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Page 1: WoT Operations
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Afghanistan
US jets pound Taliban targets
US warplanes have launched heavy air strikes in support of hundreds of Afghan militiamen battling Taliban fighters in the southwest of the country, Afghan and US officials said yesterday. The US military in Afghanistan said US planes and helicopters had dropped a total of 16 tonnes of bombs on Taliban positions in the Tor Ghar mountain area of Kandahar province, northeast of the town of Spin Boldak. The strikes from A-10, Harrier and B-1 aircraft as well as AC-130 gunships and Apache helicopters came after about 40 suspected Taliban fighters opened fire on a 12-strong US special forces detachment observing an Afghan militia operation on Wednesday, military spokesman Colonel Roger King said.

Khalid Pashtun, a spokesman for the Kandahar governor, said the fighting involved 600 government soldiers and several fighters had been killed on both sides. Afghan Interior Minister Ali Ahmad Jalali said the fighting followed a pick-up in Taliban activity with the onset of spring, which could also be linked to the war in Iraq.

Maulvi Abdullah Jan, an aide to Taliban commander Hafiz Abdur Rahim, said his men had inflicted heavy losses. Taliban and Al Qaeda remnants are not capable of destabilising the Afghan government, Jalali said while admitting there had been an increase in attacks on government and foreign targets.
Lest we forget...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 04/03/2003 07:27 pm || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Did we detach a couple of B-1's for this?

Anyone who might have been wondering (e.g., the NKors) should see that we can liberate one country and still have plenty of assets to deal with jihadis in another.
Posted by: Steve White || 04/03/2003 23:40 Comments || Top||

#2  no mercy to these ankle biters - eventually we may need to erect a barrier, tactical if not physical, similar to the Gatekeeper fence here in so.cal. vs. mexico - channel the crossings to th easily interdicted/interrogated to stop this ISI nonsense
Posted by: Frank G || 04/03/2003 21:30 Comments || Top||


Arabia
Kuwaitis party!
BBC :: Kuwait City :: Ryan Dilley :: 1704GMT
A large crowd, approximately more than 2,000 people, has gathered in Kuwait City to show support for the US-led invasion of neighbouring Iraq. Kuwaitis have been stung by criticism in newspapers across the Middle East that to back the war is an act of liberation treachery against their fellow Arabs. Despite the seriousness of the issue, the demonstration soon took on a party atmosphere with music and dancing.
Hoo hah the witch is dead!
Thursday is the start of the weekend in Kuwait. Some of those attending said they were letting off steam after the tensions of the past weeks. There have been no Iraqi missiles fired towards the city for several days and local people are beginning to feel that the danger has passed.
Well at least this part of the arab street has spoken. Of course they dont count, being Kuwaitis.
Posted by: liberalhawk || 04/03/2003 11:34 am || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  oops, should be under middle east
Posted by: liberalhawk || 04/03/2003 11:37 Comments || Top||

#2  "We represent the felafel guild, the felafel guild, the felafel guild...!"
Posted by: Fred || 04/03/2003 11:48 Comments || Top||

#3  That should have had a coffee warning, Fred!
Posted by: Nero || 04/03/2003 11:51 Comments || Top||

#4  The "arab street". I always loved that.
Here's a message for them: If you f**k with us again, we'll come for you. Remember that.
Posted by: tu3031 || 04/03/2003 12:54 Comments || Top||


Europe
Jacques apologizes to the Queen
THE QUEEN has received a letter from French President Jacques Chirac apologising for the desecration of a British War cemetery, Buckingham Palace said today. In the letter he described the anti-war graffiti plastered over the First World War monuments at Etaples, near Calais, as "inadmissible and shameful." The letter, delivered to the Queen at Windsor, read: "From the French people and from me personally, I offer you my deepest regrets." He also said the thoughts of the French were with British soldiers currently fighting in Iraq, despite recent opinion polls showing 80% of French people being opposed to war.

A reply was being prepared on the advice of government ministers, the Palace said. The letter comes a day after we reported how vandal’s spray-painted insults including "Dig up your rubbish, it’s contaminating our soil," at a cemetery containing the remains of 11,000 British and other allied soldiers. France’s Secretary of State for Veterans’ Affairs, Hamlaoui Mekachera, was today travelling to Etaples for a wreath-laying ceremony of remembrance, accompanied by representatives of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 04/03/2003 06:34 pm || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Took 'em long enough to apologize. Chiraq must have done it only per his masters at TotalFinaElf.
Posted by: Former Russian Major || 04/03/2003 20:10 Comments || Top||

#2  Did Jacques go on French TV & Radio to say how ashamed he was. Did he go to the site to say this is not how the French feel?? How the British, in the hundred of thousands, sacrificed their lives at Ypres and Pashendale and the Somme for the survival of France?? Or The 100,000 the Americans lost in barely a year on the Western Front?? (The same number lost in three years in Korea AND twelve years in Vietnam combined). Of course not.

Oh, and don't forget how the Russians during the First World War sacrificed themselves in the MILLIONS to alleviate German military pressure on France??

For Every Battle of the Marne there was a Battle of Tannenberg for Russia. Whenever the French felt the Kaiser squeezing their tiny little balls they immediatedly scream to Grand Duke Nicholas "Attack!!!" And gallant Russia did. Their reward: a gruesome civil war and 75 years of Communist mischeive.


France IS NOT an ally. Everyone except Joe Biden (D-DE) realizes this. The sooner Tony Blair gives up on Europe the better (Pssst, Tony...Free Trade with USA. Do the British really want to be ruled from Brussels or Strasbourg??).

Posted by: Thane of Cawdor || 04/03/2003 20:17 Comments || Top||

#3  Thane makes a good point- if this isn't played up in France proper, the lesson's wasted, and that would suit Jacques fine - boycott France until they have regime change, right John Kerry?
Posted by: Frank G || 04/03/2003 21:38 Comments || Top||

#4  Chirac is a fool, the perfect leader for a country that thinks Jerry lewis is a comedic genius, I am french canadian by ancestry, but I am thinking of becoming Italian or Polish or Spanish or a Lithuanian blowfish..........
Posted by: Wills || 04/03/2003 22:02 Comments || Top||

#5  Hey, gendarme. How's that investigation going? Hello? Hello?
Posted by: tu3031 || 04/03/2003 22:29 Comments || Top||

#6  --A reply was being prepared on the advice of government ministers, the Palace said.--

Maybe she is not amused by the froggies' attitudes?
Posted by: Anonymous || 04/04/2003 0:30 Comments || Top||

#7  The Queen Mum ain't no one to mess with ,she's a tough,no-nonsense old bird.
She is my kinda gal.
Posted by: raptor || 04/04/2003 6:25 Comments || Top||


French PM: U.S. Made Triple Mistake with War
French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin said on Thursday the United States made a moral, political and strategic mistake by starting war in Iraq. "The Americans made a triple mistake: First of all a moral mistake, I think ... there was an alternative to war. We could have disarmed Iraq differently," Raffarin said in an interview on France 3 television. "Also, (they made) a political mistake, because we know very well the difficulties of this region of the world," he added. "And then, there is a strategic mistake: this idea that today one country can lead the world."
Posted by: Yosemite Sam || 04/03/2003 01:34 pm || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Well, it's true that mistakes were made. Lots of them. And today, Raffarin made another one. You'd think these guys would have *finally* figured out which way the wind was blowing by now.
Posted by: jrosevear || 04/03/2003 13:55 Comments || Top||

#2  I'm sorry. I thought I was going to read something intelligent. I guess I should have considered the source.
Posted by: Carolyn || 04/03/2003 14:01 Comments || Top||

#3  Translation: "First of all a moral mistake, I think... they didn't get our permission, we weren't put in charge, we didn't get any glory, we're pissed!

Second,"Also, a political mistake, they didn't bribe the right people, so the money would come back to France. They didn't allow us to be the only people to make a profit from this. We are pissed.

"And then, there is a strategic mistake,this idea that the United States is allowed to do anything without French permission in the United Nations, which is supposed to be a wholly-owned subsidiary of France, Inc.

"You also screwed up our game in the European Union, getting all those former Warsaw Pact nations to support you, instead of doing what France, and er, out allies, Germany and Belgium, tell them to do. We are pissed, and we're going to pitch a temper tantrum until you give in and do it our way... Quit hitting me, or I'll cry!"
Posted by: Old Patriot || 04/03/2003 14:07 Comments || Top||

#4  This is under terror networks?? lol
Posted by: RW || 04/03/2003 14:16 Comments || Top||

#5  How long will it take for these third rate, insignificant clowns to continue to give us lectures until they finally realize we aren't listening? Wipe up the Ivory Coast and have you parade through the Arc' de Triomphe. You might as well use it for something. We'll fight and win real wars with some countries at our side who don't have their pompous, deluded heads up their asses.
Posted by: tu3031 || 04/03/2003 22:42 Comments || Top||

#6  Well, Monsieur Raffarin, your boss claimed you would disarm Iraq with "inspectors" but you didn't and signed juicy contracts with the tyrant instead. Hence the Coalition is doing it, heroically and efficiently. You have proved to be immoral, politically inept, and strategically insignificant. You are beneath contempt. STFU.
Posted by: Kalle (kafir forever) || 04/03/2003 14:36 Comments || Top||

#7  As if the French have covered themselves with moral, political and strategic glory on the Ivory Coast. Their only strategic advantage was going adventuring in Africa during the US invasion of Iraq -- ie, nobody's looking at them!

TT
Posted by: tthom || 04/03/2003 14:54 Comments || Top||

#8  morally - well thats too obvious we every torture chamber we find

politically - it is a difficult region, but net-net the strong horse benefits, plus the gamble on a democratic domino theory, probably offsets the problems. Unlike France we were not in a position to just accept the status quo.

Strategic - I for one dont think we want to do things ourselves - I think it was important and good that we had Britain, Spain, Italy, Australia, Japan, and the Eastern Europeans en block on our side - I also think that going forward we will need to re-broaden the coalition of the willing - but i think theres a lot we can do to achieve that without giving up our regional vision.
Posted by: liberalhawk || 04/03/2003 15:03 Comments || Top||

#9  for an example of how the coalition is widening

'Support for the U.S.-led war in Iraq is surging in Calgary and across the province, with three-quarters of Albertans in favour of Canada joining the fight, according to a new poll.

However, despite growing support for the war in Alberta and across the country, the Chretien government is standing firm on its decision to keep Canada out of the conflict.

"The (federal) government really blew it by looking at short-term polls (saying Canadians were against the war)," said pollster Faron Ellis of JMCK Polling.

"You're now seeing a shift everywhere, outside of Quebec, in favour of the war -- and Alberta is leading the edge of that shift."'

Posted by: liberalhawk || 04/03/2003 15:06 Comments || Top||

#10  Can our new Ayatollah please issue a serious fatwa against those fuckers
Posted by: g wiz || 04/03/2003 15:24 Comments || Top||

#11  In related news, Chiraq reiterated that he holding the reservation at Champs Elysees for his friend Saddam. The suite is reportedly adjacent to the suite used by Osama bin Laden.
Posted by: Dishman || 04/03/2003 15:48 Comments || Top||

#12  The last time I noticed we were winning so excuse me if I'm not impressed.
Posted by: Hiryu || 04/03/2003 17:58 Comments || Top||

#13  Time for me to go down to the local Dairy Queen and order a triple mistake sundae. Enjoy!
Posted by: john || 04/03/2003 18:25 Comments || Top||

#14  Well, IMHO, there were four major mistakes by the French.....
Moral....ignoring torture chambers, industrial plastic shredders, etc.
Political.....thinking we are gonna forget their backstabbing and allow them to dictate how Iraq is going to be run
Strategic......thinking that we can't win this without that piece of shit they laughingly call an aircraft carrier (has the Charles de Gaulle EVER left the Mediterranean??)
and finally in the category of deportment......passing up an opportunity to STFU.
Posted by: Former Russian Major || 04/03/2003 19:58 Comments || Top||


Fifth Column
Arnett Back on the Air From Baghdad
Peter Arnett is back on the air from Baghdad. Only days after he was fired by the U.S. network NBC, Arnett found an unlikely new audience Thursday — the Dutch-speaking population from northern Belgium.
Figures
"Thanks Peter Arnett, we are proud to have you on our team," said VTM news anchor Dany Verstraeten after Arnett finished his first report from the Iraqi capital. The private network announced it will have daily reports from one of the world's most famous reporters until the end of the war.
Short term contract, don't unpack
VTM said that, so far, it was the only broadcaster to have contract with him. His reports will hardly have the global impact of yore. Dutch-speaking Belgium has a population of six million and the VTM newscasts have a viewership of about 750,000.
Sounds like a cable-access channel
Posted by: Steve || 04/03/2003 01:59 pm || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Coming to you LIVE on the Quisling Channel!
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 04/03/2003 14:24 Comments || Top||

#2  Was he leaning on a lamppost when he filed his report? The media equivalent of the 2 dollar whore.
Posted by: tu3031 || 04/03/2003 22:47 Comments || Top||

#3  Tonight on Local Access:

7 p.m. Cloggers!
7:30 p.m. Baghad City Limits with Peter Arnett
7:33 p.m. Uncle Sly's Slithery Snake Show
Posted by: Dreadnought || 04/03/2003 14:43 Comments || Top||

#4  Can't we just donate him to the Iraquis and suggest they get creative? Along with Kerry (he can tell them all about how he supports regime changes)? Please?
Posted by: Tadderly || 04/03/2003 16:01 Comments || Top||

#5  My guess is that Petey's going to have to find another dictator to snuggle up to soon. My guess right now is next Wednesday...
Posted by: Fred || 04/03/2003 18:41 Comments || Top||

#6  Next month.....Madagascar Television is proud to feature "Live from Pyongyang.....Peter Arnett"!
Posted by: Former Russian Major || 04/03/2003 20:16 Comments || Top||

#7  VTM is famous for its endless supply of brain-dead starlets and freaks embarassing themselves in front of a camera. Sounds like the perfect place for Arnett.
Posted by: Deep Throat || 04/04/2003 5:43 Comments || Top||


Magic Money Foundation Cash Funds Antiwar Movement
In a few months, foundations and donors have kicked in millions of dollars to help antiwar groups stage demonstrations, take out expensive newspaper and TV ads, maintain Web sites, hire and pay staff, and lease office space in high-rent New York, Washington and San Francisco locales. Most work under the umbrella of sympathetic "fiscal sponsors," groups with tax-exempt status that have also lent out staff and office space.

Code Pink Women for Peace
  • operates under the aegis of Global Exchange, a San Francisco organization with a $4.2 million budget.
  • Code Pink co-founder Medea Benjamin, is a director for Global Exchange
  • pays only $400 a month for a cubicle office at 15th and H streets in the District and has space on loan from two organizations down the hall, N.O.W. and the Institute for Policy Studies.
  • Raised $70,000 to $80,000 in its four-month existence, mostly through its www.codepinkalert.org site and sales of Code Pink buttons and T-shirts, "which we can't keep in stock," she adds.

The Institute for Policy Studies, director John Cavannagh
  • has a $2.2 million budget for 2003 provided by the Turner, Ford, MacArthur and Charles Stewart Mott foundations, among others
  • The brunt of the peace funding, is being done by smaller foundations able to quickly shift funds from other programs using offshore money laundering entities
  • The institute's 2002 foreign policy budget of $400,000, which includes antiwar activism, received $50,000 from the HKH Foundation, $50,000 from the Arca Foundation, $20,000 from the Samuel Rubin Foundation, $15,000 from the Solidago Foundation and $50,000 from the MacArthur Foundation.

Iraq Pledge of Resistance Network in Silver Spring, Gordon Clark, national coordinator of and the sole staff member!
  • ran organization during the past six months on $32,000 in grants from donors and institutions

ANSWER (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism) refused to divulge its funding sources.

TrueMajority.com, an Internet activism group founded during the summer by Ben Cohen of Ben & Jerry's ice cream, boasts of its fund-raising prowess.
  • TrueMajority.com says it is bringing in substantial amounts of money thanks to high-profile newspaper ads. These started in November, when 150 members of its related nonprofit corporation, Business Leaders for Sensible Priorities Inc., ran a $40,000 antiwar ad in the New York Times. That brought in $80,000, partly because "we had the foresight to include a coupon," executive director Gary Ferdman says. That revenue helped pay for a $170,000 ad in the Jan. 13 Wall Street Journal national edition and later a $40,000 ad in the Journal's New York metro edition
    Hmmm...income ($80,000) minus cost ($40,000 1st ad) minus cost ($40,000 second ad) equals $170,00 cost of another ad. That's one hell of a magic coupon! How did they do that?..
  • TrueMajority.com says, Thanks to the Turner Foundation and the San Francisco-based Plowshares Fund, its $1.5 million operating budget helps pay for five full-time staff and six consultants
  • TrueMajority.com webmaster Andrew Greenblatt, who has free office space at the National Council of Churches headquarters in uptown Manhattan, says the site brings in several thousand dollars a month. "It is not rocket science," he says. "You ask for money, and people give it to you."
    It's not rocket science, it's magic!
    Because U.S. tax laws allow at least a year's grace period before a nonprofit must file a 990 tax form revealing who its donors are, most antiwar groups will not have to reveal their funding sources until 2004.
The San Francisco-based Tides Foundation
  • has given $1.5 million to antiwar efforts since September 11, 2001, including a salary for former U.S. Rep. Tom Andrews of Maine, who directs the 38-member Win Without War coalition

Win Without War founder David Cortright, who is also president of the Fourth Freedom Foundation in Goshen, Ind.
  • announced its formation at a press conference Dec. 11, has drummed up $1 million in support which has provided substantial antiwar support.
Moveon.org
  • Eli Pariser, international campaigns director says the Web site raised $3.5 million for liberal political candidates in the 2002 election
  • has also raised $1.3 million for large newspaper ads against the war,
  • Its legendary fund raising from its 2 million members includes $400,000 raised in 48 hours to fund a Jan. 16 antiwar TV spot that accused President Bush of risking nuclear war
  • Pariser says, on average, donors give $35, but donor volume has been so high that "we've turned off our log-in [mechanism] because it was blowing out our servers.
    It's magic, I tell you!
    We must be the only organization in history to have a ratio of one staff member to a half-million members."
    Busy little robo-beavers.

United for Peace and Justice (UPJ)
  • an antiwar coalition of 200 groups formed Oct. 25
  • farms out its staff to other nonprofits, such as Peace Action and Democracy Rising.

Peace Action (formerly SANE/FREEZE)
  • finance committee chairman, Van Goss, is the organizing director and a professor at Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster, Pa.
  • As of March 1, he said, they had raised "several hundred thousand dollars" with the help of several foundations that kicked in $5,000 and $10,000 donations to fund a large antiwar rally in New York on Feb. 15. UPJ raised less than $30,000 from the demonstrators themselves.
These organizations are so tiny and incestuous at the top. They all get their money from "other organizations", rather than individual donors. How do the other organizations get their money? From individual donors? Of course not, they get it from other organizations, of course. It's the magic shell game!!
Posted by: Becky || 04/03/2003 07:33 am || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Money well spent: $40,000 for an ad in the paper that ends up in the dumspter the same day. $40,000 that could have done wonders for a homeless person, several in fact, or even better, the local food bank.
Contrast this with the money spent on the war in Iraq, that will lift sanctions, get about 20 million people back on their feet, and get rid of a murderous dictator as a bonus. Now that's money well spent.
Posted by: RW || 04/03/2003 9:11 Comments || Top||

#2  I think that Mr. Ashcroft should look into the tax exempt status of the sponsering foundations, since we are into heavy-duty political causes, which should not be allowed under tax exempt status.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 04/03/2003 9:58 Comments || Top||

#3  We....whoops.....I mean "they". Holy smoke! I'm innocent!
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 04/03/2003 10:00 Comments || Top||

#4  Innocent hmmm? How 'bout that ANWR Paul? lol
Posted by: Frank G || 04/03/2003 11:34 Comments || Top||

#5  If we open ANWR and get going on the National Petroleum Reserve to the west of Prudhoe, we will be in an excellent energy situation. We will not need Saudi oil anymore. The oil companies keep a cleaner property than the protesters do in our cities. It's all about oooiiiiiillllll, LOL.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 04/03/2003 12:33 Comments || Top||

#6  I knew that ;-) just wanted to tease a friend lol
Posted by: Frank G || 04/03/2003 16:35 Comments || Top||

#7  Follow the money. Exactly who are the individuals that head these foundations and who are the individual donors. These names should be published by the overnment. Are these pro-terrorist organizations tax exempt? Anyone have any information?
Posted by: TJ Jackson || 04/04/2003 0:28 Comments || Top||

#8  The US had better start keeping an eye on these organizations. They lean tranzi.

At least they spent a hell of a lot of money for nothing. And kept ordinary people working.

Since we're looking at a deficit, it's time to start tightening up the rules for NFPs. The Reverend Jackson and his travel come to mind.
Posted by: Anonymous || 04/04/2003 0:43 Comments || Top||

#9  This is BRILLIANT follow the money, people.

Keep it in the memory banks

HELLO AUSTRALIA can anybody do a similar article for tracking Aussie groups?

