Wedding Party Investigation:
Report by Lisa Ashkenaz Croke, YellowTimes.org
NewsFromtheFront.org

WASHINGTON (NFTF.org) -- It's difficult to know which will do more damage -- the mounting evidence that dozens of Iraqis killed (including 15 children) during Wednesday's U.S. assault on the remote desert town of Mogr el-Deeb were celebrants at a village wedding, or U.S. military officials' cold dismissal that its early morning raid was in anyway untoward or unjustified.

"Ten miles from the Syrian border and 80 miles from the nearest city (al- Qaim) for a wedding party? How many people go to the middle of the desert to have a wedding party?" Marine commander Maj. Gen. James Mattis scoffed to reporters in Fallujah the next day. "There were more than two dozen military- age males. Let's not be naive."

In fact, popular wedding singer Hussein al-Ali and his brother Mohammed traveled over 300 miles from Baghdad to perform at "one of the biggest events of the year" for the tiny village. Two couples were married as part of a "long-negotiated tribal union" between distant relatives, the Rakats and the Sabahs, reported The Guardian's Rory McCarthy.

Both brothers and the wedding band were among the 40-plus people killed in the raid, including 27 members of the Rakat family.

One of an estimated dozen survivors, Harleema Shihab, "her hands still daubed red-brown from the henna the women had used to decorate themselves for the wedding," gave McCarthy an account from the al-Qaim general hospital:

"The bombing started at 3 a.m. We went out of the [Rakat] house and the American soldiers started to shoot us. They were shooting low to the ground targeting us one by one." The Guardian reports that the impact from a shell knocked down Shihab, who was fleeing with her three children. She looked to see her two sons dead, one had been decapitated. "I fell into the mud and an American soldier came and kicked me. I pretended to be dead so he wouldn't kill me. My youngest child was alive next to me."

Shihab, a sister-in-law of the groom, also witnessed U.S. troops blowing up the Rakat family villa, apparently the "suspected foreign fighter safehouse" targeted for attack; an adjacent house was also destroyed. The four newlyweds, bedded down in a wedding tent far removed from the villa, survived.

Other accounts are emerging, including that of Ma'athi Nawaf, 55, who lost his daughter, two young grandsons, sister and two nieces. Nawaf discovered the body of his 25-year-old daughter clutching her dead son, Raad; the second boy, Raed, lay headless beside his mother and brother.

"I want to know why the Americans targeted this small village," demanded hospital manager Hamdi Noor in a telephone interview with McCarthy. "These people are my patients. I know each one of them. What has caused this disaster?"

Responding to reporters, Mattis said, "bad things happen in wars," adding, "I don't have to apologize for the conduct of my men."

Despite survivors' accounts and previously released video evidence from both the Associated Press and Al-Arabiya television news, the U.S. military continued to categorically deny that a wedding party took place.

"There was no evidence of a wedding: no decorations, no musical instruments found, no large quantities of food or leftover servings one would expect from a wedding celebration," said Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmet, directly contradicting video footage shot by Associated Press Television News (APTN) showing the aftermath - including smashed instruments.

Kimmitt conceded that "there may have been some kind of celebration...Bad people have parties, too."

U.S. officials say an investigation has already uncovered firearms, Syrian passports, currency and a satellite radio.

However, tribal leader Sheikh Nasrallah Miklif told The Independent's Justin Huggler that none of the items in question is unusual. Given its proximity to Syria, inter-border travel and marriages occur, explaining the presence of the Syrian passports and currency in Iraq; guns, particularly Kalashnikov assault rifles are typically kept to protect against thieves and wild animals. Huggler notes that Mogr el-Deeb is 80 miles from the nearest town and 10 miles from the nearest road. "There are no telephone lines and no mobile coverage. Satellite phones are comparatively cheap in Iraq and it would be surprising if the villagers did not have one."

Yesterday, APTN released a video of the actual wedding festivities, handed over to the American news service by a cousin of the groom (videographer Yasser Shawkat Abdullah was also killed in the attacks). AP journalists say survivors they'd interviewed appear in the video.

