The Blog that Started it All

Looking for me? I’ve Moved on…

Hi there! Thanks for stopping in. I’m Christopher Allbritton. In 2002, I went stumbling around Iraqi Kurdistan, the northern part of Iraq outside Saddam’s direct control, looking for stories. (Some might call it “looking for trouble.”) In March 2003, I made it back in time for the war, becoming the Web’s first fully reader-funded journalist-blogger. …

Back to Iraq, In A Way

Tonight, “Only the Dead,” a documentary by my old Baghdad bureau chief Michael Ware premiers on HBO. I am both anticipating and dreading this documentary. Ware was already well established as the guy with the sources in the insurgency by the time I started my second Iraq journey in early 2004. I met him in a hotel room in Baghdad …

Official Numbers on Iraqi Casualties from U.S. Government?

Is this a first? The latest from the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction (big pdf) gives a casualty number of almost 100,000 Iraqi civilians to date, which may be the first time a U.S. government body has released this information. You can read the entire report, “Hard Lessons: The Iraq Reconstruction Experience” (and order a …

Pirates, ahoy!

OK. I’m going to take an I-told-you-so victory lap on this one. The U.S. will lead a 20-nation coalition to combat piracy off the Horn of Africa. Many of you will remember I’ve been interested in pirates off of Africa since 2005. I even embedded with the Germans in 2007 on the FGS Bremen as …