The reason for my not posting much in the last week is quite simple.
Nothing yet has pushed Khalid from my mind, and I am working on my next step to get the justice he & his Iraqi' friends deserve after their false detention.

It is quite obvious that due to the poor quality training of Iraqi security forces that thousands of Iraqi's are dissapearing into the hands of the Mukhabarat, National Guard and Iraqi Police... Not to mention those being kidnapped for ransom money, sometimes amounting to US$50,000, sometimes more, where families are selling their homes in exchange for their children. Better trained forces are necessary, and stronger human rights laws need to be imposed to ensure those taken by the iraqi Mukhabarat etc can be interrogated safe and effectively to ensure people do not spend days, weeks or months locked up for crimes they did not commit.

Without ensuring there are positive changes made towards this ultimate goal, thousands of new anti-occupation forces will be created everyday. If Khalid and his family did not have their blogs, perhaps they would have pent-up-anger enough to tip them. If the bloggers decided their blogs were no longer enough, there could be mass upheavals all over the world, particularly Iraq. Stop the kidnapping of innocents, and stop the attempts to smother the blogsphere in a cloud of mystery & accusations.

A force has been released inside myself and the thousands who watched as Khalid an innocent and charming man was degraded to the extent of being accused of being a London Bomber! If I was accussed of this I can assure you I would be suing them for emotional damages and slander, tainting my good name, and I WOULD WIN.

There are some Iraqi bloggers who I would like to bring to everyone's attention as I have been extremely lazy lately with only blogging about things that deeply & emotionally stand out to me. Well, these blogs definately stand out and deserve noticing.

Firstly I will start with the "teenage girls" category. This category contains perhaps some of the worlds wisest 13-19 year olds alive.

Firstly: Aunt Najma, friend and dedicated blogger from http://astarfrommosul.blogspot.com/

Secondly: hnk, Najma's delightful and emotional little sister is always great to read- hnk's blog

these two girls have part responsibility in the upbringing of the delightful Aya, who is one of the few things in Iraq to bring them hapiness and escapism from the horror-filled reality that is their lives. God bless Najma, Aya and HNK. We pray your lives may be long and filled with experiences good&bad.

next is their cousin Sunshine. Recently turned 14, this girl is incredibly intelligent. Her native language is not english, assumably is Arabic, and her English rivals and sometimes is better than my own. She is coming to the realisation of herself and her friends and how life itself really is, at the early age of 14 where most people would be just realising that the opposite sex is attractive and that popularity status is everything (sarcasm). Perhaps with girls like these the future of Iraq is as the worlds leader, it is bursting @ the seems with intellectual women and determined men and she is one of the best examples. See "Sunshine"'s blog at http://livesstrong.blogspot.com/

Next, is a list of other intelligent iraqi women bloggers, and this list is very large. From the Jarrar family is the prominent Faiza, from a Shia background and well educated this is the mother of Khalid, Raed and Majid. They are all intelligent well brought up sons, which reflects the mothers determined and fair attitude. Her blog can be found here: http://afamilyinbaghdad.blogspot.com/

Next Iraqi woman blogger is, obviously going to be the prominent blogger riverbend of "Baghdad Burning". If you have time, this one you should read from start to end. It is a cover of post-war Iraq like you will not see elsewhere. A qualified, hard working Computer Engineer before the invasion, it has been to dangerous for Riverbend to recieve work in Iraq and her story as a struggling, only marginalized and partly religious woman in Baghdad is amazing and well-accounted in her blog until the recent slow-down in her writing (maybe its getting a little dangerous and close to home, or maybe she is loosing hope in her blog, who knows, go inspire her with something!) her blog can be found here: http://riverbendblog.blogspot.com/

Sunshine's Mum, Mama, a 34 year old dentist mother-of-three is an incredibile spirit. You may ask yourself why I am writing a post about these Iraqi women, and this is why. She is the example of a dedicated mum that I would love to see every woman in the world follow. Struggling through life after a relatively privelaged upbringing, she moved to Mosul where she had her first daughter, Sunshine. Unfortunately for her, it was never going to be easy bringing up Sunshine, for she was born on the year Saddam invaded Kuwait, and thus her daughters whole upbringing was in a country war-torn and blown apart, restricted through trade sanctions, Toys were not available for her daughter.

So she decided to learn to make them, and fix the local Kindergaten's playground when her daughter started there, to save every penny from years of work to buy her daughter a computer when she turned 8. This mother sacrificed her very own pleasure and leasure to ensure her daughter had everything she could need for a decent upbringing despite the conditions in Iraq.

Many people around the world have misconceptions about Muslim women, and I want the world to see these girls and hold them proudly in their eyes. For you will find very few mothers and very few daughters with the intellect and maturity held by any one of these girls, anywhere in the world.

Sunshine's mum, Mama has recently started a blog, and here is the address: http://youngmammy.blogspot.com/, well done Mama. Your' daughter is one to be proud of, and may just be the future president of Iraq.