The Price of One Iraqi Life

from In These Times:



Features > June 25, 2008
The Price of One Iraqi Life
U.S. military tries to pacify grieving Iraqis with condolence payments
By James Foley



ANACONDA, Iraq — The woman named Sabah is wearing a black dress and scarf as she sits across the desk from Sgt. Jonathan Fondow inside a small trailer.

“Please tell her we’re extremely sorry and we know no amount can replace her loss,” Fondow, an Army paralegal, says through the interpreter. Sabah’s body stiffens, her expression suspended between grimace and complete loss.

Master Sgt. Troy Baylis then comes from the other side of the room and, after getting a signature from Sabah, begins to count the money onto the desk: $1,000 U.S. — in stacked $50 bills. Sabah takes the money and shuffles out of the trailer office.

Her son, Mohamed, in his mid-20s, was from nearby Albu Hisma, in Salah ad-Din Province, about an hour north of Baghdad. Mohamed had been a member of the Sons of Iraq (SOI), a group of local, armed civilians also known as Concerned Local Citizens, who are paid by the U.S. military to guard checkpoints in problem areas around Iraq, mostly within the Sunni Triangle northwest of Baghdad.

Army reports said Mohamed was guarding a rooftop when U.S. Apache helicopters saw an armed man who was not supposed to be stationed there. Pilots tried to communicate to him via radio to put his gun down, but when he did not, the Apaches opened fire, killing Mohamed instantly. The pilots later said they had seen the colored flares of tracer bullets fired at them.

Once U.S. forces realized they had killed a Son of Iraq, they went to Mohamed’s house to make a condolence payment. According to Fondow, who investigates local Iraqi combat damage claims under the watch of the 2nd Battalion 320th Field Artillery Regiment of the 101st Airborne Division, Mohamed’s uncle and cousin convinced the soldiers that the two of them were responsible for supporting his orphaned children. They accepted the Army’s condolence payment and promptly disappeared. .....(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/3754/the_price_of_one_iraqi_life/