IRAQIS - In Search Of Song Amid Sounds Of War - UPDATES

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At Yarmouk Hospital , a 600-bed facility where entire wings are blocked off for fear they'll fall down, nurses complain of constant shortages. One said the hospital regularly uses water as a substitute for ultrasound gel.

"One day we will have a lot, and the next day it will all be gone," she said.

Huda Fadhil , sitting at her ailing mother's bedside, said doctors at Yarmouk had sent her out several times to fetch supplies the hospital lacked.

"I just got back from buying this," she said, holding up a plastic syringe. "With all the fortunes this country has, the hospitals don't have syringes? It's crazy."

The shortages are so endemic that some hospitals refuse to treat noncritical patients if they come without friends or relatives to act as runners on their behalf.

At Baghdad Teaching Hospital , an old man who came alone to have fluid drained from his abdomen said doctors told him they couldn't perform the procedure until he brought a helper.

"I keep telling them I have no one," he said, rubbing his bloated belly.

Patients said bribery is so widespread that the sick now accept it as part of the process of getting treatment from hospital and clinic workers. Those who're able sometimes use payoffs or personal connections at the health ministry to avoid long waits for surgeries or hard-to-get tests such as MRIs.

"My case is a simple one, so I haven't paid any bribes," said Widad Jalal , who was admitted to Yarmouk for a lung infection. "But many times you do. This is not hidden. It's common."

Doctors and pharmacists said that drugs and other supplies are routinely stolen from the public health care system and sold to private merchants who jack up the prices.

All drugs that enter Iraq by way of government contracts are marked with health ministry stamps. They're never meant to end up at private drug stores, but they often do, said Husham Hussein , who works mornings stocking shelves at a public hospital and runs his own pharmacy in the afternoons.

He said the theft occurs at various points: Sometimes health ministry administrators skim off the top of ministry orders. Other times, workers steal supplies off the hospital shelves. Hussein described one common scheme, in which clinic employees falsify paperwork for nonexistent patients, then walk off with drugs and other supplies.

"The leak of materials from the hospitals to the private pharmacies is well known," Hussein said. "But no one really tries to stop it. That's why so many people do it."

By many accounts, health ministry buyers routinely take bribes from manufacturers to purchase unnecessary equipment or medicines of such low quality that doctors refuse to use them.

Bassim Shareef Nuseyif, a member of the Iraqi parliament's health committee, said he's aware of at least one case in which the health ministry bought millions of dollars worth of expired drugs.

"I can't tell you if this was corruption or negligence," Nuseyif said. "But either way, it is very bad."

Nuseyif told of an instance in 2007 in which provincial officials took roughly $9 million in central government funding to buy new equipment for hospitals and clinics in the southern province of Wasit. The equipment still hasn't shown up, Nuseyif said.

"We know this is happening other places," he said.

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Iraq's public health care system has seen some improvements in the past year or so, and there's no doubt that some problems aren't easily solved, foremost a shortage of doctors. As many as 15,000 are estimated to have fled because of the war, and few of them have come home.

Foreign companies and investors, which Iraq desperately needs, also have been hesitant to return. The health ministry budget is now roughly $3.5 billion , up from $16 million in 2002, but health ministry officials said their share of the national budget, about 3 percent, is far from adequate, and many lawmakers agree.

Now, moreover, lower oil prices have forced the government to cut spending by billions.

Last year, the government spent about $800 million buying medicines, officials said, but while health spending has increased from $62 per capita in 2007 to $100 in 2008, doctors said they haven't seen improvements to match.

Corruption may be a big reason why. There are no approximations specific to the health ministry, but the U.S. has estimated that 10 percent of the central government's money is lost to corruption.

One Iraqi official, Radhi Hamza al Radhi , told U.S. lawmakers in late 2007 that the Iraqi government's Public Integrity Commission had uncovered losses of about $18 billion across all ministries.

Jobs often go to people with the right connections, regardless of their qualifications.

"This ensures that the corruption can continue," said Saif Abdul Rahman , a senior adviser to Iraqi Vice President Tariq Hashimi . "Until we institutionalize hiring, I don't expect that to change."

Nuseyif, the parliamentarian, noted that problems such as Iraq's shortage of doctors probably would be far less severe if not for the bribery and theft.

"These things tend to push out the honest and the efficient professionals," he said.

