BlogIraq

This time its not about politics. If you're looking for another entry talking about the politics of Iraq, just hit the close button of this page. I just feel so lonely and could not find something better to do than share it with you.

I am in the middle of no where here in Sudan. Yeah people. Believe it or not. I have been in Sudan for about two months now. I left Baghdad to Syria last September, and left Damascus last November to Khartoum. Why? you're asking?

Its because it is the only country that cared enough to give Visa and residence for a PhD holder like myself. I feel so scattered. My wife and daughter are in Baghdad and the rest of my family are in Amman. And I feel so lonely.

I miss the heavenly smile of my little daughter when she used to wake me up in the morning. I miss having my wife waiting for me when I come back from work. And most of all., I miss my dear mother whom I have not seen since last May.

Although Sudanese people are so kind and they just love Iraqis, it just does not feel like home to me. I don't know why. For some one spent the last two and a half years wandering between Turkey, Egypt, Syria, Jordan, and Iraq, another country should not feel that much different. And despite that I have spent long times alone and away from my family, I am not able to understand the strange feeling of loneliness here.

Of course Sudan is not as fancy or developed as Jordan, in which I spent most of the last two years. But feeling the you are living in a society that does not reject you for holding an Iraqi passport is just way too different from the hatred I faced in Jordan. Sudanese are very simple and soft hearted people.

I have imagined being in so many places in the world, and Sudan was not one of them. But as I said before, this was the only country that I had the opportunity to enter, work, and have a valid residence permission in. Unlike Jordan where I lived and worked with no valid residence visa or work permit. And accordingly, I was haunted by the idea of being departed from Jordan, as many of my friends, at any time.

Life here is slow. And people here feel like there is nothing that can not wait until tomorrow. Probably thats why Sudan is not that well developed despite the uncountable resources this country has.

I just wish I can go back to Baghdad at this very moment. You may ask why don't I. Knowing what I know, and seeing what I have seen there, no one can think of having a settled family life there. I escaped from death in Baghdad, or death have evaded me, for countless number of times. And I just don't feel that I can raise my daughter there. I feel obligated to provide a better life for my daughter and wife. At least better than the one that I had so far. Three major wars, including an 8-years one, along with 13 years of sanctions, followed by 5 years of occupation summarize my 28-years in this world. I just don't want my daughter to see any of this. This is why I am working hard to get her and my wife out of Iraq as soon as I can.

The night here is so long, or at least it seems like that to me. Endless thought race into my mind as soon as I try to settle my head on that pillow. It seems like I am stuck here with that ugly coffee mug I bought in Syria, my laptop, and that stinky pack of cigarettes that is wearing me out.

In Jordan, I used to have a lot of friends. I used to tranquilize my loneliness by spending time with them without thinking about all people and things I miss. But here, its just not the same. I don't know why. There are many decent places that one can spend time in. And the nature is just unbelievably beautiful. But I don't know why I lost the appetite to go out. I used to lead the trips and parties back in college, and now I am just so tired. So weary, that I just want the days to pass. I really would like to settle down. Anywhere. And I mean just anywhere. I need to settle and get my family here. I don't know how long would that take. And I just don't know if I will be able to see my mother and father again. I was forbidden to enter Jordan more than once. And I am just haunted by the idea that I might just die without seeing my mother and father. And what makes it even worse, both of them do not have valid residence visa in Jordan. So, if the leave Jordan they won't be able to go back there. I mean I was like 4 hours drive from Amman in Damascus, I the motherf*cker at the Jordanian borders did no allow my to enter Jordan to see them off before coming here to Sudan. He said "You don't have adequate reasons to enter the kingdom".

And now I see that I don't have adequate reasons to live. 

While having a discussion at 24Step blog, I managed to gather up some ideas in the form of definite steps to take Iraq out of the violence.

It sounds more like a dream to me than a true applicable agenda. Despite that, I would like to share these steps with you because I see it as a non-violent way out.

1. The rise of public awareness in Iraq about the importance of voting in a non-sectarian, non-tribal, objective way. This can occur through non-biased media, which is very rare.

2. Protests against the current electoral committee and demand its change with a one that is FULLY controlled and run by the UN. And the new committee should participate in the electoral education of people.

3. Cut-out all the bad guys off the Iraqi Police and Army. This can happen by appointing non-sectarian ministers and giving them full authority over their ministries. And a better solution would be the one I mentioned before.

