From Iraq to California: Iraqi-American citizen serves with purpose

[The Patriot]

Ahmed Al Saedi’s hands shook as the shuttle driver clicked his mobile phone closed and warned his passengers in Arabic, “If you have anything that identifies you as working for the Americans, get rid of it now.”This was exactly the kind of scenario Al Saedi lived in fear of. It was 2005 and Taji, Iraq, was rife with violence. Al Saedi, an Iraqi citizen working as a linguist for the U.S. Army at the time, was terrified. While sectarian tensions were complicated and often deadly, he knew that if a militia group from either religious sect caught him working for the Americans it was a death sentence. “I was dead either way,” the then-24 year old, explained.

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