Outrage after 91 Iraqi interpreters abandoned (UK)

[G_j]

Source: Times Online

From Times Online
August 7, 2007

Outrage after 91 Iraqi interpreters abandoned
(Christoph Bangert/Polaris/Eyevine)

Michael Evans, Defence Editor of The Times

Outraged reaction erupted from serving military officers, retired generals and politicians today after the revelation in The Times that nearly 100 Iraqi interpreters who have risked their lives working for the British in Basra may be abandoned to their fate when the troops are withdrawn.

One Territorial Army officer who served in Basra in 2003/2004 told The Times that his interpreter was visited by militia who held a gun to the head of his wife and children.

They threatened to kill him and his family if he did not leave the country in three days.

“Yet when I took up his case with the Home Office, he was immediately turned down for refugee status,” Major Andrew Alderson of the TA’s Queen’s Own Yeomanry said.

..more..

Read more: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/iraq/article2216985.ece

[madrchsod]

1. at least we got the Laotians that supported the us

during the war in Vietnam..i wonder if we will do the same when we leave iraq.

[TomInTib]

3. My last flight back to the states was with a planeload of Hmong.

Me and three Marines (I was Navy) and all these Laotians and all their stuff (including dogs and pigs - it was surreal. They may have had chickens, too, I cannot remember).

Had all their stuff strapped down on the cargo floor and we were sitting on those web bench-things along the fuselage, all hunched over because of the curve of the fuselage wall.

I do remember thinking that this was a rather ignominious way to go out, considering all that we had been through. And those kids were running all over the place, doing things that kids do without a care in the world and their parents were scared to death.

Think about that. They had seen these crazy Americans do some unbelievable shit and now they were going to live with them.

I had done a lot of work in Laos, but that was the first time I had ever really thought about the plight of those poor people.

The story goes on, but I quickly tire of typing.

[flyingfysh]

8. we abandoned the Laotians

It's in the new book "Legacy of Ashes" about the CIA.

[Ian David]

2. No, no no... Iraq is not at ALL like Vietnam...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=105&topic_id=3971375

[Chulanowa]

4. Can't have them ay-rab terrists threatnin our security!

Ten bucks says that's exactly the train of thought going through the heads of officials denying refugee status. The fear that Islamic middle easterners are all psychotic mutjobs with an inborn talent for high explosives. Or perhaps they just don't want any actual Iraqis coming in and poking holes in the official story that things are all sunshine and gumdrops in Iraq - after all, if that's true, why the refugees?

[FloridaJudy]

5. Oh Jeez, another effin' flash back

An' here I sit so patiently
Waiting to find out what price
You have to pay to get out of
Going through all these things twice.

Bob Dylan "Memphis Blues" 1966

[Joe Chi Minh]

6. That's how these scum we have as our government in the UK treat their friends.

Just like they treat their own, i.e. as expendable trash. Nor would today's opposition have behaved any better.

Contrast it with the behaviour of the Danes:

http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/57902/?page=2

And they are not wusses. They are the descendants of the Vikings, whose empire stretched as far as Russia, but who have EVOLVED! They have a WELFARE STATE - and have not been doing their best to destroy it by underfunding it.

[Mr_Jefferson_24]

7. Appalling, unconscionable, predictable. nt.

[Jacobin]

9. There won't be enough room on the helicopters for all the

collaborators who will be hunted down and killed when we leave.

We have royally screwed these people over.

[0007]

10. Here we go again folks, strap on your balls!

[orleans]

11. . n/t

[saigon68]

12. LOL 91 Collaborating Quislings soon to Bite the Dust