J-Villains

The fateful day that I first discovered the art form of journalism from a U.S. soldier stationed in Erbil in 2004. Standing next to a military Humvee and surrounded by a crowd of kids, that soldier singled me out and taught me how to do a televised news report with a microphone and camera.

I then went straight home, and from that day forward, I continuously practiced and performed amateur journalism with my small group of friends until 2005. A lack of training and opportunities for journalism in Iraq and Kurdistan led me to attend the Zakho Military Academy in 2008. I was trained as a Signal Officer, which led me to develop a love for communications and honed my writing skills.

My work in communications and broadcasting led the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) to form a partnership with the Republic of Iraq and the Embassy of the United States of America in Baghdad. They joined forces in 2013 to send me and a group of four other citizens from Iraq as ambassadors on a diplomatic mission to promote the 2014 Parliamentary elections in Iraq and our fragile democracy to America and Western Europe.

Through some miracle, the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism saw some of my amateur work as a journalist in Iraq. The university offered me one of the highly coveted spots as a journalism student for the 2016 - 2017 school year. Columbia University and my work at American Journal have allowed me to follow my dreams and find my voice as a writer.

Then, Ashley was my character witness in an unexpected display of oratory brilliance. She recounted meeting me in 2013 on my diplomatic tour through the Western world to promote democracy in Iraq. Ashley then told them details about my early childhood years that I did not know she learned from my mother:

“In 1996, there was a civil war in Shibel’s homeland. According to Shibel’s Mother, the war created a social, political, and physical atmosphere of constant threat that genuinely scares me to this day, and I have never even set foot in the Middle East, much less Iraq. From my discussions with Shibel’s mother, the days of misery and violence seemed to stretch on forever.

The Iraqi National Congress (INC) was a Kurdishbased opposition to Saddam Hussein’s government, funded initially by the American government. Fighting broke out between the Patriotic Union for Kurdistan (PUK) and the Kurdish Democratic Party (KDP). A large segment of the KDP left the INC after the U.S. government failed to back a planned attack on Saddam’s forces.

KDP troops joined the Iraqi Army in an attack on the remaining INC forces based in Erbil. Because Shibel’s family on his mother’s side is Kurdish, and his father is an Arab from Bagdad, his mother said that the family was very much on both sides of the conflict.
When Shibel was a toddler, he and his mother were one of many Kurdish women and children who spent countless hours in the home basements of unknown people to escape falling bombs, snipers, and men who used the war to prey on the vulnerable.

Somehow, they survived. In 1997, Shibel’s father married his mother. By then, his father was on the path toward being appointed Colonel in the Iraqi Army. Saddam Hussein took good care of his officers but was horrible to the enlisted soldiers. Shibel’s mother said his father constantly worried about a military revolt amongst the enlisted ranks.

Israeli fighter jets began flying observation patrols over Iraqi-Kurdistan to monitor the volatile situation on the ground. One day, his mother woke up to the sound of an explosion and lots of smoke coming from his father’s military compound based near Erbil.

Mrs. Assad heard screaming and saw people running toward the compound to figure out what happened. She was terrified and anxious for news of her husband. When Shibel’s dad finally arrived home, his mother frantically questioned him about the explosion. It turned out to be a military accident. An Iraqi patrol jet went down on a hill near the compound.

Still, two of his mother’s friends died in the accident. The commander of the compound, a Brigadier General, went to his office, took his handgun, and shot himself. He committed suicide because the accident happened under his command.

The Iraqi fighter jets were charged with keeping Israeli fighter planes out of Iraqi airspace. The Brigadier General was so afraid of what his punishment from Saddam Hussein would be because of the accident that he took his own life.

Saddam Hussein later went to this Brigadier General’s family and offered his condolences. But this was an example of the type of fear Saddam Hussein spread amongst the Iraqi people.

Shibel is strong, resilient, and intelligent enough to have survived that environment to make it to New York to attend the prestigious Columbia School of Journalism.
If someone resourceful and resilient enough to make it through that hell, then across the world to pursue the American Dream, is not worthy of a bit of consideration, I ask you, fine gentlemen: Who is?”