Graft also appears to be delaying badly needed renovations at Iraqi health care facilities.

Roughly 40 percent of Iraq's 210 public hospitals are awaiting major repairs, according to the government's own figures. At Yarmouk, entire wings are too decrepit for use. Gaping holes pock the ceilings and big brown bugs scurry through the hallways. The elevators haven't worked in years. Relatives must carry the sickest patients up and down the stairs.

Nuseyif said he's visited hospitals where large sums supposedly were spent on renovations, but he could see no evidence of improvements.

"When you go to look at these hospitals, it is clear the money didn't go where it was meant to," he said. "There is no accounting or monitoring, and the people stealing the money know this."

Mustafa al Hiti , another health committee member, said ministry administrators and provincial officials sign contracts for renovations and equipment at costs far below what was allocated, and then pocket the difference.

"Things end up breaking down quickly, or they are useless," he said. "The contracts are not made with reputable companies in Europe or the West."

Last year, the health ministry forwarded about 150 corruption cases to the Public Integrity Commission , but authorities said such efforts rarely amount to much.

The commission is supposed to be the government's most powerful anti-corruption body, but it's widely considered weak and ineffective. Its officials have said that less than 3 percent of cases they investigate end with convictions, and they've complained of corruption even among the commission's own ranks.

The health ministry's inspector general, who's charged with improving the department and rooting out corruption, acknowledged there are problems but downplayed their severity.

Adel Mohsin Abdullah , who's held his position since 2003, said his office conducts audits on health ministry spending but that the findings aren't public. "We've uncovered some problems, mostly with the contracts," he said. "We're working to fix them."

Abdullah named "human resources issues" among ministry administrators as the biggest obstacle to better health care in Iraq .

"The problem is half corruption and half a lack of ability," Abdullah said. "When we have a better department, you will see the improvements in our hospitals."

He declined to discuss specific examples. "Please don't embarrass me with these kinds of questions," he said, adding that the situation inside public hospitals isn't as bad as many doctors describe.

Asked what the ministry has done to get rid of unqualified employees, Abdullah said the health department is still developing procedures to evaluate the performance of its 170,000 workers.

"We are still in the stage of determining who should be replaced," he said. "These things take time."



(Reilly
reports for the
Merced Sun-Star .


McClatchy special correspondents
Jenan Hussein ,
Sahar Issa and
Hussein Kadhim
contributed to this article.) 

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                                      Prospects are dismal for returning Iraqi refugees
           





Corinne Reilly,
Mcclatchy Newspapers
– Fri May 22, 2009
BAGHDAD

— When Dhafir Hussein left Iraq last year for Sweden , he hoped it would be for good. Sectarian killings and armed gangs had turned his old Baghdad neighborhood, Sheik Omar, into a ghost town. Business had disappeared at the small engine-repair shop where he once made a decent living.

A year after Hussein got to Stockholm , his immigration lawyer called and said that Hussein would never be allowed to settle in Sweden permanently with his wife and two teenage sons, so he decided to go home. Besides, he figured, Iraq's government had said things were better there.

Hussein returned to Baghdad two months ago. His shop is still deserted. He said that customers were afraid to come to Sheik Omar. He's looked for other jobs, but he hasn't found one.

His family, now nearly broke, squats in a tiny third-floor apartment in an abandoned complex where Saddam Hussein , the late dictator, used to house his administrative staff. If the new government evicts them as it's threatened to do, Hussein and his family will be homeless.

"We have nothing here," he said. "At least in Sweden I could work."

Since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion, an estimated 4 million Iraqis have fled their homes to escape the violence, half of them abroad. Several months ago, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki began telling them to return, assuring them that Iraq is safe.

Not everyone agrees, however, and some families who've come back said they regretted it. They face soaring rents, limited job opportunities and shortages of electricity, clean water, education and health care, not to mention the continuing threat of violence and political instability.

Maliki argues that mass returns are needed to rebuild the country. Critics accuse him of politicizing the issue by encouraging refugees to return en masse to create the appearance that Iraq is safer than it is ahead of national elections, which are scheduled for the end of this year.

"Instead of finding ways to push people home, the government should be creating conditions that make people want to go back on their own," said Kristele Younes of Refugees International , a U.S.-based advocacy organization. "Maliki has been very clear that he wants everyone home this year. One has to wonder why he's in such a big hurry."

