World

Video: Iraqi Fighter Reflects on Saddam Hussein

by Alive in Baghdad | May 23, 2007 at 07:36 am

703 views | 27 Recommendations | 5 comments

Click To Play [Editor's note: This piece was originally posted at www.aliveinbaghdad.org on April 30.

This week, on the anniversary of President Bush's "Mission Accomplished" speech, May 1st, 2003, we interview a member of the Iraqi resistance group, Islamic Army in Iraq. The Islamic Army of Iraq is considered a terrorist group by the United States and most members of the Iraqi government. Tareq Al-Hashemi however, while Vice President of Iraq, called them a resistance group.

Some confusion about the exact nature and make-up of the Islamic Army exists because it was initially confused with Al-Qaeda. It has since been determined that they are two separate groups. That became especially clear early in April, 2007, as a war of words began on their opposing websites.

Some of the first insight into the nature of the Islamic Army in Iraq came when he was interviewed by the Washington Post at the end of November, in 2004. I co-authored a piece with Muhammad Zaher, a special correspondent for Alive in Baghdad, about the Islamic Army for Inter-Press Service in May 2006. The magazine, Foreign Policy, has a detailed description of the Islamic Army here, published in mid-2006.

For the Islamic Army's own website, translated to English, you can look here.

We are aware that some may find this content objectionable or irresponsible, but we feel it is completely in line with our mission to detail facets of daily life in Baghdad. However, the only way we have to judge the viewer response is in your comments or emails. If you feel stories from this angle of teh conflict are important, incredibly offensive, or even just not particularly enlightening, please let us know.

In other news, Brian will be traveling to Syria soon to meet new correspondents we're training, and soon we expect to have regular reports from Sadr City, as well as other areas of Baghdad. All of this has been due to the continued support of our viewers, enabling Alive in Baghdad to mature into a sustainable and evolving news agency from Iraq.