I just finished skimming through the last two rounds of Iraqi documents released - 81 documents all told, some only a few pages and some up to 250 pages long. They give, I think, an idea of what to expect: a lot of documents of little general interest, with a few nuggets here or there... though many of the documents will be gold mine for historians actually interested in the details of a bureaucratic-totalitarian state. Also, a lot of Iraqi officials had really lousy handwriting - I'd recommend investing in Advil or Tylenol futures. There are a lot of documents full of military reports, orders and preparations, which should interest military historians someday; a number of photo galleries which anyone might find interesting (try ISGP-2003-00007057, or ISGP-2003-00031138, or ISGQ-2003-M0000767); copies of Saddam's speeches; internal phone directories; and so forth. I should also point out that they've improved the interface, with some brief summaries of the contents of documents released last week, but not yet for the last two batches.
Some documents of interest which I did come across include:
* A 1999 study of how to deal with false information about Iraq on the internet (CMPC-2003-008945). The document begins by explaining what the "internet" is, and then pointing out that there were many sites dealing with Iraq either positively or negatively - including information about Iraqi weaponry and personalities. It says that the Mukhabarat (intelligence) had recommended forming a committee to follow these sites and deal with this information. The committee made some recommendations: give Iraq an official presence on the internet through establishing a website to publish facts and information and Iraqi positions; to expand Iraq's presence on the internet through establishing unofficial sites which would present views sympathetic to Iraq; create electronic versions of Iraqi newspapers and magazines; create an official agency to monitor the internet; and to follow and conceal information and sites which harm Iraqi national security. A subsequent document approves most of these recommendations (not the last one, at least in the attached document).
* The Iraqi regime read Foreign Affairs. The document ISGP-2003-00015320 is an extended discussion of Kenneth Pollack's Foreign Affairs 2002 article "Next Stop Baghdad" - which the Iraqi officials saw as a guide to the thinking of American policy makers. The document gives a full translation of Pollack's article. Other authors the documents considered significant: Martin Indyk ("Back to Bazaar", also in Foreign Affairs). Bob Woodward's reporting attracted interest, since he was seen as close to the President.
* Steve Hayes might or might not be interested in ISGZ-2004-031613 (August 2002) which includes mention of al-Qaeda. It's actually a report from the Kurdish areas, which includes the note that the Norwegians had informed the Iraqis about an al-Qaeda man who had escaped arrest, and they suspected he had fled to his family in Irbil. That's about all I found on the al-Qaeda front, I'm afraid, except for one memo from Saddam authorizing "Arabs" to get the same wages as Iraqi Fedayin in the runup to the war.
I'm sure there's stuff I missed, since it's a lot of material often in lousy handwriting, but those were the highlights of today's document reading festivities.
great stuff, keep up the good work. you note that the Iraqis read Foreign Affairs, writing reports on articles by Pollack, Indyk, etc. (I heard Betts was covered as well.) The JFCOM report, though, says that the Iraqis had very little discrimination, and treated loons like Lyndon Larouche seriously too. Have you found any evidence of that?
In general, does what you've read so far add to or change your views about the Iraqi regime at all? I know some people, for example, who felt that the JFCOM report's discussion of the domestic paramilitaries (Al Quds Army, Saddam Fedayeen, etc) was illuminating, by bringing out just how central internal rather than external security was in their conception and management...
lc
PS for those who don't know about it, the full JFCOM report should be available from the USGPO in a few days, but excerpts are available now at www.foreignaffairs.org
Posted by: lamont cranston | March 22, 2006 at 12:09 PM