In particular the socialist Resistance organisation that is the busy little bee in every high school brainwashing students. Also their 'adult' counterpart Democratic Socialist Party, and their political wing The Greens
Posted by: anon1 || 04/04/2003 3:32 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Two fugitive terrorists arrested from Orangi
Orangi Town Police have arrested two terrorists who had fled from the police custody from Saudabad police after throwing bomb on a police party.
"Saudabad?"
According to details, on January 13 Orangi town police caught five suspects and brought them to Saudabad police station. When the suspects were coming out from the police mobile one of them threw a hand grenade on the police party killing a cop aNd injuring two.
Oh, excellent police work! They frisked 'em, no doubt, and get almost all their hand grenades...
Later, all the five fled away after the blast. Now the police have arrested two of them. They were identified as Kashif Aziz alias Motta and Muhammad Zahir.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 04/03/2003 10:53 pm || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:


MMA leader claims some connection of Jacobabad with attack on Iraq
Central Amir Jamiat-Al-Hadth and MMA leader Professor Sajjad Mir has claimed that extra ordinary movement of US fighter planes was seen at Jacobabad air base during the early days of the start of US aggression on Iraq. Addressing a press conference Thursday, he alleged that there are suspicions that Jacobabad air base is being used against Iraq. The MMA leader said that Pakistan policy on Iraq is vague and unclear which is not suited to the country being a Muslim state. He advised the Prime Minister to pressurize the United State to immediately stop attacking Iraq rather than calling it US led coalition forces aggression. Professor Sajjad Mir demanded the government to play its role in the UN Security Council to immediately secession of war in Iraq. He called on the Muslim countries to fulfill its responsibility, form a separate bloc and fight against US barbarism as anti-war protest demonstrations continued unabated even in non-Muslim countries.
That charge doesn't even make any sense. Why would we use an airbase in Pakland to support a war in Iraq? But I guess since he had a press conference, he had to say something, no matter how stoopid...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 04/03/2003 10:41 pm || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:


New Hizb chief appointed, vows to step up attacks
Ghazi Naseeruddin has been appointed as the new commander-in-chief of militant outfit Hizbul Mujahideen after his predecessor Saiful Islam was gunned down by security forces on Wednesday. Ghazi was appointed by the command council in an emergency meeting at Muzaffarabad (PoK) on Wednesday night. Soon after his appointment, Naseeruddin vowed to intensify attacks on the "enemy and its agents".
Oh, wotta surprise! Who ever expected him to say that?
He said the killing of Saiful has infused a new lease of life into "our resolve and determination, and his killing should not be considered as a weakness for our outfit... Laying lives in the path of azadi is an inseparable part of our movement. We have chosen this path with full conscience and the enemy should understand that we will reach our goal only after offering such sacrifices."
"Yar! Kill the heathen Hindoo! Cut their heads off! Death! Decapitation! Blood! Gutz! Yarrrr!"
While calling for a general strike in the Valley on Friday to mourn the death of Saiful, the new chief said: "Our chief commander's sacrifice will give birth to hundreds of other commanders, who will strive for the mission left behind by him." Saiful Islam was the fourth commander of the group to have been killed by security forces.
Wonder who's next? How many ticks left on Ghazi's clock?
Meanwhile, separatist elements and politicians widely mourned the killing of Saiful. The usual suspects Hizbul Mujahideen and the All-Party Hurriyat Conference have called for a strike on Friday. The High Court Bar Association, the representative body of Kashmiri lawyers, on Thursday boycotted courts. The lawyers have decided to remain away from courts on Friday. Hurriyat alleged that the Hizb chief was brutally tortured to death in custody and had visible torture marks on his body. JKLF described it as open case of "custodial" killing and said that Saif was arrested at Chanpora in the day and then put to inhuman torture. "It was an affront to humanity," its spokesman said. Muslim League, Tehreekul Mujahideen, Al Ummer Mujahideen, Peoples League and several other groups also castigated the killing.
I can feel the sympathy just welling up inside me... Uh, no. That's not it. Whoa! That's some powerful chili!
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 04/03/2003 10:33 pm || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Soon after his appointment, Naseeruddin vowed to intensify attacks on the "enemy and its agents".

That cut's two ways, bub. Ask your old boss or, rather, have Allah ask him.
Posted by: tu3031 || 04/03/2003 22:59 Comments || Top||


Al-Qaida Suspects Arrested in Pakistan
Pakistan intelligence agencies, working with U.S. agents, arrested two Middle Eastern men they suspect are operatives of the al-Qaida terrorist network, officials said Thursday. Interior Minister Iftikhar Ahmad confirmed the arrests in the northwestern city of Peshawar, but declined to give details about the suspects or say what position they were believed to hold in Osama bin Laden's organization. Officials said the men were in Pakistani custody and were being interrogated.
"Ouch, put that down!"
They were arrested after FBI agents intercepted calls made from a cell phone, the officials said, declining to be identified.
"Can you hear me now? Yes."
Officials in Peshawar said both suspects came from Middle Eastern countries but spoke fluent Pashto and Dari, the two common languages of southern Afghanistan.
Been there for a while then, not just tourists.
They said the men are suspected of involvement in the assassination of a Pakistani intelligence officer. Sher Nawaz Khan was gunned down a month ago as he rode a motorbike in the border town of Wana, 180 miles south of Peshawar. Khan was working in an area where al-Qaida operatives and forces loyal to Afghanistan's ousted Taliban regime frequently cross the unmarked border and take shelter with sympathetic tribes in Pakistan's northwest region.
They don't take kindly to other intelligence agents being killed, it sets a bad example.
Posted by: Steve || 04/03/2003 11:06 am || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Details: Sheikh Rashid said the two arrested men were both Arabs, naming them as Abdul Karim and Abdullah. He said they initially resisted arrest and fired at least one shot at security agents before giving themselves up.
Posted by: Steve || 04/03/2003 13:26 Comments || Top||


’Killing Hindus’ is the best approach: LeT founder
The founder and former head of the terrorist group Lashkar-e-Taiba has dismissed Pakistani efforts for talks with India over Jammu and Kashmir, saying "killing Hindus" was the best approach.
The religion of Peace and Tolerance talking from the "ally" in the war against terror once againe
"The solution is not to kneel down before India and beg for dialogue... India has never been sincere in resolving issues through talks," Hafiz Saeed said on late Tuesday. "Our policy of 'Kashmir through jihad (holy war)' is absolutely right... India has shown us this path for jihad. We would like to give India a tit-for-tat response and reciprocate in the same way by killing the Hindus, just like it is killing the Muslims in Kashmir." Saeed, released from seven months' arrest in December, was speaking after addressing a conference of terrorists.

Hafiz Saeed is the head of Jamaat ad-Dawa, which is the latest incarnation of Lashkar. Its strategy appears to be to push India and Pakistan into a nuclear war, and then to pick up the pieces in both countries when it's all over, to establish a caliphate. Hafiz has a very small vocabulary, consisting for the most part of one word — "jihad" — used over and over again. He's very devout. Saeed's treatment at the hands of the Paks is an excellent illustration of the hypocrisy with which the Perv regime has been pursuing the war on terror.
Posted by: rg117 || 04/03/2003 07:58 am || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  maybe we're just overlooking our cultural differences? "Killing Hindus" might have a totally different meaning there? Or was it a Freudian slip? Naaahhhhh
Posted by: Frank G || 04/03/2003 8:19 Comments || Top||

#2  He did seven months and a judge sprung him? Pakistan: The system works. Better waste this psycho next time.
Posted by: tu3031 || 04/03/2003 8:53 Comments || Top||

#3  Pakistani clerics have just advocated the use of Pak nuclear weapons against Americans, in defense of Iraq. And the Bush' media will suppress coverage of this atrocity, as they covered up Jamaat-i-Islami harborage of al-Qaeda.
http://nni-news.com/today/main/main-06.htm

The Bush government's indulgence of religious fanaticism while promoting one-time "democracy" in Muslim tyrannies, has delivered Islamist victories in Pakistan and Turkey. Iraq will be next, unless every Muslim jihadi - including the clerics who preach genocide in mosques - becomes a war target.

One Pakistani jihadi has this to say: "Despite their disingenuous talk of freedom and democracy, Bush and Blair must know that bringing true democracies to the Middle East, and the Muslim world in general, will have the oppostie effect to the one they hope for and will go against their own interests. It is unlikely that any democratic Muslim country today will ever elect a pro-Western government." Polls conducted in various Muslim majority countries indicate open support of 40-60% for al-Qaeda. Jihad cults dominate national life in these entities.
http://www.balochistanpost.com/item.asp?ID=3669

It is pure folly to spend billions on behalf of limited war, while the bigger enemy waits in the wings to be delivered victory in the name of one-time "democracy." It is urgent that Coalition troops target both Saddamites and Islamo-Fascists in Iraq, and prohibit Islamic constitutionalism, as a threat to humanity.


Posted by: Anonon || 04/03/2003 9:54 Comments || Top||

#4  For some reason, the Paks keeps saying that there isn't any evidence against the Fundos. Its not enough that they openly campaign for the killing of Hindus, Jews, and Christians. Its not enough that they openly generate funds for their terror cause. An its not enough that after each terror attack in Kashmir, they celebrate and gloat about it. But this still isn't enough proof for the Pak authorities. Obviously they are not psychotic, they're just misunderstood.
Posted by: rg117 || 04/03/2003 10:13 Comments || Top||

#5  in fact the jihadis lost in most of Pakistan.

In turkey the islamists who won have been stepping gingerly so far.
Posted by: liberalhawk || 04/03/2003 10:15 Comments || Top||

#6  Personally, I think it unfair to compare the Islamist in Turkey to the Fundos in Pakistan. The Turkish government is Islamic in much the same way the UK or US government is Christian. The Pak Government is Islamic in the way that the KKK is Christian.
Posted by: rg117 || 04/03/2003 10:27 Comments || Top||

#7  liberalhawk:
As I write, Musharaf's puppet party - Pakistan Muslim League (Qaid e Azam) is preparing to unite with the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal, to control Pakistan's Parliament. The MMA can put millions of people in the streets at short notice, so Musharaf is bowing down to them, while the State Department whitewashes Pak jihadism. The benefits of Bush's engagement with the terror state don't come close to covering the costs.
Posted by: Anonon || 04/03/2003 10:33 Comments || Top||

#8  It's seems so incredebly strange to me as an Indian, that the US government seems to think that India (the world's largest democracy, nuclear trigger in the control of the civilian government) should be treated as an equal to Pakland (the islamic, extremist, fundamentalist dictatorship, nuclear trigger in the hands of the Military). Even going so far as to deny India Defence technology [US: Aid conditional on no "Phalcon" sale to India]. Whilst at the same time, China continues to provide Pakland with both Nuclear and Missile technology [Is China wanting to have an Indo-Pak war?]
Posted by: rg117 || 04/03/2003 12:06 Comments || Top||

#9  I agree rg. But sooner or later the US will shift alliances toward India.
Posted by: RW || 04/03/2003 16:04 Comments || Top||

#10  Comon guys India an ally? India was the nearest thing the USSR had to an ally during the cold war. It has continually demonstrated an anti-American posture. We need another France? The Pakis and Indians deserve each other. And don't give us that India is a democracy muck, the wankers kill over 2,000 people each election and the same people keep running the government. Its sort of Chicago democracy, except for the murders.
Posted by: TJ Jackson || 04/04/2003 0:41 Comments || Top||

#11  TJ Wankson,
at least in India the guy/party with the largest number of votes actually wins the election. Unlike your screwed up system where the guy who gets the minority of votes whilst taking it up the ass from Kenny Boy gets his daddy's judges to put him in power.
And as far as India being close to USSR is concerned. India was in the non-aligned movement but whilst the US didn't sell any defence equipment to India the USSR was quite happy to provide the goods. Might I add, at the same time the US was cosying up to both the Jihadi Paks and Bin-Laden.
Do you even know anything about Indian elections. There is a huge number of political parties each with some power, the central government is made up of about 30 different parties. So when you say that the same people keep running the government, you're talking from your ass.
Posted by: rg117 || 04/04/2003 7:51 Comments || Top||


Kashmir militant commander killed
Saif-ul-Islam, chief commander of the Pakistan-based Hizbul Mujahideen was killed on Wednesday in a gun-battle between militants and Indian forces, according to police. The BBC's Altaf Hussain in Srinagar says the killing of Saif-ul-Islam is one of the worst setbacks for the militant group.
Definite cause for ululation...
Saif-ul-Islam had been arrested hours earlier and was escorting the troops to recover hidden arms. He led the security forces to a hideout near, Srinagar, the capital of Indian-administered Kashmir when they came under attack from militants. "The militants fired and in the ensuing battle Ghulam Hasan Khan alias Saif-ul-Islam was killed," Deputy Inspector General of India's Border Security Force, K Srinivasan, told Reuters.
I think when the Indian medias talk about 'encounters' they mean things like top terrorists being killed in convenient circumstances hours only after their capture, although it does save on trial costs.
A spokesman for the Hizbul Mujahideen in Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistan-administered Kashmir, confirmed the death of their commander. He was the second in command to Hizbul chief Syed Salahuddin and his death is being seen as a serious blow for the organisation.
The Hezb is the only major Jihadi group operating in Kashmir that is actually made up mostly of Kashmiris instead of Pakistani and Afghan mercenaries, and it has been taking quite a lot of hits lately
Saif-ul-Islam had taken over as the commander of the group's Indian operations and had replaced Abdul Majid Dar who was expelled from the group last year.
And was bumped off a few days ago...
Posted by: Paul Moloney || 04/03/2003 03:51 am || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Looks like he tried to walk them into an ambush. We all know who goes first when that happens.
Posted by: tu3031 || 04/03/2003 9:02 Comments || Top||


Iraq
Three things they want in Najaf, besides water
From the NY Times, of all places....shortened to just the first few paragraphs.......
In the giddy spirit of the day, nothing could quite top the wish list bellowed out by one man in the throng of people greeting American troops from the 101st Airborne Division who marched into town today.

What, the man was asked, did he hope to see now that the Baath Party had been driven from power in his town? What would the Americans bring?

"Democracy," the man said, his voice rising to lift each word to greater prominence. "Whiskey. And sexy!"

Around him, the crowd roared its approval.

Hmm....sure beats the hell out of France's "liberte, egalite, fraternite", doesn't it???
Posted by: Former Russian Major || 04/03/2003 09:13 pm || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  We need to tread lightly here. All of us want to see a liberal society in Iraq, and many of the Iraqis themselves would be overjoyed to help us create one. But there are definitely conservative elements in Iraq, some of them (Shiite clerics) are on our side too for the time being. Iraq may be more secular than Saudi Arabia but we cannot ignore that there are old-fashioned religious and social conservative elements in that society and if Iraqis start drinking beer, opening dance clubs and walking around in shorts, t-shirts and sunglasses, we may be sewing the seeds of a backlash and pushing others into the Ansar al-Islam camp or the Iranian Shiite camp. Gotta take it slowly. Baywatch and MTV should not be the first things American to reach the newly liberated.
Posted by: Tokyo Taro || 04/03/2003 22:17 Comments || Top||

#2  Tokyo Taro has it wrong. Baghdad was renowed for free flowing liquor, Philippino prostitutes, and was a secular state, thou shall have no other god than Saddam. American films and music were widely sold. The most popular club was the Rashid disco. Its obvious you've never been there.
Posted by: TJ Jackson || 04/04/2003 0:49 Comments || Top||

#3  Taro, this is from LTSMASH's site (he's in Kuwait and was watching satellite w/some locals):

..Switched to BBC. The anchor announced that the port city of Umm Qasr had been secured, and would be receiving humanitarian supplies within days.

“Sir, is it true,” they asked me, “is Umm Qasr secured?”

“That’s what he said.”

“Can we go there?” This puzzled me.

“Why would you want to go there?”

“Dancing girls! Beer!”

Then it hit me – Umm Qasr is a border town. For these men, it holds memories of a different time, a time before war, when they could travel freely to Iraq, and do all the things not allowed in their own country.

Umm Qasr is their Tijuana.
Posted by: Anonymous || 04/04/2003 1:12 Comments || Top||


Iraqi Family Helped Save POW Jessica Lynch
Read this great article written by a US Marine about the details regarding PFC Jessica Lynch's rescue. Inspiring stuff about a brave, kind-hearted Iraqi family.

These guys deserve immediate US citizenship. Write your Senators and help make it so.
Posted by: Bill || 04/03/2003 07:54 pm || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Fred, could you please correct the link?
Posted by: Bill || 04/03/2003 20:16 Comments || Top||

#2  I'd be more than willing to welcome this brave Iraqi family to Texas.
Posted by: Texas John || 04/03/2003 20:17 Comments || Top||

#3  It's a sad state of affairs when American citizens wish death upon their own troops, but Iraqi civilians risk their lives and the lives of those they love to save the life of one of our Marines. May God bless them and keep them and their family safe.
Posted by: David || 04/03/2003 22:11 Comments || Top||

#4  Beautiful and inspiring. Thanks.
Posted by: Kalle (kafir forever) || 04/04/2003 0:39 Comments || Top||

#5  Absolutly,they have earned U.S.citizenship,and have my eternal gratitude.Gotta be about the bravest thing I have ever heard.
Posted by: raptor || 04/04/2003 8:12 Comments || Top||


Looters strip luxury home of Chemical Ali
IN A flat landscape of mud fields and flat-topped farmhouses, the palace of Chemical Ali stands out for miles. Its crenellated tower of yellowish stone rises above a stand of green date palms. It is a symbol of dominance and power. Or at least it used to be. Ali doesn’t live here any more.
If he's not dead, he's sleeping under a bush these days...
Only the name of Saddam Hussein himself strikes as much terror into the hearts of ordinary Iraqis as Ali Hassan al-Majid. After organising the gassing of the Kurds in 1986, he is better known as Chemical Ali. He is Saddam’s cousin and right-hand man. A man who has killed many and helped to terrorise a nation. But for the looters of his mansion on the outskirts of Basra their need has overcome their fear. His palace has been comprehensively robbed. Even the fittings have gone from the walls. The light switches have been ripped out, the window panes gone. The air conditioning units have disappeared from the walls and there is not a scrap of furniture left.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 04/03/2003 06:59 pm || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  tell him to file a claim - please include his current address (or GPS location)
Posted by: Frank G || 04/03/2003 19:30 Comments || Top||

#2  Sweet Allah!!! I hope they did not get his copy of sweatin to the oldies from Richard Simmons!
Posted by: Wills || 04/03/2003 22:12 Comments || Top||


Question of the Day....
If Saddam loses a leg and survives, how pissed do you think his body doubles will be?
Posted by: Yosemite Sam || 04/03/2003 04:48 pm || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Oh DAMN. LMAO!!!!
Posted by: Tadderly || 04/03/2003 16:50 Comments || Top||

#2  OK Yosemite - I bow to the master
Posted by: Frank G || 04/03/2003 17:21 Comments || Top||

#3  WOW!!! Thanks Frank!!!
Posted by: Yosemite Sam || 04/03/2003 19:46 Comments || Top||

#4  They'd have a choice???
Posted by: Thane of Cawdor || 04/03/2003 19:50 Comments || Top||

#5  IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT!!!

All Wal-Mart and K-Mart stores in Bagdad will be closing on or before March 19th.

After that, they will all become Targets.

Posted by: Rawsnacks || 04/03/2003 20:07 Comments || Top||

#6  Once they get the news, it will be their last chance to run like hell!
(Sorry, couldn't resist)
Posted by: Former Russian Major || 04/03/2003 20:22 Comments || Top||

#7  What if Saddam lost his balls???
Posted by: True German Ally || 04/03/2003 22:18 Comments || Top||


Just like the Beatles
U.S. intelligence analysis determines tapes shown on Iraqi TV of Saddam Hussein were made before war started, CNN has learned. Details to come.

I bet these tapes keep on coming out, day after day, year after year. Then they can be recut and released as new all over again.
Posted by: growler || 04/03/2003 04:31 pm || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Oh yeah. And they'll come out with a video album cover. And Saddam'll be shown on the cover without shoes, which is code for him being dead, like Paul, see? And if you play the audio of the tape backwards at just the right speed, it'll say the "walrus is Ali", and...
Posted by: Anonymous || 04/03/2003 23:04 Comments || Top||


Lynch’s Father: Jessica was not shot, stabbed
Edited for brevity.
The father of rescued POW Army Pfc. Jessica Lynch said Thursday that she was in great spirits following her first surgery and denied reports she was shot and stabbed during her captivity in Iraq. "We have heard and seen reports that she had multiple gunshot wounds and a knife stabbing. The doctor has not seen any of this," Gregory Lynch Sr. said. Lynch said his 19-year-old daughter, who is at a military hospital in Germany, had surgery on her back. "She didn't have any feeling in her feet," he said outside the family's home in this West Virginia hamlet. More surgery was scheduled for Friday on her fractured legs and arm, he said.
Posted by: Dar || 04/03/2003 03:37 pm || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Where did the reports of bullet wounds and stab wounds originate, out of curiosity?
Posted by: Tadderly || 04/03/2003 16:05 Comments || Top||

#2  Well every war needs a hero, and the idea of a woman fighting tooth and nail despite being wounded, and then afterwords surviving a grueling ordeal is deginately media-genic.

