From Iraq Dispatches:
Yesterday at 5:30pm I tried to approach U.S. soldiers who had sealed off the Abu Hanifa Mosque in Al-Adhamiya, Baghdad. Holding my press badge up in the air, in loud, clear English from about 50 feet away I yelled to a soldier sitting behind a machine gun on a Bradley, "I am press! May I please get a comment from one of you about what the goal of your operation is here?"
Before I finished that sentence a soldier standing near the armored vehicle pulled his M-16 to his shoulder and held me in his sights. With a wave of adrenaline I yelled, "I am press! I just want to get a comment from someone!"
Two soldiers gestured their heads "no" with their heads while another waved me away, all the while the soldier kept his gun trained on me.
Freedom of the press in the "New Iraq."
I recently discovered a blog by Dahr Jamail of The New Standard. He's blogging from inside Iraq, and is a pretty good way to good way to get a glimpse at the brutality of the occupation, I mean liberation.