tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-62343792011-04-21T21:23:49.923-04:00The website is dedicated to helping Iraqis who are blogging from within Iraq.Tom Villarshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11366521775391400432noreply@blogger.comBlogger721100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6234379.post-1136165804316404762006-01-01T20:06:00.000-05:002006-03-05T18:51:57.176-05:00

Several months ago I informed all the Iraqi And Afghan bloggers I would be discontinuing my services in collecting donations on their behalf on Dec 31st, 2005. At this time all the blogs' PayPal button have been removed. The links to the donors and this site will only remain at the discretion of each site's owner. This site will remain as a historical artifact of what transpired.There is still

Tom Villarshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11366521775391400432noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6234379.post-1124157957782497222005-08-15T22:04:00.000-04:002005-08-19T23:16:00.886-04:00

I lost the hosting for the donation pages and I need to find another place to host them. Should have something back up by this weekend.As always, if anyone has any questions please feel free to email me, or leave a comment.Update* Found a way to host the accounting files on blogspot. Everyone's List of Donor's link should now be working.

Tom Villarshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11366521775391400432noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6234379.post-1121220785215346292005-07-12T22:09:00.000-04:002005-07-12T22:13:05.220-04:00

Have received a request from a second Afghan blogger, Afghan LORD. His paypal button is up and I'll be verifying him in the next week or two assuming there are some donations.

Tom Villarshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11366521775391400432noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6234379.post-1112840785101852292005-04-06T22:21:00.000-04:002005-04-19T00:12:37.183-04:00

Waheed has sent all the information required to send the donations via Western Union. I'll be sending the money either Friday evening or Saturday morning.And a special thanks to Spirit Of America that made a significant donation to help Waheed purchase a computer.Update* Sent $1600 USD via western Union on April 08. Waiting for Waheed to acknowledge receipt of the money.Update** Waheed

Tom Villarshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11366521775391400432noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6234379.post-1111369143944118812005-03-20T20:32:00.000-05:002005-03-20T20:50:56.326-05:00

As an experiment I have added a blogger from Afghanistan. Waheed has been blogging since March 8 and seems to have developed a good following in just a few weeks. You can read more about him at his blog, Afghan Warrior.

Tom Villarshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11366521775391400432noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6234379.post-1111368677353138482005-03-20T20:26:00.000-05:002005-03-20T20:50:44.470-05:00

The situation has improved in Iraq where the cost of accessing the Internet is no longer prohibitively expensive for most of the Iraqi bloggers. Of course there will be exceptions, but at this point there are certainly enough authenticate Iraqi bloggers out there that the true voice of Iraq can not be buried by main stream media.Therefore I have decided to stop accepting request for new Iraqi

Tom Villarshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11366521775391400432noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6234379.post-1111368353886415372005-03-20T20:23:00.000-05:002006-11-12T18:30:13.836-05:00

With so many bloggers now on the list, the accounting hassles of splitting up the money are becoming more trouble than their worth. Effective immediately, not future donations to Iraqi Blogger Technical Support will be accepted. Of course you can still donate directly to any of the active supported bloggers.

Tom Villarshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11366521775391400432noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6234379.post-1111368219735717062005-03-20T20:21:00.000-05:002005-03-20T20:50:18.663-05:00

A Western Union of $160 was sent on March 11, 2005 to AYS in a secure and undisclosed location. AYS has acknowledge receipt of the funds.

Tom Villarshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11366521775391400432noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6234379.post-1111368108042754372005-03-20T20:18:00.000-05:002005-04-19T00:13:27.226-04:00

A wire transfer of $5,900.00 (USD) was sent on March 10th, 2005. The break down was as follows:IPDP$2,600.00Iraq The Model$2,345.00 Road Of A Nation$75.00Nabil's Blog$80.00Iraqi Humanity$800.00Update* ITM is checking on the status of the transfer, but as of March 27th, we don't have confirmation it has arrived.Update** ITM has informed me the intermediary we use has been out of town. We hope to

Tom Villarshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11366521775391400432noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6234379.post-1108957077414882792005-02-20T22:27:00.000-05:002005-02-20T22:37:57.416-05:00

Omar and Mohammed have asked that the PayPal donation button be removed from their site. They feel they can pay for all their blogging expenses through advertisements. BlogAds have been added so if anyone is interested in getting your ad displayed over 6000 times a day, you can advertise here.Final expenses for the Iraqi Pro-Democracy Party have been listed here.

