not that this list really matters

(seems that if you're a 'bud' to the states, no matter HOW repressive a society you are, you don't get put on THE list). more horrid news out of iraq. who stirred the pot?

Panel cites gross violations of religious freedom in Iraq

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Soaring sectarian violence and government abuses have caused an alarming deterioration in religious freedom in Iraq, prompting a U.S. advisory panel for the first time to place it on a watch list of countries where worship is under severe threat.
Citing gross violations of the rights of Sunni and Shiite Muslims, as well as followers of numerous minority beliefs, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom added Iraq to its "watch list" on Wednesday. Violations included arbitrary arrests, torture and rape.......

............"Despite ongoing efforts to stabilize the country, successive Iraqi governments have not adequately curbed the growing scope and severity of human rights abuses," it said, describing an "alarming and deteriorating situation for freedom of religion and belief."...............

..........."The Iraqi government has engaged in human rights violations through its state security forces, including arbitrary arrest, prolonged detention without due process, extrajudicial executions and systematic torture," it said.............

............For example, the commission had long recommended that Saudi Arabia, a key U.S. ally, be named a "country of particular concern" for its refusal to recognize any religion other than Islam. It was finally so designated in 2005 but enjoys an executive waiver from sanctions.
The government has also resisted naming two other anti-terror allies, Pakistan and Turkmenistan, countries "of particular concern" despite the panel's recommendations..............

and

Iraq on Watch List of Nations That Violate Religious Rights


By Alan Cooperman Washington Post Staff Writer Thursday, May 3, 2007; Page A10
For the first time since the U.S. invasion in 2003, a high-level advisory panel has placed Iraq on a watch list of countries that violate religious freedom, saying the government there engages in extrajudicial killings based on religious identity.
In its annual recommendations to the State Department yesterday, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom stopped short of naming Iraq a "country of particular concern" -- a label reserved for the worst perpetrators.............

........But Michael Cromartie, a GOP appointee, said that "there's enough blurring of the lines between government actors and non-government actors that it doesn't seem fair" to put Iraq in the worst category...............

(perhaps mr cromartie wants to take a trip to iraq and attempt to worship however he usually does, if at all. i'd really like to see that happen)

the berlin wall

nope, THE BAGHDAD WALL

THIS my dears IS progress???

wtf????????????????????????????????????????


U.S. to cut off Baghdad neighborhood with barrier
Commanders hope the wall will prevent attacks on the Sunni Arab districts it surrounds.

By Edmund Sanders, Times Staff Writer

BAGHDAD -- A U.S. military brigade is constructing a three-mile-long concrete wall to cut off one of the capital's most restive Sunni Arab districts from the Shiite Muslim neighborhoods that surround it, raising concern about the further Balkanization of Iraq's most populous and violent city.U.S. commanders in northern Baghdad say the 12-foot-high barrier will make it more difficult for suicide bombers, death squads and militia fighters from sectarian factions to attack one another and slip back to their home turf. Construction began last week and is expected to be completed by the end of the month.Although Baghdad is replete with blast walls, checkpoints and other temporary barriers, including a massive wall around the Green Zone, the wall being constructed in Adhamiya would be the first to essentially divide a neighborhood by sect............

as if these figures weren't bad enough....

of course this is only the TIP of the iceburg. these figures are underreported. there is not a doubt in my mind

these figures were released by the PENTAGON too. NOT some 'liberal' left wing commie source

Pentagon Issues Dire Look At End of '06 in Iraq


By Ann Scott Tyson Washington Post Staff Writer Thursday, March 15, 2007; Page A15
The Pentagon yesterday released its bleakest assessment of Iraq yet, reporting record levels of violence and hardening sectarian divisions in the last quarter of 2006 as rival Sunni and Shiite militias waged campaigns of "sectarian cleansing" that forced as many as 9,000 civilians to flee the country each month.
Weekly attacks in Iraq rose to more than 1,000 during the period and average daily casualties increased to more than 140, with Iraqi civilians bearing the brunt of the violence -- nearly 100 killed or wounded a day, according to statistics in the Pentagon's latest congressionally required quarterly report on security in Iraq.................