In early June, journalists identified him as a 29-year-old, multilingual, middle-class architect who worked as a translator for freelance journalist Peter Maass during the war.

'He's a lot like us but he's not us,' Maass told The Los Angeles Times June 4, after learning of his translator's other identity. 'Salam sees what's happening around him— the tragedy or the absurdity, and he communicates it in a human voice that most journalists don't have.' Pax's blog is at http://dearraed.blogspot.com.

In a June 3 posting, he wrote: 'I was wondering when will he [Maass] find out [that I am Salam Pax] and if he will be angry because I didn't tell him. I think he isn't. [In his article about at Salon.com,] he uses words like 'chubby' and 'cherubic' to describe me. E www.' ;