Electronic Iraq : eIraq in the Press

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Mon, 18 Dec 2006 16:00:00 CST

Iraq has been in the news a lot more than usual after the release of the Iraqi Study Group's report a couple of weeks back. While you may have heard about the document, you may be feeling a little in the dark about what the report was and just what the situation really is in Iraq. The internet, as usual, has come to the rescue with some sites that may cast a little light on the subject. Electronic Iraq is another informative site and an article on the page has declared that the study group's report was ''the policy equivalent of a stillbirth'' but the eIraq Blog ''seems to be getting to the heart of the matter'' if you take the word of one American journalist.

Web Winners | Iraq study group

Sun, 10 Dec 2006 23:58:00 CST

To complement the landing of the much-anticipated report of the Iraq Study Group, urging quick changes and an end to the U.S. combat role by early 2008 to stop a "slide towards chaos," we searched for sites likely to increase our understanding of the issues -- or, failing that, to make us smile in the face of disaster. Electronic Iraq. An article here had already declared the study group report "the policy equivalent of a still birth." The site's eIraq Blog seems to be getting to the heart of matters with posts such as "Americans Blame Iraqis, Iraqis blame Americans."

The Horror: Web Postings from Iraqis

Tue, 28 Nov 2006 12:47:00 CST

Cries of desperation: As if we needed more examples of the chaos our government has wrought in Iraq, here are some truly chilling Web postings from inside the country. I have (possibly unwisely -- hello Washington goons!) been monitoring several related Web sites: Electronic Intifada, Electronic Iraq and Electronic Lebanon. These sites provide some insight (if they are real, and they certainly seem so, but check them out for yourself) into the situation on the ground in Iraq, Lebanon and other Middle Eastern hotspots, as well as news and analysis not filtered through the Western press.

"Stand here on these streets and you will know this is civil war..."

Tue, 28 Nov 2006 10:33:00 CST

CNN Baghdad correspondent Michael Ware insists Iraq is experiencing a civil war and refers to a piece from Electronic Iraq's "Iraq Diaries" to illustrate his point. "You stand here on these streets," Ware says, "you take shelter in these families' homes. You dare to try to go out and try to go to work or, indeed, shop at a marketplace and you will know that this is civil war."

We have done as much harm to Iraqis as Saddam

Mon, 23 Oct 2006 18:40:00 CST

On Saturday, I spent 10 hours watching The Royal Shakespeare Company's Henry VI parts I, II and III in Stratford. This tour de force swept us through battles between the French and the English, courtier plots against a sweetly pious and weak Henry, popular dissent, the Wars of the Roses and the breakdown of words, trust and society itself. Killings ravaged the land until the endgame. In the final scene the victorious Edward IV's white train turns red with blood sloshing on the floor. He doesn't notice the spreading stain, so occupied is he with his crown and with power.

Fox's fight for peace shouldn't be in vain

Tue, 14 Mar 2006 06:38:00 CST

The discovery of peace activist Tom Fox's body in Iraq Thursday was, sadly, not unexpected. But the murder of Fox, 54, a Virginia resident with Guilford College ties, still was shocking in its senselessness and brutality. We should deeply consider his own words, from a reflection he wrote for electronicIraq.net the day before he was abducted: "As I survey the landscape here in Iraq, dehumanization seems to be the operative means of relating to each other. ... 'Why are we here?' We are here to root out all aspects of dehumanization that exists within us. ...We are here to stop people, including ourselves, from dehumanizing any of God's children, no matter how much they dehumanize their own souls."

Love Your Enemies

Wed, 07 Dec 2005 11:27:00 CST

Living in Iraq, Tom Fox wrote of his struggles to transcend rage and fear, to forgive his enemies even as they threatened his life and murdered people around him. Now his faith is being put to the ultimate test. On Nov. 26 in Baghdad, the 54-year-old musician from Virginia and three other volunteers with the pacifist group Christian Peacemaker Teams were kidnapped by a previously unknown band of insurgents calling themselves the Swords of Truth Brigade. This weekend, their captors released a video threatening to execute the four men unless all the prisoners in Iraqi and coalition custody are released by Thursday, Dec. 8.

