Sorry..

To all my readers, I'm terribly sorry for this absence as I had to travel abroad for something unexpected and urgent and that I missed a lot and couldn't not blog anything.

Will catch up.

Thanks to all who sent emails and asked about me.

kassakhoon@gmail.com

Squatter officials

The Iraqi government offers US$850 to US$4,300 to homeless people who have been squatting in government buildings or on government lands since 2003 "liberation" when the United States led a coalition to topple Saddam Hussein's regime.

The government decision came into effect on January 1st and the squatters have 60 days to leave or face legal action, the UN IRINnews reports.

One squatter called, Hussein Awad Nasser, 38, refused to be evicted unless he gets a fair treatment just like majority of other Iraqi officials who as well live as squatters.

“Senior officials live in houses of former officials, and claim to be leasing them from the government, so why are we the only ones who should leave?” asked Nasser who lives in Baghdad's central Salihiyah residential complex where Saddam Hussein's elite Residential Guards used to live.

“I will pay as long as these officials pay and I will leave when these officials leave,” Nasser said.

I agree with Nasser, we are in a country enjoys democracy and the law above all as the government says everyday.

And that the law should not only be above Nasser while below Iraq's president, Jalal Talabani ,who lives in a palace belonged to Saddam's brother on the Tigris or Prime Minister, Nouri al-Maliki, who lives in house belonged to Saddam's brother-in-law inside the Green Zone or the most influential Shiite cleric, Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim, who lives next to Talabani in a palace belonged to Tariq Aziz.

There are tens other squatter officials not only these three men.

kassakhoon@gmail.com

What did we see in 2008?

Iraq earned about US$60 billion in 2008 from selling crude oil at an average of 1.85 million barrels a day, Mariam Karouny reports for Reuters.

The Head of Iraq's State Oil Market Organization (SOMO), Falah Alamri, told Reuters: "Our target is 2 million (bpd) in January. If the weather is good and the tankers arrive on time, then we will reach two million bpd."

Where did this money go?

Did we see electricity 24 hours a day? NO. Did we see clean water coming out from the tap? NO. Did we see new hospitals? NO.Did we see new bridges and streets? NO.Did we see good food ration suitable for human beings and not only fit to chicken? NO.Did we see new residential compounds? NO and NO and NO and NO....

Did we see government officials in elegant western suits traveling in motorcades of modern armored vehicles? YES. Did we see new military vehicles and weapons? YES. Did we see more concrete walls? YES. Did we see sidewalks being built by Baghdad's Municipality workers and the next day the same workers demolish them to be built again the next day? YES and YES and YES and YES and YES...

kassakhoon@gmail.com

Financial incentives to marry Iraqi widows

Marry one Iraqi widow and you will get 10 million Iraqi dinars [about US$8,500] !!!

This is not an ad or a government decision yet but it could be seen soon if the government agrees on the plan being drawn by Mazin al-Shihan, head of Baghdad’s Displacement Committee, to help them cope with their plight.

“Iraqi widows, especially internally displaced widows in camps, are having a tough time. Most have more than one child and are finding it very hard to feed them,” al-Shihan, told the UN IRINnews.

“We have reports that some… are being harassed and blackmailed by government officials… More attention must be focused on this segment of the Iraqi people before it is too late,” he continued.

But his plan found tough opposition from women’s activist Hanaa Adwar, who heads al-Amal NGO, saying it smacked of “cruelty as the widow must get married to another man to get the government help”.

And she brings another idea which is to rehabilitate them to be independent and productive elements of society and to be more self-reliant in terms of feeding their children.

kassakhoon@gmail.com

Iraq invites oil companies to develop nearly 90 pct of its oil reserves

Postwar Iraq has managed to open nearly 90 percent of its oil reserves in 2008 to international oil companies for development through two major bidding rounds that are planned to be finalized in mid and end of 2009, Sinan Salaheddin reports for the Associated Press.

Iraq is classified as the world's third largest in oil reserves with at least 115 billion barrels underneath, but decades of wars, bad management, U.N. economic sanctions, sabotage acts and insurgent attacks have kept these resources away from the Iraqis.

With these two rounds, Iraqi Oil Minister Hussein al-Shahristani plans to add 4 million to 4.5 million barrels a day to its current 2.4 million bpd within four to six years to help building its heavily damaged infrastructure and bringing life to its economy.

Oil and gas fields on offer in the first bidding round are: Kirkuk and Bai Hassab oil fields in the north, Rumaila, Zubair, West Qurna Phase 1 and Maysan oil fields--Buzurgan, Fauqa and Abu Ghirab--in the south, and Akkas gas field in western Iraq and Mansouria gas field in the east.

