Chaos Reigns As Armed Looters Steal Drugs In Nasiriyah

The Telegraph (UK) ^ | 4-4-2003 | Philip Smucker

[sheik yerbouty]

Anarchic tribalism.

[Ragtime Cowgirl]

Even Moses had trouble. This reporter would have been one of the freed Israeli slaves complaining about an uncertain future after seeing miracles - and on the way to the promised land.

[Humidston]

Savages. Primeval savages.

[Burkeman1]

This is to be expected. The criminal elements of any totalitarian society newly freed are the first to flex their muscles and lash out. It will calm down once the shooting stops and a semblance of order is established. I wouldn't worry about Iraqi criminals too much. Worry about Iranian Shites sturring up trouble in the future.

[Caipirabob]

Russia's first export following the fall of Communism was the Russian mafia. It still remains their chief export...

[Burkeman1]

Great little concise history on the Russian "Thieves in-law" on the Histiry channel this week. They go back centuries and have their own laws.

http://www.policeman.ru/crime_20.htm

[RJCogburn]

drugs

Why I'm surprised that some Freeper drug warriors haven't claimed these people are Iraqi Libertarians.

[joesnuffy]

Send in the LA PD they have a lot of experience with this

[Bob Mc]

Maybe not criminals. Maybe victims of Saddam's brutal regime which beat them, killed them, and owned everything. The hospital belongs to Saddam. Everything belongs to Saddam. They are likely not stealing and looting from each other's property, they are looting the evil regime's stashes.

[Burkeman1]

I would wager they are just criminals. One of the striking aspects of totalitarian regimes is the amount of crime present in them. Criminals actually flourish in such regimes. We, in the west, have been lead to believe that at least totalitarian regimes prevent crime. Actually they don't. Evidence from Communist regimes of Europe suggests that the authorities had active ties with the criminal underworld and allowed it to thrive. In the former Soviet Union which officially didn't allow private gun ownership - had a higher murder rate due to guns than that of the United States in the 70's and 80's before the collapse of the Soviet Union- due to criminal gang wars.

[xp38]

Zis is Kaos...A Delaware Corporation.

[Bob Mc]

I would wager, some of both. And also perhaps some truly desparate people who have starving family at home, and no other way to take care of them. Stealing from Saddam in a desparate attempt to save your family would not be a crime in my opinion. Just human nature.

Saddam's regime over the years has destroyed Iraqs people. Anyone of moral stature, of intellect, of strong will, have been murdered or exiled. There is no one left in Iraq but the poor downtrodden slaves who are too fearful to do anything controversial, and the criminals who are the Baath party. Nothing in between.

[wideminded]

In Solzhenitsyn's Gulag Archipelago, he described a clan of common criminals called "the blues" who had their own laws and preyed on the political prisoners in the gulag. Since reading this I have always been curious about this group for some reason. Thanks for the heads up.

[Burkeman1]

I think you confuse the Thieves with the "Blue Caps". A Blue cap was the mark of a Gulag guard or police officer.

[wideminded]

I think you confuse the Thieves with the "Blue Caps".

No, definitely not. He described a group of criminals in the same barracks as the prisoners. One example I remember is that if one of them had committed some serious infraction, the others would punish him by jumping off their bunks to crush his chest. I'm pretty sure that the nickname for these people was "the blues". I don't know if I can find the passage as these are some long books to search through and I no longer have my copy handy. But I'll see what I can do.

BTW, it looks like the show has ended its run for now. :(

[Burkeman1]

There were many colorful gang names in the Soviet Gulag. But "the Blues" was almost always a reference to Gulag guards. To comply with the state was a major infraction of the "Thieves law" in Russia even before the Communist government. Stalin offered amenesty to many Gulag prisoners who volunteered to fight during WWII. Many "Thieves" did. But after the war they were sent back to the Gulag and their fellow Thieves, who didn't serve in the military (against their law), called them Suka (Bitch in Russian). Thus began the Bitches war in the Russian Gulag of which Solzhenitsyn wrote about. It was a war among Thieves who had broke the code of thieves and fought for the state and those who had not. It cost thousands of lives. But what emerged was a Thieves guild of Russia that became a part of the state- and we see it today in our country.

[wideminded]

I love the Internet.

I found this at: http://www.ncjrs.org/txtfiles1/nij/187085.txt

"Along with these developments, the vory v zakone began to expand their reach and power in the Sverdlovsk region in the 1980s. Throughout the former Soviet Union, the vory had long been regarded as the elite of the criminal world. They were hardcore professional criminals spawned by the gulag prison camps. To contrast them with the white-collar shadow businessmen, these professional criminals became known in criminal slang as the "blues," a name that some believe derived from the blue color of the tattoos that were associated with the vory v zakone. The vory were adherents of the traditional criminal mores developed in the camps and followed a strict thieves' code."

[Burkeman1]

I stnad corrected. I was just assuming you were confusing a chapter in "The Gulag Archipelago" entitled the "Blue Caps" with a gang.

[XEHRpa]

the wards were under attack yesterday by 20 men in long gowns and head scarves

Not to worry! I guess we've attritted Ali Baba and his band of 40 thieves down to 50% strength. According to Gen. Myers, that no longer constitutes an effective fighting force.