Stalker platoon has cordoned off a small village in the Diyala Province while the Iraqi Army conducts house searches. While they wait for the Iraqi Army to finish, a young Iraqi boy stares up at Sgt. Joseph Garcia in his humvee’s gun turret. The boy smiles and waves. As a nearby primary school lets out, Lt. John Hintz laments not bringing candy.

The boy continues to gawk at the humvee. Sgt. Garcia looks to the platoon’s interpreter for help. “Say ‘Shlonak,’ orders interpreter AT4.

Sgt. Garcia hesitates, “What does that mean?”

AT4 shrugs, “It’s like ‘what’s up dawg?’”

Still uncertain, Sgt. Garcia turns to the boy, “Shlonak?”

“Zen,” replies the boy.

“See, he said ‘zen,’” says AT4 without bothering to tell Garcia what “zen” means. Garcia becomes momentarily annoyed, then returns to scanning the road for enemy activity.

The soldiers in Stalker Platoon are part of the fourth rotation of American soldiers in Iraq since the beginning of the war in 2003, yet not a single one of them speaks Arabic. The same can be said for the over six-hundred soldiers who serve in the First Battalion, Sixty-Eighth Armoured Regiment, home to Stalker Platoon.

A year before deploying to Iraq, many of the soldiers in Stalker platoon volunteered to study Arabic in an Army run course after work. Unfortunately, the scouts widely regarded the course as poorly structured and ineffective. A few managed to learn basic phrases, but no one has even a rudimentary understanding of the language. The complete lack of Arabic speakers forces the US Army to rely on interpreters like AT4.

All Iraqis employed by the US military go by a nickname to reduce the chances of being recognized by locals and make their names easier for Americans to remember. An interpreter nicknamed Steve was recognized by a spy who infiltrated the base. Soon Steve’s family began to receive death threats, so Steve quit work and immediately left Iraq.

AT4 is named after a shoulder-launched rocket used by the Army. Watch this high-strung, nineteen year-old kick in doors during house searches and it’s readily apparent how he got the name. He carries a pistol and an AK-47 the military confiscated from some Iraqis who lacked the proper permits. While blowing a bridge, some engineers from Stalker platoon accidentally dropped an explosive charge into a drainpipe. AT4 was one of the first to volunteer to crawl into the pipe to fetch the charge.

Hearing AT4 speak English it’s clear that he fine-tuned his English working with American soldiers. In place of “um,” he casually inserts “fucking.” In other sentences “fucking” appears as an adjective applied for no discernable reason.

“Iraq is bullshit, man,” says AT4. He used the money he’s made working as an interpreter to buy his family a house, which insurgents once RPGed. When this happened AT4 says, “My dad tell me to stop working. I say ‘Fuck that,’ and I keep working.” Though AT4 calls his family every week, he hasn’t visited them since he started working as a translator over two years ago.

In the Army nothing indicates acceptance more than constant and merciless mockery, and by the amount of teasing AT4 gets Stalker platoon clearly loves him. He normally rides in Lt. Hintz’s humvee, driven by PFC Ryan O’Connor. During training exercises in the States, O’Connor brought tweezers into the field to pluck his eyebrows. Since then he’s been branded the platoon’s pretty boy. Lt. Hintz is fond of accusing AT4 of having a crush on O’Connor.

Despite AT4’s energy, he’s a fairly laid back interpreter. He translates what Lt. Hintz needs, and often times waves off locals trying to ask more questions or give him additional information. One of Stalker platoon’s other translators, Ibrahim is almost the opposite of AT4 as an interpreter.

Although Ibrahim earned the nickname Crusader-6, he prefers to accept the risk and go by his given name. Watching him work, one might think the US Army had employed a B-list Arab actor trained in interrogation by C-list police movies.

While Lt. Hintz and the director of the Al-Abara police station carry on a relatively calm and levelheaded conversation, Ibrahim fills every statement with the maximum amount of emotion possible. When he translates Hintz’s praise for the Al-Abara station it sounds like he’s narrating a live account of someone pulling a crippled boy and his puppy from a flaming building.

At other times, Ibrahim’s enthusiasm makes him a liability. He often acts as the self-appointed strong-arm of Stalker platoon. Questioning someone who Ibrahim believed was withholding information, he once asked Lt. Hintz to turn around so he could beat the suspect.

Although those in Stalker platoon generally acknowledge Ibrahim as an effective interpreter, he often annoys soldiers by constantly acting as something of a backseat-general. As US Soldiers and the Iraqi Army fanned out around a house, they were about to search, Ibrahim trotted behind Lt. Hintz suggesting where he ought to send soldiers. Later, Lt. Hintz expressed his desire to enroll in Arabic courses at a local college when he returns home.

Iraq Dispatch 2

Even though Lt. John Hintz attained confirmed kills as an Army sniper, the execution sites his platoon discovered this Saturday managed to disturb him. “I don’t mind seeing dead bodies, but seeing bodies executed like this, that’s sick,” he says.

While clearing a road of improvised explosive devices (IEDs) Stalker platoon happened to stop a local shepherd whose son had found two bodies outside the al-Madhkur village. With the shepherd’s help, Stalker platoon located the bodies, both shot execution-style in the head. The bodies had no identification cards, but according to the shepherd they were part of a local Imam’s security detail.

