September 2006 ·
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Casualty Fridays
From a June 12 cable, marked sensitive, sent by the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, obtained by the Washington Post.
Beginning in March, Iraqi staff in the Public Affairs Section have complained that Islamist and militia groups have negatively affected their daily routines. Some groups are pushing women to cover their faces, a step not taken in Iran even at its most conservative. A Sunni employee said people in her middle-class neighborhood are telling women to stop using cell phones, which are suspected channels to licentious relationships with men. She said the taxi driver who brings her to the Green Zone checkpoint every day told her he cannot let her ride unless she wears a head cover. Another female is now wearing a full abaya after receiving direct threats. These women also tell us that some ministries have been forcing females to wear the hijab at work. Staff members report that it is now dangerous for men to wear shorts in public. They no longer allow their children to play outside in shorts.
Our staff—and our contacts—have become adept in modifying behavior to avoid alasas, informants who keep an eye out for “outsiders” in neighborhoods. Often, if they must travel outside their own neighborhoods, they adopt the clothing, language, and traits of the area. Our staff reports that security and services are being rerouted through “local providers” whose affiliations are vague. Personal safety depends on good relations with the “neighborhood” governments, who barricade streets and ward off outsiders. The central government is not relevant—even local mukhtars have been displaced or co-opted by militias. An Arab newspaper editor told us ethnic cleansing is taking place in almost every Iraqi province, as political parties and their militias are engaged in tit-for-tat reprisals.
In April employees began reporting a change in the demeanor of guards at Green Zone checkpoints. They seemed to be more militia-like, in some cases taunting. One employee asked for press credentials because guards had held up her embassy badge and loudly proclaimed “embassy” to passersby as she entered. Such information is a death sentence if overheard by the wrong people.
Of nine employees, only four had family members who knew they worked at the embassy. A Sunni Arab female employee told us that most of her family believes the United States, widely perceived as fully controlling the country and tolerating the malaise, is punishing populations as Saddam did. Some of our staff do not take their American cell phones home, as this makes them a target. Planning for their own possible abduction, they enter code names into their phones for friends, colleagues, and contacts. For six months, we have not been able to use any local staff members for translation at on-camera press events.
One employee says life outside the Green Zone has become “emotionally draining.” He lives in a mostly Shiite area and claims to attend a funeral “every evening.” Employees are apprehensive enough that we fear they may exaggerate developments or steer us toward news that comports with their own worldviews. Objectively, the civility and logic that make for a functional workplace may falter if social pressures outside the Green Zone don’t abate.
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