Live from Baghdad

This time, we got him!

I'm sure you've heard the news -- Saddam was received by Iraqis -- and hospitably, at that. He was told by the lead prosecutor of the special tribunal set up to try Saddam and his henchmen, "You are no longer a prisoner of war -- you are now a defendant," based on the Iraqi criminal code. Tomorrow, he and the 11 top lieutenants legally handed over to Iraqi custody today, will be read the charges against them. Earlier today, lead prosecutor Salem Chalabi said, he met with Saddam, "to explain his rights and what will happen."

The other 11 defendants were informed individually of their rights, too, said an international official. An Iraqi judge witnessed the proceedings.

According to the Associated Press report:

Saddam, who appeared to have lost weight in confinement, said "Good morning" as he entered the room, according to Chalabi. After being informed that he was being placed under Iraqi jurisdiction, Saddam...was ordered "to leave the room," Chalabi added.

The other defendants also were brought into the room individually to hear that they would appear in court Thursday, Chalabi said.

"Some of them looked very worried," Chalabi added.

Saddam will remain in a U.S.-controlled jail guarded by Americans until the Iraqis are ready to take physical custody of him.

Many Iraqis hoped to see the procession of the prisoners as they were turned over to Iraqi custody. Many also wanted the Iraqi policemen to each take a whack at each defendant, as they passed by. Today's proceedings may yet be shown. Tomorrow's will probably be shown, later.

Saddam has another legal problem. He many not have his choice of lawyers. According to Iraqi court rules, only Iraqi lawyers or those registered with the Iraqi attorneys union, may represent a client in an Iraqi court. Saddam has dozens of volunteers and highly paid counselors, none of them, I don't believe, a member of the Iraqi union. In the same AP article, I read there is an exemption in this policy for Syrian and Palestinian attorneys.

In other news, the justice minister officially lifted the occupation-mandated ban on the death penalty.

I'm under the weather...er, sun

Forgive my low productivity of late, but my energy's really gotten sapped by that fever, which is looking like it might have been a bout of sunstroke. I saw a doctor this morning, got some medicines, and am going to get my blood et al tested for a few things. My mother worries about typhoid fever, which is common hereabouts. After my two-day fever, I had several sleepless nights, with the space between my temples feeling like the inside of a toaster and sizzling -- I wanted to poke holes into my forehead. It's practically driven me crazy, not to mention, into the ground. I'm keeping pretty serene, all the same. It's 8:30, Wednesday night, and I just slept a few hours, my first, after 29 sleepless ones.

Well -- that's the latest health news. Now, back to the good stuff.

The latest, on transfer

At the swearing-in ceremony for the new Iraqi cabinet yesterday afternoon, there were 18 Iraqi flags at the back of the stage, for the number of provinces in the country. It was the old flag, which was adopted in 1963 from that of the union of Egypt and Syria, with the words "Allahu Akbar" that Saddam added to it during the Kuwait war. Now, though, the script was not in Saddam's hand, but in a geometric artistic style. The people had made their desire felt, rejecting the flag designed in late April.

President Ghazi il-Yawer spoke first: "Before us is a challenge and a burden and we ask God almighty to give us the patience and guide us to take this country whose people deserves all goodness.... May God protect Iraq and its citizens." He smiled frequently and laughed gently a couple of times. He has a warm, light-hearted way about him.

Prime Minister Ayad Allawi described the terrorists as "enemies of Islam, enemies of the people of Iraq — those who align themselves with infidels."

"Infidels shouldn't frighten us," he said, adding that the Iraqi people need to stand up to the terrorists. "God is with us.... I warn the forces of terror once again...we will not forget who stood with us and against us in this crisis."

Allawi gave a nod to Grand Ayatollah Ali il-Sistani, acknowledging the influential role he plays in people's lives. However, said political scholar Hasan Alewi on Al-Hurra television last night, it was also a gentle hands-off signal -- that "you have your place (in people's private lives), while we politicians have ours (in the public realm)" -- an indication of a tilt toward secularism, which is Allawi's bent.

Here's how President Bush got word of completion of the handover. At the meeting of NATO leaders in Istanbul yesterday, he was passed a note from National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice: "Mr. President, Iraq is sovereign." Bush wrote, "Let freedom reign!" on the note and passed it back.

John Negroponte, the U.S. ambassador to Iraq and now the top American representative in the country, arrived in Baghdad yesterday afternoon.

Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt, coalition military spokesman, said, "The political arm of our operation here has gone out of business. Certainly the military operation has not gone out of business."

In another transfer, Saddam will reportedly be turned over to the Iraqi government and indicted this week. Saddam is to appear before an Iraqi judge and handed a formal indictment, a top Iraqi official said. A military spokesman said he will remain in a U.S.-run jail, because the Iraqi government lacks a suitable prison.

"Don't say you got it, if you don't got it!"

Maybe Iraqi security forces didn't capture Abu-Mus'ab al-Zarqawi, as they announced yesterday. After the announcement of his capture, in Hilla, coalition military spokesman, Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt denied the news report. Later in the day, the Iraqi security sources in Hilla reaffirmed the news.

Stay tuned.

Bremer's headed home

L. Paul Bremer, the ruler of Iraq for the last 13 months, has left the country. Nobody knows where he is. There was a report that he would take over at the Court of St. James, the American equivalent of being knighted.

Bremer left Iraq a few hours after the handover. His last moments in Iraq were spent in a meeting with Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, the top American commander in the country. An aide to Bremer, also speaking on condition of anonymity, declined to say precisely where Bremer was headed, saying only that "he was going home."

That must sound very sweet to the terribly fatigued diplomat.

Before parting Iraq, Bremer said that Iraqi Prime Minsiter Ayad Allawi made the request for the transfer of sovereignty to be advanced. Allawi is said to want to take immediate steps to crush terrorism and attempts at sedition in the country. Last Thursday, the remaining 11 ministries (out of 26) were transfered to full Iraqi control.

It is expected that Allawi will inject massive numbers of police and national guard forces onto the streets throughout the country. As for coalition forces, now called the multi-national force, they will be posted in military bases outside the cities and cease patrols in the cities. The Iraqi and coalition sides have been negotiating the terms of further coalition operations -- with or without Iraqi approval, Iraqi oversight, Iraqi request. I do not know what they have decided, and maybe they will decide, on a trial basis. One important defense function is protecting the borders, for which Iraqi forces are not yet adequate enough or trained enough to handle.

There are rumors that Wednesday's national holiday will be called off, but doesn't seem likely. Instead, it now seeem that the next three days will be declared days of celebration, with Friday making four consecutive days without government employees having to report to work. With people stayihng at home, that will reduce traffic tremendously.

U.S. denies capture of Zarqawi

Top U.S. military spokesman Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt just denied that top terrorist Abu-Mus'ab al-Zarqawi was captured. Maybe they want to see him to believe it. He was reportedly captured in Hilla, which means must've been by Iraqi forces. I've heard from the father of the girl there who needs a bone-marrow transplant, that the city has been without foreign forces, the past couple of months. I haven't heard the original source of the capture story. One co-worker was in a bank, and he heard shouts from upstairs. He thought maybe the managers were playing hanky-panky. The news came down, from the coalition-funded Iraqiyya television station, that Zarqawi was captured. Here, in the office, co-workers were having lunch, when the news was announced. The door to the kitchen was closed, and I didn't hear their screams. When the guy got back from the bank, he blared the news to me. I went over to the kitchen, but no details -- yet.

Stay tuned.

It's happened -- Iraq is now a soveriegn, independent state

In a surprise move, L. Paul Bremer III, administrator of the Coalition Provisional Authority that's ruled Iraq for the past 13 months, along with Iraqi President Ghazi il-Yawer and Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, advanced the handover of sovereignty by two days. The transfer of power was to take place on Wednesday, June 30. It is said Bremer will leave Iraq today. He made the announcement in a small private ceremony in the Green Zone at 10:26 this morning. The event was broadcast live on television. Bremer signed the legal papers in the presence of Allawi, and presented them to the chief justice of Iraq, Midhat al-Mahmoud. About a half dozen Iraqi and coalition officials were also in attendance, inlcuding Barham Salih, deputy prime minister for national security affairs.

A main reason for the change could be to preempt the terrorists, who have begun to unload a flurry of explosions and attacks that would go on for the next few days, in an effort to undermine the incoming government. Now, the main terrorist leading operations in Iraq, Abu Mus'ab al-Zarqawi, is in custody.

Another reason for the early handover is that Iraqis are eager to get their hands around the security situation, themselves. Yesterday, in addition to police fighting off and arresting three attackers on a police station in Baghdad, an unusual occurrence, police intercepted a car and a truck loaded with bombs and weapons. In the southeastern city Kut, a truck driven by a Jordanian and a Palestinian was stopped and discovered to contain 800 rocket launchers, and in the Jihad area of Baghdad, the police stopped a 1981 blue Corona loaded with 250 kilograms of high-intensity explosives with four mortar rounds inside. The car was headed for a police center, and units disabled the bombs. Police were also able to diffuse 10 improvised explosive devices planted in two heavily congested areas of the Hindiyya district, near Kerbela.

People are celebrating -- privately -- all congratulating each other.

"This is a historical day," said Allawi. "We feel we are capable of controlling the security situation."

Bremer responded, "You have said, and we agreed, that you are ready for sovereignty. I will leave Iraq confident in its future."

President Bush has reportedly sent a letter to Allawi formally requesting diplomatic relations with the government of Iraq — signalling that the United States recognizes Iraq as sovereign. America's ambassador to Iraq, John Negroponte, is already in the country. The new Iraqi ministers are to be sworn in today.

Finally, in what is said to be a compromise solution, NATO members, meeting in Istanbul today, agreed to train Iraqi forces. Iraq's foreign minister, Hoshyar Zeybari, said the training must be done in Iraq.

We've got Zarqawi!

Local television just announced the capture of the top terrorist operating in Iraq, Abu Mus'ab al-Zarqawi. He was caught in Hilla, a city near ancient Babylon. What he was doing in Hilla, God knows?

Zarqawi has been responsible for dozens of beheadings, car bombings and other attacks in Iraq for the past year. He was reportedly sent by Usama bin Laden to Iraq in the 1990s to train in the production and use of chemical weapons and germs. He was also convicted in absentia, and sentenced to death, for the murder in Jordan in 2002 of U.S. AID worker Laurence Foley.

Stay tuned. This is already a great day -- and it's just beginning. Can we stop the clock, now?

Travel warning, from the U.S. consular office in Baghdad

This Travel Warning provides updated information on the dangerous security situation in Iraq and informs Americans that the period surrounding the transfer of authority from the Coalition Provisional Authority to the Government of Iraq poses an increased risk of attacks on civilians, including American citizens. International organizations have reduced their staffing in Iraq as a result of attacks, bombings, and a threat to civil aviation. The security threat to all American citizens in Iraq remains extremely high....

The Department of State continues to strongly warn U.S. citizens against travel to Iraq. Remnants of the former Baath regime, transnational terrorists, and criminal elements remain active. There may be a period of increased danger leading up to and following the transfer of authority on June 30.... Attacks against civilian targets throughout Iraq continue at a high rate, including at hotels, police stations, checkpoints entering Coalition Provisional Authority areas, foreign diplomatic missions, and against international organizations and personnel. These attacks have resulted in deaths and injuries of American citizens, including those doing humanitarian work. There is credible information that terrorists have targeted civil aviation in Iraq. In addition, there have been planned and random killings, as well as extortions and kidnappings. Coalition-led military operations continue, and there are daily attacks against Coalition forces throughout the country. Attacks against coalition forces as well as civilian targets occur throughout the day, but travel at night is exceptionally dangerous. Hotels, restaurants and locations with expatriate staff continue to be attacked. The security environment in all of Iraq is dangerous, volatile and unpredictable....

All vehicular travel in Iraq is extremely dangerous, and there have been numerous attacks on civilian vehicles, as well as military convoys. Travel in or through Ramadi and Fallujah, travel between al-Hillah and Baghdad, and travel between the Green Zone and Baghdad International Airport is particularly dangerous. There has been an increase in the use of Improvised Explosive Devices (IED) and/or mines on roads, particularly in plastic bags, soda cans, and dead animals. Grenades and explosives have been thrown into vehicles from overpasses, particularly in crowded areas. Travel should be continuously reviewed for necessity and adequate security and only undertaken when absolutely necessary and with the appropriate security resources.

....American citizens who choose to visit or remain in Iraq despite this Warning are urged to pay close attention to their personal security, should avoid crowded areas, rallies and demonstrations, and should inform the U.S. consular office of their presence in Iraq.

On a bulletin board in our office's front room is a notice that between June 28 and July 5, "the airport highway is very dangerous (out of control) NO GO AREA."

Latest news: car bomb in Hilla kills at least 23; Zarqawi kidnaps three Turks, threatens to slaughter them

The two car-bombs in Hilla, near ancient Babylon, last night, apparently targeted a market, near the Saddam Mosque. My uncle said that Baghdad's protected, so they're turning to Hilla and other areas that have been quiet, where people had let their guard down.

The kidnapping coincides with President Bush's visit to Turkey, and the opening, tomorrow, of a NATO summit, where an appeal will be made for assistnace in Iraq. The terrorists threatened to slaughter the three Turks within 72 hours. On Jazeera television, last night, a video issued by the kidnappers showed the three men, holding Turkish passports, kneeling on the ground in front of two black-clothed gunmen.

In a written statement, the group demanded Turkish companies stop doing business with American forces in Iraq and called for "large demonstrations" in Turkey against the visit of "Bush the criminal."

In Baghdad yesterday, gunmen attacked a police station in the New Baghdad area, but officers fought back in a rare show of force. The attackers fled, and police arrested three Iraqis, an Interior Ministry official said.

Yesterday, there was a car bomb in Arbil (Hawler in Kurdish), killing one person and wounding 18, inlcuding Mas'oud Barazani's culture minister.

In other news, a senior U.S. military commander said the U.S. recently issued about 55,000 armored flak jackets to Iraqi forces.

Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi warned that if security does not improve, national elections set for no later than January, might have to be delayed. He said his team was doing its best to meet the January target.

I'm sick

I know you probably already know that, but, seriously, I really am sick. I'm better than I was two days ago, when I had a sizzling fever, a headache, a tender or swollen neck, and a stomachache. The fever's pretty much gone, as is the headache, although there are still some pangs. The tender swelling in the neck has diminished, and my stomach's...getting there. I'm still dragging, though -- when I get sick, I walk around like an 80-year-old hunchback.

It started Friday morning. I got up at seven, ready to go. I had a glass of apple drink, which my aunt keeps in the freezer. It had chuncks of ice in it. When my uncle and I arrived at the office, they didn't have electricity, and it was too early on a Friday, the sabbath, for anybody else to be there, so the generator could be activated -- I'm a guest in the office. So my uncle and I headed to the cybercafé that's open about 18-20 hours a day. It wasn't open this early. I wasn't that well rested, anyway -- have woken up before dawn almost every day -- so we went back home, and I slept for another three hours. Back to the office -- still no electricity, and no office-workers. The internet shop was open, and I worked, on and off, for the next three hours. I felt tired, my throat was scratchy, which I attributed to the smoke in the cybercafé. I went to the juice bar, and had a cantelope juice, which sometimes has lots of ice blended into it -- I'll have to ask 'em to lighten up on the ice. The doctor I talked to later, my dad's cousin, asked if I'd had cold drinks. Finally, I stood in the sun for about three-quarters of an hour, talking on the phone with Layla -- first prolonged conversation in more than a month -- I've felt she turned cold on me, and have been wanting to know where things stand. It wasn't a pleasant conversation. I got a flurry of insults. Meanwhile, I must've gotten a flurry of rays, too. When the sun is blistering hot, like it's been the past few days, it sometimes feels like it's sitting right on top of your head. That might've been the source of the headache, and who-knows-what-else.

After my dispiriting conversation, I went back to the juice bar, had a glass of fresh orange juice, for my throat, and sat down with the bartenders. Maybe I let my guard down, too much -- told them I write, that I'm from America and "shed some tears into my drink," over Layla. One of the workers asked me about applying to the Fullbright program -- I gave him the State Department's web-address. I later brought them my business card, so we could exchange e-mails -- I'd promised to get them copies of the pictures I took there.

I couldn't work anymore -- I was spent. I called my uncle. I had an appointment to meet someone at six, near the internet café, and hoped to rest a bit, and come back. That would've meant my uncle going back and forth a total of four times. Sometimes his son or son-in-law do the duties. Well, I got home, went to bed, and couldn't get up. A cousin and our recent visitor from America came over, put some cold compresses on me and held my hand. The compresses smelled like rose water. The Iraqi-American said maybe it was her perfume. I'm such a baby when I'm sick. I kept drinking water, and sweating and babbling, all along. I called to cancel my six o'clock appointment. This is with one of the eligible bachelorettes, the son of my dad's cousin-doctor -- she'd asked me to check her computer -- lives with her folks -- can't be otherwise. Some of the relos pressed me to have a doctor come over. I begged off -- "it's just a fever." I spoke with my dad's cousin, the doctor, who recommended an antihistamine, rest and liquids. That night, I had some cantelope, which was very sweet.

Yesterday, I had a mini pear, more cantelope, dates, yogurt, a little bit of noodle soup, and Seven-Up, to go along with all the water. Last night, I talked with my mother, in Cleveland. She had a flu -- not terribly unusual for her -- said I contracted the illness from her, and that she got it from my dad. I really wanted to go over to my cousin's house across the front yard, and post a notice here. He has a computer, and uses the local dial-up service. I resisted and resisted, and just as I was able to overcome the resistance, turn around and put my feet on the floor, the electricity went off -- the clock "tolls" ten. Today, I had more cantelope, watermelon, dates, yogurt, plum juice and salad. My aunt has been saying I got sick because I'm not eating. "not eating," means, not eating at home. If you don't eat at home, you haven't eaten, and I've long since given up arguing with her. Maybe it's my body fighting me, trying to slow me down. Hang on, body -- just three more weeks. Of course, here, the countdown is three days.

I'm not gonna push myself, now -- well, not much. I'll check e-mail, save some articles for later, and see how long I can last.

More on buildup to June 30

Last night, I showed my uncle what I wrote yesterday about people "battening down the hatches," in preparation for June 30. He said that what I wrote is going to demoralize people, that, instead, it's a happy occasion, the June 30 transfer of sovereignty -- that it's a moment of pride for Iraqis.

The new government did declare June 30 a national public holiday, yesterday. Many people are expecting the next day to be declared a public holiday, too, and for a couple of more days of curfew, as well. July 2 is a Friday, a normal day off. In Mosul, where four car-bombs attacked police centers and a hospital yesterday morning, the governor last night declared an overnight curfew. While on the subject of curfews, many people have complained that a curfew should have been imposed by the American army a year ago, as soon as Saddam was ousted -- that that is the only way to impose order, and prevent crime, looting, destruction and insecurity.

A cousin's husband, who runs an expanding money-change shop on a main street of Mansour, said last night that many people were transferring money to Syria, where people are headed, to spend the next few days. Syria permits Iraqis into the country, more readily than does Jordan. I asked if he was going to open over the next few days. He said he'd be watching the situation -- "hour by hour."

People are saying that Prime Minister Ayad Allawi will ask the people of Falluja to evacuate the city, in particular, families. After that, people say he will "burn" Falluja -- that those remaining "will be responsible" for what happens to them. The uncle I visited yesterday, a medical doctor who's to leave to Jordan tomorrow, said you have to hang a few people, and leave their bodies on display, for all to see, to show that you mean business -- that that is the only language Iraqis understand. He is not alone. People say you have to show some strength -- put some fear into people. That, they say, is the only way to deal with these terrorists -- and Iraqis, in general. This uncle also said that Israelis are carrying out these terrorist operations in Iraq. I didn't follow up.

There was word in the news, although some dismissed it as rumors, that the Baghdad-Amman highway was closed near Falluja and Ramadi yesterday, as American forces were striking at Abu Mus'ab a-Zarqawi locations in the area. My uncle's wife was concerned about that, and said she wouldn't travel if it meant danger and the potential of being turned back. There are flights, but they cost almost $700. Later, I called about my cousin's daughter who left for Amman yesterday morning, with her family and in-laws. As of midnight, there was no news. Her sister was in tears. This morning, there was a report that an SUV -- the favorite mode of travel for private travel in and out of the country -- had been struck in Traybeel, the Iraqi border point with Jordan, killing a family of five.

A force of approximately 2000 members of the Iraqi army was reportedly sent to Falluja, yesterday.

Bremer bids farewell to Kirkuk

Mr. President, Prime Minister, Governor, distinguished guests,

I have been in Iraq for a little more than a year and to Kirkuk many times and when people tell me they want to learn of Iraq, I tell them to come to Kirkuk. As you said, Kirkuk is Iraq in miniature. All of Iraq, all its peoples are here—Kurds and Arabs, Turkmen and Christians and all the others who make up Iraq’s rich human tapestry.

And if all of Iraq comes together in Kirkuk, so does much of the world. For centuries now, people passing in either direction from the Caspian and Black Seas, the steppes of Central Asia, the Gulf and the Mediterranean found their roads converging on this City of the Citadel. As President Ghazi said, Kirkuk has a special place in the hearts of all Iraqis.

In the months ahead, you in Kirkuk will continue to work hard to strengthen local government, to rebuild infrastructure and to develop the economy. Importantly, you will also need to heal the scars of the past, so that all groups can advance together to a prosperous future. You will have to address some difficult issues. The restitution of property, the return of people to their lands, and the reintegration of people into their communities will be great challenges for you.

It is vital that these processes be conducted according to the law and under recognized judicial procedures.

Kirkuk, as much as any place in Iraq, has vast potential. Kirkuk will succeed. You, the people of Kirkuk, are the province’s greatest asset. You, the people, are the true eternal flame that lights this city, this province. You are talented, educated and cultured, you speak one another’s languages, you appreciate one another’s traditions without abandoning your own.

You understand that you all need each other. You understand that you all need Kirkuk and that Kirkuk needs you all.

You have the talent and you have the will to surmount the problems that have been imposed upon you. However, some problems are not solved by talent and will alone. They require money. And now money will be available.

The American people are giving more money to Iraq than they have every given to any country in history. Many of the reconstruction programs financed with those funds will directly benefit Kirkuk.

In addition, today, I am happy to announce the establishment of the Kirkuk Foundation. The foundation has an initial endowment of $100 million from the Iraqi budget. And the foundation will help set the conditions for long-term peace and stability in the province. The foundation will bring community and political leaders together to develop a common vision for the province of Kirkuk. And that is a vision in which all people have equal rights and equal opportunities, regardless of their ethnicity, religion, or gender; and to ensure the environment to enable such a vision to such to fruition.

President Ghazi, thank you for your support of this important new initiative. Thank you also for your hospitality to CPA. My colleagues and I personally wish each of you, all of Kirkuk and all Iraqis a future of hope, a future of freedom, peace and prosperity.

Mabruk al-Iraq al-Jadeed. [Congratulations, the new Iraq]

Aash al-Iraq! [Long live Iraq]

American Amabassador L. Paul Bremer III, administrator of the Coalition Provisional Authority, on Tuesday, June 22, 2004.

100-plus dead and 320 wounded from yesterday's attacks

Yesterday, President Ghazi il-Yawer and Ayatollah Ali il-Sistani made very strong statements denouncing the terrorist attacks. Yawer called on Iraqis to assist security forces in pointing out destructive or suspicious activities, while Sistani called on the people to be "as one hand" in putting down the criminals and destroyers.

Prime Minister Ayad Allawi said:

This is an opportunity for me to ask the Iraqi people to close ranks and inform on these criminals. We are going to defeat them and we are going to crush them.

In addition, the BBC reported:

Late on Thursday, the Shia militia loyal to radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr declared a unilateral truce in the Sadr City slum quarter of Baghdad - the final area where it was still opposing US-led coalition forces.

