The incident seems to be part of a growing pattern of attacks on Shias since the US pulled out of Iraq last month.

Lisa Mullins gets the latest from reporter Jane Arraf in Iraq.

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Lisa Mullins: I’m Lisa Mullins and this is The World. US troops have come home from Iraq, but the conflict there is far from over. In fact, the violence in Iraq has increased since the last American soldiers left last month. The latest attack came today in Baghdad. A suicide car bomber killed more than 30 people in one of the city’s Shia neighborhoods. Report Jane Arraf is in Iraq.

Jane Arraf: This was an attack that took place actually on a funeral procession, which is pretty horrific and fairly common at the same time. And the neighborhood it took place in, the southeast neighborhood called Zafarniyah is notable really because it’s an ordinary neighborhood, and that’s part of the horror of this that these attacks do tend to take place on easy targets.

Mullins: And it’s a hallmark of what kind of perpetrator? Do we know who is behind it?

Arraf: It’s believed to be al-Qaeda simply because when you have a suicide bomber or suicide car bombs it has traditionally been al-Qaeda in Iraq and affiliated groups that have taken responsibility. In addition, these are all Shia targets and that’s generally what we’re seeing these days as well, and that too is in line with the groups target of stirring up sectarian violence in an attempt apparently, to restart the civil war.

Mullins: From the figures that we’ve been getting, Jane, the amount of violent deaths within Iraq is double this month what it was last January. Is it believed that that’s directly tied to the US troop withdrawal from Iraq last month?

Arraf: Well, that actually was so political that some Iraqis will tell you it’s because the Americans left, although they’ll only tell you that privately. And many Iraqis say it would’ve been worse had the Americans stayed. As it is, what it really points to is that these attacks are going to exist and continue independently of whether foreign troops are here. Now, one of the things that’s missing in this equation is the help that the Americans were able to give the Iraqi security forces. You can’t really protect against somebody who wants to strap on a bomb and blow themselves up, but what you can do is find them first, and that actually requires an intelligence gathering capability, the ability to analyze a single intelligence — some of the things that they lost when the Americans left and some of the things they’re actually trying to work on getting back.

Mullins: Jane, you are in northern Iraq right now in Erbil. You’ve seen a fair amount of the country. Is the violence that we hear about in Baghdad happening elsewhere?

Arraf: Baghdad does tend to be more violent. Having said that, we seen lately a lot of attacks in the south, particularly on Shia pilgrims. Now, the north is a totally different story. It’s a bit like Switzerland here. It’s extremely stable, stable at a cost. They have kept out a lot of the groups that have been here and it’s also stable because it’s almost exclusively Kurdish, so we haven’t seen those attacks here by any means, but certainly there are areas that people are very concerned about outside Baghdad.

Mullins: Reporting from Erbil in northern Iraq, Jane Arraf, thank you.

Arraf: Thank you.

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Photo contained in Naval Criminal Investigative Service report obtained by The Washington Post shows a Marine inspecting a roadside scene near Haditha, Iraq (Photo: US government)

Sgt Frank Wuterich was one of eight Marines originally charged with murder or failure to investigate the killings.

The charges against six of them were dropped or dismissed, and one was acquitted.

Lisa Mullins talks with correspondent Jane Arraf in Baghdad.

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Lisa Mullins: I’m Lisa Mullins and this is The World. A US Marine has pleaded guilty to dereliction of duty in connection with an incident in Iraq known as the Haditha Massacre. Staff Sergeant Frank Wuterich was in command of a squad of marines in the western Iraqi city of Haditha on November 19, 2005. One of his men died when a roadside bomb exploded. What followed is still not clear, but 24 Iraqi civilians were killed by the marines. Now, as part of a plea deal, manslaughter charges against Sergeant Wuterich are being dropped. Cases against all other marines involved have collapsed. Reporter Jane Arraf is in Baghdad. You were in Iraq as well at the time of the incident, Jane. I know at some point you’ve been embedded with this particular marine unit. What was Haditha like at that time in November 2005?

Jane Arraf: Well, I was embedded with a wider unit and really it was an atmosphere all through that year in which they really did believe that everyone was their enemy. Haditha has become one of the tragedies of the war, not just because of the killing of these 24 people, including women and children, but really because it was a case that was seen by a lot of military people as one where they could never have an impact. It was a case where the marines came in. They were few and far between. And it was a huge area. And as people tried to help them, as officials tried to help them, they were assassinated. There were never enough troops to go around in that area. And by the time November 2005 rolled around they were really living in a kind of environment where they were being killed. They believed that they couldn’t trust anyone and everyone was a potential assassin.

Mullins: So as we said, what happened was a roadside bomb went off on this particular day, exploded right next to a marine convoy. One marine was killed. A couple of others were wounded. What’s your understanding based on what was said in court, happened next?

Arraf: According to the staff sergeant he was ordered to clear the houses. Now, when you go in and clear houses you don’t actually knock on the door. You clear a house because you believe that there’s danger there. So what they appear to have done is gone into two houses where they were looking for insurgents, apparently, the insurgents that blew up one of their buddies, and started shooting. Now at the end as we now know, 24 people were dead, including women, children and a 70-year-old man in a wheelchair, clearly no one who posed a threat to him. But again, it’s a case where under their rules of engagement at the time, and rules of engagement that were prevalent in places like that in Iraq, if a commander felt there was any sort of hostile threat, and that goes all the way down a squad leader and others, you could actually start shooting and that is what they did.

Mullins: And were they being shot at?

Arraf: They apparently were not being shot at. They believed at the time that they were under danger. They believed that they were under threat and that was the defense that they used all through this trial, which has we have to remember, lasted for several years. Now, we’ve reached one of the relatives of some of the people killed in Haditha, who also happens to be an Iraqi lawyer, and he says he believes that this is what was intended all along, that they’d just drag on the case until it went away. And that is what he believes has happened.

Mullins: Well, I don’t know to what extent other Iraqis are reacting the same way, but are there cases, maybe similar to this, that would contradict this thought that this would end up in a whitewash?

Arraf: There’s a really deep mistrust here and that’s putting it mildly of what happened during the war, of US motives and of really any attempt to bring people to justice. We have to remember that the milestones of this war aren’t really the schools that were opened, or the highways that were reopened, or security that was brought back to towns that were undergoing violence. Really what people will remember here are the horrible things like Haditha, like the rape and murder of a little girl named Abir, like the Blackwater killings, and those are the things that will remain in people’s minds for generations. This is not a country, not a community that forgets these things and it’s part of the reason why today there are no US soldiers here. It’s part of the reason why Iraq insisted that they be subject to immunity, and part of the reason why the US could never agree to that.

Mullins: All right, thank you, speaking to us from Baghdad, Iraq, reporter Jane Arraf, thanks.

Arraf: Thank you.

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The bombings are the worst in months – and follow within days of the withdrawal of US troops.

They come amid fears of rising sectarian tensions as the unity government faces internal divisions.