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The flight of Iraqis since the invasion has been called an invisible humanitarian crisis. While the absence of sprawling camps may have made Iraqi refugees less noticeable to much of the world, their numbers are significant: Roughly a sixth of Iraqis have fled their homes since 2003.

Only a small fraction have returned so far, but it's not for want of government effort. On many occasions, Maliki has sent his official plane to retrieve willing families from abroad. After complaints that returnees were left without resources, officials recently announced that they'll begin handing out at the airport the $900 in cash promised to returning families.

Safety looms as perhaps the biggest issue that's blocking mass returns. Though violence remains lower than it was in 2007, large-scale bombings targeting civilians have been on the rise since March. By several measures, last month was the bloodiest that Iraq has seen in the past year.

The U.N. said this month that many parts of the country were still too dangerous for large numbers of refugees to return, and that no Iraqis living abroad should be stripped of their refugee status and pushed home.

"Iraqis deserve to come back in safety and in dignity," said Andrew Harper , of the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees . "In a lot of the country, that just isn't possible yet." The UNHCR has documented "a considerable" number of cases in which families have returned to their old neighborhoods only to leave again, Harper said.

"Maybe it's a little safer, but what about services?" asked Muthhir Mohammad, a 35-year-old security guard who returned from Syria with his wife and baby in 2007. "We have maybe a few hours of electricity a day. How can the government say things are OK?"

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Within weeks of moving back, Mohammad said, he began looking for another, permanent way to leave Iraq . He still hasn't set foot in his old neighborhood because he thinks it's too dangerous. As a Sunni Muslim, he said, he doesn't trust Iraq's government and security forces, which are mostly Shiite Muslim.

"They protect their own first," he said. "We had no money (in Syria ) so I thought it would be better to come back, but now I think coming home was worse. We still have nothing."

Skyrocketing rents have made it difficult for returning families to afford temporary housing. Many have come back to find their old homes destroyed or occupied by squatters.

If not for the high rents, Muthana Hammoudi said, he never would have returned to the Dora-area house his family left in 2006.

"It was much safer where we were renting, but we couldn't afford it anymore," said Hammoudi, a 42-year-old journalist. "We didn't want to come back to Dora. To be honest, we are still afraid there."

Two weeks ago a family that recently had returned to Hammoudi's neighborhood found a makeshift bomb on its doorstep. It exploded and wounded two of the children.

Younes, of Refugees International , recently spent three weeks in Iraq with a research team, and she said that almost all the Iraqi leaders whom her agency met with "expressed a very strong desire to close the file on displaced people by the end of this year, no matter what."

"They're burying their heads in the sand," she said.

Refugees International issued a report after its visit that says Maliki's administration has made the return of displaced Iraqis a component, rather than an outcome, of its security strategy. The agency also has accused the Iraqi government of violating international refugee law by asking Syria to close its borders to Iraqis as early as 2007, when sectarian killing was still rampant.

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Especially troublesome, Younes said, is the absence of powerful voices within the government advocating a different approach.

Besides free transportation home and cash payments in exchange for returning, the government promises help finding work and evicting squatters. For educated professionals, a class that Iraq is especially eager to get back, the national Ministry of Displacement and Migration has made additional assurances, including free land and a choice of well-paid public service jobs.

However, several Iraqis who've returned said the government wasn't following through once refugees and displaced people were home. "Many families are not actually receiving the aid they are told about," said Azhar Abdul al Majeed , a member of the parliament's committee on displacement and migration.

Iman Whayib, a widowed mother of three who returned to Baghdad last May from Salahuddin province, said she'd been trying for nearly a year to collect the payment promised to each family that moves back.

"I've come here so many times I can't count anymore," she said as she waited in line at a government center where returnees are told they can claim the money. "Each time I come, they say I need some new document that no one mentioned the last time."

Mahmoud Othman , another member of the parliament's displacement committee, said he and other lawmakers on the panel had asked the government to take a more "responsible" approach to the refugee issue but that their requests had done little.

"When (Maliki) travels abroad, he continues to make the calls for people to come back," Othman said. "It has become a matter of politics."

Maliki's office didn't return phone calls seeking comment.

