As Violence Drops, Baghdad Families Return

More Than 3,000 Households Have Returned Since July, Government Says

(AP)  In a dramatic turnaround, more than 3,000 Iraqi families driven out of their Baghdad neighborhoods have returned to their homes in the past three months as sectarian violence has dropped, the government said.

Saad al-Azawi, his wife and four children are among them. They fled to Syria six months ago, leaving behind what had become one of the capital's more dangerous districts - west Baghdad's largely Sunni Khadra region.

The family had been living inside a vicious and bloody turf battle between al Qaeda in Iraq and Mahdi Army militiamen. But Azawi said things began changing, becoming more peaceful, in August when radical anti-American Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr ordered his Mahdi Army fighters to stand down nationwide.

About the same time, the Khadra neighborhood Awakening Council rose up against brutal al Qaeda control - the imposition of its austere interpretation of Islam, along with the murder and torture of those who would not comply.

The uprising originated in Iraq's west and flowed into the capital. Earlier this year, the Sunni tribes and clans in the vast Anbar province began their own revolt and have successfully rid the largely desert region of al Qaeda control.

At one point the terrorist group virtually controlled Anbar, often with the complicity of the vast Sunni majority who welcomed the outsiders in their fight against American forces.

But, U.S. officials say, al Qaeda overplayed its hand with Iraq's Sunnis, who practice a moderate version of Islam. American forces were quick to capitalize on the upheaval, welcoming former Sunni enemies as colleagues in securing what was once the most dangerous region of the country.

And as 30,000 additional U.S. forces arrived for the crackdown in Baghdad and central Iraq, the American commander, Gen. David Petraeus, began stationing many of them in neighborhood outposts. The mission was not only to take back control but to foster neighborhood groups like the one in Khadra to shake off al Qaeda's grip.

The 40-year-old al-Azawi, who has gone back to work managing a car service, said relatives and friends persuaded him to bring his family home.

"Six months ago, I wouldn't dare be outside, not even to stand near the garden gate by the street. Killings had become routine. I stopped going to work, I was so afraid," he said, chatting with friends on a street in the neighborhood.

When he and his family joined the flood of Iraqi refugees to Syria the streets were empty by early afternoon, when all shops were tightly shuttered. Now the stores stay open until 10 p.m. and the U.S. military working with the neighborhood council is handing out US$2,000 (euro1,400) grants to shop owners who had closed their business. The money goes to those who agree to reopen or first-time businessmen.

Al-Azawi said he's trying to get one of the grants to open a poultry and egg shop that his brother would run.

"In Khadra, about 15 families have returned from Syria. I've called friends and family still there and told them it's safe to come home," he said.

Sattar Nawrous, a spokesman for the Ministry of Displacement and Migration, said Saturday that the al-Azawi family was among 3,100 that have returned to their homes in Baghdad in the past 90 days.

"In the past three months, the ministry did not register any forced displacement in the whole of Iraq," said Nawrous, who is a Kurd.

The claim could not be independently verified, but, if true, it would represent a dramatic end to the sectarian cleansing that has shredded the fabric of Baghdad's once mixed society.

The head of the ministry is Abdul-Samad Rahman, a Shiite appointed to his job by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who is accused of promoting the Shiite cause to the detriment of Sunnis. Under Saddam Hussein, the Sunni minority ruled and heavily oppressed many in the Shiite majority.

Part of the inflow can be attributed to stiffening of visa and residency procedures for Iraqis by the Syrian government.

Mahmoud al-Zubaidi, who runs the Iraqi Airways office in Damascus, the Syrian capital, the flow of Iraqis has almost reversed.

What were once full flights arriving from Baghdad now touch down virtually empty, he told Al-Sabah, the government funded Iraqi daily newspaper. Now the flights are leaving Damascus with more passengers but the volume of travel is off considerably.

On average, 56 Iraqis - civilians and security forces - have died each day so far in this very bloody year. Last month, however, the toll fell to just under 30 Iraqis killed daily in sectarian violence.

More than four months after U.S. forces completed a 30,000-strong force buildup, the death toll for both Iraqis and Americans has fallen dramatically for two months running.

Across Iraq on Saturday, 18 people were killed or found dead in sectarian violence, well below the year's daily average.

