Free Republic

  Iraqi-American Soldier Serves Proudly A former Iraqi refugee turned U.S. soldier returns to his native land after eight years. By Maj. Juanita Chang 25th Infantry Division TAC PAO MOSUL, Iraq, Jan. 9, 2007 -- Eight years and many small miracles later, U.S. Army Spc. Jotyar Tile retuned to his native land and will be serving both his countries. Tile remembers the day his family fled northern Iraq after years of bombing and terror by Saddam Hussein’s government.“If we had stayed one more day we would not have made it out alive; they were using chemicals against us and...

WASHINGTON, Dec. 15, 2005 – Today is "a new day for Iraq," regardless of who wins in the country's parliamentary elections, an Iraqi-American who emigrated here 12 years ago and became a U.S. citizen in 1995 said here today. Ali Sadoon al-Timimi, a Shiite Muslim from Basra, proudly held up his ink-stained finger to show he'd been to the East Coast polling station in nearby McLean, Va., set up where Iraqi expatriates could vote. After three and a half decades under Saddam Hussein's bloody dictatorship, Timimi acknowledges he and many of his countrymen never dreamed they'd live to see the...

WASHINGTON, Nov. 20, 2005 – Iraqi and American forces in Baghdad and Tikrit have launched a series of operations this past week that have thwarted terrorist activities and disrupted terrorist cells in these two key cities, officials say. In a Nov. 15 cordon-and-search operation, a platoon from the 1st Battalion, 2nd Iraqi Army Brigade nabbed five members of a terrorist who had been planning an attack on the Italian Embassy in Baghdad. The Iraqi soldiers also seized two vehicles, which the terrorists had planned to use in the attack. Also on Nov. 15, U.S. soldiers from the 2nd Brigade Combat...

AL ASAD, Iraq (Oct. 18, 2005 ) -- As statues of Saddam Hussein fell across Iraq, he watched from a television, safe in Glendale, Ariz. Then, he volunteered his safety and freedom to serve with the Marines in Iraq and to help bring freedom and democracy to his homeland. Gaby Biroutta, an interpreter with 1st Brigade Service Support Group, has been in Iraq for more than seven months, bridging the crucial communication gap between Marines and the citizens of Iraq. Biroutta, an Assyrian Christian whose family fled Iraq while Saddam’s regime was in power, speaks English, Arabic, Assyrian, Armenic, Kurdish...

On a cold, sunny Saturday afternoon, a friend joins me for coffee in a quiet cafe in Washington, D.C. Wearing jeans and a Dallas Cowboys cap, he settles in and orders a latte. During the week, he works as a network administrator at an e-commerce company that survived the tech bust. On this day, though, he has agreed to talk to me about a far more difficult past. "I was an American before I came here. God just accidentally gave birth to me in the wrong country," he said. His name is Ali. Born in Baghdad in 1967, he grew...

Aziz Al-Taee, Chairman of the Iraqi-American Council and friend of the D.C. Chapter was on NBC's Today Show this morning.He participated in a panel with Sen. Joe Biden (D-Deleware), Steve Emerson and others for a one-hour discussion on Iraq and the war on terror.I missed the show (sleeping) but I'm told that Katie Couric was surprised at the large number of audience members who raised their hands when asked if they support going to war to disarm Saddam Hussein of WMDs.I'm also told that Aziz made several good points, one of which was his response to a question about the...

Dearborn, Michigan"Do you know when?" It is the question on all minds these days--those of stockbrokers, journalists, financiers, world leaders, soldiers and their families. When will the United States lead a coalition to end Saddam Hussein's tyranny over Iraq? The answer matters most to the tyrant's subjects--like the man who asked the question of his friend in an early-morning phone conversation on Monday, February 24. The call came from Nasiriyah, in southern Iraq, to the home of an Iraqi exile in suburban Detroit. It used to be that Iraqis trapped inside their country would speak to each other and to...

<p>DEARBORN -- In an answer to this month's worldwide war protests, some 500 Iraqi-Americans on Sunday urged one of President Bush's top military strategists to topple Saddam Hussein.</p> <p>U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz assured them that American military might would come with even greater humanitarian help for people under Saddam's grip.</p>

Feb. 23 — Among the American troops who are waiting in the Middle East for a possible war with Iraq, Saddam Hussein is not a popular figure. But for Lance Corp. Tony al-Shammeree, it's personal — very personal. "I'm about to go to war against the worst dictator on Earth right now. And I hate him the most. I mean, I hate him, with passion," said al-Shammeree, a Marine who shipped out to Kuwait earlier this month with the other members of his company, Fox 2/5. Al-Shammeree is an Iraqi-American, born in Baghdad in 1978. His family, who are members...