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Kareem al Saadi , a spokesman for the Ministry of Displacement and Migration , dismissed the suggestion that the recent upswing in violence should preclude some Iraqis from returning to certain areas. He disagreed that the government may not be ready to provide services to those who come home. He also said that Iraq was on track to put the refugee issue rightly in its past by the end of this year.

"In the previous years, darkness was covering Iraq , but now there is no night anywhere," Saadi said. "This is the new Iraq . The people should come home."

He said his department expected huge returns from abroad as soon as schools let out for summer.

"We know most of the families are just waiting. They want to come home," Saadi said. "Why wouldn't they?"






(Reilly
reports for the Merced (Calif.)
Sun-Star .

McClatchy special correspondents
Jenan Hussein and
Sahar Issa
contributed to this story.)





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Wave of bombings in Iraq kills at least 63

Iraqi militiamen frustrated that promised jobs haven't materialized

Car bomb in Baghdad kills at least 34 people

Corruption probe appalls - and encourages - Iraqis

Iraq's once-envied health care system lost to war, corruption

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                             With one bat and no uniforms, Iraq's baseball team hits field
         



 

Laith Hammoudi,
Mcclatchy Newspapers
– Mon Jul 13, 2009
BAGHDAD

— They've only got a five year-old softball bat, a threadbare cap, three scuffed balls and nine second-hand gloves from a flea market. They train on a college soccer field. And there's not a uniform among them. However, they love America's pastime as much as Crash Davis of "Bull Durham" ever did.

Meet Iraq's national baseball team.

The venture was the brainchild of three young Iraqi men from the U.S. They played ball at their American high school schools, came to Baghdad on a visit five years ago and left behind a curiosity and interest about a sport that, unlike soccer, didn't involve yellow cards, flops or nets.

"We were a group of physical education students," recalls Ysir Abdul Hasan, 23, the assistant coach. "We loved it because it's a new and strange game for our society." The Iraqis were also struck with the challenge, he adds, "especially for the striker who plays against the whole other team."

Striker or batter, coach Hamza Madlool, 26, formed the current team after an earlier team had to be disbanded at the height of the country's civil unrest. Players on that club and the baseball federation president, Isma'eel Khallel, got e-mail and telephone threats from Sunni insurgents linked to al Qaida Iraq. The insurgents accused them of playing "an occupation game."

However, it was lack of money, not death threats, that sent the earlier team to the showers.

Even so, Madlool says he loves the game "because it is more enthusiastic than any other." His family was delighted with his new sport and encouraged him to go on. Eventually, he wound up coaching a women's softball team, which won a championship. "I felt as if I were the No. 1 man in the world," he beams.

The reincarnated ball club still faces money problems today. Ali Abdul Hussein , the general secretary of the baseball federation, said there are many talented Iraqi players, but they lack gear and a place to play. " The Iraqi Olympic Committee didn't allocate a budget for our federation because it's new," he explained. "This year they gave us only 100 million dinars (about $84,500 ) as a donation."

Some 60 percent of that goes for organizing local championships, fees to join Asian and other international baseball associations and other costs. Besides the Baghdad squad, teams have been formed in four other Iraqi cities.

Both coaches receive the equivalent of $106 a month. None of the players makes a dinar — an amateur status the NCAA would endorse. The real problem is equipment. One time the federation gave them a Chinese-made aluminum bat, but it bent after the first batter connected. Assistant coach Hasan scoured a book fair at Baghdad University for a baseball rulebook, but struck out.

Bashar, 28, is the only non-student on the team. The physical education teacher is captain and asked that his last name not be used because he still fears Sunni retaliation. "Shiite people don't have a problem with playing any kind of game, whether it's American or not," he says.

To watch a major league game, he has to go to the home of a friend who has subscription-only channels. He likes the Los Angeles baseball team, though he's not sure of its name. (Probably the Dodgers , but it could be the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim , according to Angels owner Arte Moreno .)

"There is one player on the L.A. team that made me love the whole team," Bashar says. "I don't even know his full name. I think his name is James." So it's not Manny just being Manny.

At one practice last week, the players — most of whom had just finished university exams — spent their time on drills. The sandstorm that had hung over Baghdad for days had cleared off. Under blue skies, in 110 degree heat, they ran laps around the field, then tossed their three balls back and forth in an Arabic version of a pepper warm-up.

