Iraqi Gov On The Go

NousDefionsDoc · 03-23-2005, 22:24

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationwo...home-headlines

BAGHDAD — In a bid to rid the country of foreign insurgents, the Iraqi government is using strict new residency rules to detain and expel non-Iraqi Arabs.

Any Arab without the proper permit can be detained, interrogated and asked to leave the country, Interior Ministry officials said. So far the program has swept up mostly Syrians, Sudanese, Saudis and Egyptians, and about 250 people have been asked to leave.

Far more are being detained — as many as 200 a day in the Baghdad area alone — although most are released within a few days. Though some are taken in for suspected terrorist activities, others are held with no evidence other than not having proper residency permits under the new rules. Such people can be deported without any evidence of having committed crimes. Although the focus has been on Arabs, a few Chechens and Iranians also have been detained.

"The fact is that some, not all, Arabs and foreigners have destroyed the reputation of Arab and foreign countries in Iraq," said Brig. Gen. Taif Tariq Hussein, who heads the Interior Ministry's residency office. "They have either helped in executing sabotage operations or they have carried out sabotage themselves.

"Both Arabs and some foreigners have been harmful to this society," he said.

The ostensible reason for the policy, established last month after extensive consultations among Iraqi security agencies, is to stem the insurgency. But many Arabs who have lived in Iraq for years fear that they will be lumped in with wrongdoers and deported. Many of these tens of thousands of Arab residents do not have papers that meet the new requirements.

The current Iraqi administration is making no promises, and the incoming government could enforce the rules even more stringently.

For decades, Baghdad had been a magnet for Arabs from other Middle Eastern nations who came for work and study. The new regulations have brought fear to foreign-Arab neighborhoods, some of which have existed for more than a generation.

Many non-Iraqis say they now face a wholesale campaign to make their lives difficult. They are being unfairly harassed by soldiers and police, they say, as well as being taken into custody for what once would have been minor paperwork irregularities.

'It Is Unfair'

The crackdown has unnerved many longtime foreign Arab residents of Iraq because they enjoyed favored status under Saddam Hussein, in part because the former president was a strong proponent of pan-Arabism, which advocated mutual assistance among Arabs regardless of their countries of origin.

"It is unfair that even those of us who have been here for decades should be treated like this," said Mustafa Mohammed, 43, a Syrian car mechanic who has been in Iraq since 1984 and who lives and works in the crime-ridden Bataween neighborhood of Baghdad.

Most deeply alarmed are Palestinians, whose community in Iraq numbers more than 30,000, most of them in Baghdad. Many came here in 1948, when the British mandate in Palestine ended and the state of Israel was created.

They married other refugees and had children. Initially they did not become Iraqi citizens because they feared the move would threaten their right to return home. Later, Hussein's government issued Iraqi travel documents to Palestinians who wished to leave the country, but it refused to give them citizenship, wanting them to remain loyal to the cause of freeing their homeland from Israeli occupation. Hussein offered citizenship to other Arabs who wanted it.

Most Palestinians here have nowhere to go. Their original hometowns are now in Israeli territory or under Israeli control, and Israeli officials have no interest in adding to the burgeoning number of Palestinians in either area. Without residency documents or passports, Palestinians are also unwelcome elsewhere.

Iraq's deportation policy has been widely publicized in newspapers and through graffiti in some of Baghdad's central squares. The scrawled messages sound a note of hostility: "Arabs out of Iraq" and "We agree with the government — Arabs go home."

The Al Taakhi newspaper, one of Baghdad's major dailies, carried a headline last week that read, "Life Sentence for the Illegal Arab Residents." The article quoted an anonymous official from the Interior Ministry saying: "The punishments are strict and will be imposed on the illegal residents. Some may even receive a life sentence."

The new rules were agreed to after consultations among several Iraqi security agencies.

"We know the neighborhoods where there are these bad people, so we started to make some sweeps," said residency office director Hussein. "Whoever lacks one of the requirements for residency will be asked to leave the country."

For those who have lived here for years, the xenophobia is painful. Most Arabs came for work, often with proper papers. But unless they have returned periodically to their native countries to update their passports and renew their Iraqi entry documents, they may no longer have proper legal status.

