Nobody Circles The Bedouins Like The Buffalo Bills Cheerleaders

Julie Dermansky is a New York photojournalist currently on freelance assignment in Iraq, where her next-door neighbors in the Baghdad hotel in which she's staying happen to be the Buffalo Bills cheerleaders.

Called the JVB Hotel, it was once one of Saddam Hussein's favorite meeting places, and is just across the street from one of his former palaces, now part of Camp Victory in Baghdad. So naturally, everyone involved was thinking, photo shoot! From Julie's blog, posted on Monday:

It was one of Saddam's favorite places to hold meetings and the place his last interview on network TV was held before he was hung. The chair he sat in for the interview remains and is used by guests. The luxury is eerie but welcome. It isn't a five star hotel anymore as the stars above the grand entranceway claim. It has bunk beds in the rooms and serves food brought in from the main mess hall, but high ceilings, lush curtains, elegant furniture and marble floors offer unexpected elegance fitting of a five star hotel. ... The Buffalo Bills cheerleaders, who are spending a week in Iraq performing, stayed in the room across from me.

More photos on Julie's Flickr page, and over at her blog. The latter is a rather fascinating account of her time in Iraq, and well worth scrolling through.

This is the second straight year that the Bills cheerleaders — actually the Buffalo Jills, sorry — have visited Iraq. And Bills guard Brad Butler just got back from there as well.

JVB Hotel, Luxury In Baghdad [Julie Dermansky's Blog]