BBC's Andrew North Baghdad diary: Another planet (Blair's visit to the Green Zone)

[maddezmom]

Tony Blair came to Baghdad at the weekend, to show support for the Iraqi government.

I covered the UK prime minister's last visit in late May, when Prime Minister Nouri Maliki was putting the finishing touches to a government of national unity. The situation was bad, but there was hope it might start to turn things round.


A helicopter brings Tony Blair into the strange world of Baghdad's Green Zone

~snip~

But as on previous trips, Mr Blair did not really visit Baghdad. He stopped off for three hours on another planet called the Green Zone, the sprawling fortress housing the US and British embassies and most Iraqi government ministries.

~snip~

But life in the Green Zone bears no relation to the unpredictable chaos of Baghdad beyond - the Red Zone as it is known by Green Zone residents.


As the two prime ministers met, 30 people were being kidnapped from a Red Crescent office just across the river - by gunmen in police uniforms. Based on many previous incidents like this, chances are they really were the police.



more:http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/6192815.stm

[unhappycamper]

1. The truth is leaking out.

What has been done in our name?