A Ghost on the Internet There are interesting points of contrast between Sarah Boxer's speculation on the affiliations and motives of t...
A Ghost on the Internet
There are interesting points of contrast between
Sarah Boxer's speculation on the affiliations and motives of the
Iraq the Model
bloggers and Associated Press' determination to protect the anonymity and
refusal to judge the motives of a stringer who photographed the execution of
Iraqi electoral workers at fairly close range on
Haifa Street. The juxtapositions are even more interesting because one of
the bloggers in Iraq
the Model is standing for election under the Iraqi Pro-Democracy Party
ticket while the victims of the Haifa Street execution were workers helping
organize that election.
| Iraq the Model Bloggers | Unknown Associated Press Photographer |
| When I telephoned a man named Ali Fadhil in Baghdad last week, I wondered who might answer. A CIA operative? An American posing as an Iraqi? Someone paid by the Defense Department to support the war? Or simply an Iraqi with some mixed feelings about the American presence in Iraq? Until he picked up the phone, he was just a ghost on the Internet. -- Sarah Boxer | From JACK STOKES, Insurgents want their stories told as much as other people and some |
| Jeez guys – I thought you said everything was fine in Iraq!This trio uses their real names in interviews, on their web sites and even in press releases. This USA Today article and this LA Times piece also mentioned the CIA allegations (in the context of rebutting them, though Boxer also seemed to conclude the bloggers weren’t with the CIA). (Both are pay links, alas). -- Derek Rose | A source at the Associated Press knowledgeable about the events covered in Baghdad on Sunday told Salon that accusations that the photographer was aware of the militants' plans are "ridiculous." The photographer, whose identity the AP is withholding due to safety concerns, was likely "tipped off to a demonstration that was supposed to take place on Haifa Street," said the AP source, who was not at liberty to comment by name. But the photographer "definitely would not have had foreknowledge" of a violent event like an execution, the source said. -- Salon |
The most powerful argument that can be mustered in favor Ms. Boxer is, as
Derek Rose pointed out, that she could hardly make things worse for Ali or his
brothers. After all, in Ms. Boxer's own words, things had already hit a low
point after "the Washington Post wrote about the meeting, and the Arabic
press ended up translating the story, which, Ali felt, put his family in real
danger." One might even argue that Ali and his brothers put their own lives in
jeopardy after they decided to blog, visit America and stand for elections. So
it is no one's fault but their own. 'Insurgents' and journalists are above the
moral judgment -- they are merely disinterested, impersonal forces
that visit the necessary fates or coverage on those who bring it on themselves.
The problem with this line of argument is that it fails to account for the
weight given to symbolism in the insurgent's targeting calculus. The Iraqi
electoral workers were killed on Haifa Street not out of any personal spite
against them but because these noncelebrities symbolized a process which the
insurgents were determined to derail. A photographer was invited -- through
subterfuge according to the Associated Press -- but invited nonetheless to
record the execution of the symbols. It was a kind of burning in effigy with
real people acting as effigies. Hence, Ms. Boxer's semiotic operations on the
Iraq the Model
bloggers are not as harmless as Derek Rose would make it seem. Neither, for that
matter, is this post itself, a fact of which I am most acutely aware.
Then there is no help for it but to destroy these insurgents root and branch;
because for so long as these terrorists exist then expressing an independent
opinion, running for election or shaking the hand of the President of the United
States will always be offenses punishable by death. That is to say, for so long
as terrorists and their publicists prevail, then neither bloggers, nor a free
press nor people anything remotely like Sarah Boxer will never be able to exist
in Iraq. It is not necessary to agree with
Iraq the Model
in order to
defend
their right to say it. Of all the uses to which Ms. Boxer could have put
freedom, this was the worst.
Update
Reader MJ links to
Ali's reponse to the
Sarah Boxer piece on
Iraq the Model.
The article was, despite Ms Boxer's kindness, a bad piece of journalism. I
had around 45 minutes long phone call with the reporter about my journey with
Iraq the Model, my new site, the elections, the general situation here in
Baghdad but she (or the paper) seems to have a certain agenda and managed to
change the whole issue into a very silly gossip (going as far as quoting
trolls!) that is way beneath any respectable paper and certainly beneath me so
I won't give it more attention but lesson learned and I won't make the mistake
of talking to anyone from the NY times again.
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