Baghdad // Current TV

News: Iraq on brink of Civil War

A series of five bomb blasts ripped through Baghdad on Tuesday morning killing at... more

BillCorcoran
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Video Shows U.S. Firing on People in Iraq

Reuters photographer apparently among dead in '07 incident. WASHINGTON - A... more

rodstradamus
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Bombs Shake District in Baghdad

The Iraqi capital echoed with explosions on Sunday as insurgents sought to exploit... more

cutee_leslie
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News alert: Just as we have been reporting, violence is escalating in Iraq. 3 car bombs killed 35 people and injured 215 in Baghdad on Sunday

The situation grows worse everyday in Iraq. Yesterday gunmen killed 25 including... more

BillCorcoran
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Hearing the voices in Afghanistan

There was an article in the New York Times this past week about war correspondents in Afghanistan. Within the article, Richard Engel from NBC said, "It's like the Baghdad class of 2003 is now the Kabul class of 2009." The point being that the journalists who cover conflict zones basically moved from Iraq to Kabul starting in 2007. The greater implication of the headline is that the war in Afghanistan is now the war that matters, and that Afghanistan, which looked like the fairer cousin back in 2006, is really more the ugly stepmother. The truth is that Afghanistan was always only rosy in comparison to the “Fiasco” (adopted from title of Tomas Ricks’ book on the subject) that was Iraq. In 2006 most of the serious media was paying attention to the violence in Iraq, and ignoring the growing chorus of discontent coming from the other theater.

In 2006, I was in Afghanistan with Mitch Koss. Mitch and I had been having lengthy discussions on how we both thought Afghanistan was on the precipice. Mitch -- who had been to Afghanistan in the early early days with Lisa Ling -- knew how difficult it was to make forward progress there. I was also an Afghan veteran and was writing my masters thesis at the time on the escalation of the poppy problem in the country. We both were keenly aware that Afghanistan was a success only in comparison to Iraq.

What we found on that journey were precursors of all the issues that are manifesting in Afghanistan today. The security situation was really beginning to plummet. We missed by just a few minutes a friendly fire incident between the US Army and the Afghan police. We observed growing dissatisfaction among the populace about the lack of progress in development and the economy. We saw the impotent reach of the government outside of a small radius beyond Kabul. Shortly after we left, our hotel was attacked by RPGs and machine guns. Perhaps most interestingly considering today's headlines, we heard over and over again from Afghanis who were unhappy with Hamid Karzai. At the time, the media and the administration were heralding Karzai as the savior of Afghanistan, able to hold all these coalitions and factions together. But on the streets, in the meat markets and the tea shops, we heard differently. One of the final moments in our piece “Fear of Spring” ends with a random voice in the crowd yelling “Fuck Karzai.” Well, now its 2009 and the world is finally starting to hear the voices in the crowd in Afghanistan.

There was an article in the New York Times this past week about war correspondents in... more

klarsen
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Meet Zouhair al Jezairy, my new Iraqi journalist friend

The conference I'm at in Istanbul has invited a whole lot of journalists and... more

afitzgerald
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Iraq's bomb detectors are useless?

Getting caught up on this story from yesterday in the NY Times: Apparently security forces in Iraq are using bomb detecting "wands" that the Pentagon thinks are useless. All those checkpoints that are supposed to keep Iraq's cities safe from car bombs might not be having much of an effect at all.
The Iraqis, however, believe passionately in them. “Whether it’s magic or scientific, what I care about is it detects bombs,” said Maj. Gen. Jehad al-Jabiri, head of the Ministry of the Interior’s General Directorate for Combating Explosives.

Dale Murray, head of the National Explosive Engineering Sciences Security Center at Sandia Labs, which does testing for the Department of Defense, said the center had “tested several devices in this category, and none have ever performed better than random chance.”
Iraq is in the middle of a delicate transition period. Things have begun to seem more stable, less violent. US troops have pulled back to their bases, out of the cities. And blast walls in the capital have even come down. But with recent bombings in Baghdad - bomb detection is a really critical part of maintaining security. The New York Times described the wands as working on the "same principle as a Ouija board" - by the power of user suggestion.
On Tuesday, a guard and a driver for The New York Times, both licensed to carry firearms, drove through nine police checkpoints that were using the device. None of the checkpoint guards detected the two AK-47 rifles and ammunition inside the vehicle.

During an interview on Tuesday, General Jabiri challenged a Times reporter to test the ADE 651, placing a grenade and a machine pistol in plain view in his office. Despite two attempts, the wand did not detect the weapons when used by the reporter but did so each time it was used by a policeman.

“You need more training,” the general said.
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- Man Makes it Snow in China (Video)Getting caught up on this story from yesterday in the NY Times: Apparently security... more

afitzgerald
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Deadly Baghdad blasts raise specter of security

President Obama has promised an American troop withdrawal from Iraq by 2011. And Iraqi... more

afitzgerald
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2 years ago
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Iraq and thrown shoes

Muntazer al-Zaidi, the Iraqi reporter who threw not one but two shoes at former... more

afitzgerald
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2 years ago
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Pa. Guard Chaplain Denies Violating DADT

from the article: "Fokas, a United Church of Christ minister, joined the... more

donkeyfly69
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2 years ago
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Baghdad attacks mar today's elections

Dozens were wounded and 12 were killed in a series of attacks in Iraq's capital.... more

afitzgerald
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2 years ago
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In Baghdad, Victims of Blackwater's Nisour Square Bloodbath Want Justice, Not Money | World | AlterN

A federal judge threw out charges against Blackwater this week; one victim, Haider... more

WeAreChangeKy
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2 years ago
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Iraq's bomb detectors are useless?

Getting caught up on this story from yesterday in the NY Times: Apparently security forces in Iraq are using bomb detecting "wands" that the Pentagon thinks are useless. All those checkpoints that are supposed to keep Iraq's cities safe from car bombs might not be having much of an effect at all.

From the NY Times:
"The Iraqis, however, believe passionately in them. “Whether it’s magic or scientific, what I care about is it detects bombs,” said Maj. Gen. Jehad al-Jabiri, head of the Ministry of the Interior’s General Directorate for Combating Explosives. Dale Murray, head of the National Explosive Engineering Sciences Security Center at Sandia Labs, which does testing for the Department of Defense, said the center had “tested several devices in this category, and none have ever performed better than random chance.”

Iraq is in the middle of a delicate transition period. Things have begun to seem more stable, less violent. US troops have pulled back to their bases, out of the cities. And blast walls in the capital have even come down. But with recent bombings in Baghdad - bomb detection is a really critical part of maintaining security. The New York Times described the wands as working on the "same principle as a Ouija board" - by the power of user suggestion.

From the NY Times:
"On Tuesday, a guard and a driver for The New York Times, both licensed to carry firearms, drove through nine police checkpoints that were using the device. None of the checkpoint guards detected the two AK-47 rifles and ammunition inside the vehicle. During an interview on Tuesday, General Jabiri challenged a Times reporter to test the ADE 651, placing a grenade and a machine pistol in plain view in his office. Despite two attempts, the wand did not detect the weapons when used by the reporter but did so each time it was used by a policeman. “You need more training,” the general said."

On the Current News Blog: http://blogs.current.com/news/2009/11/05/iraqs-bomb-detectors-are-useless/

The story in the NY Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/04/world/middleeast/04sensors.html
Image: http://www.nytimes.com/imagepages/2009/11/04/world/04sensors_CA1.htmlGetting caught up on this story from yesterday in the NY Times: Apparently security... more