IRAQ: When checkpoints go bad

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For a minute there, I thought we were about to become the latest Iraq security contractor story.

It was 8.30 a.m., and a Los Angeles Times driver was taking me to a news conference inside Baghdad’s fortified Green Zone. I sat next to him in a head scarf, trying to look as Iraqi as possible as we inched along a street crowded with people on their way to work.

The Green Zone is protected by layers of checkpoints. An Iraqi soldier scanned our badges and waved us through the first stop. But as we pulled in behind an armored SUV in a long line of cars waiting to be checked by U.S. soldiers, the back door opened, a large gun was pointed at us, and a foreign security contractor held up a fist – a sign used by the military to tell you to stop moving.

My driver slammed on the breaks. But the Iraqi soldier next to us didn’t understand why we had stopped and motioned impatiently to us to keep going. We started to inch forward again. The security contractor waved his fist, warning us not to come any closer, and the Iraqi soldier yelled at us not to hold up the line.

We were trapped. To the security contractor in front of us, any vehicle that got too close was a potential suicide bomber. But we were just trying to follow the instructions of the Iraqi soldier on the checkpoint. Either one of them could have started shooting at us.

We were lucky. My driver was able to calm the Iraqi soldier down and point out the problem.

Soon, the line started to move again. The armored SUV was waved through the next checkpoint and sped off into the Green Zone. We gratefully joined another line to be searched by sniffer dogs.

— Alexandra Zavis in Baghdad