He DOES have a light around him..
Posted on 05/26/2004 5:52:25 AM PDT by kristinn
Nazaar Joudi raised his new mechanical right hand Tuesday, recounting the moment he and fellow Iraqis had promised President Bush they would put those appendages to good use: Hammering down the walls of the notorious Abu Ghraib prison.
"With this hand we will begin to destroy that terrible place," Joudi said after a private meeting with Bush in the Oval Office, where the Iraqis described being arrested on Saddam Hussein's orders and having their healthy hands amputated at Abu Ghraib.
"That place is a symbol of darkness and death to us; we are happy to know it will be destroyed," said his friend, Salah Zinad.
Meeting with Bush was the latest high point in an improbable journey that has taken the seven men from Baghdad to Houston for extensive reconstructive surgery to replace their severed limbs, to a private meeting with the leader of the free world.
The men, along with Texas television personality Marvin Zindler, Houston surgeon Joe Agris and documentary producer Don North--who all played major roles in getting the men fitted with $50,000 mechanical hands--spent about 45 minutes with the president.
The meeting came the day after Bush began a campaign to quell growing anxiety in the United States and Iraq about the course of the war.
Monday, Bush outlined a five-step plan for the Iraq war and promised to level the Abu Ghraib prison, scene of scandalous photographs of Americans humiliating and abusing Iraqi prisoners. The prison already was notorious as the site of torture and executions of Iraqis by Saddam.
Tuesday's meeting with the Iraqis victimized by Saddam gave the president an opportunity to sound some of the same themes as in his Monday night speech.
"I assured them we have a plan to help Iraq achieve free elections," Bush said. "They were pleased to hear America will stay to help with security. ... There's no doubt in my mind their children will come to America one day and say thank goodness America stood the line and was strong and did not falter in the face of the violence of a few."
The Iraqis said they found the modest dignity of the White House a pleasant surprise from the bloated marble monstrosities erected by Saddam. And they were shocked at what they saw as the folksy demeanor of the president.
When I first walked into the White House, it was like I was surrounded by a halo," said Qassim Kadhim. "Then suddenly we were with the president, and he made us feel we were with a friend, that he understood us. For the most powerful man in the world to be so warm, it was the apex of my life."
Polls taken in Iraq have shown that a clear majority of Iraqis want Americans to leave as soon as possible. Iraqis think the U.S.-led coalition is doing more harm than good and view the American troops as occupiers, according to recent surveys.
But the Iraqis who met with Bush on Tuesday said the president is waging a war that will shape their futures in a positive way.
"This new hand of mine is like Iraq, with the help of generous Americans it gets better day by day," said Bassim Al Fadhly.
Al Fadhly and the others said the images they have seen on television of their country in the seven weeks they have been in America are misleading and incomplete. "Having lived my whole life in Iraq, I can tell you America is not getting the real picture. There are good things happening every day and no one is seeing them. And every bad thing is exaggerated."
Joudi said the past year has been difficult for Iraq but that he believed the painful change will be worth it.
"The previous regime was totally despotic and brutal. We jumped from that to an open democracy. So mistakes were going to take place, but we can fix them," he said.
Nine years ago the seven men were in Abu Ghraib, awaiting the terrifying moment when they'd be placed on a gurney so a surgeon could slice off their limbs while Saddam's secret police videotaped the mutilation.
The men say they were arrested by the regime at a time when the economic embargo of Iraq by the United Nations and Saddam's mismanagement had wrecked the country's economy. They were picked to serve as scapegoats by Saddam, they said. The men, small-business owners in various precincts of Baghdad, were charged with currency manipulation, given a cursory 30-minute trial and thrown intoAbu Ghraib.
On the night before they lost their hands, Joudi wrote to his wife, telling her he was using his right hand a final time to urge her not to despair, but to trust in destiny: "(For me) the price is my right hand. Hopefully, Allah will replace it with an even better one ... "
For several years, it seemed unlikely that prayer would be answered. The men struggled to cope with the daily severe pain and the psychological trauma of the amputations.
Then, shortly after the fall of Baghdad in the spring of 2003, North, who was working as a contractor helping to set up media outlets in post-Saddam Iraq, was shown a video of the men being mutilated.
He became obsessed with finding the men and hearing their stories. Once he had done that, he recorded the story in a documentary film called Remembering Saddam. As he became more involved with the men, he conceived a grander vision -- why not help them recover the use of their hands? "This was part of my dream," North said after the White House meeting.
Through a chain of circumstances that included a chance encounter with a Houston contractor in Baghdad, North got in touch with Zindler and Agris. After months of stops and starts, the Iraqis were flown to Houston on a complimentary flight by Continental Airlines in early April. Their hands were replaced by state-of-the-art "bionic" models earlier this month.
"They are doing very well with the new hands," said Agris, who performed the surgeries. "Some are already expert enough to tie their shoelaces and operate a camera."
Agris and North are pondering a return to Iraq, in part so Agris can do some follow-up treatment and help other Iraqis victimized by Saddam and the war.
"The Ministry of Health has invited us," said Agris. "The question is whether they are ready for a team like I'd put together to go there. It is up to the (coalition authorities)."
The Iraqi men will soon go home, full of tales of the White House and of the warmth and generosity of the people in Houston. They will return to Iraq more physically whole and fuller spiritually as well.
"What had been stolen from us has been returned," Joudi said. "We have traveled a road from the worst possible treatment in our own land to the best treatment we could imagine in this lovely country."
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For seven Iraqis, new limbs once seemed an impossible dream: •The men had their hands cut off at Abu Ghraib prison under Saddam Hussein's regime.
•They had extensive reconstructive surgery to replace their severed limbs in Houston.
