Security

Since finishing Colin Freeman's new book, The Curse of the Al Dulaimi Hotel, I've been thinking a lot about security. In theory, Kirk von Ackermann disappeared on an isolated road in an area he had previously identified as dangerous. Ryan Manelick died in what's more or less been described as a drive by shooting.

I'd like to know more about both men's approaches to their security although I know that's not a very realistic possibility. At best, the information will be hearsay. That said, a number of the Ultra Services principals socialized and were friends with security advisers. Their contact and interaction implies both men at minimum must have known the risks.

All of this thinking on security just stirs up questions, of course.

Kirk von Ackermann*

What is known about von Ackermann's views on security?
Had he ever offered advice to the other personnel at Ultra Services?
If so, what was that advice - is there a record - say in an old email?
Did he violate his own advice the day he disappeared?
Why did he travel alone that day?
Did he ever travel alone during his prior trips to Iraq?
Did he usually use a 'fixer' or translator?
If so, who and where was that person?
Who knew his travel plans that day?

Ryan Manelick

What is known about Manelick's views on security?
What was a typical defensive practice for avoiding drive by shootings?
He had friends in security, how aware was Manelick of those practices?
Was he prepared, did he ignore advice, had he grown complacent?
Did Manelick or his driver violate common security practices?
If so, why?

It all comes down to this final question: what was it that made each man vulnerable?

Additional Reading

Review of The Curse of the al Dulaimi Hotel
By Susie Dow, ePluribus Media, August 18, 2008

Missing Contractor: US Military Mechanics may Hold the Keys
By Susie Dow, ePluribus Media, April 21, 2008

* Assumption to date is Kirk von Ackermann disappeared between Tikrit and Kirkuk.

Omar Taleb and Omar Hadi

Two Omars.

This is a look at who they were in relation to those at Ultra Services.

Omar Taleb

Writer Daniel Halpern refers to John Dawkins' body guard in his article for Rolling Stone, Death of a Contractor.

...Omar Taleb, an official in the Iraqi police and a former helicopter pilot in the Iraqi Air Force.

That's pretty much it.

Omar Hadi

Colin Freeman dedicates a chapter of his new book, Curse of the Al Dulaimi Hotel, to the journey into Iraq, appropriately called, The Road to Baghdad. Responding to an ad on a bulletin board at the Intercontinental Hotel in Amman, Jordan, Freeman caught a ride with a British Iraqi named Omar Hadi. Hadi had hired a car and driver to make the trip into Iraq and was taking passengers.

Hadi left Iraq at age 5 and was described as speaking with a public school accent (posh in other words). He was accompanied by John Dawkins whom he was said to have met in Kazakhstan. Hadi was traveling with an elderly aunt and two Japanese filmmakers. The group traveled under the pretense they were working with Tokyo TV - which was how they got Jordanian press cards to enter Iraq.

Hadi stayed at the Al Majalis hotel and visited US bases with Dawkins. Freeman described Hadi as a "business associate" although it's unclear what that really means.

Research

Around April/May 2003, Omar Hadi and Richard Galustian founded ISI Group of Iraq, a security company. From an article first published in the newsletter Gulf State News:

A few local firms have recruited US, British and other former special forces personnel to take on the international players at their own game. ISI Group of Iraq, created by expatriate Iraqis Omar Hadi and Richard Galustian offers former British special forces operatives and says it was the first Iraqi-owned company to be awarded a security contract by the US occupying authorities.

Omar Hadi was listed on various websites as the point of contact for ISI Group. Coincidentally, Richard Galustian was quoted in Death of a Contractor:

[Ryan] Manelick had been in Iraq for less than two months, but he was already plotting to break away from Dawkins and start his own company. He talked less about idealistic notions of helping Iraqis -- now he wanted to make the big money, and he began dreaming up grand, unrealistic schemes. "Ryan had all these plans," says Richard Galustian, a contractor who befriended Manelick in Iraq, "and he could talk about them forever -- he was a wonderful talker. But he had no idea how to make them work, or how far out of his league they were." Manelick wrote to his father about the two of them starting their own security outfit, assuring him that if they acted fast there was a $100 million contract for force protection and security training he was sure they could get. The plans were far removed from reality -- he wanted to build a company from nothing and compete with giant corporations like Bechtel or Halliburton in a matter of months -- but what was real was his intense desire to break away from Dawkins and start something new.

