Free Republic

An analysis of secular Iraqi bloggers' take on the rise of Islamic parties in recent Middle East elections and other stuff they disagree on. Money Quote:"Before I go on, I have one more observation: The attitude of defeatism and paranoia and moral affrontery among many Iraqi bloggers writing in English (most of whom are educated, non-religious, and strongly backed Allawi) reminds me of the feelings among Anybody But Bush Democrats in the 2004 American Presidential election. Both were convinced that they morally, culturally and intellectually superior to those who voted differently. Both were -- as election day approached-- convinced that...

ROTTERDAM, Netherlands (AP) - The "Baghdad Blogger" has traded in his keyboard for a camera. Salam Pax - his pen name - is well-known for his detailed accounts of life in Baghdad under U.S. bombings. His musings, posted on a so-called Web log or blog, were read by millions and later published in the British newspaper The Guardian. But after the fall of Saddam, he was no longer satisfied with words. So he picked up a camcorder and began chronicling Iraq. The result is his first film, a documentary called "Baghdad Blogger: Video Reports from Iraq" that is being screened...

Netherlands film festival showcases movies from post-invasion Iraq, giving raw glimpse of life after Saddam. ROTTERDAM, Netherlands -- "Baghdad Blogger," a movie by a well-known Web log writer who calls himself Salam Pax, reveals Iraqi resentment over the U.S. occupation -- and joy at Saddam Hussein's removal. It's among several movies to emerge from Iraq's chaos -- including Iraq's first feature-length drama since Saddam Hussein's fall and a documentary on U.S. troops fighting insurgents -- being showcased at the Rotterdam Film Festival, which features some 800 films and runs through Sunday. The documentary is a compilation of short video clips...

The "Baghdad blogger", whose weblog gave the world a rare insight into the lives of ordinary Iraqis in the run-up to the US-led invasion, says fair elections are the only way to end the violence in Iraq. Salam Pax told the BBC's Newsnight programme: "Maybe, just maybe, once we have elections and we have a group of people who truly represent us all, this could be our ticket out of the mess we're in now." He also warned the coalition against a hasty withdrawal from the region before a credible government took control in Iraq, fearing flawed elections would mean...

Sometimes success can spoil a good thing. A soldier with the Stryker brigade in Iraq who posted riveting online accounts of combat in Iraq has apparently made his last post, abruptly closing a Website that drew an untold number of readers. CBFTW—the pseudonym of the online diarist, an enlisted soldier with the 3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division Stryker Brigade Combat Team—won a following for his frank, profane and often funny take on the life of a soldier in Iraq. He chronicled the tedium of a lengthy deployment and the occasional moments of sheer terror, including a vicious, but largely unpublicized,...

BAGHDAD — A year ago, few Iraqis had ever had access to a computer, much less used it to communicate to the outside world. Now, Internet cafes seemingly dot every block in Baghdad, and new ones open often. That has led to a new phenomenon here: bloggers. "We suffered for years under Saddam Hussein, not being able to speak out," says Omar Fadhil, 24, a dentist. "Now, you can make your voice heard around the world."

<p>LONDON, England (CNN) -- The Baghdad bloggers became famous for their insights into life during the Iraqi war.</p> <p>The Internet pioneers courted danger and risked death by messaging to the outside world. Now Internet cafes are opening up across Baghdad giving Iraqis the chance to connect without restriction or hindrance for less than $1 per hour.</p>

'I became the profane pervert Arab blogger' It began as an internet joke with a friend in Jordan. But then the media - including the Guardian - picked it up, and suddenly he was the Baghdad blogger, the most famous web diarist in the world. Salam Pax describes what it was like to play cat-and-mouse with Saddam's censors. My name is Salam Pax and I am addicted to blogs. Some people watch daytime soaps, I follow blogs. I follow the hyperlinks on the blogs I read. I travel through the web guided by bloggers. I get wrapped up in the...

Baghdad Blogger His irreverent web diary became an internet sensation during the war. Now, in the first of his fortnightly Guardian columns, Salam Pax reports on life in the Iraqi capital Wednesday June 4, 2003 The Guardian Vacancies: President needed - fluent in English, will have limited powers only. Generous bonuses." This appeared on the first page of the Ahrar newspaper. Another new weekly. Newspapers are coming out of our ears these days. There are two questions which no one can answer: how many political parties are there now in Iraq? And how many newspapers are printed weekly?" Most of...

