"We need to look into how to repay our moral obligations to these people," said Kirk Johnson, a former regional reconstruction coordinator for USAID in Iraq and founder of The List: Project to Resettle Iraqi Allies. "There is a point at which this administration's statements either have to be declared irrelevant or they need to start moving."

If the Bush administration fails to re-evaluate the security situation for Iraqi employees of U.S. organizations, it will punish and ultimately destroy the small minority that has actively supported the American cause.

Haidar Al Maliki, like many other young Iraqis, welcomed the U.S. invasion. A college graduate, he studied the processes of democracy that he believed would empower his fellow countrymen and risked his life working for a prominent American organization promoting civil society in Iraq. At age 27 he was assassinated for his support of the U.S.

As Iraq continues to reel from internal schism, Iraqis hired by U.S. organizations involved in reconstruction face grave danger.

"Any Iraqi who has worked for any foreign association or military unit is certainly at risk," said Tom Renahan, a former anti-corruption manager for Research Triangle International (RTI) in southern Iraq and Baghdad.

Johnson believes that the security situation has deteriorated significantly for Iraqi employees, even in Baghdad's heavily-fortified Green Zone.

Of the Iraqi colleagues he worked with in 2005, roughly 65 percent have gone into hiding within Iraq or fled to neighboring countries such as Jordan or Syria, whose populations have swollen with nearly 2 million Iraqi refugees.

"It's not just limited to USAID employees or military interpreters," he said. "Everyone who has lent a hand is being targeted."

According to Johnson, several U.S. government and non-government organizations in Iraq have instituted a policy of importing Jordanians or other third-country nationals, since retaining Iraqi employees in the midst of such danger has proven difficult. But a small group of Iraqis continue to risk their lives to support U.S. efforts.

Azhar Attshaanne, a 32-year-old translator from the southern city of Basra, is one such Iraqi. He put his university background in English literature to use initially for the British army and then for the U.S. military. "Safety concerns me," he said. "But I do not regret working for the coalition forces because I can't find better employment."

As a translator for the U.S. Army, he makes approximately $900 a month, an almost princely sum in Iraq, where schoolteachers and medical doctors often make less than $300 a month. Educated Iraqis can expect to make between $700 and $1,000 a month working for U.S. organizations.

"Unemployment is a huge problem in Iraq, so a job is precious at any price," Renahan said. "With that kind of pay, people are not going to stop working."

For young Iraqis like Attshaanne, who was "ready to volunteer" his services, risking their lives to support the U.S. vision for Iraq is not simply a question of financial gain. "A lot of them believe in the notion of representative democracy," Johnson said. "They wanted to participate in trying to rebuild their country."

All too often, however, Iraqis working for American organizations make considerable sacrifices with little protection or support in return. Although U.S. organizations typically provide their Iraqi employees with adequate protection while at work, the true danger lies outside of working hours.

"Expats can go into their guarded compounds, but the Iraqis go home at night," Renahan said. He argues that the consequences of the U.S. presence in Iraq are increasingly dire for the Iraqi employees, saying that "the Iraqis are the ones who get left behind when the foreigners get run out of town."

At first, said Renahan, there was no palpable danger associated with working for American organizations. "Some people were careful about telling others where they worked, but no one thought the extremists would go that far." But the rise of anti-coalition militias such as Muqtada al-Sadr's Iranian-backed Mehdi Army has greatly exacerbated the risk of working for the Americans.

"I've seen threats that have elaborate Koranic calligraphy or photos of Muqtada al-Sadr, or an AK-47 bullet in an envelope," Johnson said. "There is no uniformity to the threats, just pervasiveness."

Attshaanne experienced a similarly jarring warning. After ignoring a written threat from an unknown sender, gunfire shattered his front window.

Kirk Johnson summed up the issue facing the administration simply: "I don't know what the White House can say to someone who is going to be killed not for their faith, or for Iraq, but because of their affiliation with America."