'Wash Post' Obtains Shocking Memo from...Baghdad (countering Bush)

[ProSense]

'Wash Post' Obtains Shocking Memo from U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, Details Increasing Danger and Hardship

By Greg Mitchell

Published: June 18, 2006 6:20 PM ET

NEW YORK The Washington Post has obtained a cable, marked "sensitive," that it says show that just before President Bush left on a surprise trip last Monday to the Green Zone in Baghdad for an upbeat assessment of the situation there, "the U.S. Embassy in Iraq painted a starkly different portrait of increasing danger and hardship faced by its Iraqi employees."

This cable outlines, the Post reported Sunday, "the daily-worsening conditions for those who live outside the heavily guarded international zone: harassment, threats and the employees' constant fears that their neighbors will discover they work for the U.S. government."

It's actually far worse than that, as the details published below indicate, which include references to abductions, threats to women's rights, and "ethnic cleansing."

A PDF copy of the cable shows that it was sent to the SecState in Washington, D.C. from "AMEmbassy Baghdad" on June 6. The typed name at the very bottom is Khalilzad -- the name of the U.S. Ambassador, though it is not known if this means he wrote the memo or merely approved it.

more...

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1002690071

PDF here

[Poll_Blind]

1. People need to read this PDF. This is worse than I thought.

Seems like a complete breakdown at least in Baghdad. The whole society, fracturing.

PB

[gauguin57]

2. Jesus God.

Could things get any more Eff'd up over there? Those damned lying bastards in the Bush Administration, who got us and Iraq INTO this mess, need to be arrested right now and sent to the Hague. Right damned now.

[LunaC]

3. K & R

A damning document! Confirms what we suspected regarding the dismal conditions the Iraqis must endure.

[aaronbees]

4. Horrifying

What an unmitigated hellhole we've helped create, and all BushCo needs is a photo op to play it up as success. Harrassment on the rise, neighborhood governments, unreliable infrastructure, embassy staff planning for "possible abductions," and ethnic divisions ... ah, bitter fruits of our gun-forced "democracy."

[progressoid]

5. Read the PDF, it's only a few pages.

We sure got the freedom on the march...

[Biernuts]

6. I read the report - they HAVE to know that the SBU marking

means Sensitive But Unclassified, a caveat the State department uses where DoD would have used Unclassified//For Official Use Only. It's an over-hyped unclassified assessment - and as I said the reporter/author, HAS to know that SBU is less sensitive than CONFIDENTIAL, yet tried to convey it as some big scoop of very sensitive information. It's about as sensitive as the embassy lunch menu, less so if you rate the food.

[Poll_Blind]

7. Good point. But the information within is still explosive in its...

...depiction. This paints a very disturbing picture of out efforts and what has become of Iraqi life post U.S. invasion.

PB

[Biernuts]

12. No, not really - this is the situation for the Iraqi citizens

employed by our embassy, not the population in general.

What's surprising is that it's newsworthy that in a country with violent insurgency groups, those who work for the Americans are at greater risk since they associate with and support the terrorists' enemy. The press is really writing to a low IQ group here. If the message wasn't marked SBU instead of the "Duh, my 10 year-old knows this" that it really deserved, it probably wouldn't have made the page after the classified ads (get it, SBU & "Classified" ads - "Wanted one TOP SECRET five-drawer safe with X07 Lock...." B-)

[ProSense]

14. That's absolute nonsense!

this is the situation for the Iraqi citizens employed by our embassy not the population in general.

Are you serious?

[Ravenseye]

15. Wrong

It's a nightmare there. My grandmother lived in Baghdad through Saddam, the Iran Iraq war, the first gulf war, sanctions, the second gulf war, and 3 years of occupation. She never wanted to leave until this past year. Hardly any electricty, too dangerous to go to the grocery store oftentimes. Rolling curfews with no notification. Tainted water. Barely any phone. Gangs wandering the streets.

We finally got her across the border to Jordan yesterday.

Some estimates have 5 million iraq refugees in Jordan alone. Did all those people work for the embassy? I could link you to hundreds of personal accounts of doctors, lawyers, teachers, mechanics...regular people from all walks of life and how they were living in hell in Baghdad occupied by the Americans, whether because of the American forces, or more usually the total anarchy that exists there in their wake.

The population for the Iraqi citizens in general, who don't work for the american embassy is abysmal, in the true sense of the word. It's hellish over there.