[speakinup]

"Did you ever notice that the longer the blog, the more idiotic it seems! This applies to you NYCProphet
Posted by gunnerv1

I think NYCProphet (aka NHProphet) is only cutting a pasting - no responses.

You are correct though - he''s standing on a soap box out there, and ignoring questions that make his post look fooolish.

But, that would be redundant, given Bush Bashers are fools anyway. They can''t seem to understand someone that will go contrary to the polls for the good of the country.

Unlike flip-floppin'' Hillary on her decision on going to Iraq. I did vote for, but now I know it was a mistake, but since they caught Saddam - yes I did vote for, but now that yo''ll don''t like it, I understand it was a mistake... (to be continued at some point in time when the public opinion changes on the war yet again - as it turns around due to Petreaus''s actions)

[gunnerv1]

Did you ever notice that the longer the blog, the more idiotic it seems! This applies to you NYCProphet

[gunnerv1]

Oh No!! The Surge is working, Drat those Neocons!

[speakinup]

Oh for pete sake, NYCProphet!

Just which asylum did you escape from ?

The environment was totally different during Nazi Germany in 1933 compared to now.

If a German soldier tried to refuse a command during WWII, he was summarily shot. Our laws don''''t allow this. In FACT, EVERY soldier is told that they are to NOT obey orders if they perceive them to be immoral. Of course, they had better be correct in their decision, but you can bet no one in the service is going to allow the President to become a dictator.

And, what about the two term limit ? Was Hitler constrained by this - NOOOooooooo!

Where are the Hundreds ot thousands of US citizens being carted away that disagree with the President ? (small detail you didn''''t cover I guess - or are yo now telling us they are in jail ?)

In short - you are a whack job!

[nycprophet]

My fellow Americans just don''t seem to care that our nation, along with The Constitution upon which it was founded, is being flushed-down the NWO toilet by our nations'' bought and paid for politicians and media. While the Oligarchs warn and insite fear in the sheeple about the prospect of terrorism, they at the same time leave our border wide open, and fund and conduct illegal wars overseas that do nothing but encite the terrorism which their Orwellian Laws like the Patriot Act and the John Warner Defense Authorization Act pretend to protect us from. Wake up America! It''s not about protecting you from terrorism, or saving the planet from Global Warming, or any of that other fear-mongering garbage the sold-out, mainstream media feeds you 24/7. It''s about feeding the bankers and the military industrial complex, and facilitating the global elite''s ability to ratchet-down control over the American people, placing us into a total control grid where they can surveille, track and control everywhere we go and everything we do. It''s the groundwork for totalitarianism. It''s the New World Order plan of Bush, Clinton, Edwards, McCain, Giuliani, et.al., being executed quite beautifully. You''re a frog in a pot. In order to cook a frog, you don''t throw him into a pot of boiling water. If you do, he''ll resist and jump-out. What you do instead is, you turn the heat-up REAL SLOW, and by the time the water is boiling he won''t be able to jump out anymore, because it''s too late--he''s already doomed.

[name_verify]

CBS News Service Notice:

NYCProphet = dumb ***

[nycprophet]

Sadly, even though Clinton voted for the war in Iraq, and a host of Laws aimed at removing your liberties, so many Democrats are blinded by her cult of personality that I predict they will overwhelmingly vote to put her crime family back into office. While I''ve made some progress in educating Liberals as to the phony staged consensus of the left-right paradigm, the fact remains that a majority of Democrats still see the White House as some kind of political Super Bowl, where the success of their "team" is the be all and end all - to the expense of America as a whole. The Punch and Judy show theatre that was the "troop surge" debate in the Senate characterizes Hillary''s role in hoodwinking Americans perfectly. The debate is framed as not whether the U.S. should get out of the Middle-East altogether, but the relative minutia of whether to feed thousands of more troops into the meat grinder or not. Clinton''s Campaign Manager recently compared Hillary to Margaret Thatcher, which translates as more war, more dead Americans, and a further desecration of the tattered shreds of what''s left of our Constitution. Clinton is the ultimate global elitist and represents the Democrats supposed base, the poor and downtrodden, about as much as Lindsay Lohan represents grace and dignity. I''m sure she informed the likes of David Rockefeller and Queen Beatrix as to her presidential aspirations during her last visit to attend the Bilderberg Group conference, which brings me to my next prediction.

