the square is empty and the city appears to be in a state of siege. that our passenger alyea theater director back from exile in paris waited for a long time to see his enemy for all and return to his native city. where i was thrown in prison and when i got out i was given five days to leave baghdad and iraq jamie to. put folly the combat continues. and is through theater that he hopes to win it is methodist to re-invest the public with a sense of resistance and a taste for life. i know that out. today i see a country filled with weapons the overriding color in the city is khaki the color of soldiers. i see young people with no future men and women deprived of any feeling of citizenship the grown people have forgotten their rights and their duties. as if they were lost but i completely lost.

not. more time to be doing the shoulder bit more than that. in baghdad no one knows who the enemy is anymore sunni's she is islamists christians each with their armies and militia each fighting the other. nine out of us i know so much or guys who joined al qaeda just to get some money. so out of the hard. of several al qaeda gives them money whereas the government abandons them by the thumping of laws. would have paid to kill here on that floor. about michelle obama so they've ruined their futures their lives and their families for now till my while home. my for nothing.

on october thirty first twenty ten a terrorist group claiming all kind of affiliation occupied the catholic cathedral in baghdad. five suicide bombers activated their explosive belts fifty eight people were killed. in nine years of occupation of civil and religious wars and attacks of cause more than one hundred ten thousand victims the sensuous civilian. syriac khaldiyeh an orthodox and armenian churches have become choice targets. al

qaeda assassins and sunni and shia fanatics agree on nothing except only victim the christians they accuse of being western crusaders. baghdad is a raising its a loss tree as christian past. checkpoints abound every hundred meters crossing baghdad is a permanent obstacle course. but i think iraq is a battlefield for a ray of foreign forces. iran supports the shia brothers while saudi arabia age there is the sunnis. and as for the month i live in. a sunny district. in two thousand and six it was all full of. it was subjected to rocket fire at least fifty rockets falling on us every day it never stopped. you know me the streets were filled with corpses and there was fighting everywhere to show how do you know that i deserve an. you the battles raged for seventy two hours in. the

army the militia everyone was fighting. a band and bodies became prey fit to be devoured by stray dogs that my little girl saw dogs eating the dead which i had never seen before in my life packet which has left me ritual from just the tip of vertically up. living in baghdad maine surviving attacks but it's also an everyday battle. in the capital of the world's third biggest oil producer the electricity system works for just a few hours a day. the best business in town is selling generators. for khaled my driver a visit to the barber after ten days on the road should be a moment to relax a moment of peace but nothing is that simple. yes

quite simply hell here sheer hell. it's not a normal life like other people have around the world. may god act to improve things what do you say to the good of will know for sure god is good that. i haven't. been. so hard she a school teacher she's invited us to dinner. i'm . going out of twenty years of. how if you go through it as a woman. i grew up in the. first the one with the right. and

then the embargo has added to american intervention. a little but not the first in one thousand nine hundred and the second in two thousand and three. for the iran war my brother was arrested and there was just my dad to take care of the family all those girls had no work my father ran a small business. we barely grown up when the embargo strangle the whole country can you imagine no fruit or vegetables meat we couldn't afford and fish even more so. it's only today that i can buy but we lived in safety the women could move about without any problem we had peace but in poverty i think that the only thing that better than i what. i'm up when it's all one of my wife is devout but as we have guests i can drink we may be poor but we still have a sense of hospitality. abdu is our a sunni and a shia from a rough couple today war and religion have also imposed by andre's on love.