Host Lisa Mullins talks with reporter Sahar Issa in Baghdad.

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Lisa Mullins: I’m Lisa Mullins and this is The World. A series of bomb attacks shook the city of Baghdad today. More than 60 people were killed, nearly 200 were injured. Iraq’s interior ministry says there were 14 blasts across the city in a period of two hours. The bombings are the worst in months and they come at a sensitive time. The last US troops just left Iraq on Sunday. Since then, tension with in the country’s unity government has escalated rapidly. And now there are fears of renewed sectarian violence. McClatchy journalist, Sahar Issa, lives in Baghdad. What did you hear today?

Sahar Issa: We woke up to the explosions. The house shook. One of the explosions was very close. It was not more than 100 meters down the road from where I live, and the other one was about 1/2 kilometer away. Iraqis have become quite skillful in determining whether the explosions are IEDs, roadside bombs, or car bombs from the way the vibrations are received. These vibrations we felt through the ground, telling us that these were car bombs, and so they were.

Mullins: In the aftermath of the explosions what happened?

Issa: We can hear the sirens, we can shootings, we can hear shouting, we can hear all sorts of sounds that were quite terrifying that we haven’t heard for quite a while. Roads were blocked, neighborhoods were shutdown, we couldn’t get to work.

Mullins: So when that happens and the roads are blocked, you say you can’t get to work, what do people do? What did you do?

Issa: People who have to go out will walk out. For me, I can work from my home, I have all the facilities, so I called into my boss and told him it is really too dangerous to go out, and the roads are blocked, especially our neighborhood.

Mullins: You’re lucky enough as a journalist to be able to do some of your work at home when it’s too dangerous to go out. What about some of your neighbors, those people who have children, can they go to school? Can people walk outside? Do they see this as possibly the start of more violence?

Issa: To tell you the truth it is difficult. Iraqis have been through so much, they have seen so much violence, it is difficult to say that this is the beginning of a new stage of violence like we once had in 2006 and 2007. People are hoping that this will be just a day of violence, a day where [inaudible 2:33] at each other, a day in which the other factions that you must know, Iraq is a battleground for power, regional powers from all Iraq, when they are fighting their own fight on Iraqi ground, just a day of violence. Iraqis hope that they can go to sleep today knowing the losses of today, hoping for a quick recovery for the injured, but nevertheless hoping that tomorrow will be just another day. And the people who did the violence today have had their fill.

Mullins: Sahar Issa is a reporter with McClatchy newspapers speaking to us from Baghdad. Thanks a lot.

Issa: Thank you.

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More on the attacks from the BBC

The Defense Secretary Leon Panetta told troops the mission had been worth the cost in blood and dollars.

He said the years of war in Iraq had yielded to an era of opportunity in which the US was a committed partner.

Only about 4,000 US soldiers now remain in Iraq, but they are due to leave in the next two weeks.

At the peak of the operation, US forces there numbered 170,000.

As American troops are leaving Iraq, some Baghdad residents are breathing a sigh of relief.

Others are wary about what lies ahead, as Iraqi journalist Sahar Issa explains to host Marco Werman.

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Werman: I’m Marco Werman. This is The World. Eight years and nine months, that’s how much time has passed since the US war in Iraq began. The initial assault, the explosion of shock and awe back in March of 2003 feels distant now. Today, a simple flag lowering ceremony in Baghdad marked the official end of the war in Iraq. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta acknowledged the high cost to the US in blood and treasure, and he noted the challenges ahead for Iraq. For Americans and Iraqis alike it’s a day of mixed feelings. Iraqi journalist, Sahar Issa, is in Baghdad.

Sahar Issa: The Iraqi people never thought they would see the day, for good or for bad, today is important. It is the very last day of what is predominantly considered an occupation.

Werman: How was that manifested today? I mean as the Americans are kind of rolling their way out of town were people in the street? I mean I’m just trying to get a picture?

Issa: Not really, actually the event went past very cooly I would say. The only real reaction I think would have been found in Fallujah. There are celebrations in the streets of Fallujah.

Werman: And they were celebrating the Americans leaving?

Issa: Yes, yes.

Werman: Of course, Fallujah was the site of some very heavy combat.

Issa: Indeed. Yesterday around 5,000 people congregated. They were poems, there were applause, there were everything. And today, it was even a little bit stranger because the celebration took place in the Martyr’s Cemetery that used to be a football field. And all the families — wives, fathers, brothers, sisters, sons — they all came with photographs of their loved ones. It was very emotional.

Werman: I can imagine. And I mean the perspective on America and the Americans have fought I imagine is quite different in Fallujah than it is in Baghdad.

Issa: Of course, in Fallujah it’s a personal matter because there is no family in Fallujah that has not had a least one of its members killed by coalition forces.

Werman: For you personally, Sahar, is this moment, this day that the American troops finally go out, I mean is it one you’ve been waiting for?

Issa: There are two feelings. One feeling is that what is going to happen? Do you we have real politicians? Are they able to handle the situation and the security issues? This is one thing. And on the other hand the day must come. I mean Iraqis must stand up for themselves and begin. And I don’t see if this day came in 2-3 years that there would have been anything beneficial for Iraqis. So the quicker we start the quicker we’ll be on our feet.

Werman: Is there one image or an interaction you had with American troops that you’ll remember very clearly?

Issa: Yes, of course, one day at 6 o’clock in the morning the door was knocked on and there was a search, a house-to-house search. And they came into the house and were very afraid. Of course, there were Americans and Iraqis together. And they said can we search the house? They were very proper and we allowed them. And so these Americans go to the bookshelves that I have in my sitting room and they see English books. And so the man turns around and he says ma’am, you read a lot. And I said well, yes I do. And he goes on looking and he says hm, Grisham, hm…and all the writers that perhaps his family reads. And then he said do you have a weapon in the house? And I said in that cupboard, of course we do. And he opened the cupboard and he sees the video games that my sons play, and he said what, Auto Theft and the other one, their names, and he was grinning and he was laughing. And I felt inside me that for the first time he was able to see me as a person. And I think for him it was like a revelation, and I could see it in his eyes.

Werman: So Sahar, have you been to any of the bases or the barracks that the American troops have left behind? What’s it like there?

Issa: Well, it’s like a ghost town. It’s like a finality. Although to tell you the truth, with all these finalities around us, with all these camps being emptied of their soldiers, the Iraqi people still ask, the American Embassy is retaining 16,000 personnel…like are the Americans really leaving? And who are these 16,000 people who are staying behind? That’s a really big question.

Werman: Iraqi journalist Sahar Issa lives in Baghdad, works for McClatchy Newspapers there. Sahar, thank you very much.

Issa: Thank you.

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He met Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki in Washington for talks on Iraq’s future as American troops prepare to complete their withdrawal.

Obama confirmed no bases or troops would remain in the country next year.

“Those days are over,” President Obama said, adding that Iraq’s sovereignty should be respected.

