Priests preparing themselves by reading the Ginzah-raba
priest wrapping the headdress, young men had to be taught how
preparing the Yaas for the ceremony
kid and grandfather before the baptisim
reading the Ginzah-raba
reading the vow before the baptisim
waitinfg in line to be baptized
women waiting their turn
First priest baptizing his apprentice
under the canopy by the river after the Sibagha
today is the day of the Abolution for the Mandeans. today they all go down to the river. they call in Sibagha. it starts with the ptiests reading from their holy book called Ginzah-raba wich means the great treasure, then the men and women get in line to be baptized. after that they read some more and cook meals which they give to the poor.
at 7pm they all go back to their homes and stay indoors for the next 36 hours, the story goes like this. the angels of light (heaven) came down to battle the angels of darkness (earth) it took them 12 hours to come down,12 to fight the evil and 12 to go back to the land of light. during these 36 hours there are no angels of light to protect the Mandeans, that is why they spend that time indoors. after 36 hours they go out and celebrate the Mandean new year.
today in the morning I was down by the river and attended the Baptisim.
lovely. and i was given a ring of Yaas (fragrant green leaves) as a present.
As World B Free points out, you have failed to address my refutations of your posts. After a while, it became a tedious exercise, tantamount to conversing with a wall.
In the meanwhile, I have enjoyed watching you "monopolize" this web page with your posts.
Crabby A
Phoenix AZ
KUFFIR4LYFE!
Tue 9-Sep-2003 23:06 Posted by:Crabby A
Crabby A and World B Free: I can argue with the best of them but I am not going to abuse Salam's photolog. If Crabby A were to set up his own blog/photolog, then we could all come along and abuse that instead.
And my posts recently have all been points of information likely to be welcomed by those who have Salam's interests - and a peaceful and orderly Iraq governed by Iraqis for Iraqis - at heart.
Wed 10-Sep-2003 06:58 Posted by:Rachel, a Brit in London
Rachel, I have a homework assignment for you.
Please look up the definitions of two words:
Subjective, Objective.
Please compare and contrast.
Wed 10-Sep-2003 13:37 Posted by:Crabby A
Thanks Rachel for the link to Salam's interview on BBC. If not for your message, many like myself may never had known about it. I doubt if Salam would be offered such a forum in the mainstream media of my country.
In the recent weeks people here seem to be waking up to the horrible mess we've gotten ourselves into, but what boggles my mind is that more than 70% continues to believe that Saddam was directly responsible for 9/11. The "free" media has been serving their masters in the government quite admirably.
Wed 10-Sep-2003 16:11 Posted by:Achin
Achin,
I'm sure that ongoing contact between al Qaeda and Saddams regime, and photos like these haven't helped the perception.
Fortunately, most citizens are not as "nuanced" as sophisticated folks like you and realize that when theres smoke has been shown by experts to have a strong association with fire.
Did you know that nearly 60% of US journalists are registered Democrat?
http://www.mediaresearch.org/biasbasics/welcome.asp "Evidence of how hard journalists lean to the left was provided by S. Robert Lichter, then with George Washington University, in his groundbreaking 1980 survey of the media elite. Lichter's findings were authoritatively confirmed by the American Association of Newspaper Editors (ASNE) in 1988 and 1997 surveys. The most recent ASNE study surveyed 1,037 newspaper reporters found 61 percent identified themselves as/leaning "liberal/Democratic" compared to only 15 percent who identified themselves as/leaning "conservative/Republican." "
Before you go on about how great and unbiased the BBC is, check out this website:
CNN report on new bin Laden tape...
---
In audiotaped statements accompanying the video, bin Laden praises the hijackers who crashed jetliners into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and a Pennsylvania field. And Zawahiri warns that "the real battle has not started yet. Prepare yourself for the punishment for your crimes."
Zawahiri also warns the mothers of U.S. troops in Iraq to "hasten to ask your government to return them to you, rather than they come back in coffins."
---
...and al Qaeda shows a vested interest in Iraq.
What would be sufficient proof for you? Video of bin Laden and Saddam sitting around together, smoking a narghila?
Iraq is drawing Jihadis like moth to a flame. Aplogies to Salam, but I'm happy we are fighting them on their turf as opposed to our turf.
Wed 10-Sep-2003 18:47 Posted by:Crabby A
As usual, Mr. A rants, fumes and responds to his own imaginary points that did little to address my comments (same as his earlier self-proclaimed "point-by-point" refutations of some of my earlier posts).
We should thank him, however, for opening our eyes by pointing to the links to those two poignant paintings by some shit-headed street-corner artists. I must finally admit that I am most humbled by these rather irrefutable proofs that directly link Saddam to 9-11. How obvious! Why are you minimizing it by calling it "smoke"? I clearly see the "fire" too!
I guess, it is becoming increasingly clear what kind of foolproof intelligence went into the US/UK claims of Iraqi WMDs - to be assemmbled/fired in "45 minutes notice", causing "mushroom-clouds", brought here by baloons/drones etc. etc. It's all proven to be true, of course. Nothing was ever "sexed up". Definitely. Silly me, what have I been smoking that I failed to realize all these? Must be my "nuanced sophistication" - Yeah Right!
Can we dare to wonder why Iraq is suddenly being allowed to draw all these Jihadis now? Who lighted this flame? It must also be all Saddam's fault, right? He must be in cahoots with the current regime running the show in Iraq. If that street-painter whites out the moustach from Saddam, you'll get Bremer in a different hairstyle, with his favorite 25 puppets, specially flown in from all over to the obvious delight of the liberated Iraqis. Some freedom they are going to have.
