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RSS 20 October 19, 2004 Bugged Out AMMAN -- Well, as you can see from the dateline, I'm out of Baghdad. I ev acuated after we learned of further threats against journalists.
She did not employ armed guards and, like m y friend John, was a soft target. It's tragic, because she has done mo re for the Iraqi people than these insurgents ever will. She's been in t he country working for children's issues and other health-related causes for more than 25 years. I want to cover the story, as best I can, and I really don't like leaving my friends and colleagues behind. My fixer and translator h ave no work now, although I'm trying to find them another journalist to work with while I'm gone. I plan to return after Ramadan or whenever we hear that it's safe again. To answer some questions: The journalists are clumped together because we only endanger ourselves that way. Kodia asked me why we didn't disperse and stay with families. So our options are limited in terms of where we can stay. Anyway, I'm goi ng to be exploring my options for the next few weeks -- and watching the American campaign closely.
John Martinkus, was the one kidnapped Saturday and held fo r 24 hours. I had to be circumspect yeste rday because of security concerns, but John is now out of the country an d the embargo has been lifted. Here's the story as he related it to us: Saturday around 2 pm or so, John was picked up about 500m from our hotel compound. He turned out of the front gate, took the first right -- as m ost of us do -- and a car stopped in front of him and a tailing car pull ed in behind him. Four men with pistols jumped out and three of them man aged to force their way into the car, putting guns to the heads of John, his driver and his translator. They then took him to western Baghdad, h eld him overnight and interrogated him. We're not sure what all happened during his captivity, but he was able to persuade his captors that he was an Australian and a friend to the resi stance and not to the Americans. It appears, by the kidnappers' statemen ts and questions, that they were nationalists and not jihadis, lucky for John. Also, he was lucky for not being American, because the kidnappers said if he had been, they'd have killed him quickly. They had tracked h im for three days, they said, and proved it by asking him why he had gon e to the Green Zone and to the Palestine on two separate days. At one point, one man disappeared, saying he would check out John's story . He came back after about 15 minutes, John said, convinced John was who he said he was.
Googled John, because they referenc ed previous stories he had covered. After some hours, his captors relaxed and said that he would be released in the morning. But before he was released, a sheikh from a village near Fallujah arrived. He again interrogated John, but this time it was much more aggressive questioning, John said. Finally, the sheikh said that w hile they were convinced he was a man of good heart and a journalist, he would not be freed Sunday as promised because Australia was a member of the Coalition and thus, a warring nation as Zarqawi has said. Instead , the sheikh would consult with his supervisors in Fallujah on what to d o Now, this was serious.
So, in a fit of huma nity, after the sheikh left, the nationalist captors took John and relea sed him. We're unsure of the ramifications of this act at this point and if there will be any retaliation within the Sunni resistance or against us. As frightening as John's experience was for him, it shows that journalist s' plans for security through obscurity has been blown out the window. John's captors said they received a phone call that he was on the move and that the time for taking him was now. This fits in with our intellig ence that there are kidnap teams up and down Jadirya Street looking for us. His captors said they had penetrated the staff at the Hamra Hotel, w here many of us live. They know who we are and they're looking for soft targets -- reporters mov ing around with little security or few precautions. He was picked up by nationalists who, we he ar, are getting out of the kidnapping and beheading business. And he fell in with a (more or less) kind-hearted bunch who were just doing their jo b as national resistance fighters. They told him they were really looking for secur ity contractor or CIA staffer. I haven't left the compound since I retur ned from Beirut; And now, without a specific reason, I won't be going out. This is why you won't be seeing a ny Iraqi on the street stories here. the populati on has turned against Westerners and the press. While they may not be ac tively assisting the resistance, I fear they would stand by idly if I we re dragged into a car and taken away. Once, when John was being transported from one house to another, his kidnappers let him take off his blindfold. A cop car was cruising by ju st as he did so, making no move to stop a car carrying a blindfolded Wes terner. My options are limited but they seem to be go north to Kurdistan for a wh ile. I'm warming to this idea as it's been an under-covered region, as u sual, and it would allow me to keep working. I'm not sure exactly what I 'm going to do, but I have to be careful with what I say. I can't assume any potential kidnappers don't know about this blog.
October 17, 2004 Shellings and kidnappings Today was a bad one. Another friend was kidnapped last night, and this mo rning a mortar shell hit our compound. Thankfully, my friend was release d after a day -- but he was very lucky.
back in May Staying here is becoming increasingly untenable. There's talk of TIME mov ing me up north for a couple of months, which would be a welcome change, to be honest. I've not been able to get out of the compound, and after the kidnapping, I'm disinclined to even make the attempt. The bottom lin e is I can't work like this and I'm getting more and more frustrated, as I've mentioned. Hopefully, by moving to the north for a little while, m y work will improve and so will my state of mind. More as the situation develops, but things are changing here in Baghdad - - for the worse. UPDATE 2321 +0300 And now a large car bomb with many casualties -- in fir st reports -- has just gone off down the street from our compound.
October 15, 2004 Ramadan Ramadan starts today, and we got off to a violent start with the sound of a large explosion nearby. I was in my room and couldnt tell where it c ame from, but it sounded like another car bomb, based on the boomy oopmh of the blast. After yesterdays dual attacks in the Green Zone, the center of power in Iraq is locked down, meaning no one gets in or out without a special pas s But to get that pass, one has to go into the Zone to get it, so its a bit of a catch-22. And since its Friday and the start of Ramadan and the Green Zone is lock ed down and its too dangerous to go out and just roam around looking fo r stories, theres not a lot I can do today other than make a few phone calls. This is the reality of journalism in Iraq at least if youre Western. A nd since weve been under a semi-lockdown of our own since I got back be cause of Paul Taggarts abduction, I havent even had a chance to get my legs back under me and find new stories to work on. The ones I have sta rted reporting require access to the government or the embassy, which ar e closed and oh, you know the rest.
I sp ent a week in NYC and a week in Beirut, with too little time in each. Be irut was, frankly, more restful, despite a car bomb two blocks from the apartment where I crashed. I watched the press conference and practically yelled at the television that the vision of Iraq didnt mesh with the reality of what I had experienced on the groun d: constant violence, the ever-present hum of fear, a growing insurgency and increasing bitterness toward the occupation if more bitterness is even possible. I felt that it would have been wonderful to have the Bag hdad press corps and the Washington press corps to trade places for a we ek while Allawi was in town. On the one hand, the president and prime mi nister would be challenged by reporters who had just been there and coul d call BS on them. ...
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