as the lights go out once again the neighborhoods back up generators take over are you on message that you. that is not one thing that we were hearing. on shia my husband a sunni muslim had now after the war the two religions can't intermarriage anymore and that's and it wasn't the case before and what was important was that people loved each other and what's the distinction between shia and sunni thingy it's shameful treating people this way in iraq with all muslims mostly. and so what a muslim man asks for the hand of a muslim woman according to islamic tradition my friend that's all but i think how it was at the end of the war that this division appears shia sunni. but yet now

we've come to threats headed how does a sunni there marry a shiite is that we're seeing as we look at that what if the alternative is to get divorced or da you know if you don't agree to get divorced you risk death you could think you're going to youngish if not in our neighborhood they shot a woman in front of her husband and children for the unique reason she was shia and he was sunni except you know she. this morning i'm not just leaving baghdad i'm fleeing baghdad. the city gates the soldier who checks out passports tells us yet another attack a scar to the capital. was. another checkpoint on the road to babylon we present our passports and passes and i enter a shia country apprehensive. the sky

is like twilight i feel like i'm wandering in the kingdom of the dead it's raining sand. prayers have punctuated each day on the road i sleep while he converses with his god. amidst the wind blown sound appears the mythical city of babylon. in his delusions of grandeur saddam hussein emerged himself to be its king the heir to throne the president of the iraqi republic saddam hussein in one nine hundred eighty eight inaugurated the restored city of babylon first built by nebuchadnezzar between six o four and five sixty two b.c. . at the height of his

power like the ancient kings before him. built his palace in the heart of the legendary city. his tower of babel crashed down around him and the dust of pride and ambition his memory has been left to the ravages of time and the insults of his survivors. told him a language of war but i will only react to situations i have read the reports and let me know for sure and know i will be there to stapling to comment on your latter point i come on to say get sick yeah because i'm not talking. to you no more weasel words when your vain a direct question be prepared for a change when you have to punish the ready for

a battle freedom of speech and little down to freedom to question. more news today is once again flared up. and these are the images cold world has been seeing from the streets of canada. trying to corporations are all day. i. i. i.

at the end of the road lies come the mecca of vatican and medina of the shia world . but something of the not al qaeda is the real enemy of iraq and even of all the arab regions i don't believe several terrorist organizations have been exported by

neighboring countries i don't know but they are responsible for so many victims since baghdad fell. and i would stress that most of the attacks have targeted the shia community just man up the. pilgrims are well protected here all the officers and soldiers are. several million faithful thank you to many from iran come every year to visit the mosques in karbala a boon for the holy city. religion is a river of gold as the saying goes. we don't know what it's all b.s. that when a country's native sons defend it things go better than when they're always better than an occupier. a sheath an invader always has trouble understanding the country they occupy and as the heir proverb says no one knows the roads of mecca better than its own inhabitants. of it if i have it.

this is. the main prayer takes place in the same most. the him i'm sermons a political resonance and a broadcast throughout iraq and the shia world and. the shias today are imposing their numbers and their power. and. the prayers always end with cries to the glory of the prophet hussein the son of ali allegedly designated by mohammed to be his only successor you know that there. was. many on under saddam a million shias were detained and many of them were assassinated then thrown into mass graves and. i myself your servant spent twelve years in iraqi

jails my family only received news of me one or two years after i was released. i was even afraid of my own brother i thought he was an officer who come to interrogate me yes we suffered and the prisons were filled with shias only when they be. leaving kabbalah is like crossing a graveyard. everywhere all portraits of she amount has fallen for the glory of the prophet hussain mohammed saffi. a little bit. possible. from.

the baghdad bass run highway in the middle of the desert our faithful taxi finally gives up the ghost. i feel suddenly vulnerable alone in the wilderness. as if by magic a man appears from the sams to help us out perhaps this is the renowned desert hospitality. we had for a camp for the man who maintained the highway once they were all soldiers and saddam's army. when the americans came many deserted. without knowing who we are to make room for us to share that.

with out of the massive take iraqi army was hunger thirst and fatigue. remember your family was taken hostage because she deserves it. you horrible in the days when they called people who ran away they were simply hang with them while you were one of you and i spent seven years in the army and it was very tough. insana most days a soldier was paid two thousand dinos less than the bank he was carrying was worth we can definitely say we were really miserable. the highway splits the desert and on each side of the road to bask in the vast oil fields of rumaylah and much known. more than half of iraqi production is pumped from this burning desert a treasure chest within the sound. shell b.p.

