[News] The Night the Americans Came and Took Me Away

[Anti-Imperialist News]

The Night the Americans Came and Took Me Away
http://www.aljazeerah.info/27%20o/The%20Night%20the%20Americans%20Came%20and%20Took%20Me%20Away%20By%20Ali%20Fadhil.htm
By Ali Fadhil

The Guardian, Arab News, January 27, 2006

Last weekend an American special task force unit 
raided my house. It was precisely the kind of 
terrifying experience I have had described to me 
over and over again by Iraqis I have interviewed 
in the past two-and-a-half years. My wife, Zina, 
described it as like something out of a Hollywood action movie.

It began at half past midnight on Saturday when 
explosives blew apart the three entrances to my 
house. We thought we had been caught in a 
bombing, but then a rifle sneaked round our 
bedroom door and shot a couple of bullets 
blindly; suddenly our room was filled with the 
wild sounds of US soldiers. My three-year-old 
daughter Sarah woke to this nightmare. She pushed 
herself on to me and shouted “Daddy, Americans! 
They will take you! No, no, not like this daddy 
...” She tried to say something to one of the 
soldiers but her tears stopped her from speaking. 
Instead of blaming the soldier I could see she 
was blaming me. I tried to calm her down but as I 
did so the soldier threw me on to the ground and tied me.

They then took me downstairs and made me sit in 
the living room while they smashed every piece of 
furniture we have. There were about 20 soldiers 
inside the house and several others on guard on 
the roof. A blue-eyed captain came to me holding 
my Handycam camcorder and questioned me 
aggressively: “Can you explain to me why you have 
this footage?” I explained. “These are for a film 
we are making for Channel 4 Dispatches. There is nothing sinister about it.”

But that was not good enough. He seemed to think 
he had found very important evidence. Hooded and 
with my hands tied I was taken to an armored vehicle.

I was then driven to an unknown destination. I 
spent the entire journey thinking back on what 
has happened in the past two years of the 
occupation. I have so often heard of such things 
happening to others. But now I was experiencing 
it myself, and I too could feel the shame and 
humiliation. It is this kind of disrespect for 
the privacy of the home ­ that tribal people 
regard as a terrible humiliation ­ which Sunnis 
in the west of Iraq see as legitimizing resistance.

When the journey eventually ended I found myself 
in a small room, two meters square, with wooden 
walls, a refrigerator and an oval table in the 
middle. Soon two men came in, civilians, wearing 
vests. “Do you know why you are here, Mr. Fadhil?” they asked me.

I replied: “To be interrogated?”

With a broad smile, one of them said: “No. There 
was a mistake in the address and we apologize for the damage.”

So that’s it. They blew three doors apart with 
explosives, smashed the house windows, trashed 
all our furniture, damaged the car, risked our 
lives by shooting inside rooms aimlessly, hooded 
me and took me from my family who didn’t know if 
they would ever see me again ­ and then, with a 
smile, they dismissed it as a small mistake.

So was this intimidation or just a typical piece 
of bungled repression? I don’t know and cannot 
tell, though I have yet to have my tapes 
returned. I do know, however, the effect it has 
had on my daughter. Sarah hates all soldiers and 
calls them Americans even if they are Iraqis. 
There is no way she will change her mind about 
them after that nightmare. There are many Iraqis 
­ Iraqis who welcomed the fall of Saddam ­ who feel exactly the same today.

­ Dr. Ali Fadhil’s investigation for Guardian 
Films will be shown on Channel 4’s Dispatches later this year.


The Freedom Archives
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San Francisco, CA 94110
(415) 863-9977
www.freedomarchives.org 
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