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Monday, November 24, 2003

Victims of Saddam's Regime 

Oh, God
I found hundreds of photos about the mass graves in one of an Iraqi sites
Here is one of them.

But if you want to see all the pictures;
CLICK HERE

The cause was a joke 

In Islamic traditions, when a person die, his parents should write an obituary on a piece of a black cloth so that to inform people about his death, so everyone would read it and pray upon his soul, in addition to the 3 to 7 days of consolation in a Mosque or at his house.
Under Saddam, when someone was executed it was forbidden to do all of that.
Below is a consolation done a few months ago, I’ve translated the Arabic language, I hope it will be clear in English.






Alfatiha/The remembrance to the death of the deceased, the Pediatrician
Dr.Hisham Mahir Al-Salman
Was executed in Nov -21- 1988 in an accusation of laughing at a joke about Saddam Hussien.
He is a father of Dr.Mahir and the father of Dr.Zaed Tariq’s and the engineer Ammar Al-Dujaily’s wives.
We are to Allah and to him we belong



That was one of millions of Iraqis who were the victims of the beast.

Friday, November 21, 2003

INTERIM TRAVEL DOCUMENT 

A couple of months ago, the coalition provisional authority (CPA) solved the problem of passports in Iraq by giving the citizens who don’t have passports, an interim travel document, because Iraq is not yet ready to issue traditional passport.
Below is a picture of the interim travel document:

Click here to see it

When you read the document, you can see that all countries should accept it as a legal document.
BUT when Iraqis have started to travel with that document, they were shocked by the border control officials telling them that they can not enter because the document is unacceptable by their government!
The miserable Iraqis returned to Iraq after the long exhausting trip from Baghdad to Amman (Jordan) by car.
They lost their money in a useless trip and came back disappointed, because all Iraqis were dreaming of traveling freely, but many countries do not want them to enjoy this freedom.
I heard that countries which accept this document are Jordan, Syria and Iran only!!
Many Iraqis traveled to Yemen, but they returned to Iraq, others want to travel to another countries, but they are afraid and hesitated.
A doctor in our neighborhood traveled to Yemen holding his travel document, when he reached there, they told him “ go back, you are not allowed to enter using this paper”!

Wednesday, November 19, 2003

Saving Grace 

I read this article in one of the newspapers published in Baghdad named (Baghdad Now), and I found it worthy to be republished in this blog.
Here it goes:
“The st. Catherine de Siena orphanage is a Catholic orphanage in eastern part of Baghdad, the orphanage is home to 30 children ranging in age from 7 to 17, the children were homeless, and taken in by the sisters of The st.Catherine de Siena orphanage.
The children rescued by the sisters of The st.Catherine de Siena were saved from a life of abject poverty and pain, the children are well cared for an educated under the watchful eyes of the Catholic nuns.
When the soldiers of the second battalion, 6th infantry regiment first discovered the orphanage, it was in a desperate of repairs.
The classrooms were in poor condition and the water delivery system was exposed to the elements creating a deadly health hazard.
The inhabitants of The st.Catherine also did not have consistent power due to faulty wiring and lacked fuel for their back up generator.
Together working with the staff at the orphanage, CPT Redmond, commander of headquarters and headquarters company 2-6 infantry quickly established a plan to improve living conditions.
The first priority was to get a power supply up and running several hundred gallons of diesel fuel were supplied to the orphanage for the generator, which put the orphanage on the path to refurbishment.
With power established repairs to the orphanage could begin their much-needed repairs.
Iraqi contractors were hired to assess the damage and the required repairs.