[nycprophet]

I predict that in the near future Earth will be dominated by a powerful, one world government. Once free nations are slaves to the will of a tiny, global elite. The dawn of a new dark age is upon mankind. Countries are a thing of the past. Every form of independence is under attack, with the family, even the individual itself, nearing extinction. Close to 80% of the earth''s population has been eliminated. The remnants of a once free humanity are forced to live within highly controlled, compact, prison-like cities. Travel is highly restricted. Superhighways connect the mega-cities and are designed to keep the population from entering into unauthorized zones. No human activity is private. Artificially intelligent super computers chronicle and catagorize a person''s every action. A prison planet run by a ruthless gang of control freaks, whose power can never be challenged, will dominate. This is the vision of Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, and their fellow members of The Bilderberg Group. Their goal: a program of total dehumanization, where the science of tyranny is Law. A worldwide control grid, designed to ensure the overlords'' monopoly of power forever. Our species will be condemed to this nightmare future unless the masses are awakened to their New World Order master plan, and mobilized to defeat it. Erected secretly, the Georgia Guide Stones are a testament to their totalitarian plan for a world religion; global Laws; a global court; and a global army to enforce those Laws.

[nycprophet]

Since its first meeting over 50 years ago, the Bilderberg Group, a secretive gathering of global power brokers, which includes Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, et.al., has inspired layer upon layer of ridicule. In recent times, the deeds laid at the group''s doorstep have included the creation of the European Union, the invasion of Iraq as well as the group''s current efforts to create a North American Union, which will erase U.S. borders and national sovereignty. All to service its most cherished goal: the creation of a world government. After it was reported that a well-received speech by Senator John Edwards at their meeting in Stresa, Italy, was one reason for his selection as John Kerry''s vice-presidential running mate in 2000, people began to ask, "Is the Bilderberg Group now molding the worldwide political scene?" Over 120 of the world''s most powerful monarchs, politicians and business leaders attend the annual, invitation-only gatherings to discuss global issues and to formulate their own policy objectives. The hotels involved are closed-off to other guests, and to reporters. Guards are placed around the perimeter. Attendees promise to keep quiet about what they hear and say. "They do not have to sign anything, but they understand that they do not talk," said Maja Banck-Polderman, the organization''s Secretary. Tony Gosling, a British reporter who has followed the group says, "I think that a forum where so many rich and powerful people meet should be open to public scrutiny."

[nycprophet]

Are we a Nation of Laws? Consider the Patriot Act. The Law is 342 pages long, or 57,000 words, making it a bit longer than Dostoevsky''s "Notes from Underground" or, if you''re partial to pigs, about twice the size of Orwell''s "Animal Farm." The Patriot Act is the reigning champion of our government''s un-American activities. When it was first paraded before Congress and the Senate following the 9/11 attacks. Few Members, other than Congressman, Ron Paul, who dissaproved of its Draconian provisions, voted against it. Most in Congress simply gave it a rubber-stamp of approval for fear of appearing "unpatriotic" to their constituents during our national moment of crisis. Now in effect, the Law wrecks a generation''s worth of constitutional protections against government snooping, legalizing police-state tactics in searches and seizures, criminalizing certain forms of speech and political activity, and opening the way for the mistreatment of foreigners in government custody and wholesale expulsions and imprisonment. It is a repugnant, unnecessary Law that goes against the very principles its name stands for. Yet, it remains unchecked and unbalanced by public opinion, lawmakers or the Courts. So, yes, we''re a nation of Laws. But the Laws aren''t much to speak of when they''re designed to hoodwink the public and win its docility. Neither is public responsibility much to speak of these days when its docility is secured with nothing more than a ploy-riddled play on the word "patriot."

[nycprophet]

Under The Patriot Act, the government''s Law enforcement branches have used their prosecutorial discretion to target citizens who voice their dissent. The Law enforcement targeting of citizens who exercise their First Amendment rights to freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of assembly, and freedom of religion since 9/11 is certainly no exception. The oxymoronically-named Patriot Act section 802 defines domestic terrorism so broadly that it could apply to an individual exercising his or her freedom of speech, expression, and assembly through acts of civil disobedience. In June 2004, Buffalo, New York, artist Steve Kurtz was detained by Law enforcement and had his home searched by FBI agents. Despite finding only harmless paints, which Kurtz uses in his politically motivated art projects. The FBI proceeded with a Grand Jury hearing to indict Kurtz under the Patriot Act''s biological agents provision. The Justice Department frequently uses Section 805 of the Patriot Act, "Material Support for Terrorism," to imply that a person has some link to terrorism. Georgetown Law Professor David Cole''s May 5, 2004, testimony before the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary explains that "in many cases, those who have been charged with material support have done nothing more sinister than to exercise their First Amendment right to freedom of speech or freedom of association." It gets worse.

[nycprophet]

With the full support of Senators Clinton, Obama and McCain, President Bush recently signed into Law the John Warner Defense Authorization Act of 2007, which, according to Senator Leahy (D-Vermont), will actually "encourage the President to declare Martial Law." It does so by revising the Insurrection Act, a set of Laws that limits the President''s ability to deploy troops within the United States. The Insurrection Act (10 U.S.C.331 -335) has historically, along with the Posse Comitatus Act (18 U.S.C.1385), helped to enforce strict prohibitions on military involvement in domestic Law enforcement. With one cloaked swipe of his pen, Bush is seeking to undo those prohibitions. Public Law 109-364, or the John Warner Defense Authorization Act (H.R.5122) (2), which was signed by the President in a private Oval Office ceremony, allows the President to declare a "public emergency" and station troops anywhere in America and take control of state-based National Guard units without the consent of your Governor or local authorities, in order to "suppress public disorder." President Bush seized this unprecedented power on the very same day that he signed the equally odious Military Commissions Act. In a sense, the two Laws compliment one another. One allows for torture and detention abroad of those who dissent and are stripped of their citizenship, while the other seeks to enforce acquiescence at home, preparing to order the military onto the streets of America.

[nycprophet]

The John Warner Defense Authorization Act, which was supported by Clinton, Obama and McCain, also facilitates militarized police round-ups and detention of protesters, so called "potential terrorists" and other "undesirables" for detention in facilities already contracted for and under construction by Halliburton. That''s right. Under the cover of a trumped-up "emergency," detention camps are being constructed right under our noses, camps designed for anyone who resists the foreign and domestic agenda of the President. The Journal of Counterterrorism & Homeland Security International recently reported that "global engineering and technical services powerhouse, Kellog, Brown & Root, a subsidiary of Halliburton, announced in January 2006 that its Government and Infrastructure division was awarded an Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity contract to support U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facilities in the event of an emergency." "With a maximum total value of $385 million over a five year term," the report notes, "the contract is to be executed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers," "for establishing temporary detention and processing capabilities to augment existing ICE Detention and Removal Operations - in the event of an emergency influx of immigrants into the U.S., or to support the rapid development of new programs." New Programs?

[nycprophet]

In addition to authorizing another $532.8 billion for the Pentagon, including a $70-billion "supplemental provision" which covers the cost of the ongoing, mad military maneuvers in Iraq, Afghanistan, and other places, the John Warner Defense Authorization Act, signed by the President in a private White House ceremony, further collapses the historic divide between the police and the military: a tell-tale sign of a rapidly consolidating police state in America, all accomplished amidst ongoing U.S. imperial pretensions of global domination, sold to an "emergency managed" and seemingly willfully gullible public as a "global war on terrorism." Make no mistake about it: the de-facto repeal of the Posse Comitatus Act is an ominous assault on American democratic tradition and jurisprudence. The 1878 Act, which reads, "Whoever, except in cases and under circumstances expressly authorized by the Constitution or Act of Congress, willfully uses any part of the Army or Air Force as a posse comitatus or otherwise to execute the Laws shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than two years, or both." It is the only U.S. criminal statute that outlaws military operations directed against the American people under the cover of "Law enforcement." As such, it has been the best protection we''ve had against the power-hungry intentions of an unscrupulous and reckless President who may be intent on using force to enforce his or her own will.