"For the sake of the public interest and considering the sensitive situation the oppressed Iraqi people are under, the Central Mehdi Army Command announces a halt to military operations within Sadr City," the militia said in a statement.

Not another genie-in-a-bottle joke

An Iraqi woman was walking around in Baghdad when she stumbled upon an old empty bottle.

She picked it up and rubbed it, and, lo and behold, a genie appeared. She talked with him for a while, then the genie told her he would grant her one wish. She said she heard from a cousin that she would get three wishes if she ever found a genie.

The genie said, "Nope, sorry -- three-wish genies are a story-tale myth. I'm a one-wish genie. So,...what'll it be?" The woman didn't hesitate. She said, "I want peace in Iraq. See this map, I want these countries to stop fighting with each other and I want all the Arabs to love Jews and Americans and vice-versa. It will bring about world peace and harmony."

The genie looked at the map and exclaimed, "Damn Lady, what's wrong with you? PLEASE BE REASONABLE! These countries have been at war for thousands of years. I'm out of shape after being in a bottle for five hundred years. I'm good, but NOT THAT GOOD!!! I don't think it can be done. PLEASE make another wish, and, please, I beg you.... Be reasonable."

The woman thought for a minute and said, "Well, I've never been able to find the right Iraqi man.... You know, one that is considerate and fun, likes to dance and helps with the cooking, house-cleaning, and is FAITHFUL. That's what I wish for...a good Iraqi man." The Genie let out a long sigh, shook his head and said, "Let me see that friggin' map again."

Don't stay out late!

My movements are being restricted even further, and I won't be alone. For the past couple of weeks, I've been staying at an internet café till at least eleven o'clock. Last night, after my uncle and his wife picked me up, they said I should start heading back earlier, as June 30 approaches. That's the day, of course, that the coalition hands Iraqis the keys to the office, and, as we've seen today, there are going to be a lot of attacks, in an effort to disrupt that transfer and undermine, and possibly sink, the next government.

People are expecting the interim Iraqi government that takes over, Wednesday, to impose a curfew. That, of course, would reduce the number of cars in the street, and exposing the potential car bombers and other terrorists more. They could, certainly, wait till the curfew is lifted. However, the government could use the hours of curfew to hunt down terrorists and wanted criminals. This is nothing new for Iraqis. During every revolution or coup, the incoming regime, they say, has imposed some type of curfew -- for days, if not weeks. I'd like to look into that -- the history of curfews, here and elsewhere. I'll save that, for another time.

As for me, I've been told not to stay out beyond eight o'clock. That's gonna limit my ability to post things. My cousin next door has a call-up internet connection, and maybe I can buy a calling card, too, to do the same -- but that connection is very slow, and will likely be even slower, as more people stay at home, congesting the system even more, as happened during the April work stoppages. I just might have to write from home at night, and post what I write the next day, which I don't like. Or, I could try to stretch my "curfew" hours, argue for more time -- we'll see. One of the internet cafés I've used has offered me a wireless connection from home. That requires buying some antenna equipment to install on the house (for a couple of hundred dollars), and then a $50 monthly charge. They're offering the service to about 40 people -- I'm one of the select few.

As we countdown to June 30, many people who can afford to leave the country, are, to ride out the storm -- a couple of weeks at the least, more like a month or two. A cousin's daughter and her family and in-laws, just drove to Jordan this morning. When I heard news of this morning's attacks, I wondered about them. The road to Amman passes by Falluja and Ramadi, two of the cities struck this morning. I called her siblings, to see if they'd heard anything from her -- they hadn't -- too early, they said. Well, if they made it, without delay, they should be in Amman, by now. In a couple of hours, I'm to visit an uncle, who's about to go to Jordan with his wife.

Those staying here, will curtail their activities -- that is, public outings. My uncle has said he won't go to his downtown office for a while, and will limit his movements to the neighborhood, just for basic needs. There shouldn't be much hoarding of food and supplies, as most small shops, bakeries and fruit-and-vegetable places will probably stay open -- they aren't expected to be targeted. As for others, many will not go to work, in particular, goverenment employees. Quite likely, jewelry stores will be closed, fearing theives and looting, in case police disappear and the situation turns anarchic. Likewise, electronics stores, car dealers, and other vendors of valuable items. Banks await orders from the government. Many people will take out their money and valuables, fearing looting of banks similar to what happened after Saddam was toppled. Most small shops and restaurants probably will stay open, but close earlier, as foot and street traffic lessen. I'm sure they'll be able to judge the situation well. It's basically a lock-down period -- stay low, retrench and ride out the storm. That leaves the main targets of all of this, the police and defense forces that defend the state and maintain order. Everything depends on them. If they're attacked, depleted or disabled, that opens the space for looters and saboteurs to raid the banks and stores, which would be left unprotected. No amount of private protection a vendor hires, would be enough to ward off a gang of attackers. No doubt, many of the police and army officers will be afraid, and feel pressure not to report to work. However, if they don't, they'll probably lose their jobs. They're at the spearhead of the fight. This is where the mettle of the nation is going to be tested. This could be -- these next couple of weeks, in the face of an intensive terrorist onslaught -- the make-or-break period for the nascent Iraqi state, testing the proposition that Iraqis will stand up and fight for their freedom.

Death toll from morning attacks up to 69

My interviewers at Channel 8 in Cleveland a few minutes ago passed on that the number of dead from this morning's attacks is up to 69, including three American soldiers. In Mosul, the latest Fox/AP report says,

seven car bombs rocked the Iraqi Police Academy, a police station and a hospital simultaneously. A fourth attack on another police station occurred about an hour later.

Forty people are reported killed in Mosul, with another 170 people injured.

This looks like the opening blow in what will likely be a concerted effort by the opposition, if it can be called that -- the opposition to America and to democracy in Iraq -- to create instability and undermine the next Iraqi government. They'll strike big targets if they can -- government ministers, police, army, government buildings, symbolic sites -- "smaller" targets, meaning private citizens and public places, if not -- but they'll strike often, and attempt to inflict as much damage and pain as possible.

Terrorists begin spree of attacks, killing dozens

In a wave of attacks today in four predominantly Sunni cities, at least 23 Iraqis and three American soldiers have been killed. Terrorists targeted police and government buildings in Mosul, Ba'gooba, Ramadi and Fallooja. The attacks included car bombs on the police academy and a hospital in Mosul. A hospital official reported at least 50 died from the bombings. This will likely be the beginning of a set of coordinated attacks by terrorists, in the leadup to Wednesday's scheduled transfer of sovereignty, in an effort to undermine the incoming government, and possibly torpedo the handover.

Secretary of State Powell on:
Abu Ghraib, the U.S. embassy in Baghdad, Iraq's prospects, and his views

Asked if Americans' treatment of Iraqi detainees in Abu Ghraib qualified as torture:

I will say that whatever you call it, it was absolutely reprehensible. It was inconsistent with their code as soldiers, it was inconsistent with anything they should have learned in their community about how to treat fellow human beings, and it was deplorable. And it is being investigated.

It has caused me a great deal of difficulty, as you might appreciate, in my diplomatic work. What I have said to the Arab leaders I have dealt with, or other leaders in other parts of the world who are just as disturbed by this, is that we are sorry for this, we apologize for it. And now you will see how a democratic nation such as ours deals with something like this. We're the most powerful nation on earth, and you will see that we will not sweep this under the rug, we will not pretend it didn't happen. We acknowledge it did happen. Congressional committees are looking into it. The free press is looking into it. This should happen in a democracy.

It was the free press that gave it such visibility with the 60 Minutes show. The military will examine it carefully and where accountability lies, then responsibility lies and action will be taken....

On his input and access to President Bush, vis à vis Iraq policy, the work involved in preparing the U.S. embassy in Iraq, and the outlook for Iraq:

I just left him -- if I can be considered an advisor. And I had Ambassador Frank Ricciardone with me. He's our Ambassador to the Philippines who I brought back here for the last five months now, I guess, to work on Iraq transition. Ambassador Ricciardone and I spent from 3:30 to ten after four with the President talking about our transition planning, talking about the standup of our embassy.

I discussed with him the construction of the new embassy. I discussed with him how many of my ambassadors -- his ambassadors I have pulled out of embassies around the world to work on Iraq we ve got five ambassadors that are no longer where they were; they're all working on Iraq in one way or the other -- and how many people have volunteered for the positions in Iraq, how many people would stay on after the 1st of July, where the embassy was going to be located, how long it would take to build the final chancery from the temporary one....

I'm still of the view, I'm confident of the view that if we get an interim government in place by the 1st of July and we get these reconstruction dollars flowing and Iraqis start taking over responsibility for their own future again, we can turn this around....

And let me just speculate for a moment that we are completely successful: we have the elections, everything goes well, the transitional government is in place, the constitution is written. And then people can look and see whether this is a better country than the country that was (inaudible) by Saddam Hussein who put hundreds of thousands of people in their graves. I don't think they approved of that either. We didn't approve of it and we did something about it. We have been at it for a year, and there are some difficult days ahead.

But we're still convinced we did the right thing. Those hundreds of thousands of graves will not be replicated any time in the future, and people have been slow to give us credit for making sure that that doesn't happen again. But I think in due course, they will....

Differences with others in the administration:

With respect to Iraq, I felt just as strongly as my colleagues that this was a dangerous regime that was a threat and that had steadily violated UN resolutions for a period of 12 years. I had no love for this regime; I know this regime well. I fought it once before, as you recall. Therefore, there was no lack of understanding on my part what a miserable, dictatorial, horrible, tyrannical regime this was and the danger it presented to itself and to the region, perhaps ultimately to the world, if there was a nexus with terrorism....

I've been characterized as a reluctant warrior, the general that doesn't want to go to war. Well, you're right. Say it again. Please, write it down, a reluctant general. I don't want to know any generals who ain't reluctant. I don't want to have anything to do with them. War is a very serious matter. We send young men and women to battle, to perhaps give up their lives in the service of their nation, and so we should always see it as a last resort.

From a roundtable with print journalists in Washington, May 26, 2004 -- go ahead, shoot me -- I've said it before, it takes me a while to catch up on the news. As my friend Dhia Kashi once said, I might not find out about Saddam's ouster till a year or two after it happened.

Is this what they call an echo chamber? Just me and Alaa, on keeping safe in Iraq

Date: 6/23/2004 6:04:28 AM Eastern Daylight Time
From: "Al-dhahir, A. (Alaaddin)"

Yes I meant Fatima.

You know something, I also feel (and felt when I was in Iraq) that the people were exaggerating their concern but I really cannot tell from here [Holland] how it is. Two or three friends who usually reside in the west who were recently are now in Iraq said it was dangerous. For the past few months, I wake up and the first thing I say "Allah yustur" ["God protect," God forbid]. I truly go through the roof whenever one of these bombs explodes and hurts people.

Salam,
Alaa

* * *

Date: 6/23/2004 7:43:21 AM Eastern Daylight Time

Thanks, Alaa.

I was thinking -- if it's a matter of seeing your relatives, and delivering the equipment, why don't you drive to Kurdistan, and just stay there -- meet people there, etc.? I know it's not as good, but....

2 government ministers survive attempts on lives; ministers' housing complex; Zarqawi threatens prime minister; bombing in Baghdad; "I love that man"

Yesterday, Labor Minister Layla Abdul-LaTeef and Health Minister Dr. Ala'adin Alwan survived assassination attempts in separate attacks.

Last week, after I went to the Green Zone and Republican Palace, my friend who escorted me into those exclusive areas, went to visit a friend and compadre, who's married to a government minister. My friend had called ahead, but once we were inside the complex of ministers' homes, it seemed that the Iraqi guards inside the steel gate knew my friend. The complex, built by Saddam, had some two dozen or so houses, with the river at the back end, and a high wall of concrete panels on the street side. Inside the complex, I saw at least one American soldier on foot patrol, an American tank parked in the middle, an American military tent, and individual private guards at the houses. This is another such complex for government ministers.

As I was looking on-line for news about an attack today in Baghdad's Palestine Street, I found an item reporting that Abu Mus'ab al-Zarqawi has threatened to kill Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi. We are, no doubt, going to be seeing a lot of these attacks -- a flurry of attempts on the lives of government officials and contractors and aid workers and you-name-it. This poor Korean man, I just learned, was a translator.

I've been trying to reach old friend Dr. Mishkat el-Moumin, the new environment minister, and urge her to sell her car, which is still being used, and to move out of her home and into one of the official residences for ministers, but...I couldn't reach her, plus, she doesn't seem to pay any mind. I'll write her an e-mail, but, again,....

As for today's bombing on Palestine Street, the TV scrawl said that three people were killed, which is what the newswire has -- if it is the same attack -- the three are a policeman, a woman and her child. A guard here said a friend of his who was there, just told him that 15 American soldiers were killed in the attack using four bombs on the wide street, burning two of the convoy of American vehicles. The attackers then took the bodies of the Americans out of the vehicles, the friend said, and dragged them through the street and spat on them. The guard said the Americans always lowball the numbers killed.

On a happier note, after completing the one issue of National Review I have, I brought it into the office, for our cook's daughter to see. It has a picture of George W. Bush, head bowed in prayer, and Lana loves President Bush. I showed it to her; she kissed the picture and pulled it to her chest. I promised I'd tell him she loved him, when I see him.

"Jewish" McGill University and my safety in Iraq -- they're related

Subj: two things
Date: 6/21/2004 5:16:41 AM Eastern Daylight Time
From: "Al-dhahir, A. (Alaaddin)"

Hello Ayad:
I just took a look at your blog and have this to say:

1. Although I don't have statistics, McGill has a high number of Jewish faculty members. It has a reputation in Canada of at least being under Jewish influence. Our people may exaggerate such influence but there is no need to engage yourself in such fruitless if not dangerous discussions just because of certain sentiments.

2. The warnings to your movement in Baghdad must be taken seriously. Your relatives may be exaggerating the situation (this is how I feel when I talk to family and friends back home) but the security situation is bad and so far the enemy seems to be invisible. Be careful.

Salam,
Alaa

* * *
Date: 6/21/2004 2:03:48 PM Eastern Daylight Time

Thanks, Alaa -- I know -- about both points -- not engaging in fruitless discussions, and I haven't -- I've held my tongue -- pretty well -- kept my mouth shut, completely. As my father told me, before I left, ishtiri wa-lat-bee' ["buy, and don't sell" = listen, and keep your mouth shut]....

Also, about listening to relatives. I get irritated, about all the prohibitions, like the latest -- not being able to walk to my cousin's, three minutes walk from the office -- all, residential side streets -- but I sigh, and acquiesce. What can I do?

Okay -- see you.

* * *
Date: 6/23/2004 3:37:53 AM Eastern Daylight Time
From: "Al-dhahir, A. (Alaaddin)"

Yes,

I again ask you not to take any unnecessary risks by going to Hilla. Take all the precautions and ask people. If Mughiar (with Zainab) can make it to Baghdad, it will be better from a security point of view. Who would kidnap a sick child?....

Alaa

* * *
Date: 6/23/2004 5:39:44 AM Eastern Daylight Time

Thanks, Alaa, for the continuing shows of concern. I, of course, don't want to take any chances -- although, I wonder, how seriously I am taking it -- about all of that. Some people say it's okay, to travel outside the city; others, of course,.... We'll see. You meant, Fatima, didn't you -- the little girl?....

Okay, Habibi -- take care.

Slaughter and solidarity

Disgusting to see the Korean man slaughtered. What can one say about this barbarity -- it looks like this has become a trend, a favorite mode of murder for these.... I don't know what it means, other than killing someone in a most visibly barbaric and gruesome way, to dissuade people from coming here. I haven't seen any of the pictures or television coverage. I was told by an officemate, a couple of days ago, that I'd be crying on TV, too, just like the Korean man did, when I get kidnapped. Then, a day or two ago, I opened an e-mail containing a picture of Paul Johnson, with his severed head placed on his torso. The host of the Arab nationalist list demanded an apology from the sender, for that display of vulgarity -- didn't get it, and suspended his subscription.

It is good to see the South Korean government up its military contribution, the Polish government extend its, and, more than that, the Australian people -- the majority of poll respondents -- supporting the deployment of its troops in Iraq till the mission is done.

Would Iraqis take pointers in combatting terrorism from Israelis?

Alert members of the Nachal Hareidi unit, comprised of hareidi soldiers, prevented a suicide bomber from killing Israelis on Saturday afternoon.

An IDF sentry at the Beka'ot checkpoint, north of the community of Hamra in the Jordan Valley, spotted an Arab dressed in unseasonable winter clothes approaching his position. The sentry radioed to the soldiers manning the checkpoint, who ordered the suspect, in Hebrew and in Arabic, to halt. When he didn't, the checkpoint commander discharged his weapon in the air, as per protocol. At that moment, the 19-year-old Arab man detonated the explosives he wore or carried, killing himself and injuring the commander, as well as three Arab civilians in proximity.

The lightly injured soldier was transported to HaEmek Hospital in Afula. A moderately injured Palestinian Authority resident was transported by helicopter to the trauma unit of Jerusalem's Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital. The others injured, all lightly, were transported to a PA hospital by Red Crescent ambulances.

The IDF Jordan Valley Commander, Col. Ronni Belkin, said that the checkpoint commander prevented a serious attack. "In my estimation," Col. Belkin said, "the terrorist's intention was to make it to the soldiers at the checkpoint and blow up amongst them. The alertness and readiness of the IDF soldiers prevented an attack with very painful consequences."

The Ali Mustafa Brigade of the PFLP terrorist organization claimed responsibility for the attack.

From the May 23, 2004, issue of the Arutz Sheva News Service. Thank you, Harold.

A couple of rumors -- er, news -- I just picked up

Actually, I recently read a quote, about the fine line between the two, and knowing that they're two of a kind.

Well, next week, one week from today, the Coalition Provisional Authority, headed by L. Paul Bremer III, is to hand over the governance of Iraq to Iraqis, in the form of an interim government. There is word that the government will declare that day and the next, the first full day of Iraqi self-rule, national holidays -- maybe not an annual celebration -- to be marked by public inactivity -- no work, no business. Of course, the next day, Friday, is already a holiday. Some say the government will declare five days of curfew, as they transfer Saddam to Iraqi hands, to prepare him for his trial. He could be joined by nine of his top lieutenants, including his two captured half-brothers, WaTban and Barazan, and cousin Ali Hasan al-Majid ("Chemical Ali," "Anfal Ali" and "Butcher Ali"). It's expected that Saddam will be target number one for kidnapping -- by his supporters and/or enemies of America/Iraqi freedom.

A passenger asked his taxi driver in Baghdad how much he makes in the course of a day's work. The cabbie told him, 10-15 thousand dinars (1450 dinars to the dollar). The rider asked him if he would drive him around the city all day for 25,000 dinars. "Yeah, why not," replied the driver. Next day, the driver picked up the passenger, as agreed, and drove him around and around, directed by his passenger to make turns, this way and that. At the end of the day, the fare said he hadn't found anything that day, and lifted his shirt to show the cabbie his belt of bombs. What he hadn't found that day was a convoy of American military vehicles. The driver went home, depressed and afraid, and stayed in bed for the next two days.

I'm goin' "Bingo" tonight!

With the failure of Operation Leisure and Pleasure in Lebanon a couple of weeks ago, Operation Entertain Ayad in Baghdad had to be launched. The day I was supposed to go overland to Lebanon, my uncle took me out to dinner, at the Hunt Club. We sat in the downtown bar -- all men, a lot of smoke, a TV, hanging from the corner. The main hall....

Listen, I'm going to interrupt this story, to bring you the punch line -- I can't be burying the lede.

A few days ago, I played a Nat "King" Cole CD on my computer for a relative. At first aghast at the sight of playing music on a computer, he then, on taking in the music, said that it would go nicely with a candlelight dinner and a beautiful woman. Yeah, wouldn't that be nice, I replied, with a sigh. Next time I saw him, he said, "You know, you don't have to marry every girl you meet; you could go out to dinner, have a good time."

"That would be nice," I replied, "but that's impossible here."

"We'll see," he said.

I thought what you're thinking.

Do you wanna have fun...fun...fun?
How's about a few laughs...laughs...laughs?
I can show you a......good time.

Indeed, the next time I saw him, he said that he could find me a woman to take out to dinner, and then, she and I could go to his friend's house. The friend's divorced, and has offered me use of an empty room there. Then, I could give her something -- say, $50. "Thanks."

Now, before I came here, one of the topics I wanted to look into was Iraqi prostitution/prostitutes. They're the subject of lore -- in poetry and by leftist writers of the '50s and '60s. Now, I'm not a prostitution kind-of-guy, but do I do this for research purposes? Do I, just as I did in my "dating game," affect by observing TOO much?

There's more to say, about all of this, but I'm about to be picked up, to go to the Hunt Club, for one of their bingo nights. We may also make it to the movie, tomorrow morning, an outing that was vetoed by relatives, after the announcement of the new government. I haven't had time, now, to provide you with all the links to past postings on the subjects I've mentioned here. If you come back in 24 hours, they should be here for you.

Am I my brother's keeper?

Six days ago, I wrote about my uncle's murder by his nephew. It reminded me of an article I'd read not too long before by David Brooks about the parents of Dylan Klebold, one of the two students who killed their classmates at Columbine High School, in Colorado. Brooks interviewed Klebold's parents and tried to address the extent of their responsibility, if any, for what their son did. Brooks's New York Times column, "Columbine: Parents of a killer," appeared in the May 15 issue of the paper. In searching for Brooks's column, I came across an MSNBC report on the column, and reactions of victims' parents to it, and blogger Will Wilkinson's thoughts on free will, individual responsibility, Nietzsche and assigning guilt. It was from Wilkinson's post, that I got Brooks's column.

Weapons of mass destruction

The latest Andy Borowitz piece. The first half is about Bill Clinton's new book, then comes the Iraq-connection.

CLINTON BOOK FALLS OFF SHELF, SLAYS THREE

Memoir Faces Safety Recall in Seven States

“My Life,” the new memoir by former President Bill Clinton, fell off a bookstore shelf in Portland, Oregon today, killing three people and seriously wounding five others.

Hours after the fatal accident, believed to be the first of its kind in the history of presidential memoirs, Portland police were still attempting to piece together what turned Mr. Clinton’s 957-page book into an instrument of death and destruction.

“From what we can tell, it just kind of tipped off a high shelf,” said police detective Mark Drayton. “How on earth anyone ever got it up there is still a mystery to me.”

While friends of the book’s victims held a prayer vigil outside the Stop, Book and Listen bookstore near the University of Oregon, seven western states ordered an “emergency safety recall” of all copies of the lengthy memoir.

“This book is more than just deadly boring – it is deadly,” said Oregon Governor Ted Kulongoski.

In yet another freak accident, President George W. Bush shot himself in the foot today while showing off a pistol that once belonged to Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.

Mr. Bush, who keeps the souvenir of the Iraqi strongman in the Oval Office to show to visiting dignitaries, accidentally fired the gun while twirling it on his index finger like an “Old West” six-shooter.

The president’s foot was immediately treated at Walter Reed Army Medical Center and was said to be resting comfortably.

Speaking to reporters after the foot-shooting incident, Mr. Bush said, “This should leave little doubt in anyone’s mind that Saddam Hussein possessed very dangerous weapons.”

Now, a flood of recent articles about Kurdistan

I have Alexander Sternberg, from Germany, to thank for this bounty. Isn't the internet wonderful?

First up, "Kurdish official's killing intensifies population's fears; Many in northern Iraq feel abandoned, slighted over interim government," by Mark Matthews, The Baltimore Sun, June 17. Some excerpts:

Kurds claim that they have been denied their rightful share of political power in the interim Iraqi government scheduled to run the country after June 30, and that the measure of protection they won in an interim constitution was undercut by a resolution unanimously adopted last week by the United Nations Security Council.