Oil and gas fields on offer in the second bidding round are: Majnoon, West Qurna Phase 2, Halfaya, Gharraf, Badra oil fields and Siba gas field in the south. East Baghdad, and the group of Kifl, West Kifl and Merjan in central.A group of Qamar, Gullabat and Naudman oil fields and Khashm al-Ahmar gas field in the east and Qayara and Nejma in the north.

kassakhoon@gmail.com

Iraq's second oil, gas bidding round shrinks to 10 fields

It sounds that Iraqi Oil Ministry has changed its mind and decided to offer 10 oil and gas fields in its second bidding round instead of 14 fields as some oil officials in Baghdad said last week, Sinan Salaheddin reports for the Associated Press (AP).

Hussein al-Shahristani, in an interview late Monday with the state-run Iraqiyah TV, named only two giant oil fields to be inculded in the list, which are Majnoon and West Qurna Phase 2 in Basra, and left the others to be announced in his press conference due to be held Wednesday.

Al-Shahristani added that his ministry has focused on the fields which Iraq shares with neighboring countries, or that are located near borders, Salaheddin adds.

"It is unacceptable that neighboring countries extracting oil from the shared fields while Iraq stands motionless," he said. "We have decided to include these fields in the second licensing round and expedite" investments in them.

kassakhoon@gmail.com

Shiites, Sunnis on rare moment of agreement

It is a really rare moment of agreement between Iraq's two main Muslim sects, Shiites and Sunnis, when both agreed on marking the beginning of the Muslim lunar calender on the same day which is Monday.

The 12-month calender, or Hijri calender as Muslims call it, is used to date events in Muslim countries such as celebrating Islamic holy days and festivals. It is called Hijri after the prophet Mohammed's Hijra (emigration) from Mecca to Madina before nearly 1430 years ago.Since then the calender started.

Sighting the crescent moon is essential to mark the beginning of this year and then each month in it.Some Muslim countries use astronomical calculations and observatories while others and particular sects in some countries, like Iraq's Shiites, rely on the naked eye alone beside having their own interpretations on how the crescent's shape should look like.

This has led, since ages, to different starting times between Iraq's Shiites and Sunnis to Muslims events especially the two major Eids (festivals), one marks the end of holy month of Ramadan and the second marks the end of Haj. And this has added more to the differences and tensions between them which exist since ages but have come to surface since the U.S. -led occupation started in 2003.

For me, this thing is a good omen which I hope that both sects to come together and renounce all their differences...Happy New Year Muslim World.

kassakhoon@gmail.com

Did Mr. Bush get what he deserves from shoes?

Iraq's civilian deaths since the 2003 Mr. Bush's "liberation" ranging between 90,133 to 98,399, a new study issued Saturday by the human rights group, Iraq Body Count, found.

The data showed that between at least 8,300 and 9,000 civilians were killed in Iraq in 2008 with an average of twenty-five civilians died a day.In 2006-2007, the data found, at least 48,000 civilians were killed, it is comparable to violence during 2003-2004.

The group's co-founder and spokesman, John Sloboda, told Reuters' Missy Ryan that attacks continue against U.S. and other foreign forces, Iraqi police and soldiers, government officials and members of "Awakening Councils," local patrol units often made up of former insurgents.

"Because this violence is actually against the occupation, it is unlikely to drop while the occupation continues," Sloboda said.

Were the two shoes enough to Mr. Bush?

kassakhoon@gmail.com

Honor your words, elections approaching

As usual, Iraqi oil sources in Baghdad whispered to Ruba Husari of the International Oil Daily and told her about the final list of Iraq's second postwar bid round for oil and gas field development with 14 oil fields and two gas fields, one week before the official annoucement due to be made by Iraq's Oil Minister, Hussein al-Shahristani.

Husari made a gesture why al-Shahristani insisted to launch the new bidding round before the first one, which was announced last June for eight oil and gas fields, has been concluded or has made significant progress.

"Al-Shahristani, who was elected to the Iraqi parliament in 2005 before joining the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, wants to build a list of personal achievments as he eyes the next elections, slated for early 2010," Husari said.

"During discussions Wednesday at the ministry headquarters, oil officials from the licensing and contracting department acquiesced to al-Shahristani's pressure to announce a new offering of oil and gas fields to international oil companies before the end of the year as he had promised on several occassions," she added.

kassakhoon@gmail.com

Kirkuk, a test for nation

A nice story brought to us today by the Washington Post's Sudarsan Raghavan who went through numbers of normal residents of Iraq's ethnically-mixed Kirkuk to depict a picture for the vexing conflict the city has been experiencing since the U.S.-led occupation in 2003.

