Closed Thread

I’ve been pursing this for a week or two, and I can’t establish it to my own satisfaction . . . there just isn’t enough information on the googles.  And I might well be just wrong about this.

But the fact, itself, that I have never even seen this idea speculated on in the media suggests to me that there is something to it.

Here are some links, first, to set up what I mean.  Some are IraqSlogger, which unfortunately went subscription only on Sept. 1st.  For an outrageous amount of money.

7/11/07

IraqSlogger

In an apparent bid to apply pressure on Mahdi Army fighters, US forces have completely cut off electricity to the Baghdad district of Kadhimiya, al-Melaf reports in Arabic on Wednesday.

The measures are an attempt to pressure the residents of the district to expel members of the Mahdi Army in Kadhimiya and to turn them over to US forces, al-Melaf writes.

8/20/07

IraqSlogger

From accusations that US forces manipulate the water and electricity supply in retaliation for attacks, to militia protection at a Baghdad’s most essential wholesale food market, to exorbitant gangland-style extortion in public works projects, Baghdad residents find that vital services are often inseparable from the power of armed groups.

In the northeastern Sha’ab area, residents accuse US forces of withholding electricity and water in the area as collective punishment.

electroniciraq

“It is deliberate damage caused by the occupation,” Salim Abdul-Sattar, a local politician from Baghdad told IPS. “To cut electricity is to cut the main vein of life, and that is the main goal of the occupation.”

Abdul Sattar believes that the occupation authorities “could have provided electricity in a few months if they wanted to, but this problem is useful for what they call creative chaos.”

Most of Iraq faced near total electricity failure last week. Iraqi media outlets like al-Hurra and al-Iraqiyah which are known to be heavily influenced by the U.S. government broadcast messages claiming that terrorists had attacked the main electricity stations, causing power outages.

“We are now used to hearing such lies,” a government engineer who works at one of the stations told IPS.

WaPo

Baghdad Power Plant Still Damaged, Report Says

By Dana Hedgpeth
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, July 19, 2007; Page D06

After the U.S. government spent millions of dollars to restore parts of a major power station in Baghdad, the plant is still not fully operational because the Iraqi Ministry of Electricity has not properly operated and maintained it, according to a report released yesterday by an oversight agency.

The Office of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction said in the report that a steam turbine at the Dora Power Plant, which is one of the main sources of electricity for the Baghdad area, was rebuilt more than a year ago but has not been put to use. And another turbine suffered a “catastrophic failure” in August 2006, followed by one in April that has left it out of commission.

8/22/07

LATimes

U.S. forces now have the neighborhood locked down 24 hours a day, commanders said. They declined to discuss specific numbers but said they had at least doubled their presence across Dora and tripled it in the neighborhood’s three worst areas.

dahrjamailiraq

June 12, 2006

By now, we all know the scene when the US military in Iraq decides to attack an entire city … we’ve seen this standard operating procedure repeated, to one degree or another, in Haditha, Al-Qa’im, Samarra, parts of Baghdad, Balad, Najaf and Fallujah twice … so far. The city is sealed for weeks if not months, water and electricity are cut, medical aid is cut, curfews imposed, mobility impaired, air strikes utilized, then the real attack begins. Now in Ramadi, the real attack has begun.

The point being . . . I don’t believe the following sort of thing:

Militias Seizing Control of Iraqi Electricity Grid

Iraq minister admits powerless in fight for electricity

Link

August 22, 2007

–snip–

Much of the national power grid was destroyed during the US-led invasion in 2003, while insurgents, militias and thugs continue to vandalise infrastructure even as the government races to rehabilitate facilities, he said.

— snip —

Baghdad residents complain that conditions are far worse than they can remember, with electricity reaching them just two or three hours a day — and sometimes not at all.

Without being able to run air-conditioning or even ceiling fans, many have taken to sleeping on hard floors or rooftops as they battle to stay cool, using small generators to at least bring basic power.

Again, I have never even seen this speculated on in the media: but it seems possible that the U.S. military itself is keeping electricity out in Baghdad.