exxon mobil and the chinese cineplex of already got their hands on the bulk of it. at last we reach bass from the euphrates and the tigris meet. travellers once called the city of venice of the south. who comes to kill us and destroy our country and good it before we said it the americans but the americans have gone and now my general so who else is continuing the job. that nobody knows of there's no work in the situation is unlivable i say yes it was better before. conversely if we talk about security and civic respect we can say it was a hundred percent better under saddam. today there's no respect for the citizens as

if we were no longer men that's the truth that's honestly what i feel. we are less and less respected before in iraq you could walk by this head held high anywhere in the world and especially at home as long as the state was not affected or undermined things have changed a lot i can tell you that the situation was much better before. the venice of the self was awash with detritus of all kinds half of the inhabitants are unemployed it's a humanitarian and social disaster area. here we have absolutely nothing. where we going but at that event in this oil rich country we can't find work. this is how we live the children of this country why is it fair does god accept this master is in the middle of all the country's oil wealth it's

like the mother of oil but he doesn't seem to gain from it the inhabitants are poor and the streets are filled with the unemployed and it. was once one of the richest cities in iraq today it seems to have been forgotten by both god and mankind because of oil is cruel indeed. and yet in the heart of the shantytowns is always given freely. and sweet offering . by our government isn't he in my pocket i think government doesn't take care of the poor and is only there to save itself until it sound pockets i do expect things to

change what. i have no minister has taken the trouble to come and see us to ask how we survive or ask us if we. need and i think we have nobody to talk to. and so since the americans left the poor in the powerless join the militia and the terrorist groups who at least provide money and protection. everywhere in the city are portraits of the shia. and saddam his radical troops feed on poverty. the road ends i'll file on the banks of the push and gulf and the end of our journey.

this is the outback hoyle terminal rising from the water far from terrorist attacks and on a constant military surveillance where iraq's fortune oil flows in and out. the country's fortune and perhaps misfortune two. wars here have always been clothed in the same color black. and foul was at the mouth of the shuttle our best during where the tigris joins the euphrates forming the border with a ramp. on the iranian bank a gigantic portrait of the m.m. how many is there to taunt us a reminder that americans have gone leaving pandora's box wide open. been especially on me personally i never thought i know collaborated with the americans. which i would show where i work i am and always have been

a taxi driving us. i cross the country no. to south gen from south dakota and follow all taxi i go wherever i can find work have that i don't hesitate god be praised all i want to still live my. twenty days on the road perhaps one hundred checkpoints. with my friend khaled we've crossed a country which is officially no longer at war but where peace is not being restored a country divided by sectarian shia sunni and kurd communities a country where tara is a daily issue. from

the hoa they'll be ill so the ammonia kook muscle to create for. baghdad babilonia kabbalah as far as i'll file we've traveled a road where danger is ever present. khaled was under the protection of his god and me maps of providence.

children from want to financially have a special fate that's how it got to. mama. child should live in an orphanage for a long child should be raised in

a family during these years a little eleven children the company returned by dump to the families. ninety eight percent of the children from our orphanage a place to silence. the child has brought us so much happiness. played a family jazz band together. hijacked a plane together. most of them from music to tara. twenty five years old questions still remain.

just bad hi jack.

live. live. live live. live .

listen. goodspeed. you. wish. me luck good. luck and. click on the line i'm a little.

was. the man shot down by the f.b.i. during questioning about links to the boston bombings was reportedly unarmed new revelations emerge contradicting earlier statements he attacked officers with a knife. syria gets its first shipment of anti-aircraft missiles from russia the news broken by president assad in an interview amid rising tension over the war torn country using the defense system. as london reels from the harrowing willage murder archie looks into claims that earlier criminal cases involving the muslim community had the race and religion factor overlooked.