justmyopinion

 Some people think being gay in America is bad. Being in Iraq is worse because it is a crime to be gay. Here is a article about 2 gay men living in Iraq.

By Frederik Pleitgen, Mohammed Tawfeeq and Wayne Drash

Editor’s note: CNN agreed to change the names of the two men in this article to protect their identities.BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) — Kamal was just 16 when gunmen snatched him off the streets of Baghdad, stuffed him in the trunk of a car and whisked him away to a house. But the real terror was about to begin.

The men realized he was gay, Kamal said, when he took his shirt off and they saw that his chest was shaved.

“They told me to take off my clothes to rape me or they would kill me immediately. This moment was the worst moment in my life,” he said, weeping as he spoke of the 2005 ordeal.

“I was watching them taking off their clothes, preparing to rape me. I did not know what to do, so I started shouting loudly, ‘Please do not do that! I will ask my family to give you whatever you want.’ ” Watch the tormented life of gays in Iraq »

His pleas went unheeded. “The other two kidnappers took off my clothes by force, and, at that time, I saw them as three dirty animals trying to tear my body apart.”

He was held for 15 days, released only after his family paid a $1,500 ransom. He was raped every day. Only once, he said, was he allowed to talk to his family during captivity. “I told my family that I was beaten by them, but I did not dare to tell my family that I was raped by them. I could not say it, it’s too much shame.”

CNN spoke with Kamal, now 18, and his 21-year-old friend Rami about what it’s like to be gay in Iraq. Coming out as gay is not easy in any country, but to do so in Iraq could mean a death sentence or torture.

The two men rarely show feelings toward each other in public. They spend a lot of time in Internet cafes in Baghdad, surfing gay chat rooms and seeking contacts with other gay men in Iraq and elsewhere.

Since the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003, the situation for gays and lesbians in Iraq has deteriorated. Ridiculed under Hussein, many now find themselves the targets of violence, according to humanitarian officials.

Lesbians are also victims of harassment and violence, but not nearly as often as gay men.

It’s unknown how many homosexuals have been killed by militias in the lawless streets of Iraq’s cities, but some Web sites post pictures of Iraqis they say were killed for being gay.

One photo on the Iraqi Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender site shows a group of men standing around three male bodies sprawled on a street, blood pouring from their heads. “Gay Iraqi victims of the police and death squads,” the site says.

A U.N. report on human rights in Iraq reinforces the accusations of violence. Although gays are supposed to be protected by law in Iraq, it says, they face extreme brutality.

“Armed Islamic groups and militias have been known to be particularly hostile toward homosexuals, frequently and openly engaging in violent campaigns against them,” the report said, adding that homosexuals have been murdered.

“Militias are reportedly threatening families of men believed to be homosexual, stating that they will begin killing family members unless the men are handed over or killed by the family,” it said.

The report was issued at the end of 2006 and is the last U.N. study to touch on the subject.

Human rights experts say homosexuals are targeted for cultural reasons as well.

“Gay men and lesbians in Iraq face a lot of risks right now, because homosexuality is sometimes interpreted by people in Iraq as being a Western import,” said Scott Portman with the Heartland Alliance, a group that promotes human rights worldwide. “So they can sometimes be targeted by insurgent groups or militias, in part, because of animosity toward the West and, in part, because homosexuality is not well-accepted in Iraqi society.”

He added, “the biggest threats right now are from militia organizations, who will attack and actually sometimes kill gay men and women.”

Kamal and Rami say the dangers are all too real in Baghdad — and they live in secrecy not to shame their families.

“I would rather commit suicide than allow my family to find out I am gay,” Rami said.

Kamal said he often pretends to have girlfriends in social settings and tells his friends he’s dating girls. “I am also careful with the way I dress — not to show them that I am gay, especially my family.”

What would his family do if they found out?

“They will force me to give it up, and I cannot do that,” he said. “The ‘normal’ people cannot live in Iraq. Imagine how the life is for gays.”

Rami added, “I do not know why people hate gays even though so many have this tendency. But still they hate it.”

Homosexuality is a touchy subject for many Iraqis. When CNN asked Iraqis in Baghdad how they felt about homosexuals, we found intolerance to be widespread.

One man said he considers gays no different from “criminals and terrorists.” Another claimed that homosexuality was “illegal under Islamic law, and [gays] should be punished by law like criminals.”

Rami said he once fell in love with a man who was part of the Mehdi Army, a Shiite insurgent group loyal to the radical anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.

