Today I called the Iraqi Embassy early. I was told by Walid Al Rawi, the man in charge of granting visas to foreign nationals that the authorization had still not arrived. He informed me that the entirety of the government offices will be closed from tomorrow morning until Monday morning.

This means I will not be able to get to Baghdad before the Constitutional referendum on Saturday. It also means I will probably not get to Baghdad until Tuesday or Wednesday of next week, but we will see.

The situation in Iraq is, of course, getting worse by the day, but it iss also getting more and more difficult for Journalists, NGO members, and others to get into Iraq. Just today, Greg, a member of Christian Peacemaker Teams was sent back from the airport in Baghdad.

He had all the paperwork he was responsible to bring, and has been to Iraq 4 times previously. When he arrived he was informed that as of (less than) two weeks ago, he needs to have a letter from the Ministry of Interior authorizing his entrance to Iraq.

This information was not appropriately disseminated to CPT, despite the fact that they have been working in Iraq for well over two years now, as a well known and established NGO in Baghdad.

Greg told me, “I don’t think they want anyone in Baghdad or Iraq who might be offering an alternative picture. They are making it more and more difficult for independent journalists and aid workers to get into the country.” Greg’s failure to make it into Baghdad, despite having been there three times previously and having clear legitimate purpose for being in the country is making me very worried about my own chances.

However we are making good contacts here in Amman, and perhaps will be having some video sent back from Baghdad early next week. Also look to the site in the coming days leading up to the Referendum. We hope to have breaking news as Iraqis are experiencing it on the ground, particularly on the day of the Referendum.

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If you have anything you are particularly interested to know about the situation here in Amman or Iraq feel free to email me your questions! aliveinbaghdad at gmail dot com.

These new photos were also taken by US Military. The photos of dead and wounded soldiers are allegedly from conflicts in Western Iraq. The photos of the tortured/abused Iraqis were taken by US Military and are of Iraqi Police and their detainees, alleged insurgents. You can access the full photo gallery here.

Unfortunately, I don’t have more information at this time about the photos, but check back and if there is more to tell, you can expect to see it here.

It looks like I’ll begin receiving regular photo updates from my contacts here. Look for these updates and be sure to check the Flickr gallery regularly. The photos just posted today are from US Soldiers, but they come through a non-military contact.

I’m told these photos are from last year in Iraq, it is believed they are mostly in the western part of Iraq, but that probably isn’t surprising to anyone.

I hope to have more recent photos posted soon, so please continue to check back. Also, in the future we will try and not post the most graphic of the photos to the main site, but these updates will be available if you check the Flickr gallery regularly. To reach the Flickr gallery, click the photos on the right or click here.

Lastly, keep in mind that Flickr only allows 20MB of upload per month unless you have a pro account. We would greatly appreciate a donation of a pro Flickr account to support our work, or even a small contribution towards a one year account, which costs 25 dollars. This may not seem like much, but it is a budget item we hadn’t anticipated.

edit: If you would like to donate a Flickr pro account to the Alive in Baghdad project, please click here. You must be a Flickr user to access the page (standard accounts are free).

Also, stay tuned for videos. I interviewed 3 Iraqis last night, and I still have the 3 previous interviews to post, all of which should be uploaded soon.

It has been two years and six months since the fall of Baghdad. Still Iraqis often have only two hours of electricity a day. After the first Gulf War between the United States and Iraq, Saddam had the devastated power grid up and running within weeks, or perhaps months in some areas.

For anyone who wonders why the Resistance and the Insurgency are on the rise, the reason(s) should be clear. Many Iraqis have lived through and remember both wars, and they are certainly asking themselves why their basic needs have still not been met. The conclusion they reach, unfortunately for the Americans, appears to continuously be: the United States does not care about Iraq.

The Bush administration apparently cares only about the oil and their strategic global interests in the region. Many Iraqis and other Arabs have told me that the Americans must be idiots not to see that the entire situation is directly related to protection and regional supremacy for Israel. Last night I took a taxi with a Palestinian to Al Saraya, and he told me how much he loved Clinton and Carter and how much he hates Bush. Not the American people, just Bush.

It’s fairly well understood at this point that Clinton did much less than he could to ensure the passage of the Oslo Accords. However, Clinton’s mere intention to work for peace and resolution to the Arab-Israeli situation helped to ease tensions between the Middle East and the Uniteed States. More and more I find that reversing the destruction and instability that war has brought to Iraq is merely a small step in regaining the Middle East’s good graces. President Bush’s cavalier attitude towards the Middle East Peace Process is another entirely overlooked element in repairing United States Foreign Policy here.

If one examines the history of the United States’ conflict and interaction with Saddam Hussein, the importance of Israel-Palestine becomes very clear. Saddam repeatedly linked positive work toward the resolution of the Arab-Israeli conflict to any withdrawal from Kuwait or other cooperation in the subsequent Sanctions period.

Such contradictions in US foreign policy fuels the insurgency, along with the corruption which wears the mask of “reconstruction.” By privatizing the reconstruction process, almost entirely, we not only encourage war profiteering and corruption, but we virtually ensure it. When I was younger my mother ran a daycare center and one day she asked the groundskeeper, “James, why do you just cut the weeds down, rather than pulling them out at the root?” He looked at the weeds along the fence, then at my mother, and jokingly said “Job insurance, Mrs. Debbie.”

I think the analogy is clear. Halliburton, KBR, Bechtel, and others have little to gain from completely renovating and restructuring Iraq, and a lot to gain from doing a little at a time. With cost-plus contracts and such a lack of oversight, who is surprised by the corruption!

Furthermore, the single-minded refrain of “Stability, then Democracy” leaves much to be desired. This plan has led the United States to a government restructuring process in Iraq that appears to say “Any Iraqi but Saddam” is legitimate to hold authority. Ahmad Chalabi and Iyad Allawi are currently powerful men in Iraq, who are also known to be corrupt. Iraqis will tell you the problems run even deeper. “Every party has its own interests and viewpoints and perception of how to run the country. It would be a miracle if all those parties come together to unite and join forces,” one source has told me. This view has been echoed by everyone I have spoken with, with others taking an even harsher stance. Shadi al Kasim, a reporter formerly with the Baghdad Bulletin and British Channel 4 told me, “Ahmad Chalabi, his party, they have been looting in Baghdad, and no one is doing anything about it. I met a lot of people they said, oh come on, he’s such a big thief, thieves will bring thieves. So they start to think Americans are thieves and they will come to loot our country. But if the Americans start to do something about it, to stop the corruption, then I think things will get better.”

