the wrong time), he might be tortured or humiliated by the prison guards before they recognize that he’s got nothing to do with the insurgency or the terrorists" That I must say will have a very bad effect on encouraging Iraqis to participate in the political process in Iraq.
Later on, we jumped to another topic, which is the GC and the awaited authority hand-over. Two of my friends condemned the reaction of Jalal Talbani to the prisoners issue when he relatively ignored the questions about it and considered the matter to be “secondary”. One of them added “how comes that the highest ranking officers in the coalition, Tony Blair and GWB gave much attention to this matter and severely condemned the abusive behavior of those soldiers in their latest speeches while Mr. Talbani thinks it’s not worth talking about!?
I asked my friend “when did he say that?” and he replied “yesterday. Didn’t you see that? It was shown on Al-Jazeera and Al-Arabyea” I told him that I don’t watch these two channels and that he shouldn’t do that too. “But where can I get the news then?” my friend asked. “I personally watch the less evil, BBC and sometimes the new and moderate, Al-Hurra” I answered, and my friend said “ but Al-Hurra doesn’t follow the news as fast as Al-Jazeera does, and their performance in general is still below what’s needed, and I can’t follow the reporters on the BBC, especially when they put a Scottish or an Irish guy to tell the news” I agreed with him that it’s difficult sometime and that we need more options.
Another one started cursing the head of the SCIRI because he promised Iran-in a previous occasion-that Iraq would be responsible for compensating Iran for the damages of the Iraqi-Iran war in the 1980's.

Then came the big question “who do you think is going to lead Iraq in the transitional phase? And will that leader be one of the current members of the GC”? This question was directed to me. I said that I don’t think that the future president will be chosen from inside the GC and I asked my friends back "if you were to choose your president from the GC, whom would you elect”? They all agreed that Adnan Pachachi would be the best available choice in such circumstances. As a matter of fact, I share the same opinion because this man is acceptable to many Iraqis due to his moderate attitudes and clean background and he has no militia or the kind of followers that can abuse their man's power to harm others, break the law or have illegal advantages.
When I said goodbye to my friends I sensed some optimism inside me when I realized they are paying more attention to the future and were not fooled by the Arab media to act only in response to emotions.

:: I know that the new flag will probably be changed in the future but I decided to put it on the side bar because it's now considered to be the symbol of my country. I've always wanted to show my country's flag on my page but I refused to to use the old one as it always reminded me of Saddam and the Arab nationalists' ideology.
So, this may be temporary but at least, for the time being, it fits the page design better than the one Ali had suggested. It's not a big deal but rather a way to express my willingness to make and accept changes and to move forwards.

About Abu Gharib.

Every time I see these pictures that show some American soldiers and officers abusing and humiliating Iraqi prisoners I feel very upset and disgusted. Many of you wanted to know how we feel about those crimes and the people responsible for them and my opinion is simply this: those soldiers must be brought to justice and punished.

There are tens of thousands of coalition soldiers in Iraq, and of course not all of them are pure angels; they’re tough warriors among whom we can find the good and the evil, and the evil are always less but unfortunately, they draw more attention just like a small black point on a white paper and this applies to any group of human beings anywhere on this planet. That’s why we should not generalize this to the whole coalition soldiers. I’m not trying to defend the coalition here; I just want to show my point of view in an objective way.

The way the Arabic media handled this incident reminds me of the way they handled the barbaric crime in Fallujah a month ago, they tried to show that all the people in Fallujah supported that crime which they called “resistance” and now they’re trying to make Iraqis believe that all the soldiers of the “occupation forces” are involved in this atrocity and that every single soldier in the coalition can’t wait to seize the chance to humiliate Iraqis.

The media seems to be always trying to exaggerate things and to describe any violent action from Iraqis (or Arabs) as “resistance” and any violent action from the coalition as “crimes of the occupiers” to make a good story that sells or that serves their masters' objectives. Anyway, this is not the subject I want to talk about today.
I want to tell you that I felt great relief when I saw and heard the highest-ranking officials in the coalition apologize to the Iraqi people for what a small group of their soldiers did and assuring us that there will be serious investigations to expose those who committed the atrocities and to punish them the way they deserve.

What happened was awful, that’s true but I feel comfortable with the good intentions of the coalition leaders and people who rejected the crimes against the detainees.
Let me tell you this, under the past regime Iraqis were the victims of worse atrocities (by the hands of Iraqis) everyday but no one could say a word about that, now, nothing can be hidden from the people and no one can get away with his crimes. For the first time, law is starting to govern our country and this will force anyone to think twice before he plans to harm someone or break the law in any way.

