U.S. pledge to help Iraqis who aided occupation largely unfulfilled

[unhappycamper]

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2013/03/14/185851/us-pledge-to-help-iraqis-who-aided.html



Angela Williams, in black scarf, an American Muslim who works for the U.S. State Department, talks to her friend Ansam, an Iraqi translator for coalition forces whose last name is withheld because of death threats against her, inside Baghdad's Green Zone in March 2007.

U.S. pledge to help Iraqis who aided occupation largely unfulfilled
By Hannah Allam | McClatchy Newspapers
Posted on Thursday, March 14, 2013

WASHINGTON — Ten years after the United States’ invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein and set off a sectarian war that continues to this day, thousands of Iraqis are eligible for resettlement to the U.S. because they risked their lives to help the war effort as interpreters, cultural advisers and other support staff.

But of the legislated allotment of about 25,000 “special immigrant visas” – which offer permanent residency as a reward to Iraqis who worked with the U.S. government – just 4,669 cases have been approved since 2008, and the program is scheduled to end in September.

Advocates for the Iraqi applicants say the resettlement process for such U.S. allies has been shamefully slow and complicated, and remains an ordeal despite recent tweaks that have increased the flow of immigrants.

And the glacial bureaucracy in Washington, Iraqi applicants and their advocates say, can have disastrous consequences in Iraq, where people who worked with Americans receive death threats from Sunni and Shiite Muslim militants who still view them as “enemy collaborators,” even though the U.S. military withdrew from the country 15 months ago.

[Victor_c3]

1. I worked with three or four Iraqi translators routinely when I was in Iraq

I really got to know these guys. Most were about my age at the time and they were fun and decent guys to be around. Actually, getting to know these guys did a lot for me and understanding that people everything are essentially the same. Young guys all talk about and joke about the same things (sex). Even in the middle east where such subjects were supposedly forbidden, it was talked about and joked about extensively.

This one guy started off working as a janitor on our base. We discovered that he could speak English and so he ended up getting hired as a translator. He was maybe 20 years old and he had a younger sister who was 18 or so. We used to rag him all the time to introduce us to his sister but he insisted that he would never do that because we weren't Muslim.

We all knew where he lived and we made sure that we never went anywhere near his neighborhood when we were on patrol with him. It was very dangerous for people to find out that you worked for the Americans. Anyways, I tried to invite myself and my platoon over to his house, but he wouldn't have anything to do with it.

Anyways, I guess he and his father got into an argument/feud with their neighbor and they fired a couple of shots at each other's houses. Nobody was hurt, but the next day when he told us about it we offered to go by and raid his neighbors house for him! He declined.

He was a nice guy. He was hoping to immigrate to Jordan and eventually make it to the US. I have no idea what happened to him. I hope that him and his other translator buddy are doing alright.