Categories

Relief Work (4) With an emphasis on NGO involvement Background Information Sources (10)

United Nations Agencies (3)

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Contractors' support of US Operations in Iraq

A report from the Congressional Budget Office in the United States forecasts that the 190,000 private contractors in Iraq and neighbouring countries will cost US taxpayers more than 100 billion dollars by the end of 2008 (20/8/2008, CBO).

http://www.dev-zone.org/downloads/08-12-IraqContractors.pdf

(Added: Thu Aug 21 2008   Hits: 13)

Iraq displacement and return: 2008 mid-year review [pdf]

2.8 million internally displaced Iraqis live in poor conditions without access to shelter, food, health care and water. This report from the International Organization for Migration (IOM) argues that donor countries must increase assistance to these vulnerable communities as soon as possible. (IOM, August 2008).

http://www.globalpolicy.org/security/issues/iraq/attack/crisis/2008/2008displacementreview.pdf

(Added: Thu Aug 14 2008   Hits: 7)

Sadr and the Mahdi Army: Evolution, Capabilities, and a New Direction [pdf]

Iraq still faces three major internal security risks: First, the resurgence of Al Qa'ida in Iraq; second, the risk that ethnic or sectarian tensions could turn violent, rather than be solved through political accommodation, and third, the risk that a substantial element of the Sadrist movement and the Mahdi Army or Jaysh Al-Mahdi (JAM) will try to use violence to achieve political power - possibly with Iranian support. This analysis focuses on the latter risk, and recent developments in the Sadrist movement and the JAM. (Anthony H. Cordesman, Jose Ramos, 4 August 2008)

http://www.csis.org/media/csis/pubs/080804_jam.pdf

(Added: Fri Aug 08 2008   Hits: 18)

Failed Responsability: Iraqi Refugese in Syria, Jordan and Lebanon

This International Crisis Group report argues: While the security situation in Iraq shows progress, Iraqi refugees remain stranded, jobless, deprived of essential services. Host countries and the wider international community must do more now and are ill prepared to cope with a new refugee crisis, should it occur. Up to five million Iraqis - nearly one in five - are believed to have fled homes, half of them across borders. Despite oil money, the Baghdad government has been conspicuously ungenerous toward citizens stranded abroad. The U.S., while contributing more than most Western countries, has admitted few refugees and provided far less assistance than needed.

http://www.crisisgroup.org/library/documents/middle_east___north_africa/iraq_iran_gulf/ailed_responsibility___iraqi_refugees_in_syria__jordan_and_lebanon.pdf

(Added: Fri Jul 11 2008   Hits: 35)

Humanitarian action in Iraq: putting the pieces together [pdf]

Policy briefing from the ODI discussing the challenges for humanitarian action in Iraq (Humanitarian Policy Group, March 2008).

http://www.odi.org.uk/hpg/papers/hpgbrief30.pdf

(Added: Fri Apr 04 2008   Hits: 41)

So why, exactly, did the U.S. invade Iraq five years ago this week?

On the 5th Anniversary of the US invasion of Iraq, Jim Lobe analyses the reasons why they went in in the first place. (19.3.08, IPS News).

http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=41643

(Added: Thu Mar 20 2008   Hits: 20)

Iraq: No let-up in the humanitarian crisis

Five years after the outbreak of the war in Iraq, the humanitarian situation in most of the country remains among the most critical in the world. Because of the conflict, millions of Iraqis have insufficient access to clean water, sanitation and health care. The current crisis is exacerbated by the lasting effects of previous armed conflicts and years of economic sanctions (ICRC, March 2008).

http://www.icrc.org/web/eng/siteeng0.nsf/htmlall/iraq-report-170308/$file/ICRC-Iraq-report-0308-eng.pdf

(Added: Wed Mar 19 2008   Hits: 86)

Military vs. Climate Security

Accepting his Nobel Peace Prize, Al Gore called on the nations of the world to mobilize to avert climate disaster "with a sense of urgency and shared resolve that has previously been seen only when nations have mobilized for war." This report measures in fiscal terms how far the US has to go to reach that goal. (Miriam Pemberton, Foreign Policy in Focus, January 2008)

http://www.dev-zone.org/downloads/military%20vs%20climate%20security-final.pdf

(Added: Mon Feb 04 2008   Hits: 115)

Deaths in Iraq : the numbers game, revisited

A third assessment of post-invasion violent deaths in Iraq was published on 9 January 2008 by the New England Journal of Medicine. It finds that 151,000 (between 104,000 and 220,000) people died from violence in Iraq between March 2003 and June 2006. (OpenDemocracy, 11 January 2008)

http://www.opendemocracy.net/article/conflicts/iraq_handover/numbers_game_revisited

(Added: Wed Jan 23 2008   Hits: 36)

Rot here or Die There: Bleak choices for Iraqi refugees in Lebanon

The report documents the Lebanese government's failure to provide a legal status for Iraqi refugees in Lebanon and details the impact of this policy on the refugees' lives (Human Rights Watch, December 2007) .

http://www.hrw.org/reports/2007/lebanon1207/

(Added: Wed Dec 12 2007   Hits: 88)

Iraq Veterans Against the War

A US group of Veterans and active-duty servicemen against the war in Iraq.

http://www.ivaw.org/

(Added: Thu Nov 01 2007   Hits: 79)

No War No Warming

Campaign website bringing together the issue of Climate Change and the war in Iraq. Based in the USA.

http://nowarnowarming.org/index.php

(Added: Wed Oct 10 2007   Hits: 56)

Iraq refugee crisis nears breaking point

Millions of Iraqis have fled the country's ongoing conflict to neighbouring Syria and Jordan, where resources are being stretched to breaking point (Amnesty International).

http://web.amnesty.org/pages/irq-260707-feature-eng

(Added: Fri Aug 03 2007   Hits: 136)

Iraq: The situation of Iraqi refugees in Syria

More than four years after the US-led invasion of Iraq, the conflict that continues to rage in the country has not only caused countless thousands of deaths and injuries but has provoked a continuing and increasing exodus of Iraqis displaced from their homes. Some two million or more have now left the country and almost two million others - out of a total Iraqi population estimated to be around 27 millions - are now living as internally displaced persons (IDPs) within Iraq having been forced from their homes (Amnesty International, 26 July 2007).

http://web.amnesty.org/library/index/engmde140362007

(Added: Fri Aug 03 2007   Modified: Wed Dec 00 0   Hits: 74)

BLOOD FOR OIL? GLOBAL CAPITAL, COUNTER-INSURGENCY AND THE DUAL LOGIC OF AMERICAN ENERGY SECURITY

This series of five articles is an attempt to theorise the role that oil has played in US intervention in the global South. With Washington's debacle in Iraq that has, according to Zbigniew Brzezinski, been the graveyard of the neo-conservative dream, the role of oil and its linkage to US intervention has become increasingly common. Indeed, one of the central motivating slogans for critics of the Iraq debacle has been 'no blood for oil' with an explicit linkage drawn between US intervention in the Middle East and Washington's desire to control the areas energy resources (Doug Stokes, Znet commentary, 11 June 2007).

http://www.dev-zone.org/downloads/ZNet%20Commentary.doc

(Added: Wed Jun 13 2007   Hits: 30)

IRAQ: Iraq's displacement crisis continues to worsen, UNHCR says

As the violence in Iraq continues more and more Iraqis are forced from there homes. Estimates from UNHCR put displaced persons in the country at around two million, with another 2.2 million displaced in neighboring countries (IRIN News, 10 June 2007).

