Multi-lingual limbo

Iraq | Iraqi interpreters risk their lives for U.S. forces and find the road out of danger hard still | Mindy Belz

Sherrlyn Borkgren/Genesis Photos

One year ago Saadoun stood in his dim two-room home in Amman, Jordan, and flapped his hands helplessly at his side: "I am not an Iraqi anymore. I am not Jordanian. I am not American. I am only human."

Saadoun, who devours history books in his free time and devoured his study of English as a student in Baghdad, once thrived as an interpreter for the U.S. Army. But the work brought threats to his family from militants. And Saadoun himself made his situation more difficult by becoming a Christian in 2004. After that, death threats came not only from enemies of the United States but from his own family. On Aug. 29, 2004, after about 18 months working alongside U.S. forces, the former Shia Muslim, along with his wife Thariyya and their three school-age boys, fled for Jordan.

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October 04, 2008, Vol. 23, No. 20

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