corrente

When I read Nick Berg's diary this morning (back), I found it really touching. I didn't know there was such a thing as a tower nerd, but Nick Berg was one. Express condolences here.

So I thought I'd quote some passages from his diary—when I came to a sentence I'd missed this morning that brought me up short. Read on:

Saturday I got onto a really over-engineered 328 meter tower just on the edge of Mosul, currently supporting Channel 7, a 20 kW VHF television station around here. The tower was fabricated in Iraq and has more steel per vertical foot than any tower I've ever been on, the 2000' kings down in Texas included. ...

Sunday we went out to a site called Al Khayzer, which used to house an AM broadcast site on 607 kHz or so. What's left is the 150 meter tower, guyed, with 1" guy wires, sitting on the biggest base insulator I've ever seen - probably 4 feet high and three feet in diameter.
(via our own Inky)

See what I mean?

The whole tower was looted, including some of the diagonals on the first 50' and the lighting system.

Looted, thanks to the lack of planning by the cakewalkers and POTL in the Bush administration.

These have been replaced, but it was kind of un-nerving to inspect this thing with so many incongruities. Monster guy wires, with monster Johnny-ball insulators, but little 1/2" stainless hardware at the guy takeoff points. And there were fox-holes dug all around the tower, which was right on the edge of Kurdish-controlled territory. Still, it was beautiful, a really superb piece of engineering nestled on a beautiful riverside. It was much more peaceful there and I would have taken a good long hike in the hills ....

Here it comes...

... if I had not hopped a ride with the ultra gung ho contract security guys.

Well.

I wonder who these surprisingly generous contract security guys were, and what, exactly, was so "ultra" about them?

On that thought—pleasant dreams.

P.S. The Hindu Nationalists lost in India. Sometimes, the bad guys lose! FTF!