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Bananas for Ramadan

It is Ramadan, the Muslim holy month when people fast during the daylight hours. The Koran puts it very beautifully – the fasting begins when there is enough light at dawn to tell the difference between a black and a...

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September 25, 2007 | Permalink | User Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

A Matter of Life or Death

I met a man today who has the power to condemn others to death -- and yet he is afraid for his own life. He is one of the senior judges in the Central Criminal Court of Iraq, the CCCI....

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September 20, 2007 | Permalink | User Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

Military Detains Suspect in Sunni Sheikh’s Murder

The U.S. military says that it has detained the suspected killer of a key Sunni sheikh who had been cooperating in the fight in Anbar province against al Qaeda. Sheikh Abdul Sattar abu Risha died on Thursday when the car...

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September 16, 2007 | Permalink | User Comments (4) | TrackBack (0)

Changing Checkpoints

Most Americans don’t have to stop their cars at all on the way to work -– except perhaps at a toll gate onto a freeway or at the entry to a tunnel or bridge. But in Baghdad a half hour...

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September 15, 2007 | Permalink | User Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

SURFING THE SURGE

In the run-up to the report that General Petraeus was preparing for Congress on the progress or lack thereof of the surge, we decided to poll Iraqis to get their views. And they were overwhelmingly negative -- most Iraqis told...

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September 10, 2007 | Permalink | User Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

A SERGEANT'S VIEW

The soldier’s name was Tony, and he was picking at a guitar as we spoke on the porch outside his patrol base one evening recently. It had been a long hot day, a dust storm had kicked up in the...

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September 7, 2007 | Permalink | User Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

BAGHDAD VIA BANGALORE

Baghdad via Bangalore? Sounds like a travel agent booboo, but no – last Wednesday afternoon I got on a plane in Los Angeles, and after one stopover in Frankfurt I landed Thursday near midnight in Bangalore, high-tech capital of southern...

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September 3, 2007 | Permalink | User Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)