- Archives & the problem of access in post-authoritarian regimes Guest post from Bruce P. Montgomery, author of Richard B. Cheney and the Rise of the Imperial Vice Presidency: As a matter of discussion, it may be instructive to look at how many post-authoritarian countries in Eastern Europe and elsewhere have addressed their archives of repression. In most cases, efforts to pass lustration laws and […]
- Saad Eskander Guardian interview The Guardian online has an interview with Saad Eskander, Director of the Iraqi National Archive and Library. The former Kurdish resistance fighter returned to Baghdad in 2003 with a freshly minted Phd from the London School of Economics, and was appointed soon after. It is an almost unimaginable job under heartbreaking and terrifying conditions; he […]
- Archivists demand return of seized Iraqi documents The Society of American Archivists (SAA) and the Association of Canadian Archivists (ACA) have released a joint statement calling for the return of five sets of records seized from Iraq during both Gulf conflicts and now in various US locations. They are (from the statement): Records seized by the U.S. military and intelligence agencies during […]
- Behind the Abu Ghraib photographs: Gourevitch/Morris New Yorker article Thanks to everyone at Duke for a great visit. I had the opportunity to meet and speak with a great group of archivists there, as well as to screen Missing Lives: Disappearances and Impunity in the North Caucasus to a more general audience. Produced with partner Human Rights Center Memorial, the video documents the problem […]
- What about the Iraqi refugee crisis? Last night I had the pleasure of participating on a panel at Fordham University, organized by Human Rights First, entitled “Iraqi Citizens: War and Exile”. Although it isn’t mentioned in the title, the panel shared personal stories of Iraqis in exile as well as an emphasis on how media might be harnessed for increasing awareness […]
- Iraq: Rare testimony of abuse by the Iraqi Security Forces [via GV/WITNESS] [Originally published here as part of WITNESS’s collaboration with Global Voices Online] Torture in Iraq, says the UN, is “out of control”, and “worse than it has been in the times of Saddam Hussein”. So it was especially timely for Brian Conley at Alive In Baghdad to e-mail us to say that he had an […]