Tom Villarshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11366521775391400432noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6234379.post-1101699935164266422005-02-02T23:10:00.000-05:002005-02-02T23:19:41.966-05:00

A wire transfer of $9000 was sent on Nov 16, 2004. The break down was as follows: Iraq The Model$1,000.00 IPDP$8,000.00 Update 2004-12-02 There seems to be a problem with this transfer as well but we have the international swift routing code and the people on the receiving end should be able to get it sorted out. I'll keep people posted on progress. Just once I'd like to have one of these

Tom Villarshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11366521775391400432noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6234379.post-1104598730765699412005-01-26T23:56:00.000-05:002005-01-26T23:56:17.956-05:00

Omar from Iraq The Model has requested assitance with placing ads on his site. This is something new for Iraqi bloggers but with the donation levels trending down it seems a reasonable way to proceed with futher funding. While we'll eventually get Blog Ads added to the site, I'd thought we'd start with InTrade. InTrade specializes in politcal and financial futures contracts. I've had them

Tom Villarshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11366521775391400432noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6234379.post-1105752421420309052005-01-16T20:50:00.000-05:002005-01-30T00:24:52.650-05:00

Since Google Adsense does not allow pre-screening of which ads are displayed on a site, there is a good chance some unwelcome or inappropriate ads could show up. If you think an ad falls into this category, add a comment with the ad's URL and I'll try to remove it from the list of advertisers allowed on the site. We can block up to 200 advertisers. Blocked Advertiserswww.bringemhome.org (

Tom Villarshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11366521775391400432noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6234379.post-1104883322349026442005-01-16T11:00:00.000-05:002005-01-16T20:59:52.706-05:00

The votes are in and the people have spoken and the donor list will remain for the foreseeable future. Here are the results: Total Responses98 keep donor list as is86.7% (85) remove donor list13.3% (13) Two people responded but did not provide answers. If you have any questions and/or comments please leave a comment here and I'll do my best to answer any questions or concerns. Questions &

Tom Villarshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11366521775391400432noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6234379.post-1102201372709444682004-12-04T18:01:00.000-05:002004-12-04T18:08:41.256-05:00

Received another email granting permission to start collecting donations for another Iraqi blogger. Wow two in one week. X-Gmail-Received: ee5f878b6a62e7807710d541d0a881d685626728 Delivered-To: tvillars@gmail.com Received: by 10.38.67.36 with SMTP id p36cs11395rna; Sat, 4 Dec 2004 14:19:05 -0800 (PST) Received: by 10.54.31.33 with SMTP id e33mr509016wre; Sat, 04 Dec 2004 14:19:

Tom Villarshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11366521775391400432noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6234379.post-1102048033735451962004-12-02T23:24:00.000-05:002005-01-08T09:13:02.513-05:00

Received the following email granting permission to start collecting donations for another Iraqi blogger: X-Gmail-Received: 1d06260e353068799319f73d4af4d7169f66e17c Delivered-To: tvillars@gmail.com Received: by 10.38.67.44 with SMTP id p44cs20306rna; Mon, 29 Nov 2004 21:07:39 -0800 (PST) Received: by 10.54.29.14 with SMTP id c14mr662747wrc; Mon, 29 Nov 2004 21:06:50 -0800 (PST)

Tom Villarshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11366521775391400432noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6234379.post-1101699718197283682004-11-28T22:35:00.000-05:002004-11-28T22:41:58.196-05:00

AYS has ask to be taken off the list of supported sites as he is no longer in Iraq and does not qualify for support from this website. The remaining $178.66 that has been donated but not yet sent will be go to AYS as wire transfers into Iraq permit.

