In Saddam's Shadow: Baghdad 10 Years After the Invasion (Full Length)

[STATIC] [MUSIC PLAYING] [CHEERING AND WHISTLING FROM CROWD] SUROOSH ALVI: So we're here in Baghdad. Right down there, that's Firdos Square. That's where the famous scene took place where Saddam Hussein's statue was pulled down. We came here in 2006 when we filmed "Heavy Metal in Baghdad." It was a very, very different city then. It was the height of the insurgency. It was a war zone, full occupation. And that occupation is now over. A year ago, America pulled out their troops. BARACK OBAMA: Tonight, I am announcing that the American combat mission in Iraq has ended. Operation Iraqi Freedom is over. Last February, I announced a plan that would bring our combat brigades out of Iraq while redoubling our efforts to strengthen Iraq's security forces and support its government and people. That's what we've done. SUROOSH ALVI: We found it strange that Baghdad is not in the news at all these days. What happened? It was the biggest news story in the world for almost a decade. And then overnight, it's over. So we wanted to come here and see what the effects of this occupation were. When the Americans left, Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki intensified his efforts to consolidate power among the Shia majority. The Sunni minority, a group that enjoyed great privilege under Saddam Hussein have been marginalized. Naturally, the Sunnis are not taking this lying down. -[SPEAKING ARABIC] [CROWD CALLING OUT IN UNISON] [MUSIC PLAYING THROUGH LOUDSPEAKERS] SUROOSH ALVI: Massive protests in Sunni areas and a surge of sectarian killings throughout the country become the new normal in postwar Iraq. In 2012 alone, there were more than 1,600 deaths. Through making "Heavy Metal in Baghdad," we met Waleed, the original singer of Acrassicauda. At the time, they were the only metal band in Iraq. [METAL MUSIC PLAYING] SUROOSH ALVI: But shortly after that meeting, Waleed was forced to flee the country and seek refugee status in the West after receiving numerous death threats. With the war officially over, Waleed decided it was time to return to Iraq. It would be his first visit home since he left in 2004. We sent a cameraman to accompany him on his trip and made plans to meet up with him once we arrived. [LAUGHING] -[SPEAKING ARABIC] [MUSIC PLAYING] -[SPEAKING ARABIC] WALEED NESYIF: I don't even know what I'm going to do when I see my mother. [ARABIC]. -[SPEAKING ARABIC] [WHISTLING] [SINGING] SUROOSH ALVI: We arrived in Baghdad a few hours after Waleed and were headed to the guest house where we'd be staying. But that's when we ran into the Karrada Bats. They're a group of young punks who are basically totally insane. [PUNK MUSIC PLAYING] SUROOSH ALVI: We're with a Baghdadi biker gang, we were wondering, what to kids in Baghdad do for fun? Well, this is it. A variety of different styles-- this hybrid soccer player meets Mad Max look, which is my personal favorite. Then there's this guy who's got the full on Fox racing gear, leather from head to toe. This guy's riding with his flip flops-- doesn't seem totally wise. I worry about that guy. I'm not sure he's going to survive the day. So you guys are the Karrada Bats. Are there other gangs in other cities, like Sadr City? -[SPEAKING ARABIC] SUROOSH ALVI: So do you ever get in trouble with the cops? -[SPEAKING ARABIC] SUROOSH ALVI: Do they chase you? -[SPEAKING ARABIC] -[SPEAKING ARABIC] -[SPEAKING ARABIC] SUROOSH ALVI: What happened? -[SPEAKING ARABIC] [BIKE GANG REVVING] -[SPEAKING ARABIC] -[SPEAKING ARABIC] SUROOSH ALVI: You guys have more freedom now or before? -[SPEAKING ARABIC] SUROOSH ALVI: These contradictory sentiments, of wanting freedom but at the same time missing of rule of Saddam Hussein was something we would hear again and again. And while these guys longed for American style liberties-- at least surface level liberties, like looking and dressing like maniacs-- it was clear that at least some of them would trade it all in for the stability that they enjoyed during Saddam Hussein's notoriously cruel regime. [ROCK MUSIC PLAYING] Since it was the Muslim holy month of Muharram, which is especially significant for the Shia, we