Armed with the contractor’s estimates, CPT Redmond, submitted a request to the US army and was granted
50 000 $. These funds would be used to replace broken windows, repair electrical wiring, replace doors, provide 10 much needed air-conditioning units and build an enclosure for the water delivery system in order to prevent disease.
With repairs to the orphanage ongoing the soldiers implemented a security plan. A facilities protection service (FPS) guard was permanently posted at the gate and an observation post established by the soldiers from the Gator Battalion, so the children would be able to go to sleep under the watchful eyes of law-abiding citizens.
After almost 2 months of hard work the repairs to The st.Catherine de Siena orphanage were completed on October 2nd 2003 .
Thanks to the hard work and dedication of the orphanage staff and the soldiers from 2-6 infantry, the future leaders of Iraq are on a path to prosperity.”
Great work

Sunday, November 16, 2003

Hi Friends, Check this: 

Omar, my friend, has started a new blog, he's fond of reading and very interested in political and military fields, click the link below, read his first article then leave him an encouraging comment.
Iraq the model

Friday, November 14, 2003

Without Mercy.... 

Today, on my way to the clinic, I saw a guy, tall, black hair, and good looking but he showed sad facial expressions. There was something that attracted me……,
it was his ear, his ear was cut off from the upper portion.
At once I remembered Ali the man who was in our neighborhood, Ali had the same ear cut.
Also I remembered a mentally deranged man, he was hiking in Baghdad streets, he had the two ears cut and a burned forehead.
There are many others with these defects.
So, I thought of writing about one of the heartrending stories in Iraq:
If my memory serves me right, that was in 1994, Saddam Hussien gave an order to cut off the ear of any soldier who deserts the army!
Then he changed the order to be: ((Any soldier deserts the army must be arrested and his ear must be cut off, and if he does this again; the other ear must be cut off. For the third time burn his forehead.))!!
The burn should be a straight horizontal line in the middle of the forehead!!
I want to know if there is another monster in the world like the one we had 8 months ago!
Is there anyone who can give such an order? How can a man be punished by cutting off parts from his body? Even if he was a murder, there is a jail.
What was the crime when they did not accept to serve Saddam Hussien?
Where are the human rights?
There are hundreds of victims of this brutal order, some of them got insane, others died.
Did you know that there was another order stating that anyone heard saying anything bad about Saddam or laugh at a joke about Saddam or the government or complaining of anything related to this , his tongue would be cut off !!!
Many people were arrested and had their tongues or ears cut off, some of them died due to the brutal amputation WITHOUT anesthesia !Imagine the pain !
Many people had their tongues cut off because they laughed at a joke about Saddam, these people were unlucky because someone from Saddam's agents or Ba’athists had heard and reported them, such reports were getting to the ministry of interior immediately.
Also any doctor who refused to apply the instructions would be imprisoned and banned from his job.
How can we recompense those poor men ?
How can we make them forget those years of fear and persecution?
If medicine and surgery have succeeded to replace their lost parts , and treated them psychologically (for years), then how can we get them back their dignity and respect ??

Wednesday, November 12, 2003

That’s Great! 

Well, what can I say? I am overwhelmed by all the help and cooperation you’ve shown me.
However, can I say thank you very very much to Mr. Tom Villars who has generously upgraded my weblog, so I can post images now, and I got rid of the ads.
And many thanks for the wonderful man Mr. Jeff Reed as he has registered my blog to
  • Iraqataglance.com

  • Thank you very much.
    Also I am thankful for all the people who e-mailed me or left comments, and I am very interested in reading them all.
    I will do all I can to improve this blog and write what was happening and what’s happening in Iraq.
    So, all hands on deck! Iraq needs everyone's help to be rebuilt and to reach the goals of peace and prosperity.

    Tuesday, November 11, 2003

    A BOMB 

    I was in Al-Adamiya district, north Baghdad, there was a tremendous traffic jam there, Iraqi police and US army blocked the main street, I did not know the reason till I got home.
    My sister told me that there was a huge explosion there near her college (she is a student there in the college of Ibn-Alhaitham), she said that they were crying and so terrified, the blow was very strong and scary.
    I do not know yet if there are injured people or not.
    There were many ambulance cars in the area.
    When are we going to get rid of fear and terror?

