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June 4th, 2012 
FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda
In a city in the grips of ruthless extremists, any behaviour that smacked of
decadence was forced underground.
As Basra finally undergoes regeneration, old suspicions have given way to
optimism. New bridges are being built across the river. Five star hotels
have opened. The mullahs who run the city speak enthusiastically of the
benefits “petrodollars” will deliver.
“Instead of one Corniche we will have many. We will have splendid palaces
of spas and five star hotels. We are already building bridges across the
river, a sports city and a resort island,” said Sheikh Ahmed
al-Sulaiti, the deputy speaker of the provincial parliament. “With oil,
ports and railways, Basra can be the economic capital of Iraq.”
Zuhair al-Muthra is one of the unexpected beneficiaries of Basra’s rebirth. A
former interpreter for the British Army, he gained a visa to live in Britain
in 2009 after suffering death threats. After six months in Manchester, he
returned to his wife and son having been unable to find a job. “The
only bit about Manchester I enjoyed was that I was able to watch every
United game on the television,” he said.
Leaving Britain meant returning to a city where he had been a hunted man. “We
would leave the base and see the cars following behind us. One time I drove
around for five hours not wanting to go home because I knew they were after
me.”
But two years after his return, his circumstances are solid and respectable.
He earns £3,000 a month with an oil company and he is planning to send his
son to Basra’s leading fee-paying college, which has a tradition of
producing cabinet ministers and top executives.
“My son wants to be a pilot. For my family that is a big dream because my
elder brother was a pilot who was shot down and there is not a day in her
life my mother does not think about him. It would make her happy to see her
grandson taking up his dream.”
Basra produces more than four fifths of the 2.5 million barrels a day of crude
oil from Iraq. The city has poor relations with the Baghdad government but
it has secured a deal to take a dollar from every barrel for its
reconstruction.
Security improvements that allowed the British garrison to complete its
withdrawal two years ago have been sustained and sectarian tensions abated. “We
can live together now because we know that the security forces will deal
with a problem on the basis of fault not religion,” said Abdulkarim al
Khazari, the leader of the Sunni Muslim minority in the Shia city.
An influx of foreigners is already under way but it is predominantly engineers
and technicians who head straight for the oilfields from the airport. Royal
Dutch Shell and BP are among the biggest investors and each employs hundreds
of workers. One foreign executive based in the city centre worries the boom
could benefit a tiny elite.
“The main problem we face today is that Basra has many plans but nothing
for the huge numbers unemployed in their twenties,” he said. “How
do they get access to the work that we bring when they have no skills?”
Karim al-Tamimi, the leader of the city’s largest political faction, said the
pressure from the streets for jobs, housing and electricity after decades of
deprivation was opening it to the world.
“The frustration is still for local Basra people that they are not
getting the fruits of their oil wealth,” he said. “Lots of people
have bad memories of the British occupation but that time is gone.”
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