"They came with dreams of working on a movie set, or at the very least of earning some respectable cash as a walk-on extra, encouraged by a mysterious advertisement printed recently in a Berlin tabloid. But the reality was different for dozens of Arab-speaking applicants at a supposed casting session, only to be told they were wanted to play Iraqis and Afghans in a US wargame planned for later this month. For between £61 and £88 a day, 600 German-based Arab speakers are being offered work with the US military, pretending to be mayors, shopkeepers, terrorists or even brothel owners. The Americans call them COBs or Civilians on the Battlefield. The idea is to set them in a landscape simulating Afghanistan or Iraq, in Bavaria."