Thanks for voicing this caution . . . once I became aware that this was in the main media the more I got concerned for his safety. I pray that he will make through this alive.

MB suspects that Salam has figured it out all on his own; he's not stupid. He knows who his friends are here in the Blogdom; he won't forget at all.

Let us all offer our thoughts to where they will do some good!

Salam makes me think of Smith, writing his diary in George Orwell's 1984. I really hope he comes out of this okay.

I agree, he seems like a smart guy. But you also have to think about this. He sees his city bombed daily. He's afraid, and his blog is his one link to hope and sanity. He may be compelled to get on just for the comfort..

I do hope he can hold out a little bit longer

Folks... if you post a comment referencing reports that may give details about Salam Pax, I WILL delete it. Even if it does not come with a link.

This is the first time I've resorted to this on our blog, and hopefully it will be a very rare event. But I meant what I said in my post!

Joe's right. Let's all collectively maintain radio silence about Salam until Baghdad is secured. No linking, no mentioning.

Sometimes I really love the blogosphere.

Does anyone know if Salam Pax is still ok (as of 1:00pm PST, 3/26)?

Yes, he's still O.K., as of a couple of days ago. I got an e-mail from him in reply to my inquiry about his well-being. Something funny-- I didn't know if their internet was up or down, so I asked him if he would like me to ask Rumsfeld to take it over and put it back up, since I understood that Gen.Franks likes to use it, too. So, s said, that was what was causing the problem and the reason the iraqis took it down! Maybe I should e-mail centcom and ask them to send out the gen's 'friendly persuasion' in batches instead of all at once because he's sagging their system which may be hanging on with rubber bands, scotch tape, paper clips, and spit. I'm thinking it over.

Thanks for putting this up, Joe. Some of us having been very concerned about all this high-profile publicity about him. I even spouted off at Paul B. over his piece, which was a responsible essay. I have to apologize to him. I think some of the kids may be confused about whether this is some kind of 'reality-tv' show because they seem so strangely preoccupied with the question of whether he is 'real' or not. Did anyone (Diane?) read Cynthia Ozick's essay about Anne Frank a few years ago? Whether someone is 'real' or not is actually not such a simple yes/no issue. I have been thinking about writing an essay to address this issue, but if I do, maybe I'll just link it to Paul B's piece. Or maybe I shouldn't link it to anything else and I'll just send Paul the link. I need to think this over carefully because I don't want to do something irresponsible and get s hurt or worse.

I don;t know Diane. I sort of cringed when I saw details of your correspondance with him in the New Yorker, on the Web no less. If he still sent you a message after that, he knows what he is doing.

I was aghast to read the New Yorker article. Either Diane is terribly deficient in intelligence, awareness, and caring, or she has a need for attention that is so great it causes her to put someone's life at risk. What is even worse is that she did so by betraying that person's confidence. Unless, of course, what she said was bogus. In that case, perhaps Salam would be as safe as is possible under the circumstances.

According to Alan E. Brain at The Command Post, BBC-TV went one better tonight by broadcasting as many particulars as they could uncover for a no-doubt fascinating human interest story on Salam Pax.

Look, s knows the risks better than any of us. Thats what makes his blog so damn heroic.

There were a lot more German war diaries during the end of WW2 than most people know (I read a collection of German women's WW2 diary entries at U, forgot the title of the book, book was too thick tho).

Publicity is two-sided, it does good for the world for people to read s. I wouldn't have found the words of s if it weren't for an article.

I pray s and family will be ok, but whatever happens isn't anyone's fault - it's war.

Louise, he made a one word post to his blog yesterday afternoon (eastern time): "test". It was up for a couple of hours and then was deleted.

I saw a brief "test" post on 3/25, Tuesday night Pacific time, and then it was gone. Offcamber, was the "test" you saw posted after that day?

I'm not going to say if I saw anything or not...but really, shut it! I have removed the link and even his name from my site because there is no way I'm going to contribute to anything that might help them find him. I think we should start a mass e-mail campaign to get google etc. to help eliminate anything that might help trace him. Look, they (google) agreed to certain content limitations the Chinese gov't required so they could provide access to Chinese citizens. The President and CEO's motto is "Don't be evil", I think they might listen...

If anyone has taken my suggestion of e-mailing google seriously (which I somewhat doubt, I admit it is idealistic and probably too little, too late) you can do so here:

Suggestions: suggestions@google.com
Praise and complaints: comments@google.com

Thanks.

yahoo is running a story tonight with a link to the blog:

"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. "

Canadian Broadcasting CBC Radio had an interview with a reporter this morning March 31 who said s is real. He gave more information about s's profession and company and nationality of the company.... Heartwrenching to know how naive we are and hoping praying s is as aware as all of you think and that these trails don't lead anywhere in a city of 5 million in chaos.

Dear Mr. Katzman,

I write to acknowledge receipt of your communication, which I have shared with Susanne Reber, Deputy Managing Editor of CBC Radio News, along with the request that your concerns be addressed.