Their relationship eventually soured.

“One day he told me he would come over to my house and kill me in front of my family,” Rami said. “I told him I would come outside and be killed in the street because I do not want my family to find out I am gay.”

Both men hope to escape Iraq. They say their ideal destination would be San Francisco, California. For now, both of them keep their feelings secret.

Kamal is still tormented by what happened to him nearly three years ago.

“During my sleep, I only see nightmares, and I start crying. My family thought it was because they were beating me.”

He paused. “Only my close friend Rami knows about this secret.”

Baron “Scooter” Pikes was arresting on a cocaine charge. He was already handcuffed when the tasing began. According to Cnn.com, Williams, who ruled Pikes’ death a homicide in June after extensive study, said Nugent fired his Taser at Pikes six times in less than three minutes — shots recorded by a computer chip in the weapon’s handle. Then officers put Pikes in the back of a cruiser and drove him to their police station — where Nugent fired a seventh shot, directly against Pikes’ chest.”After he was given that drive stun to the chest, he was pulled out of the car onto the concrete, ” Williams told CNN. “He was electroshocked two more times, which two officers noted that he had no neuromuscular response to those last two 50,000-volt electroshocks.”

The officer has been fired and he is now appealing. He is saying he followed the procedure he was trained to do. The taser manufacture manual says multiple tasing does not effect a person. Everyone is different. Being shocked like that want make you feel good. There have been 14 tasing cases and Nugent was involved in 10. I guess it makes him feel powerful.

Winnfield has seen a spate of high-profile corruption cases in recent years. One of Nevils’ predecessors as district attorney, Terry Reeves, killed himself amid allegations of embezzlement and extortion. The town’s current police chief, Johnny Ray Carpenter, is a convicted drug offender who received a pardon from former Louisiana Gov. Edwin Edwards who himself is now serving a federal prison term for racketeering.And Carpenter’s predecessor, Gleason Nugent — the father of Pikes’ arresting officer — committed suicide in 2005, after allegations of fraud and vote buying in the race for police chief, an elected position in Winnfield. Now Nevils is awaiting the state police report on Pikes’ death, which will be presented to a grand jury for possible charges against Nugent — a possibility Curry said would be a blow to the department.

Caylee Anthony(2) has been missing since June. Her mother Casey Anthony(22) did not call the police. She claimed to have been doing her on investigation. Anthony is charged only with child neglect, making false official statements and obstructing a criminal investigation. Her bond is set at $500,000. The grandmother is saying Casey is a good mother. Then she also says that she believes Casey know who has her daughter. She is just afraid of something. Both Casey her Caylee have been missing for a month. The grandparents became worried when Casey’s car was towed from a check cashing business where it had been parked for days. She told her parents she worked as an event planner at an area theme park.  The police says she was unemployed. Anthony also said she left Casey with a babysitter. The police has found that to be false. So, where has Anthony been hiding all this time. If her car has been parked in the same place for days and she has not been home she had to being staying somewhere else. Where is the father in all this? Is he involved? Now the police are saying Anthony’s car smells like decomposition and a trained German-Shepard smelled human remains in the car and yard. They also found a stain, dirt, and a piece of hair that looks like it belongs to Caylee.

 I had to share this story with everyone.  It is very sad. I found it on cnn.com. It was written by Rachel Clarke.

The outbreak of war seemed like a joke to Jasmina, then just 19 years old. She dreamed of being an economist and says she played with her toddler son and baby daughter as if they were toys.

But in April 1992, the Serb soldiers took over her city of Bijeljina, in northeast Bosnia near the border with Serbia, and began to kill, torture and terrorize the Muslims there in a brutal campaign of ethnic cleansing.

“Whole families were disappearing during the night. Sometimes we could see their bodies in the gardens, sometimes not even that,” Jasmina said.

“The men from my family were beaten up the first day. … My mother just disappeared. I never found out what happened.”

Paramilitaries loyal to Arkan, the Serbian ultranationalist later indicted for crimes against humanity, came to the home Jasmina shared with her husband and extended family to search for valuables and weapons. When they found no guns they started beating her husband, said Jasmina who asked CNN not to use her last name to protect her children.

“Then they started torturing me. I lost consciousness. When I woke up, I was totally naked and covered in blood, and my sister-in-law was also naked and covered in blood. … I knew I had been raped, and my sister-in-law, too.” In a corner, she saw her mother-in-law, holding her children and crying.