I have a wild suggestion although most people won't like it and I would really like to see the Americans leave Iraq.
My suggestion is to hand the ministry of defense and the ministry of interior to the Americans. And the Americans should have secular consultants that run the whole show behind the curtains. Maybe six months would be enough to eliminate all the bad apples there. And add the right "Awakening" guys to the security forces in a balanced way.
I know its not going to happen. But I believe its a good way out. If this handover period is run in the right manner, we will not have the battle over power anymore.
Once the Iraqi forces are clean, there will be a real fight of all Iraqi people against terrorism, not a hidden war of sects. And this step would regain the trust of the public in the security forces. Afterwards, when a decision is made to disarm everyone but the government security forces, people would cooperate.

4. When a new non-sectarian government takes over (yeah sure), they should bring to court of justice each and every corrupted official since 2003 until now. And they should be punished with the law's maximum punishment for their crimes. This way, no government official would think that he's above the law.

5. Follow the law. It drives me crazy that the same government that passed many laws since they came in power are not abiding the very same laws. Many laws governing the financial and managerial aspects of the government are being violated everyday. The government, before the public, need to learn to abide the law.

6. Boycott ALL sectarian media. Each and every media mentioned that this person who got killed or kidnapped is Shiite, Sunni, Kurdish, Christian, or whatsoever need to be boycotted. This will lead to de-attach the hatred emotions related to a certain wrong doing to a certain sect. People need to understand that there are good people and bad people, and there is no such thing as a good sect, relegion or ethnic group and a bad one.

7. If the parliament is seriously honest to find a solution, they should call for an early elections within the next few months.

I have much more in my dream, but its just a dream after all. And nothing will really happen. 

It seems like the sectarian violence is not enough. So, a new war need to be started. During the last 48 hours, six explosive attacks targeted churches in Baghdad and Mosul. These attacks happened in the same time and in different shapes; bombed cars, road side bombs, and mortars.

Things just seem to be getting worse no matter how much the media brags about the "improvements" in the security situation. Al-Qaeda maniacs just can't let go. These attacks are aimed to drag Iraqis into the rock bottom of a civil war. With Al-Qaeda on one side, and the Shiite militias on the other, no way violence will come to a closure in Iraq.

Thank God no one died in the churches attacks,although few guards were wounded and parts of the churches were destroyed. Non-official reports say that the number of christians in Iraq degraded from 1.5 Million before 2003 to 750,000 in 2007. This is cause by all the "imrpovement" in the security. They just can not live in a calm country as Iraq, they had to go to more wild countries in Europe and all over the globe.

On another "improvement", the leader of Adhamiya Awakening Force was killed today. For a few days now, the situation in Adhamiya has been so edgy. Some clashes to place between the Awakening forces and the American and Iraqi Army a couple of days ago. Although Al-Qaeda is the number one suspect in this assassination, something smells fishy.

Some guys I know in Adhamiya said that there have been some inside disturbance in the Adhamiya awakening force. These disturbances were caused by some misuse of power done by some low level soldiers in the force. And this cause the discrepancies between the leaders of the force on who should be the big guy there. Of course all of this remains unclear. And I'd still point the accusation finger on Al-Qaeda, because the said they will kill the leaders of the awakening forces, maybe they have started.

Its kind of a funny fact that Al-Qaeda propaganda seem to be more accurate than the American and the Iraqi ones. Time after time we have heard Gen. Petraius, Jawad Al-Bolani, Abdul-Qader Al-Ubaidy, and the butt head talking about how Al-Qaeda is becoming weaker. Well guys, at least they did what they said they would do. 

Everyday I look into about 40 to 50 websites to look for news, views, and discussions about Iraq. Many of the websites I browse are Iraqi. And it is just disgusting how much hatred everyone is spreading. It is actually starting to get into me. I mean I used to be a very calm person. I used to turn the other cheek". And I used to get angry when someone keeps annoying me with very harmful things for like a thousand years. But now, when I look into what everyone around is writing, I just feel disgusted. How have we turned to this?

I'll list to you some of the most annoying sites that I browse daily to find out what is happening in Iraq. I look into THE most sectarian websites and news sources. And sometimes they just disgust me more when their news is right. I look into the Shiaa-biased websites to find out the news about the Shiaa areas. And equally, I look into the Sunni-biased websites to find out the news about the Sunni areas. And I just can not stop this habit, because I have family members and very close friends everywhere in Iraq and in every sect and ethnic group you can think of.  I'll start by a website that used to be balanced but lately got biased to the Sunni side, its called the Iraqi News Agency. It is one of a series of sites to the same owner and publish the same news. I used to follow that site regularly because they used to do like 50 updates a day. They used to get the fresh news during the hot sectarian "near" civil war earlier this year. But now, all they publish is stuff against Iran and press releases of some party that is doing nothing but talking. By the way, this site ranks 291,803 in the websites world in terms of visitors and page views.

