Whois
11-23-2004, 01:21 PM
June 23, 2004
Use of Deadly Force Authorized
By Dahr Jamail
Mohammed who works at our hotel just came up to deliver our laundry. We asked how he is and he took off his sunglasses to show us his black eye and said, “Not so good.”
Someone was drinking beer outside the hotel last night, and when Mohammed asked him to please move away from the entrance of the hotel the man stood up and promptly assaulted him.
“He said, “This is the freedom and I want to drink here!, then he beat on me some more,” said Mohammed.
Mohammed used to work as a translator at Abu Ghraib. He quit because some mujahideen saw him coming out of the prison one day, pulled him out of his car, threw him on the ground, and while holding a gun on him said, “We will kill you if you complete your job with the Americans!”
Needless to say he quit, as just 3 days before he was threatened one of his friends who was also working there as a translator was killed by the mujahideen. He knows of five other translators there who have been killed as well.
After his death threat, he approached an MP at the prison and told him he was threatened by the mujahideen and could tell them where they went, for he’d seen them drive to a nearby home. “That is not our job,” was the reply of the soldier when given the intelligence regarding the resistance fighters.
While working inside Abu Ghraib, he saw a friend of his who had been detained who he knew was innocent. His friend’s home had been detained when his home was raided and soldiers found 5 million Iraqi Dinar ($3500), which he had because he was about to get married. The soldiers suspected him of funding the resistance.
Yet Mohammed couldn’t speak to his friend, because before this happened he’d made the mistake of talking to another friend in the prison, and was promptly detained himself after having worked 3 months with the soldiers.
“During the morning I was working for the coalition as a translator, and that night I was a prisoner!”
He was held for 4 months before being released. At that time he was told by a soldier, “Sorry, you are innocent,” and Mohammed resumed his work as a translator for another month before being threatened by the mujahideen.
So he knew he couldn’t speak to his friend. Nevertheless, he told MP’s that his friend was not guilty of anything, and an MP told him, “We know he is innocent.”
Yet another tragic story in occupied Iraq. All of this because he said hello to a friend in Abu Ghraib. One of countless tragedies that are woven throughout Iraq today. This is just a man who delivered our laundry and stayed to chat a little.
Despite having the most powerful military on earth roaming the streets of Baghdad, the security situation continues to degrade from horrible to staggering. While every day in the news we see the car bombs and attacks on US soldiers, Mohammed’s incident is indicative of the general lawlessness which has engulfed the capital city under the occupation.
Crime is rampant, and looters are alive and well. Not on the large scale as they were during the fall of Baghdad, but they are at work daily. For example, the other day at the site of a bombing, a car which was destroyed by the blast was pushed off to the side of the road. Looters promptly commenced stripping it of parts. Security guards and Iraqi Police stood by watching as men worked feverishly removing the tires.
Ominous signs erected by the Coalition Forces are scattered about Baghdad. Signs which ever so subtly warn people not to park in the wrong place:
Anyone Parking In This Area Will Be Detained
Signs at checkpoints which read:
No Photography, Violators Will Be Shot
And…
Use of Deadly Force Authorized
Stenciled warnings on metal sheeting which lines one side of a bridge over the Tigris River which read:
By Order of The Coalition Forces
Do Not Tamper or Remove Sheets
Under Penalty of Force
This is the freedom.
http://dahrjamailiraq.com/weblog/archives/dispatches/000008.php
Hurray for Freedom! *POW*
Use of Deadly Force Authorized
By Dahr Jamail
Mohammed who works at our hotel just came up to deliver our laundry. We asked how he is and he took off his sunglasses to show us his black eye and said, “Not so good.”
Someone was drinking beer outside the hotel last night, and when Mohammed asked him to please move away from the entrance of the hotel the man stood up and promptly assaulted him.
“He said, “This is the freedom and I want to drink here!, then he beat on me some more,” said Mohammed.
Mohammed used to work as a translator at Abu Ghraib. He quit because some mujahideen saw him coming out of the prison one day, pulled him out of his car, threw him on the ground, and while holding a gun on him said, “We will kill you if you complete your job with the Americans!”
Needless to say he quit, as just 3 days before he was threatened one of his friends who was also working there as a translator was killed by the mujahideen. He knows of five other translators there who have been killed as well.
After his death threat, he approached an MP at the prison and told him he was threatened by the mujahideen and could tell them where they went, for he’d seen them drive to a nearby home. “That is not our job,” was the reply of the soldier when given the intelligence regarding the resistance fighters.
While working inside Abu Ghraib, he saw a friend of his who had been detained who he knew was innocent. His friend’s home had been detained when his home was raided and soldiers found 5 million Iraqi Dinar ($3500), which he had because he was about to get married. The soldiers suspected him of funding the resistance.
Yet Mohammed couldn’t speak to his friend, because before this happened he’d made the mistake of talking to another friend in the prison, and was promptly detained himself after having worked 3 months with the soldiers.
“During the morning I was working for the coalition as a translator, and that night I was a prisoner!”
He was held for 4 months before being released. At that time he was told by a soldier, “Sorry, you are innocent,” and Mohammed resumed his work as a translator for another month before being threatened by the mujahideen.
So he knew he couldn’t speak to his friend. Nevertheless, he told MP’s that his friend was not guilty of anything, and an MP told him, “We know he is innocent.”
Yet another tragic story in occupied Iraq. All of this because he said hello to a friend in Abu Ghraib. One of countless tragedies that are woven throughout Iraq today. This is just a man who delivered our laundry and stayed to chat a little.
Despite having the most powerful military on earth roaming the streets of Baghdad, the security situation continues to degrade from horrible to staggering. While every day in the news we see the car bombs and attacks on US soldiers, Mohammed’s incident is indicative of the general lawlessness which has engulfed the capital city under the occupation.
Crime is rampant, and looters are alive and well. Not on the large scale as they were during the fall of Baghdad, but they are at work daily. For example, the other day at the site of a bombing, a car which was destroyed by the blast was pushed off to the side of the road. Looters promptly commenced stripping it of parts. Security guards and Iraqi Police stood by watching as men worked feverishly removing the tires.
Ominous signs erected by the Coalition Forces are scattered about Baghdad. Signs which ever so subtly warn people not to park in the wrong place:
Anyone Parking In This Area Will Be Detained
Signs at checkpoints which read:
No Photography, Violators Will Be Shot
And…
Use of Deadly Force Authorized
Stenciled warnings on metal sheeting which lines one side of a bridge over the Tigris River which read:
By Order of The Coalition Forces
Do Not Tamper or Remove Sheets
Under Penalty of Force
This is the freedom.
http://dahrjamailiraq.com/weblog/archives/dispatches/000008.php
Hurray for Freedom! *POW*