tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-164143602024-03-08T00:35:14.985+03:00I was there..I have no tomorrow to talk about, because I live in Iraq, but I have a mute yesterday I will tell you about..I was there..http://www.blogger.com/profile/18320153586935047080noreply@blogger.comBlogger13125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16414360.post-24695703365237126142008-05-02T20:36:00.009+03:002008-05-03T01:59:11.219+03:00I am leaving..<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVLN1CUZOYgjrkUEo-UR-B53mI2j7cXN_WtMBkajLkya0JVUCLuPmhvw56DfG9ToAKS-AttQ8HkpiTu1C_QZRUABPp82qoqsf1_9IcXhlFuYcQN1jDcMdlFS-Ffz3KSzkjo5Zo/s1600-h/baghdad_bridges.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVLN1CUZOYgjrkUEo-UR-B53mI2j7cXN_WtMBkajLkya0JVUCLuPmhvw56DfG9ToAKS-AttQ8HkpiTu1C_QZRUABPp82qoqsf1_9IcXhlFuYcQN1jDcMdlFS-Ffz3KSzkjo5Zo/s320/baghdad_bridges.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5195912441394909314" border="0" /></a><br /><p class="MsoNormal"><span style=""><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);font-size:180%;" ><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:georgia;" ><br /></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style=""><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);font-size:180%;" ><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:georgia;" ><br />It</span> </span>has been such a long time since I posted “No, Not My Daughters!” on my Blog; I stayed away from “I was there..”, because I was not there! I was straying, looking for a way to save my family and containing the catastrophes we were facing.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="">I thank all my friends who sent me e-mails asking about me; they were so worried because I disappeared all of the sudden.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="">I am back again to “I was there..” <span style=""> </span><span style=""> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="">I want to talk about my own suffering, since “No, Not My Daughters!”, because I was forced to displace and leave my home, my relatives, my friends and my country, which is just an example of how displaced Iraqis are feeling now.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="">I was forced to displace with my family after the threats we had faced in Iraq. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="">Working as a journalist in Iraq now is a big threat for the journalist’s life and for his family; the Committee to Protect Journalists CPJ, called the war in Iraq “<span style="color:black;">the deadliest conflict for journalists in recent history," with a total of 127 journalists and 50 media support workers killed since 2003</span><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p><span style="">The Committee to Protect Journalists said 105 of the 127 journalists were Iraqis; 51 journalists have been kidnapped in Iraq since 2004, with 12 of those killed.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p><span style="">Moreover, working for an American organization in Iraq will add more threats to the life of the Iraqi journalist and to his family. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p><span style="">This is what I faced in Iraq, within two weeks, right after posting “No, Not My Daughters!”: <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style=""><span style="">-<span style=""> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span dir="ltr"></span><span style="">When the armed men failed to kidnap one of my daughters, they kidnapped my nephew who lives close to my house. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style=""><span style="">-<span style=""> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span dir="ltr"></span><span style="">My wife’s brother killed by armed men in police uniforms when he was in his way to my house to lend me some money, which I needed to get my daughters out of Iraq. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p><span style="">I displaced my family to Jordan, left them there, and returned to Iraq; I stayed in the office because I was afraid to go back to my house. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p><span style="">I was shot at two times in two different incidents later on, which means that we can never return to Iraq, so I decided to apply for the UNHCR, who puts us into a resettlement program to be resettled in the US, just like many other Iraqis. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p><span style="">We went through number of interviews at the UNHCR and the IOM, the International Organization for Migration, and finally they accepted our case but it is pending the completion of the security review. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p><span style="">The IOM people advised us to prepare ourselves for immediate leave upon their call, because we will not have time then to sell our furniture and get ready to leave. <span style=""> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p><span style="">The hardest and the most difficult part is when I started selling my furniture to get ready to leave Iraq and resettle at the US.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p><span style="">All that furniture that took me years to buy; now I have to sell in three days.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p><span style="">All this furniture that I have memories in every part of it; those beds that my daughters used to agglutinate to, in the morning, refusing to wake up and go to school; the paintings that my wife bought in the Christmas; I have to sell for low prices, because who cares for the memories I have in every piece of furniture.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p><span style="">The Air-conditioning units no one wants to buy them because the electricity is no good in Iraq, no one can operates them, so no one needs them.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p><span style="">It took years and thousands of dollars to buy all this furniture and now it does not make more than 4000 dollars at the maximum. <span style=""> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p><span style="">Many things I just cannot sell, because they mean a lot to me or to my family, but where to leave them?<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p><span style="">I have to sell everything within three days and I am tight in time, while I am thinking of the new life in the US, in case they will accept my case; I have to leave as soon as they will call me.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p><span style="">Some friends told me that the organization at the US, which will receive us the minute we arrive there, would pay a rent for only one month at the US so I have to get a survival job to pay for my rent and my bills; I am so worried and afraid that I am taking the wrong decision.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p><span style="">I am talking to my family trying to make them accept the idea of moving to the US but if I will get a non-respectable job there, my daughters will ask me, “Why did you bring us here”, they will not be happy to go to the US and I do not want to put them in such a condition.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p><span style="">I did not think that it is going to be so difficult; if I will not succeed in there I will have to go back to Jordan and then I have to start from scratch.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p><span style="">I am torn between selling all furniture that means a lot to me, and the fears from the new life in the US.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p><span style="">I do not think that it is only me, but every Iraqi who is leaving the country feels the same.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p><span style="">When I called my wife and told her that I sold my car, she started crying, “You loved this car,” she said.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p><span style="">The people are paying for how much my furniture worth and not for how much this furniture means to me.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p><span style="">I am a type of man who likes to save everything and do not like to get rid of anything; I am still keeping my elementary school’s notebooks, and now I have to get rid of all this; all my books and everything I kept and was taking care of, keeping it in a nice place where I can show them to my friends who used to visit me at my house, all this must be thrown away.<span style=""> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p><span style="">This is my history that I am selling, after selling everything I will end up a man with no history.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p><span style="">I wish that I would not regret this decision in the future.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p><span style="">I know that all Iraqis who is leaving Iraq feel the same way because,<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p><span style=""><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p><span style=""><span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(51, 51, 255); font-weight: bold;font-family:georgia;font-size:180%;" >I was there..</span></span></p>whowasthere@gmail.comI was there..http://www.blogger.com/profile/18320153586935047080noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16414360.post-1146329288385277212006-04-30T07:59:00.000+04:002006-04-29T20:48:09.706+04:00No, Not My Daughters!<a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2272/1407/1600/wl-wolves%20big.jpg"><img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2272/1407/320/wl-wolves%20big.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2272/1407/1600/images.2.jpg"><span style="font-size:+0;"></span></a><strong><span style="font-family:georgia;font-size:180%;color:#ff0000;"><em>While</strong></span></em> the marionettes were throwing political balls into each other courts and wooing the US ambassador at Iraqi President Jalal Talabani’s residence, gangsters broke into my house looking for my daughters.<br /><br />My wife called me around 2 pm last Wednesday while I was working in my office and said with miff, “Your daughters just called me asking if I have sent some one to the house; three men opened the house door and took two cocking gas cylinders as Um ‘Y’ our next door neighbor said, but I did not send any body.”