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Friday, March 21st, 3:13 p.m.: The most disturbing news today has come from Al-Jazeera, they said that nine B52 bombers have left the airfield in Britain and flying "presumably" towards Iraq, as if they would be doing a spin around the block. Anyway they have six hours to get here.

Last night was very quiet in Baghdad. Today in the morning I went out to get bread and groceries. There were no Ba'ath party people stopping us from leaving the area, but they are still everywhere. The streets are empty, only bakeries are open and some grocery shops charging four times the normal prices. While I was buying bread a police car stopped in front of the bakery and asked the baker if they had enough flour and asked when they opened; the baker told me that they have been informed that they must open their shops and they get flour delivered to them daily.