This Laden tape right before 9-11 scares the hell out of me. Who knows which Arab country will be claimed to be linked to him next that is ready to hit the west in the next 45 minutes? Saudi Arabia being off-limit, will it be Syria or Iran? Any more paintings you have?
Thu 11-Sep-2003 05:53 Posted by:Achin
Salam Pax will be live online on Friday 12 September 2003, at 1.45pm (British Summer Time, I think that's 12.45pm Greenwich Mean Time) on the Guardian newspaper web site. You can post your questions and comments for him now, and join the discussion live at 1.45pm on Friday.
For those who may not already know this, the Guardian is a "broadsheet" newspaper published in London. It has a very loyal readership; at the time of the last "circulation wars" some while ago (I forget exactly when that was, about 10-12 years ago perhaps), when all the other papers dropped their prices to 10 or 20 pence per copy, the Guardian never dropped their price and did not suffer loss of sales. As my local newsagent observed, "a Guardian reader is a Guardian reader". In theory, the present UK Government was voted in by Guardian readers. At least, I believe that they thought that they were voting in a Labour government.
This is so significant. The "Today" programme and now the Guardian. (The "Today" programme is the UK's flagship current affairs radio programme; one Labour politician described it last week as "required listening for political nerds" - she meant it as a compliment, not scornfully - ie for people who take a keen interest in current affairs.)
Thu 11-Sep-2003 09:02 Posted by:Rachel, a Brit in London
My copy of Salam Pax's book arrived today! Perhaps one day there may be an opportunity to ask Salam to inscribe it for me.
Sat 13-Sep-2003 18:35 Posted by:Rachel, a Brit in London
see last message
(25) Michael Moore‘s Homepage, (26) Bowling For Columbine Homepage, (27) Iraq Body Count, England, (28) No more Victims, (29) Global Referendum, (30) Brainworker, Schweiz.
VII. Anti-War-Posters
Examples: (31) Peaceposters, Rob Costin, (32) What I Did in the War, (33) The Broadside, Free Anti-War Posters.
VIII. Alternative News-Services
Examples: (34) Alertnet, (35) Electronic Iraq, (36) Cursor, (37) Cursor‘s Al Jazeera Link
IX. Blogs an Warblogs
Examples: (38) Kevin Sites (Irak), (39) Where is Raed (Irak), (40) Daily Kos (USA), (41) Stand Down (USA), (42) Warblogs:cc (USA), (43) The War in Context (USA), (44) The Agonist (USA), (45) Dogfood (Deutschland), (46) Donald Sensing (USA), (47) The American Kaiser (USA), (48) Back to Iraq (Irak), (49) L.T. Smash: Live from the Sandbox (Irak)
X. Headlines of International Newspapers
Examples: (50) Newseum
Sun 14-Sep-2003 20:08 Posted by:peter keicher
Peter Keicher : you may wish to check this but I believe that, by re-publishing Salam Pax's material on your CDs (and selling them for twenty euros to the benefit of NET ev ) under EU legislation at least you are in clear breach of Salam Pax's copyright ownership of the material on his web sites. Apart from that, why are you poncing off him?
Sun 14-Sep-2003 21:48 Posted by:Rachel, a Brit in London
Achin wrote:
"Nothing was ever "sexed up". Definitely. Silly me, what have I been smoking that I failed to realize all these? Must be my "nuanced sophistication" - Yeah Right!"
Gilligan was accused of trying to mislead MPs
BBC journalist Andrew Gilligan has admitted making mistakes in live broadcasts reporting claims the government had "sexed up" its dossier on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction.
-
You might read with interest the section entitled "Nuances:"
--
Mr Sambrook also said he had not told BBC governors that the source was not in fact a senior member of the intelligence services, but said they were not overly interested in the source's identity.
He said Mr Gilligan was "extremely good at finding out information, but there are sometimes questions of nuances and subtlety in how he presents it which are not all they should be".
Lord Hutton asked if it was appropriate for the BBC to rely entirely on Andrew Gilligan if serious complaints had been made about his story and his notes did not fully support that report.
--
A BBC reporter makes up elements of his story and misattributes the information underlying the "sexed up," demonstrating that 10 Downing St. was correct and the BBC was not... But Achin is the only guy who knows the truth... Mmm hmm.
Even funnier was the amazing prescience in my use of the word "nuanced."
He shoots, he scores!
Crabby A
Kuffir 4 Life
Wed 17-Sep-2003 17:54 Posted by:Crabby A
Journalist John Naughton on the Salam Pax phenomenon (published in the Guardian newspaper on 12 Sept 2003):
Question 5: How did Iraq deal with members of the UN Security Council?
Al-Sahaf: We would contact any country which becomes a temporary member of the Council. We would send them delegations and materials to make our positions clear to them. More and continuous contacts were carried out with the three permanent members of the Council, France, Russia, and China. They were also given preference in oil contracts and trade to keep them as close as possible to the Iraqi side.
CAN IT BE?
France, China, and Russia DID IT FOR OIIIIIIIIIIL????
Steady my beating heart! Sacre bleu, how can this BE?
