Care Packages for IRAQI families in Sadr City?? Names coming..

Below are the emails that I sent my friend, and his reply to me.. I will keep you all posted.. I trust this man and he is a dear friend.. I wrote about him when he was "inducted" into the military as a translator, and into the military.. He was born in Baghdad, and escaped when Saddam took over.. He has a vested interest in seeing Iraq succeed...and he has put his money where his mouth is.. He sold all his businesses here, (most at a loss) and has moved his wife to Beirut, and his daughter to Montreal to finish high school.. I knew he was serioous when he sold his beloved caddy convertible (1963) on Ebay...

This is a 56 year old guy who enjoys the creature comforts.. It kind of tickles me to wonder how he manages without someone to go fetch his dry cleaning ..(His secretary HATED having to do that )

_________________________________________________________________
>From: xxxxxxxxx.com


>To: xxxxxxxxxx@msn.c
>CC: xxxxxxxxxx.com
>Subject: Hi Ray, It's Julinda
>Date: Mon, 20 Oct 2003 15:18:44 EDT
>
>Hello, my friend,
>
>I hope you are staying safe and are accomplishing your "mission".. I am on a
>mission too.. You know what a do-gooder I am at heart :)
>
>My online community is looking for names of Iraqi people who are down & out..
>We would like to send some "care packages".. Can you get me names &
>addresses, and instructions on how to mail to them??
>
>We do not want to send money to an NGO because we want a one on one dialog
>with the families..
>
>Any suggestions you have would be greatly appreciated..
>
>I miss seeing you :), and hope you are well.. and that you get to see your
>fanily occasionally
>
>Julinda



Hi Julinda

I was really Happy to Hear from you,It was a Pleasent surprise, its past Midnight here Many of us are still working, Their in NO DIRECT mail yet into Iraq unfortunately, How many packages are thinking of SENDING, if its manageble, I can make the arrangement for delivey to SADR City, Its one of the POOREST areas of Baghdad. I will have some one get a PICTURE of the People with GIFT boxes and send this via E mail.

I really Do Not Think about Safety,We went into Nasirayah on the 15th of April on a C130 almost ran into another C130 on the Grounds had to take off to avoid that in 60 Miles wind?!!Can imagine ME doing this !! Got to Baghdad Two weeks later, its has been aan incridably rewarding experiance for me, to be as one of the GUYS in DCU . Many of us are DOWN now because of the Current CONDITIONS here, but Most of us have HOPE and strong DETERMINATION ...

I developed many freindships with People from ALL over the Country, I work alot 16 hours a day on average, Seven days a week, we spent alot of time together.

The last few days, I have been Thinking of you all and I missed ALL of you, you are part of my life and my Memories and will always be. You ALL mean so much to me.

If you decide to do this, I will give you an APO AE address and will make arrangment for the GIFTS to be shipped to Baghdad and deliverd, beleive it or not I have some PULL here, I am part of COMMAND GROUP and make this Happen.

Take care of yourself and stay in touch and give ALL my freinds my best regards.


xxxxxxxxx

:)

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...or something to that effect?

And stay pretty busy, so I do not always live here on DU like some, in fact DU is a place I will probably frequent even less henceforth for various reasons.

But of course I am happy to do what I can for the Iraqi people, I just hope this gentleman can be entrusted to deliver on his promise to deliver the goods, but if thats the best that can be done, will certainly give it a shot.

If I was informed of this thread earlier, i would have been the first to post and pledge my support.

Just pm me with what you need.

Sal

:-)

what you need. I would love to help in way I can. If you give me some idea of what's needed I will make up a care package and send it...it's the least I can do for the people whose country Bush has destroyed. You can either email me or PM me.

I am sure he will get me a list of things that are needed by the people there, and since he's in a command capacity, he will probably personally deliver them.. He is a native Iraqi and language will not be a barrier :)

just let me know when you know....I'm willing and able to help whenever you need it.

just awaiting details.

Hell

:hi:

maybe we can meet up :)

I have a feeling that my daughter-in-law wants to put me to work, making scrapbooks out of the shoeboxes full of pictures we gave them :grr:.. I may need to escape :)

I sent my number , just me a call and
we can arrange to meet . :-)

:toast:

Let me know. Thanks so much for arranging this. :hi:

Our company helps feed several families of Iraqis. We all send extra for the children and their families...foods stuff and toys. My husband asked for more powdered milk and I will be sending a few cases over in the next day or two for Iraqi families. The soldiers distribute the food we send.