Tom Villarshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11366521775391400432noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6234379.post-1097431588174170612004-10-10T14:05:00.000-04:002004-10-10T14:06:28.176-04:00

Alaa has started blogging again. He explains what happened in this post.

Tom Villarshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11366521775391400432noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6234379.post-1095904457251098582004-09-22T21:49:00.000-04:002004-10-10T13:40:39.543-04:00

Updated: Ali has confirmed the money has arrived in the U.A.E. The money should be making its way to Baghdad in the next few days. Its been a while since I have posted but time spent on the IPDP and some work related stuff pretty much burnt me to a crisp. But I've got some free time again and should be getting back into actively supporting the Iraqi Bloggers and the IPDP. An issue has come

Tom Villarshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11366521775391400432noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6234379.post-1092182026477584492004-08-10T19:48:00.000-04:002004-08-10T19:56:01.146-04:00

With the following email, I happy to report we have another blogger in the family: Delivered-To: tvillars@gmail.com Received: by 10.38.171.27 with SMTP id t27cs6851rne; Mon, 9 Aug 2004 09:11:15 -0700 (PDT) Received: by 10.38.179.35 with SMTP id b35mr1302911rnf; Mon, 09 Aug 2004 09:11:15 -0700 (PDT)Return-Path: Received: from web20523.mail.yahoo.com ([216.136.227.36]) by

Tom Villarshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11366521775391400432noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6234379.post-1091156710494655752004-07-29T23:00:00.000-04:002004-07-30T12:15:34.000-04:00

It seems Alaa has left Iraq for a scholarship opportunity in Scotland, but no one has been able to confirm this information. Regardless, he has not posted in some time and we have decide to discontinue collecting donations for his site. We are trying to contact him to let him know we would all like to have one last post so we know what his new plans are. Good luck, Alaa, we will miss you.

Tom Villarshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11366521775391400432noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6234379.post-1091155905543568302004-07-29T22:46:00.000-04:002004-07-29T22:51:45.543-04:00

We need about 20 pages of English translated into Arabic for a project to help promote the bloggers. We would be looking for people that can take an English MS Word document and type an Arabic translation into another MS Word document. We have people who can proof read the Arabic but we have to much work for one person to complete. If you have this skill and your computer is set up to type in

Tom Villarshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11366521775391400432noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6234379.post-1091080003965294292004-07-29T01:41:00.000-04:002004-07-30T12:49:45.750-04:00

I need one or two people with excellent English grammar skills to proof read 20 to 30 pages for a project that will help promote the bloggers. Please leave your email address in the comment section. Update* We now have enough proof readers.   We'll have more things for people to help with on August 11th, so check back then if you would still like to help.

Tom Villarshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11366521775391400432noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6234379.post-1090527805422331212004-07-22T16:19:00.000-04:002004-07-22T16:23:25.423-04:00

Was having some problems with downloading paypal account information, but all seems to be back to normal. Alaa at Sun of Iraq has not posted in sometime.  I have an email into Sarmad to find out what has happened.

Tom Villarshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11366521775391400432noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6234379.post-1090099133502036072004-07-17T17:16:00.000-04:002004-07-22T16:24:38.933-04:00

I need some help with developing posters to help promote awareness of the Iraqi bloggers.  Anyone with graphics talent who would like to help create some material is encouraged to email me or leave something in the comments. Update*  Thanks to everyone who has offered to help but we have someone who will be leading this effort.  In time they may need additional help and we'll come back to this

Tom Villarshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11366521775391400432noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6234379.post-1090098980857569202004-07-17T17:12:00.000-04:002004-07-17T17:16:20.856-04:00

Previously Nabil gave permission for us to start collecting donations for his blog, but it seems he didn't have his parents permission. Nabil just emailed me and now it appears his parents will allow it.

Tom Villarshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11366521775391400432noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6234379.post-1090098713650438782004-07-17T17:08:00.000-04:002004-07-17T17:11:53.650-04:00

Got a phone call from AYS and while the connection was not very good, I did confirm that everyone has received their money.  Thanks to everyone who has made this possible.

