I am back from my three day hiatus.  What a busy three days it was as well.  To start with my advance that took me away was up to the Iranian border.  We took the Ambassador there on Monday and Eric and I went up to create the event on Saturday.

 

What an experience.  First off let me reiterate my complete and utter pride in our National Guard.  We were working with elements of the 30^th Brigade out of North Carolina or the Old Hickory Brigade.  These guys have been on the ground for just barely 3-4 weeks and they have their area completely dialed in.  Small world note, I go 12,000 miles around the word to end up smoking a cigar with Capt. Killgren, a Dec. ’93 graduate of ASU (same as me).

 

The elements that we were working with are based at FOB (Forward Operating Base) Wyatt.  That’s where we spent the night.  The FOB is probably a half mile square, not very big, but we were afforded nice accommodations in a connex and breakfast and dinner.  Just like camping, without the marshmallows.

 

The town that we did the event in is Muntheria.  For those of you who still have your maps at home, go NE from Baghdad to between the 1 and 2 o’clock position.  You will see Diyala’ in white outlined by red and to the right of that you will see the Khanaquin Border Crossing.  That is Muntheria.

 

The Khanaquin Border Crossing is now one of three border crossings that we are keeping open between Iran/Iraq.  After the war, there were a total of 19 crossing points that were open, but we have closed it down to three because of the huge influx of insurgents and terrorists that have come across the Iranian border.  As you can see by looking at the map the border with Iran is huge.  It is also troublesome because the terrain can be very difficult to patrol.  At Muntheria we have installed an immigration system called PICES.  It basically scans a person’s passport.  Takes a current photo of them and then logs the information about duration of stay etc.  Muntheria is the first checkpoint to have PICES operational. The plan was to take Bremer and the press to see PICES in action.  More on that later.

 

Muntheria is a very open area.  In many ways it reminds me of the Colorado Plateau in AZ.  Open and rocky, but Muntheria has a little more greenery.  The area where Muntheria sits is heavily Kurdish, something in the range of 85%.  Because of this, it has been very quiet for our troops in the area.  They rarely have attacks, which they definitely are not complaining about.

 

There is a photo of myself with General Nazeem (Naa-them).  This guy is a complete character.  Six months ago he was a Pashmerga Lt.  Pashmerga’s are Kurdish troops and are known to be very fierce fighters.  His family has strong ties in the area and when the Coalition liberated Iraq, he set himself up to protect the border and gave himself the title of General.  He is now responsible for the border for the Diyala province.  He is a very interesting man to say the least.  A very nice man, but you kind of get the feeling that his nose might be a little dirty.  

 

I have included a photo that shows trucks trading their wares back and forth across the border.  Trucks are not allowed to cross from Iran to Iraq or vice versa, so the trucks literally back up to each other on opposite sides of the border and trade the cargo.  They pay each other in cash and go about their merry way.  It kind of makes tariffs and taxation a little rough. Commerce is King and thrives at this border.  I was told that this border stayed open during the Iran/Iraq war in the ‘80’s and traded much the same as it does now.

 

When game day came things got a little hairy. There was a large degree of nervousness about bringing the Ambassador to the border.  Our goal was to do a press-avail with the boss in a position similar to what I am in the Me in the Bremer Shot photo.  The arch is the border.  I remind you that there has been a huge influx of bad guys across the Iranian border.  To start our day our friends in the military ordered up F-15 cover over the event site.  When we arrived the planes were already flying.  Needless to say the Iranians got a little nervous.  The next thing they saw was us arriving with three platoons of troops, a large number of armored humvees with 50 caliber machine guns on top and 3 Bradleys.  The Bradley is an APC (armored Personnel Carrier) that looks like a small tank.  This stepped the Iranians up another notch.  Then Blackwater, Bremer’s security, arrived in their little birds (helicopters).  Then the boss arrived in 4 Black Hawks with 2 Apaches as escort.  The final straw for the Iranians though was when we took the press up to the border to get some B-Roll and they charged the gate.  This prompted the Iranians to bring a pickup truck with a machine gun in the back up to the border and to place snipers in their castle.  Yes I said castle. All along the border the Iranians and the Iraqi’s have actual castles built to monitor the other side.  When the snipers arrived, the boss’s trip to see PICES was canceled and we had to do the press avail about a mile away.  What can you do?