“That same day we were locked in our house. That was the worst, the worst period of my whole life. That’s when it started.

“Every day we were raped. Not only in the house — they would also take us to the front line for the soldiers to torture us. Then again in the house, in front of the children,” Jasmina said through a translator, remembering the 10 other women who were brutalized with her.

“I was in such a bad condition that sometimes I couldn’t even recognize my own children. Even though I was in a very bad physical condition they had no mercy at all. They raped me every day. They took me to the soldiers and back to that house.

“The only conversation we had was when I was begging them to kill me. That’s when they laughed. Their response was ‘we don’t need you dead.’ “

Once at the front line, there were female soldiers who tortured her with a bottle and then slashed at her throat and wrist when it broke. Then the troops cut one of her breasts with a bayonet, said Jasmina, now looking older than her 35 years.

“It lasted for a year. Every day. … Not all the women survived.”

Tens of thousands of women were raped in Bosnia and the other parts of the former Yugoslavia between 1992 and 1994 during the rule of Radovan Karadzic, according to estimates by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. See a timeline of Karadzic’s rule »

Karadzic was captured this week after years on the run and now will face war crimes charges at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia. The tribunal, set up to try war crimes suspects, established for the first time that rape was a crime against humanity and that rape was “used by members of the Bosnian Serb armed forces as an instrument of terror.”

For Jasmina, some relief came one day in 1993 when a familiar face, an older Serb who had been a friend of her parents, appeared at the house where she was being kept. Jasmina was told he had bought her as a prostitute but, once in a car with him, the man said he was saving her. “I owe this to your parents,” he said.

He drove Jasmina and her children to the front lines, gave something to the Serb soldiers there and directed her toward the Bosnian position, saying, “now you are free to go.”

“I was very weak. I weighed only 45 kilos [99 pounds]. I carried both my children for more than a kilometer to the Bosnian side.”

Jasmina was safe but scarred. “I felt ashamed. I wanted to die, to disappear somehow. I couldn’t take care of my children; others did that. I just didn’t have the strength or the will.”

A new low came when doctors began to treat her in one of the refugee centers around the city of Tuzla.

“They discovered that I was pregnant, six months pregnant, and I didn’t know that. It was too late for any abortion, but I kept saying I didn’t want that child.”

The gynecologist pleaded with Jasmina to have the child and give it up for adoption, saying it was too dangerous to try anything else. But that was no option for Jasmina. “I didn’t want to hear about that, about giving birth to that child at all.”

Finally, medics said they could try to abort the child but it was a very risky operation that only one in 100 women would survive. “I begged them to do it,” Jasmina said, pausing to remember an 18-year-old girl who had the same operation on the same day as her and died. Jasmina herself continues to have gynecological health problems stemming from her abuse.

Months later, her husband arrived at the same refugee center after managing to escape a camp in Serbia. A man he broke out with was killed by a mine.

“It was such a difficult moment for me. I wasn’t even sure if I wanted him to be dead or alive. I knew that he knew what had happened to me, so it was very, very difficult for me,” Jasmina said.

“I thought he was going to leave me and take my children because of everything that happened. But he told me he was not going to ask me about anything. And that he also went through terrible things himself, so he didn’t want to discuss anything.” Yet still she says she cannot look her husband in the eye.

Jasmina said she was unable to talk to the therapists in Tuzla and tried to kill herself in 1995, the first of three suicide attempts.

“I will never be OK,” she said, adding that she believes God kept her alive for a reason.

She now lives in a modestly furnished apartment in a tower block in Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia-Herzegovina. She has been there since 2001 with her husband and children.

Her dreams now are for her children. She believes it’s crucial she give them some stability but says that’s impossible when she doesn’t know from day to day whether she will be evicted.

She does not own the apartment, and all property must be returned to rightful owners under the terms of an annex to the U.S.-brokered peace agreement that ended the war.

The same pact allows for the return of all refugees and displaced people — more than half of the country’s people left their homes during the war, according to the International Organization for Migration — and the re-establishment of the mixed ethnic communities that had lived peacefully for centuries before the war.

The Office of the High Representative for Bosnia-Herzegovina, an international body set up to oversee the implementation of the peace agreements, says almost all property rights have been restored. But it is impossible to say how many people have gone home and how many have sold their houses, leaving cities and towns like Bijeljina “ethnically cleansed,” as the warmongers had planned.