Several hours later helicopters from the 101st Airborne Division directed Stalker platoon to another execution site with four bodies. Three of the victims appeared to have been shot within the last two weeks. The fourth body looked about a month old and had been buried up the neck. The skull lay next to the burial mound. It was unclear whether the victim had been decapitated or the head fell off as part of natural decay.

Coming only two days after the Iraqi Army discovered forty-seven bodies in the same region, these new execution sites add new layers of confusion and frustration to Stalker platoon’s struggle to comprehend an elusive insurgency.

Perhaps most baffling to American soldiers in the Diyala province is the randomness of the insurgents targets. Aside from the rumor that two of the victims provided security for a local Imam, no one can find a clear reason why insurgents killed fifty-one Iraqis at the other two sites. The forty-seven killed on February 23 were a mix of Sunnis and Shi’as from different towns across the province.

“The insurgency would like you to believe that there’s a reason or a purpose, but there’s not,” says Lt. Ted Goldner, executive officer of Attack Company, which contains the Stalker platoon.

Hours after Attack Company has handed over control of the execution sites to the Iraqi Police, reports begin to filter back to Attack headquarters that insurgents now accused villagers around the execution sites of cooperating with the coalition troops. The insurgents threatened to kill the villagers.

Stalker’s brother platoon, White dispatched immediately to help the besieged village. Insurgents fled upon seeing the approaching humvees. The intervention left White’s medic, PFC Roberts, with mixed emotions. “Most Iraqis want us to leave, but these people wanted us to stay in their houses all night,” he said. Roberts and many others are beginning to believe that they’ve become mediators in a war between rival thugs and criminals.

Stalker platoon and the rest of Attack Company are tasked with patrolling Iraq’s entire Diyala province, excluding the province’s capitol city, Baqubah. Within the company there are about eighty available men and fifteen vehicles to police the province, an area roughly the size of Rhode Island.

Diyala consists almost entirely of farmland, canals, winding dirt roads and occasional villages of mud-brick homes. Discoveries like the execution sites are usually accidental. “Sometimes we get lucky,” explains SSG Jon Foster who has patrolled the area for over two months. “You just go search an area and you never know what’s out there.”

Less than twelve hours before discovering the first execution site on Saturday, SSG Eric Moroge’s humvee ran over a pressure detonated IED that sprayed the vehicle with acid-coated shrapnel. The explosion blew out the vehicle’s two front tires, but no one was injured.

Following the blast Stalker platoon could not find anyone to engage or detain. Sgt. Joseph Garcia, the turret gunner in the humvee directly behind Moroge’s, sprayed a palm grove with his .50-caliber machine gun immediately after the IED detonated. The scouts refer to this as “reconnaissance by fire;” the theory being that anyone hiding will emerge while trying to avoid getting shot. Lt. Hintz ordered Garcia to cease fire, fearing that there might be civilian houses in the palm grove.

Those in Moroge’s humvee had nothing to do but change their tires and laugh off the explosion. SGT Jesse Trumpore, the vehicle’s turret gunner, examined the acid splattered along the side of the humvee. As the only exposed person in the vehicle Trumpore believes that the acid targeted him specifically. This detail seems to bemuse rather than threaten him. “I love it when people try to kill me,” smiles Trumpore, who is serving his second tour of duty in Iraq.

“It’s hard to know who’s putting (IEDs) out there. Is it an insurgent, a criminal element, someone who’s getting paid by criminals or is it in revenge for patrols we’re conducting?” Wonders Capt. Mark Beckage, the Attack Company commander.

Despite these frustrations soldiers of Stalker platoon try not to let their experiences get to them. After spending the day searching execution sites for additional bodies Stalker platoon and other elements of Attack company return to base for lunch. PFC Matt Graham asks, “Does anybody else think this isn’t normal? We just saw a bunch of rotting, dead bodies and the first thing we do is come (back to base) and eat?”

I'm here at FOB Gabe outside Baqubah. I don't have much time to write any personal updates, but I'll post the first three of my dispatches. Hope all of you are well.
_____

Four soldiers from Stalker platoon lean against an abandoned mud brick hut using night vision goggles to scan one of the main roads through the southern Diyala provinces. Convoys have suffered repeated IED (Improvised Explosive Device) attacks along this route, referred to as Detroit by the US military.

Lt. John Hintz, commander of Stalker Platoon, has peppered several kilometers of route Detroit with observation posts and sniper teams who will stay out all night. “If we see someone putting in an IED, we’re not taking detainees.” Lt. Hintz has stressed that the goal of this mission is to kill anyone involved with placing IEDs. If successful he believes the mission will make a statement to the insurgency and gather intelligence about the source of the IEDs.

This is the type of mission that fuels the members of Stalker platoon. They are part of a self-selecting group of the US Army called Cavalry Scouts (scouts for short). Traditionally commanders deploy scouts ahead of major invasions or combat actions to assess the situation on the ground. As forward observers scouts must operate in small, detached units, which require scouts to become omni-competent soldiers capable of acting in a variety of combat roles—reconnaissance, tankers, infantry, military police.

Stalker platoon member PFC Luis Santos says, “I told the recruiter I wanted to be a spy and he put me in (the Cavalry Scouts).” To become a scout soldiers must score at least seventy out of a hundred on the Army’s entrance exam, while infantry and other combat jobs have a lower standard, usually around fifty.

