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• Voices in the Wilderness Reflection
• An Appeal for the Release the Italian and Iraqi Aid Workers Abducted in Baghdad
• Observing the Heavens Between the Bombs, by Ra’ad Ali Abdul Azziz
• A Plea from Ed Kinane
• For More information please visit freeourfriends.blogspot.com

Astronomy in the War

by Ra’ad Ali Abdul Azziz

Astronomers are always and every where searching for dark places, usually away from the cities and the light pollution, for their observations. In my case, dark places were coming to my house and this is my story.

I am an amateur astronomer from Iraq, living in Baghdad City. I learned the sky in late 1970’s when I was 7 years old. Baghdad is a very big city and it was full of lights and fun at that time. In the other hand, I couldn’t see the constellations and fine stars from my house in this city. At that time I collected several maps and charts for the sky, but I couldn’t use them in a good way.

By Ed Kinane

September 8, 2004

This afternoon I learned that my friends, Raad and Simona, were abducted (along with another Iraqi and another Italian) from their Bridges to Baghdad office in Baghdad. This did not come as quite the shock it might have because recently Raad had emailed our mutual friend Cynthia that their office had just been shelled (fortunately with no casualties.)

I first met Simona at the Al Fanar Hotel in March and April, 2003. She was among the remarkable staff of Bridges who, at great risk of their lives, deliberately chose to remain in Iraq during the invasion and bombing of Baghdad.

I only met Raad three or four times – two or three times in late 2003 at the Bridges to Baghdad office and once when he and his lovely wife, Lubab, and their child, Ahmed, visited our Voices in the Wilderness house in Karrada, a neighborhood in Baghdad. After I returned to the States, we emailed back and forth several times.

It is Sunday, the 5th day of the 10-day fast initiated by Voices in the Wilderness. It is about 5am and I am awakened by the sound of planes flying overhead. They seem to be flying much lower, and therefore were much louder than in the past days. They are heading to O’Hare airport I am told.

Several of us from out-of-town have descended on the 2nd floor apartment, home to Kathy Kelly and the Voices in the Wilderness offices in Chicago. So warmly welcomed and received by all of the folks here, somehow we have not wanted to separate, though friends have offered a place in their homes. We have each seemed to settle into a space, and my nook is the front roof in the open air, just large enough for a mattress. Once again I am sleeping under the stars. I cannot help but remember the skies of Baghdad where last fall we slept on the roof and were subject to the constant nerve-shattering sound of planes overhead and explosions. The planes I hear this morning are passenger planes, but in Iraq U.S. war planes and helicopters continue to carry and drop deadly bombs. The people there, our brothers and sisters, have never had a respite from the explosions, the violence, the terror and the killing. This is one of the reasons we are fasting.

Helen Williams & Kevin Williams, Youth Aid Iraq

Yet another bomb has exploded in our neighbourhood of Kerrada, Baghdad. This roadside bomb killed 2 Iraqis and Injured 8 - 10. The American soldiers, and Iraqi Police, clearly have orders from on high to make certain that the truth does not get out. The mainstream media are not brave enough or capable of doing their jobs. They should consider their positions. For at the very least they are damaging their professions reputation.