Dec 07, 2006Articles: Iraqi gay activists abducted -- by Doug Ireland
By vanrozenheim
Hili spoke to me late Monday night, following President George W. Bush’s meeting with Abdul Aziz al-Hakim (left), president of the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI). Al-Hakim heads the SCIRI-led United Iraqi Alliance, which has the largest number of parliamentary seats in the government alliance. "This has been a terrible day, I cried so much," Hili said, asking, "How can the American president meet this murderer, Hakim? He is the founder of the Badr Corps, which is killing us! He brought the death squads to Iraq! For Iraqis, his hands are full of blood. Our people say he is worse than Saddam! All day I’ve been talking to people in Iraq and getting e-mails from Iraq—there’s a lot of anger in Iraq that Bush is meeting with Hakim, and a lot of despair among gay people. Because when the president of America meets with the man who is the leader of the death squads which are killing gay people, given what we see every day, it makes us lose hope."
