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Marin man takes talk show to Iraq

Sep- 6-2005 » Filed Under: 1/25 SBCT

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By Dave Albee

After returning from his visit to Iraq last week, Ron Barr was safe and sound but not sedentary back home in Strawberry. He was limping noticeably around the kitchen. His right ankle was badly swollen and in a splint and he was in plenty of discomfort.

A war wound? Not exactly.

Barr, longtime Marin County resident and host and founder of the national Sports Byline USA radio program, broke his right ankle when he stepped off an 18-inch ledge on the deck of Saddam Hussein's private pool in a palace in Mosul after enjoying a leisurely swim on a 125-degree afternoon.

The freak accident happened 90 minutes before the 60-year-old Barr was to broadcast the first of three days of sports talk radio shows from Forward Operating Base Courage in the war-torn country.

"I heard it snap," Barr said.

He heard lots of other terrible things in Iraq as well as he listened to stories that made a broken ankle pale in comparison.

Barr listened to stories about how Saddam had the right hands of his enemies cut off, forcing them to use their left hand, which in Islam is associated with the "dwellers of hell." Barr was was told how insurgents shot a six-year-old Iraqi boy in the chest simply for accepting a chocolate bar from an American soldier.

Barr learned that when U.S. troops stormed Saddam's palace in Mosul they found bodies floating in the the swimming pool Barr had used. Officials believe one of Saddam's sons, in a fit of rage, unloaded his gun on his own people. [...]


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