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Inside the Middle East
May 29, 2009
Posted: 1158 GMT

Make sure you tune in to "World's Untold Stories – Inside Iraq: Living With The Enemy" Thursday, May 28 at 1030 CET; Saturday, May 30 at 1030 and 1900 CET; Sunday, May 31 at 1630 CET

By Arwa Damon
CNN

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) - I first met Abu Wissam at the foot of his son's shallow grave. Never will he be able to erase the last image he has of his son's body.

"He was cut to pieces," he said. "His hands and feet were chopped off. And he was decapitated."

For a long time, Iraqis would say that it was "outsiders" that were carrying out such atrocities. The truth that is so hard to accept for many is that that often was not the case.

Iraqis turned on each other, neighbors slaughtered neighbors, friends betrayed one another. It was the sheer degradation of society on a shocking and utterly petrifying scale.

Abu Wissam's son Raed was a 25-year-old business school student. His fiancee says that one day he got a phone call from a college friend asking to meet him. Little did she know that it was a plot to lure him out of the house and that it would be their last goodbye.

They were childhood sweethearts. She says they knew that they would get married from the time they were six. "All I do now is cry," she sobs.

Raed's mother can barely form a coherent sentence. Her voice shakes with every word, uncontrollable tears pour down her face. Her hands tremble holding Raed's worn-out photograph. From time to time she caresses the image, the face that she will never touch again.

"I don't sleep." She stutters. "I take pills ... I live on pills."

"Nights aren't nights anymore, days aren't days. They cut his hands off, they cut his head off." Watch World's Untold Stories – Inside Iraq: Living with the Enemy ยป

As the last words leave her mouth she can no longer speak, only cry.

The militia behind the kidnapping was the self proclaimed Mehdi Army, a Shia militia loyal to radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. And the militiamen were once friends and neighbors.

For years my colleagues and I have reported on the atrocities committed by Shia militias, Sunni insurgents, and al Qaeda gunmen.

We recited the daily tally of unidentified, mutilated bodies found in the streets of Baghdad. We spoke of beheadings, kidnappings and torture. But little did we really know about any of it.

Now that there is a semblance of so-called stability, we can start to put a face and name to the victims and begin to try and understand and impart the horrors of what millions of Iraqis lived through and tens of thousands died from. It is only now that we can begin to comprehend the magnitude of what Iraqis went through.

Raed's body was found in the courtyard of a mosque not far from his home. Abu Wissam says that the militia accused Raed of being a spy for the Americans. They demanded $10,000 for Raed's corpse. Abu Wissam paid. The killers did not hand it over.

Nearly a year later, once the militia was forced underground by the "Sons of Iraq" - a rival U.S. backed militia - he found Raed's body. Twenty-seven other bodies were also dug up, including that of a teenage girl. We're told that the militiamen shaved her head before they slaughtered her. Her family is too petrified to speak to us.

Others clamor around our camera crew. Clutching photographs of their loved ones still missing. Desperate to grasp on to any thread that might lead them to those who vanished. They tell us about how they used to hear the victims' screams, how that sound still haunts them.

They tell us the killers are still out there.

The pain is palpable. So much sorrow and anguish, choking emotions, sheer helplessness, in just one location, one mosque in Baghdad with dried blood still streaking the walls.

How does a society just rip apart like that? How do families that have grown up together for generations suddenly turn on one another?

There are plenty of experts and analysts offering their opinions.

As for Abu Wissam, he doesn't know why the people he cheerily said good morning to for decades all of a sudden slaughtered his boy.

"They were our neighbors, they lived in the homes around us," Abu Wissam says.

He tells us how on hot summer days when ice was in short supply and power cuts were rampant, he would take a cold pitcher of water over to their house. He tells us these were the people who sold vegetables at the market.

Now murderers.

Can a father ever forgive his son's killers? Stop seeking justice?

The families of the victims often gather at Abu Wissam's house. They don't talk of reconciliation or forgiveness. They talk of wanting justice - and that means the killers' detention and execution.

"The government has done nothing for us," one of the mothers gathered there says, her voice filled with anger and frustration.

"We will take our own revenge. I say that as a woman, I don't have a man who can stand up for me, I will take revenge with my own hands. I will booby-trap myself and head towards them, towards their families."

"I could hurt their families. But I am not like them, I am not like the Mehdi militia," Abu Wissam says. "They killed my son. I am looking for rule of law."

