A Family In Baghdad from July notes the stages of the occupation:

The latest trend in Iraq in the last months is that of the militias, which raid residential neighborhoods in broad daylight, or in the dead of night, breaking through the curfew hours, and none of the occupation forces or the official Iraqi police can control them, or deter their attacks and protect the civilian residents... they enter residential areas, attacking mosques, burning them, killing the Imam and the security group. (are these Muslims? In all our lives, we never heard of a Muslim who attacks a mosque and burns it. Who are these? Magies? Infidels? Zionists? No one knows). Or they might have some seeking eyes in collaboration with them in the neighborhood, who give them lists of the families there and their "kinds"; these are Sunnies, those are Shia'ats.

Riverbend tells of persecution of females.

Since the beginning of July, the men in our area have been patrolling the streets. Some of them patrol the rooftops and others sit quietly by the homemade road blocks we have on the major roads leading into the area. You cannot in any way rely on Americans or the government. You can only hope your family and friends will remain alive- not safe, not secure- just alive. That's good enough.

For me, June marked the first month I don't dare leave the house without a hijab, or headscarf. I don't wear a hijab usually, but it's no longer possible to drive around Baghdad without one. It's just not a good idea. (Take note that when I say `drive' I actually mean `sit in the back seat of the car'- I haven't driven for the longest time.) Going around bare-headed in a car or in the street also puts the family members with you in danger. You risk hearing something you don't want to hear and then the father or the brother or cousin or uncle can't just sit by and let it happen. I haven't driven for the longest time. If you're a female, you risk being attacked.

...I realized how common it had become only in mid-July when M., a childhood friend, came to say goodbye before leaving the country. She walked into the house, complaining of the heat and the roads, her brother following closely behind. It took me to the end of the visit for the peculiarity of the situation to hit me. She was getting ready to leave before the sun set, and she picked up the beige headscarf folded neatly by her side. As she told me about one of her neighbors being shot, she opened up the scarf with a flourish, set it on her head like a pro, and pinned it snuggly under her chin with the precision of a seasoned hijab-wearer. All this without a mirror- like she had done it a hundred times over... Which would be fine, except that M. is Christian.

United Nations Iraqi Human Rights Report May-June 2006 notes more than 5800 Iraqis killed during this one-month period. The Iraqi Ministry of Health reported at least 50,000 people had been violently killed in Iraq since 2003.

From October 2005 to 30 June 2006 at least twelve homosexuals were reportedly killed in targeted attacks. Militias are reportedly threatening families of men believed to be homosexual, stating that they will begin killing family members unless the men are handed over or killed by the family. In March 2006, a 29-year-old man was kidnapped in Baghdad and his family threatened for allowing him to lead a homosexual lifestyle. The family paid a ransom for the man's release but the mutilated body of the kidnapped victim was instead found dead a few days later. In another case reported a homosexual man was allegedly a victim of an "honor crime." It was reported in the press that the man's father was released without trial once he explained that he had hanged his son after discovering he was homosexual.

The report notes that kidnappings have increased the most over the last month of this report. Intimidation of women, homosexuals and religious minorities has also increased. Attacks are carried out at a neighborhood level.

Rash of gay killings in Iraq over the last eight months (as of July).

Ali Hili, founder and spokesperson for the exile group LGBT Iraqis U.K., said Islamic death squads came to life in response to Sistani's fatwa and brought about an atmosphere of terror among gays. He said some death squad members arranged meetings with gays through chat rooms by posing as gays themselves, then captured and sometimes assaulted or killed their targeted victims.

Even in "peaceful" Jordan, honor killings of women account for ONE-THIRD of all violent deaths.

The military occupation of Iraq offers its own dangers for women, as we have seen. An Iraqi medic testified earlier this month about the well-publicized rape, murder and burning of fourteen year old Iraqi girl, Abeer Qassem al-Janabi.

The medic, whose name was withheld for security reasons, told the hearing that he was the first responder to enter the house and found the girl sprawled naked in the house, her torso and head burned by flames. She had a single bullet wound under her left eye, he said.

He testified that he found Abeer's 5-year-old sister, Hadeel, in an adjacent room. She was shot in the head and the bullet had blown out the back of her head, he said. The children's father, Qassim, and their mother, Fikhriya - had suffered similar deaths: the mother's abdomen and chest were riddled with bullets, he said.

Ordinary Iraqis are paying with their lives every day because George Bush used the invasion of Iraq as a political tool. By a vote of 77-23, the Senate voted for Bush's Iraqi War Resolution. Members of the House voted for the resolution by a 296-133 vote. In other words, there are only 156 members of the elected federal government who are not complicit in these war crimes.

The vote achieved one Republican aim by sharply dividing democrats nearly evenly between those who voted for and against the resolution.

ALL REPUBLICANS except for Lincoln Chaffee voted for this resolution. Byrd tried to filibuster, but was defeated. He called the resolution "the Gulf of Tonkin" all over again. John McCain was especially vocal in his support, declaring that allowing time for the U.N. to verify weapons claims, or "giving peace a chance" (his words) only allowed Saddam time to re-arm.

Video Collages set to music (warning: graphic footage):

Masters of War

Psycho Killer

The Emperor Shrugged

For What It's Worth

As Iraq sinks further into civil war, this comment gives some perspective:

It took the UN assistance mission in Iraq to help publicise the existence of alleged Shia death squads operating within the ministry of the interior. Only in a confidential report would the UK government talk of these militias as frankly as Ambassador Patey did: "If we are to avoid a descent into civil war and anarchy then preventing the Jaish al-Mahdi (the Mahdi Army) from developing into a state within a state, as Hizbullah has done in Lebanon, will be a priority."

The Iraqi human rights ministry investigates abuses in prisons and detention facilities, but the new minister, Wijdan Mikha'il, admitted to me that her investigators are sometimes too frightened to report what they find. The day before we met in June, she had delivered to the US authorities her unpublished investigation of the massacre at Haditha, where US marines were accused of killing up to 24 civilians; she told me that it was an attempt to introduce independent oversight. ("How can they do the investigation all by themselves if they were responsible for the incident? Who will believe them?")

The fury that I feel toward the U.S. government with their blythe spirit of war can only be matched by the fury I feel toward the Islamists who engage in honor killings of females and homosexuals, whether at war or in peace.

(originally posted here

I didn't see this here, but apologies in advance if I have missed a previous post.