Are foreign language books easy to find in Baghdad?
The classics are fairly easy to find if you know where to go… Newer books were very difficult to get, especially during the embargo. Sometimes we would ask people coming from abroad to just bring books – any books – because there never seemed to be enough. Why do you maintain anonymity? Because it keeps me secure. In the beginning, I decided to be anonymous because it gave me the freedom to discuss whatever and whomever I wanted without fear of retribution – this includes political parties, religious figures, common thugs masquerading as political and religious figures, etc. I couldn’t do this with the use of my name because I would be worried about detention or worse. People have been a lot less critical than I’ve been on my blog and they’ve gotten into a lot of trouble. You have kept your blog alive for nearly three years. Do you ever envision it ending? When Baghdad Burning was one of only six or seven Iraqi blogs, I would tell myself that the blog would remain alive as long as th
