Where is Raed?

[Boston Guy]

Salam Pax is missing again...

 

Are any of you following his story? I've found it fascinating how a gay man in Baghdad could have captured the imagination, loyalty and following of so many people around the world. (His story has been told on NPR at least twice.)

 

If you haven't been following, here's the link to his blog.

 

http://dear_raed.blogspot.com/

 

For some background on the story, you could check out this story:

 

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/aptech_story.asp?category=1700&slug=War%20Baghdad%20Blogger

 

And then, for those of you still following ;-), here are a few links that demonstrate a little of the buzz surrounding his postings:

 

http://paulboutin.weblogger.com/2003/03/20

 

http://www.metafilter.com/mefi/24612

 

http://www.kottke.org/03/03/030320now_seriousl.html

 

 

BG

[Guest Les]

I'm guessing when we hit the communication center internet service went with it...or possibly the Saddam's secret police finally caught up with him? I wish someone could find out for sure. I was counting on him for insights on the upcoming 'liberation'.

[Boston Guy]

I just checked again now, on Saturday morning. Still no update. I'm hoping that it's just the absence of Internet service and not an indication of something worse.

 

BG

[Guest Les]

Speculation continues all over the web. This from the Baltimore Sun:

 

Salam Pax has gone missing

 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

By Laura Sullivan

Sun National Staff

Originally published March 27, 2003

 

 

 

As Pentagon press conferences blend into each other and war coverage churns on, Salam Pax, whoever and wherever he is, has captivated the world's attention.

Blending sarcasm and apparent sincerity, Salam Pax, an Austrian-educated architectural engineer, and his Web site, "Where Is Raed?" - http://dear_raed.blogspot.com - has chronicled life outside his Baghdad window since September. His daily Web diary, or Weblog, had so many readers over the weekend, more than 1 million, it crashed the small, free Texas-based Web server he was using to post his photos. Google has since stepped in and offered to be host of the site and its photos through its company, Blogger.

 

 

 

But now, Salam Pax, a pseudonym for the author, is missing. He hasn't been heard from since Monday, and yesterday chat rooms across the country were abuzz over whether or not he is still alive. Many sent messages in case he was monitoring, telling him to lie low and stay safe.

 

Pax's appeal lies not in just his compelling portrayals of everyday life in Baghdad buying vegetables or waiting in line for gas, but in his disarming (apparent) honesty. He speaks the casual international language of a tech-savvy, disaffected youth.

 

Although there are questions about whether he is real, or part of one side's propaganda, Pax appears neither pro-Hussein nor pro-Bush. He seems like a 20-something from down the street, a guy dealing with work, family and life. Beyond country lines, ethnic stereotypes here and anti-Americanism there, he simply seems human.

 

"Please stop sending emails asking if I were for real," he wrote on Friday. "Don't believe it? Then don't read it. I am not anybody's propaganda ploy, well except for my own."

 

He shows little respect for Hussein and top party leaders, which is why he uses a fake name, and perhaps why he has not been heard from for several days.

 

Over the weekend he wrote that the TV channels were full of "useless news."

 

"We also saw ... the most distressing minister of Interior affairs with his guns. Freaks. Hurling abuse at the world is the only thing left for them to do."

 

But he has no love for Bush or the American war effort, either.

 

"How could 'support democracy in Iraq' become to mean 'bomb the hell out of Iraq'? ... Nobody minded an un-democratic Iraq for a very long time, now people have decided to bomb us to democracy? Well, thank you! How thoughtful."

 

He writes in vivid detail, chronicling the neighborhoods of his home city, the buildings he likes, where the "big wigs" live. In early March he wrote about the Sijood Palace, which he could see from across the river. He wrote, "I really hope it does not get [wrecked]. I see it as a museum or some sort of academy in the future, I really like it."

 

It was destroyed in the initial wave of bombing.

 

"As one of the buildings I really love went up in a huge explosion," he wrote on Saturday, "I was close to tears."

 

He watched as American soldiers were captured and shown on television and the images of some Iraqi soldiers surrendering. "On BBC we are watching scenes of Iraqis surrendering. ... Yes, it is better for them to do that," he wrote on Friday, "but still seeing them carrying that white flag makes something deep inside you cringe."

[Guest Les]

Hooray he's back...and breaking every anti-warrior's heart!

 

Tuesday, April 08, 2003

 

IS IT OVER? As I write, we still don't know if Saddam has been killed. I sure hope so. But we do know that this war is almost as good as won after three weeks. The Saddam regime no longer controls its two biggest cities; its armed forces seem in disarray; Saddam's palaces are occupied by G.I.s. Again, measure this against Kenneth Pollack's neutral projection:

Probably the most likely scenario would be about one third of Iraq's armed forces fighting hard, limited use of tactical WMD, and some extensive combat in a few cities. In this most likely case, the campaign would probably last four to eight weeks and result in roughly 500 to 1,000 American combat deaths.

Three weeks. Under 100 American casualties, half of which came from accidents. No use of tactical WMD. Extraordinarily targeted bombing; exceptionally light force; oil wells intact; Israel secure; Turks kept at bay. War is terrible, of course. It may flare up again for a while. There's still a chance of last-minute atrocities. And every civilian casualty is a tragedy. But it's beginning to look as if this was an amazing military campaign, something of which the American and British people - and their governments - can be deeply, deeply proud.

[Guest Les]

Sorry. Somebody took over his site temporarily and posted the above there...why do people think this kind of hoax is funny?x(