Comments on: Where is Raed on NPR

Where is Raed on NPR

mrbula — Wed, 26 Mar 2003 18:43:24 -0800

was the subject of a short piece (Windows Media file) on public radio's The World this evening.

By: JB71

JB71 — Wed, 26 Mar 2003 19:00:00 -0800

Good luck, Raed and Salam. Keep your heads down. JB.

By: bureaustyle

bureaustyle — Wed, 26 Mar 2003 19:18:19 -0800

Don't let the US bombs distract you from blogging....

By: xiffix

xiffix — Wed, 26 Mar 2003 19:24:41 -0800

Those warbloggers advising Salam to "Zipper it!" mentioned in this wired.com article are the biggest bunch of weasels alive: Oh, and "Salam," if you read this blog... the Iraqi regime is more brutal than most, but the usual M.O. in these situations is to begin surveillance. Sometimes directly, sometimes through family. My judgement of what has happened and what's to come says that this will take more than a few days - we're probably talking 2-3 weeks. Going off the air for a while would be a really good idea... no idea what things a desperate regime may find provocative. You'll have lots of time to blog later. Until then, please STFU or you might say or see something that hurts the war effort. Jerks.

By: XQUZYPHYR

XQUZYPHYR — Wed, 26 Mar 2003 19:40:57 -0800

I addressed this yesterday in MetaTalk.

By: kliuless

kliuless — Wed, 26 Mar 2003 19:54:41 -0800

also on reason and in reuters and cnn/joi/etc.

By: namespan

namespan — Wed, 26 Mar 2003 20:14:15 -0800

xiffix, I read the "Zipper It" post and I think I'd have to say that while it's obviously presumptuous to council someone who lives in Iraq on keeping safe under the Iraqi regime, it looks like the guy (Katzman) really was looking out for Salam Pax's welfare. I guess you can read it like a mobster's veiled threat, but I don't see it. And most warbloggers aren't that subtle anyway. The most interesting fact for me is the implication that NPR covered this. How do you find out about Raed's website? Generally through blogs. NPR has started to run Paul Ford's material periodically -- they picked up the "Jack and Dianne: Where are they now" piece from the Morning News a while back, and apparently ran a recent piece about his brother becoming catholic. Topics I hear on NPR are starting to coincide quite a bit with stuff I pick up in the blog-o-dome. Granted, most blogs feed off the media, so there's some circular causation here, but I think there's quite a bit of evidence that NPR is starting to make sifting through blogs part of their general news/program sifting routine. And as kliuless points out, Reuters and CNN and other outlets, too.

By: dhartung

dhartung — Wed, 26 Mar 2003 23:49:09 -0800

People who actually read Winds of Change, as opposed to encountering it via a single post on Metafilter and gracelessly plugging it into their stereotype generator, will know that Joe Katzman's concern for Salam is genuine and heartfelt. As he said in the comments: If you post [anything] that may give details about Salam Pax, I WILL delete it. The Zipper It! directive was not to Salam, but to those who would carelessly expose details about his life. Joe does have the military and intelligence background to comment professionally about secret police, although I tend to think that the regime has other more pressing concerns at the moment. And his regular postings on Sufi wisdom qualify him to understand Islam and Arabs more than most -- as do his decision to include Adil "muslimpundit" Farooq and Iranian Girl {who may be vouched for by hoder} as co-bloggers on his own site. Finally, Diane E. is probably Salam's closest blog friend, and if she is concerned, I am concerned. I would value more highly the words of those who have been reading, linking to, and conversing with Salam for months over those who just learned about him from CNN or Wired or even MeFi. Certainly nobody anticipated the media circus that would surround him, at the least opportune moment.

By: soyjoy

soyjoy — Thu, 27 Mar 2003 09:10:17 -0800

mrbula, the first link isn't coming up. I heard (was it on the blog itself?) that a mirror site was set up at the URL you linked to, to eliminate the underscore, but on my browser anyway, that's not showing. The original one still comes up OK.