Iraq’s Forgotten Majority
On the eve of the invasion, few U.S. experts seem to know that nearly two-thirds of Iraqis are Shi’ite Muslims, who populate the slums of Baghdad as well as the south of Iraq.
My Spy Story
/in The New York Times/by Frank SmythAfter several days in a prison near Baghdad in 1991, I was told “they” wanted to see me. Blindfolded, I was led into a room where, judging from the voices, there were at least half a dozen men. For days, I had heard and sometimes watched as guards beat and tortured Iraqi prisoners. The translator asked what my “real job”…
French Guns, Rwandan Blood
/in The New York Times/by Frank SmythThe horrendous vioIence that has seized the tiny African republic of Rwanda is not as random as it looks. For the members of the Akazu, the ruling clan around the late President Juvenal Habyarimana, the only way to retain a 21-year monopoly on power was to kill their enemies as fast as they could. And until yesterday, when…