Dahr Jamail's Weblog
'Dahr Jamail's Weblog' contains Dahr's personal log, opinions and commentary from the Middle East.
May 08, 2008
'I wanted to report on where the silence was'
Texas-born Dahr Jamail was outraged that the US media were swallowing the Bush administration's line on Iraq and so, with just $2,000 and no previous journalistic experience, he set off to find out what was really happening in the country. He talks to Stephen Moss
The Guardian
Stephen Moss
Thursday May 8 2008
To read article at the original source, with photo, click here
In the spring of 2003 Dahr Jamail, a fourth-generation Lebanese-American with a taste for adventure, was up a mountain in Alaska, climbing and earning a living by working as a guide. He was, though, following news of the invasion of Iraq, and what he read and heard made him so furious that he decided to leave the mountains - "my church", as he calls them - and head for that newly subjugated land, armed only with a laptop and a digital recorder.
Continue reading "'I wanted to report on where the silence was'"
Posted by Dahr_Jamail at 04:49 PM
March 27, 2008
Alternative Radio
April 15 Dahr Jamail - Iraq: Beyond the Green Zone (lecture)
-Alternative Radio is a weekly one-hour progressive radio show syndicated on more than 190 stations in the U.S. and beyond.
Feed Date & Time: Tuesdays, 1400-1459ET
Channel: A68.5
Terms: Free of Charge to All Stations
Contact: Ali Lightfoot, 303-473-0972, info@alternativeradio.org
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Posted by Dahr_Jamail at 06:14 PM
BTGZ Wins James Aronson Award for Social Justice Journalism for 2007
Dahr Jamail, author of
Beyond the Green Zone
Dispatches from an Unembedded Journalist in Occupied Iraq
Dahr Jamail (Author)
Foreword by Amy Goodman
Published: 10/01/2007
9781931859479 | $20.00 | Trade Cloth
Forthcoming in paperback
http://www.cbsd.com/inventory.aspx?id=22349
has just won a James Aronson Award for Social Justice Journalism for 2007
The award letter says that Jamail's work "has shown the depth of suffering and 'collateral damage' not readily captured in corporate media" and praises his "remarkable contribution to social justice journalism."
The awards ceremony is 5:30 p.m., Monday, April 14 at Hunter College in New York City.
For more information about the Aronson Award, visit
http://filmmedia.hunter.cuny.edu/Aronson
Continue reading "BTGZ Wins James Aronson Award for Social Justice Journalism for 2007"
Posted by Dahr_Jamail at 03:38 PM
March 13, 2008
Beyond the Green Zone finalist in Foreword Magazine's political science Book of the Year Award
Haymarket Books author Dahr Jamail, author of Beyond the Green Zone, is one of 12 finalists in the running in the political science category for ForeWord Magazine's Book of the Year Awards.
ForeWord Magazine's Book of the Year Awards were established to bring increased attention from librarians and booksellers to the literary achievements of independent publishers and their authors.
2007 Award winners to be announced May 29
Read the press release and view the list here
Posted by Dahr_Jamail at 12:07 AM
March 12, 2008
The Biometric Cataloging of Americans at Home
"Avoid the hassle of airport security every time you fly."
This is the rhetoric being used to entice U.S. citizens to voluntarily provide their biometric information to the U.S. government.
The program, called "clear," is being installed at airports around the country now. For a little background on this, view a post at this website from September 2005, called Securitizing the Global Norm of Identity: Biometric Technologies in Domestic and Foreign Policy.
In Fallujah, the cataloging of human beings has been involuntary since the U.S. siege of that city in November 2004. Having retina scans, fingerprinting and bar-code IDs is mandatory there for Iraqis.
But now, in the "homeland" of the United States, you too can join the happy club of those giving their biometric data to the federal government. Just bring two forms of government issued identification to your local Clear airport or various downtown location, enroll, pay the $128 fee, wait 2-3 weeks, and then if you are accepted, step up to your nearest scanner, and try not to blink as your retina is scanned.
These kiosks are planned for airports in New York, Denver, Oakland, and many others.
So, no need to be intimidated by the government's desire to use biometric data to catalog U.S. citizens, (or Iraqis for that matter), as you can rest more peacefully knowing you are now more secure.
You can learn more about this safe, fast, and helpful way to get through airport security in four minutes or less, here.