<br /><br />We thought that they were no more than normal thieves looking for $40 worth gas cylinder to sell them.<br /><br />“You better come back home, I do not think that those men were after the cocking gas cylinders, they were in the house and asked Um ‘Y’ about our daughters”, my wife said that bitterly when she called me again from the house after she talked to my neighbor.<br /><br />My daughters were not at home at that time because their minibus broke down at that day so they had to walk back home and this is why they were late, “They should be home by now”, one of the gangsters told my neighbor with an interjection when she told him that the girls still at school replying for his question about them.<br /><br />My fear rushed with me to the house, it was striking hard on my head and making me so meager while it was growing and growing, it filled the car that I was driving in the dusk through the useless police checkpoints in a bumpy road that was not paved since Saddam era.<br /><br />It took me 45 minutes in a 15-minute road to reach my house because of those police checkpoints and the 150-meter distance that we should maintain between our cars and the US military Hummers that were patrolling the street so slow, we can not pass them even if it was an emergency other wise they will shoot us so I was driving slowly following them while I was boiling deep inside trying to get home as fast as possible.<br /><br />I can not call the police because I do not trust them and I can not ask for help to protect my daughters, what shall I do? I remembered what that guy said in his comment about Iraqis should help themselves and do not expect every thing from the Americans but how can I help myself in this case to protect my daughters.<br /><br />The house was dark when I reached there because there was no electricity as it comes on for one hour and goes off for 8, and the public generator that supplies our block with electricity broke down two days ago and no one fixed it because its mechanic was killed last week because he was Shiite.<br /><br />I walked inside the dark house stumbling with things on the floor that I couldn’t see because of the darkness; my wife and my daughters were all sitting in the living room motionless with awe.<br /><br />I sat by my daughter who was squatting on the sofa and told them, “I am going to take you all outside Iraq, it is not the place that you can stay in any more, let us leave this country for those marionettes and the gangsters.”<br /><br />My wife said, if they were after the cocking gas cylinders, we had six of them but they took only two; why didn’t they took the generator which was by the cylinders, it is more expensive; I do not think that they were thieves; even my neighbor said that they had a new good clean black car that they used to put the cylinders in; I do not think that whoever has a new car like this need to steel cocking gas cylinders.<br /><br />My daughters were doing their pre-final exam so they did not want to leave before finishing it, “We will waste a whole school year if we will leave now, can’t we wait one more week?”, my oldest daughter said that with a sad tone.<br /><br />At the same night, I changed the doors locks and reinforced the main gate; I even changed their driver with another more trusted one who lives just cross the street, and talked to my neighbors to keep eye on the house; more over, we decided to move them around from place to another every day.<br /><br />I couldn’t sleep that night so does my family, I kept on staring to the roof in the house that was lightened by the dancing flame of the candles with AK47 gun by my head.<br /><br />“That’s it”, I told my self; I will not be able to sit with them like before, laugh, yell, watching them teasing each other, who will be doing my Argela, to smoke, the way that my youngest daughter use to make for me every night; I will miss them, even though that they will stay alive by leaving the country but I will not be able to see them and live with them like now, “I lost them in any case”, that was the phrase that was tumbling in my head while I was writhing in my bed.<br /><br />I kept asking my self the whole night, “Why they are after us?”<br /><br />Most of the Iraqis now do not know why they are dieing or who is after them and I became one of them.<br /><br />Next morning, I was leaving the house when two men took a picture of me while they were driving by the house and run away.<br /><br />On the next day, my youngest daughter broke the house arrest rules, which were imposed on them by us, and went to her teacher, who lives one block from my house, for a privet lesson.<br /><br />Two men in a black car chased her to her teacher house then when she finished the lesson they were still waiting for her there so she told her teacher and called her mother; the teacher kept her in her house until they left then she walked her home.<br /><br />It bothered me that no one cared for what happened, no one offered a solution, except ‘J’ who works with me, all the others either gave me some impractical advices or did not care because what happened with me is an every day story in Iraq now.<br /><br />What has happened to me was not something new, for instance, my neighbor was kidnapped then his father, both were kidnapped by men “wearing” police uniform, and the son of a friend of my wife was kidnapped too by some other group and the same thing happened with another friend of hers and another neighbor, all this kidnapping took place with in four months and in one area, we were the last but not least.<br /><br />Iraqis are trying to leave the country, before it is too late, but which country will give visas for Iraqis now, and how much it will cost to live there, this is why only the rich families can leave now and the rest must stay and face death.<br /><br />I just became a new scene in the Iraqi tragic play which the marionettes called it the new Iraq, but we will leave this new Iraq for them.<br /><br />I don’t think that they will found many Iraqis who will accept to live in their new Iraq..<br /><br />I know about that because,<br /><br /><span style="font-family:georgia;font-size:180%;color:#ff0000;"><em><strong>I was there..<br /></strong></em></span><br /><a href="mailto:whowasthere@gmail.com">whowasthere@gmail.com</a>I was there..http://www.blogger.com/profile/18320153586935047080noreply@blogger.com34tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16414360.post-1144684199411578662006-04-11T06:40:00.000+04:002006-04-20T18:29:20.706+04:00Any News?<a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2272/1407/1600/drags.1.jpg"><img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2272/1407/320/drags.1.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2272/1407/1600/drags.jpg"><span style="font-size:0;"></span></a><br /><span style="font-family:georgia;font-size:180%;color:#ff0000;"><strong><em>Any news?</em></strong></span> And I replied, No news today, no one killed!!<br /><br />I realized when I answered my colleague that I said it in a way just like I was saying ‘sorry, no one was killed today so there will be no news’, I felt bad and sad.<br /><br />It is so difficult to work as a reporter for any newspaper when you have to cover a story of a car bomb or any violence that killed many of your people.<br /><br />When you see all this Iraqi blood and peaces of flesh every where around you at the scene, how could your story be neutral and balanced?<br /><br />Your readers could be Iraqis or non-Iraqis and you still have to put your feelings away when you write for them so your story will be neutral.<br /><br />Every time I go out to cover these kind of stories which they are most of the stories in Iraq now, I remain quiet in the car all the way back to the office thinking of all those Iraqis dieing every day and I always feel that I will not be able to write any thing about it but when I look at it as how valuable those Iraqis were, dieing for no reason, it makes me write, and here when I have to be neutral to have a balanced story.<br /><br />My father who was a military man and worked with politics until he was thrown in jail for some years and kicked out of the military, told me a story long time ago,<br /><br />“There was a Bedouin who loved a woman for so many years; he couldn’t marry her because her family refused him, finely he did.<br /><br />One day, a wolf came and killed her while she was sleeping in her tent,<br /><br />When the Bedouin came back and saw her drowned in her own blood in the tent he didn’t know what to do and because he was a poet he made a poem and start wander the desert singing it then made another one and another and the people liked his songs and they cried when they listened to him; then people started calling him to their villages to tell them his story and sing for them, later, they started paying for his expenses to come to their places, then, they started paying him every time he sings about her.<br /><br />He made a lot of many, but one day when he was sleeping in his tent, a wolf came, he woke up, left the money and run out of the tent.<br /><br />Outside the tent he thought about the money and said, “This wolf made me rich because he ate my beloved one, or my beloved one made me rich because she was eaten by this wolf”.<br /><br />He realized, later, how bad he was to become rich out of the death of his beloved one.”<br /><br />So we have to cover the story as it is for those people who are dieing to make the whole world understand what is going on and why those Iraqis are dieing not to become famous out of it..<br /><br />And to those who did not understand my point they can ask me,<br />I can tell them all about it because,<br /><br /><span style="font-family:georgia;font-size:180%;color:#ff0000;"><strong><em>I was there..<br /></em></strong></span><br /><a href="mailto:whowasthere@gmail.com">whowasthere@gmail.com</a>I was there..http://www.blogger.com/profile/18320153586935047080noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16414360.post-1144511874478498572006-04-09T07:38:00.000+04:002006-04-08T19:57:54.736+04:00It is April 9 again!!<a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2272/1407/1600/w6w_200602212237148d.jpg"><img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2272/1407/320/w6w_200602212237148d.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><strong><em><span style="font-family:georgia;font-size:180%;color:#ff0000;">Three years</span></em></strong> passed since the US-led Coalition Forces invaded Iraq to remove Saddam and the “Mass Distraction Weapons” and to make Iraq a new "Democratic country".