 

Today we finally did the Law School event.  It had been scheduled at least five different times but had to be canceled every time.  Today we finally pulled it off.  I will send some photos in another e-mail.  Too many for this e-mail.  The students were very unruly and kind of screwed up the event.  What can you do?

 

Well that about sums up the past three days.  What an experience.  I am gong to send Jess a couple of movie files of the flight back to Baghdad so check the website.  Also, Dad that photo labeled me in Iran that would be another country.  Catching up.

 

Take Care Everyone!

 

Gregg Edgar

Coalition Provisional Authority

Office of Strategic Communications

I am back from my three day hiatus.  What a busy three days it was as well.  To start with my advance that took me away was up to the Iranian border.  We took the Ambassador there on Monday and Eric and I went up to create the event on Saturday.

 

What an experience.  First off let me reiterate my complete and utter pride in our National Guard.  We were working with elements of the 30^th Brigade out of North Carolina or the Old Hickory Brigade.  These guys have been on the ground for just barely 3-4 weeks and they have their area completely dialed in.  Small world note, I go 12,000 miles around the word to end up smoking a cigar with Capt. Killgren, a Dec. ’93 graduate of ASU (same as me).

 

The elements that we were working with are based at FOB (Forward Operating Base) Wyatt.  That’s where we spent the night.  The FOB is probably a half mile square, not very big, but we were afforded nice accommodations in a connex and breakfast and dinner.  Just like camping, without the marshmallows.

 

The town that we did the event in is Muntheria.  For those of you who still have your maps at home, go NE from Baghdad to between the 1 and 2 o’clock position.  You will see Diyala’ in white outlined by red and to the right of that you will see the Khanaquin Border Crossing.  That is Muntheria.

 

The Khanaquin Border Crossing is now one of three border crossings that we are keeping open between Iran/Iraq.  After the war, there were a total of 19 crossing points that were open, but we have closed it down to three because of the huge influx of insurgents and terrorists that have come across the Iranian border.  As you can see by looking at the map the border with Iran is huge.  It is also troublesome because the terrain can be very difficult to patrol.  At Muntheria we have installed an immigration system called PICES.  It basically scans a person’s passport.  Takes a current photo of them and then logs the information about duration of stay etc.  Muntheria is the first checkpoint to have PICES operational. The plan was to take Bremer and the press to see PICES in action.  More on that later.

 

Muntheria is a very open area.  In many ways it reminds me of the Colorado Plateau in AZ.  Open and rocky, but Muntheria has a little more greenery.  The area where Muntheria sits is heavily Kurdish, something in the range of 85%.  Because of this, it has been very quiet for our troops in the area.  They rarely have attacks, which they definitely are not complaining about.

 

There is a photo of myself with General Nazeem (Naa-them).  This guy is a complete character.  Six months ago he was a Pashmerga Lt.  Pashmerga’s are Kurdish troops and are known to be very fierce fighters.  His family has strong ties in the area and when the Coalition liberated Iraq, he set himself up to protect the border and gave himself the title of General.  He is now responsible for the border for the Diyala province.  He is a very interesting man to say the least.  A very nice man, but you kind of get the feeling that his nose might be a little dirty.  

 

I have included a photo that shows trucks trading their wares back and forth across the border.  Trucks are not allowed to cross from Iran to Iraq or vice versa, so the trucks literally back up to each other on opposite sides of the border and trade the cargo.  They pay each other in cash and go about their merry way.  It kind of makes tariffs and taxation a little rough. Commerce is King and thrives at this border.  I was told that this border stayed open during the Iran/Iraq war in the ‘80’s and traded much the same as it does now.

 

When game day came things got a little hairy. There was a large degree of nervousness about bringing the Ambassador to the border.  Our goal was to do a press-avail with the boss in a position similar to what I am in the Me in the Bremer Shot photo.  The arch is the border.  I remind you that there has been a huge influx of bad guys across the Iranian border.  To start our day our friends in the military ordered up F-15 cover over the event site.  When we arrived the planes were already flying.  Needless to say the Iranians got a little nervous.  The next thing they saw was us arriving with three platoons of troops, a large number of armored humvees with 50 caliber machine guns on top and 3 Bradleys.  The Bradley is an APC (armored Personnel Carrier) that looks like a small tank.  This stepped the Iranians up another notch.  Then Blackwater, Bremer’s security, arrived in their little birds (helicopters).  Then the boss arrived in 4 Black Hawks with 2 Apaches as escort.  The final straw for the Iranians though was when we took the press up to the border to get some B-Roll and they charged the gate.  This prompted the Iranians to bring a pickup truck with a machine gun in the back up to the border and to place snipers in their castle.  Yes I said castle. All along the border the Iranians and the Iraqi’s have actual castles built to monitor the other side.  When the snipers arrived, the boss’s trip to see PICES was canceled and we had to do the press avail about a mile away.  What can you do?