These developments have revived a historic feeling of abandonment and have "greatly encouraged the Kurdish view that they should go their separate way and continue with their own de facto government," said Peter W. Galbraith, a former U.S. ambassador to Croatia who has closely followed the Kurdish issue since the 1980s....

But Kurds and their supporters claim that in America's effort to ensure a smooth transition to an interim Iraqi government, Kurdish interests were submerged by the need to secure cooperation from Iraq's majority Shiites and, in particular, their influential religious leader, Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani....

Kurds, [Galbraith] said, find themselves "squeezed out of a significant role in Baghdad."

Despite the wish of a majority of Kurds for independence, Galbraith said, they would only unleash the Peshmerga to achieve it if a future central government in Baghdad used its army to try to crush Kurdish autonomy.

But Kani Xulam, a U.S.-based activist who directs the Kurdish Information Network, said, "Kurds would be foolish not to make sure that they cultivate their strength and prepare for a showdown."

"The world is a lonely place for Kurds," Xulam said.

Yes, Peter Galbraith is related to John Kenneth -- that's his son.

* * *

Next, about the appearance of anti-Americanism in -- say it ain't so -- Iraqi Kurdistan -- an article by Aamer Madhani, for the June 15 issue of The Chicago Tribune. The article is no longer available for free, on-line. To pay for it, click here. In the meantime, a good chunk of it:

In the days since the U.N. Security Council passed a resolution governing the restoration of Iraqi sovereignty that has no overt mention of Kurdish concerns, something has been brewing in the streets here that was unheard of just a few weeks ago: Anti-American sentiment.

While the Kurds note that they are forever indebted to the U.S. for establishing a no-fly zone in 1991, they also say that the Americans have neglected them.

"We have been betrayed by the Americans," said San Karim Mohammed, 32, a law student. "If America doesn't solve these problems now, I don't know how we are going to make any progress in the future. The Shiite are going to turn Iraq into an Islamist state like Iran."

Iraqi Kurds proudly point out that their army, the peshmerga, fought with the Americans and helped establish a northern front when coalition forces invaded Iraq last year....

The growing tension between Kurdish and Shiite leaders was further exacerbated when a letter to President Bush from Massoud Barzani, leader of the Kurdistan Democratic Party, and Jalal Talabani, leader of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, was leaked to the media before the Security Council vote. In the letter, the two leaders threatened that the Kurds would quit the Iraqi government if Kurdish concerns were not addressed in the resolution.

"This was something that was meant to be a private correspondence between the three parties," said Barzani in an interview Monday at the KDP headquarters, nestled in the mountains outside Irbil....

Some Kurds say that since the resolution they have grown pessimistic that their position in society will revert to pre-1991, when the U.S. established a no-fly zone that essentially gave the Kurds their own nation.

"The Arabs would not even allow the Kurdish concerns to be mentioned in the United Nations resolution," said Payman Akram, 20, a Kurd. "How can we expect they will treat us equally?"

Karash Naqsh Bandy, a member of the Kurdistan Parliament and chairman of the Kurdistan Lawyers Syndicate, said it seems to many Kurds that Arab Iraqis are not yet ready for democracy.

At a recent meeting with coalition officials, Bandy recalled a British commander encouraging Kurdish leaders to take trips to Shiite centers such as Karbala and Najaf to teach their fellow Iraqis about the principles of democracy. Bandy said the suggestions seemed preposterous to the members of Parliament who see the Shiites as mindless followers of their religious leaders.

"One of us said to the commander, 'When Ali al-Sistani coughs, all of Najaf coughs,'" Bandy said. "How do you teach these people democracy? The mentality of the Arab and the Kurd is still very far apart, and that is essentially the problem we face as we move forward."

...."For us having an ayatollah or cleric, whether he be Sunni or Shiite, calling the shots is unacceptable," Barzani said.

Barzani also kept up the tough rhetoric he used in the Bush letter about quitting the government if necessary. He said that he would not hesitate to withdraw from the Iraqi state if the Shiite majority tries to limit Kurdish self-rule in northern Iraq....

This article reminded me of what Jalal Talabani, head of the second main Kurdish party, said to Paul Bremer, and the coalition's deference to Ayatollah Sistani -- that they were listening more to a non-Iraqi, who wasn't elected to represent his people.

* * *

Then, an argument for a Kurdish state within Iraq, by former State Department policy-planner Henri J. Barkey, now chairman of the international relations department at Lehigh University -- in June 20's Los Angeles Times. The essentials:

[A] strong federal Kurdish state in northern Iraq could be a significant plus for U.S. -- and Turkish -- interests, especially if it developed in an environment of improving U.S.-Turkey relations....

Conspiracy theories abound. One has it that thousands of Israelis are buying up chunks of northern Iraq to establish a self-ruling Kurdish entity or just to control the area's oil resources....

That forces the U.S. to choose between not riling Turkish sensitivities and its moral commitment to the Kurds. Turks also complain that the U.S. administrators of Iraq have ignored the Turkmens, a Turkish-speaking minority that, along with the Kurds, claims the oil-rich city of Kirkuk.

Turkey's sudden affection for Turkmens has raised suspicions in Washington and Iraq....

U.S. failure in Iraq would be disastrous for Turkey, which would directly experience the aftershocks of any radical regime in Iraq. If the U.S. is to rely on Turkey to bolster its Iraq policy, it has to address the question of the Kurds.

Turkey has to be helped out of its Kurdish neuralgia. A Kurdish federal entity on its borders would be unlikely to lead to further violence inside Turkey. Most Iraqi Kurds understand that Turkey is their best potential ally and thus would welcome their Turkish brethren's renouncement of secessionist goals. Turkey's new reform-oriented government understands that improving conditions for its Kurdish minority would facilitate its entry into the European Union. A Turkish appeals court recently released four Kurdish members of parliament convicted 10 years ago of belonging to an outlawed separatist party. Last week, Turkey's deputy prime minister and foreign minister, Abdullah Gul, received the four in his office, a sign that the government was willing to consider alternative policies vis-a-vis the Kurdish minority. For Iraqi Kurds who are Western-oriented, Ankara, because it wants to be a part of Europe, is their best conduit to the West. They have already gone out of their way to invite Turkish business groups to invest in their region, hoping that economic ties will lead to stronger political bonds down the line.

A robust, autonomous Kurdish entity in northern Iraq is in Ankara's interests for two simple reasons. As counterintuitive as it may seem to the Turkish establishment, a strong friendship with such a federal state would go a long way toward diffusing Turkish Kurds' anger at Ankara. Turkish Kurds care a great deal about their brethren across the border and would not do anything to endanger a state that would serve as a buffer against Hussein-like regimes in Baghdad. Ironically, the late Turkish President Turgut Ozal had figured this out and was maneuvering to help support Iraqi Kurds when he died in office in 1993.

Moreover, the Kurds are unlike the Sunni and Shiite Arabs in Iraq. They are much more secular and, after 12 years of quasi-independence under U.S. protection, they have made tremendous progress toward democracy and responsible self-government.

* * *

Then a lengthy piece by The New York Times' Dexter Filkins, from Makhmur, Iraqi Kurdistan, on Kurds pushing themselves into homes, lands and towns they'd been expelled from in the Arabization campaign, and the human and political consequences thereof. I have more, but I haven't read them, edited them, so I'll send this batch, but, fear not, the forecast is for more rain and flooding.

Falluja

I just left the discussion over lunch at the office. The main topic of conversation was the six Iraqis who were killed, and their bodies, mutilated, in Falluja, a week to two weeks ago. The six men were driving freight trucks carrying supplies from Baghdad to an American military base west of Falluja, two weeks ago. They were stopped on the highway, close to Falluja, apparently by a gang of bandits, who, to my surprise, I'm told usually don't kill their prey. The six drivers either managed to escape or were let go, and made it to a police station in Falluja. The police there, who many people say are part of the ultra-tribal regimen that governs the area, said they couldn't protect the men from "the resistance," and turned them over to the imam of the nearest mosque, whose family name is Jinabi. The families of the six men from Baghdad began looking for their kin. One of the six is from the Karrada part of Baghdad, of the vast Rebee'a tribe; the other five, from Sadir City, including the son of a shaykh of the MegaaSees tribe, who I'm told by an officemate from his area probably has about 1000 followers. About a week ago, the bodies of the six turned up outside Falluja, which touches the edge of Baghdad's suburbs. The families' inquiries to the police resulted in the conclusion that the imam in Falluja handed the six men to Syrians operating in the city, who then killed the men and mutilated their bodies. Now, there are calls for retribution. It's become a tribal matter, and the aggrieved tribes are demanding their thaar ("revenge"). After the bodies were found, a demonstration was held by people from Sadir City, as they marched out of the area, to get coverage for their calls for vengeance. The Sadir City resident here, a member of the marshes scientific team, says word is, some people there went to Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim, head of the Iran-backed Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, which has a wide following in the area -- Hakim was a member of the just-dissolved Governing Council -- and that Hakim calmed the situation. The aggrieved tribe from Karrada have called for a demonstration, too, but they -- according to an officemate who lives in the area and whose mother is a member of the same Rebee'a tribe -- will likely head straight to Falluja. They're asking for the Syrians who killed their son to be turned over to them or the imam who handed the men over to the Syrians. Otherwise, they say they will kill 10 for every one of theirs killed.

Big explosion today

Word so far is, nine are dead and fifteen are wounded, mostly civilians. It appears the American army was headed to Sadir City, from Ur City (Baghdad), and were struck with RPG and/or mortar-fire on the way, in Kubr il-Ghizlaan, a part of Baghdad's Sha'ab district that Saddam distributed plots of land from, to military officers. People in the office heard the blast, which they say took place at 10:30, 11 o'clock. I was in bed. I heard the afteraffects, as there was an intensification of helicopters flights.

My uncle's employee, who lives in Sadir City (previously known as a-Thawra/Saddam City), told me a couple of days ago that things are "good and not good" there. Conditions are usually fine, he said, but when American forces come into the area, to arrest somebody, they are met with armed resistance, and the fighting starts. I asked if the Iraqi police could arrest people; he said they're not able to. A person in the office who lives there, just told me that the people the Americans come to arrest are wanted for attacking Americans, and that the Iraqi police does not have a beef with them. He said that as long as the American army's not in the city (Sadir City), things are fine. When the army comes in, and settles next to a police station, the Iraqi police withdraw from the scene, as they don't want to be caught in the middle. Otherwise, he said, police are operating in al-Thawra.

Not another chicken-crossed-the-road joke

Why did the Iraqi chicken cross the road?

Coalition Provisional Authority:
The fact that the Iraqi chicken crossed the road affirmatively demonstrates that decision-making authority has been transferred to the chicken well in advance of the scheduled June 30th transition of power. From now on the chicken is responsible for its own decisions.

Halliburton:
We were asked to help the chicken cross the road. Given the inherent risk of road-crossing and the rarity of chickens, this operation will only cost the US government $326,004.

Muqtada al-Sadr:
The chicken was a tool of the evil Coalition and will be killed.

US Army Military Police:
We were directed to prepare the chicken to cross the road. As part of these preparations, individual soldiers ran over the chicken repeatedly and then plucked the chicken. We deeply regret the occurrence of any chicken-rights violations.

Peshmerga:
The chicken crossed the road, and will continue to cross the road, to show its independence and to transport the weapons it needs to defend itself. However, in future, to avoid problems, the chicken will be called a duck, and will wear a plastic bill.

1st Cav:
The chicken was not authorized to cross the road without displaying two forms of picture identification. Thus, the chicken was appropriately detained and searched in accordance with current SOP's. We apologize for any embarrassment to the chicken. As a result of this unfortunate incident, the command has instituted a gender-sensitivity training program and all future chicken searches will be conducted by female soldiers.

Al Jazeera:
The chicken was forced to cross the road multiple times at gunpoint by a large group of occupation soldiers, according to eye-witnesses. The chicken was then fired upon intentionally, in yet another example of the abuse of innocent Iraqi chickens.

Blackwater:
We cannot confirm any involvement in the chicken-road-crossing incident.

Translators:
Chicken he cross street because bad she tangle regulation. Future chicken table against my request.

U.S. Marine Corps:
The chicken is dead

From a cousin, who got it from who-knows-where.

Suits 'n' boots

An officemate asked me today if I knew that the new fad on Wall Street is to wear army boots with the business suits, à la Paul Bremer, the governor of Iraq. I didn't know. Then, in a pool report of today's meeting of a five-member Congressional delegation (all Republicans) with Bremer, Iraqi President Ghazi il-Yawer and Health Minister Dr. Ala'adin Alwan, the writer, Betsy Pisik, of The Washington Times, lent a name to Bremer's mode of dress.

As for the meeting, there was an exchange of gratitude:

Rep. [Peter] Hoekstra (Mich.) presented Mr. Yawer with a letter from Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert, and asked that it be read into the Iraqi government's official records. The letter congratulates "the heroes of the Iraqi liberation" and pays tribute to the Iraqis and Americans and others who lost their lives.

Mr. Yawer accepted, thanking the congressmen "on behalf of the Iraqi nation."

"I would like to express my gratitude to the United States, to the Coalition and to the brave sons and daughters who helped to liberate Iraq," he said.

Yawer then faced the press:

"We appreciate very much their visit and also we appricate all the assistnace we are getting from the coalition. We will continue our progress towards a democratic Iraq."

Yawer was then asked about what he expected to happen on June 30, how Iraqis' lives would change, and the likelihood of martial law being imposed.

"We are determined to go ahead with our plans, reinstate government institutions and enhance our security along with multinational forces which are invited to help us secure security in iraq. Probably there will be some turbulence. We are expecting the forces of the darkeness, as we call them, will try to deter our movment...[inaudible] Martial law, you said? It was a hypothetical question asked to a member of the government. It's our right, but not necessarily we will implement that. But it's an option that we are not rulling out. If we need to do so in order to preserve our security we will do so in a way that will not pose problems to the Iraqi public."

Among the good news: Sadr's collapse, strong economy, boys and girls scouts

WHAT'S GOING RIGHT IN IRAQ
by Jeff Jacoby, The Boston Globe, Sunday, June 20, 2004

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2004/06/20/whats_going_right_in_iraq/

To hear the media tell it, virtually nothing in Iraq is going right. Suicide terrorism, Abu Ghraib, sabotaged pipelines, swelling anti-American sentiment -- the coverage has been focused on almost all bad news, almost all the time.

Which hardly comes as a surprise. As an old journalistic rule of thumb puts it, "If it doesn't bleed, it doesn't lead." In most newsrooms, good news is usually no news. But don't be fooled. There are plenty of good-news stories in Iraq, too. Here are half a dozen.

* * *

Moqtada al-Sadr's uprising is kaput. The firebrand cleric issued a statement on Wednesday directing his gunmen to stop fighting and go home. If they comply, the bloody rebellion he launched in April will have ended in failure.

Sadr never managed to win mass support among Iraq's Shiites; indeed he was taken to the woodshed by the country's senior Shiite leader, Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani. Now Sadr says he supports the interim Iraqi government headed by Iyad Allawi, and will set up a political party of his own, presumably to take part in next January's elections. It wasn't long ago that Sadr was denouncing Iraqi politicians for cooperating with the United States. Now he is poised to become one of them.

* * *

For the first time, an Iraqi soccer team has qualified for the Olympics. The team clinched its Olympic slot with a 3-1 victory over Saudi Arabia on May 12. All told, some 30 Iraqi athletes will be traveling to the games in Athens this summer. Win or lose, they will be able to compete without fear, knowing that even if they fail to bring home a medal, there will be no punishment at the hands of Uday Saddam Hussein. It was the practice of the dictator's late son to torture Iraqi athletes who were not successful in international competitions. Thanks to the US Army, Uday and his sadism no longer exist.

* * *

In the first quarter of 2004, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees reports, fewer than 93,000 people sought political asylum in the developed nations -- 16 percent below the previous quarter and a drop of more than 25 percent from the first quarter of 2003.

Why the decline? Because Afghans and Iraqis, who used to make up the largest groups of asylum-seekers, are now far less likely to flee their homelands. From Jan. 1 to March 31 of this year, only 2,143 Iraqis requested asylum in another country -- 81 percent less than in the same quarter last year. As one commentator has noted, that's what can happen when UNHCR's 'partners' include the US Marines.

* * *

With the help of a retired US naval officer, scouting is being revived in Iraq. Chip Beck, a former Boy Scout himself, is recruiting 80 young Iraqis for leadership training by the Arab Scout Association in Cairo. Volunteer scouting in Iraq dates back to 1921, but the movement was severely crippled during Saddam's reign. Now, along with Texas businessman (and former Eagle Scout) Mike Bradle, Beck hopes to raise $4 million to establish a scouting camp for boys and girls in a former secret police compound on the Tigris River near Baghdad.

"If the world is looking to combat violence and extremism," Beck says, "the Scout method of teaching universal values -- honor, integrity, and morality -- is proven."

* * *

According to veteran Middle East journalist Amir Taheri, there is good news on the economic front as well. The value of the Iraqi dinar has grown by almost 15 percent in the last three months against the US dollar. It has similarly gained on the Kuwaiti dinar and the Iranian rial, the two most-traded local currencies. Despite the recent violence, millions of Shiite pilgrims are visiting (and spending money in) Najaf and Karbala, where a building boom is underway. Meanwhile, Iraqi farmers have harvested a record wheat crop, raising hopes that the country might once again become, as it was before Saddam, agriculturally self-sufficient.

* * *

On June 11, US military commanders bestowed awards for valor on five Iraqis -- soldiers in the Iraqi Civil Defense Corps -- for saving the life of a US Marine during an ambush in Al Karmah. When the Marine was shot by insurgents, the Iraqi riflemen with whom he and other members of the 1st Battalion, 5th Marines were patrolling with didn't hesitate. The citation presented to Imad Abid Zeid Jassim tells the story:

"Under a hail of enemy fire that was accurately targeted on the wounded Marine, and without regard for his own safety, Private Imad Jassim moved forward.... He dragged the wounded Marine out of the line of fire to a covered and concealed position...reengaged the enemy...aggressively pushed forward...dislodged the enemy fighters.... His efforts clearly saved the life of the Marine."

You might not know it from much of the press coverage, but not all Iraqis hate their American "occupiers." Many of them appreciate the sacrifices US troops are making to secure Iraqi freedom. Some appreciate it so much, in fact, that they are willing to put their lives on the line when an American soldier is in danger.

Jacoby has been a steadfast fan of freedom -- hooray for good people -- for good friends of freedom!

The tribe has voted: Alaa gets kicked off the island

My friend Alaaddin, in Holland, has been agonizing for months over whether to make the trip here -- by car, no less.

Date: 6/18/2004 3:39:32 AM Eastern Daylight Time
From: "Al-dhahir, A. (Alaaddin)"

Hello Ayad:
It is not my unwillingness to take the risk but my family's. I also have this moral problem: Why should I put them at risk. At any rate, the 4 eldest met on Wedensday, discussed the matter and took a vote: 4-0 against the trip. I had offered to go to the North and meet them there (and consider travelling with them to Baghdad) but the routes to the north were also unsafe (Ba'aquba-Kirkuk or Balad-Samarra-Tikrit-Mosul). I am deeply disappointed but this is the reality of the situation. A friend in Norway who also planned to travel with me thought it was better not to go now. What is for me logistically a problem is this: I can't ask for a special leave (I had one last year and this year) and this means I need to wait for the next summer (and believe me this is terribly frustrating that I got a special leave and could not use it).

Salam,
Alaa

* * *

Date: 6/19/2004 11:51:48 AM Eastern Daylight Time

Hi, Alaa,

I'm sorry, too, but you obviously can't put your family at risk -- and they have to stay on, leaving them at risk, after you leave.

Well -- sometime, somewhere.

TaHiyaati.

I'll tell Zaid Mugheer, and hope to be able to make it, myself, to Hilla.

Bye.

Profile in courage

I took some pictures in the street yesterday -- and I'm still here. The proof of that pudding, though,...will take some time to taste. I've wondered, since before I left America, about the ramifications of taking pictures in public here. I asked about it, before coming here, and was warned against focusing on unpleasant or controversial things, such as children beating even younger children, something I'm prone to confront -- that they might then come and attack me. After I arrived here, I asked some more -- I don't think I was discouraged -- but I should ask, again. I had the experience, soon after arriving, two months ago, of civilian-clad police in the bank district following me, after I took a picture in their area. They asked if I was an expatriate -- they're there to protect the banks against terrorist attacks. Otherwise, I've only taken pictures in confined quarters -- inside homes, offices, a deaf-mute school, kids playing soccer in the yard; from the car -- on the road from Amman to Baghdad, and a few billboards in Baghdad; and a couple of non-threatening scenes -- my uncle and his accountant eating ice cream, a pair of little boys walking together, and a store that bears my name.

Well, I recently got a replacement camera for the one I lost a month ago, and I needed to get some pictures for a scheduled interview on Fox's Channel 8, in Cleveland, this morning. The appearance was cancelled, and we're now scheduled for Thursday morning and next Wednesday. I wanted to get some street scenes, in particular, some lighters I'd seen with Saddam's picture on them, and a sidewalk book-vendor who has The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, among a couple of other anti-Semitic books. Before heading to that area, I asked my uncle if we could drive by the banners for the anniversary of my aunt's death, so I could photograph one of them -- one was down; another, we couldn't find. Then, we drove by a mural of Saddam, in front of the old central Mukhabarat building -- his face has been painted over. I took a couple of pictures as we drove by -- came out dark. Then, once we arrived at the Ruwad area of Mansour, with my uncle nearby, I got permission from the sidewalk vendor with the lighters -- I didn't think that would be a problem. The problem might come from onlookers, who might determine I'm a foreigner, and then follow me -- track my movements. My uncle, by the way, objected to my photographing the lighters, because they showed Saddam, without editorial comment -- wearing traditional Arab headscarf and in a suit, inspecting a sword; he said I should take a stance. He also wanted me to photograph beautiful women -- I hadn't thought about that. I took a couple of more pictures of the spread of vendors with their wares on the sidewalk. Then I switched over to my bar -- juice bar, that is. They were very happy, and decided to pose for me, too, beside their dozen blenders. Across the street, on the corner, there's a fabric store. I like the colors of the rolls of fabric, stacked tightly together -- thought that would be an unusual sight, for Americans; I took a picture of that. A pre-teen, standing in front, asked me what the picture was for. I told him I liked the colors. He smiled. A younger boy, passing by, asked me to take a picture of him. I said, "Later." Then, inside the internet café where I work, I asked the guys behind the desk if I could take a picture. They love me -- well, who knows -- at least, they're very nice to me -- they were very accepting. I turned to the big room with all the computers and put my camera up. The man closest to me shielded his face with his hand. I thought I'd ask his permission, but...too late, and it looked like he'd "shown me his hand."

Then, this evening, I took some more pictures on the same sidewalk, including that book vendor. This time, I went solo. I also found some interesting juxtapositions -- a hot-dog/hamburger cart near an old-fashioned hot-tea stand, with shoe-polishing boxes/seats in front of them. A couple of the sidewalk merchants asked me why I took the pictures, if they were for "outside." I said I could send them, by e-mail. I strictly avoided identifying myself with "the outside," but I think that's a vain effort. There was also a spread of baseball caps and a couple of music-taping stores, with posters of Western and Arab stars plastered on their front windows -- among "the Westerns" were Jennifer Lopez, Justin, Enrique, Ricki Martin. A woman covered all in black, including gloves, passed by. I dratted myself for having missed that opportunity. Later, I also thought of getting some "beautiful" women, too -- dressed modern, that is -- uncovered. I don't know if that would be possible -- they're pretty protected, if not by men, then by their mothers. A few minutes before, on the main street, I passed the scene of an accident or something -- there was a woman in the street and a couple of police SUVs. As I walked on, two young men in front of a store, watching the scene, gasped. I asked what'd happened. They said something about taking down a number. I couldn't hear, exactly, what they'd said. I asked if she'd hit the police car. They said, she almost hit them. I still didn't get what'd happened, and walked on. Then one of them said to me, "The ladies -- they're brave."

