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Salam Pax update Salam Pax posted a big update yesterday, with photographs taken during a trip from Baghdad to Basra via Najaf.
So, those of you who thought he was not ‘for real’… has this changed your mind? Whilst it is difficult to be sure, I have always suspected the ‘Baghdad Blogger’ was exactly what he said he was.
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Are all those pics finally downloading…they were totally inaccessible before?!
“So, those of you who thought he was not ‘for real’… has this changed your mind?”
Why should it? It does nothing to refute the idea that he is a Baathist, which is to say an Arab Nazi, most likely from a high ranking family that is complicit in the horrible crimes of the Hussein regime. In my mind this is a virtual certainty
The real question is, why is he still hiding? Who is he hiding from? At this point, it sure looks like he is hiding from the Americans, which doesn’t do anything for his bona fides as a good guy.
We really don’t have any more information than we had before, as far as I am concerned, as to who he really is, why he blogged, and why he is still hiding. I think there is a very serious case to be made that Salam Pax is not a good guy at all, at all, and that his continued blogging is just a way to keep a marker down while he tries to figure out his exit strategy from whatever Baathist connections and activities he was involved in.
But I freely admit this is speculation, and that time will tell.
T. Hartin – you are right – it is speculation. If it turns out you are wrong and the guy is not a Baathist hack, you’d be better be ready to issue a big apology.
Truth is, none of us knows. I know this may shock some folk, but I don’t really care one way or the other.
Plus, if the situation vis a vis electricity, communications, etc. is so “iffy” in Baghdad at the moment, how is he able to upload multimegabytes of pictures and text if he DOESN’T have some “special” help?
Still, it’d be nice if he WAS just average Joe Baghdadi. Who knows?
T. Hartin – you are right – it is speculation. If it turns out you are wrong and the guy is not a Baathist hack, you’d be better be ready to issue a big apology.
You bet I will. And if he is a Baathist hack, I will expect comparable mea culpas from all the bloggers and others who facilitated and enabled him.
Basically, he has already admitted that his family are high ranking in the oil ministry, which means they are Baathists. His activities – access to the internet, the neighborhood he claims to live in, etc. – are pretty much Baathist preserves. Its hard to escape the conclusion that he has spent his life doing well off of the brutal Baathist regime. Now, he may be young enough not to be held responsible for all that, but it is not a propitious start.
The fact that he was never shut down by the Baathists is very suggestive to me, as is his continued refusal to go public, even though in all likelihood, were his hands clean, he would walk right into a dandy little publishing contract, worldwide acclaim, and other good things.
There are lots of unanswered questions about old SP, and the likely answers are not pretty. There may be a very good story that ties up all the loose ends and that stars SP a genuine good guy, but right now most of the incomplete information we have is consistent with a different conclusion altogether.
Rest assured, I am a Samizdata regular. When the truth is known (if ever), about SP, I will stand up and take my licks here at Samizdata if need be.
Hmmm… I had no real views on him being a Baathist appraratchik (mostly because I think the idea is daft given his highly critical views of Saddam and his sons)… what I was referring to was him being a genuine Iraqi blogging from within Saddam’s capital city. That too has been widely called into question.
As for why he might still be ‘hiding’… he is a gay guy in a Muslim country and even his own parents do not know about it. Does he really need any more reason than that?
Perry – if he is hiding because he is gay, then why is he hiding from the Americans, who are his ticket out of his repressive Muslim culture and into a most accepting country, complete with a ready-made fan club?
I think his “highly critical” views of Saddam etc. are the necessary currency for him to buy credibility in the West, and he well knows it. The fact that he was permitted to publish these views on the internet from within Iraq is, to my mind, one of the things that sets off my BS-meter. I find it very odd that there was only one Iraqi blogger, and it beggars belief that, if the security apparatus had wanted to track down a genuine dissident publishing from within Iraq over an Iraqi ISP, that it would not have done so.
You will note that his highly critical views of Saddam & co. are not necessarily criticisms of Baathism, and have not prevented him from being quite “ambivalent” about the Americans.
More questions than info. Hopefully, all will be made clear in time in what is admittedly a fascinating footnote to the Iraqi battle.
I’m not a regular reader of Salam Pax’s blog but here’s another question: Given all the recent speculation, isn’t it curious that he hasn’t mentioned any of it? He must be aware of it but seems to prefer to ignore the difficult questions instead of confronting them. This does little for his credibility.
Considering the high pricees for internet access that are currently holding in Baghdad, I would not expect SP to be spending time doing much of anything other than uploading to his blog and checking his email.
Salam Pax can best be described as apathetic about Matters Political; he doesn’t have, nor did he ever have, a political stance, per se. He tends very much to focus on the little bits and pieces primarily as they affect his immediate personal status, asking the little questions about the little stuff here and there, rather like responding to various itches. A scratch here, a rub there; that’s as involved as he gets.
That’s the way he is!