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=72650

(Added: Tue Jun 12 2007   Hits: 31)

War and Occupation of Iraq-- A New NGO Report

Since the March 2003 invasion, the US-UK occupation of Iraq has utterly failed to bring peace, prosperity and democracy, as originally advertised. This major report assesses conditions in the country and especially the responsibility of the US-led Coalition for violations of international law. In twelve detailed chapters, brimming with information, the authors provide a unique and compelling analysis of the conflict, concluding with recommendations for action. Among the topics covered are: destruction of cultural heritage, killing of civilians, attacks on cities and long-term military bases. The report has been written and produced by Global Policy Forum and co-published by thirty NGOs (Global Policy Forum, June 2007).

http://www.globalpolicy.org/security/issues/iraq/occupation/report/full.pdf

(Added: Tue Jun 12 2007   Hits: 38)

Iraq: The World's Fastest Growing Refugee Crisis

The UN estimates that nearly 2 million Iraqis have been displaced by violence in their country and fled to surrounding countries, the vast majority of which have fled since 2003. Some 1.9 million have vacated their homes for safer areas within Iraq, 900,000 of which have fled since 2003. Iraqi refugees are now living in Syria, Jordan, Iran, Egypt, Lebanon, Yemen, and Turkey. Most Iraqis are determined to be resettled to Europe or North America, and few consider return to Iraq an option. With no legal work options in their current host countries, Iraqis are already exploring the use of false documents to migrate to Western nations (Refugees International, 10 May 2007).

http://www.refugeesinternational.org/content/article/detail/9679

(Added: Thu May 31 2007   Hits: 135)

Iraq: U.S. Response to Displacement Remains Inadequate

As the conflict in Iraq intensifies, it is no longer possible to ignore its devastating effects on Iraqi civilians. In January 2007 the UN finally recognized that the death of tens of thousands of Iraqis and the displacement of four million others in Iraq and the region constitute a humanitarian crisis. This recognition represents a major step for the organization which until then had been working under the assumption that the situation in Iraq was conducive to reconstruction and development (Refugees International, 8 May 2007).

http://www.refugeesinternational.org/content/article/detail/9993

(Added: Thu May 31 2007   Hits: 104)

Is hanging tyrants always wrong?

In the wake of Saddam Hussein's execution, this article questions whether the relief and joy given to a once-tyrannised population outweighs the murder of a human being. The author finds that his "glee" at Saddam's death has no morally justifiable explanation. The real test of your belief in human rights is not whether you support them for the innocent - the Marsh Arabs and the Ang Sang Su Kyis. No: it is whether you support them for the disgusting, the depraved, the genocidal - the Saddams. (Johann Hari, the Independent, 31 December 2006)

http://www.johannhari.com/archive/article.php?id=1044

(Added: Tue Jan 09 2007   Modified: Thu Jan 18 2007   Hits: 237)

Judging Dujail: The First Trial

Human Rights Watch has demanded the prosecution of Saddam Hussein and his lieutenants for more than a decade. In this report, however, the organisation identifies numerous serious flaws in the trial of Hussein for the Dujail executions. The report finds that the Iraqi High Tribunal was undermined from the outset by Iraqi government actions that threatened the independence and perceived impartiality of the court. It discloses serious flaws in the trial, including regular failures to disclose key evidence, violations of the defendants' right to confront witnesses, and lapses of judicial demeanor. Human Rights Watch opposes the death penalty in all circumstances as an inherently inhumane punishment and says that executing Hussein while other trials against him are ongoing will also deprive many thousands of victims of their day in court. (Huma Rights Watch, November 2006)

http://hrw.org/reports/2006/iraq1106/

(Added: Tue Jan 09 2007   Modified: Thu Jan 18 2007   Hits: 153)

The Iraq Debate: Looking for a Few Good Principles

This article looks at the Iraq Study Group's (ISG) report, released this week, which makes official the fact that Bush's Iraq policy is a failure. It puts forth four principles that must guide US policy decisions regarding the war in Iraq from here on. (Yifat Susskind, Madre, 15 December 2006)

http://madre.org/articles/me/iraqdebate.html?tr=y&auid=2200187

(Added: Thu Dec 07 2006   Hits: 28)

This was a guilty verdict on America as well

"So America's one-time ally has been sentenced to death for war crimes he committed when he was Washington's best friend in the Arab world. America knew all about his atrocities and even supplied the gas - along with the British, of course - yet there we were yesterday declaring it to be, in the White House's words, another "great day for Iraq". And now we're going to string him up. Of course, it couldn't happen to a better man. Nor a worse. It couldn't be a more just verdict - nor a more hypocritical one. And so by hanging this awful man, we hope - don't we? - to look better than him, to remind Iraqis that life is better now than it was under Saddam. Only so ghastly is the hell-disaster that we have inflicted upon Iraq that we cannot even say that. Life is now worse." (Robert Fisk, Independent, 11 June 2006)

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article15520.htm

(Added: Thu Nov 09 2006   Hits: 36)

To Stay Alive, Iraqis Change Their Names

In Iraq these days, being called Omar or Ali can get you killed. Iraqis say the country is rife with checkpoints where armed men ask for identity cards and then kill people on the spot if their names identify them with a rival religious sect. In the first seven months of this year, 1,000 Iraqis officially changed their names, far more than in any similar period since the American invasion of 2003, a New York Times reporter recently found. (New York Times through Truthout, September 6, 2006)

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/090606F.shtml

(Added: Wed Sep 13 2006   Modified: Thu Jan 18 2007   Hits: 178)

US intel report: Iraq's Anbar province 'politically lost'

In a report that some have said is the most negative yet filed by a senior military officer in Iraq, the chief of intelligence for the US Marine Corps in Iraq concluded that the possibilities of the US and Iraqi governments securing the troubled western Iraqi province of Anbar are remote. The region's political vacuum has been filled by Al Qaeda. (Tom Regan, Christian Science Monitor, 11 September 2006)

http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0911/dailyUpdate.html?s=mesdu

(Added: Tue Sep 12 2006   Hits: 28)

CrisisWatch N°36, 1 August 2006

In 36 months of publishing CrisisWatch, the International Crisis Group has not recorded such severe deteriorations in so many conflict situations as in the past month. The Middle East erupted with full-scale conflict between Israel and Hizbollah in south Lebanon, and there was a major escalation in Israel's conflict with Hamas in Gaza. Insecurity and sectarian violence surged in Iraq, claiming over 100 civilian lives daily. Somalia sits on the brink of all-out civil war, which is drawing in the wider region: Ethiopian troops entered Somalia to support the transitional federal government, and Eritrea is arming the opposing Union of Islamic Courts. In Sudan, implementation of the Darfur Peace Agreement was at a standstill, with rebels split, and fighting, over the agreement. The Mumbai bombings that killed over 200 had wider implications for the normalisation process between India and Pakistan. Tensions rose dramatically on the Korean Peninsula after Pyongyang fired seven test missiles. The situation also deteriorated in Colombia, Côte d'Ivoire and Haiti. Four situations showed improvement in July 2006: The Democratic Republic of Congo, Angola, Timor-Leste, and Cyprus. (ICG, 1 August 2006)

http://www.crisisgroup.org/home/index.cfm?l=1&id=4296

(Added: Wed Aug 02 2006   Hits: 115)