None of the players owns a pair of spikes, so they all wear Chinese-made, off-the-rack running shoes.

Before a game, the team gathers in a circle, clasps hands, chants a verse from the Koran and shouts " Baghdad !"

Last month, the team heard exciting news. They were invited to a tournament in Afghanistan in September. They're still trying to rustle up the money to travel to the other war zone, but they're already talking about their opponents.

"I'm afraid the Afghan national team will use grenades instead of balls," said one player, laughing. "And their bats will be RPG (rocket-propelled grenade) launchers."

Ilaab! Play ball!




(Hammoudi
is a McClatchy special correspondent.

Mike Tharp
of the Merced Sun-Star
contributed to this article
from Baghdad ).

MORE FROM MCCLATCHY

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                                 Iraqi refugee isn't sure about making a new home in Fort Worth






By ANNA M. TINSLEY
atinsley@star-telegram
McClatchy Newspapers
July 12, 2009
FORT WORTH

— He arrived 2  1/2 weeks ago, with a heavy suitcase and years of pent-up hopes and dreams.

Faced with imminent danger in his homeland of Iraq, 39-year-old Hussein Khalifa was finally in the United States — in Fort Worth — seeking refuge in a country where one of his friends said "this is the life."

Now he’s wondering whether danger really is the worst thing he could face.

Loneliness has set in on the man accustomed to working two jobs and spending much time with his 4-year-old nephew.

He has been forced into a slower pace as he waits for a Social Security card and legal documents that will let him formally begin a job search. So he spends time talking with other Iraqi refugees, looking through old pictures, sending e-mails to family and talking on the telephone with his nephew, who wants him to come home.

"I’m frustrated," said Khalifa, an English teacher, interpreter and special correspondent for news organizations in Baghdad. "At home, I have everything I want — a home, money, family. But . . . I can’t guarantee my life.

"In this country, I have my life but nothing else."

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A life in danger



Khalifa is one of millions of Iraqis who fled their country in recent years, fearing violence and political instability.

In his case, he is worried for his life — and has received threats — because Iraqis who work with American news organizations are often seen as traitors. And he has worked in Baghdad as an interpreter and special correspondent through the years for organizations including Independent Television News and McClatchy Newspapers, the parent company of the Star-Telegram.

The first threats came several years ago, when he was on holiday from school and working as a journalist. Apparently he was shown on TV near an officer when former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein was captured in December 2003.

Word spread through his school that he was an "agent," a person who betrayed his country. Students and teachers threatened him; he transferred to another school.

In 2007, while he was on a reporting assignment, a militia captured him holding a camera. His driver escaped; he was interrogated and eventually released.

About a week later, word of his alleged betrayal, and more threats, made way to his new school and to Khalifa’s 17-year-old nephew.

"It was a terrifying month," he said. "My life is in danger in Iraq."

He looked for ways out and applied for a resettlement program in 2008. He was accepted this year.

New home

Khalifa had dreamed of coming to the United States since Kuwait was liberated from Iraq in the early 1990s and one of his friends moved here.

"My friend came to America and he said this is the life," Khalifa said with a smile.

Khalifa’s own journey began June 22, when he left Iraq. He arrived in Fort Worth two days later and started working with Refugee Services of Texas to make this his home.

He was sent here because he said he had an uncle in Arlington. But he has been to his uncle’s home and no one answers the door.

Khalifa shares an apartment in northwest Fort Worth with two other Iraqi refugees, which is far different from the bustling home he shared with his parents, brothers, sister-in-law and nephews. There are no personal belongings, other than the clothes and photos from his suitcase, not even a room to call his own.

He misses the social interaction with family, friends and colleagues. And he’s frustrated with having little to do while waiting for documents to arrive so he can search for a job. "Iraqis without jobs are worthless," he said.

When refugees arrive, many struggle at first with restlessness and waiting, said Laila Amara, area director of Refugee Services.

"I think a lot of refugees have the false pretense that they are going to come to America and all is going to be great," she said. "To make a successful transition, it takes one to two years.  . . .  This is a really difficult process for all of them."

So difficult for Khalifa that he has set a personal deadline: Find a job by September, when an Iraqi school holiday ends, or go back to Iraq.

"Maybe I was wrong about my dream," Khalifa said. "Maybe this was a terrible mistake."