The crime was a step backwards but the way it’s being dealt with is-in my opinion-a step forwards on the way to strengthen the trust between the coalition and the Iraqis because this will help putting an end to many of the conspiracy theories that many Iraqis still belive in and this will tell Iraqis that the Americans are not hiding facts about their soldiers behavior here and once they feel that something wrong is happening they will move to correct it.

I FOUND IT!

I didn’t want to comment on the issue of the new Iraqi flag because I thought it wasn’t really something worth the debate when we face other much more serious challenges and problems. However, the big clamor that this insignificant issue created, and the fact that many readers asked me about my opinion, convinced me to change my mind.

Seriously, I think this should’ve been done a long time ago, when things were more quite to avoid any undesirable side effects. The old flag was not an Iraqi flag. It was the flag of the Arab nationalist and didn’t represent the various components of the complex Iraqi society, and after Saddam had put the holy words on it, it became Saddam’s flag. That fool was obsessed with making his name an immortal one. He did everything he could, spent billions of dollars on his statues, palaces and elsewhere to force people to remember him wherever they turn their heads. He didn’t think that the anger of the Iraqi people would topple all his statues and burn all his pictures in such a short time. Still his flag is there reminding us of him and all his atrocities, therefore it had to go. This is, of course, mainly a psychological issue to declare formally the end of an era with all that represented it.

Most Iraqis had hated that flag a long time ago. The Kurd refused to use it, and many Iraqis were bold enough to take away the holy words from the old flag, but that couldn’t have been generalized and adapted by the authorities, since it would’ve caused unnecessary clashes with the religious groups.

Now to talk more seriously, I would like to discuss the design of the new flag, try to see why it did upset some Iraqis and Arabs, and also I would like to offer my suggestion to solve this critical problem, as I have something I think may help us here.

Yesterday I was discussing with some of my friends the reaction that some 'smart' people signaled among common Iraqi saying that the new flag looked like the Israeli flag and that it was meant to be so! Now honestly I don’t understand those Israeli guys; they give the Gaza strip and the west bank back to the Palestinians, and then they come to buy lands in Iraq (from Al-Jazeera)! And now they are trying to take over our flag, the symbol of our sovereignty!? Hmm..I don’t get it but there should be some huge conspiracy here! I mean come on; we have all the elements of conspiracy here; America and changing an Arab country flag and using blue color!!

One of my friends said that our people care about formalities a lot and that no matter what we think we should put that in consideration. I agreed with him, and as a good and loyal citizen, I tried to work hard on this imagining what flag would represent the Iraqi people and not offend any party.

At first, I thought of the date palm, but this might upset the Kurds, since they don't have it in Kurdistan. Then I thought of one of the symbols of the ancient civilizations in Iraq like the "winged bull", but this will be hard for the children to draw. Then there is the issue of colors; I mean we hated black, red and we were not allowed to use blue!

Enough to say that it was an extremely difficult challenge, and I had to come up with a design that not only should be acceptable to all Iraqis, but should also help in solving our problems and ensure our peace and prosperity, I mean that’s what a real flag should serve.
I spent long hours searching and thinking, facing dead ends all the time, but you know me, I’m resourceful! And all of a sudden came this design that I recall seeing it in a cartoon when I was a kid, and it looked just perfect. It has all what is needed; it’s easy to draw, it’s peaceful, it has no religious or ethnic symbol and it has no blue color on it! Is it just luck or is it creativity!? I don’t know but here it is for you to judge.




p.s. in case this flag was not accepted by my fellow citizens, then it remains at the reach of any poor and oppressed nation who suffer from civil war, famine or SARS to use it to solve all its problems, and I will be honored to serve humanity anywhere.

-By Ali.

Reconsidering the priorities.

Few weeks ago, I wasn’t quiet sure of the urgent need for the sovereignty handover in the planned date of June the 30th. What gave me such belief were the events we experienced since the great changes that happened in Iraq, because what happened was a dramatic change that needed to be followed by a revolution on the old concepts that dominated for decades, and dealing with theses changes will be accompanied by a lot of obstacles (technical and psychological) that might seriously effect the process of building the new Iraq; this is a fear that became stronger after seeing the modest performance of the Iraqi leadership during the past events. Add to this that it’s difficult for the people to get used to the changes in this short time space.
Here I stress that the positive nature of the change doesn’t necessarily make it acceptable for the people, and that it’s very important to allow the sufficient time space for the change to be rooted in the minds of the people in a way that enable them to see the great pluses the media try to overlook. This will not happen easily without the birth of the new Iraqi citizen who has the faith in the good results in the future and who is free from the paranoia that inhabited the minds of Iraqis and Arabs in general. Only such Iraqis will be ready to go through this hard period and bear the necessary sacrifices.

