Iraqis Exact Revenge on Baathists

[pinto]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A16407-2003Dec19.html

By Alan Sipress
Washington Post Foreign Service
Saturday, December 20, 2003; Page A01


BAGHDAD -- Basil Abbas Taee never saw the slip of paper entitled Final Warning.


The note, which his sons said was tossed over the gate of his house in southeast Baghdad, cautioned that he was being watched. "If you go out of your home or have connections with other Baathists, you and all your family will be killed as a lesson to all criminal Baathists," the message threatened. It was signed the Committee for Retribution.

Taee, 59, a former local official in Saddam Hussein's Baath Party, had received an earlier written warning in September and menacing phone calls, his brothers recalled. But after two months of staying home, he began to brave the streets again. When his wife found the final warning note in late November, she hid it from him, afraid it would aggravate his ailing kidneys and high blood pressure.

[sistersofmercy]

1. Yes the revenge killing and threats have been going on since

the beginning of the war. But not just against the Baathist, Christains were targeted as well as others. Under Saddam only Christians could sell alcohol therefore all the liquor stores were owned by Christians, many stores were blown up and/or the owners assassinated if they didn't close. Women have been assassinated for going to work. Make no mistake the female IGC member who was assassinated was not killed by Baathists. Those who want an Islamic state have been doing these things since the beginning of the war.

[Turley]

2. Uh,

I thought the thread yesterday said liquor sales were exploding?

[jamesinca]

3. Maybe it was a typo

maybe they meant liquor selling stores were exploding.

[htuttle]

4. I bet both are true

Liquor sales are exploding, and so are the stores.

[sistersofmercy]

5. I don't doubt that to be true for stores having some level of protection

but the truth is back in April, May etc liquor stores were blown up and the owners threatened and assassinated. Same goes for women refusing to acknowledge threats about going to work. In Kurdish controlled N Iraq this stuff was going on before the war. Back in 2001 or 2002, a female Christian activist was warned to stop her activities, when she didn't heed the warning her house with her and her family in it was blown up. Read AI annual reports on Iraq there is some very interesting info in them, like a UN office being blown up in Kurdished controlled N Iraq last year IIRC. Sometimes the pages are unavailable just go back later. There is one year on Israel that I can never get to come up.

[0007]

6. You rock young lady!

:yourock:

[sistersofmercy]

11. Why thank you, that is very kind!

:hug:

[loudnclear]

10. Of course, we good Christians will protect liquor stores...they are only

bad if used by poor suckers in the US. Are we also protecting the brothels? Oh, I forgot...good Christians are against sex.

[sistersofmercy]

13. Prostitution was not tolerated by Saddam

and was dealt with by severe punishment. Remember towards the beginning of the war, there were reports of the children's jail which turned out to be in fact an orphanage, the fate of many of these orphans who were cut loose on the streets of Baghdad has been that of prostitution. It's very sad.

[lumpy]

7. Shiites are fundimentalist Muslims.

The comparison is to Afghanistan's Taliban. Saddam's Baathists are more secular. Wolfowitz & Co. knows that, so what's their game?. If the Shiites gain complete control, Iraq will never become an open society.

[pinto]

8. Neocons "game plan"? maybe dominate foriegn states

to meet American corporate needs? something along those lines? It gets real hazy in the implementation as we are seeing.

ed 4 sp

[nadinbrzezinski]

9. Wolfie and Co do not understand what they have

unleashed

They were truly expecting flowers and candy at the feet of US troops

They bought the tripe from Challabi and otehr exiles who could have never taken over without our help.

This is why they NEVER prepared for what has become the situation on the ground.

Wolfie and CO must be very shocked that their theories, hatched in the confines of many a think tank, chiefly, PNAC, have not come to be.

[sistersofmercy]

12. Honestly, I'm trying to figure that one out myself.

OK put on a shiney hat. I read in some article from the international press and have seen it in a book that it is rumored that Saddam was getting a touch of seniality. Truth is there were no less than 12 assassination attempts on his life in the last 3 or 4 years, it is my opinion it was just a matter of time. His playboy sons would have never been able to retain power IMO and would have been eaten alive in the event something had happened to Saddam. The N Kurdish Iraq has been a mess for years and insurgents from Iran have been the culprits but I seriously doubt they were doing anything for the benefit of Saddam. I just can't quite put the puzzle together.

[0007]

14. Who can rank these Iraqis tribes accordingly? Size, religion, and etc.

Wahhabi
Sunni
Kurdish
Bat’this
Shi’ite

All I know is that the Shi'ites are about 60% of Iraqis population and the big honco that the United States supports with weapons and money is Ahmed Chalabi.

http://www.disinfopedia.org/wiki.phtml?title=Ahmed_Chalabi

Ahmad Chalabi, an American-trained financier who has close ties to senior Pentagon officials and
is a prominent member of the council, the U.S.-appointed interim government in Iraq. Another
possibility, some in the administration say, is that Iraq could evolve toward a political compromise
forged by the exile Ahmad Chalabi — a secular Shiite. Mr. Chalabi might manage to stitch
together pro-Iranian groups, Kurds and others into a government.

A top administration official predicted recently that in that event, Mr. Chalabi — who set up an
office for his opposition group in Tehran before the American invasion of Iraq — could become
the first Iraqi prime minister.

U.S. authorities insist that ties between business and government officials have not tainted any
contracts. "We're following all the standard federal rules" in awarding U.S. contracts, said a
Pentagon official, who asked to remain unidentified.

[sistersofmercy]

16. Oh god I can't stand Chalabi! What a slithering piece of poo, he is.

Wahhabi is the extreme fundies from the Sunni faction, mainly from Saudi, in fact, I believe they are the majority of Saudis, Osama is Wahhabi.
Sunnis in Iraq are roughly 30% and I think the majority of the Sunnis in Iraq fall under secular.
The Baathists are harder to pin point because one had to be a member of the party which was from my understanding quite exclusive contrary to belief. A very small minority of Iraqis were/are actual Baathists and makes them easy targets.

[pinto]

18. let's see, here's my shot at intricacies of ME cultural/religious stuff

as an amateur...

Shiites - majority population, 60%, ties with Saudi's Shiites, more religiously conservative than Sunni population,

Sunni - minority former ruling religious segment, less than 20% of population, ties with Syrian Sunni's.

Baathists - secular (political and tribal) group, former ruling political segment, Sunni, cross national between Iraq and Syria, tribal ties with the Baathist leader of Syria.

Wahhabi - Shiite sect, strong in Saudi Arabia, religiously very conservitive, cross natonal and strongly anti-House of Saud, original "home" of bin Laden.

Kurds - non-Arab Islamic population in northern Iraq, southern Turkey and Armenia, 10% or less of Iraq population. Ties to Iranian Shiites and Turk Kurds.

[supernova]

15. Up next: Iraq civil war?

I keep wondering if, having gotten rid of Saddam, we have just blown the lid off a tinderbox, and all these factions are going to be at war with each other? They've been repressed for these past 30 years, but now with no one to stop them, :scared:

[private_ryan]

17. I would kill them too

after what they did to people for decades, this is expected.