(Editor’s Note: Though this article and interview were written on the October 9th, the 2 year and 6 month anniversary of the fall of Baghdad, due to technical problems with the site, they could not be uploaded until now.)

Since arriving in Amman, I have been told by a number of different people,that I should be able to take a plane directly to Baghdad, and obtain a visa upon arrival. Today I walked to Iraqi Airways (IA), which is only a short way from Al’Munzor, to check out this possibility.

If such an arrangement were possible, it would be a much faster process than waiting for the visa to clear at the embassy! Unfortunately, it is a very expensive trip to take if I am not able to enter Baghdad. The ticket to Baghdad on Iraqi Airways is $772.00 American dollars roundtrip, and it is $423.00 for a one way ticket. Royal Jordanian is even more expensive.

It was interesting to arrive at IA just before closing. There were not many people in that part of Amman, where many of the travel agencies are located. However, outside the IA office, there was a large number of people milling about. The office was still open even though it was 2:30 or 3:00 pm-I later learned that they normally close at 2pm during Ramadan, I guess I was lucky!

Not so lucky about the news from the man at Iraqi Airways. It turns out that they no longer even let you on the airplane without a visa! So I guess I will be waiting in Amman for awhile. I have been talking with my contact in Baghdad, and hopefully we will arrange for a friend to transport a camera and tapes from me to him. This friend will also be able to transport tapes between Baghdad an Amman. If this works, perhaps I will be receiving video from Baghdad as soon as Tuesday or Wednesday.

On the non-video side, I will also be sending lists of questions to my contact so that he can conduct interviews with Iraqis in Baghdad, which I can compile into published articles. This is similar to the process that journalists in Baghdad follow, while staying holed up in fancy hotels in the Green Zone.

It is my hope that after the referendum, next week or next weekend at the least, I will be able to travel to Baghdad to report myself. But until then, this is at least a workable option. If you have any questions you would like answered from Baghdad, feel free to email me at: aliveinbaghdad at gmail dot com. I will see if I can find answers to your questions, that is why I am here!

Perhaps I will know more about the visa tomorrow or Monday, once I can contact the embassy again. I’ll keep you updated…

Today I spent most of the day taking Arabic lessons and then visiting the main University in Amman. After which I had my first trip to a supermaket in the Middle East, it was interesting, and much like any other small supermarket I had been to in the past.

Guess what the word for supermarket in Arabic is? That’s right, Supermarket!

So although the trip was enlightening from a sociological perspective, and strengthening my Arabic will be helpful, most of the day wasn’t particularly productive. However, I wasn’t too worried since I had an interview with a British Iraqi planned for the evening.

After a short nap I had dinner, used the internet, and by 7:30 my interview subject still had not shown. I was beginning to get discouraged when Raafat appeared! Raafat is my contact in Amman, someone I have been unable to reach since arriving here five days ago. Before arriving in Jordan, Dahr Jamail had highly recommended contacting Raafat.

You can imagine my excitement and pleasure when he arrived unexpectedly. We spoke for a little while and he apologized for arriving so late, he had been in Aqaba for five days, staying near the desert with little phone service and no internet. I told him it was no problem, and we quickly decided, rather than waiting for the interviewee, to leave him a note and head to the Al Saraya Hotel.

It quickly turned into a very productive evening, and great fun as well! At Al Saraya I met Fayez, the well educated and highly opinionated, but humorous, manager of Al Saraya. He had a lot of interesting things to share about the situation in the Middle East, as well as intriguing opinions about where things are going in Iraq. I’ll try to put together an article about the various opinions I have heard from the Arabs here about the situation, perhaps tomorrow morning before I meet Raafat again.

As the night wore on I met a volunteer Japanese nurse who spoke almost no English, and found myself communicating with her in Arabic, and if this weren’t enough, later an Argentine journalist showed up who will be leaving for Baghdad in the morning. This journalist spoke little English and no Arabic, so I ended up communicating with her in my broken Spanish, while relating what we were saying, mostly in English, to Raafat and Fayez!

It was an experience I never expected to have in Amman! After many cups of coffee and tea, and far too many cigarettes (I never smoke in the States, for those of you who aren’t aware, but it is fast becoming a habit in the Middle East! I have a joke with the concierge here at Al Munzor that he is trying to kill me with his cigarettes because I am an American!) Raafat and I rose to leave. We were enticed to remain for just one more cup of coffee and after a bit of haranguing, we decided to stay.

This was quite lucky, for shortly after we made our decision, another Arab journalist appeared who has been receiving much in the way of media, videos and photos from the Resistance and others in Iraq. I am not sure yet what to think of him, but he swore he had many videos, that he will show us tomorrow. I am excited, but also a little cynical, since the photos he did show me I had already been shown by Raafat earlier in the evening.

Tomorrow Raafat and I will try to meet some Iraqis here and, inshah allah, we will get an interview or two on tape. Then in the evening, after Iftar (the breaking of the fast during Ramadan) we will meet the Arab journalist, and I will post another update. If the journalist gives me any new photos, those will be posted as well. I suspect there will be at least some more photos from Raafat tomorrow, so check back during the day!

These are the pictures Haj Ali has provided me with so far. A word of warning, they are disturbing to the extreme, and there is no censorship of them once you click the link. Please prepare yourself for much worse than the Abu Ghraib photos you have already seen:
Photos of Detentions/Killings

This is the transcript of my Interview with Moafuk Mohammed today at the Marriot Hotel in Amman. His family has an apartment here that they use sometimes. He is visiting Amman while in transit to London for business. Hopefully there will be a video posted soon of some of the interview. For now, here is the rough transcript.

AIB: What would you like to tell the Americans?