Anchor Marco Werman speaks with Jane Arraf, Baghdad-based reporter for the Christian Science Monitor and al-Jazeera International.

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Marco Werman: I’m Marco Werman, this is The World. President Obama hosted Iraq’s Prime Minister, Nouri al-Maliki at the White House today. They met to discus what comes next in the relationship between the United States and Iraq. That relationship is entering a new phase as the last U.S. troops leave Iraq by the end of this month and that, as Obama noted after the meeting with Maliki, will end the Iraq war after almost nine years.

President Obama: A war is ending, a new day is upon us and let us never forget those who gave us this chance. The untold number of Iraqis who have given their lives, more than one million Americans, military and civilian who have served in Iraq, nearly 4,500 fallen Americans who gave their last, full measure of devotion. Tens of thousands of wounded warriers and so many inspiring military families, they are the reason that we can stand here today.

Werman: President Obama speaking at the White House earlier today. Jane Arraf reports from Iraq for the Christian Science Monitor and Al Jazeera International, she’s in Baghdad. President Obama spoke of a relationship as equal partners between the United States and Iraq. How does it look, Jane, from where you’re sitting in Baghdad?

Jane Arraf: Well, a little more equal, certainly, at the end of this month than it has been in more than eight years. Now this is because, of course, the U.S. military is actually out of here and that was one of the things that Obama and Maliki emphasize, they also emphasize that new relationship but it’s a very complicated relationship. It’s complicated mostly because what the United States wanted here, a democracy, is the very thing that led to U.S. troops actually not staying. The Parliament that said they would not allow U.S. forces to remain here so there are a lot of things to discuss, a lot of challenges, as the like to put it, diplomatically going forward and not quite sure how a lot of those issues are going to be resolved.

Werman: Well as we note, U.S. troops will be out of Iraq by the end of the year, I’m wondering though, who is left? What will be the U.S. presence in Iraq now?

Arraf: It is a huge footprint, it is going to be the biggest U.S. Embassy in the world. Now the U.S. Ambassador here said a few months ago publicly, that he expected the Embassy which currently had 8000 people in it, to double by next year so we’re talking 15,000 or 16,000 people, a number they don’t like to throw around anymore just because it sounds so huge. Essentially what that will be is foreign services officers, very small part of it, an awful lot of security, more than 5000 security contractors and that there, again, is one of the issues that still has not been resolved. Things that should be a matter of course such as security contractors ability to carry weapons is still an issue here and as soon as Maliki returns here he’s going to have to talk to Parliament and answers questions about why there’s such a big U.S. Embassy.

Werman: So a long term deal whereby U.S. and NATO advisors would continue to train Iraqi soldiers, that fell apart over the issue of providing legal immunity for U.S. troops, is there a serious threat of Americans getting caught up in the Iraqi legal system? And remind us of some of the charges Americans some Americans might have faced.

Arraf: Absolutely. This is a country where some of the worst incidents of the war are incidents where if U.S. soldiers had not had immunity they would be, certainly in jail here and they would be standing trial and subject to execution. Now we’re talking about cases where civilians have been killed and they found to have been killed deliberately. As well as things like security contractors opening fire in the famous case that killed more than a dozen Iraqi civilians, those are the things that haunt Iraqi’s and those are the reasons why there was such a backlash against immunity. Now the other thing about this is, that even though it is a new relationship, the U.S. troops are leaving, it still does remain a dangerous place. Violence is down but recently there was a kidnapping threat specifically against American diplomats and the green zone, which is at the best of times barricaded and a fortress, became even more of a fortress, their mobility is very limited.

Werman: With all the U.S. troops just about gone from Iraq and this visit by Nouri al-Maliki to the White House, feeling kind of like his Washington swan song, what’s the mood in Baghdad right now? How do Iraqis feel about this?

Arraf: Iraqis feel it’s a really uncertain time. The U.S. military is pulling out, a lot of people are happy about that but a lot of them also don’t believe that they’re really pulling out. We’ve spoken to some members of Parliament for instance, who say the U.S. forces are just pulling out to Kuwait and other countries, they’re just waiting in the wings to invade again. But the other part is that there are still killings going on. There are political assassinations, there is continued repression and all of the things that President Obama and Prime Minister Maliki spoke about are really things that Iraqis would like to see, a real democracy, transparent institutions that serve everyone but they’re not institutions that they have yet.

Werman: Jane Arraf who reports from Iraq for the Christian Science Monitor and Al Jezeera International, Jane, thanks very much indeed.

Arraf: Thank you.

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American troops are due out of Iraq by the end of next month.

Washington had lobbied hard, and publicly, for a new agreement that would have allowed it to keep military bases in the country.

But the government in Baghdad would not agree to the conditions set by the Pentagon.

And it seems neighboring Iran was a factor in those failed negotiations.

Marco Werman talks with the BBC’s Gabriel Gatehouse is in Baghdad.

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Marco Werman: I am Marco Werman. This is The World. The war in Iraq is coming to an end, or at least the US military intervention there is wrapping up. American troops are due out of Iraq by the end of next month. Washington had lobbied hard, and publicly, for a new agreement that would have allowed it to keep military bases in the country. But the government in Baghdad would not agree to the conditions set by the Pentagon. And it seems neighboring Iran was a factor in those failed negotiations. The BBC’s Gabriel Gatehouse is in Baghdad. Welcome to the program Gabriel.

Gabriel Gatehouse: Good to be with you.

Werman: So, you spoke with Saad Youssef al-Mutalabi who is a close personal adviser to the Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. Let’s hear a part of your conversation first of all.

Gatehouse: You must admit that Iran’s influence having been practically zero before in this country under Saddam Hussein is now really quite strong and quite widespread.

Saad Youssef al-Mutalabi: Oh, definitely. Yeah, Iranians are very, very close to the political scene here in Iraq now and they have influence. We see Iran as a big important neighbor. We do not need a war with them again, but we know that they were very much worried with the presence of the American troops in Iraq.

Gatehouse: We know that the Americans practically begged the Iraqi government to let them keep a certain number of troops, and yet the answer was no. Was that Iran?

al-Mutalabi: [Laughs] No. It’s not Iran, but it is taking Iran in consideration. We understand that there’s a certain sensitivity. And we do not want an excuse for the Iranians to intervene in Iraq on the pretext that you have American troops.

Gatehouse: For the Americans, it’s not a great result, is it?

al-Mutalabi: No, it isn’t. [Laughs] No, it is definitely not. The Americans made a number of mistakes and they are paying the price for it.

Werman: The BBC’s Gabriel Gatehouse in Bagdad speaking with an adviser to the Iraqi Prime Minister. Gabriel Gatehouse is joining us now from Bagdad. From your whole conversation with Mr. Mutalabi, what sense did you get of Iranian influence in Iraq today relative to the U.S. influence?