Unfortunately, sometimes the events enforce a situation against our plans. We spend tens of millions of dollars to create something good and then comes one picture from the media to blow the whole project up and the media win and become the loud voice that people listen to, and it seems that all the millions that were spent were almost mute and their voice couldn’t reach the ears of the crowds. After what happened recently and the attempts made by some outlaws to counter act the change by gun power, I started to have more inclination to see the sovereignty hand over take place according to the planned schedule. This-in my opinion-will achieve many objectives that serve our ambitions for the bright future. More important, it will support the credibility of the coalition countries regarding one of the most important promises given for the sake of the change. And this will be a shock for those (who use their claims that the US in not honest in her promises as the backbone of their media assault). After that, this propaganda machine that depends strongly on the theory of “occupation” and the “legitimacy of resistance” in its war against the people of Iraq in particular and against freedom in general will collapse, and then all they have will be the other claim that the new government in Iraq will be definitely a puppet for the CIA or the Pentagon and this claim is a weak one that won’t have attentive listeners, especially in the civilized world.
The other point -which bears no less importance than the previous one- is that the international terrorism that bet a lot on the failure of the project in Iraq will find that it has lost a great deal of its war because the terrorists have invested lots of money and a lot of personnel for this purpose but all that couldn’t accomplish the task of hindering the change, on the contrary, it speeded things up. Therefore, terrorism- or better say those who finance it-should look for another field for its war or to continue here but with half its previous determination. Here where I agree with the people who say that perception is more important than facts, at least sometimes.
Yes, we’re still looking for something much better than this but the hand over of sovereignty will be a step forward, surely will facilitate future wider steps.

By Mohammed.

:: I found this carecature on Al-Sabah newspaper yesterday.



The words on the paper (in the carecature) say "A GOVERNMENT OF TECHNOCRATS".
The guy thinks "IS THAT SUNNI, OR SHE'AT!?"

A tough decision.

Today I was reading Al-Sabah newspaper and one title caught my attention “a local armed group confronts Al-Sadr militia” I must admit that I felt relieved at first. At last, some Iraqi civilians took it upon themselves to fight the terrorists. But after a minute of thinking, this question came to my mind; is this what we want to see, Iraqi civilians carry arms to fight the thugs?
The armed group in question distributed a leaflet in which they threaten all those outlaws and terrorists who bring instability and disturb the safety of the city, saying that they will be eliminated.
And on the ground, there were some clashes between this group and Al-Sadr militia in which some men from "Mahdi army" were killed and some others wounded. This clarifies some important points which are-as written in the leaflet-“enough is enough, we should stand up for the challenge”.
Let us first try to take a closer look at what these news mean. When local people (definitely Sheát) rise against what was considered to be a powerful, somewhat holy and a 'largely' supported extremist, this proves that all the crap said about a revolution being in the air has no base at all. it means that either the people of Najaf are not fascinated with the idea of revolting against the coalition and are ready to cooperate with them, or that the people of Najaf saw that what Sadr militia was doing is not a true revolt against the Americans, but rather it was terrorizing Iraqis, looting and releasing their brother criminals from prisons to help them gain control over the huge amounts of money that comes to the holy mosque (we are talking about REAL money here), all with the Iranian clerics acting behind the scene. That's why the people of Najaf couldn't stand their atrocities anymore and decided to face them with all the risk such a decision carries.
The situations have been dealt with by limited military operations and giving time for negotiations and this is understandable when it comes to a holy city for a large section of the Iraqi people, in which some members of the GC played devil's advocate especially the SCIRI and the Iraqi Islamic party (in case of Fallujah), but there still remains the problem that those people don’t understand the meaning of peace talks and negotiations and take these as signs of weakness, and also led to a situation where the people in Najaf lost hope in the coalition and couldn’t tolerate the thugs anymore and started to try solving the problem by their hands. So, is this what we want?
In the 'best' scenario is that this new militia will defeat the Mahdi army but after that this group or maybe other groups will probably claim that they have the right to remain in power and run the city. What logic can we use then to convince them otherwise? How can you tell a man who risked his life and lost a family member to achieve his freedom that he should drop his arms and obey the authorities that left him to deal with the threats alone? Can we assure him that what happened will not take place again?
I know that making the decision to fight the terrorists (inside Najaf) by the coalition and the new Iraqi army carries considerable risks (not as serious as some people try to make it look though) in the time being, but by leaving the issue as it is to be solved by civilians through violence or going back to negotiations (the way these thugs negotiate remind me of the way Saddam used in negotiating with the international community) can only make the losses in the future much more worse.
I hope that the fools who were asking us to carry Ak-47 and fight the terrorists are happy now. Some Iraqis have done that, and if nothing serious is done, others will sure join them.
Not carrying weapons by my people should be a victory for peace and humanity. Our real enemies, and I mean the Arab and Muslim dictators and clerics and not their tools, want to see us carry our arms again and I’m sad to see some Iraqis being forced to do this because this is what the enemies of life and freedom want. The task of disarming the militia is-beyond any doubt- the responsibility of the coalition and they are doing a good job in that, but still the extremists control large sectors of Fallujah and Najaf and terrorize people even in Baghdad (they have spread the word that anyone who criticize Al-Sadr will be executed without a trial by the Mahdi army!!)
My refusal to carry the weapons is my contribution to the process and is the way that Iraqis should use to show their support to the coalition. This is the best we can do and we’ll continue to show that we refuse the existence of armed militias (whatever their ideologies were) and stress on the necessity of building a modern, strong police and a new army that respects the constitution and obeys the law that protects the sons of this country and makes their land safer than ever.