MM: The main source of outrage among the Arabs against America is America’s ill treatment of the Arab-Israeli cause. If America is willing to establish peace, it has to be fair, it has to insist on a Palestinian State, a viable State, so that Palestinians and Arabs can find common language with America and Americans.

AIB: What is the reason for the American invasion?

MM: The Reasons behind the war against Iraq, there are two reasons. One is America’s growing imports of oil, because Iraq has the 2nd largest oil reservoir. There are no other alternatives, but the Middle East, and Iraq is in the core of that. The other reason is protection for Israel. Protection for Israel. These are the 2 reasons that prompted the American administration to wage the war. But it coincided with the aim of the Iraqi parties who will work against Saddam, the opponents of Saddam. Iraqis were willing to get rid of the Dictatorship of Saddam, so the Iraqis from one side and the Americans on the other, joined forces to topple, oust, Saddam from office.

AIB: What was Iraq like, before the most recent war?

MM: Iraq waged war against Iran, for 8 years, during the 8 years the whole country was demolished, the infrastructure, the industry, so on so forth, 8 years later, the way was ended, but soon after, we invaded Kuwait, and that was the finale, the final. When the alliance of course, drove the Iraqis from Kuwait, and then the whole country infrastructure was devastated, after that, we had the embargo and the sanctions, the UN Sanctions have adverse impact on Iraqis, on the people, not on the government, not on Saddam, the people suffered, of hunger, of disease, of illiteracy, 8 years of sanctions managed to demolish the entire country.

AIB: What is your opinion of Saddam Hussein?

MM: Saddam Hussein is a tyrant, a dictator, who ruined the country. Saddam Hussein, I don’t have enough words to tell you what Saddam was. I have every reason to suggest that the majority of Iraqis were against him. And this is why it was easy for the Americans to and the allied forces, it was easy for them to invade Iraq and of course to occupy the entire nation, the whole country, Baghdad could not resist for more than five hours, and the American tanks reached the presidential palace.

AIB: Could it be good when the Americans came, or was it always going to go very bad?

MM: The Americans have committed fatal mistakes, to start with, the dismantling of the Iraqi army, and the, and the other security forces. Which left the entire country open for looters, criminals; the borders were wide open for Al Qaeda and other terrorist groups. So believe you me, the Americans have committed fatal mistakes.

AIB: What is the situation in Iraq?

MM: Total chaos. The government is not there. Very weak. Unsafe. Security is not there, and you can tell from the number of car bombs everyday, and the death toll everyday, everyday we have car bombs we have explosives, and the death toll is now around 100 person every day, civilian, children, women, elderly people, indiscriminate war, against the people. Of course and we have looting and you have criminals, kidnapping, you name it.

AIB: What can force the Americans to leave?

MM: I don’t think there is anything that will force the Americans to withdraw, to pullback. There are, there is a view that it would be even worse if the Americans pull back, before installing a strong government to protect the country. That would be another mistake and a wrong signal for the terrorists. Unless we have a constitution and a strong government, intelligence forces, security, and an army who can defend the country, that will be another fatal mistake. Believe you me.

AIB: Do you think its possible that the constitution can be good?

MM: I have my reservations on the constitution, but, we don’t have, but we have no alternative but to say yes, otherwise, the interim period will be, prolonged for another two years. What we need now is stability, is to establish security, to establish peace. If we say no, and the constitution was refused by the people, then we will have another couple of years of anarchy, of chaos, which I think we are fed up with, we, we need to see security, peace, so that we can go to our work, to our schools, to our hospitals, to lead our normal life. We are sick; we are fed up with this chaos.

AIB: Do you think civil war is inevitable?

MM: No. I think Iraqis, Sunni and Shi’a are very much aware of the danger of civil war; we have lived together for hundreds and hundreds of years. In peace and harmony, of course there are those who are working, who are banking on a civil war, but I am sure that will not happen.

AIB: How can we ensure this?

MM: Nowadays we have conferences and meetings between the two sides, the Sunni and Shi’a to work out a national declaration which concerns unity and harmony amongst the two sects.

AIB: Do you think it could be said that there is a legitimate resistance as well as an insurgency?

MM: Resistance is legitimate. But, definitely, terrorism is not. However, there are those who believe that we can work out with Americans on a schedule, to pull back, so we need not resort to guns, to force the Americans, if we can work out a sort of timetable to get the Americans to pull back, why resort to war?

AIB: Do you think this is possible?

MM: Yes, I think this is possible. Because, at the end of the day, the Americans have to pull back, have to go home.

AIB: Can you describe how it is possible to live in Baghdad?

MM: It is very dangerous every day. It is very dangerous; it is very risky to go around. I don’t go around. It is very risky. Indeed it is. But not only of the insurgency, but of ordinary criminals, I may get kidnapped. Here, now, in Amman, everywhere in the world there are Iraqis who deserted their country, of fear of kidnapping, of killing. It is very risky.

AIB: How do you think that Iraq can convince these people to come back?

MM: Unless security is re-established, then it would be very difficult to convince anyone of those who left the country, for this particular reason, to go back. Why would they come back? Without these security being restored?

AIB: Could you describe for people in the United States, elsewhere in the world, the Occupation, can you describe it? What it means?

MM: Well, these are different points of view. Let me tell you one thing. It is almost unanimous that Americans did a very bad job. They did not do their homework before coming to Iraq. They thought that they will be welcomed by Iraqis with flowers. Of course this did not happen. Nobody on earth would accept what you call it, an Occupation. People have the right to resist Occupation. On top of that, there are some American soldiers or servicemen, who are so bad, in treating the people so there is a sort of discontent, with American behavior.

AIB: Other Iraqis have told me that the various parties, because they run their own security forces, that they work for their own interests. Do you think it is possible for them to come together?

MM: No. No. Very difficult, every party has its own interests and viewpoints and perception of how to run the country. No. It would be a miracle if all those parties come together and to unite and join forces. No. Very difficult.

AIB: So how can we ever expect there to be a strong government in Iraq?

MM: Yes. Election, and polls, you know, we expect to have another election early next year. And from now, of course, parties are making alliances and this sort of thing among them. WE have to resort to, what you call it, the ballot box. What else?