Not to diminish her ordeal, that is real tough, and her suviving it is something to admire.

However, I still suspect sensationalist media.

-DS
"the horns hold up the halo"
Posted by: DeviantSaint || 04/03/2003 16:34 Comments || Top||

#3  Well, don't I feel like a poopy face!

Somebody made something up, told a reporter and the rest of the world just kept repeating it. Lesson number 107 of the Internet.
Posted by: Chuck || 04/03/2003 19:02 Comments || Top||


Baghdad’s main airport ("Saddam" International) seized by 3rd Infantry
From ABCNews's embedded reporter, who apparently filed while standing on the tarmac:
U.S. ground forces have swept into Baghdad's international airport under cover of darkness, securing it with tanks and other armored units. They encountered almost no opposition from Iraqi forces. Reporting from the tarmac of Saddam International Airport, ABCNEWS' Bob Schmidt, embedded with the 3rd Infantry Division, said the airport was in pitch darkness as coalition tanks entered the facility.
So, um, where is everybody?
U.S. forces encountered very little Iraqi resistance, said Schmidt, although some units of the 3rd Infantry Division did encounter scattered firing by Iraqi foot soldiers and men in pickups. He reported seeing Iraqis waving and cheering as U.S. tanks rolled toward the airport which is just 10 miles from central Baghdad.
If a significant portion of the RGs managed to fall back into the city, that's not great news...
Posted by: jrosevear || 04/03/2003 02:32 pm || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Can't wait for the Iraqi press conference for TODAY!

Will he use the Herman Munster approach?

"They are NOT at the Sadaam International Airport...they're NOT, THEY'RE NOT, THEY'RE NOT!"
(Smashing the Podium to bits)

Or will he use the Nathan Thurm (Marty Short's agitated, sweating, cigarette smoking lawyer on SNL) approach?

"I repeat, the Americans are not at the airport!"

"But Minister, there is actual footage on CNN of the Americans driving tanks through the entrance."

"I know THAT! Of course I know that! Why do you think I wouldn't know that? Is it me or is it him? It's him isn't it?"
Posted by: Tex || 04/03/2003 23:26 Comments || Top||

#2  Somehow I lost the second paragraph of the story, which is thus:

Reporting from the tarmac of Saddam International Airport, ABCNEWS' Bob Schmidt, embedded with the 3rd Infantry Division, said the airport was in pitch darkness as coalition tanks entered the facility.
Posted by: jrosevear || 04/03/2003 14:37 Comments || Top||

#3  Shortly after his report, TSA agents subjected him to a strip and body cavity search, and confiscated his mic as a potential hijacking tool.
Posted by: Chuck || 04/03/2003 14:59 Comments || Top||

#4  I remeber reading about an underground tunnel or tram from the airport to numerous palaces and gov buildings. Hope thats true!
Posted by: Yosemite Sam || 04/03/2003 15:50 Comments || Top||

#5  There's something I want to get off my chest.

In the fight around and in Baghdad we have the "elite" Republican Guard, the "elite" Special Republican Guard, the "elite" Fedayeen, and a bunch of "elite" Gestapo-types who are a part of Saddam's various security services.

Oh, yeah. There's the just plain Iraqi Army, too. Poor bastards.

Meanwhile, on our side we have the elite 1st MEF, the elite 101st Airborne, the elite 82nd Airborne, the elite SOF, the elite Rangers, and the very elite Delta Force and Navy SEALS. And all of them are doing just fine work, I might add. Notice the lack of scare quotes around elite when I use that term to describe those units.

On the non-elite end of things we have the 3rd Infantry Division. It's filled with "ordinary" infantrymen, tankers, cannon-cockers, supply haulers, bullet counters, and clerks. They don't have a lot in the way of special clothing accessories, fancy shoulder tabs, or Hollywood name recognition.

And this non-elite formation seems to be getting to its fucking objectives very fucking quickly and leaving behind it a fucking trail of fire, ruined Iraqi equipment, and a constantly spreading wake of terrified Iraqi grunts, guardsman, and other thugs whose major goal is to get as much fucking distance between themselves and the non-fucking-elite, just-plain-vanilla, completely-fucking-normal 3rd Infantry Division as they can possibly fucking manage.

Heh.

That's all. Sorry about the language.
Posted by: Patrick Phillips || 04/03/2003 15:52 Comments || Top||

#6  Doe's "Elite" republican guard mean that they have a pickup truck that runs? I understand that France has some special "pettite" democratic guards, who are noted for their ability to scowl and gnash their teeth.
Posted by: Wills || 04/03/2003 16:41 Comments || Top||

#7  In this day and age, I consider any American regular Army or Marine combat unit elite by definition.

By the time this is over the "Rock of the Marne" could be known as the "Rock of the Euphrates" and the 4th ID will be grousing about why no one left anything for them.

What a difference a week makes, thank you Saddam for sticking your military neck out so we can chop it off.
Posted by: Hiryu || 04/03/2003 17:56 Comments || Top||

#8  Plenty left for the 4th. Maybe they'll get to be the vanguard for the run to Damascus...
Posted by: jrosevear || 04/03/2003 17:58 Comments || Top||

#9  OK Wills, I have a couple of pickups that run, must make me an "elite" redneck?

Course that may be France's biggest problem: no pickups to be found.
Posted by: john || 04/03/2003 18:48 Comments || Top||

#10  I think we should change it to "Blair International" or "Howard International". Maybe "Aznar Int'l"?
What the hell, Bush International is already taken..... ;)
Posted by: Former Russian Major || 04/03/2003 20:25 Comments || Top||

#11  "Oh that airport. I thought we were talking about the other Saddam International Airport over here"
Posted by: john || 04/04/2003 1:06 Comments || Top||


Worrywarts Wring Hands over Iraqi Air Force
Edited for length:
No Iraqi warplane has taken off in the face of total American and British air superiority during the 2-week-old war, leading some U.S. generals and analysts to wonder whether they are being readied for a desperate wave of terror attacks. The experts say that if the Iraqis try to fly they are likely to be destroyed, perhaps before they even get into the air. But if a suicide mission got through U.S. defenses, the attack's psychological damage could outweigh any physical casualties.
Oh no! We're doomed, doomed I tell you!
"We're concerned about any possible use of an airplane to conduct terror," Maj. Gen. Victor Renuart told reporters at Central Command headquarters in Qatar this past weekend. "But . . . I am absolutely 100 percent comfortable that the air component commander has a number of airmen up there who would be ecstatic if one of the Iraqis tried to fly."
1 Kill = 100 Promontion Points
At Central Command on Monday, Brig. Gen. Vince Brooks at Central Command was asked why the Iraqis haven't flown so far.
"It's as simple as if they fly, they die. . . . If we find them, we'll destroy them. We've destroyed aircraft in cemeteries or near cemeteries. We've destroyed aircraft outside of protected areas. We've destroyed aircraft on the ground," he said.
"We've destroyed them in the rain, we've destroyed them on a train"
Before the war began, the Iraqi air force had 316 combat aircraft, according to Anthony Cordesman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, one of the West's leading scholars on the Iraqi military. But only 50 to 60 percent were usable, he said. It isn't clear how many Iraqi planes have been destroyed in the waves of coalition air strikes over the past two weeks.
Most of the aircraft, all of the airfields if the satellite photos are correct.
Cordesman estimates that Iraqi pilots get 20 hours of flying time a year, less than what Americans get in a slow month.
"One alternative is the idea that they are being reserved for one last spasm of near-suicide attacks -- possibly with weapons of mass destruction -- for the battle of Baghdad. No evidence, and pure speculation, but possible," he added.
Speculation, and trying like hell to find something to worry about.
Posted by: Steve || 04/03/2003 01:33 pm || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Count me among the "worrywarts". I'm not "trying like hell" to find something to worry about--I'm very happy with the news in recent days--but let's not forget Saddam and his cohorts are ruthless, deperate men who will think nothing of killing a few thousand more than they already have. Until every Iraqi plane and WMD has been accounted for, I'm not celebrating.
Posted by: Dar Steckelberg || 04/03/2003 13:54 Comments || Top||

#2  A couple of things to remember, Dar: first, these planes are old and have not had proper maintenance in years, nor have their pilots had much practice flying (if any). Second, the Iraqi's don't have the means to vector them anywhere anymore: about the only way they could find anything to hit would be to take off and roam around until they see something promising. And lastly, if they do try to take off, they're not likely to get much past the end of the runway before something pounces on them.
Posted by: Dave D. || 04/03/2003 14:18 Comments || Top||

#3  Considering how effective the Patriot has been against Iraqi missiles and our aircraft (unfortunately), I don't think we have a lot to worry about. Do they have any airfields left under their control at this point?
Posted by: pj || 04/03/2003 14:20 Comments || Top||

#4  I talked to one of the JDAM contractors last weekend. He told me that every intersection on Iraqi airfields has been hit. Kind of hard to get up to take off speed, when there are all these nastyt craters all over the place.
Posted by: Doug De Bono || 04/03/2003 14:21 Comments || Top||

#5  Well, he ain't using Saddam International Airport, we just took that. Here's a link to a sat picture: Spaceimaging
Look at that bomb damage!
Posted by: Steve || 04/03/2003 14:42 Comments || Top||

#6  Maybe "worry" is too strong a verb for what I'm feeling.

I just have a suspicion that Saddam and Co. will try something with what's left of their air force akin to Operation Base Plate the Germans did in '45. One last desperate attack to try to get through and disperse chemical weapons before the Coalition can get enough assets in the local area to deal with the threat in time.

Like I've said before, it's "use it or lose it" time for Saddam. I wouldn't put it past him to use every means he's got to stay in power. He's on a one-way trip to hell, and he would have no compulsion about sending his pilots on a similar one-way mission.
Posted by: Dar Steckelberg || 04/03/2003 14:46 Comments || Top||

#7  Want to bet as soon as a pilot went wheels up, he'd be calling on the radio trying to surrender?
Posted by: Steve || 04/03/2003 14:53 Comments || Top||

#8  I agree with Steve.

Remember that in Gulf I, practicly the entire air Force up and flew to Iran in one big wave, rather than face us.

The only suicides we'll face are those where their families are hostage for their behavior. As has already happened.
Posted by: Chuck || 04/03/2003 14:57 Comments || Top||

#9  Want to bet the pilot's family is being held at gunpoint?
Posted by: Dar Steckelberg || 04/03/2003 14:58 Comments || Top||

#10  Ack--Chuck beat me to the comment.

I do remember the mass exodus to Iran--and that Iran kept those planes.
Posted by: Dar Steckelberg || 04/03/2003 15:00 Comments || Top||

#11  Thanks for the sattellite image, Steve. I was looking and I thought, "Wow. That doesn't look very damaged - just a bunch of little holes," until I saw the plane and realized that each one of those "little holes" was a crater the size of the cockpit or better. Wow. Why'd we leave the plane?
Posted by: Tadderly || 04/03/2003 15:54 Comments || Top||

#12  I'm with Dar on this. Remember right before the war opened up the Iraqis challenged the no-fly zone a couple times with a Mig-29? I wondered then on Rantburg whether that was a test to see how quickly we could respond to the proverbial bat out of hell. I'd like to think that we've accounted for what's left of the Iraqi air force, but I'm still worried that they might try to run a Mig-29 loaded with whatever WMD is handy towards Kuwait.
Posted by: Steve White || 04/03/2003 16:35 Comments || Top||

#13  I don't know if they'd reach Kuwait, but perhaps Basra or Najaf or one of the northern cities--just one last stab at the Shi'as or the Kurds to remind them Saddam loves them.
Posted by: Dar Steckelberg || 04/03/2003 17:01 Comments || Top||


’Chemical Ali’ held meetings at POW hospital
Informants have told U.S. Marines that Gen. Ali Hassan al Majeed, President Saddam Hussein's cousin, recently conducted meetings of the Iraqi resistance in the same hospital in Nasiriya where a U.S. Army soldier was held prisoner. Marines staged raids in southern Iraq seeking al Majeed earlier this week. Al Majeed, the commander of Iraqi forces in southern Iraq, is widely known as "Chemical Ali" for ordering Iraqi forces to use chemical weapons on Kurds in northern Iraq in 1988. According to an officer with a 2nd Marines reconnaissance unit, one informant, whose information was corroborated by other sources, told Marines that Al Majeed has been hiding his identity by dressing up in plain attire, so he can blend into the populace. It was also reported that Al Majeed has been driving around in an old red car, possibly a 1979 Nissan.
"Attention all cars, attention all cars! Be on the lookout for 1979 Red Nissan. Subject is armed and dangerous! Shoot to kill!"
The meetings in the hospital basement took place between representatives of the Baath party, Fedayeen, and paramilitary, the source said.
Basements are where you normally find rats like these.
Military intelligence told CNN that Al Majeed is orchestrating the resistance to U.S. forces in southern Iraq and is said to be moving between small towns around Nasiriya, including Kut and Qulat Sikkar.
Sounds like he takes his assignment seriously
"The informant who told us this drew out a schematic of the hospital and said the basement was so secure we wouldn't be able to touch it with bombs," a Marine officer said. "We'd have go in there on foot." The Iraqi told the Marines that the best entrance was a ramp into the hospital and gave them details on how to find it. It was unclear whether this information was shared with the combined Special Forces units that rescued U.S. Army Pfc. Jessica Lynch, who was held prisoner at the hospital, but the officer said it was passed up the chain of command ahead of the mission. CNN has also learned that special operations units like Delta Force have been on the ground inside Nasiriya, destroying pockets of resistance.
DESTROY!!!!!!!!!
Posted by: Steve || 04/03/2003 12:55 pm || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Is this one a maternity hospital too? Ali is probably just the 'lactation consultant.'
Posted by: Rawsnacks || 04/03/2003 13:12 Comments || Top||

#2  "Chemical Ali" as the president of the Iraqi La Leche League??
Eeeewwwwww!
Of course, that makes as much sense as Uday being in charge of the Olympic Committee.
Posted by: Former Russian Major || 04/03/2003 20:36 Comments || Top||


Saddam: ’Fight Them With Your Hands’
With U.S. ground forces closing in fast, Saddam Hussein exhorted the Iraqi people to "fight them with your hands," according to a statement read Thursday on Iraqi satellite television.
From what it sounds like, that's about all they got left.
The statement, addressed to the people of the region southeast of Baghdad, was read by Information Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf. Saddam hasn't delivered a speech on TV since March 24, and it is unclear when that address was recorded.
Mo, if I was you, I'd start making my travel plans.
"Fight them with your hands, God will disgrace them. God is great," Thursday's statement said. At a news conference, Sahhaf disputed coalition claims of battle successes. "All this is to cover their disappointment and inability," he said.
...he said, as a round whistled by his head.
"They are not even 100 miles (away from Baghdad). They are not anywhere. They are like a snake moving in the desert. They have no foothold in Iraq. ... They do not even control Umm Qasr," the information minister said, referring to the southern port city held by British forces.
Pay no attention to the ceiling collapsing around me...
Hoping to counter reports that allied forces had taken Saddam International Airport — U.S. Central Command said its units were "in the vicinity" of the airport — Iraqi officials took reporters to the facility Thursday afternoon. The airport was deserted save for employees and armed guards. Three Iraqi Airways planes sat on the tarmac. The departure lounge was covered with a yellow coat of dust, left over from last week's two-day sandstorm. On the nine-mile road to the airport from central Baghdad, a six-story purple-hued building thought to belong to one of Iraq's security agencies was severely damaged. A complex of low buildings along the road was almost completely destroyed. It was not clear who had occupied those buildings.
Make sure you pop by tomorrow, too...
Sahhaf said Republican Guard forces battled coalition troops in the area south of Kut and "taught them lessons, a catastrophe," inflicting heavy casualties and forcing a coalition retreat. "We buried a lot of them today," he said. He also claimed Iraqi forces had killed scores of coalition troops on Wednesday at Basra in the south. "We're now trying to exhaust them, making them more tired until our leadership decides the time and method to clean our territory of their desecration," Sahhaf said.
Like the saying goes, it ain't just a river in Egypt.
The U.S. military reported only three Marines wounded in the fighting at Kut and said its forces were advancing into the outskirts of Baghdad unhindered by the Republican Guard. Meanwhile, the air assault on Baghdad continued. The site of Baghdad's old airport was struck overnight by coalition aircraft. The target appeared to be a row of tin shelters which stretch for about a mile where the Trade Ministry stores hundreds of imported cars. Iraqi Trade Minister Mohammed Mehdi Saleh accused coalition forces of breaking into Iraqi warehouses and stealing children's milk and supplies.
Wait a second, I thought we bombed those?
When asked where Saddam is and why he has not been seen on television, Saleh laughed. "I think you have seen his picture," Saleh said, referring to silent footage that aired Wednesday of a smiling Saddam chairing a Cabinet meeting. "He is very calm, confident."
...so calm you'd almost swear he wasn't alive.
Posted by: tu3031 || 04/03/2003 12:36 pm || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Someone needs to get the casting call date to Sammy for "Weekend at Bernie's II".
Posted by: Yosemite Sam || 04/03/2003 12:56 Comments || Top||

#2  I'm really starting to enjoy Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf....

This guy just won't quit... he's hilarious...

Next thing you know, he'll tell us "The Merkins aren't even Iraq!..."
Posted by: -----------<<<<- || 04/03/2003 13:44 Comments || Top||

#3  Yaaar! Fight 'em with yer hands! Yaaar! Gnaw them with yer teeth! Yaaar!

Good stuff. If this Iraq thing doesn't work out, he's got a future with North Korea. He can fill in when the Army-based guy has a day off.
Posted by: Dreadnought || 04/03/2003 14:50 Comments || Top||

#4  Dreadnought,

Good stuff. If this Iraq thing doesn't work out, he's got a future with North Korea. He can fill in when the Army-based guy has a day off.

What? Did I miss something? Has he announced that Iraq's new "army-based policy" will sweep the Imperial dogs into years of lamentations?
Posted by: Hodadenon || 04/03/2003 15:50 Comments || Top||

#5  I sure hope this fight them with your hands thing doesnt take hold, i just watched the karate kid part 2 last night, and even a skinny bitch like ralph macchio can be kind of scrappy....
Posted by: Wills || 04/03/2003 16:30 Comments || Top||

#6  ;-) wills, I still think most marines would take their chances..even against a skinny bitch lol like ralph macchio
Posted by: Frank G || 04/03/2003 17:57 Comments || Top||

#7  I get the impression that those Iraqis who can are voting with their feet.
Posted by: Hiryu || 04/03/2003 17:59 Comments || Top||

#8  Fight them with your hands ........... this is in reference to the 72 Virgins that they're about to encounter.
Posted by: Nam Vet || 04/03/2003 19:02 Comments || Top||


23 Ansar al-Islam members killed
Some 23 members of Ansar al-Islam forces have been killed in clashes with Kurdish Peshmergas and US forces in Uraman in the Iraqi Sulaymaniyah province early Thursday morning. A military source told IRNA that several foreign nationals, including Saudis, Afghans, Moroccans and Algerians, all holding foreign visas, could be seen among those killed in the operations, an Iraqi Kurd military official told IRNA. The source said the dead people are members of Arab-Afghan al-Qaeda group, identity of one of them is not yet clear. He said considerable munitions were seized from the group.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 04/03/2003 12:38 pm || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Cool! This is much more detailed than the story I posted yesterday. Glad the SF was with them. They'll be sure to scoop up all the papers and most likely take photos of the deaders to try to ID them later.
Posted by: Steve || 04/03/2003 12:44 Comments || Top||

#2  Not enough. Too many ran across the border to Iran.
Posted by: Anonymous || 04/04/2003 1:19 Comments || Top||


Basra in flames
Thick columns of smoke were seen billowing from Basra and engulfing most of southern Iraq. According to reports arriving from the border city of Shalamcheh on Thursday morning, nine oil wells in Basra have been set ablaze by heavy coalition bombardments of the city in the past few days. The reports further said that the fires from the oil wells are being fanned by exploding bombs dropped by coalition warplanes. Basra has been under siege by British ground forces for the past fortnight in a major push to occupy the city. The city has been under continuing air raids, missile and artillery barrage attacks by US-led forces more than any other southern Iraqi urban area since the outbreak of the current war. Black columns of smoke from the burning oil wells in the skies over Basra can also be seen in the skies of the Iranian cities bordering southern Iraq pushed by north-south winds.

That's a nice, dramatic headline, but it would probably have been better worded as "Basra covered by icky, black smoke".
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 04/03/2003 12:35 pm || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  This can't wait for Baghdad to fall.
Posted by: RW || 04/03/2003 12:37 Comments || Top||

#2  I trust IRNA about as much as Saddam's "Minister of Information". I'll wait for the western media to confirm this report.
Posted by: Scooter McGruder || 04/03/2003 12:45 Comments || Top||

#3  UNEP, which is monitoring events in Iraq in an effort to identify potential environmental risks, said in a March 31 press release that three of the seven oil wells originally set on fire in southern Iraq near Basra are still burning, and toxic fumes are also emanating from
oil-filled trenches and bomb-ignited fires in Baghdad.