Raghavan's 2239-word story also helps the reader to unleash his imagincation to form many pictures on how the future of this ethnicaly fragmented city and then the Iraqi one will look like, considering the issue as a test to our war-plagued nation.

I only picked up some quotes, but advise everyone to read the whole story.

"I have no Arab and Turkmen friends. I have only Kurdish friends," said Darawan Salahadin, a slim 17-year-old Kurdish student with thick, gelled black hair. "I can't speak Arabic or Turkmen. So I don't know them."

"Damn the Kurds," screamed one of Khalaf Hamoud al-Jubouri's sons when his father's body was brought to his house after being killed by gunmen on Nov.24. Al-Jubouri , a 58-year old Arab lawyer and father of five, worked in the crucible of the conflict, pressing Arab legal claims to disputed lands. "I know it was the Kurds who killed my father."

"The government gave me the land, because I am originally from Kirkuk," said Abid al-Jubouri, an Arab and a father of 11, who owns a real estate agency .

"Kurds lost much blood for Kirkuk -- all what happened under Saddam, the executions, the jail sentences, the rapes, the blood -- all of this was for Kirkuk," said Darwan's father Salahadin Mahadeen."If the problem is oil, then we will give them the oil. We want the land."

"How can we live without our Jerusalem, without our heart?" Mahadeen added.

"It's all Turkmen land, 100 percent," said Abu Amjad al-Najafi, 61, a Turkmen, as referring to a Kurdish enclave in the city which he said it was owned by Turkmens.

"They have to walk over our bodies to make us leave this area," said the Kurdish fighter, Luqman Majid. "We will never leave, even if this place becomes our grave. This is Kurdistan."

Of course Raghavan didn't forget to incldue a precious quote of wisdom from one of our liberators who came here only to solve our problems.

"Kirkuk could be the capstone in the house of freedom, or it can be the cheap thread that when you pull out unravels the entire suit," said Lt. Col. David Snodgrass, deputy commander of the 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division, which oversees Kirkuk.

Wow, you such a wiseman Mr. liberator.

kassakhoon@gmail.com

Who will help Marwa to find answers?

It could take the toddler Marwa years to figure out why she joined the army of orphans of this cursed country and why she lost her parents, brother and two sisters in a barbaric way. Big WHYs will keep hitting her little mind until she realizes that she was just a victim of a dirty play in which she and her family had no role and knew nothing about its rules.

It was the fourth and the last day of Eid al-Adha religious holiday when Marwa’s father decided to take his four kids and wife to the upscale Abdullah restaurant just outside the northern ethnically-mixed Kirkuk city in a bid to steal some time to escape from Iraq’s grim reality.

But neither they nor other families who were sitting around their tables chatting and enjoying their time while eating their favorite dishes heard or saw or even felt the devil when he sneaked to that restaurant as guiding a sick-minded man with explosive belt beneath.

As he entered the restaurant, the man set off his explosives, sending 55 souls to the heaven and other 120 bodies to different hospitals to treat their wounds. Marwa’s family was among the first 55 group while she was among the second one ended up in one hospital with severe wounds.

Police said the target was a meeting between Kirkuk’s three main ethnics_ Arabs, Kurds and Turkmen_ who are in deep conflict over who is the original inhabitant of the city and the best way to run this city, a tension never came to surface before the U.S.-led occupation that started in 2003 but instead it was buried and guarded by Saddam Hussein’s dictatorship.

Kurds, who have been flexing their muscles since 2003, want to annex Kirkuk and surrounding Tamim province into their self-ruled region of northern Iraq. Most Turkomen and Arabs want the province to remain under central government control, fearing the Kurds would discriminate against them.

Minutes later and while Marwa was laying in the operation room, a heated race started between the leaders of these groups on the media outlets especially satellite channels, of course they were in elegant business suits with some of them were talking from London and other world capitals. Each one of them was eager to accuse the other of masterminding the attack against his community and demanding protection.

But the two-year old Marwa had a different demand when she was awake.

“I want mom, I want dad,” the panic crying girl said from her bed in the hospital with a tube runs into her bloody nose and a bandage on her forehead.

Wondering, who will help Marwa to find answers for her big WHYs in the future? What will Marwa say when she hears the word “sorry” or the sentence “we launched the war basing on false intelligence” that each American, European or may be UN official say when he leaves his office?

But what I’m sure of and have answer to is that Marwa’s face on AL-Sharqiyah TV will be a nightmare to all these officials who have brought these sufferings to her once-peaceful country.


kassakhoon@gmail.com