Review of 'Where is Raed?' Blog Series

Possibly the most controvertial blog site in the world, created by an architect living in Iraq before and during the Iraq war, the fall of the regime of Saddam Hussain and the continued occupation of Iraq by the USA and UK. The blog comprises mainly of blogs about the war, the conditions that he felt were either being ignored or covered up by the Iraqi, US, and UK governments and or the press.Within his blog, Salam discusses the war, his friends, disappearances of people under the government of Saddam Hussein, and his work as a tanslaer for journalist Peter Maaas. Pax's site is titled after Pax's frien Raed Jarrar, who was working on his Master's Degree in Jordan: he didn't respond promptly to email, and so Pax set up the weblog for him to read. In May 2003, The Guardian newspaper tracked the man down and printed a story indicating that he did indeed live in Iraq, with the given name Salam, and was a 29-year-old architect.

First circulating the blogging community, discussion eventually reached the New York Times, with some pundits speculating that the blogger was secretly a US, Israeli, or Iraqi government agent spreading disinformation about the war. There were also claims that he was the pampered son of a senior Baath Party official. Pax continued to post updates to the site even after it was temporarily blocked in Iraq. During the war, he gave accounts of bombings and other attacks from his suburb of Baghdad until his Internet access (and the electrical grid) was interrupted. Pax remained offline for weeks, writing entries on paper to type later. Later entries discuss the chaotic postwar economy and a June, 1, 2007appears to celebrate an anarchist effort, centered in Adil to provide free Internet access to all of Iraq. It turned out not to be run by political anarchists, but by Iraqis who ran the prewar Internet cafes in Baghdad for Uruknet, the former government ISP.

Salam has continued to post blogs, however less frequently most recently, his blogs are a very important part of a new online revolution, and be seen during the aftermath of the Budhist Monks' protest of the military regime of Burma. Various individuals have managed to document the events in pictures, video or by blogging on the internet.