If your friend would like, I can send him some powdered milk, cereals and peanut butter.

I'd like to take part in this. And kudos to you for organizing this effort. Others like to point fingers & condemn, while refusing to organize themselves.

My friend will expedite and probably contribute as well.:)

I have been wanting to do this for years. This is the best way for us to start connecting with people around the world again.

He's got a setup for a toy drive for Iraqi children.

Have not heard of him.. :shrug:

http://chiefwiggles.blog-city.com/

He's a military intelligence guy, currently working as a strategic debriefer in Baghdad. He spent 3 months in a POW camp in the Iraqi desert, getting information from high level Iraqi generals who surrendered according to the instructions on the fliers dropped from the air. He ended up bonding with many of them and becoming lifelong friends, meeting their families who came to the camp visiting the prisoners. These Iraqi generals were the ones the very first ones to surrender, the ones who wanted to save the lives of their men, even if it meant facing Saddam's wrath.

A couple of months ago, he got transferred to Baghdad to head up the a strategic debriefing group -- connecting with Iraqi civilians who come forward with information about arms dealers, guerillas, etc. He and his partner are the ones who give the information to the people conducting scouts and raids. He never forgot about the generals he's bonded with, and even posted letters the daughters of the generals had sent him, asking for help to free their fathers. He loved the Iraqi's he had bonded with and set up an online petition drive to lobby washington, and worked through the channels lobbying American generals, culiminating in the Rummy visit to Iraq, to get the Iraqi generals released. A week or so ago, he succeeded and many of the generals were released.

He's recently set up a toy drive. Basically, people sent toys and the soldiers go on special toy trips, to deliver toys to children in hospitals and neighborhoods. The toy drive serves two purposes -- helping Iraqi children and boosting troop morale by giving soldiers the chance to put a smile on a child's face.

His was one of the blogs I followed during the Iraq war and the aftermath. It's because of him that I don't see American soldiers as evil occupiers. I made sure to read not just Salam Pax and Riverbend (Iraqi's living in Iraq), but Chief Wiggles and the blogs of other soldiers in Iraq. It helps to give you a balanced perspective from both sides. Some of the soldiers who blog support Bush, some soldier bloggers hate Bush, some Iraqi bloggers hate Bush, some Iraqi Bloggers like Bush. It's good to see all sides.

I will ask him :)

Chief Wiggles is constantly working with interpreters because of his function as a strategic debriefer. But do note that "Chief Wiggles" is not his real name, just an online cover to protect his identity.

Although Chief Wiggles has a toy drive setup, I think your notion of CARE packages for Iraqi's on a personal basis is a good idea too.

The Toy drive thing helps troop morale and the children. But I think your idea of having the exact names of residents and (not sure if you intend this also) setting up correspondence links between us and them is good too. And I applaud you for the effort.

But the fiasco that Chief Wiggle had to go through to set up the toy drive might be instructive on how to set up an alternative arrangement. He had trouble with shipping, because the
original military shipping address got overwhelmed by over 400 packages the first few days, and had to shut down, because base security needs to check every package for security reasons, and 400 packages were too much. So he then had to set up a commercial shipping alternative. Also, there's a interesting breakdown of what should and should not be shipped as toys -- this might serve as a template for what you're considering.

that he personally will see to it that the boxes get delivered..I will probably hear from him in a few days, and we will then try to set a specific date for sending the packages..They will probably have to go to HIM, and then his driver will deliver them and get pictures of the families ..That's my understanding so far :)

and thanks for PMing me the info about the troops...I've been getting my package ready, just about going to send out, but wanted to include a personal note as well:)

I will take this to my head Chef in the morning and I will ask him If I can make a ton of Fruitcakes for our guys.

Hell, fruitcake is better then nothing and I like fruitcake.

How about some books, magazines, and board games. I have several scrabbles, monopoly's and several other games that are still in the wrappers that they could have.

Please let me know ASAP!!!!! I can't wait... :bounce: :bounce:

THANK YOU!!!! :loveya:

But I worry about your friend. The Bushies will probably accuse him of being a traitor. It seems that everyone who has empathy for the "enemy" is biting the dust. Hope he has LOTS of pull, so they can't bring him down.

I look forward to hearing the details of the project.

I feel so bad for them and they don't deserve to be going through Jr's oil war.

Please contact me.

uncleselrach@bluemarble.net

.

:hi: