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English: Craig Murray delivers an address on S...English: Craig Murray delivers an address on September 23, 2006 aboard a Peace Train on the subject of Afghanistan. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Craig Murray in CardiffCraig Murray in Cardiff (Photo credit: Vertigogen)

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Ex-UK prime minister Margaret Thatcher dies
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The Shadow Taiwan = Hong Kong
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MUSINGS ON IRAQ / by Joel Wing / 1 hour ago
Iraq Unwilling To Confront Forced Labor And Sex Trade
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For the fourth straight year, the U.S. State Department has reported that Iraq has a serious problem with sex trafficking and forced labor. Women and children in Iraq have been forced into prostitution. Foreign women have also been shipped to Iraq for the sex trade, and Iraqi women have been sent abroad as well as slaves. Many workers from abroad are also coming to Iraq in increasing numbers with the growing economy, and that has opened up opportunities to exploit them. Iraq has laws against both of these crimes, but barely enforces them. That’s because the government does not consider either an important issue.

Each year the State Department releases a report on trafficking around the world. It breaks countries up into four categories. The first is Tier 1, which are nations that are complying with the minimum standards of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act. Tier 2 countries are those that do not fully comply with the act, but are making efforts to do so. Tier 2 Watch List is ones that State has questions about. That’s because the number of victims is increasing, the government doesn’t provide evidence of its efforts, or has only said that it would start complying with the act the next year. Finally, Tier 3 countries do not comply with the Trafficking law at all, and are not making an effort to do so.

Most of the Middle East and North Africa did poorly in the 2012 report. Israel was the only country in the Tier 1 category. Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, Jordan, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, and Oman were Tier 2. Iraq and Bahrain were Tier 2 Watch List. The remaining states, Algeria, Libya, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Kuwait, and Syria were in Tier 3. The region has historically been a trade route for goods and people between Africa, Asia and Europe, and remains so to this day.

Iraq has a growing sex trade, which is connected to neighboring countries through organized crime rings. Women are sold within the country, and also sent to Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Turkey, Iran, Yemen, and Saudi Arabia for both prostitution and slavery. There are several ways women end up in the sex trade. One is that women are raped on film, and that is used to blackmail them. Another is women are bailed out of prison or jail, and then forced to pay off their fines. Some are pushed into prostitution by their family due to poverty, debts, or a need to settle a family dispute. The two most common ways however are forced or temporary marriages, and false job offers. In the former, women are married off under false circumstances, usually to pay off money, and then put into the sex trade. In the latter, women are told that they will be given work, but instead are forced into the illegal business. There is anecdotal evidence that the trade is increasing in Iraq. In Tikrit for example, non-government organizations found women from Baghdad, Kirkuk, and Syria being sold to traffickers for $1,000-$5,000 each. Women from Iran, China, and the Philippines have also been trafficked to and through Iraq. There are several factors contributing to the continuation and growth of the sex trade in the country. One is the high levels of poverty, which leads to desperate decisions to make money. Related to that is the huge number of Iraqi refugees who are in vulnerable situations, which opens them up to exploitation. Finally, corruption opens up government officials to bribes and collusion with gangs. Organized crime grew during the 1990s as they were used by Saddam’s government to smuggle goods to get around sanctions. After the fall of his regime, gangs grew in size, as they were either associated with or grew out of militant organizations. Today, many insurgent groups rely upon crime to finance their operations, or have given up the fight, and have become full time gangsters. They use their networks that were once used to smuggle in commercial goods or weapons, to now smuggle women and children in and out of Iraq.