•The prosthetic hand detects electric pulses from muscle movements on either side of the forearm, triggering motors to open and close the thumb, middle finger and forefinger.
•Sensors in the fingers can detect an object slipping and increase the grip.
I wonder if Michael Moore would shake hands with them.
Thanks for posting this uplifting article.
Maybe you could follow the example of Don North and round up some people willing to help make that happen.
Thanks
You're a funny guy, you know that? Such humor: "Combat vets getting high-end treatment" - I'm rollin' here!
You should have seen the day the Clinton White House was shrouded in dense fog. That was spooky!
Was any of this reported on the elite media news? I no longer watch their unbiased reporting, so I don't know.
I won't hold my breath waiting for it.
Question is, would they want to shake Michael Moore's hand? I'm sure they wouldn't want to get all that grease on their new prosthetic devices.
Nope, this story wouldn't fit the template that the War is a complete failure. The Eva Braun of morning news would screech like a banshee if someone proposed that these men appear on her show.
Great article. I didn't realize artificial limbs had come so far. I'm sure these guys will go back to Iraq hating the US, too...
kristinn, for your convenience, here's a list of those who have replied to this article up to this post:
Bahbah; Guenevere; ohioWfan; joesnuffy; COBOL2Java; Angelwood; VOA; CedarDave; BunnySlippers; Lost Highway; newsgatherer; Old Sarge; Piquaboy; mewzilla; AFPhys; DollyCali
Thanks for compiling the list for people I need to ping when I post the report. I may not have time this morning to finish it, but I'll try to type fast.
These men were guests of our West Point Society here in Houston on 13 May, along with the MD who performed their surgeries. Also joining us were 4 young USMA grads, just back from Iraq--compelling testimony by all.
For a touching synopsis, read from my attorney friend Michael Craig's email commentary below:
"I went to a luncheon at Brennan's yesterday with my law partner; it was sponsored by the West Point Society (we were guests of Airborne Longhorn's, an alumnus of West Point). The featured speakers were a panel of four young officers, all West Point graduates, who had just returned from a tour in Iraq.
It was enlightening to hear their versions of combat and reconstruction that is going on in Iraq, a somewhat different perspective than what we currently read in the media. One young officer (he looked 19 to me, but I am sure he was in his mid to late twenties) talked about how he was handed $30 million (U.S.) captured from Saddam's bunkers and put in charge of putting it to use.
He described how he oversaw the utilization of these monies in building schools, bridges, repairing water works and sewage systems, purchasing police cars, repairing electrical systems, etc., a far better use of the funds than its previous owner had in mind for it.
Another officer said that Saddam's palaces were opulent beyond measure, and incredibly abject poverty existed just outside the gate of each palace. They also uniformly reported that over 90% of the country stood solidly behind the U.S. involvement there.
Of more visceral impact on me, however, was meeting the guests of honor at the next table, seven middle-aged Iraqi men, all missing their right hands. They were businessmen (importers, jewelers, etc.), with the exception of one teacher
Their crime under Saddam Hussein was that they had all inquired about the value of the Iraqi currency against the value of the U.S. dollar in their professional endeavors. Their punishment was to lose their right hand at Abu Gharaib prison.
Somehow, for me, this had far more gravity in its cruelty and permanent consequence than the capricious humiliation of a prisoner by having him pose naked with underwear on his head, at the behest of a handful of dunderhead soldiers at the bottom of the food chain.
These Iraqis, who each got up to speak (with the assistance of a translator) were gentle, unassuming men, and my heart went out to them. So did a lot of others, appparently, as Marvin Zindler took their cause up some time ago, resulting in their all coming to America to have new bionic hands fitted on them by a prominent Jewish plastic surgeon at the Texas Medical Center at no cost (though no one mentioned it at the luncheon, I couldn't miss the irony of a Jew's compassionate act for these middle Eastern men).
Continental Airlines donated the plane fare, the Warwick and Marriott Medical Center hotels donated their room and board, and the West Point Society, made up of veteran officers, did the logistics. Even Drayton McClain got in the act by donating his box for their viewing of an Astros game the other night.
To me, this was an incredibly moving human interest story about the generosity of Americans. To my knowledge, our liberal press didn't give this story so much as a mention on the back page.
I think God's handiwork goes on behind the scenes through so many people; unfortunately, none of this is seen by the majority of people in this country.
Michael"
I was watching the ABC affiliate local news (Houston Channel 13) and they carried the story--without once mentioning that the amputations were done to healthy hands by Saddam's torturers!
Guess that wasn't an important part of the story.
Here's the link to a site where you can protest this censorship. http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/aboutus/index.html
Freep em!
He DOES have a light around him..
It's called spiritual darkness.............and your 'exorcism' comment, though made in jest (and pretty funny), wasn't really that far off the mark.
I think the prayer of this First Couple and administration DID exorcise the xlinton demons from the place.....
Thanks, MS B!
What an incredible story -- can't wait for your 'full report'!
[The HALO effect of our president is amazing isn't it?!!!!]
This is a post to correct what may have been my mistake. I received the following from KTRK in reply to my complaint about their treatment of the story:
"I'm not sure what version of the story you saw, but the 6pm and 10pm story had the President talking about the fact that Saddam did this and in all of Marvin's other stories we of course said why they had their hands amputated, for dealing in foreign currency."
I did not see the Marvin Zindler piece--only the closing piece by the talking heads--but I didn't hear any mention of the Saddam angle. However, to be fair, we should take them at their word.
Wow! I love this story! Heard about it on Rush's show a few days ago, then yesterday on FoxNews. This story needs to be repeated a few times so that all Americans will have a chance to consider what not going to Iraq would have meant. Please ping me when you get your report finished!
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