April, 08 2013, 12:09pm EDT
For Immediate Release
Contact:
Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020; or David Zupan, (541) 484-9167
"I'm a Nation to Myself:" Iraqi Refugees in the United States
Ten years after U.S. forces cemented their victory over Iraq by toppling the statue of Saddam Hussein in Firdos Square on April 9, 2003, Iraqis continue to flee their country, adding to the estimated 4 million displaced by the war and occupation. The Progressive magazine has a new report on the largest community of Iraqi refugees in the United States who've fled as a result of the U.S. war and occupation.
WASHINGTON
ARUN GUPTA, @arunindy
Author of the piece, Gupta co-founded The Indypendent newspaper and The Occupied Wall Street Journal. He is a regular contributor to The Progressive, Truthout, In These Times and The Guardian. He recently travelled to El Cajon, California, a bedroom community east of San Diego, where more than 12,000 Iraqis have arrived since 2008, after the government relaxed restrictions. He writes, "Many Iraqis in El Cajon worked for the U.S. government in Iraq and fled with their families after their lives were threatened. In return they expected a warm welcome and a decent standard of living when they arrived. Instead they were in for a rude awakening. Their meager monthly stipend means they get the worst apartments in El Cajon, a city with a 23 percent poverty rate, and have to rely on donations for furniture. Almost all are traumatized from the violence they experienced, but they are told to get jobs right away or they will lose their benefits. With 11 percent unemployment in the city they take jobs no one else will--fast food, housecleaning, parking-lot attendants. Many are doctors, accounts and engineers.
Social workers say, "You look at their faces. They are so proud of their degrees and their experience, and then they are told to clean sixteen hotel rooms a day. The refugees need more aid, more educational programs, cultural orientation and time to recover and adjust." Gupta adds, "Of Iraqi adults who've arrived since 2009, 67 percent are unemployed. In a time of austerity many Iraqis are nearing the four-year limit of welfare assistance, and worry they will wind up homeless, living on the sidewalk."
SALAM HASSAN
A thirty-seven-old-year computer engineer living in Berkeley, Hassan served as a fixer in Baghdad for journalists like Naomi Klein, Dahr Jamail, and Christian Parenti before escaping mortal danger in 2005. He said single male refugees in the Bay Area wind up in West Oakland, "famous for violent history, because it's poor, and the rent is cheaper." Hassan, who has taken so many refugees under his wing that his apartment was dubbed "the Iraqi Embassy," says they are packed "three to four people per one-bedroom apartment. They get four months assistance, then are switched to a program that just covers their rent and $200 a month for food stamps."
A nationwide consortium, the Institute for Public Accuracy (IPA) represents an unprecedented effort to bring other voices to the mass-media table often dominated by a few major think tanks. IPA works to broaden public discourse in mainstream media, while building communication with alternative media outlets and grassroots activists.
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Grand Jury Indicts Top Trump Aides, 11 Arizona Republicans Over 'Fake Electors' Scheme
Had it succeeded, said the state's attorney general, the scheme would have "deprived Arizona's voters of their right to have their votes counted for their chosen president."
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A grand jury in Arizona on Wednesday charged seven aides to Donald Trump and nearly a dozen Republican officials over a "fake electors" scheme in the state that aimed to keep the former president in power after his 2020 loss to President Joe Biden.
Trump, who is currently facing nearly 90 charges across four criminal cases as he runs for another White House term, was described as "unindicted co-conspirator 1" in the 58-page indictment, which was announced by Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes.
"The people of Arizona elected President Biden," Mayes, a Democrat, said Wednesday. "Unwilling to accept this fact, the defendants charged by the state grand jury allegedly schemed to prevent the lawful transfer of the presidency. Whatever their reasoning was, the plot to violate the law must be answered for."
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"It effectively would have made their right to vote meaningless," said Mayes.
A state grand jury, made up of everyday, regular Arizonans, has handed down felony indictments in the ongoing investigation into the fake elector scheme in Arizona. pic.twitter.com/Nu8GcD4ZqJ
ā AZ Attorney General Kris Mayes (@AZAGMayes) April 24, 2024
Alex Gulotta, state director of All Voting Is Local Action Arizona, said Wednesday that "the indictment of the eleven fake electors is one of the first steps required in holding these election deniers accountable for their alleged attempts to take power away from voters by disrupting our free and fair elections."
"Arizonans deserve to trust the election officials responsible for administering our elections and preserving our democracy," said Gulotta, "and this is a positive step forward as we continue to strengthen the foundations of our democracy and restore faith in our elections."
The Arizona Republicreported Wednesday that "several of the Arizona electors have previously claimed they were merely offering Congress a backup plan, though nothing in the documents they sent to Congress and the National Archives backs up that assertion."
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A campaign finance watchdog on Wednesday filed a Federal Election Commission complaint accusing former President Donald Trump's 2024 campaign, affiliated political groups, and an accounting firm of violating U.S. law in a scheme "seemingly designed to obscure the true recipients of a noteworthy portion of Trump's legal bills."
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Red Curve is a domestic limited liability company that offers compliance and FEC reporting services but does not appear to offer any legal services. It is managed by Bradley Crate, who also serves as the treasurer for each of the five Trump-affiliated committees concerned in this complaint, as well as over 200 other federal committees.
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Trumpāwho is the presumptive 2024 GOP presidential nomineeāfaces 91 federal and state felony charges related to his role in the January 6 insurrection and his organization's business practices. He is currently on trial in New York for allegedly falsifying business records related to hush money payments to cover up sex scandals during the 2016 election cycle. The twice-impeached former president has been open about his use of campaign donations to pay his legal costs.
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