At the end of my trek, I, again, bumped into my old friend at the juice bar -- the workers at the bar, of course, want copies of the picture I took of them yesterday. I offered to put the pictures on a CD; they invited me for a get-together -- I thought they meant late at night, after they closed, at eleven; they said, mid-afternoon, when they're not so busy. I told my friend about having just taken some pictures. He said I should be careful, and warned me, again, about bringing notice to myself. The most dangerous thing, he said, was my presence at the offices of the Iraq Foundation. We compared notes. I asked him about wearing his shirt hanging out over his pants, but it looks like that's not so uncommon. He said he violated every rule he'd set for himself, his first day here -- not speaking English, only going from house to house, and not going out at night. I said that was impossible. I told him about drinking with my back to something solid, looking around, and touching my neck. He laughed -- "Yeah, I know."

As I started reading the following, which begins with the motions raised by the defense, in the courts-martial of Americans involved in the abuse of Iraqi detainees, I thought, what are Iraqis gonna understand of defense motions -- they just wanna see the guys hanged -- wanna see blood -- see 'em whipped. Hanging courts, is all they know. Defense -- what defense? The person's guilty, hang 'im. How are they gonna handle Saddam's trial -- if it's a fair one?

COURT MARTIAL PRE-TRIAL HEARINGS

Statement by COL Jill Morgenthaler, MNF-I Public Affairs Officer

BAGHDAD, Iraq - First, the defense made motions for new Article 32 hearings. These motions were denied by the military judge who found that the investigations conducted substantially complied with the Rules for Courts Martial. Second, the defense requested that an investigator be assigned to each defense team. The government counsel agreed to their request. Third, the defense raised several discovery issues. Many of these issues were resolved by the government agreeing to the requests. Each defense team will be provided access to the relevant detainees’ files. Witness statements from the Taguba Report will be declassified, if possible.

The defense teams will be provided access to Gen. Abizaid. Lt. Gen. Sanchez, Lt. Gen. Metz, Maj. Gen. Geoffrey Miller, Maj. Gen. Barbara Fast as well as other in the Coalition Joint Task Force 7 chain of command. In addition, the government agreed to defense requests for the employment files of certain civilian contractors and adverse administrative actions against the chain of command.

Fourth, the defense requested change of venue based on their beliefs that civilian witnesses would refuse to travel to Iraq. These motions were denied by the military judge at this time. Fifth, the military judge, at the request of the defense teams, ordered the U.S. government to preserve the detention facility at Abu Ghraib as a crime scene. Sixth, the government requested a court order to all potential panel members to avoid any media coverage on these cases. The judge agreed to sign the orders. Finally, the military judge set a deadline for additional motions to be filed by 31 July 2004.

In the U.S. vs. Frederick, the civilian defense attorney requested to appear via telephone on June 13. The military judge denied this request on June 14. Today, in court, the civilian defense counsel did not appear. Staff Sgt. Frederick did not waive his right to appearance of civilian defense counsel. To ensure Staff Sgt. Frederick’s right to a counsel of his choice, the military judge recessed court until July 23 in order for the civilian defense counsel to appear in Iraq.

A winner, and a pair of cellar-dwellers

From Doug, in Peoria -- with a nice article about hometown good-guy Jim Thome -- to Baghdad, to the Cubbies, then back to Iraq:

Subj: A little something to cheer your day:-)
Date: 6/19/2004 6:28:56 PM Eastern Daylight Time

Click here: In low-key way, Thome making case

* * *
Date: 6/20/2004 2:36:23 PM Eastern Daylight Time

Hey -- thanks, Doug, for thinking of me -- I appreciate it. That was nice -- the article, that is.

Well, he deserves to make it [to the Hall of Fame], just for being a good guy -- one of the best in the game.

Are the Chiefs the minor league team there [in Peoria]? Still there? -- must be AA.

All right -- see you, bud. Adios.

* * *
Date: 6/21/2004 7:04:14 AM Eastern Daylight Time

In a message dated 6/20/04 1:36:23 PM Central Daylight Time, Ayad writes:

Hey -- thanks, Doug, for thinking of me -- I appreciate it. That was nice -- the article, that is.

Yekum Ayad. Thought you'd enjoy it.

Are the Chiefs the minor league team there? Still there? -- must be AA.

Yep, still here, and they are AA. Haven't been to a game yet this year. You know me. . . . . Not really a fan like you. I'm still pissed over what the stupid Cubs did last year, and I swore off baseball. . . . . . . . . again:-)

All right -- see you, bud. Adios.

OK ayad. Keep safe, and keep writing. Seems like things are actually getting a little better there. I hope all the good guys can pull this thing off. Iraq has everything it needs to be a great nation once again.

Later,
Doug

* * *
Date: 6/21/2004 8:04:04 AM Eastern Daylight Time

Hey, Doug,

What did the Cubbies do? -- they made it to the playoffs, almost beat the champions, and it looks like they've got a good shot at going even farther, this year. Give 'em a break.

Yeah -- I think they -- now, to the Iraqis, those other luckless losers -- I think they'll make it.

See ya.

Allawi, on fighting terrorism

Full transcript of today's speech by Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, at a news conference in Baghdad:

I recently held consultations with the defense and interior ministers and with my private advisor for national security with the participation of other cabinet members. We held important and fruitful consultations this week with the representatives of the coalition countries, headed by US Deputy Secretary Paul Wolfowitz and UK Deputy Defense Minister Sir Kevin Tabbit and others from the coalition countries. A spirit of joint cooperation and clarity marked the discussions. I had mentioned this in a letter addressed to the UN Security Council on Resolution 1546. We have developed the strategy of national security, and some amendments were introduced to the structure of the Iraqi security for the purpose of achieving its vital responsibilities. We developed the national security strategy. There is a continued presence of some sabotage elements in Iraq, which include elements of Saddam and his former regime and foreign elements, which oppose the aspirations of the Iraqi people and try to obstruct the holding of national elections and to disrupt Iraq's security and the recovery of its economy and national unity. Many of these elements are financed by foreign parties from outside. Our government is determined to confront these elements. We will improve the security capabilities to provide the necessary security for the Iraqi people. To fulfill our responsibilities regarding security, a ministerial national security committee has been set up. The other government structures have been completed. This committee comprises the defense, interior, foreign, justice, and finance ministers, my private adviser for national security, the director of Iraqi intelligence, and the senior military adviser. In addition to all this, we are now establishing the joint operations command and control center to monitor and control all the activities that are related to the Iraqi national security.

Our strategy is simple. We will use all our forces and resources with high resolve to ensure that that the Iraqi people enjoy security, stability, prosperity, and democracy. The Iraqi security forces, the police forces, and the army units will participate in the battles to confront the enemies of God and the people. The heroic Iraqi police forces will be in the front line in this battle. The special police units have been trained and equipped with all the necessary tools to confront terrorism, control riots and rebellions, and enhance the work of the other police sections and branches. The enemies of Iraq continue with their sabotage and attacks on the oil, power, and water facilities and other basic and necessary services. They continue with their attempts to influence our daily life and our economic development. We will safeguard and protect these basic and necessary national services by continuing to develop and enhance the force that protects the facilities through training and good coordination with the local police and the army. Many threats come from across the borders. This is why the border forces, the customs, and the employees of the immigration department will studiously seek to secure our protracted borders. They will use advanced technology to confront the terrorists, smugglers, illegal immigration, and the ongoing smuggling operations. The Iraqi police forces will swiftly intervene with the help of the expert sons of our armed forces of whom we are proud. A large number of these forces have taken up their positions now and will be called to intervene under the command of the army and with its cooperation.

We gave orders to form new infantry brigades, the National Guard that used to be called Civil Defense Forces, the rapid intervention forces, and the Iraqi Special Forces. In these difficult times, the army would focus on defending the borders and security of the homeland. The reserve forces of the army will also assist in dealing with the domestic threats to our national security. The National Guard would be increased and their training level upgraded. Six new local divisions will be established, as well as 18 Brigades and 50 regiments at least. The Iraqi rapid intervention forces would enable us to defeat the sabotage elements, which oppose democracy and freedom, anywhere in our country, especially those who chose to hide behind innocent Iraqis in our cities and villages. The Iraqi Special Forces, which are highly trained and equipped with advanced tools, will stalk and arrest all the terrorists and those who tamper with the security of our homeland and citizens. The Coast Guard will secure our maritime borders and support the Border Guard in fighting piracy, smuggling, and other illicit activities. The Iraqi Air Force will be an essential element in our armed forces. Our pilots and the members of the Air Force will monitor the oil pipelines, power facilities and will ensure the transportation of the internal security forces and the army.

We must all mobilize our efforts. This is why I have emphasized that the priorities at this time would be to establish an effective Iraqi command and a comprehensive control system that will allow complementarity among all these forces. We consider national security as a high level responsibility. This is why the Iraqi army will submit reports to us through the chief of staff and the defense minister. As for the police forces and the other security forces, they will be accountable to us through the interior minister and the other respected ministers.

Our resources will allow us to undertake all the actions that are necessary to confront the followers of evil. This is why we consolidated the bases for the establishment of the General Directorate for Internal National Security.

Training and outfitting the Special Forces will be one of our priorities to enable them to confront terrorism and rebellion before the terrorists get the chance to harm the defenseless people and their safety.

We are very much grateful to the forces of the friendly countries, which have assisted us in the liberation from the most vicious despots of this century. However, the current conflict is an Iraqi conflict, first and foremost. The international community can contribute in a very important manner by providing us with the necessary sources for training and the necessary equipment for the Iraqi security forces. Until our forces restore their full capability, we will remain in need of the support and backing of the friendly multinational forces and also Arab and Islamic countries. We value the understanding and assistance of the international community and we hope that this additional assistance will be soon based on UN Security Council resolution 1546. Therefore, we will highly appreciate the protection activities by the United Nations.

The enemy we are fighting is very evil, and death, destruction, and the killing of defenseless Iraqis are the only things it knows. The Iraqis have suffered much and for many years under the yoke of the repressive regime. This is why the Iraqi people are determined to build a democratic government that provides freedom and equality in rights for all citizens. We are ready to work and even get martyred for achieving our objectives. I have complete confidence in the Iraqi people, the capability of our forces, and the support of friends in the world. This is why our responsibility as Iraqis is to contribute to the establishment of the security, safety, and stability of this country. May God's peace and blessings be upon you.

Allawi then took questions.

All bluster, no blast?

A couple of people I've told about the 250 car bombs, ready-and-rearing-to-go, have pooh-poohed the notion. They say there's a lot of hype -- hot air -- by the Saddamists, Zarqawi's people, and whoever are working on that end -- all for the purpose of frightening people. Still, the fear is there. My uncle said he's not going to go out much -- not going to go to his downtown office for the next 10 days, couple of weeks -- will keep his travels restricted to the neighborhood -- for basic needs.

Allawi: we're considering martial law

Prime Minister Ayad Allawi announced today a restructuring of the country's security forces, saying all Iraqi resources would be directed toward fighting terrorism.

"We might impose some kind of martial law in some places if necessary in accordance with the law and in respect to the human rights and the international law," Allawi told a press conference. "Many issues are being discussed, and we hope to discuss them this week. We will do our best to strike the anti-Iraq forces."

The Associated Press report went on:

Many of the attacks have targeted police and other security services, who have been slowly taking over security tasks in the weeks before the transfer of sovereignty. One of the most vicious attacks occurred Thursday, when a car bomb exploded outside a military recruitment station, killing 35 and wounding 145.

Most of the victims were poor Iraqis desperate to take dangerous jobs in the Iraqi security forces because of a lack of alternatives in a country with up to 45 percent unemployment. They took their chances at the recruitment center in Baghdad even though a car bombing killed 47 people there in February.

More than 300 people have been killed in attacks on police stations and recruitment centers since September.

It's a jungle out there
A couple of nights out

A couple of nights ago, in between sessions at the internet café, I went to the juice shop, got a sandwich and walked around a bit. A staffer from the café joined me. He studied at Concordia University, in Montreal. When he told me, a couple of weeks ago, that he went to school in Montreal, I asked if it was at McGill. He answered that McGill was a Jewish school. Oh, yeah? Yes, 85 percent of the students were Jewish, and they gave preference to Jews. I found the number, odd. I said I didn't know, and told him I had a cousin who just graduated from McGill's dental school, and that I was advised to go there, myself -- that is was a nice little school. Well, it's Jewish, he said, mildly, without any rancor. I left the subject. He shared that his aunt was in West Virginia, and that her husband was an assistant dean at W.Va. University (did not know of what) -- taught in the economics department, I think it was. A friend of my mother visited Cleveland from West Virginia recently, and teaches sociology, I believe, at the same school -- or was it architecture? I'll have to find out if there's a connection -- there usually is. The internet guy visited his aunt once -- he thought Montreal was "heaven," not even "almost."

At the juice bar, an old friend passed by. He was surprised to see me. After the internet staffer left, my friend told me that I was bold to be out. I said, this is Mansour -- nothing dangerous here. He said I should still be careful, walking around, that, working at the offices of the Iraq Foundation, I could be "stalked" -- someone could notice an American working there, and then start tracking my movements. My uncle said the guards at the neighbor's house already knew I was an American -- long before my conversation last week with soldiers parked in front of our house -- and any guard can be bought -- or, himself, sell information.

After I drank a thrid glass of cantelope juice, the bartender asked me if I "came from outside." Yes. "It shows; you like cantelope." I asked what people from the inside had against cantelope. He didn't say -- he was busy. He was very friendly -- has always been -- they all have -- they know me -- I'm a regular -- always two or three cantelopes -- that is, this month, when it's especially sweet -- "Give me the usual, Hank.... Hit me, again, Mick." I don't know if I'll be able to pursue that line of thinking -- if there is a connection, between liking cantelope and being a foreigner. Most people do have the "coke-tail," though. Maybe I've got refined tastes. By the way, all the bartenders wear orange shirts, as the name of the place, Mishmisha, is a diminutive of apricot (mishmish). I've noticed, by the way, that I've been drinking my juice with my back to the counter, wall, or large glass door. I've also been looking around, to see if anybody's watching me, following me. Finally, I've been touching my neck, thinking about it being slit -- maybe that's the Nicholas Berg-Paul Johnson effect.

Later, I dropped by a Persian-rug store -- I know two of the owner's sons -- one's married to a cousin's daughter; the other, to a friend's sister. The friend who'd just seen me at the juice bar, was there. He upped the ante, and told me I should just work out of the house, from homes, and not go to the foundation's offices, at all -- same thing my uncle had said, a month, two months ago. The last couple of days, my uncle's added another prohibition, knowing that I've walked to a cousin's house around the corner from the office a couple of times. It's about a three-minutes' walk, all through residential side streets, and the only people out, are guarding companies renting the houses -- but...even accompanied by guards, I'll get noticed -- a guard'll "sell his mother.... Don't do it -- just call me."

After I left the rug store, one of the sons ran out after me; he counseled me not to carry my American passport with me -- anywhere, anytime. I had it in my computer bag. Next day, I left it at home.

A couple of days before, this guy had taken a group of us -- his wife, toddler-daughter, wife's siblings, a friend and me -- to dinner, on the occasion of the friend's arrival from America -- she's the woman who took me to the Green Zone and the Republican Palace, the next day. Our host told me that a schoolmate of his was just killed in Falluja, for working with Americans. We tried to figure out if it was the same person I'd been told about, who was threatened for delivering food to American military bases. It doesn't look it. Their rug store, he said, had really slumped since January, because foreigners had been driven away. The previous six months, he said, were their "golden" period, when all manner of foreigners came to the store. Each foreigner would take the store's business cards, and yield 10 more customers -- even with four workers in the little shop, they couldn't keep up. That's all dried up. I later asked him about previous years. Activity was far lighter than during the "golden" period, he said -- the only foreigners were the odd journalist and aid worker. He, himself, used to deliver rugs to the Green Zone, and was warned against doing business with "the Americans." He told his threateners that he was there to process his wife's papers, as she was born in England. Others have had their cars broken into, inside the Green Zone, and personalized threatening letters, left in the cars -- that they were to cease and desist, immediately. One who received such a threat was the son of a Saddam-era interior minister. Our host also told me that it was a mistake for me to go to the restaurant I was taken to, the week before, that it, along with a couple of others, are known to be patronized by Americans, and, thus, could be targeted. Indeed, the only other customers the night we went, were two American men, and each had a machine gun.

We returned home from the restaurant about eleven o'clock. Our host said that was the latest they'd been out, for a long time. In Saddam's time, he said, they used to be able to stay out late, all the time -- during the post-Ramadhan holiday, till four, five in the morning. When I hear complaints about security and electricity, whose main consequence for most people is on air conditioning, which makes eveybody sick, I think, well, maybe you ought to have Saddam -- if those are your priorities. Gas, electricity, medical care, schooling, even food, were subsidized by the regime. People do tend to mention the mass graves, too. Speaking of which, last night at the internet café, one of the groups of four or five guys next to me watching porn, said "mass grave" a couple of times. A couple of nights after the restaurant outing, most of the same group went to the Hunt Club for their weekly outdoor concert, and got back after midnight. My uncle's son was there, too, and his parents said that maybe they shouldn't go anymore, as any large gathering could be targeted.

At the restaurant, among a family next to us was a woman covered from head to toe in black, with only an opening for her eyes. I asked my dinner companions where she might be from. My friend who'd just arrived from America said she's Wahhabi. She added that in Basra, where she'd just been, and grown up, Wahhabis have been paying families $400 a month -- for the past year-plus -- and many Shi'as had "converted," and adopted the Wahhabi lifestyle. Most people's salaries had been two, three dollars a month, when Saddam fell, at which point the field was opened to outsiders and proselytizers of every stripe. The family next to us weren't the only Wahhabi-dressed people in the restaurant.

The restaurant is Kurdish-owned -- opened just a few days before Saddam's fall. It's succeeded, quite well. It's very clean, the service is exceptional, and the food is good. The toddler with us ran free, and the all-Kurdish staff dealt with her very nicely -- they even had booster chairs, which surprised me. Our toddler's wanderings even got us pieces of a birthday cake for a little girl across the room. When the waiters had a chance, they gathered around the television, to watch bits of the European Cup. This is, maybe, the biggest sporting event of the year for Iraqis, with the top level of soccer in the world.

Back to a couple of nights ago. As I walked on the sidewalk, I passed a man with a missing left ear, or, rather, just a little nub left, rolled in on itself. I assumed he was one of those who'd received the punishment imposed in '94 for deserting army service. I assumed, too, he'd had cosmetic surgery, which was illegal under Saddam -- that is, prohibited for the ear-amputees and for the doctors operating on them. Another part of the punishment was a brand on the forehead -- I didn't look for that -- just remembered it, now.

Speaking of the sidewalk, I saw my first copy of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, at the one book-vendor in the area, whose wares are spread on low tables at the main corner. He's got a couple of other anti-Semitic books, quite a few exposés of Saddam and the recent war, some love and sex guides, and astrology and religious tracts. I'll ask if I can take pictures -- also, from the vendor with the Saddam lighters. Speaking of which, I'd made a mistake, in describing one of those silver lighters -- Saddam's holding up, and inspecting, a long sword and not a rifle, before the reviewing line. I don't expect the vendors will refuse me -- what I'm worried about is onlookers, who might identify me as a foreigner. My uncle once said, that there are some 50,000 people in Mansour, with maybe five or six lunatics, but....

Negroponte: hands full, but hopeful

John Negroponte, who will be the first U.S. ambassador to Iraq since 1990, said in a U.S. television interview Thursday that elections, an army and 18 billion dollars can fix Iraq.

"I think it's a question of pulling these different elements together and moving forward, and I think that can be done."

"[D]uring the course of my more than 40 years in the foreign service,...I would suppose that by an order of magnitude this is going to be the most difficult challenge I've ever faced."

Negroponte will head the biggest embassy in the world, with about 1,700 staff, including 1,000 Americans, after the handover of political power by the U.S.-led coalition on June 30.

Martial plan?

Iraq's interim justice and interior ministers said the government is considering imposing "exceptional" laws imposed by Saddam and martial law -- in an effort to stem the terrorist attacks that plague the country. Justice Minister Malik Dohan al-Hasan added that the measures "do not violate the rights of the citizens."

Former allies say Allawi could be a new Saddam

[E]xiles closest to Dr. [Ayad] Allawi in his Wifaq movement, known in the West as the Iraqi National Accord, say he is erratic and prone to hot-tempered outbursts. A founder of the movement, Dr. Tahsin Mu'allah, who also taught Dr. Allawi in medical school in Baghdad, said Dr. Allawi was not a democrat.

"I wish him the best of luck," he said. "But Allawi wants to control Iraq. He could be a new Saddam because he does not understand democracy."

From an article by Eli Lake, of The New York Sun.

A few weeks ago, I wrote about the dictatorial aura Allawi put off, at the Iraqi opposition conference in New York City in 1999.

Former Governing Council member wanted for murder

An Iraqi judge has issued a warrant for the arrest of Abdul Karim al-Mohammadawi, a member of the just-dissolved Governing Council who was known as "Prince of the Marshes," for leading resistance to Saddam in Iraq's southern marshlands, even after the ousted dictator drained the wetlands. The Reuters report continues:

The warrant states that Mohammadawi...is wanted in connection with the murder of a police officer in southern Amara province several weeks ago. His two brothers are also wanted in relation to the same case....

Mohammadawi is regarded as an ally of Ahmad Chalabi, a former exile and Iraqi National Congress head whose once close relationship with U.S. officials has cooled....

Zuhair al-Maliki, the judge in charge of Mohammadawi's case, also issued arrest warrants against Chalabi's chief of security and other aides last month for various alleged crimes.

Chalabi's party questioned Maliki's independence and credentials, saying he was a junior lawyer who had worked as a translator for U.S. forces before the U.S.-led administration appointed him as an investigating judge.

"This judge is issuing arrest warrants upon the wishes of non-Iraqi parties," said a letter by the Iraqi National Congress to the justice minister. "He is taking political orders to assassinate the character of national figures who struggled for decades to save this country."

Gentlemen, start your engines!

According to U.S. Army intelligence, as many as 250 cars are rigged with bombs and ready to go, "in an offensive expected to build to a fiery crescendo as the month draws to a close."

The Associated Press report continued:

[Abu Mus'ab] Al-Zarqawi's network, which U.S. and Iraqi officials regularly blame for suicide bombings, may be dropping its preference for complex, cataclysmic bombings in favor of frequent attacks on smaller, softer targets....

"It may be the largest number of vehicle bombings we've ever seen in such a short period of time," said Ben Venzke, a terrorism analyst in Alexandria, Va....

The stepped-up bombings may stem from the fact that huge blasts attributed to al-Zarqawi's network have failed to derail the upcoming handover of sovereignty from the U.S.-led coalition to an Iraqi government.

Smaller bombings are easier to coordinate, allowing terrorists to intensify the campaign of intimidation aimed at Iraqis working with the coalition, the U.S. official said.

Strike on Falluja targeted Qa'ida safe-house

In a strike this morning, the U.S. military says it was targeting members of Abu Mus'ab al-Zarqawi's terrorist gang. Military spokesman Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt said, "We have significant evidence that there were members of the Zarqawi network in the house." Kimmitt added that the strike caused secondary blasts as ammunition inside the house exploded.

Reuters reported that furious locals said the dead included women and children, and that three other houses were damaged.

U.S. and Iraqi officials believe Zarqawi is responsible for most of the suicide attacks and sabotage in the country, and that he may be operating from Falluja.

The oil is ours!

On June 8, the day the oil ministry was turned over to Iraqi control, Prime Minister Ayad Allawi and Oil Minister Thamir Ghadhban went to the Doora Oil Refinery, in Baghdad.

