Freed hostage from mass abduction wants out of Iraq

[Barrett808]

Freed hostage from mass abduction wants out of Iraq
by Ammar Karim

BAGHDAD (AFP) - A university professor who was among dozens of people kidnapped by gunmen in a raid on a Baghdad government building says he has lost hope in the future of violence-plagued Iraq and wants to emigrate.

"I will leave Iraq," the shaken academic told police after he was briefly held by the kidnappers.

In a recorded account, made available to AFP, he revealed that the victims were initially taken to a place not too far from the building of the Sunni-run higher education ministry where they were abducted on Tuesday.

The professor, whose name was not being used for security reasons, said he was among visitors to the centre, a four-storey building in central Baghdad's Karrada district, to submit papers for his already planned emigration.

"Gunmen wearing police uniforms and driving government cars and brand new pick-up vehicles raided the building and immediately started taking away mobile telephones," he said in his testimony to police.

(more)

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20061116/wl_mideast_afp/iraqunrestkidnap

[Jed Dilligan]

1. Oh good.

I was wondering when we would start getting yummy Iraqi restaurants out of all of this. Too bad for Iraq that their professors and lawyers and doctors will soon be cooking falafel and landscaping for us. But at least the racist 33% will have a chance at dying from apoplexy at the sight of their new neighbors.

[qwlauren35]

5. Hmmm....

But aren't we in the process of reducing immigration? Too bad, Iraqi's. Bad timing....

I think there's some kind of unspoken rule that you're only a political refugee if the US isn't the reason why your country is messed up. If we've already screwed you over, you have to stay there.



(I'm being very cynical, and I just made that up. Don't go off on me.)

[Jed Dilligan]

7. Actually, the opposite is true in some cases...

Look at the Hmong, for instance. It would have been really bad PR if they were wiped off the planet for working for the CIA. We are probably going to have to take in a LOT of Iraqis... I would rather bring all of our collaborators over and set each of them up with a million bucks than spend another month in this war--which would cost about the same.

[magellan]

2. Perhaps this is BushCo's plan?

Wait till the violence chases all the civilians out of Iraq, then have at the insurgents/terrorists who remain. That's the way it seems to be headed now.

If I were this guy, or any of the millions who are caught in the crossfire of Bush**'s Iraq folly, I'd have lost hope and want out too.

[soothsayer]

8. Iraq has been experiencing a massive brain drain since the war

began (our invasion, I mean). Academics, doctors, engineers----all fleeing with their lives! what a mess we've made.

[theoldman]

3. There are other places in Iraq that are reasonably safe.

I would think it would be easier to move to somewhere else in Iraq. Not every country in that area is willing to accept refugees.

[Barrett808]

4. Patrick Cockburn has reported on the massive refugee flows...

...into other parts of Iraq. Hundreds of thousands of people have fled to the east and north, putting enormous strain on already poverty-stricken regions. It's an absolute catastrophe, and it's almost completely unacknowledged in officialdom.

[Igel]

6. The professor will probably get a decent job in some

other Arab country. He speaks standard Arabic, so that won't be a problem, and he'll pick up the vernacular fairly quickly.

Might not get a plum post at another university, of course; that depends on his field, his status in Iraq, and the available openings.