McCain Wrong on Iraq Security, Merchants Say
morr...@mailinator.com
April 3, 2007
McCain Wrong on Iraq Security, Merchants Say
By KIRK SEMPLE
BAGHDAD, April 2 - A day after members of an American Congressional
delegation led by Senator John McCain pointed to their brief visit to
Baghdad's central market as evidence that the new security plan for
the city was working, the merchants there were incredulous about the
Americans' conclusions.
"What are they talking about?" Ali Jassim Faiyad, the owner of an
electrical appliances shop in the market, said Monday. "The security
procedures were abnormal!"
The delegation arrived at the market, which is called Shorja, on
Sunday with more than 100 soldiers in armored Humvees - the equivalent
of an entire company - and attack helicopters circled overhead, a
senior American military official in Baghdad said. The soldiers
redirected traffic from the area and restricted access to the
Americans, witnesses said, and sharpshooters were posted on the roofs.
The congressmen wore bulletproof vests throughout their hourlong
visit.
"They paralyzed the market when they came," Mr. Faiyad said during an
interview in his shop on Monday. "This was only for the media."
He added, "This will not change anything."
At a news conference shortly after their outing, Mr. McCain, an
Arizona Republican, and his three Congressional colleagues described
Shorja as a safe, bustling place full of hopeful and warmly welcoming
Iraqis - "like a normal outdoor market in Indiana in the summertime,"
offered Representative Mike Pence, an Indiana Republican who was a
member of the delegation.
But the market that the congressmen said they saw is fundamentally
different from the market Iraqis know.
Merchants and customers say that a campaign by insurgents to attack
Baghdad's markets has put many shop owners out of business and forced
radical changes in the way people shop. Shorja, the city's oldest and
largest market, set in a sprawling labyrinth of narrow streets and
alleyways, has been bombed at least a half-dozen times since last
summer.
At least 61 people were killed and many more wounded in a three-
pronged attack there on Feb. 12 involving two vehicle bombs and a
roadside bomb.
American and Iraqi security forces have tried to protect Shorja and
other markets against car bombs by restricting vehicular traffic in
some shopping areas and erecting blast walls around the markets'
perimeters. But those measures, while making the markets safer, have
not made them safe.
In the latest large-scale attack on a Baghdad market, at least 60
people, most of them women and children, were killed last Thursday
when a man wrapped in an explosives belt walked around such barriers
into a crowded street market in the Shaab neighborhood and blew
himself up.
In recent weeks, snipers hidden in Shorja's bazaar have killed several
people, merchants and the police say, and gunfights have erupted
between militants and the Iraqi security forces in the area.
During their visit on Sunday, the Americans were buttonholed by
merchants and customers who wanted to talk about how unsafe they felt
and the urgent need for more security in the markets and throughout
the city, witnesses said.
"They asked about our conditions, and we told them the situation was
bad," said Aboud Sharif Kadhoury, 63, who peddles prayer rugs at a
sidewalk stand. He said he sold a small prayer rug worth less than $1
to a member of the Congressional delegation. (The official paid $20
and told Mr. Kadhoury to keep the change, the vendor said.)
Mr. Kadhoury said he lost more than $2,000 worth of merchandise in the
triple bombing in February. "I was hit in the head and back with
shrapnel," he recalled.
Ali Youssef, 39, who sells glassware from a sidewalk stand down the
block from Mr. Kadhoury, recalled: "Everybody complained to them. We
told them we were harmed."
He and other merchants used to keep their shops open until dusk, but
with the dropoff in customers as a result of the attacks, and a
nightly curfew, most shop owners close their businesses in the early
afternoon.
"This area here is very dangerous," continued Mr. Youssef, who lost
his shop in the February attack. "They cannot secure it."
But those conversations were not reflected in the congressmen's
comments at the news conference on Sunday.
Instead, the politicians spoke of strolling through the marketplace,
haggling with merchants and drinking tea. "The most deeply moving
thing for me was to mix and mingle unfettered," Mr. Pence said.
Mr. McCain was asked about a comment he made on a radio program in
which he said that he could walk freely through certain areas of
Baghdad.
"I just came from one," he replied sharply. "Things are better and
there are encouraging signs."
He added, "Never have I been able to go out into the city as I was
today."
Told about Mr. McCain's assessment of the market, Abu Samer, a
kitchenware and clothing wholesaler, scoffed: "He is just using this
visit for publicity. He is just using it for himself. They'll just
take a photo of him at our market and they will just show it in the
United States. He will win in America and we will have nothing."
A Senate spokeswoman for Mr. McCain said he left Iraq on Monday and
was unavailable for comment because he was traveling.
Several merchants said Monday that the Americans' visit might have
only made the market a more inviting target for insurgents.
"Every time the government announces anything - that the electricity
is good or the water supply is good - the insurgents come to attack it
immediately," said Abu Samer, 49, who would give only his nickname out
of concern for his safety.
But even though he was fearful of a revenge attack, he said, he could
not afford to stay away from the market. This was his livelihood. "We
can never anticipate when they will attack," he said, his voice heavy
with gloomy resignation. "This is not a new worry."
Ahmad Fadam and Wisam A. Habeeb contributed reporting.