...A quick update, though, on the initial SoA television project. All the equipment is in place. Two of the stations are operational and broadcasting original, local programming two to three hours daily. One did an account of another SoA project: women's sewing centers. Video excerpts are on the SoA Web site, spiritofamerica.net. But once the Marines became a target for insurgent attacks, they lowered their presence around the TV stations.

Help is on the way. Absent the Marines, the additional training for the station operators will be provided in the near future, outside Iraq and with SoA support, by someone familiar to readers of this column: Don North. The man who made the now-famous documentary about the Iraqi amputees who received prostheses in Houston this year is going back to train the remaining Al Anbar stations in TV production. (No U.S. network ever picked up Don North's documentary, by the way. But it's available now at rememberingsaddam.com.

The Spirit of America's Iraq democracy project came together with a meeting several weeks ago in Amman, Jordan. The pro-freedom Iraqi bloggers at Iraqthemodel.com came, and their delightful account of a first-ever trip beyond Iraq's borders is up as an Oct. 20 post. Other Iraqis who attended have asked that their names not be published for obvious reasons. A woman who was reporting for Kurdish-run Al-Hurriya TV was gunned down last week in Baghdad. Still, all are willing to take personal risks to educate the Iraqi people about the meaning and purpose of democracy before that January election date.

In an e-mail days later to Kerry Dupont of Spirit of America, one wrote: "We are very serious in this dear Kerry and we truly hope we can serve our country the best at these crucial times. We also know that this work will make our friendship with the USA stronger as I believe that a democratic Iraq will be more inclined to make alliance with the free world." ...