Though technically not considered a special operations unit, higher standards like these add an element of elitism to the scouts. They pride themselves in being unconventional soldiers who think outside the box and do dangerous jobs with the fewest casualties possible. “The infantry needs parameters, but the cav scouts don’t need anybody to hold their hand,” explains Sgt. Joseph Garcia.

Within the Army the scouts are looked upon with respectful disdain. “They think they’re God’s gift to the Army,” says Sgt. Fulbright, a tanker. Still he concedes that they’re highly skilled, effective soldiers.

Since Stalker platoon’s arrival in Iraq at the end of December, many scouts complain that the platoon hasn’t been used to its full capacity. “Ninety-percent of the time we just drive around looking for things,” says Lt. Hintz.

Constant patrols spent searching for weapons caches and IEDs have created the feeling that those in Stalker platoon has been reduced to something like low-level street cops. The new observation post mission excites soldiers. They see it as an opportunity to use their training and take a more proactive stance.

About two hours into the operation the soldiers positioned along the mud hut doubt the operation will succeed. Stray dogs have barked continuously since the soldiers’ arrival. After the dogs have barked without rest for nearly three hours, PFC Brian D’Arcangelo shakes his head, “Unbelievable.”

“They do it in rotating shifts,” jokes Sgt. John Hughes.

The desert night is too cold for any of the soldiers to sleep in rotating shifts. Everyone stays awake quietly chatting and occasionally sweeping the road with night vision goggles.

PFC Matt Graham, Stalker’s medic, tells about his friend who helped an eccentric, old man construct a time machine in the New Zealand. After nearly a month of laboring with the old man, they’d built a large, wooden pyramid. Graham’s friend watched the old man place a crystal on top and crawl into the pyramid with a jug of water. After three days the old man emerged from the time machine, hardly any of the water missing from the jug, and unwilling to talk about the time machine.

“It was weird though,” adds Graham. “My friend said that this guy looked noticeably younger.” Other conversations topics include whether it would be better to keep a monkey or a hyena as a pet, classic American television shows exiled to late-night time slots, humorous sexual encounters, and jokes about different commanders.

Further down the road a sniper team, supported by Lt. Hintz’s observation post, notices a car idle by an IED hole several times. To reduce the amount of time they’re exposed, insurgents often drop IEDs in craters from old explosions rather than digging a new hole.

The vehicle finally stops in front of an IED hole. Sgt. Haupt and SPC Joseph Taylor, the sniper team, decide to fire when one of the men in the car reaches behind his seat for something. Taylor wounds and probably kills one man with two shots from his sniper rifle, while Haupt rakes the car with two-hundred rounds from his SAW machine gun. Miraculously, the car is still able to drive away and the presumed insurgents escape.

While the mission didn’t result in any new intelligence or a fully confirmable kill, most men in the Stalker platoon are pleased with the night’s work. Lt. Hintz believes the mission probably stopped the placement of an IED, but lists the main success as a psychological victory. The insurgents, Hintz believes, will now always wonder whether or not somebody is watching.

Just wanted to let everyone know that I'll be in Iraq starting tomorrow for about a month or so. I'm uncertain whether or not I'll be able to update from Iraq, but once I get out I'll post all the articles I've written from Iraq and then some. So if you don't see anything for a while, know that it's coming. I'll be checking my e-mail when I can (though not always responding) and would love to hear from you while embedded (or anytime). Drop me a line if you feel like it at TomAPeter@gmail.com

In the meantime here's part of a story about what I went through getting my body armour through customs. It's from an e-mail I sent to a friend, so it's unedited and filled with "adult language." Reader discretion is advised.

(Earlier I'd explained getting stuck in customs the day before for 5.5 hours trying to liberate my body armour. I no longer have that story, but you don't need to know it to start reading here. Just understand that I spent 5.5 hours in customs the day before and thought I was finished with paper work, etc.) I had all the forms signed, letters permitting me to have body armour in Jordan from the Directorate of Public Security and an express letter of consent from the Ministry of Interior. The DHL rep told me I just need to go to the airport and a DHL representative would help me get my package cleared through customs. I drove out to the airport this morning, which you know isn't exactly a short trip and had to get several clearances before airport security would allow me to pass through to DHL's office. After the forty or so minutes that took, the DHL office starts telling me that I need to go back to their office down town to do some more paper work, to which I started chanting, "No, NO, NO!" Then they start accusing me of losing a form that they never gave me and tell me that they're helpless without this form. I could see my package. I could touch it, it was right in front of me, but they wouldn't let me have it. Finally I bullied them into going ahead with the operation, but then came round 241 with Customs.

Customs officials claimed it was illegal for me to have body armour in Jordan unless I paid them half of the value of the body armour as a tax, or I could pay them 150 JD as an "insurance" fee, have my body armour sealed an in industrial strength trash bag, and if the bag wasn't open when I left the country, they'd give me back my 150 JD... DHL officers insisted that the customs officer wasn't look for a bribe, but when I opened my wallet and only had $100 (which I'd just exchanged for my trip to Iraq) and 11 JD, the customs agent told me that would be plenty, made me exchange the $100 back into JD and give it to him, along with my 11 JD, of which I was allowed to keep 2 for parking... Then they send me to ANOTHER office to get a receipt, making their extortion more legit, so that I won't start complaining until I'm in another airport on the other side of Amman and the customs agent has no clue what this bull shit receipt is. Anyway.... although there were 5 people in this other office, the only one capable of writing a receipt wouldn't be into work until 10:30 (it was 10:00AM), so they had me wait for her, while one or two people worked, one play solitaire, a few gossiped and one read the paper. Finally, I get my receipt around 10:40AM and go to seal up the box so they'll let me take it. But something doesn't look right to me about my body armour box. It felt too light, so I asked to open it up before they put the official seal on it. Inside is one vest sans helmet, for which I paid an additional $250, and is required gear for an embedded reporter. The shabab called me Rambo as when they saw the body armour and respected me a little be more. In sum I spent 9 fucking hours dealing with customs. Nine hours. Nine. It took customs nine hours to get me to the right person to bribe to let me have my box which I can't even open until I leave the country.