Gatehouse: Well, I mean, if Mr. Mutalabi’s account is credible, then the situation would appear to be as follows: The United States wanted to stay – Iran wanted them out, and Iran prevailed. Now, I think that is not a good scenario for the Pentagon, for Washington, because that basically means that in the sort of geo-political battles that are going on here in the region, they’ve lost out to Tehran.

Werman: Now you also spoke with U.S. Embassy spokesman Michael McClellan. How did he respond to those suggestions that the Iraqi government is more influenced by Iran than the U.S.?

Gatehouse: Well, Washington’s very, very sensitive State Department, very sensitive to any sense that U.S. aims may have failed strategically in the region, he flatly denied that it was an Iranian decision. He said it was a sovereign Iraqi decision and he was trying to spin that into a positive thing. He was saying, “Look, what we are leaving behind here is a sovereign country that is able to make its own decision. It’s one that can’t be pushed around by any country, not even the United States.” Now that is certainly an argument but I think many people, certainly here – Iraqis, would see that as Washington putting a positive spin on something that isn’t really terribly positive for them.

Werman: Right. Well let’s take a listen to that optimistic view on things from Embassy spokesman McClellan. Here’s another part of that conversation you had with him.

Gatehouse: I have not met a single Iraqi who would agree with your assessment that the past 8 1/2 years has been a huge success. Do you get out?

Michael McClellan: Yes, I get out quite a bit. And I would have to question your guest list if you are not talking to other people who don’t share that same opinion. There are problems in the country, nobody argues that.

Gatehouse: And you are becoming the scapegoat, rightly or wrongly, for every single problem. Isn’t that the case?

McClellan: Yes, and I would say a lot of that is wrongly. We have become the scapegoat for it because…

Gatehouse: But the perception is there.

McClellan: Yeah, that’s why we need to correct those perceptions.

Gatehouse: What are you doing to correct that?

McClellan: We have done a tremendous amount of good in this country and, frankly, it has touched the lives of almost every single person in this country. You are kind of looking at this as today is the end result of the project, if you will. And, are we satisfied with it? Well, no. We don’t see this as the end result. We are moving into a new phase of U.S./Iraqi relations. We are gonna see continued progress on this as more investment comes into the country, as democratic institutions are strengthened. So, I see this as a successful project.

Werman: A very lively interview there between Michael McClellan, a spokesman for the U.S. Embassy in Bagdad and the BBC’s Gabriel Gatehouse. Gabriel, McClellan is talking about the start of a new chapter in the relationship with Iraq and hope for future progress. What do Iraqis make of that?

Gatehouse: Well, I think Iraq… I was just speaking to a very, very thoughtful man just literally a few hours ago, here in Bagdad. He’s the director of the national archive and I met him in a room full of books that once belonged to Saddam Hussein. And I put to him that this is incredible negativity out the American presence here pretty much across the board in Iraq. And he said one very interesting thing. He says, “You’ve got to distinguish between the invasion and the toppling of Saddam Hussein which the overwhelming majority of people here think was a good thing, and the subsequent what is seen here as an occupation, which is widely regarded as a disaster.” And then I asked him, I said, “Well, given the violence that followed the years of really terrible heartache and tragedy for so many people here, was it in the end worth it, do you think?” And he said, “Yes, without a shadow of a doubt.” I said, “Why?” He said, “Five minutes of freedom is better than a lifetime of oppression.”

Werman: You know, given everything that’s happened in Iraq in the last 8, 10 years, that comment is really the best that the United States could hope for, in a way.

Gatehouse: I think it really is. And perhaps, that spokesman for the Embassy is right. Perhaps, once the soldiers pull out which will take away that scapegoat, because at the moment Iraqis are quite misguidedly blaming Americans for everything, from all the explosions that still go on here on a weekly basis, from the sectarianism to the corruption that is rife in the government. They blame the Americans for all of that. Now once the American military leaves, the Iraqis will see whether or not America really is responsible and perhaps they will change their mind. So, perhaps there will be an opportunity for some kind of rapprochement, a new era of relations between America and Iraq.

Werman: The BBC’s Gabriel Gatehouse in Bagdad; thanks so much.

Gatehouse: My pleasure.

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US Army Photos From Iraq

David Hamod (left) of the National US-Arab Chamber of Commerce and Naufel Al-Hassan, commercial counselor with the Iraqi embassy (Photo: Seattle Trade Alliance)

In a conference room 25 floors above downtown Seattle, about 40 business people in suits are looking at a map of the Middle East, learning about business opportunities in the region.

David Hamod, president of the National US-Arab Chamber of Commerce, stands in front of the group making the case for investing in Iraq.

He talks about consumer spending, a booming youth culture, “mega projects” moving forward, and internationally-educated Arab leaders.

Add it all up, and Hamod says within two years Iraq will be the fourth largest Middle Eastern market for US goods.

I heard Hamod speak at the first of several business roundtables focused on investment opportunities in Iraq that the US-Arab Chamber is putting on across the country. The speakers talked about things like the need for a million new housing units in Iraq, and all the doorknobs, windows, and bolts that come with that.

After the presentation, which was hosted by several Washington state business groups including the Trade Development Alliance of Greater Seattle, I asked Hamod: Why would an American business consider Iraq? After all, there are easier places to make a buck.

“Well, the short answer is that if the oil is flowing, it’s a guaranteed source of revenues for the government,” said Hamod.

The Iraqi government will make some purchases directly. For example, the government has already ordered 40 planes from Boeing.

With all that oil money sloshing around, some of it’s bound to get in the pockets of the middle class, argues Bhaskar Chakravorti, the senior associate dean for international business and finance at the Fletcher School at Tufts University. And he said, those Iraqis want American products.

“This is one of the biggest business opportunities that exist anywhere in the world today.”

Iraq sits on the fifth largest oil reserves in the world, up to 150 billion barrels. But Chakravorti said those estimates are 30 years old.

“A lot of geologists believe that the real number is somewhere close to 300 billion barrels, which would make Iraq the largest source of oil, bigger than Saudi Arabia.”

And it’s not just oil money that Iraq has going for it.

“Iraq is a country with people who are actually quite entrepreneurial, a reasonably large middle class, and no royal family. All these things are good,” said Chakravorti.

Sounds promising. But this is Iraq we’re talking about. It’s still an extremely violent place. And there won’t be any US troops there by year’s end. Chakravorti is well aware of all this.

“The problems are going to be there. And anybody who goes in has to be aware of those problems, has to be aware of the fact that you have to navigate a maze of complexities that range all the way from violence, to corruption, to risk of all kinds. And not even understanding the local mores and customs.”

This seemed to somewhat undermine what Chakravorti was saying about huge business opportunities. So, bottomline: Should an American company consider working in Iraq?

“Bottomline? I would say the answer is yes,” said Chakravorti. “And this kind of goes back to the principle rules of investing: With high risk, comes high reward.”

In Seattle, Jim Seymour was intrigued by that message. He’s the owner of Key Pharmacy Compounding, a Washington state drug manufacturer. He’s exported drugs to South Africa and the United Kingdom and is looking to expand.