By Ali.

"The people do not -sometimes-see the good they want"

When I heard about the decision of the coalition to get UN involved the in the process of authority handover, I grew really restless, and what made me more worried is that ‘all parts’ seem to agree on this; the coalition, the UN the GC and the whole world. Now wait a minute! Is that the same useless, half corrupted organization that supported Saddam, and still support his likes in the name of preserving the international wall? Is that the same organization that left Iraq and the Iraqi people after the 1st terrorist attack? I hope they are speaking of something other than that. Some people would say that this is what the Iraqi people want, but this (if it’s ever true) is not the question.

Although many people see this question to be the most determining factor in setting the policy in Iraq, still (in my opinion) this is not the question although it’s an important one. What is more important in my opinion is this question “what’s good for Iraqis and at the same time does not interfere with the interests of the region and the world?”
Nobody really knows what a nation that lost the reasonable and balanced vision for decades would want, and nobody can-and I’m sure of that-claim that he could summarize the people’s demands in definite points and also cannot represent the people regarding their wishes and goals.
We do not have the prominent character or the dominant trend or even the clear and acceptable-for the majority- political program. More important there’s no possible way, with all this violence going, that the Iraqis can voice their real demands, or that significantly valid polls can be performed.
We have the silent majority that was deluded for 4 decades and was persecuted and deprived their opportunity to speak and their right to think. So, how can we rely on this confused vision which is absolutely governed by emotions that lead most of the opinions of those people? We should also not forget that it’s been just a year since Iraq got released from Saddam’s prison and Iraqis were faced with a huge propaganda wave and an intense psychological pressure from outside and inside the country. This was more that what those washed brains could handle or tolerate. Everyone tries to speak on behalf of those minds that were besieged by one single idea for decades; the idea of fear from the brutal government they lived under.
Now, those minds are being asked to define their goal out of tens of choices that are even hard for them to understand not to adopt.
That’s why we find them choosing the easiest solution by not choosing anything from what is available and they tend to prefer to remain silent and keep waiting.
Let’s be realistic and face the reality; the minds of my countrymen have absorbed the emotional aspect of the subject not the practical one, therefore it’s natural to see more emotions and less work and in a situation like this one, it would be wrong to put the whole responsibility on the people’s shoulders and we have several occasions in which some countries postponed elections after receiving trauma from some incidents when they realized that having the elections in their planned schedule might have a bad influence on their future, so what should we think about Iraq when she’s witnessing the most important event in her life, and I think that what we saw in Spain is a good example and to some extent proves the theory; despite the fact that Spain is a great nation and her people are civilized, they made a decision that many of us consider to be not the best they could make and this was because they followed their emotions not reason after the terrible attacks in Madrid. Yes, our people want the good but they can’t see it. Those who were kept in the darkness for four decades will certainly stumble when they see the light for the first time and will need a long time to accommodate to the new atmosphere. How could we ask those to find their way, the way that you find obvious?
The big question-that is sadly being pushed backwards-remains this “what is good for the people?” and if this interferes with what is good for the rest of the world and specially the USA (since she is the part who sacrificed and still sacrifice the most) then we really do have a problem, but since this is not the case, as I think a free democratic Iraq who should be a strong ally to the USA and the free world will serve the interests of all except of course the ME dictators and the Islamofascists, then we shouldn’t have a problem.
Some might say "who has the right to define this, you, the Iraqi intellectuals, the GC, the coalition and the American administration or the UN?
You can make your choice; I’m not in a position that allows me to give orders. Those who have the widest experience should understand this and get prepared to adopt it and a long time may pass before my people realize that what was planned for them is for their benefit. As a matter of fact, this hurts too but it seems that we have-in the mean time, not in the future-limited choices. We should learn from previous similar examples in the world where decisions were enforced on the people to avoid disasters in the future. I hope you don’t get me wrong; the subject is not about who enforces his opinion but it’s about, what’s the best available opinion to adopt regardless of who gave this opinion.
I would never call for the delay of the authority handover. This, in my opinion, should not be postponed (for reasons other than what ‘the people want’), and also I’m not naive enough to think that I know better than the whole world. It’s just my opinion and I could be wrong and hope that the people in charge know exactly, as they showed before, what they are doing and I hope they want to give the UN some role and not a real role in shaping the future of Iraq, because seriously, I doubt if the UN officials ever care about what Iraq really needs.
It’s my right and my duty as an Iraqi citizen and a human being to speak out and say that what Iraq needs is a firm alliance with the USA and the rest of the coalition, because these are the governments that have real interest in establishing a true democracy in Iraq and these are the people that I trust most. As for the UN, it can play a role in organizing humanitarian aids and can also play a minor role in the political future of Iraq.

