IRAQI CHILDREN PSYCHOLOGICALLY SCARRED BY WAR [USA TODAY, Baghdad, April 16, 2007] Ahmed Al-Khaffaji, 6, refused to leave his house for nearly a year after shrapnel from a mortar shell ripped through his left arm, rendering it useless. Hussain Haider was only 5 when he stopped speaking after watching his father slowly bleed to death on the living room floor of the family's Sadr City home.[Picture shows boy injured by mortar fragment] Iraqi psychiatrists worry about the long-term consequences of a generation that has been constantly exposed to explosions, gunfights, kidnappings and sectarian murders. "Some of these children are time bombs," said Said al-Hashimi, a psychiatrist who teaches at Mustansiriya Medical School. Mental health professionals such as al-Hashimi say that there is a chronic shortage of trained psychiatrists and that schools are the front line for treating traumatized children. Ahmed's skin was badly scarred, and he suffered burns on both legs when a mortar round slammed into his family's south Baghdad home on Jan. 1, 2006. His mother, Safia Hussain Ali, said that for nearly a year afterward, her son feared leaving the house and often refused to eat. Today, Ahmed attends school, but his behavior occasionally regresses, and he retreats from reality. "Sometimes he refuses to eat and just wants to watch TV or play video games," Ali said. Haider al-Malaki, 40, a psychiatrist at the government-run Ibn Rushd Hospital, said he has treated children as young as 6 with post-traumatic stress disorder. He said he has also seen children with sleeping and eating disorders that can be traced to the violence. "They have all experienced some kind of psychological trauma, whether they witnessed a murder or survived a kidnapping attempt," al-Malaki said. "When they witness violence, they're more likely to display aggressive and reckless behavior" later. MORE VIOLENCE Al-Hashimi said he is concerned Iraqi children could become the next generation of fighters and fuel violence for years to come. Because of what they are living through as youngsters, "they may think it's better to martyr themselves for religion or country," he said. Al-Hashimi set up a workshop this year to help teachers and school officials deal with students suffering from war-related trauma. He urges educators to get kids to release their emotions through activities such as academic competitions and soccer games. "Schools in hot areas are still functioning," he said, referring to volatile Baghdad neighborhoods. "Unfortunately, many people don't know how to handle the children in this situation." Attacks on or near schools have forced Iraqi teachers and other school staff to try to protect their students. "Children are very perceptive of teachers' moods and actions," said Hadoon Waleed, a psychology professor at Baghdad University. "It's very important that teachers are trained to handle their students during stressful situations." Fawad Al-Kaisi, 59, headmaster at the Al-Hurriyah primary school in south Baghdad, said his staff has learned through experience. "When explosions go off in the area, the students become very nervous," Al-Kaisi said. "We try our best to create a positive environment to make them feel safe." Like others among Iraq's professional elite, psychiatrists are scarce, in part because they have been targets of kidnappers and assassins. Al-Malaki, the psychiatrist at Ibn Rushd, survived two bullet wounds in his right arm from an assassination attempt in his clinic last year. He is among the few psychiatrists who have remained in Iraq and continued to work. The Iraqi Society of Psychiatrists estimates at least 140 of the country's 200 psychiatrists were killed or have fled the country in the past four years. LITTLE HELP AVAILABLE A shortage of psychiatric facilities further limits the availability of mental health care. Ibn Rushd is the only government-funded psychiatric hospital in Baghdad, a city of 6 million people. For Hussain Haider, now 7, and other children, the need is urgent. He stopped speaking for months after his father was killed in a crossfire between fighters of the Mahdi Army, a Shiite militia group, and U.S. forces April 6, 2004. His mother, Thuraya Jabbar, said his grades have fallen, and he is awakened frequently by nightmares. "He starts crying whenever we start speaking about his father," she said.