He has worked with the Iraqi security forces identifying the members of the militia, operating with them on raids. And he has come face to face with some of his son's killers. And he asked them why.

"They said, 'We had orders to kill. For each person we killed they gave us $10,000,' " Abu Wissam says. "Their families are still defending them, saying our sons didn't do anything."

The killers are now cab drivers, college students, entrepreneurs. They've melted back into society.

How can they live with themselves and the cold-blooded reality of what they have done? How can a society that has been so violently ripped apart come back together?

The political and military leadership speak in positive overtones. We're watching U.S. troops fulfill a timeline to "end the war," so desperate is America for some sort of ending.

But it is not over. For Iraqis it's far from over. In many ways it is just beginning.

Make sure you tune in to "World's Untold Stories – Inside Iraq: Living With The Enemy" Thursday, May 28 at 1030 CET; Saturday, May 30 at 1030 and 1900 CET; Sunday, May 31 at 1630 CET

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Posted: 1149 GMT

Deadly blast at Iranian mosque
TEHRAN, Iran (CNN) - An explosion rocked a mosque in southeastern Iran on Thursday, killing at least 15 people and wounding more than 50, Iranian news outlets reported.

Israeli forces kill local Hamas leader
JERUSALEM (CNN) - Israeli anti-terror forces killed a suspected West Bank Hamas military leader Thursday, the country's military announced.

France opens Gulf military base
Abu Dhabi, UAE (CNN) - France established Tuesday its first strategic foothold in the Gulf, when President Nicolas Sarkozy opened a French military base in Abu Dhabi, the United Arab Emirates.

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Filed under: CNN Coverage •Iran •Israel


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Posted: 1145 GMT

CNN's Paula Hancocks walks us through Jabaliya, Gaza, highlighting the extreme living conditions there.

Paula Hancocks reports. Click here to watch
Paula Hancocks reports. Click here to watch

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Posted: 1142 GMT

CNN's Ben Wedeman explores Ashdod in Israel, a town known for its large Russian community which has stayed true to its ethnic origin.

Ben Wedeman reports. Click here to watch
Ben Wedeman reports. Click here to watch

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Posted: 1137 GMT

CNN's Cal Perry visits an open-air black market in Baghdad where you can buy anything from weapons to bootleg DVDs.

Cal Perry Reports. Click here to watch
Cal Perry Reports. Click here to watch

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May 24, 2009
Posted: 918 GMT

TEHRAN, Iran (CNN) - The Iranian government has blocked access to the social networking site Facebook amid political jockeying for the June 12 presidential elections, according to the semi-official Iranian Labour News Agency.

Reformist candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi - a former prime minister considered a threat to current hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad - created a Facebook page for his campaign that has more than 5,000 supporters on the site.

Those attempting to visit Facebook received a message in Farsi saying, "Access to this site is not possible," according to CNN personnel in Tehran.

ILNA reported the Masadiq Committee, made up of representatives from Iran's intelligence ministry, judiciary and others had ordered the action.

After a few hours, the blockage was lifted, but was then reinstated, ILNA said. No reason was given for the block.

"We are disappointed to learn of reports that users in Iran may not have access to Facebook, especially at a time when voters are turning to the Internet as a source of information about election candidates and their positions," a Facebook spokesperson said in a statement.

"We believe that people around the world should be able to use Facebook to communicate and share information with their friends, family and co-workers. It is always a shame when a country's cultural and political concerns lead to limits being placed on the opportunity for sharing and expression that the Internet provides."

Ahmadinejad's challengers are increasingly turning to new technology to spread their message, according to a May 13 article in the Financial Times newspaper.

Iran's population - estimated at more than 66 million by July 2009, according to the CIA World Factbook - has a median age of 27. The Financial Times, which put the country's population at 70 million, said 47 million Iranians have cell phones and 21 million have Internet access.

"We are using new technologies because they have the capacity to be multiplied by people themselves who can forward Bluetooth, e-mails and text messages and invite more supporters on Facebook," Behzad Mortazavi, head of Mousavi's campaign committee, told the Financial Times.

At a Mousavi rally at a stadium Saturday, the Facebook blockage was a topic of conversation among reporters. Many said they had accessed Facebook on Friday night and believe the site was blocked Saturday morning

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May 22, 2009
Posted: 858 GMT

Yemen denies reports of deadly clashes
(CNN) - Yemen's state-run news agency denied reports that clashes between police and anti-government demonstrators left three people dead and 25 others injured in the southern port town of Aden.