 

Today we finally did the Law School event.  It had been scheduled at least five different times but had to be canceled every time.  Today we finally pulled it off.  I will send some photos in another e-mail.  Too many for this e-mail.  The students were very unruly and kind of screwed up the event.  What can you do?

 

Well that about sums up the past three days.  What an experience.  I am gong to send Jess a couple of movie files of the flight back to Baghdad so check the website.  Also, Dad that photo labeled me in Iran that would be another country.  Catching up.

 

Take Care Everyone!

 

Gregg Edgar

Coalition Provisional Authority

Office of Strategic Communications

Very long day today.  We got the majority of the equipment into the studio.  We also got the painting of the studio started.  It will be finished tomorrow.  Tomorrow will also finally be the Satellite and Microwave day.  Bremer did an interview this evening with the school Channel 1 from our balcony.  It looked great.  We are very excited to usse the balcony shot.  Everything else is going very well.  It looks like we are traveling with the big man to meet our Easter commitments.  So we will be in DC for 1 week and then back here to Baghdad.  Well the network is about to go down for maintenance.

 

Take Care Everyone!

 

Gregg Edgar

Coalition Provisional Authority

Office of Strategic Communications

From: Edgar, Gregg Mr. (CIV)
Sent: Wednesday, March 24, 2004 11:52 PM
Subject: Update

 

Today we marked the 100 days until sovereignty.  For those of you can do math, please don’t try to add it up.  The Ambassador gave kind of State of the Union Address to members of the GC, Ministers and Iraqi notables.  We did a very nice setup outside of the convention center.  Dad they need you to come fix the fountains out here.  The event turned out great and the Ambassador and all of our Stratcom bosses were ecstatic.  Bremer even invited the Advance team to his house for dinner this week, he was so pleased.

 

Today was definitely one of those days where it was better to be lucky than good.  The setup was in an area that we looked at the other day and had fears about the sun staying high enough above the palm trees.  The sun was perfect.  The event had a very hanging out by the cabana feel to it.  It was very nice to use a new location and do something a little different.  The press gave us some great photos and actually several of them were helping us with some lighting issues we had. 

 

Well busy day tomorrow.  We are going to get this studio running in the next two days if it kills me!!

 

Take Care Everyone!

 

 

 

Gregg Edgar

Coalition Provisional Authority

Office of Strategic Communications

From: Edgar, Gregg Mr. (CIV)
Sent: Tuesday, March 23, 2004 11:57 PM
Subject: Update

 

A little bit of a frustrating day today.  A lot of hurry up and wait.  We had a team in Najaf today doing a governance visit.  Then we were supposed to have an event this afternoon marking the 100  day countdown to sovereignty.  The event got postponed until tomorrow, but it will be a very good event.  The team in Najaf got some great photos and very good press.

 

Since we couldn’t do the event we took a run out to the Airport to see if we could find our shipment for the studio.  No such luck, but we did have a Burger King for lunch.  After all of our excursions I ran out to get the truck filled up and found a man with a monkey. Some photos attached.

 

Not much else today watch your news and read your paper over the next week.

 

Take Care Everyone!

 

Gregg Edgar

Coalition Provisional Authority

Office of Strategic Communications

 

We spent today gathering furniture for our studio, taking time to look through the warehouse while we did so.  It is amazing the stuff that was in this palace.  Most of it is really junk.  Saddam had these very old Big Screen TV’s and two carriages that look like they are out of Cinderella.  Apparently he used to ride around in them all of the time.  They were very cheesy.  I don’t recall if I have talked to you about the giant heads or not, but the Palace that we are staying in is actually a Palace that was built in two phases.  The main part, where the green room is located, was built back in the 50’s as a Presidential Palace.  Saddam added two wings on to the place on the North and South side.  I believe this was done after the Persian Gulf War.  When they were built Saddam had four huge metal heads put up on the towers of the new editions, two on the North side and two on the South.  One of the first things the US did when we moved into the place was take the heads down.  They are being stored on the warehouse grounds and we were able to go in and see them.  I have attached several photos of the warehouse and the heads.  When my friend Brian got here the heads were down in front and he was able to situate himself so that Saddam was kissing his ass.  Pretty funny.  They are supposedly going to melt two of the heads down to make coins and use for charity somehow.  The other two are going to a museum.