POWER-SHARING PLAN FOR PALESTINIAN GOVERNMENT [Washington Post Foreign Service, February 16, 2007] Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, of Hamas, resigned Thursday to make way for a power-sharing government with the rival Fatah party in the hopes of ending factional strife and restoring international aid to the nearly bankrupt Palestinian Authority. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, a Fatah leader, immediately reappointed Haniyeh to assemble the next cabinet. At a news conference in Gaza City, Abbas said he hoped the step would "inaugurate a new Palestinian era in which people live in peace and security." The next cabinet's composition was set out in an agreement that Abbas and Hamas leaders reached last week in the holy Islamic city of Mecca, Saudi Arabia, although who will fill some of the key ministries has been a point of debate between the two sides for the past few days. Palestinian officials said they hope the next government will prove acceptable to international donors, who cut off aid to the Palestinian Authority after Hamas's victory in January 2006 parliamentary elections. The win gave Hamas, a radical Islamic movement that does not recognize Israel, effective control of the Palestinian government, which had been run by the secular Fatah party for more than a decade. The aid embargo and Israel's decision to stop transferring the tax revenue it collects on the Palestinian Authority's behalf have crippled the government and sharpened the longtime rivalry between the two largest political movements in the occupied territories. The parties' armed wings, as well as security forces loyal to each, have clashed repeatedly over the past year, particularly in the Gaza Strip. More than 100 Palestinians have died in partisan violence in that period, most of them since December, when Abbas threatened to call early elections to end the political stalemate. The fighting gave way to relief and celebration Febrary 8, when the two sides agreed on the terms of a unity government that gives Hamas nine cabinet seats, Fatah six and some smaller parties four. Haniyeh's cabinet, sworn in last March, included only Hamas members and supporters. Hamas will keep the post of Prime Minister but give up several important ministries. Talks in recent days focused on who would fill those posts, including the top job at the Interior Ministry, which effectively controls some of the most powerful Palestinian security services. Under the agreement, Hamas will nominate an independent candidate, although party officials have resisted the stipulation that Abbas must first approve their choice. In addition, Hamas and Fatah must agree on an independent candidate to be foreign minister. The consensus choice appears to be Ziad Abu Amr, a longtime mediator between the parties who won his parliamentary seat as an independent with Hamas's backing. Abbas also reportedly wants Mohammed Dahlan, a senior Fatah official who has enormous influence within the security services, to be deputy prime minister. Dahlan is loathed by Hamas for the violent crackdown he led against the group in Gaza during the 1990s. "These questions will be resolved in the course of putting the government together," said Saeb Erekat, a Fatah lawmaker and the chief Palestinian negotiator with Israel. "Internally speaking, we're moving in the right direction. But will this program solve our problems with the international community? That's the key question." Haniyeh has five weeks to assemble the cabinet, which under the terms of the accord will "respect" agreements with Israel signed by the Fatah-dominated Palestine Liberation Organization. But Hamas officials have made clear that the new government will not recognize Israel's right to exist, a condition international donors have set for the resumption of aid. The United States, the European Union, Russia and the United Nations -- known as the Quartet -- had previously demanded that Hamas recognize Israel, renounce violence and abide by previous agreements in return for aid. Neither Israel nor the Quartet has taken a formal position on the next government's platform, which will be a major point of discussion during meetings this weekend among visiting Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Abbas.