But with a whole new fucking set of problems to deal with, I didn't have time to dwell. Now, if they'd just forgotten the helmet, I wouldn't have been so angry. But, the body armour company (AKE) had already told me they'd shipped my gear on Jan. 29. After I sent them daily e-mails for a week and a half asking for the tracking number (bear in mind that I've already paid for the armour in full), the realized there was no tracking number because my armour had never been shipped. By this time there wasn't enough time to send the armour from Australia (the company's home base), so they had to ship me used body armour from Baghdad. Now, I'm not a snob about this kind of stuff, but at the very beginning of my interaction with AKE I'd asked about buying used equipment. They said they didn't sell used gear. Fair enough, but don't turn around sell me used gear for the price of brand new equipment. Sending me used armour for the price of new armour without all of the equipment I paid for sent me over the fucking edge. (I was also supposed to get a jacket designed to wear over the vest that conceals the armour, making you look like more of a civilian, which of course wasn't included. I don't really care about the jacket, but it was part of the body armour package I PAID for.) Also, had their not been mechanical problems with my plane, I would have missed my flight and wait three days for the next one because of this shipping snafu.

Driving home I yelled at Sallie Stone, the armour coordinator, and planned our phone conversation. My opening was to start, "Look Sallie, if I wanted to pay $1,800 (cost of my armour) to get fucked, I would have called a fucking whore!" Instead I ended up being remarkably pleasant with Sallie, in fact I was so plea sent I offended myself. In her sweet, Australian accident she apologized, saying that she'd just completely forgotten to tell the Baghdad office to include a helmet in my shipment........... So, long story short, I had to call the Department of Defense who coordinates military flights for civilians to Baghdad, and they're now loaning me a helmet until I get to the Green Zone and AKE will deliver me a helmet. I guess the story has a vaguely happy ending, but fuck... I'm not filled with rage any more, but fuck... Fuck...

Shameless Self-Promotion

If you’ve enjoyed reading my blog, you’ll probably enjoy reading my book. Last spring I wrote a series of essays about my first trip to Iraq and Palestine in 2004. This summer I used this online publishing service to put them together in the form of an actual paperback book.

With my impending return to Iraq and recent work in Palestine, I thought some of you might be interested in reading about my first trips to these places. If so, you can download my essay collection for free or pay $5.73 to order it as an actual paperback. Here’s the website:

In Case I Die of Laughter, By Tom A. Peter (http://www.lulu.com/content/163981)

Enjoy!

As promised, I’ve collected several little articles from various places on the internet (mostly Wikipedia and Global Security) about the unit I’ll be embedding with and the city/region in Iraq where that unit is based. So if you’re interested in the nitty-gritty details of my embed feel free to check out the information I’ve collected. As usual, I’ve divided it into sections to help you find something that might interest you.

How My Unit Fits Into the Army

Now, I’m embedding with the 1st Battalion-68th Armored Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division. Unless you’re in the military or have prior military experience I assume that means nothing to you. Here’s a rough break down of the hierarchy of military units and the average amount of people in each unit:

Corps (30,000+ people) > Division (10,000–20,000 people) > Brigade/ Brigade Combat Teams (2000–5000 people) > Battalion (300–1000 people) > Company (150–300 people) > Platoon (30–40 people) > Squad (8–12 people) > Fire team (4 people) > Pain in the ass journalist (1 person) [You can see a nice table explaining this structure here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Structure_of_the_United_States_Armed_Forces ]

How I’ll Start the Project

Once I join the 1-68 AR (about 600 people), they’ll probably put me in the officers’ bunk. In the first couple of days I’ll try to find an interesting/amiable officer and attach myself to his company or platoon for the duration of my embed. The goal is to focus on a small group of soldiers in depth. I’m hoping that my series of articles will have recurring, easily identifiable characters.

Fourth Infantry Division Background

“The 4th Infantry Division (Mechanized) is a combat division of the United States Army based at Fort Hood, Texas. It is the most technologically advanced combat division in the U.S. Army.

The division has two nicknames, the first, "Ivy," is a play on words of the Roman numeral IV or 4. Ivy leaves also symbolize tenacity and fidelity which is the basis of the division's motto: "Steadfast and Loyal". The second nickname, "Iron Horse", has been recently adopted to indicate the speed and power of the division.

…

The 4th Infantry Division was scheduled to take part in the Iraq War in the spring of 2003 by spearheading an advance from Turkey into northern Iraq. The Turkish Parliament refused to grant permission for the operation and the division's equipment remained offshore on ships during the buildup for the war. The 4th was unable to deploy in time to take part in the invasion but arrived as follow-on forces and have been a major part of occupation forces during the post-war period. It has been deployed in Tikrit area, in the northern area of the Sunni Triangle. On December 13, 2003, a unit of the 4th captured Saddam Hussein, former President of Iraq. The division rotated out of Iraq in the Spring of 2004, and has been relieved by the 1st Infantry Division.”

