Dispatch from Down Under

So, the Iraqi election returns are in, with the Sistani-backed Shiite list dominating, as expected, but not so much, perhaps, that they'll be free to impose sharia, or Islamic law, on the new Iraq. (The more secular-minded Kurds, who made a very strong showing, will likely demand compromise on that point, as on much else.) But sharia or not, in post-election Iraq disorder will likely remain the new order in the short to medium term. As David Enders, in Baghdad, reports: "I can't stand when people -- and they come from all sectors of Iraqi society -- tell me things are going to be better now that the elections have taken place. How many Iraqis have bothered to interview the doctor at the central morgue, to hear him talk about the 40 to 60 murder victims he receives each day? (That's not including Iraqi soldiers and civilians killed by bombings, who, through an agreement with the Ministry of Health, are taken elsewhere.) ... The violence touches too many lives, the breakdown of social order has become a way of life."
Julian Brookes Editor, MotherJones.com
Women and Sharia
How will Iraqi women fare under a constitution based on Islamic law?
Hanging out with the Sadris, the followers of Moqtada al-Sadr, is a real treat, if only because they are among the few guys who don't constantly hit on Hiba, the translator I work with. Almost across the board, when we meet lawyers, ministry officials, insurance agents — men of any shape and color, really — she gets hit on. "We" are frequently invited to unscheduled press conferences by the Ministry of Defense spokesman, who is one of her legions of admirers. I am sure I am the only journalist who gets calls from the MOD flak at eight in the evening, just wondering if my translator is around.
Anyway, it seems the pheromone that gets them going is the working-woman factor — if she's not at home, she must be loose. Hiba is married, but that doesn't seem to stop them. She tries to be polite and friendly, but it just seems to egg them on. It's an added problem because she is already a woman working in a man's world, and every time she tries to make friends with a male colleague, it seems to end with her deleting his number from her phone because he just won't stop calling.
So you can imagine Hiba's reaction as a relatively liberated Iraqi woman when it became evident that Iraq's constitution, to be hashed out over the coming months, will most likely contain more than a nod to Islamic law.
http://www.motherjones.com/news/update/2005/02/baghdad_journal7.html


Village Without Casualties
Former President Bill Clinton called Kashmir the ‘most dangerous place in the world' just days before his South Asia visit in March 2000. As a disputed territory, it locked nuclear neighbors India and Pakistan into a bitter hostility that has so far resulted in three wars and pushed South Asia to the brink of a nuclear disaster when the mobilized armies of the two countries seemed on the verge of a fourth war in December 2001.
At present, there is a thaw in relations between India and Pakistan, but Kashmir remains a difficult and dangerous valley up in the Himalayas and control over its territory a possible nuclear flash point. The Kashmir conflict itself is as old as the independence of the Indian subcontinent from British rule. In 1947, British India was partitioned into two countries, resulting in disastrous communal riots between Hindus and Muslims, and the migration of millions of Hindus and Muslims across the new borders.
Partition had been planned on the basis of the religions of the people of the 562 princely states of a United India. In the case of Kashmir, however, this criterion was overlooked. Although it was a Muslim-majority state, it went not to Muslim Pakistan but to India, thus giving birth to the conflict that has dominated the relations of the two countries ever since. Kashmir's autocratic ruler or maharaja was a Hindu, but wanted the state to be independent from either country. Pakistan sent in an army of Pashtun tribal irregulars from its Northwest Frontier province along with its regular troops to seize control of Kashmir soon after the British left, prompting India to send in its troops as well. This lead to the war that finally resulted in Kashmir's uneasy division between the two newly created states.
http://www.motherjones.com/news/dailymojo/2005/02/kashmir.html


'Jihad' Jack weeps as bail granted
Melbourne terrorist suspect "Jihad" Jack Thomas has been granted bail.The former taxi driver and Muslim convert faces charges of receiving financial support from al-Qaeda, providing al-Qaeda with resources or support to help them carry out a terrorist attack, and having a false passport.Thomas was arrested in a raid by counter-terrorist police at his outer-western suburban Werribee home last November
He returned to Australia in June last year after being held in Pakistan for six months on suspicion of having terrorist connections, but was released without charge
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2005/02/14/1108229896391.html


Hill lied about Iraq interrogations: expert
The Defence Minister, Robert Hill, lied to Parliament when he said no Australians had interrogated Iraqi prisoners, an Australian biological weapons expert says.
Rod Barton, a former Defence Intelligence Organisation specialist, has also painted a picture of a servile Australian, US and British military hierarchy, prepared to suppress the truth to protect their political masters.
Mr Barton says he interrogated prisoners at Camp Cropper, near Baghdad airport, when contracted to work for the Iraq Survey Group (ISG) and told the Defence Department when he returned in March last year.
Yet two months later, Senator Hill told Parliament: "Defence has thoroughly reviewed the information and has confirmed the key facts in this issue. Australia did not interrogate prisoners."
That statement was made to correct earlier false remarks by Senator Hill to the Senate about when Australians became aware of the prisoner abuse scandal, exposed in a series of Herald reports.
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2005/02/13/1108229856840.html