<br /><br />The young Iraqis, after three years are so disappointed and pessimistic; they missed those days when they use to have fun and go out partying or for picnics; they get sick and tired of the security situation and the car bombs.<br /><br />Many of them get sick and tired of seeing all those religious men with turbans controlling their lives; at Rafidean University in Baghdad, the young men were not allowed to turn on the stereo at the university Cafeteria for more than 40 days for the death memorial of Hussein, Profit Muhammad Grand son, “We did not liked that but they told us that this was al-Saied order, (al-Said means Said Ammar al-Hakeem the son of Abdul Aziz al-Hakeem of SCIRI and the head of the Alliance Bloc at the parliament .<br /><br />The young men started remembering the old days when they use to trust the Americans and like them but the curvature of love for the Americans start declining because of all the mistakes that their leaders did in Iraq and because they did not keep their promises.<br /><br />Therefore, those young Iraqis start doing any thing remind them with the good days ‘from their point of view’ that they missed and one of those things was by putting Saddam pictures as a desktop on their mobile phones or using Saddam old songs as a ring tones for their phones.<br /><br />“We did not like him but his picture remind us by all the good days we missed and how safe we use to feel”, H., a university student said.<br /><br />Some of them found some pictures that no one saw before and start exchanging these pictures and songs through Bluetooth system from one phone to another; just like the one I put here in my blog.<br /><br />Many Mobile shops found out that it is a good business so they prepared a lot of good pictures and songs for those young and you can find it in their shops.<br /><br />“Many young men come every day and ask us to download some pictures for their mobile phones and a lot of them they ask for Saddam Pictures, we bring any thing the costumers want to make more money and we have to look for some thing new every day”, an owner of mobile phone shop said.<br /><br />“I do not want you to use my name or the name of my shop because I afraid that some armed men ‘wearing police uniform in police cars’ will attack our shop for selling Saddam pictures”, another mobile shop owner said.<br /><br />“The young men used to ask for American flags when the Americans invaded Baghdad, the demand on these desktops is not much any more the demand on Saddam desktops is much more, they did not gain from the Americans the things they were expecting”, another mobile shop owner said.<br /><br />“These are the kind of pictures and ring tons you found among the university students, they are all about Saddam”, S., a university female student said.<br /><br />I feel sorry for those young people and I know how they feel because,<br /><br /><span style="font-family:georgia;font-size:180%;color:#ff0000;"><strong><em>I was there,<br /></em></strong></span><br /><a href="mailto:whowasthere@gmail.com">whowasthere@gmail.com</a>I was there..http://www.blogger.com/profile/18320153586935047080noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16414360.post-1144326128299247842006-04-07T04:12:00.000+04:002006-04-06T16:35:05.073+04:00No More Newspapers<a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2272/1407/1600/papagiannis_iraq_IMG_1985.2.jpg"><img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2272/1407/320/papagiannis_iraq_IMG_1985.2.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-family:georgia;font-size:180%;color:#ff0000;"><em><strong>Iraqis </strong></em></span>are facing different threatens every day and the Insurgents are always looking for new ways to fight the new government and the Americans in Iraq; the newest target is the bookshops that sell newspapers.<br /><br />Khalid Bookshop was the first target for the new insurgents’ strategy; it is the oldest bookshop at Rabi Street, west of Baghdad, it was set on fire around 9 pm on Monday, no casualties but every thing in the book shop was burned.<br /><br />Khalid Book shop is one of the land marks of Rabi Street, “It was established 29 years ago” as Khalid Ani, the owner of the bookshop said.<br /><br />Ani said that around 9 pm Monday, he received a phone call saying that his book shop was on fire, the metal shutter that locks the bookshop was blown out, the shop was all on fire and the fire was going out of the shop, “people said that they heard an explosion but I do not know what happened and why”, Ani added.<br /><br />One of the bookshop costumers said, “It is all because of the newspapers, all the bookshops were threatened to stop selling newspapers because they are all ‘mouth peaces’ for the government”.<br /><br />Ani said that he did not receive any threatens otherwise he would stop selling newspapers as he was one of the main distributors of newspapers west of Baghdad, many small bookshops get their newspapers from him.<br /><br />The fire ate all the books, many Korans (Muslims Holly Book) were on the floor either burned or half burned, some workers were cleaning the shop, which the fire turned all its walls and roof into black; Khalid was standing in the middle of the shop, sad and scared, “I can not say any thing, I afraid to say any thing that will make every thing worse, thanks God that we are all alive and no one was hurt”, Ani said.<br /><br />I drove with my friend for about 2 Miles to the west of Rabi Street to the dangerous Amiriyah Neighborhood, most of the shops on the main street were closed at the middle of the day, people there said that most of the shops here stopped opening their shops a week ago because of the dangerous situation at this area; Iraqi and American military forces were patrolling the area all the time; I felt unsafe and I was turning my to all directions to be sure that no armed men in the streets or no suspicious cars that could be car bombes specially when we passed by military checkpoints.<br /><br />The Ministry of Interior Commandos set check points on the main street to Amiriyah to search the cars going to or from that area, “Hide your ID card, don’t you know where you are at”, one of the police commandoes at the check point told me when he was asking who were we and after we told him that we are a reporters.<br /><br />A book Shop owner at Amiriyah, said, “the threaten letters were not distributed here to the bookshops but in the Newspapers Exchange Stock at Bab al- Muadham few days ago and since that we stopped bringing newspapers to our bookshop so did many others”<br />“We are going to close the bookshop, Even though that we do not have another source for living but it is better than being killed”, the bookshop owner added.<br /><br />I did not see any of those people who sells newspapers at the traffic light intersection areas, but some bookshops were still selling newspapers and said that they did not hear about those threatens.<br /><br />In a visit to a friend who works in an Iraqi newspaper he confirmed this news but he said that the main reason for these threatens was that few days ago all the newspapers had a contract to run a half page advertisement that had pictures for wanted insurgents with their full names including the tribal name.<br /><br />This Iraqi journalist who works for an Iraqi paper told me that, the wanted insurgents names in this advertisement were all for Iraqis; there was another advertisement that run before, but it was for a wanted Arab insurgents from outside Iraq; no one threaten the newspapers at that time, they did not care but when the newspapers started putting the wanted Iraqi insurgents pictures and names advertisement in their papers they were threatened, some papers were threatened by exploding their headquarters or killing their dealers at the Newspapers Exchange Stock or by bombing any bookshop that sells those newspapers with this advertisement.<br /><br />“This is how it started, the threatens was not for the newspapers it self but for the newspapers that runs this advertisement but later on the word separated that any one will deal with newspapers will be killed and because the people do not want to take chances they just stop dealing with newspapers”, the Iraqi journalist added.<br /><br />When I was going back to my house I told my friend, “No mater what was the reason, do not buy any newspapers for the time being”.<br /><br />“I do not think that the situation in Iraq will be better”, I told my friend in our way back, “I wish that it will stay like this and will not get worse”, my friend replay..<br /><br />I agreed with him because,<br /><br /><span style="font-family:georgia;"><strong><em><span style="font-size:180%;color:#ff0000;">I was there..<br /></span></em></strong><br /></span><a href="mailto:whowasthere@gmail.com">whowasthere@gmail.com</a>I was there..http://www.blogger.com/profile/18320153586935047080noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16414360.post-1144076437568903842006-04-04T06:47:00.000+04:002006-04-03T21:55:35.986+04:00Chamber<a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2272/1407/1600/DSC00302.jpg"><img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2272/1407/320/DSC00302.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><strong><em><span style="font-family:georgia;font-size:180%;color:#ff0000;">Sadoun Street</span></em></strong> is one of the most important commercial streets in central Baghdad where most of the Travel and Tourism companies, cinemas and hotels are located.<br /><br />There were many ‘Chambers’ popping up on both sides of the street and the <em>‘Chamber’</em> is a well known Arabic word in Iraq, it means ‘stand’ in English, and <em>‘Abu al-Chamber’</em> means the owner of the stand or the street vendor and this is why it is a well known word in Iraq because this is what some Iraqis do when they do not have a job; a lot of those street vendors are retired men or jobless university graduates; they mainly sell soft drinks and cigarettes.