It's smoke from the two remaing oil fires in the Ramailah field drifting over Basra. Checked all news sites and they show no other oil well fires. I'm sure there are fires, but no wells.
Posted by: Steve || 04/03/2003 13:20 Comments || Top||

#4  An hour or so ago I was watching one of the cable news networks who had an embed with the Desert Rats, fighting in the Basra suburbs. He said there were actually oil trenches on fire in that area, like in Baghdad.
Posted by: J. Michael Krause || 04/03/2003 14:36 Comments || Top||


Nasiriyah on verge of collapse
Fierce battles continued in the streets of Nassiriya, which has have been besieged by coalition forces over the past two weeks. According to reliable sources, both warring sides suffered heavy casualties in the course of the battles to gain control of the southeastern Iraqi city. US forces bombarded a maternity hospital in Nassiriya on Wednesday which was believed to have been used for military purposes.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 04/03/2003 12:31 pm || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Not just a hospital... a maternity hospital.
Posted by: Rawsnacks || 04/03/2003 12:34 Comments || Top||

#2  Not to mention that ... we're after their baby milk again!

"Iraqi Trade Minister Mohammed Mehdi Saleh accused coalition forces of breaking into Iraqi warehouses and stealing children's milk and supplies."

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-War-Baghdad.html?pagewanted=print&position=top
Posted by: Alicia || 04/03/2003 12:49 Comments || Top||

#3  However the British Red Cross denied an earlier report that a Red Crescent maternity hospital had been bombed and at least three doctors and nurses had been wounded.

He said: "A missile struck the building opposite and the blast was so strong that the windows and roof of the hospital were damaged. But no one inside the hospital was injured - the building was evacuated three days ago

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,928210,00.html
Posted by: growler || 04/03/2003 13:21 Comments || Top||

#4  More from Nassiriyah (this is either AP or Reuters)

'Cpl. Nicholas Beitia, 22, of Elko, Nev., survived a shootout on his first day in Iraq (news - web sites), and experienced the death of a fellow soldier. He was spooked by the chance of an ambush or a false surrender by Iraqi troops.


"At first I hated these people," acknowledged Beitia, a member of the 1st Platoon, Echo Company of the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit.


But his attitude changed Wednesday during his first house-to-house search, when he was greeted like a long-lost relative. In one Iraqi home, he was treated to "the best tea I've ever tasted."


The civilians seemed terrified in the first house he searched. Beitia assumed they expected the Americans to murder the men, rape the women and plunder the home.


"Then I got down on my knee and gave their little girl a piece of chewing gum," he related. "The father was ecstatic. It was like I was saying I was not better than them. When I got I got down on my knee, they almost started to cry.


"They brought us tea. There was a daughter in the house who could speak some English, and they gave us some fresh pita bread."


He spoke of the tea and bread almost wistfully, since these Marines had lived exclusively on field rations for months. And he recalled how his hosts raced to neighbors' homes, telling them to allow the Americans to conduct their search and leave. '

Posted by: liberalhawk || 04/03/2003 15:32 Comments || Top||

#5  could I get a link to that, Liberalhawk? Beautiful!

Ain't it wonderful how an army of lies flees in the face of a footsoldier of truth?
Posted by: Ptah || 04/03/2003 18:00 Comments || Top||

#6  Stories like liberalhawk's make me proud of the coalition's armed forces. Thanks for posting it!
Posted by: Former Russian Major || 04/03/2003 20:51 Comments || Top||


Northern Iraq: Iraqi forces retreat from Kifri
Members of Iraq's regular army withdrew from the Kurdistan-Iraq demarcation line southwest of Arbil on Wednesday after failing to resist overnight incursions of US aircraft. US-led coalition forces took, in a successful push, gained control of Navshen, in the Qalat Sur region, and Shamameh village, taking with them a considerable amount of munitions, foodstuff and a truck loaded with equipment for the Iraqi opposition Kurdistan Democratic Party whose members are fighting alongside British forces in the north. The London-based Human Rights Watch reported that the Iraqi forces heavily mined their former positions in Kafri before they withdraw which led to the death of an Iranian freelance cameraman working for BBC, Kaveh Golestan, who stepped on one of these mines. Iraqis shelled residential areas in Kifri on Wednesday resulting in two civilians dead and 10 others injured.
At least IRNA's neutrality seems to be becoming a little less neutral...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 04/03/2003 12:29 pm || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  WOW. IRNA admitted somewhat reported that Saddam and his forces had at the civilians.
Posted by: Tadderly || 04/03/2003 14:52 Comments || Top||


Iraqis gift Al-Omayeh, Al-Bakr oil platforms without resistance
Iraq conceded two of its major oil exporting platforms north of the Persian Gulf to US and British coalition forces in a bloodless battle. No Iraqis were said to have been present in the platforms when they were taken over by US and British forces immediately after the start of the war on March 20. Iraq completed projects for reconstruction of the platforms just 20 days before the war and the first ships to load Iraqi oil within the UN "oil-for-food" program for export to the US and East Asian states were berthing in the area just two days before the war erupted.

Iran's Karbala-3 operations managed to capture the Al-Omayeh platform during its eight-year with Iraq. But Iraq later fired 90 missiles on the platform and destroyed it just to be able to regain it. Al-Omayeh is in Khur Abdullah region and has offshore and onshore operations.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 04/03/2003 12:26 pm || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Iraq completed projects for reconstruction of the platforms just 20 days before the war and the first ships to load Iraqi oil within the UN "oil-for-food" program for export to the US and East Asian states were berthing in the area just two days before the war erupted.

Thanks for fixing them up for us. We really appreciate it. Thanks alot.
Posted by: tu3031 || 04/03/2003 13:10 Comments || Top||


Karbala falls in 3 hours
A major development during the Wednesday fighting was the fall of Karbala, that "truly amazed" even the US commanders and military commentators, since the allied forces had failed in their previous attempts to capture the holy city in which the tomb of the Third Infallible Imam of Shia Muslims, Imam Hussain (PBUH) is located. The city fell only 3 hours after the beginning of the coalition forces, save for the fact that the position of the Iraqi forces defending it were hit in heavy air raids throughout Tuesday night. The US war analysts argue that Karbala is not of military significance, but its fall is a significant step toward capturing Baghdad. as "Karbala sits in the way to capturing Baghdad," argued General Tommy Franks, which heavily reminds every Iranian combatant of the Iraqi imposed war of a similar saying, "The path towards freeing the Holy Qods passes thorough Karbala." Iraq's Information Minster Muhammad Said al-Sahhaf, said on Wednesday that the US forces' claims regarding the fall of Karbala and Najaf are baseless, arguing that fierce fighting is still going on outside those cities.
I sure hope the new government of Iraq doesn't have an "information minister."
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 04/03/2003 12:20 pm || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I may as well get to this before Dave Barry does:

"You've got to admit, The Third Infallible Imam would be a great name for a rock band."
Posted by: (lowercase) matt || 04/03/2003 14:54 Comments || Top||


Iraqi opposition council session held in Dukan
The members of Iraqi Opposition Council held a session in Dukan in Iraq's Sulaimaniya province on Wednesday to discuss the developments in Iraq. Seyed Mohsen Hakim, a person close to the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI) told IRNA reporter that the session debated such issues as the current and future situation of Iraq, the political and military strategies in Iraq and the ways of activation of the council of the Iraqi opposition. He added that the management of the urban areas and the interim government in the post-Saddam era were also among the major topics discussed by the session participants.

Iraqi opposition opened a two-day meeting in Salahaddin, Arbil, on February 26 to discuss coordination for a transitional administration to replace the Iraqi government. The meeting focussed on the composition of a top political committee to undertake administration of the country for a transitional period until the general elections to establish a legitimate government, organizers said. Opposition groups said that the high committee will consist of seven members, four Shias and three Sunnis and the latter will include two representatives from the Kurdish population and one from the Arab. Representatives from Iran, the European Union, Britain, France, Syria, Turkey, the United States and China also attended the meeting.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 04/03/2003 12:16 pm || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:


Say it ain’t so!
Nine of the 11 corpses recovered from a Nasiriyah hospital during the rescue of Pfc. Jessica Lynch are U.S. soldiers and most are believed to be from the Army’s 507th Maintenance Company, U.S. military officials told NBC News. The bodies are being returned to the United States for forensic identification. Lynch and 14 other members of the unit were attacked on March 23 after their convoy made a wrong turn in Nasiriyah. Two soldiers were killed in the attack, eight others had been listed as missing and five were listed as POWs after they were shown on Iraqi television. That TV report also showed the bodies of what appeared to be several U.S. soldiers. Pentagon officials charged they had been executed, which Iraq denied. The officials said they had no additional information on the five POWs.
I wonder what the Iraqis taken POW to Iraqi POW's found in a shallow grave ratio is? Betcha the Left doesn't compare those two stats.
Posted by: Mike N || 04/03/2003 12:01 pm || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I hope PFC Lynch remembers a lot of names and a lot of faces.
Posted by: tu3031 || 04/03/2003 23:27 Comments || Top||

#2  I fear greatly for our POWs. I once thought that the one positive side of the Iraqis putting them on TV was that it would make it hard for those thugs to kill them.

Now I'm not so sure.
Posted by: Dreadnought || 04/03/2003 14:54 Comments || Top||

#3  If there ever was a time for the Iraqi military to come clean on Capt. Scott Speicher, it's now.
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 04/03/2003 20:02 Comments || Top||


U.S. Seizes Papers From Saddam’s Palace
U.S. special operations forces raided a presidential palace Thursday north of Baghdad, finding no trace of Saddam Hussein but seizing important documents, a Central Command spokesman said. Earlier, a spokesman had said the palace was near Baghdad's airport, south of the capital. Troops raided the Thar Thar presidential palace about 56 miles northwest of Baghdad, said Brig. Gen. Vincent Brooks.
A different palace, or does this make two?
The palace has been used as a vacation retreat for Saddam and his sons in the past, but Brooks said no regime leaders were present when U.S. forces raided the building, and another spokesman, Lt. Mark Kitchens, said there was no indication Saddam had been there recently.
"Knock knock, anybody home?"
Important documents were seized, officials said.
"Hey sarge, what does it say?"
"Don't know, I can't read french."

Kitchens also said that during the raid, the special operations forces encountered sporadic, light resistance from fighters on the ground, but troops overwhelmed them.
"Die yankee do..BANG!..g......"
Posted by: Steve || 04/03/2003 11:51 am || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:


Lights out.
Large sections of the Iraqi capital lost power Thursday as loud explosions could be heard on the outskirts of the city.
I'll bet it's darkest where the 3rd ID is coming in
Whatta wanna bet that the 3rd is closer than the 5 miles previously reported?
The explosions persisted for nearly 15 minutes before the power went off — the first widespread electrical failure in the city since U.S. bombardment began two weeks ago. The reason for the loss of power was not immediately clear. However, U.S. troops from the 3rd Infantry Division were reported to be 15 miles south of the center of Baghdad.
Maybe Geraldo can tell us where the 3rd ID is

FOLLOWUP: From the radio, Gen. Meyers speaking live...

Gen. Meyers says we're not the ones who put out the lights — power grid wasn't targeted. They're looking into it.
Posted by: Mike N || 04/03/2003 11:33 am || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  New moon (just like everybody was talking about for months). Power goes out just around sundown. 3rd ID and Marines go in with night vision goggles, etc. Plenty of special ops all around. Marines go to trouble to cross Tigris, so they can come in on EAST side of city (where sprawling Shiite slums are). Shiite ayatollah delivers fatwah to support coalition troops, who just very visibly spared/rescued holy site in Najaf. I do believe its all coming together. Daybreak in Bagdad will be around 8PM EST tonight. Should be quite interesting.
Posted by: liberalhawk || 04/03/2003 11:47 Comments || Top||

#2  Speculation that the Iraqis turned off the lights so they could purge the Shia section of the city.
Posted by: JAB || 04/03/2003 14:22 Comments || Top||

#3  Now youve given me something to worry about - the black out, combined with Al-jazeera toss-out
this could be Saddams going away "present" an attempt to seed post-war ethnic hatred.

I ASSUME (HOPE) THAT IF THIS HAPPENS, SPEC OPS/CIA IN THE CITY WILL KNOW, AND WILL SPEED ARRIVAL OF MARINES.

We should know by morning Bagdad time (a few hours from now)
Posted by: liberalhawk || 04/03/2003 15:18 Comments || Top||

#4  Or it could be a trap

"Former Army Secretary Togo West Jr. told Fox News that coalition forces have to be careful not to go into Baghdad too quickly out of a desire to save civilians -- until they know what they're heading in to."

Posted by: liberalhawk || 04/03/2003 15:20 Comments || Top||

#5  I would think that it would be obvious to Mister Former Secretary West that we have a few assets in Baghdad, and that some of those folks are probably even qualified to give us a read on the local situation, and probably have been doing so for, like, you know, WEEKS.
Posted by: jrosevear || 04/03/2003 19:30 Comments || Top||


Iraq Accuses Kofi of Helping U.S. Invasion
Iraq's foreign minister attacked U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Thursday and said he had helped the U.S.-led invasion in which he said some 1,250 Iraqi civilians had been killed since March 20. "We have now more than 1,250 civilians killed and 5,000 injured all over the country since the beginning of the war," Iraqi Foreign Minister Naji Sabri told Reuters in an interview in Baghdad's central Palestine hotel. Sabri said Annan had facilitated the invasion by U.S. and British troops two weeks ago.
"The U.N. secretary-general has done nothing to stop the war, in fact the U.N. secretary-general has done something in the opposite direction," he said. "He has facilitated the invasion. He has withdrawn the UNIKOM people between Kuwait and Iraq so as to open the border for the enemy force to invade Iraq," said Sabri, referring to the withdrawal of U.N. observers between Iraq and Kuwait. Sabri said the United Nations had also interrupted Iraq's oil-for-food accord by pulling out international humanitarian staff on the eve of war. "All these moves are illegal and facilitated the aggression," he said.
Kofi as a tool of U.S. agression? Who knew?
Posted by: Steve || 04/03/2003 10:56 am || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Get any spittle on ya, Kofi?
Posted by: mojo || 04/03/2003 11:06 Comments || Top||

#2  We will know the end is near when they blame Chirac.
Posted by: pj || 04/03/2003 11:09 Comments || Top||

#3  Something just struck me: the "Fedayeen Saddam" are being considered "civilians" by the Iraqi government. That's why the civilian death count looks so bad. Sadsack really is as slick as ole willie!!!! About as useless, too.
Posted by: Old Patriot || 04/03/2003 11:13 Comments || Top||

#4  Yeah, UNIKOM woulda stopped them.....HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!
Kofi, now their calling you a war mongering sleazebag. Sometimes a guy just can't win.
Posted by: tu3031 || 04/03/2003 12:09 Comments || Top||

#5  "We have now more than 1,250 civilians killed and 5,000 injured all over the country since the beginning of the war," Iraqi Foreign Minister Naji Sabri told Reuters in an interview in Baghdad's central Palestine hotel.

Do tell. I wonder how many Saddam would have killed over the next, say, two months?
Posted by: Ptah || 04/03/2003 12:18 Comments || Top||

#6  Ptah,

The numbers of civilians Sammy has killed during his tenure is variably estimated at 300,000 to 2 million. Taking the low estimate over his 24 years, that's about 1,000 per month. The high estimate works out to about 7,000 per month. This doesn't count the Iraqi soldiers killed in the Iran-Iraq war and GW I.
Posted by: Steve White || 04/03/2003 13:13 Comments || Top||

#7  Poetic justice, eh, Kofi?
Posted by: Tadderly || 04/03/2003 16:54 Comments || Top||

#8  *nods* Thanks Steve. Exactly what I thought: Payback in human lives in about 6 months.
Posted by: Ptah || 04/03/2003 18:44 Comments || Top||


Former Iraqi athletes point finger at Uday
Just Another Reason To Whip Saddam
Former Iraqi athletes trying to prove that Saddam Hussein's son Uday had sports stars tortured and killed for losing said on Wednesday they feared the evidence had gone up in smoke in a U.S. air strike on the headquarters of Iraq's National Olympic Committee. "I'm not worried about the concrete or the furniture but I am worried about the evidence," said Issam Thamer al-Diwan, a former volleyball player and coach who alleges 52 athletes were murdered on the orders of Uday and others in the Hussein clan.
Posted by: rg117 || 04/03/2003 10:06 am || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Don't worry, guys, if Uday's still around he *will* get what's comin' to him. And if not, well, take heart that Allah's on the case.
Posted by: jrosevear || 04/03/2003 10:15 Comments || Top||

#2  They'll just have to step forward and testify themselves...
Posted by: Ptah || 04/03/2003 10:23 Comments || Top||

#3  The stories these guys will have to tell will *seriously* embarass the IOC weenies, who knew about this crap for years and did zip.
Posted by: mojo || 04/03/2003 11:08 Comments || Top||

#4  The IOC is as corrupt as the Frogs and the UN. Just another international agency that should disappear.
Posted by: Spot || 04/03/2003 12:26 Comments || Top||

#5  There would not have been any evidence left behind anyways. It will be the human testimony that counts.
Posted by: RW || 04/03/2003 12:30 Comments || Top||

#6  God! He's worse then Steinbrenner...
Posted by: tu3031 || 04/03/2003 23:31 Comments || Top||


Buses of Iraqis Fleeing Baghdad
Iraqi deserters and civilians are flooding out of Baghdad by the busload on Thursday and surrendering to U.S. forces advancing on the Iraqi capital, said a U.S. television reporter traveling with Marines. "There are so many people on the road now that it's impossible to further conduct military operations and so our unit has stopped now and set up a hasty prisoner of war compound," said ABC correspondent Mike Cerre.
Damm, if we keep getting delayed like this the war won't be over until, oh, tomorrow. What a quagmire!
Reporting from central Iraq, south of Baghdad with the 1st Marine Division, Cerre said U.S. support aircraft had counted more than 60 buses filled with Iraqis fleeing Baghdad. "What is stopping us now is the flood of deserters and civilians, on buses, trucks, taxicabs and whatever they can catch a ride on, trying to make their way south to their families or American forces to surrender" he said.
"Run away!"
Posted by: Steve || 04/03/2003 09:54 am || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The more people leave, the easier to spot Saddam's, oops, I mean whoever's in charge, defenders. Problem: how to keep a-holes with guns from sneaking out of town with the rest ?
Posted by: Anonymous || 04/03/2003 10:20 Comments || Top||

#2  More of the ABC report:


"Wednesday night after their officers gave them weekend passes, knowing they were likely to desert. It was not clear if they were from the Republican Guard."

Hmmmm.


Posted by: liberalhawk || 04/03/2003 10:38 Comments || Top||

#3  Damn Steve, your "what a quagmire" comment made me spray Mountain Dew all over my montior!
Posted by: Scooter McGruder || 04/03/2003 12:40 Comments || Top||


Locals’ relief as holy site is secured
They have destroyed the local Ba'ath party headquarters. They are gathering up crate after crate of captured weapons. Now, United States forces in Najaf revered by the world's Shiite Muslims have secured the gold-domed Ali mosque, still pristine and intact after three days of furious combat. Residents seemed to sense that something fundamental had shifted in their lives and that a grave threat to their religious heritage had fallen away. Thousands poured into the streets of this city of 500,000 on Wednesday, cheering a Humvee convoy carrying a US colonel — the warmest reception for US forces so far. Offering religious chants and salutes, 2000 to 3000 people greeted Lieutenant-Colonel Chris Hughes and his men.

Although soldiers of the 101st Airborne Division have yet to fully seize Najaf, the city was secure enough for the division commander, Major-General David Petraeus, to plough through the southern districts in an armoured convoy. Residents who had been wary of the Americans — mindful that an uprising against Saddam Hussein's Sunni Muslim regime in 1991 had been brutally repressed after expected US support did not materialise — were pointing out minefields to US soldiers, commanders said.

