Baghdad- Another American was reportedly kidnapped in Baghdad yesterday according to unnamed U.S. Gov't. sources, but yet to be confirmed.
The source says the American was snatched from the International Zone, where most of the rumored kidnappings take place, making contractors and aid folks all the more fearful to leave the safety of their convoys, and more likely to pass the story on.
The source says the American was snatched from the International Zone, where most of the rumored kidnappings take place, making contractors and aid folks all the more fearful to leave the safety of their convoys, and more likely to pass the story on.
This follows the confirmed kidnapping of an Iraqi-American with the release of a grim terrorist-produced video, the likes of which we haven't seen for several years.
Apparently the man, a U.S. military interpreter, was visiting family in the Karada, a wide-laned shopping district, when he was snatched and put to use denouncing the American occupation and demanding justice for the victims of the Blackwater massacre in Nisoor Square.
Apparently the man, a U.S. military interpreter, was visiting family in the Karada, a wide-laned shopping district, when he was snatched and put to use denouncing the American occupation and demanding justice for the victims of the Blackwater massacre in Nisoor Square.
(Issa Salomi, 60, shown in this video on Feb. 6. The first kidnapping of an American in Iraq since summer of 2008, according to Wash Post.)
The fact that the 60-year old man was last seen on Jan. 23 and the Pentagon didn't released the first official news of his disappearance until 12 days later, indicates there may not be any official confirmation of this second kidnapping for some time, if ever.
Want to believe it
Of course the second kidnapping could likely be a case of hysteria, following the confirmed one. But sometimes the sickness known as expat-ness in Baghdad- or the condition of being walled off from any sense of Iraqi reality while working for the State Dept. or USAID, makes one want to believe in the worst.
The resentment over the stovepipe existence and armored convoys that exemplify life on AID compounds and the Green Zone, have led to a deep cynicism about the future of Iraq, and a need to justify all these security measures, and therefore prove it still could be a very bad day out there for someone who looks North American, European or an Iraqi who just happens to have a U.S. Passport.
The resentment over the stovepipe existence and armored convoys that exemplify life on AID compounds and the Green Zone, have led to a deep cynicism about the future of Iraq, and a need to justify all these security measures, and therefore prove it still could be a very bad day out there for someone who looks North American, European or an Iraqi who just happens to have a U.S. Passport.
The doomsday scenario is fast approaching according to this mentality. And these past months have been brewing the perfect storm in Baghdad- coordinated mega-bombs, evidence that Al Qaeda or whoever, is again pulling the strings of misery, and the seeming improbability of an election made up secular, non-sectarian parties.
(Ceerwan Aziz Reuters Feb. '05- Pilgrimage to Karbala marked by self-inflicted blood and suicide attacks.)Election flip floppage
Beyond the obligatory U.S. troop withdrawal, this League of the Righteous is demanding the prosecution of Blackwater security guards involved in the 2007 shootout, and a compensation to the family of the 17 Iraqi civilians killed.
It is a sketchy time in Iraq by any account- the bloody trail to Karbala last week, of pious zealots being blown up by nihilistic zealots; of coordinated hotel bombings that killed regular Iraqis instead of foreign journalists; of some 500 Sunni candidates thrown out of the March elections for supposed connections to Baathists, then reinstated by the higher courts, which drew howls of protest from PM Maliki's Dawa Party and accusations of the U.S. interfering. All American channels seem to support Maliki's main rival, ex-PM Ayad Allawi.
Now the courts will review reinstatements on a case by case basis, meaning more chances for Sunni disenfranchisement and sectarian violence.
"Why don't they let the people chose?" an Iraqi colleague said, disgusted with the throwing out of key Sunni candidates who would most challenge Maliki in the March 7th vote. It is perhaps the best summation of the populace's desire for a real, democratic election.
League of the Righteous
Back to the kidnappers. Naming themselves the League of the Righteous, a splinter group of al-Sadr's Mehdi Army, they were supposedly the same ones who carried out the brazen daylight kidnapping of the Brit consultant Peter Moore from the Finance Ministry in 2007 while disguised as policemen, later murdering four of his bodyguards who probably weren't deemed valuable enough to ransom.
Moore was released late last year, coincidentally with the transfer of their militant leader from U.S. custody to Iraqi custody. No wonder they're now back in business.
Beyond the obligatory U.S. troop withdrawal, this League of the Righteous is demanding the prosecution of Blackwater security guards involved in the 2007 shootout, and a compensation to the family of the 17 Iraqi civilians killed.
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