[nycprophet]

Within every generation, our country has had many weird and backward Laws, the sort of legal aberrations like our Patriot Act and the John Warner Defense Authorization Act represent, which make it more expedient for a President to wield power and for a lazy Congress and Senate to seem assertive. John Adams had his Alien and Sedition Acts, which invited suspicion of immigrants and criminalized any critical opinion of the government. Massacring Indians was a favorite sport of Andrew Jackson''s, but in order to indulge it he had to act as if Supreme Court decisions had the legal standing of a fugitive slave. His contempt was infectious. "The farce of dealing with Indian tribes," as Jackson put it, meant that none of the 374 treaties signed with Native Americans by 1868 were worth more than the feathers they were inked with. By then, the nation got busy dealing with the farce of Reconstruction, when lawmaking turned its deceptive wiles on blacks, a political pastime that continues to this day with such legal sophistries as affirmative action and the gerrymandering of "majority-minority" voting districts -- two effective ways of patronizing black participation in society while isolating it in politics. All legal, all seemingly constitutional, for now.

[nycprophet]

Following the Reichstag Fire, a historically-proven act of False Flag Terrorism which Hitler''s own party staged to encite fear in the German population, Hitler promoted the Enabling Act, which is eerily similar, in many ways, to our own John Warner Defense Authorization Act, which gives the President the power to suspend Congress, The Constitution, and to impose Martial Law following any event he or she deems an "emergency." Here''s what Hitler told the German people:

"The government will make use of these powers only insofar as they are essential for carrying out vitally necessary measures...The number of cases in which an internal necessity exists for having recourse to such a Law is in itself a limited one."
- Adolf Hitler

Does that ring any bells? It should, folks. It''s nearly the same promise that George Bush made to us support of the John Warner Defense Authorization Act, one of the many Orwellian Laws which Senators Clinton, Obama and McCain all voted in favor of in the Senate.

"Never forget that everything Hitler did in Germany was legal."
- Martin Luther King Jr.

"The means of defense against foreign danger historically have become the instruments of tyranny at home."
- James Madison

"We have nothing to fear but fear itself, and those who would exploit our fear for power and their own personal, selfish, cynical gain."
- Franklin D. Roosevelt

[nycprophet]

Right alongside the widely-held notion that man is somehow to blame for global warming and that we should therefore pay a global Carbon Tax administered by the U.N., when I think about the myth that is our the "Global War on Terrorism," the following two quotes come to mind:

"If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State."
- Joseph Goebbels, Nazi Propaganda minister

"That propaganda is good which leads to success, and that is bad which fails to achieve the desired result. It is not propaganda''s task to be intelligent, its task is to lead to success."
- Joseph Goebbels, Nazi Propaganda Minister

[speakinup]

neoconRcrazy - everything is propaganda in the news.

It can''t help but be, there isn''t enough information to give a factual background.

Then the news media expects us to accept & trust what they say in spite of their agendas, be it neocon or liberal.

While I''m on the opposite side of the spectrum from you, I would welcome honesty in reporting. It would be refreshing to be able to make sence of the REAL happenings in the world, instead of their sound-bite sized articles.

I believe we can ALL agree that the news, in its current format DISTORTS what is happening.

[neoconrcrazy]

article smacks of propaganda - 2 million have left - now we hear 3''000 have returned?

Have the 2 million become 3 million in the meantime?

[nhprophet]

What we need is a President who will show us the way. Not the old way. Not the same way, but a NEW WAY. Think about this for a minute. What if we pulled all of our troops out of South Korea? They''ve been there for 50+ years. What if we quit worrying about Iran, but instead, realized that its having a nuclear weapon will not mean the end of the world? What if we pulled all of our troops out of the Middle-East, and brought them all home? What if we realistically addressed the National Debt, and paid attention to REALLY DOING SOMETHING about stopping illegal immigration? These are the ideas of Republican Presidential candidate, Dr. Ron Paul. He''s a ten term Congressman and a physician who has delivered over 4,000 babies. He''s an intellectual who''s published four books, three of which are devoted entirely to sound economics and one to foreign policy. He was raised on a dairy farm in Pennsylvania as a pious Lutheran, but now he attends a Baptist church. Paul is given to mulling things over morally. Whenever he recollects the helicopter pilots he treated as an Air Force Flight Surgeon (Captain) during the Vietnam War, a war which he now says was "totally unnecessary and illegal," he laments, "They were gung-ho. I''ve often thought about how many of those people never came back." Candidates with the high level of personal integrity and proven track record of adherance to The Constitution, Congressman Paul has always demonstrated only come around once in a lifetime, if we''re lucky.