The new requirements are stiff. A person must have a valid passport or travel document from his or her native country; an entry visa for Iraq; and, if coming for work, a signed contract. The Ministry of Work and Social Security can decide not to honor the contract if the work can be done by an Iraqi. However, anyone married to an Iraqi is exempt.

The rules for non-Iraqis are the same for longtime residents and newcomers.

In the 1970s and '80s, jobs for manual laborers were plentiful, especially while native-born men were fighting the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war. For a time, for instance, many of the gravediggers were Egyptians, Baghdad natives say.

Relatively few Arabs have come to work in Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, in part because of broad disapproval in the Arab world of the subsequent occupation. Some of those who came legally, mainly Kuwaitis and Egyptians, have been attacked by the anti-American insurgents.

Sudanese Targeted

In addition to Palestinians, Sudanese Arabs are easy targets of the new regulations, standing out on the Baghdad streets with their darker complexions and lanky frames. Many came here legally to work as manual laborers and stayed on. They are poorly organized and readily intimidated.

Fadlulla Abdullah, 42, came to Iraq 15 years ago, bringing his Sudanese wife and children. So far he has had no trouble because he works for one of Baghdad's largest hotels. But he views himself as lucky.

"Some of my fellow Sudanese living and working in Iraq have been insulted and badly treated recently by some ING [Iraqi national guard] soldiers," he said.

"The soldiers are not differentiating between the good guys and the very, very few bad guys," he said. "There are many Iraqis living in Khartoum [the Sudanese capital]. Let us suppose that a few of them would commit some violations or a crime…. Is it logical that they would all be expelled from Sudan?"

Other Sudanese face uncertainty about whether they will be able to continue to work in Iraq.

"My problem is that the notary public at the court is now refusing to certify my renewed contract with the Kubaysa Construction company," said Othman Mohammed, 45. "They told me they are still waiting for new instructions from the government regarding residence."

Palestinians feel particularly vulnerable. They were often hated by Iraqis because they were favored by Saddam Hussein, who used them to justify his anti-Americanism. Most married within the Palestinian community, and despite 30 or more years in Iraq, they have nothing official to show for it.

"By existing law, almost all of them could be deported," said a senior U.S. official working on Iraqi security issues. "But I don't think you're going to see a hard line."

The U.S. official added that things could get tougher because many Iraqis blame foreigners for the insurgency, though most officials believe that attacks on civilians have largely been carried out by Iraqis.

"If you can't control the people in your own country, then rightly or wrongly, you look at outsiders, and they are very sensitive if not paranoid about them," the official said.

That matters little to most Palestinians, who no longer feel at ease in their adopted country.

"We don't know what is going to happen to us," said Amer Mahmoud, 39, who was born in Baghdad and used to work in a sewing factory but is now unemployed.

"It is possible they'll use the new rule to get rid of us, but where will we go? They are going to throw us on the border…. No country will accept us — even Arab countries will not," he said as he tightly gripped his 9-year-old daughter's hand, as if afraid they would be separated.

Already he has come down in the world. As a Palestinian under Hussein, he lived in government-subsidized housing, had a guaranteed job and could attend college for free. Now he and his family are eking out an existence in a refugee camp on the eastern edge of Baghdad.

The many ironies are not lost on the Palestinians. Although they are Arabs, they know they are seen as outsiders. And in this case, that means they are viewed as potential saboteurs of the country that has given them refuge for decades.

"We are getting lost and mixed up with all of these other people. Wherever there is terrorism, they will say it's Arabs behind it," Mahmoud said. "If they decide all Arabs have to go, we will have to go and our fates will be tied to theirs."

NousDefionsDoc · 03-23-2005, 22:25

Quote:

'It Is Unfair'

The crackdown has unnerved many longtime foreign Arab residents of Iraq because they enjoyed favored status under Saddam Hussein, in part because the former president was a strong proponent of pan-Arabism, which advocated mutual assistance among Arabs regardless of their countries of origin.

But I thought there was no way Hussein would ever work with UBL. IMO, "pan-Arabism" is a PC term for the caliphate.

**The Reaper** · 03-23-2005, 22:37

Man, that is bad news.

If you read and accept the LA Times' version of things.

Nice spin effort.

Anyone invited into Iraq by Saddam and hosted by him served him and the Baathists in some way.

