'Salam Pax' casts a wide net

2003-03-24 20:59

Jonathan Wright

Washington - A mysterious Iraqi who calls himself Salam Pax, writing a web log from the heart of Baghdad, has developed a large internet following with his wry accounts of daily life in a city under US bombardment.

Salam Pax, a pseudonym crafted from the Arabic and Latin words for peace, came back on line on Monday after a two-day break because of interruptions in Internet access.

The traffic on his web site, http://dear_raed.blogspot.com, caused the server to go down and Salam's e-mail folder has filled with inquiries about his true identity.

Salam, who writes in English, is the only resident of Iraq known to be filing accounts of the war directly to the web.

He has spoken against the invasion, but clearly has no great love for Iraq's Baathist leaders.

"Freaks. Hurling abuse at the world is the only thing left for them to do," he said last week after media appearances by Iraqi Information Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf and Interior Minister Mahmoud Diyab al-Ahmed.

But he does not like seeing his city bombed either.

"The only thing I could think of was 'why does this have to happen to Baghdad'. As one of the buildings I really love went up in a huge explosion I was close to tears," he wrote on Saturday.

Salam and his family have been out on reconnaissance missions around the city to inspect the damage and they report the bombing has been accurate but dangerous to civilians.

"Today before noon I went out with my cousin to take a look at the city. Two things. 1) the attacks are precise. 2) they are attacking targets which are just too close to civilian areas in Baghdad," he wrote on Sunday.

On Saturday he reported a rare eyewitness account of Iraqi policemen setting fire to the oil in trenches dug around Baghdad, apparently to confuse the guidance system of bombs.

"My cousine (sic) came and told me he saw police cars standing by one and setting it on fire. Now you can see the columns of smoke all over the city," he wrote. In the first days of the US and British invasion, Salam gave the impression of calm resignation, but his tone changed on Sunday when Iraqi resistance surfaced and casualties rose.

"If Um Qasar (the port of Umm Qasr in the south) is so difficult to control what will happen when they get to Baghdad? It will turn uglier and this is very worrying," he wrote.

"People (and I bet "allied forces") were expecting things to be mush (sic) easier. There are no waving masses of people welcoming the Americans nor are they surrendering by the thousands. People are doing what all of us are, sitting in their homes hoping that a bomb doesn't fall on them and keeping their doors shut."

The electricity has gone out in parts of Baghdad and the Bush administration has launched another e-mail blitz on Iraqis, sending him five messages, he reported.

"Three of them are to army personnel and two to the general public.

In those they gave us the radio frequencies we are supposed to listen to. They are calling it 'Information Radio'," he said.

- Reuters