Mission: Iraq

Mission Iraq: out, but not over

Sara, Mike, and the team are all safely out of Iraq. But for the residents of Tuwaitha, there's no escaping the radioactive contamination. Here's our response to the official IAEA report.

Brain Fishing

Been out of touch for a few days - that's because we've now left Iraq and are back home - I tried to be clever and send a message via my cell phone from the border as we left, praising the great glory of such technology... Unfortunately the message seems suspended in cyberspace somewhere - so much for technology!

I didn't realise - until my brother emailed in a panic saying where are you as you haven't written for days - that I'd omitted to tell anyone that we are safe and home... and once I fish my exhausted brain out the bucket in the corner I left it in, I'll let you know what's happening now. (Gin and tonic tastes really good by the way.)

Borderline pass

I am blogging on my cellphone on the Iraq/Jordan border.....isn't technology a wonderful thing! but I suppose they said that the nuclear discovery, and it is painfully clear that they were wrong in that case. We have left Iraq, Baghdad, Tuwaitha, to the echoes of kind words and many thanks, but it doesn't seem right to be thanked for doing what is right.

Come back tomorrow

...someone might speak to you then...

Hey guess what, Mr Bremer ignored the problem at his front door. At least he's consistent. He's been ignoring the problem on the doorstep of the people of Tuwaitha for months now.

So after we blocked the road, the army cut our tape and told us to come back tomorrow, and then we re-blocked the road and waited.

We have only waited a few hours so far. There are plenty of others that we have met in the last three weeks who have waited much longer, and still they wait.

Happy 4th of July, Mr. Bremer

Paul Bremer says he is responsible for public health in Iraq. Paul Bremer says there isn't a problem here. Paul Bremer is wrong.

So as Paul Bremer doesn't seem to be able to identify a problem 18 miles from his fancy office, we decided to bring the problem to his front door. What's that expression about Mohammed not coming to the mountain?

We haven't exactly got a mountain. But we do have a lead box of yellowcake, which is currently sitting in a bright yellow barrel in the middle of the road, right in front of his office...

Lady looters

Bent double with age and effort, another creased and toothless face smiles up at us as we wander through the remains of crumbling and smoke blackened buildings inside the Tuwaitha nuclear facility .

Two elderly women, old before their time, carrying bags in one hand and pick axes in the other were rifling through the wreckage, picking out items for which I could seen no earthly, but clearly are of value to them.

Would like to meet...

Salam Pax. And Inshallah - I just might. I sent him an email a few days ago and amazingly among the no-doubt endless list of messages he gets, I got a reply......

In the tent, pissing out...

I've been half alseep on the sofa of our stupefying office for the last ten minutes, idly watching Mike lose the really important document he was working on, courtesy of the Baghdad heat and power supply messing with his computer. Mine has already died and we are all getting so tired now, I couldn't even muster the energy to feel sorry for him. It really saps your strength - especially inside.

Lifestyle tips from Baghdad

Never drink beer in weather this hot. It makes you feel really bad in the morning, and then because you are so de-hydrated you have to drink disgusting tasting re-hydrating salts all day. All of this for the sake of 3 cold tinnies.

Now I know why there are so many "dry" countries in the Middle East - it's nothing to do with religion, it's all about the hangovers.

Fear and loathing in Iraq

A soldier was killed near our hotel yesterday. An army truck was blown up not far from here - four or five died there. Iraqis died in an explosion at a mosque in Fallujah two days ago - they say the army fired on them. The army deny it. Death and dying, fear and loathing seems ever present where we are.