TR

magician · 03-23-2005, 23:43

Quote:

The new requirements are stiff. A person must have a valid passport or travel document from his or her native country; an entry visa for Iraq; and, if coming for work, a signed contract. The Ministry of Work and Social Security can decide not to honor the contract if the work can be done by an Iraqi. However, anyone married to an Iraqi is exempt.

Actually...those requirements are pretty standard.

In fact...I cannot think of any country off the top of my head that will allow a foreigner to just show up without a passport.

Requiring an entry visa merely means that visitors or immigrants need to enter the country through a checkpoint. I do not know of any country that does not care if folks just saunter across national borders with no controls.

Requiring work permits...is simply another manifestation of an actual government emerging from chaos.

There will be growing pains, certainly. And I have always been an advocate of the humanistic interpretation of laws as opposed to their mechanical application.

The fact that an exemption for those married to Iraqis has been included shows that there is more than mere xenophobia behind these measures.

This is what governments do. They govern. And population control measures....are a critical component of the state. Any state.

03-24-2005, 04:38

There you go making sense again, Magic man...

**The Reaper** · 03-24-2005, 08:43

Quote:

Originally Posted by magician

Actually...those requirements are pretty standard.

In fact...I cannot think of any country off the top of my head that will allow a foreigner to just show up without a passport.

Requiring an entry visa merely means that visitors or immigrants need to enter the country through a checkpoint. I do not know of any country that does not care if folks just saunter across national borders with no controls.

Requiring work permits...is simply another manifestation of an actual government emerging from chaos.

There will be growing pains, certainly. And I have always been an advocate of the humanistic interpretation of laws as opposed to their mechanical application.

The fact that an exemption for those married to Iraqis has been included shows that there is more than mere xenophobia behind these measures.

This is what governments do. They govern. And population control measures....are a critical component of the state. Any state.

Hey, hermano:

How do you explain the millions of illegal aliens in the US working, who walked in, have no documentation, are afforded many of the benefits that citizens enjoy, and are actually protected by some communities from identification and deportation?

TR

jatx · 03-24-2005, 08:53

Well put, Magician.

magician · 03-24-2005, 10:58

Quote:

Originally Posted by The Reaper

Hey, hermano:

How do you explain the millions of illegal aliens in the US working, who walked in, have no documentation, are afforded many of the benefits that citizens enjoy, and are actually protected by some communities from identification and deportation?

TR

I call a spade a spade: our government has not historically done its job where border security is concerned, and I do not believe that it is doing its job now.

This is a ding on all of us:

1. there is an economic strata in this country that has learned to rely on cheap, illegal labor. Such employers are culpable. Their profits are feasible because they are able to exploit illegal workers.

2. Americans are spoiled, and prefer that illegal laborers actually do many categories of jobs in this country.

My feeling is that there are laborers all over the world who could and would register to come to America legally to do such jobs. If you look at Canada, for example, they have a serious labor deficit. They import workers from Mexico, the Caribbean, and lately, from Thailand (which is how I learned about this). These workers are imported under offical government pilot programs. The workers are vetted, screened, registered, enter Canada under a visa, and are specifically admitted to work a particular job for a finite time period under the terms of a legal work permit, upon the expiration of which, they are required to return to their country of origin.

In the case of America, rather than permitting illegal aliens to continue to work in undocumented jobs in an informal economy, illegal laborers should all be fired, immediately, and directed to proceed to their nearest immigration office. At this office, they should be registered, issued social security cards and numbers, and either issued visas or returned to their countries of origin. Those who are issued visas should be required to pay taxes, just like any other participant in the US economy. They should be targeted to specific jobs, as is done in the Canadian model, and undesirables should be deported.

Employers that hire illegal aliens should be subjected to stringent, even heinous penalties. The choice should be basic: get legal, or go to jail, and forfeit your business. Period. Without employers willing to hire illegal labor, there is no illegal labor market, and hence no place for illegal workers to go. Remove the incentive, you cripple the existing paradigm. I could give a fuck if we end up paying more for strawberries and lettuce. Those who can afford them will buy them. Those who cannot, will do without. Just like we all did when we were kids, and poor.

If we want to rid ourselves of this dire security problem, then we need to provide a viable alternative, both for those countries which desire to export labor to America, and for those employers that wish to hire cheap foreign labor for low-paying jobs that Americans prefer not to do.