AIB: In a country that is now majority Shi’a do you think it is possible? After so many years of oppression, how is it possible to reconcile?

MM: We have to reconcile. Iraq is not a country to be run by one sect or one ethnic group, by Arabs alone, or Kurds, Sunni or Shi’a alone. We have to come to some sort of reconciliation; we have to learn how to live together, after all that. And I believe the majority of Iraqis are very much aware of that, we have to live in peace. There are of course some differences, but the only way to continue is to reconcile.

AIB: What can be done? How can this reconciliation happen?

MM: The first step is to amend the constitution. This is the first step, not to enforce a constitution which is resented by the Arabs by Arab World and the Sunnis. And I can see no reason why we should not do that. That constitution which was drafted and accepted by the National Assembly, we need to amend that, we need to make some changes, to appease, to please the rest of them, the people. If we manage to do that, if we can accomplish that, then this is the first step.

AIB: Do you think this has to happen in the next two weeks?

MM: Very unlikely. Very Unlikely.

AIB: Can you describe a little more about an average day in Iraq?

MM: An average day. I leave for work at 7:30 from where I live; I get to my office at 8. We have power cuts every now and then, and when it is summer, then you are left with just unbearable heat, you have power cuts you have your computers cut off, your life is very difficult. And on your way back, you may face an American convoy and insurgents or a car bomb may target this convoy, and you get, and you lose your life, for no reason. This is a daily experience. When you leave your house, you’re not certain that you’re coming back to your family because you may get trapped, any time. On your way back and forth, this is our life.

AIB: Have you known any people who’ve been hurt or killed?

MM: Yes. Yes. In fact a cousin of mine, who was a doctor, a heart specialist, was killed by an American. For no reason. He was ordered to stop, at the checkpoint, couldn’t recognize the sign, and he was immediately shot dead. A young man, in his early forties, very clever, we lost him for no reason. And of course there are tens if not hundreds of such stupid accidents. Oh my goodness. There are so many people killed who are killed by Americans, for no reason.

AIB: Has there been any move at all by the Americans to try to do anything?

MM: I don’t think so. I don’t think so. They have excuses for every bad accident of the sort. They simply say it was self-defense, when the poor guy was unarmed.

AIB: What do you think that means that the Americans, the international community stands by and does nothing, when they say anything we have to do for protection it is ok?

MM: This is a sort of resentment among Iraqis. -break-
Of course this is a sort of resentment among Iraqis. They have to find a way not to kill innocent people. They have to find, but we know of course, American servicemen are very nervous and they fear terrorists, fear insurgents, and many times they lose control. They are out of control. At the end of the day we have innocent people get killed for no reason. And when ever we say that, we tell the Americans to do something about that, what we receive is only apologies, for that was not intended, that sort of thing. But how will we convince their families, what have they done to get killed?

AIB: Do you see parallels with Israel with this situation?

MM: Absolutely. Indeed, and you very you always come across this sort of-what do you call it? When people describe what is happening in Iraq with what is happening in Palestine at the hands of the Israelis? Analogy!

AIB: Do you expect that there will be more wars like this in the Middle East?

MM: Well, if we, if we follow the neo-conservative thinking, then we expect the next target will be Syria, and Iran, perhaps. If the neo-conservative sort of thinking is to be followed, by the American administration. Now of course Syria is under heavy attack of pressure with an end to alienate Syria. There are reasons to suggest that terrorists have their training camps in Syria, and there are former Baathists who are based in Syria and finance the terrorists and insurgents. There may well be some exaggeration of that. But there are some truth to that, definitely, and this is why it may well, may well end in-I don’t know whether it is in the interests of Americans to have a strong government in Syria or a weak one.

AIB: What can the International Community or even American citizens do, to help ensure that this won’t happen?

MM: I cannot answer this question. But certainly Americans are very much aware of the risk in involving in another war, in Syria or Iran, and believe you me; Iran would not be an easy target. You know, due to the country is vast country with population of I don’t know, 80 million, inhabitants or persons, it won’t be easy. Believe you me. And you have experienced that under Carter, when Carter attempted to free the American embassy’s hostages. It was a catastrophe. Do you know about that?

AIB: Is there anything you would like to tell Americans or other people about Iraq, about what your hope for Iraq is?

MM: Iraqis are very keen to regain their country, to restore peace, to restore security. So that we can rebuild our country that was ruined by thirty-five years under Saddam and then under the American Occupation. And we are endowed to do that, Iraq is endowed with all resources, work force, and educated people we are entitled to have a better life.

After the visa office I returned to the Hotel Al’Munzor to collect my thoughts and prepare for the rest of the day. I was hoping to meet up with an Iraqi I met and had lunch with on Sunday, who is staying here at the hotel, but he was out all day.

At three o’clock I left to go to the Marriott Hotel, in order to meet with Marfaq, Mohammed Alwan’s brother-in-law. It is my hope to interview him first, and if it goes well, I will be able to interview the whole family, or at least many of them.

Because I have been having a lot of trouble with the taxis in Amman overcharging, I decided I would walk on Jamil’s suggestion that it would only be a 15 minute walk from the hotel.

Unfortunately, in Amman we have these things known as “jebels” which are kind of like a combination between hills and cliffs. Because of the jebels, Amman is a lot like parts of San Francisco, but without the cool ocean breeze or the hippies.

So because of the Jebels its really difficult for a foreigner like me to navigate the city, as the roads are based around circles and overpasses, so unless you know which stairs to take up or down, you may have to take a very roundabout path, just to get to some place that is 10 or 15 minutes away.

I unfortunately become lost very quicly, because the road signs are helpful mainly to cars, not people. This is most likely because there are fairly regular and fairly cheap “Madhaba Buses” around the city, as well as plenty of service taxis and regular taxis.

I began to ask for directions and had a few short but interesting conversations with men on the street about Amman. However it soon became clear that few people knew exactly where the Marriott Hotel was located, perhaps because the ease of the bus system may make it unnecessary to know where things outside of your general circle or Jebel are located.

Eventually I received directions from a man, who seemed to know where the Marriott was, and he pointed it out on the skyline. A huge, beautiful round building that I had seen many times while riding around Amman in the taxis.

