A rare view from *inside* Fallujah

A few months ago, I kicked around the (rather obvious) notion that reporters who speak the language and are knowledgable about a cultural have a much better chance of seeing what's really going. (Mr. Shrill dinged me for saying that it was still OK for reporters who don't speak the language to head wherever. But whatever, I like going to interesting places. Moving on...)

The invaluable IWPR has a dispatch from an Iraqi journalist it's training. The guy reported from inside Fallujah--and assuming his reporting is accurate, the trainee has far more information than do the dispatches from all the high-falutin' U.S. papers (or probably anyone else for that matter.

A few lines:

Divided ideologically, the various religious [insurgent] groups argue over issues ranging from the proper way to finance their respective movements to the treatment of foreign and Iraqi captives.

[...]

According to Fallujans, the Black Banners – the most feared of the town’s insurgents – are commanded by Omar al-Hadid, an Iraqi said to be affiliated with the al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden. The Black Banners represent the bulk of the Syrian and other foreign fighters based in town, residents say, and are the most puritan of the groups.

They reportedly ban anything from cigarettes to popular music cassettes. Their reputation for unpredictable behaviour means that in the neighbourhoods where their checkpoints predominate, few people venture out of doors.

But the Black Banners compensate for the economic hardships brought by their presence. They readily pay several times the value of anything they commandeer, drawing on apparently ample funds.

The story quotes one man--an arms smuggler--who said he was confronted by the Black Banners for lighting up a cigarette.

"Why are you smoking here? We will kill you. Give those here," said the insurgent, in what Adnan said was a Syrian accent. The Black Banners had previously announced that they considered tobacco to be “haram”, or religiously forbidden.

But after seizing the pack, the fighter handed him a ten-dollar bill as compensation. "Take this for your family," he said.

[...]

And then there's this:

Like many in Fallujah, a policeman expressed resentment at insurgents who are capable of calling someone a spy merely for talking with people from out of town or trying to make a call on a satellite phone.

"I hate them,” he said. “The mujahideen can decide 'you're a good man', or 'you're a spy.' If it's 'you're a spy', then you're finished."

Others resent the mujahideen’s contempt for anyone who chooses not to carry arms.

"When I see them, I say 'Welcome! Welcome mujahideen! God grant you victory!' But in my heart I curse them," said one merchant.

The peice doesn't have any mention of Zarqawi. Read into that what you want, but I take it as another hint that Zarqawi isn't the mastermind the U.S. makes him out to be.

Comments

[Brad DeLong]

Not *quite* fair. The third person omniscient is not a language mode that people who do not speak the local language should ever use...