My boy, Munadil! God protect him! Here is his picture. Look, here is his identification card. Here is his certificate of citizenship. I have all his papers. I have all of them.
Last year, they told me he might be in Abu Ghraib. But he didn’t come home when Saddam released everybody, so I don’t think he was. That’s why I’m here, that’s why I come every day. I’m hoping that God willing – God willing – the Americans will help me find him. Who else is going to help us, if not the Americans?
He was a good boy. He didn’t mean any harm. He made a mistake, but God forbid, my boy was not a criminal. He did not steal, he did not kill. Since when does changing money hurt someone? Since when is it a crime? Where in the Quran does it say that the punishment for changing money is chopping off a hand? Where?
You want to know what is criminal? Hunger. Poverty. Murder. Those things are criminal. If Saddam really wanted to fight crime, he would have locked up those things, not my Munadil.
Can you help me? Do you know anyone inside? I know that the Americans are here to help. And I know that if they heard my son’s story, they would help.
Tell me – where else can I go? If they don’t let me in to meet with someone today, I’ll come back again tomorrow morning. I’ll keep coming back until I find my son.