So I waited for a long time for a bus or service taxi, and met some people at the stop. We spoke for a while and had a hard time flagging down a taxi. Eventually a Madhaba bus showed up, and my new Egyptian friend suggested we just take it. It was almost entirely full however.

Perhaps you have never seen a Madhaba Bus or a “Chicken Bus” in Central and South America. These are like buses that we have in the States, but they are just packed full of people, so there is hardly any room to even breathe. It is quite an experience however, and in Amman, more comfortable than the buses in Guatemala, and a good way to make fast friends!

You have probably guessed where this is going. By the time I was able to get the bus to stop, we had passed the hotel by more than a block, and when I reached the hotel I found it was not the Hotel Marriott, but the Royal Hotel! So in the end I had to take a Hotel Taxi to the Marriott, which was quite expensive, 3JD for only a short distance, and then when I reached the Marriott I was about 45 minutes late and Marfaq had already left!

So I took a taxi back to the hotel, had a nap, then checked some email and by then it was time for Iftar, which made me very happy as I was quite hungry, having eaten almost no food all day. It is of course Ramadan in Jordan now, as in all the Muslim world, so it is impossible to go to a restaurant during the day, and in order to have food you must make a plan to go to a grocery and then back to your hotel or home in order to make a meal.

Perhaps needless to say, with all of my adventures around town today, with the visa and trying to find Marfaq, I had no time for food, so we had a very good dinner at Iftar, and some watermelon afterwards. I was able to log and capture Haj Ali’s interview this evening, and hopefully, inshah allah, Jamil will do some more translating of it tonight because he is on the night shift all evening, and by tomorrow morning Jordanian time, we will be able to upload the video.

Until then.

There are many people trying to go to Iraq. I must admit after yesterday, when there was hardly anyone at the Embassy, I expected the same today. I was very surprised this morning. When I arrived I was told to go to the rear of the Embassy, where the Visa Entrance is.

Behind the Embassy there was a chaotic queue of people waiting to get into the visa office. There were many people of all types waiting to get visas, businessmen, young women, old women, men who fit the American stereotype of Muslims with long beards and traditional clothing.

I was unsure at first what to do, some people had many forms with them, others had nothing but their passports. I was worried that I was in the wrong line or that I would wait a long time and have to get back in line with the proper forms, but I didn’t know what else to do, so I waited.

After 30 minutes or so I made it into the office in the rear of the Embassy, the same place I had gone the day before. There were even more people in the are of the back office, and eventually I found my way to Walid Alrawi, who is the man to see for a visa if you are from an outside country.

I spoke to him, filled out the various forms, left two photos etc. He told me that it may take a week or possibly more to approve the visa, because they have to cable Baghdad with the application for approval.

So now I have a decision to make. I have been told that if I take a plane to Baghdad I should be able to get a visa the same day at Baghdad International Airport, but if this isn’t true and they refuse me, then I will have spent about $700 to fly to Baghdad and back, without ever being allowed entry to the country.

I think I will do this if I don’t hear anything about the visa in 5-7 days, but again, it is very expensive and since the trip has been all by donation, it might not be the smartest thing to do or the best use of the money for the trip, and certainly, if for some reason I was given a visa after I returned to Amman, it would be very hard to return again.

As soon as there is more about the visa it will be posted.

I travelled to the Iraqi Embassy today, and met with the man at the front desk. He looked over the papers and sent me on to the back of the Embassy, to look for Walid Alrawi, who is the person to approve visas.

When I went to the back I found what appeared to be some kind of party, and it was unclear at first whether they just did not want to be bothered with me, or whether they really couldn’t help me.

The man I spoke with, who was wearing a nice suit (perhaps an Armani?) told me to go back to the front to speak to a different man.

This man, whose name I didn’t catch, told me to come back on Tuesday, between 9 and 11 in the morning. Everyone there led me to believe that because I am a journalist, if everything checks out, I might receive a visa by the afternoon of the same day!

So tomorrow I will head to the Embassy again, and post an update as soon as I have one.

In other news, I don’t think I will be doing another interview tonight, although there is a chance of a follow-up with Haj Ali. If not, then I should have a segment of the previous interview edited together, and perhaps it will be posted by tomorrow. If the connection is fast enough here.

Also, I reached Mohammad Alwan’s family and will hopefully interview them tomorrow, along with another friend of Haj Ali, and a British Iraqi I met at the Al Monzer. In all, it could be a very productive day!

Haj Ali is an Iraqi who was released from Abu Ghraib after five months when it was decided that he was “wrongfully arrested.” In the States many people seem to think that after the Abu Ghraib investigations, everything changed in Iraq, and this ended the mistreatment of prisoners that has often involved abuse, at best, and torture, at worst. In fact these practices still go on, particularly in so-called “private prisons” and “party prisons.” I spoke with Haj Ali last night and he explained some of this to me.

Haj Ali, who was prisoner number 151716, was taken to Abu Ghraib on the fifteenth of October 2003. He was kept there for five months until he was put on a truck, taken to the desert and dropped off on the highway. The soldiers told him he was free because he had been “wrongfully arrested.” He stood up to leave the truck and he says he “was kicked in the ass by one of the soldiers and because he is fat he fell off the truck and hit the ground very hard.” When he removed the hood he found himself on the highway with many other released prisoners. They were abandoned by the military and left to make their own way back to their homes.

Haj Ali has since spoken at many conferences about Human Rights and detentions, mainly in the Middle East because he has much difficulty obtaining a visa to leave the country. Just this week he was to go to Italy to speak at a conference there, but the Italian Embassy has stonewalled his attempts to obtain a visa. They claim that he is a terrorist. It is unclear if this is because he was in Abu Ghraib, or because he is an Iraqi, or perhaps because he is an outspoken Iraqi. Haj Ali claims he is the Iraqi pictured in the now infamous photo of a detainee in a black hood with electrodes attached to his hands. I have not yet been able to confirm this, however while I have been here an Australian journalist, Olivia Rousset from SBS Dateline in Australia has been following Haj Ali. SBS apparently feels Haj Ali’s story is credible enough to finance a short documentary piece on him and the Abu Ghraib story. Haj Ali has also helped found an organization, ostensibly with all of the surviving Iraqis from the infamous Abu Ghraib photos. His organization, Association of Victims of American Occupation Prisons, is hoping to create a change for Iraq, in the way the prisons are run, in the manner that Iraqis are treated, and, he hopes, a change for Iraq overall.