No Blood, No Foul: Soldiers' Accounts of Detainee Abuse

This report is based largely on firsthand accounts by U.S. military personnel stationed in Iraq, and describes abuses that took place in three separate locations in Iraq in 2003-2005. Many of the accounts are from soldiers who witnessed and in some cases participated in the abuses. First, the report discusses incidents involving a special military and CIA task force based at Camp Nama, near Baghdad, in 2003-2004, and near Balad in 2004-2005. Second, the report describes abuses in 2003-2004 at a Forward Operating Base on the Syrian border, called FOB Tiger. Third, the report details abuses in 2004 at detention facilities at the Mosul airport. The military's own investigations and reports by journalists and other observers support many of the accounts, and provide further details from soldiers about abuses at these facilities, including abuses in 2005. (Human Rights Watch, July 2006)

http://hrw.org/reports/2006/us0706/

(Added: Tue Jul 25 2006   Modified: Thu Jan 18 2007   Hits: 172)

The Hidden War on Women in Iraq

Since the invasion of Iraq, women have been subject to the war crime of rape by both American soldiers and local gangs, on the streets and within prisons. NGOs report that the situation for women is deteriorating. For some Iraqi fundamentalist Islamic leaders, this is a dream come true. Sexual terrorism coupled with religious zealotry has thus stolen their right to claim their place in public life. (Ruth Rosen, Tom Dispatch & Common Dreams, 13 July 2006)

http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0713-33.htm

(Added: Fri Jul 14 2006   Hits: 174)

Destroy and profit: wars, disasters and corporations (pdf)

This 121 page publication addresses some of the key issues and challenges that accompany post war and post disaster reconstruction programmes. The collection of articles in this publication range from analysing the economic and political restructuring of occupied Iraq, the links between war and disaster profiteering in Hurricane Katrina, the Asian Tsunami, Iraq, Afghanistan and Haiti, and investment agreements in Central Asia, and show some of the common elements among post war and disaster reconstruction programmes. The publication highlights that periods following wars, conflicts and disasters offer an opportunity for national and foreign governments, and multilateral agencies to establish new rules and policies for the provision of goods and services, infrastructure development and investment, and to reshape the geographical, economic and political map of a post-conflict country. It also demonstrates how in many cases foreign governments and companies benefit from reconstruction efforts, rather than local and national populations. (Walden Bello et al, Focus on the Global South, January 2006)

http://www.focusweb.org/pdf/Reconstruction-Dossier.pdf

(Added: Tue Jul 11 2006   Modified: Fri Sep 01 2006   Hits: 252)

Their Barbarism, and Ours

This article critises mass-media coverage of the war in Iraq. Jornalists allow themselves appropriate moral outrage when Americans suffer but tiptoe around what is suffered by victims of the U.S. military - as if dropping bombs on civilians from thousands of feet in the air is a civilized way to terrorize and kill. (Norman Solomon, ZNet, 22 June 2006)

http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=15&ItemID=10465

(Added: Mon Jun 26 2006   Hits: 89)

War's Iraqi Death Toll Tops 50,000

Higher than the U.S. estimate but thought to be undercounted, the tally is equivalent to 570,000 Americans killed in three years. (Louise Roug and Doug Smith, Los Angeles Times, 25 June 2006)

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0625-03.htm

(Added: Mon Jun 26 2006   Hits: 47)

Kurds Stuck in No-Man's Land

In this article the journalist visits Ruweishid refugee camp, a small stretch of desert, sandwiched between the borders of Jordan and Iraq, is a "no-man's land", created by the Iraqi government's decision to cede part of its western frontier to Jordan. It has become a place where refugees from the war in Iraq, mainly Kurdish, bide their time, desperate for resettlement. (Brian Conley, IPS News, 20 June 2006)

http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=33691

(Added: Thu Jun 22 2006   Hits: 85)

The Way Americans Like Their War

This journalist reflects on Haditha as most likely just the tip of the mass graves resulting American atrocities, asking "how many of the innocents slaughtered in Haditha took the opportunity to vote in the Iraqi elections -- before their "liberators" murdered them". (Robert Fisk, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 3 June 2006)

http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0603-27.htm

(Added: Wed Jun 21 2006   Hits: 44)

Fijian Deaths in Iraq Revive Mercenaries' Issue

The deaths of three Fijian security guards in a bomb blast in Iraq has revived concerns over private security agencies hiring former Fijian soldiers cheaply to work in the war-torn country and elsewhere. While companies offer salaries of 1,700 dollars a month, a sum ten times Fiji's estimated poverty line, NGOs argue that unscrupulous security companies are not providing potential recruits with the information they need to make an informed choice. (Kalinga Seneviratne, IPS News, 12 June 2006)

http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=33580

(Added: Thu Jun 15 2006   Hits: 67)

Other People's Blood

The war is depressing and denial is the antidote. Paul Wolfowitz, who fashioned the phony intellectual underpinnings of this catastrophe, told us that Iraqi oil revenues would cover the cost of reconstruction. He was as wrong about that as the president was about the weapons of mass destruction. (And as wrong as Dick Cheney was last June when he said the insurgency was in its last throes.) Here are the facts: The war so recklessly launched by the amateurs in the Bush White House has already taken scores of thousands of lives, and will ultimately cost the United States $1 trillion to $2 trillion. (Bob Herbert, New York Times, 8 June 2006)

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article13539.htm

(Added: Fri Jun 09 2006   Hits: 42)

U.S. Military Hides Many More Hadithas

An Iraqi doctor who was in Haditha during a deadly U.S. raid last year says there are many more stories like that in Haditha that are yet untold. (Aaron Glantz and Alaa Hassan, IPS News, 6 June 2006)

http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=33506

(Added: Thu Jun 08 2006   Hits: 37)

From My Lai to Haditha: The Abominations of War

In this article an American peace activist argues that not only is Haditha not the worse war crime committed by American or coalition troops, but the entire war is a war crime. She goes on to list what she considers the illegal, immoral, and atrocious behavior that has marked the war in Iraq. (Cindy Sheehan, 6 April 2006, Information Clearing House)

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article13508.htm

(Added: Wed Jun 07 2006   Hits: 29)

Iraq: The face of the enemy

Robert Fisk penetrates the world of the Palestinian 'martyrs' flooding over the border to fuel the Iraqi insurgency. (06/06/06, The Independent)

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article13521.htm

(Added: Wed Jun 07 2006   Hits: 33)

Beyond Abu Ghraib: Detention and torture in Iraq

Nearly three years after United States (US) and allied forces invaded Iraq and toppled the government of Saddam Hussain, the human rights situation in the country remains dire. The deployment of US-led forces in Iraq and the armed response that engendered has resulted in thousands of deaths of civilians and widespread abuses amid the ongoing conflict. n this report, Amnesty International focuses on another part of the equation, specifically its concerns about human rights abuses for which the US-led Multinational Force is directly responsible and those which are increasingly being committed by Iraqi security forces. The record of these forces, including US forces and their United Kingdom (UK) allies, is an unpalatable one. (Amnesty International, 6 March 2006)

http://web.amnesty.org/library/index/engmde140012006

(Added: Tue Jun 06 2006   Modified: Thu Jan 18 2007   Hits: 177)

World is blind to real situation in Iraq: activists

An Iraqi journalist and a Japanese human rights activist argue that the public has a poor idea of the situation in Iraq, and warn of an impending health catastrophe as more Iraqis contract cancer from exposure to depleted uranium shells used by the U.S. and Britain. (Eric Johnston, Japan Times, 27 May 2006)

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20060527a8.html

(Added: Mon May 29 2006   Hits: 60)

Arundhati Roy on India, Iraq, U.S. Empire and Dissent

In this interview with Amy Goodman, the Indian writer speaks about nuclear weapons, the crisis in democracy, the war in Iraq, dissent and empire. (Democracy Now, 23 May 2006)

