March 22, 2007

Grenade in Green Zone Just Misses al-Maliki and U.N. Secretary General

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A rocket just missed a building in Baghdad’s Green Zone that houses both the U.S. embassy and the Iraqi Prime Minister’s office. Both al-Maliki and the U.N.’s new Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon were in the building at the time. Both were uninjured, but, tellingly, Ban was frightened where al-Malike appeared unfazed, saying, “Nothing’s wrong.” Perhaps for obvious reasons, a Secretary-General (in that case Kofi Annan) last visited Baghdad nearly a year and a half ago. And, if you’re wondering why the media insists on making Baghdad sound so bad, it’s because the folks at the AP office heard whoosh of the rocket launch. That surge is really working, eh?

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We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

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