[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 17]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages 23482-23483]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                           SITUATION IN IRAQ

                                 ______
                                 



                            HON. ZOE LOFGREN

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                        Friday, October 8, 2004

  Ms. LOFGREN. Mr. Speaker, the President and Vice President insist 
that things are improving in Iraq and that all America must do is 
``stay the course.''
  Their evaluation of our situation in that troubled land has been 
challenged by many. And, of course, we all know that one cannot find a 
diagnosis until one admits that there is a serious problem.
  One of the most gripping accounts of the situation in Iraq I have 
read recently was prepared by Wall Street Journal reporter Farnaz 
Fassihi. Regrettably, it appears that this reporter may be facing 
ramifications for speaking the truth. The New York Post has defended 
her editorially.
  It is important for Americans to deal with the truth. I recommend 
reading this reporter's account as well as her defense by the New York 
Post.

                [From the New York Post, Sept. 30, 2004]

                      WSJ Editor Backs Iraq Screed

                          (By Keith J. Kelly)

       Wall Street Journal Editor Paul Steiger has come to the 
     defense of his beleaguered Baghdad correspondent, who blasted 
     the war in Iraq as a ``disaster'' that has deteriorated 
     ``into a raging barbaric guerilla war'' that will haunt the 
     United States for decades.
       ``Despite President Bush's rosy assessments, Iraq remains a 
     disaster,'' Wall Street Journal reporter Farnaz Fassihi wrote 
     in a group e-mail to friends that inadvertently became widely 
     posted on the Web.
       Yesterday, the e-mail was mentioned prominently on the 
     journalism blog by Jim Romenesko on the Poynter.org site.
       Steiger said Fassihi's missive included ``a few expressions 
     of purely personal opinion about the situation there.''
       But the Wall Street Journal editor said the musings in no 
     way distorted his reporter's ability to deliver fair coverage 
     from Baghdad.
       In her e-mail, Fassihi laments, ``Being a foreign 
     correspondent in Baghdad these days is like being under 
     virtual house arrest.''
       Fears of abductions have sharply curtailed reporters 
     ability to cover events or move about.
       ``My most pressing concern every day is not to write a 
     kick-ass story but to stay alive and make sure our Iraqi 
     employees stay alive. In Baghdad I am a security personnel 
     first, a reporter second.''
       She also said the ``Iraqi government doesn't control most 
     Iraqi cities.'' She said there are car bombs, assassinations, 
     kidnappings and beheadings. ``The situation, basically, means 
     a raging barbaric guerilla war.''
       Steiger said: ``Ms. Fassihi's private opinions have in no 
     way distorted her coverage, which has been a model of 
     intelligent and courageous reporting, and scrupulous accuracy 
     and fairness.''
                                  ____


    From Baghdad--A Wall Street Journal Reporter's E-Mail to Friends

                          (By Farnaz Fassihi)