-Information from Wikipedia. There’s a lot more information about their 4 ID’s history on the site if that’s your bag. If you’re confused about the structure of the 4 ID and how the 1-68 AR fits into it, look at the Units section on this website.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/US_4th_Infantry_Division

1st Battalion - 68th Armor Regiment Background

“The 1st Battalion, 68th Armor Regiment, is a part of the 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division (Mechanized), located on Fort Carson, at the Foot Hills of the Rocky Mountains, just South of Colorado Springs, Colorado.

The 1st Battalion, 68th Armor Regiment, is the "only" Armor Battalion located on Fort Carson, with 48 M1A1 (Abrams) Main Battle Tanks, 32 Armored Personnel Carriers, Over 50 Tactical Wheeled vehicles, 5 Tracked Maintance/Recovery vehicles and over 600 personnel, the "Silver Lion" Battalion is a large Self Reliant organization. 1-68 Armor has 4 Company's (Companies A, B, C & HHC) that combined into a team makes a well organized combat unit. There are 14 M1A1 Main Battle Tanks in each Line Company (Companies A, B, & C). The combined strength of the 14 M1A1's with all guns blazing make each company, Theoretically, more powerful than a WWII Battleship. With 3 "Battleships" at its disposal there is no mission that the "Silver Lions" Cannot handle. To Support the 3 line Company's there is Headquarters and Headquarters Company (HHC) which is the largest of the 4 Company's with over 300 personnel. Located in HHC are platoons of Calvary Reconnaissance, Mortar, Maintance, Headquarters, Signal, Supply, Intelligence, Cooks, Chemical, administration and Medics for the Battalion.

1st Battalion, 68th Armor is 1 of 3 maneuver Battalions in the 3rd Brigade Combat Team. The other two maneuver Battalions are our sister Mechanized Infantry Battalions; 1st Battalion, 12 Infantry "Warriors" and 1st Battalion 8th Infantry "Fighting Eagles". In support the 3 maneuver battalion's the 3 BCT has Support And Service support units in Battalion, Company and Platoon strengths, They are 3rd Battalion 29 Field Artillery, 4th Battalion Engineers, 64th Forward Support Battalion, 534th Signal Company, C Company 104th Military Intelligence, C Company 1st Battalion 44th Air Defense Artillery, Brigade Headquarters Company and platoons of Chemical, Military police, and Finance.”

-Information from 1-68 AR homepage. If you want to read about 1-68 AR’s history from 1918-2001 there’s more info on their homepage.
http://www.carson.army.mil/3HBCT/

The Location in Iraq

The 1-68AR is stationed on Forward Operating Base (FOB) Gabe just outside of Baquba, located northeast of Baghdad in the Al-Diyala Governorate. Below are some interesting facts about Al-Diyala, Baquba, and FOB Gabe. Also, here’s a map of Iraq (at the bottom of the map you’ll see something that says “Printable Maps” next to that it says “Enlarge (GIF)” click on that to see a readable version of the map):
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/xpeditions/atlas/index.html?Parent=mideast&Rootmap=iraq&Mode=d&SubMode=w


Al-Diyala Governorate

“Diyala is one of the constituent governorates of the nation of Iraq. It extends to the northeast of Baghdad as far as the Iranian border. Its capital is Baquba.

Diyala province covers an area of 17,685 km². In 2003, it had an estimated population of some 1,271,000 people, mostly Sunni Arabs, with a sizeable comunity of Shi'a Arabs and Kurds. A large portion of the province is drained by the Diyala River, a major tributary of the Tigris. Because of its close proximity to two major sources of water, Diyala's main industry is agriculture, primarily dates grown in large Date Palm groves. It is also recognized as the orange capital of the Middle East.

The Diyala Province also boasts the Diyala Media Center which has one of the Middle East's tallest radio and television antenna's at 1200 meters. The Diyala Media Center was built under contract by a Japanese architectural firm in 1989. It is one of Iraq's few independent radio and television stations that offer local television and radio news coverage as well as rebroadcasting the state run television media.

The province is divided into six districts:

* Al Khalis whose population center is the city by the same name. The city of Al Khalis is roughly 15 kilometers North of Baquba.

* Al Muqdadiya also has a population center by the same name. The city of Muqdadiya is roughly 100 kilometers Northeast of Baquba.

* Baquba one of the major cities in Iraq which is centrally located in the province, roughly 25 kilometers East of the Tigris River and divided in half by the Diyala River. the city of Baquba is roughly 200 kilometers Northeast of Baghdad.

* Baladrooz is in the southern portion of the Diyala province about half way between Baquba and Baghdad.

* Khanaqin

• Kifri”

-Information from Wikipedia. If you’d like to see a map of the Diyala governorate check out the site.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diyala_Governorate

Baquba

“Baquba (also transliterated as Ba'qubah and Baqouba) is the capital of Iraq's Diyala province.

The city is located at 33°45′N 44°38′E, some 50 km to the northeast of Baghdad, on the Diyala River, within Iraq's so-called Sunni Triangle. In 2002 it had an estimated population of some 280,000 people.

