Desperate for Work, Blind to Dangers
Inter Press Service
Dahr Jamail
AMMAN, Jun 7 (IPS) - Ahlam Najam just needed a job. At 25, she had a
university degree in education but could not find work as teacher.
When Kellogg Brown and Root (KBR), subsidiary of the U.S. firm
Halliburton offered her a job as a security guard at a U.S. base in
Iraq, she took it.
On May 18 last year she was shot twice in the head as she waited for a
taxi to take her to work. Her injuries left her blind, and she lost her
sense of smell.
”Many people were working with the Americans, so I felt it would be
okay,” Najam, now at a Saudi-funded organisation in Amman that assists
blind Arab women told IPS.
”My two bosses at KBR, Mr. Jeff and Mr. Mark used to be very good and
gentle with me,” she said. ”They told me it wasn't dangerous to work for
them.”
Najam worked for KBR three months before she was shot. She was taken to
hospital in Hilla, about 100 km south of Baghdad, and kept there several
days. But her good bosses never contacted her, she says. >>>>continued
Desperate for Work, Blind to Dangers
Inter Press Service
Dahr Jamail
AMMAN, Jun 7 (IPS) - Ahlam Najam just needed a job. At 25, she had a
university degree in education but could not find work as teacher.
When Kellogg Brown and Root (KBR), subsidiary of the U.S. firm
Halliburton offered her a job as a security guard at a U.S. base in
Iraq, she took it.
On May 18 last year she was shot twice in the head as she waited for a
taxi to take her to work. Her injuries left her blind, and she lost her
sense of smell.
”Many people were working with the Americans, so I felt it would be
okay,” Najam, now at a Saudi-funded organisation in Amman that assists
blind Arab women told IPS.
”My two bosses at KBR, Mr. Jeff and Mr. Mark used to be very good and
gentle with me,” she said. ”They told me it wasn't dangerous to work for
them.”
http://dahrjamailiraq.com
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Who Cares?
** Dahr Jamail's Iraq Dispatches **
** http://dahrjamailiraq.com **
June 07, 2005
Suicide bombers unleashed another day of hell across Iraq today, killing
at least 18 and wounding over 67.
Four of them struck Iraqi Security forces, along with US military
convoys around Baghdad. Despite the huge US-backed Iraqi security
operation throughout the capital city, attacks there continue unabated.
The small city of Rawa near Al-Qa’im was bombed again by the US military
Sunday night. The military admitted to the bombing, but claimed that
there were no civilian casualties. Today on Al-Jazeera the satellite
channel flashed footage of flattened civilian homes, as well as people
in the city claiming that seven civilians were killed in the bombings.
In Hawija (near Kirkuk), three suicide car bombers struck Iraqi security
checkpoints today, killing several Iraqis. Meanwhile in Tal-Afar (near
Mosul), fierce clashes erupted between the Iraqi resistance and American
soldiers. These are ongoing as I type this.
It continues to be clear that the plans of the Bush Administration in
Iraq either do not include the protection of Iraqis, they don’t care, or
both.
I received an email from someone today along these lines which I found
interesting:
“I operated out of Camp Anaconda, near Balad. What almost everyone, both
in uniform and those as contractors, agreed on (was) the objective of
the Bush Administration’s long term (plan) is focused primarily on oil.
Hearts and minds are secondary, far behind the issue of petroleum
products, as the US continues to compete for resources around the world.
I hope more media conversation is forthcoming on this issue.”
Also along these lines, an Iraqi friend of mine who is a doctor in
Baghdad told me that when he was in Ramadi yesterday, US soldiers
attacked the Anbar Medical School while students were taking their
exams. As he said, “They (US soldiers) smashed the front gates of the
school in a barbaric way using Humvees…and terrorized the female
students while arresting two students while they were working on their
exams. They then lay siege to the homes of the dean of the university,
along with homes of lecturers, even though their families were inside.”
My friend also reported that after he recently visited Haditha (remember
“Operation Open Market”) he found that a large number of civilians had
been detained.
“They even detained a friend of mine and his father because they found
papers in their home about an upcoming demonstration,” he told me.
Recently, the US-backed Iraqi “government” announced it had detained
nearly 900 “suspected militants.” A “suspected militant” in Iraq looks
more and more like anyone in the wrong place at the wrong time when
Iraqi or US forces conduct an operation.
Of course the looting of homes during raids continues along with the
detentions of innocent Iraqis. So much so that as a result of the huge
“security” operation in Baghdad, Laith Kuba, a spokesman for Iraqi Prime
Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari found it necessary to make the following
statement:
“Some people complained there are cases where soldiers took advantage
and helped themselves to cash and other items. One doesn’t rule it out.
The complaints I heard from people were the aggressiveness of some of
these forces as they do things. Some people have half-hinted that they
have copied some of the mannerisms of other foreign troops. I think that
is a valid criticism in some cases.”
http://dahrjamailiraq.com
Inter Press Service
Dahr Jamail
AMMAN, Jun 7 (IPS) - Ahlam Najam just needed a job. At 25, she had a
university degree in education but could not find work as teacher.