 

We spent the rest of today planning for an event tomorrow to commemorate 100 days remaining until the hand over of sovereignty.  We actually have several big events that will be coming up over the next few weeks that you should see something about.  Watch your TV’s and your Newspapers.

 

Well early morning tomorrow so off to bed for me.

 

Take Care Everyone!

 

Gregg Edgar

Coalition Provisional Authority

Office of Strategic Communications

 

Another good day today.  We have our Studio site.  Spent this morning cleaning and prepping the room.  I am going to spend time tomorrow learning about Satellites and finding décor for the room.  Eric and I went out to Camp Victory which is located next to the Airport.  Camp Victory sits on the grounds of the grounds of what is known as the Water Palace.  The attached photo will give you a good idea of why.  Remember when you are looking at it that we are in the middle of a fricking desert.  Once again an example of the waste of the country’s treasury.  The team also had a signing ceremony that established Ministry of Defense.  Also worked on the planning of an event to commemorate the final 100 days of the CPA.  

 

We had another attack this morning, but it was aimed more at the Rasheed Hotel and fortunately it did not really hit anything.  It was very quick.  Again no real danger to us.

 

Finished the day up by playing Poker with a group of the guys and 1 gal.  I won 5 bucks so not too bad. I have attached photos from Eric and my visit to the Water Palace and a quick fun shot of Senor Kimmitt.  

 

Take Care Everyone!

 

Gregg Edgar

Coalition Provisional Authority

Office of Strategic Communications

Tonight will be a short one.  We had a very busy day today and are prepping for a really busy day tomorrow.  We did 7 interviews with Senor and Kimmitt.  GMA, CNN, CBS, MSNBC, FOX, PBS, CTV as well as a press conference. All of this was on top of prepping for a very big day tomorrow.  We had a rocket attack tonight, but all were safe.  We had to spend some time in the basement.  Most of the noise was from our boys firing back.  It is very interesting where the mind goes on these attacks.  Most of us were jealous of our coworkers who managed to hang in the office instead of getting stuck in the basement.  We once again had an over under going on.

 

I have attached three photos for you. The first is a shot of Senor and Kimmit during their interview process.  The second is a shot from the basement of Christina with our friends Christie and Susan.  Last is a basement shot of Eric with our friend Traci.

 

I am off to bed all.

 

Take Care Everyone!

 

Gregg Edgar

Coalition Provisional Authority

Office of Strategic Communications

 

Sorry about last night everyone.  We had a very late night the past two days with Peter Jennings more on that to follow.  When I got back to the office to do my update, the office was locked for the evening and I couldn’t get in to do my update.  We have started a new procedure of locking the office because we had a rash of thefts.  We let the Soldiers and Marines that are stationed at the Palace come in at night and do morale calls.  I don’t think they were taking anything but they were getting blamed for the thefts.  So we negotiated a deal with the Marines where they post someone during the calls and lock the place up when they are done.  They are a great bunch of kids that come in here at night and it is amazing how much they appreciate the opportunity to call home.

 

On to today briefly about the bombing.  As I am sure you are well aware there was a bombing of the Mount Lebanon Hotel in the Karadah district of Baghdad.  The bombing was devastating.  The Hotel is frequented by westerners, primarily non-government and non-military.  The news is probably giving you a fairly accurate picture of what we know so far.  I have not heard any estimates on casualties, but the Karadah district is heavily populated.  It is one of the economic centers of Baghdad.

 

People in the Palace felt the blast.  I was driving a pick up and heard it and saw the smoke plume rise. We were in no danger though.  I will give you more of an update tomorrow when we have a better idea what happened.