Tom Villarshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11366521775391400432noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6234379.post-1088382305569492032004-06-27T20:20:00.000-04:002004-06-27T20:26:31.886-04:00

Got the following email from Omar: Hi Tom, We've just received a call from Ayad and he informed us that the money you sent is now in his account in Dubai and he told us that we can get it from his son here in Baghdad within 2 days. Thanks a lot for your efforts in that. As soon as we get the money we'll contact Sarmad to hand him his share and Alla's where we can give AYS share to him directly.

Tom Villarshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11366521775391400432noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6234379.post-1087873684225583572004-06-21T22:46:00.000-04:002004-06-21T23:09:44.373-04:00

I sent a wire transfer of $5,800.00 USD last week. Omar should be receiving it shortly. Here is how the money is to be broken down: Iraq At A Glance$1,700.00 Iraq The Model$2,700.00 Road Of A Nation$950.00 Sun Of Iraq$450.00 This is by far the biggest wire we have sent and on behalf of all the Iraqi bloggers I just wanted to say thanks to everyone who is making this possible.

Tom Villarshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11366521775391400432noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6234379.post-1087432762100078972004-06-16T20:26:00.000-04:002004-06-16T20:39:22.100-04:00

Some dumb ass calling himself Asmar Ahmad, tried to apply for financial aid today. His blog is mostly pictures of Baghdad. The pictures are nice, but they were all stolen from another blog. His IP Address was 217.219.222.170 which I traced to Iran which kind of surprised me. His email was Brulure_de_bagdad@yahoo.com Can anyone place the nationality of the proper name Brulure? Google his

Tom Villarshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11366521775391400432noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6234379.post-1087162469437680972004-06-13T17:25:00.000-04:002004-06-13T17:34:29.436-04:00

Seems the issues I've been having with Nabil's Blog are because his parents will not allow him to take donations. I'm hearing this third-hand, but until I hear otherwise I'll be taking Nabil's Blog off the list. Also the person that donated $100 wishes to have their donation changed to Iraq At A Glance. I think I need to added parental consent for underage bloggers to the list of conditions a

Tom Villarshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11366521775391400432noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6234379.post-1087148055279699352004-06-13T13:31:00.000-04:002004-06-13T17:01:21.656-04:00

I seem to have lost permission to add the PayPal donation button to Nabil's blog. Not sure if this is a technical problem or something else. I have an email into Nabil to find out what is happening.

Tom Villarshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11366521775391400432noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6234379.post-1086919645996950732004-06-10T22:04:00.000-04:002004-06-10T23:32:44.346-04:00

Nabil sent me the following email authorizing me to begining collecting donations for his blog. ok thank you for your offer email me when you put the button thanks again Nabil With this confirmation we are ready to begin accepting donations for Nabil's Blog.

Tom Villarshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11366521775391400432noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6234379.post-1086783534107300712004-06-09T08:18:00.000-04:002004-06-09T08:22:07.413-04:00

From the June 9th, 2004 Wall Street Journal editorial page: After a suicide car bombing killed Iraqi Interim Governing Council President Izzedine Salim and eight others on May 17, one Iraqi put that act of terror into a larger perspective for those who wonder if democracy can work in Iraq. His name is Omar, one of the new Iraqi 'bloggers,' and he wrote on his Web log: 'We cannot . . . protect

Tom Villarshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11366521775391400432noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6234379.post-1086578793072594092004-06-06T23:23:00.000-04:002004-06-06T23:26:33.073-04:00

Omar sent me an email that his friend in the U.A.E. has received the money and that he should be receiving the funds tomorrow. We sent $1000 USD as a test. If everything goes well, I can send the remaining funds as soon as I hear from the other bloggers.

