I am throwing another big party at my house tonight. As usual, I am discovering that organizing a party is very, very difficult. I have to order all my decorations online weeks in advance, and if at the last minute I suddenly discover that I am missing something that I needed for the party, such as rope of duck tape, I cannot simply go to the corner store and buy what I am missing. (Sadly, Walmart hasn’t opened a store inside the Green Zone.) I am forced to ask around to see if someone else has what I need, or I have to find some type of makeshift substitute.

Outside of almost every major American compound, the U.S. government has installed large barrels filled with sand. Soldiers, mercenaries, and anyone else authorized to carry a gun must "dry fire" their weapon into this barrel to make sure there isn't a round primed in the chamber that could come out if the weapon accidentally went off.

Supposedly, back in the good old days of the occupation, tons of civilians carried weapons, which accidentally went off all too frequently. The old timers around here talk about how guns even went off in the Palace cafeteria.

And in other news . . . Michael Rubin from the American Enterprise Institute, in a sharply critical OPED, explained why it may be time to reduce the number of American diplomats and reconstruction contractors in Iraq.

A friend recently heard a general say that the U.S. had spent $900 million on t-walls in Iraq. T-walls are 12-foot high reinforced and blast-proof concrete slabs. Somewhat doubting that t-wall could cost so much money, I tried to research how much money the U.S. government spent on t-walls, but I couldn't find anything specific. In fact, I was surprised to find how little the internet had to offer on this topic. I am disappointed that reporters haven’t spent more time examining this topic. T-walls are the more unignorable part of life in the Green Zone. They are everywhere. Almost every street is flanked on either side by a set of t-walls, and every compound is surrounded by a ring of them. Most compounds even have inner rings of t-walls separating different areas inside their compound.

I have heard that most of Iraq's t-walls come from Kuwait, but I also heard that an Iraqi company in Basrah makes some t-walls for the U.S. government. I don’t think companies are making t-walls overseas and then shipping them to Iraq. If anyone has heard any differently, please let me know.

My compound hired four Filipinos to work in various program-related positions relating to the reconstruction. They left Iraq about a month ago to take a short rest break in their home country. Now, they are no longer able to return to Iraq.

When they left my compound in July, they knew they were taking a risk. When the Philippine government withdrew its soldiers from Iraq, it did so to save the life of a Filipino truck driver. The Philippine government agreed to leave Iraq forever and subsequently issued an order for all Filipinos working in Iraq to come home and prohibited anyone else from going to Iraq. Nevertheless, many Filipino defied the ban because they could make a lot of money working in Iraq.

Some Filipinos had fooled the Philippine government by traveling indirectly from the Philippines to Iraq through places such as Thailand. In an effort to catch people using this tactic, the Philippine government has asked countries in the Middle East to deny exit visa stamps to Filipinos traveling onto Iraq. This is how my coworkers were caught.

While eating dinner at the Palace a few months back, someone told me that he was concerned that a US subcontractor may be paying bribes to a gang. The payments were essentially "protection" money to prevent the thugs from attacking a reconstruction site. These thugs were connected to the insurgency, which means the protection money probably helped finance the insurgency. Thus, US money was probably being channeled back toward killing Americans. Of course, I don't know the name of the company and this person would not talk about it on the record, so essentially all I heard was a rumor. All the same, this rumor seems very probable and troubling.

I live near the United Nations compound. When I first arrived in Iraq in January 2005, I never heard any noises from their compound. It was eerily silent. Apparently, they had pulled out almost everyone after the bad guys attacked them in August 2003. Shortly after the attack, the Secretary General said that the United Nation would not return until the security of its staff was assured.

Nevertheless, over the last seven months, I have slowly heard more and more noise from the United Nations compound. Occasionally I have heard the sounds of people having parties, and every so often I hear the sounds of soldiers and guards practicing with their weapons. Almost every time I leave the compound I now see a soldier (Mostly Fijians) wearing a blue United Nations badge. Whenever I take a Rhino bus to the airport, I generally see a handful of United Nations civilians.

I think the United Nations was trying to keep a low profile, but it is hard to deny that over the last few months it has significantly increased the number of agencies, and consequently the number of people, it has in Iraq.

I had to get a haircut about three weeks ago. Thankfully, the US military has established barber shops at military exchanges throughout Iraq, and the U.S. State Department has built a small barber shop in the Palace. Hair cuts inside the Green Zone only cost $3, and for the most part, they aren't too bad considering that fashion is not the top concern in Iraq and most people are getting military flattops.

My barber was Indian, but to be honest, I not very surprised that the Americans have trouble finding Iraqis who are willing to cut the hair of Americans. Being a barber in Iraq is already tough enough without adding in the risks of working with Americans.

Now that my compound has lost its dedicated intelligence analysis, I am forced to get intelligence assessments from Aegis Defense Services, who is the primary company tasked with analyzing what is happing in Iraq. Every day Aegis puts out a 30 page assessment that includes a short recap of the headlines from the pervious day.