A law enacted in September 2006 does include a section that says homes should be provided for victims of sexual torture during the war. It is not clear who should implement the act, and there is no agency making sure the law is enforced, according to the Ministry for Human Rights and Refugees.

Meanwhile, authorities say Jasmina should return to her mother-in-law’s rebuilt house in Bijeljina. But she says she will never go back to the place where she lost 39 members of her family and where her abuse began.

It is a fear shared by other women, according to Alisa Muratcaus, the president of the Association of Concentration Camp Survivors — Canton Sarajevo — a group that offers classes and other support to Jasmina and 1,200 other women across the capital, including 150 victims of mass rape.

“Many of our members must deal with the realities of return. Not all members are able psychologically to return to regions in which they suffered such extreme human rights abuses,” she said.

“No one raped women has returned to their pre-war houses, since it is immoral and inhuman to request their return while the war criminals who tortured them are still free and live in these regions.”

The Sarajevo municipality that owns Jasmina’s apartment says that it does not plan to evict her and that any such directive would come from the Ministry for Human Rights and Refugees.

Saliha Djuderija, head of the Ministry’s Department of Human Rights, said she was aware of victims who could not face returning to the places where they were tortured and was working on a solution. In the past couple of years, between 15 and 20 women have been given somewhere to live, but lack of funding is restricting the help that can be given. Priority was given to women who testified against their attackers, and Jasmina is not in that group, as her case is still unsolved.

But if her future is in doubt, Jasmina’s mind is made up. “I’m not going to take my children to Bijeljina. I told my children when I die, don’t take my bones to Bijeljina. I don’t want to hear about Bijeljina. It doesn’t exist for me,” she said, flashing anger for the first time in a lengthy interview.

Then she shows a picture of her daughter, a beautiful young woman, but even that causes Jasmina pain as she remembers how the soldiers picked her out. “I was beautiful once. It cost me my life.”

Andrea Curry-Demus, 38, was charged with homicide, unlawful restraint, and kidnapping. She is accused of killing Kia Johnson, 18, and stealing her baby. Kia partially eviscerated body was found tied up with her uterus cut open inside Curry-Demus apartment. Her placenta was found at the scene. Dental records were used to identify her. Johnson’s body “was in a state of moderate decomposition” and the woman had been dead for about two days, Medical Examiner Karl Williams said in a written statement. Johnson’s hands and feet were bound by duct tape. The cause of death remains undetermined, Williams said. Drugs were found at the scene, and authorities are awaiting toxicology results to determine whether the woman was sedated, he said. It’s unclear whether the woman was alive when the infant was taken, he added.

Andrea had a history of attempting to steal babies. She told her family and friends she was pregnant. Police believe both met during visitation at the Allegheny County Jail.  Curry-Demus showed up at the hospital Thursday with a newborn that still had the umbilical cord attached, police said. Tests later proved that she was not the mother. The baby is doing well.

Drama Series:

“Boston Legal,” ABC

“Damages,” FX

“Dexter,” Showtime

“House,” Fox

“Lost,” ABC

“Mad Men,” AMC.

Comedy Series

“Curb Your Enthusiasm,” HBO

“Entourage,” HBO

“The Office,” NBC

“30 Rock,” NBC

“Two and a Half Men,” CBS.

Miniseries:

“The Andromeda Strain,” A&E

“Cranford” (Masterpiece Theatre), PBS

“John Adams,” HBO

“Tin Man,” Sci Fi Channel.

Made-for-TV Movie:

“Bernard and Doris,” HBO

“Extras: The Extra Special Series Finale,” HBO

“The Memory Keeper’s Daughter,” Lifetime

“A Raisin in the Sun,” ABC

“Recount,” HBO.

Actor, Drama Series:

James Spader, “Boston Legal,” ABC

Bryan Cranston, “Breaking Bad,” AMC

Michael C. Hall, “Dexter,” Showtime

Hugh Laurie, “House,” Fox

Gabriel Byrne, “In Treatment,” HBO

Jon Hamm, “Mad Men,” AMC.

Actress, Drama Series:

Sally Field, “Brothers & Sisters,” ABC

Kyra Sedgwick, “The Closer,” TNT

Glenn Close, “Damages,” FX

Mariska Hargitay, “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit,” NBC

Holly Hunter, “Saving Grace,” TNT.

Supporting Actor, Drama Series:

William Shatner, “Boston Legal,” ABC

Ted Danson, “Damages,” FX

Zeljko Ivanek, “Damages,” FX

Michael Emerson, “Lost,” ABC

John Slattery, “Mad Men,” AMC.