<br /><br />Yesterday, I drove by Sadoun Street, and I noticed that the number of <em>‘Chambers’</em>, which were on both side of the Street were reduced because of all the violence that took place in that street; some people who work there are calling Sadoun Street now ‘The Death Road’, because of all the car bombs that took place there, which targeted the main three hotels in that street, the Palestine, Ishtar and Baghdad hotels, and many contractors and foreign security convoys which they were either leaving or coming back to those hotels; the last attack at Sadoun Street killed at least 20 people and wounded 40 on Monday, October 24, 2005, when three car bombs exploded near the fortified Palestine, Ishtar hotel complex used by foreigners; Iraq's national security adviser, Mowaffak al-Rubaie, said, at that time, the attack - which appeared well planned - was a "very clear" effort to take over the hotel and take foreign and Arab journalists as hostages.<br /><br />When I noticed yesterday that the number of <em>‘Chambers’</em> were reduced, I decided to stop there and ask why.<br /><br />Abbas, was one of the street vendors but now he works as a messenger at one of the companies at the same street, said, “The '<em>Chamber'</em> business is not as good as it was before because not that many people are walking on this street now, this is why I quiet and worked at this company”.<br /><br />Abbas said that all the cinemas are closed now and some companies reduced the number of employees because they lost business due to many reasons, like the high concrete blocks that runs along half of the street which obstruct the vision so no one can see those companies, and because of that they lost many costumers, or because of the security guards of Baghdad Hotel, which they block the road many times during the day; all those reasons were behind reducing the number of people which they use to buy a lot of cigarettes or soft drinks from us.<br /><br />I gave my <em>'Chamber' </em>to my nephew, he is a little kid who has no job and what is he making out of the <em>'Chamber' </em>is enough for him because he is not married and supporting him self only, but it will not be enough for a person like me who has a family.<br /><br />Jasim was another one who has a stand that sells tea, said that he took this stand from his uncle, Abu Ali, who bought a small cheap car that he takes it to a gas station and wait in the long line to fill it up with fuel then he sells it in the black market, it is easy, less danger job and he makes better money than the tea stand; me my self I do not open very often because if the police cars will get use to drink tea from me they will start coming regularly while they are patrolling and I do not want that to happen then some one will send a car bomb to target them here and then I will get killed, “I know that I am losing money but it is better than losing my life”, Jasim said.<br /><br />When I was driving out of the street I remembered that there was one female street vendor at Sadoun Street, she was very famous in that street, her name was Uroba; she wasn’t really a street vendor, in fact she was a female pimp and she use to sell soft drinks sitting by her cool box with her black <em>'Abayah'</em> (Cloak) and when some one came to her and asked her for a soft drink she used to reply, “Do you want some thing cold or ‘Hot’” so if he will understand what did she mean or if he came for that he will say, “Yes, I want some thing ‘Hot’”, if he will say yes, she will show him some women pictures so he can chose one of them and then she will send him to a near by hotel that she knew; I remembered her and laughed, that was more than three years ago, she used to sit their in the street for a week and disappeared for months and when we use to ask about her, when we do not see her, the people will say that the police arrested her; I looked at the place where she use to sit and told my self, “She is also gone, I do not think that she will be able to go back again because of those Islamic Militias who they are attacking all Alcohol, CD’s and even barber shops; They will definitely kill her", but while I was thinking of her I saw her on the other side of the street so I stoped the car and crossed the street to ask her what is she doing now, she told me that her husband divorced her and took her daughter with him, she does not have a place to stay now so she is sleeping in the streets, "I am going to die soon if not by the militias it will be by starvation", Uroba said with a voice fill with sadness...<br /><br />I know about that because,<br /><br /><strong><em><span style="font-family:georgia;font-size:180%;color:#ff0000;">I was there..<br /></span></em></strong><br /><a href="mailto:whowasthere@gmail.com">whowasthere@gmail.com</a>I was there..http://www.blogger.com/profile/18320153586935047080noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16414360.post-1143992095007360952006-04-03T06:45:00.000+04:002006-04-02T21:43:55.663+04:00Waman<a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2272/1407/1600/14crying_iraqi_woman.jpg"><img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2272/1407/320/14crying_iraqi_woman.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><strong><em><span style="font-size:180%;"><span style="color:#ff0000;">One</span> </span></em></strong>of my friends sent me this ‘jock’; I thought about putting it in my blog because I liked it, so read it and it is up to you if you want to laugh about it or cry…<br /><br />Three men were competing to see who was the most cruel.<br />The first one attacked a woman, beat her until her teeth fell off and she bled from her nose and ears.<br />He beat her so savagely that she fainted. He turned to the others and said, "I am the worst one of all".<br />The second man stepped up, raped her and beat her further until she was almost dead.<br /><br />He turned to the others and said, "No one can be worse than me".<br />The third one stepped up, smiled coldly, and said, "No, I am the worst one because I just stood by and watched. This woman is my sister".<br /><br /><br /><strong><em><span style="font-size:130%;">The woman is IRAQ<br /><br />The first man is SADDAM<br /><br />The second is the WEST<br /><br />The third is the ARAB WORLD</span></em></strong><br /><br /><br /><p><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-size:100%;"></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><em>I agree about that because,</em></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size:130%;"></span></p><p><span style="font-family:georgia;font-size:180%;color:#ff0000;"><strong><em>I was there..</em></strong></span></p><p></p><p><a href="mailto:whowasthere@gmail.com">whowasthere@gmail.com</a> <span style="font-size:130%;"></p></span>I was there..http://www.blogger.com/profile/18320153586935047080noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16414360.post-1143905988741264372006-04-02T06:28:00.000+04:002006-04-01T21:35:00.693+04:00A Night Adventure in Baghdad<a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2272/1407/1600/CHAerial.jpg"><img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2272/1407/320/CHAerial.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><strong><em><span style="font-size:180%;color:#ff0000;">The American Army</span></em></strong> surrounded me on Friday, March 31, in Baghdad, when I was driving back to my house from the office; they searched my car and my body before releasing me.<br /><br />I left the office one hour before the curfew which was imposed in Baghdad since February, 22, when a big explosion destroyed the tomb of the Askari shrine in Samarra 80 miles north of Baghdad, many angry Shiite, at that time, attacked Sunni mosques, setting fire in some of them, destroying or occupying some others, so to prevent a civil war, the Ministry of Interior imposed this curfew which is effected from 8 pm to 6 am every day.<br /><br />I was listening to the car radio while I was driving when a song by Kadhum al-Sahir, the Iraqi singer, played ‘Baghdad’, that was the name of the song, and when he reached the part that says, “Baghdad, has God ever created a city like you in the entire world”, I felt that my eyes were full with tears that did not want to leave my eyes, I did not want to go home like this and decided to take the river side road to go back home, which called ‘Abu Nuwas Street’, it lies cross the river from the fortified Green Zone where the government and the US Embassy buildings located.<br /><br />I entered Abu Nuwas Street which was still filled with many cars driving fast to reach home before the curfew; driving by the concrete blocks that was set by the Americans which kept them safe and destroyed the nice view of this old beautiful street which many Iraqis use to go there before the invasion to enjoy the view of the Tigris River and have some sandwiches or soft drinks while the kids use to play in the parks a long the river shore; of course, not any more, but this is what I was thinking about when I was driving a long the river and when I reached an area at the river bend where I use to stop and have a look to the beautiful view, a ‘crazy’ thought jumped in to my mind and decided to stop there for a few minutes and enjoy the view which I haven’t see for more than three years.<br /><br />The small red numbers at the digital clock of my car showed that I still have some time before the curfew for this ‘crazy’ thought so I stopped the car by the side of the road while there were many cars parked on the other side, and stepped out of the car to the sidewalk, and when I just put my hand on the rail that keeping the people from going further to the river and while I was looking to the beautiful view of the lights reflecting on the face of the river, I heard some shooting which the Iraqis now get use to it and they never bother them self even to look at the direction of the shooting; I did the same thing and I did not even turn my face from that beautiful view to look at the direction of the shooting; my father told me once in the First Golf War that if I hear the sound of the explosion or the shooting that means I am OK because I will not hear the sound of the bullet or the bomb that will hit me as the speed of the bullet is faster than the speed of sound, so I did not care for that shooting.<br /><br />Few seconds later I heard another round of shooting but this time it was closer and louder so I had to turn my face and look but when I turned my body toward the direction of the shooting, I saw several red spots on my chest, “Oh no, I know those red spots that comes from the laser beam locater attached to the Americans rifles”, I told my self, my friend M, who knows a lot about guns, told me that before.