Haj Ali assured me that his organization is important because these actions continue, many of them now caused by Iraqi guards, who were trained by the United States and who attempt to imitate the Americans’ actions. He wanted to emphasize that the best thing that can happen is for the United States to leave Iraq, for many reasons, not the least of which being the soldiers’ abuse of Iraqis and their impact on average Iraqis because they have encouraged the practice of abuse and torture by their actions.

While he was in Abu Ghraib, he suffered many things, not only the pictures with the electrodes and the hood. They gave him many nicknames, strip him naked and then, with a thick marker, they wrote on him. For awhile they called him “Colin Powell,” after the previous Secretary of State, and the soldiers wrote this name on his forehead, across his chest and back, all over his body. They gave him other nicknames as well, such as Gilligan and Big Chicken. They also forced him to dress in a bikini type bathing suit or underwear, and they threatened to show this to all his family, his children, his wife, his cousins and other family. For those who are not aware about Muslim custom, it is important to make clear why this is so offensive, even more so than simple humiliation.

In Islam, it is forbidden to publicly display your body, from your midriff near the belly button to your knees. So for Haj Ali, who is a very religious man, this is an incredible insult and defamation, it is a violation of his religion for him to do this. One way to understand how dedicated and religious Haj Ali is will be to understand the reason he is referred to by the term “Haj.” This is because he has made the Haj, the religious pilgrimage to Mecca. So now, as a term of respect, though his given name is Ali Shalal Abbas, most people simply call him Haj Ali.

Today these prisons and humiliations still continue in Iraq, whether we discuss the public use of confessions and humiliations of alleged insurgents on television, or less public actions, it is continuing. There are prisons run by militias and parties all over Iraq. This is because the only groups that have been able to keep order continuously in Iraq are the militias, which are dedicated to the goals of their specific parties, which are often no more than the political arms of tribal factions in Iraq. Groups such as the Badr Brigade and the Mahdi Army are only some of the militias that are better known in the media.

To prove that these torturous practices and abuses are still continuing, Haj Ali provided me with two dozen photos of injured or deceased Iraqis, with many clear signs of abuse. These photos are all of detainees from Iraq, and clearly demonstrate abuse. I can only post the photos here for your perusal to make your own decision about their truth. A photographer who works for the Association produced these. In my own investigations, they appear to me to be valid, but in today’s world of Adobe Photoshop and digital imaging, I admit it can be difficult. Many of these photos are quite gruesome, so please be advised. You can find them here.

Being aware that these practices are still occurring is very important, because the media in the United States, particularly, has appeared to describe Abu Ghraib as an isolated phenomenon. But because these abuses are still happening, and are quite widespread, it is important to be aware of this. The abuses are still occurring, often carried out by members of the Wolf Brigade, the Badr Brigade, and others. The use of private detention facilities has shown up recently in Basra as well. In Basra, militia members posing as police detained two British soldiers, and the conflict between competing militias and parties has risen again.

Beyond this, he informed me that “many of the people who are now in the interim government are known criminals, and just because they were imprisoned by Saddam, that does not mean they are not criminals.” For example, it is important to remember that Ahmad Chalabi was a criminal, who left Iraq for London to evade prison. “The United States, they brought many criminals to Iraq to run the government, and these people, they don’t really care about Iraq, each one wants the best for his own party, his own group, not for Iraq.” These parties are the same as the militias and parties discussed above. Haj Ali also told me that Iran is very much involved in influencing the Shi’a parties in the Iraqi government, using money and influence to push an Iranian agenda in Iraq.

Haj Ali believes that the way the United States can be made to leave Iraq is if the American people make it so, much like in Vietnam, if the people of the United States say no, he believes the government will have to leave. This is because “the United States, the people, are always there, governments change, but the people are still there, so perhaps the United States will not leave today, but the government will change, George Bush will leave office eventually, and if the American people want it, then the United States will leave Iraq. He told me that he knows “the American people they can be very generous, that they have helped many countries in the past but right now, in Iraq, this is not the situation, and they must leave because the Americans are not helping.

for another story about Haj Ali, look here.

The flight to Jordan was fairly uneventful. Just long with plenty of bad television. When I arrived in Amman this afternoon at 4:30 PM local time, it was a generally chaotic scene. I’m certain that most airports in foreign countries will appear unfamiliar to the traveler. Coming from the airports of the United States where bodies rush past each other with little more than a glance, arriving at the airport in Jordan I was overwhelmed by the helpful offers of Jordanian locals, having to explain several times that I knew where my bags were and that I could take care of them myself.

After this I found a taxi, which appeared to be no more than a guy with a car and time on his hands. He approached me multiple times; while I was looking for a calling card, making the call, and after finishing, to offer a ride. I accepted, and was a little surprised to find that his car was not with the taxis, but in fact in the airport parking lot. No matter, he only asked 3.5 JD (Jordanian Dinar) over what I have been told was the going rate.

Although most of the Jordanians on the road appeared to follow general traffic laws and rules of the road, the driver of my taxi seemed to have a penchant for driving in the middle of the road, so he could quickly maneuver from lane to lane when necessary. This was slightly disconcerting to me, but nevertheless we arrived with a minimal of horn blowing from irate drivers on the road and little event of note.

He is from Jordan but has a brother who lives in Brooklyn that he spoke tp on the phone with while I was in the cab. He was excited by my small amount of broken Arabic, I suspect it will get much better in the coming days. The first real event of note was when I arrived at the Al Monzer Hotel.

On the ride to the hotel, the driver told me several times that I did not want to stay at the Al Monzer and that it was dirty, etc. So I was not surprised when I arrived at the condition of the hotel when we arrived. Keep in mind that Kathy Kelly from VITW (Voices in the Wilderness) assured me that the taxi driver would attempt to convince me to stay at a separate hotel. After I had moved into my room, I went downstairs to look in on what had appeared to be a bar, to find a drink, and perhaps some of the journalists I had been assured were staying at the Al Monzer.

