Days will reveal what you conceal

Posted by mauer

Posted: January 27, 2007 - 4:59 am

BAGHDAD, Jan. 27 — One of our few luxuries in the McClatchy news bureau are the lunches prepared by our chef. Today the main course was a mixture of beef stew on one side of the plate, chicken on the other, and the longest grain white rice I have ever seen in the center.

I was nearly done eating today when Hussam Ali, our stringer from Karbala, buzzed the gate to our floor and charged into the room.

Hussam is thin like a runner. His cheekbones look sculpted and his skin is darker than olive. He has a thin mustache. And he was excited like any reporter with a big, big story.

Hussam had been up well passed 2 a.m. this morning, talking on the phone to bureau chief Leila Fadel about the events of a week ago Saturday in his town. That’s when four American soldiers, most likely all from Fort Richardson, were abducted and executed, still handcuffed, following a brazen raid on a provincial government compound.

Army officials finally acknowledged the abductions last night in a press release e-mailed to media 11 p.m. local time. Prior to that, the official story made it sound like the soldiers died in battle, not murdered in, or just outside, the Chevy Suburbans abandoned by the attackers miles from the compound.

But Hussam began discovering the truth earlier this week, having heard from the police in the neighboring town of Hilla, where the Suburbans — and the slain Americans — were found. But the U.S. Army refused to confirm or deny the account until the Associated Press sent a report over its wire last night.

The compound is the governate for Karbala province southwest of Baghdad. In it are buildings for the police, administration, a jail, a community center, a small criminal investigations office and other functions. In the Saddam era, Karbala’s main street went right through the complex. But when the Americans came, they walled it in, creating a huge roadblock in the center of town.

Hussam laughed as he called it the “Karbala Green Zone.” It is no secret that American soldiers are always there, he said.

This is a tense time anyway in Karbala. Sunday, Jan. 21, would mark the start of the 10 days of Ashura, when tens or hundreds of thousands of Shiite pilgrims march with colored flags and banners from Baghdad and other cities to the sacred shrine in Karbala. The shrine is the burial ground for the Imam Hussein, grandson of the Prophet Mohammed. He had been martyred in a battle for control of Islam in 680, one of the key historical events in the Sunni-Shia schism.

In the last two years, Ashura pilgrims were slaughtered on their way to Karbala, attacked with bombs, mortars and gunfire, and the police chief had told Hussam that it might even be worse this year. Pilgrims from Iran and other neighboring countries were also expected, adding to the jitters.

At dusk Saturday, Jan. 20, Hussam was in his house, a few hundred yards from the compound, when he heard a huge explosion. He raced out the door and headed toward the sound of gunfire. Early arriving pilgrims in the streets were scattering. Hussam thought a mortar landed in their midst. Then he saw smoke rising from the compound. Was it a car bomb, he wondered?

With snipers on the roofs, he didn’t want to get too close to the walls. He took cover beside a police car abandoned in the middle of the street. He was on the opposite site of the compound from the gate. He could see military vehicles burning inside, but not the Suburbans roaring off with their captives.

Women and children were racing out of a small door in the wall to his left. They had been visiting their men in jail. Hussam asked what they saw, but they wouldn’t talk to him.

It grew very dark. The power was cut. The gunfire had stopped. Hussam made his way to the gate. The guards were still jumpy and excited. He asked them who the attackers were.

“Americans! It was the Americans!” they shouted.

As surreal as Iraq can be, that still made no sense to Hussam. But the attackers came up in a half-dozen or more Suburbans, just like Americans travel. They had U.S. documents and wore U.S. uniforms. At least one was very light skinned and spoke in English.

By the next day, Sunday, no official in Karbala was willing to talk about the event. U.S. authorities had taken over the investigation. On Monday, Hussam traveled to Hilla, near where five abandoned suburbans were found. The police there were willing to talk about their observations. They told Hussam they found the four soldiers there. On a return visit Thursday, he learned about the bullets in the heads of the American soldiers. Blood in the vehicles was still fresh when police got there — the killings had just happened.

Hussam learned the vehicles were found on a road that had recently been blocked. Probably the attackers were unaware of the blockade until they saw it. They probably knew they were being chased. If they turned around and came back the way they came, they would’ve run into the manhunt.

Perhaps they had originally intended to use the soldiers as hostages but shot them when they abandoned the vehicles.

Who were the attackers?

Al Qaeda? The Karbala police chief had been saying for several months that al Qaeda was become active in his province.

Iranians? Iraqis are deeply suspicious that Iran might have a hand in the attack, citing their generally lighter skin.

Someone else?

Whoever it was, it was a huge step forward in planning, training and tactics. And a mighty important story.

“You know, Iraqis have a proverb about this,” Hussam said, as he discussed his return to Karbala to continue his reporting. “Days will reveal what you conceal.”

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