Great diary!! Must read!!

[videoholic]

I\'ve only had a chance to read a bit of it.  I am sitting here at 3am unable to sleep.

http://dear_raed.blogspot.com/

Take a look.  It\'s a kid in Baghdad writing what\'s going on.  Start at the bottom of the page because newest stuff is at top.

It\'s a long read so if cool stuff strikes your fancy post it here.

[videoholic]

Well I skimmed through most of it and it\'s an interesting read.  Hope he updates again soon.

[videoholic]

Thursday, March 20, 2003 ::
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:: salam 11:00 PM

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the all clear siren just went on.
The bombing aould come and go in waves, nothing too heavy and not yet comparable to what was going on in 91. all radio and TV stations are still on and while the air raid began the Iraqi TV was showing patriotic songs and didn\'t even bother to inform viewers that we are under attack. at the moment they are re-airing yesterday\'s interview with the minister of interior affairs. THe sounds of the anti-aircarft artillery is still louder than the booms and bangs which means that they are still far from where we live, but the images we saw on Al Arabia news channel showed a building burning near one of my aunts house, hotel pax was a good idea. we have two safe rooms one with "international media" and the other with the Iraqi TV on. every body is waitingwaitingwaiting. phones are still ok, we called around the city a moment ago to check on friends. Information is what they need. Iraqi TV says nothing, shows nothing. what good are patriotic songs when bombs are dropping
around 6:30 my uncle went out to get bread, he said that all the streets going to the main arterial roads are controlled by Ba\'ath people. not curfew but you have to have a reason to leave your neighborhood, and the bakeries are, by instruction of the Party, seeling only a limited amount of bread to each customer. he also says that near the main roads all the yet unfinished houses have been taken by party or army people.

:: salam 10:33 PM

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I watched al sahaf on al-jazeera. he said that the US has bombed the Iraqi sattelite channel, but while he was saying that the ISC was broadcasting and if it really did hit the ISC headquarters it would have been right in the middle of baghdad. what was probably hirt were transmiters or something. all TV stations are still working.
:: salam 4:28 PM

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[videoholic]

Friday, March 21, 2003 ::

The most disturbing news today has come from Al-Jazeera, they said that nine B52 bombers have left the airfield in Britain and flying “presumably” towards Iraq, as if they would be doing a spin around the block. Anyway they have 6 hours to get here.
Last night was very quiet in Baghdad. Today in the morning I went out to get bread and groceries. There were no Ba’ath party people stopping us from leaving the area where we live, this apparently happens after the evening prayers. But they are still everywhere. The streets are empty only bakeries are open and some grocery shops charging 4 times the normal prices, while I was buying bread a police car stopped in front of the bakery and asked the baker if they had enough flour and asked when they opened; the baker told me that they have been informed that they must open their shops and they get flour delivered to them daily. Groceries, meat and dairy products are a different story. One dairy product company seems to be still operating, not state owned, and their cars were going around the city distributing bitter, cheese and yoghurt to any open markets. Meat is not safe to buy because you wouldn’t know from where and how it got to the shops. Anyway we bought fresh tomatoes and zucchini for 1000 dinar a kilo which would normally be 250.
The Iraqi Satellite Channel is not broadcasting anymore. The second youth TV channel (it shows Egyptian soaps in the morning and sports afterwards) also stopped transmitting. This leaves two channels Iraq TV and Shabab (youth) TV. They are still full of patriotic songs and useless “news”, they love the French here. We also saw the latest Sahaf show on Al-Jazeera, and 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. On BBC we are watching scenes of Iraqis surrendering. My youngest cousin was muttering “what shame” to himself, yes it is better for them to do that but still seeing them carrying that white flag makes something deep inside you cringe.
we sit infront of the TV with the mao of Iraq on our laps trying to figure out what is going on in the south.
:: salam 3:13 PM

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Originally posted by videoholic
They are still full of patriotic songs and useless “news”, they love the French here.
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On BBC we are watching scenes of Iraqis surrendering.

The second statement makes SO much sense when it comes after the first statement.

I wish there was a LIVE satalite web-cam that we could see what\'s going on (in real time)

My god.. great picture

[videoholic]

That center statue thingy is I think what is on the tv right now.  Apparently in less than an hour there is going to be some monstrous action going on.  I\'d like to see this same pic tomorrow.

Yes, awaiting for the next attack on tv live.

Well, I feel better about the situation now knowing that Salam Pax knew about the B52\'s attack 6 hours in advance.  I wonder if all of Bahgdad had the same information.

[videoholic]

He finally updated it today.  He doesn\'t say a whole lot, but it\'s pretty interesting.

Wait a second- thats baghdad?

Where the hell is the damage? I just see a suburbia area. With nothing destroyed.

Correct me if im wrong.

[videoholic]

I certainly hope you aren\'t talking about the photo above.

that is a pretty awesome picture