Imagine my surprise when I found that what from the outside appeareared to be a “bar,” was in fact the Al Monzer itself! I had been tricked by the hotel that shares the building with Al Monzer, in order to rent a room for only 8JD! Keep in mind the exchange is .7JD per 1 US Dollar. I met Jameel at the desk of the A-M and he assured me that when his Boss returned, he’d have a word with the proprietor of the other hotel, and we’d settle this quickly. At this point Jameel regaled me with stories of all the people he knew, who I also happen to have made acquaintance with over the past several months, preparing for this trip. People like Joseph Carr, Dahr Jamail, Sheila and Matt from CPT (Christian Peacemaker Teams) among others.

At this point Jameel introduced me to Haj Ali, an Iraqi who spent several months in Abu Ghraib and is in Jordan currently, trying to set up an organization to advocate for the rights of Iraqi detainees. Hajali speaks almost entirely Arabic, and as I speak only very little Arabic, we had some trouble communicating at first. With Jameel as a translator, though, it went well. I explained to Hajali about the Alive in Baghdad project and my trip. He showed me many photos that he has of detainees who have been injured or killed. I will ask him about posting these photos, and hope to have them up late Sunday, Jordanian time.

Tomorrow Haj Ali will head to the Italian Embassy here in Amman because he continues to be refused a visa. He is attempting to travel to a conference in Italy this coming week and is meeting with them tomorrow because they are supposed to make a final decision regarding the visa. He has invited me to travel with him to the embassy to see what happens.

I hope that at least some photos from the trip will be available on the site soon after, and I plan to interview Haj Ali tomorrow about his organization, his time in Abu Ghraib, the Occupation, and the various photos he has passed on to me. I suspect I will have an article posted by late Sunday evening, again Jordanian time.

I’ve been in the country less than 12 hours and already I have stumbled onto what should be the first of many great stories. Keep an eye on the site for more soon!

I have heard very different reports from my Iraqi contacts in Baghdad. While some urge me not to come to Iraq at this time, others seem to believe that I should still make the trip. Although nowhere in Iraq is “safe,” the stark difference of opinion between of Iraqis, raises many questions.

I would like to take a moment at this point to write about the situation in western Iraq, and the continuing exacerbation of ethnic conflict. I believe this is relevant to the dichotomy of opinion about the situation in Iraq. Several sources have discussed the appearance of not only sectarian, but clear ethnic divides in the recent conflict in Tal Afar.

Although the bulk of articles do not do enough to provide context to the situation in Tal Afar, the idea that what is happening in Tal Afar can only be seen as ethnic cleansing with intention is negligent at worst, and simplification at best.

The reality of modern Iraq, existing as not just a region, but specifically a “State,” a construct of the League of Nations decades ago, continues to have an impact today. The efforts of the League to define national borders that were of interest to the West, and clearly ignorant of tribal and historical ethnic ties, still encourages conflict today.

For the Occupation to support forces that were oppressed under the previous Regime will germinate ethnic conflict. In Iraq there is an active Resistance, which cannot be divorced from the years of ethnic tensions, inflamed first by the League of Nations, and stoked most recently by the efforts of Saddam Hussein to remain in power. The United States continues to claim it intends to construct a civil government that can defend Iraq’s sovereignty but, because of the active Resistance, the US and the MNF-I (Multi National Force-Iraq) will only inflame these ethnic tensions. Why? Because the only forces available to defend Iraq are those who belonged to various oppressed classes under Saddam, and those who make up the Resistance are often the same people who benefited from this past oppression.

The South appeared for a time to have a strong police force and relative calm, but there have also been well-documented cases of oppressive control and the imposition of force based on religious law. It now seems to be coming out that the calm in Basra was based primarily on the influence of Iran, who funneled training, weapons, and other support into the South of Iraq.

In many ways, it appears that what “calm” there has ever been in Western Iraq since the toppling of Saddam has been due to similar control and influence by Sunni “insurgent” militias. Perhaps it is inaccurate to represent many of the informally organized Resistance cells as “militia,” but I believe you understand the implication. If you are curious for examples, keep in mind the relative calm that occurred in Fallujah after the MNF-I left the area in mid-2004. Was Fallujah calm? Yes, but was it safe for Shiite Iraqis? It seems the area was probably as unsafe for Shiite Iraqis then as Basra is for Sunni Iraqis now.

If the US, the Occupation, and the MNF-I are going to rebuild Iraq, it seems they need to engage in more consideration of the impact of their actions. So long as the MNF-I fails to take into account the context and impact of its actions, it will be incapable of assisting Iraq and Iraqis in determining a stable future. It may be time to consider that the modern idea of the “State” must be re-examine. What relevance does the “State” hold in a world that is simultaneously being globalized, while in many areas of the world still strongly organized around family and ethnic ties?

It’s September 9th 2005. It has been nearly four years since September 11th. As we look to the news each evening, we are shocked by the images of the recent devastation in New Orleans. Some of us are outraged by the censorship of images coming from outside and even inside our own country. We are still not seeing bodies in either Iraq or New Orleans.

The sensationalist images seen on the nightly news are not truly descriptive of the devastation seen in New Orleans or Baghdad, and certainly not of the battles being waged on Iraq’s border with Syria. Al’Qaim and Tal Afar are just the latest in a lengthening list of western towns drifting back and forth between the control of the resistance and the state of simply being ignored. These are provincial, mostly Sunni, towns that the central government couldn’t concern itself with, except when it wishes to make an example of the resistance when they come to town.

Does this sound familiar? Perhaps this is the same sort of relationship that a large portion of the Gulf Coast seems to have with the United States’ central government as well. What little media we see demonstrates the situation of people forgotten by the United States in its efforts to eradicate Terrorism. We’ve already realized that the levees weren’t funded because of budgets slashed due to a desperate need for funds to cover the Iraq war.

Just as journalists now are venturing to New Orleans to cover the story, I will be traveling to Baghdad at the end of the month, to remind Americans about the ongoing devastation a world away from us. In order to make this happen, I still need to get funds and visibility in order to help shine the same kind of light on the Iraqi situation that independent media is now making an effort to bring to New Orleans.