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/05/23/1358250

(Added: Thu May 25 2006   Hits: 450)

Iraq's Resistance Evolves

According to this commentary written by members of the NGO Crisis Group, Iraq is simultaneously descending into both a civil war and a war of resistance against foreign occupation. The United States has been hoping to exploit the divide between Iraqi patriots and global jihadists, but the Sunni opposition is growing more structured and unified as it adapts to changing conditions, and may transcend those divisions. (Peter Harling and Mathieu Guidère, Le Monde Diplomatique, 12 May 2006)

http://www.crisisgroup.org/home/index.cfm?id=4126

(Added: Mon May 22 2006   Hits: 33)

UN body urges US to shut Guantanamo, "secret jails"

The United Nations top anti-torture body told the United States on Friday that any secret jails it ran for foreign terrorism suspects, along with the Guantanamo Bay facility, were illegal and should be closed. In its first review of U.S. policy since Washington launched its war on terrorism, the Committee against Torture also urged President George W. Bush to ban interrogation methods that could be regarded as torture or cruel treatment. It cited use of dogs to terrify detainees, "water-boarding" which is a form of mock drowning, and sexual humiliation, saying that some detainees had died during questioning. The U.S. State Department rejected the recommendations to close detention facilities as being beyond the committee's anti-torture mandate. (Stephanie Nebehay, Reuter, 19 May 2006)

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article13107.htm

(Added: Mon May 22 2006   Modified: Thu Jan 18 2007   Hits: 76)

John Pilger detects the Salvador Option

The Salvador option refers to Reagon's decision to send his administration's most committed militarists to set and execute policy in El Salvador, where they provided more than a million dollars a day to fund a lethal counter-insurgency campaign. After the 2003 invasion, it was only a matter of time before this venerable "policy" was applied in Iraq. It is the campaign of terror by death squads armed and trained by the US, which attack Sunnis and Shias alike. The goal is the incitement of a real civil war and the break-up of Iraq, the original war aim of Bush's administration. The ministry of the interior in Baghdad, which is run by the CIA, directs the principal death squads. (John Pilger, New Statesman, 8 May 2006)

http://www.newstatesman.com/200605080016

(Added: Wed May 17 2006   Hits: 83)

A Dangerous Mix: Religion & Development Aid

After the war in Iraq and again in the wake of the tsunami, Christian aid organizations were among the first to set-up relief operations in devastated countries. Many described the faith-based organizations lining up at the Iraq-Jordan border as a second army, preparing to fight a "battle for the souls" of Iraqi people. With The Faith-Based Initiative launched by the US president, concerns are raised about government's alliance with and sponsorship of Christian values and missionaries. It also lends credibility to the critics who attest that the war on terrorism is really a religious crusade. Should faith-based organizations be allowed to proselytize while providing development and humanitarian aid? (Eman Ahmed, WHRnet, 2005)

http://www.whrnet.org/fundamentalisms/docs/issue-aid_religion0507.html

(Added: Mon May 15 2006   Modified: Fri Sep 01 2006   Hits: 236)

Assyrians Face Escalating Abuses in "New Iraq"

The Assyrian Christian population of Iraq, historically traceable to the Mesopotamian cradle of civilisation, has increasingly become the target of both ethnic and religious attacks since the U.S.-led invasion and the overthrow of the Saddam Hussein regime in 2003. This article reports on patrons and human rights defenders, who say that if the world doesn't wake up to the plight of this people, they will soon be shoved through the door of extinction. (Lisa Söderlindh, IPS News, 3 May 2006)

http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=33109

(Added: Fri May 05 2006   Modified: Thu Jan 18 2007   Hits: 275)

Perceptions of the "Unpeople"

It is comforting, the author states in this short article, to attribute the alleged "clash" between Islam and the West to their hatred of American freedom and values, as the president proclaimed after 9/11, or to a curious inability to communicate true intentions. Studies even by the government itself show, however, that throughout history any such clash has more to do with the American government's protecting its own interests in the Middle East, at the expense of many of the people. (Noam Chomsky, ZNet Commentary, 29 April 2006)

http://www.zmag.org/sustainers/content/2006-04/26chomsky.cfm

(Added: Mon May 01 2006   Modified: Mon Jul 10 2006   Hits: 72)

Human Rights NGO Capacity-Building Iraq: Next Steps Report [pdf353kb]

The Report outlines findings and recommendations arising from an IHRN assessment of current needs and capacities carried out in conjunction with Iraqi human rights NGOs. It is part of wider support programme aimed at strengthening the capacity of indigenous Iraqi human rights NGOs in identifying priorities for future support.

http://www.ihrnetwork.org/files/IHRN%20Next%20Steps%20FINAL%20%28English%29.PDF

(Added: Sat Apr 22 2006   Modified: Wed Apr 26 2006   Hits: 39)

Iraqi Women Under Siege [pdf]

As well as the terror of violence and the lack of services and economic crisis endured by all Iraqis, Iraqi women are exposed to gender-based violence and an increased social conservatism that is largely the result of the way political leaders manipulate women's issues for their own purpose This carefully researched report tries to tackle some of the myths about Iraqi women's roles and rights. Despite the undeniable and systematic oppression of Saddam Hussein's dictatorship, Iraqi women were once among the most educated in the region, participating in all sectors of the labour force and playing an important role in public life, rather than the oppressed creatures without agency, sitting at home, heavily veiled and secluded that they are portrayed as. If anything, this image better describes their current plight. This report portrays the various and uneven ways that women have been affected by the Ba'thist regime's repression and atrocities, by wars, by the most pervasive sanctions ever imposed on a country, and by the current occupation - and what they are doing about it. (Marjorie P. Lasky, Code Pink/Global Exchange, April 2006)

http://www.codepinkalert.org/downloads/IraqiWomenReport.pdf

(Added: Fri Apr 21 2006   Modified: Mon Aug 14 2006   Hits: 187)

The Risk of Change: Thinking and Acting Globally and Locally

"Think Globally-Act Locally," read the fading bumper stickers on thousands of cars and guitar cases across the United States. This influential statement has defined a popular activist strategy that politically connects our local movements with those in other countries. But what does this idea mean and where has it gotten those of us working toward social change in our communities and across the world? In this article the writer tries to reconcile the gap between his struggle as an activist to prevent the war in Iraq, and his struggle as worker in the service industry to democratise his workplace. (Matt Dineen, Toward Freedom, 20 April 2006)

http://towardfreedom.com/home/content/view/798/

(Added: Fri Apr 21 2006   Hits: 151)

Islam and Power

In this article Fareed Zakaria discusses the rise and fall and rise again of radical Islam in the Middle East. He argues that radical Islamic movements had been on the decline in the Middle East but have revived their fortunes to some extent by reinventing themselves as political movements. The popularity of radical Islamic groups has, according to Zakaria, also been boosted by the small number of significant, credible alternative movements. Finally, Zakaria argues that radical Islam's rise has been aided by the failure of secularism in the region and, in particular, the fact that secular governments in the Middle East have often been tainted by totalitarianism, corruption and stagnation.

http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticle.asp?xfile=data/opinion/2006/February/opinion_February20.xml§ion=opinion&col=

(Added: Tue Feb 21 2006   Modified: Wed Jul 12 2006   Hits: 234)

CODEPINK: Women for Peace

CODEPINK is a women-initiated grassroots peace and social justice movement working to end the war in Iraq, stop new wars, and redirect our resources into healthcare, education and other life-affirming activities.

http://www.codepinkalert.org/section.php?id=12

(Added: Wed Feb 15 2006   Modified: Mon Aug 14 2006   Hits: 217)

