The Fight to Save Iraqis America Left Behind

Kirk W. Johnson tells why and how he started The List Project, which has helped more than 1,500 Iraqis who worked with Americans find refuge in America. In To Be a Friend Is Fatal, he writes of going to Iraq in January 2005, as USAID’s only Arabic-speaking American employee, and working alongside idealistic Iraqi translators who believed in the idea of a peaceful, democratic Iraq. Johnson also writes about how the violence, kidnapping, torture, and led him into a severe depression and PTSD.