IRAQ PEOPLE IN THE GREAT USA MUST BE MONITORED AT ALL COST !!! TEHY ARE FROM A ENEMY PRIMITIVE COUNTY WITH A TERRORIST RELIGION !!!! WHEN IRAQ PAYS AMERICANS BACK 100 BILLION DOLLARS FOR WHAT THE SCUMMY SMELLY WEAL IRAQ PEOPLE CAUSED THEY CAN COME HERE IF THEY CONVINCE US THEY ARE WORTHY !!!
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Since 1993, home had been Baghdad. He was attending university and training to be an architect when the invasion in 2003 opened unexpected doors. Through a friend, he fell into doing odd jobs for the Los Angeles Times, then began reporting once security disintegrated and foreign journalists could no longer venture out. It wasn't exactly architecture, but the money was good, and he was good at the job. "I loved it. I'm an adrenaline junkie," he says. He'd need to be. Each assignment brought new hazards. One time, while in a Sunni area meeting with an imam who was very clearly pro-resistance, he came under threat, accused of helping the invaders. He wiggled out of it by pointing out that American media, not Arabic media, had broken the Abu Ghraib story.
But the danger was constant. After his mother and younger brother were tortured in 2006, his family fled the country. One by one, his friends began to leave. Others were killed. Isolated and hopeless, he began drinking every night. Finally, last June, he sent in his paperwork to relocate to the United States. He never wanted to consider himself a refugee. But this was a fast-track to the States, and it was time to go.
Today, Rifai is newly arrived in New York, crashing in the apartment of a former L.A. Times colleague while she's off on assignment. He hasn't found work yet, but, with decent prospects and low expectations, he's not too worried. "I wasn't fooling myself. I came over here expecting to flip burgers. I wouldn't have minded that," he says. "Most Iraqis have this misconception about being a refugee. They hear stories about others who have gone to Europe, Sweden in particular, where they provide everything for you. They don't read the small print." But for now, he's still just celebrating, like he will at a "posh" 4th of July party, he says with a laugh. By all accounts, he deserves it.
© 2009
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