Medea Benjamin at New College Cultural Center July 16, 2003

After taking a two-week trip to Baghdad, Medea Benjamin returned bearing gifts for all the listeners.  Bringing us her knowledge and renewed vigor to fight against the occupation of Iraq by the Bush Administration.  She showed the standing room only crowd the truth behind the thin veil of the Bush Mob and their cronies in the corporate media.

Medea Benjamin has been one of America’s most visible and, well, active activists.  Co-founder of anti-sweatshop and fair-trade crusaders Global Exchange, major party-crasher of utility commission hearings during California’s energy crisis, one-time Green Party candidate for US Senate, she has recently conducted reality tours of war-ravaged Afghanistan and co-founded Code Pink and now the Occupation Watch Center in Baghdad and the San Francisco Bay Area.

Most of this article is paraphrasing Medea’s comments.  If I in any way misinterpreted her comments, please forgive me.  I did not have a tape recorder.  I took notes with a Sharpie on the backs of flyers.

She began by stating that the current events in Iraq are the classic definition of a quagmire.  She made this trip so she could provide a rare eye-witness account of just how the American people are being lied to.  Medea also went to Baghdad to set up the operation of the Occupation Watch Center’s Baghdad Network.  This network has Iraqis telling their story as it was unfolded during the ongoing war and continues with the occupation.  You can hear them begin to finally relay the horrors of Saddam Hussein.  During his reign they were too afraid to speak about the atrocities behind close doors.  Now those doors are open and people are beginning to talk.  This network is here for those that want to speak. 

A regular story that Medea heard was the tale of the two Ali Babas.  An Ali Baba in Iraq is a thief that comes in the night and with his weapons and means of intimidation steals not just food, but dignity from the people.  These two Ali Babas are commonly known in Iraq now as Saddam and George W. Bush.  They make several comparisons, especially because of the occupation and how the war was broadcast in the media.  The soldiers of the Republican Army actually claim that they won the war because they refused to fight for Saddam Hussein.  They had the knowledge of the sophisticated weaponry of the United States and the sheer numbers of troops and decided that if they did not fight, Saddam would fall and the United States would bring them freedom and democracy. 

Now that the occupation has taken it’s firm police state hold, the Iraqis feel they have been lied to and their culture is being stolen, so guerrilla warfare has begun.  US troops are now attacked 25 times a day (up from 13 times a day).  The majority of the people of Iraq are only giving the United States a short amount of time to bring them some of the smallest comforts of civilization, such as electricity.  If we do not provide this necessity, they will revolt.  It is only a matter of months until they begin taking up arms to demand their freedom. 

After Gulf War One when King George I bombed the electrical grid, Saddam Hussein restored power to the Iraqi people within two months.  It has now been more than 4 months and no one has restored the electrical grid.  When the Iraqis ask the United States Military, they reply that it is not their job.  Not having electricity not only means that there is no air conditioning in this desert climate, but there is no means to:

• Store food.  Any perishable food has no shelf life from the heat,
• Run their businesses and factories.  Owners and investors are bankrupt with no means of production.
• Pump water.  The water that is stored is now becoming contaminated, making conditions ripe for cholera. 
• Pump gasoline.  Because of this there are very few taxis and no public transportation.  Cars are an extremely valuable commodity and there are violent car jackings every day, during all times of the day.

“If you got the rags of civilization back in place, like water and electricity, then people will realize it isn’t okay to loot, says Cliff G. Mumm, Bechtel’s Iraq project chief (Forbes Magazine, Issue for June 23, 2003).  This same article states that 30 -100 billion dollars is needed to repair and rebuild Iraq.  The Bush Administration is spending 4 billion dollars every month on the occupation.  The US Agency for International Development (US AID) has only doled out 5% of the total award to Bechtel.  No more money can be given without an approved job order from the agency, Office of Management and Budget and their notification to Congress.  If we want the occupation to end, we need to apply the pressure to Congress and by sending letters to US AID.

Saddam Hussein was also able to restore the telephone system two months after it was destroyed in Gulf War One.  Yes, you guessed it; there is no phone service yet for the Iraqis either.  But wait, the Americans have brought in a friend of the Bushes to restore phone service free of charge for the Iraqis.  This friend is none other than MCI WorldCom.  MCI is giving out cellular phones to anyone who wants one in Iraq, free of charge.  These telephones can call to anywhere in the world for free.  The area code for these telephones is 914 - Westchester County (White Plains, NY).  Medea and others from Occupation Watch picked up a few of these telephones and are now able to conduct their business with the Baghdad Watch Center volunteers for free.

The US Military has taken away all the guns and badges from the Iraqi police force, even though hundreds of thousands of guns are still in the hands of civilians.  Instead they have issued them yellow dog tags.  These tags identify them as part of the new legitimate force.  However, the tags are written in English, so the policemen themselves cannot read what is on the tags.

Women are in terrible fear.  They will not leave their homes and do not let their daughters leave the house either.  The threat of rape, abduction and abuse is too high.  Sex trafficking of women of all ages is beginning with the desperation and chaos from the occupation.

