WP: US Baghdad Embassy Report on Conditions for Their Staff

[Rose Siding]

This is a transmission from the American embassy, Baghdad, to the SecState in DC, dated June 6, titled "Snapshots from the Office. Public Affairs Staff Shows Signs of Social Discord". The pdf text won't c&p for me, but this stuff is so bizarre that I'll transcribe some snips.

And I quote:

The public affairs press office has 9 local Iraqi employees. Two of our three female employees report stepped up harassment beginning in mid-May. One, a Shiite who favors western clothing was advised by an unknown woman in her upscale Shiite/Christian Baghdad neighborhood to wear a veil and not to drive her own car. Indeed, she said, some groups are pushing women to even cover their faces, a step not taken in Iran even at its most conservative.

Another, a Sunni, said that people in her middle-class neighborhood are harassing women and telling them to cover up and stop using cell phones (suspected channel to licentious relationships with men). A female in the PAS cultural section is now wearing a full abaya after receiving direct threats in May....

<snip snip snip>

In April, employees began reporting a change in demeanor of guards at the Green Zone checkpoints. They seemed to be more militia like, in some cases seemingly taunting. One employee asked us to explore getting her press credentials because guards had held her embassy badge up and proclaimed loudly to nearby passers-by "Embassy" as she entered. Such information is a death sentence if overheard by the wrong people.

<snip>

We cannot call employees in on weekends or holidays without blowing their "cover".....

<snip>

The central government, our staff says, is not relevant.....objectivity, civility and logic that make for a functional workplace may falter if social pressures outside the Green Zone don't abate.

(pdf)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/opinions/graphics/iraqdocs_061606.pdf

"If social pressures don't abate"? Can anyone see any way that they might? Bushie will be pissed that this leaked, I'd imagine. People who don't wrap their reports in love and light get transfered. Come to think of it, maybe that's the writer's motive. ;)

This must be the report Kamen mentioned earlier today that foreshadowed Bush's Upbeat Iraq Magical Good Time Trip.....that was good. And upbeat.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=1449017&mesg_id=1449017

He went to visit a government that operates from a fortified US base, where the NINE Iraqis who can still be paid to work there fear for their lives. Did anyone in the US govt read this yet, d'ya think? I haven't even seen an actual article printed about it. Just Kamen's blurb. Read it. It's spooky.