“I never would’ve dreamed Iraq, but we’re interested in wherever the market is.”

I asked Seymour though: Wasn’t he concerned about safety?

“No.”

Enough said.

Companies doing business in Iraq can take out insurance, hire locals to handle business, and contract with private security guards.

Iraqi officials are hoping more people are thinking like pharmacist Jim Seymour.

Naufel Al-Hassan, commercial counsellor with the Embassy of the Republic of Iraq in Washington DC, said, “Many American companies, or international companies, when they look at the Iraq market, they probably view Iraq 2011 in the eye of 2005 or 2006 when we were in a very difficult time.”

Al-Hassan says he understands that Iraq is not in a perfect position, but violence has ebbed. And the economy has stabilized.

“The Iraqis (are) making more money than they used to probably 10 years ago or 20 years ago, so there is a lot of liquidity within the consumers. People start making a lot of money and start asking to purchase a lot of products.”

It’s not exactly a time of certainty though in Iraq. Nobody knows what will happen once the last US troops leave.

Still, investment analysts remain upbeat about the long-term prospects. Looking out 10 or 15 years, there’s a lot of money to be made in Iraq.

Now the Joint Visitors Bureau is set to shut down at the end of next month. Anchor Lisa Mullins speaks with the New York Times Pentagon correspondent Thom Shanker about his article on the JVB in Friday’s paper.

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Lisa Mullins: The hip and happenin’spot to go to in Baghdad has been a place with the notably unsexy name of the Joint Visitors Bureau. It’s part of the sprawling US military base known as Camp Victory. And it’s where American visitors have called home when they’ve spent a few days in the Iraqi capital. Well, the Joint Visitors Bureau is set to shut down at the end of next month. New York Times Pentagon correspondent Thom Shanker calls the Bureau the ‘Rick’s Cafe’ of Iraq in his column in today’s newspaper. Thom Shanker, I’m just guessing you’ve been to some pretty cool bars and hotels in your time, hey?

Thom Shanker: I certainly have, and this is not one of them. Especially, because all over the war zone is under what’s called ‘General Order No.1′, which prohibits alcohol of any kind.

Mullins: So there’s no alcohol served at the Joint Visitors Bureau regardless of who the guest might be?

Shanker: That’s exactly right. It’s a very interesting place. Today it’s a shiny, bright palace but when we first got there in the spring of 2003, after the fall of Bagdad, it was completely ransacked; no windows. The only guests really were sand fleas and lizards. And today, it’s not quite a five-star hotel, it’s the best internet in the war zone.

Mullins: Okay. So, way back when, what was it used for?

Shanker: It was one of many palaces beyond the Bagdad airport that was used by Saddam Hussein and his family and cronies. They used to hunt gazelle that were cultivated there. They used to throw wild parties and entertain their mistresses. It was, sort of, their ‘just beyond the horizon, retreat from Bagdad.’ It had all of these structures already there, and a fairly decent road system. So, they began rebuilding the place. What they found though, is that the construction was like a Hollywood front. These palaces looked marvelous, but some of them were like Paper Mache with really bad wiring. And so, even though they looked from a distance like real palaces, the amount of reconstruction that went into them was rather remarkable.

Mullins: Okay. So this place that became the Joint Visitors Bureau, its unfancy name for the closest thing to a five-star hotel as you put it, what did it ultimately look like?

Shanker: Well, it was one of the larger villas, sort of a small palace, you might say. It had really nice marble floors, so they cleaned out the sand and dust; they polished them to a shine. There was lovely wooden filigree in the ceiling, all of which was repaired. The windows were restored. The furniture was brought in. And so, over the last couple of years when Defense Secretaries and Generals and visiting Senators came through, they really had a rather lovely place to stay in what is otherwise a very, very harsh climate.

Mullins: And, in terms of what you could do there – you said you can’t drink, are there disco balls? Can you dance?

Shanker: [Laughs] Not at all. There is a large banquet room where there are seminars and official meals and all that.  They had satellite television, so you could watch movies and get sports events, and all that sort of thing. What was really interesting, there’s a lake on one side that has developed these giant carp because people are always throwing food into them. So there’s a lot of sport fishing for these giant carp. When you walk by…anytime a human shadow passes by, because they are so used to being hand-fed, they riled the surface like piranha in a James Bond movie.

Mullins: And what about Iraqis themselves? I mean, will they ever be able to use it?

Shanker: It will be a government decision. All these American bases are being turned over to the Iraqis. And so much infrastructure has been installed – wiring, electricity, air-conditioning, that I’m sure all of these palaces will be a prize for the various Iraqi official ministries.

Mullins: All right. Thank you very much, Thom Shanker, Pentagon correspondent for the New York Times.

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User generated photos of Camp Victory on Flickr

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The text below is a phonetic transcript of a radio story broadcast by PRI’s THE WORLD. It has been created on deadline by a contractor for PRI. The transcript is included here to facilitate internet searches for audio content. Please report any transcribing errors to theworld@pri.org. This transcript may not be in its final form, and it may be updated. Please be aware that the authoritative record of material distributed by PRI’s THE WORLD is the program audio.

Lisa Mullins: To Iraq now where yesterday the government declared a holiday.  No, it wasn’t because it was the first day of Ramadan, it was because of the heat.  Reporter Jane Arraf is in Baghdad.  Now, Iraq is usually really, really, hot in the summertime, so why would they have to declare a day off and ask people to stay home?

Jane Arraf: Well, it was kind of like a perfect storm.  It was the first day of Ramadan for a lot of people, not all, because they celebrate and commemorate it separately.  But first day of Ramadan where you are actually supposed to go without food or even water for what turns out to be more than 14 hours.  And probably what had a lot to do with it is that people are really angry about electricity and they’ve been protesting in the streets in those demonstrations on Fridays. So they sat down and seemed to figure out that it would actually be a good idea not to have those protests, and they gave all the government workers the day off.

Mullins: Government workers, how about other workers, do they have A/C?

Arraf: Gosh, no.  You just feel so terrible for some of those people when you go out in the street and the laborers, I mean can you imagine working in 120 degree heat especially if you’re not drinking water?  But a lot of them were still out there, although reduced hours. The shops were open.  I was downtown yesterday morning and a lot of the shops were open.  People basically have to make a living, so they just try to find ways to adapt.

Mullins: So if people aren’t working for various reasons like yesterday being a day off, what are they doing to stay cool?

Arraf: Well, the ones can afford it are going to things like Zowra Park, which is a major amusement park here in Baghdad.  I went there the other day and went into what they’re billing as a 5D movie.  Now, we know about typical 3D movies, but this one has the added bonus of cool air being blown at you.  And sometimes I told cool water thrown at you.  When I was there it was just the cool air of the chairs moving. But if you can’t afford to go to the amusement park really what you do is you try to douse yourself with water.  You try to sleep.  You try not to work too much, which makes perfect sense in this kind of heat.  But it’s really, really very, very tough, particularly with the electricity crisis here.