In just over a month the Iraqis will be voting on their new constitution. I intend to be in Baghdad or elsewhere in Iraq when this happens. Whether this is possible, and certainly whether I can continue to remain there after the vote, depends very much on the funds I can raise before I leave and while I am there.

Please, if you aren’t in a place to donate funds, or perhaps feel too drawn to aid those in the United States, at the very least spread word of my project, of my site and blog, to others. By reaching out as far as possible, I believe we can find enough people who want to see truth from Iraq, to see the devastation there as much as we currently yearn for truth from New Orleans about Katrina, as much as we simultaneously cringe from and are fascinated to see, the wreckage of a great natural disaster.

Together we can make a difference. We can shine a light in the darkness, and provide what support we can to the Iraqi people.

Remember, to donate, see the link in the Donate section of the site!

By one o’clock in Iraq, at least 27 Iraqis already lay dead. By the end of the day, Al Jazeera reports over 40 dead. As Zarqawi threatened the streets would run with the blood of the electors, this seems to be a victory for the pro-occupation forces, the Americans, and others involved in “securing Iraq.” When the final numbers come back, in what officials tell us could be as long as ten days, up to 8 million ballots are expected to be counted. 8 million voters would total less than sixty percent of the 14 million Iraqis eligible to vote (assuming that the 8 million number quoted corresponds directly to those voting within the country itself and does not include expatriate voters in other countries).

The election in Iraq seems to show little change for the situation there and certainly cannot at this early time be seen as a definite turning point in either direction. However, it is worth noting that, while the sort of spectacularly terrible attacks that Western media and insurgent communiqu�s prepared us for did not happen, there were still a vast array of attacks all across the country. Despite the overwhelming security presence, some 300,000 soldiers and police mobilized to protect the polls, more Iraqis were killed today than any other day in the past week. In fact, more died today even than on the worst day for occupation-related deaths, Wednesday, when 37 American soldiers were killed in attacks across the country.

The 44 Iraqis killed today is a much smaller number than those killed in the bombings in Karbala and elsewhere in March of last year. The elections, as a process, went off with few difficulties. All over Iraq people voted, but all over Iraq as well, people stayed home. At least 43 percent of Iraqis eligible to vote are believed to have stayed home. It could have been a referendum for peace. The election might have been a clear demonstration by the people of Iraq that they are ready to govern themselves through whatever form available. Rather than a clear referendum, the election results and the Iraqi people have demonstrated that despite occupation assurances of security and a free Iraq, the Freedom, as Iraqis are fond of describing it, has presented itself, but democracy seems to have missed the boat.

There is no freedom to vote, and even with freedom to vote, there is no freedom to elect. This election will not be like the one in the United States this past November. This Iraqi election is even less significant for the Iraqi people than the crafting of the American Constitution or signing of the Declaration of Independence was for most Americans of the day. The Occupation forces still provide the last word. Until the Iraqi people are permitted the privilege of self-determination, their can be no free Iraq, their can be no end to the Occupation, there can be no Mission Accomplished.

Self-determination would mean that Iraqis could vote for whom they wanted to vote. Self-determination would mean that Iraqis could choose not to vote, without being harassed by armed soldiers of another nation, if they so chose. Self-determination would mean that all Iraqis equally might have a say in their future, and that each individual could determine his or her future individually.

On Saturday, an elderly Iraqi man was quoted in the Boston Globe as saying that, having ten children and being unsure what to do with the Freedom, having never engaged in a free election in his life, and without anyone from the Coalition or Iraqi Government to school him, had made a decision that he thought the most fair possible. He would direct five of his children to vote for al�Sistani�s party and the other five to vote for Allawi.

This logic is endemic to the �democracies� put forward by President Bush and the war on terror. In Afghanistan we have tribal elders directing the vote, in Iraq, a slightly more modern country, we have family elders directing the vote. Just ten days ago, during his inaugural address, President Bush informed Iraq and the world that democracy was coming, whether they were �ready or not.�

In Iraq, democracy may be running a little late, but Bush logic and the Freedom are at the dinner table and moving towards the final course.

________

Also please consider supporting my continuing work in analysis of the situation from the States, or donating to fund my upcoming trip to Iraq to work as a journalist covering the situation facing the Iraqi people.

Greetings folks! AliveinBaghdad.org is back online, after a long period of difficulty with the hosting, servers, etc. Unfortunately, due to the crash we’ve lost our changes and will have to be reconstructing them over the coming days.

The good news is that many things have progressed. We’ve now obtained about a third of our budget in donation promises, and once they all arrive we will be doing well. The visa application process is underway, the application was taken earlier today to the Iraqi Embassy by Travel Document Systems, the company which is facilitating the visa process for the project.

The visa process could take 2 months, possibly even longer. Our itinerary is slated for travel on March 15th, but both the itinerary and the visa will have a window of about three months within which to utilize them for travel to Baghdad. It is my hope that through applications to various funding groups as well as accelerating my fundraising efforts, we will be able to obtain most of the still needed funds by the end of February, as well as having all promised donations come in the first week of March. If the visa comes in before the 15th this will make it possible to go within the desired timeframe. If either of these does not happen by then, I will simply keep working to make it possible to travel to Baghdad to cover the situation and speak with the Iraqis on the ground there as soon as possible.

I have so far enlisted the help of a half dozen volunteers who will be assembling and/or distributing the footage while I am still in Baghdad. By assembling a diverse network of volunteers here in the States to help with this project, it will be possible for the stories of the people living in Baghdad and elsewhere in Iraq to reach those of us living in the United States and the West with greater speed.

Please contact us at aliveinbaghdad@gmail.com if you are interested in volunteering on this project. As well donations are still greatly needed. We are taking donations of money as well as media equipment, minidv tapes, minidiscs, small digital cameras, etc. All of which are items that would greatly assist the project. If possible the project will also try and leave digital cameras with local Iraqis interested in documenting their experiences, and participating in the of archiving and distributing of these documentaries via AliveinBaghdad.org.

salaamu alaikum!