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Starting over



More than 2 million Iraqis are believed to have fled their country, estimates from the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees show.

For those who come to the U.S., the slumping economy and tight job market are major stumbling blocks. Eleven percent of Iraqi refugees are likely to find jobs here now, compared with about 80 percent two years ago, statistics show.

"By the time they get here, they are so anxious and desperate and looking forward to restarting a normal life again," said Melissa Winkler, a spokeswoman for the New York-based International Rescue Committee. "They want to be able to put their talents and use to work here.

"But they are coming at a time when this country is going through an economic crisis and there aren’t as many jobs as there used to be."

A report last month issued by the International Rescue Committee shows that thousands of Iraqi refugees who fled to the U.S. are living in poverty and need more help to survive.

The State Department gives a one-time $900 grant per refugee — half to the refugee, half to the resettlement group aiding that person — to help with immediate needs such as rent. More government help is available for items such as food stamps and healthcare.

Many say that it’s not enough, especially since it is taking refugees longer and longer to find jobs in this economy.

"There aren’t as many jobs as there used to be," Winkler said. "It’s especially hard and challenging, and it can be depressing."

Refugees who stay for a year may earn a green card; those who stay five years may become American citizens.

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'An entirely new life’



Khalifa said he would return to Iraq before his money runs out.

But if he goes back, he will no longer be considered a refugee and can’t come back to the United States, Amara said. Either way, he has to repay the International Organization for Migration for his trip costs.

"When you come to a new place and you don’t know anyone, you have to be really open to starting an entirely new life," Amara said. "It’s a shock."

Khalifa said he will see what happens in the coming weeks before making up his mind.

"When I told my parents I was leaving . . . they told me not to go," Khalifa said. "Should I have left my family for a better life or stayed?"



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------







By the numbers 2 million: Iraqis believed to have fled their country.



292,988: Registered/active Iraqis in the United States.

72,850: Iraqi refugees submitted for resettlement.

1,854: Iraqis settled by some agencies in Texas since October 2007.

239: Number of those Iraqis who came to Fort Worth.

200: Number of refugees that Refugee Services of Texas is expected to resettle in the Fort Worth area this fiscal year. (Iraqis make up about one-third of that population.)

Sources: U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, Refugee Services of Texas, International Rescue Committee, Star-Telegram research

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                           Two million pilgrims visit shrine as Iraqi security forces pass test






         
Mike Tharp,
Mcclatchy Newspapers
– Sat Jul 18, 2009
BAGHDAD

-- Iraqi security forces passed their first big test minus American troops with flying colors -- and with veil-to-sandal searches of an estimated 2 million pilgrims at one of Shiite Islam's most sacred shrines.

Only one death and 48 injuries were reported Thursday through Saturday in incidents authorities tied to the pilgrimage to the Khadimiyah mosque in northwest Baghdad . On Friday, eight roadside bombs killed one man and injured 40 others in various parts of Baghdad .

"This is the first 100 percent Iraqi security plan to protect the pilgrims," Maj. Gen. Qassim Atta , the spokesman for Baghdad command operations, told Iraqi TV stations. "The forces are all Iraqis, even the helicopters above."

American support in the operation was minimal. Iraqi security forces, through their Baghdad Central Command, requested "limited enabling capabilities to support their security plan for the Khadimiya Shrine visit," said Army Lt. Col. Philip J. Smith , a U.S. military spokesman. The Iraqis asked for 60 pallets of bottled water, plus intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance support.

Worshippers from as far away as Afghanistan prayed in huge crowds and carried coffins commemorating the imam, or holy man, who is buried there. They also slapped their chests in sadness for his death in the eighth century.

During four separate religious celebrations at the shrine since December, 133 people were killed and 266 wounded by car bombs, suicide bombers and an explosive device in a bag. Four years ago, about 1,000 people died during a stampede on a bridge near the site when a rumor of a suicide bomber panicked worshippers.

In the week ending July 16 , Baghdad reported the highest number of bombings of any week this year.

But searches for this weekend's shrine visit in this mainly Shiite district began at checkpoints hundreds of miles south of the capital and continued to the outskirts of the shrine. They apparently weeded out most insurgents intent on violence. Between Najaf, 93 miles south of Baghdad , and the capital, 27 checkpoints were erected on the main highway used by pilgrims.