Mullins: Yeah, and the electricity crisis is obviously a political issue, the fact that there are so many power shortages through the course of the day.  Who gets the blame for these shortages and who deserves the blame?

Arraf: I think the blame has to be spread kind of a long way around.  If you look at the money poured into this, the United States has spent billions on this.  Iraq has spent billions on it.  And if you talk to officials, former officials for the most part, a lot of that money has simply been siphoned off either through corruption or incompetence, or security.  The electricity grid was one of the biggest targets during the period when violence really was rampant here. Now that there aren’t those attacks anymore they’re kind of left with the system that’s never been restored.  So if you go and talk to the electricity ministry, they’ll tell you about their big plans — short, medium and long term.  Now the short term plan is to provide eight hours a day of electricity, and to do that they’re actually giving free fuel to generator operators.  And most people don’t get their electricity from the city; they actually pay money to a big generator guy who hooks up a line to their house so they get limited electricity. Now the free fuel is supposed to increase the availability of power.  It hasn’t really because the fuel isn’t being spread around, they’re buying it on the black market, so people here are miserable.  They spend most of their day trying to figure out how to stay cool — how they can get their generator running, how they can buy more electricity — it has become a national obsession here.

Mullins: And Jane, before we go leaving you in sweltering Baghdad, what are the temperatures today?

Arraf: Temperatures are again 122 degrees, but on Friday it is going to be a relatively cool 108.  So everyone is really looking forward to that.

Mullins: Reporter Jane Arraf included, thank you very much.

Arraf: Thank you.

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The text below is a phonetic transcript of a radio story broadcast by PRI’s THE WORLD. It has been created on deadline by a contractor for PRI. The transcript is included here to facilitate internet searches for audio content. Please report any transcribing errors to theworld@pri.org. This transcript may not be in its final form, and it may be updated. Please be aware that the authoritative record of material distributed by PRI’s THE WORLD is the program audio.

Marco Werman: I’m Marco Werman, this is The World. Iraq has been mostly absent from U.S. headlines recently but that changed today after the Pentagon announced that five American soldiers were killed in an attack in Central Iraq. It was the highest death toll for a single incident involving U.S. troops in Iraq over the past two years. The attack also underscores just how dangerous the country remains, even as American forces prepare to withdraw from Iraq by the end of the year. Reporter Jane Arraf is in Baghdad. Jane, a violent day in Iraq not just for American soldiers but for many others as well, what can you tell me about the attack on U.S. soldiers as well as the other attacks today in Iraq?

Jane Arraf: Well the attack on the soldiers was a rocket attack on what appears to be a joint base in Eastern Baghdad. And although American soldiers are off the streets there are still more than 47000 of them. And a lot of those people are living on Iraqi bases. Now rockets and motors have been the backdrop for the past few years but they generally don’t really hit very much. This one seems to have been remarkably accurate. And U.S. officials in fact have been saying that motor teams have been better trained, they point the finger at Iran. Nobody’s taking responsibility for this one yet but it does seem to follow a pattern.

Werman: And what about the other attacks today in Iraq. Are they linked to this attack on the U.S. soldiers?

Arraf: They’re not and that’s really the thing I’m trying to disentangle, who’s responsible for all these attacks and there are still dozens every week. The other attack today, the other big one because there were at least four, was in Tigris. And that’s a place where there was a huge attack just three days ago on Friday. There was an attack on the mosque and then a hospital where victims were taken. Today there was a suicide car bomb near the same location, outside the gates of what used to be Saddam Hussein’s former palaces. At least twelve people were killed in that and most of them happened to be security forces, Iraqi security forces. And that again is another main target of insurgents these days.

Werman: Are you saying essentially that the attack against the American troops was atypical but these other attacks were kind of typical for these times in Iraq?

Arraf: Pretty much. There’ve been a variety of different kinds of attacks, some most chilling to Iraqi’s are the assassinations where people actually come to your home or put a bomb under your car. But these two really follow a pattern of targeting Americans, American service people and targeting Iraqi security forces, either police or the army. With the Americans it’s generally thought to be an attempt to show that they’re actually driving out U.S. forces. They are due to leave in just a little over six months and the thought is that if they can attack them, they can actually say that they forced the U.S. out of Iraq.

Werman: I’m just wondering if statistics show that violence is trending up in Iraq. Is that the case right now?

Arraf: It has been a very violent last few months and casualties have been up. It was sort of expected simply because there’s a lot of political turmoil. There is an increasingly shaky government. Many people feel there are a lot of scores to be settled. And even more worrying probably is that many people feel that the sectarian violence that they thought was buried is coming back. A lot of these assassinations we’re seeing do seem to be sectarian based. That really has struck fear into the hearts of a lot of people.

Werman: You suggest that perhaps some kind of propaganda angled to this attack on U.S. troops that, if whoever perpetrated it can do this they can say well, ‘we’re actually responsible for getting the U.S. troops out, we’ve won’. The fact that the U.S. is planning to withdraw all its troops by the end of this year, is that in enough itself having a destabilizing effect on Iraq right now?

Arraf: I think it is. The thing about Iraq is there are a lot of different Iraq’s at the moment; it’s not really one cohesive country by any means. If you’re in the North the Kurds believe that they owe pretty much their existence in some sense to the Americans and their efforts. And they’re really troubled by the thought of Americans leaving. If you come here to Baghdad, political officials, a lot of them are concerned as well that U.S. troops are leaving but they can’t really say that out loud. And then there’s the sutterist who refuse to even talk to U.S. officials, their main goal is to get the United States out of here. So it’s a very complicated, very fluid situation but no one’s quite closed the door yet on some U.S. troops staying past next year.

Werman: Reporter Jane Arraf in Baghdad. Thanks a lot.

Arraf: Thank you.

Copyright ©2009 PRI’s THE WORLD. All rights reserved. No quotes from the materials contained herein may be used in any media without attribution to PRI’s THE WORLD. This transcript may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, without prior written permission. For further information, please email The World’s Permissions Coordinator at theworld@pri.org.

By Jane Arraf

It rings out from cellphones and underpins the crescendo of chants at every protest in the Iraqi capital – kathab – the Arabic word for liar. Next to throwing your shoe, it’s one of the biggest insults you can toss at someone here. And it is being thrown freely.

The song, making the rounds of Baghdad, starts off with a rousing chorus of ‘liar, liar’ and segues into ‘Iraq’s oil is for the people not for the thieves.’

Iraqis’ kathab protest song:

The liars and the thieves are thought to be the government – reoccurring themes at demonstrations across Iraq since unrest began toppling dictators throughout the Arab world a month ago.

Here in Iraq, they already have a democracy of sorts, courtesy of the US-led invasion eight years ago next week. But the ability to protest is the only benefit many Iraqis say they’ve seen since Saddam was toppled.

Millions unemployed

With record oil prices in a country that contains some of the world’s highest oil reserves, more than a third of Iraqis are unemployed. Millions depend on the government for food. Most Iraqis blame it all on corruption.

