Shortly after I reported to 3/17 Field Artillery Battalion (Fifth Brigade, Second Infantry Division, U.S. Army) I was offered a unique opportunity; one that drastically changed my beliefs and the course of my life.
Our brigade was searching for volunteers willing to participate in an intensive, eleven month experimental school - called the "Language-Enabled Soldier" program. Candidates had to meet certain criteria: A high score on the ASVAB (Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery - the test that determines which military careers are available to you), prior foreign language experience and/or completion of some college credit, and no significant disciplinary record. After a screening interview with my Lieutenant Colonel, I was accepted into the program.
The goal of the program was to produce soldiers proficient in intermediate Arabic language skills and cross-cultural interaction. This would ostensibly allow them to conduct combat translation and tactical questioning, as well as assist specialists in the intelligence collection/analysis and civil negotiation fields. Upon graduation, soldier-students were expected to act as trainers for key members in their respective military units.
The school building was a large, converted house; un-air conditioned and quite old. Inside, however, young infantryman, artillery specialists, intelligence analysts, and even cooks gathered in groups of seven or eight to study for nearly nine hours a day, four days a week. Friday classes were reserved for remedial training in the event that a soldier fell below the 70% passing threshold on the weekly examinations.
Each class had two primary teachers. Out of the dozen instructors, numerous nationalities were represented: Palestinians, Jordanians, Lebanese, Iraqis and Syrians. Amongst them, they were religiously divided; some Sunni, some Shia and some Sufi Muslims, and at least one Arab Christian - all of whom observed their faiths at different levels, in different ways.
My principal teacher (whom I'll refer to as "Hussam" to protect his privacy and family) had a degree in linguistics from Baghdad University. Alas, as Shia adherents under Saddam's Sunni regime, he and his family were targets for persecution by the government's various security services. Our teachers were to refrain from divulging much about their personal or political backgrounds, but over the countless hours we spent in that cramped, sweltering classroom our interactions began to grow. My relationship with Hussam started as strictly pedagogical, then moved to more of a mentor-ship, and finally, into a friendship from which we developed ideas for potential professional collaboration.
He described the horrors that the Ba'athist regime had inflicted upon him, though without the bitterness that I felt he was duly entitled. He explained the government's reaction to his older brother's outspoken criticisms: summary execution. He detailed his own conscription into the Iraqi army; being incarcerated in military prison for insubordination, and the truly appalling treatment he received from his jailers. He told stories of his assignment (immediately preceding the coalition-led invasion in 2003) to an anti-aircraft cannon - "supervised" by an Iraqi Republican Guard sniper unit ensuring that he and his compatriots did not stray from their designated ten by ten meter square area of operations surrounding the artillery piece - a veritable death sentence with a targeted air campaign imminent. Needless to say, he escaped, and found refuge working for the American military before re-settling his family in the United States.
Beyond his experiences, he relayed tales of Uday and Qusay Hussein - of wanton rape and murder, torture conducted for sport and amusement - unabashed, naked sadism and evil. Despite these atrocities, Hussam remained convinced that Iraqis (and by extension, peoples around the world) could be ensured some amount of safety and stability, so long as their government(s) could be rendered transparent and hence, accountable to their constituents. This experience, stretched over roughly a year, generated the interest and motivation for what would eventually become Operation: SearchLight and the WikiRights Initiative.
In the intervening time, I spent sixteen months at the U.S. Department of State working on a project centered around digital cryptography. During my time there, the now infamous WikiLeaks/classified diplomatic cables story broke. I'd long searched for a way to integrate my interest in Middle Eastern human rights advocacy with my experience as an encryption systems analyst, but it wasn't until the summer of 2011 that it dawned on me: technology and systems similar to WikiLeaks could empower foreign dissidents to pursue and document their struggles against oppression without fear of regime reprisal. Further, such a project could potentially open new avenues for promotion of the freedoms so clearly extinct in many dark places across the world.
