Sahar Issa is an Iraqi correspondent working at McClatchy's Baghdad bureau. A recent trip to the US gave Issa several opportunities to express her views about the US. Issa's views of the US will alienate many McClatchy readers.
In October she travelled to the US to accept an award by the International Women's Media Foundation (IWMF). Six women from McClatchy's Baghdad bureau were honored and Sahar Issa gave the acceptance speech on behalf of the others. Issa is the only one of the six still working in Iraq, as the others apparently now reside in the US. From Newsweek: "McClatchy arranged safe passage out of Iraq for the others, as one by one their identities became known and their lives endangered." Issa frequently mentions the loss of life her family has suffered. But that is a tragic reality for millions of people who live in the most dangerous places on earth.
Issa's trip to the US gave her opportunties to give media interviews, and she took full advantage. She was interviewed by Newsweek, the New York Times, PBS, McClatchy, and others.
The interviews are very telling.
In the interview Sahar Issa gave to Jeffrey Brown at PBS, Issa said there are forces who would call her a spy and kill her, if they learned she was a journalist working for a foreign agency. She also told Brown the Iraqi government would target her if they knew she was a journalist.
But Issa got to the point about the US during a question and answer session after the IWMF awards ceremony:
She faults the U.S. with “leaving the country open to vermin” and rhetorically asked the audience, which resulted in applause, “If America had wanted to leave, would it be able to take out the vermin…?"
Readers of this blog won't be surprised to learn Issa blames the US for Iraq's problems. In the October speech, Sahar Issa said she has been "branded a terrorist." (She doesn't identify the culprit, but reading the speech you get the idea she means Americans.) Issa's "branded a terrorist" remarks have been widely reported but Issa has never explained what she meant.
On her personal blog, Issa wrote that Americans don't seem to care about the damage the war has done to Iraq's "educational system, healthcare, and infastructure." I blogged about those remarks here.
The US has made a tremendous sacrifice for people like Sahar Issa, it's not welcome news that she doesn't appreciate it.
