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Family finds local help after fleeing Iraq Crain's Detroit Business Seeing his barber shop burned because he was the wrong religion was bad enough, but when his 5-year-old daughter was kidnapped, Odai Alaaneri knew it was time to leave his native Iraq. Thankfully, he and his wife were able to get their daughter back ...

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Family finds local help after fleeing Iraq - Crain's Detroit Business

BAGHDAD Iraq's prime minister has squashed a move by pro-Iranian factions in his government who wanted to retaliate against President Donald Trump's travel ban. The struggle shows the difficult position the Iraqi leader finds himself in pulled between his most powerful neighbor and the United States under Trump.

For Haider al-Abadi, the situation had looked difficult on Sunday night. At a meeting of the most powerful Shi'ite leaders and their representatives, he faced calls to respond in kind to the ban affecting seven mainly Muslim nations, including Iraq.

Trump's order had triggered angry reactions among Shi'ite politicians in Iraq. Those who are closest to Iran were insisting that Iraq should retaliate with a ban on U.S. nationals, just like Tehran did the day before.

But matters were resolved smoothly in Abadi's favor. The prime minister warned the Shi'ite leaders that a ban on Americans would jeopardize U.S. support for the war on Islamic State. So they were prepared for the time being at least to reject the demands of the pro-Iranian lobby.

While the Shi'ite leaders agreed that the U.S. order was unfair, it was understood that Iran's allies had no alternative plan on how to finish the battle in Mosul, the last major city under the control of IS militants, without U.S. help.

Abadi said at a news conference on Tuesday that Iraq was best served by preserving the U.S. alliance. "We are ... in a battle and we don't want to harm the national interest."

Iran's allies are, nevertheless, preparing to press their cause again should relations deteriorate further between Washington and Iran after the battle of Mosul, said Ahmed Younis, a professor ofinternational relations at the University of Baghdad.

SYMBOLIC VOTE

One prominent Shi'ite member of parliament warned the situation could change if the ban was extended.

"The Americans promised to review the ban in three months," said Hassan Khalati, a lawmaker close to Sayyid Ammar al-Hakim, a prominent Shi'ite cleric and politician who hosted Sunday's meeting. "If it is maintained, there will be (further) pressure" on the government to retaliate, he said.

In a sign of lingering dissatisfaction a show of hands in parliament on Monday signaled that the majority of lawmakers would have preferred a retaliatory travel ban. The show of hands was symbolic because Shi'ite leaders had backed down at the meeting the day earlier.

The new American president has indicated a cooling of relations with Iran, unlike the previous administration of Barack Obama which reached a deal providing for curbs on the Iranian nuclear program in return for easing international sanctions.

Washington on Friday ratcheted up pressure on Iran, putting sanctions on 13 individuals and 12 entities days after the White House put Tehran "on notice" over a ballistic missile test.

Iran's dominant influencein Iraqi politics was eroded after IS routed the Iraqi army commanded then by Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, who was a close ally of Tehran. This forced Maliki to seek U.S. help to fight the IS militants.

But the U.S. travel curbs - which bar the admission of people from Iraq, Syria, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen -

fueled the arguments of pro-Iranian political factions who seek to bolster Tehran's influence at the expense of Washington.

Iranian officials state their support for Iraq in the war on Islamic State but make no public comments on U.S.-Iraqi affairs to avoid causing embarrassment for Baghdad.

AT ARM'S LENGTH

Unlike Maliki, Abadi has kept Iran at arm's length. Iranian Major-General Qassem Soleimani, who oversaw the formation of the Popular Mobilisation units receded from public view mid-2015.

But several policy-makers and analysts said the travel ban was changing the dynamic, in particular by empowering the pro-Iranian factions.

"Why should we trust the new American administration?" asked Iskandar Witwit, a lawmaker from Maliki's bloc, the biggest in parliament. "We have the right to get closer to Iran as a secure ally in order to preserve our national interests."

Trump's travel ban has "definitely muddied the waters"between the two nations, Witwit added.

One veteran Iraqi politician, who declined to be named, also pointed out that Baghdad's relationship with Washington was not a direct reflection of the assistance that has poured into Iraq.

"When you look at the level of military and financial support Iraq gets from Washington you would expect it to be as close an ally of the U.S. as Jordan or Morocco," he said.

