Gorilla’s Guides

BAGHDAD (AP) — They use aliases and keep no business address. Only their immediate family members know what they do.

This is the secretive world of Iraqis who work for private aid groups - and feel constant danger from extremists whose targets include Western agencies and their local staff.

The Catastrophic Military Occupation of Iraq is Rarely Described Accurately in the U.S. Media

By Kevin Zeese

An Interview with independent journalist Dahr Jamail “The bogus idea that if the U.S. leaves things will worsen is both inherently racist and ignorant.”

Dahr Jamail’s MidEast Dispatches, which can be seen at http://www.dahrjamailiraq.com, are essential reading for anyone who wants to understand what is happening in Iraq. (You can sign up on the site to receive his reports via email.) Dahr has spent a total of 8 months in occupied Iraq as one of only a few independent US journalists in the country. In the MidEast, Dahr has also has reported from Syria, Lebanon and Jordan. Jamail writes for the Inter Press Service, The Asia Times and many other outlets. His reports have also been published in The Nation, The Sunday Herald, Islam Online, the Guardian, Foreign Policy in Focus, and the Independent to name just a few. Dahr Jamail’s current book, Beyond the Green Zone: Dispatches from an Unembedded Journalist in Occupied Iraq, can be purchased on-line or in book stores.

Kevin Zeese: Compare you experiences in Iraq with how the media generally described the events. Do you think most people, Americans in particular, are getting an accurate picture of what has occurred in Iraq? Is occurring in Iraq?

Dahr Jamal: From the invasion until now, with few exceptions the so-called mainstream media in the West has portrayed a drastically different picture of what Iraq is really like under U.S. military rule. We regularly see stories from the military point of view, and rarely, if ever, how catastrophic the occupation has made life for the average Iraqi. Thus, most people are in no way getting an accurate picture of what has occurred, or what is occurring today. For example, how many mainstream outlets cite the only scientific survey which has been done to tally the number of Iraqis killed? Known as the Lancet report, and conducted by scientists from John’s Hopkins Bloomberg School of Health in conjunction with Iraqi doctors from al-Mustanceriya University in Baghdad, it found that 655,000 Iraqis had died as the direct result of the U.S.-led invasion and occupation. Over 90 percent of the people they tracked had death certificates provided by family members to the researchers. Yet the mainstream media does not cite this survey, which was authenticated by British Government. Why not? This is but one example of countless examples.

Read in full: The Catastrophic Military Occupation of Iraq is Rarely Described Accurately in the U.S. Media

BAGHDAD, 29 October 2007 (IRIN) - Education specialists in Iraq are worried about the low school attendance of girls as it could create a huge educational gap.

“The fear of losing their children through violence has led many families to keep their children at home but the number of girls kept at home is higher because in addition to the security problem, they are being forced by their families to assist in household chores,” said Sinan Zuhair, a media officer for the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs.

“Many families have lost their fathers or mothers and girls are asked to stay at home to help to cook, wash and clean. They are the ones paying the price of the violence since they have to forget about their future to be able to help the lives of their brothers,” Zuhair told IRIN. “The problem is worse in the rural areas where religion is being used by fathers as an excuse to justify why their daughters no longer attend school.”

According to Mustafa Jaboury, a spokesman for the Ministry of Education, in the southern provinces, the ratio of girls attending school has dropped from two girls to three boys to one to four.

Better in northern Iraq

“The situation is slightly better in the northern provinces but even there it is only in the main towns; in many villages, either girls have never attended school or they have been forced by their parents to leave school,” Jaboury said.

“In Baghdad the situation was relatively balanced last year but since the school term began in September, we have observed that the number of girls at primary and secondary schools has dramatically decreased, raising serious concerns for the future of women in this country,” he added.

I would like to extend our condolences to our reader and commenter Richard who writes the This Old Brit Weblog whose brother Laurence died last Thursday.

God grant him paradise and you and your loved ones fortitude

Maryam