In terms of information, it is difficult to say that the Wikileaks documents present us with new information that we did not know before about what took place and continues to take place in occupied Iraq, whether in terms of what was done by occupation troops themselves, or by Iraqis who ruled the country under this occupation, and in cooperation with it. Neither the news of sectarian killing at checkpoints nor that of the torture of prisoners in Iraqi prisons is new; neither the planning for assassinations of political rivals, nor the success in carrying them out against a large number of people, is unknown to those who have followed the news of the tragedy of Iraq over the last seven years. What is new today is that we are talking about illegal behavior and crimes that were rumored all these years, and that should have been revealed and investigated by Iraqi security bodies, which claim to have succeeded the Saddam Hussein regime in order to save Iraq from this regime's acts. Instead, an independent media outlet was allowed to obtain these documents from American and British soldiers who were accidental witnesses, and perhaps also took part it in these crimes committed by their comrades in the two armies. This outlet also obtained information about the behavior of Iraqi forces that were operating under their supervision, or in cooperation with them. The Iraqi government did not consider the publication of these accusations, backed by documents, an opportunity to prosecute those accused of the crimes, whether they are occupation forces before international courts, or Iraqi security personnel before Iraqi courts, even if to deflect criticism and shore up its image. Instead, the prime minister, Nuri al-Maliki moved quickly to consider the release of the documents at this time “a conspiracy” against him, to prevent him from returning to his post. This is despite the fact that the published documents implicated him personally in involvement of managing death squads and torture. Even more, they talk about attempts by American soldiers, at times, to halt the violations by Iraqi security forces. It is true that most of the groups that were involved in the war in Iraq carried out, to one degree or another, various types of torture and killing, varying in their degree of brutality and ugliness. It is also true that occupation forces are responsible in principle for various types of inhumane practices and violations of the law, in a country under occupation. But it is more correct to say that the accusations directed at Nuri al-Maliki during his term as prime minister require examination by a neutral international body, for two reasons. First, the accusations involve sectarianism, and are connected to acts of murder by people who sometimes acted under the eyes of high-level officials, and with their knowledge, against unarmed civilians and checkpoints and in prisons, just because they were from another sect. Moreover, the security forces have been penetrated by militias loyal to al-Maliki and his partisans. Second, these acts took place in cooperation with Iranian armed forces, especially the Revolutionary Guard, and have in certain cases targeted Iraqi opponents of al-Maliki, as in the case of the car that came from the northern Iraqi border and was used in the attempt to assassinate Iyad Allawi or one of his close political aides. The documents published information about the role Iran plays in arming Shiite militias inside Iraq and using them as part of the Iranian-American war. If this is correct, it means that the Iraqi prime minister has allowed his country to be used by a foreign power, to achieve its objectives and interests. Iraq, then, before and after the occupation, remains the same. The only thing that has changed is that the identities of the killer and the killed have switched.