Richard Galustian's father originally owned a company Galustian Engineering Export Company (GEECO) in Tehran before moving to the UK in the 1950's. In 1974, the son was made CEO of his father's group of companies. In 2001, Richard Galustian created Gemini Consultants in the UAE. Galustian was at some point also connected to Pilgrims Group, a "security, risk management and service support company," said to provide security to journalists (ref).

Because of the gap in time between 1974 and 2001, I'm wondering if there were two Richard Galustians, a father and his son.

Additional Reading

Death of a Contractor: Greed and Murder in Iraq's Lawless Desert
pp. 70-74, 76-69 (print version includes photos)
By Dan Halpern, Rolling Stone, March 8, 2007, Issue 1021

Curse of the Al Dulaimi Hotel: And Other Half-truths from Baghdad
By Colin Freeman, Monday Books, July 2008

Profits questions and consolidation for private security firms lifted by the ‘Baghdad bubble’
By Gulf State News, reprinted at NGO Coordination Committee in Iraq (NCCI), November 23, 2005

In Iraq, private contractors lighten load on U.S. troops
By Borzou Daragahi, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, September 28, 2003

Security Companies Doing Business in Iraq as of 2004
From the US State Department, archived at Global Security

The website for ISI Group of Iraq at http://www.isiiraq.com can be seen at the Internet Archive
http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.isiiraq.com

Commercial Services in Iraq

The ISI Group of Companies is comprised of ISI Commercial Services, ISI Security, ISI Logistics and ISI International. We started operation in Iraq late April 2003. We currently employ over 100 Iraqi staff.

Ahmed Al-Taie

Spc. Ahmed Qusai al-Taayie (also Ahmed K. Altaie) of Ann-Arbor, Michigan was kidnapped on October 23, 2006

41-year-old Specialist in the US Army. Altaie is a linguist (translator) with the Provincial Reconstruction Team Baghdad. Married. Altaie was kidnapped with his brother-in-law when he went to visit his wife in Baghdad. His brother-in-law was quickly freed. A ransom demand was made for $250,000. Altaie has not been heard from since a proof of life video was released by his captors on February 14, 2007.

There's a short update this week in the Detroit newspaper. Still no word of his whereabouts.

Missing Michigan soldier's loved ones want his story told
By Korie Wilkins, Detroit Free Press, August 21, 2008

Sgt. Ahmed Al-Taie, kidnapped Oct. 23, 2006, is possibly the last U.S. soldier captured since the start of the 2003 combat operations in Iraq who has not been found. So his friends and family scan Internet sites, check e-mail, wait for phone calls and updates from the military. And they believe he's still alive, waiting to come home.

Al-Taie, a native Iraqi, joined the U.S. Army at age 40 to pursue a new career as an interpreter. He came to the United States in 1984 and recently lived in Ann Arbor.

Additional Reading

A Ransom Demand for the Missing U.S. Soldier
By Brian Bennett, Time, November 2, 2006

Abducted Altaie Seen in Video - with updates
AII POW-MIA, February 14, 2007

al-Taayie
Wikipedia, includes additional sources

The Curse of the Al Dulaimi Hotel - Pt III

This is a reprint of my original book review first posted at ePluribus Media.

Susie Dow reviews Curse of the Al Dulaimi Hotel: and other half-truths from Baghdad by Colin Freeman, now the Chief Foreign Correspondent of the Sunday Telegraph. Landing in Baghdad on May 1, 2003 as an independent journalist, Freeman's new novel reveals the story behind getting the story including the hilarious antics of his charmingly insane personal assistant, Mohammed Kadom.

August 22nd at 5.01pm. 'Colin, hello, I am Mohammed. When are you coming back?'

August 29th at 2.45pm. 'Colin, hello, I am Mohammed. Man, I have no money and needing the job most desperately. Please ring Jean-Phillipe speedily.'

September 5th at 5.25pm. 'OK, COLIN, FUCK YOU! YOU ARE MY FRIEND BUT YOU DON'T EVEN RING BACK TO ME. FUCK YOU! I WILL FIND THE NEW JOB BY MYSELVES.'

I wish I could figure out a clever way to convey to you how much fun it was to read The Curse of Al Dulaimi Hotel. I realize that's not a politically correct introduction - after all it's a non-fiction book set in Baghdad circa 2003 through 2005, people are fighting and dying and there's more than one war going on. That's not funny. But I'd be lying if I didn't just come right out and tell you the book is filled with hilarious anecdotes, many so much stranger than fiction, that they must be true and therefore are even funnier as a result. While the humor doesn't qualify as gallows, it is dark. And there were times I definitely felt like I'd accidentally stumbled into the wrong bar at the wrong moment.