EXCAVATIONS NEAR MOSQUE TRIGGER VIOLENCE IN OLD CITY OF JERUSALEM [BBC, February 9, 2007] A tense calm is reported in the Old City of Jerusalem after clashes between Israeli police and Palestinians erupted at a contested holy site. Dozens of people were hurt when police moved in to quell violent protests against excavation work in the area. Skirmishes in other parts of the city have also been reported. The violence flared over the digging work, which protesters say threatens the foundations of the al-Aqsa mosque -- Islam's third holiest site. The compound containing the mosque is also revered by Jews as the site of their biblical temples. The BBC's Tim Franks, in the Old City, says the area may now have been cleared and sealed but elsewhere in East Jerusalem the police have said that Palestinian youths have been throwing rocks and petrol bombs. He says the police themselves have been hitting back with stun grenades. Palestinian Muslim clerics had called for a day of protest against the excavation works following days of rising tension. Braced for possible violence, Israeli authorities had restricted entry to the mosque and deployed thousands of police in the Old City. The clashes broke out after thousands of Palestinians attended Friday prayers at the mosque. Jewish worshippers were evacuated from the Western or Wailing Wall area below the complex as hundreds of riot police poured into the compound, firing an assortment of munitions. Israeli police say 20 protesters and 15 police officers were injured in the clashes. Farid Haj-haya was in the mosque when the police moved into the area. He told the BBC that Israeli police had started shooting and using grenades after Friday prayers had finished. Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld denied police entered the mosque itself, where about 150 protesters sought refuge. After a tense stand-off, the protesters left the mosque after negotiations between officers and Muslim representatives. The excavations, which began on Tuesday, are a prelude to the construction of a new walkway leading to the compound. Israeli authorities say the work is needed after a centuries-old walkway partially collapsed in 2004. Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev said the works posed no threat to the mosque, about 60m (200ft) away. "The tragedy is you have ... people out there with very hateful, extremist agendas, who come and start with all this very extreme and hateful language about the Jews wanting to destroy the mosques and the Jews wanting to build a synagogue there instead of a mosque and it's all just ... rubbish," he told the BBC. The compound, in the Old City in East Jerusalem -- an area captured by Israel during the 1967 Middle East war -- has regularly been a flashpoint for violence. In 1996, Israel's opening of an exit to a tunnel near the site triggered riots in which 80 people died in clashes between Palestinian protesters and Israeli troops. And in 2000, the Palestinian uprising began at the mosque following a controversial tour of the site by Israel's then opposition leader, Ariel Sharon.

Diagram of Excavation Work

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NEW US COMMANDER IS LAST HOPE FOR PEACE IN IRAQ [news.com and Australian Foreign Press, February 10, 2007] A 54-year-old former paratrooper with an honours degree in diplomacy has taken over the toughest job in the US military, assuming control of the coalition in Iraq at a ceremony in one of Saddam Hussein's former palaces. Lieutenant General David Petraeus has told dignitaries assembled at the ceremony on the outskirts of Baghdad that Iraq was "doomed" if they failed to restore order in the country, carved open by sectarian strife. Lt-Gen Petraeus takes over from General George Casey as head of the 140,000-strong US-led forces in Iraq. More than 130,000 of those are US troops. But while the new commander is hailed as Iraq's best hope of peace, and is widely regarded as a deep thinker, critics of the Bush administration's new "surge" strategy say it is too little, too late. Before the handover, General Casey said his greatest fear for his successor was that Iraqis would not be able to let go of the past, but would continue succumbing to a spiral of hatred and reprisals. The new commander's chances of success will hang on the latest in a series of what have so far been failed US attempts to regain control of Baghdad and central Iraq, a region plagued by Shiite militias and roving gangs of Sunni insurgents. The newest attempt is seeing 21,500 US reinforcements pour into the country in what is seen as the final chance for the Bush administration to pacify Baghdad. "Now is the time for all Iraqis