Even though Aegis is currently providing intelligence assessments to the US government, the company was not on the State Department's list of recommended security companies, and the chief executive office has been implicated in numerous human rights abuses and violations of international law." If that wasn't enough to lose sleep over at night, apparently "the British firm had failed to verify that employees were properly qualified for the job."

And in other news . . . the CIA is making lots of new friends in Iraq.

A few months ago, I worked in a flimsy trailer, and I could hear everything. I heard small arms fire. I heard distant mortar attacks. I heard helicopters flying overhead all day long.

About two months ago I moved into a large reinforced concrete bunker. Inside my nifty new office building I can barely hear anything. Even though the violence in Iraq has stayed fairly constant since March 2005, yesterday was the first time I heard any hint of the violence raging throughout Baghdad while working inside the building; I heard a large car bomb that blew up on the east of the Tigris. The "boom" was so soft that is sounded like someone dropped a magazine on a carpeted floor.

Everyone is watching everyone in Iraq. Here are two brief examples.

Al Ittihad recently reported that a Ministry of Interior captain (essentially a police captain) that worked at the Baghdad Convention Center was arrested because he was cooperating with the bad guys. The officer was apparently providing terrorist cells with information on the Transitional National Assembly (TNA) members' movements in Baghdad.

Yesterday, one of my coworkers told me that every time he leaves the Green Zone, there are men watching him. These "spotters" take notes, which are sometimes passed onto the bad guys, who in turn try to kill individuals working for the Americans.

The Second Iraq Emergency Supplemental Appropriations Bill (Public Law 108-106) requires the Bush Administration to submit a report to Congress every 90 days that updates the estimates and assumptions for the $18.4 billion appropriated to help rebuild Iraq. Preparing this report, which is known as the 2207 Report, is a massive undertaking that is hated by almost everyone in Iraq.

Sadly, according to a recent Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction (SIRIG) report, almost $7.9 billion of obligations reported in the report could not be verified. This means that roughly 43 percent of the financial information include in the report was unreliable and unverifiable. Moreover, even though Congress requested estimates on a project-by-project basis, the April 2005 report did not include estimates on a project-by-project basis. This makes it difficult to determine if sufficient funds are available to complete ongoing projects or start new project.

Even if the detailed data in the 2207 report is unreliable, the executive summary is still an interesting read. No matter how deftly the government tries to spin the state of the reconstruction in Iraq, the challenges facing the US and its allies show up fairly clearly in the executive summary.

Almost everyone who manages a contract in Iraq complains about security issues. When a contractor wants to buy something related to security, it is very hard to know what is justified and what is excessive. Most of the time, the contract manager errs on the side of caution and approves the security-related request regardless of how expensive it is. As a result, security costs are consuming a large part of the Iraq reconstruction funds. According to Heather Layman, spokeswoman for USAID, security costs account for an average of 22 percent of a project's cost.

The cost of security guards is one of the largest components of any company’s security costs. The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) estimates there are 60 private security firms with as many as 25,000 employees in Iraq. Some elite personnel with these companies make $33,000 a month. As of December 2004, the agencies and contractors in Iraq recently reviewed by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) had obligated more than $766 million for private security providers in Iraq. (GAO didn’t look at every contractor, so that total cost is probably much higher.)

According to the GAO, "contractor officials acknowledge that the cost of private security services and security-related equipment, such as armored vehicles, has exceeded what they originally envisioned. In some cases, increased security costs resulted in reducing or canceling the scope of some reconstruction projects."

To help deal with the significant increases in security costs, GAO recommended that the Secretary of Defense, Secretary of State, and the USAID Administrator should help reconstruction contractors obtain reliable security services (rather than wasting their money on untrustworthy security contractors) and develop a plan to handle security costs in the future. The State Department disagreed with the "recommendation to explore options to assist contractors in obtaining private security services, citing concerns that the government could be held liable for performance failures." Additionally, the State Department did not clearly explain how it intends to "track and account for private security costs, which is essential given that DoD and USAID are the principal agencies responsible for awarding and managing the majority of reconstruction contracts."

Topic: Scary Stuff
About two months ago, the Regional Security Office on my compound sent out an email warning that "the small alcohol store close to [checkpoint 3], of the International Zone, is being targeted. The owner was threatened a short time ago by a group of unidentified Local Nationals. It is highly recommended that you avoid this venue and use caution in the area and other areas that sell alcohol."

Almost immediately, the people on my compound began emailing her to find out if the liquor store in question was the White House, which is probably the most popular liquor store in the Green Zone. Oddly, she didn’t know exactly which store had been targeted. Without any specific information from the security officer, most people ignored her warning.

Mood:  hungry
Topic: Daily Life
An Iraqi newspaper (Azzaman) recently reported that the director of the Market Researches Center at the University of Baghdad prepared a study about cell phone usage in Iraq. The study note that Iraqis are now spending about 25-50% of their incomes on their cell-phones.

