The American Spectator

The persistent report I hear is that the “police conscripts” and the “army recruits” were actually terrorists who had been arrested, dressed in the appropriate uniform and taken to the landfill. Once there, they were summarily shot.

I asked the guys in our office what they think of this if it’s true. To a man they are absolutely ecstatic! The “first good thing the government has done” is their unanimous opinion. Personally, and after having walked by the spot where 23 innocent Iraqis were killed on Sunday by a suicide bomber, I find it very hard to disagree with them.

FEAR IS A UNIVERSAL commodity in Iraq. Recently I witnessed two episodes that illustrate how pervasive and paralyzing that fear can be in Baghdad.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has announced some solicitations for very large electrical contracts. One involves a well-known company. Our general manager knows the president of its Iraqi subsidiary and called to advise him we want to involve his company in a contract that could be as large as $50 million.

It turns out the fellow is on a business trip in Europe so our man spoke to his wife who is here in Baghdad. He tried to get her to tell us his cell phone number so he could call him on the road. She refused to do so. She said we might be terrorists who have booby-trapped his phone so that when he answers it will explode! We have urged her to have him call us and thus avoid the need to answer his phone. No luck. Now she won’t even answer her phone. So we are not going to contact his company.

The second episode once again involves Osama. I had to ask him to get a message to someone at the airport when he goes there a bit later. I found him in the kitchen talking with someone on his cell phone. I walked up to him with my index finger raised and saying to him: “I need a second!” I thought he was going to have a heart attack. He slammed his phone shut, a look of terror crossed his face, and he fled from the kitchen.

When I finally caught up with him he said: “I was speaking with a good friend — he doesn’t know where I work. He heard your voice and now he can have me killed!” With a little exasperation I asked him if he thought the friend would recognize my voice. It turns out that was not the problem. The problem is that Osama is in an environment where someone is speaking English. That is a giveaway that Osama works for a U.S. company!

The end of the story is that Osama was speaking with a very good friend. That friend might be kidnapped and tortured for any information he has about anybody or anything. Osama is terrified the friend will blurt out: “My friend Osama works for an American company!”

This is life in Iraq.