http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/usnews/20041019/ts_usnews/wemightbekilled&cid=926&ncid=1473BAGHDAD--At the Mansour computer and Internet cafe, in the upscale neighborhood of the same name, most of the computers have been turned off. Manager Mena Kamona surveys the scene--three sleepy Iraqis smoking and surfing the Web--and complains that violence targeting westerners and Iraqis seen as collaborators has all but killed off her business. "Foreigners don't exist for us anymore; they haven't been here in such a long time," sighs the 25-year-old from beneath her headscarf. "But if a foreigner were to enter the Internet cafe, I imagine a rocket would immediately follow."
Baghdad is caught up in a climate of fear and intimidation. The most tangible perils--the bombings, shootings, and kidnappings--now form a grim, shifting backdrop for daily life in the capital. Less visible, but perhaps even more debilitating, is the anxiety that now makes even open-minded Iraqis wary of contacts with Americans and other foreigners--those few who dare venture out from their fortified hotels to eat, shop, or help rebuild the country. Even in the Green Zone, the supposed secure compound that houses most American personnel in Baghdad, a suicide bomber successfully struck at a cafe and souvenir marketplace. "We fear for our lives and for the lives of foreigners," says a Baghdad salon owner, who calls herself Um Ashraff (which translates as "mother of Ashraff"). "If anyone informs the insurgents that this salon deals with Americans, we might be killed the next day," she says, nervously waving a pair of shears.
As a result, welcoming salutations and invitations for tea, extended to western customers in stores and cafes around Baghdad even during Saddam Hussein (news - web sites)'s days, have been replaced by scowls and suspicious glances. Entrepreneurs like Kamona, who set up shop after Saddam's ouster in hopes of riding the influx of western business, are closing their doors to foreign customers, intimidated by threats and rumors of targeted assassinations.
Window shopping. But Iraqis say the breakdown in rapport between locals and foreigners is not due to loathing, and many mourn the effect intimidation has had on their businesses. "We look to westerners as the only hope in our lives," insists Kamona, who was forced to turn over half of the Internet cafe space to an old man who sells hookah pipes to cover her rent. "It's very important for foreigners to be here, because this will bring a lot of money to Iraqis."
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