Ed Kinane
Voices in The Wilderness
Baghdad
September 18, 2003

UN NGO MEETING
This morning Cathy and I head out to the UN compound for a weekly NGO meeting–our first appearance. About 30 of us crowd into an air-conditioned tent. The featured presentation is by Jean Luc on security. While in the UN compound, if bullets begin flying, head for the bunkers. If there’s a mortar attack, lie on the ground.

Regarding Iraq as a whole, the south is quiet. Though there are lots of car-jacking’s on the Kut/Basra road–a road we travelled not so long ago. Although there are ransom kidnappings, so far none have involved expats. (Around the kitchen table a few days ago we all agreed that we would not want ransoms paid if we were kidnapped.)

Things are hot in Mosul. A huge CPA troop presence there. Lots of IED [improvised explosive device] attacks in the cities near Baghdad, including attacks on civilian services. In Fallujah there are anti-personnel mines. The resistance is stepping up in preparedness and organization.

Ed Kinane
Voices in The Wilderness

Is it worthwhile for us to be here in Iraq? Is it worth the time, the cost, the risk?

I believe a US peace presence in Iraq is a must during the US invasion/occupation. We must not avert our gaze from this illegal, immoral, brutal and thieving war.

We need to keep tabs on the CPA [Coalition Provisional Authority]. The CPA - the occupation - is a structure of violence both direct and systemic. Hopefully the presence of peace activists, if only in some small way, helps restrain CPA violence and the lies that it tells about such violence.

Sewage is coming through the manhole covers, there’s still only 15 hours electricity a day and anarchy grips the streets of Baghdad, but yesterday America’s toothless Iraqi “interim council” roared like a lion, issuing a set of restrictions and threats - against the press, of course.

Aimed primarily at the Arab satellite channels al-Jazeera and al-Arabiya, which always air Saddam Hussein’s tape recordings, the almost Orwellian rules — each of which begins with the words “do not” — mean Iraqi or foreign press and television news organizations can be closed if they “advocate the return of the Baath party or issue any statements that represent the Baath directly or indirectly [sic]”. Continue reading…