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Two US soldiers in Baghdad face charges of dereliction of duty after they converted to Islam and married two Iraqi women in defiance of orders. Sergeant Sean Blackwell and Corporal Brett Dagen fell for two Iraqi translators. But few have empathised with the romances that began when the Americans met the women in the hotel that the soldiers were guarding. The women are now in hiding after receiving death threats from those who consider them to be, quite literally, sleeping with the enemy, while Blackwell, 27, and Dagen, 37, are awaiting charges for dereliction of duty. The men married while...

Joanne, Ahda married two US soldiers on August 16 after converting to Islam, but unable to meet with them.   By Nayla Razzouk - BAGHDAD Iraqis Joanne and Ahda fear for their lives, after marrying US soldiers who as part of the occupation force are viewed by many as the enemy. Joanne, 26, and her best friend Ahda, 25, now live in virtual hiding, unable even to meet with their new husbands, who are also under the threat of sanctions from the army. The two women, who were working as interpreters for the US forces in a Baghdad hotel where...

PENSACOLA, Fla. - Two National Guard soldiers who married Iraqi women against their commander's wishes will have to wait at least eight months to return home with their brides, according to a lawyer for one of the soldiers. The women's visas will take at least that long to process by mail because the State Department is not issuing visas in Iraq (news - web sites), said Richard Alvoid, an attorney hired by Sgt. Sean Blackwell's family. The wait could be even longer if the military decides to charge the men with disobeying orders, Alvoid said. Blackwell, 27, and Cpl. Brett...

US Soldiers Who Married Iraqis Face Delayed Repatriation PENSACOLA, Fla. (AP)--Two National Guard soldiers who married Iraqi women against their commander's wishes will have to wait at least eight months to return home with their brides, according to a lawyer for one of the soldiers. The wait could be even longer if the military decides to charge the men with disobeying orders, said Richard Alvoid, an attorney hired by Sgt. Sean Blackwell's family. The women's visas will take at least eight months to process by mail because the State Department isn't issuing visas in Iraq, said Alvoid. Blackwell, 27, and...

<p>October 10, 2003 -- Two Florida National Guardsmen who defied orders and marched down the aisle with Iraqi brides now face court-martial, the mother of one of the GIs told The Post. "They've been formally charged with disobeying an order - no fraternizing with the Iraqi people," said Vicki McKee, of Pensacola.</p>

<p>October 7, 2003 -- It's been no honeymoon for two Florida National Guardsmen who met and married Iraqi women while serving in Baghdad. The love-struck soldiers - Sgt. Sean Blackwell, 27, of Pace, Fla., and Cpl. Brett Dagen, 37, of Walnut Hill, Fla. - have been in hot water since mid-August, when they defied their commander's orders and marched down the aisle with their Iraqi sweethearts.</p>

By BILL KACZOR PACE, Fla. - Two Florida National Guard soldiers who married Iraqi women against their commander's wishes are being investigated for allegedly defying an order, their families said. The men, both Christians who converted to Islam so they could be married under Iraqi law, had expected to return to Florida this month, but a new Army policy that requires troops to remain in Iraq for 12 continuous months may keep them there until April. In the meantime, Sgt. Sean Blackwell, 27, of Pace, and Cpl. Brett Dagen, 37, of Walnut Hill, want to send their wives to the...

BAGHDAD - When her fiancé left Iraq for Germany, Nayzak al Jassm gave him a Koran for good luck. Rafael Velez asked her to remember him with a tiny cross that dangles on a gold chain around her neck. Faith, they said, is the only force strong enough to protect them from the disapproving whispers of people who do not believe in love between a Muslim Iraqi woman and a Roman Catholic U.S. Army sergeant. Their relationship -- they plan to wed in December -- is forbidden by both local custom and military orders. It unfolds amid daily attacks on...

Iraqi girlfriends capture GI hearts By LARRY KAPLOW The Atlanta Journal-Constitution BAGHDAD, Iraq -- In the 20 weeks since the fall of Baghdad, two U.S. soldiers and two Iraqi women won each other's hearts. The American men and Iraqi women courted, fell in love and decided to marry, but they had to battle disapproving senior American officers and fears of retribution by militant Iraqis. When they finally held their double wedding ceremony Aug. 17, the nuptials were carried out with the secrecy and synchronization of a commando operation. The two brides -- one in a print dress, the other in...

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- In the 20 weeks since the fall of Baghdad, two U.S. soldiers and two Iraqi women won each other's hearts.The American men and Iraqi women courted, fell in love and decided to marry, but they had to battle disapproving senior American officers and fears of retribution by militant Iraqis.When they finally held their double wedding ceremony Aug. 17, the nuptials were carried out with the secrecy and synchronization of a commando operation.The two brides -- one in a print dress, the other in slacks -- and a few family members came to a city street corner at...

BBC war reporter cheats with FBI spy By Neil McLeod BBC newsgirl Jane O'Brien has dumped her fiance and run off to marry an FBI agent she met while reporting the Gulf War. Jane, in her thirties, became embedded with the spy while sending back reports for the flagship 6 and 10 O'clock News programmes. Just HOURS before her scheduled return to Britain at the end of the war, she stunned colleagues by saying she wasn't coming back. Parents Jane then resigned her £50,000-a-year job, flew to the States with her FBI lover—and married him in a secret ceremony in...

<p>BAGHDAD &#8212; Fatin may have fallen in love with her soldier the very first time she saw him.</p> <p>She was part of the desperate line of Iraqis trying to get into the hotel where foreign journalists were staying. He was manning the checkpoint, a figure of authority and strength clad in military camouflage.</p>

AGHDAD - Little by little, as they passed in and out of the military checkpoint outside their office, certain journalists of the Iraqi Media Network fell in love with certain soldiers of the Third Infantry Division. Notes were passed. Admiring phrases were translated into Arabic. And when the unit was transferred to Fallujah several weeks ago, letters were written about the pain of parting. Before they shipped out to the Middle East, US soldiers were warned of the dangers of offending Iraqi women, with some instructed not even to make eye contact. Sensitivity about interactions with women has continued to...

World War II romance stories sought Sunday, May 25, 2003 Daily News staff An Oklahoma production company is developing a television program series highlighting the romantic relationships between World War II military personnel and their loved ones back at home. Although many films and documentaries have shown heroes, battles and the brutality of war — few, if any, have focused on the relationships that suffered, endured, even thrived after wartime years of aloneness, hardship and hoping against the unknown. Hero Productions is collecting stories of the everyday heroes during World War II — the many men and women who kept...

On a bridge into Basra, Olga Craig bumped into the SAS as it was gathering intelligence from Iraqis fleeing the mortar shells of Saddam's militia As a greeting, it was neither conventional nor civilised - but then neither were the circumstances. I was in retreat, he was advancing. It was 4pm one afternoon last week on the bridge into Basra, and Saddam Hussein's elite militia were sending a rain of mortar shells and rocket-propelled grenades from the city. In the smoke and the confusion and the deafening noise, I ran straight into him, my left arm colliding with his assault...