[NYTr] At US Base, Iraqis Must Use Separate Latrine

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

sent by Riaz K. Tayob (activ-l)


[Looks the US is really intent on putting these "sand niggers" in their 
place. Sounds so much like South Africa in the "grand" old days of
apartheid. Of course the "whites" were doing it for all the "right"
reasons. here are some plum quotes:

  - in a dining hall, warns Iraqis and "third-country nationals" that 
they have just one hour for breakfast, lunch or dinner. American troops 
get three hours.

  - "We screen all our local nationals working and living in the FOB, 
however, you can never know what's in their mind." -riaz

McClatchy - Aug 4, 2007
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/iraq/story/18685.html

At U.S. base, Iraqis must use separate latrine

by Mike Drummond
McClatchy Newspapers

FORWARD OPERATING BASE WARHORSE, Iraq — The sign taped to the men's
latrine is just five lines:

"US MILITARY CONTRACTORS CIVILIANS ONLY!!!!!"

It needed only one: "NO IRAQIS."

Here at this searing, dusty U.S. military base about four miles west of
Baqouba, Iraqis — including interpreters who walk the same foot patrols
and sleep in the same tents as U.S. troops — must use segregated
bathrooms.

Another sign, in a dining hall, warns Iraqis and "third-country
nationals" that they have just one hour for breakfast, lunch or dinner.
American troops get three hours. Iraqis say they sometimes wait as long
as 45 minutes in hot lines to get inside the chow hall, leaving just 15
minutes to get their food and eat it.

It's been nearly 60 years since President Harry Truman ended racial
segregation in the U.S. military. But at Forward Operating Base
Warhorse it's alive and well, perhaps the only U.S. military facility
with such rules, Iraqi interpreters here say.

It's unclear precisely who ordered the rules. "The rule separating
local national latrines from soldiers was enacted about two to three
rotations ago," Maj. Raul Marquez, a spokesman for the 3rd Brigade
Combat Team of the 1st Cavalry Division, from Fort Hood, Texas, wrote
in an e-mail. That was before his brigade or the 3rd Stryker Combat
Brigade of the 2nd Infantry Division, from Fort Lewis, Wash., the other
major combat force here, was based at Warhorse.

There's also disagreement on the reason.

Marquez cited security. "We are at war, and operational security
(OPSEC) and force protection are critical in this environment," Marquez
wrote. "We screen all our local nationals working and living in the
FOB, however, you can never know what's in their mind."

Other soldiers traced the regulations to what they called cultural
differences between the Iraqis and the Americans.

"We've had issues with locals," said Staff Sgt. Oscar Garcia, who mans
Warhorse's administrative hub. "It's not because we're segregating."

Garcia said some Iraqis squatted on the rims of unfamiliar
American-style toilets or had used showers as toilets, forcing private
contractors who maintain the facilities to clean up after them.

Another soldier at the administrative hub who declined to give his name
or rank cited conflicts over hygiene habits. "We can't accept people
washing their feet where I brush my teeth," he said.

"It's to keep problems from happening," said Army Capt. Janet Herrick,
a public affairs officer. "It's a preventive measure . . . so no one
gets belittled."

But the Iraqis who're paid $80,000 to $120,000 a year for their
interpreting services are offended.

"It sucks," Ahmed Mohammed, 30, said of the latrine policy. He called
the signs — in English and Arabic — "racist."

He's worked as an interpreter for the U.S. military since 2004. He's
college educated and well versed in the ways of Western plumbing. He
said Warhorse was the only American base where he'd encountered
U.S.-only signs on latrines and country-of-origin restrictions on
dining hours.

"I live in the same tent with 80 Americans," he said.

Mohammed works for L-3 Titan Group, a unit of New York-based L-3
Communications. He declined to have his picture taken for publication.
He fears for his life. He said his brother was killed last year in
Baghdad for working for an American company.

Mohammed has sold his house and has squirreled away enough money to buy
visas for his family of four. He said he intended to quit soon and
emigrate to Germany. The latrine policy is part of the reason, he said.

L-3 officials didn't respond to a request for comment.

"On one hand we're asking Iraqis to help us," often at great risk, said
Laila al Qatami, spokeswoman for the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination
Committee in Washington. "But at the same time we're saying, 'We want
to keep you at a distance.' It's a mixed message we're sending.

"I don't understand having separate bathrooms. It seems to go against
everything that the United States stands for."

McClatchy Newspapers 2007