After meeting and shaking hands with the workers of the Doora refinery, who filed out into the industrial complex in their overalls and multicolored helmets and clapped, the two officials made brief speeches in Arabic to the press.

Ghadbhan: It's a great day to welcome the prime minister and it makes me happy, this is the first visit by his excellency to the most important economic site in our country.

I call this refinery the Baghdadis' refinery because it supplies the Baghdad province with fuel. Our brothers worked day and night to produce the oil during the hard days.

The entire oil ministry salutes you. On behalf of you all, it's my pleasure to salute Mr Prime Minister.

Allawi: In the name of God most merciful, I would like to express my gratitude to you and I'm pleased to announce that full sovereignty and full control on oil industry has been handed over to the oil ministry today and to the new Iraqi government as of today.

The handover of the control of oil industry before June 30th reflects our full confidence in the oil minister. It's evidence that oil ministry has worked perfectly.

In the past, Iraqi oil was used in building palaces, buying weapons to achieve one person's goals. Today the most important natural resource has been returned to Iraqis, to serve all Iraqis.

The new government will have full control of the oil revenues.

Iraq is the second largest country in oil reserves; it has more than 110 billions barrels of crude oil and about 100,000 trillion cubic meters of natural gas.

We have to protect these precious natural resources and we are making steps on this. We've established a force to protect the oil infrastructure, made up of about 14,000 guards.

This will help protect the oil pipelines and eliminate oil smuggling, with the help of coalition forces and Iraqi allies. By this, we shall serve all the Iraqis, instead of a small select group of criminals.

We have ambitious goals for the future, to improve oil production in the future as well as to expand the production of gas. We are working on building and establishing full capabilities for fast repair of the pipelines. At the same time, we are working to increase our exports. On behalf of all Iraqis we ask you (workers) to continue your great efforts to return the oil Iraqi industry to its appropriate place in the world."

Asked what the officials meant when they said the oil industry is now solely under Iraqi control, Ghadbhan said, in English:

"We are totally now in control, there are no more advisers. We are running the show. The oil policies will be implemented 100 percent by Iraqis. This is the way forward."

Katarina Kratovac, of the Associated Press, filed the pool report.

A Senate-cade

U.S. Senators Tom Daschle (D.-S.D.), Joseph Biden (D.-Del.) and Lindsey Graham (R.-S.C.) flew in for the day. They arrived in Iraq at eight in the morning, met for 30 minutes with interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, in Allawi's private office, held a joint press conference afterwards, and were scheduled to depart at five o'clock. Excerpts from their press conference:

Allawi: I have expressed our gratitude to the government of the United States, both for helping the Iraqis liberate Iraq from the tyranny and for building Iraq toward the path of democracy and for a potential for peace and security in this region. We are indebted really to what the United States has done to Iraq and this is yet another step in cementing the relationship between Iraq and the United States.

Daschle: I have to say I have a new and better appreciation for the progress this government is making and the real potential for success that they may be able to demonstrate as they continue their work. This will be a partnership that will take some time. But I think in the effort that has been made so far, that progress has been remarkable, and I just hope we can continue to build on what has been done so far.

Biden: Mr. prime minister, your reason for optimism. Many of us have been coming to this region for a long time. I must tell you that the candor and the straight-forwardness and the realism that was expressed by the prime minister is very unusual and much appreciated. It’s an incredibly difficult road ahead.... But I think that the security and success of Iraq is still clearly within the grasp of the prime minister, his cabinet and the prospect that is in place with elections are real. So I’m optimistic. I'm also of the view that in every circumstance we have found in the last 15 years around the word, where there has been this kind of position, where there has been a significant overthrow of a tyrant, where there’s been a fundamental change in society, success or failure is dependent as much on the men and women who come forward and lead that country at that moment as any other factor. And I think that having you, Mr. prime minister, I don’t want to endorse you because that could hurt you probably (chuckles all around) but I sincerely mean it when I say based on your explanations with us, at least from my perspective, you have a patently clear grasp of what needs to be done, a realistic assessment of the kind of assistance that is needed, and you are willing to go out and make a case, not just make the case to your people but make the case to NATO why they should get involved, make the case to your Arab neighbors why they have an investment in the security of Iraq and that is a critical, critical piece of this puzzle in my view. You have the credibility. I realize it’s going to take a lot to build it in a nation that has been for over 35 years, where every reasonable, moderate voice in this country has learned to keep their head down or have been run out of the country. We’re asking a lot of the Iraqi people to stand up now. But with your leadership, I there is a prospect of beginning that whole process. Most importantly, I think you have a realistic grasp on what needs to be done and are not doing this through rose-colored glasses. That, to me, gives me reassurance.

Graham: I’m struck by the personal bravery that the prime minister and other people in his position have assumed. I asked him about his family and he sort of went through his family history, and it was very compelling. There’s a debate in his family among his children about what was the right thing to do and what they felt comfortable with and I just want to say that I admire you for taking this risk because so many people benefit from it. I share Sen. Daschle's and Biden's sense of optimism. It won’t be easy, but I think it’s possible to build a democracy. People have to sacrifice and I would call on the international community to do what Sen. Biden said. Help where you can. If you can send troops, send troops. If you can forgive debt, forgive debt. But the Iraqi people have suffered mightily. They need all the help they can get. My country will be there, I know, as long as it takes, Mr. prime minister. I hope the international community will help you.

They took one question.

Q: Did you talk at all with the plan for dealing with Saddam?

Biden: Yes, we did discuss that. We did ask that question and there was a general consensus that this is a matter to be settled by the Iraqi people. Saddam and others should be tried by an Iraqi court, by an Iraqi government in front of the Iraqi people. I was impressed with the prime minister's answer when he said beyond that, he thought it should be a matter of examining how this could have occurred in the first place, the systemic reasons for this occurring. But the bottom line is that I can relay confidence that they are not going to attempt to gain custody and try him before they are fully ready, before they are ready to put on a case, before they are fully prepared to be able to demonstrate to their people that this is a fair trial, and demonstrate to the region and the world. Not only him, but a number of others, major players across the board. But that is a decision for the Iraqi people. I walked out of this meeting convinced this will not be premature; it will be done professionally, a serious case that can stand up in any court in the world, and that to me, I find very, very reassuring.

The pool report was filed by Jackie Spinner, of The Washington Post.

A "heli-cade," and martial law

Pool reporter Thanassis Cambanis, of The Boston Globe, covered a stop today by Prime Minister Ayad Allawi and Oil Minister Thamir Ghadhban at a desert oil spill in Babil Province caused by pipeline sabotage.

Black oil has oozed into the soil and contaminated a pair of irrigation canals. The site is near the Musayyib power plant, in the vicinity of Karbala.

The 18-inch oil pipeline -- a spoke that supplies the Dora Refinery and the Mussayib Power Plant -- has been broken in five places in sabotage attacks....

The heli-cade (is that a word, like motorcade?) flew over another patch of earth, blackened from spilt oil, before landing at our photo-op spot.

The prime minister, traveling in a three-Blackhawk formation, disembarked on the far side of the canal, crossing it with a carpeted plank brought especially for him by the advance team. The television pool and stills photo shooter were asked not to capture any images of the prime minister with an American military helicopter in view. Ultimately, however, the standup showed a pair of Blackhawks in the background....

[Cambanis] asked what Allawi thought of using martial law or state of emergency measures to prevent violence like the oil infrastructure attacks. With a smile, Allawi ended the press event, which lasted just under 10 minutes: “Thank you, I think we have finished the questions now," he said warmly. "We’ll talk about it later."

Iraqi commissioner on public integrity, appointed

It might sound like an oxymoron, but it's true. U.S. Ambassador L. Paul Bremer III, head of the Coalition Provisional Authority, which governs Iraq till the end of the month, today announced the appointment of Judge Radi Hamza Al-Radhi as the first commissioner of the recently-established Commission on Public Integrity (CPI). Radhi was nominated for the five-year post by the Iraqi Governing Council, which disbanded on June 1, when the interim government was announced.

He previously served as chief judge of the Central Criminal Court of Iraq, and until recently was one of the six members of the Judicial Review Committee, which vetted the Iraqi judiciary. The committee's work resulted in the removal of over 170 judges for bribery, corruption and former regime ties.

The CPI, an independent part of the Iraqi government, was established by the governing council to investigate allegations of corruption, refer violations to Iraqi criminal courts, propose legislation to strengthen standards of ethical conduct for public officials and employees, and strengthen public demand for open, honest and accountable government.

The statute creating the CPI directs it to establish a written Code of Conduct, which every Iraqi government employee will be required to adhere to as a condition of employment. The CPI will also require members of the Interim Iraqi Government, their deputies, ministers, deputy ministers, governors, judges and even CPI officials to file a statement in which they disclose their sources of income and gifts received, real estate and other assets, business relationships and indebtedness. After the election of a permanent Iraqi government, members of the national legislature and the chief executive will also be subject to the disclosure requirement.

Radhi's successors are to be appointed by the chief executive of Iraq from a list of nominees put forward by the Council of Judges.

Na Hrad -- again

I got it wrong, the Czech phrase that's used to urge the new leader to the palace, as in the posters that appeared 15 years ago, hailing "Havel na Hrad" -- not Na Vrad. According to an on-line dictionary, there is no Czech word "vrad," although "vrah" appears to mean "killing," as in "regicide."

Another correction: The location of the house we, and many of my father's siblings and their families, lived in, in Karradet Maryam, and the hospital down the road, are not in the Green Zone, as I thought. They're very close, but.... My friend, who took me into the Green Zone, went looking for it, a few months ago, with her husband (my cousin) and his mother, who followed us in that house. The house is gone.

Inside the Republican Palace, those six sayings of "the Leader President" were engraved, probably with gold, into white marble, each saying, above one of six tall double-doorways. Each saying occupies a space, about 15 feet high and six feet wide. Three doorways connect to the large square hall that's being used as a cafeteria. On the other side of the 20-foot-wide hallway, three doorways open onto the grand square reception room where Saddam's throne rested, etc.

As for the people I saw standing guard all around, they were probably Nepalese Gurkas, and not Fijians as well -- the Nepalese tend to be smaller. One of them was posted at the computer room, off the main corridor of the palace. I went in there -- while my friend was seeing old acquaintances -- to search the computer for the location of an Ohio friend's son, a soldier in the First Armored Division who's had a desk job in the Green Zone for a few months. I tried communicating with the Nepalese soldier, but failed. I didn't get anywhere, in my search for the soldier, but I did go on to write my first post about the palace -- from the palace -- using one of the four laptops in the room. There were also some magazines and paperbacks -- I suppose, the ones we donate at public libraries. I picked up a Sports Illustrated, from March, and started reading Rick Reilly's column about use of steroids in baseball.

A final note about the palace: it's been said by many, that 75-80 percent of the interpreters, servants, gardeners, et al, who work in the palace and with the Coalition Provisional Authority, which uses the palace as its headquarters, are leftovers from Saddam's regime, including Saddam's personal interpreter, who is reprising his duties, for Paul Bremer. Many blame some of the "mistakes" by the CPA on the presence and influence of these former Ba'this, who intentionally deceive the coalition or direct them as they wish -- not to mention, leak information to "the resistance." So, while there, I wondered who was who, and if I should still watch my tongue, but, it's not a place I'll be revisiting too often.

As I was about to leave the palace the other day, I recognized one of the top CPA media people, from when she worked for the State Department, during the Iraqi orchestra's concert with the National Symphony at the Kennedy Center, last December. I told her it was my first time in the palace. She asked me how I liked the place. I said, "I think I could fit in here."

The Saddam-bin Laden connection

An MSNBC report about the political standoff between the Bush administration, some members of the 9/11 commission, and media coverage thereof -- over Saddam's links with al-Qa'ida.

Anyone for a job?

Subj: Iraqi Broadcasting Service
Date: 6/16/2004 8:32:07 PM Eastern Daylight Time

"Yesterday, the Coalition Provisional Authority announced completion of the board of governors of the Iraqi broadcasting service, along with a financial committee. The members of the board are:....................

"An international member is to be named soon."

Hey Ayad, Have you thought of throwing your hat in that ring? (I`m serious.)

Later,
Doug

* * *
Date: 6/18/2004 2:41:56 PM Eastern Daylight Time

Hey, Doug,

No, I haven't. What are you trying to do to me -- get me killed?

My mom'll love you, Doug -- thanks.

Actually, when I looked at the roster of names on the board of governors, I did think that they needed someone to stand up to Kanan, who I know, from six, seven years working with him, can be a bulldozer. Which, of course, means I'm not the one. I'm sure, though, that they're looking for someone of international repute or a veteran broadcaster or broadcasting administrator/programer -- either as an actual adviser and/or a symbolic presence to promote the system.

As to the other members, some might have noticed that there was a cleric among them, but this guy -- an "Ayad" -- Ayad Jamal al-Deen -- is as secular as they come. He calls for complete separation of mosque and state, believes deeply that that's in the best interests of Islam and all religions, and that Islam needs to go through a reform movement and be more broadly interpreted. He's from an old scholarly family -- of poets, academics as well as religious jurists. In addition, he's been host to Ayatollah Khomeini's grandson, Hosein Khomeini, who's been praising America for "liberating Iraq," also urges separation of mosque and state, and believes Iranians would welcome American troops. Finally, an old friend told me recently that he's involved in setting up a television station with another secular/liberal-inclined cleric from the Sadir family. He's an older relative of firebrand young Muqtada a-Sadir, but is a breed apart.

Doug wrote back:

Date: 6/18/2004 5:58:59 PM Eastern Daylight Time

Never Mind:-) I didn`t think it out. Tell your mom I`M SORRY:`-(

Watch your back,
Doug

* * *
Date: 6/19/2004 4:30:41 AM Eastern Daylight Time

Just kidding, Doug -- about the trying to get me killed.

Don't worry.

What about Saddam?

Elsewhere, the U.S. announced that on June 30 it would still have custody of Saddam Hussein, but it would let Iraq visit him on weekends.

That's Andy Borowitz, from two days ago.

Talk to us!

In a commentary calling on Kurdish leaders to show transparency with their publics, Twana Osman demands:

After a year of tug of war over the Kurdish issue in Iraq, our two ruling party leaders, Jalal Talabani and Mas'ud Barzani, shocked us by sending a whiny letter to President Bush.

The hitherto silent leaders came out of their closets and voiced their concerns - to the American leader, not to us, the people they represent....

Before the leadership tells the world that Kurds should not be treated as second-class citizens in Iraq, they should start treating the Kurdish citizens under their regional governments as first-class citizens by keeping them informed of what is going on in the capital city....

Not only did the letter disappoint us, it left us shocked. Today, we feel like orphans. No one knows what the future holds. The two leaders have left us in the dark.

Osman is editor of Hawlati newspaper in Sulaimaniyah. He wrote "A question of transparency: the people of Kurdistan believe their leaders are repeating the historic
mistakes of Kurdish national movements," for the Institute for War and Peace Reporting, which has the article in English, Arabic and Kurdish.

We're number one -- in dates

The Institute for War and Peace Reporting has an article on the government campaign to restore Iraq's hard-hit date-palm industry to its world leadership position.

Hussein Abbas, who sits on the ministry's programme committee,...underlined the problem, saying that Iraq has just 13 million palm trees today, down from a peak of 33 million in 1958....

During the [Iran-Iraq war] fighting, [ministry of agriculture engineer Sabri Jabbar] said, one of the world's largest concentrations of palms - southern Iraq's Ras al-Bisha grove of five million trees - was destroyed completely.

I previously linked to a lovely description of date palms, their uses, kinds, tastes, and significance to Iraqis. Before that, I relayed news of Saddam's helicopters being put to use, spraying date palms.

I love a man in a uniform

About new Iraqi President Ghazi il-Yawer, two Baghdad residents told local reporters:

"Choosing al-Yawar was quite clever, because he is a tribesman and can understand the mentality of Iraqi tribal society," said Ragid al-Suhail, 35, an immunologist at Baghdad University. "His ghutra and igal - headdress and headband - are a sign of Iraq's Arabism and his adherence to it."

Eighty-three-year old Khairia Mahmoud said Yawar's dress reminded her of Iraq's former monarchy, whose members wore similar clothes.

"He looks like the Iraqi kings," she said. "I hope Iraq can return to an era of love and prosperity under President al-Yawar."

The article, "Yawar gets mixed reviews," by Omar Anwar and Zaineb Ahmed, appeared in the Institute for War & Peace Reporting's latest Iraqi Crisis Report. There's a Saddam backer in the bunch, too.

Rubaie's in -- and still alive

Mowaffak al-Rubaie is, indeed, in the Iraqi government, and his position is national security adviser. I wonder how he and Barham Saleh are getting along, as the latter is deputy prime minister for national security affairs.

Rubaie was, apparently, the target of the major explosion I felt, the last day of May. A person who was killed in the blast was the sister of former presidents Abdul-Rahman and Abdul-Salam Arif. She was sitting in her front garden. A few days later, I drove by the spot, which is a few hundred yards from an entrance to the Green Zone. The suicide bomber was reportedly questioned repeatedly by an onlooker, and blew himself up prematurely, killing the questioner and the old woman, too.

One million internally displaced persons from Kurdistan

In an article about the difficulties internally displaced persons from the Kirkuk area are having restoring their homes and lands, there is this:

Approximately one million Kurdish, Turkoman and Assyrian residents were forced out of hundreds of villages and towns near the oil fields that run in an arc from Khanaqin through Kirkuk towards Mosul.

This was part of the Arabization campaign pursued by the Ba'ath regime. The article, titled "Kirkuk's displaced still homeless," was by Sirwan Gharib, a reporter with Hawlati newspaper. Done for the Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR), it is available in Arabic, Kurdish and English.

Out with the old, in with the new

At the end of the month, we are not only getting self-rule by Iraqis, but the foreign forces assisting them will change their name. Instead of "coalition forces," they will be called a "multinational force."

Death toll in Samawa, Bremer's farewell tour and Iraqi forces

The Dutch military commander of Muthanna province (one of Iraq's 18, which includes Samawa) told reporters yesterday that there had been very few attacks in the province. Two Iraqis, said Lieutenant Colonel Richard van Harskamp, were slightly injured by a car bomb on May 1, and one Dutch soldier was killed in a grenade attack on May 10 -- the lone Dutch casualty, thus far.

Van Harskamp also met with Paul Bremer, who made dropped in by helicopter yesterday to the military base outside Samawa, in Basra and in Hilla. He met with citizens and local and coalition officials, and expected the stops to be his last in the middle-Euphrates valley. In Hilla, which bestrides the ruins of Babylon, Bremer told Governor Waleed Aumran and provincial council members, "Across the country we now have 36 battalions of ICDC [the Iraqi Civil Defense Corps]. Between 75-80 percent are members of the former army."

Corrections:

I related a story, three days ago, from a woman who went to school with two of Saddam's daughters. I misidentified the younger daughter in the tale as Hala -- it was Rana. The girls were probably seven years old, and the year must've been 1978 or 1979.

Golden age, foreign forces and power

I've been saving the following e-mails, for an opportunity to respond more fully. I haven't had that chance, so I'll post the e-mails, now, and hope to have the time to add to my response, or, better yet, maybe Alaaddin from Holland will pitch in -- about the early Republican period, or other periods, or maybe even Dhiaa in London, through his daughter, Rania -- or Rania, herself, for that matter, or anybody else -- it's a party, come on in. David's e-mail, below, came on the heels of my response to his query, about which period Iraqis consider their "golden age," or ideal state. I wrote, then, that "what you hear about most, is the British-mandate period, before the anti-monarchy coup/revolution, and the Abbassid Dynasty, although that might be more myth than reality."

Date: 6/4/2004 8:33:30 AM Eastern Daylight Time
From: "David Levey"

How can you tell the electricity is about to go out?

Your analysis- it that truly reflects the desire of most Iraqis- not just the middle class or intelligencia- suggests that the happiest times for Iraqis is when they were ruled by others. The British created an environment where most people could go about their business, enforce laws that everyone lived by, increased trade and relationships with the outside world. Yet they took away the fundamental right to self-govern and replaced with a veneer of self governance at the highest level. They did not tolerate religious or other fanaticism and they put down pogroms.

What is the reaction of Iraqis to the British, I believe about 10,000 troops in the south? Do they wish them to return? Do they want to take lessons from them and apply them themselves? Is the kind of rule that resulted in this "golden age" something that can only be brought about from outside? It seems that the religious groups have simply taken advantage of a power vacuum- one that existed under Saddam and is exacerbated now. Do you get the impression that Sistani is intolerant of other religions/sects or wants a pluralistic, democratic, open country that is based on Koranic values?

Have you been able to collect any postal history stuff we discussed before you left? Just curious....

David

* * *
Date: 6/5/2004 10:28:15 AM Eastern Daylight Time

Hey, David,

First of all, I'm sorry about my brief response yesterday. When I'm going through e-mail, I move fast, without stopping to think, ruminate, on the topic, etc. I'm just trying to get through as much e-mail as I can, in the time I have left -- if I've left any time to myself.

There's a lot more to be said about the topic you opened -- the dream state, as far as Iraqis are concerned. I'll try to get back to it, ASAP. I was pretty glib in my response yesterday -- a little simplistic, and a bit rosy. Religious fervor is certainly not a goal, among the overwhelming majority of people -- they don't view it as part of their history. In fact, the terrorism now facing the country, and the suicide bombings, most people think, have nothing to do with Iraqis. It's sort of like how Iraqis see Saddam -- as an alien creature, from Mars or something -- and, certainly, as imposed by a foreign power, in particular, the United States. It is, of course, a way to evade responsiblity.

Gotta go. I'll write more, soon.

Oh -- nothing on the postal-material front.

As far as the electricity, when the national grid goes out, the generator kicks in. When I'm alone in the office, they don't leave the generator on -- just for me. I'm a guest in the office. So, when there's no electricity, I've got a few minutes till the internet connection goes off.

All right -- see you.

A couple of postscripts. The past couple of days, I started reading my friend Joseph Braude's brand-new book The New Iraq: Rebuilding the country for its people, the Middle East, and the world. The first three chapters deal with memory, and the narrative Iraqis have constructed for themselves about their history and country -- and their volk, too. He does this in a succinct, scholarly and flowing way. There is a lot of pride among Iraqis, in being "the cradle of civilization." I saw a banner the other day, part of which said something like, "Iraq, birthplace of religions." Iraqis are fiercely proud of all the empires and discoveries that came about here -- the Sumerians, writing, architecture.... I just went to an article I wrote, a while back, about the rebirth of Iraq, and I'm pasting here, a paragraph on Iraq's legacy -- to human civilization -- and its view of itself.

Iraq is, moreover, a country rich in human and natural resources – water, petroleum, dates and natural beauty – from its mountainous north to the vast marshes in the south (where people lived a watery existence for five thousand years), and the historic Tigris and Euphrates running between them. It’s also a country rich in history – “the cradle of civilization” – the site of the fabled Garden of Eden and arguably the birthplace of writing, literature (including the Epic of Gilgamesh, a precursor to other creation myths and the legend of the Flood), the dictionary, the city, sculpture, monuments, agriculture, irrigation, law, the Code of Hammurabi (“the first lawmaker”), legislatures, bureaucracy, temples, palaces, libraries, trade, credit, contracts, medicine, algebra, geometry, astronomy, the calendar, the week, philosophy, history, art, the potter’s wheel, schools, prayer, metallurgy, weaponry, armies, empire, cemeteries, furniture, music, architecture (including the arch, the dome, the vault, the courtyard, terraced roofs and colored tile), the Tower of Babel, recorded religion and mythology, the zodiac, the afterlife, Abraham (the father of monotheism and its first “prophet”), and the Babylonian Talmud.

