Iraq Wrapup - Nov 16, 2004

R.I.P. Margaret Hassan

Apparently Margaret Hassan, British aid worker has been murdered. This maybe the most despicable of all the killings by Iraqi militants. Hassan had lived in Iraq for 30 years and spent the past 12 years heading the Iraq chapter of Care International, an aid agency. She didn't flee during the first Gulf War and she stayed in the country throughout Saddam's regime. She urged the British government not to join in the current war, but returned to Iraq to help aid the humanitarian crisis she believed would result. Read a biography here.

U.S. Soldier Kills Wounded Insurgent

From the BBC:

The US military has announced it is looking into whether an American marine in Falluja shot dead a severely wounded Iraqi insurgent at point-blank range.

Television footage shows US soldiers entering a building as injured prisoners lie on the floor.

The soldier, who has not been identified, has been removed from the field and faces possible charges.

...

"Then one of the marines points his rifle at the head of one of the injured, an old man, saying, 'He's faking he's dead'," Mr Sites' description continues.

"The sound of a shot is then heard. And in the background, another soldier says, 'Well, he's dead now'."

Anybody who doesn't think there are problems with the manner in which the U.S. Army conducts itself is kidding themselves. First, Abu Ghraib and now this, and I've read other reports of civilians and insurgents getting very harsh treatment at the hands of the U.S. soldiers. If this incident hadn't been captured on video would we have ever heard about it?

Saddam Made $21 billion from Oil for Food Program

Still more from the BBC:

Saddam Hussein's Iraq made more than $21bn (£11.3bn) from illicit oil sales and kickbacks in breach of UN sanctions, the US Senate has heard.

The figure is double the $10bn quoted in a CIA report on Iraqi weapons.

....

Out of a total of $21.3bn, $17.3bn came from abuses during the oil-for-food programme. Within this:

$9.7bn from oil smuggling

$4.4bn in kickbacks from contracts for humanitarian goods

$2.1bn from substituting low-quality goods for high-quality ones

$403m from overseas investment of illicitly earned funds

$241m from surcharges on oil sales