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Iraq
Dad told to kill son or lose family
2003-08-10
... Last month, townspeople say, [in DHULUAIYAH, Iraq] tribal leaders gave a farmer named Salim Khaldoun a sobering choice: Kill your son, or watch your entire family be killed. His son Sabah, 29, had committed a terrible crime. Eager for money, he had tipped off the Americans to a house where he said Saddam Hussein had stayed. U.S. soldiers raided the house, finding no trace of Saddam but killing a 12-year-old boy. Sabah, neighbours say, accompanied the soldiers on the raid. His face was covered with a sack, but locals recognized him easily. "Sabah also gave information about former intelligence and military officers," neighbour Ahmed Ibrahim confided. "He did it for money." Dhuluaiyah is a one-street town 85 km northwest of Baghdad in the "Sunni Triangle" where U.S. forces have met the fiercest resistance. A month after Sabah Salim’s death, few people are willing to discuss how he died. "I don’t know how he was killed, but he deserved it because he was a traitor," Ibrahim said. The head of the town’s tribal council, Sheikh Hussein Ali Saleh, refused to discuss it and described the incident as "mere family business."

Police Maj. Mehdi Saleh said nobody had asked for an investigation or even a death certificate. He said no probe was being conducted because it "could be sensitive in the community." Outside, a police captain jumped inside a reporter’s car to give a fuller story. The tribal council, he said, went to Salim Khaldoun with a message: "Kill your son, or the whole family will be wiped out." The next day, Sabah was found dead in his family’s farm, the officer said. The father hasn’t been seen since. A relative confirmed that Salim Khaldoun had killed his son.
Posted by:Raphael

#15  This is an old story, a couple of weeks or so. The guy killed was ALSO an informer for the former regime. While I feel bad, it's not quite so bad. This story is the media's attempt to show that we are not protecting our informants. So, it's slanted.
Posted by: Chuck   2003-8-10 9:21:50 PM  

#14  Don't feed a troll. Let's do witness protection, yes. This type of shit happens always in Saudi, but only daughters who are no longer virgins. Saudi cops find body in desert, father says he doesn't know a thing, she just never came back one day. Cop makes report. Report filed and everybody saves face and Saudi tradition and customs go on.
Posted by: michael   2003-8-10 9:02:37 PM  

#13  As Kipling said, "Death is too good for 'im, throw the ***** out".

Killing someone is quick, relatively easy, and over with. There are many, many more ways to give someone what they deserve. One good way is to shun them. Pretend they don't exist. Have Fred write a simple little script to delete his BS. If someone is really, really good at programming, write a small C++ routine to re-route anyone trying to access his web page to www.whitehouse.com (porn link, not the good site, www.whitehouse.org, the President's temporary home). Write a brief program to spam his email address a hundred times a day with untraceable email return addresses (it's possible -I've got a friend that can do it. Might discuss it with him...).

It's better to make a bas$$$$'s life miserable, than killing him and ending his suffering. Most people like Stevie are the way they are because they hate even themselves. Give him some encouragement in that direction - totally ignore him as the little pimple he is.

Posted by: Old Patriot   2003-8-10 8:13:33 PM  

#12  Shoot his fat traitorus ass.
Posted by: raptor   2003-8-10 6:30:08 PM  

#11  just google "Steven Robinson"
What if that's not stevey's website though?

we can tolerate Stevey
WW2 in Poland, you know what they would do to people like stevey who sympathized with the enemy? They even had a name for people like him, but I don't wanna offend our good friend TGA so I won't mention it ;) Stevey's lucky. The rest of the world might not be as tolerant. But I believe what goes around comes around. The "ahahaha"'s might come back to haunt him.
Posted by: Raphael   2003-8-10 3:51:09 PM  

#10  Nothing like a heart-to-heart talk with someone holding a differing opinion.

Maybe they'll organize a blanket party for Stevey.:-) Still, if we can tolerate the Islamic preachers in this country who actually raise funds for al Qaeda, we can tolerate Stevey. The moment he makes like al Qaeda Johnny, in the sense of doing rather just talking, the Feds can always clamp the bracelets on his wrists.
Posted by: Zhang Fei   2003-8-10 3:12:03 PM  

#9  just google "Steven Robinson" - it's a geocities page
Posted by: Frank G   2003-8-10 3:02:03 PM  

#8  ZF - I was just whipping up some breakfast burritos and a thought hit me - wanna do stevey some real damage a favor?

