VZCZCXRO8438
PP RUEHBC RUEHDE RUEHIHL RUEHKUK
DE RUEHGB #1098 0880706
ZNY EEEEE ZZH
P 290706Z MAR 07
FM AMEMBASSY BAGHDAD
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 0452
INFO RUCNRAQ/IRAQ COLLECTIVE

UNCLAS E F T O BAGHDAD 001098 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR PRM/A; DHS FOR BCIS HEADQUARTERS; CAIRO FOR 
REFCOORD; AMMAN FOR REFCOORD AND CONSULAR 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/29/2017 
TAGS: PREF PHUM IZ
SUBJECT: REFERRAL OF INTERPRETER ANSAM SHIHAB AHMED 
 
REF: STATE 326248 
 
 SENSITIVE BUT UNCLASSIFIED.  FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY. 
 
¶1.  Embassy Baghdad would like to refer Ansam Shihab Ahmed to 
the US Refugee Admissions Program. 
 
¶2.  (SBU) Biographical information: 
 
NAME: Ansam Shihab Ahmed 
DOB: 27 November 1972 
POB: Iraq 
Passport Number: S 285869 
Gender: Female 
Marital Status: Single (divorce) 
 
Dependents: N/A 
 
¶3.  (SBU) Description of persecution claim, as presented by 
the embedded Public Diplomacy Officer (PDO) for the 
Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) in Al Anbar, who has 
known Ansam since October 2006.   Ansam works with the 4th 
Civil Affairs Group (CAG) and Multinational Forces and the 
Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) as an Iraqi 
interpreter/translator.  Her direct employer is Titan, an 
American contractor serving the military.  Ansam has worked 
as a translator and simultaneous interpreter for the 
Multinational Forces (MNF) since February of 2004.  Her 
assignments have included Psychological Operations (PSYOPS), 
Information Operations (IO), and the 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 6th 
CAG.  She is presently assigned to the II Marine 
Expeditionary Force (MEF) based at Camp Fallujah, and works 
also on special operations and the PRT.  Her father was 
poisoned in a training camp under Saddam Hussein,s regime. 
Her mother and four sisters were kidnapped and assassinated 
by Shi,te militia in 2003.  She has no remaining immediate 
family.  Once Ansam began working for MNF she began receiving 
death threats from Shi,te militia, Sunni insurgents and Al 
Qaida terrorists who accused her of being a traitor, spy and 
"whore" for the occupation forces. 
 
4)  (SBU) Ansam lives inside the Camp Fallujah base, which is 
located in the most dangerous war zone in Iraq.  Her picture 
has been found posted in mosques throughout Al Anbar and 
Baghdad with a fatwa (Islamic ruling) calling for her death 
for being an apostate and an infidel.  Her family and tribal 
leaders called for her death following her divorce, her 
conversion from Islam to Christianity, and her residence with 
Marines at Camp Fallujah.  The family and tribe demanded her 
life to restore honor to the clan.  The last time Ansam was 
in Baghdad, her best friend was kidnapped by armed, masked 
gunmen in a taxi and later found with a bullet through her 
head and a note attached to her body warning "this is what 
happens to traitors who help spies, Jews and the traitors." 
Ansam was warned that Mahdi death squads were combing 
neighborhoods in Baghdad searching for her.  By the time she 
escaped and returned to Fallujah, she received a telephone 
call from a Sunni group called the "Angry Lions" calling for 
her death for being a traitor to her tribe (the Dulaymi). 
For over two years, Ansam has not been able to leave the base 
without a protective force because of her work and death 
threats against her. 
 
¶5. (SBU) Justification for resettlement:  Ansam Ahmed has 
endured extreme hardship.  In recent times she has undergone 
depression and anxiety attacks as the 4th CAG prepares to 
redeploy back to the United States, realizing that she would 
be left behind on her own. She has learned from reliable 
sources that her name and information on her passport and 
identification applications have been passed on to the 
insurgents. 
 
¶6.  (SBU) Financial situation of PA:  Ansam has some savings 
and should not need financial assistance immediately. 
 
¶7.  (SBU)  Name check:  Completed.  No matching hits. 
 
¶8.  Other:  An intermediary claiming to have influence to 
expedite the processing of an Iraqi G series passport took 
Ansam's S series passport and has not returned it.  Ansam may 
not be able to retrieve the S passport back, and did not get 
the G passport either.  Therefore, she currently has no 
passport. 
SPECKHARD