USA TODAY Hot Sites: Electronic Iraq

Tue, 16 Nov 2004 14:02:00 CST

Follow the news, no matter where it takes you: This journal, begun before the most recent war, includes on-the-scene reportage and commentary from that tortured nation. Brought to the Net by the folks at Electronic Intifada and Voices in the Wilderness, the stories here document a side of the conflict that�s hard to take, but necessary if you hope to understand events half a world away.

U. Hawaii professor advocates diverse media sources

Wed, 27 Oct 2004 08:46:00 CST

Ibrahim G. Aoude, a professor of ethnic studies at the University of Hawai'i at Manoa, said Americans should not limit themselves to using U.S. media alone to get informed on issues. Aoude recommends electronicIraq.net, which features articles that are usually not found on many U.S. mainstream Web sites. Currently, electroniciraq.net has an article that tells about an Iraqi's brutal experience with American forces. According to the article, the 24- year-old was mistreated by U.S. soldiers when they broke into his family's home and cracked his nose with a gun barrel.

Electronic Iraq featured in book declaring dissent patriotic

Sun, 24 Oct 2004 20:19:00 CST

Electronic Iraq co-founder Laurie King-Irani is one of nearly forty authors featured in a new book, Patriotism, Democracy and Common Sense: Restoring America's Promise at Home and Abroad, published by the Milton S. Eisenhower Foundation of Washington, DC. The book aims to educate Americans about alternatives to current US foreign, economic, Middle East, domestic, media, campaign finance, and voting rights policies. King-Irani's chapter, "Awakening the American Political Debate on Palestine and Israel," examines the role of the internet in building networks of citizen-activists to confront two of the most pressing issues of US foreign policy: the ongoing Israeli occupation of Palestinian land and US violations of international law in Iraq.

Mainstream Media Scooped On Prison Story

Fri, 14 May 2004 19:19:00 CST

The nation and much of the mainstream U.S. media were stunned by the recent revelations of abuse of Iraqi detainees by U.S. military personnel at the Abu Ghraib prison. But for Dahr Jamail, the disclosures were no surprise. Jamail, a free-lance writer from Alaska, for months has been interviewing Iraqis who say they have been abused by U.S. forces and telling their stories in dispatches on alternative news Internet sites, in reports for Pacifica Radio "Flashpoints" and even on noncommercial radio station WHUS in Storrs. [...] During his first trip in 2003, he wrote reports for electroniciraq.net and other anti-war alternative sites, including a story of a former prisoner who had electrocution burns on his feet and head and was in a coma when U.S. forces released him.

Iraq prison scandal at its most graphic

Sun, 09 May 2004 08:50:00 CST

Photos of Iraqi prisoners being humiliated by U.S. soldiers popped up all over the Web last week as the Internet once again proved to be the place millions of people turned to get the scoop on a big story. Among the many activist sites covering the escalating prisoner scandal were ElectronicIraq (electroniciraq.net) and AlterNet.org (www.alternet.org).

Is the UN Returning to Iraq as US Front?

Wed, 04 Feb 2004 10:30:00 CST

Pressed by the United States, the United Nations will send an electoral team to assess the feasibility of holding nation-wide elections in Iraq before the end of June. But some observers doubt the world body will be able to present an unbiased perspective of the view on the ground, because of U.S. opposition to the proposed vote. Ali Abunimah, a co-founder of the online website 'Electronic Iraq', told IPS it is reasonable to assume the Bush administration is afraid of the ''wrong people'' being elected. Inter Press Service reports.

Doubts grow as U.N. readies Iraq elections team

Tue, 03 Feb 2004 05:12:00 CST

Pressed by the United States, the United Nations will soon send a team of experts to assess the feasibility of holding nation-wide elections in Iraq before the end of June. Ali Abunimah, a co-founder of the online website 'Electronic Iraq', told IPS it is reasonable to assume the Bush administration is afraid of the "wrong people" being elected. "We can only guess at U.S. motives, but it is very ironic that Bush went to war supposedly to bring democracy to the Iraqi people, and now hundreds and thousands of Iraqis are marching for elections that the United States does not want to have," he added.