<br /><br />My hands rose up in the air, I tried to go back to my car when I heard that loud “Don’t move”, I can swear that even the people at the Green Zone cross the river heard that “Don’t move”, so I stopped there and looked at them and saw many US Military Hummers were stopped in the middle of the street and every one in those Hummers were pointing his gun toward me; the “Don’t move” gave me the feelings that they will not kill me if I do not move so I wanted to be sure that they will not see any movements out of me.<br /><br />The street deserted suddenly, I do not know where all those cars disappeared, it became so quiet, the only voice I was hearing was coming from a house cross the street that had 4 or 5 Imam Hussein red, and black flags on top of it, you can tell it was a Shiite house from those flags; the voice was coming from that little kid who was telling his family what was going on in the street, “There is a suicide bomber in the street”; I wanted to tell him, “Please do not say that, they might hear you”, but that little bustard kept on reporting to his family, “The Americans stopped him, they will kill him”.<br /><br />I staid like this for while and the American soldiers staid in their Hummers, my arms get tired being raised like this but I couldn’t lower them; I did not know what they were waiting for and why they did not come to me or do some thing then another Hummers came from the other side of the street and stopped few meters from my car and one of the Hummers moved forward slowly then stopped and a big soldier stepped out of the Hummer and came toward me while the gunman on top of the Hummer was pointing his gun on me; my chest at that time was fill with red spots that was coming from their guns; that kid was still reporting to his family, “They will take him”; The soldier told me to raise up my shirt, so I did and I remembered the Palestinians on Israel that I use to see them on TV in the news when the Israeli Soldiers used to asked them to do the same thing; “What do you have on your side?”, the soldier asked in a loud hoarse voice, “It is a mobile phone”, I replied, “Take it out slowly and put it on the ground”, the soldier said; I did what the soldier wanted me to do, then he came to me and said turn around and face the river (The river that I came here to watch), put your hand to the rail, open your legs; I did all this, and when he was searching my body he asked me if that was my car and I told him yes so he told the other soldiers to search the car and they did.<br /><br />The soldier went calm when he discovered that I was “clean”, that was the word they used, and he asked me, “What are you doing here, Sir?”, I replied, “Nothing, (I did not know what to tell him, shall I told him it was because of Kadhum al-Sahir song, and whether he will understand this or believe it), so I told him, “I just thought that I can have some fresh air while I am looking at my river in my city”.<br /><br />Probably, he discovered the sadness in my voice because he just patted on my shoulder and say, “It is OK”, and he said that in a way just like he was feeling sorry for me.<br /><br />The gunman on top of the Hummer asked that soldier while he was walking back, “What is going on, is he crazy?”<br /><br />“No, he is cool, he is just a normal citizen”, the soldier replied.<br /><br />I put my self back in the car and drove back home while I was asking my self why I did some thing like this, it is not the country that any one can do the things they like to do, what if I was killed tonight, who will take care of my family and where they will go, they do not have any one in this life but me…<br /><br />I should be very careful and I should stay alive for them, they will never be able to live if I will die…<br /><br />We lost every thing in this country even the freedom to breathe some fresh air; it is not our country any more…<br /><br />I know about that because,<br /><br /><strong><em><span style="font-size:180%;color:#ff0000;">I was there..</span></em></strong><br /><br /><a href="mailto:whowasthere@gmail.com">whowasthere@gmail.com</a>I was there..http://www.blogger.com/profile/18320153586935047080noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16414360.post-1143820500656301322006-03-31T17:48:00.000+03:002006-03-31T18:55:00.763+03:00Count the Mistakes<em><span style="font-family:lucida grande;"></span></em><a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2272/1407/1600/DSC00196.jpg"><img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2272/1407/320/DSC00196.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-family:lucida grande;font-size:180%;color:#ff0000;"><em><strong>Sorry my friends</strong></em></span>, I haven’t posted any thing for a long time because I was in the US; it was the first visit since 1981, I was just like seeing an old friend that I haven’t seen for a long time; I lived in the US for six years at the late 70’s and when the plane was taking off at that time from Tulsa International Airport I was looking through the airplane window and asking my self if I will be able to see this country again, and it happened, so you can imagine the feelings.<br /><br />The US is still as beautiful as it was before but I became older now, I found out that many of the things that I loved are not as they were before, the discos that I spent 80% of my life at when I was there are called now dancing clubs, but the Hard Rock Cafés still as great as they were before, even the girls who are working there with their short skirts still as beautiful as they were before; New York was great, I loved it, but I became so sad when I went to the place where the World Trade Center towers were and remembered all those innocent people who get killed there and remembered all the Iraqis who get killed in Iraq by the same people.<br /><br />The people there still the same like they were before; they still do not know a lot of things about Iraq; they are still asking if it was a mistake to invade Iraq and if the military is part of the problem or part of the solution, they were asking me these questions every where I went and in all the interviews and the speeches I gave or I did at the radio stations or at the universities, they do not know that the Iraqis asked those questions right after the invasion but not now; three years were passed and the Americans still asking those questions; Hey people, you are there now and the Iraqis still waiting; ‘What to do to those people?’ This should be the question now; ‘We destroyed the system there and we have not establish the right system for them yet, when are we going to do that?’, this could be another question.<br /><br />They couldn’t establish a system for Iraqis yet because they didn’t know their culture before and still after three years know nothing about their culture; they do not know the people and how could they make difference between them, they still can not make difference between Shiite or Sunnis by their names or by looking at them or between Kurd and Arab, Muslims and Christians and if they can not make these differences they will never be able to ask the right person for the right advice and this is why it is so easy to mislead them; the reason for that is because they are still isolating their selves inside the Green Zone surrounded by those people that they brought with them from outside which most of them are looking for self benefits, and this is why they were infiltrated easily; they needed those people to enter Iraq, that was stage one, but now they are in Iraq and they need to look for the good people who can help them and help the Iraqis, this kind of Iraqis will never come to them, they need to go out and look for those people; the kind of people who came to them are the people looking for some benefits or the people which the insurgents are sending to be in the Green Zone.<br /><br />This is exactly what the insurgents want; they do not want the Americans to go out, they want them to do more mistakes, they are using these mistakes to make the Iraqis hate the Americans which will help them recruit more Insurgents and gain safe places which they use to hide before any operation against the Americans.<br /><br />The Insurgents are fighting the Americans in two ways, in the field and in the Medias; The American Forces are doing a great job in the field but the Military Public Affairs are not as good as the soldiers in the field; the insurgents now have websites that10 minutes after every operation they put full details with films or pictures but if you contact the Military Public Affairs you should wait for hours before they release something about it, they should have some people watching those websites and release some thing about it the minute the insurgents release some thing; both sides, the military and the insurgents, are looking for the front page story and this is why the insurgents are putting their story at their website before the military releases any thing, it is a challenge and the Military Public Affairs are not that fast in this.<br /><br />The Military always are saying that the reporters are writing negative stories, in fact this is what the insurgents want, they do not give the Americans a chance to do any thing positive so they will never have a positive story, even when they gave contracts to some contractors to fix some schools one day and sent for us to go there to write about them all what we saw was corruption and the story was about corruption not about how the Americans are rebuilding schools for the students, and just because it is not safe to go out there to see what did those contractors do, they will believe them and accept what they would say, but if we will not write about it they will never know what is really going on there but the American leaders will not like that and they will call it a negative story.<br /><br />I noticed that when the Americans were doing some thing good to the people, the next day, the insurgents will attack the Americans so the US army will withdrew and the Marines will get in and because they will be angry they will turn the whole area into hell and this is exactly what the insurgents want so they will say that the Americans are doing nothing and they are only good in killing the people, so even when the military is winning in the field the insurgents will use there medias to show them as killers so they will win in the medias even though that they are loosing in the field.