FRFI 211 October / November 2009

Despite President Obama’s much vaunted pull-out from Iraq, there are still 134,000 US troops in the country, occupying 320 outposts and bases. US Defence Secretary Robert Gates has said he will maintain an average of 100,000 troops in Iraq during the next fiscal year and at least 50,000 throughout 2011. Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki has reiterated that US troops may stay beyond the 2011 deadline. In addition, there are around 133,000 military contractors in the country, 36,000 of whom are US citizens.

US combat troops were supposed to have withdrawn from Iraqi cities by the end of June, according to the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA). Several city bases were able to remain, however, by simply redrawing city boundaries to define them as being outside. British television has also shown US troops continuing to operate within the cities in full combat gear, with guns at the ready supposedly undertaking reconstruction missions.

Rising violence

Both the US and its Iraqi puppets are aware that the recent relative peace and improvement in security is very tenuous. On 19 August, 95 people were killed and over 500 injured in bomb attacks on Iraqi government buildings. The Foreign Ministry and Parliament building in the Green Zone were damaged, as were the Finance Ministry and the Reuters News Agency. The Baghdad Provincial Government building also came under mortar attack. The Iraqi government was subsequently forced to curtail its programme of removing the concrete blast walls erected by the US occupiers.

Another simmering area of renewed violence is the Kurdish north. The Kurds have been pushing for greater autonomy and control of their oil reserves ever since the start of the occupation. A more confident central government seeks to assert itself against the Kurdish claims. In the last provincial election, Sunni parties, standing for the first time, made substantial gains. Violence was threatened from both sides and the Iraqi government was forced to send troops to the region in order to maintain control. US commander in Iraq, General Ray Odierno has requested more troops to be sent to the region. In September US Vice-President Biden visited Iraq and met with Kurdish leaders Barzani and Talibani. US forces have now been stationed between Kurdish and Arab forces and intend joint patrols with Iraqi government soldiers and Kurdish militias. The US claims that these patrols do not conflict with the SOFA as they are joint patrols.

Torture continues

Elsewhere, Human Rights Watch has reported a campaign of torture and murder against homosexuals by Iraqi militias linked to the government. Thomas Cruise, a US adviser to the Iraqi Ministry of Defence, has admitted that torture is still being used by Iraqi security forces, stating that, ‘Torture is part of Iraqi society’. Victims have given evidence of beatings, the use of cow prods, castration, electric shock, whipping, threats to rape sisters and daughters,  gouged-out eyes, severed limbs  and damaged organs. Judges have freed those suspected of torture and there has been no pressure from the US or Britain for the Iraqi government to stop the torture. Gordon Brown’s human rights envoy to Iraq, Labour MP Ann Clwyd, said, ‘I think the Iraqis have made remarkable progress.’ As we go to press the public inquiry into the death of hotel receptionist Baha Mousa in September 2003 in Basra reveals horrendous sadism committed by British soldiers, six of whom had been acquitted at a court martial in 2007. Torture remains an integral part of the armoury of the British state (see FRFI 210).

Jim Craven and Trevor Rayne