Sniffer dog search sparks Iraq protest

[stevedeshazer]

BAGHDAD: A sniffer dog search sparked an anti-US protest in Baghdad and pipelines were set ablaze in north of the capital yesterday.

"Down, down USA," shouted thousands of government employees angered by the detention of a woman who refused to be searched by US soldiers using a sniffer dog at the Oil Ministry in Baghdad.

Soldiers fired a few shots in the air to disperse the workers from the Oil Ministry and nearby ministries.

"I have been coming here for 27 years and now they (Americans) are searching us with dogs. We are Muslims," Saadiya Ahmad, an oil ministry engineer said. "We don't just want the dogs to leave. We want the dogs who are holding the dogs to leave, every last one of them," said one employee, Nazir Mohammed.

source: http://www.gulf-daily-news.com/Articles.asp?Article=64851&Sn=WORL

And from another source:

Use of sniffer dogs infuriates Iraqis

BAGHDAD - A sniffer dog search sparked an anti-US protest in Baghdad on Tuesday amid accusations of American insensitivity to Islamic culture.

"Down, down USA," shouted thousands of government employees angered by the detention of a woman who refused to be searched by US soldiers using a sniffer dog at the Oil Ministry in Baghdad.

Dogs are considered unclean in Islamic culture, but sniffer dogs are routinely used to search for explosives at government ministries to guard against bomb attacks.

Soldiers fired a few shots in the air to disperse the workers from the Oil Ministry and other nearby ministries.

source: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/latestnewsstory.cfm?storyID=3530143&thesection=news&thesubsection=world

[Lydia Leftcoast]

1. Aaargh, don't they get any cultural orientation?

It's pretty well known that Islamic cultures have a low opinion of dogs. The Somalis I knew in Portland kept their distance from dogs and would not even touch one. In their culture, dogs were scavengers like hyenas, definitely not pets.

So in such a culture, the smart thing to do is to use dogs to search women...NOT.