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You knew it was bad in Iraq, I know. I did too. But still, reading this, I am struck yet again with the enormity of the disaster:
Posted by Laura at October 22, 2004 12:33 AMHoping to contain the damage, the Army offers the press a tour of the prison. . . When the bus arrives, the reporters file off and approach a massive expanse of tents, each housing twenty-five prisoners. A soldier screams, "No talking to the detainees!" But as soon as the prisoners catch sight of the press corps, pandemonium erupts. Dressed in rags, the Iraqis press their bodies against double layers of barbed wire. There are hundreds of them: shouting, holding up crude signs or crutches. Several wave prosthetic legs. "Where's the freedom?" they shout in Arabic. "Is this the freedom?" A prisoner with a bullhorn denounces Americans in English: "They've taken away our freedom, our liberty, our rights!" The military's staged press tour has devolved into unscripted chaos.
Farnaz Fassihi of the Wall Street Journal stands frozen. "I feel like I'm in a bad dream," she whispers. "God, what have the Americans done?"
. . .
Josh Hammer and Robert King are missing. It is Sunday evening, May 9th, and no one has heard a word from either of them since morning. . .
Hammer and King were ordered, at gunpoint, into separate cars. Hammer told his captors he was French.
The jihadi wanted proof: "Let me see your passport." Hammer had failed to leave his U.S. passport at the house -- a standard procedure to prevent identification.
"You are American," said the jihadi.
"My mother is French," Hammer improvised.
The jihadi looked at him. "You are American."
It was touch and go for eight hours. The two journalists were shuttled from house to house by fighters armed with pistols, rocket-propelled grenades and Kalashnikovs. . .
And then it was over. One of the town's religious leaders had intervened. . .
The next morning, the head of Nicholas Berg, an American civilian contractor, appears on the Internet. Word in Baghdad is that he was killed in Fallujah.
After Robert King returns from Fallujah, he locks himself in his room. He remains there for three days, afraid to leave . . . Hammer returns to Jerusalem.
Paranoia has settled over Baghdad . . .
As other journalists leave Iraq, however, King signs up for an embed with the First Cavalry Division at Camp War Eagle, in Sadr City . . .
In the days leading up to the June 30th hand-over . . . several journalists are ambushed on the outskirts of Baghdad. Four more contractors are killed, this time on the road to the airport. In Fallujah, the U.S.-supported Iraqi Brigade is camped outside the city, while inside, insurgents rule. . .
"This is our doing," King says, looking out at the Green Zone across the river from his hotel. He seems unable to believe that his country has created such a disaster. "This isn't America, what's going on in Iraq," he says. "It's not the America I know. This is scary. If this is America, then we're in deep shit."