Back to Baghdad

Back to Baghdad
May 6, 2004

Hi everyone,

I've been back in Baghdad since Monday afternoon and pretty busy. When the
pictures of prisoners being abused came out in the media last week, we
started getting flooded with phone calls. As most of you know, our team
has been investigating prisoner abuses last September and has been
advocating for prisoner system reforms directly with leaders
in the Coalition Provisional Authority since that time. The photos
were not surprising to us at all other than that they were released in the
first place. Unfortunatlely, human rights abuses are a fairly common
experience for the roughly 20,000 Iraqi citizens who have been through the
US prison camps this past year. I am so frustrated that the military is
trying to cover this up by repeatedly saying it's just a few individuals.
The Arab world isn't buying it either, and I think Bush's speech actually
made things worse.

That said, I am dying to talk to Iowa media. I've heard a rumor that the
Globe Gazette is under pressure not to write about my work in Iraq any
more. I don't know, but I haven't heard from them in a while. The
Register has written and also talked to a teammate of mine who's home
right now. However, if any of you have a local newspaper or radio station
who would like an "Iowan on the ground" perspective, feel free to give
them my number. They can also go to the website http://www.cpt.org/iraq
which has a lot of the prisoner testimonies we took. Look in the archives
for CPTnet and on the Iraq page.

Meanwhile, we had a car bomb at the CPA this morning at 7:30 while I was
on the phone with the office. Later a friend came over and we discussed
how when a big bomb goes off, you can feel the air suck out of the room
just a second before the 'boom.' It's eerie, but normal. Five more
explosions at the CPA just went off a minute ago here while I am typing
this letter.

Still, our friends and the people we work with are ecstatic that we've
come back. They want to put us to work all over the place. We spent all
morning in a human rights group's office going over cases. Our house was
full within fifteen minutes of our return.

I've got ten days left in Iraq and somehow have to manage focusing our
project to keep up with the times, saying goodbye to all my friends, and
maybe getting a few small souvenirs. I don't know when I'll return. I'm
applying for the position of Iraq project support coordinator, who would
arrange the schedules for team members and do media outreach and a lot
else. Then I could come back to the middle east in early summer and
perhaps Januarys. Since I don't have enough money to go to seminary
full-time next year, the position would be a way I could still do peace
work and attend classes half-time, allowing me enough time to study and
working around my class schedule. Otherwise, I will probably work a
couple years full-time elsewhere until I can afford to study full-time and
have adequate time to do a good job. So, we wait and see.

When I return, I hope to take June as a rest month and not do any
speaking. If all works out with the two Global Mission Events for the
ELCA, those are in July. Then I move to Chicago in August for seminary.

Four years in the middle east went awfully quick.

peace to you,

Le Anne