Salon: Incident on Khairallah Tulfa Street (part 3 of a series)

[muriel_volestrangler]

parts 1 and 2 are discussed here and here.

A search for Sadr City's killing fields goes terribly wrong.

I wanted to talk to the cop because I wanted to find out more about a place called al-Seddeh and a mysterious figure named Abu Dereh. I'd been looking into a secret Mahdi Army court located in Sadr City, which pronounces summary sentences upon the Sunni captives who end up before it. Those same captives would later be found in shallow graves, bound and bearing signs of torture, in an empty field at the edge of Sadr City, a piece of waste ground called al-Seddeh, which Iraqis have nicknamed the "Happiness Hotel." Abu Dereh, or "Father of Shield," is a name that kept coming up in interviews about this court. One police source said he was the major figure behind the death squads and he carried out the sentences. I began to think of Abu Dereh as a dark king inside Sadr City, the face the sheiks and imams did not want exposed to the press.
...
On June 9, Haidar's contact told us that we had to wait for the officer, a man named Sgt. Ahmad, at a restaurant in a mixed Sunni-Shiite neighborhood called Talbiyah. Talbiyah was under the putative control of the Mahdi Army. The cop had told Haidar, "Go to the Habaibna restaurant at 3 p.m. and call me when you get there." We were at the restaurant five minutes early. Haidar followed the instructions and called the cop and let him know we had arrived.
...
My conversation with Ahmad lasted three minutes. The police sergeant said he had to go, but to ask any question I wanted. It was immediately clear to me that he would not answer any of my questions, and Ahmad knew I knew this. His responses were brief, useless and full of disinformation. Ahmad told me that Sadr City was fine, there were no problems there, that the police were protecting people. I thanked him. Then he walked away from us so he could make a phone call we could not overhear, more strange behavior.

By this time, I was worried. I gave up on the interview and headed for the car. Ahmad's patrol pulled away down the street, leaving us alone on Khairallah Tulfa street. We got into Haidar's car. He started the engine and was just pulling away from the curb when the attack started.
...
http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2006/07/14/kidnapping/

Not surprising, really - but it illustrates why so many reporters do stick to the Green Zone, with only brief visits to the outside world. There's always someone wanting to kill or kidnap them out there.