Free Iraq

We have received many enquiries on the earlier posting (in Arabic) of February 15, 2006 regarding the assassination of Dr Abdul Qadir Miran. Hence, we have translated the relevant items.

"Peace be with you
On the second day of the Eid festivities, seven bodies were found in the home of Dr Abdul Qadir Miran. He was one of the dead, along with his wife and their three children and also that of an old woman who was assisting them in receiving the guests for the Eid. The seventh body was that of an unknown man, who was a stranger to the neighbourhood. He was wearing a full Kurdish uniform as if he was on an official (government) business.

The neighbours had heard three shots that night and then they heard cars racing away. When they came out of their homes, they noticed that all of the lights were on in Dr Miran's home and that the doors were wide open. Upon entering the house, they found the seven dead bullet-ridden bodies. Strangely, all of the neighbours concurred that they had heard only three shots, which indicates that the perpetrators had used silencers on their guns. After the arrival of the police, the bodies were removed for autopsy. The police reports indicated that the seventh man had died of bullet wounds shot by Dr Miran. The rest of the bullets on the other six bodies were from other guns. The only weapon that was found on the scene was Dr Miran's legally licensed gun. It is surmised that the stranger was with the attacking party, and that Dr Miran had killed him in self defence but that he was overwhelmed by the number of the attackers. As a sign of their cowardice, the attackers departed hurriedly leaving their dead colleague at the scene of the crime. We leave it to you to come to your own conclusions, and only God knows.
"We belong to God and to God we shall return", - a customary statement recited over the dead -
The hand of treachery assassinates Dr Abdul Qadir Miran, his wife and their three children (In Arabic, www.albasrah.net , February 15, 2006)

A month and a half earlier, on the 23rd of December, 2005, the late Dr Abdul Qadir Miran had described the (accidental) assassination of his grandfather, Professor Omar Miran thus:

"It is with deep regret that I inform you of the assassination of my grandfather professor Omar Miran (May he rest in peace).

We are certain that the traitor's clique is the party who had ordered the execution of this hideous assassination of this good and honourable man who never bowed his head to the will of the treacherous traitors.

Ten days earlier, and after paying due respects to a dead friend's family in Arbil, we were returning to our home in Shaqlawa in two cars. My grandfather was in the first car driven by a close friend of his, and I was with my father in the second car. There were several cars behind us. Suddenly, and as we were approaching a dangerous bend in the mountain road, one of the cars behind us attempted vigorously to pass us, finally sounding their emergency sirens. We allowed the car to pass only to realize that a second car was following close behind. The two cars were now between us and my grandfather's. The second car slowed down noticeably to force us to distance ourselves from my grandfather's car. The first car, which was behind my grandfather's, began to aggressively and suspiciously attempt to bypass my grandfather's car as they both approached a dangerous curve on that road overlooking a very steep cliff, as if attempting to push my grandfather's car off the road. And that is exactly what happened and my grandfather's car rolled over into the deep valley. The two cars sped off. We stopped, and with the generous assistance of the passengers of other cars who witnessed the event, we went down the valley to discover that both men had died. Their car is still there and will remain there forever as a witness to this horrible crime.

The type of the two cars that killed my grandfather is the well known SUV four-wheel drive that is used by the puppet's gangs.

It was an intentional act, but unfortunately, it is difficult in such cases to lodge an official complaint, and this horrible crime was attributed to "a regrettable traffic accident".

We all know that my grandfather had received very clear threatening letters. We found some of these letters in some files in his library that also contained written material that he was intending to publish. But presently, I regret not being able to publish them as they do contain some very important and sensitive facts. I will try, with some close friends, to publish them at the right time.