"They (insurgents) felt if they made any unusual moves, they would be pinpointed and caught," said a Ministry of Interior officer.

No vehicles were allowed within miles of the shrine, and blast walls and checkpoints funneled visitors into search areas. A partial curfew also was imposed in Baghdad on Friday and Saturday. A brigade from the Iraqi Federal Police (formerly the National Police ) was responsible for protecting the Khadimiyah area, and they were joined by thousands of Iraqi army soldiers.

Near the shrine, police officers herded pilgrims into male and female lines and sent them into trailers and tents to be searched; women officers searched females. After being patted down and having their bags examined, everyone was then scanned with a sonar wand.

Men were allowed into the shrine while women stood on its grounds. The men sang such chants as "We follow them! We never left them!" referring to the 12 imams revered by Shiite Muslims, including the one buried at the Baghdad mosque. Women faced the shrine and read special prayers from printed sheets asking for divine reward.

On Thursday and again on Saturday, the Iraqi army flew some of its helicopters low over the shrine, and two U.S. choppers also provided surveillance on Thursday. One senior federal police officer said his men found Pepsi bottles filled with gasoline designed to be used as Molotov cocktails; baskets with a bomb inside that would be triggered by someone pulling out a piece of fruit; and bags of food containing explosives that could be detonated by a cell phone.

All the Iraqi law enforcement officials asked not to be named because they weren't authorized to talk to the press.

Because of the traffic ban, some men charged the equivalent of $2 to ferry pilgrims around the area in rickshaw-like rigs. One pilgrim, Salam Abed Jassim, at the shrine with his wife and two children, felt confident enough in Iraqi security forces to complain a bit.

"They shouldn't close the roads," he said. "The security is better and the state is stronger -- it's a shame people had to walk all this distance."

As ceremonies ended Saturday afternoon, the crowds began to stream out of the area. Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki had ordered army buses to nearby neighborhoods where they ferried pilgrims to other parts of Baghdad to find transportation back home. One soldier asked, "What does this have to do with soldiering?"

Maybe not much to do with soldiering, but a lot to do with citizens' safety.



(Tharp is the executive editor of the
Merced (Calif.) Star-Sun .

Special Baghdad correspondents
Mohammed al Dulaimy ,
Jenan Hussein and
Sahar Issa
contributed.)






MORE FROM MCCLATCHY



Shiite pilgrimage poses major challenge for Iraqi military

Once world's bread basket, Iraq now a farming basket case

In Baghdad , the poor have no choice but to beg

With one bat and no uniforms, Iraq's baseball team hits field



Read what McClatchy's Iraqi staff has to say at

Inside Iraq .

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                             Once world's bread basket, Iraq now a farming basket case




           

Mike Tharp,
Mcclatchy Newspapers.
– Fri Jul 17, 2009
MISHKHAB,
Iraq

— Once the cradle of agriculture for civilization, the Land Between Two Rivers — the Tigris and Euphrates — has become a basket case for its farmers.

Just ask Naji Habeeb , 85. His family has been growing rice in this village 135 miles southeast of Baghdad for generations. Thin green shoots stick out of the flat paddies, shin-deep in brown water.

The Iraqi government, he claims, still owes him half of what he's due from last year's crop. He turned it in months ago and still hasn't been paid. "Shall I suck my fingers and eat like a baby?" he shouted. "The Ministry (of Agriculture) will never know my family is hungry!"

Habeeb's family members have farmed the 538-square-foot plot next to a branch of the Euphrates River the same way for centuries. Except today they till with tractors, run water pumps with gasoline and spread artificial fertilizer. They plant seedlings by hand in June and July, irrigate and keep bugs and disease away in the summer heat, harvest by hand in October.

However, their efforts haven't helped Iraqi agriculture overcome the twin disasters of war and sanctions, which have transformed the country from one of the world's premier sources of aromatic rice and nearly 500 kinds of dates 30 years ago into a net importer of food.

Iraq now imports nearly all the food its people eat: California rice, Washington apples, Australian wheat, fruits and vegetables from its neighbors. All are staples in Iraqi groceries and on the dinner table.

The decline of the farming sector creates other problems. Agriculture accounts for half or more of Iraqi jobs and is the second-largest contributor to the gross domestic product. The prices that people and the government pay for shortfalls in what they used to grow weaken the country's economy.

