Keeping Score in the “War on Terror”

Goal! Iraq won today’s Asian Cup final. Hurrah for a heroic group effort of Shia and Sunni! But what is the goal, when bombs are bursting in Baghdad and millions have fled the country? Is the goal only a ball flying through the air?

“You know the current situation in Iraq and the difficulties we are going through,” said Noor Sabri, the Iraq goalkeeper and hero of the semifinal victory, before the final match. “Five days before …my wife’s brother died, and my teammate Hawar Mohammed lost his stepmother.” These deaths may have been someone’s goal.

The “difficulties” continue. And in Jordan, the local authorities add insult to injury. As many of the thousands of Iraqi refugees tried to celebrate the win in Amman Jordan, police confiscated their Iraqi flags, declaring them illegal, according to the Times: ‘“How can you do this?” an old man shouted, demanding his flag be returned. The policeman stood stone-faced, the red of the Iraqi flag visible in his hand.’

Is this pointless game of nations and nationalism our game? Or do we prefer sects and sectarianism to Dungeons and Dragons? But then what is our mission accomplished? Is it Bush’s mission we wish accomplished? No, we know that Bush has always played another game. But who has the teamwork skills and laser-eyed focus to play for peace and justice? Is peace the game for Muslims, or do we prefer domination and revenge? But if not peace, then what game will allow us all to celebrate together at the end?

Despite its team’s loss, the Saudis’ political game of influence against Iran will continue in Iraq. Saudi Arabia is now known more for guest worker labor and oil profits than for moral example. Human Rights organizations report how the number of Saudi executions is increasing, often after arbitrary and unfair trials. You may be aware of the recent case of Rizana Nafeek, a 19-year-old guest worker sent to Saudi Arabia from Sri Lanka after the Tsunami disaster two years ago to work as a housekeeper, She was given a baby to take care of and sadly, the baby died and in consequence Rizana has been condemned to be beheaded.

“We respect the laws of the host country and accordingly we have been following the legal procedures to save this girl,” said Sri Lankan Deputy Foreign Minister Hussein Bhaila. The Asian Human Rights Commission earlier publicly condemned the Sri Lankan government for not undertaking the costs of a legal appeal.

However, lawyers have now been hired to start the appeal stating that the case is accidental death, which would take execution off the table and leave the penalty a matter of paying blood money. Nafeek’s legal representatives will also prepare appeals to clemency to the baby’s family and to the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques. Those who wish to help may call the Saudi embassy or Amnesty International or contact the website www.businesssrilanka.com/UrgentAppeal.aspx now.

Will Saudi authorities relent? Don’t hold your breath. It took years for Libya to agree to release the imprisoned Bulgarian and Palestinian nurses as they did last week, following a visit from Madame Sarkozy. In return, Libya got promises for a nuclear powered desalinization project. Not bad!

It is not just that they are oblivious to their image. Though autocratic, both Libya and Saudi Arabia must answer to their local families and clans; blood money must be negotiated over time. And yet surely these states do have funds.

They also both draw guest workers from poorer nations, and in the case of Libya this has lead to a rise in AIDS cases, which spread through unsanitary medical practices. But when tragedy occurs, it is much easier to blame Bulgarians or Sri Lankan housekeepers than reform one’s own way of doing business.

But are we Americans ready and eager to reform yet, in Iraq or at home? And, if as Muslims and Americans we really care about non-state terror, wouldn’t we be interested in stopping the flow of arms?

But it turns out that most nations have no laws to regulate arms trafficking. Last week a UN report informed us that Eritrea is arming insurgents in Somalia; with at least 13 boatloads arriving, with suicide bombs belts and other devil’s toys. Soon it won’t be balls flying through the air, but human heads.

Human Rights researchers have been reporting similar news for years. How do we allow this to continue? In an interesting Village Voice article this past week, writer Chris Thompson reports on the recent arrest of Syrian arms Monzer al-Kassar, linked to some of history's most notorious international arms deals and terrorist atrocities over the last 30 years. The article notes that, “the arrest of Kassar was a significant victory in the Bush administration's "War on Terror." For some reason, however, the government didn't go to the same lengths to publicize the arrest (nor did American media outlets trumpet it in their turn) the way it has the takedowns of homegrown would-be terror suspects who, with the prodding of government informants, allegedly fantasized about bringing down the Chicago Sears tower, or assaulting Fort Dix…”

Why such silence? Perhaps, reports Thompson, “the U.S. government has been well aware of Kassar's work on behalf of terrorists around the world since the 1970s. Kassar was allegedly up to his neck in the Iran-Contra scandal, the BCCI scandal, the murder of Achille Lauro passenger Leon Klinghoffer, and the supply of weapons that were in all likelihood used against American soldiers in the 1993 Black Hawk Down incident in Somalia.”

In our global economy the ports are far from safe. “A bullet is manufactured in Poland, shipped to Latvia, re-routed to the Red Sea, and chambered into a clip in Mogadishu.”

Such work is surely a very free expression of free market forces, no? And who owns the neo-conservative Washington Times? The Korean arms dealer Reverend Moon owns it. A grateful nation can expect the free market to remain free and business to continue, as usual.