20 January 2020

How can democratic governments hold intelligence and security agencies to account when what they do is largely secret? Jamie Gaskarth explores how intelligence professionals view accountability in the context of 21st century politics. 

1 May 2008 , Number 3

Rowdy sessions of the Iraq High Tribunal attracted sensational daily news coverage while Saddam Hussein was being tried. However, following his grim execution in December 2006, coverage all but evaporated. The foreign press and most western monitors packed their bags and left, and television reporting in Iraq dwindled. Now even the United States Department of Justice, which initially provided key financial and political support, is quietly withdrawing its advisers. So what is happening at the Tribunal and why are the Americans pulling out?

15 April 2020

Former intelligence chief Mustafa al-Kadhini was named prime minister of Iraq on Thursday, after five months of political instability in the Middle Eastern nation.

The Pentagon announced Tuesday that Sgt. Christopher Wesley Curry died Monday in Iraq in what officials describe as a non-combat-related incident.

Antiwar liberals last week got to savor the four most satisfying words in the English language: "I told you so."

The conviction of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby last week gave Americans a chance to pick at the scab of what has become a favored obsession -- the debate over the motives of the Bush administration in the run-up to the war in Iraq.

When Columbia University sociologist Peter Bearman dived into the world of the white-gloved workers who open the front doors of expensive New York apartment buildings, he found that most people who applied for jobs as doormen never got one. Most doormen, however, had not applied for their jobs.

In the days after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, with the twin towers vanished from Manhattan's skyline, a poem by W.H. Auden could have been the song of a wounded nation. "September 1, 1939," written on the eve of World War II, seemed eerily prescient:

IRAQ’S prime ministerial merry-go-round continues to spin apace. Spy chief Mustafa al-Kadhimi, director of the country’s National Intelligence Service, is now the third prime minister designate this year, following the withdrawal of the two previous prospective candidates.

CNA Staff, Mar 27, 2020 / 11:19 am (CNA).- Four men working in Iraq for the French humanitarian organization SOS Chrétiens d'Orient who went missing in Baghdad in January have been released by their kidnappers, the French president announced Thursday.

Emmanuel Macron announced March 26 that he “welcomes the release of our three nationals Antoine Brochon, Julien Dittmar, Alexandre Goodarzy and Iraqi Tariq Mattoka.”

The men disappeared Jan. 20 after they made a trip to an appointment by car. SOS Chrétiens d'Orient tried to contact them the following day, unsuccessfully.

The missing employees had gone to Baghdad “to renew their visas and the registration of association with the Iraqi authorities and to monitor the association's operations” in the country.

Macron's office said it had made “every effort” to secure their release, and he expressed “gratitude to the Iraqi authorities for their co-operation.”

SOS Chrétiens d'Orient said last week that they had received no ransom demand, and no group had claimed responsibility for the abduction.

The organization works to support Eastern Christians with humanitarian material aid; it has permanent missions in Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, and Egypt.

Christians in Iraq have suffered persecution in recent years, especially during the invasion of the Islamic State.

Prior to the United States invasion of Iraq in 2003, there were about 1.5 million Iraqi Christians. Today, that number is believed to be fewer than 500,000.

Rome Newsroom, Apr 22, 2020 / 12:00 pm (CNA).- For Iraqi Christian and Yazidi communities still recovering from the destruction wreaked by the Islamic State, the coronavirus poses significant risks, NGOs have said in a joint statement. 

“The public health system in Sinjar and the wider Nineveh Governorate was decimated by ISIS during its brutal occupation and genocidal campaign in Iraq, beginning in 2014,” the letter stated.

“An impending humanitarian and security disaster looms large in Iraq. … There is a significant attendant threat to global security if ISIS uses this opportunity to regroup and return, but it does not have to be this way. Iraqi authorities and the United Nations must act now,” it continued.

Twenty-five NGOs working in northern Iraq issued a joint statement April 16 calling on the World Health Organization to undertake an assessment mission in the area, where testing has been limited, and urging Iraqi authorities to prevent the Islamic State from regrouping.

Signed by the Iraqi Christian Relief Council, Free Yezidi Foundation, Genocide Alert, and the Religious Freedom Institute, the statement described how the pandemic is exacerbating existing security, humanitarian, and health risks among displaced and rebuilding Iraqi minority communities. It highlighted, in particular, the global risk of a potential resurgence of the Islamic State.

Security threat

“COVID-19 and the precipitous drop in oil prices have caused the Iraqi economy to collapse, leaving a dangerous security vacuum for ISIS to exploit. Indeed, the resultant political turmoil and social strife recall the very conditions that earlier incarnations of ISIS and its supporters capitalized on during its initial surge almost a decade ago,” it stated.

“According to International Crisis Group, ISIS in its weekly newsletter Al-Naba called on its fighters to attack and weaken its enemies while they are distracted by the pandemic,” it added.

U.S. military officials have expressed concern that the Islamic State could use adverse conditions to its advantage in it recruitment efforts.

“COVID-19 has also hastened the departure of some coalition forces from Iraq, weakening counter-terrorism operations, while some ISIS detainees have recently escaped prison in Syria,” the letter stated.

On March 30, Islamic State fighters imprisoned in northwestern Syria revolted. The rioting prisoners took over one wing of the prison before Kurdish forces intervened.

“There is an urgent need for reform in the civilian security sector, in order to integrate regional militias into a unified Federal Police that upholds the rule of law and protects all citizens, regardless of religion or clan affiliation,” the letter said.