"And yet, Iraq appears like a reluctant ally of the U.S.; we rarely hear Iraqi officials praising the Americans when talking to an Iraqi audience," he said.

RESISTING PRESSURE

For now, however, Abadi has pushed back the pro-Iranian factions.

At the meeting on Sunday, Abadi won the argument over those who wanted retaliation with the critical backing of Hakim, who chairs the National Alliance, an umbrella for the main Shi'ite groups.

Hakim was unavailable for comment but one of his aides said the influential leader was convinced of the pressing need to defeat IS with American military might.

In particular, Hakim's critical support allowed Abadi to resist pressure exerted by representatives of the most radical groups within Popular Mobilisation, paramilitary units trained mainly by Iran to fight IS, who wanted Iraq to follow Iran's lead in imposing a retaliatory ban on American travelers.

"Iraq should not become a ground where Iran and the U.S settle scores," said MP Khalati, explaining the opinion of Hakim, the heir of one of a revered clerical dynasty whose members suffered under former dictator Saddam Hussein.

"Iran is supporting Iraq and the U.S. is supporting Iraq, our interest is to get rid of terrorism," he said.

After the meeting, Iraq's Foreign Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari asked the U.S. ambassador to Iraq to convey a request to reconsider the ban, arguing for the need to cooperate against IS and saying no Iraqi was involved in attacks on U.S. soil.

(Editing by Peter Millership)

WASHINGTON The Trump administration on Friday imposed sanctions on Iran, which it said were just "initial steps" and said Washington would no longer turn a "blind eye" to Iran's hostile actions.

Francois Fillon clung to his role as France's conservative presidential candidate on Friday amid worsening opinion poll ratings and speculation about his ability to carry on after accusations his wife got public money for work she did not do.

BUCHAREST Romania's ombudsman has challenged in the Constitutional Court a cabinet decree passed earlier in the week decriminalizing some graft offences, in an apparent watering down of an anti-corruption drive that sparked mass protests and international condemnation.

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Abadi fends off calls by Iran allies in Iraq to react to Trump travel ban - Reuters

Shiite fighters from the Hashed al-Shaabi (Popular Mobilisation) paramilitary units advance towards the village of Shwah, south of the city of Tal Afar on the western outskirts of Mosul, on December 13, 2016, during an ongoing operation against Islamic State (IS) group jihadists. (Ahmed Al-Rubaye/AFP/Getty Images)

Its been a week since U.S. President Donald J. Trump temporarily banned travel to the U.S. from seven Muslim-majority countries. Over those seven days, Trump has tried to downplay the consequences of what some members of his own administration have called a poorly thought out and implemented policy.

But Trump, as weve all come to expect, has doubled down, tweeting on Jan. 30 that all is going well with few problems.

But things are going anything but well. Since the ban was put in place, a growing chorus of world leaders, U.S. diplomats and experts have warned of the unforeseen and potentially catastrophic consequences it could trigger. The war against the so-called Islamic State, which relies on coordination with some of the countries on the list, could be under threat. Perceptions in other parts of the Muslim world, where anti-American sentiment remains entrenched, could plummet even further and lead to an increased threat for Americans.

The inevitable is already coming to pass here in Iraq where the ban has sparked fury and outrage. On Jan. 30, three days after the ban was imposed, the Iraqi parliament voted on a motion urging Prime Minister Haider al Abadi to put in place a reciprocal ban on Americans. One would have expected the Iraqis to come out strongly in favour of such a ban. But the result, according to one Iraqi politician, wasnt as clear-cut.

Around 180 parliamentarians voted in favour, Majed Shangali, a Kurdish member of parliament, told Macleans. That represents approximately 55 per cent of parliamentarians, enough for the motion to pass.

The dissension, Shangali added, wasnt surprising. Since its inception, the post-Saddam Hussein Iraqi parliament has been riven by factions, each with their own interests. Shia parliamentarians with strong ties to Iran voted overwhelmingly in favour of the ban while Kurds, who enjoy a close relationship with the U.S., voted against it, or abstained. Sunnis were split while supporters of Abadi, who opposes any move that would risk the ongoing Mosul offensive, heavily reliant on U.S. airstrikes and American advisors embedded with Iraqi forces, opposed it as well.

