Iraq Bloodbath Follows U.S. Withdrawal

Baghdad: U.S. Embassy To Host Pride Party As Local Gays Cower In Darkness

The U.S. Embassy in Baghad will be hosting a gay pride celebration which include a drag show. Meanwhile local gays continue to be rounded up and murdered. Insensitive?

Change has certainly come to Baghdad. And it appears that includes the U.S. Embassy, where they are holding what the invitation says is the first-ever U.S. Embassy Gay Pride Theme Party next Friday at Baghdaddy's, which is the embassy employee association's pub. "Come celebrate the start of Summer with color . . . and in costume!" the May 10 invitation says. "Dress in drag or as a gay icon. All are welcome." The invitation was attached to what was called an "All Hands Alerts" e-mail. An embassy spokesman said by way of explanation: "This is an event organized and sponsored by a group of employees. Given the lack of places to meet in Baghdad, the embassy allows groups to use its social facilities for events on a first-come, first-served basis." The invitation says, "Prizes will be awarded for two contests: Best Dressed Gay Icon and Best Lip Synch Performance." Unclear what the prizes are, but don't forget to "order costume supplies now in time for May 29th," we're told. "For more info and costume ideas, check out the next edition of The Tigris Times."

While it's definitely cool that a government agency of the United States is so open to a gay pride event on their premises, I'm a little bothered that there seems to be no acknowledgment of the plight of gay Iraqis.

Iraq: Six Gay Men Killed By Own Tribes

Iraq's interior ministry reports that six gay men have been killed in the last ten days by members of their own tribes in the Baghdad suburb of Sadr City after being disowned by family members as "perverts." A local cafe popular with gays was also set on fire. The AFP reports on the latest of the killings:

The bullet-riddled bodies of three Iraqis said to be homosexuals have been found in Baghdad's Sadr City, bastion of anti-US Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, a defence ministry official said on Sunday. "Three corpses of homosexuals have been recovered in Sadr City. Two of the bodies, found on Thursday, had pieces of paper attached on which was written the word 'Pervert.' The third body was retrieved on Friday," the official said. Residents told AFP that the bodies of two men aged 16 and 18 were found on waste ground on the outskirts of Sadr City, and that several days previously two homosexuals had been dumped in the street with their arms and legs broken. During Friday prayers in Sadr City, a poor district of Baghdad where some two million Iraqis live, Sheikh Jassem al-Mutairi slammed what he called "new private practices by some men who dress like women, who are effeminate." "I call on families to prevent their children from following such a lifestyle," he added.

This is the country YOU are paying for.

Baghdad In Chaos, U.S. Troops Told To Seek Shelter

MSNBC is reporting that U.S. troops in Baghdad are being told "not to leave reinforced buildings" today as Shia insurgents are overwhelming many parts of the city. Via Reuters:

Iraq’s Prime Minister was staring into the abyss today after his operation to crush militia strongholds in Basra stalled, members of his own security forces defected and district after district of his own capital fell to Shia militia gunmen.

With the threat of a civil war looming in the south, Nouri al-Maliki’s police chief in Basra narrowly escaped assassination in the crucial port city, while in Baghdad, the spokesman for the Iraqi side of the US military surge was kidnapped by gunmen and his house burnt to the ground.

Saboteurs also blew up one of Iraq's two main oil pipelines from Basra, cutting at least a third of the exports from the city which provides 80 per cent of government revenue, a clear sign that the militias — who siphon significant sums off the oil smuggling trade — would not stop at mere insurrection.

In Baghdad, thick black smoke hung over the city centre tonight and gunfire echoed across the city. The most secure area of the capital, Karrada, was placed under curfew amid fears the Mahdi Army of Hojetoleslam Moqtada al-Sadr could launch an assault on the residence of Abdelaziz al-Hakim, the head of a powerful rival Shia governing party.

What do you mean the surge isn't working? Why do you hate America?