One Wild Ride: Journalism in the Middle East (Part 1 of 4)
By Heather Murphy, 09.08.05

Part 1: Witnessing History
With a lead-footed local driver at the wheel, George Thomas’s car sped between the Shiite, Sunni and Christian quarters of Baghdad.

Each time the car lurched to a halt, Thomas quickly jumped out to survey the scene. Many people stayed inside their homes as military and police helicopters buzzed above the skyline, creating a formidable presence over the city. As the evening sky darkened, residents cautiously explored their neighborhood streets, looking for any indication of new construction. With only hours to go until Iraq’s first democratic election, the polling station locations were still a secret, leaving many to wonder where their family would cast their votes.

“As I walked Baghdad that day, I just had a feeling that something historic was about to happen,” Thomas said. “I knew it would be a dangerous day, but historic too.”

Few other journalists patrolled the streets that day, but Thomas was used to exploring alone. His brown skin and dark hair give away his Indian heritage and camouflage his American identity, a guise that has saved his life more than once in the Middle East. With an Arabic speaking driver and local camera crew, Thomas frequently infiltrates areas deemed too dangerous by his colleagues.

“Most western white journalists do not leave their hotel rooms and have not done so in a long time,” Thomas said. “They send out an Arab to collect news. It’s a very limited view.”

When he returned to the press center that evening, familiar faces from the national evening news and cable channels scurried about, trying on flak jackets and conducting radio tests.

“It was total pandemonium,” Thomas recalled. “I thought something major had happened.”

Shaking his head in disbelief as he recalled that evening, Thomas described how the world’s media was preparing for the bombs, blood and chaos they believed to be inevitably linked to Iraq’s election.

“No one will show up,” several colleagues told Thomas. This assumption puzzled him because it contradicted what he had just witnessed on the street.

The next morning, closed stores and vacant streets created an unusually quiet atmosphere. Thomas sensed trepidation as he ventured into the neighborhoods, eager to discover how the locals would respond to the historic day. As the hours went by, more and more people saw their fellow Iraqis on TV, dying their fingers with ink to signify that their vote had been cast. Slowly, neighbors encouraged each other to participate. The streets began to fill with teary-eyed residents dressed in their best clothing, hugging and dancing as they proceeded to their local polling station.

“I was seeing a country being born,” Thomas said. “Imagine being there on the first Fourth of July. It was a whole new country.”

When the day ended with few casualties, despite their helmets and bullet proof vests, the press was left with no choice but to report on the peaceful election. Thomas said that many of his colleagues were surprised at the outcome.

“They could not spin it any other way,” he said.

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