In the end, Abadi overruled the parliament, sparking anger among his opponents. Moqtada al Sadr, an influential Shia cleric who led a powerful militia that fought U.S. forces in Iraq in the mid-2000s, came out strongly in favour of kicking Americans out.

It would be arrogance for you to enter freely Iraq and other countries while barring them the entrance to your country, he wrote on his website. And therefore you should get your nationals out.

The ripple effects spread from there. On Jan. 29, the spokesperson for the Popular Mobilization Units (PMU), a loose alliance of Iranian-trained Shia militias, including one that is on the U.S. list of foreign terrorist organizations, echoed Sadrs demand.

Shangali warned the ban would strengthen Irans hand if it wasnt modified to reflect the sacrifices Iraqis have made in the fight against the Islamic State. The PMU is increasingly making its presence felt in and around Mosul, despite promises that it would not enter the city. Human rights organizations have warned that its forces have engaged in widespread abuses against Iraqs minority Sunnis.

After Daesh is defeated, Shangali added, using the Arabic acronym for the Islamic State, the problems will come. Because of this ban, the U.S. has made it harder now to counter Iranian influence in Iraq. Beyond the Kurds, it has few friends left, but even Kurds are upset because the ban affects them as well. If there was any goodwill from the help the American military has given the Iraqi army, it is gone.

More worryingly, he added, U.S. civilians in Iraq now face a more hostile local population, particularly American journalists covering the Mosul offensive who regularly come in contact with the PMU. Shangali pointed out the special hatred for Americans that elements in the militia harbour, and that hatred is now likely to increase.

For the time being, American journalists who spoke to Macleans said they are not changing the way they work or limiting their contact with PMU fighters, though the ban has sent a chill through their community.

The travel ban, Trump has said, is meant to keep Americans safe. In a memorandum signed on the same day, instructing the Pentagon to draft a more aggressive plan to defeat the Islamic State, Trump named four Americans the group has murdered, including journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff. His policies could very well lead to the deaths of more.

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Donald Trump is destabilizing Iraq - Macleans.ca

In an interview with MSNBC's Chris Matthews on Feb. 2, White House counselor Kellyanne Conway defended President Trump's travel ban with inaccurate claims of a "Bowling Green massacre," and an Iraqi refugee ban under former president Barack Obama. Here's what we think she meant. (Jenny Starrs/The Washington Post)

Kellyanne Conway has taken alternative facts to a new level.

During a Thursday interview with MSNBCs Chris Matthews, the counselor to the president defended President Trumps travel ban related to seven majority-Muslim countries. At one point, Conway made a reference to two Iraqi refugees whom she described as the masterminds behind the Bowling Green massacre.

Most people dont know that because it didnt get covered, Conway said.

The Bowling Green massacre didnt get covered because it didnt happen.There has never been a terrorist attack in Bowling Green, Ky., carried out by Iraqi refugees or anyone else.

It appeared initially that Conway was referring to two Iraqi citizensliving in Bowling Green who were arrested in 2011 and eventually sentenced to federal prison for attempting to send weapons and money to al-Qaeda in Iraq for the purpose of killing U.S. soldiers, according to astatementfrom the Justice Department.

On Friday morning, she acknowledged that with a tweet:

Bowling Green city officials saidFriday morning in a statement that While in 2011, two Iraqi nationals living in Bowling Green were arrested for attempting to provide money and weapons to terrorists in Iraq, there was no massacre in Bowling Green.

I understand during a live interview how one can misspeak, Mayor Bruce Wilkerson said of Conways remarks, and we appreciate the clarification.

[Fact Checker: Kellyanne Conways claim of a Bowling Green massacre]

The arrests in Bowling Green were indeed covered, contrary to what Conway initially said. A Lexis search of major papers turned up about 90 news stories. Thats not counting TV coverage, as in the ABC news story she attached to her tweet.

As a result of the Bowling Green investigation, Mohanad Shareef Hammadi, 25, was sentenced to life in federal prison. Waad Ramadan Alwan, 31, was sentenced to 40 years in federal prison, followed by a life term of supervised release.

Both menpleaded guilty to federal terrorism charges and admitted to having taken part in attacks against U.S. troops in Iraq, not in Bowling Green.