Find some NJ boys who've been serving in Iraq and are rotating back - like 1st Marine. Clip a few of stevey's slimy tidbits (any of them - they all contain "he deserved it" or "US soldiers died - hahahaha" stupidity) and his website addy and pass it along. BTW, what was that URL? I'm sure a simple WhoIs query would help 'em out a bunch in locating him.

Nothing like a heart-to-heart talk with someone holding a differing opinion. Just a thought.
Posted by: ·com   2003-8-10 2:56:43 PM  

#7  ZF - Speaking of deserved, nothing is req'd of us - he's on the road to nowhere already. A far more cruel fate than what we might dream up. (snicker)
Posted by: ·com   2003-8-10 1:57:58 PM  

#6  loose lips sink ships all traitors must be put to death...he deserved what came to him

That's a great idea! So what should we do about stevey robinson?
Posted by: Zhang Fei   2003-8-10 1:48:16 PM  

#5  loose lips sink ships all traitors must be put to death...he deserved what came to him
Posted by: stevey robinson   2003-8-10 1:41:56 PM  

#4  ZF - I agree with Frank on your idea - Witness Protection strikes me as a Great idea for this situation. Just getting them out is all we have to do as there won't be any Iraqi hit squads roaming the US looking for them anytime soon - no one is organized to pay for that service -- yet, anyway. Never put it past the Saudis, however.

Frank G - I agree with your view regards troops - that has to be dealt with as hard and as fast as possible - this is anarchy vs order. Crush resistence to the troops - as viciously and relentlessly as Saddam, if you want it to ever stop.

BBC was crowing all day yesterday (I couldn't stomach watching today) about the US adopting a new "softer" approach and that the sweep operations were over. If true - and it will take more than one of the pro-idiot services to convince me - it's a monumental mistake. Arabs see this as weakness, period, full stop. That will lead to far more deaths of the troops than harsh suppression of Ba'athist or jihadi support.

Now as for them thanking us later, c'mon, bro, they're Arabs and they never thank any infidel for anything. Ever. ;->
Posted by: ·com   2003-8-10 12:30:49 PM  

#3  It's pretty obvious that anyone assaulting our troops needs to be put down like a rabid dog, and publicly so. Ten thousand of these idiots aren't worth one of our soldiers. I would clamp down harshly as well on the demonstrations, burning Iraqi police stations, and witness protection is on the mark. We need to quit saying that we have to accept and "work with" their primitive societal values, honor killings and theivery, all the while being restrained from cracking appropriate heads - that's one of their values too. Screw it - do as the British did and impose our western laws/values system - they'll thank us later
Posted by: Frank G   2003-8-10 12:00:08 PM  

#2  I think I saw this episode of Gunsmoke.

It's pretty obvious that the Sunni Triangle is going to need a LOT of attention in the next couple of years. I pity the father, Salim, since he committed no "crime" yet he was coerced into killing his own son and then fleeing - or hiding, which I'd guess is closer to the truth.

Ibrahim ("I don’t know how he was killed, but he deserved it because he was a traitor.") and the head of the Town Council ("mere family business") are probably fairly representative - and they demonstrate a mindset that has persisted for centuries.

What do you do with a situation like this? Do you try to enforce your own code - rule of law as you know it? This is an obvious form of vigilante justice, pure and simple, and we had it for a short period on America's Western frontier. The "West" as depicted in movies and novels lasted only about 20-30 years. Settlers demanded better and got it, eventually. Is there a really a parallel here? Does it matter?

My 2 cents: I'd guess that Iraq will get a much newer code of laws - and enforcement will have to be so strict that the Sunnis come to think of the new Govt in the same way as they did Saddam - uncompromising and imminently dangerous to the scofflaws. They will accept the code - anyone can adjust - if the consequences are unacceptable... even better if they begin to see benefits. But this is where the pro's need to be stationed. Here's where the professional MP / SP units should begin - with some very serious backup and no hesitation to use it.

Thoughts, anyone?
Posted by: ·com   2003-8-10 11:19:25 AM  

#1  This is ridiculous. We've got to get a witness protection program going for people who give over a certain number of useful tips. If the locals see that the reward for helping our guys is an early death, no one's going to cooperate. This is the time to be dangling green cards and relocation assistance in front of these guys. Set up a quota of 10,000 visas, and watch the tips roll in.
Posted by: Zhang Fei   2003-8-10 10:59:39 AM  

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