for another point of view:
http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0307/p01s04-woiq.html?s=hns
Dana
rom the March 07, 2005 edition
What Iraq's checkpoints are like
By Annia Ciezadlo | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor
Editor's note: On Friday, an Italian intelligence officer was killed
and Italian journalist Giuliana Sgrena was wounded as their car
approached a US military checkpoint in Baghdad. The US says the car
was speeding, despite hand signals, flashing white lights, and warning
shots from US forces. Ms. Sgrena says her car was not speeding and
they did see any signals. This personal account, filed prior to the
shooting, explains how confusing and risky checkpoints can be - from
both sides.
It's a common occurrence in Iraq: A car speeds toward an American
checkpoint or foot patrol. They fire warning shots; the car keeps
coming. Soldiers then shoot at the car. Sometimes the on-comer is a
foiled suicide attacker (see story), but other times, it's an unarmed
family.
(Photograph)
BACK HOME: Italian journalist Giuliana Sgrena arrived in Rome
Saturday, injured after US troops fired on her car.
ALESSANDRA TARANTINO/AP
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As an American journalist here, I have been through many checkpoints
and have come close to being shot at several times myself. I look
vaguely Middle Eastern, which perhaps makes my checkpoint experience a
little closer to that of the typical Iraqi. Here's what it's like.
You're driving along and you see a couple of soldiers standing by the
side of the road - but that's a pretty ubiquitous sight in Baghdad, so
you don't think anything of it. Next thing you know, soldiers are
screaming at you, pointing their rifles and swiveling tank guns in
your direction, and you didn't even know it was a checkpoint.
If it's confusing for me - and I'm an American - what is it like for
Iraqis who don't speak English?
In situations like this, I've often had Iraqi drivers who step on the
gas. It's a natural reaction: Angry soldiers are screaming at you in a
language you don't understand, and you think they're saying "get out
of here," and you're terrified to boot, so you try to drive your way
out.
'Stop or you will be shot'
Another problem is that the US troops tend to have two-stage
checkpoints. First there's a knot of Iraqi security forces standing by
a sign that says, in Arabic and English, "Stop or you will be shot."
Most of the time, the Iraqis will casually wave you through.
Your driver, who slowed down for the checkpoint, will accelerate to
resume his normal speed. What he doesn't realize is that there's
another, American checkpoint several hundred yards past the Iraqi
checkpoint, and he's speeding toward it. Sometimes, he may even think
that being waved through the first checkpoint means he's exempt from
the second one (especially if he's not familiar with American
checkpoint routines).
I remember one terrifying day when my Iraqi driver did just that. We
got to a checkpoint manned by Iraqi troops. Chatting and smoking, they
waved us through without a glance.
Relieved, he stomped down on the gas pedal, and we zoomed up to about
50 miles per hour before I saw the second checkpoint up ahead. I
screamed at him to stop, my translator screamed, and the American
soldiers up ahead looked as if they were getting ready to start
shooting.
After I got my driver to slow down and we cleared the second
checkpoint, I made him stop the car. My voice shaking with fear, I
explained to him that once he sees a checkpoint, whether it's behind
him or ahead of him, he should drive as slowly as possible for at
least five minutes.
He turned to me, his face twisted with the anguish of making me
understand: "But Mrs. Annia," he said, "if you go slow, they notice
you!"
Under Saddam, idling was risky
This feeling is a holdover from the days of Saddam, when driving
slowly past a government building or installation was considered
suspicious behavior. Get caught idling past the wrong palaces or
ministry, and you might never be seen again.
I remember parking outside a ministry with an Iraqi driver, waiting to
pick up a friend. After sitting and staring at the building for about
half an hour, waiting for our friend to emerge, the driver shook his
head.
"If you even looked at this building before, you'd get arrested," he
said, his voice full of disbelief. Before, he would speed past this
building, gripping the wheel, staring straight ahead, careful not to
even turn his head. After 35 years of this, Iraqis still speed up when
they're driving past government buildings - which, since the Americans
took over a lot of them, tend be to exactly where the checkpoints are.
Fear of insurgents and kidnappers are another reason for accelerating,
and in that scenario, speeding up and getting away could save your
life. Many Iraqis know somebody who's been shot at on the road, and a
lot of people survived only because they stepped on the gas.
This fear comes into play at checkpoints because US troops are often
accompanied by a cordon of Iraqi security forces - and a lot of the
assassinations and kidnappings have been carried out by Iraqi security
forces or people dressed in their uniforms. Often the Iraqi security
forces are the first troops visible at checkpoints. If they are
angry-looking and you hear shots being fired, it becomes easier to
misread the situation and put the pedal to the metal.
A couple of times soldiers have told me at checkpoints that they had
just shot somebody. They're not supposed to talk about it, but they
do. I think the soldiers really needed to talk about it. They were
traumatized by the experience.
Traumatic for soldiers, too
This is not what they wanted - really not what they wanted - and the
whole checkpoint experience is confusing and terrifying for them as
well as for the Iraqis. Many of them have probably seen people get
killed or injured, including friends of theirs. You can imagine what
it's like for them, wondering whether each car that approaches is a
normal Iraqi family or a suicide bomber.
The essential problem with checkpoints is that the Americans don't
know if the Iraqis are "friendlies" or not, and the Iraqis don't know
what the Americans want them to do.
I always wished that the American commanders who set up these
checkpoints could drive through themselves, in a civilian car, so they
could see what the experience was like for civilians. But it wouldn't
be the same: They already know what an American checkpoint is, and how
to act at one - which many Iraqis don't.
Is there a way to do checkpoints right? Perhaps, perhaps not. But it
seems that the checkpoint experience perfectly encapsulates the
contradictions and miseries and misunderstandings of everyone's common
experience - both Iraqis and Americans - in Iraq.
On Mon, 7 Mar 2005 12:35:48 -0500, Michael Dinowitz
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> So let me get this straight. Italy paid off terrorists to the tune of over
> 10 million dollars. They did not tell the US soldiers patrolling Baghdad
> about the deal and when they got their 'hostage' back, they went screaming
> through the streets in a car. A speeding car in a curfew military zone with
> no identification.
> What would you do.
> We'll the right thing is to shoot a warning shot and stop the car. The
> report from those in the car? 300-400 bullets were shot from an armored
> vehicle. The photo of the car? No 300-400 bullet holes and the windshield is
> still in one piece.
>
> This is looking really strange. Someone is lying and I'm not on the side of
> the Italians in this. Lots of continuous information about this over here:
> http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/
>
>
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