'When I drove to the hotel today I saw this beautiful chick, with the huge tits and the ass,' he announced one morning, as I sat with two other foreign journalists. 'I got very erect!'

I stared at him, aghast. Had he really just said what I thought he'd said?

'Er, what do you mean, Mohammed?'

'Erect! You know. Like this!' He pointed to his groin area. The assembled company probably thought Mohammed and I regularly compared erections together.

'Er, Mohammed, I don't think that's really the right word. If a girl, er, makes you feel sexy, you say she turns you on. As in, to turn on a generator.'

'Ok, good. So, anyways, this chick turns me on like a generator...'

Author Colin Freeman holds the honor of being the last Western war correspondent to enter Iraq. His career as a war correspondent, however, was extremely short lived. Just hours after Freeman crossed the border, President George W. Bush announced the end of major hostilities.

Having ditched a steady job writing about road works at the London Evening Standard for the glamor of working in war torn Baghdad, Freeman spends the next two years writing about...roads. Stuck on roads. Driving on roads. Lost on roads. Intended or not, roads are a central theme through out the book. (Well, that and the bad whiskey.) No city today is complete without its noise and traffic. But add some desert heat, grime, guns, bad tempers, looters in stolen buses, car bombs, road side bombs, Humvees, more guns, kidnappers and journalists and it's Baghdad. A city in a country suddenly trying to find its way on its own after thirty years of being told what to do.

We plunged down the wrong way onto a dual carriageway, the cab swerving in and out of oncoming players like a rugby scrum-half heading for the tryline.

'Tell me Haider, why is it that people drive the wrong way down the road here?'

'These Iraqi drivers,' he said as if no further explanation was necessary.

'Yes, but why? Isn't it dangerous, yes?' I pointed at the cars hurtling past us on either side and grimaced and whistled.

Conversation with Haider, I realised, was going to be like playing charades. With a bit of gesturing, persistence and intelligent guesswork, the two of us could sometimes reach a breakthrough.

'Ah, we call this driving "wrong side." Same as in English. Is from Saddam time. The cars of all the big government people would drive down the wrong side, making common people get out of the way. Now everybody is free, so they want to try this themselves.'

I first became aware of Colin Freeman's work on the evening of November 9, 2003 while researching Iraq reconstruction contracts. There was an article in the UK Telegraph about a missing American contractor by the name of Kirk von Ackermann who worked for Ultra Services out of Istanbul, Turkey. The company provided logistics to the US Army. Von Ackermann disappeared the month before, his vehicle found abandoned on a road between Tikrit and Kirkuk. Colin Freeman broke the story. His primary source at the time was another Ultra Services employee, Ryan Manelick. Two months later, Manelick was killed in a drive by shooting just after leaving a meeting at a base near Balad. Shortly before he was killed, Manelick had alleged von Ackermann's disappearance was connected to fraud and that it involved US Army officers. Colin Freeman broke that story as well.

Ultra Services weaves in and out of The Curse of al Dulaimi Hotel, appearing as early as page 26 with the introduction of one of the company principals, John Dawkins. Freeman shared his first ride into Iraq with Dawkins and another colleague, Omar. Freeman also spent his first night at the same hotel in Baghdad as Dawkins, the Al Majalis, eventually settling in as a regular.

Before I give the wrong impression that The Curse of al Dulaimi Hotel is all about Ultra Services or kidnappings and murders - which in part it is because it's also about Iraq - let me more properly introduce you to one of the stars of the book, former Staff Colonel Mohammed Kadom. The Colonel is Colin Freeman's first 'fixer' in Baghdad.

To get around, an English speaking journalist needs someone to handle logistics, translation, security, some driving and a little bit of haggling - in short, a 'fixer.' A former Iraqi officer and Ba'ath party member, the Colonel looked like Burt Reynolds circa 1980 and liked to listen to the Bee Gees.

What made it all infinitely more bearable was having Mohammed around. I was now the envy of other journalists. Very few had a translator who was simultaneously fluent, hardworking, streetwise and good company. Occasionally other reporters even tried to poach him off with offers of better money. Touchingly, he always told them his first loyalty was to Mr. Colin, the man who'd first given him a job when he'd been cruising the streets as a cabbie. Actually, it turned out he hadn't really been doing that. Over a beer one night he confessed that he'd actually been selling guns at the time. The day he picked me up, he'd had a stash of Kalashnikovs in the back of the Nissan.