The statement "history repeats itself" does apply here, as the grandfather of my father was also assassinated in the forties at the hands of (the late) Mustafa Al-Barzani himself, and in front of a crowd of his relatives and friends. Haj Abdul Qadir Miran Agha was not a supporter of Barzani at that time, as he considered Barzani to be a mere highway robber whose bravado affected the security and peace in our area. Barzani, along with a few of his criminal band, set up an ambush for Haj A Q Miran Agha on a lonely road, and after an acrimonious verbal exchange, Barzani could not convince the Haj and witnesses testified that Barzani himself shot the Haj to death. Immediately afterwards, events in the North of Iraq happened quickly and Barzani fled Iraq and we could not bring him to trial. It is well known what had transpired to Barzani after that period. Today, Barzani's son is repeating his father's deed, but by committing this crime they have proven their own stupidity because the crime that was committed by his father did not prevent my grandfather from standing up to them, and what they have committed today will not stop us from standing up to them once again.

"We belong to God and to God we shall return", and we will remain steadfast on the path traversed by our fathers and grandfathers.

I will keep the email used by my grandfather in order to continue receiving your emails.
The Kurdish historian Omar Miran paid with his life for speaking the truth (In Arabic, www.iraqpatrol.com) December 24, 2005

In a second, and last, article by the late Dr Abdul Qadir Miran titled "The Democracy of the Traitor Puppets in the North of Iraq", published on December 31, 2005, it was apparent that he had realized that he was being targeted by the Barzani gangs, yet he had managed to send his late grandfather's sensitive documents abroad:

"Some claim that there is now democracy in the North of Iraq, and I declare that I challenge them to prove it! For the freedom and democracy that they talk about is granted only to the puppet's barking dogs, allowing them to continue repeating their trivial statements and to loudly beat the drum for them.

We have all heard of what had befallen the patriot Kamal Sayid Qadir (Comment: he was imprisoned for thirty years for publishing articles that criticized Barzani. Having an Austrian passport, he was lately released under intense international pressure), why? It is because he did not compromise with them nor appease them. He did not accept nor tolerate their subservience to foreign power and their distortion of our just Kurdish cause. He does not accept their persistent control of all the resource that belong to our people. There are many other similar cases of such patriots. They suppress, and continue to suppress, the news of these patriots, and they try to silence the voices that differ with them and gag them with various criminal means.

Some will claim: what more do you want now that you are able to speak what you wish and publish it on the Internet?! I frankly say to them, and to all concerned, that whoever is doing what I am doing, then his fate is well known and that they would undoubtedly be getting killed!! I do not stay in one place for long, and I know and I am sure that there are eyes that track my movements and await the moment to execute what they are ordered to do and at any moment. I am not doing this to protect myself from them, although self defence is instinctive, but I am doing this in order to delay, as long as possible, my own assassination in order to save the documents and the sensitive files that belonged to my grandfather and deposit them in a secure place in order to ease my own conscience, for this was the wish of my late grandfather. Now that I have done that, I will rest contented. I simply await God's fate upon me that will be perpetrated by the hands of the traitors to Iraq.

As for publishing on the Internet, I do declare that all Kurdish sites, all of them!!, refuse to post any article that would remotely accuse, even from a glancing distance, the Barzani and Talabani gangs or their henchmen. The actual sending of such articles, even during the time of my late grandfather, was done in an indiscreet manner in order to avoid security complications that we had to avoid. The hand written document would have to be sent, in discretion, to friends outside the area that is controlled by the traitors (to Baghdad). From there it is again sent to other friends outside Iraq and only from there would they be delivered to the Internet site. The same applies, in reverse order, for the emails that we receive.

I would not want to belabour this upon you, but I would like to assure you and tell our friends (who enquired on the fate of sensitive documents) that all of my late grandfather's files have been rescued from our territory and have been delivered to secure places outside Iraq, well before we announced the assassination of our late grandfather.

But we now feel that our fate will not differ from that of our late grandfather and his father. But, by God, I never relented and will not desist serving our nation and our people by publishing the truth as exemplified by our ancestors. We shall not compromise; neither relent, even by a hair's breadth, in this endeavour because we can feel the sense of shame and indignation that these puppets have led us into.

