Photographs From Iraq: January 26 - February 7, 2006

Wednesday, February 08 2006 @ 09:32 AM PST Contributed by: combat The Saddam Show resumes (briefly), U.S. freedomkeepers kill more civilians, American-funded and trained death squads kill more people in the most gruesome way possible, and Iraqi officials are accused of helping the oil sabotage movement. A gunfight between unknown persons in Baghdad wounded at least two people on the 26th. Same day, hundreds of people were released from Abu Ghraib, where they had been "detained" by the U.S. military for days, weeks, or months without charge, and dropped off at a bus station. The trial of old Saddam resumed on the 29th, much to the display of just about all interested parties. His co-defendent, the co-defedent's lawyer, the rest of the defense lawyers, and Saddam himself, respectively, were thrown or had stormed out inside of two hours. Same day in Basra, a reported 1500 people protested at the British consulate, pissed off over arrests the Brits have been making there lately. Again on the 29th, a car bomb detonated in an outdoor market, killing 10 people, in Iskandariyah. Abdul Razzaq al-Na'as, a prominent professor and 'political analyst' became the latest Iraqi academic to be gunned down in Baghdad, also on the 29th. The dilapidated theater of Habbaniyah Royal Air Force Base, presumably near the lake of the same name, in Iraq. Built by the British during their occupation of Iraq that peaked in 1920, it is now occupied by Americans. After their occupation "ended", the Brits held RAFB Habbaniyah at least until the second world war. U.S. soldiers called in an air strike on the Ramadi soccer stadium on the 30th, apparently too afraid to go fight the "insurgents" that were supposedly there themselves. 01 February, in Kabul, Afghanistan. Read this: "In the bombed remains of Kabul's Ministry of Energy, Nasir Salam, aged eight, skips through the mud, his jacket flapping in the wind, exposing his skinny ribs. He is running towards a vast mound of rubbish where children are playing with kites, one of Afghanistan's most popular pastimes, although the kites are composites of plastic bags and greasy lengths of string..." A mortar attack severely damaged one of Iraq's largest oil refineries on February 2nd. Later, the director of the installation and other officials were arrested and accused of planning the attack. On the same day, American helicopters opened fire on a neighborhood in Sadr City after someone took some pot shots at them, killing a young woman bystander, along with the people who (supposedly) shot at it, injuring numerous others and destroying houses. One of the injured from the helicopter attack. Also on the 2nd, a busy day, a U.S. patrol machine-gunned a minibus south of Baghdad, killing two people and wounding seven others, including this man. AP: "Local Iraqi police said the driver followed too close, not respecting patrol rules". At least a dozen people were killed on February 2nd when two carbombs exploded in an east Baghdad neighborhood that is predominately Shia. This picture is from two years ago this month, in Hilla. The guard is keeping watch over $58,800,000 in "reconstruction" money that the Pentagon had handed over to a Robert J. Stein, a man who already had a felony fraud conviction, and who embezzeled at least $2 million of it, and spent much of the rest on loaded contracts. Two Lieutant Colonels have also been indicted in the case.. February 4, American terrorists raided several houses in Ramadi, and kidnapped 10 people. Same day, 14 more bodies - of people who had been arrested by Iraqi police - were found in a drainage ditch in Baghdad. Signs of a grisly death - both chests seem to be sewed shut. Iraqi police restrain a man as he learns of the death of his brother, in Kirkuk, at the hands of "foreign security contractors" (i.e., mercenaries) during a "traffic dispute". Two people, Kurds, were killed - shot dead. February 7, 2006 Protests in Afghanistan, sparked by defamation of Mohammed, are looking more like an uprising. On February 7, hundreds of people attempted to storm the U.S. military installation in Qalat; they burned a few fuel tankers hauling gas to the base before Afghan police began to gun them down, killing three people (according to reports). U.S. soldiers also fired bullets, and "illumination rounds". News: The U.S. is pretty much abandoning all pretense of "rebuilding" Iraq after destroying the country with two invasions, a 12 year blockade, and a disastrous ongoing occupation. Congress has made clear it will not appropriate any more money (more than $18 billion has been doled out already, mostly to U.S. companies, and much of that has gone to provide mercanaries to protect those companies); only 49 of 136 water and sanitation projects are expected to be completed, along with 300 of 425 for electricity infrastructure. Meanwhile, the number of Iraqis living in "poverty", defined as living on less than $1 a day, has increased since the invasion to at least 20% of the population, and more than 4 million people have actually lost access to clean water since the invasion. American soldiers reportedly killed another journalist on January 24. Latest poll of Iraqis: 50% approve of attacks on U.S. troops, over 80% want a withdrawal timetable. Don't put too much stock in those numbers. 11 more people found tortured to death in Baghdad. Oil graft fuels the insurgency? U.S. soldiers reportedlykill two protesters in Afghanistan. PFI needs a new host. If you know of a website that would host this archive, as well as new additions, with FTP access available to the author, please reply here. Or if you have fancy webpage skills and would like to help develop a free-standing site, do the same. Photos from Iraq Archives: January 7 - 26 December 1 2005 - January 5, 2006 November 19 - December 3 November 6 - 17> October 27 - November 4> October 11 - 25 September 23 - October 10 September 5 - 20 August 23 - September 3 August 12 – 22 July 30 - August 10 July 15 – 29 July 1 – 14 June 13 – 28 May 27 – June 12 May 12-25 May 4 – 11 April 26 – May 3 April 13 - 24 March 28—April 10 March 21--27 March 12--20 March 1–11 February 21--28 February 11--20 February 3--10 January 25 – Feb 1 January 15--24 January 3--14 November 23--Dec 6 (2004) November 16 – 24 November 13–18 September 25--Nov 10 September 1-21 (some photos may be broken due to external sites moving images around) selected sources: Cryptome's Iraq-kill-maim.org, which has just started to archive AP photos from Iraq. High quality. Yahoo Iraq photos Getty Images> (type ‘Iraq’ and re-search) Crisis pictures (Defunct) TheNausea.com Dahr Jamail Please reply here if you know where more original Iraq photos, preferably with details, can be obtained.