November 13th, 1995...

It was twelve years ago today that I lost my boss (and best friend) Dub Combs in the car bombing of the OPM-SANG bulding in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. I had worked there from late 1991, just after the end of the first Gulf War, to the end of 1993. Besides Dub, a couple of other guys in Contracts were also killed, including Jim Allen, who I played with on the office softball team. A civilian engineer who was killed was Wayne Wiley - I had taken a train trip to the Eastern Province just before I left Saudi with Wayne and his wife, Renata. I knew all but one of the victims.

I was woken up the morning of the 13th by a call from my friend, Susan Bacon, who had also left Saudi and had seen news of the bombing on CNN. I turned on CNN in time to see video of the destroyed building and news that several people had been killed. I knew that friends of mine had died, but I didn't know which ones. That grim news would come out over the next couple of days.

The American victims eventually identified as James Allen, 55, of Atlanta, Mich.; Alaric Brozovsky, 31, of Spokane, Wash.; William "Dub" Combs, 54; and Wayne Wiley, 55, (all Department of the Army civilian employees) and Sgt. 1st Class David K. Warrell, 34, of Hasty, N.C. Also killed were two Indian nationals who worked in the building's restaurant.

My personal life had been in a state of flux. After leaving Saudi I went back to Columbus, Ohio, to continue teaching for the Department of Defense. But I was disillusioned with the Government so I left entirely and went back home to the Twin Cities to finish my MBA. To make a few bucks I drove for Quicksilver delivery service. In November of 1995 I was in the last semester of my MBA and had decided to join the Peace Corps in a special program that required an MBA and was in Russia, helping Russian businesses make the transition to a free market economy.

I called my old office the day after the bombing and asked if they needed help. Not surprisingly, they said they did, since they had lost about half of their Contracts staff as either injured or killed. So, instead of going into the Peace Corps I was back in Saudi for another year.

My life changed a lot as a result of the bombing, but nothing like my friends who were there. I have a framed picture of the bombed office building on my office wall, along with a picture of Dub (taken at my going away party) to remind me of him and what happened that day.



Ambassador: Car bomb destroyed military building
Six dead, 60 injured

November 13, 1995Web posted at: 11:45 a.m. EST (1645 GMT)

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (CNN) -- The U.S. ambassador in Saudi Arabia has confirmed it was a bomb that destroyed a military building in Riyadh on Monday. Six people were killed, including five Americans. Sixty others were injured.

Raymond Mabus, the U.S. ambassador in Riyadh, said a bomb blew up the U.S.-leased building. Pentagon spokesman Ken Bacon told CNN preliminary reports indicated there was a large explosion in a parking lot outside the training facility at around 11:20 a.m. (3:20 a.m. EST, 0820 GMT), followed by a smaller blast about five minutes later.

Officials in Saudi Arabia indicated the explosion was a deliberate act of terrorism and said authorities were confident of "arresting those who carried out this crime." A group called The Islamic Movement for Change has claimed responsibility.

Sources told CNN the United States is working under the assumption that the explosion was the result of a car bomb, but officials have not ruled out the possibility the blast was the result of a natural gas explosion.

Saudi Arabia, U.S. State Department and Pentagon officials said the three-story building is used by U.S. military and civilian personnel.

Bacon identified the office building as the headquarters of the Office for Program Management of the Saudi Arabian National Guard (OPM-SANG). He said a mix of U.S. military and contract workers worked there in a training capacity. It was not immediately known if the causalities were military or civilian.

Witnesses said the scene was chaotic right after the blast. Bystanders helped to load bleeding casualties into cars to be taken to hospitals. "We are seeing a lot of burns," said a hospital spokesperson in Riyadh. Witnesses said the blast was felt across the city. "A huge explosion shook our building," a Riyadh resident said. "It was like an earthquake." (200K AIFF sound or 200K WAV sound)
Saudi Arabia was the launching point for the U.S.-led multinational military force that drove Iraq's occupation troops from Kuwait in the 1991 Gulf War. But the U.S. military training mission in Saudi Arabia is unrelated to the troops stationed there in the aftermath of the Gulf War.

[The Pentagon identified four of the Americans as civilian employees of the United States Army: James Allen, 55, of Atlanta, Mich.; Alaric Brozovsky, 31, of Spokane, Wash.; William Combs, 54; and Wayne Wiley, 55. The fifth American killed was Sgt. 1st Class David K. Warrell, 34, of Hasty, N.C.]

The situation in Iraq IS improving II...

Michael Yon has been reporting from Iraq for quite some time. He raises his own money to stay there and, unlike nearly all mainstream media (MSM) reporters, he reports from outside the safe "green zone".