The huge influx of foreign workers like these into Iraq has opened up the opportunity for some to be exploited by labor scams (U.N. Radio)

Similarly, Iraq is a center of forced labor in the Middle East. People from Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Nepal, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Pakistan, Georgia, Jordan, Ethiopia, and Uganda have all come to Iraq in recent years to find work. Some of them have become indentured workers. They are promised jobs in Iraq, but when they arrive they are threatened, get their passports and documents taken, and are told they have to pay off a debt before they can leave. Some are told that they will be going to the Gulf States or Jordan, and then end up in Iraq, or have the terms of their contract changed, and are forced to stay. Many of these people are used in construction, security, and janitorial or domestic work. In Kurdistan for example, there were women from Ethiopia, Indonesia, Nepal, and the Philippines, who were offered domestic jobs there, but were then forced into servitude. Nepal and the Philippines actually banned their citizens from going to Iraq, because of these practices. Manila just lifted this ban in March 2013. Many Arab states, especially in the Persian Gulf, have a long history of using foreign workers, and Iraq is no different. The Iraqi government, which is the largest employer in the country, offers robust pay, which leads average Iraqis to demand similar wages, much higher than in many neighboring countries. That causes local businesses to turn to cheap foreign labor instead. This is despite the fact that Iraq has a very high unemployment and underemployment rate. Unfortunately, this large wave of migrant workers is being exploited by some.

Most problematic for the State Department and the victims of sex slavery and forced labor, is the fact that the Iraqi authorities do not seem much concerned with either issue. For the last four years, Baghdad has not provided the U.S. with hard evidence that it is trying to improve the situation. It has a written plan to address sex trafficking, and passed new legislation about it in April 2012, but enforcement is weak. Officials have tried to help out some workers. In March 2012, an investigation was opened into 22 Ukrainian and Bulgarian men who were forced into working in construction, and then abandoned by their employer in the Green Zone. Each one was paid $2,000 in compensation. The Labor Ministry also paid for some awareness programs about sex trafficking, and occasionally there are stories about gang members being arrested for the crime. Otherwise, little else has been done. Many prostitutes are arrested as criminals, there are no services for victims of the sex trade or forced labor, the government is not collecting any statistics on either crime, nor trying to train law enforcement about them, and there are some officials who deny that trafficking is occurring in Iraq, or claim it is not a major issue. Iraq should have been made a Tier 3 country some time ago. It has continued to promise Washington that it will do something about trafficking in labor and sex, and has made some superficial steps towards doing that, which has kept it on the Tier 2 Watch List instead. This makes it like the many other countries in the Middle East and North Africa that have not addressed these crimes.

Iraq has a growing problem with the sex and labor trade. Sanctions and wars devastated much of Iraqi society. That created millions of poor and displaced people who are open to exploitation in the sex market. Women from other countries have also been shipped to or through Iraq by the wide range of criminal organizations that exist within Iraq and the region. Iraqi women have also been sent abroad as prostitutes. On the other hand, the decrease in violence has now allowed the economy to grow, and there is a demand for workers. Instead of using the huge pool of out of work Iraqis, many companies have instead turned to foreigners that they can pay less money to. They too are open to manipulation, because it is easy for an employer to seize their documents, and then blackmail them to work in return for the promise that they will be allowed to leave the country eventually. Corruption and the government’s lack of interest have allowed both of these practices to increase in Iraq. Until there is political will to deal with these two problems, they are likely to continue in Iraq, and flourish just like they do in the rest of the region.

SOURCES

Department of State, “Trafficking In Persons Report,” June 2012

Iraq Business News, “Filipinos can now Work in Iraq,” 3/8/13

Tijara Provincial Economic Growth Program, “Assessment of Current and Anticipated Economic Priority In Iraq,” United States Agency for International Development, 10/4/12
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Craig Murray
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Margaret Thatcher
By chance I knew Margaret Thatcher rather better than a junior civil servant might have been expected to, not least from giving her some maritime briefings during the First Gulf War. On another occasion Denis and I once got absolutely blind drunk in Lagos – I had been given him to look after for the day, and the itinerary started with the Guinness brewery and went on to the United Distillers bott
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Obsidian Wings
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Road Tripping, Part I
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Centauri Dreams
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Actress Olivia Munn Bares All to Expose Chinese Fur Farms.
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Toothpastes – Over 95% of the toothpaste sold in the U.S. now contains fluoride.
The Truth is Where? / 23 hours ago 
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The Truth is Where? / by The Truth is Where / 23 hours ago
Toothpastes – Over 95% of the toothpaste sold in the U.S. now contains fluoride.
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7th April 2013.     Find Full Article Here:-
Dental Products
Toothbrush
“If you accidentally swallow more than used for brushing, seek professional help or contact a poison control center immediately.”





