UNFETTERED NET ACCESS IN SADDAM'S HOMETOWN
More underreported good news from Iraq: Tikrit has its first internet cafe with unrestricted access:
TIKRIT, Iraq — The first words Ahmed Abdullah typed in the Google search engine were "George Bush."The 19-year-old wanted to access the president's Web site, something he couldn't do under restricted and tightly controlled Internet service during Saddam Hussein's rule.
Heh. "George Bush" was his first Google. The Indymedia/Democrats.com crowd won't like that. Or this.
A Baghdad mother and father, to show their thanks to President Bush for the overthrow of Saddam Hussein, have named their son after the American leader.---
"I tell you all Iraqis hated Saddam's regime. It was only George Bush who liberated us, without him it wouldn't have happened. If he hadn't done it the sons of Saddam would have ruled us for years. He saved us from Saddam and that's why we named our son after him," Mohammed told Associated Press Television News.
But back to the new hotspot in Tikrit.
"I like it. It's beautiful. There is so much information I can get," Mr. Abdullah said, surrounded by U.S. soldiers and commanders who crammed the one-room Internet cafe they had helped set up with $24,000 from the 4th Infantry Division's budget.The owner, Hashim Hassan, 33, ran a similar cafe for two years before the war. But in those times, "any political sites, opposition or sex pages, were blocked. Now there are no restrictions."
No restrictions. Freedom is coming to Iraq, slowly but surely, in spite of the continuing work of bitter-enders.