Supporting Actress, Drama Series:

Candice Bergen, “Boston Legal,” ABC

Rachel Griffiths, “Brothers & Sisters,” ABC

Chandra Wilson, “Grey’s Anatomy,” ABC

Sandra Oh, “Grey’s Anatomy,” ABC

Dianne Wiest, “In Treatment,” HBO.

Actor, Comedy Series:

Tony Shalhoub, “Monk,” USA

Steve Carell, “The Office,” NBC

Lee Pace, “Pushing Daisies,” ABC

Alec Baldwin, “30 Rock,” NBC

Charlie Sheen, “Two and a Half Men, CBS.

Actress, Comedy Series:

Julia Louis-Dreyfus, “The New Adventures of Old Christine,” CBS

Christina Applegate, “Samantha Who?,” ABC

Tina Fey, “30 Rock,” NBC

America Ferrera, “Ugly Betty,” ABC

Mary-Louise Parker, “Weeds,” Showtime.

Supporting Actor, Comedy Series:

Jeremy Piven, “Entourage,” HBO

Kevin Dillon, “Entourage,” HBO

Neil Patrick Harris, “How I Met Your Mother,” CBS

Rainn Wilson, “The Office,” NBC

Jon Cryer, “Two and a Half Men,” CBS.

Supporting Actress, Comedy Series:

Kristin Chenoweth, “Pushing Daisies,” ABC

Jean Smart, “Samantha Who?,” ABC

Amy Poehler, “Saturday Night Live,” NBC

Holland Taylor Two and a Half Men,” CBS

Vanessa Williams, “Ugly Betty,” ABC.

Actor, Miniseries or Movie:

Ralph Fiennes, “Bernard and Doris,” HBO

Ricky Gervais, “Extras: The Extra Special Series Finale,” HBO

Paul Giamatti, “John Adams,” HBO

Kevin Spacey, “Recount,” HBO

Tom Wilkinson, “Recount,” HBO.

Actress, Miniseries or Movie:

Catherine Keener, “An American Crime,” Showtime

Susan Sarandon, “Bernard and Doris,” HBO

Judi Dench, “Cranford (Masterpiece Theatre), PBS

Laura Linney, “John Adams,” HBO

Phylicia Rashad, “A Raisin in the Sun,” ABC.

Supporting Actor, Miniseries or Movie:

David Morse, “John Adams,” HBO

Stephen Dillane, “John Adams,” HBO

Tom Wilkinson, “John Adams,” HBO

Denis Leary, “Recount,” HBO

Bob Balaban, “Recount,” HBO.

Amber Brewington, 21, poisoned her four month old infant son. She repeatably injected salt water into his feeding tube at the hospital. She claimed, they were attempts to hasten the death of a suffering child, authorities said Wednesday.She also said she had injected him five or six times and she was suffering from postpartum depression.Noah King is in critical condition with sodium poisoning at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh. The police believe his problems were mainly caused by his mother. A hospital worker called the police after a nurse reported seeing the mother disconnect the baby feeding tube.  Having to much sodium can cause neurological problems and, at its most severe, can cause death. She is also charged with aggravated assault and endangering the welfare of a child. She is held on $50,000 bail.

Elizabeth Mate, is suing her orthopedic surgeon after waking up and finding a tattoo on her panty-line. She had surgery for a  herniated disc and her doctor was trying to lift her spirits. The doctor says he has done this before with a washable marker.  She is seeking  punitive and compensatory damages.

I think this is just away to get money. It was a washable marker not permanent. She just had major surgery and her doctor wanted to help her out. It is hard waking up from surgery, then be in a good mood.  So, I have to side with the doctor on this one. She needs to move on.

Angelina Jolie has finally given birth to twins. A boy Knox Leon and a girl Vivienne Marcheline by C-section. The boy weighs 5lbs3ounces and the girl 5lbs. I am happy for the two they make such a good couple. I wonder if Jennifer is envious. Brad is getting everything he wants while she is still trying to find Mr. Right. I wonder if they plan on having anymore biological children. Because, you can not have to many C-sections because of the internal scars called adhesions. But, they can always adopt more. I don’t care to much for Knox. I guess it is a name you have to get used to.

In Touch Weekly said they had two girls and Angelina delivered earlier but the hospital spokesperson said it was a lie. I guess In Touch Weekly is being like ET who still stick to their story I am guessing.