Diary Prequel Package — page 90

Feb. 26 - Mar. 1, 2004 Feb. 26 - Left for Amman, Jordan - Iraq on a Gulf Stream air force aircraft from Andrews Air Force Base. Trip purpose - "show the USA flag" in the context of health issues and determine whether the USG/DHHS/NIH can do more in the Middle East. On the trip was Secretary Thompson (TGT), Andy von Eschenbach, Bill Steiger, Press- Sanjay Gupta, Christy Feig and Joe Farre (CNN) and Mark Sherman (AP); Security - Jay Hodes. In Amman/Iraq we met Charles Curie (Head, SAMSA), Howard Zucker, Dr. David Smith (Humanitarian and Refugee Services), Andy Knapp and Mike Lonetto (Security advance), Adm Van der Wagner (USPHS). We landed in Marka Airfield in Amman and almost immediately changed planes to an Air Force C-130 to Baghdad. This would turn out to be one of the most memorable days of my life. In the approach to Saddam Airport we did a sharp "corkscrew" landing in which it felt like the plane flipped over. The airforce guys explained that this is the way that they avoid shoulder to air missiles as well as sporadic fire from AK 47s. In addition, the airport gets randomly mortared every day. These are just pockets of insurgents that rarely hit targets, the real targets are the convoys of troops accompanying cars (like ours) and isolated troops on patrol, as well as more recently, Iraqi police and officials who are trying to rebuild the country. We went from the airport to the "Green Zone" (relatively safe with high security, despite the fact that rocket and mortar attacks occur on almost a daily basis; these usually do not hit specific targets, but do cause casualties) in Baghdad with several car-loads of Special Forces and DoD Criminal Investigation Division (CID) security people and 4 Humvees full of Military police manning M-4s and fixed machine guns. The ride to Baghdad was thrilling and frightening. The alignment of the motorcade was that every time we passed a person(s) walking along the highway or a parked car or truck, the special forces car would insert themselves between the suspects and TGT's car (I was riding with TGT). When we passed an overpass or a car on our right, the Military police would aim their machine guns up at the overpass and swing around the turret of the machine gun as we passed the overhead. The reason is that frequently insurgents drop grenades from overpasses and run. We passed cars driving with people or when cars pulled up alongside, the military police and special forces would wave them over and point their guns directly at the driver. Reason - frequently, isolated cars drive by and shoot at the convoy. First stop - meeting with Ambassador Paul (Jerry Bremer) in his office in the imperial Palace formerly main palace of Saddam and now headquarters of the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA). Tom Foley (Bremer's Deputy) was not present, but we met him later on in the trip). Had great discussion of the difficulties in transition to the governing council. He made an interesting statement that democracy is a concept that is foreign to the Iraqis. They are taking a lot of time with their constitution and agreeing on their form of government since they seek "consensus". Democracy means that the majority rules, and as we see in the USA, the minority has much power and the balance can and does changes. The Iraqis are not used to the majority winning a vote since historically, minorities get persecuted. They need to understand that minorities are minorities for a particular idea/law/regulation and that Sunnis, Shia's and Kurds can be minority, majority or both. Sunnis and Shia's can live together since there are many, many mixed marriages. Highly intellectual discussion. Bremer is an impressive man.