<br /><br />I noticed that when the US army are somewhere in Iraq the situation will be calm and the Iraqis will be happy and they will say that the Americans are helping the Iraqis but when the Marines go somewhere the Iraqis will say that the Americans are not doing any thing for the Iraqis and they are only killing the people and this is simply because the US army has some units that can build things for the Iraqis and helping them because they have engineers and specialists for that but the Marines do not have engineers that can help the people because this is not their job, and this is why the Iraqis like the National Guards because they are older in age and they are all engineers and lawyers which they can help the Iraqis; this is what I saw in Fallujah for example before the insurgents and the Marines entered the city, but the problem is that the Iraqis does not know that and they think that they are all the same and they are all US military and they think that it is just because that some of the units have good people and some others have people which they are so mean just because they are not helping them in rebuilding their cities.<br /><br />The Insurgents become stronger now because they are supported by governments of some countries which they do not want their people to say that America did a great things for Iraqis, and they are having a great life in a democratic country because of the Americans, they are afraid that the next day their people will ask them for the same things or they might ask the US to come to their country to help them, so America become a big threat for those governments and this is why they supported the insurgents to destroy every thing the Americans will try to do and never give them the chance to do any thing good, to show their people that when the Americans go some where they just destroy that country and can never fix it, even the American people start believe in this now and when any one mention Iran or any other country every one will say “Oh no, we saw what you have done in Iraq, so don’t do it again”.<br /><br />The American leaders are also making a lot of mistakes and both the Iraqis and the Americans are suffering because of those mistakes, and they are not fixing it or they are to slow in fixing it; for example, they know by now that Iraqis do not trust the people that the US brought with them from outside and made them political leaders, which they are fighting each other now on the subject of ‘who will be the prime minister?’, they could not even form a government and they do not care if dozens of Iraqis or Americans are dieing every day; they do not care for the Iraqis who are waiting for hours in the gas lines at the gas stations, or the people who do not feel safe even when they are inside their houses which have no electricity or water; they do not care for the people, which they do not feel safe when they go out in roads, that were destroyed by the American tanks and no one paved them or fixed them, because a car bomb or a roadside bomb might explode and kill them or kill their families; those new Iraqi political leaders do not care because if worse come to worse they can simply run away and go back to the countries that they came from and leave the Americans and the Iraqis stuck with the problems they created.<br /><br />Iraqis are wondering now, what kind of democracy the Americans are giving them if the president must be Kurd, it has to be Talabani, and the prim minister must be Shiite, it must be Jaffari or one of his colleagues…etc.; it is the same faces for the people that the Americans brought from outside and gave them all the power and the influence and let them have militias which even the Americans now can not dissolve and all of them are supported by countries that hate America; Iraqis can not chose any other leader but those; this is the kind of democracy they brought to Iraq; they still after all that asking them selves why the violence is increasing in Iraq; they are creating more enemies every day, and they are good in that, they do not go out of the Green Zone and ask the Iraqis, “What do you want and who do you want?”; some Iraqis believe that Iran may be the only winner out of this war, they are every where in Iraq, in Lebanon and Palestine through Hamas, and while the Americans are putting a lot of pressure on Iran, but in Iraq, they are giving them all the power and the influence, and this is another mistake.<br /><br />Let me tell you another one and they are many; when the Americans came to Iraq they needed all those big troops with all those fighter planes and tanks and, and, etc. to enter Iraq but now why do they need all those big very expensive equipments in Iraq; why do they need all those fighter planes and tanks?; the kind of war they are having now in Iraq is not the one they had when they first entered; it is a war with the terrorism and you do not fight terrorism with these weapons, it is just like when you are in a small room surrounded by thieves outside your room and they are all have AK47’s and you have RPG, your weapon is more effective than them and more expensive but you can not use it because if you will use it inside the room you will kill yourself so they will get you and kill you.<br /><br />The kind of war they have now with the terrorists is a new type of war, they called it ‘The Fifth Generation Warfare’, and it is when you fight an enemy that you can not see; they bypassed all the security forces and the army when they attacked the trains in Madrid, Spain; the American tanks are patrolling the streets in Iraq to look for them but those terrorists are always hiding in safe houses and they do not go out only when they want to do an operation, they are not carrying any weapons that the soldiers can see to stop them, they will be either wearing an explosive belts or in a car bombs, so why do you do patrols, they will give them more chance to kill more soldiers by putting the roadside bombs in their way.<br /><br />It is a different war and you do not fight them like this; you do not need all those troops and all those equipments like the F18’s and F16’s, it is so expensive and you are spending a lot of the American people’s money on this; what you need in a war like this is a small but very effective special forces and spies, just like in the cold war; what happened to all those spies they use to have; I think that the Intelligent machine is broken, they need to work harder and infiltrate those terrorists; it is not the military’s fault, in fact, the military are doing a great job in there but they need more intelligent information; they need the special equipments to find the explosives and the roadside bombs so they do not lose more soldiers, some thing similar to what they have at the airports, they can make such a things and they have them; this is how you fight them, and you do not have to send out your troops only when they have enough information so when they will go out they will be more effective and will lose less number of soldiers.<br /><br />They can never infiltrate those insurgents in Iraq if they do not know the culture this is why it is so important to study the culture to help the Iraqis and the Americans in Iraq and in the US.<br /><br />I am saying all this in case that the American leaders want to help the Iraqis but if they want the Iraqi land to be the battle field of fighting all the terrorists of the world, then what they are doing is the right thing and forget about the Iraqis and this is what the people in Iraq start believe in; they are saying now, “Who cares about Iraqis, fighting the terrorists is the main goal for the Americans, and removing Saddam was just an excuse”.<br /><br />I know all this because,<br /><br /><span style="font-family:lucida grande;font-size:180%;color:#ff0000;"><em><strong>I was there..</strong></em></span><br /><br /><a href="mailto:whowasthere@gmail.com">whowasthere@gmail.com</a>I was there..http://www.blogger.com/profile/18320153586935047080noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16414360.post-1137173177668769982006-01-13T20:14:00.000+03:002006-01-13T21:16:14.833+03:00I am a Chicken<a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2272/1407/1600/linux-chicken.jpg"><img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2272/1407/320/linux-chicken.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-size:180%;"><strong><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;color:#ff0000;"><em>Dear friends,</em></span></strong><br /></span><br />That’s it, I will stop putting any secrets in this Blog because I just cannot continue…<br />Every time I wanted to write about any of my secrets some thing inside me was pulling me back, because either some one will be in trouble or I will be in trouble…<br /><br />It is still unsafe here, and it is not a “free country” yet, I might be killed or dragged some where for questioning if I wrote about some subjects, and every time I tried to look for some thing safe to write about it turned danger; I will just wait till it becomes more safe in here; in fact, I do not think it will be useful to write about things, which became part of the history when there is a lot of things that is still going on now, which are more important, also these things, if I will write about them, will not put me in trouble…<br /><br />Some group kidnapped my friend few days ago, she is an American journalist; she was the best, and I think writing about her is more important than the things I wanted to write about before, in fact, her kidnapping made me change my mind about what I am writing…<br /><br />May be some one will say, "you are a chicken, you must continue writing about these secrets"…<br />I am not a chicken, but I just know what could happen if I will continue writing because,<br /><br /><span style="font-size:180%;"><span style="color:#ff0000;"><span style="font-family:georgia;"><em><strong>I was there…</strong></em></span><br /></span></span>I was there..http://www.blogger.com/profile/18320153586935047080noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16414360.post-1132680769331034742005-11-23T08:00:00.000+03:002005-11-22T21:29:12.996+03:00Baghdad International Airport Battle<a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2272/1407/1600/advance.0.jpg"><img style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2272/1407/320/advance.0.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><em></em></span><span style="font-family:georgia;font-size:180%;color:#ff0000;"><strong><em>People</em></strong></span> are talking about Baghdad International Airport Battle that took place early April 2003 few days before Baghdad fall; there were many rumors about it, I will tell you here what happened there…<br /><br />It used to be called <span style="color:#ff0000;"><strong><em>'Saddam International Airport'</em></strong></span>, it is located approximately 16 kilometers west of Baghdad. The airfield is a joint civil-military airport, with a civil international terminal on one side and a smaller military ramp on the other. The airport is served by a Class I runway 13,000 feet long and a second runway on the military side of the airfield measuring 8,800 feet. There were eight hardened aircraft shelters, three of them at the civil side.