Almost every Iraqi on my compound has cell phone. It seems to have become some type of status symbol, or perhaps my coworkers are just addicted to the idea that they can purchase and use a cell phone without the fear of someone from the government spying on them.

Most American civilians and soldiers drive around the Green Zone in SUVs. However, the US government has also established a small bus system for those who can’t gain access to a vehicle.

The busses hold roughly 20 people. Each bus is driven and maintained by KBR, a major military contractor. The busses travel on set routes and go to all the major locations in the zone, including the hospital, the Presidential Palace, and the Chancery. KBR built large wooden bus stops at each major stop so the people waiting for the bus do not have to wait with the hot sun beating down on them.

US Army officials recently reported that it had 10,477 divorces within its active-duty forces during fiscal year 2004 (Oct 2003 to Sept 2004). That number has climbed steadily since the beginning of the War on Terrorism. In fiscal year 2001, the US Army reported about 5,600 divorces, approximately half of the current number. Although the increased deployment rates are probably the main reason for the higher divorce rate, the military does not have an official explanation.

To help military families endure the hardships that increased deployments often impose on families, the Army has launched outreach programs ranging from support groups for spouses of deployed troops to weekend retreats for military couples. Additionally, at military bases around Baghdad, the US Army has created conjugal visit tents where married soldiers who are both serving in Iraq can get "reacquainted."

Arriving at Baghdad International Airport (BAIP) is a rather odd experience. Before the 1991 Gulf War, BAIP was one of the largest and busiest airports in the Middle East. It could handle up to 7.5 million visitors per year. Now, it barely supports 10 commercial passenger flights per day (if that). The airport has three main terminals, but all the operations currently flow through one small portion of the C Terminal.

Upon arriving at BAIP, every passenger must pass through a small passport control area. Americans can move quickly through the passport control area if they have a military ID badge. After passing through the baggage area and customs, passengers spill out into a large open area, where foreigners mill around in a dogged attempt to find the security detail that will take them to their next destination. Every time a flight arrives, there is at least one person who has no idea where their security team is, and because calling anyone in Iraq is nearly impossible without a cell phone that works in Iraq, many passengers simply sit down and wait because they have no way to contact their security team.

To add to the depression of anyone stuck at the airport, on a wall they can look at the flight arrival board, which hasn't worked since right before the war. The board still displays the time (22:43) from the last moments of normal operations at the airport. The board even lists the departure points of the flights that arrived on that day.

Sigh . . . I am STILL stuck in Amman.

In an effort to kill some time at the airport, I began talking to an American contractor who is working in Iraq. I quickly discovered that she had just befriended an Iraqi who was also stuck at the airport. The Iraqi was willing to share his thoughts about America's presence in Iraq. In turn, the American tried to explain why America was doing the things it was doing in the Middle East. I quickly realized that she was only explaining the conservative point-of-view. She completely ignored the opinions of liberals (and even moderates) in America. She gave the impression that there was only one point-of-view in America - the conservative one.

Most Iraqis that interact with Americans will never learn what liberal Americans think about Iraq. Very few liberals have gone to Iraq. Most have decided to completely avoid Iraq and everything related to it - including humanitarian reconstruction efforts. (However, there are a significant number of political moderates.)

Mood:  don't ask
Topic: Posts While on R&R
I am stuck in Amman due to sandstorm in Iraq. This turning into one of the longest "short" rest breaks ever! Hopefully I will get back to my compound on Sunday night so I can resume my regular postings. Posting while traveling is very hard.

And in other news . . . I recently learned that one of my Iraqi coworkers was nearly killed because she works for the Americans. She is very lucky to be alive.

When she left Baghdad for a business trip to Jordan a few weeks ago, she decided to take her family with her so they could enjoy a holiday weekend in Jordan. Soon after she left, a neighbor saw a few masked men show up at my coworker's front door. They were carrying AK-47s. They were about to break the door down until one of the masked men realized that the door was locked from the outside - a clear sign that no one was home. The masked men left without disturbing anything. They apparently had one thought in their minds. They wanted to kill my coworker and her family, who luckily were gone in Amman.

When my coworker returned from her trip and learned that someone wanted to kill her and her family, she immediately gathered up her belongings and moved to her mother's house. She is now in the process of trying to find a new place to live in a completely different part of Baghdad in an effort to evade the people trying to kill her.

Mood:  irritated
This should be my last post from outside the Green Zone. As long as everything goes according to plan, I will be back in the Green Zone during the weeeeee hours of Sunday morning.

I never through getting back to Iraq would be so hard, but it has been. Getting back to Iraq was almost as hard as getting out of Iraq.

My employer had been using a company called AirServ to fly people in and out of Iraq. The day before I left Italy to return to Iraq after a much-need break, I learned that the company backed out of its Baghdad route. Consequently, I had to scramble to find a way back to Baghdad. I eventually booked a seat on a Royal Jordanian flight, but I had to pay for the seat in cash. Finding $500 in cash while traveling in the Middle East is harder than you might think.