My choice of the most sectarian news site on the Shiaa side definitely goes to Buratha News. These guys are the most hateful Shiaas I have ever came across in my whole life. Their biggest goal is to criminalize the Sunni politicians. And the amount of hatred you can feel in their writings is just unbearable. And they just twist the facts to the way they want. I'll give you an example of that. Few months ago, they used to describe Parliament Member "Mithal Al-Alousi" as the betrayer who brags about visiting Israel. A couple of weeks ago, Al-Alousi was appointed as the head of the parliament committee formed to investigate the incident of finding weapons and terrorists in Adnan Al-Dulaimi's house. Since then, Al-Alousi became the patriotic hero that recommends arresting Adnan Al-Dulaimi for his terrorist activities. These guys are just the most disgusting Shiaa news website. And they rank 56,375 on the websites of the world in terms of number of visitors and page views.

A well-known Sunni-biased news and reports website is the Iraqi Rabita (Iraqi League). These guys just keep talking about how they look for the best for ALL Iraqis. While in fact, they only talk about crimes that Shiaa militias commit and keep mutilating and disrespecting the Shiaa figures and the government people. They have a page stating the steps to survive a militia attack and how to convince the militias that you are Shiite not Sunni. They present the news in such a hateful context that makes you want to kill all the Shiaa. No matter how much they brag about being non-sectarian, they never brought any dirty laundry about Adnan Al-Dulaimi or Harith Al-Dhari or even Al-Qaeda. Despite the good sides of their website that gather donations for Iraqis abroad, they are just too hateful. This site ranks 41,664 in terms of number of visitors and page views.

Another famous Shiaa-biased website is the website of Al-Forat TV channel. They did a very hateful coverage after the Samarra bombing in February 2006. They push you to conclude that any Sunni you see in the street have participated in the bombing and this Sunni should be killed in revenge. They almost call any Sunni a terrorist. This site ranks 113,500.

The last news site that I would like to stop at, which is no less hateful than all the previous, is Haq Agency. This site is quickly updated with the Sunni-biased news written in a very sectarian tone. They like to call a lot of the terrorism acts "Iraqi Resistance" acts. They have good sympathy towards Al-Qaeda and its followers. They talk about Shiaa as if all of them are criminals. They cover the news about the attacks on the American troops very quickly and sometime with videos, so ??

Anyway, this site ranks 98,610.

Of course I do not need to talk about the media sites of the Iraqi government, because these guys live in a different planet where Iraq is a very calm country and the development is going faster than Dubai. The most famous of all of these sites is the Iraqi Media Network.

I will not stop by the non-Iraqi media, because these guys talk about something they do not actually live or feel. Sometimes the western media try to point some bad things in the overall way in which the world is handling the Iraqi situation, starting from wrong military decisions, and ending with crimes committed by the multi-national forces in Iraq. But most of the time, the non-Iraqi media live on the same planet on which the Iraqi governmental media lives. Where heaven looks just like Iraq.

Now lets move to the blogsphere. Every blog I visit is somehow biased and full of hollow debates that is merely a race of "who-can-google-best". These debates usually end with someone prevailing, but the essence of discussion is not there. The essence of discussing something is to have a flexible logical mind that tends to go with whatever is proved by logic. This does not happen in the blog discussions. Everyone leaves the debate with the same opinion they came into the discussion with, no matter how logical and evident other opinions might seem. This continuous nagging leads to hatred too. It leads to lots of curses and F words eventually. I do not want to give examples of these situation because I am taking a wild guess that everyone reading this post have seen it. And also I do not want to disturb my fellow Iraqi bloggers.

How did we turn out to be this way?

Was Saddam the cover of this big garbage can called Iraq, which is full of hatred and sectarianism?

Did all this hatred start after the invasion of Iraq? Is that really possible?

Its just too much hatred that I can not live with. Its shameful and disgusting how things have ended up.  I wish there will come one day when we all look back and thank God that all of this hatred is gone.

