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=> Were Iraqi Security Forces Involved in Baghdad Church Massacre?

Were Iraqi Security Forces Involved in Baghdad Church Massacre?

Posted by Marcello (Guest) - Wednesday, February 29 2012, 6:48:35 (UTC) from 71.107.57.119 - pool-71-107-57-119.lsanca.dsl-w.verizon.net Network - Windows XP - Internet Explorer Website: http://us.mg1.mail.yahoo.com/dc/launch?.gx=1&.rand Website title: Redirect

Were Iraqi Security Forces Involved in Baghdad Church Massacre? Tuesday 28 February 2012 by: Dirk Adriaensens, Truthout (This is only a part of a long article about Iraq): http://www.truth-out.org/never-ending-and-never-prosecuted-humanitarian-disaster-iraq/1330109137 On 31 October 2010, Our Lady of Salvation Church, in Baghdad's central Karrada neighborhood, was attacked by "Al Qaeda." In the deadly attack, gunmen stormed the building and gunned down the priest and worshippers, before exploding their suicide vests. Despite an outcry against attacks on Christians, the targeting of churches in Iraq has been a regular feature since the US invasion of the country in 2003. In all, 68 worshippers died while attending church that day and another 98 were wounded. On 2 August 2011, an Iraqi court convicted three people and awarded them the death penalty for their role last year in this siege and underscored the uphill task faced by rulers in protecting religious minorities(65) - which are on the verge of extinction. But the Assyrian Christian Community, Iraqi bloggers and even some politicians have openly accused the Iraqi government of mishandling the October 31 attack: a) They point out that the terrorists brought explosives and weapons to the church in cars with dark-tinted windows and no license plates that are only available to officials with high-level security clearance. This allowed them to get waved through checkpoints without being stopped. b) They also point to the slow reaction of the security forces and the botched handling of the rescue attempt itself. It still remains unclear how many of the victims were killed or wounded by the members of the Iraqi rescue team, who opened fire wildly once they burst into the church. c) A senior officer in the Iraqi police, who asked not to be identified because of the sensitivity of the subject, said that for the ten days prior to the attack, the Interior Ministry security forces gradually moved barriers closer to the church, until the terrorists could drive right up in front. d) Dr. Duraid Tobiya, who heads the Mosul section of the Assyrian Democratic Movement, the largest Christian political party in Iraq, told Newsmax, "I can't accuse the government directly because I haven't seen the evidence. But this is what we have heard from survivors and from eyewitnesses who talked to people who were inside." Duraid and other secular Christian leaders interviewed in northern Iraq believe that the Shiite Dawa Party of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, which controls the Interior Ministry forces, was complicit in the attack and that the Iraqi police has become the instrument of the ruling party, not the state. He pointed out that right after the church massacre, the Baghdad City Council, which is also controlled by the Dawa Party, passed new laws banning liquor stores, nightclubs and educational associations run by Christians. "Even the universities in Baghdad imposed new dress codes on students and separated classes by sex, like the Taliban." Duraid and other leaders in the north believe the terrorist attacks against Christians are not just carried out on religious grounds, but are also an attempt at driving Assyrians as an ethnic minority out of Iraq. "We are the indigenous Iraqis," Duraid said. "So the purpose of these attacks is to destroy the Christians and force us to leave the country. The orders for these terrorist attacks are coming from entities and political parties inside the government." These are the consequences of the sectarianism and counterinsurgency policies introduced in Iraq by the Anglo-American invaders. As usual, the Obama administration praised the Iraqi government for its handling of the investigation. "Al-Qaida threatened to attack churches, there was a church attack and then al-Qaida claimed responsibility. I simply do not believe Maliki or his forces, for all their ills, did this. The US has seen no evidence that the government of Iraq was complicit in the attack on the church. To the contrary, the Iraqi government has universally condemned the attack on the church as well as attacks on Christians and members of all faiths," the State Department official said.(66) Are they blind? Or are they knee-deep involved in spreading this kind of terror and chaos? Would it not be just and fair to listen to the Iraqi voices and seriously investigate their claims? Or will the international human rights organizations - including the office of Pillay - keep on repeating the words of the neighborhood bully: the USA. A Women for Women International-Iraq 2008 report gives a pretty accurate picture of how Iraqi politics work and who is responsible for the Iraqi catastrophe: "Within the central government in Baghdad, Iraqi politics are largely deadlocked. The current government is made up largely of Shiite politicians closely tied to various militia warlords. The Sunnis are not well represented in the government or the parliament and tribal sheiks of Anbar, Ninawah and Salah al-Din provinces tend to view the government as a front for Iran. Even among the Shiites, many believe that the politicians in Baghdad are working for the best interests of the militias, not the best interests of the Shiites as a whole, let alone all Iraq. The problem derives in large part from the flawed decisions that went into the creation of the IGC in 2003 and the interim government of 2004. Having brought exiles and militia leaders into the government and given them positions of power, it became virtually impossible to get them out and even more difficult to convince them to make compromises. The militia leaders used their positions to maintain and expand their power at the expense of their rivals outside the government as well as in the central government itself. As a result, each ministry in Baghdad is wholly captive to the militia that controls it."[67] I couldn't have formulated it better. The Anglo-American occupation has created these monstrous structures of death. The victims are the Iraqi people. --------------------- - BACK TO INDEX - REPLY - QUOTE - EDIT - DELETE -

The full topic: Were Iraqi Security Forces Involved in Baghdad Church Massacre? Marcello - Wednesday, February 29 2012, 6:48:35 (UTC) Re: Were Iraqi Security Forces Involved in Baghdad Church Massacre? pancho - 02/29 12:19

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