    Monday, November 10, 2003

    Your rights are kept 

    This post is about the rights of Iraqi Jews, Iraqi Jews who suffered from persecution in the 1950s , before I begin my comment here is a simple historical view about what happened to them :
    In 1941 there was a riot against them in Baghdad, 300 were killed and 6500 homes were damaged,some of them fled to Iran, others to India, then following the declaration of the Israeli statehood, headlines in Iraqi newspapers read “The fate of all Jews will either be the Grave or the Sea”.
    Jews were falsely arrested ,imprisoned ,and many tortured and killed. Their homes were confiscated,and Jewish owned businesses were boycotted. The Jews suffered from the mass exodus in 1950-51 .

    I am writing this because I hear many Muslims get crazy when they hear that Jews are coming to get back their rights ,houses and possessions .
    I’ve been in multiple arguments with many people and I told them :” imagine that you were in a Jewish country and they drove you out of your estates and homes and out of the whole country ..then you got the opportunity to get back whatever was robbed from you , then what would you do? Wouldn’t you run and get your properties back? Why don’t you think about others ? What is this selfishness ?”
    Another group said that we shall fight them ! I said “why?”, they said that we are Muslims and they are Jews and we must prevent them from entering our country!
    I said “Muslims are seen as terrorists, because of such poisonous and destructive thoughts that you believe in ; there is no religion in the world that encourages fighting and killing. You and many narrow-minded people are brainwashed with such anti-social and intolerant behavior”.
    Another man who is a taxi driver said “How can we let Jews and Christians enter our mosques and holy places? they are not clean ,not pure.”! I stopped talking to him because his face, hair and clothes can tell you that he has not taken shower for ages!

    I am tired of debating about these topics with such people , and I lost a friend in a dispute about this subject.
    On the other hand, I managed to convince other open minded Muslims of my thoughts.
    So I will keep on talking to people around me, trying to explain the meaning of peace and cooperation with other religions .
    What do you think? Am I right ?

    Sunday, November 09, 2003

    Iraqi Police ..go on 

    Today, I heard that there are hundreds of brave Iraqis joined the IP to protect us, and the Ministry of Interior gave them 400 cars to increase the police power and control the crimes.
    And many dangerous thieves were caught and imprisoned .
    Yes ..go on courageous men.

    A Disaster in Aanah 

    Aanah is a city located 450 km to the west of Baghdad in Al-Anbar province, it is a quiet city, characterized by its rugged nature with large empty areas .
    My brother’s friend is one of the city’s residents,he was in our house yesterday , he told us that 5 days ago there was a bank burglary and break-ins to governmental institutes ,they robbed money and cars, they were approximately 80 to 90 armed gunmen armed with RPGs and AK47s, the raid lasted for minutes, then they fled like ghosts!
    Many people identified two of the thieves ,they said that they were working in the city as taxi drivers, and they were not Iraqis ;they were from Afghanistan living in Iraq.
    Others said that all of them were from Afghanistan ,as they dressed and looked differently.
    I think that this type of robbery will happen again in such cities unless there is a strong force which protects Iraq borders and prevents crimes .
    Many neighboring countries do not want Iraq to live in peace, and do not want to see any progress, because they are afraid that their people would be liberated as well(Losing their chairs!! ).
    Anyhow, the CPA and the governing council must pay attention to this sad and dangerous story and work hard to solve the problem of the open borders to prevent any other attacks.