Najaf is home to the tomb and shrine of Imam Ali bin Abi Talib, son-in-law of the prophet Muhammad. US commanders said that before their forces secured the Ali mosque, they were shot at from the structure by Iraqi forces but did not return fire. Colonel Hughes paid his respects outside the mosque to the city's senior cleric, Ayatollah Said Ali al Sistani. The US incursion essentially freed Sistani from more than 15 years of house arrest imposed by Saddam's regime, Colonel Hughes said. The colonel said he assured Ayatollah Sistani that the Americans did not intend to harm Shiites or their religious sites. The ayatollah was overwhelmed by his abrupt change of circumstance, Colonel Hughes said. "He's kind of in shock as to really how to handle the responsibility of everybody looking up to him, asking him advice."
This is the cleric who issued the fatwa supporting us.
Posted by: Steve || 04/03/2003 09:11 am || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Hope the goodwill lats. It was really smart to keep from destroying the mosque - wonder how they got it without losses? As was commented yesterday, first the christian church of nativity is desecrated by paleos and then the iraqis turn mosques into foxholes to attract attacks. When will they respect other religions if they don't respect other sects of their own religion?
Posted by: Frank G || 04/03/2003 9:29 Comments || Top||

#2  2000 to 3000 people greeted Lieutenant-Colonel Chris Hughes and his men.
I can't wait to hear how NPR and Beeb will spin this! ha! It won't be easy, they will probably completely ignore it, except to briefly note it is secure after intense fighting at the mosque. I imagine 99% of their future reporting we be limited to whining about how the reconstruction will fail.
Posted by: becky || 04/03/2003 9:50 Comments || Top||

#3  The end of this article notes that there was still enough resistance to "pepper" the convoy with small-arms fire. It is really extraordinary that the Sydney Morning Herald did not make "continued resistance" the main focus of the article, and note the change in circumstance for the Shi'ites only in passing. Might be a fluke.
Posted by: Angie Schultz || 04/03/2003 10:08 Comments || Top||

#4  I can't wait to hear how NPR and Beeb will spin this!
Something like this maybe:
"2000 to 3000 people greeted Lieutenant-Colonel Chris Hughes and his men [with AK-47s waving in the air, probably intending to shoot the Colonel and his infidels]"
Posted by: RW || 04/03/2003 12:36 Comments || Top||

#5  This is huge. If we can convince Shiites that we are trustworthy infidels it will have repurcussions in Syria where the Sunni minority is in charge. It would be nice to see an uprising in Syria against the Assad's.
Posted by: Yank || 04/03/2003 15:05 Comments || Top||

#6  actually Syria is the opposite of Iraq - the Baath party there is many Shia - (again the local minority - a pattern in large part because of Baath secularism, but also due to the local make-up of the army officer corps who have dominated the Baath for a while) They put down Sunni uprising in a place called Hamma (sp?) very viciously some years ago - thus Syria's alliance with Iran and tight relationship with Shia in Lebanon.
Posted by: liberalhawk || 04/03/2003 16:06 Comments || Top||

#7  This doesn't sound quite right to me. Has a search of the mosque been done? How was the mosque secured? It seems to me that we are fighting this war with one hand tied behind our backs. If the Iraqis use mosques to fight from they are no longer religious sites and should be treated as any other military objective.
Posted by: TJ Jackson || 04/04/2003 1:00 Comments || Top||

#8  Showing the Shites that"Freedom of Religion"is integral to the American mind-set.Those soldiers are right on in what they did.It won'tchange the minds of the Islamofacist,but will go a long way toward showing the moderates that Americans are not the"Great Satan".
Posted by: raptor || 04/04/2003 8:42 Comments || Top||


Sources indicate Saddam alive, hidden, and in command
Long story from al-Bawaba, may be true, may be wishful thinking. It does fit with Saddams paranoid personality. Edited for length
A number of reliable sources inside Baghdad report that two days before the start of the war Saddam disappeared into a hidden command center, in a location unknown even to his ministers. Since then, sources say that Saddam has not met in person with his top ministers, and has not talked to them directly by telephone. His instruction are delivered to them by messengers in writing or in video and audio cassettes. Saddam does not use the telephone or fax, which he believes can be intercepted or tracked by the Americans.
Most likely true

Saddam's own appearances on television are all recordings that were made before the war started, and he has not made any new television appearances since he went into underground. Workers at the Iraqi Television spoke of a vault inside the Information Ministry with hundreds of recordings, each enscribed only with two letters and a number. It is said that Saddam decides which of the tapes to air on television by a short note indicating the code of the appropriate cassette. Three different taped recordings for when the Americans are about to enter Baghdad are already waiting at the television, they added, delivered on Tuesday this week.
Picking up clues from another man wanted dead by the Americans, Bin Ladin, Saddam has learned, according to experts, that Americans analyze the background and even the air clarity of the videos for clues to the location where it was taken, so he has pre-recorded his most important messages and instructions to the Iraqi people. He has also seen that they can identify where a phone call originated from by the background noise, and this has lead to his decision to avoid making live radio broadcasts to his people. Saddam assumes that if the Americans hear him broadcasting, a guided missile will be quick to arrive.
Interesting. We keep hearing that there is a photo of Sammy being carried out of the building on the night of the first attack. I guess we'll just have to wait and see.
Posted by: Steve || 04/03/2003 08:56 am || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Meanwhile, Saddam is also said to be a regular watcher of CNN and other satellite stations.

Hope he's enjoying the show. Prefer FOX myself. Laurie Due! Hubba-hubba!
Posted by: tu3031 || 04/03/2003 9:11 Comments || Top||

#2  Damn we're good.
Posted by: RW || 04/03/2003 9:13 Comments || Top||

#3  Not buying this at all. Concern about having a JDAM bust up a recording session is certainly prudent, but that's why you record it in a white room and release it two hours later.

Regimes like Saddaam's are totally dependent on fear of the big boss. When people think he's dead or ailing, the sharks smell blood in the water.

If Saddaam isn't already dead, he's on life support somewhere deep.
Posted by: Dreadnought || 04/03/2003 9:29 Comments || Top||

#4  Question:
Good or bad to have Saddam alive at the end.
What the hell do you do with him ?
Imagine Jacques Itch Chirac saying "The WMD are all gone now, he's the elected leader, put him back in charge. Or send him to us to be glorified with all the other U.S. haters.
Posted by: Anonymous || 04/03/2003 10:26 Comments || Top||

#5  We find Saddam. We pop Saddam. End of story.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 04/03/2003 10:28 Comments || Top||

#6  debka says he's in a hotel in syria... i just emailed the hotel & asked if he is there, would they mind holding him until the USMC could arrrive.
Posted by: Rawsnacks || 04/03/2003 10:49 Comments || Top||

#7  Guess I wasn't the only curious individual... the reply:

Delivery failed 10 attempts: chamhotel@net.sy
Posted by: Rawsnacks || 04/03/2003 13:07 Comments || Top||

#8  I wonder whether Debka is funded by the salt industry?
Posted by: True German Ally || 04/03/2003 22:23 Comments || Top||


Hovering spy plane helps rout Iraqis
Edited for length:
A new spy plane that can hover for hours and give commanders a prime TV view of the battlefield has proved crucial in this week's rapid coalition rout of the Iraqi Republican Guard. As part of the United States' ultramodern air war, the Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicle is being launched from a Persian Gulf nation and placed over the war zone south of Baghdad. The asset gives war commanders something none has ever had in a major land battle. Global Hawk sends continuous real-time pictures of Republican Guard tanks, troops and artillery to the Combined Air Operations Center (CAOC) at Prince Sultan Air Base, Saudi Arabia.
God's eye view

From there, air planners immediately relay the Iraqi locations to tactical fighter pilots, who fly within designated "kill boxes," armed with precision-guided munitions. The data also go to the Army's 5th Corps inside Iraq, commanded by Lt. Gen. William Wallace. "Global Hawk played an extraordinarily important role in focusing precision air power," an Air Force source said yesterday, estimating that it quickened the Republican Guard's defeat by several days and is responsible for scores of tank kills. The 44-foot-long, high-flying drone is one weapon in an air-war strategy that directs an overpowering barrage at Iraqi forces every day.

The U.S.-led coalition also is using the smaller Predator drone to penetrate Baghdad airspace and launch precision-guided missiles, while outside the city laser- and satellite-guided bombs are decimating the Republican Guard. In a March 25 strike, the unmanned Predator fired a laser-guided Hellfire missile at a TV satellite dish in downtown Baghdad, as part of the U.S. Air Force's dogged effort to take Iraq's state-run television off the air. In the Predator flight, air planners decided its 100-pound Hellfire is better suited for some downtown targets than a 1,000-pound-warhead Tomahawk cruise missile or a one-ton satellite guided bomb. The TV dish sat near a school and other civilian buildings. "A 2,000-pound bomb probably would have caused more damage, so the Predator took it out," said a senior allied officer, who asked not to be identified. "We really do worry about collateral damage. We target and we choose the weapons in a very deliberate way. You try never, never to use any more weapon than you actually need." The Air Force also has launched the Predator to strike mobile air-defense batteries and to use lasers to designate targets for piloted aircraft. The CIA is operating its own fleet of Predators to track Iraqi leaders, including Saddam.
If it moves, it dies.
Posted by: Steve || 04/03/2003 08:33 am || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:


U.S.: Troops Enter Presidential Palace
U.S. troops entered one of Saddam Hussein's presidential palaces near the city's international airport, a Central Command official said Thursday.
Hellooo! Sammy? Is anybody home?
The airport is four miles from the city's gates. Navy Capt. Frank Thorp did not identify the palace and did not say if anything was found there. He said the troops had already left. "They don't need to stay," he added. Two palaces are located near Saddam International Airport, which is located a few miles southwest of The Radwaniyah Palace Complex is on the southwest edge of Saddam International and residential Palace North is on the northeast edge.

I think it's 50 or 60 psyop points when our guys get to root through Sammy's underwear drawer and white out the moustaches on all his portraits...
Posted by: Spot || 04/03/2003 08:06 am || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  And grab themselves some souvenirs from his knicknack shelf, I hope. Think of the stories these guys will have for their grandkids.
Posted by: jrosevear || 04/03/2003 8:20 Comments || Top||

#2  Gran'pa, where'd you get that gold potty seat from?
Posted by: Patrick Phillips || 04/03/2003 8:28 Comments || Top||

#3  On ebay today,
Genuine Saddam souvenirs...
Posted by: rg117 || 04/03/2003 8:30 Comments || Top||


Najaf cleric urges Iraqis not to hinder US troops
From Reuters via the Washington Post. Scroll down from the link -- it's the third entry:
A U.S. commander in the Gulf said on Thursday that a prominent Shi'ite Muslim cleric in the holy city of Najaf had issued an edict urging Iraqis to remain calm and not to hinder U.S. invading forces. "A prominent cleric, Grand Ayatollah Sistani, who had been placed under house arrest by the regime for a considerable period of time, issued a fatwa," Brigadier General Vincent Brooks told a news conference in Qatar.
Apparently the Saddamites had kept this guy cooped up for ten years or more. The US approached him respectfully and asked for his help and input. Seems to have paid off.
"And it was done this morning, instructing the population to remain calm and to not interfere with coalition actions. We believe this is a very significant turning point and another indicator that the Iraqi regime is approaching its end." A Reuters correspondent in Baghdad just one week ago saw a fatwa issued by Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani still pinned to the door of a main Shi'ite mosque in the capital saying Iraqis would "stand together against any invasion."

Things smell different when there's not a gun pointed at your head, don't they?
Posted by: jrosevear || 04/03/2003 08:05 am || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Freedom has a way of generating gratitude (unless you're French).
Posted by: Doug De Bono || 04/03/2003 8:14 Comments || Top||

#2  Fatwa says fight us, fatwa says don't fight us. Make up your minds, will ya?
Posted by: tu3031 || 04/03/2003 8:19 Comments || Top||

#3  Paul, get that damned turban off your head and quit horsing around!
Posted by: Fred || 04/03/2003 8:29 Comments || Top||

#4  This CAN'T be. Every "journalist" I hear says Iraq is going to be the West Bank, Vietnam. Iraqis don't want us there. It's been ten days and we've lost the war...and the hearts and minds....we've killed all the civilians already....we're invading conquerors, not liberators, my god, the Arab street, the Arab street...I want my mommy.........
Posted by: Anonymous || 04/03/2003 9:00 Comments || Top||

#5  I'm a little leery about this guy.

Time to invoke a little Vito Corleone wisdom: Keep your friends close and your enemies closer.
Posted by: Raj || 04/03/2003 9:08 Comments || Top||

#6  I'm leery about anybody with a turban - but we'll take what we can get, and discard it when it doesn't work anymore.
Posted by: Fred || 04/03/2003 9:59 Comments || Top||

#7  We have to guard against perceiving what we see as what we wish for. There are going to be some ugly realities surfacing post Saddam. There has been some 30 years of double-dealing, treachery, intimidation, killing, etc etc, which has turned normal human interaction and values upside down. It will take a generation at least to un-f--k this society, and I am not being ethnocentric.

Now, on the matter of Fatwas, I am willing to delegate the issuance of same to Grand Ayatollah Sistani for a while, and see if he can shoulder the Fatwanic responsibilities. I will be closely watching, however, some 5,000 yards off, using heavy lenses, so let's see some good quality.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 04/03/2003 10:20 Comments || Top||

#8  An overwhelming majority of these mad mullahs have been inciting genocide against non-Muslims for years. They, including the one's who are suddenly interested in their own survival, can go to hell sooner rather than later.
Posted by: Anonon || 04/03/2003 14:31 Comments || Top||

#9  This guy is the guardian of one of Shiite Islam's holiest places. He saw Sunni Iraqi's using the holy place as a fort, and infidels refusing to engage them for fear of hurting the site. The infidels then asked him for help, restoring his place of dignity before the locals. This was very well played by the coalition. Bravo.
Posted by: Yank || 04/03/2003 15:13 Comments || Top||

#10  I'm with Yank. Well played! Whoever was in charge who thought this up should get a promotion.
Posted by: Ptah || 04/03/2003 18:50 Comments || Top||


Six miles from Baghdad
American troops are six miles away from Baghdad and explosions have been heard coming from the city's airport, reports say. Reuters reported that advance units from the Army's 3rd Infantry Division are near the south west outskirts of the city. A series of explosions has been heard coming from the nearby Saddam Hussein International Airport. Reuters reported more than one explosion a minute coming from the direction of the airport as warplanes flew overhead. "It looks like they are using big bombs, they are really causing a shudder," a reporter in the city said. "They are distant but loud and still reverberating around the city. These are their powerful bombs."

US officials earlier said American forces were preparing to take the airport. US military spokesman Captain Frank Thorpe said troops outside the airport and "are positioning themselves to engage that fight at a time of our choice". The officer, at the US Central Command in Qatar, said the feared last stand by tens of thousands of Republican Guard troops south of the city did not materialize. But he said elements of four Iraqi Republican Guard divisions were confronting advancing troops. "We are engaging them, but we don't yet have any direct confrontation with the Republican Guard divisions as a whole." Captain Thorpe added: "We are getting closer and closer to Baghdad. When we decide to go into Baghdad, we will be in Baghdad within a matter of hours from when we decide to go."

A US military spokesman told Sky's Geoff Meade, in Qatar, that troops were "knocking on the door of Baghdad". Reports said troops advancing on the Iraqi capital from the south west had encountered pockets of resistance. One attack on US forces was caught live on television. Cameras showed a smouldering US tank that was believed to have been hit by a missile. A number of burnt out Iraqi targets that had been destroyed were also seen littering the roadside.

A "massive" convoy of US Marines was meanwhile approaching from the south east, Reuters said. Troops using howitzers lanched a "relentless" attack on Iraqi positions near the town of Numaniyah, around 70 miles from Baghdad, Reuters reported.
Posted by: Bent Pyramid || 04/03/2003 07:53 am || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Sorry Fred, this could have used some reformatting.
Posted by: Bent Pyramid || 04/03/2003 8:06 Comments || Top||

#2  Happy to do so with pleasant subject matter like this.
Posted by: Fred || 04/03/2003 8:30 Comments || Top||

#3  Title should be "Tiger at the Gates" - wanted to use that one myself, but i dont see anything that it fits better, and by tomorrow it just might be too late.
Posted by: liberalhawk || 04/03/2003 11:43 Comments || Top||

#4  I want film of somebody blowing up those two sword-wielding arms at the entrance to the "Plaza of Victory" (or whatever it's called), ala the exploding Nazi eagle&swastika at Nuremburg...
Posted by: mojo || 04/03/2003 13:02 Comments || Top||

#5  Use those arms as the scaffold we hang Sammy & Sons from. Sell PPV rights, use the money for the Iraqi people.
Posted by: Steve || 04/03/2003 14:51 Comments || Top||


Attack From 2 Sides Shatters the Iraqi Republican Guard
Severely edited.
In a sweeping advance, Army and Marine forces closed to within 20 miles of Baghdad from two directions today after crippling or destroying two divisions of the Republican Guard that had blocked their drive on the capital.
  • The Third Infantry Division battled forward today from a starting point north of Karbala, 45 miles from Baghdad, cutting through and routing disorganized Iraqi forces with no reports of American casualties. Their progress was never seriously challenged by the vaunted tank brigades of the Medina Division of the Republican Guard, which had been pounded by days of precision airstrikes and artillery barrages.

  • Large numbers of Iraqi tanks have been destroyed by American air power. But it appeared possible — despite concerted allied efforts today to prevent this — that Saddam Hussein was collapsing his most powerful defenses into the capital, Baghdad, where superior American firepower and technology will almost certainly be less decisive. What proportion of the Republican Guard escaped to the capital is unclear. "It amazes me that you would not have your armored units meet us," said Maj. Michael J. Johnson, executive officer of the division's Third Battalion.
    Sorry Mike, only a professional army would do that.

  • The advance on Baghdad was two-pronged. As the Army advanced to the west, the First Marine Division — which had raced east on Tuesday to cross the Tigris River at Numaniya, 100 miles from Baghdad — formed up today as a 14,000-member force preparing to strike toward the capital from the southeast. The Nida Division of the Republican Guard was in its path.

  • Allied aircraft are making bombing runs at the rate of 1,000 sorties a day, most of them aimed at Mr. Hussein's guard divisions.

  • Baghdad shook under intermittent bombardment today. Iraqi state television said President Hussein had met with senior officials, including his two sons, Uday and Qusay.
    Of course he did — they're all in that bunker together.

  • Late today Bradley fighting vehicles of the Third Infantry Division opened fire on a industrial complex that one commander said was on the list of sites suspected by American intelligence of being a storage facility for chemical weapons.

  • The American marines of Task Force Tarawa — whose task it has been to secure Nasiriya and its bridges across the Euphrates that sustain the main supply route to the armies to the north — said today that they had suffered 12 confirmed dead and more than 50 wounded in the battles for the town. Six or seven other marines are believed to be missing there.
The north is collapsing, the west is ours, the south is being rolled up, Basra is about to fall, RG units are being chewed up and we're at the suburbs of Baghdad. Wonder who has the momentum?
Posted by: Steve White || 04/03/2003 01:26 am || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "Wonder who has the momentum?"

According to uber-idiotarian Bob "hit me again" Fisk, the Saddamites do and they are only waiting for us to plunge into their fiendishly clever trap. He is staying with this line even with American tanks visible from the towers of Baghdad. This is yet another compelling example of the fantasy ideology that will be the greatest and most far-reaching casualty of this war. I devoutly hope that Bob actually believes this shit himself, along with his stupid contention of solidarity between the regime and the people. That way, he will make no arrangements to escape and will be torn to pieces as soon as the regime collapses and those self-same Iraqi people realize who, and what, he is.
Posted by: Atomic Conspiracy || 04/03/2003 2:47 Comments || Top||

#2  Reuters reporting 3rd ID is now SIX miles from Baghdad(0750 GMT).
Posted by: Atomic Conspiracy || 04/03/2003 2:55 Comments || Top||

#3  wonder if the RG is still "elite"?
Posted by: becky || 04/03/2003 4:35 Comments || Top||

#4  AC,
Fisk will never change his mind or recant his mistakes. Ideologues are oblivious to the truth no matter what happens. I don't think he'll get torn to pieces (although it would be funny if he got roughed up again). Fisk, like Michael Moore, does damage to his own causes and should be left in place, no matter how infuriating his idiocy may sometimes be.
Posted by: Tokyo Taro || 04/03/2003 5:04 Comments || Top||

#5  I keep waiting for the media to shift gears from "bogged down in a quagmire" to "we're moving too fast". It'll happen.
And tell Iraqis it's okay to beat on Fiskie now. It's like a tradition and he'll get a weepy story out of it.
Posted by: tu3031 || 04/03/2003 8:10 Comments || Top||

#6  Iraqi Republican Guard is considered "elite" because they have shoes. This is a serious investment in the eyes of most arab armies.
Posted by: Frank Martin || 04/03/2003 9:35 Comments || Top||

#7  tu3031:

"tell Iraqis it's okay to beat on Fiskie now."

Agreed. If I were an Iraqi, I'd beat up Robert Fisk, too.
Posted by: Mike || 04/03/2003 9:39 Comments || Top||

#8  RE: Fisk. My grandad used to say, "Don't confuse me with the facts."
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 04/03/2003 10:26 Comments || Top||


Details Emerging of W. Va. Soldier’s Capture and Rescue
Pfc. Jessica Lynch, rescued Tuesday from an Iraqi hospital, fought fiercely and shot several enemy soldiers after Iraqi forces ambushed the Army's 507th Ordnance Maintenance Company, firing her weapon until she ran out of ammunition, U.S. officials said yesterday. Lynch, a 19-year-old supply clerk, continued firing at the Iraqis even after she sustained multiple gunshot wounds and watched several other soldiers in her unit die around her in fighting March 23, one official said. The ambush took place after a 507th convoy, supporting the advancing 3rd Infantry Division, took a wrong turn near the southern city of Nasiriyah. "She was fighting to the death," the official said. "She did not want to be taken alive."
Tough kid. Good for her.