In need of the promise of a steady paycheck, the Colonel eventually went to work for Ryan Manelick, also securing jobs at the company for his brothers.

I don't want to give too much away or it will ruin the joy of discovery. Suffice it to say, there's some thing for every one in The Curse of al Dulaimi Hotel. News junkies will get high from the constant buzz of deja vu as people, places, and events pop off the pages. The deja vu is in itself a strange sensation: an undercurrent of invisible context that readers 50 years from now just won't be able to fully appreciate. Car bombings - you saw the images on the news played over and over again - Freeman heard and sometimes felt the blast. The Palestine Hotel. Fallujah. Basra. Tikrit. James Brandon. Georges Malbrunot and Jill Caroll - both neighbors in the same hotel. (Carroll plays darts.)

For the armchair traveler, an upfront and personal introduction to hotel rooms, a brothel or two, and bathroom facilities you'll never ever have to confront in person. Just the description of some of the rooms made me itchy. There's not too much about food. Freeman spares us the tell tale signs of gas pains before the arrival of diarrhea (Thank you, Colin) but only just barely. For the armchair adventurer, there's no shortage of danger, complete with a detailed description of what it feels like to be shot in the arse.

My only complaint, if I had one, is I wish I could have heard the stories in person over a pint.

The Curse of the Al Dulaimi Hotel: and other half-truths from Baghdad
By Colin Freeman
Monday Books, July 2008
ISBN-10: 1906308020
ISBN-13: 978-1906308025
272 pages

Colin Freeman is now the Chief Foreign Correspondent for the Sunday Telegraph in London.

The Curse of the Al Dulaimi Hotel

This is a repost of my book review, Review of The Curse of the al Dulaimi Hotel
By Susie Dow, ePluribus Media, August 18, 2008.

Landing in Baghdad on May 1, 2003 as an independent journalist, Colin Freeman's new book reveals the story behind getting the story including the hilarious antics of his charmingly insane personal assistant, Mohammed Kadom. Colin Freeman is now the Chief Foreign Correspondent of the Sunday Telegraph.

August 22nd at 5.01pm. 'Colin, hello, I am Mohammed. When are you coming back?'

August 29th at 2.45pm. 'Colin, hello, I am Mohammed. Man, I have no money and needing the job most desperately. Please ring Jean-Phillipe speedily.'

September 5th at 5.25pm. 'OK, COLIN, FUCK YOU! YOU ARE MY FRIEND BUT YOU DON'T EVEN RING BACK TO ME. FUCK YOU! I WILL FIND THE NEW JOB BY MYSELVES.'

I wish I could figure out a clever way to convey to you how much fun it was to read The Curse of Al Dulaimi Hotel. I realize that's not a politically correct introduction - after all it's a non-fiction book set in Baghdad circa 2003 through 2005, people are fighting and dying and there's more than one war going on. That's not funny. But I'd be lying if I didn't just come right out and tell you the book is filled with hilarious anecdotes, many so much stranger than fiction, that they must be true and therefore are even funnier as a result. While the humor doesn't qualify as gallows, it is dark. And there were times I definitely felt like I'd accidentally stumbled into the wrong bar at the wrong moment.

'When I drove to the hotel today I saw this beautiful chick, with the huge tits and the ass,' he announced one morning, as I sat with two other foreign journalists. 'I got very erect!'

I stared at him, aghast. Had he really just said what I thought he'd said?

'Er, what do you mean, Mohammed?'

'Erect! You know. Like this!' He pointed to his groin area. The assembled company probably thought Mohammed and I regularly compared erections together.

'Er, Mohammed, I don't think that's really the right word. If a girl, er, makes you feel sexy, you say she turns you on. As in, to turn on a generator.'

'Ok, good. So, anyways, this chick turns me on like a generator...'

Author Colin Freeman holds the honor of being the last Western war correspondent to enter Iraq. His career as a war correspondent, however, was extremely short lived. Just hours after Freeman crossed the border, President George W. Bush announced the end of major hostilities.

Having ditched a steady job writing about road works at the London Evening Standard for the glamor of working in war torn Baghdad, Freeman spends the next two years writing about...roads. Stuck on roads. Driving on roads. Lost on roads. Intended or not, roads are a central theme through out the book. (Well, that and the bad whiskey.) No city today is complete without its noise and traffic. But add some desert heat, grime, guns, bad tempers, looters in stolen buses, car bombs, road side bombs, Humvees, more guns, kidnappers and journalists and it's Baghdad. A city in a country suddenly trying to find its way on its own after thirty years of being told what to do.