to reject violence and crime and corruption and to rise up against those who employ such methods to further their goals," Lt-Gen Petraeus said as he officially took control. "The rucksack of responsibility is very heavy. In truth, it's too heavy for any one person to bear, and we will all have to share the burden and move forward together," he said, adding "the prospects for success are good. Failing that, Iraq will be doomed to continued violence and civil strife," he warned, promising to provide "the best leadership I can muster." The ceremony, presided over by US Central Command leader General John Abizaid, took place under a chandelier in a grand rotunda of an old palace once belonging to the executed former president. Daily attacks on US-led forces and Iraqi civilians have increased steadily since the fall of Saddam in April 2003, and more than doubled in the 12 months since Sunni bombers destroyed a revered Shiite shrine in Samarra. Gen Casey said before the ceremony: "We liberated (Iraqis) from 35 years of tyranny. We can't liberate them from the fears and prejdices that grew up in that 35 years. They have to do that themselves." More than 3100 US soldiers have died since the invasion and support for a continuing US presence in Iraq among American voters is at an all-time low, despite President George W. Bush's promise of a new strategy. One of the architects of the new "surge" plan, Lt-Gen Petraeus is now the figurehead for a controversial gamble. The pressure on him will only have been increased by the extraordinary outpouring of positive media coverage of his career and ideas, which stands out from the increasingly downbeat tone in most recent reporting. Lt-Gen Petraeus has spent a total of two-and-a-half years in Iraq since the invasion as commander of the 101 Airborne Division and head of the mission to train Iraqi forces. He is hailed as an intellectual and Iraq's best hope. But critics of the new strategy warn the situation may already have spun beyond the control of the brightest minds. "Some disasters are irretrievable," warned a report from the influential Washington think-tank, the Council on Foreign Relations, released on the eve of the handover. According to a new counter-insurgency manual drafted under the new commander himself, for victory he would need "at least double the number of troops the United States will have on the ground once the surge is implemented." Even as the handover was taking place, US and Iraqi troops were moving about the capital, continuing a week-old stepped up campaign hunting for insurgents and militia chieftains in the war-torn suburbs.

ISRAEL REPORTED TO BE PLANNING NUCLEAR ATTACK ON IRAN'S NUCLEAR FACILITY

[The Australian, January 8, 2007 -- from AFP and The Sunday Times] ISRAEL has drawn up plans to destroy Iran's uranium enrichment facilities in a tactical nuclear strike using low-yield atomic "bunker busting" bombs. The Sunday Times has quoted several Israeli military sources as saying that two of the Jewish state's air force squadrons are training to use the weapons for a single strike on Iran. It said the plans involved sending conventional laser-guided missiles to open up "tunnels" in the targets, before "mini-nukes" with a force the equivalent of one-15th of the Hiroshima bomb are then fired in. However, the nuclear-tipped bunker-busters would be used only if a conventional attack were ruled out and the US declined to intervene, senior sources said. The attack would be the first strike with nuclear weapons since 1945, when the US dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The plan is similar to one said in a report in The New Yorker magazine last April to have been considered by the US. The White House dismissed investigative reporter Seymour Hersh's article as "ill-informed" at the time. Iran responded last night by warning it would make any foe "regret" an attack. "Any action against the Islamic republic will not go without a response, and the aggressor would regret the action very quickly," Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini said. A senior Israeli official last night dismissed the report. "This is absurd information coming from a newspaper that has already in the past distinguished itself with sensationalist headlines that in the end amounted to nothing," the official said. The Sunday Times reported that Israel would focus on three prime targets -- the enrichment plant at Natanz, a uranium conversion facility near Isfahan and a heavy water reactor at Arak, all south of the capital Tehran. "As soon as the green light is given, it will be one mission, one strike and the Iranian nuclear project will be demolished," an unnamed Israeli source