Heres what the Justice Department said in a Jan. 29, 2013, statement:

Hammadi and Alwan both admitted, in FBI interviews that followed waiver of their Miranda rights, to participation in the purported material support operations in Kentucky, and both provided the FBI details of their prior involvement in insurgent activities while living in Iraq. Both men believed their activities in Kentucky were supporting AQI. Alwan admitted participating in IED attacks against U.S. soldiers in Iraq, and Hammadi admitted to participating in 10 to 11 IED attacks as well as shooting at a U.S. soldier in an observation tower.

Court documents filed in this case reveal that the Bowling Green office of the FBIs Louisville Division initiated an investigation of Alwan in which they used a confidential human source (CHS). The CHS met with Alwan and recorded their meetings and conversations beginning in August 2010. The CHS represented to Alwan that he was working with a group to ship money and weapons to Mujahadeen in Iraq. From September 2010 through May 2011, Alwan participated in ten separate operations to send weapons and money that he believed were destined for terrorists in Iraq. Between October 2010 and January 2011, Alwan drew diagrams of multiple types of IEDs and instructed the CHS how to make them. In January 2011, Alwan recruited Hammadi, a fellow Iraqi national living in Bowling Green, to assist in these material support operations. Beginning in January 2011 and continuing until his arrest in late May 2011, Hammadi participated with Alwan in helping load money and weapons that he believed were destined for terrorists in Iraq.

Conway also reiterated claims from Trump that his refugee policy is similar to what President Obama did in 2011 when he banned visas for refugees from Iraq for six months.Conway said it was brand new information to people that Obama enacted a six-month ban on the Iraqi refugee program. Breitbart also reported this week that Obama suspended Iraq refugee program for six months over terrorism fears in 2011.

As The Washington Post reported, that was not the case. Obama administration officials told The Post that there was never a point when Iraqi resettlement was stopped or banned.In the aftermath of thearrests of the two Iraqis living in Kentucky, the Obama administration imposed more extensive background checks on Iraqi refugees, and the new screening procedures created a dramatic slowdown in visa approvals.

[Trumps facile claim that his refugee policy is similar to Obamas in 2011]

State Department records show there was a significant drop in refugee arrivals from Iraq in 2011, The Posts Glenn Kessler reported. There were 18,251 in 2010, 6,339 in 2011 and 16,369 in 2012. One news report said the pace of visa approvals had slowed to a crawl, indicating some were still being approved.

Conways interview was by no means the first time the arrests of the two Iraqis in Bowling Green had been politicized as support for blocking refugees from reaching the United States. In December 2015, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) released a dramatic campaign video ad featuring images and video footage of the two Iraqi nationals, while criticizing then-rivals in the presidential race Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) and Marco Rubio (R-Fla.). In the 90-second ad, the faces of Alwan and Hammadi are featured with pounding, dismalmusic, establishing that the men were welcomed into America, given public housing and public assistance as refugees.

Conways comments were shared widely on social media.

One journalist tweeted that the American Civil Liberties Union had created a Bowling Green Massacre Victims Fund, which actually redirected to the ACLUs website.

But the organization said it wasnt responsible.

The Bowling Green Massacre was the No. 1 topic trending on Twitter, and Conways interview promptedmany to share memories of where they were when the Bowling Green Massacre didnt happen.

But on a more serious note,Chelsea Clinton called the massacre completely fake and urged people not to make up attacks.

AndConway called her out, tweeting, & others, you cant invent quality candidates either. I misspoke; you lost the election.

And then came thistweet from comedianJustin Shanes:

This story has been updated.

Read more:

Kellyanne Conway gave a master class in not answering questions in her Fox News interview

They never saw this coming: A Q&A with Kellyanne Conway

How Kellyanne Conway ushered in the era of alternative facts

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Kellyanne Conway cites 'Bowling Green massacre' that never happened to defend travel ban - Washington Post

For more than 6,000 years, the marshlands of southern Iraq played a major role in sustaining the agriculture, economies and livelihoods of those residing in the Fertile Crescent.

Living in arched reed houses and relying on water buffalo along with rice, barley, wheat and pearl millet for sustenance, the inhabitants of these wetlands the so-called Marsh Arabs maintained for centuries a lifestyle that was both unique and separate from the rest of the Middle East.

But things changed rapidly in 1992, when former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein angered by claims that the Marsh Arabs were harboring defeated Shia rebels decided to punish them by sending engineers to divert the Tigris and Euphrates rivers away from the marshes. The billion dollar retaliation project was disastrous turning the almost 20,000-square-miles of marsh into a virtual desert and displacing the half million people who called the region home.