The site has been inhabited continuously since pre-Islamic times as a center for agriculture and commerce. The name itself is thought to have come from the Aramaic Baya 'quba, meaning “Jacob's house.” It served as a waystation between Baghdad and Khorasan on the medieval Silk Road. It is now known as the center of Iraq’s commercial orange groves.

During the course of the U.S-led occupation of Iraq, Baquba emerged as the scene of some of the heaviest guerilla activity, along with the Sunni enclaves of Fallujah, Ramadi, and Samarra. It was the site of the heaviest fighting during the June 24, 2004 insurgent offensive. Al-Tawhid Wal-Jihad, led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, took responsibility for the attacks.”

-Information from Wikipedia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baquba

Camp Gabriel, aka Camp Gabe or Camp Boom

“Camp Boom was a base formerly occupied by Saddam's 41st Armored Brigade of the Republican Guard Al Nida Division. When the regime fell, the troops the 41st left the compound and blended into the local population. Anything that could be looted, was - including missiles, artillery, hand grenades and guns. The Iraqis destroyed anything that they could not take with them.

Living conditions for American troops at Camp Boom were basic. There was no air conditioning, no plumbing, and no privacy. Sand the consistency of moon dust damaged equipment. The shells of the dilapidated barracks offered no relief from the searing heat.

By late June 2003 elements of the 4th Infantry Division and Task Force Ironhorse were operating from Camp Boom, near Baqouba, 35 miles northeast of Baghdad. US forces kicked off a massive sweep 29 June 2003 with more than 20 lightening raids in towns across a wide swath of Iraq, netting at least 60 suspects in a show of air and infantry power designed to crush resistance and stem a wave of deadly attacks on US troops. The operation, dubbed "Sidewinder," began across an area of central Iraq stretching from the Iranian border to the areas north of Baghdad, and is expected to last for several days, according to military officials in Camp Boom, near Baqouba, 50 kilometers (35 miles) northeast of Baghdad. There were no reports of U.S. casualties, the military said, nor was there any indication that the operation had netted any of Iraq's most wanted fugitives.
Camp/Forward Operating Base Gabe

Camp Gabriel used to be called Camp Boom because of its loud explosions. By November 2003 it was said to be called "Camp Gabriel" also known as "Camp Gabe", in honor of Sgt. 1st Class Dan Henry Gabrielson, from the 652nd Engineer Battalion (Reserves) attatched to the the 588th Engineer Battalion, and who died on July 9, 2003, as a result of hostile fire in Ba Qubah while traveling in a convoy that came under attack. He was the first sapper of that unit to died while deployed in Iraq. However, in December 2003 it was reported that the base at Baquabah was still called Camp Boom ‘because they've been shot at so much.’ ”

-Information from:
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/iraq/baquba.htm

For those of you who periodically read this thing, I suppose it seems like I’ve dropped of the face of the map. While I’m still on the map, unfortunately I landed in Amman, Jordan for a bit. I’ve strung together several e-mails and other junk I’ve written to explain how I ended up here and what I’m doing. As I did last time, I’ve divided the entry into sections so you can find something that interests you/skip stuff you might have already read.

The Peculiar Events Leading to my Sojourn in Amman, Jordan

My visa and interest in Palestine expired on the twentieth of January. Rather than undergo questioning by the Israelis and pay a substantial visa renewal fee I decided to leave Palestine and start the next chapter in Middle East voyage. As Jordan is right next-door, it has an international airport, and it’s the main entry portal to Iraq I figured this would be a good place to plot my next move.

On top of that my dear friend Emily Dorman (she currently works in Lebanon) and her boyfriend were vacationing in Jordan, so as an added bonus I got to spend my first day in Jordan with the two of them. Charlie, Emily’s boyfriend, and I bonded making numerous tasteless jokes at Emily’s expense. Any rage Emily bottled during the visit, she unleashed in bumper cars, located about one hundred meters from the Amman’s ancient Roman amphitheatre.

After saying goodbye to Emily and Charlie, I diverted my full efforts into plotting my exit strategy from Jordan/my next move in the Middle East. As most of you know, I’d been planning a ten month embed with the US military since July. On December 22 the public affairs officer handling my request asked for samples of my work, which I sent in, and then never responded to my original e-mail or any follow up e-mails. By mid-January I assumed that they were no longer interested in working with me and started looking for other jobs in the Middle East.

I had a tentative job offer from the Yemen Observer, an English-language news magazine based out of Sa’na, the capital of Yemen. I’ve decided that I want to make myself into a Middle East specialist, and I’ve never been to a Gulf country, so Yemen seemed like a good place to start. From what I’ve heard, it’s one of the most unique countries in the region. It’s the only Gulf country without any oil resources, so it’s relatively poor. A short boat ride from Ethopia, Sudan, and other parts of Africa, African culture has influenced Yemen quite a bit. After the Russian-Afghanistan war Yemen was one of the only countries to offer former mujahideen citizenship, which has resulted in a large population of fundamentalists. The architecture in Yemen is also apparently in a category all of it’s own. So, all and all Yemen seemed like a good place to start in the Gulf.

Before I could go to Yemen, I had to get a new passport because of the multiple Israeli stamps in my existing passport. (If there’s any evidence you’ve visited Israel Syria, Lebanon, Yemen, and most Gulf countries will deny you entry. Aware of this problem the US allows citizens to carry two valid passports.) I filled my passport application and began researching overland bus routes and flights to Yemen.

