Memo To: Website Fans, Browsers, Clients From: Jude Wanniski Re:
A Freedom Party report
You probably did not notice, but I doubt you
have ever read an estimate, formal or informal, of the number of Iraqi
civilians who were killed in the recent Gulf War. Collateral damage in the
USA’s liberation” of the Iraqi people. I’m not in any position to validate
the report you will see here from Dr. Mohammed Al-Obaidi, the general
coordinator of the Iraqi Freedom Party, but it does not seem unreasonable.
I’ve run reports from the Freedom Party from time to time and its
arguments on what is really happening on the ground have proven far more
accurate than the rosy scenarios coming from the Pentagon. The report on
civilian FATAL casualties in a nation of 23 million is staggering, the
equivalent in percentage terms of 460,000 civilian deaths if such havoc
were wrought in the US.
To add in the number of young Iraqi
soldiers killed in the conflict – an equal number? -- further staggers the
mind. It is only when you contemplate these horrific statistics can you
understand why there is such crazed hatred of the US and why it cannot be
smothered by killing more Iraqis. Al-Obaidi writes to me personally
because he knows I have been able to get these reports of his Freedom
Party -- which has for years opposed the Saddam regime -- circulating in
the US. The report may not be entirely accurate, but I would hope it would
spur the press corps into investigating on its own. Reporters who would
like to contact Dr. Al-Obaidi can contact me for his e-mail address in the
U.K.
* * * * *
To: Mr. Jude Wanniski From: Dr. Mohammed
Al-Obaidi General coordinator of the Iraqi Freedom Party
The
World, and particularly the peace-loving World is far from knowing the
truth of the real number of civilian casualties during the American led
aggression on Iraq.
Although we know that there were groups of
organizations (see http://www.iraqbodycount.net) who tried their utmost
best to come up with an accurate figure of the total civilian death, but
reaching the sites where these deaths occurred was one major obstacle in
their effort. Besides, the language barrier and hesitation of the people
in Iraq to talk to foreigners were also part of the lack of accurate
information regarding this issue.
As the general coordinator of the
Iraqi Freedom Party, I made a request to our Party Headquarters in Iraq to
fully investigate this matter and to come up with accurate and up to date
information of the total civilians killed during the invasion of
Iraq.
After more than five weeks of intensive and thorough
investigations carried out by hundreds of our party’s cadre, which
included all villages, towns, cities and some of the desert areas etc.
affected by the aggression (with exception of the Kurdish area), and also
by interviewing hundreds of undertakers, hospitals officials and ordinary
people in these places, the figure of civilians killed since the beginning
of the invasion came to 37,137. This figure does not include militia,
para-military or Saddam’s Fiday’een.
The breakdown of the total
number of civilians killed during the invasion of Iraq is as follows
(Please note that the names underneath represent that of 14 Governorates,
excluding Iraqi Kurdistan):
Baghdad 6103 Mosul 2009 Basrah
6734 Nasiriyah 3581 Diwaniyah 1567 Kut 2494 Hillah
3552 Karbala (including Najaf) 2263 Samawah 659 Amarah
2741 Ramadi 2172 Kerkuk 861 Diyalah 604 Tikrit 1797
The
above figures were the actual civilian deaths killed violently since the
beginning of the invasion of Iraq in March this year and until the middle
of June (including those killed after the fall of Saddam’s regime and who
in a way of another caught between gunfire of the US troops and the Iraqi
resistance).
Due to the absence in Iraq (with the exception of the
Kurdish area) of functional communication systems with the outside World,
our party headquarter in Baghdad tried to send me a fully comprehensive
and detailed report by fax from Al-Sulaymaniyah (a Kurdish area). However,
by crossing to the Kurdish area, the Kurdish “Peshmarga” searched the
person carrying that report which was found with him and confiscated.
According, he was handed over to the American troops where he was arrested
and no one knows yet of his whereabouts.
This incident clearly
indicates that the US Army does not want the truth of the civilian
casualties made public.
We want the whole World knows the reality
behind what misery was inflicted on our people during this aggression, not
to mention the 14 years of economic embargo.
We believe that our
people, like all the people of the World, deserve to live decently and
without any more oppression. But what we see in Iraq since its occupation
was nothing but more oppression and more humiliation, and this time by the
aggressors.
The appointment by the American Administrator to Iraq
of what is known as “Iraq's interim governing council” is another slap on
the face of the Iraqi people, who genuinely believe that this “Council” is
nothing less than another “Vichy Government” similar to the one appointed
by the Nazis in France. Also, the biggest lethal mistake committed by the
American Administrator was to dissolve the Iraqi Army, and other
government personnel leaving Iraq without any efficient technocratic
power.
What we and the majority of the Iraqis were looking for was
an Interim Council appointed by the Iraqis and not by the occupier. We
also believe that what was brought by the occupier will not serve the
Iraqis, but the occupier and its interests. After four months of the fall
of Saddam’s regime, and following the continued volatile situation in
Iraq, and the lack of the basic needs of the Iraqi people, Iraqis are
talking now about what President Nasser of Egypt said: “what was taken by
force must be retrieved by force”.
If Iraq will not be handed over
soon to the real patriotic Iraqis, a black page will be written again in
the history of America and its allies in
Iraq. |
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Mulindwas Communication Group "With Yoweri Museveni, Uganda is in
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Groupe de communication Mulindwas "avec Yoweri Museveni, l'Ouganda est dans
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