Saddam Hussein set up many orphanages in Iraq.  He was an orphan himself so he felt compassion for them.  However, since his downfall, the orphanages are closed.  The children now live in the streets.  They get high on glue and drugs and are becoming victims of prostitution and alcoholism.  After Gulf War One Saddam outlawed all alcohol in Iraq, now it is back. 

During Saddam’s reign there was rent control.  This is also gone now.  Many people are being forced out of their homes.  With their inability to work and the building owners able to charge exhorbitant rent they are being displaced.  The bombed facades of the Ministry buildings in Baghdad are filled with homeless families.  Palestinians were once given refuge in Iraq – now they occupy tent cities in the desert.

Downtown Baghdad is now Ground Zero – a war zone.  Medea stated she saw the war and occupation as a deliberate attempt to destroy the Iraq economy.  There are no tariffs coming in or out of Iraq now.  People are emptying the factories, looting the machinery to be sold outside the country – anything at all to bring them money.  They aren’t able to run them without electricity so they are of no use. 

The Iraqi economy is quickly being privatized.  Iraqi scarves are a regular feature of women’s attire, once made with pride by their own citizens.  They are now manufactured in China.  There are no Iraqi products available in the markets now.  Part of this privatization includes the $680 million dollar reconstruction contract awarded to Bechtel.  Their operations are based from the Sheraton Hotels in Kuwait City (command and communication hub) and Baghdad.  Please read the report from Global Exchange, CorpWatch and Public Citizen.  When Iraqi companies request information on how to achieve a Bechtel contract, they are asked to produce utterly impossible information, given the current state of Iraq.  This includes providing proof of their Liability Insurance, bank accounts and Workmen’s Comp information.  Medea told her listeners that front groups are coming in and taking the contracts while posing as Iraqis.  So far twenty-five contracts have been given, but Bechtel refuses to provide any names or financial information regarding those contracts.  Also, Bechtel won’t guarantee employment for Iraqi people with those contracts.  The people of OWC and Iraqi citizens are putting daily pressure to Bechtel to release this information.

During the sanctions, the Iraqis received food via the U.N.-monitored Food For Oil program.  Since the war and occupation, this program continues, but the performance of the program is lacking.  Started in 1995 by the UN it began the exchange in 1997.  It stopped in March 2003 during the conflict for a brief period, but after receiving notices of extreme need in the country, the program was restarted.  However, the US has now scheduled an end to all the rations effective in November.  This program is currently the only thing keeping them alive.  Without it, Medea predicts food riots and widespread starvation.  ”Today, the lives of 100 percent of the Iraqi population, 27 million people, depend on the provision of monthly food rations,” UNICEF chief representative in Iraq Carel de Roy told Ricardo Grassi of the Inter Press Service on July 1, 2003 in a telephone interview.

There is tremendous cynicism towards the Iraqi Council installed by the United States government.  This front group was placed before democratic elections could be held in Iraq.  The people were planning on electing their own officials, but the US stepped in and said that they would provide leadership for them.  But there are no homeless squatters allowed in what were once Saddam’s many lavish palaces.  They are occupied by none other than failed Texas businessmen and cronies of Dubya and Dick Cheney who have been allowed by the United States to set up house.  Many Iraqis told Medea as far as they were concerned “It’s still the Republican Guard in those palaces”.   Apparently all it takes is a US Passport to gain entrance into one of these palaces (no Iraqis allowed).  If you need some dry cleaning done, they will ship it to Kuwait to be cleaned – free of charge, that is, unless you’re a US taxpayer.

Iraqis told Medea that the US troops are treating them like Saddam did.  They come into their homes in the middle of the night and arrest them while they are in their beds.  The very Iraqi scientists whose cooperation is needed for locating any weapons of mass destruction report being raided in the middle of the night by US commandos, and grilled for hours after hoods are placed over their heads.  It is a scene very similar to the prisoners in Guantanamo Bay.  No reason, no charges, no lawyers, etc. are given – they are just locked up.  Some are held up to six months without an explanation.

Innocent victims of war – those who died from being shot or bombed were unable to receive any compensation because it was a time of war.  However, any innocent victims during the occupation are given a small pittance.  A claim has to be filed and decided from compensation forms filled out.  A short form can receive the equivalence of $2,500, while the long (more difficult to fill out) form can receive $10,000.  The Occupation Watch Center needs to send lawyers to help families fill out these forms to receive compensation.  Advice needs to be given to Iraqis on how to receive aid, assistance and to the US troops about a way out. 

Many of the US Troops hate being there.  In most of the barracks there is no electricity.  There are mites in their bunks.  With the heat factor many soldiers choose to sleep on the top of their armored vehicles for a scant few hours each night.  They are given 1-½ liters of water rations a day.  This water is stored in a big tank on the back of an armored vehicle, heating up in the sun all day.  The water is heavily chlorinated adding toxicity to the warm taste.  They are provided 3 rations of MREs (Meals Ready to Eat) each day and are not allowed to eat any Iraqi food in the markets.

