So, day 2...
I didn't get to sleep till around 1:30am and woke up at 8am. I decided to sleep in and skip breakfast. After getting ready, I headed out at 8:30 where I met with the rest of our group. We headed to our first meeting which was with Major General Perkins to talk about the military's strategic communications plan and how they reach out to various press outlets to get the right message out. Was pretty interesting. By the way, I'll be purposely a little light on the content of the conversations so don't be surprised if I skip detail there.
After that, we met with Major Steen and Lieutenant commander Eikenberry who walked us throug the national fiber network installation project which will create 4 fiber rings all through the country. They desparately need good connectivity through the country as this is their biggest issue right now. They also discussed the challenges they have with the Iraqi government since they still do not have IT laws passed as of yet and this is threatening the work they do.
After that, we met with senior staff from the Embassy: Ambassador Ford and Michael Dodman who is the counselor for Economic Affairs.
We then left to another building to do a conference call with the Deputy Minister of Iraq Barham Saleh who couldn't make it because he was in Kurdistan. We had a great conversation with him about technology and how it could shape Iraq's future - he really gets it. We were really impressed with him. We plan to meet with him again before we leave and get into some specifics about how we can help.
After that meeting, we had lunch in the same place everyone else does on the compound. The food was surprisingly good with a lot of cajun stuff for all the Louisiana folks! I was so excited to see grilled cheese sandwiches and 4 different types of chicken wings! The quality wasn't the best but they had a really awesome variety of stuff. They had a dessert station, ice cream station, a sandwich station, and a few others...We ate with a bunch of folks from the IT side, people that help manage the elections, and others I can't remember.
Once we were done, we boarded a bus and headed out to take pics at the famous crossed sword. Let me tell you, driving with a motorcade is really cool. They send out a bunch of advance cars (we have on idea how many) that scope out the path we take and clear the area we're going to.
Pic of the 'freedom restaurant' just outside the compound
Some monument at a roundabout on our way there
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So by the time we get there, they're already on the ground and have the area clear. What's even cooler is whenever we are in the car, the lead and follow suburbans always stick to us and drive in a way that never lets anyone get between us...they completely dominate the roads we take and stop traffic as we go...Pretty interesting experience! So when we got there, we found out that we got special approval from someone that was well connected with the Iraqi army to let us take pics there and walk around.
The famous crossed swords
Iraqi army patrolling this area:
Just me and the swords:
US Army tanks roll in to either take a break or take pics...I couldn't figure out why they were there :)
The 3 googlers!
Pic of a bunch of MPVs - all those big blocks on the sides is extra armor
I asked this soldier to pose for me:
and again:
and then with me:
helmets of iranians from the first persian gulf war
Me and an Iraqi soldier:
Like any sign in the middle east, this is just a suggestion but never to be taken seriously :)
I think I have a few inches more pecs than he does :)
We even exported graffitti from the US :)
This is the place where Saddam has that great shot of him firing his rifle:
This is a pic of the side of the residential palace after being bombed:
Here's a front view:
These white blimps are all over the city and act as early warnings of incoming missiles (you have 10 secs to duck!)
Govt building bombed in the war:
The famous Al-Rashid hotel that was bombed...this side is OK...the other side isn't :)
While I was there, I made friends with a bunch of the Iraqi soldiers and hung out with them. I was asking what they thought of the country now and of the US. The unanimous opinion was that it is much better off and the old baathists are of course unhappy but the vast majority (one guy said 60%) was much happier with the new outcome.
The Iraqi soldiers were super nice and they didn't mind if I jumped around their humvees and take tons of pics.
Playing soccer:
Me and the Iraqi boys:
Not sure what I was trying to do...the Iraqi soldiers were really easy going:
That antenna on the left is for jamming cell signals:
Saddam look-alike?
After that, we headed out to the tomb of the unknown soldier which was restricted but we had approval to get to go all the way in. That was really cool !
In front of the monument:
We then headed out after the pics to a meeting with the advisory council of Prime Minister al-Maliki. They spoke to us mostly about educational reform and their plans for that.
Then, we left for a meeting with Dr Sami al-Araji who is the Investment Commission of Iraq to discuss how they plan to attract foreign investment in to the company. He was very interested in Google doing business there but we were more interested in how he was attracting companies in general.
After this meeting, we headed back to the US embassy compound for a meeting with Ambassador Wall who gave us a really sobering assessment of the current economical situation in Iraq. He talked to us about how the affect of the oil prices is really challenging the Iraqi government since it's come down so much.
We then had the head of US Hostage Affairs gives us an overview of what's going on with kidnappings in Iraq. He was telling us that since Aug 2007, there was only one kidnapping which they paid the ransom. Nothing since. He said that foreigners usually go for $90K and Iraqi's around $20K but if you were a more well-off Iraqi or a professional (doctor, etc), you'd go for more. In the back of my mind, I was wondering how much I'd go for...Hmm, $20K, 90$K, higher?? :) He also talked about how kidnappers quickly grab your phone and dial any numberin your contact list that looks like a spouse/brother/sister/father. They then intimidate them into reacting emotionally which helps accelerate the kidnappers getting paid. Pretty interesting stuff!
We had also a representative from the US anti-corruption office discuss what they were doing in Iraq to combat this, among a few other areas of concern I can barely remember now but I'll check my notes later.
We then then ended up back to have a working dinner with the Minister of Science & Technology, Dr. Raad Fahmi. He talked to us at length about his initiatives for e-government and all the challenges he had with slow moving processes, different systems across ministries, complicated systems requiring staff retraining, and a system hugely dependent on paper trails. It looks like he has a long ways to go.
After dinner, we stopped by the embassy store and bought some really cool combat tshirts. It was still early so I suggested to our secret service agent that he take us for shisha since a few of us were interested. It turns out that it was just outside the compound. He didn't think he could do it so I kept trying to convince him and so he made a few calls but he got a flat no. We still tried to get out (you can ask me how offline) and we got denied at the gate...ugh.
Well that was an experience - so we ended up just hanging out at some patio tables just outside the gym for an hour and then headed to bed.
Got home, cleaned my bulletproof vest and ironed my shirt, then called it a night.
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