A report from an Iranian blogger

From Baghdad Burning, an Iranian woman blogging as Riverbend:

It was only later in the evening that we saw the pictures on tv and saw the press-conference, etc. By then, Baghdad was a mess of bullets, and men waving flags. Our area and other areas were somewhat quiet, but central Baghdad was a storm of gunfire. The communist party were scary- it's like they knew beforehand. Immediately, their red flags and banners were up in the air and they were marching up and down the streets and around Firdaws Square. My cousin was caught in the middle of a traffic jam and he says the scenes were frightening.

The bullets are supposed to be an expression of joy… and they probably are- in a desert, far from buildings, streets crawling with vulnerable people and cars. In Baghdad, they mean chaos. People were literally ducking and running, trying to get out of the rain of firepower because what goes up must, eventually, come down.

Yesterday was almost as messy. Most parents kept their kids home. There have been pro-America demonstrations in some areas, and anti-America demonstrations in other areas. At around 6 pm yesterday evening, the chaos began in Amriyah, a residential area in Baghdad. The streets were suddenly filled with anti-American demonstrators, some holding up pictures of Saddam. It lasted until around 11 pm and then the tanks pulled up and things settled down somewhat.

Today there were pro-America demonstrations in Baghdad organized by SCIRI and there were anti-America demonstrations in Tikrit, Falloojeh, Samirreh (where 11 Iraqis were killed- CPA claim they were 'insurgents'), Baghdad, Imsayab and the biggest one was in Mosul. Thousands of students from the University of Mosul took to the streets with an anti-occupation demonstration and some of the residents joined them… the university president had to shut down the university- it was huge. I was surprised the CNN wasn't covering it. The troops broke it up by firing above the crowd and bringing in the helicopters. The demonstration in Samirreh had a similar ending, except the firing was *in* the crowd and several people were wounded severely.

Surprised that CNN wasn't covering it....

The rumors have been endless ever since yesterday- and they all seem to be filtering in from Tikrit. Some of the rumors include people claiming that Saddam was actually caught a week ago, but the whole thing was kept quiet. Another rumor is that some sort of nerve gas was used in a limited sort of way on the area he was hiding in. Another rumor goes on about how he was 'drugged'- something was added to his food… Others say he's being interrogated in Qatar… and on and on.

Aha. A possibility I hadn't thought of for the "drugging" - a gas used to "neutralize" him before they brought him out. I was thinking that he was drugged before he went into that hole. Maybe not. Gassing him might explain why he didn't resist. You'd think they might report that that's what they'd done, though. Perhaps not. I'm sure after they got him out, they went over their story about what should be said, and neutralizing has far less propaganda value than that he was a cowardly rat. You'd have to weigh whether a humiliation gained you more than it cost you.

Also, the gassing bit before getting him out is less plausible when you throw into the mix that he had a pistol on him. If he was gassed to neutralize him, then he didn't come out of the hole telling them his name and that he was willing to negotiate, like they said. So, I'm still thinking he was drugged and placed in the hole.

Oh hell, the whole thing could be scripted and rescripted.

But we can speculate. Anybody can be a "reporter". This is the way they do it on the major networks, isn't it? Speculate? I can see I've got a promising career ahead of me.

The GC seem equally confused with the commotion. Talabani claims it was a combined effort between the Bayshmarga (the Kurdish militia) and the troops, Chalabi, on the other hand, insisted the whole thing was completely an American effort. It's hard to tell who has the story right and who's getting it wrong…

Ho ho! There's the understatement of the year.

Things are very frightening these days in Baghdad. Going from one area to another is like going from one city to another- the feelings and emotions vary so drastically it feels like only a matter of time before we may see clashes...

Best of luck, Riverbend.

Deb forwards a mesage with this in it:

Reverse It
Posted: December 16, 2003
Hey there. Commenting on the sickles in the flags. Not that actually. I am commenting on the reversed american flags with a gold fringe trim sewn on them worn on the upper left arm of the troops "seizing Saddam". What on earth does that mean? We called the newspaper today to ask, and they weren't sure either. Seems like no one could tell us what that patch meant. Interesting things going on surrounding this supposed capture, hum? Everyone was at first positive that the negative of the photo had been turned around, but we asked to speak to the editor of the newspaper, who said that that was NOT the case.

Stewart's Reply: Gold fringe around a flag means that the country is under occupation and under military law. Reversing the flag image means that the country is being disbanded. I had not seen those images.