How I Came to be Embedded with the US Army in Iraq

The day before I was about to book a flight, I got an e-mail from the public affairs officer letting me know he’d matched me up with the 4th Infantry Division, 3rd Heavy Combat Team, 1st Battalion 68 Armoured Regiment outside of Baqubah. (I had to look at a map to find Baquba, so if you’re as bad with Iraqi geography as me, Baqubah is north of Baghdad, slightly to the East. You can see it on this map:
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/iraq/images/iraq-map_un1996.jpg )

A quick aside: in all of my correspondences with the military they refer to me as "Mr. Peter" or "Sir." Some even end e-mails "Very Respectfully, Lt. So-And-So." If they knew who they were actually communicating with I imagine they'd feel quite foolish using these terms of deference and respect.

Anyway, the embed will last for a month or so, which is quite a bit shorter than I'd originally hoped. My theory is that they don't think I'm 100% legit (which I can't really argue with), so they're starting me out with a short embed as their way of putting me on probation. This way they're not obligated to keep me around if they think I'm inept, but if they like me they can keep me as long as they/I want.

If they can only keep me for a month or two for reasons other than my ineptitude, I’ll try to make this into something of an elapsed photography project, revisiting the same group every three months or so. In the long run I think this actually might a better way of going about the project than staying with the same group for their entire twelve month tour of duty. It will probably be easier for me to track how the soldiers are changing if I’m popping in and out every few months, whereas I’d probably miss quite a few developments if I never left the unit. So, I'm not really too worried. A month is a solid starting point, and if all goes well and I make some good relationships hopefully it will pave the way for a long-term project.

Also, I think it might be better for my professional development to do it this way. If I'm popping in and out, I can go work in Yemen during one of my three month off sessions. (provided the Yemen Observer is amiable). I also applied for a three-month contract job in Afghanistan that I’m quite excited about and would fit perfectly into my plan. If I got the Afghanistan job it would provide me with enough money to do nothing but study Arabic in Cairo for three months. So, if I do end up going back and forth, I think it could be a great thing for me. I'll get to do my project in Iraq, but it won't be the only thing I'm doing during that time so hopefully I’ll come out of this experience with a “wide range of skills.” But who knows what will happen. Perhaps I'll only allowed to embed for a month with no return visits. Whatever happens I'm excited to get things started.

(For those of you who are interested, I’m creating a little background research summary on Baqubah and the 1-68 AR, which I’ll post my blog in the next day or two. It should give you a much better idea of where I’m going and who I’ll be with.)

Possible Job in Afghanistan & Other Future Possibilities

Some of you might be curious about the job I applied for in Afghanistan, so I’ve pasted the job description below:

Communications Internship (paid)

The purpose of the Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit (AREU) is to conduct quality action-oriented research that will inform policy and improve practice in order to increase the accountability and impact of humanitarian and development programs for Afghans.

As part of this, the AREU publishes a series of papers, reports and handbooks to highlight current issues affecting aid policy and practice, to promote AREU research findings and methodologies and to serve as an information clearinghouse for aid workers, government officials, policy makers and academics, both inside Afghanistan and out.

The purpose of this internship is to contribute to AREU's information resources by working with AREU's Communications and Advocacy Team to develop and produce the fifth edition of the annual A to Z Guide to Afghanistan Assistance.


TERMS OF REFERENCE

Specific tasks of the internship will include responsibility for:

1. Reviewing, updating, writing and finalizing the A to Z glossary and theme (government, documents, resources) sections, explaining key assistance organisations and processes and, where appropriate diagrams and organigrams outlining the assistance architecture.

2. Meeting with key actors among the assistance community (UN, donors, NGOs, ICRC), the Afghanistan Government and the coalition forces about the assistance architecture, organisations and processes, as necessary, to ensure that the guide has the right balance and is accurate.

3. Researching and drafting new thematic sections. This will be agreed to in consultation with the communications team.

4. Other duties as assigned related to outreach and dissemination of the guide and other communications and advocacy products.

This internship is ideal for recent college graduates with an interest in international relations and some editing/writing work experience.

DURATION: Estimated: Three months (early May to early August 2006)

LOCATION: The intern will be based in Kabul, Afghanistan, with the possibility of travel to Pakistan for final production of the guide.

BENEFITS: This internship is paid (~$700/month). All accommodation, travel, visa and insurance costs will be paid for by AREU; food and incidentals are the responsibility of the employee.

The job isn't terribly glamorous, in fact I imagine it might be a little boring at times like many other office jobs, but it's in Kabul, Afghanistan! I'm fascinated by Afghanistan and they actually would pay me quite a bit of money. If I'm just paying for food an incidentals I bet I could save up about $1,500. As I mentioned, that would be enough money to fund doing nothing but studying Arabic for six hours a day in Cairo for three months. But who knows whether or not I'll hear back from them. At the very least it’s something nice to dream about. Whatever ends up happening, it seems like there are enough other weird options out there that would probably fill out my overseas experiences much better than spending ten months exclusively with the US military. But we'll see what transpires. I've certainly learned not to trust that anything will happen until a couple weeks after it's already happened and everything is finished.

