Sister Jabou

No wonder some of them are praising the Americans as if they are Gods.
i will not doubt this mans story for a second. You can see it clearly, the
people were looting and the soldiers are standing by doing nothing.
If the mean to "rescue" the Iraqis and to rebuild Iraq, why would they allow
them to loot offices which again will cost the Iraqis a fortune.
I would love to see these soldiers taken to international courts for their
neglegence and reckless behaviours but then again they have immunity.
Jabou here in scandinavia we get first class news/information on what is
going on.

Have a nice day
Matarr






>From: Jabou Joh <[log in to unmask]>
>Reply-To: The Gambia and related-issues mailing list
><[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Fwd : U.S. in Baghdad
>Date: Fri, 11 Apr 2003 21:32:44 EDT
>
>This is from a Swedish Newspaper
> > Dagens Nyheter, April 11
> >
> > "USA instigated looting!"
> > MALMO  Khaled Bayomi looks a bit surprised when the US officer on TV
> > bemoans the lack of resources to stop the looting in Bagdad. ""I
>happened
> > to be there right when the US troops started encouraging people to start
> > looting."
> >
> > Khaled Bayomi traveled from Malmo to Bagdad as a human shield and
>arrived
> > the same day the fighting started.  He can tell many stories about this,
> > but what is most inetresting is his testimony about the wave of looting.
> >
> > "I had been to visit some friends who live in a run-down neighborhood
>just
> > past Haifa Avenue on the left bank of the Tigris.  It was April 8 and
>the
> > battles were so intense that I couldn't get to the other side of the
> > river. In the afternoon it suddenly got quiet and four US tanks were
> > stationed on the outskirts of the slum area. From the tanks was heard
> > eager shouting in Arabic, asking people to approach.
> >
> > "During the morning anyone who tried to go out in the street would be
>shot
> > at. But in this peculiar silence after all the shooting, people finally
> > got curious. After 45 minutes the first Bagdad residents started coming
> > out. Then the soldiers shot the two Sudanese guards posted outside a
>local
> > administration buliding on the other side of Haifa Avenue.
> >
> > "I was standing just 300 meters from where the guards were murdered.
>Then
> > they shot at the doors to the buliding and the Arabic translators in the
> > tanks encouraged people to help themselves inside the building.   The
> > rumor spread fast and the building was emptied. A little later the tanks
> > crushed the door to the Justice Department, in the neighboring building,
> > and the looting continued there.
> >
> > "I stood in a large crowd who saw it as i did. They did not participate
>in
> > the looting but didn't dare intervene. Many had tears in their eyes from
> > shame. The next morning the looting spread to the Museum of Modern Art,
> > 500 meters further north. There were also two crowds there, one looting,
> > the other looking on in disgust."
> >
> > So you are saying that it was the US troops that initiated the looting?
> > "Absolutely. The absence of scenes of joy caused the US troops to be in
> > need of images of Iraqis who in different ways show their hatred for
> > Saddam's regime."
> >
> > But the Bagdad residents did tear down a big statue of Saddam?
> > "Did they? It was a US tank that did it, right next to the hotel where
>all
> > the journalists are staying. Up until lunchtime on April 9 I never saw a
> > single destroyed Saddam image. If people were into tearing down statues
> > they could have torn down a bunch of the small ones, with no help from
>US
> > tanks. Had this been a political uprising the population would have
> > toppled statues first and then looted."
> >
> > Back in Sweden Khaled Bayomi is a doctoral student at the University of
> > Lund where he has for the last ten years been lecturing and researching
> > about the conflicts in the Middle East. he is well aware of both the
> > conflicts and the propaganda war.
> >
> > Isn't it good that Saddam is gone?
> > "He isn't gone. He has dissolved his army into small, small groups.
>That
> > is why there was no major battle. As far as the state, one might say
>that
> > Saddam dissolved it already in 1992 and Iraq has been ruled by a
>parallel
> > tribal structure which is crucial. When the U.S. initiated the war,
>Saddam
> > completely abandoned the state and now relies entirely on the tribal
> > structure. That is why he conceded the cities without a fight.
> >
> > Now the U.S. has to do everything on its own because there is no
>political
> > force from within that wants to challenge the exisiting structure.  The
> > two who came from outside were immediately lynched."  Khaled Bayomi is
> > referring to what happened to General Nazar al-Khazraji, who had fled
>from
> > Denmark, and the Shiite Muslim leader Abdul Majid al-Khoei.  They were
> > chopped up by swords and stabbed by a furious mob in Najaf, because they
> > were seen as American marionettes. According to the Danish newspaper BT,
> > al-Khazraji was brought from Denmark to Iraq by the CIA.
> >
> > "Now we have an occupation force in place that has not indicated how
>long
> > it will stay, has given no timeplan for civilian rule and no date for
> > free elections. All that awaits us now is complete chaos."
> >
> >
>
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