Thu 18-Sep-2003 04:11 Posted by:Crabby A
Yes, perhaps BBC embellished its storyline, but that did not cost thousands of lives or create such a worldwide trauma as has happened now when a superpower acted almost unilaterally based on false intelligence. If nothing was "sexed up", as you seem to imply, then where are the WMDs? Why isn't David Kay and his 1400 member team reporting the ground truth even after spending months and wasting our tax dollars? Or, are we not even supposed to ask these inconvenient questions now that Saddam's regime has fallen?
I keep breaking my own promise to ignore you. But this space may be viewed many and it will be a pity if anybody is swayed by your one-sided pro-government propaganda rhetoric.
Thu 18-Sep-2003 05:14 Posted by:unnamed
Crabby A wrote, "I already see Rachel switching her allegiance to the Guardian." From what, pray? You do talk a lot of rubbish.
Thu 18-Sep-2003 19:27 Posted by:Rachel, a Brit in London
Rachel, the subject noun was in the preceeding sentence:
"The BBC is on the rocks. I already see Rachel switching her allegiance to the Guardian."
Now where would I have gotten that idea?
From the BBC, as you said on Jul 24:
"It is the BBC's duty, on behalf of its listeners, to challenge our government's role in this theatre of war and elswhere; and as you know throughout the world the BBC has earned - to my mind, deservedly - an unmatched reputation for truth and impartiality."
Don't take your lack of reading comprehension skills out on me, ok?
Rubbish... Indeed!
Thu 18-Sep-2003 20:08 Posted by:Crabby A
I don't know about "lost", but your one sided propaganda sure misleads, if not misinforms, e.g., you forgot to mention that David Kay has already missed one deadline for the interim report,
although you wouldn't see this mentioned much in our mainstream media. In the mean time, much of the pre-war intelligence propaganda are getting debunked,
But you wouldn't hear any apologies or disgust or outrage from the right wing warmonger zealots. Instead their blind followers like you dream up "three possibilities", none of which could morally justify invading a country and kill thousands of its innocent civilians and lose 100s of our own in the process. All because of the audacious lunacy of the fringe neocons who fooled and scared the hell out of the citizenery with one false intelligence scare after another.
Which side I am on? You can bet that I don't belong to that side of insanity and lunacy, and guess what, nor do most sane people in this country and a large majority in the rest of the world.
Fri 19-Sep-2003 03:11 Posted by:Achin
Happy Birthday, Salam. If someone had told you, on your last birthday, that a year hence your pseudonym would have a book published and selling like "hot cakes" and that the dearraed blog would be internationally known, you might have thought that they were raving. Let us hope for something equally remarkable for your 2004 birthday, like - let's see, something in the porcine aviator department - I know, the departure of all the chimp's troops from Iraq.
Fri 19-Sep-2003 10:23 Posted by:Rachel, a Brit in London
A BBC news interactive forum, today 19 Sept 2003, with Salam Pax::
(Above URL should be all on one line.) In one place he says, "What I really don't understand is the fixation on the 45 minutes. I mean, what does it matter whether it was 45 or a 100? The real question is whether Saddam had WMDs or not. Because that, in the end, was the main selling-point of the war. " I hope that someone will explain to Salam that, callous as this may sound, when the PM was trying to get the House of Commons to agree to war, there was all the difference in the world between WMDs that might be used only in the Middle East and WMDs that might fall here in the UK in the next three-quarters of an hour. The latter is an unanswerable argument for going to war (defence of one's own country against "a clear and present threat"); the former is less persuasive (particularly as it involved invading another country that was not - as we now know - directly threatening one's own).
Sat 20-Sep-2003 20:07 Posted by:Rachel, a Brit in London
BAGHDAD, Iraq -- After five months of foreign military occupation and the ouster of Saddam Hussein, nearly two-thirds of Baghdad residents believe that the removal of the Iraqi dictator has been worth the hardships they have been forced to endure, a new Gallup poll shows.
Despite the systemic collapse of government and civic institutions, a wave of looting and violence, and shortages of water and electricity, 67 percent of 1,178 Iraqis told a Gallup survey team that within five years, their lives would be better than before the American and British invasion. Only 8 percent of those queried said they believed that their lives would be worse as a result of the military campaign to remove Saddam and his Baath Party leadership from power.
(snip)
The poll results also showed that Baghdad residents were nearly evenly divided on whether the American-British occupation authority headed by L. Paul Bremer was doing a good job running the country, with 28 percent giving it a positive rating and 25 percent saying it was doing a poor job on a scale of 1 to 5, with 5 being the most positive rating.
But half of the respondents said the occupation authority was doing a better job now than it was two months ago, and their view of Bremer himself was remarkably positive, with 47 percent holding a favorable view of him compared with 22 percent who held an unfavorable view.
Thu 25-Sep-2003 08:01 Posted by:Crabby A
Ace timing, Crabby A. On the day when the UN decided to pull out of Iraq because the US and the UK forces cannot provide enough protection.
Thu 25-Sep-2003 17:20 Posted by:Rachel, a Brit in London
Rachel,
Care to explain what the optimism of Iraqis has to do with this decision by the Useless Nitwits?
Funny that the UN felt nice and safe with no need for security when Saddam ran the show, and the UN banked big bucks through the Oil for Palaces program.
You can bet that the Bureau-rats will return when there is something there easily stolen.
As for Achin's idea that it's "ordinary Iraqi's" that are blowing up water mains, produce markets, and movie theatres.....