"They said they would bring real freedom but we see our people tortured in prison, looted, and their homes raided," one Iraqi man argued to American freelance journalist, Dahr Jamail, reporting from a town outside of Baghdad. Another Iraqi, Hammed Abdulla, theorized that "the Americans are provoking people on purpose to get a reaction." Abdulla also told Jamail, "I would like to see Mr. Bush and tell him that Saddam is better than he is."

''Racism at heart of POW abuse''
By Firas Al-Atraqchi
YellowTimes.org Columnist (Canada)

(YellowTimes.org) – "Like, the only way to get through shit like that was to concentrate on getting through it by killing as many people as you can, people you know are trying to kill you. Killing them first and getting home." - Sergeant First Class John Meadows to London's Mirror, June 19, 2003.

"There was no dilemma when it came to shooting people who were not in uniform, I just pulled the trigger." - Specialist Corporal Michael Richardson to London's Mirror, June 19, 2003.

On Thursday, CBS aired pictures of female and male U.S. soldiers torturing and abusing Iraqi detainees at the notorious Abu Ghraib prison, an area known for its history of torture and execution during Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's 35-year reign.

According to Reuters, "The photos showed U.S. troops smiling, posing, laughing or giving the thumbs-up sign as naked, male Iraqi prisoners were stacked in a pyramid or positioned to simulate sex acts with one another." Several pictures depicted a female U.S. soldier, cigarette dangling from her mouth, pointing her fingers in gun-like fashion at the penises of several naked, yet hooded Iraqi men. Other pictures showed U.S. servicemen and women giving the thumbs-up.

Staff Sergeant Chip Frederick, one of the six men and women about to face court-martial for the incidents at Abu Ghraib prison (there are 17 others still being investigated for allegations of related abuse), told CBS that, "We had no support, no training whatsoever. And I kept asking my chain of command for certain things ... like rules and regulations."

Hold on there, let me get this straight: Iraqi prisoners are sexually harassed, abused, tormented, tortured, humiliated and insulted, and a U.S. soldier blames the U.S. military for conditions that led to such incidents?

Rules and regulations? By Frederick's rationale U.S. soldiers kill prisoners of war unless they are told not to; rape women and children unless they are told not to; burn people alive unless they are told not to. I am sure the U.S. military is not comprised of dolts, although Frederick seems to be a good candidate for the year's biggest moron. He needed "support...training...rules and regulations" to understand that sexually harassing prisoners was a no-no?

It seems Frederick has a low humanity quotient. But then again, are Iraqis humans? After all, weren't they the animals that brought down the Twin Towers? Er...no, although listening to a lot of early interviews with U.S. soldiers who invaded Iraq last year, one would have been excused for believing them when they "confirmed" that they were "going to kick raghead ass" for the September 11th tragedies.

Okay, pause. Let us take the pictures that CBS aired and exchange the hooded men, the men with their penises shown in full frontal, for white men. White men with blue or green eyes and a nice bushel of yellow hair. Do you think that the abuse of Iraqi prisoners would have been repeated with an American? A Swede? Or even U.S. public enemy number one, a Frenchie?

No. And if, by some cosmic ripple of reality and truisms, such acts occurred with Europeans or North Americans, then you could have bet your bottom petro-dollar that there would have been candle-light vigils, demonstrations, Johnnie Cochran would have been shocked into whiteness, Rush Limbaugh would have gone soprano, Ann Coulter would have shaved her head -- you get the picture.

But no outrage in North America. At least not yet. Instead, CBS, the network that aired the pictures of tortured Iraqis, ABC, the network that is about to name the fallen GIs in Iraq, and the poor woman who got the picture of U.S. coffins published, have been ostracized and labeled traitors by the neocons and their barking right-wing radio supporters.