We plunged down the wrong way onto a dual carriageway, the cab swerving in and out of oncoming players like a rugby scrum-half heading for the tryline.

'Tell me Haider, why is it that people drive the wrong way down the road here?'

'These Iraqi drivers,' he said as if no further explanation was necessary.

'Yes, but why? Isn't it dangerous, yes?' I pointed at the cars hurtling past us on either side and grimaced and whistled.

Conversation with Haider, I realised, was going to be like playing charades. With a bit of gesturing, persistence and intelligent guesswork, the two of us could sometimes reach a breakthrough.

'Ah, we call this driving "wrong side." Same as in English. Is from Saddam time. The cars of all the big government people would drive down the wrong side, making common people get out of the way. Now everybody is free, so they want to try this themselves.'

I first became aware of Colin Freeman's work on the evening of November 9, 2003 while researching Iraq reconstruction contracts. There was an article in the UK Telegraph about a missing American contractor by the name of Kirk von Ackermann who worked for Ultra Services out of Istanbul, Turkey. The company provided logistics to the US Army. Von Ackermann disappeared the month before, his vehicle found abandoned on a road between Tikrit and Kirkuk. Colin Freeman broke the story. His primary source at the time was another Ultra Services employee, Ryan Manelick. Two months later, Manelick was killed in a drive by shooting just after leaving a meeting at a base near Balad. Shortly before he was killed, Manelick had alleged von Ackermann's disappearance was connected to fraud and that it involved US Army officers. Colin Freeman broke that story as well.

Ultra Services weaves in and out of The Curse of al Dulaimi Hotel, appearing as early as page 26 with the introduction of one of the company principals, John Dawkins. Freeman shared his first ride into Iraq with Dawkins and another colleague, Omar. Freeman also spent his first night at the same hotel in Baghdad as Dawkins, the Al Majalis, eventually settling in as a regular.

Before I give the wrong impression that The Curse of al Dulaimi Hotel is all about Ultra Services or kidnappings and murders - which in part it is because it's also about Iraq - let me more properly introduce you to one of the stars of the book, former Staff Colonel Mohammed Kadom. The Colonel is Colin Freeman's first 'fixer' in Baghdad.

To get around, an English speaking journalist needs someone to handle logistics, translation, security, some driving and a little bit of haggling - in short, a 'fixer.' A former Iraqi officer and Ba'ath party member, the Colonel looked like Burt Reynolds circa 1980 and liked to listen to the Bee Gees.

What made it all infinitely more bearable was having Mohammed around. I was now the envy of other journalists. Very few had a translator who was simultaneously fluent, hardworking, streetwise and good company. Occasionally other reporters even tried to poach him off with offers of better money. Touchingly, he always told them his first loyalty was to Mr. Colin, the man who'd first given him a job when he'd been cruising the streets as a cabbie. Actually, it turned out he hadn't really been doing that. Over a beer one night he confessed that he'd actually been selling guns at the time. The day he picked me up, he'd had a stash of Kalashnikovs in the back of the Nissan.

In need of the promise of a steady paycheck, the Colonel eventually went to work for Ryan Manelick, also securing jobs at the company for his brothers.

I don't want to give too much away or it will ruin the joy of discovery. Suffice it to say, there's some thing for every one in The Curse of al Dulaimi Hotel. News junkies will get high from the constant buzz of deja vu as people, places, and events pop off the pages. The deja vu is in itself a strange sensation: an undercurrent of invisible context that readers 50 years from now just won't be able to fully appreciate. Car bombings - you saw the images on the news played over and over again - Freeman heard and sometimes felt the blast. The Palestine Hotel. Fallujah. Basra. Tikrit. James Brandon. Georges Malbrunot and Jill Caroll - both neighbors in the same hotel. (Carroll plays darts.)

For the armchair traveler, an upfront and personal introduction to hotel rooms, a brothel or two, and bathroom facilities you'll never ever have to confront in person. Just the description of some of the rooms made me itchy. There's not too much about food. Freeman spares us the tell tale signs of gas pains before the arrival of diarrhea (Thank you, Colin) but only just barely. For the armchair adventurer, there's no shortage of danger, complete with a detailed description of what it feels like to be shot in the arse.