Tom Villarshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11366521775391400432noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6234379.post-1085095297650736792004-05-20T19:17:00.000-04:002004-05-25T16:58:34.786-04:00

e*Trade says the money should be there, but Omar's friend says he hasn't received it yet. We are waiting on a confirmation number from e*Trade which I'll forward to Omar as soon as I get it. I'm a little disappointed this didn't go smoother as a transfer into U.A.E should have been relatively simple compared to getting money into Iraq. I'm afraid it is more hurry up and wait... Update* e*

Tom Villarshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11366521775391400432noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6234379.post-1084500777881253772004-05-13T22:07:00.000-04:002004-05-13T22:15:49.740-04:00

It looks like the wire transfer is going through. Omar should know for sure by Tuesday (May 18th). Also $700 USD was used to help cover the shipping cost of a number of laptop computers that were shipped to AYS, Omar and Zeyad. You can read about this effort here.

Tom Villarshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11366521775391400432noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6234379.post-1083813621463257582004-05-05T23:20:00.000-04:002004-05-10T18:34:32.046-04:00

E*Trade wants to run a background check on the people the money is going to. This is starting to get silly but I guess I'm willing to play the game if Omar and the other bloggers have the time to wait. I'll email Omar with the a request for gov't id for the person we are sending the wire to and see what he says. In the meantime everyone take ten. Update* Omar has agreed to try and get the

Tom Villarshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11366521775391400432noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6234379.post-1083618906805523082004-05-03T17:15:00.000-04:002004-05-03T17:19:15.233-04:00

E*Trade is dragging their feet on approving the wire transfer because my account has been "flagged" because of previous transfers into Iraq. If I don't hear anything by Wednesday I'm going to start asking people to help out by calling E*Trade and letting them know they are concerned with how E*Trade is handling this transaction. Obviously things like calling your congressman and Senator

Tom Villarshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11366521775391400432noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6234379.post-1083412300703600452004-05-01T07:51:00.000-04:002004-05-01T07:56:00.653-04:00

Omar has found someone willing to help with the money transfers into Iraq. A test transfer of $1000 USD has been sent and we should know the results by May 5th at the earliest and May 10th at the latest.

Tom Villarshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11366521775391400432noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6234379.post-1082419305216480352004-04-19T20:01:00.000-04:002004-04-19T20:09:33.466-04:00

Paul Vulf from E*Trade called me today to let me know that E*Trade has decided to stop processing hawala money transfers into Iraq because of the extra paper work this type of transfer requires as mandated by the USA Patriot Act of 2001. As this summary explains, there is significant additional paper work required, but nothing prevents E*Trade from making this type of transfer. Obviously this

Tom Villarshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11366521775391400432noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6234379.post-1082057354507444562004-04-15T15:29:00.000-04:002004-04-15T15:33:12.403-04:00

ays has requested I re-send the money via the Jordanian bank instead of the Kuwaiti bank. I'll pull everything together and get the money off tomorrow.

Tom Villarshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11366521775391400432noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6234379.post-1081873848345884982004-04-13T12:30:00.000-04:002004-04-13T12:34:43.436-04:00

E*Trade called today to tell me the wire transfer to Omar & ays has been returned. I’ll email them both shortly and find out what they want to do. I had hoped the western banks would be close to starting operations in Iraq, but that still seems be a ways off. I’ll post as soon as I hear from Omar & ays.

Tom Villarshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11366521775391400432noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6234379.post-1081098081934712402004-04-04T13:01:00.000-04:002004-04-04T13:05:04.983-04:00

I was hoping that the transfer to Omar would have resolved itself by the time I got back from Europe, but that hasn't happened. Omar has sent me the name and phone number of the branch manager and I will have E*Trade include this information on the next message to the bank. This stuff takes time, but hopefully once the western banks open up things should go much smoother and faster.

Tom Villarshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11366521775391400432noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6234379.post-1080849304387523972004-04-01T14:55:00.000-05:002004-04-02T17:02:25.326-05:00

Received the following email from Alaa today.Dear Tom Villars Thank you for your felling, all my friends told my about your fidelity. So this is my password and user name www.sunofiraq.blogspot.com User name : xxxxx Password : xxxxx thank you agian Regard Alaa With this confirmation we are ready to begin accepting donations for Alaa's blog. Update* The PayPal button should be working

Tom Villarshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11366521775391400432noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6234379.post-1079234830697069432004-03-13T22:27:00.000-05:002004-03-13T22:30:23.903-05:00

My sister is getting married and because she is an extreme skier she has decide that Lech, Austria is the logical place to have the ceremony. I'll be out of pocket from March 23rd to April 2nd.