U.S. holding 19 al-Qaida suspects, Bremer says
-
U.S. forces in Iraq are holding 19 suspected members of the al-Qaida terrorist network, the American civilian administrator said Friday.
The suspected al-Qaida members are among 248 non-Iraqi fighters being held by the Americans in Iraq, L. Paul Bremer said in a Pentagon news conference.
Bremer said authorities determined the suspects' al-Qaida links through interrogations and documents the suspects were carrying. He said he did not know what countries they came from.
TIKRIT, Iraq (Reuters) - U.S. troops said they had found surface-to-air missiles and hundreds of other weapons including plastic explosives buried in an orchard near Saddam Hussein (news - web sites)'s hometown on Saturday.
A U.S. military spokesman described the haul as one of the most significant weapons seizures of recent weeks and a sign of how Saddam loyalists were still equipped to pose a threat to U.S. forces.
He said 23 SA-7 surface-to-air missiles were found as well as 1,000 pounds of plastic explosives, 500 hand grenades, dozens of mortar bombs and hundreds of detonators which could be used to set off car bombs or other explosions.
Also discovered were rocket-propelled grenades similar to those used on Saturday in an attack on a Baghdad hotel housing officials of Iraq (news - web sites)'s U.S.-led administration.
"This was a significant find but is just one of the numerous weapons caches we know exist around the country," the spokesman told reporters.
He said the owner of the orchard, about 10 miles outside Tikrit, was closely linked to Saddam's ousted regime.
Troops were led to the cache by an informant. They had raided the orchard three days before but found only one weapon on that occasion, the spokesman said.
----
"...the owner of the orchard, about 10 miles outside Tikrit, was closely linked to Saddam's ousted regime."
I guess Achin's idea of "ordinary Iraqi" is one of Saddams buddies?
Sun 28-Sep-2003 14:25 Posted by:Crabby A
1997 UNSCOM report: Major Sites Associated With Iraq's Past WMD Programs
Oh, and as for the UN decising to cut and run from Iraq - good thing the US didn't decide to turn administration of Iraq over to the Useless Nitwits, hmmmmmmmmmmm?
Mon 29-Sep-2003 02:44 Posted by:Crabby A
Crabby A, you are desperately uncritical of your country's propanda and of its foreign policy in general. For instance, that photo of children looking through a gate, entitled "Iraqi children awaiting first day of school ": it could be children looking through a gate of any bombed building, they are not in school uniform, and there are girls as well as boys (and as far as I am aware, Muslim girls are educated separately from girls).
As to your snide remark that it was, according to you, a good thing that the US did not hand over the administration of Iraq to the UN. Look, the US has responsibility for security in Baghdad; they are making a complete pig's ear of it (shooting civilians and their own appointed Iraqi police, humiliating Muslim women); perhaps the US took care not to make Baghdad secure enough for the UN non-Iraqi nationals to remain, because it does not really want any country but the US running Iraq. Please engage your brain and be less brain-washed by your media.
Anyway, you have reminded me that I must complain to the BBC about Alastair Cooke's last Letter from America: he, too, referred to that "children waiting to start school", and he of all people should know better than to swallow American propaganda whole. He is probably far too old, and his social life too enmeshed now with influential Americans (he no doubt plays golf with senators and dines oilmen, etc), to be able to play his part in maintaining the BBC's well-earned global reputation for truth and neutrality.
Mon 29-Sep-2003 08:06 Posted by:Rachel, a Brit in London
Errata: that should be
/propanda/propaganda
Muslim girls are educated separately from *boys*
My attention was distracted by the fact that I should be doing my VAT return, and not posting replies to Crabby A.
Mon 29-Sep-2003 08:09 Posted by:Rachel, a Brit in London
Rachel,
Unwrap the tinfoil from your head, please.
Mon 29-Sep-2003 13:37 Posted by:Crabby A
Rachel,
Do you ever go back and read your posts? They make very little sense.
You responded to the link to a picture showing a herd of children trying to break their way into a school (that is the only part of this I have trouble with). Your objection seemed to be that this couldn't possibly be a school as there was a girl (one by my estimation) in the picture. If you had taken the time to read the article you would have noticed the author mentions that school does not start for another week. I guess there must be some little known (except by you) Islamic law about women looking though gates to see what is happening in their company.
I was reminded of this board yesterday as I watched Paul Wolfowitz address an audience in New York. People would yell half thought out attacks at him and disrupt the discussion while he replied with calm logic. I see you and Achin as the people yelling half truths without carefully considering the complexity of what you are trying to understand. This situation is not as simple as America bad, all Iraq good. There are political, cultural and very human variables here. What I don't hear enough from you is that the Americans are dying for a positive cause, that the Iraqi people are better off and that this is a effort that will take time.
Mon 29-Sep-2003 20:05 Posted by:World B Free
Rachel, I am definately uncritical of my countries pro-Panda stance. I'm very happy that we are trying to increase the Panda population through in-captivity breeding.
I would say that the Jihadi imports are making a mess of Baghdad. After all, who is it that's shooting mortars into marketplaces and bombing movie theatres? Who was it that bombed the UN building, and fired mortars into a prison holding their own Jihadist compatriots? Who is blowing up oil piplines and water mains? Who is it that's bombing power lines? Suicide bombing?
The fact that you think the US is a bigger threat to regional peace than the suicides and their death-cult is precisely the reason you are a raving lunatic. Your nutty conspiracy theories about "oilmen" are just symptoms of your mental disease.