The World as a Battlefield

In this article Paul Rogers, Professor of Peace Studies at Bradford University, asks "what next?" for George W Bush and his 'War on Terror'. Rogers argues that Pentagon planning documents on the US's defence spending budget suggest that the country is preparing itself for years of conflict in some form or other. Indeed in some policy circles the 'War on Terror' is now being referred to as "this long war".

http://www.opendemocracy.net/conflict/battlefield_3251.jsp

(Added: Mon Feb 13 2006   Modified: Wed Jul 12 2006   Hits: 76)

The Economic Cost of the Iraq War [pdf 309kb]

In this paper, economists Joseph Stiglitz and Linda Bilmes claim that cost estimates for the Iraq War have been vastly understated. While US congressional budget data estimates the war's cost at $500 billion through 2006, Stiglitz and Bilmes put the war's total cost at $2 trillion. Their detailed analysis includes long-term costs like ongoing healthcare for wounded troops and the war's related effects on investment, oil prices, and the growing US budget deficit.

http://www.globalpolicy.org/security/issues/iraq/attack/consequences/2006/01costs.pdf

(Added: Fri Feb 10 2006   Hits: 54)

Crude designs: the rip off of Iraq's oil wealth

Crude designs: the rip off of Iraq's oil wealth, reveals that current Iraqi oil policy will allocate the development of at least 64% of Iraq's reserves to foreign oil companies. Iraq has the world's third largest oil reserves. Figures published in the report for the first time show that the estimated cost to Iraq over the life of the new oil contracts is US $74 to US $194 billion, compared with leaving oil development in public hands. These sums represent between two and seven times the current Iraqi state budget. The contracts would guarantee massive profits to foreign companies, with rates of return of 42 per cent to 162 per cent. The kinds of contracts that will provide these returns are known as production sharing agreements (PSAs). PSAs have been heavily promoted by the US government and oil majors and have the backing of senior figures in the Iraqi Oil Ministry. Britain has also encouraged Iraq to open its oilfields to foreign investment. However PSAs last for 25-40 years, are usually secret and prevent governments from later altering the terms of the contract.

http://www.neweconomics.org/gen/z_sys_publicationdetail.aspx?pid=215

(Added: Wed Jan 18 2006   Hits: 98)

Crude designs: the rip-off of Iraq's oil wealth (PDF)

by Greg Muttitt, PLATFORM with Global Policy Forum, 2005. Control of Iraq's future oil wealth is being handed to multinational oil companies through long-term contracts that will cost Iraq hundreds of billions of dollars. This report reveals that current Iraqi oil policy will allocate the development of at least 64% of Iraq's reserves to foreign oil companies. Iraq has the world's third largest oil reserves. Figures published in the report for the first time show that the estimated cost to Iraq over the life of the new oil contracts is $74 to $194 billion, compared with leaving oil development in public hands. These sums represent between two and seven times the current Iraqi state budget. The report also shows that the contracts would guarantee massive profits to foreign companies, with rates of return of 42% to 162%.

http://www.globalpolicy.org/security/oil/2005/crudedesigns.htm

(Added: Mon Dec 19 2005   Modified: Mon Sep 11 2006   Hits: 58)

Iraq Solidarity Campaign Philippines

An example of an anti-war coalition from the South, the website contains the group's statements, press releases, pictures and other resources. The website is interesting as a reference point in assessing the differences as well as similarities in outlook, tactics, and approaches among anti-war groups around the world.

http://iraqsolidarity.blogspot.com/

(Added: Mon Sep 19 2005   Modified: Tue Nov 08 2005   Hits: 60)

A fresh start for Iraq: The case for debt relief [PDF] 326 KB

Oxfam briefing paper (May 2003). The reconstruction of Iraq is one of the most urgent challenges facing the international community. Ordinary Iraqis have suffered gross violations of human rights, along with one of the most dramatic deteriorations in living standards ever recorded. Now unsustainable debt threatens to undermine reconstruction efforts. This briefing paper argues that the country's debt is unpayable, but also that that there are wider moral and legal grounds for reducing Iraq's debt burden.

http://www.oxfam.org.uk/what_we_do/issues/debt_aid/downloads/bp48_iraqdebt.pdf

(Added: Mon Aug 01 2005   Modified: Mon Nov 07 2005   Hits: 192)

Iraq Living Conditions Survey 2004

The Iraq Living Conditions Survey 2004 reports and analyses the living conditions in Iraq as they were approximately one year after the change of regime in the country, as a result of the 2003 war. This representative survey of 21,668 households is the first in recent years to cover all governorates in Iraq. The larger part of the survey took place in April and May 2004, while fieldwork in the governorates of Erbil and Dahouk was carried out in August 2004. The results of the survey appear in three volumes: a Tabulation Report, which presents the main results of the survey in tabular form; an Analytical Report, and a Socio-Economic Atlas which depicts the situation in Iraq using maps and diagrams.

http://iraqmortality.org/mortality-studies/ilcs

(Added: Fri May 13 2005   Modified: Wed Oct 01 2008   Hits: 180)

Desk study on the environment in Iraq (PDF)

United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). 2003. This Desk Study has been prepared by UNEP as a contribution to tackling the immediate post-conflict humanitarian situation in Iraq, and the subsequent rebuilding of the country's shattered infrastructure, economy and environment. It is intended for a wide audience and includes information likely to be of value to many of the stakeholders involved in shaping the future of Iraq. The study focuses on the state of Iraq's environment against the context of decades of armed conflict, strict economic sanctions and the absence of environmental management principles in national planning.

http://www.unep.org/pdf/iraq_ds_lowres.pdf

(Added: Thu Mar 24 2005   Modified: Mon Nov 07 2005   Hits: 52)

Mortality before and after the 2003 invasion of Iraq: cluster sample survey (PDF 262.06 KB)

Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. By Les Roberts, Riyadh Lafta, Richard Garfield, Jamal Khudhairi, Gilbert Burnham, October 29, 2004. In March, 2003, military forces, mainly from the USA and the UK, invaded Iraq. We did a survey to compare mortality during the period of 14·6 months before the invasion with the 17·8 months after it. Making conservative assumptions, we think that about 100 000 excess deaths, or more have happened since the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Violence accounted for most of the excess deaths and air strikes from coalition forces accounted for most violent deaths. We have shown that collection of public-health information is possible even during periods of extreme violence. Our results need further verification and should lead to changes to reduce noncombatant deaths from air strikes.

http://www.jhsph.edu/Refugee/Front%20Page%20News/Document%20Links/Mortality_Lancet%20final.pdf

(Added: Tue Feb 01 2005   Modified: Mon Nov 07 2005   Hits: 87)

Researchers Who Rushed Into Print a Study of Iraqi Civilian Deaths Now Wonder Why It Was Ignored

The Chronicle of Higher Education, by by Lila Guterman, Thursday, January 27, 2005. When more than 200,000 people died in a tsunami caused by an Asian earthquake in December, the immediate reaction in the United States was an outpouring of grief and philanthropy, prompted by extensive coverage in the news media. Two months earlier, the reaction in the United States to news of another large-scale human tragedy was much quieter. In late October, a study was published in The Lancet, a prestigious British medical journal, concluding that about 100,000 civilians had been killed in Iraq since it was invaded by a United States-led coalition in March 2003. On the eve of a contentious presidential election -- fought in part over U.S. policy on Iraq -- many American newspapers and television news programs ignored the study or buried reports about it far from the top headlines.

http://chronicle.com/temp/email.php?id=6g87s8d900q52bjppa5m3h7noo5ikert

(Added: Tue Feb 01 2005   Modified: Mon Nov 07 2005   Hits: 127)