By Mohammed.

I was discussing with some friends whom would we like to have as a president in the transitional period. And since no names were suggested so far and since this topic remains a vague one for the majority, we thought that we could help in setting some standards for the candidates that we think the majority of Iraqis agree on.
The requirements are:

1-He should not be a cleric.
2-He should be at least 84 years old with life expectancy of no more than 90 for his family.
3-Should have no criminal record.
4-He should have at least 2 chronic illnesses (organic) with no possible cure.
5-He should have NO sons.
6-He should not be able to make a speech longer than 15 minutes.
7-He should have an IQ that can be measured
8-His birthday should not be known.
9-He should not have been seen wearing a military uniform.
10-He should have no interest in nerve gas, mustard gas, abdominal gas…etc.
11-He should have no experience whatever with guns.
12-He should NOT be a war hero.
13-He should not have a history in using words like conspiracy, historical, mother of all …., the day of days…..etc.
14-He should speak at least 6 languages beside Arabic AND English (French, German, Russian and Chinese are NOT needed)
15-He should feel comfortable with living in one house for a long time.
16-The applicant should show documents that prove that he’s hated by the majority of Palestinians, Saudis, Egyptians and ARABS in general.
17-He should have been criticized severely by Arab media, especially Al-Jazeera and Al-Arabiya.

Anyone who thinks he can meet the above standards, please e-mail us with attached CV.
A draw will be performed and the name of the winner will be announced prior to the 1st of June (I'm serious).
Several contests are expected to be held at different sites and areas in Iraq and the final candidates will be presented to the UN and the CPA to choose THE ONE.

By Ali.

::This is the 'Iraqi resistance' gift to Iraqis; depriving Iraqis form their major resource. I wonder if Al-Sadr or Al-Jazeera will accuse the coalition of this one too but, wait a minute, he thinks that the Americans and the British came to steal the oil, not to burn it. Then who did this?
I wish to hear the answer from the 'resistance'supporters.

::Some news about the IP performance in Baghdad:
-In Al-Dourah neighborhood, the IP have successfully arrested a big car-stealing armed gang that have stolen many cars in the last few months by creating fake checkpoints sometimes and by following poor drivers and forcing them to leave their cars by arms in other times.

-The IP arrested a man responsible for the murder of two IP members and the IP suspect that the man is also involved in some attacks on the coalition forces.

-The IP succeded yesterday in preventing an attack with Katyosha missiles on the memorial architecture of Iraqi soldiers who died during the war with Iran. This site is now used as a military base for the coalition troops in Baghdad. The group of terrorists who were trying to launch the missiles were arrested just before they tried to carry the attack.
News from Al-Iraqiya TV.

:: Hi everyone. I've just returned from Basra and i'm fine.
First of all, I'd like to thank all those who were worried about my safety. Ali told me that many of the readers were asking about me. I'm so happy; having so many friends who care for me is priceless.
Secondly, special thanks to Kerry Dupont; before I came to the internet cafe' I went to AYS's place and received the laptop and the other cool stuff that Kerry gifted us. The laptop, scanner, printer and digital camera will be very helpful in the blog work.

:: The foolish supporters of Muqtada spread a dirty rumor in Basra just after the attacks last Wednesday; the rumor said that the British are involved in the attacks. Of course, very little people in Basra believed that crap but anyway, here's the truth about the attacks from the IP.

::Al-Hurra TV started a ground transmission few day ago and now, it can be received by any TV set at any house in Baghdad.
Ali said that his colleagues in the hospital(mostly She'at), who used to watch the Iranian Al-Alam channel have been watching Al-Hurra recently and they said that they find it more objective, balanced and entertaining.