Salam Pax Is Real How do I know Baghdad's famous blogger exists? He worked for me. By Peter Maass Posted Monday, June 2, 2003, at 2:05 PM PT Baghdad was hectic when two blogging friends e-mailed me to suggest that I track down "Salam Pax." I had no idea who or what they were talking about. I could have handed over the job of sorting out this Salam Pax thing to my interpreter—he was a clever and funny Iraqi who never failed to provide what I needed, whether it was interviews or pizza—but I let it pass. I thought I...

the people at [Electronic Iraq] [al-Muajaha] kindly agreed to host the images for this post and we will put up the post on their site too. I have warned them that I have a lot of images and as the arabic saying goes: wa qad u'thira man anthar - don't blame someone who has already given you a warning. I really didn't have any other choice, the guys at the internet place wanted to charge 66,000 dinars for uploading 1.2megs of images. thats around $50 by today's rate. you should see how people react whenthey tell them how much they...

David Warren comes out and says something that’s been my privately held belief for quite some time: 'Salam Pax' Plays Americans for Fools in Iraq . What we can know, just by reading his blog, is that this Salam is up to no good. He is spreading "inside views" of the new Iraq, not only to the blogosphere, but directly among the journalists still encamped at the Meridian (formerly Palestine, formerly Meridian) hotel. Not the "embeds" who've gone home after remarkable learning experiences, but those "hacks" not yet transferred to the next breaking news story, and so still kicking around...

The star of the blog 'Where is Raed?' is part of an anti-Western conspiracy "Salam Pax" is rising as one of the media stars in postwar Iraq. He began blogging from Baghdad well before the war, and has come back sporadically since. (He calls his blog "Where is Raed?") He is the darling of fellow bloggers in the West, who light up with links whenever he appears on the Web. He has been written about in the New Yorker magazine and elsewhere, and his jottings copied into the Guardian in the Britain. Not bad for a person whose very existence...

Online diarists are flooding the Web with battle news, analysis and debateHe calls himself Salam Pax — peace in Arabic and Latin, respectively. He claims to be an Iraqi living in Baghdad, and he posts poignant first-person reports on the Web. "The images we saw on TV last night...were terrible," begins one. "The whole city looked as if it were on fire. As one of the buildings I really love went up in a huge explosion, I was close to tears." Pax's missives (at dear_raed.blogspot.com) offer Web watchers a rare look at how one Iraqi views the war. Although no...

Mysterious Scribe Writes Baghdad Web Log Fri Mar 28, 5:58 PM ET By RACHEL KONRAD, Associated Press Writer SAN JOSE, Calif. - Every day, tens of thousands of people turn to the Web seeking updates from a mysterious scribe whose detailed accounts of life in besieged Baghdad have made him a cyberspace celebrity. Little is known for sure about Salam Pax, whose nom de plume means "peace" in Arabic and Latin. But his Web journal — ostensibly written from his Baghdad home — vividly criticizes the authoritarian rule of Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) and the U.S.-British war on...

<p>SAN JOSE, Calif. -- Every day, tens of thousands of people turn to the Web seeking updates from a mysterious scribe whose detailed accounts of life in besieged Baghdad have made him a cyberspace celebrity. Little is known for sure about Salam Pax, whose nom de plume means "peace" in Arabic and Latin. But his Web journal -- ostensibly written from his Baghdad home -- vividly criticizes the authoritarian rule of Saddam Hussein and the U.S.-British war on his nation.</p>

Thousands of people from around the world who are anxious to understand what life is like for ordinary Iraqis in wartime turn daily to an online diary that purports to describe one man's view of life in Baghdad. But on Monday night and Tuesday morning, site visitors saw a faked shot of President George W. Bush holding Iraqi president Saddam Hussein in a playful headlock, instead of the authentic photos of Baghdad that normally appear on the Dear Raed weblog. For the last six months the site's creator, who uses the pseudonym Salam Pax, has chronicled Iraq's political situation from...

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use. Thousands read "Salam Pax," who says he posts a Web log from Iraq. Where was Salam Pax? While bombs rained on his beloved Baghdad and fierce battles roiled the sands of Iraq, people around the world spent last weekend seeking a man called Peace. In Brazil and Sweden, in China and Australia, from California to Maine, the question flew across the borderless Internet: Where is Salam Pax? For months, the mysterious Blogger of Baghdad, whose pseudonym translates as "peace" in Arabic and Latin - and who is suspected by some of...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A mysterious Iraqi who calls himself Salam Pax, writing a Web log from the heart of Baghdad, has developed a large Internet following with his wry accounts of daily life in a city under U.S. bombardment. Salam Pax, a pseudonym crafted from the Arabic and Latin words for peace, came back on line on Monday after a two-day break because of interruptions in Internet access. The traffic on his Web site, http://dear_raed.blogspot.com, caused the server to go down and Salam's e-mail folder has filled with inquiries about his true identity.