Reporters Scared for Lives as Allawi Announces Candidacy

By: E&P Staff Make of it what you will, but this is how The New York Times described what happened Wednesday in Baghdad when interim Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi announced his candidacy in the January elections:

"Dr. Allawi's campaign started on an unpropitious note, when American and Iraqi forces closed off sections of central Baghdad so he could leave the Green Zone and cross the Tigris River to declare his candidacy at a sports club. But Western reporters judged the three-mile journey to be too hazardous in the bus provided by Allawi aides, and remained behind.

"Five hours later, he stood before fewer than 60 people, about half of whom were his own aides. With American bodyguards in flak jackets and cradling automatic weapons patrolling the club's auditorium, Dr. Allawi read a brief statement and returned hastily to the Green Zone."

The account was written by John F. Burns and Robert F. Worth, though it's unclear which, if either, made it to the press conference, and how.