We should offer a 90-day grace period. Any illegal alien apprehended after the expiration of this grace period should be arrested and deported immediately. I do not care whose nanny gets caught in the dragnet, nor do I care if a kid who is a legal citizen has an illegal mother who gets deported, and he misses his math quiz. All illegal workers should either get registered, and get legal, and work for employers who will deduct payroll taxes and social security, or they should go home. No mercy.

Those employers who cannot afford to remain solvent by paying foreign workers more, by paying their withholding taxes and social security, for example, and who cannot afford to handle the accounting required to host foreign workers legally, should file for bankruptcy immediately, and go out of business.

Done deal.

3. Border security. Those military units which conduct training in the CONUS, should henceforth pull 120 day tours of border interdiction duty along every mile of our borders. I mean, the Navy should interdict our shorelines, our Army and Marines should patrol our land borders, and our Air Force should support deployed units and vector them in on infiltrators.

I am not unaware that we are at war. If I am not mistaken, however, units which are preparing to deploy, do still conduct training. That training should henceforth be conducted along our borders. Live ammunition should be used, and infiltrators who attempt to enter America without using a checkpoint should be subject to engagement. Yes, I am advocating the killing of defenseless women and children who cross the Rio Grande. If we kill enough of them, others will stop following them, and temporary workers coming to work here will use border stations like legal temporary workers should.

I am under no illusions whatsoever that these measures will actually be implemented.

Naysayers will claim that the economic impact would be significant. I think that we could handle the turbulence. The impact would be significant on those employers who rely on cheap illegal labor. Too bad.

There would be negative impact on Mexico. Too bad. Millions of Mexican workers could still come here to work, but they would have to do so under the provisions of government programs. This would create a vast new bureaucracy. As much as I hate bureaucracy.....this would amount to the creation of new jobs. It has to be pointed out.

Or....we can pussyfoot around until we have a bunch of angry young Muslim men comfortably ensconced in our cities, preparing to visit our shopping malls and open fire.

Our day of reckoning has not yet come. September 11....was just a taste.

We have no security in America today. We will pay a price for this complacency, and for our lack of efficiency.

If I ever live on the mainland again, and it is far from certain that I will ever return to the US....you will find me up in the hills, armed to the teeth. My guns will be legal. But my defensive security layers will be concentric, they will be both active and passive, and when the conflagrations begin in America, as I believe that they will sometime in the next ten years, you had best not come knocking uninvited, or unannounced. Those who need to know will always know the running password.

Others....should go sell encyclopedias elsewhere.

**The Reaper** · 03-24-2005, 11:27

Hey, Magician:

Good to see that you are awake today!

You can bunk up here if you need to. Not in the hills, yet, but have a plan.

TR

Gypsy · 03-24-2005, 12:48

Quote:

Originally Posted by magician

I call a spade a spade: our government has not historically done its job where border security is concerned, and I do not believe that it is doing its job now.

Or....we can pussyfoot around until we have a bunch of angry young Muslim men comfortably ensconced in our cities, preparing to visit our shopping malls and open fire.

Magic Man...you have succintly put into the written word thoughts I've had in my head for eons.

I believe they are already here...

magician · 03-28-2005, 07:40

sorry for the digression....feel free to split this off, if you think appropriate.

from : http://www.washtimes.com/national/20...5306-7868r.htm

Gang will target Minuteman vigil on Mexico border
By Jerry Seper
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
Published March 28, 2005

NACO, Ariz. -- Members of a violent Central America-based gang have been sent to Arizona to target Minuteman Project volunteers, who will begin a monthlong border vigil this weekend to find and report foreigner sneaking into the United States, project officials say.

James Gilchrist, a Vietnam veteran who helped organize the vigil to protest the federal government's failure to control illegal immigration, said he has been told that California and Texas leaders of Mara Salvatrucha, or MS-13, have issued orders to teach "a lesson" to the Minuteman volunteers.

"We're not worried because half of our recruits are retired trained combat soldiers," Mr. Gilchrist said. "And those guys are just a bunch of punks."

More than 1,000 volunteers are expected to take part in the Minuteman vigil, which will include civilian patrols along a 20-mile section of the San Pedro River Valley, which has become a frequent entry point to the United States for foreigner headed north.

About 40 percent of the 1.15 million foreign nationals caught last year by the U.S. Border Patrol trying to gain illegal entry to the United States were apprehended along a 260-mile stretch of the Arizona border here known as the Tucson sector.