Unwrap the damn tinfoil from your head, there aren't any DOD satellites trying to program your neurons with laser-beams.
Mon 29-Sep-2003 21:00 Posted by:Crabby A
Iraq Today, www.iraq-today.com, is off-line. Does anyone happen to know why and for how long? (Perhaps Salam mentioning it in a web forum - the Guardian's, I think - resulted in enough extra visitors to crash the server?)
TVM
Tue 30-Sep-2003 08:39 Posted by:Rachel, a Brit in London
Lesley, I've been wondering what's happened with SalamPax also. His last Guardain article was Sep 18 and no blog entries either. Maybe he's trying to get back to Baghdad.
It's good to finally see an entry in the blog from SalamPax. Almost a month since the last one. About the green room encounter, I know the SalamPax and Baghdad Blogger names ... but who's Jack Straw? [chuckles and laughs].
oh salamPax, please don't sell out to a publisher or to the media hype. I rely on your first hand accounts, your boldness and your viewpoint, to try to make sense of what is going on in part of the world I care very much about. Shrug off the "green rooms" and "bylines" and "producers" and "power lunches" and come back to us...please!
Fri 10-Oct-2003 14:05 Posted by:jp
Wonderful to have news of you again, Salam. Just wonderful.
Sun 12-Oct-2003 15:54 Posted by:Rachel, a Brit in London
Why "Ordinary Iraqis" are loads smarter than deluded leftists like Achin and Rachel who refer to themselves using the misnomer "peace" or "human rights" activist:
Poll suggests most in Baghdad don't want troops to leave too quickly
The Gallup poll found that 71 percent of the capital city's residents felt U.S. troops should not leave in the next few months. Just 26 percent felt the troops should leave that soon....
Almost six in 10 in the poll, 58 percent, said that U.S. troops in Baghdad have behaved fairly well or very well, with one in 10 saying "very well." Twenty 20 percent said the troops have behaved fairly badly and 9 percent said very badly.
Tue 14-Oct-2003 20:18 Posted by:Crabby A
Salam to be one of the judges in the Guardian's British Blog Awards 2003!
Fri 17-Oct-2003 12:21 Posted by:Rachel, a Brit in London
Yes (cf Salam's post of 22 Oct 2003), that's one of the things that doesn't ring true about Zeyad (the Healing Iraq blog). Well, to me anyway. Would a Muslim, however well-educated and well-disposed in general towards the West, pray out loud that Allah should preserve an "infidel", a non-Muslim (ie Bremer)? Also the choice of "healing" in the blog's title seems to derive from a weak-brained and shallow New World mind-set than from that of someone whose fellow citizens suffered the sort of medieval oppression, during the past 20 odd years, that we in the West can barely conceive of.
Wed 22-Oct-2003 20:33 Posted by:Rachel, a Brit in London
Apropos of nothing at all: I have a little carved wooden camel bought in Jerusalem during a never-to-be-forgotten 10-day visit in March 1996 (I stayed at a hotel near the British High Commission); the shop owner who sold it to me (as well as two brass dishes, one from Nazareth and the other from Damascus) said that I should name it after him - Baghdadi - and so I did. And it sits on a shelf in front of me in my study, behind the computer screen.
Wed 22-Oct-2003 20:41 Posted by:Rachel, a Brit in London
Rachel:
here's something to work yourself into a tizzy over:
"A secretly taken picture of an American soldier frisking an Afghan child has shocked human rights campaigners across the world."
Frisking a child! Oh, the humanity!
The things al Jazeera gets worked up over... They are almost as bad as the Beeb.
BTW the, ahem, "Human Rights Spokesman" was granted asylum in the UK after fleeing Egypt.... after being convicted of a bombing that killed a 12 year old girl.
Thu 23-Oct-2003 21:44 Posted by:Crabby A
Where is SalamPax? Why are his journal entrys fewer these past weeks?
Wed 5-Nov-2003 09:26 Posted by:Rachel, a Brit in London
Salam, I think that your blog has been hacked today, 6 November.
Thu 6-Nov-2003 19:10 Posted by:Rachel, a Brit in London
This report "Don't mention the dead" is a sad illustration of how the American
agencies reporting the Iraq (and particularly Baghdad) in the US media do not
have the same "stakes" as the families - both American and Iraqi - whose loved
ones are dying.
Ordinary Americans need to make their voice heard at the White House, at CNN, at Fox News (even),
and Iraqi bloggers play - I think - a vital role in helping that to happen.
Fri 7-Nov-2003 10:11 Posted by:Rachel, a Brit in London
The last couple of entries in his blog do look suspicious. And it has been a couple of months since he made regular entries. I do hope he is doing well or as well as can be expected. Hopefully he is just busy with his work.
(The entry on his blog that looks like a hack seems to have been done for this film - you see it on
the film - and done in large font so that it can be read on the film.) Very illuminating.
Tue 11-Nov-2003 09:45 Posted by:Rachel, a Brit in London
Rachel is sad that US news doesn't report like al-Jazeera or al-Guardian.
Wonder why?
November 10, 2003
AL-JAZEERA CORRESPONDENT SATTAR KARIN ADMITTED THAT HIS OFFICE IN THE MAHMOUDIYA, BABIL PROVINCE OF IRAQ HAS BEEN USED TO COORDINATE ATTACKS AGAINST COALITION FORCES. TWO SYRIAN NATIONALS WERE ALSO INVOLVED. (AL-SABAH, IRAQ, 11/9/03) (http://www.memri.org/ticker.html)
I guess al-Jazeera doesn't have the same "stakes," huh?