 

On to Peter Jennings.  What an Ass.  I fully retract anything positive I said about the guy in my first e-mail. Our team had him for a good chunk of the day yesterday. He was a jerk all day.  He did an interview with the Ambassador and he made a bunch of snide comments about the facilities (which have been used by everyone else in the world without complaint).  I kept wanting to remind him that he was not exactly in his NY studio.  He finished the interview with the Ambassador and said, “Well you certainly live up to your reputation for sticking to message.”  But the line of the day was when his own cameraman said to another technician:

 

“Do you think Peter feels intimidated by the Ambassador because (The Ambassador) is every man that (Peter) wishes he could be? (The Ambassador) is brilliant, runs marathons etc.” 

 

This received many laughs from the ABC crew.  He isn’t exactly liked by his own people so that has to tell you something.  I have attached the ABC Poll to this message.  I feel that it is overall a very positive report.  There are negatives but nothing that you wouldn’t expect and they are far outweighed by the positives.

 

We have a lot going in the next few days that you will for sure see back home.  So keep watching us. 

 

We’ve gotta piper in Baghdad. I have attached some photos of the St. Patrick’s Day Party that we had tonight.  It was a lot fun for everyone.  Our buddies from the guard brought the sound system over for us and I got to play sound tech and roadie for part of the time.  It wasn’t Able Cain, but we had a lot of fun.  As I’m sure you have guessed Christina was instrumental in the organizing of this little shindig.  Here she’s shown enjoying the Boys from Blackwater – Bremer’s Security Detail.  Be looking for the Boys from Blackwater calendar in the near future.  I swear Estrada could make a fortune selling her photos.  Especially with her new digital she bought.

 

Well I think that is all for tonight.

 

Take Care Everyone!

 

Gregg Edgar

Coalition Provisional Authority

Office of Strategic Communications

 

Well today has been a very long day.  We spent about 8 hours prepping for Peter Jennings.  In truth we only spent 2 hours prepping, 5 hours sitting on a cold, dark street waiting for Peter to arrive, ½ hour filming and ½ hour tearing everything back down again.  And oh yeah we didn’t get to start on this part of the day until 6 pm.  Do I sound bitter?

 

I am now going to go into tirade about the liberal and more importantly the cynical media.  I know my liberal friends will completely disagree with me and I do apologize for putting them through this tirade, but it is absolutely infuriating to see the media completely ignore positive stories, because they don’t ft their personal view of the world.  Their cynicism has so warped them that it is impossible for them to see the opportunity that has been created for the Iraqis.  I know I asked mom to send out an e-mail to all of you encouraging you to watch ABC this evening, but I am now rescinding the request.  I can completely synopsize the reporting for you in 1 sentence “Everything in Iraq is terrible and Americans are hated throughout the world.”

 

Now before I continue my tirade, let me give you a small bit of fair and balanced reporting on Jennings. I had a 5 minute conversation with Jennings once he concluded his taping.  Like Rather I will say to you that he is a very nice guy.  Extremely personable and down to Earth.  He let the F-Bomb fly at least three times in casual conversations throughout the ½ hour, so he can’t be too uptight. Other than the fact that we had to wait for him to show up, I would say he was courteous and very grateful for our assistance and apologetic for the delay.  We had a very nice conversation about Phoenix and Paradise Valley.  He took photos with the Iraqis who were helping his team and me as you can see.

 

Then the conversation turned to Iraq.  He apparently lived in the region 30 some years ago and has spent some considerable time in Iraq itself over the years.  He has an institutional knowledge of the area. He cited friends in the area that believe the country is going to fall into civil war. He personally is so pessimistic about the chances of Iraq surviving as a democracy, which clearly comes through in his reporting.  The problem with that is that it becomes self fulfilling. 

 

I am definitely not saying that there is an easy road ahead for the Iraqis.  As my friend Eric said to Jennings this evening, “A certain degree of pessimism is understandable (from the Iraqis).  The Iraqi people have not had an opportunity to be optimistic about anything before.”

 

It is a very thin line that keeps Iraq from splintering into a three way civil war.  What has kept in check so far has been the steady hand of the Ambassador and what I see as a definite feeling of opportunity and hope on behalf of the Governing Council.  I think that they genuinely recognize that, while this is an opportunity for power, it also an opportunity to get things right for this country, which has never existed before.

 

Pessimism is easy. It isn’t very difficult to stand on the sides and tell everyone what is wrong.  It takes more courage and strength to stand up and say what is wrong and this is how I am going to fix it. If we are unwilling to be positive and proactive for the Iraqi’s, they won’t make it on their own.

