| June
21, 2006
Embassy Work is a Death Sentence
Leaked Cable Paints
Grim Picture of Iraq
By PATRICK
COCKBURN
A
leaked cable from the US embassy in Baghdad signed by the ambassador
paints a grim picture of Iraq as a country disintegrating in which
the real rulers are the militias, and the central government counts
for nothing.
The
cable, signed by the US ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad and sent to
the State Department in Washington on 6 June, is wholly at odds
with the optimistic account of developments given by President George
Bush and Tony Blair in their recent visits to Iraq.
Iraqis
employed by the US embassy live in fear that other Iraqis will find
out who they are working for. "We have begun shredding documents
printed out that show local staff surnames," the cable says.
"In March a few staff approached us to ask what provisions
would we make for them if we evacuate."
The
US and Britain have said they would withdraw their troops as the
security situation improved, though the embassy memo suggests that
it was, in fact, deteriorating. Britain said yesterday that it was
to pull out 170 soldiers from Muthana province in southern Iraq
when the Iraqi government took over security there next month.
There
are chilling details about why, even in the heavily fortified Green
Zone, Iraqis employed by the US embassy are frightened. "In
April, employees began reporting change in demeanour of guards at
the Green Zone checkpoints," the memo says. "They seemed
to be more militia-like. In some cases seemingly taunting."
The
vulnerability of the US position in Baghdad is so great that the
Iraqi military units guarding the perimeter of the Green Zone, the
heart of US power in Iraq, are now considered untrustworthy.
An
Iraqi employee asked if she could have credentials saying she was
a journalist. This was because the Iraqi soldiers would hold up
"her embassy badge and proclaim loudly to nearby passers-by
'Embassy' as she entered. Such information is a death sentence if
overheard by the wrong people."
The
memo, leaked to The Washington Post, gives a vivid and detailed
account of the limited authority of the US and the Iraqi government
in Baghdad. Entitled "Snapshots from the Office: Public Affairs
Staff Show Strains of Social Discord" it is one of the most
revealing documents ever made public, in this case involuntarily,
by US authorities in Iraq. Based on the experiences of the nine-member
Iraq staff of the public affairs press office in the US embassy,
the cable portrays a society in a state of collapse. [Its contents
should torpedo the claims by aides to Mr Bush and Mr Blair that
the media is exaggerating the state of insecurity and fear in which
Iraqis live.]
As
Islamic militancy increases, women find it increasingly dangerous
not to wear a veil in Sunni and Shia neighbourhoods. One was warned
not to drive a car. Others were told to cover their faces and to
stop using mobile phones. Threats against women who do not accept
this second class status have escalated in the last two months.
It has also become dangerous for men to wear shorts or jeans in
public or for children to play outside wearing shorts.
As
temperatures reach 46C (115F) "employees all confirm that by
the last week of May, they were getting one hour of power for every
six hours without." One area called Bab al Mu'atham in central
Baghdad has received no electric power for more than a month. But
a building where a new minister lived started to receive power 24-hours
a day as soon as he was appointed.
The
cable admits that the unpopularity of the American presence in Iraq
is the reason why Iraqis working for the US dare not reveal the
identity of their employer even to family. One Sunni Arab woman
who was sent for training in the US told her family she was in Jordan.
The
embassy reports increased sectarian tensions between Iraqi members
of its staff. A Shia woman said she could no longer watch the television
news with her Sunni mother because her mother blamed the Shia government
for everything that went wrong.
The
government of Nouri al-Maliki, greeted with such acclaim by the
US and Britain, has little impact on ordinary Iraqis because real
power lies with militias and local power brokers. It is they who
barricade the streets at night and ward off outsiders.
|