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http://www.ctnow.com/hc-email.artoct02,0,4258333.storyPrivate E-Mail Portrays Iraq Headed For DisasterOctober 2, 2004
By LIZ HALLORAN, Courant Staff Writer
A
Wall Street Journal foreign correspondent's revealing e-mail to friends, in which she details deteriorating conditions in Iraq and the growing danger for journalists, has become an Internet phenomenon, driving home stark facts familiar to reporters in the war-riven country. ....
"For those of us on the ground," she wrote, "it's
hard to imagine what if anything
could salvage (Iraq) from its
violent downward spiral."
Contacted Friday by e-mail in Iraq, Fassihi, upset that her personal missive has become public fodder, declined to comment on reaction to her
assessment of Iraq as "a disaster," and her life as a reporter there as akin to being under "virtual house arrest" because of threats to Westerners.
But Fassihi's colleagues in Baghdad say
her analysis of the situation is dead-on: from the increasing inability of reporters to move around safely to do their job, to the dangers of assassinations, kidnappings and beheadings, to the
growing strength of an insurgency that appears more organized every day. ....
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