 

OK enough of the tirade.  Besides the tirade we had a Senor Kimmitt Show and did some work on the Studio.  With any luck the studio will begin operations this week.  

 

Sorry about know e-mail yesterday.  The server was done when I went to do it and I couldn’t e-mail.

 

I have attached three photos.  The first is a sunset shot over one of Uday’s palaces in the green zone.  The weather has been fantastic here.  Sunshine, no clouds, 70’s, light breeze.  The second is just a shot of myself with Uday’s Palace. Yes I know I have a beard going.  The last is me with Peter.

 

Take Care Evryone!

 

Gregg Edgar

Coalition Provisional Authority

Office of Strategic Communications

 

Today was an administrative day.  I did a bunch of paperwork on the studio.  I went to the bank where they found a vault with over $650 million US.  There was also a Senor Kimmitt PC today. 

 

Christina, Alan and Gordon took the Ambassador to Kut which is in the Wasit Governance. Around the time of the TAL signing we had planned to meet with several of the Governances to see how progress is going across the country.  They all had to be rescheduled after the delays and attacks. Scheduling can be so tricky.  Wasit is the first one that we have done.  The Ambassador toured a Canal project and met with the Governance folks (kind of like County Supervisors).  All went very well.  This was one of our first opportunities to drive the schedule and fully utilize Advance as it is intended.  Our team was able to get in and assess if the canal project was going to be a useful visit.  Slowly but surely we are having a very positive impact operations here.

 

As I touched on a few days ago we had a very somber moment here when we lost three members of our team in the Hilla area.  I am attaching a story about the group.  These were people who believed strongly in helping the Iraqi people and paid the ultimate price for it.  Islam has a strong tradition martyrdom with any luck their sacrifice will reach that level for the people that they served.  While I didn’t know them, several of our folks knew them very well and it has had a profound impact on them.

 

 Middle East - AP

Women's Rights Advocate Among Dead in Iraq

 

Thu Mar 11,10:44 PM ET

By KELLY KURT, Associated Press Writer

TULSA, Okla. - Lawyer Fern Holland went to Iraq (news - web sites) to help that nation's women: She investigated human-rights violations, set up conferences and assisted in writing the women's rights section of the new constitution.

 

"I love the work and if I die, know that I'm doing precisely what I want to be doing," she wrote in an e-mail to a friend Jan. 21.

 

Holland was one of three civilians killed Tuesday after several gunmen posing as Iraqi police officers stopped her vehicle at a makeshift checkpoint near the town of Hillah, about 35 miles south of Baghdad.

 

Holland and a second victim, Robert J. Zangas, were the first U.S. civilians working for the U.S. occupation authority to be killed in Iraq. Their translator, who was not identified, was also killed.

 

Zangas, 44, of suburban Pittsburgh, joined the coalition after serving nine months in Iraq as reserve lieutenant colonel with the Marine Corps 4th Civil Affairs Group.

He is listed on the coalition's Web site as a regional press officer.

 

Holland's family believes she was targeted by assassins because of her work, which included opening women's centers around Iraq.

 

"She was a lover of democracy," said her sister, Vi Holland. "She was a humanitarian. She believed our greatest chance for democracy (in Iraq) was through people who were most oppressed."

 

Zangas' wife, Brenda, said Thursday that the "act of terrorism killed a very special person."

 

She described her husband as "very giving."

 

Robert Zangas wrote in a journal entry on his Web site dated last week that he had hope for Iraq.

 

"This is a society that is in desperate need of everything," the entry reads.

 

 "... I don't mean to sound depressed because I am not. I am enjoying this work immensely. It is very gratifying."

 

L. Paul Bremer, the top administrator in Iraq, has requested that the FBI (news - web sites) investigate the slayings. It was not yet known whether the gunmen were specifically targeting coalition officials.

 

Holland, a 1996 graduate of the University of Tulsa College of Law, worked at two law firms in Tulsa before joining the Peace Corps and traveling to Namibia.

She returned to the United States after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, but did not stay long.

 

Tulsa attorney Stephen Rodolf, who kept in touch with Holland through e-mail, said she seemed to be aware of growing threats to her safety.

 

"We stand out, and those who dislike us know precisely when we come to town," she wrote to him.

