Comments on: Salam's Story

Salam's Story

MintSauce — Fri, 30 May 2003 02:31:48 -0800

Salam Pax, the Baghdad Blogger is finally tracked down.

By: stavrosthewonderchicken

stavrosthewonderchicken — Fri, 30 May 2003 02:38:49 -0800

If the bombs start falling here in Seoul, the Guardian better fucking well give me a job too. You know, if I live through it.

By: plep

plep — Fri, 30 May 2003 02:48:43 -0800

Thanks for posting this bit of news!

By: planetkyoto

planetkyoto — Fri, 30 May 2003 02:53:54 -0800

He really was the best correspondent in Iraq, so it's good to see that he's getting paid for it now. Paid well, I hope, the guy's got major street cred in the bank. Stav, Bush's stamp card will be filled up after Iran, so I think he gets both Koreas free.

By: walrus

walrus — Fri, 30 May 2003 03:05:46 -0800

Salam Pax, the Baghdad Blogger is finally tracked down. Does that mean we can stop being cynical about him now?

By: PinkStainlessTail

PinkStainlessTail — Fri, 30 May 2003 03:51:33 -0800

I stand corrected. (Or maybe the hoaxers just got to The Guardian's Iraq correspondent!)

By: ascullion

ascullion — Fri, 30 May 2003 03:54:42 -0800

Didn't an Austrian Magazine already do this? Also, if you read Salam's site, you'll see he mentioned doing the interview over a week ago (let's hope he doesn't mean the bit about selling his soul to the devil, or hid new fortnightly column will be hard to file)

By: ascullion

ascullion — Fri, 30 May 2003 04:00:50 -0800

Oh, and, don't forget to compare and contrast the text in the blog and the Guardian (thanks to Buzzmachine)

By: viama

viama — Fri, 30 May 2003 04:34:38 -0800

To be fair the Guardian does state that the excerpts are edited.

By: tommasz

tommasz — Fri, 30 May 2003 06:49:32 -0800

No matter who was first to report this, it's good to see that he really does exist and really was reporting things from inside Iraq. Unlike some Times reporters.

By: soyjoy

soyjoy — Fri, 30 May 2003 07:19:07 -0800

Am I the only who's still worried that he's particularly unsafe now? I mean, it's not as if Saddam's dead, or even, apparently, defanged...

By: drstrangelove

drstrangelove — Fri, 30 May 2003 07:36:54 -0800

Oh, give me a break. We all know that he was already exposed as being an operative of Saddam's regime. He can't be for real. Also, we all know that the Iraqis love Americans, and are very thankful for Operation Iraqi Freedom. Anyone who disagrees obviously hates freedom and is with the terrorists.

By: mathowie

mathowie — Fri, 30 May 2003 08:19:21 -0800

Great news. I was always worried he was a figment of someone's imagination, but it's good to hear he's a real person. How long until he gets a multimillion dollar book deal?

By: dhoyt

dhoyt — Fri, 30 May 2003 09:43:24 -0800

Anyone who disagrees obviously hates freedom and is with the terrorists. Dr Strangelove, are you a bot ? If not, you're running seriously short on original (or witty) material.

By: Leonard

Leonard — Fri, 30 May 2003 09:45:35 -0800

The way this side of the war has worked out really makes me feel pretty good about the world. At first I was worried Salam would go under the radar and just be forgotten. Then I worried he'd turn out to be a fake stain the credibility of web log media for years. Increasingly it's all working out perfectly. Salam is probably going to be the first weblog launched rock star journalist and I'm fairly positive this is going to be a trend.

By: dgaicun

dgaicun — Fri, 30 May 2003 10:29:24 -0800

Wow, dhoyt. Maybe he was made by the same company that made foldy?

By: WolfDaddy

WolfDaddy — Fri, 30 May 2003 12:29:43 -0800

Salam's gay!

By: dgaicun

dgaicun — Fri, 30 May 2003 13:24:46 -0800

*Shhhhh* his mother doesn't know

By: Keyser Soze

Keyser Soze — Fri, 30 May 2003 15:56:39 -0800

Good call dhoyt. I really like the social system metafilter has: someone keeps fucking up and everyone will sooner or later hear about it. Makes me proud to be a Metafilter member.

By: dhartung

dhartung — Mon, 02 Jun 2003 17:34:29 -0800

A not-to-be-missed Salam Pax update from the reporter for whom he anonymously translated, Peter Maass. Salam—this is his real first name—was sitting in a chair in the lobby, reading Philip K. Dick's The Man in the High Castle. I knew, at that moment, that I would hire him.

By: languagehat

languagehat — Mon, 02 Jun 2003 18:43:38 -0800

Thanks, dhartung, that was great.