So, there's no shortage of history to draw on, as a source for golden-gazing, silver-lining or other hues from the rainbow -- mostly red, though. However, again, there's more myth than reality, in the views of people and the history that's taught and handed down, orally, especially as it comes from a thousand years ago, at the least. Still, Iraqis do view themselves as inheritors of greatness, as rightfully at the head of the class -- and that applies to the sciences and the arts much more than it does to military and imperial power. Oftentimes, though, that translates into a lot of yearning, and high expectations that can never be achieved. Well, again, there's a lot more that can be said about all of this, but....

As for electricity, there's a schedule, wherein each area, I believe, gets so many hours on, then so many hours off. On top of that, people have their own generators, or tap into a neighbor's or a local vendor -- for when the national grid goes down. The number of hours the national grid is on, at a time, depends on how much electricity is being produced nationally and in each region, which, of course, is highly dependent on how much of the system gets destroyed by terrorists/saboteurs.

As for the British, I don't have an answer for you. There is a lot of talk that the British know what they're doing more than the Americans -- that they've got experience, etc. -- but a lot of that talk is also of the "Americans-as-bumpkins" and simpletons variety. Some of that, actually, is not demeaning, viewing Americans as too idealistic and naive, while Iraq needs more ruthlessness, conniving and cunning.

Let me hear from people out there -- about all of this.

Witness to a suicide bomber

Monday's car bombing that killed 13, including five foreign contractors, happened in the very center of Baghdad, one of the busiest parts of the city, and, thus, was witnessed by hundreds, if not thousands, of people. Among them were relatives of one of the guards who works here, at the Iraq Foundation, who, along with another guard, went to the site, a couple of hours after the explosion. Here's what they've passed on to me.

People saw two white SUVs parked by the side of the main street connecting SaaHet il-TaHreer (Liberation Square) and SaaHet al-Teyeraan (Airlines Square). There was only the driver in each car, each wearing a white dishdasha (the long traditional robe worn by men), a long beard and a white cloth wrapped around his forehead -- the typical look of the Wahhabi jihadist. The front windows of each car were open, and people heard and saw each man reading loudly, in the lyrical style, from a Qur'an in his hand. This went on for five to seven minutes. People passing by looked upon the scene with suspicion, but were too afraid to get involved. The rear windows of the cars were tinted.

As the foreign contractors' convoy of three SUVs got off the Republican Bridge, then made its way half way around the large roundabout that is Liberation Square, one of the two parked SUVs pulled out and left the scene. After the convoy exited Liberation Square's roundabout, and continued straight, into the main street connecting the two squares, the remaining SUV cut in, between them -- or smashed into one of the cars -- and blew up.

The guard's relatives who witnessed this, live on a side street, off the eastern side of the main street where the explosion happened. Their area is called Bettaween, which used to be a predominantly Jewish neighborhood. The east side of the main street on that block is occupied mostly by photo studios, the majority of which are owned by Armenians. (The large, old Armenian church is a bit up the road.) The studios and upper-floor apartments were badly damaged; one old building collapsed. Across the street is HadeeQet al-Umma (The Nation's Garden).

* * *

People also say that before the large explosions in early March that killed nearly 200 people in the main shrine mosques of Kerbela and Baghdad's Kadhumiyya, the bombers were heard to be praying aloud, but that they omitted parts of the prayers, so that they could not be identified as not Shi'a. Both mosques are Shi'a, and the occasion was for a Shi'a saint.

One of the Kerbela bombers, I wrote two months ago, didn't make it, and was picked up by Iraqi police. The Yemeni man was disappointed: "I had an appointment, to have lunch with the Messenger" [Islam's prophet, Muhammad].

* * *

The guard whose relatives recounted what happened Monday, was the same one who went to pick up a friend who was injured in yesterday's bombing at the army recruitment center. He also passed on, that at yesterday's bombing, an entire family -- of five or six -- perished in their car.

Missing parts

A friend from Cleveland, who'd organized a party for President Bush, asked me what I missed from America.

Date: 6/13/2004 7:05:02 AM Eastern Daylight Time

Hey, Karen,

.... Sounds like the party was good -- sorry I missed it. I do miss American politics, following all that stuff -- and TV, I guess, too -- but I'm just so busy, working all the time, I'm just so immersed in it, doing nothing but, that I haven't had time to miss anything. But if you ask -- if I think about it -- I miss going to movies, going out to concerts, whatever, just being able to go out, without having to worry, or others having to worry about me. It's not bad, hasn't hindered me that much -- except for not being able to travel around.

What else?

My trip to Lebanon, for a break, was vetoed -- relos afraid I might get kidnapped on the road out of the country. Then, I heard about a movie, every Wednesday morning, but the relos nixxed that, too -- at least for now, until the situation after the naming of the new government, blows over. I'm okay, though -- all things considered.

I plan to stay, for another month, then spend...a week in England, before heading back. So, I should be back, early to mid-August.

And, oh -- I miss baseball. I'm just glad I'll be back in time for the pennant run, and then the playoffs.

All right -- keep enjoying the work -- were there many layoffs? how did that go? and how's your new work different?

All right -- see you, Karen, and stay well.

Adios.

* * *
Date: 6/16/2004 8:51:10 PM Eastern Daylight Time
From: Karen

Hello Ayad-

About the job....things are going very well now. We didn't have layoffs - actually we've added people. Now, I have a chance to have a role in something bigger than a small hometown company. I'll travel a little more - not too much, just enough to get away on occasion, and work on projects with other divisions. It will certainly be interesting! I welcome the change.

I was fascinated to read about your trip through the Republican Palace. Have you been able to take pictures of any of your adventures? I remember a while ago, you were encouraged not to do that. Has that changed at all?

I hope the transfer to the Iraqi people goes well this month.... Are your friends and family concerned about increased violence around that time? I pray things will be peaceful for you and your family.

So, another month and you'll head out?....

Talk to you soon,
Karen

I replied, in three e-mails:

Date: 6/17/2004 8:07:50 AM Eastern Daylight Time

Hi, Karen,

Glad to hear from you. So, where will you be traveling, for your job?

As to adding people to your company, I heard that the last three months, some 200-300,000 jobs have been added to the economy each month. How much play is that getting in the news? positive? much? And how are people's moods, as a result? Is there more up-beatness, generally speaking?

As for me, I didn't have a camera for a while -- looks like it dropped out of the side pocket of my computer bag, outside somewhere -- or, else, somebody from the office stole it. Well, I just got a replacement, and will start taking pictures again. I just got it, the day before my visit to the Republican Palace, and hadn't set it up yet -- learned how to use it. I hope I make another trip, and get to see Bremer, too -- for pix -- of all. As to taking other pictures, I've wondered. Like the one time, I saw those lighters for sale on the sidewalk, with pictures of Saddam on them -- I don't know how safe it would be, for me to take a picture of them -- out in public, on the street. I'll have to ask -- before I do -- although, there are a lot of people here who have digital cameras. Just the other day, there was a group who took a picture on the sidewalk, so...I don't know, I'll have to ask, including the other digital camers owners....

And, in rereading your e-mail -- shame I didn't take pictures at the palace yesterday. I hope there'll be another chance....

Well -- I guess that's about it. Take care, Karen. Congratulations on your new job, with expanded responsibilities, it sounds like, and enjoy the travel, and work.

Adios....

* * *
Date: 6/17/2004 8:16:24 AM Eastern Daylight Time

Actually -- you know, I've been wanting to post some follow-up thoughts I had, to your question, in a previous e-mail, about what I missed from America.

After I wrote you -- that I'm just too busy, too immersed in my work, to "miss" -- to have time to miss -- and I probably also mentioned baseball, and maybe being able to go out -- to a movie, to a restaurant, concert, etc. -- and being able to go out without fear, to be able to put my head down -- well, afterwards, I thought of a few other things. The other things I miss are: sexuality -- being able to flirt, openly, and that sex is talked about, in public, on the air -- sexiness; also, being able to talk openly, heart-to-heart, with women, or, for that matter, with most anyone; and I miss hugging.

Those are some of the things missing here -- terribly lacking.

All right -- see you -- thought I'd pass those along, to the person who instigated that topic. Good, for your inquiring mind, Karen. Adios.

* * *
Date: 6/17/2004 8:21:51 AM Eastern Daylight Time

Oh, yeah -- another of your questions -- that I didn't answer.

Yes, people are worried about the June 30 period -- before and after -- that there will be a lot of violence, a lot of attacks, by the terrorists -- in the next couple of weeks, and in the weeks and months after. They're gonna try to really wreck the government, and, in the process, or, rather, by, wrecking the country. A cousin of mine, who was involved in the rebuilding of the electricity network after the Kuwait war, was quoted in the New York Times recently, that if the new government isn't able to deliver electricity, gas and water, it'll fail. So, it looks like the terrorists are thinking the same thing.

Okay -- see you, Karen. Your e-mails always provide a lot of grist for the mill -- thanks.

A little New-Iraq humor

What's the difference between the old president and the new?

WaaHid nafTi, wil-laakh ghazi.

Of course, as all comics know, it's not gonna be the same, if you need to translate it. It's a play on the name of the new president, Ghazi, which in colloquial means gaseous or another adjectival form of gas, such as "runs on gas." NafTi is the adjectival form of nafuT, which means oil or petroleum. Appliances, such as space heaters and stoves, run on one or the other. I told you it was "a little humor," as in for schoolkids.

Zarqawi in the news -- and in Falluja?

Senior U.S. defense officials told Fox News that Abu Musab al-Zarqawi is most likely operating from Falluja. The information apparently came from interrogations with Zarqawi associate Umar Baziyani, who was picked up by Iraqi police on June 4.

Baziyani reportedly told interrogators that Zarqawi "has been and is still operating out of Fallujah," and that he plans to ramp up violence and attacks on coalition forces leading up to the June 30 handover of power to Iraqis.

Zarqawi is blamed or has taken credit for many attacks in Iraq, the latest being today's attack on an army recruiting center in Baghdad, killing at least 35 and wounding at least 138 others; a car bomb, Monday, that killed 13 in Baghdad, including three General Electric employees and two other foreign contractors; and attacks last week outside a U.S. military base and an ambush that killed four employees of an American security company. The CIA said it believes that Zarqawi, himself, slaughtered Nicholas Berg for a video camera last month.

In a letter intercepted in January, Zarqawi took credit for 25 attacks in Iraq. Those included the bombings last August of the U.N. headquarters in Baghdad and a mosque in Najaf, plus an Italian police headquarters in Nasiriyya last November. He was convicted, and sentenced to death, in absentia, for organizing the assassination of U.S. aid worker Laurence Foley in Amman in 2002.

Zarqawi was reportedly sent by bin Laden to Iraq in the mid-nineties to get training in the use and preparation of chemical weapons. He is believed to have operated in Iraq, Afghanistan, Turkey, Spain, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, Pakistan and Kuwait, and plotted attacks against France, Britain, Italy, Germany and Russia, including with chemicals and poisons.

The State Department and counterterrorism agencies are said to be considering raising the reward for information leading to the death or capture of Zarqawi from $10 million to $25 million, matching the figures for Usama bin Laden, Ayman Dhawahiri and Saddam Hussein. Last week, U.S. planes in Iraq dropped leaflets of the reward.

AP relayed two days ago a letter from Zarqawi to bin Laden that appeared on an Islamic web-site, in which he reported that his fighters in Iraq were being squeezed by coalition troops. The statement, titled "The text of al-Zarqawi's message to Usama bin Laden about holy war in Iraq," appeared on web-sites that have recently carried claims of responsibility for attacks in Saudi Arabia and Iraq.

"The space of movement is starting to get smaller," it said. "The grip is starting to be tightened on the holy warriors' necks and, with the spread of soldiers and police, the future is becoming frightening." The statement said the militant movement in Iraq is racing against time to form battalions that can take control of the country "four months before the formation of the promised Iraqi government, hoping to spoil their plan." That timeframe apparently refers to the government that would take over after elections scheduled for no later than next January.

Calling Iraqi soldiers and police "the occupier's eye, ear and hand," the statement said: "We are planning on targeting them heavily in the coming stage before they are fully in control." If the militants fail to take over Iraq, "we will have to leave for another land to uphold the [Islamic] banner, or until God chooses us as martyrs."

The nine-page statement also assessed the militants' record in Iraq, claiming 25 homicide operations targeting majority Shiites, American and Iraqi forces, and other coalition troops. "What is coming will be more, God willing."

To bin Laden's al-Qa'ida, the letter said: "We are not competing with you. We just want to be the head of the spear, a bridge by which the [Islamic] community can cross to victory."

The statement put the movement's enemies into four categories: Americans, Kurds, Iraqi police and soldiers, and Shi'as, of whom it says: "If we succeed in dragging them into sectarian war, we could wake up the Sunnis." Last year, U.S. intelligence intercepted a 17-page letter allegedly from Zarqawi to bin Laden in which Zarqawi said the best way to undermine U.S. plans for Iraq was to instigate civil war between Shi'as and Sunnis.

Interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi visited the scene of this morning's blast and described it as a "cowardly attack.... We are going to face these escalations," he said. "The Iraqi people are going to prevail and the government of Iraqi is determined to go ahead in confronting the enemies, whether they are here in Iraq or whether they are anywhere else in the world."

The Iraq-Hawken connection

My old friend John Ettorre, who works for my high school, including its alumni magazine, put together a piece about me and my work on Iraq -- as they relate to the school's motto of "fair play." I know -- it's classic nepotism, but, hey,.... He asked me for a picture to go with the article, so I scanned and e-mailed him the portrait I had taken here, in my effort to get an Iraqi ID. The photo wasn't of a high-enough resolution for the magazine, so John said they were going to use a photo from Iraq taken by another Hawken School alumnus. "What are you talking about -- a Hawken grad shooting in Iraq? Who's that? where is he? who's he working with?" My graduating class had 87 students. John's answer:

Date: 6/16/2004 3:26:30 PM Eastern Daylight Time
From: "John Ettorre"

A,
It's pretty wild. He's an independent who seems to shoot for everybody
from Reuters to the L.A. Times and everyone in between. You'll find
some answers at his website:

http://www.danielpepper.com/

He's pretty fast about responding to emails, so buzz him. You'll also
find some of his work by doing a search on his name at
www.gettyimages.com [I've done the search].

But the Hawken-Iraq connection hardly ends there. The third leg in the
triple crown is an amazing 39-year-old Hawken grad I've also just
written about, L.A.-based Evan Wright, who is with Rolling Stone, and
whose three-part series on his time embedded with the Marine's First
Recon division won a National Magazine Award and has now been turned
into a book which debuts any day now. I've pasted that story below:

Evan Wright '83 First Book Receives Critical Acclaim
Hawken Grad's Haunting Narrative on Iraq War Redefines the
Genre

As Rolling Stone magazine's unofficial "ambassador to the underbelly,"
journalist Evan Wright is the spiritual successor to a pair of infamous
writers who earlier served in that role: "gonzo" journalist Hunter S.
Thompson and humorist P.J. O'Rourke.

While his byline may not be quite as instantly recognizable as theirs,
give him time: the 39-year-old Wright has just written his first book,
Generation Kill (G.P. Putnam's Sons), which is winning wide praise for
its skillful use of language in depicting the battle for Iraq. The trio
of his articles that led to the book had also won a coveted National
Magazine Award (just a short notch below the Pulitzer prize on the
journalism Richter scale), beating out formidable entrants from the New
Yorker, the Atlantic Monthly and Time magazine.

Despite the accident of his Rolling Stone lineage, Wright's personal
reference point is neither the hard-drinking, hard-living Thompson nor
the savage-penned Toledo native O'Rourke. "First of all, I don't even
drink," says the Los Angeles-based writer. Instead, his writing hero is
a gentler type--the New Yorker's late stylist and longtime press
critic, A.J. Liebling. "He hung out with boxers and hustlers and
crooked politicians, and (in the resulting articles he wrote about
them) he let them speak in their own voices."

Wright took his time finding his own voice. He says he was a "troubled kid" during grade school and high school, not so much emotionally, but because reading books was all he cared about for many years. Today, he says, "I didn't like deadlines. I felt they were beneath me." In a recent note to one of his Hawken teachers, he said: "You should be proud as you and other teachers really did this rare thing and educated me (as much as I am educable). I'm not sentimental about Hawken the way some alums might be. I disliked a lot of things about it and that time in my life. But even with my critical view of things, you guys did a hell of a job."

In any event, the Vassar graduate had the kind of splendidly scattershot early career that's particularly helpful for a fledgling writer. He spent a year after college teaching English in Japan before moving to Los Angeles. For the next four years he was variously unemployed, working odd jobs and "telemarketing bogus computer supplies." By 1995, though, he had latched on to a unique position: as entertainment editor for Hustler Magazine. During that time, he also began freelancing for a number of publications, including Rolling Stone, which he had joined as a staff member by 2001.

In March 2003, he went to Iraq, where he was embedded with the Marine's First Recon battalion. That meant he wasn't just any reporter traveling with any unit: He was literally on the leading edge of the coalition army invading Iraq. "Everybody was shooting every kind of weapon at us. My Humvee had 23 bullet holes in it, and as one Marine pointed out, 10 were in my door." That vehicle was later destroyed by a rocket-propelled grenade. "I expected to die every day," he says.

Wright's Iraq experience forms the basis of Generation Kill: Devil Dogs, Iceman, Captain America and the New Face of American War. With remarkable skills, Wright is widely being credited with presenting what is perhaps the most realistic, penetrating, and moving portrayal in any medium of the actual experiences of America's soldiers during the battle for Iraq. His work is catching the attention of the book world and HBO, which is now at work on a screenplay based on his Rolling Stone articles that led to the book.

Wright calls his Iraq experience "the ideal assignment." As a student at Hawken, he recalls, "I was really more interested in history than in English." He loved to study ancient battles, whether they were embedded in his history textbook or in the plays of William Shakespeare. "So to be in the lead vehicle of the invasion of Mesopotamia was so historical that I couldn't pass it up, no matter how dangerous. Being in the lead vehicle was kind of the culmination of my education. I knew that if I lived, something socially useful would come out of it."

Then, John told me that Wright has an op-ed piece in today's New York Times, in advance of the release of his book.

As for me and John, you can read a bit about our relationship -- and the Garage Door Baseball League -- in his blog, Working With Words.

Today's blast scene

A guard who arrived at the office a few minutes ago, was at the scene of the big bombing this morning. He'd received a call on behalf of a friend of his who was injured in the blast, which occurred a few minutes before nine o'clock. My friend arrived at the blast site, to see bodies and body parts scattered all over the street. His friend had some shrapnel go through his arm. My friend took him and a friend of his, to the hospital. The men were at the site, at the old Muthanna airport, to apply for work, in particular, for a training program for former engineers in the Iraqi air force, which both were. They were, they said, among 500-600 who arrived to apply for the program, and work. Rather than 35 people killed, the guard's friend said, the figure was, in fact, 150. He was dazed, when my friend arrived, and had been unconscious. My friend saw a taxi driver, head slumped forward, in his Kia van -- he'd been waiting outside the complex for passengers from among the departing applicants. Warning: the rest of the paragraph is grisly. My friend saw someone pull the man's head back -- his throat had been slit by shrapnel.

The applicants for the training and employment, were waiting outside the gates of the airport, when the Nissan pickup truck rammed into the crowd and exploded. According to my friend, the applicants have to wait outside the complex, until their names are called.

Bremer farewell tour

Today is the first day of the last fortnight of Paul Bremer's life in Iraq. In 13 days, the civil administrator is to hand over power to an interim Iraqi government. Yesterday, Bremer bid farewell to workers at the agriculture ministry, telling them it would be his last trip there.

Blast kills 25 soldiers, injures 80

A car bomb exploded outside an army recruiting center this morning, killing at least 25 people and wounding upwards of 80. I was in bed when the explosion happened, the biggest and closest I've heard -- it sounded like it was from next door. I was startled by it, looked at the clock at my bedside -- 8:55. I listened to my aunt's fearful tone outside my room, and waited to hear any news -- then went back to sleep. When I got up, after noon, my uncle said the explosion was near the old Muthanna Airport, near the Bunniyya Mosque, where I attended a wake with him, several weeks ago. Soldiers were collecting their pay, my aunt said, and that 30 were killed and 50, wounded. In the office, I just looked at a map, with a couple of co-workers here, and it looks like no more than two kilometers away, less than a mile and a half -- next to Zawraa' Park. This morning, according to the wire report, the bomb-laden vehicle was an SUV, it was loaded with artillery shells, and the car rammed into the crowd outside the recruiting center. Several months ago, police and army recruiting centers, or places where officers collected their pay, were favorite targets of terrorists.

One of the great things about being in Saddam's Republican Palace today, was seeing all those American soldiers walking around -- in Saddam's house. He can't be too thrilled about that.

Iraqi police begin training with FBI and DEA

A group of 25 Iraqi police officers began a 10-day course in criminal intelligence training, Sunday, with the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigations and the Drug Enforcement Administration. The course, at a training facility in the Green Zone, is the first of four, over the next two months. The students are assigned to the intelligence unit of the interior ministry.

According to the Coalition Provisional Authority,

Criminal intelligence training typically consists of instruction in the forms of organized crime, political corruption, terrorism and includes information on file handling, data collection, analysis techniques, intelligence source and data evaluation, and intelligence information sharing. Other areas of instruction normally cover cash scams and money laundering crimes.

Blood is thicker than blood

Yesterday, one of my uncles asked me to write an e-mail to his brother, my father. The message asks my father to send money to help with one of their nephews. This cousin, I don't believe, I've ever met. The important thing about him is that he either gave the order to kill an uncle, supervised the kidnapping, torture and killing of his uncle, or carried it out, himself. The killing happened 26 years ago, in the midst of the anarchy of the Lebanese civil war, and was over family inheritence. The uncle was young -- 36 -- the youngest of his siblings, a lot of fun and the most-loved. Not only did I love him, I love his three children, who were robbed of their father, and I adore his grandchildren, who were robbed of a grandfather. I don't want to be an errand boy in the tribe's blood-money game, nor do I want to be the bearer of such distressing news to my father. My father has often been asked to support the man who killed his brother. Whenever he's called on to do this, he gets irritated and depressed for days. Years ago, when this nephew/cousin sought to emigrate to North America, my father contacted the FBI, and asked them to keep him out of the country. The tribe argues that the cousin is mentally ill.

The essence of evil

I've been rereading the novel Perfume, by Patrick Süskind. I brought it with me for a friend, but I haven't seen him, plus...wanted to read something other than politics. It's an exquisite work, about the heart of darkness, or lack thereof. A must read -- you'll get hooked.

Broadcasting board of governors completed

Yesterday, the Coalition Provisional Authority announced completion of the board of governors of the Iraqi broadcasting service, along with a financial committee. The members of the board are:

Mr. Kan’an Makiya: Architect, academic & writer of international renown, scholar-in-residence at the Centre for Middle Eastern Studies at Harvard University. Founder of the Memory Foundation.

Mr. Kamran Karadaghi: Broadcaster & journalist, currently serving out his term as deputy head of Radio Free Iraq.

Ms. Lina Abood Karim: Physician, obstetrician, and teacher. She is a member of the Iraqi Women’s League, and the Al Nahda Association for Women.

Mrs. Jinan Nasret Al Kaysi: Academic, educationalist and human rights activist. Advisor with the Ministry of Education and a specialist teacher for children with learning disability.

Mr. Hadi Aziz Ali: Senior lawyer, former member of the constitutional preparatory committee.

Mr. Walid Khaddouri: Economist, Oil & Gas industry analyst, Editor in Chief of the Middle East Economic Survey, based in Cyprus.

Sayyid Ayad Jamal al-Din: Cleric from Nassiriyah.

Mr. Hiwa Osman: TV Journalist, former BBC Newsnight reporter, trainer and editor with the Institute for War and Peace Reporting in Baghdad.

An international member is to be named soon.

