My Day At The Foreign Ministry

Another shot from the Baghdad ballet school.

I spent the day at the Iraqi Foreign Ministry (U.S. Department of State equivalent) attending a joint press conference with the French Foreign Minister. I’ll start this off by stating that the Iraqi Foreign Ministry is probably the least secure government building I’ve ever been into. It’s harder getting into any U.S. Post Office than it was the Foreign Ministry. I was completely shocked and awed by the fact that I was standing only feet from both ministers, with a concealed weapon, and no one ever bothered to check to see who I was or what I was doing.

Having said that, the building was also full of personal security details, all trying to out-cool each other. Standing on the sidelines it was humorous watching these very serious guys strutting through the dark interior with their sunglasses on, and every manner of gadget strapped to their bodies. It was an earpiece, Oakley, and tactical vest fest to say the least. Again, no one even bothered to ask about me, they were too concerned about looking cool and couldn’t be bothered.