Health infrastructure needs

The economic strain has also hindered Iraqi minorities’ efforts to rebuild their communities, including medical infrastructure needs.

“Many Yazidis (Ezidis/Yezidis) want to return to Sinjar, but security, reconstruction and basic services are still lacking to allow a dignified return. There are currently only two hospitals and just one ventilator to assist the current population of around 160,000 people in the region,” the NGOs’ statement explained.

Iraq’s healthcare system, which has suffered for decades from the effects of sanctions and war, currently faces a critical shortage of doctors and medicine, according to a Reuters investigation. Hospitals in Iraq are already overcrowded and doctors overworked, while the healthcare situation is slightly better in the semi-autonomous Kurdistan Region of Iraq, which has its own health ministry.

There have been at least 1,600 cases of COVID-19 documented in Iraq, which is under pressure to reopen its border with Iran, which has had more than 85,000 confirmed coronavirus cases, according to Johns Hopkins University Coronavirus Resource Center.

Humanitarian workers have also had trouble reaching those in need due to movement restrictions, and have raised concerns about the risk of an outbreak in internally displaced persons (IDP) camps.

Social distancing is very difficult in these high-density IDP camps in Iraq, where 1.8 million people remain displaced due to insecurity and reconstruction needs, according to the UN.

The 25 NGOs called for the government of Iraq and the United Nations to provide testing capacity in the IDP camps in Sinjar, Tel Afar and the Nineveh Plains.

“At present, it is impossible to apprehend the extent of the spread of the virus because no testing for the disease is taking place in the camps, while restrictions of movement impede the work of humanitarian actors who provide basic essentials such as food, water and medicine,” they stated.

Psychological risk for trauma survivors

Genocide survivors with trauma also face increased personal risk of psychological harm amid isolation imposed by coronavirus measures.

As in much of the world, authorities in Iraqi Kurdistan have ordered people to stay home, imposed a curfew, and have closed places of worship, schools, restaurants, and most businesses. 

“Another alarming corollary of the COVID-19 pandemic in Iraq is the psychological impact on at-risk communities, including Yazidis, Turkmen and Christians, such as Assyrians,” it said.

This is a particular concern for the Yazidi communities in which thousands of women were victims of sexual violence by the Islamic State.

“Prior to the outbreak, Médecins Sans Frontières reported on a debilitating mental health crisis among Yazidis in Iraq, including a rising number of suicides,” it stated.

Suicides in this community have already been reported since social distancing measures were put into place, the NGOs reported. They called on the World Health Organization to address this “acute mental health crisis.”

In their appeal to the WHO and Iraqi government, the NGOs insisted that the stakes were high: 

“COVID-19 is a pandemic the likes of which we have not seen before. Survivors of genocide and other mass atrocity crimes are now waiting for this silent death to pass through the camps and their homes, unable to fight back.”

Artists in Iraq’s southern port city of Basra have adapted the beloved characters of Bab al-Hara (The Neighborhood Gate) -- a 10-season period drama widely watched across the Arab world -- to convince their compatriots to take the pandemic seriously

1 Seychellois Rupee = 69.3146 Iraqi Dinar

1 Trinidad and Tobago Dollar = 176.0988 Iraqi Dinar

1 Swedish Krona = 121.7778 Iraqi Dinar

1 Slovak Koruna = 53.5891 Iraqi Dinar

1 Serbian Dinar = 10.9723 Iraqi Dinar

1 Polish Zloty = 283.0133 Iraqi Dinar

1 Qatari Rial = 326.8297 Iraqi Dinar

1 Indian Rupee = 15.7608 Iraqi Dinar

1 Pakistani Rupee = 7.4538 Iraqi Dinar

1 Sierra Leonean Leone = 0.1207 Iraqi Dinar

1 New Taiwan Dollar = 39.8567 Iraqi Dinar

1 Thai Baht = 37.1638 Iraqi Dinar

1 Turkish Lira = 167.8633 Iraqi Dinar

1 Singapore Dollar = 842.3586 Iraqi Dinar

1 Mauritian Rupee = 29.967 Iraqi Dinar

1 Nepalese Rupee = 9.8399 Iraqi Dinar

1 Bangladeshi Taka = 14.0009 Iraqi Dinar

1 Moldovan Leu = 66.737 Iraqi Dinar

1 Colombian Peso = 0.3054 Iraqi Dinar

1 Uruguayan Peso = 27.5849 Iraqi Dinar

1 Uzbekistan Som = 0.1177 Iraqi Dinar

1 Russian Ruble = 16.2117 Iraqi Dinar

1 Iraqi Dinar = 4.3609 Zambian Kwacha

1 Iraqi Dinar = 0.0154 South African Rand

1 Iraqi Dinar = 0.2104 Yemeni Rial

1 Iraqi Dinar = 0.5084 CFA Franc BCEAO

1 Iraqi Dinar = 19.6643 Vietnamese Dong

1 Iraqi Dinar = 0.0084 Venezuelan Bolivar Fuerte

1 Iraqi Dinar = 8.495 Uzbekistan Som

1 Iraqi Dinar = 0.0363 Uruguayan Peso

1 Iraqi Dinar = 0.0008 US Dollar

1 Iraqi Dinar = 3.1935 Ugandan Shilling

1 Iraqi Dinar = 0.0226 Ukrainian Hryvnia

1 Iraqi Dinar = 1.9447 Tanzanian Shilling

1 Iraqi Dinar = 0.0251 New Taiwan Dollar

1 Iraqi Dinar = 0.0057 Trinidad and Tobago Dollar

1 Iraqi Dinar = 0.006 Turkish Lira