Polis takes to Web with observations on journey to Iraq

Candidate cautioned about possibility of endangering gay Iraqis

By Chris Barge, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Thursday, November 22, 2007

Polis wrote of wearing a bulletproof vest and helmet.

Jared Polis got the chilling warning on his cell phone as he ran between gates in the Chicago airport.

On the other end of the line was Ali Hili, a gay Iraqi living under police protection in London because a fatwa - a religious decree - has called for his death.

In a "dead serious tone," Hili warned Polis that he needed to make sure the interpreter he chose upon arriving in Iraq was someone he could trust.

Polis, who is gay, was taking his campaign for Colorado's 2nd Congressional District seat to the heart of the war, which he opposed and viewed as the most pressing issue facing Congress.

While there, Polis planned to meet with gay and lesbian Iraqis to discuss how several safe houses for people like them were closing for lack of money. He would need an interpreter.

Hili warned Polis that if the interpreter personally disapproved of homosexuality, as most Iraqis do, then he might "out" the gay and lesbian Iraqis to those who could torment or kill them.

"In a voice cracking with deep feeling, he then said he has lost many friends already and didn't want to lose any more," Polis wrote Tuesday upon arrival in Amman, Jordan, in a blog entry on the liberal political Web site dailykos.com. "I told him that I understood the stakes."

It has apparently been an eye-opening experience for Polis, who for security reasons waited until Sunday to announce that he was about to spend Thanksgiving in Iraq. He spent an hour Wednesday, after arriving in Baghdad, chatting online about his trip with visitors to another liberal Web site, coloradoconfiden tial.com.

Most of the roughly 30 people who joined the chat praised Polis for his courage, urged him to be careful, and asked him what he'd seen so far.

Polis said he had spent a busy day inside Baghdad's relatively safe Green Zone, meeting with members of Iraq's government and visiting several U.S. military compounds.

State Rep. Joe Rice, D-Littleton, an Army Reservist stationed in Baghdad, greeted him at the airport.

Polis said Baghdad looks "like any city in the developing world" and that his most disturbing surprise so far was the massive number of contractors from other countries doing work in Iraq.

"The morale of our military is reasonably high," he wrote. "The morale of Iraqi government officials appears lower, they seem overworked and tired."

Polis said he was financing the trip to raise awareness inside Colorado's donor community about opportunities to financially help the Iraqi people, "and I certainly plan on supporting some of the worthwhile organizations doing work here myself," he added.

Mostly, Polis said he was interested in strengthening ties between nonprofit organizations in Iraq and the Iraqi government.

Later, Polis forwarded a more expansive diary entry to his campaign manager, for posting on several blogs.

He wrote about putting on a bulletproof vest and thick helmet for a ride in a bulletproof van from the airport. He expanded on his worries about outsiders for hire from all over the world, working as contractors in Iraq.

"Apparently, this is modern warfare," he wrote. "Private armies hired by nation states and controlled by corporations."

He toured the majestic domed ceilings and marble staircases of the Republican Palace, formerly command central for Saddam Hussein's empire, now inhabited by the U.S. military. "The image of America as an occupying power pervades the area," he wrote.

Polis is in a three-way race for the Democratic nomination to try to succeed Rep. Mark Udall, who is running for the Senate. His Democratic primary opponents are former state Senate President Joan Fitz-Gerald and Will Shafroth.

The winner of that primary is expected to win the general election in the heavily Democratic district that includes Boulder.

Fitz-Gerald and Shafroth have criticized Polis' trip as a political stunt.

"I can't think of anything MORE necessary for someone who aspires to serve our nation than learning firsthand what is going on in Iraq," Polis blogged in response to the criticism.

Polis will spend today meeting with Iraqi nonprofit organizations outside the Green Zone, then travel on Friday back to Jordan, where he will meet with Iraqi refugees. He plans to return to the U.S. on Monday.

Chances to chat

Live conference call from Amman, Jordan: Noon Friday. Call 866-477-5149, code 13364, then dial 3 to ask a question

Town hall meetings

6:30 p.m. Wednesday at Dairy Center's East Theater, 2590 Walnut St., Boulder

6 p.m. Dec. 4 at the New American School auditorium, 11700 Irma Drive, Northglenn

• November 26, 2007

  11:39 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  nobody writes:

  Gee Sparky, do ya think you might have guessed what he would say? I know of 16 other people that have dedicated several years of their lives in Iraq and not one of them says the things that Polis says he heard. Such a dichotomy is not reasonable. So once again Bush and our military are incompetent due to them being too big and clumsy..

  I find Polis too large of ego and clumsy with words. He doesn't articulate well what actual percentage of the Iraqi's he talked to. Do these "humanitarian" organizations have the backing of America bashers? How many times have they exaggerated Iraqi deaths, rapes and torture?

  Many are U.N. organizations that make a pretty good living doing just that, bashing America.

  We not only have them there, we gottem home grown too....

  Get elected off of people frustration is one thing but to not fully inform is propaganda. I consider this report no more than that.

  Nobody is saying that. That's why I'm voting for NoBody this November. It is not a sign of patriotism to continue our participation in a "rigged" game. Every Party, in their own ways, require that we incrementally forfeit more of our rights based on personal choice and give them up to the almighty "common good".

  Nobody is talking about that too. I love this Nobody guy.

  So his "report" back to you I would wager was the product of him going there to fulfill his "suspicions". Found all the evidence in line with his agenda, disregarding the rest. Much like the global warming fiasco the U.N. has convinced everyone of crisis and speed.

  Well Nobody is talking about this fear mongering and what it does to our freedoms? Nobody cares. That's why I'm voting for Nobody this November, I really like the things that we don't talk about.

  I wonder if Mr. Polis is familiar with ROE that is dictated not by us, but by the Iraqi's? Mr. Polis should try googling ROE and see what it comes up with since he might be unfamiliar with the term.

  I would encourage the media to do in depth stories too, from a nuetral perspective, unlike Polis has done.... his helping the Iraqi people out of a sense of the "wrong" we have done, is the same old guilt ridden trip that lefties like to establish.

  Ooops, three days and the dude is so much better informed?

  To the media that insists on covering this tripe:
  We actually have live heroes returning home, not just dead ones.

  Well Sparky, same old sh*t, different name...