“They kill, maim and kidnap with impunity under the official protection of the U.S. occupiers or their lackeys in the government..”

January 2, 2007
Azzaman - Iraq- Original Article (Arabic)    

The militia fighters of Shiite cleric Muqtadr
al-Sadr on parade in Sadr City last year.

—BBC VIDEO NEWS: Embarrassed by the release
of cell-phone footage of Saddam's hanging, the Iraqi
Government will investigate, Jan. 2, 00:02:07

[LATEST NEWS PHOTOS: Iraq].

An American on patrol in Sadr City, a stronghold of
the militia of Shiite cleric Muqtadr al-Sadr, last April.





[Iraq4all, Iraq]

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Terrorist militias operating right under the noses of U.S. and Iraqi forces are wreaking havoc in Baghdad. Their power, weapons and capacity to murder are growing in intensity; the rising tempo of murderous acts have turned Baghdad - home to nearly six million people - into a lawless city.

So emboldened have they become, that they now mount attacks on government ministries and opposing factions or those administered by officials that they see as a threat to their own positions. They kill, maim and kidnap with impunity under the official protection of the U.S. occupiers or their lackeys in the government.

Many Iraqis call them "black death squads" because they routinely dress in black clothing, instilling horror in the hearts of people who see them. These black squads operate freely and during their operations, sometimes wear official army or police uniforms.

They are bold enough to maintain their own checkpoints and carry out summary arrests and executions. The tragedy is that there is no force capable of stopping them. The government has turned a blind eye and even some senior officials have come out to defend the militias.

The government sits in its safe compound in the U.S.-protected Green Zone as Iraqis are butchered on the streets of Baghdad and other major cities. The inaction on the part of the government can mean only one thing: it agrees with the murderers and in fact it part of the killing.

The American troops are certain to pay a heavy price for their reluctance to take on the militias. In the absence of measures to disband them, the militias are now a force that perhaps no army in the world could disarm.

If the mighty U.S. army which now has about 140,000 troops here hasn't been able to subdue a single one of Baghdad’s streets or declare victory even in a low-level encounter with resistance forces, no one should imagine that they will ever tame the militias.

The U.S. and the Iraqi government it created are to blame, since through inaction that have in-effect legalized these militias, which have become a thorn not only in their sides but in the side of the entire country.

VIDEO FROM DUBAI: 'U.S. BROKE

THE CAGE, BUT BIRD CANNOT FLY'

ABU DHABI TV, Dubai: Excerpts excerpts from an interview with Iraqi Member of Parliament, Iyad Jamal Al-Din, Seprember 10, 00:02:31, Via MEMRI

"Blessed be America for giving Saddam a good kick, sending him straight into the abyss of jail. Blessed be America for giving Mula Omar a good slap, sending him straight into the garbage bin of history and into the dunghills of oblivion. ... Along came America and broke the cage open, but the bird does not know how to fly, because it has never used its wings. "

Iraqi Parliamentarian Iyad Jamal Al-Din