Early Cabin Fever

Posted by mauer

Posted: January 25, 2007 - 1:01 am

BAGHDAD, Jan. 25 — It seemed awfully quick to be getting cabin fever. But after a day and a half in my dark hotel suite, that’s what I was feeling.

Ground rules: I can’t mention my hotel. I can’t describe how we’re protected. I can say we’re in a mostly Shiite neighborhood in which some measure of order is enforced by a militia as well as the government. Or maybe they’re working together. Who knows around here.

Our building sits behind blast walls, gates and gauntlets. There’s enough private security in the immediate neighborhood to withstand most imaginable direct assaults by militias or insurgents looking to bag a western journalist or two. The biggest concern is car bombs or rockets. Our windows are covered with film to keep them from shattering into tiny slicing slivers. We’re advised to keep our thick dusty curtains drawn. What natural light penetrates has the quality of light passing through glass unwashed for decades.

Sometimes it’s the sound that penetrates. There was a huge explosion this morning, maybe 10 or 20 blocks away. Turned out it was the cops detonating a car bomb they found. Other explosions were more deadly. Every few hours, someone’s firing an automatic weapon.

There are markets and stores in walking distance, but we cannot leave the hotel. Inside, our floor reminds me of my old college newspaper “collective.” Four of us officially live here — me, bureau chief Leila Fadel, Omar the office manager and Kevin, our British security detail.

Our Iraqi staff is here all day and they’ll spend the night if they have to be here after sundown. The journalists, translators and fixers, a mix of Shiite and Sunni, read the papers, watch the news and record the speeches, translating what we need. They’ll do the kind of phone checks familiar to any night cops reporter, though the run-of-the mill news here looks like this, copied from today’s e-mail from Laith Hammoudi:

• 25 people were killed and 50 injured in a suicide car bomb exploded in Karrada neighborhood downtown Baghdad.

• 3 civilians were killed and 11 were wounded in 2 IEDs explosions in Baiyaa neighborhood south of Baghdad at 1 p.m.

• 42 anonymous bodies were found in Baghdad today. 32 bodies were found in Karkh, the western part of Baghdad in the following neighborhoods: 5 bodies in each of Kadhimiya , Baiyaa and Mamoon. 4 bodies in each of Dora, Hay Al Amil and Al Khadraa. 2 bodies in Hurriya. 1 bodies in each of Ghazaliya, Salhiya and Jeifer. 10 bodies were found in Rosafa, the eastern part of Baghdad in the following neighborhoods: 3 bodies in Sadr City. 2 bodies in each of Shaab, Husainiya and Baghdad Al Jadida. 1 body in Selikh.

And that’s just some of the items from Baghdad. Oh, here’s some good news from Dyala province: “A reliable source in Baladrooz city 45 kms east of Baquba city said that the crime fighting patrols arrested Rasool Saeed Al Daini today afternoon. The source said that Rasool Al Daini is accused to be involved in killing 49 civilians in Kanaan city in addition to his responsibility of displacing tens of Shiite and Kurdish families, assassinating tens of people and targeting the Iraqi security members. The source said that Rasool Al Daini  is one of the cousins of the parliament member Mohammed Al Daini.”

The bureau has been keeping an eye on the events of Haifa Street, a Sunni neighborhood near the Green Zone that has been the focus of several tough insurgent-clearing campaigns. They’re doing it again, and I wrote that story with the help of our Iraqi staff, who called people on the street.

Soon we head out to the Green Zone. I’m looking forward to getting out of the hotel.

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