“I think our patience is finished and to tell you the truth, we see the change in Tunisia and Egypt and we need to try that,” said Majdi Abdul Khalif, who explained that he learned his exuberant English from watching Jean-Claude Van Damme movies. Khalif, who is 30, also taught himself how to fix cell phones. But it’s not a substitute for a real job.

He loves his country so much, he said he named his young son Iraq and his daughter Baghdad. After showing up at the first protest in Baghdad last month, Abdul Khalif quickly became a regular. At one of the latest ones, he was shouting into a megaphone.

Although the Iraqi government is headed almost entirely by those who were in opposition during the Saddam era, the chaotic and cacophonous anti-government protests seem to have completely unnerved them.

Blaming Baathists

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has said Saddam loyalists, members of the banned Baath party, are behind the demonstrations. Warning that al-Qaeda could try to target the demonstrations, the Iraqi government two Fridays in a row imposed a crippling car ban on the city.

The protestors still came – many walking for hours down deserted streets as helicopters hovered overhead.

“Mr. Maliki tells us we are Baathists and our answer to him is that we all suffered under the Baath – many of us escaped many of us went into prisons,” said Yanar Mohammad, head of the Organization of Women’s Freedom in Iraq. “But now in these eight years there are millions suffering, hundreds of people are being tortured in Maliki’s prisons right now, What about those people? He says we’re either Baathists or from al-Qaeda. Why is he lying?’

In other cities in Iraq, in the normally calm south and the Kurdish north, protests have erupted into violence with security forces shooting dead demonstrators who have tried to take over government buildings.

In Baghdad, to protect the already fortress-like green zone where the Iraqi government and the US embassy are based, cranes moved in overnight to seal off entrances and bridges with concrete blocks.

Many of the young men who come to the demonstrations are unemployed. “They’re all thieves,” they scream in anger at what they believe is their stolen legacy. The target of their rage is Iraq’s bloated government – at more than 40 cabinet ministers, one of the biggest in the world in a country that’s listed as one of the world’s most corrupt.

Only the bravest politicians though venture out to the demonstrations and then only from the safety of rooftops. Usually, the riot police and journalists are the only people there for protestors to scream at.

“They told me I had to pay a $500 bribe to get a job” with the government, said one young man at Tahrir Square. “Where would I get $500? If I had $500, I wouldn’t need a job.”

Another interrupts him, shouting “$1,100 – they took $1,100 from me.”

No faith in the government

With few jobs and fewer government services, many Iraqis have lost faith in the government they elected only last year.

“We ask ourselves when we look around, is this really the richest country in the world? Is this really the democracy we were promised?” says Bushra al-Ameen, the director of al-Mahaba radio station. “The only thing we got out of all this democracy is the ability to go out and demonstrate.”

Al-Ameen fled the former regime in 1994 to Canada but returned after Saddam was toppled to help start a radio station for women. Like many of the middle class who returned dreaming of an inclusive, prosperous and free Iraq, she feels her country has been hijacked.

Demonstrating against the government in Saddam’s time was a death sentence for entire families. Now young people are doing what their parent’s couldn’t under the former regime.

Noof al-Falahi, a fine arts student who has organized a Facebook campaign called Iraqis Streets for Change, said she asks her parents sometimes why they didn’t speak out.

“They say ‘because we needed you to grow up and see the world…We were afraid for you.’ So we are trying to do the change instead of them,” she said.

Perhaps that explains the popularity of shouting ‘liar’ in a country of so much promise. In the previous regime, you could only whisper it.

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The text below is a phonetic transcript of a radio story broadcast by PRI’s THE WORLD. It has been created on deadline by a contractor for PRI. The transcript is included here to facilitate internet searches for audio content. Please report any transcribing errors to theworld@pri.org. This transcript may not be in its final form, and it may be updated. Please be aware that the authoritative record of material distributed by PRI’s THE WORLD is the program audio.

Marco Werman: Demonstrations inspired by the unrest in northern Africa have been held in Iraq for weeks and the protests have provoked a violent crackdown.  Iraqi security forces have detained and beaten journalists and activists.  TV and radio stations have been attacked in the dead of night.  And protestors have been blocked from getting to demonstrations. The crackdown is raising doubts about the kind of country U.S. troops will leave behind when they depart Iraq this year.  Correspondent Jane Arraf is in Baghdad.  Jane, tell us what you’ve seen of this crackdown on activists and journalists.  Have you witnessed it up close?

Jane Arraf: I have from one of the first demonstrations where the riot police came out.  Now, we have to remember that this is not a country that’s used to protests, and it’s all quite unpredictable, but they actually have full-fledged riot police with the shields, the batons, the water cannons, and they’ve been kind of obsessed at protecting their green zone here in Baghdad. So in one of the protests when protestors got a little bit too close to the bridge that protects the green zone, the riot police came out in full force. Now, that wasn’t the most sinister thing.  Far more sinister I think are the other things we’ve been seeing, which is people being detained, beaten up.  There was a group of protestors launching a sit-in who were stabbed by what appeared to be plain clothed police forces. I’ve spoken to a radio talk show host who says he was tortured with electric shocks.  And it’s kind of in line with the government really not knowing how to handle this.

Werman: And so what are the grievances of the protestors and why such a violent push back from the authorities?

Arraf: Perhaps the simplistic answer is that is a violent country, and you find that in a lot of former dictatorships.  The protestors have a lot of different demands, but really the common themes are they want better daily living conditions, they want electricity, they want jobs, they want clean water. They’ve been getting rations which are essentially free food for those who need it; pretty much everyone who lives here is entitled to it since the 1990s.  They haven’t been getting quite so much of that, so they’ve been going out and basically saying we know this is a rich country, we know there’s a lot of oil money, and it’s all going to you corrupt politicians.

Werman: Now as far as the violent crackdown on journalists and activists, it’s kind of hard to imagine at this point the Americans leaving Iraq with this kind of legacy in which Iraqis who simply want to express themselves find themselves unable to.

Arraf: That is one of the things that is most horrifying to a lot of people here.  It’s that after all of this, after all the sacrifices, essentially what has been created is a country, a democracy of sorts, but one where one of the things that was most important, one of the most important goals of this, which was a country that would respect human rights, just really hasn’t happened. There are still secret prisons.  There are people being routinely detained.  There are regular human rights abuses.  The kind of repression, certainly not nearly the kind of repression there was under Saddam Hussein, but certainly not the kind of country that the United States said it wanted to foster when it came in here.

Werman: Correspondent Jane Arraf in Baghdad talking about the crackdown on activists and journalists in Iraq.  Good to hear from you, Jane, thank you so much.

Arraf: Thank you.

