Johnson’s list: One man’s quest to save Iraqi refugees
Posted: Wednesday, September 30, 2009 8:07 AM by Vidya Rao
From NBC News correspondent Peter Alexander
In a small study inside a third-floor walk-up apartment just outside of Boston, Kirk Johnson has created a war room. On his desktop are the names of more than 3,000 Iraqis whose lives are endangered simply because they helped the Americans during the war. Now viewed as collaborators by militia groups in Iraq, those men and women are begging this 28-year-old – who’s been described as the Oskar Schindler of the Iraqi refugee movement − for help escaping to safety in the United States.
Two years ago, Kirk started an organization called The List Project. With only four employees, but thousands of volunteers, he has already managed to bring nearly 500 Iraqi refugees to the U.S. But Kirk doesn't dwell on those success stories; instead, he's haunted by the lives still hanging in the balance. He expresses frustration that Washington has failed to do more for those he describes as "allies."
"I wake up every morning with one of the clearest moral imperatives that war has to offer," Kirk explains. "That you don't leave your friends behind in the trenches, and you don't abandon those who helped you. Yet we seem incapable of really living up to that basic principle."
His suggestion: that the U.S. conduct a small-scale airlift of high-priority refugees to an American military base, bypassing the arduous emigration process that currently exists. He says the time to act is now, fearing the U.S. drawdown of troops will leave these refugees even more vulnerable to violence.
We traveled to Boston earlier this month to interview Kirk, who recently returned from Baghdad, where he met with dozens of Iraqis, some of whom have been waiting for four years to leave their country. When I asked Kirk what would happen to these people if we don't intervene, he said, "I have no doubt there's going to be more bloodshed. Utterly no doubt ... there have already been at least 1,000 who have been killed."
Among those we interviewed, two families said they owed their lives to Kirk. Both have happily adjusted to new lives near Washington, D.C. Despite all of the volunteers, Kirk says The List Project only has enough funding to remain viable through next spring, at which point, his organization's future − like the lives of those Iraqis still stranded in the Middle East − is uncertain. To learn more about Kirk's efforts, visit www.thelistproject.org.