For its part, Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki's office says he unveiled an "agricultural initiative" two years ago. It included $240 million to bolster farmers, including no-interest loans, guarantees to buy crops, research and development, and other plans. A deputy in the Ministry of Agriculture , Mahdi al Qaisi, said that his agency "will be happy to help farmers, who are our brothers. The time of fear has ended; there is no need to be afraid."

Iraq's agriculture faces the same problems as farmers everywhere: drought (in its fifth year), bugs, disease, salty water, red tape. Those problems are exacerbated, however, by location and history. Eight years of war with Iran , defeat in the Persian Gulf War of 1991, then 12 years of sanctions and, most recently, six years of war and U.S.-led occupation have left the country's agricultural sector in shambles.

Reliable statistics are elusive or suspect. Iraq is the only country, for example, in which the U.S. Foreign Agricultural Service estimates crop yields by using satellite data.

The available numbers, however, suggest a stagnant and backward sector.

This year's wheat harvest is expected to be 1.3 million tons, down a million tons from last season. The prized amber rice crop grown by Habeeb and popular throughout the region for its perfumed scent will be around 100,000 tons, one-third of last year's yield.

One result is that Iraq has become one of the world's biggest importers of wheat, around 3.5 million tons. Barley to feed livestock — sheep, goats and cattle — also is shipped in from other countries. The higher cost of raising livestock means that more will have to be culled.

Another result: Iraqi consumers pay more for homegrown produce than they do for some imports.

Zaineb Kemal , a mother of four in Mosul , said that Iraqi produce had become scarce and expensive. That's why "so many people prefer to buy imported goods," she said, adding that she likes Iranian watermelons, Syrian cucumbers and Egyptian oranges.

Anti-globalization groups praise the fact that Iraqi farmers reuse their own seeds season after season. That doesn't lead to robust crops, however, and farmers routinely spread twice as much seed as they ordinarily would need to ensure the reduced yields.

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As in any country, agriculture is political. Unlike most nations, however, the present Iraqi government doesn't protect — let alone subsidize — many of its farmers, according to Western experts, the rice farmers in Mishkhab and consumers.

"Most farmers have been abandoned by the state," said Qasim Muhaideen, 43, who works in Mosul's central market. "How can our farmers compete in price and availability?"

Geopolitics also influences what happens to Iraq's farmers.

Turkey and Syria have built dams on the Euphrates within their borders, and they turn the spigot off and on to Iraq .

"The shortage is very effective," Awn Theyab, the director general of Iraq's National Center for Water Resources , said after Turkey reduced the flow after one week. "If it continues, we won't have enough water for the first round of the winter season, because our reservoirs are empty."

A few bright spots have sprouted. Aquaculture is emerging slowly as a food source, and 100,000 carp fingerlings were released to reservoirs in April. They'll grow to only one-fourth the size of the 25-pound monsters pulled from the Tigris, but the supply is more stable.

There's also been a boom in "hoop houses," plastic greenhouses for tomatoes using drip irrigation, not the usual field flooding.

Multinational provincial reconstruction teams report growing interest in better farming practices. Beekeepers, poultry producers and growers who want to learn modern techniques have started attending workshops. During the years of sectarian and tribal violence, they were afraid to be seen with Americans. Just this week, 175 Iraqis signed up for a soil salinity seminar.

Habeeb and his partner, Abdul Abbas Muhair, 67, have never met a foreign agricultural adviser, however.

Sitting barefoot on a carpet runner in a tiled room next to their paddies, Habeeb and Muhair swapped gripes about the government. Poor or zero planning. Delayed or incomplete payments. Baksheesh — bribes — needed for the best seeds. Weak fertilizer. Weaker pesticide. Power to run water pumps for only six hours a day, so they must buy gasoline for generators.

Even worse than their litany, they said, is their loss of pride. In their fathers' day, the aromatic rice they grew was enjoyed in Egypt , Lebanon — throughout the Middle East . Now it's all sold to the government.

A rooster crowed outside as little boys in the 15-member clan slid closer and listened to their elders.

"I feel sad not to export our rice anymore," Muhair said. "It was enough for your life."



(Tharp is the executive editor of the
Merced (Calif.) Star-Sun .

McClatchy
special correspondents
Laith Hammoudi and
Sahar Issa
contributed to this article
from Baghdad .)

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