Trip update

The gear is acquired! Sat-phone will be coming tomorrow and new laptop should be coming Monday or Tuesday. GPS receiver is in hand, and my old trusty digital camera is waiting to ship out.
I’ll be getting a ticket to Istanbul next week, perhaps as soon as Wednesday. From there, I’ll meet up with a friend in Ankara and we’ll head to the Syrian border. After that, Iraqi Kurdistan. I hope to be in country by next weekend.
I was hoping for $10,000 at a minimum, but the big dose of funding I was hoping for from a major university has not come through, and I don’t think I can wait anymore. So I’m going to cut the trip a little short (probably two weeks in Iraq as opposed to a month) and go with what I’ve got.
Donations are still most welcome, of course! Every little bit helps, and I really, really appreciate everyone’s support. If people want to keep donating, I can still access the funds while in Turkey. After that, however, I’ll be using the cash reserves.
By the time I get there, Iraqi Kurdistan could be Turkish-occupied, a humanitarian disaster or a cheering land of happy Kurds. We’ll see. It’s a hideously complicated place, and it will be a good litmus test for America’s intentions.

10 Comments on “Trip update”

  1. War, Websites, and Music

    I’ve spent the past few hours searching out a few good sources of information about this war. I’ve been quite adamantly opposed to it all along and would like to remain as informed as possible. There are quite a few

  2. GODSPEED

    Christopher Allbritton, the former AP and New York Daily News reporter, has all of his paperwork in order and is set to depart for Iraq on Wednesday. He’ll be providing independent news coverage via satellite connection onto his weblog, Back to Iraq 2….

  3. Coverage

    In the war coverage department, Christopher Albritton of Back to Iraq plans to leave for Kurdistan as early as Wednesday. On the flip side, Kevin Sites has been asked by CNN to discontinue his independent reporting from the field. The contest for hones…

  4. Support Independent Journalism in Iraq

    Christopher Allbritton is an independent reporter who was in Iraqi Kurdistan last summer. He’s about to head back in a…

  5. War, Websites, and Music

    I’ve spent the past few hours seeking out a few good sources of information about this war. I’ve been quite adamantly opposed to it all along, and I would like to remain as informed as possible. There are quite a

  6. War, Websites, and Music

    I’ve spent the past few hours seeking out a few good sources of information about this war. I’ve been quite adamantly opposed to it all along, and I would like to remain as informed as possible. There are quite a

  7. Um stríðið sem fjölmiðlar hafa misst áhugan á

    A warmonger explains war to a peacenik – Bráðskemmtilegur einþáttungur sem lýsir kjarna málsins um stríðið í Írak. Blaðamaðurinn Christopher Allbritton bloggar Back-to-Iraq.com. Christopher, sem hefur 13 ára reynslu sem blaðamaður, m.a. á AP og New Yor…