The real picture from Baghdad
From the Embassy, a Grim Report
From the U.S. Embassy in Iraq, a stark compendium of its local employees' daily hardships and pressing fears
Washington Post
Hours before President Bush left on a surprise trip last Monday to the Green Zone in Baghdad for an upbeat assessment of the situation there, the U.S. Embassy in Iraq painted a starkly different portrait of increasing danger and hardship faced by its Iraqi employees. This cable, marked "sensitive" and obtained by The Washington Post, outlines in spare prose the daily-worsening conditions for those who live outside the heavily guarded international zone: harassment, threats and the employees' constant fears that their neighbors will discover they work for the U.S. government.
Click here to view the cable.
-- Al Kamen
TM Comment: I used to write telegrams like the one above for a living. Two points are worth noting: the first is that the telegram quotes mostly local employees, which usually means it is too dangerous for American staff members to travel around to talk with other Iraqis. Second, the atmosphere described in this telegram is similar to what I experienced in Ethiopia during the revolution and subsequent civil war. No government can function in that kind of atmosphere. And indeed, the Iraqi government reportedly can't leave the Green Zone because of the danger. George Bush's surprise trip to Iraq was essentially a trip to the Green Zone, the only place in central and western Iraq that is secure enough for Americans, or for Iraqi government officials.
From the U.S. Embassy in Iraq, a stark compendium of its local employees' daily hardships and pressing fears
Washington Post
Hours before President Bush left on a surprise trip last Monday to the Green Zone in Baghdad for an upbeat assessment of the situation there, the U.S. Embassy in Iraq painted a starkly different portrait of increasing danger and hardship faced by its Iraqi employees. This cable, marked "sensitive" and obtained by The Washington Post, outlines in spare prose the daily-worsening conditions for those who live outside the heavily guarded international zone: harassment, threats and the employees' constant fears that their neighbors will discover they work for the U.S. government.
Click here to view the cable.
-- Al Kamen
TM Comment: I used to write telegrams like the one above for a living. Two points are worth noting: the first is that the telegram quotes mostly local employees, which usually means it is too dangerous for American staff members to travel around to talk with other Iraqis. Second, the atmosphere described in this telegram is similar to what I experienced in Ethiopia during the revolution and subsequent civil war. No government can function in that kind of atmosphere. And indeed, the Iraqi government reportedly can't leave the Green Zone because of the danger. George Bush's surprise trip to Iraq was essentially a trip to the Green Zone, the only place in central and western Iraq that is secure enough for Americans, or for Iraqi government officials.
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