Yours truly,

David Bazay
CBC Ombudsman
---
>> What in hell was CBC radio (and Peter Warren) thinking, giving very personal details this morning in a story about Salam Pax, the Baghdad blogger who has written a web site that criticizes the Iraqi regime?

Do they not understand that this man could be executed and tortured for some of the things his site says? Of course they do. Several western journalists in Iraq have already disappeared. But the details show what a great journalist you are, even if that helps Saddam's bully-boys track Salam down. That moment of cheap journalistic points is worth far more to them than this man's life.

I have never heard anything so disgusting on radio - you could line up every shock jock from Howard Stern on down, and have them broadcast for a month, and it still wouldn't compare to this.

Mr. Warren owes his listeners a deep apology for not having the basic sense to stop that interview. And if Salam Pax is killed by the Iraqi regime, Peter can go to bed every night from now on knowing that he was a possible accessory to another man's torture and murder.

Joe Katzman
Toronto, ON

I am just as concerned about US cruise missiles
Joe Nathan

Joe's right of course.

Better to be quiet for a good long time so as to survive and live through it.

S is certainly smart, that is for sure. Yet being smart is only as good as long as or if one uses their smarts to stay alive and well, no matter what the cause or reason may seem to be to do otherwise.

To survive and stay alive will ensure one to be able to help in telling this war's and its countless victim's thousands of stories, as well as about its aftermath, later.

Time enough for that if one (and others) allow[s] for it.

To survive will mean living long enough many years later in order to possibly write something even more meaningful and hopeful for Iraq's (and possibly the rest of the world's) future, once the multitude of dangers have passed.

This would be far better than to become yet another of its many victims. Victims who become only fodder for the ruthless machines on either side; including the all the various propaganda agents, whether of the state-run variety or the corporate mass-media type -- including those others in government and intelligence circles who help feed their appetites (and possibly even those wanna-be's who have until recently been curios blog readers or jealous bloggers or even supposed and trusted confidants).

No wonder some on this side of it are helping expose s so this soul becomes targeted easier by Iraq's current regime or even its successor.

This way they can both claim him as another victim of Iraq's current brutal rule and more the reason and excuse to defeat it, while at the same time making sure that s or others like them are not around to tell the world the real stories of what is truly going on.

Remember it well, those fighting against Iraq at this time have as much (and will surely have even more) of a reason to get rid of people like s as those in the current regime may have.

Those with a ruthless need for power and control (and, of course, they exist on every-side of this poor excuse for a vicious war) will do anything, including twisting the truth into whatever they require to fit, will always find a way to assassinate the truth-tellers of the world.

They always have and always will.

Otherwise what these power-mongers actually are as well as what they really are doing would see the light of day for the true madness and cruelty it certainly is and the mad people they are should the people ever survive to write this time's and your people's true history and struggle.

This will only change when and if someone can survive to tell the world and get the word out to another and then another.

For your sake and all of us as well, please lay low and stay very quiet and off the radar screen s, please!!!

We need you to be alive and well. We can wait, so can the world. Wait until all is surely and truly safe, then wait some more.

Only that way, will there be time enough for telling what will need to be told.

In support,

Worried

To clarify matters concerning the first sentence within my previous post, above, when I referred to "Joe's being right of course": this was meant as a reference to Joe Katzman's initial blog post that began this string; though I would have to add that Joe Nathan is certainly right to be "just as concerned about US cruise missiles" and everything else being sent that way too of course. Me too JN.

Hussein's regieme is unspeakabley evil, torturing and murdering. USA, which for so long was the hope and light to so many freedom seekers has descended to barbarianism and vileness in this illegal, unjustifiable and downright stupid war. Send Rumsfild to the front and pray for Salam Pax.
What a name! Peace in Arabic and in Latin. Message there. Bombing Iraq to Democracy? US is now controlled by zenophobic unilateralist religous bigots whose very ignorance of the world around them endangers there own people.
Did the Bush regieme ALLOW 9/11 to happe? Why appoint the Father of Lies, Henry Kissinger to investigate otherwise?
Pity Salam, Pity the people of Iraq. Pity America.
Paddy

You kids are ridiculous. If they have any sort of intelligence agency tracking this kid down would be easy. Look at the amount of info news agencies and other people have uncovered. So I think someone trained specifically for this task would have a bit of an easier time. So no amount of petitioning google, or anyone else is going to help.. other then to clear your conscience if something was to happen to him.

Norman, the key is how much time and trouble that agency is willing to devote to the task. For the last couple of weeks, the answer is probably "not much". In that environment, simple measures that increase the difficulty can be effective.

The rapid U.S. adsvance into Baghdad is probably the best possible news from Salam Pax's point of view, as Saddam's goons are now far more concerned with direct survival than anything else. The most dangerous situation would have been a long Basra-like siege - in that environment, the odds would definitely be against him for the reasons you point out.

That's a pretty interesting view on that!

third party verification is nice.

Phone recording services made easy.

third party verification is nice.

Bakhtiyar Sadigli is Gagash

Gagash


http://www.gagash.com