“God seems to have left the receiver off the hook - and time is running out.”

[seemslikeadream]

http://www.unobserver.com/index.php?pagina=layout5.php&id=4049&blz=1



Felicity Arbuthnot: Mosul - Another “Paradise Lost”?

2007-11-08 | “God seems to have left the receiver off the hook - and time is running out.”
Arthur Koestler, "Astride the Two Cultures”

(Please see Ed. Note, after reading this article.)

Iraq is now threatened with a flood of biblical proportions. The Mosul dam, thirty miles north of Iraq's ancient third city is likely to burst, due to the mismanagement and potential fraud relating to the $27 million “donated” by the United States for its repair, according to a Report by Stuart Bowen, Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, released on Tuesday, 30th October.

In September 2006, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (ACE) stated: “In terms of internal erosion potential of the foundation, Mosul Dam is the most dangerous dam in the world .... If a small problem (at) Mosul Dam occurs, failure is likely.” The dam is the largest in Iraq and the fourth largest in the Middle East. Were the dam breached, the ACE estimate that Mosul city (2002 population 1.7 million) would be engulfed in a wall of water twenty metres (sixty six feet) high, which would flood all in its path down to Baghdad. In May this year, General David Petraeus and US Ambassador Ryan Crocker, wrote to “Prime Minister” Nuri Maliki, urging him to make the repair of the dam a “national priority”. Maliki's U.S., puppet, corruption ridden, government is playing down the dangers - it is thought to avoid causing panic - and next to nothing has been done by way of action.

The Mosul region in Nineveh province, has been continually inhabited for eight thousand years and incorporates the ancient city of Nineveh, named after the god Nina and was capitol of the Assyrian empire, built around 3,700 BC. Jewellery, combs and the “oldest dice know to history”, have been found there.* The region and people's stretch back to Mesopotamia's dawn. Mosul is known variously as “The city of two springs” (Um Al-Rabi'ain); Autumn and Spring being so similar, when the fertile land nearby is carpeted with anemonies, periwinkles, wild tulips and a vibrant tapestry of flora. It is also called Al-Faiha, (The Paradise) Al-Khadra (The Green) and The Pearl of the North. Al-Mosul means “The Linking Point”. It was long on history's “Silk Road” from China to the West and now is connected by road to Syria (of whose capitol, Damascus, the Prophet, legend has it, turned his face from, saying: “No one should enter Paradise twice.”) and Iran (Persia) and Turkey, “Gateway to the Orient”.

Mosul is also known as “God's City” and “City of the Prophets”, reflecting the wealth of places of worship and of Saints and Prophets believed lived and buried here. The Mosque of the resting place of the Prophet Jerjis, was last renovated in 1393 AD., its eye-wateringly beautiful reliefs and its marble body were described by the explorer Ibn Jubair, in the 12th century. The Mujadidi Mosque, with its beautiful dome, dates back to the 12th century. The Prophet Jonah is believed buried in the mosque which bears his name, rising over Nineveh's ruins, where, it is said, a tooth of the whale who so tried him, is also hidden. Muslims and Christians alike paid homage here. Pre-invasion, the area teemed with vendors of everything from souvenirs to falafel and tiny glasses of cardamon flavoured coffee, hand-made artefacts - and families picnicked on the grassy slopes below, in the mosque's shadow, after school, taking photographs of a favourite day out.

The Great Mosque (known as the Nurid Mosque) was built in A.D. 1172, by Nuriddin Zangi. It is famed for its fifty two metre high, bent minaret, which towers above the trees; Iraq's leaning tower of Pisa, with its exquisitely patterned brick work and also named Al-Hadra – “The Humped”. The Mashad (shrine) of Yabya Abdul Kassem is another 13th century gem, with conical dome, brickwork a delicate art form and calligraphy fashioned in blue Mosul marble. It has stood over eight hundred years on the bank of the Tigris, surviving and being even revered by Mesopotamia's occupiers. Will it survive Bush, Blair and Brown's “Christian soldiers” and their useless puppets?

[yardwork]

1. The Bush administration is good at letting floods destroy cities.

It appears to be one of their modus operandi.

It was nice to see Arthur Koestler's name on the byline. I didn't know that he was still writing.

[Vincardog]

2. Christianurvive Bush, Blair and Brown's “Christian soldiers” and their useless puppets? Not if

aWoL's wet dreams come true. The boy just ain't right he does love him some death and destruction.

[daninthemoon]

3. Hope someone's building an ark. It's the right area.