Posted by Dahr_Jamail at 05:36 PM
February 08, 2008
Jeremy Scahill interviews Dahr Jamail for The Nation
Dahr Jamail: Beyond the Green Zone
by JEREMY SCAHILL
[posted online on February 8, 2008]
EDITOR'S NOTE: Dahr Jamail has spent more time reporting from Iraq than almost any other US journalist. His new book, Beyond the Green Zone: Dispatches from an Unembedded Journalist in Occupied Iraq, is a chronicle of his experiences there. He recently sat down with Nation correspondent Jeremy Scahill to talk about the supposed "success" of Bush's troop surge, what would happen if Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton wins the White House and why he believes an immediate withdrawal from Iraq is the only way to peace. Here's an edited transcript of that interview.
Both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton have indicated that US troops are not going to be withdrawn in any significant manner in the first term of a presidency. What do you think would happen if the US did withdraw immediately from Iraq?
Continue reading "Jeremy Scahill interviews Dahr Jamail for The Nation"
Posted by Dahr_Jamail at 07:04 PM
January 31, 2008
Beyond the Green Zone #3 Alternet Best Progessive Books / #1 Staff Pick at Powell's Books
Alternet Best Progressive Books of 2007
Book experts, AlterNet staff and readers weighed in. Here are the groundbreakers that stood out from the crowd.
By Don Hazen, AlterNet
Posted on January 31, 2008
1. The Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein
2. Blackwater by Jeremy Scahill
3. Beyond the Green Zone: Dispatches from an Unembedded Journalist in Occupied Iraq
by Dahr Jamail
Haymarket Books
One of the few unaffiliated journalists in Iraq, journalist Jamail went to see the conditions for himself, and the compelling, heartbreaking stories he sent back over his eight-month stay were carried in publications worldwide: from family houses destroyed with their inhabitants to mosques full of people held under siege to the ill-equipped medical facilities and security forces meant to deal with them. (Publishers Weekly)
---
Beyond the Green Zone is a Number 1 staff pick at Powell's Books
Adam S.
1. Beyond the Green Zone: Dispatches from an Unembedded Journalist in Occupied Iraq by Dahr Jamail
George Orwell once said, "In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act." No one has captured that revolutionary spirit more than Dahr Jamail. Jamail, like all of us, heard the lies the media was spewing to justify the U.S. invasion of Iraq and decided to go there "to counter what they were doing by showing the real situation on the ground." This book collects a number of his essays from the eight months he spent in Iraq and provides the reader a rare opportunity to hear about the war from the vantage point of the people of the Middle East.
Posted by Dahr_Jamail at 09:04 PM
January 10, 2008
Beyond the Green Zone on CSPAN's Book TV
BookTV on CSPAN2 presents:
Beyond the Green Zone: Dispatches from an Unembedded Journalist in Occupied Iraq
Author: Dahr Jamail
Upcoming Schedule
Sunday, January 13, at 6:00 AM
Sunday, January 13, at 2:00 PM
Sunday, January 13, at 10:00 PM
About the Program
Dahr Jamail talks about his experiences working as an unembedded journalist in Iraq and discusses what life is like for Iraqis living under U.S. occupation. The talk was held at the Unitarian Universalist Church in San Diego.
About the Author
Along with Iraq, Dahr Jamail has reported from Syria, Turkey, Lebanon, and Jordan. He is a special correspondent for KPFA's "Flashpoints" and has appeared on Pacifica Radio's "Democracy Now!". For more, visit dahrjamailiraq.com.
Posted by Dahr_Jamail at 06:18 PM
January 09, 2008
Beyond the Green Zone at Tom's Review of Books
"Don't miss Dahr Jamail's first book, Beyond the Green Zone: Dispatches from an Unembedded Journalist in Occupied Iraq -- and, while you're reading it, think of us as the invading Martians. I hardly need to extol Jamail to Tomdispatch readers, but his book offers a remarkably fresh glimpse at what those "Martians" looked like and felt like through Iraqi eyes. This book should outlast the war it recorded (even given Washington's urge to remain in Iraq forever)."