was quoted as telling the newspaper. The nuclear option is being considered because Israeli military commanders believe conventional strikes might not be effective in destroying the well-defended facilities, the newspaper said. The atomic weapons would explode deep underground to minimise the risk of radioactive fallout, it reported. The UN Security Council voted unanimously last month to impose sanctions on Iran to prevent it enriching uranium. Tehran says its nuclear program is for peaceful electricity generation, but Western powers fear it is a front for developing nuclear weapons. Israel has refused to rule out pre-emptive military action against Iran. In 1981, it attacked Iraq's nuclear reactor in Osirak. In October 2005, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was condemned for calling for Israel to be "wiped off the map" and following up with comments downplaying the Holocaust. The Sunday Times said the Israeli plan was designed to prevent a "second Holocaust." US and Israeli officials had met several times to consider military action against Iran, it reported. The newspaper said military analysts assessed that disclosing the plans could put pressure on Iran to halt enrichment. It could also be designed to persuade the US to act, or to "soften up" world opinion ahead of an Israeli nuclear strike. Israeli pilots are said to have flown to Gibraltar in recent weeks to train for the 3220km round-trip to the Iranian targets. Three possible routes have been mapped out, including one over Turkey, the report said. HOWEVER ISRAELI LEADERS HAVE DENIED THE REPORT [Agence France-Presse , January 9, 2007] Israel has reacted with anger to a British newspaper report that it was preparing a pre-emptive nuclear strike against Iran to stop it acquiring nuclear weapons. Sources at the Israeli Prime Minister's Office, Foreign Ministry and Defence Ministry denied the report on Sunday. The Israeli Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, prefers to emphasise Israel's support for the multinational diplomatic effort, although military planners have long been considering conventional strikes if Tehran continues to defy diplomatic pressure. Israel resorted to force in 1981 to destroy Saddam Hussein's nuclear reactor at Osirak with conventional bombs dropped from eight F-16 jets. Israeli military intelligence accepts that an attack on Iran would be more complex. While most of Saddam's nuclear program was located in the one Osirak facility, the Iranians have spread theirs to at least a dozen sites, some of which are hidden in tunnels built under mountains. Last year the Israeli Deputy Defence Minister, Ephraim Sneh, said bombing Iran was an option if diplomacy failed. "I do not advocate a military, Israeli pre-emptive strike against Iran; I am aware of all its possible repercussions," he said. "I consider it very much the last resort, but sometimes the last resort is the only resort." A security official told Agence France-Presse yesterday that Israel was developing the world's largest unmanned aircraft to be used for long-range operations and destroying ballistic missiles as they were being launched. The Eitan had been developed by Israel Aircraft Industries and had a wing span of 35 metres, similar to that of a Boeing 737, the official said.

THE LIFE AND CRIMES OF DICTATOR SADDAM HUSSEIN [Associated Press, December 30, 2006] Within days of taking power, Saddam Hussein summoned about 400 top officials and announced he had uncovered a plot against the ruling party. The conspirators, he said, were in that very room. As the 42-year-old Saddam coolly puffed on a cigar, names of the supposed plotters were read out. As each name was called, secret police led them away. Twenty-two people were executed. To make sure Iraqis got the word, Saddam videotaped the entire proceeding and distributed copies across the country. The plot claim was a lie. But in a few terrifying minutes on July 22, 1979, Saddam eliminated his potential rivals, consolidating the power he wielded until the Americans and their allies drove him from office a generation later. Saddam, who was hanged Saturday, December 30, 2006, at age 69, ruled Iraq with singular ruthlessness. No one was safe. His two sons-in-law were killed on Saddam's orders after they defected to Jordan but returned in 1996 after receiving guarantees of safety. Such brutality kept him in power through war with Iran, defeat in Kuwait, rebellions by northern Kurds and southern Shiite Muslims, international sanctions, plots and conspiracies. In the end, however, brutality was his undoing. Trusting few except kin, Saddam surrounded himself with sycophants, selected for loyalty rather than intellect