A BAGHDAD BLOGGER.(Internet diary of resident of Baghdad, Iraq)

Publication: The New Yorker

Publication Date: 31-MAR-03

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

During the past five months, a Manhattan office worker named Diane has exchanged nearly a hundred e-mails with Salam, a young architect in Baghdad. She is an unmarried Jew who lives on the Upper West Side; he is a closeted gay Iraqi from a wealthy family. What unites them is the fact that they are both the secret authors of blogs--Internet diaries that allow them to share their pent-up thoughts with the masses. Diane uses her Web site to express caustic opinions about the Middle East crisis. Salam's blog, which has somehow avoided being shut down by the Iraqi regime, is devoted to letting the world know how awful it is to be governed by "freaks"like Saddam Hussein (and how the only thing that's worse is having his home town pummelled by American bombs). Although Salam...

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