The financial committee is comprised of:

Mr. Izzidin Salim Bahrani: Lawyer and head of private audit firm, former deputy governor of the central bank, member of the Iraq supervisory audit board.

Mr. Adel Al Hasson: President of the association of chartered accountants of Iraq, former financial advisor to Iraqi airways.

Mr. Jonathan Thompson (ex-officio): Director of communications and planning, CPA Program Management Office.

Mr. Jalal al Mashta was appointed first director general of the Iraqi Media Network's Public Service Broadcaster. The former editor-in-chief of Al-Nahdhah newspaper, he is a seasoned print, radio & TV journalist & media manager for, among others, the BBC, LBC, Swiss Radio, Al-Hayat, and Abu Dhabi TV. With an MA in journalism and a PhD in political science, he is also a linguist and has translated over 30 titles on literature & philosophy.

More, from the CPA press release:

The aim of the IMN PSB, the country’s central public broadcasting service, is to provide the public, whether within Iraq or its Diaspora community, with diverse and distinct broadcasting services that educate, entertain and inform. The PSB is a fully independent service, free from political or other control, undue influence, interference, or pressure from governmental, political, or other external forces....

[T]he IMN PSB shall be developed as a platform for reflecting and fostering the varied values, cultures and languages of Iraq; it shall further serve as an open forum for promoting freedom of expression, debate, and respect for human and individual rights....

The immediate priority of the Board is to develop, and present for public consultation, a comprehensive charter defining the obligations and aims of the PSB with regard to programming and operations, and expanding on its pledge to the people of Iraq as to what is expected of the PSB in return for public funds to finance its operations; the Board shall also begin urgent consultations to draft a public service broadcasting law for Iraq. The Board shall also develop its statute and internal procedures and make these known to the public.

My friend Alaaddin, who's been hoping to make it here from Holland for the past three months:

Date: 6/15/2004 8:03:22 AM Eastern Daylight Time
From: "Al-dhahir, A. (Alaaddin)"

Dear Ayad:

.... Anyway, I spent this past weekend a great deal of time talking to my family in Iraq and spoke to my eldest brother (in Germany) and the opinion was a firm 'no' to my visit to Iraq. I was pretty disappointed but I asked the 4 eldest relatives in Iraq to sit and examine every (security) aspect and the risks involved for all and take a vote. I should know by tomorrow how the vote went (which I doubt it will be any different from previous reservations). Therefore, I took a tentative decision. I am taking a 2 weeks holiday in France and Switzerland starting July 5. When I get back I will see if the situation has improved and make the trip to Iraq in August. Unfortunately, I will be missing 14 July unofficial celebrations. I still hope to see some elder former politicians & officers. If the situation is still bad, we will take another holiday in northern or eastern Germany. I am quite angry at what is taking place in Iraq. What follows is a message I sent to a number of friends:

I may speak for all of you when I say I have difficulty keeping my temper under control when I see on the news this senseless carnage taking place in Iraq. Regardless of any disagreement I have with those in charge of Iraq right now, I truly do not understand what purpose does it serve to kill fellow Iraqis (policemen or otherwise). Nor do I understand why would anyone go on destroying government or private property. Nor do I understand why would anyone kill those who are trying to restore electric power or establish telecommunication lines. Anyone who does these things wants to have a lawless country with no police to protect people and property, wants people to remain where they are (if not go backward), make no progress and have no respect for human life at all. These bestial creatures want to keep Iraqis living in hell. This is no resistance to occupation but criminal gangs that must be dealt with harshly.

Take care,

Alaa

* * *
Date: 6/16/2004 1:04:07 PM Eastern Daylight Time

Hi, Alaa,

I understand your situation -- if I haven't already said so, in response to a previous e-mail -- e-mails -- about the neighbors, etc. It sounds like you're being watched -- people know you, etc. That's completely different. If you're here, as I was just talking with somebody, a few minutes ago, you have to keep a very low profile....

Thanks, buddy. It is really disgusting -- of course -- but the killing and destruction is just a continuation of past policies -- nothing's changed -- at least, that hasn't -- their intentions towards the country.

See you.

Slaves and masters

Yesterday, at the interior ministry, I told Captain Khdhayyir that they can keep their slave mentality. It's not only the titles, although that's bad enough. The guards often call me sayyidi, which literally means "my master," although they may be using it as a simple "Mr." They have been in the military, though, and have that military chain of command drilled into them, although the whole society seems to, as witnessed by my dealings at the interior ministry, and my cousin's advice to cowtow to the officers there, to get something done. It isn't only the titles, though. The dealings of superiors and subordinates, parents and children, not only leave a lot to be desired, they're practically servile. The wife and offspring often have to cower and tiptoe before the moods of the husband/father. Employees have to be totally obsequious, and grateful for the slightest gesture. Yelling and abuse is to be expected -- by a wife from a husband, employee from an employer or superior, children from parents. This is just the tip of the iceberg. I'm sure I'll have more to say, about this.

A step in the right direction came from Iraq's new president. In his talk the other day to 150 people gathered at the Iraqi embassy in Washington, Ghazi il-Yawer said President Bush asked him how he'd like to be called -- "Mr. President?" asked George Bush. Yawer declined, and asked to be called simply as "Shaykh Ghazi," as he's "one of the citizens of the country." Of course, this is also a step back from the deification of leaders that's endemic and historic to the Arab world -- part -- an essence -- of the problem the region faces.

IDs and government dealings

Something that boggles the mind of Iraqis, and I got this, again, yesterday, with my cousin who took me to the interior ministry, is that we don't have to walk around with an ID in America. "Well, what if the police stop you?" "Why should he stop me? Who's he to stop me?" Later, he asked me if I'm treated the same as an American, who's American abben 'ann jid (father and grandfather). I said, yeah -- no difference. Of course, it's a matter of attitude, I added, but for me, no difference. I also told him that we have very few occasions when have to deal with the government. Practically the only time is when we have to pay taxes -- once a year -- or when we get into trouble with the law, as I often do, behind the wheel. That's in contrast to his exasperated explanation to me -- because I'd grown impatient with my efforts to get an Iraqi ID -- that no transaction here is easy.

Back to the palace

Just as we were leaving the Republican Palace this afternoon, so was Paul Bremer, the American ambassador who's governing Iraq till the end of June. My friend pointed out that his translator was leaving the building, in the distance, and a couple of Bremer's convoy of black SUVs were moving. I put on my "WE GOT HIM" baseball cap, which I'd brought down from the car just in case I got a chance to meet him. I've been wanting to meet him, give him a tip of the hat, and get a picture taken with him. Well, it looks like he'd already boarded his car, and as a pair of the black SUVs approached us, I doffed my cap, and pointed at the wording. The windows on the cars were tinted and I couldn't see inside. So, who knows. My friend had earlier met with one of his advisers, his speechwriter, and was invited to lunch at his home, so...I may have missed a couple of chances, but may yet have some chances, still.

The front of the Republican Palace curves outwards to the sides, and is, in length, at least two football fields, if not three. As we walked along, I said, "Poor George," with such a little place. Plus, he's only got one.

The large hall used for a cafeteria has four marble palm trees on each wall, and a very high ceiling. Indians from Kellogg Brown and Root cooked and served the hot food and cut the cake, which was pretty good. I might be heading back, tomorrow.

While in the palace, I asked about three people I know who work there -- one soldier and two Iraqi Americans -- all with the CPA. For the soldier, I was directed to the computer room, where I could sign in, and look up where he's stationed. I couldn't sign, I guess, because I wasn't associated with any contractor. I'll have to try, again. The two Iraqi Americans I know, were both away, I was told.

I wrote down the six sayings of Saddam inscribed in the marble above the doors connecting the hallway to the cafeteria and to Saddam's grand reception room. I'll translate those, and pass them on, as soon as possible. There's one about making your voice heard, even if you're absent from the battlefield or workplace. Another urges not oppressing another. Others advise fair judgment, tying the brain and the conscience to the tongue, not ignoring nor believing all that people say, and siezing the rare opportunity rather than the one offered.

Below one of Saddam's sayings, in the center of the passageway, painted on the wall were the Twin Towers, an eagle with its wings spread out beneath the towers and the stars-and-stripes on its head. Above the towers is a banner reading "Thank God for the Coalition Forces & Freedom Fighters at Home and Abroad." On the four corners of the painting are the seals of the four armed forces services, and to the sides of the towers are the seal of the New York Police Department and red clover-leaf of the Fire Department of New York.

Throughout, Saddam's initials are carved into the walls, under the countless chandeliers, painted on the woodwork of the latticed hanging balconies.

The headline I used in my previous post about the palace, "Na Vrad," is the slogan Czechs have been chanting for centuries, the last time, 15 years ago, hailing Vaclav Havel to head "to the palace." Well, that's the way I remember it. I checked the preposition, and I'm trying to find out the second word -- the name of the medieval palace overlooking the city.

Na Vrad

I'm in Saddam's house -- but don't tell anybody.

I've been here, for a couple of hours -- big difference, from the interior ministry. A friend arrived in town yesterday, who's done a lot of work with the U.S. government -- on education -- and been politically active. She's probably better protection than any Iraqi ID -- she's veiled, carries a U.S. passport, and is tough as nails -- was an organizer in the March 1991 uprisings. She took me to the U.S. consulate, to sign in, something I've wanted to do, since I arrived here. At the Convention Center, where the U.S. consulate is located, there's also a window for Royal Jordanian Airlines, and I have a reservation today, from Amman to Detroit, which I think I'll have to change. The woman behind the window said they couldn't do it there, that I didn't have to do anything, and told me the airline has an office in the Palestine Hotel and gave me their phone numbers. Then, we headed to the Republican Palace. We had to do a lot of walking -- roadblocks are a lot more extensive than they used to be, my friend and companions said, requiring people to park a lot farther away from the buildings. The Convention Center is right across the street from the Rasheed Hotel, which I'd been to, in 1989. I wanted to go in, to see what'd happened to the George H.W. Bush mosaic on the floor as one entered the hotel. Didn't have a chance.

Once at the Republican Palace -- and all of this is in the Green Zone, my first time there -- and, of course, I made use of my American passport for the first time -- got checked a few times, at checkpoints, along the way -- while in the car and on foot. At the entrance to the Palace, CPA headquarters, I was told I needed a badge. So, we -- my friend and I -- my friend has a contractor badge, and can get me a visitor's pass -- we went back to the front gate, where they'd give me a badge. Well, that was a good thing, actually, despite the walk in the heat. Before we'd pulled into the driving lot, we saw a Green Zone Bazaar, a street market, for, I suppose, people who work and/or live there. The Green Zone encompasses a huge part of Baghdad. We -- my family and I -- as well as most of my aunts and uncles -- lived in a house in Karradat Maryam, which is now part of the Green Zone. The house has probably long-since been torn down, but the big blue-green hospital down the road should still be there. The soldiers at the front gate of the palace took my passport, and gave me a badge, and in we went. And there I was, inside Saddam's grounds. Actually, on the drive in, we approached an arch, à la Paris's Arc de Triomphe, atop which was a replica of the Dome of the Rock, from Jerusalem, and I think that's called the Jerusalem Gate. The palace, itself, is huge -- the frontage goes on for at least two football fields, and is curved out to the sides. The four giant busts of Saddam that sat atop the palace are gone, but the building is still there, in all its glory.

We were very thirsty by then, and we'd left my friend's two companions -- her driver and guard -- at the side gate, to go in and have lunch. We joined them. In what must be the central hall, there is now an open cafeteria. Two lines on the left side serve hot food. In the middle is a salad bar, and all of this is for free -- of course, for those working for CPA, I suppose. The majority were Iraqis, which, my companions said, was the reverse of a year ago, when most were American soldiers and foreign contractors. Now, they said, three-quarters were Iraqi. I saw New Zealanders, heard Italian, and passed by the Nepalese and Fijians who stand guard almost everywhere. The hall featured sixteen marble palm trees on the walls. While my friend met with old acquaintances, I toured around a bit, with her guard and driver. We went into Saddam's main reception room, the one with the mural of the Scuds with Allahu Akbar written on them, across the grand hall from a mural of the Dome of the Rock. On the domed ceiling were paintings of horses, ascending into the skies -- they may have even been winged, which would link Saddam with Islam's prophet, who ascended a winged white horse to heaven from the rock in Jerusalem atop which was built the Dome of the Rock. (That rock is, of course, the same one that Abraham was going to slay his son on, as God had commanded; the son is Ishmael (Isma'il) for Moslems; Isaac (IsHaaq), for Jews and Christians.) The master's throne was gone, as were all the sofas and other chairs around the perimeter of the room. The room, in fact, was being divided by wooden partitions, and we didn't linger, although I would've liked to. In fact, its doors used to be open, for all to see. Well, I should amend that -- not all, but those with access to the building, and premises. Of course, in the past -- in Saddam's times -- nobody had access, and those that had come for visits, over the past year, often were terrified of the site, not to mention the main hall and Saddam's throne. In the hallway connecting those two rooms, were 10 or so of Saddam's sayings.

All right -- my friend has returned, so I'll post this, without proofreading it. To be completed, and amended, later. Adios.

Cherries

I forgot cherries, among the fruits juice bars here use to make drinks. Because of seasonal scarcity and high prices, their extract, like oranges, are on the more expensive side.

On his return to Iraq from a six-day trip to the United States, President Ghazi il-Yawer spoke to the press today, in English and Arabic. Some excerpts, first, what he said about the Baghdad location being used by the coaltion, which many expect will become the U.S. embassy:

There is no talk of inviting the United States to keep the republican palace as an embassy supplement....We asked that the republican palace be vacated in the fastest opportunity for us to use it as Iraqis, as a republican palace or a museum. Whatever we do with it is a matter for Iraqi sovereignty. It is a symbol of Iraqi sovereignty.

Then, with regard to the handover and trial of Saddam, and Muqtada a-Sadir's integration into the political process:

Even President Bush himself was asking me when are we going to be able to handed over the ex-president Saddam Hussein. The United States is very keen to hand over the ex-president to the Iraqi authorities. We must first make sure that we can maintain protection for his life until he goes to trial. We must make sure that the trial goes as a legal process, he has his own fair chance of defense and the government has its own chance of expressing charges on him. We have an excellent credible judiciary system.
 
We are different than him. He used to put sentences up front to the people. We don't do that. We are civilized people. This is the new democracy in Iraq. We must make sure that he gets a fair trail.

Concerning the second part of the question about Sayyed Moqtada. I think this is a very smart move of him. I kept on saying consistently that if I were in his shoes I would try to go to the political arena instead of raising arms. He has supporters, he has constituents, he should go through the political process and I commend this smart move on his side.

About Sadir facing legal proceedings:

First of all, in the new Iraq nobody is above the law. However, he is not convicted, his name has been brought as a suspect in a certain incident. So he has to make sure he clears himself. This is step number one. This is for his own sake. Second, it is not true that ex-militia leaders cannot go to a political parties. Most of the new leadership in Iraq were ex-militia leaders but they are disbanding their militias, they are becoming Iraqi leaders and he can do the same. It is never too late for anybody in Iraq. But most important, nobody is above the law, nobody uses violence as means of expressing his views. This is impossible. This is unacceptable.

Finally, with regard to the security situation:

The top priority of the interim government is regaining security in Iraq and rehabilitating Iraqi security institutions. This is our top priority. Without security we cannot accomplish a democratic life, we cannot accomplish elections, we cannot rebuild the country, we cannot do any work considered development. This is very important to us. But things do not happen overnight. Of course, the increase in political assassinations and bombings target the Iraqi people. The victims of this assassinations are all qualified Iraqis, with no political leanings.

The martyr Bassam Kubba, god have mercy on him, worked night and day for a month to get a resolution from the Security Council that would return sovereignty to Iraq. He came back happy with his work and this is what he met. These are enemies of the Iraqi people. They target the Iraqi people....

Those who carry out these actions are the ones that lengthen the stay of the friendly foreign forces because they make us need this.  What is important to us is that Iraqis can send their children to school without fearing that they will not come back to them.  We want Iraqis to live with security, with electricity, with services. They deprive the Iraqi people of this.  We are doing the opposite and god willing the Iraqis will act with one hand to rebuild their country.

Oil minister: $16 billion in revenues this year

According to Iraqi Oil Minister Thamir Ghadhban, despite the acts of sabotage against pipelines and other facilities, revenue from oil this year will exceed $16 billion. The news item appeared in Sunday's Al-Nahdhah, which relayed it from The Financial Times.

I know, I know, yesterday was not the sixth anniversary of the announcement of the capture of Saddam, but, to me, counting the days, each day's a holiday, when Saddam's not in charge. I should've also added, "Mr. Prisoner 00000001," to "Mr. President." Officially, it was the half-anniversary of the announcement.

In today's Al-Mu'tamar, there's a news item that International Red Cross spokesperson Nadia Doumani has asked for Saddam to be released, as he has not been charged with a crime. On the BBC web-site, she's quoted as saying: "If he is not charged, then the law says that at the end of war, of occupation, he should be released." How about being number four on the all-century hit parade -- behind Stalin, Hitler and Mao? And not a happy tune, that, either.

There is a bit of a dispute, about whether the U.S. government/coalition will hand him, and other top-regime figures, over to the new Iraqi government, before June 30, the date on which sovereignty is to be transferred. Prime Minister Ayad Allawi told Al-Jazeera television last night, "The handover will take place within the next two weeks." Pentagon officials say they don't know of any arrangements. The head of the special Iraqi war crimes tribunal, Salem Chalabi, told Agence France Presse that Iraq would "very shortly" have the proper facilities to detain Saddam, that the Iraqi authorities were preparing to issue arrest warrants for the former rulers, and that the coalition would hand the prisoners over, "provided we show arrest warrants based on reasonable grounds." A State Department official said, "If the Iraqis are going to push on it, we are not going to push back."

And yesterday, I saw a news item on the web about Saddam's daughter Raghad wanting to return to Iraq. In an interview with the London-based Saudi magazine Sayyidati, 36-year-old Raghad was asked if she misses Iraq. "Yes, if I have a chance I'll go back faster than you would imagine."

"I'm not afraid of death, but of scandal," she told the magazine from Amman. When asked to elaborate, she said, "To happen like what happened in Abu Ghraib prison." She was referring to the abuse of Iraqi detainees by American soldiers.

Speaking of Saddam's daughters, a woman I met recently went to elementary school with Hala Saddam Hussein [correction: Rana, not Hala]. Saddam's wife was the principal of the school. The girls were eight [correction: might have been seven], and friendly with each other. My friend was holding a cucumber, when Hala [Rana, not Hala] came over. Before she could take ahold of the offered cucumber, older sister Raghdad intervened. She took her sister aside, and told her she could get one later, when they got home. Oh, to be a dictator's daughter. This was in the mid-seventies, when Saddam was vice president. [Correction: this should have been in the 1978-79 school year, just before Saddam grabbed the presidency.]

Finally, speaking of the royal family, recently, the popular Lebanese singer Nawal Zoghby was reportedly more than an hour late for a public concert in Amman. Her security men purportedly told inquirers that she'd been held up, because Saddam's daughters and wife had asked for a private concert. News agencies report that the mother and one of the daughters are in Qatar.

Back to the interior ministry

My cousin, one of a few people who've promised they could help me get an ID, knew somebody in the interior ministry. He called me last night, and said the family friend wanted to see my file, and see what he could do. I didn't want to go through the whole rigmarole, again -- just wanted a straight answer -- can the person do it, or not. I'd given my cousin my file and thought he'd be able to show it to his friend, and get an answer. Anyway, I agreed to go. So, my cousin picked me up this morning, and back we went -- well, back, I went -- it's this cousin's first time with me.

It's funny, when you're joined by somebody, especially a relative, who's offered to help -- they take over your case, make it theirs, push themselves hard, becomes even more invested in it than you are, as if to show how much they're working on your behalf. They speak for you, they run around, from room to room, from officer to officer, making their arguments, exerting themselves, and keeping at it, trying one more thing, one more time, back to that official, one more time, another time around, with the same dead argument. That's the way of the tribe.

Which reminds me:

You know you've been in the Arab world too long, when:

You feel like saying, Enough already, give it a rest! -- to all the pleas to eat more, drink more, have more of this, you didn't try that, you didn't eat anything, are you sure you don't want something to drink, with the accompanying threats to be cross with you if you don't. For chrissake, enough already! I've eaten, and I don't want no more!

* * *

So, at the interior ministry we went to my cousin's acquaintance, who consulted another person, in the very dark ground-floor corridor. I wasn't much involved -- they did all the talking. The two officials kept asking us to wait; I'd hat it with waiting -- I just wanted a straight answer -- yes or no. In the meantime, I went upstairs, to see if the man who'd looked at my case before, who'd said my case only lacked a stamped photo, to complete the deal -- to see if he was there. He would be my backup, or even my front-up. He was in his office. I returned to my cousin. I picked myself up and sat on a counter. My cousin joined me. Finally, his acquaintance asked us to leave my papers with him, and he'd see what he could do. I didn't want to leave my papers, wait more days, and come back, again. I wanted an answer -- now. "Can you do it? I just wanna know, can you do it." He was taken aback -- what affrontery? He was definitely nonplussed. He looked at me, crossed, as if to say, What's wrong with this person? How rude? "Well, can you do it? Just tell me." That was the end of that. Either he walked away, or I picked up and left. Maybe we both did. My cousin indicated that I'd burned that bridge, and he said his friend wanted to photocopy my papers. Oh, boy.

We went upstairs, to my old friend Lieutenant Ahmed. He looked at my file, stamped my picture in the application, and said everything would be okay -- we just needed to go to Lieutenant Ammar, in the Baghdad section on the second floor, for some thing or another -- by now, I'd withdrawn from the discussion and given up concentrating on the details. I'd been to Ammar before, and was pretty sure which one he was. I went into his office, and asked him if he was Ammar. He was. He looked at the file, and said I should see Captain Khdhayyir, next door. I walked into the next office, with about 10 applicants in front of the desk. The man behind the desk looked up at me. Then my cousin whispered something in my ear. I couldn't understand what he said. We stepped out of the office. He told me these people like titles, that I can't just say "Ammar," and I can't be whistling. I laughed. I'd been whistling an Um Kalthoom tune since we arrived in the buiding. Back into Captain Khdhayyir's office. While I waited with the others, a guy next to me turned to me: "MinTiliq," something like unbridled, unreserved, free, open, set loose. So, that's why Captain Khdhayyir looked up at me, and they'd all noticed my whistling. So, I'm supposed to keep my mouth shut. Later, my cousin told his mother, to tears of laughter, that I'd said "hello" when I entered Captain Khdhayyir's office, along with whistling. After the others were done, we stepped up. First, Khdhayyir set me straight.

"What are you doing, coming in here, whistling?"

"What's the matter with it?"

"Don't you have any respect?"

"I was happy, at ease."

"You have to show respect. You don't go into a room with your father, smoking or whistling."

"What, am I supposed to pray to you?"

He looked at my cousin: "What, is he mocking me?"

"No, my master, he isn't," while I said, "Go ahead, keep your slave mentality."

"What are you bringing that in here for? You don't like it here, go back...."

"Are you supposed to serve people, or am I supposed to serve you?"

"It's that way all over the world, whenever you go into an office -- in Japan, in Europe, in America."

"You're wrong, but anyway."

Funnily enough, that bridge didn't get burned. I withdrew, and let my cousin take over -- I don't know what I'm doing, and I'm not gonna work myself up into a lather over this -- my cousin can knock himself out, if he wants. I don't even know what I'm doing here. Captain Khdhayyir sent us to another office, and we went back and forth, between several offices. I went downstairs and had a bottle of Sinalko, an orangy soda, then, back upstairs, sat on a desk in the hallway, and had another bottle, from the cafeteria guy as he passed by with a case of various bottles. Captain Khdhayyir even came to a subordinate's office, to help out. Still, my case was stuck -- same as before.

