Brothers' story illustrates what future holds for Iraq Officers under Saddam regained their social status, then the pendulum of power swung

HANNAH ALLAM, Mcclatchy-tribune

...On July 17, 2005, Imad said, his superiors were called into a meeting with officials from the new Shiite-led government. "When they came out, they looked like they were going to cry," Imad said. "They told us, 'It's out of our hands. There's nothing we can do.' Then, one by one, they gave us the letters." The letters discharged the Marjan brothers. As former members of the Baath Party, they were judged unfit to serve in the new Iraq. They were unemployed again. The newly elected government, Imad said, had access to personal information on him and his brother, as well as dozens of other former Baathists who'd worked with the transitional leadership. He's convinced that it was through those files that the gunmen tracked him down. Imad is just as convinced that the attackers were Shiites — those who stormed his house on May 17 spoke in the singular dialect of Iraq's Shiite Muslim south. The Marjans are convinced it was a Mahdi Army death squad linked to militant cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. Imad went to the Baghdad morgue to claim his brother. Two doctors drew back the sheet. Imad saw the full horror of what had happened. Essam's head had been shattered by a gunshot. He was missing an eye, and there were drill marks on one of his cheeks and on his chest. A broken rib pushed unnaturally against his skin, and there was a burn mark on his left leg....

continua / continued