::By the way, Mohammed wants to thank everyone who sent him greetings on his birthday; the e-mails were very kind but there were plenty of them, so he apologizes to those whom he couldn't write back.

I didn't know how stupid and 'innocent' I was until I got this mail.

"I want to take this opportunity to personally thank you. I am an American who "knows" why her country has invaded Iraq. Your personal reaction to this invasion of your country has left me overwhelmed and therefor I need to thank you.

Thank you for helping my country become richer and more powerful from the riches of your country. Thank you for accepting that your country's oil gets stolen in order for us to have a steady source of oil for many years to come. Thank you for insuring that the world oil prices are controlled by us and not by any other region and power. Thank you for ignoring the fact that the US helped Sadam Hussein remain in power until he too wanted to becoming too powerful and attacked Kuwait (afterall, we do not like competition, but I am sure you understand this). Thank you for supporting Israel, our number one ally in the Middle East, I'm sure you understand that the murder of women, children and militants alike is necessary for the survival of a terrorist state, you have a very believing heart, so thank you for understanding the tactics of this military state of Israel.

Lastly, thank you for pretending to be blind while the reports of the US military purposely disregarding Iraqi's lives leak out in mass amounts in the world press, while the US spokespersons constantly deny it. (I am sure such things remind you of your days under Sadam, sorry for this).

Lastly, thank you for believing that your situation and the situation of your fellow Iraqis will improve.

Thank you for being so innocent and so foolish."

I didn't post the name of the sender since I didn't ask/get her approval. Keep enlightining me 'good Americans' who 'know' their country.

-By Ali.

After the article on USA TODAY about Iraqi bloggers, we received many e-mails and comments showing concerns about our safety and asking about wheather the reporter had our permission for showing our pictures, our full name and the café' where we work most of the time.
I want to say that the reporter was very honest and fair in his article and he asked for our permission regarding showing our pictures and our full names and we agreed on that. It maybe stupid, but I agree with the good friend and reader who pointed out that this can be explained in the last line of the article. Thanks to all the good friends and readers for their true feelings and their great support.

-Ali.

A routine day in Iraq.

Today is a special day for me, it's my birthday I woke up early, had many things to arrange, it was a lovely sunny day. One should enjoy looking at April flowers and not stay at home at all, and I will celebrate it just as I should.

Then I heard the news; tens of people killed in terrorist attacks in Basra with many children among them. Omar, my brother, is still in Basra, and we were very worried and didn’t rest until we called a friend there to have some information about the attacks. We still haven’t heard from him, but that's because he doesn't have a telephone or access to the internet in the small town where he works, and we know that he doesn’t usually go downtown at such times.

This is my daily ‘routine’ thoughout 35 years; wars, meaningless death of innocent people, armed people terrorizing us, relatives and friends get killed or disappeared, close gunshot or explosions awaken me from sleeping, our laughs and talks get lost amid sounds of jetfighters in the sky and noise of tanks in street reminding me where I’m I and where I live. It seems that it’s not allowed for me to live a normal life like others do.

I believe in the bright future ahead but I’m upset now and I came here to write and release some of my frustration. I can't bear it alone. why me? Why my country? All that we need is a moment of peace. I really need it now. Why should I bear it with my people? When will it be over and when can we live in peace at last?

The hardest thing is that I have to fight more, and I will, but God, please give me the strength. Why should I be strong while watching others run away; Spain, Honduras, Thailand, human organizations, the UN and all the others who want (and it’s their right I must say) to avoid the dangers. But why did they disappoint us? Why abandon us in this moment when we really need them? Will they come back when conditions improve? Most likely, but who will need them then!!? We don’t need doctors and engineers. We have enough of those and large numbers of Iraqi doctor, teachers and engineers are working abroad. We do export minds, and some of those have returned and are doing their job and some are on their way back. We need political, financial and military support, and once we get rid of the terrorists, WE will show you what we can do, and we will not forget those who helped us, they will remain as friends and allies, that’s from a political point of view. As for me, they will remain as my real family, my brothers and sisters.

One of our friend was angry when he saw the former slaves burn the flag of their liberators (and he has all the right to feel so), but I saw my country being destroyed for 35 years and I’m not desperate because I have faith that it will be rebuild one day. Still, why am I supposed to be the 'superman' who is never allowed to feel angry, sad or frustrated?

Others ask me to demonstrate and show my support to the coalition. Ok I’m with the coalition but I can’t do it my friends. I’m surrounded by armed criminals who wouldn’t hesitate for a minute before shooting me for just speaking out, yet I do speak, and not only on this page.