On the drive back, my cousin said, no transaction is easy in Iraq, everything is complicated.

Gotcha!

I can't leave the sixth anniversary of the announcement of the capture of Saddam, unnoticed. Happy anniversary, Mr. President -- and may we have many returns.

A Michael Rubin piece, "Trust the Iraqis: Silent Majority," about American paternalism towards Iraqis, which has turned cheers, to jeers. A few excerpts:

Iraqis, contrary to what many in Washington now believe, were not anti-American from the beginning. Many troops were greeted as liberators. The Boston Globe reported, the day after the fall of Baghdad, that "[j]ubilant Iraqis greeted US troops with cheers, victory signs, and flowers." Many are anti-American today because the United States has refused, in ways big and small, to give them real control over the country. Unless that changes, the June 30 handover will be a fiasco and a farce.

The paternalism began even before the war did. Fearing it could undermine prewar diplomacy, the State Department resisted efforts to create a "Free Iraqi Force" of exiles committed to fighting Saddam Hussein. On the first night of the war, the Free Iraqi Force huddled around radios at the Taszar Air Base in Hungary, 1,600 miles away from the country they were supposed to help liberate. The United States paid a price. Iraqi cheers turned to stunned silence when, on April 9, 2003, Corporal Edward Chin draped an American rather than an Iraqi flag over the face of Saddam's statue in Baghdad. The person climbing the statue should not have been an American carrying an Iraqi flag, but an Iraqi. Unfortunately, the forces most likely to have realized this were left cooling their heels in Central Europe....

Even the symbolism has been paternalistic. Rather than use Governing Council members to deliver weekly radio addresses, Bremer delivered them himself, and the CPA's "Strategic Communication's Office" focused more on outreach to The New York Times than to Iraqis. Many Iraqis are upset that, more than a year after Saddam's overthrow, they still see CPA spokesman Dan Senor and General Mark Kimmitt, rather than an Iraqi, delivering the daily briefing to reporters.

In the U.S. press, the CPA is often portrayed as a force for liberalism, battling Iraqis' instinct for theocracy. But, in truth, liberal Iraqis have been given no more authority than their conservative countrymen. Kanan Makiya, one of Iraq's leading liberal intellectuals, spent the year following Saddam's overthrow developing the Iraq Memory Foundation, a museum that would commemorate the victims of Baathist tyranny and allow Iraqis to reflect on their history. Makiya's team catalogued documents and applied for CPA permits to build a museum accessible to all Iraqis. But, on April 23, 2004, with the stroke of a pen, Bremer undercut Makiya and established his own National Commission for Remembrance....

For the June 30 handover of sovereignty to succeed, the United States must finally get serious about Iraqification....

[T]he United States should abandon most of the four-square-mile Green Zone, which it has, so far, not committed to closing. The bridge and road closures resulting from the U.S. cantonment in Baghdad's center are a constant irritant for Iraqis. Driving from Baghdad's Mansour district to its Karrada district took ten minutes before the toppling of Saddam; now it takes an hour. Once sovereignty is transferred, not a single American should remain inside Saddam's Republican Palace. The U.S.-run Convention Center can suffice.

And Washington must not only give Iraqis power; it must give them the resources to utilize that power, even if it disagrees with some of the choices Baghdad makes.

From Jack Kelly's May 18 column, "Ignoring the truth doesn't make it go away":

Last week, while relaxing by the pool at his hotel in Baghdad, Toby Harnden, Middle East correspondent for the British magazine the Spectator, was "accosted by an American magazine journalist of serious accomplishment and impeccable liberal credentials.

"She had been disturbed by my argument that Iraqis were better off now than they had been under Saddam and I was now going to have to justify my bizarre and dangerous views. I'll spare you most of the details because you know the script — no WMD, no 'imminent threat,' a diversion from the hunt for bin Laden, enraging the Arab world. Etcetera.

"Not only had she 'known' the Iraq war would fail but she considered it essential that it did so because this would ensure that the 'evil' George Bush would no longer be running her country. Her editors back on the East Coast were giggling, she said, over what a disaster Iraq had turned out to be. 'Lots of us talk about how awful it would be if this worked out.'

"Startled by her candor, I asked whether thousands more dead Iraqis would be a good thing. She nodded and mumbled something about Bush needing to go."

It would be unfair to say that the views of this "American magazine journalist of serious accomplishment and impeccable liberal credentials" are typical of correspondents in Iraq, but untrue to say that they are rare.

Consider how much attention has been given to the Abu Ghraib prison scandal, and how relatively little to the beheading of Nick Berg. You've seen images of the former literally hundreds of times on television, images of the latter hardly ever.

Covering a war is difficult and dangerous. So many of the correspondents in Baghdad don't bother.

"Iraq is so dangerous now that hardly any television journalists venture out of the al Hamra or the Palestine hotel, where lager and post-barbecue spliffs help relieve the tension of being in a war zone," Harnden wrote.

"The dirty little secret is that the endless 'stand-ups' you see on your screens are based on no reporting at all...

"Into this journalistic vacuum it is all too easy for the prejudices of the press corps — tourists looking through telescopes — to flow more freely than ever and the resulting reports to be distorted and incomplete," Harnden said.

Death toll from blast rises; foreign contractors, targeted

The suicide car blast from this morning has reportedly taken the lives of at least 13 people. An officemate came in an hour ago, and said that 20 were dead. The main targets, apparently, were foreign contractors in a passing convoy, including an American working in the electricity sector. Two Britons, a French national and eight Iraqis also were killed. A fifth foreign worker was killed, but his identity has not been released, until his family is notified.

The attacked convoy of three vehicles was carrying 12 electrical workers and security personnel, who were working on the main power plant on the southern outskirts of Baghdad. Three other non-Iraqi, non-American foreign nationals were injured while four others escaped unhurt, an official said.

Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, speaking at a pool press conference, said, through a translator:

The bomb that took place today targeted civilians who were trying to reconstruct or rehabilitate the electricity. Five of the experts were killed and three were injured, seriously injured. And there have been some casualties also a number of Iraqis, civilians who were passing by in that area. This criminal action, this cowardly action, this vicious crime targeted the heads of the infrastructure of Iraq.

The Iraqi government, whether it is out of the president or out of the ministries or the ministers, they have decided to confront whoever would make any criminal or vicious acts against the Iraqis or the land or the areas or the people of Iraq. And, God may grant, there will be a severe, there will be decisive measures that might be taken place to protect the life of the civilians and on this occasion I would like to transmit or to pass a message to my people in Iraq to be patient and try to challenge those powers who are trying to defeat the Iraqis and defeat the process of moving forward into the democracy and it would be our main task to achieve victory to the Iraqis and this is a fact that will be really obvious to the Iraqis and clearing up in the coming days. I would like to say that the situation will be escalating in these days and we know what are the objectives behind these attacks. I would like to confirm that we will achieve victory and we will protect our people against all these criminal and vicious crimes against the Iraqi people.

Izzet Doori may be surrounded in Mosul

American forces have reportedly surrounded New Mosul this morning, an area of the northern city, possibly with an eye on capturing top Saddam deputy Izzet Ibrahim al-Doori, there. The elusive Doori, if still alive, is said to be one of the leaders of the Saddamist-bin Ladenite insurgency. Many, though, believe Doori could not have survived all this time, with an array of severe illnesses, including kidney and heart ailments.

I just got the word that Ray Charles died. I know, I'm three days late, but.... I love Ray Charles, and I'm so sorry I didn't get to see him perform live. His music will live with me, forever. What does this have to do with Iraq? Nothing, I suspect, but there are a lot of people here who know him and love him, too.

Iraqi president: Iraqis abroad can participate in elections

While in the United States, new Iraqi president Ghazi il-Yawer told a group of 150 Iraqi natives gathered in the Iraqi embassy in Washington that Iraqis living abroad will be able to vote and run for office in future Iraqi elections, "same as their brothers who live inside Iraq." He said of Iraqi exiles, that "their Iraqiness is greater even than the Iraqiness of the current Iraqi government." There are an estimated four to five million Iraqis outside Iraq.

According to a report filed for Akkad Media by Doctor Katreen Mikhail (in Arabic), Yawer spoke about his selection as president, and said, "I want my children to be proud of me, that I'm a president who serves Iraq and the people of Iraq, and not like the past presidents." Yawer reported that after he was selected president, people in the hall began chanting "With our lives, with our blood, we'll redeem you...."

I rejected that, and asked them not to repeat that slogan in the future. All of our redeeming and our blood, should be for Iraq. I've said a sentence before, and I'll say it again, in this Iraqi house: There is no "Superman" in Iraq. We're all patriots in Iraq, and I'm one of the sons of Iraq.

He said there would be no more first and second-class citizens, that all Iraqis are first-class citizens. "You're Iraqis, entering the Iraqi embassy, whose entry was prohibited to you in the past. Most of you, when you wanted to come to the Iraqi embassy, to complete some transaction, you wouldn't sleep the night before, because of fear of injustice and oppression."

Yawer also took issue with some of the Arab satellite channels, for not relaying news impartially. So, "when a bomb goes off in Riyadh, they consider it terrorist, but when a bomb goes off, whose victims are 100 Iraqis and one American soldier, they consider this a big victory and a great affair."

Yawer tried to allay fears about federalism, saying that it doesn't mean separation. He said that whenever the just-dissolved

Governing Council faced a problem, they benefited from the Kurdish members, who've been living their democratic experiment in their areas. And I say to you, go and witness Kurdistan, see how it lives now. Mr. Roz Noori Shawees used to be the one who solved problems inside the Governing Council, because the Kurdish brothers understood democracy and how it should be lived, and because their experience in this area is large.

He told the assembled: "I'm not here to tell you to come back to Iraq -- although we welcome the return of every Iraqi -- but I tell you to employ your funds and invest them in your home."

Yawer also affirmed that it's in the interest of Iraq to be an "ally and friend of America. It's in our interest to have a direct line with America, and that's in America's interest, too."

Iraqis and Lebanese killed near Falluja

I've got some details on the Lebanese man and two Iraqis that I reported yesterday were killed here. According to yesterday's edition of Al-Mu'tamar, the Lebanese man is Hsayn Ali Alyan, from Qalwiyya, southern Lebanon, and the three bodies were left on the road between Falluja and Ramadi, west of Baghdad, three days ago. The three men were colleagues, and their death was reported by the Lebanese foreign ministry. Another Lebanese man, Roget al-Haddad, was released. At least four other Lebanese have been held for some 20 days. No word as to whether the hostages were taken in the same attack, nor, the companies that employed them.

Car bomb kills at least 10 in central Baghdad

A bomb-laden car blew up in the center of Baghdad this morning, killing at least 10 and injuring some 50 others. The suicide car bomber struck at 8:13 in the middle of Sa'doon Street, near the central Tahreer Square. Two four-wheel drive vehicles appear to have been the targets of the attack, said an Iraqi policeman interviewed on television, implying that the vehicles were used by foreigners. A traffic policeman said there were two charred bodies near the blast-site, and their identities had not been determined. The number of dead and injured will likely rise. In the few minutes I watched television, the number of dead was increased from seven to 10, and an Iraqi policeman said there were bodies yet to be uncovered from a felled building. The bombing breaks a lull of nearly two weeks without a large explosion in Baghdad, since the day of the announcement of the new government, 13 days ago.

Iraqi sculptor's take on the Abu Ghraib prisoners

ART EXHIBITION TAKES LIBERTIES WITH LADY LIBERTY

Tahir Whayib, a sculptor participating in an exhibition held in Baghdad to condemn the abuse of Iraqi prisoners, said "I wanted to explain that behind the face of freedom presented by the US we find nothing but agony and fetters". The idea of holding the exhibition was that of Qasim Sabti, Director of Hiwar Gallery. Sabti says, "The Americans behaved disgustingly and unbelievably". Whayib's sculpture looks like the famous Statue of Liberty in America except that its hands and feet are tied, while its head is covered by the famous torch of freedom.

From last Monday's issue of Asharq al-Awsat, a pro-Saudi independent paper, via the Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR).

Maybe the noose is getting tighter. The...whatever-you-call-'em...have just killed a Lebanese man and two Iraqis. Just heard this over lunch. The only details I've gathered are that their bodies were left along one of the main intercity highways. As Azzam Alwash, the head of the marshes project, keeps saying, "they're going after softer and softer targets."

From "The images we see -- and those we don't," a Jeff Jacoby column. It's from a month ago -- takes me a while to catch up to old e-mail -- and it's about media coverage of the Abu Ghraib prisoner-abuse scandal.

The death of Nicholas Berg is a horror. It is a bitter reminder of why we are at war -- something that much of America's political and media elite, in their binge of outrage and apology over the Abu Ghraib abuses, have lately seemed all too willing to forget....

As one who believes that this war was necessary above all on moral grounds, I'm sickened by what they did.

But I'm sickened as well by the relish with which this scandal is being exploited by those who think that the defeat of the Bush administration is an end that justifies just about any means. I'm sickened by the recklessness of the media, which relentlessly flogged the graphic images from Abu Ghraib, giving them an in-your-face prominence that couldn't help but exaggerate their impact. And I'm sickened by the thought of how much damage this feeding frenzy may have done to the war effort.

We do remember the war effort, don't we? Surely we haven't forgotten the jetliners smashing into the twin towers and Pentagon, and 3,000 innocents dying in a single morning. Or the monstrous Saddam, who filled mass graves to bursting, invaded two neighboring countries, and avidly sought weapons of mass destruction. Or the reason why 130,000 US soldiers are on the line in Iraq: because establishing a democratic beachhead in the Middle East is critical to cutting off the terrorists' oxygen -- the backing they get from dictatorial regimes.

My sense is that the public hasn't lost sight of any of this. But for weeks now, a goodly swath of the chattering class has been treating the war as little more than a rhetorical backdrop against which to score political points or increase market share....

Poor Nick Berg. The anybody-but-Bush crowd isn't going to rush to publicize his terrible fate with anything like the zeal it brought to the abused prisoners story. CBS and The New Yorker couldn't resist the temptation to shove the Abu Ghraib photos into the public domain -- and the rest of the media then made sure the world saw them over and over and over. But when it comes to video and stills of Al Qaeda murderers severing Berg's head with a knife and brandishing it in triumph for the camera, the Fourth Estate is suddenly squeamish.

As I write on Wednesday afternoon, the CBS News website continues to offer a complete "photo essay" of naked Iraqi men being humiliated by Americans in a variety of poses. But the video of Berg's beheading, CBS says, "is too gruesome to show." No other network and no newspaper that I have seen shows the gory pictures, either....

Yes, Virginia, there really is a gaping media double standard. News organizations will shield your tender eyes from the sight of a Berg or a Daniel Pearl being decapitated, or of Sept. 11 victims jumping to their deaths, or of the mangled bodies on the USS Cole, or of Fallujans joyfully mutilating the remains of four lynched US civilians. But they will make sure you don't miss the odious behavior of Americans or American allies, no matter how atypical that misbehavior may be or how determined the US military is to uproot and punish it.

We are at war with a vicious enemy, and propaganda in wartime is a weapon whose consequences can be deadly. Nick Berg lost his life because the Abu Ghraib pictures were turned into a worldwide media event. Yes, those who did so were sheltered by the First Amendment. That makes what they did not better but worse.

When I got back home from the internet café last night, the Humvees and American Military Police officers were still there, after more than three hours "providing security for a meeting." I resumed talking with the man from Dalton, Georgia. His name is Eric Morehead. He arrived in March, and wanted to know what Iraqis felt about "us," and about Saddam being gone. I told him everybody's happy that Saddam's gone, but that things were mixed up. People expected things to be made perfect, overnight, and that Iraqis didn't know anything about America -- didn't know that America couldn't wave a magic wand, although they've been taught to believe America controlled everything. He laughed. He told me about an encounter he and his comrades had with Iraqis the previous day, first meeting with some tension, then, after a few minutes, becoming friendly with each other, especially with children. I shared with him what I'd heard, about the initial period of elation and friendliness, and the subsequent rallying of the Saddamists and bin Laden-types, which has caused Iraqis to be fearful of being seen being friendly with Americans. Very nice guy, Eric Morehead. He's an enlistee. I told him to drop by again, and bid him goodnight.

$15 billion in medicine stolen?

The Ministry of Health (MH) has issued an order to arrest a host of employees accused of stealing medicines of chronic diseases valued at $15 billion. General Inspector Adil Muhsin said the MH acted according to the legal right given to it to fight administrative corruption. Minister Ala al-Deen Abdul Sahib al-Alwan emphasised the necessity of having a programme that tackles all the important issues - above all shortages of medicines, administrative corruption, children's deaths, and medical services. The medicine theft was discovered after huge amounts were found on the black market.

From Monday's Al-Sabah, the CPA paper, courtesy of the Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR).

Statement by Prime Minister Ayad Allawi on attacks to Iraq's infrastructure -- released, June 10

With nearly 20 days until Iraq emerges as a free, sovereign state for the first time in more than three decades, terrorists have increasingly targeted our country's infrastructure.

These saboteurs are not freedom fighters, they are terrorists and foreign fighters opposed to our very survival as a free state. Anyone involved in these attacks is nothing more than a traitor to the cause of Iraq's freedom and the freedom of its people.

In the past several months, terrorists have caused hundreds of millions of dollars in damage and lost revenues. Attacks on our electrical infrastructure have caused a nationwide loss of power of more than four hours per day.

There have been more than 130 attacks to Iraq's oil infrastructure in the past seven months. More than $200 million has been stolen out of the pockets of a sovereign Iraqi government through the loss of oil revenues resulting from attacks to pipelines. Environmental damage from these attacks has polluted our waterways and destroyed our farmland. Many times, as was the case with yesterday's attack near Beiji, saboteurs select targets near canals or major waterways that supply our drinking water which has resulted in the pollution of the sources of these supplies, in addition to harming our people and postponing our advancement towards a free life.

There can be no confusion: Iraq's oil revenues are Iraq's to spend. No longer will they be diverted to building palaces or to funding lavish lifestyles of a select few. Every dollar made from the sale of Iraq's oil goes towards rebuilding our country. With the damage these terrorists inflict on our various infrastructures they cause harm on our good people.

I call on all Iraqi patriots to be vigilant. It is our people that are sitting in the dark because of these cowardly and traitorous attacks, not our occupiers. In three weeks we will be a sovereign nation. We owe it to future generations to leave this land better, stronger and more independent than before. By working together to defeat those saboteurs, we can accomplish this goal in a sovereign Iraq.

A pat on the back, from Peoria, Illinois. So, I've got it made:

Subj: Posts from Baghdad
Date: 6/12/2004 10:52:50 PM Eastern Daylight Time

Hey ayad,
I apologize for not replying before now. It's been kinda hectic here....
Re: Your BLOG. Man, you're doing some amazing stuff, and writing some amazing material. I read it almost daily, and my reactions are always the same; Worry, and respect. I've printed out some of it, and shown it to my brother. He can't believe that somebody in the media here isn't picking up on it, and publishing it. He says that's the kind of stuff the American people need to know about. I agree. He also asked me to pass along his compliments. (Done:-)
I've tried not to burden you with irrelevant stuff, but I'm just curious as to how the American troops are behaving themselves with the population? You know how important I think that was, and I hope they're showing proper respect. It will make this a whole lot easier. Abu- Ghraib made me sick. I trust it will be dealt with properly by our legal system, but it probably knocked our credibility down by a few non-recoverable points.
Re: Jim Thome. Yeah, he finked out on you guys, and went to the Phillies. You know I don't follow baseball much, but I think Cleveland made a big mistake by letting him go. I don't know what it will cost them to recover the good will he gave the Indians.......a lot more than they're saving would be my guess.
Are you still doing the Cleveland TV thing each week? Wish I could get it, but no such luck here in Peoria:-(
As always: Keep safe, and keep writing.

Best,
Doug

* * *
Date: 6/13/2004 7:21:24 AM Eastern Daylight Time

Hey, Doug,

Good to hear from you, buddy, and thanks for the compliments -- yours and your brother's. Yeah, I wish papers would pick up my stuff. The Philly Inquirer picked up one day's -- the day I went up to the roof, to see the effects of the bombing that shook our sliding glass door, but, as far as I know, that's been it....oh, well.

What else?

As for the soldiers, I think they're doing fine. Even the Abu Ghraib thing, was blown way out of proportion -- just a way to beat up America, for America-haters -- really, nothing more, nothing less.

What else?

Jim Thome -- good guy from Peoria. Well, I guess they decided they'd save the money, invest it in youth, for the future. They must have a five-year plan or something. I don't know -- they haven't consulted me, about it.

Cleveland TV's almost once a week. Two weeks ago, they had me on twice, and it's been quiet, since.

All right, bud -- Hi to Patti, and your brother, and maybe you can get Peoria's media interested (in me).

See ya, and take care.

Six months ago, today, "We got him!"

The capture of Saddam was, for Iraqis, "the joy of a lifetime," as many still put it, shaking their heads in amazement. The man who had hung over their heads like a heavy anvil, had controlled and slaughtered them at will, was now captured. As my uncle put it, when I first saw him, two months ago, "Here's the summary, about Saddam. There were 25 million Iraqis in prison, and he was free. Now, there are 25 million Iraqis free, and he's in prison."

When Ambassador L. Paul Bremer announced the news of Saddam's capture, the next day, Iraqi journalists in the press room shouted curses at the image of their tormentor on the screen. Several of the Iraqis in the hall, rather than asking a question of Bremer, saluted "our American brothers," something unheard of, in the Arab world.

The announcement unleashed a spontaneous eruption of joy and relief among Iraqis around the world, the likes of which have not been known in Iraq for at least half a century, maybe not for centuries. When my 67-year-old uncle -- who looks more like 87 -- heard the news, he said he went hysterical, jumping up and down, running from house to house, grabbing everybody in sight and hugging and kissing them. A friend making her way from Basra to Baghdad was called by her sister from Kuwait with the news. She dismissed it as another crank tease. As she progressed on the road, traffic was congested in every city. People were handing out candy, making music, dancing, singing and ululating, throwing money into the air, parading up and down streets, hanging out of cars and tooting the car horns. The wild joy-making continued for three, four days. A traditional way of celebrating good news is slaughtering sheep. An uncle making his way back to Iraq, was handed money by friends and acquaintances in Jordan, to put in their orders. There must have been very few sheep left in Iraq.

At the same time, when the announcement was made, many Iraqis looked on, bewildered, at the image of the mangy-looking prisoner on television and in print and wondered how this decrepit-looking old man, who'd surrendered meekly, could have controlled nearly every facet of their lives for 30 years. The feelings of joy, for many, were mixed with a sense of humiliation and powerlessness.

The monster is now no more -- well, almost no more. Many say he should be eliminated -- the sooner, the better. They say executing him would reduce by half, maybe even wipe out, the terrorism that assaults the country, putting to rest, once and for all, any hope that he will return to power. "We don't need a long trial," they say, "we know what he's done."

In the Associated Press piece about the killing of Deputy Foreign Minister Bassam Kubba, there's word that Muqtada Sadir, the radical young cleric who has been leading attacks on foreign troops, is ready to bury the hatchet.

In a sermon read to his followers by an aide [on Friday], al-Sadr said he was ready for a dialogue with the new government if it works to end the U.S. military presence.

"I support the new interim government," al-Sadr said. "Starting now, I ask you that we open a new page for Iraq and for peace."

In Baghdad, U.S. officials said they were encouraged by the remarks from al-Sadr but noted he has made contradictory statements on the issue in recent weeks....

In an interview Friday night with Al-Arabiya television, al-Sadr's spokesman, Ahmed al-Shibani, said the cleric was ready for a dialogue with the government "on condition that it works to end the occupation and clearly announces to the Iraqi people and to the world that it rejects the occupation."

"It has to put a timetable for the end of the occupation," al-Shibani said. "This is the main and principled way to recognize this government and cooperate with it."

Posted by: ayad / 9:52 PM