Reply #9: Here's one older story about the killing of intellectuals......

[Dover]

I think most Iraqis think it's the work of Mossad and the U.S..


...The dead man's name was on an ominous list naming professors, intellectuals and academics marked for assassination after the US-led occupation of Iraq.

Although al-Rawi heard he was on the list, he did not take it seriously, says Bushra.

"He would say that he had no enemies. He would say to me 'I am a scientist and a doctor'," she says.

Purge suspected

During the years of UN-imposed sanctions, thousands of Iraq's most talented professionals left the country. And almost one year after the recent US-led war, about 2000 professors and academics have fled.

Many academics fear a deliberate brain drain is now being executed through murder.

"The mukhabarat (secret intelligence) of all the surrounding countries are active here: Mossad, the Iranians, Turks, Kuwaitis, Jordanians, Syrians," says one academic who asked not be named. "They are settling scores with each other, with the Americans and the Americans with them."

General Ahmad Katham Ibrahim, deputy interior minister, claims Baathists, fearing that intellectuals will divulge information on alleged weapons programmes, are assassinating them.

However, not all black-listed professors come from the field of science: many have either journalism, political science or even literature backgrounds.

But Ibrahim insists all those threatened have or had knowledge of illegal arms.

Dreams

Under the former government, academics wanting to join educational institutions had to swear allegiance to the Baath party, making virtually everybody a member.

..snip..

Professors formerly detained by US forces recount harrowing tales. Some were held in suspended cages and ordered not to speak to their neighbours. Others are too traumatized to discuss the ordeal.

Gulshan, refusing to have her picture taken, is terrified her husband will share al-Rawi's fate.

Many academics describe how they began receiving single bullets and verbal warnings for their staunch anti-occupation stances and calls for Iraqis to resist the invasion.....

http://www.ccmep.org/2004_articles/iraq/022904_iraqi_intellectuals_under_siege.htm