Indeed! I know I would sure like to know his fate, and hope that he's alive and well.

Yeah. I keep checking to see if he has updated or if any of his other contacts have posted about his welfare but I haven't found any news.

Anybody know?

Thanks for this,... I have been wondering also. I check his site, and gotham but nothing there that I have seen.

Child of a high ranking Baathist?

is not power still out in large parts of Baghdad ?

His real surname is Tikriti. I guess he's on the run.

His international fan club are suffering from Stockholm syndrome.

Is everyone really quite sure that Salam Pax was an Iraqi in Iraq? From the moment I saw it, I thought it was a fairly well done black information distribution.

He is safe. I'm sure his fictional writing and world publicity will ensure him of a passing grade in Creative Writing 101 at KU in Kansas, USA.

He's fine! Right now, he's sipping tea at a Syrian coastal resort with the rest of the top Iraqi intelligence community.

So, stop worrying.

I have been wondering whether the "Raed Saeed, a 34-year-old electrical engineer" mentioned in this article has any connection to Salam Pax...

i don't think he's the real deal. from a post of his from way back:
"a quick run thru what is going on"
"the juiciest bit of news ..."
does that sound like someone who grew up and still lives in iraq and for whom english is a second language?
(no implication meant re intelligence of iraqis)

There have been several excellent hoax cyper personalities in the web's short history. Many have been extremely elaborate, run for years and convinced many many people. If people don't ask for money, are careful about their writing consistancy and story line they can be virtually undetectable.

They frequently choose highly unique bio's/storylines. The "kysa" hoax ran something like three years before the character was compromised and killed off.

I tend to think the site was fake. A few people who said they received emails. But headers are easily faked, and can be completly faked with information available on the net making anyones mail seem to come from and go through servers in Iraq. anyone "validating" a cyber personality by emails and even the most detailed header foresnics is silly.

He might be real, but my money says very cool and original fake.

Internet access in Iraq has been largely down for days -- it's a very centralized system (unsurprisingly) and their satellite dishes were knocked out.

Err...most of Baghdad doesn't have electricity right now. I suspect that getting the Internet connections up and running is a bit low on the priority list at this time.

Pax seems to be quite genuine. He has sent items from Iraq (in more peaceful days) to recipients in the USA. He mentions details about Baghdad which only a resident would know, He broke the story of the oil-filled trenches around the city long before the western media ever mentioned them. His conflicting attitudes towards Hussein, Iraq, and the American invasion are very reflective of someone of his status in society and of his claimed education.

And then there's his heartbreaking, yet strangely unmelodramatic, account of his lover's probably abduction by the secret police. Had he been writing a fictional account, he would have mentioned this story often and in great detail. As it was, he only gives a couple of passages to the account, which seems realistic for a man wanting to deny something so horrid has happened and, also, for a man who wishes not to be linked to this incident and then discovered himself.

If he is fictional, then the author has lived in Baghdad at some point and has experienced a highly repressive regime at some point. The author would also have to know about the minute details of household customs of both Sunni and Shia Muslims (Dad was Sunni and Mum was Shia so his house celebrated both ways).

His posts have great verisimilitude. There are two types of people, those who trust until evidence proves otherwise, and those who do not because they are afraid to be wrong. This seems to stem from how one takes deceit. I for one, am not embarrassed by being taken in by a totally convincing lie. Salam Pax doesn't give any evidence of being a fake. His rant against the war showed pure terror at being bombed and looted, not love of the Ba'ath.

Reading between the lines, he is almost certainly related to someone with connections in the government. He has Internet access, and talks about relatives talking to Ba'athist who are making rules regarding food distribution and the like. His stories of loved ones getting taken by the secret police also bears this out. In police states it is *always* more dangerous to be a member of the ruling group.

I suspect that there is a good chance he is on the run. I suspect that if he can make it to a western country his celebrity will serve him well.

Heck if is is able to stay, his vernacular language skills will make him a lot of money from the foreign firms coming in.

"Always Out Front"

Well, then, I guess the question is not only 'Where is Raed', but also 'Is there a Raed'?

Either way, I'd be interested in knowing, as Paul Harvey has said 'the rest of the story...'

Major media assistance on this would be appreciated.

FWIW, Raed is not Salam Pax. Raed is a friend of Salam's in Jordon who originally setup a blog for Salam, and they both used to post on it way back when. The latest incarnation, Where is Raed is indicative of the fact that Raed doesn't post anymore.

Salam Pax recently spotted sipping cappucino with Elvis in Las Vegas.