Now with Hussein dead and a tenuous Iraqi government attempting to bring some semblance of peace to the turbulent nation, officials in Baghdad along with scientists from the United States are working to revive what was once the Middle Easts largest wetlands and help the Marsh Arabs return to their ancestral homeland.

These are our marshes, theyre a key part of our heritage, and were doing everything we can to get the water to them to preserve them,Hassan Janabi, Iraqs minister of water resources told the Guardian. Last July,UNESCO designated Iraq's marshesas a world heritage site.

Restoring the wetlands, however, is not as simple as just breaking up the dams and dikes and flooding the area.

After the U.S. invasion in 2003, a lot of people tried to knock down the dams and dikes, Jennifer Pournelle, a professor at the University of South Carolina who has spent the majority of her academic career studying the ancient civilizations that once thrived along Iraqs southern marshes, told Fox News. But when you drain a marsh, you cant just put water back in because you just get muck.

Since the marshland was destroyed in the early 1990s, numerous dams have been built on both the Tigris and Euphrates rivers to irrigate land not just in Iraq but in neighboring Turkey and Syria. Turkey alone has built at least 34 large dams on the Euphrates and Tigris and their tributaries.

While these dams have no doubt helped farmers in drier northern Iraq, they have also prevented the flood pulse from the Taurus and Zagros mountains from flushing out the marshland leaving only stagnant water in the remaining parts of the region.

Adding to this quagmire is that earlier efforts to refill the wetlands used waste water from farms, irrigation returns and nearby cities like Basra and Nasiriyah. Marshlands naturally act as natures water filter in that they separate toxins from the water, but without any water moving through the area the marshlands cant do their jobs.

Its like pouring water onto a cheap sponge, Pournelle said. The water just turns into a toxic sludge.

Pournelle, along with her colleagues at USC and the University of Basra in Iraq, believe that the best way to help restore the region is through constructed wetlands.

Designed to emulate the features of natural wetlands, a constructed wetland acts as a biofilter to remove sediments and pollutants from the wastewater before channeling the cleaner water into parts of the wetlands that scientists hope to revive.

Researchers say that it is probably not feasible to bring the Iraqi wetlands back to their original size given the damming upstream and the years the ecosystem has spent without water. But that doesnt mean that the area, and the lifestyle of its former residents, cant be saved.

You cant replace the ecosystem but you can use the wetlands to treat urban wastewater, Pournelle said. Then we can at least move people and the livestock out of the urban centers and back into the marshes.

But moving the former residents back will not be easy.

After the exodus from the marshes following Husseins construction projects, many of the Marsh Arabs settled in squatters camps on the outskirts of Baghdad, Basra and Nasiriyah. In the ensuing two and a half decades, many of the exiled Swamp Arabs have set up lives and businesses for themselves in the cities and are wary of returning to a life without the amenities of contemporary living.

Still, there are some who hope to return to the life that famed British adventurer and writer Wilfred Thesiger described in his seminal work on the people and the region as The Marsh Arabs.

"Memories of that first visit to the marshes have never left me, wrote Thesiger, before describing scenes of life there.

He added: Probably within the next 20 years, certainly within the next 50, they will have disappeared forever."

While Thesigers words proved prophetically true, recent efforts look to not only bring back that lost way of life but add some modern comforts to the marshs inhabitants.

Iraqs Ministry of Water Resources last summer dredged up tons of mud to create 43 islands, with one island dedicated completely to infrastructure projects such as a classroom and a filtration system to make the salty marsh water potable.

"There is modern housing, there's refrigeration, there are roads, schools. Now the boats have engines so it takes no time to get the grasses,"Om Hussein, a Marsh Arab, told National Geographic.

So far, about 250,000 people have trickled back into the marshes over the last 10 years mostly making their home around the roads that Hussein had built, where access to amenities is better.

Acknowledging the difficulties that lie ahead, Pournelle said that its ultimately up to Iraqis to take matters into their own hands if they want to right Saddam Husseins wrong.

The end game, she said, is where Iraqis get the idea that a destroyed wetlands needs to be fixed by preserving the existing wetlands.

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Iraq's 'Marsh Arabs' look to restore once-lost culture with help from US scientists - Fox News