As part of its hour-long episode on the List Project’s continued struggle on behalf of U.S.-affiliated Iraqis, This American Life produced a powerful interactive timeline of emails between “Omar,” the State Department, and the International Organization for Migration.  These emails also appear in “To Be a Friend is Fatal,” TLP founder Kirk W. Johnson’s forthcoming memoir about the fate of our Iraqi allies.

As you’ll see, “Omar” desperately tried to get someone within our refugee bureaucracy to pay attention to his increasingly fraught situation: he had received death threats from a militant organization that knew of his work as a forklift operator at an American military base.  Despite the fact that the war had ended and U.S. forces had departed, he was hunted throughout his hometown as he waited for some kind of help from the U.S. government.

Mayer Brown LLP, the List Project’s partnering law firm, has worked tirelessly on this case: since the airing of the This American Life episode, we received word that Omar’s widow and young son were finally approved for travel to America.  Our work to help the surviving members of his extended family continues, though.

To view the timeline of Omar’s emails, click here.


  • Published: 11 years ago on July 12, 2013
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  • Last Modified: July 12, 2013 @ 3:12 pm
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