decided to head to Sadr City. It's Friday. We're going to check out the big prayer. The prayer leaves a sight to be seen. Everybody prays on the streets for a huge distance-- the mosque all the way up. Now, just a few years back, the idea of westerners paying a little visit to Sadr City would have been unthinkable, as it was the heart of the insurgency against the American occupation, the home of firebrand cleric Muqtada Al-Sadr and his Mahdi Army. Even now, it took a lot of work and a Mahdi Army escort to get us in. It's supposedly forbidden to fight during the month of Muharram, but with heightened Sunni-Shia tensions, the Iraqi army thought it was a good idea to have the bomb squad present just in case. -[SPEAKING ARABIC] -[SPEAKING ARABIC] SUROOSH ALVI: More than 13,000 people turned out to pray and to listen to a cleric who influences the attitudes of an even greater number of Iraq's Shia majority. MITHAL AL-HASNAWI: [SPEAKING ARABIC] SUROOSH ALVI: How do you feel about the westernization of the Iraqi youth since the American occupation and since they've left. MITHAL AL-HASNAWI: [SPEAKING ARABIC] SUROOSH ALVI: The cleric made it clear that getting the US out of Iraq wasn't enough. He wants to eliminate American influence of any kind. We headed back to the neighborhood of Karrada to meet up with Waleed and get a tour of his old haunts. Hey, welcome to Iraq, buddy. Welcome home. WALEED NESYIF: Thank you. SUROOSH ALVI: Waleed wanted to check out Acrassicauda's old practice space-- that is, if we could find it. There's a strange feeling walking around, considering the last time I was here, I wasn't even allowed to get out of our armored car. WALEED NESYIF: It's been a very, very long since I last walked this street. But this is filled with memories of starving nights with the band hitting the *** out of the instruments, rocking out and trying to figure out how the *** are we going to go back home? SUROOSH ALVI: So this is basically 10 years ago. WALEED NESYIF: Yeah. This is it. SUROOSH ALVI: It's been rebuilt. WALEED NESYIF: Yeah. It's completely changed now. SUROOSH ALVI: It's like art galleries. WALEED NESYIF: Yeah. SUROOSH ALVI: If we hadn't been sure this was the spot, we would have walked right by it. The practice based got completely bombed out during the war, and today, it's unrecognizable, which I guess is a good thing. WALEED NESYIF: The area changed so much that it looks completely different. SUROOSH ALVI: Waleed wanted to see if his childhood home was still standing. But on our way there, we were reintroduced to one of the most notorious features of Baghdad-- checkpoints. Car bombs are such an issue in Baghdad that hundreds of the points that were originally established by the American military are still in place today. WALEED NESYIF: Look at this *** ***, man. Have you noticed every street has a check point? Every area has a checkpoint of entrance and exit. It's so sad. Literally, you have to plan your day to the T. SUROOSH ALVI: Because it slows everything down. WALEED NESYIF: Yeah. SUROOSH ALVI: Not only does it make getting around a nightmare, but doing anything other than staring straight ahead and hoping you get through can throw your entire day into a tailspin. Put it down. What are they saying? You can't film? WALEED NESYIF: Exaclty. They're like, don't film near a police patrol. SUROOSH ALVI: After inspecting our press credentials and undergoing a thorough search, we were allowed to slowly make our way to Waleed's old house. WALEED NESYIF: Everything is blockaded. You can't really access the house or the neighborhood. So we had to around, go all the way back, and then come through here. SUROOSH ALVI: Did it get bombed, this neighborhood? WALEED NESYIF: Yeah. And it looks pretty *** different. That is pretty *** insane. This used to be my old library. ***. [ACOUSTIC GUITAR MUSIC PLAYING] WALEED NESYIF: Looks like a *** junkyard, man. SUROOSH ALVI: Right before Waleed left the country, he received a series of death threats. His work as a fixer for foreign journalists and as a member of a heavy metal band made him a target. WALEED NESYIF: I'll show you right here. So at 6:00 in the morning, I would leave. And there was