 

Her job required her to travel almost every day on highways where snipers and roadside bombs lurked. And yet, she asked to travel with an unarmed escort because she felt the high security around her was a barrier to her work with Iraqi women, he said.

 

"She would not take foolish risks," Rodolf said. "But a big part of her commitment was that there are risks in the world, and if you are to accomplish good, you accept them."

 

Take Care Everyone!

 

Gregg Edgar

Coalition Provisional Authority

Office of Strategic Communications

Today was a lot calmer.  First off I slept in until 9:00 am.  Absolutely Heavenly! From there I took care of some issues with our Suburban and did some meetings abut the Studio.  We also had meetings about the June 30 turn over. (Pretty Exciting stuff)  Then we did some admin work on our staging and had a Senor Kimmit press conference this evening.  Our staff also took care of a farewell to the MP’s with Bremer.  Not quite the day we had yesterday. 

 

I went out to the Rasheed this evening with Mike and Al (not Alan) .  A couple of people from Stratcom had organized Salsa Night.  We went to support them and plus I was just in need of a night away from the computer.  Al is very interesting guy.  He was born in NY and then lived in VA through 2^nd grade.  He then moved to Egypt and lived there through college.  His parents are Egyptian.  He is fluent in Arabic and is our key Arabic media guy. 

 

Mike is our newest addition to the Advance team.  He is a good guy but needs a break from Iraq.  He gets a little too keyed up. 

 

Otherwise it was a pretty uneventful day.

 

Take Care Everyone!

 

Gregg Edgar

Coalition Provisional Authority

Office of Strategic Communications

Another Helicopter trip today.  Gordon and I took the Ambassador to Ramadi.  For those of you playing along on the maps I sent yesterday, go due West from Baghdad.  Our trip to Ramadi was forty minutes and our return trip was 30 minutes.  They were hauling ass on the return trip.  They also took us on a little circuitous route on the trip over. I believe they took us out over Buhayrut ath Tharthar (Lake Tharthar).  It was absolutely huge – seemed Great Lakes Huge, but maybe not. 

 

We were again flying pretty low.  We had Apache escorts for this trip.  Cousin Sue and Don it was pretty cool seeing these birds that you worked on in action. They are pretty intimidating machines when they are flying at you. When we took off this morning the doors on the Blackhawk were closed, but the door next to me wouldn’t latch right and it came open in flight.  It was much more entertaining with the doors open.  On the way back we just started with the doors open and kept them that way.  Jess put up a video of the return trip on the website he has been posting these on - http://www.homeaz.net/iraq. 

 

It was interesting watching as we flew over the lake, how the fishermen were using their tractors to pull their nets.  They had huge nets out into the lake, just like you would see in rocky point and they back the tractor in as far as they can and start pulling the nets out of the water.  It is fascinating how different people use tools.  What’s the line about necessity being the mother of invention?  

 

In Ramadi we stopped in to see the Commanding General for the 82^nd Airborne, MG Swannak (that’s two stars for anyone asking).  By the way the rumor is that Sanchez is getting his fourth star soon. The 82^nd is rotating out and being replaced by the 1^st Marine Division.  Much the same as yesterday we were paying our respects to the outgoing and incoming Generals.  All of these Two Stars that we have seen are as Gordon likes to call them “Straight out of Central Casting”.  They all look like they have been chiseled out of granite.  They truly have a presence about them.  Sanchez is not necessarily the Granite looking type but he definitely has presence.

 

I am attaching some photos of our excursion.  The First is a continuation of the G&G tours of Iraqi palaces.  I threw one in of the helicopters as they were going over the Power lines.  It is a pretty cool shot.  The third is from the return trip home.  I am going to send more to Jess to throw up on the site so I don’t keep clogging everyone’s emails.

 

Hope all is well back home.

 

Take Care Everyone!

 

Gregg Edgar

Coalition Provisional Authority

Office of Strategic Communications

 

The one labeled corkscrew is a plane coming into BIAP doing the corkscrew maneuver that I told you about.

 

Gregg Edgar

Coalition Provisional Authority

Office of Strategic Communications

This is very cool!!