With that, we are proving to the world, that we are resisting them and resist the agenda of their American and Zionist masters. We solemnly declare that we put our hands with the authentic Iraqi Resistance who have sacrificed all of their material possessions and offered their most precious possession, their lives, to fight and defeat the invaders and their puppets.

Peace be upon you and God's blessings".
The Democracy of the Traitor Puppets in the North of Iraq (In Arabic) January 31, 2005

This was the last article written by the late 82 years old grandfather, Professor Omar Miran titled "Even the reference to historical facts is now a criminal accusation", published on November 30, 2005

(The late Professor Omar Miran:
Born in 1924, in Shaqlawa, Arbil province, Iraq.
Obtained his BSc in Law from Baghdad University, 1946.
Obtained hi PhD in History from the Sorbonne, Paris in 1952, and specialized in the History of the People of the Middle East.
He was a Professor of History in various universities.)

"There are those who call upon me to write on topics that would cleanse the souls (remove animosity) and bring Iraqis together. I would like to equivocally state that this is not my specialization. Nonetheless, I do call upon all honourable Iraqis, and non-Iraqis, to stand up to the agenda for splitting Iraq and its people and not to remain silent about the actions that are perpetrated in our country for the benefit of the occupiers. In this manner, we would be able to confront them and to confront them and abort their mission which would lead primarily lead to the destruction of our Kurdish people (for we are the loosers and not others). They are attempting to convince our people that they are working for their benefit, but the truth is far from that and far from the rights that we call for and struggle for. What is happening now, in fact, is that they are dragging our people to a position of hatred and the sowing of animosity between the sects of the region in order that they would implement their own interests and to ease the export of their criminal schemes from Iraq and into neighbouring countries."
A Kurdish historian discusses important facts on the history of the Kurds November 6, 2005

This is from an article that I received yesterday from another Kurdish patriot, an ex-minister in the Iraqi Kurdish Province, who is no longer there:

"Bush is Terrorizing the Iraqi population

There is fear of everything, which is the direct and indirect result of the illegal invasion of Iraq.

Terror of accidental death by stray US and collaborator bullets, rockets and aerial bombardment.
Terror of getting blown up by counter violence aimed at the invaders and collaborators.
Terror of imprisonment by the invaders and collaborators and the terror of being raped, maimed, tortured and all other kinds of the most uncivilized and savage treatment because of not accepting the colonial invasion and the hegemony of the puppet regime.
Constant terror of US and collaborator armed forces roaming the streets and the skies on a day and night basis.
Terror of starvation. 78% unemployment and lack of electricity and clean water.
Fear of being kidnapped and killed by the death squads.
Fear of being robbed or attacked during the dark nights.
Fear of losing a loved child on its way to school or shop.
Fear of being captured and sold as a slave.
Fear of getting sick and not being able to get to a hospital or not getting the basic treatment or medication.
.....
... Terrorism is therefore (see the whole article below) the exact description of what the US and its allies are practicing today. It matters not that the people inflicting it are western, nicely clothed and clean looking men and women. The definition of the words does not state that only Arabs or Muslims with long beards are meant by the meanings of the words. Bush and Blair cannot fool the backward peoples of the world so how could they hope that the sophisticated western nations could fall for them.

I congratulate Mr. Blair on the anti-terror-glorification which should immediately be used to try all those who have not only glorified the above terror actions and smaller individual acts with determination and absolute intent.

Fighting Terror and Terrorism becomes a terrorist act unless combined with true justice. Selective campaigns against X or Y without pursuing the real causes and the biggest perpetrators will only push those aggrieved to fight harder and inflict more injuries."
MIRROR, MIRROR ON THE WALL, WHO IS THE BIGGEST TERRORIST OF US ALL? by Dr Fereydun R Hilmi, February 16, 2006

.......... Con di ...................... Barzani (Jr) ............... Talabani (no comment)