Dahr Jamail has survived the unimaginable ? the American journalist lived unembedded in occupied Iraq for eight months over the course of two years.
He travels to Baltimore Oct. 21 to speak about his war-time experiences, which he recounts in his first book, Beyond the Green Zone.
Through gripping prose, Jamail laces hard facts into emotional accounts from his weblog, written while in Iraq.
Jamail said he wrote Beyond the Green Zone to document the Iraqi perspective, scarce in U.S. mainstream media.
It was emotionally difficult to relive some events in order to write the book, he added. Some people in the book were slain or are now refugees.
Q: What does the average person not know about the Iraq War?
A: The level of violence for the people ? over a million Iraqis have been killed; the catastrophic level of the refugee crisis ? well over four million Iraqis are refugees; and the level of lawlessness on the ground. The U.S. military does not have control over anything that’s not on base.
Q: What dangerous experiences have you encountered?
A: On several occasions I was shot at by U.S. troops ? Once a car bomb detonated very close to my hotel. It blew up my door and windows. Chunks of my ceilings were falling. I was also temporarily detained with my translator by some resistance fighters. The [bomb and being shot at] were so immediate, they happened so fast ? I was just in survival mode, thinking ?What happened?? ?Where do I need to go??
[Being detained by fighters] was very scary because I had time to think ?What?s going to happen?? ?Where am I going to be taken?? Thankfully, it was over in an hour and they decided to let us go.
Q: Of all the devastating events you witnessed, what day stands out?
A: I think my most intense experience was in Fallujah during the April 2004 siege on the city. I watched a 10-year-old boy die who had been shot by a military sniper. Ambulances couldn’t come because they were being shot at so his father drove to the clinic. The car jumped up over the curb. The father got out and carried his son into the clinic. I watched them working while he wason the table. That was really a profound thing to see especially being an American.
Q: How does being an American affect your work?
A: Seeing events from an Iraqi perspective probably had even more impact [on me] because I was an American. My government primarily caused the brunt of this suffering. [Being American] definitely brought out feelings of shame and guilt. But you know as a journalist, when you?re on the ground, you shelve that stuff and get the job done.
Q: Who did you meet in Iraq?
A: I became quite close friends with a translator [and fixer, who set up contacts,] Hannah. She was studying French Literature in Baghdad University when the war broke out. It quickly became apparent when professors were fleeing that her education would not continue. She began working as an interpreter to support her mother. She?s become a refugee in Syria. She?s a very dedicated interpreter. She?s put herself in harms way working with an American and going into conflict areas like Fallujah. Several of the people I worked with were willing to put their life on the line because they were interested in showing the Iraqi perspective.
Q: Will you return to Iraq in the near future?
A: No, I don’t think I could work unembedded any more. There?s far too many militias controlling the ground. I might be safe in one neighborhood, but there’s no guarantees for what happens when you leave that neighborhood. I’m not willing to put Iraqis in danger. When a Western journalist is captured, the interpreter is killed. That’s the first thing that happens. Even if I was willing to put my life at risk, I wouldn’t risk my interpreter?s life.
Author Talk
Dahr Jamail, author of Beyond the Green Zone: Dispatches From An Unembedded Journalist in Occupied Iraq
Sunday, 4 p.m.
Red Emma?s Bookfair
2640 St. Paul St.
Baltimore
Free
Cosponsored by Baltimore Iraq Veterans Against the War, Haymarket Books and Red Emma?s Bookstore