George Lucas wrote in such detail he must be real. You can tell from his movies Star Wars that he has truly lived on other planets and has fought the evil empire and battled the great Darth Vader. Raed could live in Kansas. I could send you authentic items from any country you pick without leaving Phoenix, AZ.
Don't believe everything you read. I served on Submarines for years and Tom Clancy did not. But I bet many people thought he was former military to write in such detail.

George Lucas wrote in such detail he must be real. You can tell from his movies Star Wars that he has truly lived on other planets and has fought the evil empire and battled the great Darth Vader. Raed could live in Kansas. I could send you authentic items from any country you pick without leaving Phoenix, AZ.
Don't believe everything you read. I served on Submarines for years and Tom Clancy did not. But I bet many people thought he was former military to write in such detail.

To damascusdan re your post on April 10, 2003 04:57 PM of the following:

"does that sound like someone who grew up and still lives in iraq and for whom english is a second language?"

I have a very dear Brazilian friend who has studied the English language for many years, writes in English, teaches in English, etc. - although he has always lived in Brazil. His desire to truly know English lead him to learn nuances and slang. It is quite possible that any non-native English speaker could do the same if given the opportunity and access. This might require $$$, travel, tutors, friends, etc., to assist - leading one to consider that Salam Pax might be of the Iraqi upper class as discussed in some posts above.

Do not discount the possibility that Salam Pax is in fact an Iraqi living in Baghdad simply because his use of English is better than that of some Americans.

Hope Salam Pax is okay, wherever he is,...

I've read Salam from very early on (I read Letter from Gotham all the time). He was posting long before this made any kind of sense as a propaganda exercise and he always sounded genuine and unforced rather than hewing to some agenda.

If you were pro-war you could see him as an example of an oppressed Iraqi who hated the regime. If you were anti-war you could see him as an example of a Baghdad citizen who feared bombs and urban fighting.

It's not impossible that Salam was concocted out of whole cloth, but I have a hard time imagining who would go to such trouble over such time and present such a non-ideological view. Given the US's often-clumsy propaganda leaflets, hackneyed "We are your friend! We shake hands with Iraqi people!" tone, I don't see this as coming from our side.

In the beginning Salam's blog was just a blog, about shopping and meeting friends and stuff; and it was discovered almost by accident. Salam didn't go out to blogs like Instapundit trying to get discovered and promote his worldview, he was drawn out and only reluctantly interacted with other blogs.

I don't feel I'm going out on much of a limb here: I think Salam is real. And I very much hope he's all right.

Total and absolute fake. From the get go. I posted so immediately after he erupted on the scene. Dead giveaway..."Huntington" quote on top of blog, noting the inferiority of western culture and values...we only succeed by the sword. Gawd, what a bunch of dupes. Gee, he's disappeared! Whatever could have happened to our dear friend? Heh, heh. Disappeared into the Ministry of Information. Haven't any of you read
'The Sword and the Shield'? Con number 611. BTW, any of you ever spend any time in intel? An Islamic radical country? Preferably both. Where was Dan when I was trying to sell my original, authentic, autographed Ted Williams memorabilia on ebay?

Uh, John, yes, and yes to your questions.

One of the reasons I'd like to find out who Pax is is to decide the big debate, which could go on for hundreds of comments, as to 'real' or 'fake'. I know my vote would be 'real'. The material of his I saw had neither direct obvious agenda, nor have I seen anyone point out any thread of a subtle one either.

I did find his use of language to be on par with someone that had studied abroad, in an anglophonic country. The use of catch or buzz phrases fits with that - and some of the gramatical miscues I did see tended towards those a non-native speaker might make.

I certainly cannot say with authority that he is for real, on the level, or not. But neither can anyone else say, with authority, that he absolutely is a sham, a deception, a contrived diversion or hoax.

And that...that, is why I want to find out.

I have been convinced. Clearly, John@ cannot possibly be real.

The Huntington quote is right out of the Baathist manual. Saddam's propaganda has said for years that Arabs are the fountain of all culture and the only reason our civilization is successful is superior application of violence. It is pure anti-colonial rhetoric. I suspect it is required reading in any Iraqi English class.

I am not saying that Salam Pax is real, although I would put the chance at something like 80%, but citing that quote as evidence that he is not is not compelling at all. It is, in fact, strong evidence that he is real. That is not a common quotation among westerners.

One other thing, there are always accusations that this is some kind of an intelligence thing. That makes no sense. Half the people posting this accusation say he's working for Iraq, the others say he's working for Israel. Besides, who in the hell would do this? It has NO value at all in terms of disinformation. It is not targeted at decision makers. It is not commonly read enough to change strategic opinions. This would be a total waste of effort for any intelligence service.

Face it. People like us aren't considered important enough.