A fixer goes to America
on 14 Jul 2008
Jeremy Gerard provides an update on the fixer known only as Ahmed Ali. A
few months ago things weren't looking good for Ali and his new life in America. However, things are picking up for the man who helped Oliver Poole work as a journalist in Iraq and who features in his Red Zone book,
``My daughter just passed from first grade to second, and my wife just got her driver's permit,'' Ali told me in a telephone interview. ``And last week they were talking about giving me a full-time job.''
Ali, 35, spent most of the early years of this decade as a ``fixer'' for British and American journalists covering the Iraq war, first in Baghdad and then, after his brother-in-law was murdered by Shia militiamen, in Damascus. He worked as a translator, putting himself in grave danger by setting up interviews for reporters and helping to get the words of Iraqis into the newspapers and magazines. link
