Khalid Jarrar, an Iraqi blogger whose entire family is famous for their blogging efforts, was recently released from the Iraqi jail where he was detained for surfing web sites such as Riverbend's blog, his brother Raed's blog (Raed is a famous blogger and part of the dynamic duo that wrote the Baghad Blogger blog), etc. He says thank you to all for helping him in his hour of need:
I want to thank you, all of you, from the bottom of my heart, for all the wonderful emails that I and my family received...
And for all the signatures on the petition...
For my lovely freinds Liminal and Najma for the blog of http://giveusourkhalidback.blogspot.com/...
For my Great friend Emigre from Iraqblogcount.blogspot.com
Riverbnd, i can never thank you enough...
For the Committee to Protect Bloggers ...
And for for the emails that actually flooded the email account of the Iraqi embassy in the USA...
For all those who took the time to write demanding freeing me in their websites: Juan Cole and justin alexander and God knows they are so many that I cant mention them all so I hope they forgive me for that...
For all the comments on Raed's blog and the comments on my blog...
For everyone that took the effort of making a legal attempt to defend me or to motivate human rights organizations to do that...
For everyone that had me in his thoughts, and specially for everyone that made even a tiny small prayer for me...
For all of you, great deep thanks, from all my heart, I am very thankful and very grateful, and I promise to do all what's possible to free you when you are arrested for reading our blogs:)
you showed us -once again- that we humans have strong-enough bonds that no government can break, no administration can change.
again, thank you all very very much, I wish you all the best, your support means more than you can imagine to me and to my family, who really needed it through these hard days.
I hope that you will never have to face such an experience, and I want you to know that all of you are in my thoughts and prayers:)
me*)
http://secretsinbaghdad.blogspot.com/
Also, read the post on Khalid's site where he describes his detention:
Sleeping in a grave-size space, defined by two walls touching both my head my and feet, and surrounded with human bodies touching me from both sides, in a way that hardly leaves any chance to move at all during the long... long night, in a 12 square meters room stuffed with 35 people trying to sleep, and to hold themselves together in order not to fight...
The whole thing started when I went to the university to pay my tuition fees, the thing is that the engineering campus is separated from the rest of the university with few kilometers, but for such administrative issues, students should go to the headquarter, and this is what I did. I entered the main campus and went to the financial department to pay money. I started the paperwork process, and then reached to a point where we needed the director's signature to finish the paperwork, but she was in a meeting. So, the employee asked me to go and waste an hour inside the campus till the meeting is over, and I did.
What would you do in such a case? Go to the café? I tried, but was totally bored after less than 15 minutes, and then I don't remember how an idea flashed in my head like a big light bulb: internet!
Of course, what is better than the internet to kill time?
I remembered there was an internet café inside the campus. I rarely came to this campus during the last five years. I think I came like three or four times only. Anyways, so I went to the internet café and did my regular tour: raed in the middle, riverbend, etc etc..and then I was bored again. I left the internet café heading towards the financial department again.
In my way, I was stopped by an old man, with a hateful face. "tfa`6al" he said (it means something like: "how can I help you?") I was a bit surprised, I said "inta tfa`6al!" (meaning: "how can I help you?") he said: where are you going? So I knew that he must be some kind of a security guy. I should have guessed from his tone, he sounds like a typical saddam-style security-man.
"to the financial department, to pay my tuition money" I said.
"where were you right now?"
" in the internet café !"
"where is your ID?"
"at the campus entrance reception, with my mobile phone" (this is common now, in all governmental buildings you have to leave your mobile phone in the reception, you cant take it with you).
read more, and support Khalid's new cause of helping Iraqis who are unjustly imprisoned by spreading this story to as many people as you can.