and ability. And when he was forced out in April 2003, he left a country impoverished — despite vast oil wealth — and roiling with long suppressed ethnic and sectarian hatred. He ended up dragged from a hole by American soldiers in December 2003, bearded, disheveled and with his arms in the air. Image and illusion were important tools for Saddam. He sought to build an image as an all-wise, all-powerful champion of the Arab nation. His model was the great 12th century warrior Saladin. He promoted the illusion of a powerful Iraq — with the world's fourth largest army and weapons of terrible destruction. Yet it was all hollow. His army crumbled when confronted by the Americans and their allies in Kuwait in 1991. And in 2003, his capital fell to a single U.S. brigade task force. Saddam's weapons of mass destruction proved a bluff to keep the Iranians, the Syrians, the Israelis — and the Americans — at bay. He squandered vast sums on opulent palaces — a universe from the harsh poverty into which he was born on April 28, 1937, in the village of Ouja near Tikrit. His father died or disappeared before he was born. His stepfather treated Saddam harshly. The young Saddam ran away as a boy and lived with his maternal uncle, Khairallah Talfah, a stridently anti-British, anti-Semitic man whose daughter, Sajida, would become Saddam's wife. Under his uncle's influence, Saddam joined the Baath Party, a radical, secular Arab nationalist organization, at age 20. A year later, he fled to Egypt after taking part in an attempt to assassinate the country's ruler, Gen. Abdul-Karim Qassim, and was sentenced to death in absentia. Saddam returned four years later after Qassim was overthrown by the Baath. But the Baath leadership was itself ousted within eight months and Saddam was imprisoned. He escaped in 1967 and took charge of the underground Baath party's secret internal security organization. He swore he would never tolerate the internal dissent that he blamed for the party losing power. In July 1968, Baath returned to power under the leadership of Gen. Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr, who appointed Saddam, his cousin, as his deputy. Saddam systematically purged key party figures, deported thousands of Shiites of Iranian origin, supervised the state takeover of Iraq's oil industry, land reform and modernization. Al-Bakr decided in 1979 to seek unity with neighboring Syria, whose president would become al-Bakr's deputy, and Saddam would be marginalized. Saddam forced his cousin to resign — and then purged his rivals. Hundreds in the party and army were executed. Saddam then turned his attention to the country's Shiite majority, whose clerical leaders had long opposed his secular policies. Saddam's fears of a Shiite challenge rose after Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini seized power in Shiite-dominated Iran in 1979. On Sept. 22, 1980, Iraqi troops crossed the Iranian border, launching a war that would last eight years, cost hundreds of thousands of lives on both sides, and devastate Saddam's plans to transform Iraq into a developed, prosperous country. After the Iranians counterattacked, Saddam turned to the United States, France and Britain for weapons, which those countries gladly sold him to prevent an outright Iranian victory. They turned a blind eye when Saddam ruthlessly struck against Iraqi Kurds, who lived in the border area and were dealing secretly with the Iranians. An estimated 5,000 Kurds died in a chemical weapons attack on the town of Halabja in March 1988. The United States suggested at the time that the Iranians might have been responsible. Only two years after making peace with Iran, Saddam invaded Kuwait, whose rulers had refused to forgive Iraq's war debt and opposed increases in oil prices that Iraq desperately needed to recover from the conflict with Iran. The United Nations imposed economic sanctions on Iraq and a U.S.-led coalition attacked. On Iraqi radio on Jan. 17, 1991, Saddam predicted "the mother of all battles." But the Iraqis were driven out of Kuwait. The 1991 war triggered uprisings among Iraq's Shiites, brutally crushed by Saddam, and the Kurds, who carved out a self-ruled area under U.S. and British air cover. In April 1990, Saddam hinted that he had secret super-weapons and declared: "By God, we will make the fire eat up half of Israel." During the Gulf War he fired Scud missiles into Israel, and during the Palestinian uprising a decade later he paid cash grants to families of suicide bombers. The U.N. sanctions remained in effect until his regime collapsed in 2003, devastating Iraq's economy and impoverishing a people who had been among the most prosperous in the Middle