January 2005

NPR: Sunni, Kurdish Voters Report Few Election Problems

...for the National Assembly and one for the creation of an independent region of Kurdistan. Hear Time magazine's Michael Ware in Baqubah.

NPR: 2:21

TIME: Terrorists Home In On Australians

By MICHAEL WARE

When Sabah Aziz trudged past the police officers at the checkpoint outside Baghdad's al-Hamra hotel just before 7 a.m. on Jan. 19, he brushed off their invitation to stop for breakfast. Everyone in the neighborhood knew Aziz. People said he'd gone insane when his only son was executed for deserting Saddam Hussein's army. He walked out on his wife and daughter, roaming their suburb but never returning home. Locals cared for him, leaving out food and blankets. On this Wednesday morning, making his way between the blast barriers and "dragon's teeth" road spikes at the checkpoint, Aziz told the police officers, "I want to walk." Turning left on the four-lane road cutting through the capital's Jadriyah district, he headed east in the direction of the Australian embassy. In front of him a garbage truck stopped, and its driver hopped out to collect the rubbish bags left out on the pavement. This early, the Jadriyah road was quiet. Shops were still shuttered; a few pedestrians and the odd car went by. The Australian soldiers in their nine-story barracks - set up in the shell of a partly built apartment block in front of the Australian embassy - peered out as they do around the clock, scanning for potential threats.

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