Controlling
What We Hear From Iraq
By Dahr Jamail
ElectronicIraq.net
04 January 2004
I
learned yesterday that one of the main sites which posts the writings
of independent journalists and activists in Iraq, electronicIraq.net,
has been banned from at least one of the US military bases in Iraq.
Celebrate free speech,
read a banned website!
Like other repressive
dictatorships and regimes, the US military has now followed suit in
Iraq by attempting to select what its personnel should and should not
read.
It is happening
at home in the US as well. For example, the only news I see about Iraq
on major American news outlets yesterday is about the one US soldier
killed when his helicopter was downed. Iraqis who observed the chopper
being hit by a rocket reported watching it being broken in two pieces
and falling to the ground in flames. Thus, the other soldier, while
reported as being injured, more than likely must have been very seriously
injured. Again, no specific reporting on that either.
However, this could
have something to do with the fact that a Reuters news team filming
at the scene was fired upon by the Americans, then detained by military
personnel near the crash site.
A military spokesperson
stated that the military believed the Reuters team were resistance fighters
posing as media. The US military today reported that the Reuters news
team was firing machine guns and RPG at US military at the site.
There was no news
about another US soldier who died yesterday by being shot by a weapon
that discharged while being cleaned. Nor was there news about another
US soldier who died when a truck he was riding in with a large convoy
flipped, killing him and injuring several others. The toll of the occupation
on US military personnel in Iraq mounts daily, just as it does on the
Iraqi people.
Last night huge
explosions rocked the outskirts of Eastern Baghdad.
Today a few of us
decided to go check into it ourselves.
A crater after the attack in Al-Dora.
While driving around the farmlands of rural Baghdad in Al-Dora, a beautiful
area of palm groves and green fields, we came across a man who told
us Iraqi witnesses reported a US Humvee Patrol hit by a large roadside
bomb, killing 5 soldiers, and injuring 2 others yesterday.
We continued down
the road, and soon came upon a huge crater, one meter deep, and 20 meters
away off the other side of the road were skidding tire marks and a palm
tree partly burned. Off the side of the road near this crash were small
pieces of Humvee, a bloody bandage, a piece of green cloth with blood
on it, and some bullet casings. Down in the dirt where the Humvee struck
the palm tree sat a US grenade, splattered with blood.
Over near the crater
was a partially used I.V. bag and a piece of paper with instructions
on how to perform CPR, written in English of course.
Three Iraqi boys
at the scene tell us that at 11:45am yesterday, the 2 Humvee Patrol
was hit by the bomb. One Humvee was tossed off the other side of the
road and burned, and the other was partially destroyed. They too, reported
5 US deaths, and 2 wounded.
One of the journalists
in our group called CPIC from the scene, and they confirmed that a US
patrol was hit by an IED yesterday here, but only 2 dead and 3 wounded.
More men arrived
at the scene and agreed with the 5 dead, 2 wounded casualty count, and
told us they were working in the nearby fields and saw the aftermath
of the strike. They told us more soldiers arrived shortly after the
attack and promptly detained 15 men from nearby homes.
While interviewing
the men at the scene a huge explosion is heard in the distance. One
of the men slaps his hands together, as if dusting them off, and says,
"America finished!"
I checked the Internet
upon arriving back at my hotel to find that there was no report from
a news agency about this attack yesterday, even though CPIC had confirmed
the attack and at least 2 US soldiers killed.
We continue on down
the street to find a farmhouse where a bomb from the nightly attacks
the US has hit, via Operation Iron Grip.
In this Albu Aitha
area of Al-Dora, it is nothing but farmers and wide open fields, lined
with rows of palm trees.
Just beside an old
stone house here, an older man points out a large crater, shrapnel scars
marking the front of the home and huge chunks ripped out of a nearby
palm tree.
The family had been
eating dinner two nights ago and the bombing began. They were in a nearby
room from area near the strike, or they would have been hit by shattered
glass and shrapnel from the explosion.
Hamid Salman Halwan,
the owner of the home, said,
"Two nights
ago they bombed here from 6-9pm, then resumed it again at 4am. I think
it was jets shooting missiles, because I could hear the engines. Last
night they bombed some more in this area. I suppose they think resistance
fighters are hiding in the fields here."
His wife tells us
her children are afraid of any noise now, and have trouble sleeping
at night. The family hasn't slept in their home since the bombing 2
nights ago, for fear of another strike on their home.
"We don't know
why they bomb our house and our fields. We have never resisted the Americans.
There are foreign fighters who have passed through here, and I think
this is who they want. But why are they bombing us?"
U.S. Army Brig.
Gen. Mark Kimmitt told reporters Friday that Operation Iron Grip in
this area sends "a very clear message to anybody who thinks that
they can run around Baghdad without worrying about the consequences
of firing RPG's, firing mortars. There is a capability in the air that
can quickly respond against anybody who would want to harm Iraqi citizens
or coalition forces."
Unexploded mortar round.
The family took us out into their nearby fields to show us a plethora
of unexploded mortar rounds. The white bombs are sticking halfway out
of the hardened mud as children play around them, pointing to them with
excitement.
I count 9 small
tails of the mortar rounds sticking into the air in this small section
of the field.
Mr. Shakr, the brother
of the man whose home was struck by a bomb, points to a distant hill
and says,
"The Americans
shot mortars at us from there. You can see the crater where one exploded,
but here are the rest. We had been told the Americans only use sound
bombs here, but now we know different."
He goes on to say
that it was two nights ago when the Americans shot mortars at their
fields behind their home, from 6:30-10pm, then again at 4am.
We asked if the
family had requested that the Americans come remove the unexploded ordnance.
Mr. Shakr, with
a very troubled look, said,
"We asked them
the first time and they said 'OK, we'll come take care of it.' But they
never came. We asked them the second time and they told us they would
not remove them until we gave them a resistance fighter. They told us,
'If you won't give us a resistance fighter, we are not coming to remove
the bombs.'"
He holds his hands
in the air and says,
"But we don't
know any resistance fighters!"
He grows somber,
and quietly says,
"We will have
to leave this land because we cannot farm our fields with bombs in them."
A little further
into this area which has been struck so hard by 'Operation Iron Grip'
we speak with a man standing in front of his farm house.
He invites us to
his home and we sit sharing tea in the setting sun. His 3 year old boy,
Halaf Ziad Halaf, walks up to us and with a worried look on his face
says,
"I have seen
the Americans here with their tanks. They want to attack us."
Halaf's uncle leans
over to me and says,
"The Americans
are creating the terrorists here by hurting people and causing their
relatives to fight against them. Even this little boy will grow up hating
the Americans because of their policy here."
Dahr Jamail is a freelance journalist and political activist from Anchorage,
Alaska. He has come to Iraq to bear witness and write about how the
US occupation is affecting the people of Iraq, since the media in the
US has in large part, he believes, failed to do so.