Ed Kinane
Voices in The Wilderness
October 27, 2003

EXPLOSIONS

At about 6:30 am yesterday the massively fortified CPA headquarters at the Hotel Rashid was hit by ten or twelve explosive devices. According to a soldier sentry (just out of high school) there who Cathy talked to yesterday, there were “missing arms and legs,” many casualties and some deaths. BBC this morning is reporting only one death and three injuries. Rumsfeld’s crony Paul Wolfowitz was in the hotel but escaped injury and has since returned to the States.

At 8:30 this morning we hear an enormous explosion. The noise reminds me of last April’s aerial bombs. From our roof we see billows of black smoke drifting east. Later we hear that the International Red Cross in Karrada a couple miles from us was carbombed.

CPT’s Anne Montgomery who got close to the site said glass was blown out two blocks away and that nearby were a boy’s school and a girl’s school. I happened to pass by there yesterday. Cathy and I had visited there a few weeks ago and were struck by the heavy security precautions. These included the newly placed cement barriers around the outside of the building. They also included not being open to the public seeking information about detained relatives.

There are several more explosions during the day. Radio news says cumulatively over 34 are killed and over 200 wounded today.

SAYED ADNAN’S NEWS REPORT

In the afternoon Sayed Adnan, Salem’s brother from Hillah, comes by to pick up the letter, in English and Arabic, inviting him to meet with Chaldean Bishop Wardoni–a link Cathy is brokering.

As the Sayed limps up the stairs using his cane, he seems less imposing than he did the other day when he visited us. The Sayed writes the following in Arabic in our message book (Haythem’s translation):

“Bissmallah
“Peace be on you.
“Six days ago the US and Polish forces broke into Sheikh Kadem Al Nassiri’s house. They broke through the external fence with tanks and destroyed the doors, and furnitures, entered the bedrooms of women and children and handcuffed his father who is about 66 years old and five of his sons.
“They beat them and dragged them on the ground. Meanwhile they searched the house but didn’t find anything or any weapons. Now they are detainees in the US marine forces headquarters in Hillah.
“The tribes promise that they will get revenge upon the occupation forces if all of them aren’t released.
“At the same hour the forces broke into the Al Sadr office in Karbala and took 15 of the religious and youths. Now they are also detained in the same place.”
The Sayed provides no context for these attacks and detentions, no sense for what, if anything, provoked them.
US NEWS REPORTS

From Robert Jensen’s “The Military’s Media,” pp. 22-25 in the May 2003 Progressive:

“[In the first two weeks of the Iraq invasion] on television, current military officers were ‘balanced’ with retired military officers. (A recent study by Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting noted that 76 percent of the guests on network talk shows in late January and early February were current or former officials, and that anti-war sources accounted for less than 1 percent.)” [p.22]

“At the core of coverage of this war was the system of ‘embedding’ reporters with troops, allowing reporters to travel with military units–so long as they followed the rules. Those rules said reporters could not travel independently (which meant they could not really report independently), interviews had to be on the record (which meant lower-level service members were less likely to say anything critical), and officers could censor copy and temporarily restrict electronic transmissions for ‘operational security’ (which, in practice could be defined as whatever field commanders want to censor).” [p.23]

In the same issue of the Progressive: Kathy Kelly’s “Baghdad Diary,” pp 26-28, on the first several days of shock and awe.

Yesterday was the beginning of Sunni Ramadan. Today is the beginning of Shia Ramadan. [As I write these words I hear another–not quite so loud– explosion.] We do not mean to play favorites, but it just happens that this morning Cathy, Cynthia and I begin observing Ramadan. We breakfast before dawn and dine after dark, fasting in between. Strict observers don’t drink even water during the day. But, to ward off dehydration, I drink plenty of water. Our appetites sharp, dinner together tonight is like a feast.