'Because of you...we are free'

[FishForLunch]

By Patrick Donahue , Executive editor 06/30/2004




Mazin Al-Niaimi greets Nathan Goodson, along with Sara Goodson, the children of Sgt. 1st Class Michael and Tina Goodson at the home of Sgt. 1st Class Gary and Melanie Yeatts.
The bridge may be small, but the connection between an Iraqi businessman and an American noncommissioned officer is strong. Mazin Al-Niaimi to warm up to the Americans, and vice-versa.



Al-Niaimi, a Baghdad businessman, made good on a promise he made to Sgt. 1st Class Gary Yeatts and made his way to Hinesville for Yeatts' daughter Chasity's wedding last weekend. And it all started when Yeatts walked into Al-Niaimi's store looking for battery acid in the days after Baghdad fell to the 3rd Infantry Division and the I Marine Expeditionary Force.

"From the first day I met Gary, I have dealt with the American army," Al-Niaimi said. "From battery acid to steam cleaners to air conditioners to rental cars."

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Mazin even made coffee for the troops who liberated Baghdad. He had been waiting for their arrival since the first bombs fell. From President George W. Bush's declaration Saddam Hussein and his sons Uday and Qusay had 48 hours to leave the country, Mazin calculated the start of the war to come at 2 a.m. The first bombs fell at 4:30 that morning.

"My wife tells me the war has started," he said. "I said, 'They are late.'"

Al-Niaimi said he wasn't afraid he and his family would get hurt in the bombing, since he figured the Americans would target only palaces and government buildings and his house was nowhere near any of those. So he tried to reassure his wife.

"I said, 'We are safe. Go back to sleep,'" he said.

Doing business not always easy

Al-Niaimi is the director general of Al-Sahba Company, a construction and technology firm. He finished college and then fought in the Iran/Iraq war. "Those were the rules of Iraq," he said.

After the war, he started a business in 1989 repairing air conditions. Following Operation Desert Storm, he and his brother established a new company working on air conditioners.

"We got a lot of contracts," he said.

Along with his brother, a dentist, Al-Niaimi won many contracts from the Iraqi Ministry of Health to provide dental equipment, most in the $1-3 million range.

But they landed a potentially huge deal to provide hundreds of vehicles to the health ministry. Al-Niaimi and his brother submitted an offer to provide 361 4x4 Nissan trucks and 519 vans. The contract was worth $25 million.

Soon, they found themselves saddled with a no-so-silent partner.

"After we signed, Saddam Hussein's relatives came and said, 'We will share the contract,'" Al-Niaimi said.

Jailed for no reason

Al-Niaimi and his brother refused. His brother was thrown in jail a week later. "They put him in a small red room for a year and a half for nothing," Al-Niaimi said.

His brother was taken to a special court and his family was only allowed to see him for an hour every month. The judge said Al-Niaimi and his family were trying to pay the government under the table and said Al-Niaimi's brother would be going to jail for the rest of his life and the government would take all their money.

In Al-Niaimi's family's favor was the gathering of American troops in Kuwait. With an invasion looming, Saddam opened the jails and let many prisoners go home.

"Everyone in Baghdad hated Saddam at that time. He needed the people with him," Al-Niaimi said. "Most of the people were in jail for nothing."

His brother runs the company's office in Dubai, where his sister and brother-in-law and their family spent the war.

'They can't stop me'

Though the Husseins have been knocked out of power, times are still dangerous for Al-Niaimi and his family. He said insurgents have warned him against continuing to work with the Americans.

"They said, stop dealing with the Americans or we will kidnap your daughter," he said. "They can't stop me."

Before the start of the war, Al-Niaimi said, there were plenty of security and intelligence forces at work.

"Now, they have nothing to do," he said. "They kidnap the kids of rich people."

Since the handover of power took place two days before today's deadline, Al-Niaimi expects the insurgents to continue, if not escalate, their attacks.

"It will be a bad time," he said. "America can secure the area. What will happen, no one knows. But I think it will be a bad time."

A better life

Iraq's economy is better than it was before the start of the war, Al-Niaimi said. Government employees' pay has increased dramatically. Al-Niaimi's wife, a teacher, made $6.50 a month under Hussein.

"Because she was rich, she took care of other teachers," he said. "Now, she makes $300 a month."

Al-Niaimi said it doesn't take much for an Iraqi family to earn a comfortable living.

"For a small family, $100 a month is enough to cover expenses," he said. "The people are happy."

Doing business under Saddam Hussein's regime took some cloak and dagger skills and some shrewd maneuvering. Al-Niaimi was born in England while his father was finishing a doctorate in chemistry before returning to Iraq, so he holds a British passport. But Iraqis were forbidden to hold foreign passports.

Iraqis also were forbidden to own cell phones, satellite phones or satellite dishes. Al-Niaimi kept his cell phone, credit cards - also considered contraband - and cash in a Jordanian safe deposit box.

"Now everyone in Baghdad has a cell phone," he said. "Now we are a free economy. Because of you and your friends, we are free."