Guess what, Rachel? Americans make their voices heard yearly in elections. We just had one last week, and the Democrats lost another few State Governorships, just like they will lose more seats in the senate and house next year, just like they did a year ago.
Other than misinformed UK papers with Marxist op-ed pages, what makes you think that Americans don't get their voices heard? Especially when 80% of journalists are leftists, as are 80% of public school teachers. Fox News is cable ONLY btw, so people without cable TV don't receive it. ABC, CBS, and NBC are broadcast stations, and all are anchored by leftists. NPR is publicly funded, yet run by leftists. (Personally, I'd like to see them run out of town.) Most daily papers in the US have left-leaning editorial pages. Then again, I can't expect you to be well informed, given that you hang on every word of washed-up hack "writers" like Robert "I would have beaten myself up, too!" Fisk.
Wed 12-Nov-2003 15:50 Posted by:Crabby A
I am sure that Baghdad Blogger video must be interesting. Especially since I can not get the real player software to work and can not watch it. I can not even find the link from BBC's webpages to see if there is an article about the video. I do wish SalamPax would start writing in his blog again. I am more of a reader than a video watcher. Maybe he is only busy with his other real work now and does not have the time to write like he use to. Riverbend says the electric is not as good as it should be either and all these computer and internet connection depend on electricity to function. The marvels of this modern age still depend on some old fashion steam and electric generators some where.
From recent news reports it looks like the war in Iraq is turning from mission accomplished to mission revisited and resumed. It will be a much longer go this time around. I suppose that is one of the reasons why I wish SalamPax would start writing again. He and the other Iraqi bloggers provide better information about how the real situation is in Iraq. It would be good to know that most are surviving as best they can under these conditions
The friendly encounter with an American soldier Salam wrote about in his August 3, 2003 entry must be a thing of the past now. It doesn't look like there are that many good enounters now.
- with thanks to someone commenting on Zeyad's blog.
Thu 13-Nov-2003 19:24 Posted by:Rachel, a Brit in London
Rachael, thanks for the link to his latest article. I usually check the guardain website but then it is days inbetween his writings there and then I stop checking. I have to use their website search to find his articles. There never seems to be a link from one of the other pages. I was a bit confused about the camera thing. Is it to be a personal website camera or does he send the tapes to the guardain or some regular broadcasting network? Thanks again for helping me keep track of the young man.
" Saddam, he says, is physically gone now but is still there in people’s heads. I think he must be.
I remember how the feeling of being watched lingered after I got home from spending a few weeks
here. An entire lifetime under scrutiny must take a long time to shed. " From a British woman's web site,
That she would suggest "See also" Indymedia, which is often rightfully referred to as Nazimedia (Some articles up on there now, titled: " The Hidden History of Zionism," "RACIST ZIONIST QUOTES !!!," "The Talmud Exposed," etc. etc. )for some of the odder posts, demonstrates even more the deep level of her mental disturbance.
You sure keep good company.
Crabby A
KUFFIR INFIDEL 4 LYFE BOYEEEE!!@!#
Tue 18-Nov-2003 05:50 Posted by:Crabby A
I see SalamPax made an entry on Sunday. I guess that's him but it didn't quite read like his other postings. Why's he still talking like he's in London? Maybe I mis-read that.
There's not nearly as many posts on these message boards as they use to be. It appears Rachel and I are the only one's still writing. TurningTables has quite writing too. He must be getting on with his life as well.
Hundreds of thousands of people demonstrated against President Bush today in London.
And protested about the way the UK was committed to the war. Most of the webcameras
along the route of the march have been turned off but the BBC has been
collecting contributions from participants by video phone, at
I realise that Americans are going to see on their tvs about as
much of these protests as the President has - zilch. On one
newsreel this evening, he is shown leaving Downing Street by
the western entrance, so he didn't see the 250 from Amnesty
International at the eastern end - 40 of them wearing the orange
jumpsuits, surgical masks and plastic shackles of the
Guantanamo Bay detainees - protesting against the treatment
of these prisoners (one of whom is a British citizen),
Thu 20-Nov-2003 19:39 Posted by:Rachel, a Brit in London
> these prisoners (one of whom is a British citizen),
Sorry, that should be 19 of whom are British citizens. I was thinking of something else.
Fri 21-Nov-2003 09:25 Posted by:Rachel, a Brit in London
Rachel wrote: Hundreds of thousands of people demonstrated against President Bush today in London.
And protested about the way the UK was committed to the war.
Well, Scotland Yard estimated 50,000. Also, AP estimated 50,000. Their message was the same as that of the suicide bombers in Turkey a couple days ago - "Do not side with the United States against Islamic terrorists."
It's ok, though, fortunately your ilk is the VAST MINORITY in the UK.
Protests begin but majority backs Bush visit as support for war surges
"The survey shows that public opinion in Britain is overwhelmingly pro-American with 62% of voters believing that the US is "generally speaking a force for good, not evil, in the world". It explodes the conventional political wisdom at Westminster that Mr Bush's visit will prove damaging to Tony Blair. Only 15% of British voters agree with the idea that America is the "evil empire" in the world."
