Dahr Jamail

From Dahr’s weblog I haven’t slept very well the last couple of nights, as the growing anxiety of car bombs has me waking at the smallest noises outside my window nowadays. Dave was typing on his computer as I walk past him to the kitchen to make some coffee at 8:15 this morning and a … Continue reading “Life and Death on Vietnam Street”

Even as authorities for the U.S.-run occupation cede a greater share of security responsibilities to Iraqi forces, spokespeople for the Iraqi police and paramilitaries in many areas of the war-torn country say they lack the legitimacy and tools necessary to carry out their duties. With the transfer of official sovereignty to a U.S.-sanctioned governing body … Continue reading “Americans, Iraqis Vie for Control of Security Forces”

From Dahr’s weblog: Several of us are sitting in the hotel room having lunch, watching the news trying to keep up with the violence daily engulfing Iraq. Let me give you a quick rundown from the last 24 hours. Late last night fighting continued in Sadr City between the Mehdi Army and occupation forces … … Continue reading “Violence Engulfing Iraq”

From Dahr’s weblog: This became a very popular saying in Iraq after the U.S. ousted Saddam Hussein. The situation continues to degrade in occupied Iraq. I know I’m beginning to sound like a broken record … but the need to describe life on the ground here continues, as I see it slipping from the news … Continue reading “‘The Student Is Gone; the Master Has Arrived’”

Near the main office of Moqtada Al-Sadr, in the part of Baghdad known as Sadr City, followers of the rebel cleric continue to fight the U.S. military despite suffering heavy losses. While the military claims to have killed more than 800 Iraqis, most of them fighters, during the last nine weeks in the sprawling urban … Continue reading “Iraqis Grow Weary of War, but Mehdi Army Pledges to Fight On”

While a restful experience, driving around the mountains and green fields of Kurdistan did not provide the complete escape from the troubles of Iraq for which we had hoped. The cousin of a friend manages a hotel in Erbil … one of the nicer lodges in the city. While dining with him in the empty … Continue reading “Troubles in Kurdistan”

June 3 – He is a well-spoken, handsome lawyer, just a year older than I am. He worked as a diplomat who coordinated NGOs and foreign governments in order to bring aid to his country during the sanctions. He was detained and accused of being a spy for Saddam Hussein, even though he is not … Continue reading “‘Why Are They Doing This to Us?’”

June 3 – A rumbling explosion just let off near my hotel. This not too long after getting back from Adhamiya where I was talking to witnesses at the scene of yet another car bomb; the third in as many days here in Baghdad. At the scene in Adhamiya the scorched, crumpled shell of the … Continue reading “Fallujah, Pacified”

After a brief, frenetic political battle between the Iraqi Governing Council (IGC) and the U.S.-run Coalition Provisional Authority, both parties on Tuesday named Sheikh Ghazi Al-Yawar president of Iraq’s newly formed interim government. Yesterday UN representative Lakhdar Brahimi and U.S. administrator Paul Bremer announced that they favored Adnan Pachachi for the presidential slot, while IGC … Continue reading “New Iraqi President Holds Tentative Grassroots Respect, Little Power”

While Iraqi and American political players have been frenetically rearranging the chairs of interim government members on the Titanic that is occupied Iraq today, a massive car bomb explosion rumbles my hotel, miles from where it detonated outside of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan building near the so-called Green Zone. So rather than celebratory gunfire … Continue reading “New President, New Car Bomb”