Expediente Bagdad is a race against the clock during a short seven days of chaos and uncertainty spanning from the beginning of terrestrial combat between the United States’ troops and Saddam Hussein’s on the south side of the city, and Hussein’s definitive downfall on April 9, 2003, as the structures of the Iraqi State fell apart, and the disarray amongst the authorities and castigated civil population accelerated. 

Policeman Rashid al Said starts his new job in the district of Karrada, and in addition to new rumors about the fall of the airport and the resulting official denials, a message from his superior awaits him at the police station, telling him to meet at a nearby tea house. There, the police commissioner Jalal informs Rashid that he is about to leave the capital with his family and gives him an envelope containing several photographs of a mentally disabled girl who has suffered several stab wounds. Rashid is under no obligation to take the envelope and accept the case, not only because of the special circumstances the city is in, with the Americans about to come in, but also because he has been working on minor police affairs for many years, like directing traffic, a far cry from criminal investigation. He had been removed from such work after looking into information that was on the verge of revealing a case of corruption within the army in Basra. The police commissioner is certain that Rashid (cultured, educated in the West, a militant of Saddam’s Baath Party and of impeccable morals) is a person whose sense of duty will keep him from doing the same, despite his wife’s pleas to flee to Damascus as soon as possible.

 

Further information on the Casa del Lector website