Tortured and Killed in Iraq for Being Gay

We've done posts on this issue before, yet the murders of gays in Iraq continue and worse yet the USA which continues to bankroll the current Iraqi puppet government seems to be totally indifferent to the ongoing deaths. The so-called "Golden Rule" of he who has the money sets the rules obviously is not being applied by the Obama administration. Amnesty International and the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs are on top of the issue, but the USA is missing in action - yet again - offering more proof that LGBT lives mean little to the current administration other than opportunities fro flowery rhetoric not backed by action. Here are some highlights from ABC News:

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Two gay men were killed in Baghdad's Sadr City slum, and police confirmed they found the bodies of four more men, all killed during a 10-day period after an unknown Shiite militia group urged a crackdown on homosexuals in the country.

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The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs believes as many as 30 people have been killed during the last three months because they were -- or were perceived to be -- gay. In a letter to Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, the human rights group Amnesty International called for "urgent and concerted action" to end the violence against the gay community, the group reported on its Web site.

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Homosexuality is prohibited almost everywhere in the Middle East, but conditions have become especially dangerous in recent years for gays and lesbians, as religious militias have become more powerful since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. . . . "Two young men were killed Thursday. They were sexual deviants. Their tribes killed them to restore their family honor," an Iraqi army member who did not want to give his name told ABC News.

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Two gay men were found elsewhere in Sadr City, alive but bearing the scars of severe torture. They were beaten, their chests showed signs of cigarette burns, and when police found them they were rushed to the hospital. They had been sodomized with iron bars, sources said. Other men said they had had their chests slashed and their nipples cut off.

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The irony is that such murders were much more rare under the overthrown regime of Saddam Hussein. Welcome to Iraqi democracy US style. Oh, and as for fundamentalist religion - both Islamic and Christian - it continues to be one of the greatest force for evil in the world. How many lives would not have been needlessly lost over the centuries but for religious based hate and evil?