mordant wit

A veteran Middle East observer, Robert Fisk, says Iraqi civilians are worried about how to save their wives from becoming prostitutes.

'Vast armies of the Mafioso are now operating in Iraq,' said Fisk. 'Women are being sold into prostitution into Syria and Yemen.'

Fisk, a Middle East correspondent for The Independent of London, met with members of the United Nations Correspondents Association last Friday at U.N. World Headquarters in New York.

'As we sit in New York or London with wall-to-wall coverage of the (Iraqi) constitutional referendum, in their homes Iraqis are not talking about the constitution. They are talking about how to protect their wives,' said Fisk.

In the last couple of months, more and more reports about prostitution in Iraq have started making the headlines. USA Today recently published an article on the rise of 'pleasure marriages' in Iraq.