We Don't Need No Stinkin' Badges

Today was extremely frustrating, at times demoralizing, but ultimately a draw against the evil forces of bureaucracy.

I sat through my seminar on operational security -- loose lips sink ships -- got the requisite signatures from various DoD officials, and went to get my Embassy badge. This badge is a card that allows you entry into the US Embassy compound, as well as the embassy itself (Saddam's presidential palace). Now, because I neither have security clearance (as a non-American, I can't, by definition) nor am an American, the State Department apparatchik decided that I wasn't worthy of a badge -- and indeed would have to vacate my lovely trailer forthwith.

This really bummed me out. Again the ugly head of my immigration status reared itself...

I can't -- and am too tired to -- get into detail about what happened next, but the uptake is that I now have a temporary badge and had to spend several hours filling out a form (e.g., list all foreign travel you've taken over the last 10 years) so they could start to "vet" me. Of course, this vetting won't even be half done by the time I'm scheduled to depart Baghdad, but never mind...