<html>
<body>
<font size=3><br>
</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=5>The Night the Americans Came
and Took Me Away</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3> <br>
</font>
<a href="http://www.aljazeerah.info/27%20o/The%20Night%20the%20Americans%20Came%20and%20Took%20Me%20Away%20By%20Ali%20Fadhil.htm" eudora="autourl">
http://www.aljazeerah.info/27%20o/The%20Night%20the%20Americans%20Came%20and%20Took%20Me%20Away%20By%20Ali%20Fadhil.htm<br>
</a><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3>By Ali Fadhil<br><br>
The Guardian, Arab News, January 27, 2006<br><br>
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. <br><br>
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.
<br><br>
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.” <br><br>
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. <br><br>
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. <br><br>
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. <br><br>
I replied: “To be interrogated?” <br><br>
With a broad smile, one of them said: “No. There was a mistake in the
address and we apologize for the damage.” <br><br>
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. <br><br>
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. <br><br>
Dr. Ali Fadhil’s investigation for Guardian Films will be shown on
Channel 4’s Dispatches later this year. <br><br>
</font><x-sigsep><p></x-sigsep>
<font size=3 color="#FF0000">The Freedom Archives<br>
522 Valencia Street<br>
San Francisco, CA 94110<br>
(415) 863-9977<br>
</font><font size=3>
<a href="http://www.freedomarchives.org/" eudora="autourl">
www.freedomarchives.org</a></font></body>
</html>