Read the full posting at Tom Engelhardt's TomDispatch.com
Posted by Dahr_Jamail at 06:33 PM
January 03, 2008
The Patriot: Truthout Reviews Dahr Jamail's "Beyond the Green Zone: Dispatches From an Unembedded Reporter in Occupied Iraq," with author Interview
By Leslie Thatcher
t r u t h o u t | Book Review
Thursday 03 January 2008
We were a minority, but still, there were many of us to whom it was as plain as the nose on our own face, in the fall of 2002 when the great "marketing campaign" for the Iraq war was rolled out, that Saddam Hussein had no weapons of mass destruction and no connection whatsoever to 9/11, that the war was an illegal act of aggression that could only hearten enemies of the United States. Some of us turned out for the great global "focus group" of February 15, 2003; some of us wrote to the editor, argued with family members and neighbors, were horrified by the mainstream media's pornographic endorsement of "Shock and Awe," but Dahr Jamail came down from his job as a Park Service rescue ranger on Mt. Denali in Alaska, and, armed with $2,000, a laptop, digital camera, and some indie media listserve advice about how to get there, set off for Baghdad. What he has described as "an act of desperation" provoked by his sense of complicity as an American is also, in a very real sense, an ultimate act of patriotism, an assertion that Americans are better than what we have done in Iraq, a faith he still champions that:
"If the people of the United States had the real story about what their government has done in Iraq, the occupation would already have ended ... If people in my country could hear the stories of life under occupation and put themselves in Iraqis' stories, they would understand. I hold that hope because the stories of Iraq are our story now."
Posted by Dahr_Jamail at 07:15 PM
December 20, 2007
Drifting Into Dystopia: An Interview with Dahr Jamail
December 19, 2007
[by Scott Thill]
Dahr Jamail is that rarity in today's journalism: An intrepid truth-teller who enters the line of fire unprotected by the planet's greatest superpower. He may be unembedded, but his award-winning work, out now in the form of an amazing book called Beyond the Green Zone, is bulletproof with truth. And we need that more than ever nowadays, as the Iraqmire spirals into oblivion and the American empire falters. With an election on tap and no incentive for the Democrats to change course if they win in 2008, we could be looking at the last days of the United States as we know it. And we saw it coming the whole time.
Morphizm: Do you find it somewhat ironic that you are a journalist, wanting to get the truth out?
Continue reading "Drifting Into Dystopia: An Interview with Dahr Jamail"
Posted by Dahr_Jamail at 04:48 AM
December 15, 2007
The Sydney Morning Herald Reviews Beyond the Green Zone
Beyond the Green Zone
The Sydney Morning Herald
Antony Loewenstein, reviewer
December 14, 2007
A grim picture of young American soldiers acting violently against an often-invisible threat.
Author: Dahr Jamail
Genre: Society/Politics
Publisher: Haymarket Books
Pages: 313
RRP: $39.95
Nearly five years since the start of the Iraq war, we still know remarkably little about the conflict and its effect on the Iraqi people. A recent study by British polling agency ORB found that more than 1 million Iraqis had been killed since 2003 and the UN reports that more than 4 million internal and external refugees now struggle for safety.
Continue reading "The Sydney Morning Herald Reviews Beyond the Green Zone"
Posted by Dahr_Jamail at 01:21 AM
December 14, 2007
Jamail Receives Callaway Award
The Eighteenth Annual
Joe A. Callaway
Award for Civic Courage
Presented to Dahr Jamail
Journalist, embedded in the truth
In recognition of his courageous decision to report the real stories of the Iraqi people under United States invasion and then occupation; his unique ability to cover “sustained atrocities,” a reportage that leaves indelible marks on one’s conscience and memories, weaving a disturbing tapestry of horrific, indiscriminate civilian injuries, diseases, humiliations and deaths (650,000 as of 2006); his depiction of the brutality of American military forces yet understanding the predicament of many soldiers arising out of failed policies, surrounded by endemic corruption of the war contractors who bilked with impunity the United States treasury; his outrage at the government’s unchecked power and a compliant corporate media that misled the American people; and his luminous humanity, seeking nothing but the truth for the whole story.
Continue reading "Jamail Receives Callaway Award"
Posted by Dahr_Jamail at 02:45 AM
December 03, 2007
Beyond the Green Zone; excerpt of introduction at Foreign Policy in Focus
Dahr Jamail | November 30, 2007
Editor: Erik Leaver
Foreign Policy In Focus
Editors Note: The following is an excerpt from the introduction to Beyond the Green Zone: Dispatches from an Unembedded Journalist in Occupied Iraq (Haymarket Books, 2007).