But there are those few courageous columnists who will tell it like it is. Take the Baltimore Sun, for example: "Of the 17 reservists implicated in the mistreatment, 14 were assigned to the 372nd Military Police Company based in Cumberland and are facing criminal or administrative charges. A company like that usually includes police and correctional officers with some years of service who would be familiar with the basics of securing prisoners. That raises even more questions about the accused soldiers' behavior and the procedures at Abu Ghraib prison."

However, parents of the accused six have complained that the government turned its back on "stupid, kid stuff." They also asked why the Geneva Conventions only applied to U.S. soldiers. In fact, it doesn't, because the U.S. did not sign on to the International Criminal Court; it will not allow any court to try U.S. soldiers during times of war. There is, therefore, no guarantee that U.S. felonies in any country will be addressed.

But hold your yankee horses! On Friday, London's Daily Mirror newspaper ran a front page picture of a U.K. soldier urinating on a hooded Iraqi detainee. It later emerged that no charges were brought against the Iraqi detainee, but that he was dumped from the back of a racing truck. It was not known whether he survived. Very nice.

Don't forget the investigation into the pictures which depict two Iraqi boys holding up a sign indicating that a U.S. soldier killed the boys' father and "knocked up" their sister. The soldier is standing behind the boys with a thumbs-up. Has the thumbs-up become a U.S. military sign of abuse and humiliation? See the picture at http://www.cair-net.org/images/lcpl11.jpg.

In April 2003, a Norwegian newspaper ran pictures of Iraqi men stripped naked and forced to run through Baghdad streets. They were accused of being looters, but no charges were brought against them.

In May 2003, a photography shop assistant developed pictures which depicted "allegedly showed an Iraqi, bound and gagged, hanging from a rope on a fork-lift truck," the BBC said.

In July 2003, Amnesty International (AI) reported that Iraqis were being shot while in detainment and subjected to human rights abuses: "Detainees continue to report suffering extreme heat while housed in tents; insufficient water; inadequate washing facilities; open trenches for toilets; no change of clothes, even after two months' detention." However, U.S. authorities refused to allow an AI delegation into the detention centers.

Freedom. Liberty. War against terrorism. Blah, blah, blah. What adds insult to injury is the spate of columns written every now and then accusing the Iraqis of laziness, ungratefulness, etc. Some newspapers in the U.S. have received boisterous complaints that the pictures were phony or doctored in some way. Is the ostrich native to the continental U.S.?

Indeed, al-Qaeda are ruthless death-worshipping cultists, suicide bombings are abhorrent, and wanton violence is deplorable. However, for a country that prides itself on its democratic institutions and love of freedom; a country that sees a holy mission in spreading freedom wherever it is needed; a country that grimaces when a girl is kidnapped, a famous star dies an untimely death, or a hero is fallen, the actions in Iraq are beyond expression. Hypocrisy, racism, ethno-centrism...what words can suffice?

Perhaps, if this was a Nazi army, history may have instructed us to understand -- the Nazis were often brutal in their repression. If this were a Roman army, history may have taught us the lessons from the ashes of Carthage. But this is the 21st Century and -- long live racism -- nothing has been learned. There is no civilization. Columnists decry Islam as a religion of violence, Muslims as wife-beaters, etc, etc. They judge the actions of the few and apply it to the many.

Tonight then, by their own testament, I will apply the actions of the few to the intentions of the many.

This is the face of freedom. The face of righteousness. Next time someone asks you the most idiotic of questions -- "why do they hate us" -- ask them to see the pictures in question. Next time someone asks you how Iraqis could have cut U.S. and South African mercenaries to pieces, ask them to see the pictures in question. Next time someone asks you why Iraqis are taking up arms, simply show them the pictures.

Sleep well if you can...tomorrow is another hell.

[Firas Al-Atraqchi, B.Sc (Physics), M.A. (Journalism and Communications), is a Canadian journalist with eleven years of experience covering Middle East issues, oil and gas markets, and the telecom industry.]

Firas Al-Atraqchi encourages your comments: fatraqchi@YellowTimes.org