The Lonely Goatherd Blog And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats - Matthew 25:32
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Al Barger and MoreThings - getting people's goats since 1998.
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All original content on MoreThings.com copyright 2008 Albert Barger or the respective authors
March 22, 2003
Is Salam for real? Now this is an old topic to me, but quite a few people have been questioning the veracity of Salam, the pseudonymous blogger from Baghdad. Is he REALLY just a regular fella from Baghdad? Could he be a Ba'ath operative or a CIA front or something? Enquiring minds want to know. Indeed, I was asking the same kinds of questions some months ago when I was first becoming acquainted with him.
For his part, Salam is somewhere a couple of steps past being bored with the question. He's got the US dropping big bombs on his town, and bunches of new people now want him to prove himself.
The more interesting question here is epistemological. What would constitute convincing evidence of his veracity? For obvious reasons (ie not wanting to have his tongue cut out), he can't be giving out his real name or address. But what would a "real" name and address prove? Those could be made up, or an assumed identity.
What really convinced me was reading his site, and exchanging email. His personality, his interests and tastes, his reporting ring true to me.
Indeed, these things are considerably MORE convincing to me than would be the kinds of proof that others might come up with. A driver's license or birth certificate are easily enough forged. Indeed, if I went to Baghdad and met him physically, that wouldn't necessarily mean anything. If for some inscrutable reason the CIA wanted to trick ol' Al, they could send some Arabic agent to meet me at the corner cafe in Baghdad. How would I know the difference?
It would be much more difficult to fake a convincing personality. Hell, even most Hollywood screenwriters can't do it, even with top actors and our willing suspension of disbelief. It would be quite difficult to fake up the details of his life and moods and friends and opinions so skillfully that I wouldn't catch on after a few hours of being engaged with his writing.
Now I won't say that I 100% "know" that Salam is who he claims to be. There aren't many things about which I'd say I'm 100% certain. So I'll just say that I'm 99 44/100% sure that he's straight..uhm, I mean honest. I'll just have to take the last little bit on faith.
Hopefully, one day soon the war will be over, the damned Ba'ath regime will be gone, and perhaps we can even meet face to face. "For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known." I Corinthians 13:12