When Kellogg Brown and Root (KBR), subsidiary of the U.S. firm
Halliburton offered her a job as a security guard at a U.S. base in
Iraq, she took it.
On May 18 last year she was shot twice in the head as she waited for a
taxi to take her to work. Her injuries left her blind, and she lost her
sense of smell.
”Many people were working with the Americans, so I felt it would be
okay,” Najam, now at a Saudi-funded organisation in Amman that assists
blind Arab women told IPS.
”My two bosses at KBR, Mr. Jeff and Mr. Mark used to be very good and
gentle with me,” she said. ”They told me it wasn't dangerous to work for
them.”
Najam worked for KBR three months before she was shot. She was taken to
hospital in Hilla, about 100 km south of Baghdad, and kept there several
days. But her good bosses never contacted her, she says. >>>>continued
Desperate for Work, Blind to Dangers
Inter Press Service
Dahr Jamail
AMMAN, Jun 7 (IPS) - Ahlam Najam just needed a job. At 25, she had a
university degree in education but could not find work as teacher.
When Kellogg Brown and Root (KBR), subsidiary of the U.S. firm
Halliburton offered her a job as a security guard at a U.S. base in
Iraq, she took it.
On May 18 last year she was shot twice in the head as she waited for a
taxi to take her to work. Her injuries left her blind, and she lost her
sense of smell.
”Many people were working with the Americans, so I felt it would be
okay,” Najam, now at a Saudi-funded organisation in Amman that assists
blind Arab women told IPS.
”My two bosses at KBR, Mr. Jeff and Mr. Mark used to be very good and
gentle with me,” she said. ”They told me it wasn't dangerous to work for
them.”
http://dahrjamailiraq.com
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Who Cares?
** Dahr Jamail's Iraq Dispatches **
** http://dahrjamailiraq.com **
June 07, 2005
Suicide bombers unleashed another day of hell across Iraq today, killing
at least 18 and wounding over 67.
Four of them struck Iraqi Security forces, along with US military
convoys around Baghdad. Despite the huge US-backed Iraqi security
operation throughout the capital city, attacks there continue unabated.
The small city of Rawa near Al-Qa’im was bombed again by the US military
Sunday night. The military admitted to the bombing, but claimed that
there were no civilian casualties. Today on Al-Jazeera the satellite
channel flashed footage of flattened civilian homes, as well as people
in the city claiming that seven civilians were killed in the bombings.
In Hawija (near Kirkuk), three suicide car bombers struck Iraqi security
checkpoints today, killing several Iraqis. Meanwhile in Tal-Afar (near
Mosul), fierce clashes erupted between the Iraqi resistance and American
soldiers. These are ongoing as I type this.
It continues to be clear that the plans of the Bush Administration in
Iraq either do not include the protection of Iraqis, they don’t care, or
both.
I received an email from someone today along these lines which I found
interesting:
“I operated out of Camp Anaconda, near Balad. What almost everyone, both
in uniform and those as contractors, agreed on (was) the objective of
the Bush Administration’s long term (plan) is focused primarily on oil.
Hearts and minds are secondary, far behind the issue of petroleum
products, as the US continues to compete for resources around the world.
I hope more media conversation is forthcoming on this issue.”
Also along these lines, an Iraqi friend of mine who is a doctor in
Baghdad told me that when he was in Ramadi yesterday, US soldiers
attacked the Anbar Medical School while students were taking their
exams. As he said, “They (US soldiers) smashed the front gates of the
school in a barbaric way using Humvees…and terrorized the female
students while arresting two students while they were working on their
exams. They then lay siege to the homes of the dean of the university,
along with homes of lecturers, even though their families were inside.”
My friend also reported that after he recently visited Haditha (remember
“Operation Open Market”) he found that a large number of civilians had
been detained.
“They even detained a friend of mine and his father because they found
papers in their home about an upcoming demonstration,” he told me.
Recently, the US-backed Iraqi “government” announced it had detained
nearly 900 “suspected militants.” A “suspected militant” in Iraq looks
more and more like anyone in the wrong place at the wrong time when
Iraqi or US forces conduct an operation.
Of course the looting of homes during raids continues along with the
detentions of innocent Iraqis. So much so that as a result of the huge
“security” operation in Baghdad, Laith Kuba, a spokesman for Iraqi Prime
Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari found it necessary to make the following
statement:
“Some people complained there are cases where soldiers took advantage
and helped themselves to cash and other items. One doesn’t rule it out.
The complaints I heard from people were the aggressiveness of some of
these forces as they do things. Some people have half-hinted that they
have copied some of the mannerisms of other foreign troops. I think that
is a valid criticism in some cases.”
http://dahrjamailiraq.com
posted by Kangaroo Brisbane Australia at 2:42 PM
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