IRAQ: The Brady Bunch they’re not

This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

Was it a family feud or a family murder?

Mystery still surrounds the reported massacre Nov. 25 of 11 members of an Iraqi journalist’s family. Relatives who say they are among those claimed dead swear they are alive and well and that the journalist, Dhia Kawaz, invented the story in order to get money and sympathy from charity groups.

The sympathy part worked. Within hours of the reported killings, Reporters Without Borders and Iraqi media representatives were condemning what appeared to be another case of Iraqi journalists being targeted for their work.

Still, something seemed odd.

Iraq’s Ministry of Interior insisted it had no record of the incident and no bodies. Kawaz says he was in Jordan and did nothing wrong — he only reported what others had told him and never intended to spread false news. That is not good enough for Iraqi police, who were accused by Kawaz sympathizers of doing nothing as masked men burst into relatives’ home and killed them while they ate breakfast in the Baghdad neighborhood of Shaab.

A spokesman for Iraq ‘s Ministry of Interior, which controls the police, said Thursday an arrest warrant had been issued for Kawaz. Precisely what he will be charged with remains unclear. It also is unclear how police plan to arrest Kawaz, who has lived in Jordan for years.

One thing is clear: His family won’t be there to bail him out of jail. Kawaz’s mother, Subhiya Alwan, said she had no desire to speak to her son ‘because of his bad behavior.’ She said all family members are fine. ‘I don’t want him to see me or call me,’ she said.

— Tina Susman in Baghdad