One night back in September when I was in Baghdad, I was watching "The Pursuit for Happyness" with my wife. At about 11pm my cell phone rang. It was a number that I did not recognize. The following conversation took place:

Me: Hello 

Him: If you are man enough, let me see you at the front door of your house tomorrow morning (in a very angry accent).

That was all. He hung up.

It took me some seconds to realize that this was a threat. My hand was shaking. My wife asked me who it was. I told her. She started crying, and saying "I told you we shouldn't have came back. We should have stayed in Jordan".

A million thing went through my mind. I was thinking of who would raise my daughter after my death. How would my mom handle my death…Why will I be killed??

I got a hold of myself and called they guy. The second conversation went like:

Me: Hello

Him: Who told you to call this number (still the same angry voice)

Me: But you called me a while ago, and you said somethings that I could not understand

Him: Was I talking to you in kurdish?? I am telling you, if you are man enough, let me see you at your house's front door tomorrow morning

Me: What are you talking about? Do you know me? Do you know who or where am I?

Him: Oh I know you. You that bastard Omar who hangs out by "Abu-Hanifa's Mosque" in Adhamiya

Me: Uhhhh…..No. I am not Omar. And I don't live in Adhamiya

Him: I am telling you once more, if you are man enough, be at your house's front door tomorrow morning

And he hung up again.

I could not really understand what was going on. Few minutes later, the same number rang on my cell phone and hung-up even before I answered. I picked up the phone and called him again.

Me: Hello

Him: Sorry brother, it was the wrong number. I have nothing to do with you.  And it wasn't you whom I meant to threat.

Me: You f*ck face. You just call around and threaten people that you don't even know. Do you know what my family is doing now because of your phone call. F*ck you and everyone who seeks death in this country.

And this time, I hung-up.

Can you imagine what was that like??

The next morning, my one-year old daughter woke me up as she used to do. At about 9am I lit a cigarette and sat down thinking. I was thinking probably by now, this Omar fellow is dead. How did it become so easy to kill people? I mean what the hell was that phone call for. If they, whoever 'they' are, have decided to kill someone, why would they call him 10 hours before it?

Is it really joyful for them to make their targets suffer their worst fears before they die?

Oh man the human life became so cheap in Iraq. Even cheaper than Hentish. 

Two of my friends, accompanied by a third guy that I hardly knew, were kidnapped by Al-Qaeda about 25 days ago. S & A used to work in a small IT company that had to send them from Baghdad to Mosul to install an Internet system for a customer there. Few kilometers before reaching Samarra, a bunch of gunmen emerged out of now where and took about 10 cars off the road. Another very close friend of mine was with them but not in the same car, he was in another car right behind them. But he was lucky enough to go through without being caught. Few of the cars were taken away directly, and the Qaeda people spoke to the people in the others cars, and let some of them pass and the rst were taken in too.

The biggest problem in the whole situation is that both of my friends are Shiite. So, their survival rate is way below zero. They do have forged IDs with Sunni names, but under the toucher, they might even claim the responsibility of the German Holocaust.

It has been 25 days already, and no one called their parents, no one asked for ransom, and there was not a bit of news about them. And every day I watch the news and think they might be in the bodies found in Baquba, or Samarra that day.

They were nothing but good friends, and we had so many good times together. I have known you guys for about ten years now, and I can say nothing but that I will miss you both.

My heart goes to their families, and may God be with you if you are still alive, and may God bless your souls if you are dead. You will not die in our hearts.

And may Al-Qaeda rot in hell.  And I pray to God that Al-Qaeda be punished for what they do and burn in hell for every soul they took. For every tear a mother shed, for every sigh a father endured, for every drop of Iraqi blood you shed. You may rot in hell.

NYTimes published an article today talking about the returning Iraqi refugees. And for some reason, they started telling important pieces of the truth.

"A small fraction of the millions of refugees who fled Iraq have come back. While the government trumpeted their return as proof of newfound security, migration experts said most of them were forced back by expired visas and depleted savings."

I have referred to this earlier. This is true for most of the people going back to Iraq. I guarantee you, if you give them a place where they can stay in a legal manner and find a decent job, they will not think about returning to Iraq for a long long time.

One thing I did not like about that article is the fact that it is showing only Sunni examples of the story.  The same situation goes for Shiaa people whom have lost their fathers, mothers, brothers and sister, and their houses and belongings. And the same suffering they are having one coming back to the hell called Iraq.

