GREETINGS FROM BAGHDAD.(Americans on peace-seeking visit to Baghdad)

Publication: The New Yorker

Publication Date: 03-FEB-03

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COPYRIGHT 2003 All rights reserved. Reproduced by permission of The Condé Nast Publications Inc.

Strictly speaking, it is illegal for citizens of the United States to travel to Iraq without permission from the State Department or the Treasury Department, and doing so is punishable by up to twelve years in prison or a million-dollar fine. That didn't stop Sean Penn from embarking on his well-publicized "fact-finding" mission last month. Nor, more recently, did it stop some thirty peace-minded Americans (and one Bianca Jagger) from accepting an invitation from the president of Baghdad University, Dr. Muhammed Al-Rawi, to be his guests at a "Seminar for Peace" in the Iraqi capital. The Americans, all of whom had signed a "No Iraq Attack" petition that circulated on university campuses in the fall, received an e-mail from Dr. Al-Rawi shortly before Christmas. "Warm greetings from Iraq," it said. "To push for peace...

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