[Tin Man]

18. Happy to hear that your grandma was able to get out safely.

...and sorry to hear that it was necessary for her to leave.

And as an aside, how anyone can believe that the epidemic of violence that has swept Iraq is somehow limited to the Iraqi staff of US government/military/corporate entities? Either not keeping-up with the reading, or sipping the kool-aid, I suspect.

Once again, sorry to hear about your grandmother's distress. I pray things will get better for her and all Iraqis soon.

[ProSense]

10. Scoop! The MSM's way

of ensuring your exact reaction. If it's unclassified, it can't be that big a deal! Chances are the writer didn't write the headline. Over-hyped, in the trash, classified or unclassified, the report is still damning! This is not the assessment of Iraq the Bush administration is pushing.

[peacetalksforall]

19. Over-hyped? You describe it as an over-hyped assessment?

Funny. I wasn't going to read the details because it I felt I already knew from other reports how bad it is.

I gather that you don't believe the content? You say over-hyped and unclassified. It sounds like you are telling us that things aren't as bad as described in the list? It would be interesting to hear you dissect it and tell us which parts are 'over'.

At least five million Iraqis in Jordan should be easy to check out. Here we have a situation where people are so concerned about their family that they flee because they can flee and others remaining are losing their children and children are losing their parents. And the funerals are steamy hot.

[katty]

30. no over hype, my unembedded photo journo friends have been

in Iraq since before the so called 'fall of Saddam'- the situation has grown beyond critical-anyone who believes this report and others are 'hype' should start posting their views on conservative boards they will be applauded for their comments.

check out image content on Iraq/world at: http://www.worldpicturenews.com/web/

[gratuitous]

24. Uhm, the lede says the memo was marked "sensitive"

What are you talking about? It appears the writer read it, saw it was "sensitive," and labeled it as such in the very first sentence of his story. Is reading for comprehension not your strong suit?

[liberal N proud]

8. All is well, we have turned another corner and wining the war

on terra in Iraq.
The "insurgents" are on the run.
:sarcasm:

Why don't we ever hear about the good news from Iraq? What more do the people want, bu$h regime killed Zarkawi and that should have been enough to turn the tide of the war.

Don't worry, none of this will ever get reported on the MSM, the media whores would never allow it.

[Vinca]

9. Exactly. If it doesn't appear on MSM, it hasn't happened.

Smile everybody - King George says it's getting better over there.

[Botany]

11. So if you work for the U.S. Embassy it is a death sentence?

Men can not wear shorts or jeans, women can't drive, and yet bush flies in
and "talks up" about how well things are going?

:grr:

[Biernuts]

13. How did the French Resistance treat their citizens who

assisted the German occupation? The French girls banging Whermacht officers were wise to keep ythat to themselves.

[thereismore]

25. the spelling is Wehrmacht, and you are comparing whoring for

occupiers to working for occupiers to make a living in a country with 50% unemployment. If you can't see the difference, I think you may be a Kool-Aid drinker.

[Tin Man]

28. Yep, we may have a tippler in our midst

...and I elected to include the word 'may' only because I'm a nice guy :)

[Biernuts]

34. You're too literal in reading the "comparison"

It's not to be taken as a direct analogy, only an example. No, I wasn't drinking...YET!

Here's a milder one. Poor kid in DC can't get a job until he runs into Tom Delay (obviously not too recent) who hires him to work in his congressional mailroom. When his friends find out they make fun of his shirt & tie and call him Uncle Tom working for Tom. No one shoots him or stabs him in the back or spray paints his front porch. And after 2 years, he got a job as a lobbyist, made lots of $ and paid big strong men to beat up the kids that had teased him.

OK, I made this one up, but it coulda happened, really. It just exemplifies that when you work for the man, you paint a big target on yourself. And while Iraq has a government, but we da man! Not that I think people working for Iraq's government are all that safe either. Last month ago, the terrorisats did a drive by and murdered the sister in law of this 2nd cousin twice removed (once by the law), or something like that.

[Tin Man]

40. Tell me about the safety of Iraqi citizens.

So what about Iraqis who don't work for 'da man' - how safe are they? Read any stories recently about mosque and/or market bombings? I can probably provide a few hundred links for you if you give me a minute...

[stop the bleeding]

16. Is anyone surprised at this?

:donut:

[NVMojo]

17. we all live with the effects of the Karl Rove Lying Game!