Tom Villarshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11366521775391400432noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6234379.post-1079234596629148242004-03-13T22:23:00.000-05:002004-03-13T22:26:29.860-05:00

The good news is the Credit Bank of Iraq has the money. The bad news is the account# they have doesn't seem to be valid. Hopefully this is just a clerical error. I have an email into Omar asking for verification of the account#. I'll keep everyone posted.

Tom Villarshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11366521775391400432noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6234379.post-1078458726359677922004-03-04T22:52:00.000-05:002004-03-05T07:14:10.123-05:00

The second wire transfer has been processed and left my bank on March 3rd, 2004. We are using a different intermediate bank so hopefully things will go faster this time. I'm disbursing $300 to ays and $1070 to Omar, but only sending a single wire transfer so as to reduce the associated fees. For details you can check out the Money Trail link on the upper right hand side of the site.

Tom Villarshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11366521775391400432noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6234379.post-1077747045305389432004-02-25T17:10:00.000-05:002004-02-25T19:06:11.356-05:00

ays requested that his email account be upgraded so he can use outlook express to send and retrieve his mail from his yahoo account. Hopefully this will reduce his internet connect time as picking up emails through pop3 will be much more efficient than browsing for them. Fortunately this disbursement of $19.99 USD only took about 5 minutes. Update* (same day less than two hours later) ays has

Tom Villarshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11366521775391400432noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6234379.post-1077469547412995602004-02-22T12:05:00.000-05:002004-02-22T12:09:27.530-05:00

Got the following email from ays concerning what to do with the rest of the money that has been donated.Dear Tom, I want to spend some of the 334$ to help the poor families here in Baghdad, I want to buy some toys and food for them, I bought a camera, and I want to take some photos for them and see them happy, I wonder if you can send the money for me ( if it does not bother you as you got tired

Tom Villarshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11366521775391400432noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6234379.post-1077413626825594062004-02-21T20:33:00.000-05:002004-02-21T20:37:10.513-05:00

I was hoping that after we had a proven method of getting money into Iraq that more Iraqi bloggers would sign up for help, but this hasn't happened. Right now Iraq has the attention of the world but that will not last forever so if we are going to help them we need to get started now. If you have developed developed a relationship with any of the other Iraqi bloggers please mention that a

Tom Villarshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11366521775391400432noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6234379.post-1077061852606748832004-02-17T18:50:00.000-05:002004-02-17T18:56:27.200-05:00

The money transfer to ays has finally arrived and he was able to collect the money today. You can read about it here. This transfer was for $750 USD which leaves a little under $2000 USD to be distributed among all the bloggers. Considering it took over a month for the money to finally be delivered I'm not sure I want to use the same method to transfer money. Omar has suggested I use a

Tom Villarshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11366521775391400432noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6234379.post-1077060397012154612004-02-17T18:26:00.000-05:002004-02-17T18:29:15.560-05:00

Receive the following from Justin Alexander asking for helping with setting an RSS feed for all the Iraqi bloggers. If you have the skills and want to help you can email Justin for how to get started. From: "Justin Alexander (Jubilee Iraq)" Subject: RSS feed for Iraqi websites Date: Tue, 10 Feb 2004 16:01:53 -0000 Hi guys, There’s quite a community of people trying to support Iraqi

Tom Villarshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11366521775391400432noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6234379.post-1076492458538874592004-02-11T04:40:00.000-05:002004-02-11T04:43:47.233-05:00

Talked to The Jordan Kuwait Bank and they claim the money was sent to the Credit Bank of Iraq on Feb 8 which means they held the money for 10 days. Kind of annoying, but not much you can do. But since ays is not in Baghdad, I'm not sure when we will get confirmation that he has the money. He left instructions with the Credit Bank of Iraq to call his family, but even if they already have the

Tom Villarshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11366521775391400432noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6234379.post-1076160565926939602004-02-07T08:29:00.000-05:002004-02-07T11:17:43.546-05:00

BAGHDAD (AFP) - Iraq announced it has awarded Britain's HSBC and Standard Chartered and the National Bank of Kuwait (NBK) the first licenses given to foreign banks for 40 years. This will greatly simplify getting money into Iraq.

