I was just checking out MichaelMoore.com and noticed an interesting link from a correspondent in Iraq who still dares to travel around Iraq and report on life in Iraq. He does on the street interviews with regular Iraqis (outside of the Green Zone) and you really get a feel for what it's like to live in occupied Iraq.
Given that most news organizations are now unable to accurately report about Iraq because of the worsening security situation in Iraq, this is a really great resource for those interested in getting an eyewitness account of Iraqi life.
His webpage ( http://dahrjamailiraq.com ) describes what he's doing:
Weary of the overall failure of the US media to accurately report on the realities of the war in Iraq for the Iraqi people and US soldiers, Dahr Jamail went to Iraq to report on the war himself.
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Dahr has spent a total of 6 months in occupied Iraq, and has now returned to continue reporting on the occupation. One of only a few independent reporters in Iraq, Dahr uses the DahrJamailIraq.com website and mailing list to disseminate his dispatches.
Here's part of today's Blog Entry
December 02, 2004
The Quiet of Destruction and Death
It's a late morning start today...as I'm waiting for Abu Talat, who calls to tell me he is snarled in traffic and will be late once again, huge explosions shake my hotel. Shortly thereafter mortars are exploding in the "green zone" as the loud warning sirens there begin to blare across Baghdad.
Automatic weapon fire cracks down the street.
The good news is that interim prime minister Ayad Allawi has announced a shortening of the curfew that most of Iraq is under. So now rather than having to be off the streets by 10:30pm, we can stay out until 11pm before we are shot on sight.
This past Sunday a small Iraqi Red Crescent aid convoy was allowed into Fallujah at 4:30pm. I interviewed a member of the convoy today. Speaking on condition of anonymity, (so I'll call her Suthir), the first thing she said to me was, "I need another heart and eyes to bear it because my own are not enough to bear what I saw. Nothing justifies what was done to this city. I didn't see a house or mosque that wasn't destroyed."
Suthir paused often to collect herself, but then as usual with those of us who have witnessed atrocities first hand, when she started to talk, she barely stopped to breath.
"There were families with nothing. I met a family with three daughters and two sons. One of their sons, Mustafa who was 16 years old, was killed by American snipers. Then their house was burned. They had nothing to eat. Just rice and cold water-dirty water...they put the rice in the dirty water, let it sit for one or two hours, then they ate the rice. Fatma, the 17 year-old daughter, said she was praying for God to take her soul because she couldn't bear the horrors anymore."
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Read the rest here:
http://dahrjamailiraq.com/weblog/
He's got an image gallery too!:
http://dahrjamailiraq.com/gallery/