Over 95% of the toothpaste sold in the U.S. now contains fluoride, with many grocery stores carrying few if any non-fluoridated brands. The use of fluoride toothpaste, particularly during early childhood, presents health risks. This is why the FDA requires a poison warning on every tube of fluoride toothpaste now sold in the US.
Risks from ingesting fluoride toothpaste include permanent tooth discoloration (dental fluorosis), stomach ailments, acute toxicity, skin rashes (perioral dermatitis), and impairment in glucose metabolism. All of these risks have been unnecessarily increased by the marketing practices of toothpaste manufacturers, who use cartoon packaging and candy-flavors to target *adult-strength* fluoride toothpaste to young *children.*  The dental community’s failure to educate the public about the dangers of swallowing too much fluoride toothpaste has further exacerbated the problem.

A Major Source of Children’s Daily Fluoride Intake

Fluoride toothpastes sold in the U.S. generally contain between 1,100 and 1,450 parts per million (ppm) fluoride (the equivalent of over 1 mg of fluoride for each gram of paste). Although the fine print on the back of the toothpaste tube instructs users not to swallow and to use only a “pea-sized” amount, advertisements continue to depict heaping swirls of paste on the brush, and manufacturers continue to market fluoride toothpastes in bubble-gum, fruit, and candy-like flavors. Using child-appealing flavors is particularly dangerous because young children have poorly developed swallowing reflexes, and invariably swallow large amounts of the paste they add to the brush.
Not surprisingly, numerous studies have found that many children ingest a significant amount of fluoride each day from toothpaste alone. According to the Journal of Public Health Dentistry: ”Virtually all authors have noted that some children could ingest more fluoride from [toothpaste] alone than is recommended as a total daily fluoride ingestion.” (Levy 1999).

A Major Risk Factor for Dental Fluorosis

One side effect from swallowing too much fluoride is dental fluorosis. Dental fluorosis is a defect in tooth enamel caused by excessive fluoride intake during the tooth-forming years (age 0 to 8). In its mild forms, dental fluorosis presents as cloudy white splotches and streaks on the teeth, while in its moderate and severe forms, fluorosis can cause extensive brown and black staining along with pitting and crumbling of the enamel. Children who ingest a lot of toothpaste (whether accidentally or purposefully), can develop the disfiguring brown and black stains of advanced fluorosis, particularly if they also drink fluoridated water. Fluorosis on the front teeth, even in its “mild” forms, but especially in its severe forms, can cause self-esteem problems for a child, particularly when they reach adolescence.

Acute Poisoning

In 1997, the FDA ordered toothpaste manufacturers to add a poison warning on all fluoride toothpastes sold in the U.S. The warning reads:
“Keep out of reach of children under 6 years of age. If you accidentally swallow more than used for brushing, seek professional help or contact a poison control center immediately.”
The FDA requires this warning because children who swallow too much fluoride toothpaste can suffer acute poisoning, even death. In fact, a single tube of bubble-gum flavored Colgate-for-Kids toothpaste contains enough fluoride (143 mg) to kill a child weighing less than 30 kg. (Whitford 1987a).
While fatalities from fluoride ingestion are rare (the last reported death occurred in 2002), bouts of acute fluoride poisoning are not. Acute fluoride poisoning, which occurs at doses as low as 0.1 to 0.3 mg per kg of bodyweight, generally presents in the form of gastric pain, nausea, vomiting, headache, dizziness, and flu-like symptoms. (Akiniwa 1997; Gessner 1994). A child weighing 10 kg would only need to ingest 1 to 3 grams of paste (less than 3% of a tube of Colgate-for-Kids) to experience one or more of these symptoms.
 
 

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