East. The Sept. 11 terror attack on the U.S. focused attention on Saddam as a sponsor of terrorism. His refusal to meet U.N. demands for full disclosure of his illegal weapons program provided a justification for war. An American-led force invaded on March 20, 2003. Within three weeks, Iraq's army had collapsed. Saddam was captured the following December. As he went on trial in October 2005, his country engulfed in an anti-American insurgency, Saddam tried to use the proceeding to rail against the U.S. presence in Iraq in hopes of winning the approval of history if not an acquittal. But as trial dragged on, his manner calmed as he realized the inevitability of conviction and the death sentence that followed. CHRONICLE OF HUSSEIN'S ATROCITIES Hussein's regime killed, tortured, raped and terrorized the Iraqi people and its neighbors for over two decades. Hundreds of thousands of people died as a result of Saddam's actions. Saddam had approximately 40 of his own relatives murdered. 1980-88: Iran-Iraq war left 150,000 to 340,000 Iraqis and 450,000 to 730,000 Iranians dead. 1983-1988: Documented chemical attacks by Iraqi regime caused some 30,000 Iraqi and Iranian deaths. 1988: Chemical attack on Kurdish village of Halabja killed approximately 5,000 people. 1987-1988: Iraqi regime used chemical agents in attacks against at least 40 Kurdish villages. 1990-91: 1,000 Kuwaitis were killed in Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. 1991: Bloody suppression of Kurdish and Shi'a uprisings in northern and southern Iraq killed at least 30,000 to 60,000. At least 2,000 Kurdish villages were destroyed during the campaign of terror. 2001: Amnesty International report: "Victims of torture in Iraq are subjected to a wide range of forms of torture, including the gouging out of eyes, severe beatings and electric shocks... some victims have died as a result and many have been left with permanent physical and psychological damage." Human Rights Watch: Saddam's 1987-1988 campaign of terror against the Kurds killed at least 50,000 and possibly as many as 100,000 Kurds. Refugees International: "Oppressive government policies have led to the internal displacement of 900,000 Iraqis." Iraq's 13 million Shiite Muslims, the majority of Iraq's population of approximately 22 million, faced severe restrictions on their religious practice. FBI: Iraqi government was involved in a plot to assassinate former President George Bush during his April 14-16, 1993, visit to Kuwait. The Iraqi regime has repeatedly refused visits by human rights monitors. From 1992 until 2002, Saddam prevented the U.N. Special Rapporteur from visiting Iraq. [Sources: Office of the White House Press Secretary: Life Under Saddam Hussein: Past Repression and Atrocities by Saddam Hussein's Regime; April 4, 2003] READ MORE ABOUT HUSSEIN'S REIGN HERE ________________________________________________________________________

IRAQ'S FEARED ABU DERAA GRANTS FIRST INTERVIEW WITH A FOREIGNER [Paul McGeough in Baghdad, December 20, 2006] A convoy of about 10 unmarked sedans filled with bodyguards arrives at a small, nondescript home in Sadr City. They quickly fan out to throw a cordon around the property. Inside, small talk on the merits of learning Arabic comes to an abrupt halt -- the face of death has entered the room. This is Abu Deraa. To the Americans and to elements of the Iraqi Government he is a mass murderer. But to millions of Shiites, his rampages across Baghdad and beyond are their salvation. Revered and reviled for his orchestration of thousands of Sunni deaths in a sectarian war that is tearing Iraq apart, Abu Deraa has been dubbed by friends and foes as "the Shiites' Zarqawi". He may top the most-wanted lists for the US and some government officials, but Abu Deraa is held high by Shiites because one of their own now casts a shadow over the land that is as menacing as that of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the depraved Sunni terrorist leader who died in a US air strike in June. Unlike Zarqawi, who used the internet to drive a vast publicity machine that always took credit for his deeds, Abu Deraa has carefully shielded himself, building mystique and a huge following through bloody and merciless terror. This week, however, after a month-long series of tense negotiations through intermediaries, the warlord agreed to meet the Herald in his first face-to-face interview with a foreign reporter. Small and very quietly spoken, he smokes heavily as he sits cross-legged on a floor cushion. Unsurprisingly, he presents himself as a simple man who is proud to "fight" for his country. "I'll be the first and the last to defend my people and my creed from troublemakers," he