I became aware of his work originally back in 2005 when he took a picture that captured well the huge human toll that Iraqi civilians were paying due to the war and the insurgency. The picture, below, was eventually selected by Time magazine readers as the top photo of 2005.


(From Wikipedia): On May 2, 2005, Yon took a picture of U.S. Army Major Mark Bieger cradling an Iraqi girl wounded by shrapnel from a car bomb. Major Bieger tried to bring the girl to an American hospital to receive treatment but she died on the helicopter ride.







This week Yon posted a new photo, taken just earlier this week that again captures the prevailing sentiment in Iraq.


(Yon's Caption): Thanks and Praise: I photographed men and women, both Christians and Muslims, placing a cross atop the St. John’s Church in Baghdad. They had taken the cross from storage and a man washed it before carrying it up to the dome.


Yon gives further background on his web site: A Muslim man had invited the American soldiers from “Chosen” Company 2-12 Infantry to the church, where I videotaped as Muslims and Christians worked and rejoiced at the reopening of St John’s, an occasion all viewed as a sign of hope.

The Iraqis asked me to convey a message of thanks to the American people. ” Thank you, thank you,” the people were saying. One man said, “Thank you for peace.” Another man, a Muslim, said “All the people, all the people in Iraq, Muslim and Christian, is brother.” The men and women were holding bells, and for the first time in memory freedom rang over the ravaged land between two rivers.

The photograph reminds me of the Marines raising the American flag on Iwo Jima. As I said in my last post on Iraq, I am cautiously optimistic that the corner has been turned in Iraq.

One more interesting tidbit abut Michael Yon. He was interviewed on the Hugh Hewitt radio show on Wednesday and was asked by Hugh about the Iraqis and Iran. Yon's answer is not terribly surprising given their history over the last 30 years.

HH: And what about Iran? What does the average Iraqi tell you about Iran?

MY: Well, now that’s not only a good question, but an increasingly kind of semi-humorous question, because every day now, including yesterday again, a retired army colonel, an Iraqi army colonel, told me hey, we will support you in your war against Iran. And he keeps saying this in front of Americans…oh yeah. Every day I’m hearing that.

A happy ending to a Radio Free Europe employee kidnapping...

At last a happy ending to a work related hostage situation. Here is the story from National Review's website (www.nationalreview.com):


A hostage situation with a positive outcome [Tom Gross]


A reporter for the U.S. Congress-funded Radio Free Iraq has today been released after a brutal 10 day kidnapping ordeal in Baghdad which, for security reasons, was kept out of the media.

Secretary of Defense Robert Gates was personally involved in the process that led to her release, as well as officials from the Iraqi government and armed forces.

Jumana Al-Obaidi, age 29, had been kidnapped by a criminal gang that initially said it was a Shia militia and then switched to call itself the “Sunni fighters for freedom.” Their real identity is not yet known.

Al-Obaidi, a non-practicing Sunni, was severely beaten during her kidnapping sustaining among other things two black eyes, and is presently on her way to see a medical team. Her driver was executed by her abductors at the time of her kidnapping.

Radio Free Iraq is part of the Prague-based Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), which despite its name, today focuses on doing very important work broadcasting in Arabic, Persian, Pashto and 25 other languages to the peoples of Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan and elsewhere. (The network has also branched out from radio into television and internet.)

Two other RFE/RL correspondents in Baghdad (mother-of-three Khamail Khalaf, and a young man, Nazar Al-Radh) have already been murdered this year.

The remaining seven Baghdad bureau staff have been offered relocation but all have refused saying they are determined not to give in to the terrorists and to continue reporting fully and frankly what is happening in Iraq to other Iraqis. The station has a wide audience in Iraq.

A correspondent on the Uzbek language service of RFE/RL was murdered last week, almost certainly by the Uzbek security services. And last year, a 58-year-old female correspondent for the RFE/RL Turkmen service, Ogulsapar Muradova, was found dead in prison.

In Memoriam...

Today at the office we had a memorial service for Khamail Muhsin Khalaf, a journalist with Radio Free Iraq, who was kidnapped and murdered in Bagdad two weeks ago. Khamail was a well known and respected personality in Iraq, having served as a TV anchor for many years. She joined Radio Free Iraq in 2004 and, because of the danger her work entailed, she sent her three daughters to live in Syria. Kenneth Tomlinson, chairman of the Broadcasting Board of Governors, which oversees U.S. foreign broadcasting, said two weeks ago "The tragic death of Khamail [Muhsin] Khalaf reminds us that each day Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty correspondents risk their lives in pursuit of truth". Reporting the truth is very dangerous in many parts of the world, which is something we tend to forget in the safe confines of the US. In my 9 months here, this is the third murdered journalist associated with RFE/RL. Please keep Khamail's family in your thoughts and prayers today.