He was amazing. I never saw him without the beautiful smile on his face. When we reported on news conferences, we joked about the government and what it had to say. We were always sure that there was nothing in the conference that would help the Iraqis. We always thought the conferences were made to fill our newspapers only.
Although he worked for another newspaper, a competition to the one I work for, we never felt competing with each other. He called me to check quotes, he asked me to send him transcriptions. And I did.
One time, I sent him a news conference report that I prepared, but took off the quotes I got from the government spokesperson replying to questions I had asked him afterworlds. I was going to use them in my story and I wasn’t sure I should give them to others, plus they weren’t part of the conference. I called him and said “listen, I sent you the report but I didn’t send you the quotes I got after the conference. Is that ok?”
“One day, you will be shot in the street. I’ll come to you, take the phone and call the police. And then I will leave you there. Is that ok?” He asked, laughing loud.
We both laughed. I told him what the quotes were and asked him not to use them because we cannot use the same quotes that weren’t in the conference. He agreed.
When he was sent to Anbar, the restive province in western Iraq, to report for a few weeks, he called me almost every day to tell me that “it is very dangerous. I don’t think I will come back safe.” But he always laughed and joked before we ended the conversation.
When I told him what “Feeh” meant, he didn’t get it. But that’s how we ended our phone calls. Even the one a few weeks ago, when he called to talk about something private, he said “feeh” at the end. He said “I didn’t forget.”
He was a brave, professional journalist and a human being. That’s why they killed him.
Here is the New York Times story about him. He was killed today. No one knows who killed him, but I do know that the perpetrators are still at large and will be always. It’s the “new Iraq.” It’s freedom.
Iraqi will always miss you Khalid. You won’t miss anything. But we will miss you.
Feeh Khalid. Feeh
At 9:17 AM, 
Another life was layed down so Iraq can step on and move forward.
I read the story in NYT, it is really heartbreaking, I hope that his mom would be fine after hearing her son telling her "I was shot."
An other brave Iraqi dies.
Why is Khalid but not his killers.
Rest in Peace Khalid, you have done a lot and you won't be forgotten.
You are in our hearts.
At 10:35 AM,
At 10:42 AM, 
Treasure of Baghdad
"Why is Khalid but not his killers"
Because our country is lawless, Ali. Becuase it is run by cowards and sectarian thugs. Becuase terrorists became stronger than the Americans and the government. Because we trusted the wrong people to run the country. Because we voted for the wrong people to protect us from the terrorists. Becuase the Mullahs and Sheikhs are running the country now. Because the power of the gun is fatal. Because of many things, Ali. Because of many things.
At 10:57 AM,
Kryptonite,
I don't think discussing political issues could be done in the way that you are doing it...
You can't make people understand you by being aggressive and defensive.
The softer you lay out your thoughts, the more willing people will be to read your thoughts.
Do you admit all of those many things that Treasure was talking about ?
At 12:27 PM,
At 3:08 PM, Original_Jeff
Omar, I am very sorry for the loss of your friend. I read the NYT article. I feel sadness for his mother and sisters. In his picture, he looks like such a friendly young man. His face reminds me of a good friend of mine. There have been so many senseless tragedies in Iraq. I feel so ashamed that my country has caused so much suffering. Again, my sincere condolences to you.
i wanted to share w/everyone this link a friend sent me that i have read thru and thru numerous times.
it paints a picture of a glorious man, one who i would have loved to have met and shared a laugh or two, or three. the first time i read it i cried. the second time too. and still i shead a tear just posting it for you.
“I’m Fat Khalid.” Those were Khalid’s first words to me, characteristically blunt. I had just returned to Iraq after a year away and was stumbling through the newsroom, still groggy with jet lag. Khalid walked right up and clapped a meaty hand into mine, so big and solid a presence I thought he might knock me down. He had thick, dark features and a clownish leer on his face. Within minutes, he was telling me dirty jokes, punctuating each of them with a truculent burst of laughter. Those jokes kept coming, phone and later by email, even long after I had left Iraq for good. They were crude and silly but I loved seeing them: they brought back Khalid’s big childlike face and his laughter. I still think of him dressed in the ankle-length black leather jacket he used to wear in winter. “Are you joining the Gestapo?” I asked when he first started wearing it. Khalid keeled over laughing at that, and for days, he gave me a mock salute whenever he saw me.
i urge you to read the whole thing, really extraordinary person, the kind of person who brightens our lives that we all gravitate towards, in our families, our schools, our communities, our work.
one of the things that amazes me was his competence, courage and youth! to think of how young he was when the war started and how much gumption and maturity he had.
He had picked up amazing amounts of American vernacular from movies and the Internet, and he had a passion for money, computers, and cell phones. More than once, I remember him running up to me late at night with an urgent question about a fine point of American slang: he had been watching movies in the basement instead of watching the news wires... His eyes lit up when he told me how much he wanted to go to Las Vegas. I could picture him there, swaggering between the gaming tables. I could picture him starting a company of his own
!! sounds like he would be a perfect fit w/my son and his gang.
I, and on many nights I would wander into The Times’s Baghdad newsroom at 1 or 2 in the morning, and I’d find him sitting there, looking like an American teenager lost in his own world.
He’d be surfing the Web and talking on his cellphone and sending a text message and maybe eating a bowl of popcorn with melted butter. The two television sets in the newsroom, which were supposed to be tuned to news channels like Al Arabiya or Al Jazeera, would inevitably have been switched to The Movie Channel and MTV. If I asked Khalid to do something for me, he’d put his phone down and look at me like I was a burdensome parent. And I’d shake my head and say: “Khalid, if you moved to America, your life would not change.”
every paragraph i want to copy!
gazelle blood! sex in the city! (i love that show too :)
I remember walking with him to a hotel next door, to interview an Iraqi woman about an article I was researching on love affairs in Baghdad. Khalid had eagerly put himself forth as a leading expert on the subject. On the way to the hotel, escorted by a guard with a revolver, we walked past a child seated on the curb. On a wooden plank before him, the child, scruff-faced and silent sold local candies. I walked right past him. Khalid stopped, talked to the kid, gave him a few Iraqi bills and took no candy.
“These kids are out here all day in the heat, and they have nothing,” he told me as we walked. “I feel bad for them, you know, dude?”
i've almost come to terms w/my own failings here and how i let my misplaced anger and inabilities to overtake common decency, something it appears khalid had in spades. even in the midst of unimaginable circumstances he remained true to himself. he grew up awfully fast and took on responsibilities many adults could never handle.
a stunning example of a beautiful moral upbringing.
thank you for bringing him to our attention Omar, it is so sad it had to be under these circumstances.
i urge everyone to read the entire link.
At 11:33 PM, RhusLancia
Thanks for that link, annie. He sounds like a great guy. Here's another from the times, but there's a link on the left of it to a multimedia he did about Iraqi political cartoons.
feeh khalid
i am very very sorry for your loss Omar, for Iraq's loss, for his families loss, and for all our loss. the world has lost another good heart.
i am not seeing the nyt link.