Lynch was also stabbed when Iraqi forces closed in on her position, the official said, noting that initial intelligence reports indicated that she had been stabbed to death. No official gave any indication yesterday, however, that Lynch's wounds had been life-threatening. Several officials cautioned that the precise sequence of events is still being determined, and that further information will emerge as Lynch is debriefed. Reports thus far are based on battlefield intelligence, they said, which comes from monitored communications and from Iraqi sources in Nasiriyah whose reliability has yet to be assessed. Pentagon officials said they had heard "rumors" of Lynch's heroics but had no confirmation.

There was no immediate indication whether Lynch's fellow soldiers killed in the ambush were among the 11 bodies found by the Special Operations commandos who rescued Lynch at Saddam Hussein Hospital in Nasiriyah. U.S. officials said that at least some of the bodies are believed to be those of U.S. servicemen. Two were found in the hospital's morgue, and nine were found in shallow graves on the grounds outside.

Lynch, of Palestine, W.Va., arrived yesterday at a U.S. military hospital in Germany. She was in "stable" condition, with broken arms and a broken leg in addition to the gunshot and stab wounds, sources said. Other sources said both legs and one arm were broken. ... one military officer briefed on her condition said that while Lynch was conscious and able to communicate with the U.S. commandos who rescued her, "she was pretty messed up."

At Central Command headquarters in Qatar, Brig. Gen. Vincent Brooks showed a brief night-vision video clip of commandos rushing Lynch, on a stretcher, to a Black Hawk helicopter. Later, television networks showed footage of her arriving in Germany.

One intriguing account of Lynch's captivity came from an unidentified Iraqi pharmacist at Saddam Hussein Hospital who told Sky News, a British network, that he had cared for her and heard her crying about wanting to be reunited with her family. "She said every time, about wanting to go home," said the pharmacist, who was filmed at the hospital wearing a white medical coat over a black T-shirt. "She knew that the American Army and the British were on the other side of the [Euphrates] river in Nasiriyah city. . . . She said, 'Maybe this minute the American Army [will] come and get me.' " The only injuries the pharmacist said he was aware of were to Lynch's leg, but there was no way to evaluate his statement.
Sounds like total crap. I will also say that if I had multiple gunshot and stab wounds, a broken arm and two broken legs, I'd be thinking about wanting to go home, too.

Lynch's rescue at midnight local time Tuesday was a classic Special Operations raid, with U.S. commandos in Black Hawk helicopters engaging Iraqi forces on their way in and out of the medical compound, defense officials said. Acting on information from CIA operatives, they said, a Special Operations force of Navy SEALs, Army Rangers and Air Force combat controllers touched down in blacked-out conditions. An AC-130 gunship, able to fire 1,800 rounds a minute from its 25mm cannon, circled overhead, as did a reconnaissance aircraft providing video imagery of the operation as it unfolded. "There was shooting going in, there was some shooting going out," said one military officer briefed on the operation. "It was not intensive. There was no shooting in the building, but it was hairy, because no one knew what to expect. When they got inside, I don't think there was any resistance. It was fairly abandoned."

Meanwhile, U.S. Marines advanced in Nasiriyah to divert whatever Iraqi forces might still have been in the area. The officer said that Special Operations forces found what looked like a "prototype" Iraqi torture chamber in the hospital's basement, with batteries and metal prods.
Yet another violation of the Geneva Accords.

Briefing reporters at Central Command headquarters, Brooks said the hospital apparently was being used as a military command post. Commandos whisked Lynch to the Black Hawk helicopter that had landed inside the hospital compound, he said, while others remained behind to clear the hospital.
Good job all around.
Posted by: Steve White || 04/03/2003 01:07 am || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  They better put her in for a Bronze Star with a V - fighting until out of ammo, despite serious wounds and broken limbs. Thats Valor.
Posted by: OldSpook || 04/03/2003 3:15 Comments || Top||

#2  She is a real heroin. What a survivor!
Posted by: anon1 || 04/03/2003 7:04 Comments || Top||

#3  As a former WV hillbilly myself, I can assure you that those mountain gals are tough as nails. Private Jessica made an old Mountaineer proud. Montani semper liberi!
Posted by: Bent Pyramid || 04/03/2003 7:20 Comments || Top||

#4  You think NOW would be all over this one, showing how women can compete in combat and all. No doubt we can expect this story to be buried by the left.
Posted by: becky || 04/03/2003 7:25 Comments || Top||

#5  Speaking of medals, could one of the military types around here please explain the difference between Bronze and Silver Stars? My ex-brother-in-law has a Silver Star from Vietnam, but I've never been able to find out what he did that earned it.
Posted by: Bent Pyramid || 04/03/2003 7:37 Comments || Top||

#6  If even half of this is true, I think we may see a Medal of Honor awarded here. They'll investigate, but I would expect a Silver Star, at the very least. If, in fact, she was stabbed, that indicates hand-to-hand combat to me. She deserves a big "Attaboy", a shiny gong, posting wherever she wants to go, and promotion a grade or two.
Posted by: Chuck || 04/03/2003 7:42 Comments || Top||

#7  I suppose if she was as badly shot up as the account says, I'd think she was delirious when the pharmacist saw her. Even then, she had full faith and confidence in her teammates and her country's armed forces.
Posted by: Ptah || 04/03/2003 8:31 Comments || Top||

#8  Reports also say that she hasn't had anything to eat for 8 days. Anyone would be delirious after that.
Posted by: Steve || 04/03/2003 8:46 Comments || Top||

#9  Bronze Star, Silver Star are combat valor awards. The difference between them is a matter of degree. The Silver Star is for more heroic action against greater odds than a Bronze Star. Neither is a decoration to be sneared at. I respect anyone that has one.
Posted by: Old Patriot || 04/03/2003 9:23 Comments || Top||

#10  The Army's top awards:

Bronze Star: For heroic or meritorious achievement in connection with operations against an opposing armed force. A bronze "V" on the award signifies combat heroism distinguishing it from meritorious achievement awards.

Silver Star: For gallantry in action against an enemy of the United States while engaged in military operations. The required gallantry must have been performed with marked distinction.

Distinguished Service Cross: For extraordinary heroism while engaged in action against an enemy of the United States. The act or acts of heroism must have been so notable and have involved risk of life so extraordinary as to set the individual apart from his or her comrades.

Medal of Honor: For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidy at the risk of his or her life above and beyond the call of duty while engaged in action against an enemy of the United States. The deed performed must have been one of personal bravery or self-sacrifice so conspicuous as to clearly distinguish the individual above his comrades and must have envolved risk of life.
Posted by: Thane of Cawdor || 04/03/2003 9:33 Comments || Top||

#11  Hate to rain on everyone's parade here, but firing your weapon until your out of ammunition is not cause for any decoration whatsoever. That is in the line of duty. She performed her duty just as we expect of our servicemen and women.

One must simply read the citations for CMHs and Silver Stars to fathom the superhuman effort and sacrifice required to be worthy of these awards. If you aren't left muttering, "How can someone do this?" it probably ain't CMH or Silver Star worthy. PFC Lynch does not rise to that level.

As we used to say on my ship, "Handshake in lieu of first award."

Plus, these decorations require corroboration by witnesses.
Posted by: Dreadnought || 04/03/2003 9:42 Comments || Top||

#12  I'm curious to know if these multiple fractures she had were pre- or post-capture injuries. This should be one hell of a story once the full details come out.

Kudos to the Rangers and Seals!
Posted by: Dar Steckelberg || 04/03/2003 10:57 Comments || Top||

#13  Hey guys, the kid done good. If I had to choose having my kids in a squad with Pvt. Lynch or Pvt. Funk( the idiot who was shocked to find that being a marine involved some violence), I'd take Pvt. Lynch any day.

She did her duty. What more can anyone ask, and what reward would be sufficient for her sacrifice. For the rest of her life when she enters the Chow Hall, Senior Master Sergents will smile and make a place for her at the table. Not because shes a woman, but because she stood and fought like a man.
Posted by: Frank Martin || 04/03/2003 11:29 Comments || Top||

#14  we'll have to wait for the full story, but some survivors of her unit were not captured. Five were, and will hopefully be released soon.

She's a supply clerk-type. No combat training beyond Basic. The following from the Medal of Honor quote above may very well apply:

For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidy at the risk of his or her life above and beyond the call of duty while engaged in action against an enemy of the United States. The deed performed must have been one of personal bravery or self-sacrifice so conspicuous as to clearly distinguish the individual above his comrades and must have envolved risk of life.

If the story holds up:

Beyond the call of duty. Check.
Personal bravery. Check.
Clearly distinguish the individual above his comrades. Check.

Who surrendered and who was taken prisoner? She was apparently taken prisoner. Don't know about anybody else, how hard they fought, or if they fought at all. No shame in surrendering against overwhelming odds, putting up a fight, though, goes back to the Medal criteria.
Posted by: Chuck || 04/03/2003 11:37 Comments || Top||

#15  And, remember, this isn't about Pfc. Jessica Lynch. It's about a soldier that brought credit to the Army and the State of West Virginia. Politics will rule here, unless the initial story is completely bogus.
Posted by: Chuck || 04/03/2003 11:40 Comments || Top||

#16  There are some folks going overboard. CMH? No way - unless she was carrying piles of 200lb soldiers and saving their lives, etc. The CMH is usually earned posthumously. This is not IMHO such a case.

Probably not a Silver Star either unless they have a lot of stuff about here affecting the battle (allowing parts of the 507 to escape because she was tying them up). I haven't heard anything about that so no Silver Star.


But some of you are even more wrong that those who would inflate the medal.

Dreadnought - I disagree with your assertions. Its not just emptying your ammo at the enemy - its hitting them (as she was alleged to do), and continuing to fight despite multiple wounds, broken bones and your comrades being killed all around you.

You seemed to gloss over that part. Thats what earns her the Bronze Star in my book.

And if it holds true that she continued to fight even when out of ammuition, recieving stab wounds, then there's your 'V' for valor.

There are plenty of men who have not or could not do as well.

I got my bronze star (but no V), and Valorous Unit award in the last Gulf War in addition to the campaign medal and the Kuwaiti medal. This supply clerk, assuming the story relayed is factual, deserves the Bronze Star and V device. Anyone saying otherwise is a fool in my opinion.
Posted by: OldSpook || 04/03/2003 11:55 Comments || Top||

#17  Here's a sample of what you have to do to get the MOH:

Even our CO's are tougher than the Iraqi Republican Guards

Hollywood actually had to tone down the real-life exploits of Audie Murphy in the movie TO HELL AND BACK. The VC has -even higher standards.- I wish I could remember the name of the man who won 2 and was nominated for a 3rd, and -lived!-

That being said, it's likely that Pfc. Lynch will receive a higher decoration (Silver Star?) on political grounds, at least. If she's made of the same stuff as the gentlemen above (and it certainly looks like she is), she'd want to trade it back to get back the 11 who didn't make it.
Posted by: Ernest Brown || 04/03/2003 12:54 Comments || Top||

#18  Actually three men won the VC twice. Here's a good link (look under "Unusual VCs").

http://www.chapter-one.com/vc/

Posted by: Thane of Cawdor || 04/03/2003 13:41 Comments || Top||

#19  Major Smedley D. Butler, USMC won the MOH twice. Once in 1914 at Vera Cruz and again in 1915 in Hati. From what I hear he was one tough SOB.
Posted by: Steve || 04/03/2003 15:02 Comments || Top||

#20  Old Spook,

Congrats on the Bronze Star. My travails during the Gulf War earned me nothing more than a campaign medal.

My point was mainly directed at those hurriedly writing up Silver Star and CMH citations. In fact, my direct quote was "This is not CMH or SS worthy." Firing at and hitting the enemy is great, but it is not the stuff of Medals of Honor.

We've seen exactly one news report on her story, and we know that most journalists know almost nothing about military affairs. Therefore, we basically know almost nothing.

And, by the way, to call people fools who have honest, but differing opinions is very poor form.
Posted by: Dreadnought || 04/03/2003 15:09 Comments || Top||

#21  Poor Form? Guilty. I'm not a politician, nor am I a professiona writer. Im a former Cavalryman with an unfortunate tendency to be blunt. And I stand by my statement that *In My Opinon* _if_ the circumstances are true (beginning to look liek they may not be completely true) _then_ the PFC dde4serves the Bronze Star and the V, and that anyone disagreeing with that logic was a fool.

Now on to the circumstances:

More is coming out - there is now info saying she had no gunshot wounds, the broken arm is now a "broken collarbone from a probable fall".

Bronze Star might still be justified (for staying strong as a POW and fighting back while all alone) - but that V is looking less and less likely.

And I agree that the Silver Star is not justified unless they have proof that the PFC made an impact on the battlefield that helped the rest of their unit.

Anything higher than a Bronze Start would simply be politics in the absence of proof of Gallantry.

As for Smedley Butler - there was some controversy about his CMH for an assault on a fort in Haiti. He later became a left-side pacificst - or maybe "isolationist" is the better word. Go figure.

My Bronze Star was due to circumstance as much as anything else. Had I not been in the unit I was in, I doubt I would have had the accidental opportunity to earn it. And as I said, there's no 'V' on mine. During combat, but not under enemy fire at the time. I'm actually almost as proud of my Joint Service Commendation Medal in terms of what I did to earn it. My JSAM probably had more of a real-world impact, my ArCom a bit less so.

As for my AAM, that was kinda handed out too easily back during the cold war during border operations. I was just doing my job and they gave me a medal for it.

Thats why I hope they do give her the right medal deservedly - but not the wrong one undeservedly. I'd hate for her to have something as valuable as a Bronze Star with a 'V' for Valor, and feel about it the way I feel about my AAM.
Posted by: OldSpook || 04/03/2003 15:47 Comments || Top||

#22  You guys can debate all you want on the direct merits of the appropriate military reward, and I would be the first to defer to your expert opinions. But PFC Lynch is now a media star, and it's certain the agents are lining up with the book contracts, movie rights, and appearance exclusives. And the politicians are right behind them. So everything hereon in is politically driven.

Besides, the psychological boost her rescue gave to the Coalition will be remembered as a turning point in the entire war. This news pumped the country, and suddenly all the "quagmire" story idiocy became irrelevant. The story is bigger than the star. And the anti-war movement just got run over.
Posted by: john || 04/03/2003 19:32 Comments || Top||

#23  Thanks, C.H. Upham was the one nominated for the 3rd VC. He didn't get it for political reasons, but they rewarded him in other ways.
Posted by: Ernest Brown || 04/04/2003 8:34 Comments || Top||


Saddam’s army retreats to Mosul with heavy losses
The Iraqi army's northern front began to collapse yesterday as troops pulled back in confusion to the city of Mosul after suffering heavy losses from US air strikes and fighting with Kurdish militia. Sarbast Babiri, a Kurdish commander, smiled triumphantly as his men, many wearing captured Iraqi helmets, milled around him. "The Iraqi army has withdrawn to positions nine kilometres north of Mosul. They left behind heavy machine-guns, rocket launchers, food and many dead bodies," he said.
Doesn't sound like an orderly retreat, does it?

The crumbling of the northern front, quiescent since the start of the war, is a serious blow to Saddam Hussein, because he will face attacks from the north as well as the south. It may, however, increase the possibility of a Turkish invasion of northern Iraq which Colin Powell, the US Secretary of State, tried to head off yesterday. Mr Powell, in Ankara for a one-day visit, said he was addressing Turkish concerns over "the extension of control out of Kurdish areas towards the south". As he spoke there were signs that Kurdish peshmerga (soldiers) were doing just that. But, conscious of the danger from Turkey, they portrayed their advance as unplanned, saying it was the result of a mistake by the Iraqis.
"Honest, they kept back-pedaling."

The Iraqi front line in northern Iraq was, until yesterday, 60km north of Mosul. It ran along the top of steep green hills, crowned with sandbagged bunkers, just outside the Kurdish village of Bardarash. Commander Babiri said the Iraqi army had been relieving one of its units with another – a standard tactic apparently designed to prevent desertions and to limit the time its troops spend under air attack in their exposed hill-top positions. "The soldiers in the newly arrived unit did not know where our peshmerga front line was," he said. "They started firing at our men and we shot back." At this point a US Special Forces detachment with the peshmerga called in air strikes on the Iraqi troops. "The Americans were with us and they were co-ordinating the plane attacks," Commander Babiri said. Over the past month US special forces have been secretly operating with peshmerga units. Villagers in the Kurdish settlement of Kanilan, previously under Iraqi army control, confirmed that the Iraqi regiment stationed at Mandan bridge, a concrete structure spanning a small stream nearby, had suffered heavy casualties. Hoshyar Ahmed, a villager, said: "We saw the American aircraft bomb them. Their vehicles brought away many dead and wounded. They ran away pulled out so fast they did not even have time to blow up the bridge, although they had mined it."
SOP for the Iraqi army -- pull back and leave the bridge as a gift.

Commander Babiri was wary of saying anything that might foster Turkish suspicions that the Kurds were deliberately moving into Mosul province. "We did not leave our positions during the fighting," he said, although it was difficult to see, if this were true, as he and his men were now six miles down the road towards Mosul. He added: "We will only go as far as there are Kurdish lands," referring to the Kurdish territories from which they were driven over the last 30 years by the Iraqi government's systematic ethnic cleansing. The peshmerga suffered only five dead while villagers said that as many as 200 Iraqi soldiers were killed or wounded by the air strikes. This underlines the fact that the Iraqi army in open country cannot withstand even lightly armed Kurdish infantry supported by US air power.
The Iraqi army couldn't withstand my daughter's girl scout troop supported by US air power.

In reality, the peshmerga do not have to advance into Kirkuk or Mosul. Once the Iraqi army retreats or breaks up, about 300,000 Kurdish refugees from the two provinces – many of them armed – have said they intend to return home as soon as possible. And it is becoming increasingly difficult for Turkey to invade because of the growing number of US troops in northern Iraq.
No wonder Murat hasn't been posting; he's in his cups over this one.

US aircraft repeatedly raided the Iraqi front line in Mosul and Kirkuk provinces over the past week. High over Mosul yesterday were the vapour trails of B-52 bombers, and plumes of smoke rose from the general direction of the city. On the ridge opposite the town of Kalakh, south-east of Mosul – probably the most-filmed military position in Iraq because many television companies have rented houses in the town – Iraqi soldiers were still visible yesterday, moving about around their frequently bombed bunkers. Yet the soldiers appear to be under orders not to do anything to ignite the northern front by opening fire, even under provocation. One of the main roads linking the Kurdish capital Arbil with the western city of Dohuk goes through Kalakh across a bridge over the Zaab river and then runs along one of the banks of the river, overlooked by an Iraqi machine-gun post on a hill 100 yards away.

Although the Kurdish leaders say they are now part of the US-led coalition, the Iraqi gunners have never opened fire on the road. Yesterday, cars were passing there freely. But with the Iraqi army retreat from Bardarash back to Kirkuk, the forces in Kalakh are vulnerable to being cut off from the rear. It is difficult to see how they can stay in their present positions. There is also an increased flow of deserters, trying to avoid the relentless bombardment, to the Kurds.
Two days, tops, and both Mosul and Kirkuk fall. Hope we have enough troops in place by then to ensure the Turks don't do anything stupid.
Posted by: Steve White || 04/03/2003 12:56 am || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I'm wary of making any predictions about how long things will take. Maybe it's a couple days, maybe a week or two.

In any case, the last couple of days in this war have been extremely encouraging.
Posted by: Dave D. || 04/03/2003 4:56 Comments || Top||

#2  the discouraging news for Iraqi forces may keep them from demo'ing the oil fields too - good news for the rest
Posted by: Frank G || 04/03/2003 8:37 Comments || Top||

#3  Have the Iraqis blown one bridge during this thing? Sounds like they were all rigged, but nobody hit the plunger. If it's me, I blow up every bridge in Iraq to slow us down.
Posted by: tu3031 || 04/03/2003 9:06 Comments || Top||

#4  This is all very good news but there are still two big uglies left: block-to-block fighting in Baghdad and the WMD attack which has not yet materialized. We really don't have time for a siege so that leaves some sort of assault.

Still, with any luck, the 4th ID folks may be reduced to grousing about how no one left anything for them.
Posted by: Hiryu || 04/03/2003 9:43 Comments || Top||

#5  Greetns' Fellow Earthlings! Re. Bridgeheads, The only one(s) that got blown were done by us. WMD won't do much to us, just piss us off. It will be a tragedy for his own people though, they don't have JSLIST suits, NAAK injectors, etc. Depending on the Downwind Plume Models and the amount of agent sent forth before counter-battery takes them out, Chem agents could effectively cause large areas to become civilian killing fields. I pray for the people of Iraq, their peader is that nuts. BTW, God bless you guys for your support back in the U.S.
Posted by: Bodyguard || 04/03/2003 10:19 Comments || Top||

#6  Give our love and regards to everyone there, Bodyguard!
Posted by: Ptah || 04/03/2003 10:29 Comments || Top||

#7  Murat seems awfully quiet these days.
Posted by: 11A5S || 04/03/2003 11:24 Comments || Top||

#8  Good.
Posted by: tu3031 || 04/03/2003 13:18 Comments || Top||

#9  Hello, Bodyguard. Glad you're safe. Outstanding work by everyone over there. Hope you'll be home sooner then you thought. But it ain't over yet, so be careful.
Posted by: tu3031 || 04/03/2003 23:43 Comments || Top||

#10  Amen to Murat's silence and Amen (in a better mind) to you bodyguard
Posted by: Frank G || 04/03/2003 18:29 Comments || Top||


Iraqi Forces Take Cover in Ancient Mosque in Najaf
NEAR NAJAF, Iraq (AP) - Iraqi forces were firing on coalition troops from inside the Mosque of Ali, one of the world's most important Shiite Muslim shrines, U.S. Central Command said Wednesday.

