I called CENTCOM yesterday to ask about press credentials. They have a public affairs staff in Baghdad working the phones around the clock. The staff sargeant I talked to sounded bored at first telling me that it took three days to process our press credentials, but then when he heard we were planning on driving Route 10, the highway which takes you from Amman to Baghdad via Fallujah, his tone sharpened: "I wouldn't go that way, unless your story depended on it. I'd advise you to go through Kuwait or wait until July 15 when Baghdad International opens -- then you can fly direct."
"So going through the south is safe?"
"No place in Iraq is safe."
"What about Baghdad?"
"Just while we've been talking, I heard people popping off rounds outside."
"Oh."
"Yeah, it's like 8 Mile Road in Detroit, only here they have bigger guns."
"That's sobering."
"Yeah, let's just say the less time you spend out there in Indian Country, the safer you will be."
Today I called again. The CENTCOM press guy who answered -- different from the last one -- gave me conflicting information about getting press credentials and even suggested I bring my own lamenating machine, set up a kiosk next to the Palestine Hotel and go into business selling the dang things myself. When I told him about the rounds being fired the other night, he said, "Ahh, that was probably just one of the guys here in our office shooting into the ceiling -- it gets pretty wild here."