Tuesday, May 22, 2007

Circumstantial evidence.

It's been routine for a while for Iraqis to get visits from soldiers -- U.S., Iraqi Army, or militia.

This morning they came to the house of my new friend Hussein, a journalist/fixer/translator in our bureau. He had left for work, but his parents were there.

The U.S. troops are in the midst of the surge aimed at bringing security to Baghdad by ferreting out bad guys. That means going into homes where they might take refuge.

At Hussein's house the American troops found a number of things that could create suspicion. There was a bag of some kind of white mineral. There were all kinds of cables. There was body armor. There was an AK-47. There was ammunition. There was a wad of cash.

So they detained Hussein's father, the clincher being his hands tested positive for contact with gunpowder.

Hussein says the white substance was salt taken from a sacred shrine. The cables are from his brother's work in the air conditioning business. The body armor was Hussein's, something he's used as a journalist in dangerous areas. Guns are commonplace in Iraqi homes. Families are supposed to keep just only one magazine of ammunition. Hussein's family had one in the house and two more stashed outside -- hardly an intimidating cache. The cash was Hussein's. He makes decent money, by Baghdad standards, but like so many Iraqis he doesn't bother much with banks.

His dad's hands had traces of gunpowder, he said, because he always reaches out for his gun at night. The neighborhood's rough. He's frightened.

The soldiers said they were taking his dad to the Green Zone. Back, maybe, in a week. The guy is 65 and has high blood pressure.

Hussein is a gentle and generous guy. He was beside himself. Could our security guy help? (He made some calls)? Could I help? (I made some calls.)

But the reality is that this just sucks.

Most likely, soldiers doing their best to find bad guys found things in a house that looked bad. They took away the head of the house in hopes of getting to the bottom of things.

Just as likely a harmless old man was taken from his home by foreign soldiers and sits somewhere in a scary limbo.

12 comments:

Blue Girl, Red State said...

Wow. I immediately thought about my father-in-law in rural Missouri who would get carted away if the same criteria were applied.

You sure hit the nail on the head when you said it sucks. It sure as hell does.

Keep your head down over there.

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