Category — Project Updates

Dear Friends,

We invite you to Remember Iraq.

In December of 2008, The New York Times reported the shocking fact that, quietly and without much fanfare, all three major US television news networks had removed their full-time correspondents from Iraq. In the wake of the US presidential election, and with the media focusing on problems closer to home, the daily reality for Iraqis has largely disappeared from US headlines.

Despite this, Iraqis need faithful partners as much as ever. That’s why we’re  asking you to organize an educational fundraiser as part of a nationwide effort called “Remember Iraq”.

[Read more →]

Tomorrow is a special day for Iraq, and for Direct Aid Iraq as well.

Tomorrow, the Iraqi Parliament will- insha’allah -select a new Speaker, a step that will decide much of the direction of Iraqi politics in the next months and years.

Tomorrow, the final results of the recent elections will be announced. Many concerns have been raised, and the Iraqi Electoral Commission recently confirmed incidences of fraud in at least 30 polling places. Much depends on the outcome.

Tomorrow, Muntather “Al-Iraqi” (also known as Muntather Al-Zaidi), beaten and jailed for throwing his shoes at former US President Bush during Bush’s final visit to Iraq, will stand before a court to be tried for this act.

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Historian and political analyst Reidar Visser begins his recent analysis of the initial results of the Iraqi elections with these words:

The provisional results of the Iraqi local elections, released today, can be summarised in three main points as far as the areas from Baghdad and southwards are concerned: Maliki and his Daawa party are big winners everywhere and particularly so in the big cities of Basra and Baghdad; the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq (ISCI) has been decimated across the country; fragmentation rather than the emergence of a clear secular “third way” is mostly the rule, with the exception of a respectable 9% for Iraqiyya in Baghdad and a couple of local secular successes (including Karbala).

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• Members of the Iranian-backed Iraqi Supreme Islamic Council were moving freely among polling centers today, and in the streets their representatives gave lots of money to people to vote.

• Many people who have a right to vote were prevented from voting because their names were not on the lists at the polling centers they were told to use [Read more →]