Tom Villarshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11366521775391400432noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6234379.post-1076160275539879252004-02-07T08:24:00.000-05:002004-02-07T08:34:02.623-05:00

Not much to report except more waiting. I am a little concenred as I do have confirmation the money has been in Jordan for a week but still hasn't been made available to Ays. Ays did email me to say that since he will leave Baghdad, he has left instructions with his bank to call his family when the money arrives. I have sent a fax to Mr. Milad Faraj at the Jordan Kuwait Bank requesting some

Tom Villarshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11366521775391400432noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6234379.post-1076159344722152922004-02-07T08:09:00.000-05:002004-02-07T16:10:53.670-05:00

Received the following email today. Most likely this is nothing more than spam since the sender isn't willing to reveal his real name and the only way to contact them is through an email address. But just in case it is a legitimate request I am posting the email in full. If I hear back from them about the posting I'll know this isn't just some kind of Nigerian type money scam. Of course if

Tom Villarshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11366521775391400432noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6234379.post-1075384533902650282004-01-29T08:55:00.000-05:002004-01-29T08:57:46.123-05:00

Received a confirmation # (FTJ-0401214XXXXXX ) that the money wired to Ays is now at the Jordan Kuwait Bank.

Tom Villarshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11366521775391400432noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6234379.post-1074736657947400382004-01-21T20:57:00.000-05:002004-01-21T21:01:18.966-05:00

Received the following email from Michael today who is helping Sarmad with his blog Road Of A Nation. Tom, I have updated Sarmad's blog and added your Paypal form button. Here is his confirmation: Dear I am so sorry that I confuse you about the blog design its jest perfect and you have high test and yes I am so happy with the new design you made it for me also I am grateful for you trying to

Tom Villarshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11366521775391400432noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6234379.post-1074715922688824222004-01-21T15:12:00.000-05:002004-01-21T15:20:51.046-05:00

My e*Trade customer service representative has informed me the money has not left my account after all. There is a problem with how the wire transaction was handled and he is working to resolve the issue. He said he has a verbal confirmation that the money will go out tomorrow. Obviously I will follow up with a phone call to confirm. Assuming e*Trade gets their shit together, the money will

Tom Villarshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11366521775391400432noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6234379.post-1074689394318882292004-01-21T07:49:00.000-05:002005-01-11T23:18:43.406-05:00

Ays says he hasn't received the money yet and is asking for confirmation information to help track down the money. I asked my bank (e*Trade) on Tuesday but haven't got the information yet. For right now I am asking everyone to hang tight and let the process work itself out. But if things continue like this for more than a few more days, I'll have to start getting tough with my bank. If it

Tom Villarshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11366521775391400432noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6234379.post-1074541695957026252004-01-19T14:48:00.000-05:002004-01-25T00:00:18.763-05:00

The first batch of donor's have been listed on Iraq The Model. Congratulations to Kerry D. for being the first to complete a donation and Travis M. for the first $100 donation. Honorable mention to Miss Neuman who missed being first by only 19 minutes.

Tom Villarshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11366521775391400432noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6234379.post-1074446670428722222004-01-18T12:24:00.000-05:002004-01-18T12:28:51.483-05:00

Received the following email from Omar today. Dear Tom; here are the information; the user name is: xxxxxx the password is : xxxxxx i decided to use the same method that you have suggested to AYS, ie. via the jordanian bank in the form of a (hawala), so i think you need to know my full name, so her it is in english and in arabic; Omar XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX please, if this

Tom Villarshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11366521775391400432noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6234379.post-1074446301727040182004-01-18T12:18:00.000-05:002004-01-18T12:20:18.750-05:00

Ays checked with his bank but the money is not yet available. I need to check with my bank, but the Jordanian bank should have got the money no latter than Jan 12. Unfortunately this sort of delay is common when dealing with international wire transfers. I'll be following up on Monday to get all the transfer receipts in case Ays needs them to help chase down the money.