Brig. Gen. Vincent Brooks called the Iraqi fire from inside the gold-domed mosque in Najaf ``a detestable example of putting historical sites in danger'' and said U.S.-led forces refused to return fire.
Just another violation of the Geneva Accords by the Baathists. I'm losing count.
Allied troops occupied part of the city Wednesday and were welcomed by a crowd of cheering Iraqi civilians, according to a Washington Post reporter traveling with U.S. forces.

The Air Force demolished a building described as a Baath Party headquarters with a 2,000-pound bomb Wednesday, and U.S. patrols in the city traded gunfire with Iraqis, the Post report said.

But soldiers were still trying to root out Iraqi fighters in the holy cities of Najaf and Karbala without damaging their sacred buildings. The coalition has declared the holy sites ``no target'' zones that can only be fired on in self-defense, Brooks said during a briefing at U.S. Central Command in Qatar. ``We don't have to go to that mosque and we certainly want to keep it as protected as possible,'' he said. ``It's something we know to be sacred, and something obviously the people of the town know to be sacred.''

The Ali Mosque holds the tomb of the Shiites' most revered saint, Imam Ali Ibn Abu Talib, the Prophet Muhammad's cousin and son-in-law. With its silver-covered tomb, ceramic-ornamented walls and resplendent golden dome and minarets, the shrine is considered a treasure of Islamic art.

Attacking such holy sites would alienate Iraq's majority Shiite population - whose support the coalition has been trying to rally - and inflame Shiite feelings against the United States worldwide, particularly in Iran. There have been concerns that Saddam Hussein's Sunni Muslim regime would try to provoke allied forces to attack holy sites.

Central Command also said Iraqi forces fired three unguided surface-to-surface rockets that landed near Najaf on Wednesday. The unguided rockets used are known as Free Rocket Over Ground, or FROGs.
As usual, they didn't hit anything.
Video was shown at the briefing of Iraqi troops positioning two tanks on transporters next to another mosque. Brooks said a third truck carried a container that exploded, but there were no U.S. warplanes or other weapons in the area that could have caused the blast.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair said Wednesday there was evidence that Iraq itself may be planning to damage the shrines, and then blame the coalition. ``We are doing everything we can to protect those holy sites and shrines,'' Blair said.
As usual, the Baathists are using our humanity against us.
In Baghdad, Iraqi Information Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf said his government was also concerned about possible damage to historical and cultural sites.
Not enough to stop using it as a shield, mind you.
For the world's nearly 120 million Shiites, Najaf is the third holiest city, behind Mecca and Medina in Saudi Arabia. Najaf, whose name in Arabic means ``a high land,'' is located about 100 miles south of Baghdad on a high desert plateau overlooking the world's largest cemetery, where Shiites aspire to bury their dead.
Wonder if they'll allow Fedayeen to be buried there -- we're sure going to have a lot of 'em to bury.
Najaf is also the seat of the Shiites' spiritual leaders, known as ayatollahs, and the center for scientific, literary and theological studies for the Islamic world.
Posted by: Steve White || 04/03/2003 12:47 am || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  As far as I know, non-lethal military weaponry has not been used in the war. It could be tried in these cases, as long as the war-criminals have no opportunity to escape.
Posted by: Anonon || 04/03/2003 1:26 Comments || Top||

#2  Where is the russian snooze gas when you need it.

dorf
Posted by: Anonymous || 04/03/2003 6:51 Comments || Top||

#3  Unfortunately, snooze gas is still a chemical weapon. I doubt we brought any with us.
Posted by: Dishman || 04/03/2003 8:51 Comments || Top||

#4  What about nitrous oxide gas in a bunker to flush 'em out. Is that a violation of the Geneva Accords?
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 04/03/2003 10:49 Comments || Top||


’Raid and aid’ tactic by British forces in Basra
British troops on the outskirts of Basra were yesterday distributing leaflets in an attempt to reassure local people that their intentions were benign. "This time we won't abandon you," the sheets said, in a reference to 1991 when the Shias were encouraged by the US and Britain to rise up against Saddam Hussein only to be let down as their revolt was brutally quashed. The reverse of the leaflet, written in Arabic, reads: "People of Basra, we are here to liberate the people of Iraq. Our enemy is the regime and not the people. We need your help to identify the enemy to rebuild Iraq. English speakers please come forward. We will stay as long as it takes."

British special forces, Royal Marine commandos, troops from 7 Armoured Brigade - the Desert Rats - and gunners from the Royal Horse Artillery have been engaged in "raid and aid" tactics, attacking hostile forces while trying to make friends with civilians. The problem comes when they are mingled or when troops cannot tell one from another. "The way we go about solving this problem of fighting in cities is A, very delicate, and B, very subtle," Air Marshal Brian Burridge, commander of British forces, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme. "It is a question of developing absolute situational awareness, as we say in the jargon, so that we know what is going on. For example, in Basra we know that the Ba'athist militia are terrorising the people; we know that they are using death squads in order to make some of the regular forces who have already deserted return to their equipment," the air marshal said. "It is a question of understanding where they are operating from, focusing on that, and thereby giving the people confidence."

For more than a week, British troops have tried to secure Basra, Iraq's second largest city, whose capture, it had been hoped, would deal a blow to President Saddam's regime and encourage Iraqi commanders elsewhere in the country, including Baghdad, to give up. The 25,000 or so British troops and marines in southern Iraq have secured the deep water port of Umm Qasr, an important base for the supplies of humanitarian aid. They have also secured the oilfields of Rumaila to the west, and the Faw peninsula to the south-east, according to military sources. Towns to the south of Basra and the city's western and southern outskirts have also been taken by British forces. However, pockets of Iraqi fighters continue to present a threat: British troops came under mortar fire yesterday. British commanders are not using the army's handbook on fighting in built-up areas, which tells them to take towns block by block. In Basra, a senior officer said, the plan is to "separate the forces of the regime from the local population". He added: "We need to establish we are here to stay, to show we can operate at will and demonstrate to those controlling the city they are losing their grip on the population. It is a battle of minds as much as physical control."

Brigadier General Vincent Brooks, at US central command in Qatar, described how "in one particular encounter, UK forces captured a motorcycle courier ... The motorcycle courier and crew had maps in their possession which showed artillery positions". He added: "The UK forces went to find the artillery positions - found them, destroyed all their artillery and also found three other missiles and destroyed those as well."

The British tactic is not to surround Basra, but to allow the estimated 1,000 Fedayeen and other Iraqi special forces in the city of 1.5 million people an escape route to the east.
"Try and make the border, boys!"

Meanwhile, hundreds of civilians continued to stream out of the city. However, the exodus appeared to have slowed from previous days and, according to a British military spokesman, civilians were reporting increasingly brutal measures by Iraqi government forces to stop people fleeing, including one case of a woman being publicly hanged. They said Saddam loyalists were forcing Iraqi troops to fight using death threats, shooting people if they tried to flee, using children as young as five as human shields, and hiding armed fighters in schools.
Baathist scum. Some of the war crimes tribunals should be held in Basra so that the people there can attend the trials of these thugs. And watch them hang.

On the "hearts and minds" front, British troops started to distribute thousands of boxes of children's medicines seized in a raid on a militia headquarters in Zubayr, near Basra.
Related to the story Fred posted yesterday about the warehouse full of food that hadn't quite make it into the distribution pipeline.

But water remains a priority. Troops from the Royal Engineers have built a pipe from the Kuwaiti border to Umm Qasr. Water is being distributed from barrels on the back of trucks.
Posted by: Steve White || 04/03/2003 12:38 am || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Motorcycle couriers - isn't that one of the low-tech techniques that Van Riper used in that wargame late last year?
Posted by: Tony || 04/03/2003 4:13 Comments || Top||

#2  Good strategy. Go into a section, let the civvies flee while providing cover, then get the hell out.
Posted by: Ptah || 04/03/2003 12:22 Comments || Top||


Two US aircraft down over Iraq
A US Army Black Hawk helicopter has been shot down in southern Iraq, killing seven of the 11 soldiers aboard, Pentagon officials said today. The helicopter was hit yesterday by small-arms fire near Kerbala, the site of fierce fighting between the army's 3rd Infantry Division and Iraqi troops, including Republican Guard forces. The four injured soldiers were rescued, military officials said.

In a separate incident, an American FA-18 Hornet jet is also reported to have crashed over Kerbala. Unconfirmed reports suggest that the Hornet was shot down by an Iraqi surface-to-air missile. The fate of the pilot is unknown.
Bless and remember all of them.
Posted by: Steve White || 04/03/2003 12:35 am || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  CENTCOM is apparently now saying that the BlackHawk wasn't shot down -- it crashed for some other reason.
Posted by: jrosevear || 04/03/2003 8:11 Comments || Top||

#2  Just saw foxnews. There's a report suggesting that a Patriot lost lock on a target and hit the Hornet instead. Might be Blue on blue. Crap...
Posted by: Ptah || 04/03/2003 10:31 Comments || Top||


Southeast Asia
Blasts Heard Outside U.S. Military Base Near Tokyo
Two loud explosions were heard outside the gates of a U.S. military base close to Tokyo late Thursday in what Japanese police said might be a protest by militants opposed to the Iraq war. There were no reports of casualties or damage to property following the loud blasts which took place at around 10:40 a.m. local outside the Atsugi U.S. Naval Air Facility in Kanagawa Prefecture. The Kyodo news agency quoted a store owner outside the main gate of the base who said he heard two loud explosions that sounded "something like fireworks." Police told Reuters they found two steel pipes at an elementary school about half a mile from the military base that might have been used to fire projectiles.
Yawn, must be "Home-Made Mortar Season", again. This happened last week at Yokota, someone fired at the golf course in the middle of the night. Happens all the time, mostly by the far-left commies. The far-right wants us out, too. They mostly drive around bases in big black vans covered with posters with loud speakers ranting at the base. These mortars get fired at Narita airport as well. Nothing to see, move along.
Posted by: Steve || 04/03/2003 12:04 pm || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:


Mosques attacked in Philippines
Three mosques in the south Philippines city of Davao have been hit by a series of attacks, just hours after a deadly bombing killed 16 people. The mosque attacks prompted fears of a spiral of religious violence in the mainly Christian city. Military vice-chief of staff Lieutenant General Rodolfo Garcia said the mosque attacks might be "a retaliatory action" for the bombing, but added that this should not be allowed to become a "religious confrontation".
Too late
The initial bombing, at the city's bustling Sasa wharf at dusk on Wednesday, killed 16 people and injured at least 40. The bomb was hidden in a barbecue stand and tore through the crowds leaving a ferry terminal. A nun and at least one child were among the dead. The bomb was followed by attacks in Muslim or mixed districts of the city. At about 0200 on Thursday local time (1800 GMT on Wednesday), five hooded men in a car hurled two grenades and directed rifle fire at a mosque in the southern, mainly Muslim district of Tibungco before fleeing. Minutes later, a bomb exploded outside a mosque in the mixed Christian-Muslim district of Toril. Less than an hour later, unidentified men in black jackets hurled a home-made bomb near a mosque in the mainly Muslim district on Roxas Boulevard, shattering the mosque's windows. There were no reports of casualties. No group has claimed responsibility for any of the attacks, and police would not comment on any link between them.
Not good, the last thing they need is Christian attacks on Muslims who may not have anything to do with the violence. It can only create more support for the rebels.

I think this is something that the Islamists have been trying to work up to. If the Christian majority fights back, then they can push the "us versus them" angle and go for an independent Islamic state that just happens to control the Philippines' most productive oil region. (Do you ever wonder why everywhere there's oil, there are always a lot of Muslims agitating for "autonomy"?)

They could also end up with an indignant Christian majority, pushed over the edge, stringing up as many Muslims (of all stripes) as they can lay hands on and Islam being eventually pushed out of the country. But the Islamists don't think that'll happen — they don't regard the Christians as ruthless enough. Nobody's run an auto-da-fè for quite a few years...
Posted by: Steve || 04/03/2003 07:57 am || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Well this is a switch. Kinda like "Man Bites Dog".
Posted by: tu3031 || 04/03/2003 8:16 Comments || Top||


Iran
Key reform bill rejected by the Guardians Council
A key reform bill adopted by Iranian MPs in a bid to end the conservative stranglehold over President Mohammad Khatami's legislative agenda has been rejected by a constitutional watchdog body controlled by his opponents, official media said Wednesday. The Guardians Council demanded that parliament revise the legislation which would end its right to vet candidates, the state IRNA news agency said. Reformist supporters of Khatami, who dominate parliament, accuse the council of abusing its powers to disqualify scores of candidates not to its liking. The bill is one of a pair of reforms, along with another targetting the conservative-controlled courts, which are seen as as a last-ditch bid to save Khatami's six-year-old presidency amid mounting public frustration with his failure to deliver in the face of his opponents' stonewalling.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 04/03/2003 06:52 pm || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:


Home Front
Ex-CIA director: U.S. faces ’World War IV’
Former CIA director James Woolsey said Wednesday that the United States is engaged in World War IV, and that it could continue for years. In the address to a group of college students, Woolsey described the Cold War as the third world war and said "This fourth world war, I think, will last considerably longer than either World Wars I or II did for us. Hopefully not the full four-plus decades of the Cold War." He said the new war is actually against three enemies: the religious rulers of Iran, the "fascists" of Iraq and Syria, and Islamic extremists like al Qaeda. Woolsey told the audience of about 300, most of whom are students at the University of California at Los Angeles, that all three enemies have waged war against the United States for several years but the United States has just "finally noticed."

"As we move toward a new Middle East," Woolsey said, "over the years and, I think, over the decades to come ... we will make a lot of people very nervous." It will be America's backing of democratic movements throughout the Middle East that will bring about this sense of unease, he said. "Our response should be, 'good!'" Woolsey said.
Singling out Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and the leaders of Saudi Arabia, he said, "We want you nervous. We want you to realize now, for the fourth time in a hundred years, this country and its allies are on the march and that we are on the side of those whom you -- the Mubaraks, the Saudi Royal family -- most fear: We're on the side of your own people."

Woolsey, who served as CIA director under President Bill Clinton, was taking part in a "teach-in" at UCLA, a series of such forums at universities across the nation. A group calling itself "Americans for Victory Over Terrorism" sponsors the teach-ins, and the Bruin Republicans, UCLA's campus Republicans organization, co-sponsored Wednesday night's event. The group was founded by former Education Secretary William Bennett, who took part in Wednesday's event along with Paul Bremer, a U.S. ambassador during the Reagan administration and the former chairman of the National Commission on Terrorism.
I wonder if he mentioned this to Slick Willy when he was working foe him?
Posted by: Steve || 04/03/2003 03:34 pm || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  There's some indication that he tried.
Unfortunately, His Willy just wasn't into hearing stories that would bring him down.
History has shown that Woolsey should have hired a model or escort to deliver his messages.
Posted by: Dishman || 04/03/2003 15:51 Comments || Top||

#2  he left out Ming the Merciless (aka dear leader)
Posted by: mhw || 04/03/2003 15:54 Comments || Top||

#3  I think the story was,during the time Woolsey was director in 1993-95,Clinton didn't have a single face-to-face meeting with the CIA director.Correct me if I'm wrong.
Posted by: El Id || 04/03/2003 16:08 Comments || Top||

#4  I think Pervez and the Pakland Military regime should be added to that last.
Posted by: rg117 || 04/03/2003 18:16 Comments || Top||

#5  there are two parts of this you need to understand: 1) He said this at a 'teach-in' (aka commie cell meeting) and 2) He worked for Clinton (I will never NEVER trust a Cliton apointee).
Posted by: Cyber Sarge || 04/03/2003 18:29 Comments || Top||

#6  Read the whole story, Sarge. This was a Right Wing teach in.
Posted by: Parabellum || 04/03/2003 18:41 Comments || Top||

#7  The notion of a protracted counter-terror war is part and parcel of the Bush regime. Shortly after 9-11, Bush predicted the war could last "10 years." Later, Cheney updated that figure to "50 years."

Be aware that the government of America's main counter-terror ally - Pakistan - hangs on by an unconstitutional law, called the "Legal Framework Order." The opposition, including a retired ISI chief - Hamid Gul - has just advocated use of nuclear weapons against Coalition troops, on behalf of the Iraqi dictatorship.
http://nni-news.com/today/main/main-06.htm

Could these jihadis take power in Pakistan? They already have power in 2 of Pakistan's 4 provinces, and the Musharaf forces (PML-QA) are negotiating to share power with the terrorist supporting MMA, in Parliament. It is only a matter of time before these genocidal elements seize the nuclear weapons and begin using them against non-Muslims.

If you have been brainwashed into believing that one-time democratic elections in Islamania, will produce moderate governments, do yourself a remedial favor and read the following link:
http://www.balochistanpost.com/item.asp?ID=3669

Islam and democracy don't mix. The jihad governments must be eliminated, and not by protracted war and smart bombs.
Posted by: Anonon || 04/03/2003 19:30 Comments || Top||

#8  Christianity and democracy don't mix either - yet here we are!
Posted by: Rawsnacks || 04/03/2003 20:02 Comments || Top||


Iran
You’re Number Two
Iran's senior leadership decided last month to send irregular paramilitary units across their border with Iraq to harass American soldiers once Saddam Hussein's regime fell, according to U.S. intelligence reports.
Almost time to move down the Axis of Evil list.
Posted by: Rawsnacks || 04/03/2003 02:44 pm || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  From UPI via Drudge.
Posted by: Rawsnacks || 04/03/2003 14:50 Comments || Top||

#2  looks like both Syria and Iran want to be next up to bat. Gonna be hard to rally the Shia masses against the infidels when the infideles removed Saddam (who killed lots of Iranians) and went out of their way to spare a major Shia holy place.

Financial support to Iranian opposition. Major push with Voice of America broadcasts into Iran.

Demand Syrian forces withdraw from Lebanon to be replaced by UN forces. If they fail to comply the US works to overthrow Sunni minority in Damascus. Don't need overfly rights to pound on Syria.
Posted by: Yank || 04/03/2003 15:28 Comments || Top||


East/Subsaharan Africa
U.N. Panel: Terrorists Use Somalia As Hub
Somalia has served as a transit point for international terrorists but its local militant groups appear to be less of a terrorist threat than feared, a U.N. panel said. The panel pointed to recent findings that material and explosives used in the November 2002 terrorist bombing in the Kenyan port of Mombasa were shipped through Somalia — and that terrorists were "easily able to transit through Somali territory on the way to their intended target." Foreign terrorists apparently also used Somalia to get themselves and their weapons across the border into Kenya and then to Tanzania to bomb the U.S. embassies in both countries in 1998, they said. "The continuing lawlessness in Somalia, particularly where it prevails in the coastal areas, is a threat not only to Somalis but also to the international community," the panel said in a 62-page report released this week. However, fears after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks that Somalia could become a haven for international terrorists because of its lack of an effective central government "at present ... appear unfounded," the panel said.
Huh? You mean because they just stay overnight and don't have a local address there's no problem?
The report focused on violations of a 1992 U.N. arms embargo in the lawless Horn of Africa nation, but also addressed possible links to terrorism. Somalia's U.N. ambassador scheduled a press conference Friday to respond to the findings.
That would be "Muggsy"...
Bulgaria's U.N. Ambassador Stefan Tavrov, who chairs the U.N. committee monitoring the sanctions against Somalia, said Wednesday the report was the first attempt to identify issues related to the flow of arms into the country. It cited the ready availability of weapons and ammunition at arms markets in Somalia as well as supplies sent to warlords and groups in the country from Ethiopia, Eritrea, Djibouti and Yemen. After Sept. 11, President Bush put the country's largest company, Al-Barakat, and a Somali Islamic group, al-Ittihad al-Islami, on a list of groups believed to have links to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida terror network. Israeli and U.S. officials suspect al-Ittihad was involved in the Nov. 28 attack on a hotel frequented by Israelis in Mombasa that killed 11 Kenyans and three Israelis. But the panel said it found no such link.
"The only evidence was provided by the United States and their Zionist partners, so it can't be true."
"While the panel has found ample evidence that al-Ittihad al-Islami continues to operate in Somalia, it appears to have few formal links with al-Qaida, and has a largely local agenda, which includes unification with other Somali-majority areas in neighboring states," the report said.
Excuse me? Wanting unification with other Somali-majority areas in neighboring states sounds like they plan on taking those areas over and creating a Greater Islamic Somalia. And you think that's a local issue?
The panel said al-Ittihad abandoned its camps after Sept. 11 and "is now seeking power by political and economic means." The group is also reportedly exercising considerable influence within courts using Islamic Shariah law, it said.
Within the UN as well, it appears.
Posted by: Steve || 04/03/2003 12:28 pm || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Doesn't the UN remind you of the slacker who 2 days before a layoff, starts busting his tail?
Posted by: Yosemite Sam || 04/03/2003 12:49 Comments || Top||

#2  Wanting unification with other Somali-majority areas in neighboring states sounds like they plan on taking those areas over and creating a Greater Islamic Somalia. And you think that's a local issue?

