Daily intelligence brief: Baghdad's 'dreams and desires are shrinking'

RAW STORY
Published: Friday July 7, 2006

"A daily intelligence brief on Iraq, prepared by a private contractor for the U.S. military and companies working in Iraq, paints a grim picture of life in Baghdad," according to the Wall Street Journal's Washington Wire.

An email to the paper went unanswered. RAW STORY is currently trying to obtain a copy of the brief.

The daily intelligence report documents a slew of attacks around the capital, the Journal says.

“The levels of torture and execution-style killings… illustrate the increasing disregard for human life by the perpetrators for those not of their own grouping,” the brief says.

Marked “official use only,” the report describes Baghdad as a crestfallen metropolis.

“Baghdad looks so exhausted these days and so do her people; the relentless violence, the lack of basic services and the scorching heat abolishes human desire to do anything or to even think of anything,” the report compiled by SOC-SMG Inc., a Nevada contractor, says. “Living for many Iraqis was reduced to existence a long time ago; dreams and desires are shrinking under the heavy shadows of the situation.”

A follow-up post at Washington Wire reveals that the brief resembles an online report.

"The language of this and several other passages mirrors almost exactly a posting for the July 6 edition of Iraq the Model," writes Neil King Jr.

"The company’s interim CEO, Robert Shields, said he was unaware of the overlap and would look into it," King continues. "But 'we draw information from a variety of sources,'" he said.

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