An Evaluation of Humanitarian Information Centers (HICs) including Case Studies of HICs for Iraq, Afghanistan, and Liberia

(ReliefWeb) August, 2004. The Humanitarian Information Centre (HIC) is a common service of the UN System, managed by the Field Information Support Unit (FIS) of OCHA. The evaluation team was comprised of two independent consultants hired by USAID/ OFDA and DFID/ CHAD. The team was asked to examine the success of HICs in servicing the humanitarian community. Three case studies were to inform this - Liberia, Afghanistan and Iraq. This document looks at HIC performance in crisis stiuations, their role in decision-making and provides key recommendations for improving their effectiveness.

http://www.reliefweb.int/library/documents/2004/hicevaluation-24aug.pdf

(Added: Fri Sep 17 2004   Modified: Fri Jul 14 2006   Hits: 444)

Humanitarian Action and the Global War on Terror: A Review of Trends and Issues

(Gloabl Development Network) By Macrae, J. (ed.); Harmer, A. (ed.) Produced by: Humanitarian Policy Group (HPG), ODI, 2003. This report reviews key trends in humanitarian policy, focusing on the implications for humanitarian action of the global 'war on terrorism'. In addition to potential or actual conflicts, the war on terrorism constitutes a framework within which international and national policy, including humanitarian aid policy, is defined and implemented. The paper argues that humanitarian organisations face difficulties positioning themselves within the new geopolitical framework, particularly in identifying the humanitarian agenda and positioning it as a distinct sphere of international behaviour.

http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/lib.nsf/db900SID/LGEL-5Q7D55/$FILE/hpg-terrorism-jul03.pdf?OpenElement

(Added: Thu Sep 09 2004   Modified: Thu Sep 21 2006   Hits: 246)

Houston, We Have a Problem: An Alternative Annual Report (pdf)

Produced by CorpWatch and Global Exchange May 18th, 2004. Halliburton, the largest oil-and-gas services company in the world, is also one of the most controversial companies in the United States. The company has been the number one financial beneficiary of the war against Iraq, raking in some $18 billion in contracts to rebuild the country's oil industry and service the U.S. troops in Iraq. It has also been accused of more fraud, waste, and corruption than any other Iraq contractor. This report details Halliburton's track record.

http://www.corpwatch.org/downloads/houston.pdf

(Added: Thu May 20 2004   Modified: Mon Nov 07 2005   Hits: 216)

Bombing The Peace Protestors - People Pay The Price For Realpolitik

Dave Edwards examines the controversy over the war in Iraq through as seen by establishment journalists and the political remarks of pro-war leaders, and compares their views to those of ordinary people.

http://www.zmag.org/sustainers/content/2004-04/01edwards.cfm

(Added: Tue Apr 06 2004   Modified: Mon Aug 28 2006   Hits: 113)

A Global Peace Movement Revival

A Global Peace Movement Revival By Tom Hayden, AlterNet January 19, 2004 MUMBAI, INDIA - Natalia Ablova faces a tough challenge in her campaign against the U.S. occupation of Iraq. Ablova, who looks like any friendly middle-American in her plain dress, shoulder-length hair and reading glasses, is opposing the Iraq occupation on the streets of Kyrgistan, the only Central Asian country where such protest is permitted. "There is no chance for participatory democracy in our region," she laments. But last year, she led 30 human rights groups to the U.S. Embassy to denounce the invasion. Far from being alone, Natalia Ablova is complicating the Bush administration's war planning and its status as the sole superpower. On this March 20, the first anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq, when the White House expected throngs of cheering Iraqis in the streets, there will be masses of jeering protestors like Natalia Ablova around the world instead. Last year, four to five million people protested in over 600 cities globally. This year the numbers are unpredictable, but opposition to the war has increased among the general public, affecting the American presidential campaign and keeping the United Nations at a distance. This week Natalia Ablova is attending a "General Assembly of the Global Anti-War Movement," one of the many planning sessions provided space for the tens of thousands attending the World Social Forum. Instead of weakening or fragmenting the global justice movement, the war in Iraq has prompted a peace movement heavily influenced by the anti-globalization analysis of the forum.

http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=17595

(Added: Tue Jan 27 2004   Modified: Wed Dec 00 0   Hits: 399)

Aid cash diverted to Iraq, Charities furious at ministry cutbacks

Grace Livingstone in Caracas and Owen Bowcott Thursday October 23, 2003 The Guardian Britain's overseas aid programmes in many Latin American, East European and central Asian countries are likely to be slashed back to pay for the reconstruction of Iraq, it emerged yesterday. The need to find £267m over the next two years from within the budget of the Department for International Development (DfID) will lead to the axing of numerous anti-poverty projects in "middle-income" countries, according to documents seen by the Guardian.

http://society.guardian.co.uk/aidforiraq/story/0,12972,1069035,00.html

(Added: Thu Nov 06 2003   Modified: Thu Jun 01 2006   Hits: 134)

Winning Contractors: U.S. Contractors Reap the Windfalls of Post-war Reconstruction

By The Center for Public Integrity WASHINGTON, October 30, 2003 - More than 70 American companies and individuals have won up to $8 billion in contracts for work in postwar Iraq and Afghanistan over the last two years, according to a new study by the Center for Public Integrity. Those companies donated more money to the presidential campaigns of George W. Bush-a little over $500,000-than to any other politician over the last dozen years, the Center found.

http://www.publicintegrity.org/wow/

(Added: Thu Nov 06 2003   Modified: Wed Jan 17 2007   Hits: 250)

Iraq: the missing billions - Transition and transparency in post-war Iraq (PDF)

Christian Aid, 23rd October 2003. "The humanitarian situation in Iraq is still critical and there are plenty of immediate needs on which money from international donors can be spent. As this Christian Aid report demonstrates, the widespread assumption that reconstruction could be paid for entirely by Iraqi oil money is a false one. Due, not least, to continuing insecurity, Iraq does not produce enough oil to pay for its immediate needs. What this report shockingly reveals, however, is that the billions of dollars of oil money that has already been transferred to the US-controlled Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) has effectively disappeared into a financial black hole. For all the talk of freedom and democracy for the Iraqi people - before, during and after the war which toppled Saddam Hussein - there is no way of knowing how the vast majority of this money has been spent".

http://www.christian-aid.org.uk/news/media/pressrel/031023p.htm

(Added: Fri Oct 24 2003   Modified: Thu Aug 25 2005   Hits: 111)

Open Fire and Open Markets: Strategy of an Empire

What do the "war on terrorism" and "free trade" have in common? According to a new report by Food First, Open Fire and Open Markets: Strategy of an Empire, they are the two formidable pillars of U.S. foreign policy, custom-built to help privatize the world's resources for its corporations, and a matter of growing concern with the upcoming World Trade Organization (WTO) Ministerial in Cancun, Mexico. "America's 'war on terrorism' is at one with its expansionary goals for the market: open invasion in some places and open markets everywhere," said Anuradha Mittal, Food First co-director and author of the report. "While thousands of Iraqi civilians have been terrorized, humiliated, maimed, injured, and killed through British and American bombing, contracts to rebuild Iraq were guided like smart bombs into the laps of large U.S. corporations."

http://www.foodfirst.org/pubs/backgrdrs/2003/s03v9n3.pdf

(Added: Wed Sep 03 2003   Modified: Thu Mar 27 2008   Hits: 426)

Hans Blix's final report on Iraq (pdf)