says. In Abu Deraa's book, there are two camps of troublemakers. First, the American-led coalition forces in Iraq, and then a violent and indiscriminating Sunni insurgency which is killing Shiite Iraqis en masse as it is cheered on by Sunni political and tribal leaders and a popular support base. In our hour-long meeting in a private home in Sadr City, a Shiite stronghold in Baghdad, Abu Deraa says: "You hear how the Shia are dying. But I never act unless I'm sure and have proof from witnesses who swear that my targets have killed my Shia brothers -- then I find a solution. "Shiite families are weak when their sons have been killed -- they cannot defend themselves, so they ask for my help." Abu Deraa has become the most notorious leader of the Shiite death squads that have emerged this year, kidnapping, torturing and murdering their way through whole communities as a tit-for-tat campaign of sectarian cleansing forces thousands of Shiite and Sunni families to flee communities in which their Islamic sect is the minority. Now he is being hunted to the death by US and Iraqi forces. But confronted with an American claim that, like half-a-dozen others, he is a fighter who has broken away from the Shiite militia, the Mahdi Army, and now has "gone rogue" with his own killer squad, he insists: "I act only on orders from Najaf [the Mahdi Army base south of Baghdad], and there has been no breach with Moqtada al-Sadr [the leader of the Mahdi Army]." Challenged on claims that he has ruthlessly killed thousands of Sunnis, his only answer is to invoke a simple Islamic prayer that is a part of the Arabic vernacular - "Inshallah", which means "God willing." Asked about the Koran's prohibition on killing, Abu Deraa remains defiant: "I'm the first to say it is haram [forbidden] to spill good Iraqi blood, but when it comes to people who plant car bombs to kill our women and children, I'm ready for them." It is a difficult interview. Abu Deraa is happy for others in the room to respond to questions on his behalf. His own answers come slowly after he ponders his thoughts. At times he seems distracted or agitated; at some moments, even dazed. Our interview takes place just hours after gunmen masquerading as members of the Iraqi National Army abduct up to 30 civilians from the headquarters of the Red Crescent in central Baghdad. The brazen daylight raid is typical of what is usually assumed to be the work of Abu Deraa -- but he refuses to go into the detail of specific operations. Other such round-ups for which he is held responsible include the kidnapping of the Iraqi Olympic Committee, the mass abduction of about 150 staff and visitors from the Iraqi Education Ministry, and, last Friday, the disappearance of more than 30 people from the city's Sinak auto-repair strip. Usually Shiite victims of these mass abductions are released within 48 hours and, over time, the bodies of the abducted Sunnis are found dumped. Questioned about a video circulating in Baghdad in which he is seen abducting and personally executing one of Saddam Hussein's lawyers -- part of which was published by smh.com.au earlier this year -- Abu Deraa is anything but contrite. He sidesteps the question by urging death for all of the former dictator's legal team and by defending the killers of Khamis al-Obeidi: "They were good mujahideen. Al-Obeidi deserved to die … he deserved more than death. None who defends Saddam are honourable men." Asked if he was responsible for the hundreds of mutilated Sunni bodies recovered from the Al-Sadaa area, Abu Deraa responds first with what he says is a quote from Sadr: "The Sunnis are our brothers in good times and bad." He goes on in defence of Shiite relations with Iraq's Christians and some Sunnis, before making a declaration that does not constitute a denial of the charge of mass and cold-blooded murder. "I only want the people who kill women and children," he says. Despite repeated calls from Washington and other capitals for the Prime Minister, Nouri al-Maliki, to act against rampant militias and death squad leaders such as Abu Deraa, this warlord makes it perfectly clear that his work is far from complete. Like most Shiites, he lumps Sunni insurgents and their supporters under the generic term "Takfiryeen", meaning those who would make Shiite outcasts from Islam. Are there many Takfiryeen? He answers: "There are many, too many. There is no solution for Iraq - now it is in God's hands." The power has failed and we're sitting in the dark when Abu Deraa decides the interview is over. He orders us out into the night -- back through the tense streets of Sadr City and more than 20 Mahdi Army checkpoints before we arrive in downtown Baghdad.