Benjamin claims that most of the soldiers there love what the Occupation Watch Center is doing.  When the troops were told George W. Bush’s recent comments to “Bring 'Em On”, they became enraged and were thoroughly disgusted being set up as bait.  The troops are beginning to realize those against the war and the occupation are the only ones who really care about them.  Some of the soldiers are beginning to rebel, especially when they learn they are not coming home as promised.  Their wives are beginning a revolution of dissent in military bases.  All of this combines for low morale within the troops.

Currently there are 148,000 US troops, 12,000 British and Polish troops, 300 from El Salvador, 350 from Honduras and 1000 Italian Police stationed in Iraq.  The Italians have set up the Ministry of Culture in Iraq.  They are running it without any Iraqi citizens.  In this article released on July 23, 2003 many countries are offering to send troops to Iraq.  However, in a conflicting report published on July 21, 2003, Gen. John Abizaid, the new commander of U.S. forces in Iraq states that all troops will be there for another year and that they will not be asking other countries for assistance.  ''I think our current force levels are about right,'' Abizaid said. ''If the situation gets worse, I won't hesitate to ask for more.''  Another prediction from the Pentagon has US troops occupying Iraq for at least 2 to 5 years!

The Occupation Watch Center is currently located in the Voices in the Wilderness housing center in Baghdad.  They are looking to move it to an Iraqi house on the Tigris River, right across the street from where many of the Ministry buildings once stood.  Currently this part of town is full of thieves, looting from the buildings and those squatting inside.  The OWC have two co-directors, a whole group of journalists, university professors and teacher and other intellectuals and artists joining in to volunteer and work at the Occupation Watch Center.  The more educated Iraqis that Medea spoke to are very well informed about what is going on with the US occupation.  There is tremendous enthusiasm for the generation of information. At a Press Conference held on July 9, 2003 in Baghdad CNN, AP, Al Jazeera, Iraqi and Arabic News bureaus, etc. were there, however neither CNN nor AP carried any news stories about the center.  The Center will function under the auspices of United for Peace and Justice, a U.S. anti-war coalition with more than 600 member groups, with participation from a diversity of international groups including Focus on the Global South, Iraqi Democrats Against Occupation, and members of the World Social Forum. 

The Cities for Peace organization is currently working with various countries for them to all say no to the participation in the occupation.  Currently 164 U.S. cities and counties have passed resolutions opposing war, including the states of Hawaii and Maine.

Delegates to Iraq are needed.  Delegates in the various fields are necessary now: legal, medical and various kinds of research.  The following organizations are helping send them there.  Please contact the Occupation Watch Center, United for Peace and Justice, Global Exchange, or American Friends Service Committee to see how you can help.  Veterans for Peace are currently working to build a water treatment plants throughout Iraq.  They have successfully built six plants throughout Iraq, but more are needed. 

The occupation is a deliberate attempt to destroy their culture.  The constant attacks, the economic issues (including 70% unemployment now) and the problems facing the women and children of Iraq are criminal.  The American pubic must begin to connect the issues.  Connect the facts that we have the largest deficit, a new tax cut for the very rich, high unemployment, a practically null and void constitution and Bill of Rights – they are all connected to the war and occupation in Iraq.

Many say the troops shouldn’t leave now because of the chaos it would create.  Iraqis want a timeline when the troops will be out and they want their country to be led by Iraqis they democratically vote into power.  The Kurds criticized peacekeepers for not saying more about the evils of Saddam Hussein.  So, instead of focusing on how evil the occupation is, the evils of how Saddam Hussein ravaged Iraq, their culture for over twenty-five years, the genocide of the Kurds, etc. cannot be forgotten or discounted.  Iraqis were divided under Saddam’s rule, they are now united against the occupation.  They were manipulated and lied to and are calling for a transition.

It is very dangerous to be an American in Iraq, so there are many other ways you can support to these groups.  Global Exchange has created a list of things you can do to oppose the US military occupation in Iraq.  There is a “The World Says No To Bush” rally in New York City on August 29, 2004.  The Veterans for Peace are having a convention in San Francisco August 8-10, 2003.  You can be part of the massive protest efforts when the WTO meets in Cancun from Sept. 10-13 or when the FTAA meets in Miami November 19-21, 2003. 

From some of my own research (being inspired by writing out my notes from Medea’s talk), I have found some more facts about economic features of the rebuilding of Iraq, the occupation and some of the Bush Administrations plans.  Here is a Bloomberg news feature: Iraq's $326 Billion Debt, War Claims May Complicate Rebuilding, published on May 8, 2003 and in The Observer (UK), this article was written by Faisal Islam, Economics correspondent on July 13, 2003: Outrage at US plan to mortgage Iraqi oil .  An article in Middle East Online published on July 25, 2003 states “US faces daunting task on building Iraqi economy”.

Please find out more details about the occupation through these various links and websites I have offered (all highlighted underlined text).  The incredible work being done by the Occupation Watch Center and all the organizations working together for the effort against the occupation needs your immediate attention.  Thank you.