Hey, Salam? Fuck you. I know you’re the famous giggly blogger who gave us all a riveting view of the inner circle before the war, and thus know more about the situation than I do. Granted. But there’s a picture on the front page of my local paper today: third Minnesotan killed in Iraq. He died doing what you never had the stones to do: pick up a rifle and face the Ba’athists. You owe him.
Let me explain this in simple terms, habibi. You would have spent the rest of your life under Ba’athist rule. You might have gotten some nice architectural commissions to do a house for someone whose aroma was temporarily acceptable to the Tikriti mob. You might have worked your international connections, made it back to Vienna, lived a comfy exile’s life. What’s certain is that none of your pals would ever have gotten rid of that “scary guy without the hideous moustache” (as if his greatest sin was somehow a fashion faux pas) and the Saddam regime would have prospered into the next generation precisely because of people like you. People who would rather have lived their life in low-level fear than change your situation. I understand; I would have done the same. I’m not brave enough to start a revolution. I wouldn’t have grabbed a gun and charged a palace. I would lived like you. Head down, eyes wary. When the man’s too strong, the man’s too strong. But let me quote from a Guardian story on your life:
“Like all Iraqis, Salam was familiar with the dangers. At least four of his relatives had gone missing. In the past year, for no apparent reason, one of his friends was summarily executed, shot in the head as he sat in his car, and two others were arrested; one was later freed and another, a close friend, has never returned.”
The rug was soaked before we got there, friend. Cut the clever café pose; drop the sneer. That “Rambo” crap is old. Iraq needs grown-ups. Be one.
Sat 22-Nov-2003 07:19 Posted by:Crabby A
oh, that is too much, crabby a. i've read your limbaugh-esque diatribes, considered 1) refuting the obvious lies or 2) sending you a referral to his rehab, but now it's just too much - HOW DARE YOU? ad hominem attacks are appalling in 'regular' discussion, but to BLAME AN IRAQI CITIZEN ("Minnesotan killed in Iraq. He died doing what you never had the stones to do: pick up a rifle and face the Ba’athists") for a regime funded, in large part, by parts of western europe AND THE UNITED STATES is an outrage. it is beyond disgusting. i don't even know if drug-crazed rush would go so far. HOW DARE YOU. please stop posting, if only out of a sense of decency toward those who are in the middle of a war zone/have family in Iraq and who may be reading. you have no right to say such horrifying things.
and i certainly hope that all non-americans reading his remarks realize: america has over 250 million people - therefore, there are many despicable characters with access to the internet - but it is not the case that they speak for the majority of americans. even, in this case, those who were in favor of the war.
Sat 22-Nov-2003 22:30 Posted by:cassandra
Cassandra,
I suppose you didn't go to the link and read Salam's letter published by the BBC, which a gentleman named James Lileks responded to, and which I pasted here because of topicality. Somehow in your little mind, it appears that some peoples speech (mine) is worthy of naught but criticism, and others speech (salam) is immune. In any event, I didn't see that you've provided any refutation of what James Lileks wrote, unless you consider calling me names to be refutation.
How dare I what? Post things which you disagree with? A sense of decency? Funny, I don't see you criticizing the sense of decency of the 50 losers who erected a paper mache statue of the President of the United States with a large phallic missile, only to dismember it in the name of human rights, who hate him for fighting the jihadists who were mudering their countrymen in Turkey. I therefore invite you to shove your infantile, nonsensical drivel right up your tight sphincter.
Please, refute my "obvious lies." You can start with just one, if you'd like. I'm sure this is where you think you are taking the moral high ground by name-calling and saying "You're not worth it!" At least that's
I leave you with the words of one of the organizers of the London protests, of what they hope to achieve:
"...to let Britain and the Brits know that their alliance with America will only bring them economic ruin and death to their sons."
Ha ha, just kidding. That was the Abu Hafs al-Masri Brigades, who had just murdered some British citizens.
http://www.washtimes.com/world/20031121-100348-2536r.htm
The terrorists spoke politely compared to the "protesters:"
"By mid-morning people were coming together in Bloomsbury for the start of the march, everyone from schoolchildren playing truant to pensioners carrying placards reading "Go Home" and "World's Number 1 Terrorist". "
http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1090123,00.html
Sounds like they left off a word:
"World's Number 1 Terrorist FIGHTER."
Sat 22-Nov-2003 23:44 Posted by:Crabby A
So Raed has been doing the posting at SalamPas' blog. Perhaps with SalamPax traveling about it should be Raed asking Where's Salam?
Tue 25-Nov-2003 09:48 Posted by:Jerry
Wonder what became of the web camera that cause such a fuss in the home place?
Tue 25-Nov-2003 09:50 Posted by:Jerry
Oh and then again that's always been the question hasn't. Where in the world is Peace and Peace again? Along with where is the web camera to show it still exists out there somewhere?
Tue 25-Nov-2003 09:52 Posted by:Jerry
I really should move down to the lower message board. This one is getting too full.
Tue 25-Nov-2003 09:55 Posted by:Jerry
A snippet about Salam's film shown on BBC Newsnight,
in the piece entitled "Where are they now?", starting on page 2.
Apparently, there is to be a series of such films.
Wed 26-Nov-2003 21:27 Posted by:Rachel, a Brit in London
Terrorists ... they are really strange creatures.
Especially the so called religious types. They kill and maim and brutalize some of Allah's children and expect to get into the heaven of the same said Allah. Like duhhhh.