You, there in the free world, cannot witness against criminals without witness protection programs. We have nothing of this. Just under trained and half corrupted policemen and few newly graduated army soldiers and the law system, we inherited from Saddam and haven’t really changed it yet, is far from being efficient.
Why do others get discouraged easily? Don’t mistake me. I’m upset but will NEVER run away like some people did.

I wasn’t like this before. I was afraid most of the time. I have always looked for safety above all. I lost faith in the whole world and I wasn’t ready at all to make the slightest sacrifice for the sake of others. I was trying to leave my country and find a better job in a safe place, BUT, The brave solders (who don’t hold shares at Halliburton or Bechtel) who crossed seas and oceans and came to my country to fight for our freedom -and don’t anyone dare say the opposite, as I met so many of these soldiers and had hundreds of letters from them and there families and I know their motives; they fight for their country’s safety and for our freedom and they are proud of what they are doing- gave me the faith and showed me that man should not care only about himself, his family or his country, these are not enough to make a human being. These guys are MUCH better than me because I have to fight for my issue and they fight for me. They deserve the respect of the world and so do the people who support them. They always give me hope to go on no matter how difficult it seems.

I think I’ll have to skip celebrating my birthday this year, but that will not make me less determined than before, and I know that even if other countries pull out of Iraq, we will always have the strongest and greatest nation on our side, the wonderful people of the USA, together with the UK, Italy, Japan and the rest of the coalition forces. We owe you a lot and I pray, and I’m sure, that one day we will be able to return some of your favors and I’m talking about the people not the politicians although I don’t deny those the credit they deserve for doing their job as good as they can. When that day finally comes, you will know for sure that the great efforts and sacrifices you’ve made were not in vain.

-By Mohammed.

The roots of evil.

The Muslim clerics' council made what seemed to be great and good efforts to release some of the hostages who the thugs have kidnapped lately. So, should we be grateful for these clerics? doesn't that mean that we are grateful for the thugs themselves? But let’s, before answering this question, try to find out who these clerics are and what their relation with the kidnappers is.

Before the war there was no such council in Iraq. Unlike the Shea’at, the Sunnis had no organized council or religious authorities that represent the majority of them, and whom they can follow regarding religious affairs at least. All the Sunni clerics were graduates of the “Faqiuh and Sharea’a" college that teaches Islamic law and philosophy in the Sunni version of Islam. That’s why you couldn’t find a single Shea’at in this college. It was only for Sunni men, and the vast majority of those were not intelligent people, as this college had very easy standards to be met if one wants to join it. After finishing their study, the students would become mosque clerics who are responsible for holding prayers and taking care of the mosques. They were government employees who received a regular monthly salary in return for their services, as they were serving the government and not the people.

After the invasion of Kuwait back in 1990 it was very common to see these clerics driving cars that were ‘imported’ from Kuwait. They were not only good servants, but also the majority of them were partners in Saddam’s crimes. They didn’t only accept his gifts, but went as far as justifying Saddam’s terrible crimes.

After the war, and after a period of instability, the traditional Shea’at authorities regained their ‘normal’ role as representatives of the majority of Shea’at, while the poor Sunni clerics found themselves actually as unemployed. There was no one to pay them so how could they live? And not only they lost their benefactor, but they also lost their influence. I’ll not throw accusations without solid proofs, but the bottom line is that those clerics, feeling the great threat to their career and being short of money and neglected, did what was expected from them; they united and formed a council that represent them and announced themselves as the legal representatives of the Arab Sunni. And with some of the Arab Sunni -especially in the western part of Iraq where you can hardly find a single Shea’at and where people used to get obvious privileges, at least compared to the other minorities in Iraq- being afraid of the growing power of their eternal rivals, the Arab Shea’at, the new plan seemed to have a chance. They even managed to form a political party to represent them in the GC, "the Iraqi Islamic party" There remained one problem; finance.

Unlike the Shea’at, the Sunni do not have a commitment to their clerics regarding finance. This was not a problem in the past 14 hundred years as the successive governments in Iraq were almost entirely Sunni, but now and for the first time it’s different and the clerics had to find new sources. These guys are fighting for the lives of their families because they don’t have any qualifications and they know nothing else other than preaching.

Of course, there were many parts that are more than ready to take the part of the collapsed regime, starting from the remnants of that regime itself and passing through Saudi Arabia and Syria and, God knows who else.
I don’t believe in conspiracy theories and I find that they are far from convincing to explain history for a long period of time, but this doesn’t mean that there are no conspiracies at all. However these conspiracies tend to be short living and limited in their effects.