Thirteenth quarterly report of the Executive Chairman of the United Nations Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission in accordance with paragraph 12 of Security Council resolution 1284 (1999)

http://dev-zone.net/downloads/5347blixreport.pdf

(Added: Fri Jun 06 2003   Modified: Mon Nov 07 2005   Hits: 114)

Views of a Changing World 2003

The speed of the war in Iraq and the prevailing belief that the Iraqi people are better off as a result have modestly improved the image of America. But in most countries, opinions of the U.S. are markedly lower than they were a year ago. The war has widened the rift between Americans and Western Europeans, further inflamed the Muslim world, softened support for the war on terrorism, and significantly weakened global public support for the pillars of the post-World War II era - the U.N. and the North Atlantic alliance. These are the principal findings from the latest survey of the Pew Global Attitudes Project, conducted over the past month in 20 countries and the Palestinian Authority. It is being released together with a broader survey of 44 nations conducted in 2002, which covers attitudes on globalization, democratization and the role of Islam in governance and society.

http://people-press.org/reports/display.php3?ReportID=185

(Added: Thu Jun 05 2003   Modified: Thu Jun 01 2006   Hits: 140)

Preparing for the Humanitarian Consequences of Possible Military Action Against Iraq (PDF)

House of Commons International Development Committee, Fourth Report of Session 2002-03 Volume I. This report examines the likely humanitarian consequences of military action against Iraq and the adequacy of the preparations for dealing with them. The wide range of scenarios as to how a conflict might develop greatly complicates the task of planners. Nevertheless, we consider that insufficient emphasis has been placed on the humanitarian implications of military action. The UK Government and the UN have been reluctant to plan openly for fear that this would be seen as condoning military action or accepting it as inevitable. The US Government, through USAID, has developed a plan in isolation from other agencies. The resulting lack of informationsharing and coordinated planning could lead to either duplication or gaps in the relief effort. A lack of funds which are immediately available could affect all the key humanitarian players. The potentially massive scale of the relief effort-leaving aside the costs of post-war reconstruction-could exceed the capacity of the international system.

http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200203/cmselect/cmintdev/444/444.pdf

(Added: Fri May 02 2003   Modified: Mon Nov 07 2005   Hits: 83)

Richard Falk: Resisting the global domination project

For over three decades, Richard Falk has shared, with fellow Americans Noam Chomsky and Edward Said, a reputation for fearless intellectual and political commitment to the building of a just and humane world. He recently retired as Professor of International Law and Practice at Princeton University and is currently a Visiting Distinguished Professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara. A prolific writer, speaker and activist on world affairs, he is the author or co-author of more than 20 books. The following are excerpts from a discussion that Professor Falk had with Zia Mian and Smitu Kothari about the U.S. war on Iraq, the role and the future of the United Nations and the need to rethink democratic institutions and practices.

http://www.flonnet.com/fl2008/stories/20030425004002300.htm

(Added: Wed Apr 16 2003   Hits: 139)

UN News Service - Iraq News Focus

Coverage of the crisis in Iraq from the United Nations News Service.

http://www.un.org/apps/news/infocusRel.asp?infocusID=50&Body=Iraq&Body1=inspect

(Added: Wed Apr 16 2003   Modified: Mon Sep 18 2006   Hits: 87)

UN relief agencies report some progress in Iraq but grave health problems persist

15 April - (UN News Service) United Nations relief agencies today reported some incremental progress in Iraq, especially in the far south, but severe and disturbing problems still persisted in many parts of the country where lack of security and clean water were among the most urgent health issues.

http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=6762&Cr=iraq&Cr1=relief

(Added: Wed Apr 16 2003   Modified: Mon Nov 07 2005   Hits: 101)

The cluster bomb controversy

As British forces drop cluster bombs on Iraq, BBC News Online looks at where they have been used in the past and why. Eighteen months ago, in western Afghanistan, a 15-year-old boy picked up what he thought was a packet of food - it blew his head off. Sayyid Ahmad Sanef believed the bright yellow object lying on the ground near his home was one of the 37,000 plastic humanitarian aid packages of the same colour dropped on Afghanistan by US military aircraft - but it had come from a cluster bomb.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/2912617.stm

(Added: Fri Apr 04 2003   Modified: Mon Nov 07 2005   Hits: 297)

Our Days in Baghdad

A War on the Children, Not on Saddam: A Report of the Asian Peace Mission to Iraq, 13 - 18 March 2003. Mission members include a representative to the Philippine House of Representatives, Prof. Walden Bello, executive director, Focus on the Global South, and a Member of Pakistan's National Assembly.

http://www.focusweb.org/content/view/112/95/

(Added: Wed Apr 02 2003   Modified: Wed Aug 30 2006   Hits: 169)

Potential Humanitarian Impact of War with Iraq

Potential humanitarian consequences of war with Iraq have been widely discussed. Reports from UN agencies and research organizations claim that thousands or millions of people will starve, be killed, become victims of weapons of mass destruction, or become refugees. Most of these reports are highly speculative and based on little substantive information. Here, instead, information from Iraq's experience in the Gulf war is combined with more recent observations on living conditions and current vulnerabilities. Data are tempered by personal observations during visits to Iraq and as consultant to international organizations there, most recently in January 2003. Reasoned analysis of such information is key if unnecessary suffering is to be avoided. By Richard Garfield, RN DrPH, Professor of Clinical International Nursing, School of Nursing, Columbia University and Visiting Professor, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and Health/Medical Advisor to the International Medical Corps.

http://www.globalpolicy.org/security/issues/iraq/attack/consequences/2003/0222potential.htm

(Added: Tue Apr 01 2003   Modified: Wed Feb 14 2007   Hits: 137)

War in Iraq: why Friends of the Earth is opposed

Press briefing paper about the general environmental implications of the war in iraq prepared by Duncan McLaren, Roger Higman and Ian Willmore of Friends of the Earth England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

http://www.foe.co.uk/resource/briefings/war_iraq.pdf

(Added: Mon Mar 31 2003   Modified: Tue Sep 23 2008   Hits: 98)

Iraq - United Nations Environment Programme

UNEP's Iraq page provides a valuable resource for those interested in the environmental effects of the current crisis. It also has some very useful maps, satellite imagery and photos, statements and news articles, and background reports.

http://www.unep.org/Documents.Multilingual/Default.asp?DocumentID=307

(Added: Thu Mar 27 2003   Modified: Thu Sep 07 2006   Hits: 109)

People's Water Forum Urges World Water Parliament

By Vanya Walker-Leigh FLORENCE, Italy, March 24, 2003 (ENS) - The Iraq conflict is partly about future control of Iraq's huge water resources, an Italian Catholic missionary told an alternative world water forum in Florence, endorsing the meeting's closing call for a new world water deal based on public sector control and a legal right to water for all by 2020.

http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/mar2003/2003-03-24-01.asp

(Added: Wed Mar 26 2003   Modified: Wed Dec 00 0   Hits: 127)

Shock and Awe Means Shame and Death

By Jackie Alan Giuliano, Ph.D. The television and radio network reporters who are "embedded" with U.S. troops that are currently invading Iraq are telling us a lot about the wondrous military might of America. The world has heard a lot about the columns of tanks, cruise missiles, buildings being destroyed, and oil wells, but we have heard little of the human cost.

http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/mar2003/2003-03-21g.asp

(Added: Tue Mar 25 2003   Modified: Fri Jun 02 2006   Hits: 108)