UPI reports blocking of eIraq website

Mon, 05 Jan 2004 12:48:00 CST

In a sign that things in Iraq are not quite as rosy as the Pentagon spin-doctors would have our troops believe, Web administrators in one of the military bases in Baghdad have blocked access to the Electronic Iraq Web site. The official explanation for the action is that "unnecessary" and "advocacy group," which they've decided that eIraq is. EIraq spokeswoman Laurie King-Irani commented, "The blocking of the site by the army is really counterproductive because as the daily attacks on U.S. forces indicate, the commanders of U.S. armed forces in Iraq are culturally illiterate and operating in a very nebulous environment, where they need all the information they can get." Computer-savvy soldiers can still access the information by clicking on Google's cached version of the site.

Interview: Saddam's Capture, WMDs and the U.S. Occupation of Iraq

Tue, 16 Dec 2003 12:03:00 CST

Hasan Abu Nimah (Henry Leutwyler)

Democracy Now! interviewed Electronic Iraq correspondent and former Jordanian Ambassador to the United Nations, Hassan Abu Nimah. Abu Nimah recently returned from Cairo, Egypt where he met with Arab officials from across the Middle East. In this interview he discusses Saddam's capture, WMDs and the U.S. occupation of Iraq. Format: Real Video -- Watch 128k stream | Watch 256k stream | Listen to the interview with Real Audio. The interview begins at 36:25 on the timeline in the 59 minute show.

War is our Common Enemy

Sat, 29 Nov 2003 14:36:00 CST

Launched in February 2003 to "offer a humanitarian perspective during the then-looming conflict" in Iraq, Electronic Iraq (eIraq) is the project of two groups who will be familiar to many PN readers - Voices in the Wilderness (US) and Electronic Intifada. Peace News caught up with Nigel Parry, co-founder of both projects, to discuss the ethos behind this online information project. Peace News is a progressive publication that has been publishing since 1936.

The Bush administration's camouflage

Sun, 03 Aug 2003 17:29:00 CST

Instead of recognizing the desires of the people of the Middle East to benefit from their oil and other resources, the U.S. government is planning to change the nature of Iraq and to try to change the nature of the Middle East. The model they have is not a model that has proven itself to benefit the majority of people. Rather it is a model that provides for the privatization of the resources of a nation and for indebting the nation to foreign interests. The Bush administration has given the responsibility for the "reconstruction" of Iraq to the U.S. Secretary of Defense. The plans, according to a summary recently carried at the electronicIraq.net web site, "are definitely not to rebuild Iraq in the way it was before Phase III of this war."

eIraq "Voices of Peace" acceptance speech at ADC conference

Fri, 20 Jun 2003 10:19:00 CST

Two Electronic Iraq co-founders, Ali Abunimah and Nigel Parry, were at the 20th National Convention of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee in Washington DC on 14 June 2003 to accept the ADC's Voices of Peace Award on behalf of the founders of Electronic Iraq and sister site The Electronic Intifada. The award was presented "in recognition of its commitment to bringing the concerns, voices, and experiences of the Iraqi and Palestinian peoples to audiences the world over via the Internet." What follows is the complete text of the acceptance speeches, which were shortened on the night.

eIraq accepts Voices of Peace award at ADC conference (video)

Wed, 18 Jun 2003 14:58:00 CST

Two Electronic Iraq co-founders, Ali Abunimah and Nigel Parry, were at the 20th National Convention of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee in Washington DC on 14 June 2003 to accept the ADC's Voices of Peace Award on behalf of the founders of Electronic Iraq and sister site The Electronic Intifada. The award was presented to eIraq and EI "in recognition of its commitment to bringing the concerns, voices, and experiences of the Iraqi and Palestinian peoples to audiences the world over via the Internet." [Quicktime format, 7.8MB]