Organizing ourselves on the road ...

Some of the Human Shields traveled on the two red London buses and the London taxicab that had driven from London and some, our Turkish comrades based in Istanbul, traveled in vans and private cars. The Turkish Shields had obtained all their visas in advance –– the Bus Shields, coordinated by fellow Shield and former British diplomat Sue Darling, obtained our visas on the fly when we crossed borders. This list documents the passengers on the buses & taxi when we crossed from Syria into Iraq.

During discussions on the road from London, and meetings and discussions in Istanbul, and more meetings and discussions between all of us on the road to Baghdad, we organized ourselves into a democratic/anarchic structure. When we arrived in Baghdad, most of us moved into the Andalus Apartments which became the venue for nightly organizational meetings of all the Human Shields who had the patience to attend.

The structure consisted of several committees –– Press, Sites, Inter-Hotel Communications, Office, Web, Welcome, etc. –– with corresponding responsibilities, and the Shields were encouraged to be a member of at least one committee. The Sites Committee, for example, had the task of maintaining a database of Shields and sites to be "Shielded" and the sign-up sheets used by Shields to volunteer to occupy specific sites.