Baring Witness

Non-affiliated group that holds naked anti-war protests. It is no accident that Baring Witness began with women. From Nigeria to Nepal to the United States, women are impatient with the endless cycle of violence and war between people, between nations, between human beings and the earth itself. It is no accident either that women would choose to get naked for the sake of peace and justice. For Baring Witness is about using the greatest weapon women have, the power of the feminine, the power of our beauty and nakedness to seduce our male leaders and stop them in their tracks. In this way Baring Witness is about redefining seduction.

http://www.baringwitness.org/

(Added: Sun Mar 23 2003   Modified: Tue Nov 08 2005   Hits: 183)

Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament

A non-violent campaign group working to eliminate nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction. We aim to... change Government policies to bring about the elimination of British nuclear weapons as a major contribution to global abolition, stimulate wide public debate on the need for alternatives both to the nuclear cycle and to military attempts to resolve conflict, empower people to engage actively in the political process and to work for a nuclear-free and peaceful future, co-operate with other groups in the UK and internationally to ensure the development of greater mutual security CND is funded entirely by its members and supporters. CND is part of Abolition 2000 - a global network to eliminate nuclear weapons.

http://www.cnduk.org

(Added: Sun Mar 23 2003   Modified: Mon Sep 22 2008   Hits: 123)

Win Without War

A coalition of national organizations representing broad constituencies that aim to Keep America Safe by advocating alternatives to preemptive war in Iraq. The coalition offers a mainstream, patriotic voice for engaging opinion makers, activating concerned citizens, and communicating effectively to the media.

http://www.winwithoutwarus.org/

(Added: Sun Mar 23 2003   Modified: Tue Nov 08 2005   Hits: 105)

Environmentalists Against the War

Environmentalists Against the War is a coalition of environmental organizations and individuals that opposes a US attack on Iraq. We seek to influence decision-makers, provide information to the media and public, and mobilize people at the grassroots.

http://www.envirosagainstwar.org/

(Added: Fri Mar 21 2003   Modified: Mon Aug 28 2006   Hits: 110)

Humanitarian Information Center for the Middle East

The HIC (Humanitarian Information Center) for the Middle East is an initiative of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). The purpose is to act as a central location for data and information resources, with the aim of reinforcing co-ordination and humanitarian response activities.

http://www.agoodplacetostart.org/

(Added: Fri Mar 21 2003   Modified: Tue Nov 08 2005   Hits: 90)

ReliefWeb: Iraq

ReliefWeb's Iraq section provides a list of the latest major documents added to ReliefWeb pertaining to Iraq. ReliefWeb is a a project of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

http://www.reliefweb.int/w/rwb.nsf/vLCE/Iraq?OpenDocument&StartKey=Iraq&Expandview

(Added: Fri Mar 21 2003   Modified: Tue Nov 08 2005   Hits: 200)

Stop killing the people of Iraq - Peace Movement Aotearoa

Peace Movement Aotearoa's main web page for analysis on the war against Iraq, and suggestions for taking action.

http://www.converge.org.nz/pma/iraqa.htm

(Added: Mon Mar 17 2003   Modified: Tue Nov 08 2005   Hits: 90)

This is the Cost of Blair's 'Moral' War

Daily Mirror, March 13, 2003. John Pilger compares the war in Iraq to that of the earlier war in Vietnam, highlighting the deception and hypocrisy of those pushing the "moral" case for war.

http://www.monabaker.com/pMachine/more.php?id=A304_0_1_0_M

(Added: Mon Mar 17 2003   Modified: Wed Feb 14 2007   Hits: 153)

The War Against Ourselves

Doug Rokke has a PhD in health physics and was originally trained as a forensic scientist. When the Gulf War started, he was assigned to prepare soldiers to respond to nuclear, biological, and chemical warfare, and sent to the Gulf. What he experienced has made him a passionate voice for peace, traveling the country to speak out. The following interview was conducted by the director of the Traprock Peace Center, Sunny Miller, supplemented with questions from YES! editors.

http://www.futurenet.org/25environmentandhealth/rokke.htm

(Added: Thu Mar 13 2003   Modified: Mon Nov 07 2005   Hits: 99)

Largest Day of Protests in the History of the World

Photographs of peace events from around the world.

http://www.geocities.com/independent0215/

(Added: Sun Feb 23 2003   Modified: Mon Nov 07 2005   Hits: 89)

Iraq Journal

As the Bush administration threatens a massive attack on Iraq, many within the corporate media have chosen to become cheerleaders for the war cause. The words "we" and "us" and "our forces" are used so frequently by major corporate media personalities that it has become difficult to figure out if it is the Bush Administration or the media that are gearing up to bomb Iraq. With Washington on the verge of seeking to destroy an already devastated country, a group of independent journalists and activists - working together with Democracy Now!, the nationally distributed community radio and television program - are breaking ranks with the war chorus. Coordinated by Democracy Now! correspondent Jeremy Scahill and videographer Jacqueline Soohen on the ground in Baghdad, IraqJournal provides a forum for the distribution of independent information and views from Iraq.

http://www.iraqjournal.org/

(Added: Tue Feb 18 2003   Modified: Tue Nov 08 2005   Hits: 109)

Iraq Timelines - Post-War Chronology: 1990 - 2002

The American Friends Service Committee timelines on the post-war chronology, bombings, and humanitarian reports.

http://www.afsc.org/iraq/guide/timeline.shtm

(Added: Tue Feb 18 2003   Modified: Mon Nov 07 2005   Hits: 104)

Showdown

by Michael Albert, February 17, 2003. Albert outlines the trajectories behind the two major forces in world politics today: governments and corporate elites, on the one hand, and the "growing world-spanning movement of movements", on the other.

http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=41&ItemID=3067

(Added: Tue Feb 18 2003   Modified: Mon Nov 07 2005   Hits: 76)

Understanding the U.S.-Iraq Crisis: A Primer [pdf]

This report by Phyllis Bennis answers 43 basic questions about the current march to war, the history of U.S.-Iraq relations, and alternatives to the current policy.

http://www.tni.org/archives/bennis/primer.pdf

(Added: Tue Feb 18 2003   Modified: Fri Sep 26 2008   Hits: 165)

Over a barrel?

29 Jan 2003, Fred Pearce, NewScientist.com. Critics claim that oil is the driving force behind US policy on Iraq. But is the campaign to topple Saddam Hussein really a battle for Iraq's oilfields?

http://www.newscientist.com/hottopics/iraq/article.jsp?id=99993327&sub=Background%20to%20the%20crisis

(Added: Wed Feb 05 2003   Modified: Mon Nov 07 2005   Hits: 89)

Our Common Responsibility - The Impact of a New War on Iraqi Children (PDF)

From Warchild. Iraqi children are more vulnerable to the adverse effects of a new war than they were before the Gulf War of 1991. Our Common Responsibility: The Impact of a New War on Iraqi Children, a report by the International Study Team assesses the vulnerability of Iraqi children today as compared to 1991. The report comes as the United Nations Security Council meets to consider the report of the United Nations weapons inspectors. As such, this report is directed to the Security Council, to the government of Iraq, and to the international community as a public document encouraging these entities to take into account the plight of Iraqi children when considering the alternatives of war and continued weapons inspections. This report examines the physical and mental well-being of the 13 million Iraqi children based on data collected in Iraq between 20 and 26 January 2002. The team conducted interviews, collected data, and reviewed existing data pertaining to the state of children in Baghdad, Basra, and Kerbela in Iraq. In addition, the Team independently visited more than 100 Iraqi families (children and their parents) in their homes. (ReliefWeb).

http://www.reliefweb.int/library/documents/2003/wv-irq-26jan.pdf

(Added: Tue Feb 04 2003   Modified: Mon Nov 07 2005   Hits: 112)

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