 

Gregg Edgar

Coalition Provisional Authority

Office of Strategic Communications

I have two words for you -- Black Hawk! Gordon and I took the Ambassador up to Tikrit today to visit with the 4^th and 1^st ID (Infantry division).  The 4^th is rotating out and being replaced by the 1^st and the Ambassador was paying his respects to the two generals.  The Blackhawk ride was incredible.  I swear that there were points that we were no higher than the top of my suburban.  They fly very low and very fast.  All told the flight was about 45 minutes one way.  There are several power lines (which the US has built) between Baghdad and Tikrit and every time the helicopter comes up on the lines they quickly climb over them and flare out doing a sharp turn and rapid descent. You get a good roller coaster feeling from it. 

 

The helicopter gives you an interesting perspective on the country.  I am going to send an additional e-mail with some maps that have interesting facts on the country. When you take off and fly out over Baghdad the first thing that you notice is that every building has a satellite dish up on top of it and most of them have more than one.  You look at the houses and are amazed that they are even standing, but on top of it will be a perfectly aligned Sat. Dish.  I am sending an additional e-mail with photos of Baghdad from above.  

 

You quickly get out of the city and are into farmland.  There are a lot of sheep and goats and some cattle, all in small herds. I couldn’t really tell what the crops were, but a lot of them looked like they were actually growing pastures for the livestock.  There were tractors on every farm.  Most of them were parked on a slant face down a hill. I was guessing that they had to push start the tractors and have them on an incline to make it easier on them.  For the farmers on the e-mail is this correct? The farm houses appeared very similar to the Indian dwellings at Pueblo Grande or elsewhere in the Southwest.  They are adobe structures that look like they haven’t changed in over thousands of years.  The only difference is the beat up pick up truck or ’57 Chevy (saw one) parked by the house.  They also have elaborate canal systems that bring the water into the farms.  This might be where the Hohokam went.

 

Tikrit itself was fascinating.  We stayed on the military post there. It is in an area outside of town where the palaces were.  It sits right up on the Tigris River.  These palaces (the ones that aren’t blown all to hell) are incredible.  This guy literally blew this country’s treasury on building these places.  There was a nice breeze blowing and a lot of greenery.  The water in the Tigris looks pretty disgusting though.  EPA would have a field day. 

 

When we got back from Tikrit we had another Senor/Kimmitt press conference and planning meetings for tomorrow. As you all have probably heard there were three CPA officials killed yesterday in Hilla.  That was the dominant topic at the press conference.  I did not know the people who were killed, but I have a good friend who is stationed in Hilla who luckily is back in the States right now.  A couple of our Advance staff knew the folks and had worked with them several times.  From what it sounds like the folks were targeted and ambushed.  They had recently opened a Democracy Center in Hilla that focused on women’s rights, something that is really popular in a heavily Shiite area.  Apparently they and their car were very messed up.

 

Well I think that’s all I have for tonight.

 

Take Care Everyone!

 

Gregg Edgar

Coalition Provisional Authority

Office of Strategic Communications

Attached is a shot of me with my friend Aziz who works for the GC Protocal office.  He and I had a conversation this morning about a few upcoming events and he suggested that they might actually take the crossed sword down.  Aziz is the guy that you saw in the footage of the signing , helping them sign by there name.  All three of these shots are from yesterday.

 

Gregg Edgar

Coalition Provisional Authority

Office of Strategic Communications

 

Sorry I am so late this evening.  The day went a little long.  We had Dan Rather doing a shot from the famous Crossed Swords at Saddam’s parade grounds.  There is a day shot of the Parade grounds with Christina. Off to the left as your looking at the pictures is where Saddam would stand and fire off his shotgun.  The crossed swords are a memorial that Saddam put up after the Iran - Iraq war.  The hands are supposedly modeled off of his own.  On the sides and stretching across the rode are helmets from the dead Iranian soldiers.  It is kind of eerie.

 

We spent 6 hours in 60 degree weather and wind setting up Dan’s shot so it could air on this evening’s news.  Though I have been doing this a long time it still amazes how Hollywood (fake) the news really is.  Dan was a very nice guy and was wonderful with our troops that were out supporting us. Unfortunately his news is rarely slanted my way.   Attached is a photo of him with Keith Gatlin or Gizmo as he refers to himself.  He is a great guy works very hard for us and spent all evening helping us find power to light Dan up.

 

Tomorrow should be a big day.  I am stretching myself out a bit.  It should be real fun.  I am going to send another e-mail after this one that has some more photos from yesterday.

 

Take Care Everyone!

 

Gregg Edgar

Coalition Provisional Authority

Office of Strategic Communications