MOSUL, Iraq — It's 100 degrees Fahrenheit. Khalid Ahmed jostles in the back of a U.S. armored vehicle on a combat mission, tightens his flak vest, and pulls on a thick black ski mask. Covering his eyes with wrap-around sunglasses, he obscures the last clues to his Iraqi identity.
It's a mask Mr. Ahmed hates intensely, although he knows it could save his life. As an interpreter for a U.S. Army colonel, he faces constant danger on and off the job. In Mosul alone, at least four of his colleagues — including his predecessor — have been assassinated for working with American forces.[...]
Working for the Marines and later the 101st Airborne Division and Stryker brigade, Ahmed was impressed by much of what he learned about American culture. In managing propane distribution, for example, he discovered U.S. soldiers were highly egalitarian.
"Before the war, we had important people and not-important people. But the soldiers were fair to everyone," he says. "I learned a lot from those guys. I learned that you judge each individual by what he does" rather than by his family, tribe, or group, he says.[...]
Always in hiding, an Iraqi interpreter's anguished life
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By Ann Scott Tyson, The Christian Science Monitor
MOSUL, Iraq — It's 100 degrees Fahrenheit. Khalid Ahmed jostles in the back of a U.S. armored vehicle on a combat mission, tightens his flak vest, and pulls on a thick black ski mask. Covering his eyes with wrap-around sunglasses, he obscures the last clues to his Iraqi identity.
It's a mask Mr. Ahmed hates intensely, although he knows it could save his life. As an interpreter for a U.S. Army colonel, he faces constant danger on and off the job. In Mosul alone, at least four of his colleagues — including his predecessor — have been assassinated for working with American forces.[...]