Many of the Minuteman volunteers are expected to be armed, although organizers of the border vigil have prohibited them from carrying rifles. Only those people with a license to carry a handgun will be allowed to do so, Mr. Gilchrist said.

An operational plan calls for teams of four to eight volunteers to be deployed along the targeted 20-mile stretch of border at intervals of 200 to 300 yards, along with observation posts and a command center.

Mr. Gilchrist said some of the patrols and posts will be right on the U.S.-Mexico border, while others will be located farther north. The volunteers also have been told to "make lots of noise and burn campfires at night to be very visible."

According to guidelines issued to the volunteers earlier this month, organizers said they expect that they will be targeted by various protest groups and others and that some protesters would try to provoke confrontations.

"If we are to send the message loud and clear to President Bush and Congress, it is imperative we stay within the law," Mr. Gilchrist said.

"If one single person steps over the line for their personal gratification, we are all stained with that irresponsible behavior and labeled forever as a fringe element that embarrasses all who are counting on us to make this historic statement," he said.

The MS-13 gang has established major smuggling operations in several areas along the U.S.-Mexico border and have transported hundreds of Central and South Americans -- including gang members -- into the United States in the past two years. The gang also is involved in drug and weapons smuggling.

Gang members in America have been tied to numerous killings, robberies, burglaries, carjackings, extortion, rapes and aggravated assaults. Authorities said that the gang has earned a reputation from the other street gangs as being particularly ruthless and that it will retaliate violently when challenged.

The MS-13 gang, with 20,000 members nationwide, has risen in recent months to such prominence that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the investigative arm of the Department of Homeland Security, has begun a nationwide crackdown on gang members in this country -- as part of a sweeping law-enforcement initiative known as Operation Community Shield.

ICE agents arrested more than 100 members of the gang during limited raids that began in January in just six cities, including 35 who were taken into custody in Virginia and Maryland. The authorities said MS-13 gang members originally moved into the Los Angeles area in the 1980s.

aricbcool · 03-29-2005, 19:25

""We're not worried because half of our recruits are retired trained combat soldiers," Mr. Gilchrist said. "And those guys are just a bunch of punks.""

Well put.

jatx · 03-29-2005, 21:44

Quote:

Originally Posted by aricbcool

""We're not worried because half of our recruits are retired trained combat soldiers," Mr. Gilchrist said. "And those guys are just a bunch of punks.""

Well put.

Yeah, but they have to leave their long guns at home...

Manstein · 03-29-2005, 21:47

In reference to MS-13 threatening the Minute Men, it was on the news today that the border patrol was adding 500 new agents to the Arizona border. (2 days before the Minute Men start their patrols.)

This doesn't surprise me the least bit. The Bush administration has openly criticised the Minute Men as "vigilantes", choosing to side with the Mexicans (as usual) If there is a significant drop in the illegal immigration coming through Arizona in the next month, Bush can always claim that it was more due to the 500 agents than the Minute Men. Just my observation.

However, it is nice to see the border tightening up for once. No complaints there.

12B4S · 03-29-2005, 22:58

Quote:

Originally Posted by Manstein

In reference to MS-13 threatening the Minute Men, it was on the news today that the border patrol was adding 500 new agents to the Arizona border. (2 days before the Minute Men start their patrols.)

This doesn't surprise me the least bit. The Bush administration has openly criticised the Minute Men as "vigilantes", choosing to side with the Mexicans (as usual) If there is a significant drop in the illegal immigration coming through Arizona in the next month, Bush can always claim that it was more due to the 500 agents than the Minute Men. Just my observation.

However, it is nice to see the border tightening up for once. No complaints there.

Yes, there will be 500 more agents commited for the border down here. Approx.150 immediately. The rest when they finish training (whenever that is) and the general opinion here is, the added manpower is a direct result of the Minute Man operation.
Thre is one other group who has decided to jump into the pot. That wonderful organization, The ACLU. Of course they will be there to watch the Minute Men and protect the illegals. Perhaps, the MS13 punks will mistake the ACLU pukes for the Minute Men.

Then round them up(seeing how it was so nice of them to gather all together in the desert and ship them off to the area in Pakistan, where UBL supposedly is hiding. They're tough, they'll get him.