December 1, 2003
Note (May 2009) These links have not been checked or updated since 2003. Many are no longer valid. Sorry for the inconvenience. Human Rights The major mainstream human rights groups, such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, have a number of valuable reports on Iraq. Human Rights Watch's "Hearts and Minds: Post-war Civilian Deaths in Baghdad Caused by U.S. Forces" and Amnesty International's "Iraq: On Whose Behalf? Human Rights and the Economic Reconstruction Process in Iraq" contain useful information about the human rights situation. The Center for Economic and Social Rights has a special page on Iraq with reports on "Water under Siege in Iraq" and "Tearing up the Rules: The Illegality of Invading Iraq." The Kurdish Human Rights Project provides information about Working to protect and promote the human rights of people living throughout the Kurdish areas of Iran, Iraq, Kurdish regions of Iran, Iraq, Syria, Turkey and the former Soviet Union. The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists and the Paris-based Reporters sans Frontières (Reporters without Borders) both monitor press freedom and threats to journalists in Iraq as well as other countries. Activist Groups Voice in the Wilderness is the one leading activist organizations concerned about Iraq. Its delegation have traveled to Iraq for the last decade. It puts together excellent documents and reports. Education for Peace in Iraq Center works to improve humanitarian conditions in Iraq through education and advocacy in the U.S. Iraq Action provides online resources for groups and activists who are working to end the war against the people of Iraq. News For news about Iraq, some of the best sources are two British papers, The Independent and The Guardian, as well as Al-Jazeera which now maintains a website in English with excellent coverage of events in Iraq from a perspective not available in CNN, MSNBC, or Fox News! The Electronic Iraq is an indispensable source of information, documents, and analysis. Besides Swans, a number of e-zines, such as ZNet (Z Magazine), Counterpunch, YellowTimes and Pressaction provide critical commentary and analysis from a wide range of progressive perspectives. Swans keeps an archive of all the 70+ articles and essays the magazine has published on Iraq, Iraq, the Genocidal Sanctions and Gulf War II. It also has a dossier that reviews the disinformation that led to Gulf War I, The 1991 Gulf War Rationale. Iraqjournal.org has several interesting video and audio materials on its website. Antiwar.com puts together an excellent collection of links, combined with well-written commentary, albeit usually from right-libertarian but honorably anti-war perspective(s). Iraq Body Count meticulously keeps track of civilian deaths in Iraq. The Web site has also published a few analytical essays about the horrors of cluster bombs, the occupiers' willful ignorance and negligence of injuries to Iraqi civilians, and remembrance of Iraqis who died in the Iraq wars. Middle East Report publishes scholarly articles on Iraq and other Middle Eastern countries and topics. Its recent issue (http://www.merip.org/mer/mer228/mer228.html) was devoted to Iraq under occupation. Anti-War Groups There are a number of anti-war mobilization groups in the U.S. International ANSWER (Act Now to Stop War & End Racism) has been a leading organization in arranging demonstrations against the war and US occupation of Iraq. United for Peace and Justice opposes the US policy of war and imperial power. It has also organized large nation-wide rallies against the Iraq war. US Labor Against War is a coalition of unions and other labor organizations opposed to US policy in Iraq. In the United Kingdom, UK Stop the War Coalition is a leading anti-war mobilization group. Another British anti-war group, Justice Not Vengeance campaigns for a peaceful resolution of international conflicts, based on justice and equality. Books The following books provide useful background about Iraq: Tariq Ali's Bush in Babylon: The Recolonization of Iraq (Verso, New York, NY, 2003, ISBN: 1859845835) places the recent Anglo-American occupation of Iraq in historic context with analysis of the problems faced by the Iraqi left political formations. Felicity Arbuthnot and Karen Dabrowska's Iraq (Bradt Travel Guides, Bucks, UK, 2002, ISBN: 1841620270) is a travel guide to Iraq. Anthony Arnove's edited book, Iraq under Siege (South End Press, Cambridge, MA, 2002, ISBN: 0896086984), is a collection of essays on the impact of the first Gulf War (1991) and more than a decade of dramatic sanctions against Iraq. Williamson Murray and Robert H. Scales's The Iraq War: A Military History (Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 2003, ISBN: 0674012801) is a military history written from the vantage point of US military officials. Norman Solomon and Reese Erlich's Target Iraq: What the News Media Didn't Tell You (Context Books, New York, NY, 2003, ISBN: 1893956393), written before the recent Anglo-American war on Iraq, exposes the mainstream media's lies and deceptions and distortions. Christopher Scheer, Robert Scheer, and Laksi Chaudhry's The Five Biggest Lies Bush Told Us About Iraq (Seven Stories and Akashic Press, New York, NY, 2003, ISBN: 1583226443) is a recently published rebuttal of the Bush Administration's false claims and outright lies. Charles Tripp's 2nd edition of A History of Iraq (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK, 2002, ISBN: 052152900X) is a standard scholarly history of Iraq.
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Related Internal Links Iraq on Swans Dossiers on Swans The 1991 Gulf War Rationale - A Swans Dossier Tanweer Akram is an economist from Bangladesh and a consultant to an international financial institution. His articles and reviews have appeared in many publications such as Applied Economics, Third World Quarterly, Kyklos, Savings and Development, Journal of Emerging Markets, Journal of Bangladesh Studies, Bangladesh Development Studies, Z Magazine, Counterpunch, and Pressaction. Do you wish to share your opinion? We invite your comments. E-mail the Editor. Please include your full name, address and phone number. If we publish your opinion we will only include your name, city, state, and country. Please, feel free to insert a link to this dossier on your Web site or to disseminate its URL on your favorite lists, quoting a few paragraphs or providing a summary. However, please DO NOT steal, scavenge or repost this work without the expressed written authorization of Swans. This material is copyrighted, © Tanweer Akram 2003. All rights reserved. No part of this material may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. |