Some of those religious leaders are just as strange. They will teach and preach and otherwise encourage zealots to go and do the killing. They expect some free pass into heaven also, as if they never really did any of the killing. They must think the Almighty Allah won't be able to figure out the connection. Like duhhhh.
What the terrorists think, "Let's go blow ourselves to bits and kill some of the invading infidels and any other muslims who just happen to get in the way." What satan thinks, "Some humans are so dumb and easy targets for doing what I want."
Terrorists and their leaders claim they are doing their thing for the benefit of Islam. They are totally clueless of what Allah wants for the benefit of all His religions.
Peace is an extremist, Islamic religious leader preaching to an empty mosque.
From Iraqi reporters (I assume) attending the news briefing concerning the capture of Saddam Hussein when they saw the images on the monitors: "Death to Hussein! Death to Hussein! Long live Iraq!"
Sun 14-Dec-2003 13:51 Posted by:Jerry lonefalcon@yahoo.com
SalamPax interviewed briefly about the capture of Saddam Hussein
http://stream.guardian.co.uk:7080/ramgen/sys-audio/Politics/audio/2003/12/14/1412pax2.ra (requires RealPlayer). One minute 46 seconds.
Also posted in the comments section of the Hammorabi blog, 14 Dec 2003.
Sun 14-Dec-2003 21:38 Posted by:Rachel, a Brit in London
From A Family in Baghdad:
"I do not know exactly why, but we were like a family living its troubles and secrets, the good ones and the bad ones, in a house that had closed doors and windows. The people abroad would wonder about us, some like us some hate us but we didn’t care much because like many other people each one of us was living his life with its infinite details and sorrows, and having ambitions for a better tomorrow."
---
This is a good observation, it could apply to any one from any country.
For those who follow the sun the New Year is nine days old.
May your adventures during this next year bring good fortune to those you encounter. May their adventures bring to you your own good fortune. May your rememberances of troubling times be soothed among better experiences yet to arrive with this year. May your path through life this year be filled with vistas more wonderful than those before. May the mud puddles in your path be small, easily stepped over, and left behind. May your forgiveness of others who do you wrong be greater than the forgiveness which is asked of you. May the four seasons this year bring their bounty as gifts to your home. May the elders of your tribe pass their wisdom from many new years to those who arrive this new year. May the Peace we wish for the world be discovered by you this year.
Wed 31-Dec-2003 16:41 Posted by:Anonymous
Pax for Prez ... Pax for Prez ... Pax for Prez ... Save our Democracy ... Save our Democracy.
It does have a good feeling about it, Peace for President. Maybe if all the world's nations would elect Peace for their we might actually have Peace in the world. It was a good letter. One of the better signs of hope for both countrys in recent months and years.
Thu 15-Jan-2004 11:26 Posted by:Jerry
That's a good photo box , "look" is the new diferent think that we are fighting in the 21'th century for it , the effect is much more destroying rather than a real war if we misunderstand or loose the way. This is what we call Life for the fight , or fight for the love , these two items are getting closer nowdays......
I'm reading the book made with your posts on dear_raed blog, and I thought to write you an e-mail to make you some questions. I didn't find your email address, so I'm posting here.
Even if you have a lot to do, I'd like to arrange a little interview with you by mail, and so I hope you'll have the time to write me a little of you thoughts about war journalism, online journalism and blogging. I'm graduating at University and in order to do it I have to write an essay; I chose to write about the online news and information on Iraq war (referring to the 'official' period). Have you heard about the latest project brought by Wikipedia? They want to support a new vision of journalism, people from all the world can add not only enciclopeadia definitions but also news. They promote the concept of worldwide cronicles even from the smallest place of you country. What do you think about it? I I'd like to create an appendix in my essay with little interviews to war-bloggers and war-blogging-journalists.
Have a good work.
Best regards and have a happy new year.
Ornella
p.s.: Sorry for my english!
p.p.s: I'd like to put a photo of you on the cover of my essay. I found one in my favorite magazine 'Internazionale', which republish in italian articles from many international newspapers... May I? )
Respect is due Salam, i've just seen your Guardian Film on BBC2's Newsnight and voices like yours are seldom heard over here. I, like the 2,000,000 others that marched against the war in London a year or so ago am sceptical about so much that is being done in my name in your country yet your documentary was refreshing and fixes our eyes forward at the light at the end of the tunnel. I wish you and yours the best for 2005 and beyond. Dare i also ask (in the light of the recent abuse scandal involving UK soldiers) for forgiveness on behalf of all those that wish for a peaceful Basra, Iraq, Middle East and planet. Cheers =)
Salaam
Rob
P.S. nothing to do with the photos i know so sorry. They are great though
and i just wonder where he is...........IF YOU HAVE ANY CLUE.......EMAIL ME.............
WITH LOVE FROM POLAND.
FRANZ.....
Sun 3-Apr-2005 22:53 Posted by:franz bachelor@poczta.fm
... just finished reading 'your book'... and came to check out your fotopage (well tried).
Thinking that this 'IMAGE VIEWING IS DOWN FOR MAINTENANCE' thingy is a flash from the past???
Yet another thingy not working... hopefully only for a time.
Sun 17-Apr-2005 19:12 Posted by:Leslie lataylor@caribsurf.com - [Link]
Sat 25-Feb-2006 19:11 Posted by:Alprazolam alp@langoo.com - [Link]
Moving photos! loved the book. Hopefully this will be incentive enough for people from other countries to talk about some of the horrors they witnessed. Keep up the good work!
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