    Saturday, November 08, 2003

    The certificates 

    On September 2, both the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs started giving the endorsed certifications and documents to the students who graduated.
    During the ex-regime , the process was impossible, We should pay millions of Dinars to get these documents! especially doctors,dentists,engineers and others. Saddam was keeping them (imprisoned them )inside the country ,of course if Saddam gave them their certificates; all Iraqis would go abroad leaving him alone in Iraq.
    I know a friend who was trying to FLEE from Iraq, he was a doctor ,from a poor family (four brothers and a mother),his father died in Iraq-Iran war “martyr”, so he decided to travel to find a job in order to help his family to stay alive! Because our salaries were 1.5 dollar a month!
    He prepared his passport (of course a fake one ,because doctors were banned from going even one meter outside of Iraq !).
    Many people managed to flee Iraq using a fake passport, but unfortunately, at the borders, the Iraqi security forces arrested him for having a fake passport, he tried to explain his problem to them but they would not listen.
    The miserable doctor was imprisoned in “AlRadwanya jail”, an infamous place where inmates were getting tortured and those who were lucky to be set free would return home with physiological or psychological defects.
    The poor doctor was supposed to be imprisoned for SIX years ! yes six years … otherwise paying nine million Iraqi Dinars bail !! Imagine that.
    Anyhow, he spent 8 months in the prison with a continuous torture, then he was released when his family collected enough money from selling their house to set him free.
    After 4 months the doctor tried again! What a bravery !
    Yeah.. he was thinking that he had nothing to lose ..
    He prepared his passport and ran away from Iraq .
    I wish I could hear good news about him .
    Now after the liberation we can get our certificates paying 10 thousands Iraqi Dinars only. This is great!

    Biography 

    My name is A.Y.S , male, Iraqi . I work as a dentist .
    Frequently , I was dreaming of having a simple page to post my ideas , thoughts and opinions , but I couldn’t find what I was looking for .
    I am so exited to find this great site ( http://www.blogger.com) which will guide and help many people to post and discuss whatever they think and debate with others( ESPECIALLY Iraqis) .
    So we are very thankful to the blogger.com staff .
    Finally , I want to say that I will be posting everyday or every two days depending on the available time ,and please be accustomed to my writing style as I am not a native speaker.

    Acknowledgments
    Obviously it has not been possible to find such a site without a help , so I gratefully acknowledge my debt to Dr.Zeyad as he provided a useful starting-point for my first blog ,and again I want to record my thanks to him for his help.

    Freedom is Responsibility 

    Unfortunately, many people explain the freedom that has been given to us the way they like, some of them are looting from governmental buildings..Stealing whatever they want and saying ”this is freedom “,”these are our rights from the previous government “, others are building new houses wherever they want without a license and they say ” this is freedom “, others are not obeying policemen and drive however they want, some people are not organizing themselves in queues and preferring the mess and fuss wherever they go saying that ” this is freedom “ , driving in wrong directions in order to save time ! and again: ” this is freedom “.
    I want to tell those idiots that this is not freedom this is anarchy and chaos .
    Two days ago, a patient came to my dental clinic , he was dirty with offensive odour , looked like a beggar .. after he sat down on the dental chair he started talking about an accident he had with his CAR !! I said “ do you have a car?!” he said “yes, doctor”, at once I concluded that he was a thief (( in slang known as Hawasim , a name derived from Saddam’s description to the coming war at that time as Al-hawasim which means The Decisive War , after the end of the war ,everyone whom seen in the loot and robbery is called ‘Hawasim’ !!
    Back to the patient .. I told him “ what accident” he said “ yesterday I was driving in ‘alkasra’ ‘ a neighborhood in the north-east of Baghdad’ with my PATROL and there was a traffic jam , so I went up the sidewalk and I drove along it passing all the cars then suddenly ANOTHER car went up the sidewalk when I couldn’t keep away from it then I hit that car and the two cars were badly damaged” “I blame the policeman for that accident” he said.
    I said “ policemen are doing their best to control such cases, it was your fault” .
    He said “no.. this is freedom .. I do whatever I want to do”!!
    I was so angry that I wished to plant the probe in his eyes.
    Then I referred him to another dental clinic , because he did not deserve any type of help .
    That was one of thousands of stories which make me feel that these people will never learn to behave like human beings .
    I look forward to letting the FREE people to think even for one minute a day about freedom and use it correctly and wisely.

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