This on-going propaganda about the "improvements" in security and the "return" of refugees is related to the withdrawal of the American troops. The Iraqi government has no problem lying about it as long as the money is falling into their pockets. The Americans feel that they have had enough of this war, and let Iraq go to hell. And the only losers in this "solution" is the Iraqi people.

I have spent about 4 months in Baghdad from May to September. Believe me, the situation is not getting better. Few days of relative improvements pass on small pieces of the neighborhoods and this soon collapses when one of the young people in the neighborhood is found dead or kidnapped. The electricity is very much fluctuating. But in the best cases (which happens once a month), we have like 6 hours of electricity, not continuously of course. And some days just pass by with no electricity at all. The tap water is basically not healthy to drink, especially after the Cholera spreading in Baghdad. Most of the people just do not have the money to buy purified water. So they try to boil the tap water and drink it.

In Baghdad you will need a big pile of money to spend on electricity. Depending on the area you live in, the price of the single Ampere from the neighborhood generator is set. Some areas pay 15$/ampere per month and some pay little less and other pay a little more. As the neighborhood generator is owned by one or more of the neighbors, which are basically human, so they seek the maximum profit. So, you will have a maximum of 8 hours per day of Generator electricity. To go about that, you will have to buy a small private generator, for about 250$ to 400$ depending on the quality you would like to have. Of course these small generators are Chinese and the bad Chinese kind (the cheapest). This drags us to another topic. The fuel to run the generator and the car (if you have one). Of course waiting in the fuel line for 12 to 14 hours will become your hobby after knowing that the black market price is more than 1$/liter. As you count the number of liters you need for the generator daily, and the car fuel also. You will find out that the salary will be enough to provide electricity to your house, and your kids can sleep well at the 40C summer nights in Baghdad. And you will have to figure out another way to feed them.

The other dilemma that you will have to face is the propane-gas for the kitchen. The single tank will cost you about $20. You might be lucky to get one per month for about $5 from the local area council until they get killed or blown away by the other people who sell it for 20$.

This is only a small sample of what the Iraqi person have in mind while living in Baghdad. And this is assuming that you are SAFE in there.

On December 15th, 2005, a nice play was pulled out, it was called "The Elections". Its was a kind of mixed up tragedy and comedy.

An example of the tragedies that happened was told to me by a close friend of mine who was the head of the Mosul office of the Higher Comissionary of Election in Iraq. I will tell you the story as it was told to me:

"On the election day and after the end of the election hours, the safe boxes of the votes were supposed to be brought to us by the heads of the election centers all around Mosul and under the protection of the kurdish militia 'Beshmarga'. I called the head of the beshmarga in Mosul to ask if they were ready to accompany our people to the Comissionary office of Mosul. He said that they have got orders not to interfere with the election whatsoever. And they will not protect the boxes nor the staff. There was no way that I would let my people come with the boxes unprotected by some kind of military force. So, I called the head of the Iraqi army in Mosul and asked him to call the american troops to escort my people down here. I did that for two reasons, first I did not want the Iraqi army in Mosul to be a part of the operation because at that time there were doubts in their loyalty. And second, I did not have the phone number of the leaders of the american troops in Mosul.

Anyway, a couple of hours later, humvees came with american troops and Iraqi national guards. And the safe transparent voting boxes were neither safe nor transparent. The original boxes were replaced with plastic and paper boxes like the ones we use in Iraq to carry tomato..!!!

No box was locked as it should have been, and no registration papers or counts for the people who voted were there.

I got crazy and I yaled at every one. I told the americans and the Iraqi national guards that I will not admit these boxes. Goddamn it I will ask for a re-do to all the elections in Mosul.

After about 30-minutes of yaling. The head of the Iraqi army in Mosul came with few of his people and I told him what was the problem. A few minutes later, a US army officer came along with an officer in the iraqi national guards and said that they will arrest me because I am hampering the democratic process and risking the security of Mosul..!!!

The head of the Iraqi army there pulled me aside to talk to me and he whispered that he will take me in an Iraqi military vehicle now to Baghdad to my house and will not let them arrest me. And that what he did. He distracted the other guys and sent two of his soldiers with me in a military car accompanied by two other military cars filled with soldier to take me home in Baghdad. I reached Baghdad after midnight.

What happened after I left Mosul is that my deputy acknowledged the receipt of the boxes and the counting was done. And guess what, most of Mosul turned out to be kurdish..???!!!

