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Dear Ghazwan and List, I am sure we will have a reply from the IPO sometime, explaining that they are not "remotely" counting the people demonstrating in Baghdad as Ghazwan stated. They will insist that they have an Office in Baghdad, chaired by a Mr. Sabah Muhsin. That may be the case, but a look at the IPO’s post will reveal the following: >Baghdad:Mr. Sabah Muhsin, Baghdad IPO Chairman: +1 914 360 5278< Mr. Muhsin’s phone number is a S. New York exchange number!! For those who do not know why that is so, there is an explanation. The Coalition/occupation forces have supplied officials working with them (deans of universities, high officials, etc..) with mobile phones with a New York number, because the telephone network in Iraq was destroyed and contacts are impossible. This way, these persons can be reached at any time. Now why would a NGO of young Iraqis be given such a phone by the Americans?? A visit to the site of IPO will also reveal a project they have been promoting called the “Baghdad Democracy Promotion” project. The PDF document lists the same mobile phone number of its Chairman. It states that the document is an updated version dated July 2003. That is NOT TRUE... At least, up until 26 October 2003, the project was listed on the IPO website under the name “Iraq Democracy Watch”, with only the name of the IPO, without any Baghdad address. The IPO was asking for contributions to its campaign. The most strange thing about this is not the change of name or address, but the change to the budget of the campaign. In the original budget, the total was $520,030 over a period of three years. In the new version the total is $32,619 over a period of 13 weeks. No contributions are being asked for anymore. Has the IPO perhaps received the necessary funds?? The most interesting thing is the salaries. Originally the IPO had planned paying its two staff members $2500/month!! The secretary would have received a salary of $1250. In the new budget, they are paying 20 coordinators $2/each/day.. Those of you who know Iraq’s conditions will also know that a salary of a doctor in Iraq now is $180. Ibrahim al-Ja’farai, head of the Da’wa Party and member of the IGC, said on TV that their salaries at the IGC were $1500/month. Now why would a student receive a higher salary than a member of the IGC?? Unfortunately, the IPO has removed the original proposal from their web page, otherwise list members would have seen the amount of “care” for democracy and for the suffering of the Iraqi people in that budget!!! I made these remarks to a member of this list in private correspondence on 28/29 October 2003. It is up to him to decide whether or not he will identify himself and confirm what I said. I make these remarks to show list members the nature of some of those behind posts. I ask Mike Lewis if his statement regarding Tom’s mass graves issues applies here to IPO posts, and would he agree with me if I borrow from him here: “I regard IPO’s whole history of postings as an abuse of the current terms of the CASI list, and urge the moderator to prevent any postings in a similar vein.” ?? One further point to Ghazwan: there is seemingly a tendency among some in the UK to believe more in British Iraqis than Iraq’s Iraqis. For example: on October 24, there was a seminar; the first in a series of the CAMBRIDGE IRAQ SEMINARS, to discuss strategies for assisting the reconstruction of Iraq. The speakers were: - HIND MAKIYA, who hasn’t lived in Iraq for over 30 years, and who is the sister of Kan’an Makiya. - YASSER ALASKARY, who has NEVER lived in Iraq. - DR AUGUSTA MCMAHON, about whom I have no information. How would those persons know what is best for Iraqis? Or is the criteria perhaps their British passports?? HZ __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Protect your identity with Yahoo! Mail AddressGuard http://antispam.yahoo.com/whatsnewfree _______________________________________________ Sent via the discussion list of the Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq. To unsubscribe, visit http://lists.casi.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/casi-discuss To contact the list manager, email casi-discuss-admin@lists.casi.org.uk All postings are archived on CASI's website: http://www.casi.org.uk