My only complaint, if I had one, is I wish I could have heard the stories in person over a pint.

---

The Curse of the Al Dulaimi Hotel: and other half-truths from Baghdad
By Colin Freeman
Monday Books, July 2008
ISBN-10: 1906308020
ISBN-13: 978-1906308025
272 pages

Colin Freeman is now the Chief Foreign Correspondent for the Sunday Telegraph in London.

Curse of the al Dulaimi Hotel - Pt II

I thoroughly enjoyed the book. It's hilarious. Colin Freeman's former 'fixer,' Mohammed Kadom, should star in his own reality television series. There's a book review at ePluribus Media for those who might be interested.

A few pieces of information came to light in the book. Most notable, I was unaware that Charles Phillips was in Baghdad the week after Kirk von Ackermann disappeared. As close friends, it's surprising he didn't take more of an interest in securing von Ackermann's personal effects. After all, Phillips brought von Ackermann to Iraq. I realize work doesn't come to a stand still. But at the same time, no one collected his belongings in an orderly manner? It's not clear how long Phillips had been in Iraq.

So, new question: when did Charles Phillips first arrive in country?

Colin Freeman describes visiting the spot where Kirk von Ackermann's vehicle was found on the road between Tikrit and Kirkuk. This is the only first hand description in the public domain that I am aware of.

Excerpt from page 136:

A few days later, I drove with Saba and Ali up to the area where Kirk had disappeared, to ask a few questions. I'd heard that a local Iraqi police chief was on the case; perhaps he might spill some details that Ryan and Co were keeping quiet. It turned out he'd recently been sacked after some row with a rival, with none of his successors briefed about the disappearance. Later on, though, when I tracked him down to his house, I found him still in uniform with a dozen odd policemen at his disposal, running what seemed to be some kind of parallel force. He claimed to know John Dawkins, and said he had turned up not long before with photocopied pictures of Kirk, asking if anyone had seen him. He directed us to the spot where Kirk had vanished. It was near the brow of a long, winding hilltop road, miles from anywhere and surrounded by rocky outcrops. A long way from any help if you got yourself in a tight spot. At the bottom of the other side of the hill, there was a US Army checkpoint, where Dawkins had handed over a copy of Kirk's photograph. But during troop changeovers, no information was passed on about the case. The newcomers were unaware of who Kirk was, or why they had his photo. In a land where hundreds were dying or disappearing each week, no one had resources to spend time looking for another missing person.

Here's an uncomfortable question: was the check point visible from the very top of the hill?

Additional Reading

Review of The Curse of the al Dulaimi Hotel
By Susie Dow, ePluribus Media, August 18, 2008

Description: Landing in Baghdad on May 1, 2003 as an independent journalist, Colin Freeman's new book reveals the story behind getting the story including the hilarious antics of his charmingly insane personal assistant, Mohammed Kadom. Colin Freeman is now the Chief Foreign Correspondent of the Sunday Telegraph.

Curse of the al Dulaimi Hotel - Pt I (image)
August 4, 2008

Curse of the al Dulaimi Hotel - Pt I

Colin Freeman, the journalist who first broke the story of Kirk von Ackermann and Ryan Manelick, has a new book out on his experiences in Iraq. I understand it includes a section on their story.

Curse of the Al Dulaimi Hotel: And Other Half-truths from Baghdad
By Colin Freeman
Monday Books
July 2008

Publishers description:

Colin Freeman is a burnt-out newspaper hack, wasting his life hanging around outside the houses of minor celebrities. His job is soul-destroyingly pointless and his personal life isn't much better. His girlfriend wants commitment he can't give and the future looks bleak. So he jacks it all in and goes to Iraq – as Britain's most amateur war correspondent. Shacked up in a filthy $5 a night hotel, he finds a city – and a country – in turmoil. Half the people he meets are mad, drunk or fanatical (and armed to the teeth) and the other half are trying to rebuild their lives after George Bush's invasion. Against the odds, Freeman finds his feet as a reporter and reveals a slice of Iraq unlike any other and gets shot in the backside for his troubles.

Additional Reading

Mystery surrounds US businessman missing in Iraq's 'Sunni triangle'
by Colin Freeman, Telegraph, November 9, 2003

Bay Area civilian vanishes in Iraq
by Colin Freeman, San Francisco Chronicle, November 11, 2003

Suspicion surrounds missing Bay Area man
by Colin Freeman, San Francisco Chronicle, February 13, 2005