In the morning I went to the Elections Comissionary central office and I made a big fuzz about what happened and I asked to re-do the elections in Mosul and yesterday's votes were illegal and therefore should not be included in the vote count. After I calmed down, one of the Comissioners(which I will not reveal his name), came to my office and said:

You are still young, and you have just got your first baby few months ago. Mind your own business and don't jeopardize yourself and your family.

So, I swallowed my pride and left the comissionary and the whole country."

Many stories similar to that took place in different parts of the country like Anbar, Najaf, Baghdad, Basrah, and other provinces. And even outside Iraq. As I was in Amman in that period, I met some guys working there in the elections staff and told me about the unbelievable things that took place there. Basically, most of the votes of Amman were going to Ayad Allawi, but instead they were divided between Al-Hakim and the kurds.

Long live the Iraqi people, long live the democracy..

Now we will come to the Comedy part of the elections. The hilarious part is when the group of as*hole goes on TV and say that "We are an elected government, we represent the Iraqi people's will". Or when Al-Hashimi says "We do not accept to be marginalized , we demand our electoral rights in the representation in the government".

Long live the imported democracy..

Ten hours was the time I, my wife, and my 11-months old daughter spent in Amman, Jordan last June. Yes, it is just another story about an Iraqi family not allowed to enter Jordan for reasons that remain to be unknown.

The long trip started at 7am when we moved towards the Baghdad International Airport. Although nothing on the road or the check-points seem to be Iraqi, the unpredictable flight schedule seemed very Iraqi indeed. After being physically searched and sniffed by the nice American dogs before entering the airport, we reached the first waiting hall at about 10:30am. It only took us three and a half hours to get there from home.

The flight was scheduled at 11am and there was nothing indicating at which actual time the flight is going to be. At about 11:30am we were called to enter the check-in hall to give our bags to be weighed. We thought that it’s a matter of about 60 minutes and we’ll be in the air. Well, we thought wrong. Just before we got to give our bags, the electricity went off. And believe it or not, there are no working back generators. We waited in the 40C hall for more than 5 hours. My poor daughter slept on the metal bench we were standing by and we kept waiving air for her to stop the rainy sweat. It was 5 hours in hell. But I always keep my hopes up thinking positive thoughts about the guy in the Jordanian intelligence that we arranged to bribe to get us into Jordan. And I was thinking about our small apartment there where we lived for the past two years. I was thinking that it was worth to wait for.

Long story short, the airplane took off at 7pm as it was sent to another trip to Iran and we were waiting for the plane to come back to take us to Amman. My daughter and wife were not feeling very well because of the time we had to wait in the horrible hall and the poor girl kept vomiting for like an hour during the flight.

Once we touched down, I turned my cell phone on, with the Jordanian SIM card in it and I received a call from the bribe guy saying that he is waiting for us before the passports line as planned. I gave him our passports and we stood away from the line waiting for the bribe guy to bring the good news. But unfortunately he did not.

I was taken for questioning by the intelligence guy, and this is a normal procedure the Jordanians follow with ALL the Iraqis. They asked why am I coming and for how long do we plan to stay and this sort of questions. There was some yelling by the intelligence guys trying to squeeze information out of me like I was some kind of a terrorist. I did not care that much as I was sure thing were going in the right direction by the 400$ I was paying as a bribe. Well, again I was wrong. They kept our passports and asked us to wait with a bunch of Iraqis who were waiting by the passport queues.

Les than an hour later, they came to us with a list of names, saying that we will be sent back home. No explanations were given. And the $1500 we paid for the air fare does not entitle us to an explanation. We were taken to the airport prayers zone and this was our jail for the night. There were no beds, only few blankets to share with about 40 people whom were not entitled to enter the kingdom of safety. They brought us dinner from Popeye’s chicken and the doors were look to the morning. I made few phone calls during the night thinking that I might get us out of here before the next day’s flight to Baghdad, but it did not work. No Jordanian I knew was interested in helping an Iraqi. Iraqis became more dangerous than avian flu. You’re not allowed to even talk about them.

Hello again everyone. Thank you all for your emails asking about me. I am alive and kicking. I am in Baghdad now. And have been here for the last two months.

I had to go back for an urgent family matter and I am stuck here now. I can't go back to Jordan now because Jordan is not letting male iraqis in the range of 18 to 45 years to get into Jordan no matter what.

I am preparing lots of stuff to be published about life in Iraq and I will start publishing them once I leave Iraq again. And I think you all know why I am not publishing it now.

Anyway, I gotta go now, the laptop is running out of batteries and I haven't had electrictiy to charge it for the last four days..!!