Ex-inmate recalls days of abuse at Abu Ghraib
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) - Abu Ahmed says he was there: An Iraqi held prisoner at Abu Ghraib by the American military when inmates were abused.

Tycoon, ex-cop guilty of pop star's murder
CAIRO, Egypt (CNN) - An Egyptian business tycoon and a former police officer have been found guilty of the July slaying of rising Lebanese pop singer Suzanne Tamim.

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Posted: 844 GMT
MENAHEM KAHANA/AFP/Getty Images. Young Israelis dance with national flags in hand at the Western Wall, Judaism's holiest site, in Jerusalem's Old City during celebrations on May 21, 2009 of Jerusalem Day which marks the anniversary of the reunification of the holy city. Right-wing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed that Jerusalem would remain Israel's capital 'forever' as the Jewish state marked the 42nd anniversary of the occupation and annexation of Arab east Jerusalem in the 1967 six day Arab-Israeli war.
MENAHEM KAHANA/AFP/Getty Images. Young Israelis dance with national flags in hand at the Western Wall, Judaism's holiest site, in Jerusalem's Old City during celebrations on May 21, 2009 of Jerusalem Day which marks the anniversary of the reunification of the holy city. Right-wing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed that Jerusalem would remain Israel's capital 'forever' as the Jewish state marked the 42nd anniversary of the occupation and annexation of Arab east Jerusalem in the 1967 six day Arab-Israeli war.
David Silverman/Getty Images. A Jewish youth holds up a poster condemning US President Barack Oama's Middle East peace plan as he passes the US Consulate on the way to the Old City on May 21, 2009 in Jerusalem, Israel. Thousands of national religious Jews celebrated Jerusalem Day, the anniversary according to the Hebrew calendar of the city's liberation from Jordanian forces during the 1967 Six Day War.
David Silverman/Getty Images. A Jewish youth holds up a poster condemning US President Barack Oama's Middle East peace plan as he passes the US Consulate on the way to the Old City on May 21, 2009 in Jerusalem, Israel. Thousands of national religious Jews celebrated Jerusalem Day, the anniversary according to the Hebrew calendar of the city's liberation from Jordanian forces during the 1967 Six Day War.
Yin Bogu - Pool/Getty Images. An Israeli soldier lights a torch during the Jerusalem Day ceremony at Ammunition hill May 21, 2009 in Jerusalem, Israel. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated that all of Jerusalem will remain Israel's capital amidst protests at the Damascus gate of the Old City of Jerusalem wall by eastern Jerusalem Arabs and their supporters.
Yin Bogu – Pool/Getty Images. An Israeli soldier lights a torch during the Jerusalem Day ceremony at Ammunition hill May 21, 2009 in Jerusalem, Israel. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated that all of Jerusalem will remain Israel's capital amidst protests at the Damascus gate of the Old City of Jerusalem wall by eastern Jerusalem Arabs and their supporters.
David Silverman/Getty Images. Right-wing religious Israelis dance with their national flag outside the Damascus gate of the Old City on May 21, 2009 in Jerusalem, Israel. Thousands of national religious Jews paraded past the US Consulate towards the Old City and the Western Wall in celebration of Jerusalem Day, the anniversary according to the Hebrew calendar of the city's liberation from Jordanian forces during the 1967 Six Day War.
David Silverman/Getty Images. Right-wing religious Israelis dance with their national flag outside the Damascus gate of the Old City on May 21, 2009 in Jerusalem, Israel. Thousands of national religious Jews paraded past the US Consulate towards the Old City and the Western Wall in celebration of Jerusalem Day, the anniversary according to the Hebrew calendar of the city's liberation from Jordanian forces during the 1967 Six Day War.

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May 20, 2009
Posted: 1237 GMT

Iraqis turn to foreign workers because of simple economics. CNN's Cal Perry reports

Cal Perry reports. Click here to watch
Cal Perry reports. Click here to watch

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Posted: 1235 GMT

Hardline leaders in Israel appear to have much peace-wise. CNN's Paula Hancocks asks if we expect the same from Netanyahu.

Paula Hancocks reports. Click here to watch
Paula Hancocks reports. Click here to watch

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