Memo To: Website Fans, Browsers, Clients From: Jude Wanniski Re: A Freedom Party report
You probably did not notice, but I doubt you have ever read an estimate, formal or informal, of the number of Iraqi civilians who were killed in the recent Gulf War. Collateral damage in the USAs liberationof the Iraqi people. Im not in any position to validate the report you will see here from Dr. Mohammed Al-Obaidi, the general coordinator of the Iraqi Freedom Party, but it does not seem unreasonable. Ive run reports from the Freedom Party from time to time and its arguments on what is really happening on the ground have proven far more accurate than the rosy scenarios coming from the Pentagon. The report on civilian FATAL casualties in a nation of 23 million is staggering, the equivalent in percentage terms of 460,000 civilian deaths if such havoc were wrought in the US.
To add in the number of young Iraqi soldiers killed in the conflict an equal number? -- further staggers the mind. It is only when you contemplate these horrific statistics can you understand why there is such crazed hatred of the US and why it cannot be smothered by killing more Iraqis. Al-Obaidi writes to me personally because he knows I have been able to get these reports of his Freedom Party -- which has for years opposed the Saddam regime -- circulating in the US. The report may not be entirely accurate, but I would hope it would spur the press corps into investigating on its own. Reporters who would like to contact Dr. Al-Obaidi can contact me for his e-mail address in the U.K.
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To: Mr. Jude Wanniski From: Dr. Mohammed Al-Obaidi General coordinator of the Iraqi Freedom Party
The World, and particularly the peace-loving World is far from knowing the truth of the real number of civilian casualties during the American led aggression on Iraq.
Although we know that there were groups of organizations (see http://www.iraqbodycount.net) who tried their utmost best to come up with an accurate figure of the total civilian death, but reaching the sites where these deaths occurred was one major obstacle in their effort. Besides, the language barrier and hesitation of the people in Iraq to talk to foreigners were also part of the lack of accurate information regarding this issue.
As the general coordinator of the Iraqi Freedom Party, I made a request to our Party Headquarters in Iraq to fully investigate this matter and to come up with accurate and up to date information of the total civilians killed during the invasion of Iraq.
After more than five weeks of intensive and thorough investigations carried out by hundreds of our partys cadre, which included all villages, towns, cities and some of the desert areas etc. affected by the aggression (with exception of the Kurdish area), and also by interviewing hundreds of undertakers, hospitals officials and ordinary people in these places, the figure of civilians killed since the beginning of the invasion came to 37,137. This figure does not include militia, para-military or Saddams Fidayeen.
The breakdown of the total number of civilians killed during the invasion of Iraq is as follows (Please note that the names underneath represent that of 14 Governorates, excluding Iraqi Kurdistan):
Baghdad 6103 Mosul 2009 Basrah 6734 Nasiriyah 3581 Diwaniyah 1567 Kut 2494 Hillah 3552 Karbala (including Najaf) 2263 Samawah 659 Amarah 2741 Ramadi 2172 Kerkuk 861 Diyalah 604 Tikrit 1797
The above figures were the actual civilian deaths killed violently since the beginning of the invasion of Iraq in March this year and until the middle of June (including those killed after the fall of Saddams regime and who in a way of another caught between gunfire of the US troops and the Iraqi resistance).
Due to the absence in Iraq (with the exception of the Kurdish area) of functional communication systems with the outside World, our party headquarter in Baghdad tried to send me a fully comprehensive and detailed report by fax from Al-Sulaymaniyah (a Kurdish area). However, by crossing to the Kurdish area, the Kurdish Peshmargasearched the person carrying that report which was found with him and confiscated. According, he was handed over to the American troops where he was arrested and no one knows yet of his whereabouts.
This incident clearly indicates that the US Army does not want the truth of the civilian casualties made public.
We want the whole World knows the reality behind what misery was inflicted on our people during this aggression, not to mention the 14 years of economic embargo.
We believe that our people, like all the people of the World, deserve to live decently and without any more oppression. But what we see in Iraq since its occupation was nothing but more oppression and more humiliation, and this time by the aggressors.
The appointment by the American Administrator to Iraq of what is known as Iraq's interim governing councilis another slap on the face of the Iraqi people, who genuinely believe that this Councilis nothing less than another Vichy Governmentsimilar to the one appointed by the Nazis in France. Also, the biggest lethal mistake committed by the American Administrator was to dissolve the Iraqi Army, and other government personnel leaving Iraq without any efficient technocratic power.
What we and the majority of the Iraqis were looking for was an Interim Council appointed by the Iraqis and not by the occupier. We also believe that what was brought by the occupier will not serve the Iraqis, but the occupier and its interests. After four months of the fall of Saddams regime, and following the continued volatile situation in Iraq, and the lack of the basic needs of the Iraqi people, Iraqis are talking now about what President Nasser of Egypt said: what was taken by force must be retrieved by force.
If Iraq will not be handed over soon to the real patriotic Iraqis, a black page will be written again in the history of America and its allies in Iraq.
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