A Mini High School Reunion

So right now I’m just hanging out in Amman waiting for my embed to start, taking care of last minute details: getting a second passport, finding a place to ship my body armor, hassling the Kuwait Times to give me press credentials and a the money they owe me, researching the unit I'll be embedding with, etc.

Through some bizarre string of events, my ex-high school cross country coach and journalism adviser Bim Barry is currently living and working here in Amman. He started teaching internationally shortly after I graduated from high school. He was in Lima, Peru for three years, but just this year he got posted in Amman, Jordan. Since graduating high school Bim and I kept in touch, and when I told him I would be coming through Amman he invited me to shack up with him. I must say that living with Bim has been a real lifesaver. Not only would a hotel have been dingy and expensive, but life would be pretty lonely, boring and depressing if I had to stay by myself this whole time.

Thoughts on Ex-Patriot Communities in the Middle East

Living with Bim has also exposed me to an ex-pat community unlike any other I’ve experienced in the Middle East. Before I explain this peculiar ex-pat community, let me first explain what the ex-pat life is to me and why I generally tend to like it. The ex-pat life style allows you to simultaneously be part of two separate and very different societies. You'll never really be part of the host society, and the ex-pat society will probably be a mix of Europeans and Americans who will never be able to recreate the identities of their home countries. Unlike the immigrant, the true ex-pat is not trying to completely assimilate into the culture of the host country. S/he wants to experience and understand the local culture, but they certainly don't identify as a member of the host country nor do they plan on raising their children to identify as a member of the host country. This strips away the ex-pats established identities and forces her/him to create a new identity. This process breeds creativity and thoughtfulness. Personally, I've always felt like I'm the most confident, centered, and creative while abroad.

Additionally, the ex-pat life style creates a sense of community that I don't think exists elsewhere. Just as the ex-pat has to create her/his own identity, they have to create their own community. An ex-pat community comes bonds over being the outsiders. Unlike life in your home country, there's always something new and interesting to analyze. Something that doesn't quite belong to you, so you can look at it ways you could never look at your own society, but that can create realizations about your own society that couldn't otherwise have seen. An ex-pat friend is almost like a war buddy. Who knows if you'd be friends under other circumstances but when you're with them abroad they're one of the best friends you've ever had.

Thoughts on Amman’s Ex-Pat Community

Given these expectations for an ex-pat community, Bim’s ex-pat community baffled me. On my first night with Bim, he took me to a party hosted by another teacher for all the faculty members. At the risk of exposing just how shallow I am, I’ll admit that I was immediately struck by how unusually ugly everyone seemed to be. I mean, of course you're going to see ugly ex-pats and people where ever you go, but I've never seen so many of them in one place. Men and women.

Once I got over people’s appearances, these people didn’t strike me as the normal Middle East ex-pats. Very few of them chose to live in Amman; the international school assigned them to this post, or their husband worked in the embassy, etc. People shop in the Embassy's commissary, don't even pretend like they're going to learn Arabic, and they all have private cars so they don't even interact with cabbies. The school pays everyone enough so that they can shop at the high end stores, so they don't have to buy food from crappy street markets, unless they feel like doing it for novelty’s sake. These people just seem to live in an extremely insular world.

I told my friend Emily Dorman about this and here’s what she had to say:

“if I were an ugly expat, I would live in Amman too. think about it. it's like the Cleaveland of the Middle East. it's a viable, strong city with maybe one or two worthwhile attractions, but beyond that, no body would want to live there. I'm not saying that Cairo is any better a place to live- it's worse, much worse- but it's a much more historic, cosmopolitan place and might attract more cosmopolitan people.”

A couple nights ago I went to a poker party with faculty members from Bim’s school. There was one guy who had lived in Amman for seven years and he only spoke about ten words of Arabic. He literally didn't know anything past hello, thank you, please, and a few popular slang words. This guy was unmarried and in his late-twenties, so it wasn’t like he was at a point in life where learning a new language would an insurmountable task. I just can’t fathom why you would spend seven years in a country and not even try to learn the language. There was this other lady who married a Jordanian guy. She’s lived her for 27 years, but apparently she still got ripped off in the markets. She was wearing the typical Arab scarf, which she'd just bought for 5 JD (Jordanian Dinar, 1JD = $1.40). You should pay about 2JD for a scarf like hers, but no more than 3JD. I helped Emily’s boyfriend purchase an identical scarf and got the vendor down to 2JD without much of a problem. It’s just beyond me how someone can live in Amman for 27 years and think that 5 JD is a reasonable price for a scarf.

On Bim’s day off, the two of us went downtown together. In the six months he’s lived in Amman, he’s never gone downtown. That would be like living in Evanston and taking the El to Chicago. There’s an ancient Roman Theatre and several other ruins in the middle of downtown, which Bim had never even driven past. Before we left, he'd mentioned his interest in possibly buying a sheesha, a traditional oriental water pipe. I told him he could buy one in Egypt for about three bucks, so he'd probably be better suited buying one during a trip to Cairo. He agreed, but as we were walking around we came upon a sheesha store. When I asked whether or not he wanted to step inside to haggle with the vendor to figure out sheesha prices in Jordan, he simply said, "No, not really." I’m just not sure what someone does, if they don’t spend time haggling for useless things they don’t plan on buying. I suppose that also leads to a culture of people who happily fork over double the acceptable price for a simple scarf. The foreigners I’ve met live in a strange, detached world that I knew existed, I guess I’d just never seen it before.