a note right here, an envelope-- right here. And when I opened it, it was a very, very frank letter of we shall cleanse the soil of our country from the stench of people like you. So I went kind of crazy and I went into the street and I started screaming and yelling-- like, if you're a man, just going come up right now. I came back after two weeks. And I left at a different time, this time, in the morning. And there was another one of those. SUROOSH ALVI: Waiting for you when you walked in. WALEED NESYIF: Waiting for me. So what I realized is that the person who had dropped it had to have been watching over from somewhere around here where he can see me leaving the apartment and going down. And that's when I knew that the danger was very, very imminent on my family because of me. SUROOSH ALVI: Right. WALEED NESYIF: So yeah, three days after that, I was in Jordan. SUROOSH ALVI: But the death threats against anyone who's not on the straight and narrow continue to this day. And as we would learn, these threats are not empty. [MUSIC PLAYING] SUROOSH ALVI: From what we were seeing and hearing, the secular society that was the hallmark of Saddam Hussein's Iraq has largely been replaced with religious conservatism. Mix that with western-inspired youth culture, and there are going to be problems. Subcultures in Iraq are under attack. For example, the Iraqi equivalent of emo kids are being targeted. And in one of the biggest stories out of Iraq since the US has left, a number of them were supposedly killed. -[SPEAKING ARABIC] SUROOSH ALVI: However, there wasn't a lot of concrete evidence supporting the stories. And some people thought that the case of these emo killings was just scare mongering to keep kids from straying from tradition. We went to meet with Dog Faced Corpse and Fatology, two local metal bands, to get their opinion on it. -I think it's tea time. SUROOSH ALVI: Oh, yeah. Great. Thanks, buddy. Cheers. [ARABIC]. So this emo story, is it legit or is it ***? Did it actually happen? -It did not. -No, it's true, man. -It's true? No, no. SUROOSH ALVI: See? There's no-- well, you're saying it happened and you're saying it didn't. -Yeah, it happened. -The media exaggerates the things. -I think it's ***. -I think it's some ***. As you know, they think that emos are metalheads are satanists. It's everything. -[SPEAKING ARABIC] SUROOSH ALVI: So they had to turn the freezer off to plug in the amp. Across the street, there's a religious cleric. It's the month of the Muharram, and he gets pretty pissed off, apparently. So yeah-- they're a bit freaked out about playing right now. [METAL MUSIC] SUROOSH ALVI: Dog Faced Corpse-- where does the name come from? -[SPEAKING ARABIC] -[SPEAKING ARABIC] -[SPEAKING ARABIC] -Sounds good? SUROOSH ALVI: Yeah, man. Thanks for doing that. I know that the religious cleric is probably not too happy right now. It's Muharram and everything. Or yeah, maybe he's out there. It was pretty clear that no matter what kind of music you're playing-- rap, emo, metal, or even classical-- you could get killed. But in terms of oppression, the group that has it the absolute worst is the gay community in Iraq. What is a situation like here for you? ALI AL-HAFEZ: [SPEAKING ARABIC] SUROOSH ALVI: During Saddam Hussein's time, you were persecuted for being gay. And now, you live in fear of being persecuted as well. So it was bad before and it's still bad. ALI AL-HAFEZ: [SPEAKING ARABIC] ALI AL-HAFEZ: These are my friends. [SPEAKING ARABIC] SUROOSH ALVI: That's you? ALI AL-HAFEZ: Yeah. SUROOSH ALVI: Yeah, that's a good look for you. [LAUGHING] ALI AL-HAFEZ: Jasmine, Sorry. Why? Excuse me, cat. SUROOSH ALVI: I assume it's a very underground kind of world that you have. ALI AL-HAFEZ: [SPEAKING ARABIC] SUROOSH ALVI: Even though they might be part of the same group that's persecuting you guys? ALI AL-HAFEZ: [ARABIC] SUROOSH ALVI: Wow. That's crazy. And are you getting help from the gay rights organizations in the West? Are you get-- no. Not yet. ALI AL-HAFEZ: [SPEAKING ARABIC] SUROOSH ALVI: The US may have withdrawn from Iraq, but the country is far from rebuilt. The people who know this best are the reporters at Al Nahar, a newspaper that's been