Kirk W. Johnson is founder and director of the List Project to Resettle Iraqi Allies, a nonprofit group that helps ease legal entrance into America for Iraqi citizens who have helped the U.S. government in Iraq and are now in danger because of that association.
Why did you start the List Project?
I worked in Iraq for all of 2005. I was the coordinator of reconstruction in Fallujah for the [U.S. Agency for International Development]. I was just trying to help one of my friends who had been identified [as working for Americans] and had gotten a death threat. The U.S. government did not do anything for him, and in the process more and more Iraqis found out I was trying to help him, and that gave way to the list and subsequently the List Project.
What does your organization aim to accomplish?
It basically exists to help Iraqis who are endangered as a consequence of their affiliation with the U.S. government in Iraq.
Whom do you help?
The people we are helping are government employees in Iraq who worked for the U.S. military or government or for American contractors. They were translators, engineers and they were civil society experts. They were the Iraqis that we relied on to implement reconstruction programs. They rode around in Humvees with our people and translated on their behalf, and as a consequence they have been branded as collaborators, and that branding is a lethal stigma these days. A lot of Iraqis have been killed because they helped the United States.
How many Iraqis are seeking asylum?
There are a wide range of estimates, between 20,000 and 100,000 people, and the project is getting e-mails every day from Iraqis who need help now because they?ve been found out.
How do you help them gain entry to the U.S.?
I?ve brought together top law firms. There are almost 200 attorneys who are representing pro bono the Iraqis on the list, putting in thousands of hours to help them get in because it is a complicated and a tricky process.
