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Notes from the file: Inside Iraq: The Untold Stories

Created: 2012-09-17 05:24 Updated: 2012-09-17 06:45 Notebook: Radio-TV-Film
Released in 2004: In 2003, ordinary American citizen Mike Shiley created his own press pass and cashed in airline miles to fly to Iraq. Unofficially there to document the nascent war for a Portland TV station, Shiley took his camera to the front lines, where he showed a side of the conflict the media and the military ignored. If you've only seen the news, you've never seen the Iraq War as it's presented in this award-winning documentary.
  1. Dangers of traveling to Baghdad by Jordanian convoy ($3500/armored car)
  2. Baghdad, city under siege
  3. The pornography market and theater.
  4. The suicide bomb on the freeway
  5. The memorial to the 300+ individuals who were incinerated when a bunker buster penetrated their bomb shelter
  6. The Iraqi Civil Defense, plastic helmets, pajama camp clothes, no real bullet proof vests, the US paying them less that Saddam
  7. The Kurdish North and the land mines and the maimed in the hospital
  8. Excellent comment about how mines have no memory or knowledge of the war
  9. The love go Bush by the Kurds
  10. The impromptu gun market, $75 will get you an RPG launcher with ammo
  11. [US Military] Spent time with the 671st Engineering Battalion from Portland, OR, stationed at BIAP, Baghdad International Airport, one of the largest bases in Iraq
  12. The headquarters test, each getting 16 sq ft, xbox, x-mas tree, SAW (Squad Automatic Weapon)
  13. Silent Night (Christ our savior is born) sung during X-mas festivities, reading cards addressed to "Dear Soldier"
  14. US Air base Anaconda, largest combined Army and Air Force in the world, located about 40 mile N of Baghdad in a town called Balad
  15. Sgt. Arroyo who has to weed out the day laborers doesn't even know how to say Hello in Arabic, seems friendly but most likely a facade, bokra, keep trying, no money no work
  16. Sgt. Barry Meiritch from St. Petersburg, FL has to train new recruits for the Iraqi Civil Defense Corps
  17. Some of the trainees cannot read or write Arabic, so they have to learn it as well
  18. Torture tactics course, never condoned, "You are your brother's keeper"
  19. The Anaconda base dump, Sgt Layson has to correct out of control dumping, soda cans still in their cases, wheels still on their palettes, the local Iraqis see what's been thrown away and scale the razor-wire fences to take home food, clothing, hardware, construction materials and even weapons, our trash is their gold
  20. If they threw rocks at us, that is a threat.  It could be a deadly threat and I would have to lock and load on them…
  21. Their is contamination into the ground from oil dumped (mixed with anti-freeze)
  22. Major Shull (Oregon), most interesting soldier, sugar cane cutting operation to protect the visible perimeter of the base
  23. He also visit the schools around the base, gives candy to kids, Iraq and America are Friends, girl taking the candy cane (like Leila)
  24. Video from the flash drive, shows three people killed from the gun of an Apache helicopter.  One of them stashed a weapon (RPG???) and because of that alone, they were fired upon.  It is not clear what other justification the soldier who fired upon them had for wanting their death.
  25. The late night rant session.  Not clear what emotional state these individuals are in but they are totally hating on the Iraqi civilian.  From the one who washes their clothes to the new enlistees of the Iraqi Civil Defense Corps
  26. This is a total fear session.  A nightmare shared amongst comrades.
  27. Two soldiers broke in the mosque to have sex and left right before two officers did the same thing.
  28. 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment has to protect a 25 mile swath of wasteland along the Syrian border, The Wild Wild West of Iraq
  29. The irony of having to reporting from the Abrams tank, having to become a tank gunner in order to get that vantage point.  Learning to fire both machine guns and the 120 mm shell that fires out of the main turret of the tank
  30. The gun training allowed him to go on a day and night patrol along the Syrian border in the tank.
  31. First night showed attempts to pay off locals for information about the location of the mortar fire
  32. Second night was part of the "Harass and Intimidate" operation.  Two Bradley Fighting Vehicle and Two A1 Abrams tanks will fire upon an empty dry riverbed (all of their ammo).  They also launched smoke grenades that caught two houses on fire.  
  33. Revisiting the film:  the wise words of the mother from the car, we are destroyed, democracy will never be achieved this way, we want to decide our future by ourselves (images of the Sgt. throwing candy to children, day laborers, bombed out buildings, mangled faces in the hospital are strewn across the screen as she is talking)
  34. Epilogue: the Chaldean church was car-bombed on march 8, 2004 killing 10 and wounding hundreds, two land mine experts were shot after the filming of the land mine scene, Sgt Leyson (from the dump) was passed over for promotion and given early retirement, the Apache convoy in Al-Qaim was ambushed the next day in an alley, 3 were killed, 12 wounded
  35. THE END is nowhere in sight



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