Iraqi Women Make Rare Trip to U.S. to Tell Their Stories of Life Under Occupation

We turn now to the War in Iraq. Nearly three months after a December election, Iraq's divided political leaders are still fighting over the crucial post of prime minister in the new government. Iraqi president Jalal Talabani said Monday he would convene parliament in six days but there is little chance of forming a unity coalition. Talabani is leading a group of Sunni, Kurds and others opposing Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari's bid for a new term amid anger over the recent surge violence in the country.

In the latest bloodshed, a car bomb in Baquba north of Baghdad killed six people, two of whom were girls under four years old. As many as 1,300 Iraqis were killed the week following the February 22nd bombing of the gold dome of the Askariya shrine in Samarra - one of the holiest sites to Shiite Muslims. It marked one of the bloodiest periods since the U.S. invaded the country nearly three years ago.

While the bloodshed appears to have at least temporarily subsided, the outbreak of violence last week has raised new concerns about where Iraq is headed and the prospect of an outbreak of all-out civil war. But back in Washington, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Peter Pace was asked on NBC's "Meet the Press" how things are going in Iraq. He replied, "I'd say they're going well. I wouldn't put a great big smiley face on it, but I'd say they're going well."

Pace's comments come as Amnesty International releases a new report condemning what it calls the "arbitrary" detention of tens of thousands of people in Iraq. In a new report, the human rights group says the situation has become "a recipe for abuse." Amnesty International UK Director Kate Allen said: "As long as U.S. and U.K. forces hold prisoners in secret detention conditions, torture is much more likely to occur, to go undetected and to go unpunished."

Today we speak about Iraq with Iraqis. This weekend, five Iraqi women arrived in New York City to begin a speaking tour to educate Americans about the reality in Iraq and meet with UN and US officials to call for a peace plan. We are joined by two of them in our firehouse studio:

* Faiza Al-Araji, a civil engineer and blogger. She is a religious Shia with a Sunni husband, and mother of three. After one son was recently held as a political prisoner by the Ministry of the Interior, the family fled to Jordan. Her blog is http://afamilyinbaghdad.blogspot.com
* Eman Ahmad Khamas, journalist, translator and activist. She is a member of the Women's Will organization, which focuses on defining and defending women's rights. For the past three years she has been documenting crimes committed by US and Iraqi forces. She is the former Director of International Occupation Watch Center Baghdad. She is married with two daughters and lives in Baghdad.
* Medea Benjamin, co-founder of Global Exchange and Code Pink that organized the delegation of Iraqi women.

LISTEN ONLINE:
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/03/06/1424239