Dear Friends and Loved ones,
On Tuesday we drove 8 hours to the Turkey/Iraq border through mountains, winding roads, and numerous checkpoints. My smile that has rescued me from several traffic violations came in very useful while answering questions regarding our activities up north! I even snapped a few photos at one checkpoint with the anti-war and IVAW banner, stupid, yes…but oh so difficult to resist such a powerful photo opportunity – you can yell at me when I return home
In the region of Erbil we stopped at a massive grave site. The grave is the final resting place to approximately 10,000 bodies buried under 500 unmarked tombstones. The victims were murdered in the South around Baghdad during then Anfal Campaign, a genocide that took place against the Kurdish population of Iraq in 1988. The campaign was under the leadership of Ali Hassan, Sadaam’s cousin, aka “chemical Ali" - 75,000 Kurds were deliberately murdered by chemical attacks, Ariel bombing, and mass executions. Their remains were transferred up North and now lay to rest at this site.