And he's BACK IN THE SADDLE AGAIN!!!

[Rose Siding]

20. While Bush struts and poses, embassy staff want to play for an evacuation

Why did this only get a paragraph in the WP?

[AValdoux]

21. Cancelled Senate Briefing?

I guess this explains why the scheduled senate briefing by Khalilzad was cancelled right before Bush left for his "surprise" visit to Baghdad. I don't remember the actual dates on this but wasn't that part of the news last week? It was a scheduled tele-conference with Khalilzad. Rove decided to jump ahead of the news and create his own. Was Zayrkawi's (sp)"capture" also pulled out of the magic Rove hat also?


AValdoux

[ray of light]

22. So where's our media? And how are we going to be the media

since ours is derelict in their duties?

[bigtree]

23. THE FIVE-STAR ACTIVISTS' RESOURCE THREAD

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=106x8816

[thereismore]

26. Let's see... Keith O' is back today. I'll be watching. nt

[KnaveRupe]

27. Interesting fact from the PDF:

"{gasoline} prices on the black market in much of Baghdad were now above 1,000 Iraqi dinars per liter"

From an earlier part of the PDF, we are told that 90,000 ID = $60 US, so a little bit of algebra tells us the price per gallon Iraqis are paying on the black market.

90000 ID ~= $60 US
1000 ID / liter ~= $0.67 US / liter

1 gallon = 3.7852 liter

.67 USD x 3.7852 ~= $2.54 / gallon


So fuel shortages in Iraq are so severe, that Iraqis have to resort to paying usurious rates on the black market for gasoline - sometimes paying as much as $2.54 per gallon!!

Makes ya wonder, no?

(Edited for typos)

[Poll_Blind]

32. Thank you! Useful information! n/t

PB

[Biernuts]

35. Wish I could pay those usurious rates n/t

[ProSense]

38. Go to Iraq! Gas prices before Bush and the invasion:

Gas Prices

When George Bush Took Office: $1.52

Last Month: $2.50

Last Year: $2.22

Today: $2.91

Last Summer: $3.06

This Summer: $?

http://www.dccc.org/news/Best_Legislation_04242006

[librechik]

36. other folks in the gulf region forced to pay 20-30 cents per gallon

makes you think, huh? Didn't they say that occupying Iraq would lead to cheaper gas?

Imagine that; they were lying! What a surprise, big oil companies make huge profits off testicles in clamps!

[jazzjunkysue]

29. It's bad inside the occupation and out. The MSM won't cover this.

More pessimism from the Libruls.

BTW: 3+ years isn't a cut and run.

[robbedvoter]

31. Uh, so..did WaPo publish this? nah, busy attacking TO, Leopold

And yet we are being told: WaPo is not the enemy! Sure looks lile it to me!

[Tin Man]

33. Link to WaPo piece regarding Baghdad Embassy cable, here

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/16/AR2006061601768.html

[SeattleRob]

37. All hail the liberal media

They are running with this story. It's featured on all the cable news networks, made the front page of the NY Times. President Bush has scheduled a Press Conference to explain why his take on the situation in Iraq is completely different from the State Dept.....
:sarcasm:

Oh wait, that was all just a dream.... Our Lap Dog press is talking about Bush as the "Comeback Kid." There's got to be a missing white girl story we can talk about.

[Reckon]

42. LOL SeattleRob

You had me going.

"missing white girl story" So true, so true.

[proud patriot]

39. Devastating News

:-(

[tomreedtoon]

41. Forget the troops...will any BUREAUCRAT trust us again?

I don't mean "forget the troops." I can't. We shouldn't.

But the people who are being abused and put in this awful situation are bureaucrats! These are the people who are supposed to be the personal representatives of Bush and the United States government. They are being asked to sacrifice their safety and sanity in the name of "supporting the President."

If I were a young man studying in the traditional fields for government service - law, history, economics, that sort of thing - I think I'd rather work at Wal-Mart than be put in a situation where I would be betrayed by my government and my President. How can an intelligent person choose to work for the government, knowing your boss will as soon throw you to the alligators than try to rescue you?

[Reckon]

43. When are we going to start

massive e-mail campaigns to the MSM when they don't report the truth to the American public?

Tell them to tell the truth or we will boycott!

We just need someone to coordinate the projects.