In 2002, while winter began to settle across the United States, the drumbeat for war became deafening. Living in Anchorage, Alaska, I spent much of my free time reading the news from abroad or getting it via alternative online outlets such as Media Lens, Democracy Now!, and Media Channel. The cheerleading for war feebly disguised as "journalism" that corporate media television stations and newspapers in the United States spewed was intolerable. The overwhelming evidence was already available. There were not and had not been "weapons of mass destruction" in Iraq for years. The make-believe link between Saddam Hussein and 9/11 was a chimera. The excuse given later, that of "liberating" the people of Iraq, held even less truth.
Continue reading "Beyond the Green Zone; excerpt of introduction at Foreign Policy in Focus"
Posted by Dahr_Jamail at 11:43 PM
November 13, 2007
BOOKS-US/IRAQ: Outrage in a Time of Apathy
Inter Press Service
By Aaron Glantz*
SAN FRANCISCO, Nov 13 (IPS) - Unlike most U.S. journalists who went to Iraq to cover a war, Dahr Jamail went to try to stop it.
Continue reading "BOOKS-US/IRAQ: Outrage in a Time of Apathy"
Posted by Dahr_Jamail at 04:12 PM
November 05, 2007
What I saw in Fallujah
Dahr Jamail
Published 01 November 2007
Dahr Jamail set out to report the truth about the US invasion of Iraq and its terrible impact on daily life. Determined to remain independent of the army, he embedded himself instead with the Iraqi people
On the day martial law was declared, US tanks began rolling into the outskirts of Fallujah, while war planes continued to pound the city with as many as 50,000 residents still inside. Iyad Allawi, the US-installed interim prime minister, laid out the six steps for implementing his "security law". These entailed a 6pm curfew in Fallujah, the blocking of all highways except for emergencies and for government vehicles, the closure of all city and government services, a ban on all weapons in Fallujah, the closure of Iraq's borders with Syria and Jordan (except to allow passage to food trucks and vehicles carrying other necessary goods), and the closure of Baghdad International Airport for 48 hours.
Continue reading "What I saw in Fallujah"
Posted by Dahr_Jamail at 05:40 PM
The Iraq war has become a disaster that we have chosen to forget
With the media subdued, governments have not been held to account for the biggest political calamity of our time
Madeleine Bunting
Monday November 5, 2007
The Guardian
Excerpt:
"What is chilling about Jamail's accounts is the routine destructiveness of the US forces; how they demolish nearby homes after a roadside bomb, leave unexploded munitions in the fields of farmers who don't give information, bulldoze orchards. Livelihoods destroyed, families displaced every day, incubating hatred."
Continue reading "The Iraq war has become a disaster that we have chosen to forget"
Posted by Dahr_Jamail at 05:31 PM
November 01, 2007
More BTGZ Reviews/Interviews
The Catastrophic Military Occupation of Iraq is Rarely Described Accurately in the U.S. Media
Written by Kevin Zeese, for Democracy Rising
Monday, 29 October 2007
An Interview with independent journalist Dahr Jamail “The bogus idea that if the U.S. leaves things will worsen is both inherently racist and ignorant.”
Read full interview here
Time Out Chicago Review of Beyond the Green Zone
Posted by Dahr_Jamail at 06:04 PM
October 24, 2007
Beyond the Green Zone Reviews and Interviews
Powells
Original author essay
Continue reading "Beyond the Green Zone Reviews and Interviews"
Posted by Dahr_Jamail at 05:44 PM
October 15, 2007
The Mouth of a Graveyard: A Review of Dahr Jamail's Beyond the Green Zone
ZNET
by Ron Jacobs; October 02, 2007
Original Posting of Review
Beyond the Green Zone: Dispatches From an Unembedded Journalist in Occupied Iraq
by Dahr Jamail
(Haymarket, 2007)
As the U.S. occupation of Iraq and the accompanying war on its people heads into a fifth year, the New York Times and Washington Post continue to run articles presenting the situation in that country in much the same way that the politicians and generals in Washington want us to see it. In other words, the picture those papers present is one that not only considers Washington's goals there to be worthwhile, but actually being reached. If one wants to find another side to the story, they must search a little deeper on the internet for reportage and analysis. This coverage not only begins with different assumptions regarding the occupation, it also presents a picture based on the perspectives of Iraqis and others whose fortunes are not tied to Washington's plans for the region.
Continue reading "The Mouth of a Graveyard: A Review of Dahr Jamail's Beyond the Green Zone"
Posted by Dahr_Jamail at 06:06 PM
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