       Being a foreign correspondent in Baghdad these days is like 
     being under virtual house arrest. Forget about the reasons 
     that lured me to this job: a chance to see the world, explore 
     the exotic, meet new people in far away lands, discover their 
     ways and tell stories that could make a difference.
       Little by little, day-by-day, being based in Iraq has 
     defied all those reasons. I am house bound. I leave when I 
     have a very good reason to and a scheduled interview. I avoid 
     going to people's homes and never walk in the streets. I 
     can't go grocery shopping any more, can't eat in restaurants, 
     can't strike a conversation with strangers, can't look for 
     stories, can't drive in any thing but a full armored car, 
     can't go to scenes of breaking news stories, can't be stuck 
     in traffic, can't speak English outside, can't take a road 
     trip, can't say I'm an American, can't linger at checkpoints, 
     can't be curious about what people are saying, doing, 
     feeling. And can't and can't. There has been one too many 
     close calls, including a car bomb so near our house that it 
     blew out all the windows. So now my most pressing concern 
     every day is not to write a kick-ass story but to stay alive 
     and make sure our Iraqi employees stay alive. In Baghdad I am 
     a security personnel first, a reporter second.
       It's hard to pinpoint when the `turning point' exactly 
     began. Was it April when the Fallujah fell out of the grasp 
     of the Americans? Was it when Moqtada and Jish Mahdi declared 
     war on the U.S. military? Was it when Sadr City, home to ten 
     percent of Iraq's population, became a nightly battlefield 
     for the Americans? Or was it when the insurgency began 
     spreading from isolated pockets in the Sunni triangle to 
     include most of Iraq? Despite President Bush's rosy 
     assessments, Iraq remains a disaster. If under Saddam it was 
     a `potential' threat, under the Americans it has been 
     transformed to `imminent and active threat,' a foreign policy 
     failure bound to haunt the United States for decades to come.
       Iraqis like to call this mess ``the situation.'' When asked 
     ``how are thing?'' they reply: ``the situation is very bad.''
       What they mean by situation is this: the Iraqi government 
     doesn't control most Iraqi cities, there are several car 
     bombs going off each day around the country killing and 
     injuring scores of innocent people, the country's roads are 
     becoming impassable and littered by hundreds of landmines and 
     explosive devices aimed to kill American soldiers, there are 
     assassinations, kidnappings and beheadings. The situation, 
     basically, means a raging barbaric guerilla war. In four 
     days, 110 people died and over 300 got injured in Baghdad 
     alone. The numbers are so shocking that the ministry of 
     health--which was attempting an exercise of public 
     transparency by releasing the numbers--has now stopped 
     disclosing them.
       Insurgents now attack Americans 87 times a day.
       A friend drove thru the Shiite slum of Sadr City yesterday. 
     He said young men were openly placing improvised explosive 
     devices into the ground. They melt a shallow hole into the 
     asphalt, dig the explosive, cover it with dirt and put an old 
     tire or plastic can over it to signal to the locals this is 
     booby-trapped. He said on the main roads of Sadr City, there 
     were a dozen landmines per every ten yards. His car snaked 
     and swirled to avoid driving over them. Behind the walls sits 
     an angry Iraqi ready to detonate them as soon as an American 
     convoy gets near. This is in Shiite land, the population that 
     was supposed to love America for liberating Iraq.
       For journalists the significant turning point came with the 
     wave of abductions and kidnappings. Only two weeks ago we 
     felt safe around Baghdad because foreigners were being 
     abducted on the roads and highways between towns. Then came a 
     frantic phone call from a journalist female friend at 11 p.m. 
     telling me two Italian women had been abducted from their 
     homes in broad daylight. Then the two Americans, who got 
     beheaded this week and the Brit, were abducted from their 
     homes in a residential neighborhood. They were supplying the 
     entire block with round the clock electricity from their 
     generator to win friends. The abductors grabbed one of them 
     at 6 a.m. when he came out to switch on the generator; his 
     beheaded body was thrown back near the neighborhoods.
       The insurgency, we are told, is rampant with no signs of 
     calming down. If any thing, it is growing stronger, organized 
     and more sophisticated every day. The various elements within 
     it--Baathists, criminals, nationalists and Al Qaeda--are 
     cooperating and coordinating.
       I went to an emergency meeting for foreign correspondents 
     with the military and embassy to discuss the kidnappings. We 
     were somberly told our fate would largely depend on where we 
     were in the kidnapping chain once it was determined we were 
     missing. Here is how it goes: criminal gangs grab you and 
     sell you up to Baathists in Fallujah, who will in turn sell 
     you to Al Qaeda. In turn, cash and weapons flow the other way 
     from Al Qaeda to the Baathists to the criminals. My friend 
     Georges, the French journalist snatched on the road to Najaf, 
     has been missing for a month with no word on release or 
     whether he is still alive.
       America's last hope for a quick exit? The Iraqi police and 
     National Guard units we are spending billions of dollars to 
     train. The cops are being murdered by the dozens every day--
     over 700 to date--and the insurgents are infiltrating their 
     ranks. The problem is so serious that the U.S. military has 
     allocated $6 million to buy out 30,000 cops they just trained 
     to get rid of them quietly.
       As for reconstruction: firstly it's so unsafe for 
     foreigners to operate that almost all projects have come to a 
     halt. After two years, of the $18 billion Congress 
     appropriated for Iraq reconstruction only about $1 billion or 
     so has been spent and a chuck has now been reallocated for 
     improving security, a sign of just how bad things are going 
     here.
       Oil dreams? Insurgents disrupt oil flow routinely as a 
     result of sabotage and oil prices have hit record high of $49 
     a barrel. Who did this war exactly benefit? Was it worth it? 
     Are we safer because Saddam is holed up and Al Qaeda is 
     running around in Iraq?
       Iraqis say that thanks to America they got freedom in 
     exchange for insecurity. Guess what? They say they'd take 
     security over freedom any day, even if it means having a 
     dictator ruler.
       I heard an educated Iraqi say today that if Saddam Hussein 
     were allowed to run for elections he would get the majority 
     of the vote. This is truly sad.

[[Page 23483]]

       Then I went to see an Iraqi scholar this week to talk to 
     him about elections here. He has been trying to educate the 
     public on the importance of voting. He said, ``President Bush 
     wanted to turn Iraq into a democracy that would be an example 
     for the Middle East. Forget about democracy, forget about 
     being a model for the region, we have to salvage Iraq before 
     all is lost.''
       One could argue that Iraq is already lost beyond salvation. 
     For those of us on the ground it's hard to imagine what if 
     any thing could salvage it from its violent downward spiral. 
     The genie of terrorism, chaos and mayhem has been unleashed 
     onto this country as a result of American mistakes and it 
     can't be put back into a bottle.
       The Iraqi government is talking about having elections in 
     three months while half of the country remains a `no go 
     zone'--out of the hands of the government and the Americans 
     and out of reach of journalists. In the other half, the 
     disenchanted population is too terrified to show up at 
     polling stations. The Sunnis have already said they'd boycott 
     elections, leaving the stage open for polarized government of 
     Kurds and Shiites that will not be deemed as legitimate and 
     will most certainly lead to civil war.
       I asked a 28-year-old engineer if he and his family would 
     participate in the Iraqi elections since it was the first 
     time Iraqis could to some degree elect a leadership. His 
     response summed it all: ``Go and vote and risk being blown 
     into pieces or followed by the insurgents and murdered for 
     cooperating with the Americans? For what? To practice 
     democracy? Are you joking?''

                          ____________________