Tom Villarshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11366521775391400432noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6234379.post-1073310397351540142004-01-08T12:35:00.000-05:002004-01-08T12:41:53.933-05:00

A bank in Baghdad has been found that can accept money being wired to a bank in Jordan. Here are the details: THE JORDAN KUWAIT BANK H.O P.O Box 9776 ABDALI 11191 / AMMAN - JORDAN Swift - JKBAJOAM Tel + 962 6 562 9400 Ext 1100 - Mr.Milad Faraj Fax + 962 6 569 5604 FOR A/C NO:- 2058XXXXX CREDIT BANK OF IRAQ-BaghdadI am planning on making the first wire transfer today. I'll post more details on

Tom Villarshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11366521775391400432noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6234379.post-1072742759052949432003-12-29T19:05:00.000-05:002003-12-29T19:08:58.820-05:00

In the following two emails Ays has requested I send the money to a friend's father's bank account in the "Emirates" which I assume is the U.A.E. Dec 24, 2003 Dear Tom, I have a friend here in Baghdad, his father is in Emirates, he has a bank account there, so if you can send the money to him then I can take the money from his son here in Baghdad. ... Dec 29, 2003 Dear Tom, I have all the

Tom Villarshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11366521775391400432noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6234379.post-1072227034764138732003-12-23T19:50:00.000-05:002003-12-23T20:10:53.970-05:00

I have read a couple of comments for suggestions on how to use the money that while well meaning are well outside any expectations I have for this site. While Ays and the other Iraqi bloggers may have thousands or tens of thousands of people reading their blogs, only a small percentage will ever donate money. It is important we set realistic goals so those we are trying to support don't start

Tom Villarshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11366521775391400432noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6234379.post-1072226122884391822003-12-23T19:35:00.000-05:002005-03-20T20:49:25.843-05:00

Update: No longer accepting request from Iraqi bloggers.To qualify an Iraqi blogger must meet the following criteria:must be an Iraqimust be living in Iraqmust not be a paid journalistmust have already started a blogif the blogger is underage, they must have their parent's consentAssuming the blogger can meet this criteria, the next step is to send an email to tvillars@gmail.com asking for

Tom Villarshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11366521775391400432noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6234379.post-1072224438923578182003-12-23T19:07:00.000-05:002003-12-23T19:52:15.890-05:00

The first batch of donor's have been listed on Iraq At A Glance.

Tom Villarshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11366521775391400432noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6234379.post-1072136363065926822003-12-22T18:39:00.000-05:002003-12-22T19:36:38.010-05:00

This government website gives details on business conditions in Iraq. The document that best details options for transfer money can be found here. The critical passages from the document are: Can I wire money into Iraq?Yes. Citibank in Amman offers a service that delivers cash to the doorstep of the beneficiary in Iraq (tel. 962 6 567 5100). Some U.S. Army personnel and foreign officials use

Tom Villarshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11366521775391400432noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6234379.post-1072135031020972682003-12-22T18:22:00.000-05:002003-12-22T19:20:00.180-05:00

Received the following email from Ays today.Dear Tom Zeyad and Omar told me that they will make paypal done by Mr. Jeff Jarvis. So, my friend, I will be very thankful if you make a button in my blog and collect the money with you until I could open an account in Al-Rafidain Bank. thank you dear friend.. thank you very much yours, AysWith this confirmation we are ready to begin accepting

Tom Villarshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11366521775391400432noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6234379.post-1072052160497166122003-12-22T01:00:00.000-05:002003-12-22T19:39:01.333-05:00

I have been working with Ays by handling some of the administrative task involved with his blog. While AYS and the other Iraqi bloggers have been paying for Internet access out of their own pocket, the expense limits the time they can blog. This site will concentrate on three things:raising money to help pay for fees the Iraqi bloggers incur while blogging handling the transfer and public

Tom Villarshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11366521775391400432noreply@blogger.com0