Obnoxious Neighbors

Well, well, well. According to Zeyad of Healing Iraq, New York Times foreign correspondents, based in Iraq, are keeping some Iraqis from their own property. From Zeyad’s post:

Ghaydaa an Iraqi friend of mine living in the US has a brother in Baghdad who has been denied access to his family stores and property on Abu Nuwas street near the Palestine hotel because of the roadblocks placed to protect the NY times and Reuters offices. He desperately needs the income from renting these stores. He tried sueing the NY times at an Iraqi court in Karradah but with no success. Ghaydaa has been sending email and snail mail to the NY times for weeks and nobody even cared to reply. Here is a copy of the letter she sent to them:

Arthur Sulzberger

Chairman and Publisher

The New York Times

November 15, 2003

Read the rest here.

Plenty about “bogus” turkeys in the news today, but nothing about the stuff that matters. Do you think that maybe the NYT staff doesn't care that the property belongs to these people? Or maybe they think that they can act in any manner and no one that matters will find out about it? Could be they're afraid of a little shake-and-bake that terrorists might have for them and are too lazy to try to distinguish splodeys from law-abiding Iraqi citizens? (Hint: the one's they see everyday trying to make a living probably aren't going to self-detonate.)

Maybe they should call the Marines for help.

(Thanks to Admiral Quixote)

UPDATE: The Admiral has a thorough roundup of the situation. It's getting curiouser and curiouser

Comments

[teal marie]

Typical. They like to think they are champions of the oppressed masses and yet dont give a dime if they oppress individuals with their great hulking hubris. I dont believe they are oblivious to it, they just consider themselves above reproach. Hypocritical parasites! I'd like to run over them with a garbage truck.

[torchy]

Addendum to above comment from the desk of teal marie:

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/05/international/middleeast/05IRAQ.html?hp=&pagewanted=all&position
(shoulder tendonitis prevents her from posting,click on my name to activate URL)

My comments:
(If you're not registered at NYT use torch11 as member ID and shifter for password)
It appears that NYT reporters value the insights of Iraqi "resistance" memebers but not the means of living for your average local Iraqi.Shameful