I believe that we have a conspiracy here. Hostages from different nationalities get kidnapped by the thugs, and after ‘great efforts’ from the 'peace loving and moderate' Muslim clerics' council, some of these get released by the same people who used to burn and mutilate the bodies of their enemies!! And the end result: the thugs are not thugs, they are Iraqi Muslim fighters struggling for their freedom and have morals, and the Muslim Sunni clerics are peace loving people who have great support and influence on the Iraqi people! Can they be this stupid? Or do they hope that they can deceive the whole world?

I think that one look at the nationalities of the hostages who were released and those who were killed can make the whole issue more clear, and if we ask ourselves how did those clerics with the help and support of the Iraqi Islamic party, manage to contact the ‘Islamic resistance’ and have such a great effect on them, we can conclude without great difficulty that we are dealing with one part rather than two or three, and what is worse is that these people are actually represented in the GC, a decision which seemed to have taken place to create a sort of a balance to the great Shea’at presence in the GC. These kind of terrorist acts remind us with the stupid plays Saddam's used to come up with every time he found himself surrounded by threats. Taking hostages, threatening to kill them and then release them for certain demands to show how merciful he was, and that he didn't do it unless he has a legitimate demands and a just cause!

We are dealing with a group of Islamo fascists, hypocrite opportunistic clerics, terrorists from outside Iraq, fanatic Iraqi Wahabis and remnants of the old regime who are united in an unholy alliance with different perspectives and goals but they all know that they have this frightening single enemy; democracy and freedom in Iraq.
A great proportion of these powers are now taking shelter in the west parts of Iraq and mainly in Fallujah, using it as a base and terrorizing the innocent people there to make it look that the whole city is supporting them, and in my opinion any attempt to solve this problem 'peacefully' through negotiations will have a disastrous outcome. It will give these people the legitimacy they are seeking as a 'resistance to the occupation’ and this will affect the way the rest of the Iraqi people look at the whole struggle. We should not fall into the trap the pacifist fell in and this applies to Al-Sadr and his group of followers too. These abscesses should be opened, it will be very hard, painful and it will stink, but it has to be done. I don't claim to know how this can be done, as it still a very hard task and requires a skilful aproach to minimize the dangerous expected side effects, but I have faith in the coalition forces and I have faith that the Iraqi people will soon identify these people as the evil and hypocrite they are.

-By Ali.

:: I've been visiting the BBC Arabic site in the last few days and I found a forum where people from many Arab countries –including Iraq- post their opinions about some hot topics, the main of those is Iraq and terrorism of course. I wasn't surprised to see that most Arabs (especially from Egypt, Palestine, Sudan, Saudi Arabia and Syria) are forming one side of the debates while Iraqis and people from the rest of the gulf countries are taking the other side. But I was surprised when I found that the almost all the Iraqis who took part in the debates are on our side, maybe 95% of Iraqis expressed their rejection to the violent behavior of some Iraqis and condemned the terrorists attacks on both Iraqis and the coalition saying that the Arab world must stop supporting the terrorists and the thugs from inside Iraq. It's also surprising that many of those Iraqis live in areas that are recognized to have a public anti American attitude in general like A'adhamiya, Diyala and Najaf. I feel that those people are still afraid to voice their points of view in public in such hostile atmospheres but the internet is providing them freedom and safety to say whatever they believe in.
Here, I translated three of the posts made by Iraqis and for those who can read Arabic or have a way to translate web pages, here's the link.

"What's happening in Fallujah and Baghdad now is the doings of the enemies of Iraq and his people and I mean our "brother Muslims and Arabs" who fear that the fire might reach their kingdoms and let Iraqis go to hell. Iran is supporting Muqtada while our Arab brothers are sending us human bombs to kill our children and all this is in the name of Islam and Arab nationality and the satellite channels are tearing apart and distorting the reputation of every honest Iraqi patriot saying that he's a dirty American agent, so for god sake, enough of what you're doing to Iraq and Iraqis. We did nothing to harm you, so what is this all about?".
Zahawi-baghdad

"To put things clear, we should know who is supporting Sadr, they're a bunch of lost men who spent their lives serving in Saddam's army and he found no one else to support him. The solid truth is that those thugs need to be taught a lesson and this may be in various ways. Iraq must be saved from those men in any possible way".
Abdul Hussein – Hilla

"The martial show for the Mahdi army that Muqtada made is tearing apart the national unity and therefore Iraq needs the liberating forces to remain to prevent the country which was the origin of civilization from being ruled by fanatics who can see no far than their chins".
Saad Yaseen-Diyala.

:: AYS returned back from Basra yesterday after he spent 2 weeks there, and today -after this long pause- he posted his point of view about the current events in Iraq.