a thorn in the side of the Maliki administration. What do you think America accomplished by coming here and occupying your country for eight, nine years? HASSAN GUMAA: [SPEAKING ARABIC] SUROOSH ALVI: To add insult to injury, a lot of the money that was meant to help Iraq get back on its feets has either been stolen or squandered, sometimes with deadly results-- case in point, a bomb detecting device known as the ADE 651. [MUSIC PLAYING] SUROOSH ALVI: While passing through the various checkpoints, we kept seeing the military using these little magic wands that are supposed to detect explosives. The thing is, they don't. The New York Times revealed that these devices were a scam in 2009. And yet, more than three years later, the military was still relying on them to detect bombs being brought into Baghdad. No wonder so many people were getting killed. -[SPEAKING ARABIC] SUROOSH ALVI: Now, with these units being sold to the Iraqis at up to $60,000 each, you'd expect a little production value. But instead, they're a cheap piece of plastic with an AM/FM radio antenna on it and no power supply. The cards they speak of, the ones that supposedly calibrate the device to detect different types of explosives, are little more than business cards with words like C4 written on them. HASSAN SALMA KHALIFA: [SPEAKING ARABIC] SUROOSH ALVI: The wands are the invention of Jim McCormick, a British businessman who sold them to the Iraqi government for a total of $85 million, promising that they would save lives. But what they did was the exact opposite. They allowed bombs to slip past checkpoints, while making McCormick rich. But the most insane part of the story is that, in spite of the obvious uselessness of the device, and in spite of the arrest and trial of Jim McCormick, the Iraqi military and police are still using them at every checkpoint in the city. -[SPEAKING ARABIC] HASSAN SALMA KHALIFA: [SPEAKING ARABIC] SUROOSH ALVI: With our time in Baghdad drawing to a close, we headed back to Waleed's place. We wanted to see how he was dealing about the home he left behind. WALEED NESYIF: The electricity's coming back. SUROOSH ALVI: Generator's kicking in. WALEED NESYIF: Yeah. So my family has, basically, three lines right now-- two generators and one governmental line. SUROOSH ALVI: Yeah. WALEED NESYIF: So whenever one goes off, the other one kicks in-- SUROOSH ALVI: That's good. WALEED NESYIF: --and so on and so forth. SUROOSH ALVI: So they have electricity around the clock. So what was it like for you to come home after eight years? WALEED NESYIF: The difference which between eight years ago and now, it's titanic. The city is in this complete state of sterile living. Everybody's trying to keep it together, but nothing is together. I don't think Iraq found its comfortable middle ground yet, because the city still exists within two extremes. You have the religious massive extreme, and then you have the other wanting to be westernized without really understanding what westernism is. SUROOSH ALVI: So what is your family telling you now that you're here? What's it like for them? WALEED NESYIF: They're praying for the days of Saddam to return. In 1991, America came and destroyed literally 75% of Iraqi infrastructure and all of the cities. It was all destroyed, completely. SUROOSH ALVI: Yeah. WALEED NESYIF: Saddam restored everything within six months. People started saying, it was like, well, if Saddam was able to do it during the section-- and he nothing, really. The country had just come out of a major war. Why is America incapable of doing the same? The worst thing America has done to Iraq and Iraqis is this. They made a dictator look like an angel in comparison to what we have right now. SUROOSH ALVI: And that's what America accomplished. They made Saddam look good. Nostalgia is a powerful thing. It can make the past seem better in the present, even when that past was ruled over by a tyrant who murdered those who opposed him and treated the majority of Iraq's population, the Shia, like second class citizens. For all of America's efforts, for the billions of dollars spent and more than a million lives lost, today Iraq is looking to the past instead of the future.