Greetings All:
First let me thank those of you who have been sending me e-mails with well wishes, prayers, and photographs. I’ve really enjoyed them all and thank you for the prayers. It’s a great feeling knowing that so many people care so much. Gee, it’s great to be so well liked. I hope all are doing well.
Things have been a little active this week but the things that go boom have diminished. Friday night was interesting. It was the end of Ramadan for the Muslims (at least most of the Muslims) and the rifle fire was continuous until about midnight. We are presuming it was celebratory fire but it didn’t sound all that far away. The blast walls are only about 100 yards or so off of the Tigris River and I think the Tigris may be 200 yards wide. It sounded like some of the fire was coming from right in the IZ but we didn’t have any intel to that effect. However, there are a lot of Iraqi families that live in the Green Zone and do have AK’s so it’s not beyond the realm of possibility that some of that fire was coming from them. As most of you historically know or have recently grasped, I do appreciate firearms. But I cannot for the life of me see the logic of celebratory fire for special occasions, i.e. Holidays, Weddings, Birthdays, etc., and this is in a city of 8M people no less. I mean it would be worth it to invest in ammunition that shoots blanks so as to minimize the possibility of injuring someone or doing property damage.
Ramadan is very interesting. We learned a little bit about it from our translator. I won’t provide even her first name in that this letter goes over the Internet, secure as it supposedly is. During Ramadan when I wake up in the morning starting around 4:00 A.M., you hear this chanting over a loud speaker. Now this has got to be really loud because you hear it clear in the IZ and the Mosque minarets are in the Red Zone. The chantings are actually prayers from the Koran and a call to eat and drink before dawn. There is total fasting from sun up until sun down and that includes water as well. The chantings start up again just before sundown. This isn’t bad when Ramadan falls during the time frame of the fall or winter. But Ramadan cycles with the moon and the days, so there are times when it falls during the summertime. Last year it fell between August/September. Now to go all day without even water when the temperature is around 120 degrees has got to be really something. I don’t know how people could work outside and endure without cooking their innards. Our translator also told us the fasting includes anything to do with the body including kissing and whatever else follows. Oh my!!!!! Oh I almost forgot. I learned also that Ramadan stops for most Muslims on one day but that the Shia Muslims celebrate the end of Ramadan a day later. I am told that is because the Shias want it that way. I really don’t begin to understand the difference.
I had some good experiences this week with some Iraqi contacts. It always makes me feel good to see some people making progress and having faith to carry on and make a democratic process work. I am continually amazed at how they carry on even though the danger threat is always there. However, you can see the prejudices right before your eyes. I have a contact who is a Sunni who saw me and another agent in a coffee shop interviewing another contact who is a Kurd. It was obvious that the two immediately didn’t want any interaction. There’s no difference in skin coloring or anything outward that I could see, but there was no inclination to acknowledge the presence of one another or even say anything. I’ve heard of that but I had never seen it up front and personal.
We had some funny times this week. As I’ve said before, SIGIR Criminal Investigations is comprised of retired special agents from other agencies but we do have one former Army CID special agent who is about 35. Patrick is married and his wife is pregnant so I don’t think he’ll be here more than another month or two. Patrick is in really good physical shape but he is young enough to still enjoy the junk foods of life. Pat came in this week and had gone to the PX. In a bag, he had a bag of Lays Potato Chips and a can of French Onion Dip. This was on the window shelf behind his desk. The rest of us will take fresh fruit from the DFAC and snack on that. While Patrick was gone, we removed the chips and dip from the bag and replaced it with about a dozen pieces of fresh fruit. When Patrick returned to the office, we were a little quiet but did say hello. Patrick walks to his desk, immediately spots the bag filled with fruit which was in the exact same location that it had been for several days, and starts yelling that he doesn’t eat this #!@%^ and where is his junk food. He goes on that he wouldn’t be caught dead watching football eating fruit. Of course, we are all laughing uncontrollably and he starts picking out the agents that did this by identifying us by the type of fruit we eat. He said if we were bank robbers, we might as well leave our driver’s licenses at the location where we stole the money because we’d be caught anyway. Needless to say it was very funny to us.
Next, if I can find the uniform directive, I may try and send it to all (if it’s not classified or otherwise restricted). I guess there’s a new sergeant major in town who has decided that the IZ has to be a little more spit and shine. Now you need to understand that there are a lot of desk jockeys here, present company included, that are not in the RZ every day. But there are also a lot of military personnel that are on patrol, at check points, and/or are involved in the fighting as well. This directive comes out that prohibits certain sun glasses, not mixing gym clothes, not having anything in one’s mouth while walking including chewing gum, and that all head gear will be removed once one enters a building. This is only a small part of the rules, it goes on for several pages. This directive came out earlier in the week. Yesterday, I was walking down the hall and noticed a soldier with a bomb detection dog. The soldier was in proper uniform with his campaign hat removed in doors. His dog (a German Shepherd) was wearing the campaign hat!!! You should have seen this dog. He was so proud that he had that hat on. I told the soldier that I thought the dog looked great. I wished I could have photographed him but I wouldn’t want to make an issue. I just hope he didn’t get into any trouble over it. I enjoy the levity because what I think should be dealt with in a serious vein is people here taking money for their own personal benefit while our military is in harm’s way but then again the military succeeds on discipline so I can’t fault that either.
The other incident wasn’t so humorous but it bears mentioning. On Halloween Night, some brain child decides it would be really neat to set off firecrackers right behind the palace between the palace and the DFAC. That’s not a real cool thing to do in a war zone environment with everyone walking around armed and a little on edge. Thank God no one was hurt and no one got trigger happy.
Our choir is getting smaller. For All Saints Day, we had no accompaniment so I was switched to lector by our liturgical minister, Susan. Susan is totally Catholic educated, a former Marine, former FBI and retired DCIS special agent. Now I’ve been in the choir and now I’ve been a lector. Next will be Eucharistic Minister. Here all such positions are armed and, yes, Susan is armed as well. The only one not armed is Father Dennis but he has a body guard.
Well, that’s all the news for this week. Please enjoy your week and thanks again for your thoughts and prayers. Bob
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