<br /><img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2272/1407/320/spot_baghdad__27aug02_zones.1.jpg" border="0" /><br />In mid-March 2003, Iraqi Airways Engineering Department received orders from the government to prepare the fleet’s aircrafts and to be standing by for an order to take all aircrafts out side Iraq.<br /><br />No one knew where they were going to take the aircrafts to, many thought to Syria because the relations between Iraq and Jordan were not that good at that time.<br /><br />One evening, all the aircraft crews came to the airport responded to a call from the operation room, “It is going to be tonight,” the operation officer said; each crew prepared his aircraft and was standing by in the cockpit.<br /><br />“It is going to be Jordan!” one of the captains said when he received the flight plan with the maps, “I was expecting Syria” his copilot replied.<br /><br />“Call the tower and get permission for engine start up and take off” one of the captains asked his copilot, so did the other captains on the other aircrafts.<br /><br />“Stand by” the tower replied; the crews waited for two hours then one of the captains asked his copilot, “Call the tower again and see what is going on”, “Still standing by” the tower replied.<br /><br />At that time, the Minister of Transportation and the Minister of Defense were at the airport waiting for the tower to give permission for the aircrafts to fly.<br /><br />Later on, the tower officer show up, he was driving a pickup, he went to every aircraft and told the crews, “I couldn’t say that on the radio but there is a heavy military aircrafts movement in the west and south of Iraqi airspace, I can not give you permission to fly, it is too late, and I have heard that Israel said ‘Iraq will attack Israel by civilian planes’ that means those fighters will attack you even if they will find out that you are civil aircrafts.”<br /><br />One hour later, American Fighter planes were attacking Saddam Presidential palaces around the airport, it was a heavy bombing, every one hided and took cover; every one waited until the bombing stop and then they went home.<br /><br />The next morning, the Minister of Transportation called, very early, for a meeting at Iraqi Airways Engineering Department, “Dismantle all the Aircrafts, remove all engines, electronic equipments, cover them good, and hide them, when American attacks will stop, put every thing back; start now, it is an order from the supreme officials”, the Minister said.<br /><img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2272/1407/320/baghdad-iap_200342284223_3.0.jpg" border="0" /><br />The aircraft engineers and the technicians worked for three days, they removed all the engines; they did not stop working even when American fighters were bombing the area around the airport; one time, they attacked one of the airport radars, a big shrapnel from the rocket hit one of Iraqi Airways aircrafts, it was a Boeing 727, and set fire in it, another shrapnel wounded two of the aircraft engineers, but the team continued the work until they finished, “We do not want any one to say that we are cowards and we run away when our company and our country needed us, we must finish this work even though we might be killed by one of those attacks” one of the technicians told his engineer while he was looking at a plane that was bombing the area; he refused to take cover and continued his work on the aircraft.<br /><br />During this time, in the south of Iraq, there was a heavy fighting, and at the airport, there was an officer from Saddam Special Guards called Captain Ali, he used to come to visit the technicians while they were working, he told them, many times, “They will enter Baghdad from the Airport”; one time some one asked him, “If you are saying that they will enter Baghdad from the Airport, so why don’t you have an army here?”, “There is army, but you can not see them” Captain Ali replied. Every one knows that there was no army, but no one wanted to argue with him also they were to busy to answer, they just wanted to finish this work and go home before they are killed by one of these attacks.<br /><br />Three days after they finished dismantling the aircrafts, it was Thursday, every one left the airport at 2 pm leaving some technicians in case something would happen, at 3 pm the American forces entered the airport from Abu Ghraib area.<br /><img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2272/1407/320/terminal.0.jpg" border="0" /><br />Next day, at Iraqi Airways office in Salihiah at the center of Baghdad, the General Director of Iraqi Airways told the managers that were around him, “Let’s go to the airport now”, “The airport!?” one of the managers replied, “I thought that the Americans is there” he added. “The Minister just called me and he told me that the Republican Army pushes them out of the Airport and took the Airport back, he wanted us to go there to see what did the do and to check after the technicians we left there,” the General Director said.<br /><br />In their way to the airport on the airport road, they saw the Iraqi Republican Guards were coming back from the airport, “It seems to be that they finished their job, and they do not need to stay there that is why they are coming back!” the General Director said while he was driving the car.<br /><br />When they reached the airport checkpoint, Saddam Militias were there, wearing all black, “Where are you going?” one of them, who seemed to be the in charge of the operation, asked the General Director who identified him self, “I am sorry I can not let you in, there is still a few Americans here and there we need to get rid of them and comb the area before we can let you in” the man with black who was in charge said.<br /><br />At this moment, number of trucks with armed men, all in black from Saddam Militias arrived to this checkpoint, “Go inside, and look for them, when you find them, cut there nicks and throw them in the open area, make it fast, after two hours Sahhaf, The Minister of Information, will bring the journalists here to show them the Airport, they must see their corpses, so you have only two hours, go go” the man in charge told the armed men in the trucks.<br /><br />It was 2 pm at that time, the General Director and his managers had to go back, while they were driving back, they reached an area that had a good view to the airport field, “I can not see any Americans at the Airport! From this high position we are having a good view, where are they?” one of the Managers was wondering.<br /><img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2272/1407/320/baghdad-iap_794346.0.jpg" border="0" /><br />One hour after that, around 3 pm, the American Forces attacked the airport again, and this time they entered and staid there. <img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2272/1407/320/saddam-iap_788658.jpg" border="0" /><br />“If the American forces were only few kilometers outside the airport and some of them were still inside why did the Republican Guards, had to go back and leave the airport? Why didn’t they just stay there in case the Americans will attack again? If every one knew that the Americans would enter Baghdad from the Airport, why did not they leave an army there?” Every one that works at the airport was asking these questions.<br /><br />Captain O. from the Republican Guards Surface-to-Surface missiles forces said that they attacked the airport with a big number of Surface-to-Surface missiles but when some one went there and told him that many missiles fell on the airport road and not inside the airport, he became so angry and sad, “But there was some one who was telling us all the time that we were hitting the right spot, Oh my God, he was wrongly leading us”<br /><br />There was no damage in the airport, people was asking their selves, “if there was a big battle here, why can’t we see any indications of a big battle”, some people said that the battle took place on the airport road not inside the airport.<br /><br />All the people said that there was a big battle, some Iraqis said that the Americans used nuclear weapons some others said they used chemical weapons, but no one said that they lost some one they knew at the airport battle, and if the Americans used these kind of weapons there, how could they accept to stay there right after they enter the airport and for a long time.<br /><br />I think there was a battle but it was not as bad as the people think…<br />I know about this because,<br /><br /><span style="font-family:georgia;font-size:180%;color:#ff0000;"><strong><em>I was there…</em></strong></span>I was there..http://www.blogger.com/profile/18320153586935047080noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16414360.post-1131646491211424752005-11-11T09:00:00.000+03:002005-11-14T16:20:05.736+03:00<span style="font-family:georgia;font-size:180%;color:#3333ff;"><strong><em></em></strong></span><br /><span style="font-family:georgia;font-size:180%;color:#ff0000;"><strong><em>Oil Coupons</em></strong></span><br /><br /><a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2272/1407/1600/Boeing%20727.jpg"><img style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 237px" height="227" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2272/1407/320/Boeing%20727.jpg" width="320" border="0" /></a><span style="font-family:lucida grande;font-size:180%;color:#ff0000;"><strong><em> </em></strong></span><br /><span style="font-family:lucida grande;font-size:180%;color:#ff0000;"><strong><em></em></strong></span><br /><span style="font-family:lucida grande;font-size:180%;color:#ff0000;"><strong><em>Saddam</em></strong></span> was a dictator, people agree on that, but what does dictatorship means? From my point of view, the dictator is always trying to do thing his way, to serve the goal that he has in his mind, and he does not accept any second thought.<br /><br />This is why Saddam made many mistakes, and he tried to fix them with temporary solutions that led him to more mistakes.