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A car bomb in Iraq's Diyala province killed 14 people Thursday (Photo: Jim Gordon)

Anchor Marco Werman speaks with the BBC’s Jim Muir in Baghdad about a spate of bombings targeting Shia Muslim pilgrims in Iraq this week. Download MP3

• Analysis: Bombings highlight Iraq’s instability
• Iraq’s security forces targeted in two attacks

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The text below is a phonetic transcript of a radio story broadcast by PRI’s THE WORLD. It has been created on deadline by a contractor for PRI. The transcript is included here to facilitate internet searches for audio content. Please report any transcribing errors to theworld@pri.org. This transcript may not be in its final form, and it may be updated. Please be aware that the authoritative record of material distributed by PRI’s THE WORLD is the program audio.

Marco Werman: I’m Marco Werman. This is The World. A fresh wave of violent attacks shook Iraq this week and today Iraqi security officials announced a swift response to one of the deadliest incidents. Officials said they arrested several men suspected of carrying out three coordinated car bombings, in the holy city of Karbala yesterday. The attacks killed more than 50 people, most of them Shiite pilgrims in town for an annual religious commemoration. The BBC’s Jim Muir is in Baghdad. Jim, any sense of what these attackers’ motivation was?

Jim Muir: Well clearly it is a continuation of a campaign that’s been going on to undermine the government and of course to attack Shiites. The assumption is that these were Sunni militants carrying out these attacks. They are the ones who do suicide bombings. I’m not sure if  there’s been any claims of responsibility yet. But they are normally the ones who are both blamed and who take co-responsibility for such attacks. The Arbayin pilgrimage is an annual event, but there of several of these big Shiite pilgrimages during the year, during which Shiites flock into Karbala on foot from long distances away, farther than Baghdad even, more than a hundred miles away. And they are vulnerable all the way along these routes.

Werman: Well, that was echoed by Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani today at Friday prayers in Karbala. He said the terrorists seem to remain one step ahead of the government’s efforts to protect Iraq. Is that a valid claim?

Muir: Well, it is a factual claim that the bombers seem somehow to find ways of slipping through the net, however stringent the security proportions are. And they are indeed quite stringent. We sent people down to Karbala to check the place out, a couple of days before that, and there are very strict restrictions on vehicular movement and checkpoints all the way and so on. But when you are dealing with people who are willing to blow themselves up, it’s a very very difficult thing to do.

Werman: Jim, prior to the several attacks this week, what was the security situation in Iraq like? Has this week’s violence been unnerving for Iraqis?

Muir: I think it has certainly shaken the government. It comes against a background of really steadily improving security. Things are much better and you need only go out into the streets of Baghdad to see that. People are going out at night and so on, but every day somewhere, an average of something like a dozen people are being killed. So these things are going on. This week has been exceptionally heavy; we had three days in a row with major suicide bombings. And of course it’s bad news for the government for a number of reasons, partly because they are trying so hard to stop it; partly also because the Americans are withdrawing and they should all be out, the last 50,000, by the end of the year. Also because Iraq is planning to host a big Arab summit meeting at the end of March, and they very much want to hold that against a stable environment so that they can invite the Arab leaders here and make them feel safe. Well, with these kind of things hitting the news every day, they are wondering if they are going to be turning up.

Werman: The BBC’s Jim Muir in Baghdad. Thank you, Jim.

Muir: Most welcome, Marco.

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(photo: Tim McLaughlin)

• The New Yorker: The toppling

From the archives: In September 2007 Lisa Mullins talked with former Marine Tim McLaughlin whose American flag was draped over Saddam Hussein’s statue in Baghdad the day the Iraqi capital fell to American troops.

Mohammad Ghani, one of Iraq’s most famous living artists, recently returned to Baghdad for the first time since he left in 2003. His works – many of them from the Arabic classic “1001 Nights’ are beloved Baghdad landmarks. While the sculptures are still there, Ghani found the city around them a much different place.

When the war started, Ghani, already in his mid-70s then, was in Bahrain. He came back a few months later to find his studio damaged, the National Art Museum, which contained 150 of his works looted and the city too dangerous to live in.

For years, he resisted pleas to come back, continuing his work in Jordan and Bahrain.

“I was so afraid. I didn’t want to come back to Baghdad because all the news I heard said it is very dangerous but … the mayor of Baghdad phoned me and asked me to come back.”

His friends in Amman told him it was a good reason to return: “‘Not for you,’ they said, ‘but for my country, for Iraq, for Baghdad. Go back. Work. Do something for Baghdad.’”

Ghani, who’s been sculpting for 60 years, said Baghdad is like a gorgeous woman going through hard times. He wants to make this broken city beautiful again.

“Suddenly I looked to Baghdad carefully – I saw everything dirty, her hair dirty, her dress dirty, face dirty… this make me very very very sad….I never imagined it like this.”

His Baghdad is the exotic city of 1001 Nights, the famed 14th century Arabic and Persian fables that inspired the fairytales of “Aladdin’s lamp,” “Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves,” and “Sinbad the Sailor.”

Few in the West realize that Baghdad was once a beacon of learning, science and culture – in fact the center of the known world. To many in the Middle East, Ghani said, it still is.

“Baghdad – you know all the Arabs say Baghdad, Baghdad Baghdad; for them Baghdad is so huge, so big, so proud.”

On Abu Nuwas street on the Tigris river, Ghani crafted the legendary bronze statue of King Shahryar and Queen Shehrazad, the main characters of the 1001 Nights. In the 1990s, the statue was neglected. Ghani had designed the lounging King Sharyar to have children climb on it but it was fenced off and hidden by overgrown weeds.

Visiting it again recently, he is overjoyed to see children playing around it and Iraqis posing for photos with the larger-than-life statue. “This was Mohammad’s dream,” said his wife Ghaya, who posed as the model for the mesmerizing Shehrezad 40 years ago.

Ghani caressed the giant bronze hand of King Shahryar like an old friend. There’s a seam along the statue’s wrist where the hand was severed – apparently stolen to melt down for the bronze. Ghani said he planned to fix it properly.

Ghani, who studied art in Rome, has been commissioned to do four new public sculptures.

One will be a fountain built around the bronze calligraphy of a poem. It’s an inscription on the tomb of the poet Mustafa Jamal al-Din, buried in Damascus, that says no matter how often Baghdad is destroyed it will be eternally renewed.

Almost everywhere in Baghdad, there are the sounds of helicopters and sirens. But Ghani seems not to notice them, hearing only the nightingales that he missed while he was away. Birds, he said, don’t sing in his adopted homeland. If they do, he doesn’t hear them.
“In Baghdad we have gardens – they are beautiful birds,” he said.

His next project is one he said he’s wanted to do since the 1970s – a sculpture of Sinbad the Sailor floating on the Tigris River, his eyes fixed on the horizon.

“You know the idea of Sinbad – he travels outside of Baghdad; he goes and comes and goes and comes seven times. Each time he got a problem when he was outside of Baghdad but he dreamed to return back.”

Ghani said every Iraqi who’s left since the war is like Sinbad, longing to glimpse Baghdad again.

“Many, many many dream of coming back,” he said. “Everyone is waiting for the right moment.”