Al Qaeda in Iraq’s Health Care Plan: Stolen Blood, Skilled Docs
Pockets of insurgents are stealing blood supplies from local hospitals and blood banks in Iraq, often at gunpoint, and using the looted stockpiles to treat their own troops. That’s the
report out of the
New York Times this week, but it’s only another reminder of the premium placed on life-saving medical supplies — blood and organs, but also surgical tools and pharmaceuticals — in times of turmoil and war.
In Iraq, the thefts have actually been ongoing for years. The
Times notes that, since at least 2005, Al Qaeda in Iraq fighters have raided hospitals — often the same ones several times — and stolen “large quantities of blood,” rather than risk arrest by bringing wounded group members in for treatment. These thefts often go on without interference from Iraqi security forces or hospital employees — many of whom “have members sympathetic to the insurgency.”
There’s no doubt the report is troubling, not only as an example of Iraq’s chaotic civil order, but because civilians are faced with life-threatening blood shortages and hospitals closed to ward off the looting. Even the U.S. military, which usually relies on shipped in blood donations, can barely sustain an adequate supply for injured American troops — so much so that they’re funding synthetic blood programs as a permanent way to stave off the scarcity.
But it’s no surprise, in any crisis, that medical supplies become hot commodities: terrorists, armies, and even civilians coping with a natural disaster won’t get far without the bare necessities, which puts a lofty premium on food, water, and health care. After January’s earthquake in Haiti,
reports quickly emerged of violent raids on dozens of orphanages, whose proprietors were forced to stop stockpiling food and medicine beyond a two-week supply. And U.S officials have even
stalled critically important aid, like $50 million in provisions to Somalia in 2004, over fears it was being diverted to terror cells.
And maybe because of just how universally indispensable health care is, allegations of organ theft and looted medical supplies have also been useful propaganda tools. Last year,
Israel emphatically denied Palestinian reports that troops had stolen organs from Palestinian children. Only two months earlier,
Hamas was denying Israeli allegations that their troops had raided aid trucks for food and medicine.
What’s unique about Al Qaeda in Iraq’s blood theft is that their medics might actually know how to use the vital fluid safely. As the
Times reports, mismatched blood types can be life threatening — so looting blood and transfusing it without proper training is extremely risky. But Iraqi doctors say they’ve seen enough Al Qaeda torture victims “amputated in a very precise and skilled way,” to suspect the insurgents have well-trained doctors handling transfusions and other life-saving procedures.
It doesn’t help that corruption and inadequate funding continue to plague the Iraqi health care system. In 2009, members of the government’s health ministry openly admitted that corruption, bribery and money siphoning were costing civilian lives — and also complained that their three percent share of the country’s budget was far from sufficient to maintain and equip facilities. Even without factoring in the scarcity caused by insurgent raids, “doctors routinely dispatch patients’ relatives to fetch medicines, IV fluids and syringes from private merchants or the black market,”
McClatchy DC reported last year.
And if history is any indication, the
Times report only skims the surface of how much is really being looted, raided and stolen by Iraqi insurgents — and from where. We already know they’ve nabbed NATO food supplies, cars and scads of antiquities. If nothing else, at least
scoring nukes has thus far proved a little tougher than rations and vital fluids.
Photo: U.S. Air Force
07-29-2010, 07:55 AM
Stealing blood...
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