<br /><br />He was the cause behind the embargo that left Iraq isolated; Iraqis suffered, they could not get things they needed in their normal daily life from outside, so Saddam looked for temporary solutions to go over that period, he lured those people outside Iraq who were able to help Iraqis; some of them helped because they wanted to help Iraqis but the others did it for money, but Saddam reward them all, and from here came the idea of the famous <span style="color:#ff0000;"><strong><em>OIL COUPONS</em></strong></span>.<br /><br />Some of those people deserve those coupons because they were helping the Iraqis, and they did not help because of the money just like the one I will tell you about now; I will not tell you if this person was a woman or a man but I will talk about him just like if he was a man, and I will not give the names of the countries or the officials because it is not important, what is important is to say that not all the people who took those coupons did not deserve it.<br /><br />The national Air Carrier suffered, just like the other Iraqis, from the embargo, it was very hard to receive any spare parts for the planes that where jailed in some airports outside Iraq, those countries did not allow those planes to fly back to Iraq; Saddam wanted those planes, he want the Iraqis to have planes that they can use to fly out, he wanted to do the Hajj that year by air.<br /><br />A technical team sent to one of the countries that had some of these planes, “Make the planes ready, we will bring them back, there will be a plan for that after we receive a call from you says that they are technically ready to fly”, this was the order they received.<br /><br />“Three pressure gas lamps we need, Mama still sick”, that is what the technical team leader told his boss in Iraq on the mobile phone while he was looking at the airplanes; ‘pressure gas lamps’ was the code that the team used on the phone, it meant ‘the engines’, and ‘Mama’ is ‘the plane’, as the instructions were to use codes during the phone calls incase that the phone lines were bugged.<br /><br />“We have the engines they need, but how could we send them?” That was what the technical management in Iraq said in a highly secret meeting; they will need a cargo plane to take the engines out to the technical team, and it was imposable to do that from Iraq because of the embargo, no planes were allowed to fly from Iraq, and they could not find some one who agreed on selling them these engines and transfer them direct to the team.<br /><br />Few days later, in Iraq, “An aircraft will land at the airport, take it to the hangar and converted to half cargo and half passengers”, an official in the government told the technical management.<br /><br />The team started with the work, “Convert the aircraft in a way that no one can discover it is half cargo, let them think that it is passengers only”, the official told the technical team who was converting the aircraft.<br /><br />Two days later, the aircraft was ready with full tanks fuel; “Put the engines you want to take there onboard,” the official said; three hours later, all the engines were on board and secured, doors were closed, and if any one looked to or inside the aircraft will never tell that the engines were inside.<br /><br />No one knew what the next step was; few hours later, “Bring the Aircraft, it will fly now” one of the officials told the Engineering Department; the aircraft was not one of the national air carrier’s aircrafts but now it looks like one of them after the paint job that was carried on.<br /><br />All of the sudden, many cars and busses arrived, stopped by the plane, many VIP's has arrived, and number of kids everywhere raised banners and Saddam posters; “What is going on?” one of the aircraft engineers asked.<br /><br />“<span style="color:#ff0000;"><strong>………</strong></span>, the famous Arab actor, will take those kids to <span style="color:#ff0000;"><strong>……</strong></span>, for a medical treatment, we can not save those kids lives because of the embargo, so we have to send them outside, and this actor arranged every thing for them and now they will be taken by this aircraft there” a medical official replied.<br /><br />“The aircraft will take the kids with the actor, after landing in <span style="color:#ff0000;"><strong>……</strong></span>, many officials will be waiting for them there, they will take the kids, and the aircraft will fly back, few minutes after take off, they will have a technical problem and they will need to do a force landing, they will land where the other aircrafts are waiting for those engines, you will have one hour to take the engines out of the aircraft but you will not have time to put the other engines which they are installed on the other aircrafts on board this aircraft, but no problem, leave them there, just make those aircrafts ready to fly and later on we will think about a way to bring the other engines back from there” one of the officials told the team in charge of the aircraft before take off.<br /><br />“So this is the plan,” one of the aircraft technical team said; “This actor really deserve a reward by risking his name and reputation for us, for Iraq, and for the Iraqis” the technical team leader replied.<br /><br />When the aircraft landed with the kids, the actor stepped outside the aircraft before any one of the officials at that airport entered the aircraft, otherwise they would discover that the cabin inside this aircraft was shorter than the similar aircraft; the actor helped the kids out, and closed the doors so no one was able to enter the aircraft.<br /><br />According to the plan, the aircraft landed at the other airport where the other technical team who was waiting there for the aircraft, took the engines out, and helped the aircraft to leave the airport so fast before any one discovered the plan; the team later on installed the new engines on the aircrafts and call the base, “Mama is ready to come back now” the technical team leader told the base on the phone while he was laughing; both ends on the phone line consider this as a big victory.<br /><br />“We would never be able to do this if this actor did not help us; this actor did a big favor for Iraq”, one of the officials at that room where they received this phone call replied.<br /><br />The government of the country where the aircrafts were, did not allow the team to take the aircrafts home, so the aircrafts still there with the engines, and every body kept the secret.<br /><br />Later on, when some of the names in the lists involved in the oil coupons were announced, this actor name was there, “This actor deserve every thing Saddam gave him, I do not know about the others, but some of the names, like this one, deserve it because they did things to help some Iraqis or to save some other Iraqis, it was never wrong giving them a reward” one of the technical team members who worked on that aircrafts replied.<br /><br />I know about that because,<br /><br /><span style="font-family:lucida grande;font-size:180%;color:#3333ff;"><strong><em>I was there....</em></strong></span>I was there..http://www.blogger.com/profile/18320153586935047080noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16414360.post-1126022438269009472005-09-07T07:00:00.000+04:002005-11-21T15:19:39.143+03:00<span style="font-family:courier new;font-size:180%;"><em><strong><span style="color:#ff0000;">THE EAGLE HAS LANDED</span><br /></strong></em></span><br /><span style="font-family:courier new;font-size:180%;color:#ff0000;"><strong><em><a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2272/1407/1600/amerikaansezeearend9.jpg"><img style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" height="244" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2272/1407/320/amerikaansezeearend9.jpg" width="320" border="0" /></a></em></strong></span><br /><span style="font-family:courier new;font-size:180%;color:#ff0000;"><strong><em></em></strong></span><br /><span style="font-family:courier new;font-size:180%;color:#ff0000;"><strong><em></em></strong></span><br /><span style="font-family:courier new;font-size:180%;color:#ff0000;"><strong><em>I </em></strong></span>was born a long time ago, every one I knew said that I was so lucky from the very beginning; I was the first kid in my wealthy family, lived in a big house, my father and mother gave me every thing, including love of course, and more over, I born in that beautiful country (at that time) Iraq.<br /><br />As a lucky kid, I lived in a beautiful neighborhood; I had such a great friends, My Mother was Sunni and my Father was Shiite, but my Grandmother was Kurd; I had a Jewish, Christians and Muslim friends and neighbors, and I went to a Christians School; we were so happy and we all wanted to be something when we grow up, and we did.<br /><br />My dream was flying, I wanted to go up so high and look to the ground from there, and I wanted to be higher than every body so I can see what they all are doing; I wanted to see how small the people will be from that high altitude, even those policemen who arrested my father for few months when I was kid because he worked in politics and he was opposing the government.<br /><br />However, since I was a lucky one, I was able to go to the United Stats of America and become a pilot and Aeronautical Engineer when every one was dreaming to go there and be a pilot, “Two dreams in one you are going to get” that was what my friends said when I told them that I am leaving.<br /><br />I stayed in US for almost seven years, and I came back for a visit to see my family but I was stuck in Iraq because the Iraqi Iran war started, I could not go back, leaving my girlfriend waiting for me there; the communications all stopped between the two countries, so I lost her and did not know any thing about her till now; that was the first big lost in my life for a lucky one like me; I stayed in Iraq and saw what I saw.<br /><br />I spent half of my life flying every where and with every body; normal people and VIP’s, I saw and heard a lot of unbelievable things which is part of the secrets that form the new Iraq History; I landed now, and I am going to stay on ground for while, that is why, and while I am on ground and before flying again, I will tell you a lot of secrets, not that many people knows about it concerning what was going on during the wars up to now; I will tell you every thing because,<br /><br /><span style="font-family:lucida grande;font-size:180%;color:#3333ff;"><strong><em>I was there…</em></strong></span>I was there..http://www.blogger.com/profile/18320153586935047080noreply@blogger.com4