Local in the sense that they want everyone else to butt out. But have no fear, if the Islamists try to create a greater Islamic Somalia, the French-led UN will hit them with ... with ... well, something.
Posted by: Steve White || 04/03/2003 12:50 Comments || Top||

#3  The best way to solve this is to give the UN billions of dollars. Then they can form the commitee to figure out what 5 star restaurant they're going to lunch at.
Posted by: tu3031 || 04/03/2003 13:03 Comments || Top||

#4  So what is the UN planning to do about this? Can they send some non-American troops please.
Posted by: g wiz || 04/03/2003 13:58 Comments || Top||


Home Front
Kerry calls for Regime Change in U.S.
Edited for brevity
Senator John F. Kerry (D-Masshole) said yesterday that President Bush committed a ''breach of trust'' in the eyes of many United Nations members by going to war with Iraq, creating a diplomatic chasm that will not be bridged as long as Bush remains in office.
Rather than ask the UN to wake the f&*k up - we should change to accomodate the Libyas, Syrias, NKoreas, French, etc...
''What we need now is not just a regime change in Saddam Hussein and Iraq, but we need a regime change in the United States,'' Kerry said in a speech at the Peterborough Town Library. Despite pledging two weeks ago to cool his criticism of the administration once war began, Kerry unleashed a barrage of criticism as US troops fought within 25 miles of Baghdad.
Thanks John, for all your support
By echoing the ''regime change'' line popular with hundreds of thousands of antiwar protesters who have demonstrated across the nation in recent weeks, the Massachusetts senator and Democratic presidential pretender contender seemed to be reaching out to a newly invigorated constituency as rival Howard Dean, the former governor of Vermont and a vocal opponent of the war in Iraq, closes in on Kerry in opinion polls.
That's the mark of a statesman, first bad poll, and you stab your country, troops, president, and 70%+ of the public in the back...what happened? Theresa remove your spine?
Kerry said that he had received his instructions from spoken with foreign diplomats and several world leaders as recently as Monday while fund-raising in New York and that they told him they felt betrayed when Bush resorted to war in Iraq before they believed diplomacy had run its course. He said the leaders, whom he did not identify, believed that Bush wanted to ''end-run around the UN.''
no comment necessary - it's dumb enough on it's face value
''I don't think they're going to trust this president, no matter what,'' Kerry said. ''I believe it deeply, that it will take a new president of the United States, declaring a new day for our relationship with the world, to clear the air and turn a new page on American history.'' With a dig at Bush's previous lack of foreign policy experience, Kerry said he would usher in a new US foreign policy if he stood before the United Nations as president.
Uh, John, it's the U.S. oath of office you take as president, not the U.N. and attending european prep schools doesn't qualify as foreign policy experience
''I believe we can have a golden age of American diplomacy,'' he said, outlining his own foreign policy credentials in the speech. ''But it will take a new president who is prepared to lead, and who has, frankly, a little more experience than visiting the sum total of two countries'' before taking office.
Nice to see the loyal opposition takes their "politics ends at the waters' edge" promises seriously
Posted by: Frank G || 04/03/2003 10:38 am || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Before this, he was the leading Dem in NH, IA and SC? I thought I wanted Carolyn Mosley-Braun to get the nomination, but it appears the frontrunner will now suffice. . .
Posted by: Brian || 04/03/2003 10:55 Comments || Top||

#2  He also said in the same speech (according to Man. Union Leader): Just because the U.S. Supreme Court made a decision in its selection, and an error in its decision in the year 2000, doesn’t mean we have to live with it for six more years,” he told an overflow crowd at the Peterborough Public Library.

How "loyal" is questioning the legitimacy of the C-in-C during a war? Especially this tired old debunked crap?
Posted by: Mark IV || 04/03/2003 11:06 Comments || Top||

#3  Like most of the dummycheats, Kerry believes that opinion polls are more important than constitutional government, and that when someone does something without the expressed consent of the Dummycheat party, it's illegal.

I hope he gets the nomination, and 6% of the popular vote. I hope ralph nadir (deliberately spelled that way, look it up) runs as a Green, and gets more votes than Kerry.

Someone should tell Kerry and the Dummycheat party that their first duty as an elected official is to the Constitution, not their party.
Posted by: Old Patriot || 04/03/2003 11:11 Comments || Top||

#4  More rambling from a morally bankrupt, out of ideas political party.
Posted by: Doug De Bono || 04/03/2003 11:19 Comments || Top||

#5  As a member of the Great Non voting Majority that makes up this country, watch me and millions of others come off the bench in 04, we want to drive a nail into the left so deep they'll never get up.

Count me in as a voter in 04 against any of the Left.
Posted by: AnonymousLy yours || 04/03/2003 11:25 Comments || Top||

#6  On what basis is Kerry the front runner? any polls lately?

At this point its wide open, and hawks Leiberman, Edwards and Gephardt are just as much in as dove Dean and fencesitter Kerry.
Posted by: liberalhawk || 04/03/2003 11:27 Comments || Top||

#7  The early Democratic primaries are dominated by the far left liberal wing of the party. The "hawks" have been booed when they show up at the rallies held recently, while the extremists are being cheered. You loose the early primaries and your money dries up.
Posted by: Steve || 04/03/2003 11:45 Comments || Top||

#8  It's 'stabbing the troops in the back' for the leading Democratic contender for the nomination to criticize Bush (who IS actually the worst President in American history)?

Why have a democracy?

The normalization of intimidating thuggery is the GOPs only recourse in the face of its incredible policy failure on all fronts.
Posted by: wetzel || 04/03/2003 11:45 Comments || Top||

#9  Steve - yeah, Edwards was boohed by the California Dem. State comm. - I doubt that hurts Edwards.

Iowa causus leans left, and this may push Kerry ahead of Gephardt there, but not that important to candidates from elsewhere. NH primary leans somewhat left, but has been known to surprise dem lefties (Carter beat Kennedy there in '80 iirc, and Gore beat Bradley in 2000) As for SC, I think that has tended to favor southern moderates - looks like a must win for Edwards. Leiberman (like Kerry) needs NH more than Edwards does.

As for money, the Dem money sources are much more limited than GOP. Basically Silicon Valley, Hollywood, trial lawyers, and Jews. Aside from fact that Edwards IS a trial lawyer, I cant see trial lawyers supporting someone who doesnt look like a winner in the general election. Ditto for Silicon Valley, to which Lieberman has strong ties. While Jews overall are split on the war, majority are pro-war, and this is at least as true for big donors - I dont see them pulled to Kerry vs Gephardt, Lieberman, Edwards. Hollywood - now there youve got me, they dont like Lieberman, and may well be drawn to Kerry (although some will go for Dean)
Posted by: liberalhawk || 04/03/2003 11:57 Comments || Top||

#10  He's trying to tack to the left of Howard Dean, then back to the middle once the NH primary's over, if he's still in the top 2.

Face it, if it weren't for this vain, fence straddling, blow-dried idiotic stuffed shirt, half of my blog would disappear. What an Masshole.
Posted by: Raj || 04/03/2003 12:01 Comments || Top||

#11  Wetzel,calling someone "unpatriotic" or "dummycheats" is not "intimidating thuggery".It's utilising your freedom of speech,just like Kerry's talk of "regime change" or the Left's liberal use of the word "fascist" to describe all right-wingers.One has a right to talk like a jackass,the other,a right to call him one.
Posted by: El Id || 04/03/2003 12:03 Comments || Top||

#12  I just hope that the Iraqis don't use his words as part of torturing our POWs. How incredibly thoughtless and irresponsible of him to provide our enemy with words to use against them! The Iraqi torturers will say that even the elected leaders of our government believe that what our soldiers are doing is wrong and illegal, so why should our soldiers be shown any mercy? Kerry and others who speak this way should be held accountable.
Posted by: stephen || 04/03/2003 12:04 Comments || Top||

#13  Actually, Wetzel, history very likely will remember Bush as one of the all-time best presidents, not the worst.

I'm glad I'm no longer a Democrat. If I were, next year's primary season would be a nightmare: what a bunch of idiots to choose from.
Posted by: Dave D. || 04/03/2003 12:09 Comments || Top||

#14  Wetzel, I believe it did stab our troops by demeaning the sacrifice they're making for a true regime change. To casually toss that phrase around - as if the Iraqis could just vote Saddam and his Baathists out - is to denigrate the power of the act we're engaged in. It's the same as the Paleos calling the killing of Jenin terrorists a Holocaust. I hope Kerry stays the frontrunner among the Dem party base - his crushing among the general vote will kill that party for decades
Posted by: Frank G || 04/03/2003 12:12 Comments || Top||

#15  Wetzel:
Because the presidency of Jimmy Carter, NOBODY, past, present, or future, will EVER be the worst president of the United States.
Posted by: tu3031 || 04/03/2003 12:13 Comments || Top||

#16  We should all go out and register as Democrats and make sure this bozo get the nomination with a running mate of Carol MB (is that for Mercedez-Benz??)

With him running for president I can see additional GOP senators and representatives on the horizon.
Posted by: Anonymous || 04/03/2003 12:15 Comments || Top||

#17  John Kerry, the Murat of the US Senate.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 04/03/2003 12:36 Comments || Top||

#18  Yeah, well Kerry said this today. Tomorrow he'll say something else to placate everybody he pissed off today.
My junior senator. Ya gotta love the amazing lifelike bastard!
Posted by: tu3031 || 04/03/2003 12:59 Comments || Top||

#19  As an Illinois resident, let me assure you all (and especially assure Wetzel!) that former Senator Moseley Braun would be exactly the sort of boat anchor Karl Rove would want to tie the Democratic nominee to. Ms. Braun is a Chicago machine democrat and has all their flaws -- mostly an imperious refusal to remain on the proper side of the ethical codes. From the land grab from her saintly mother to the foreign travel paid for by the Nigerian government to the really, really stupid things she's said over the years, she's exactly who the Republicans should want as the democratic VP nominee.

It says something about the Democrats, Wetzel, that they consider Ms. Braun to be someone who should run in the primaries to take votes away from Al Sharpton. Are you guys afraid of something?

One more thing, Wetzel: when the democrats stop using the phrase "regime change" in reference to the 2004 election, I'll stop referring to the Democrats as "dummycrats."
Posted by: Steve White || 04/03/2003 12:59 Comments || Top||

#20  I loathe John Kerry but I want him to win the Democratic nomination, since I remember what happened the last time a Massachusetts politician went up against a George Bush.
Posted by: Eric Lindholm || 04/03/2003 13:24 Comments || Top||

#21  I loathe John Kerry but I want him to win the Democratic nomination, since I remember what happened the last time a Massachusetts politician went up against a George Bush.
Posted by: Eric Lindholm || 04/03/2003 13:25 Comments || Top||

#22  ''But it will take a new president who is prepared to lead ..."

OK!!? And we need another President who leads with his wet, poll-testing finger in the air like we need a gaping hole in our collective head!! I get so TIRED of this trite liberal rhetoric. Will someone PLEASE put them out of my misery???
Posted by: Samma-lamma || 04/03/2003 14:23 Comments || Top||

#23  Thank you Samma Lamma. My thoughts exactly. I'm a former Dem and Kerry is exemplary of why. Bush has taken the lead; he just disagreed with UN crowd, not followed Fischer and de Villepin's advice.

"Regime change"? How obscene for a democratically (no pun intended) elected official to refer to his own country's form of govt. as a "regime" Can you believe how the Founders would feel at that remark?

And Kerry has been consulting diplomats and world leaders on US-Iraq? He's probably been shitting on his country and those of us who support the war to these outsiders. Hope you know they don't vote, JFK. Hey John I've got 17 years of living in the Arab world, and have taught university French. Come talk to me and I'll explain sagement en francais pourquoi j'estime tellement notre president en depit de ses deux voyages a l'etranger avant Nov. 2000. I doubt if you'd be able to keep up with me, you cretin.

Just how the hell did a gutsy guy like you go so soft and Old Europe? As a Chicagoan, yeah, please take Carol Mosley Braun (big deal here why she has dropped her hymen, oops, I mean hyphen) out of my sight and make her your VP candidate. NOT!!!!

To sum up, you, especially a vet should at least withold any comment until we're taken over Iraq.
Posted by: Michael || 04/03/2003 15:49 Comments || Top||

#24  Wetzel, I think you need some quiet time
Posted by: Wills || 04/03/2003 16:15 Comments || Top||

#25  I live in a Georgia, where in the last election, a senator who lost two legs and an arm in Vietnam was slimed by the GOP as unpatriotic.

During the Kosovo campaign, the Republican leadership made continuous vituperative attack on then Commander in Chief Clinton that would be considered treasonous under the standard that Kerry is today being judged.

The reaction in the so called liberal media to Kerry's statement will be another illustration of the use of war psychosis as a vehicle for the GOP to silence debate. This is profoundly un-American. Our country has faced far worse crises in its history but our democracy has never been this endangered. Do the people who have posted here really mean to say that John Kerry, Vietnam war hero, three term senator, is aiding and abetting the enemy by using the term 'regime change' to describe the next election?

I didn't know you guys were so 'sensitive'. Did it hurt your feelings?

Besides, when is someone going to defend Bush's record?

He was asleep at his post on September 11.

He is allowing North Korea to become a nuclear power.

His economy is the worst since Hoover.

And on the national security front, his incredibly inept diplomacy has made the United States a pariah state. The man is a veritable recruiting agent for Al Quaeda.
Posted by: wetzel || 04/03/2003 16:26 Comments || Top||

#26  Wetzel, now that:
where in the last election, a senator who lost two legs and an arm in Vietnam was slimed by the GOP as unpatriotic

is a goddamn lie, which the desperate always cling to. He was never said to be unpatriotic and his sacrifice speaks for itself. what was said about Cleland was that he supported his party rather than the President (who symbolizes more than Clinton, McAuliffe, Inc.) and he paid the political price for same. Opinion I disagree with is one thing, outright lies will be called same
and you are lying
Posted by: Frank G || 04/03/2003 16:40 Comments || Top||

#27  Ahhh, guys. Wetzel is just a Karl Rove plant to discredit the Donks. He's only here to develop some ligit points for when he pops up on raving lefty blogs.
Posted by: Don || 04/03/2003 16:57 Comments || Top||

#28  As a Democrat, Clark, Lieberman, or even Edwards are looking better all the time.

I have mucho complaints with this administration but I see no reason to go bootlicking to the bitch goddess of multilateralism.
Posted by: Hiryu || 04/03/2003 18:02 Comments || Top||

#29  I live in Georgia, too, wetzel.
From where I sit you got a lot of room on the porch to yourself.
For the first time since yankees were shooting at us everything but the dogcatcher went republican.
Cleland wasn't voted out for mudslinging.
He was voted out for arrogant and blind.
He missed the wind changing, as did Cynthia McKinney.
Kerry might need to wet a finger, too.
As for "allowing" the North Koreans to become a nuclear power...what should he have done, build them a reactor if they promised to nuke their cousins on somebody elses watch?
Posted by: redclay || 04/03/2003 18:32 Comments || Top||

#30  I've never registered as either a dummycheat or a repuglycon. Both political parties stink. However, the party of George Bush at least remains loyal to the principles of the Constitution. The dummycheats are doing everything they can to make the repuglycons look bad including refusing to allow a vote on any of George Bush's judicial nominees. This is a direct violation of their oath "to support and defend the Constitution ... and to bear true faith and allegience to the same". The dummycheats have established that their only loyalty is to the dummycheat party. They all should be hauled out and hung, with the exception of Zell Miller, who is an old-fashioned man of principle. He's the only think keeping the dummycheats from having a perfect record as leftist tyrants who don't care about anything but their party.
Posted by: Old Patriot || 04/03/2003 18:51 Comments || Top||

#31  Wetzel, now that: where in the last election, a senator who lost two legs and an arm in Vietnam was slimed by the GOP as unpatriotic is a goddamn lie, which the desperate always cling to. He was never said to be unpatriotic and his sacrifice speaks for itself.

Chambliss DID accuse Clelland on at least one occasion of "breaking his oath to protect and defend the Constitution." In essence, Chambliss accused Cleland of treason.

As if to emphasize his point, Chambliss even ran a TV ad. Maybe you saw it, maybe not. The ad associated Cleland with Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein.

"As America faces terrorists and extremist dictators," the announcer said as images of bin Laden and Hussein appear on screen, "Max Cleland runs television ads claiming he has the courage to lead."

I suppose you could deconstruct that down to nothingness, but to me the implication is clear: Cleland is a coward and a traitor. And this, about a man who lost both legs and an arm while serving in Vietnam. [Note: Chambliss didn't serve because he had a bad knee.]

What was Cleland's transgression anyway? Cleland voted for a successful 1997 amendment to the chemical weapons treaty that removed language barring inspectors from certain countries from being part of United Nations inspection teams in Iraq. BTW, several prominent Republicans voted for this too.

By Koresh, Republicans sure can dish it out, but they cannot take it.

By the way, I'm supporting Dean. If Kerry wins the nomination, I'll work like hell for him, but to me, right now, he doesn't pass the test. Kerry can't win in the South.

Besides, we already have one Skull and Bonesman.
Posted by: wetzel || 04/03/2003 19:18 Comments || Top||

#32  My my, tell me wetzel, are you a former writer for SNL? For my money you're one of the more entertaining dimbulb donks I've seen in at least...a couple of weeks.

Defend Dubya's record? LOL, you really must get out from under your rock more often.

Asleep? If my memory serves me well, the President had almost shaken off the last of the ankle-biting yapping donks when 9-11 occured (SELECTED NOT ELECTED!!!! Yadda, yadda, yadda...). Considering the shambles the FBI, CIA, and the military was in when he took office, I think he's done rather well (still too many Clintonista's hanging around for my tastes though...).

Allowed the Norks to become a nuclear power? I amazed you even have the NERVE to make that statement (just one more reason why Carter should be thrown into a very deep, dark hole and kept there at GUNPOINT!).

Economy? Nice try fuckwit. Everyone with five working braincells knows that the downturn started in 1999. Amazing how you can cook the GNP numbers when you're power (inflated by 30%). Too bad ole Robogore couldn't pull it off, eh wetzel?

National security? Jihadi's dead or in properly small cages, the rest fleeing for their pathetic little lives...I can live with that, although there's always room for improvement. Inept diplomacy? Hmmm, let's see...we now have fair idea who are friends are. We damn sure know who are ENEMIES are (ALWAYS a good thing, eh wetzel?).

But enough of that, let's get back to the non-Irish Mr. Kerry. Why are the donks throwing themselves into the woodchipper? There are many reasons (besides utter stupidity): Nader (the darling of the eco-fascist left), 9-11 and donk's inability to grasp the enormity of the threat facing Western Civilization (yes wetzel, the thing your 'fellow traveller' buddies hate with all their being).
Why Kerry's behavior? Take a long look at the street: see those pathetic drum-banging, die-in poseurs...that's current donk base that they're are fighting over (lest Nader snatch them away...). Yes folks, a piddling segment of the voting population. Sad isn't it.

Tell me wetzel, were you paying attention last November? Did you notice that American went into those voting booths and asked themselves: 'who will defend my home, my nation, my future?' Care to guess who they DIDN'T PICK? (Answer correctly and you get a cookie...).
Did the donks grasp this fact? It would appear NOT.

So my cute capering donk troll, keep pretending that the sun is not rising and the shadows aren't growing dimmer. 2004 will be a very interesting year...the year the donks get their asses handed to them by moronic, selected puppet. Gee, won't you all look sooo stupid (why yes, you will).

I'm sure you'll make a lovely statue.
Posted by: Charles || 04/03/2003 20:02 Comments || Top||

#33  Wetzel, I too am from Georgia and the reason Cleland didn't win is because he put union jobs before national security and as for blaming North Korea on Bush? It was your hero Jimmah Carter who negotiated the treaty that the NK's violated. This shit happened on Billy boy Clinton's watch.
Posted by: Denny || 04/03/2003 21:18 Comments || Top||

#34  Wetzel proclaimed: His [Bush's] economy is the worst since Hoover.

Wetzel, I'm guessing you're an adult. Therefore, you lived (as I did) through the stagflation years of 1977 - 1980. Do you recall who was president then? We had high interest rates, high inflation and high unemployment all wrapped together. That was the first time since Hoover that one could be alarmed that the US really was going to become unglued.

The recession we're now coming out of (slowly, yes) is mild compared to some past recessions in the last century. You might want to look at those as a reminder of how good we have it now.
Posted by: Steve White || 04/03/2003 23:50 Comments || Top||

#35  Wetzel the voice of the Chiraq wing of the Democrat Party can't distinguish between slander and the truth. But like the faux Irishman Kerry, Wetzel prefers to spin the truth for his own ends. Kerry is an example of a man without honor, without integrity. A perfect Democrat.
Posted by: TJ Jackson || 04/04/2003 0:33 Comments || Top||

#36  Worst economy since Hoover? Who are you kidding??

The census showed we absorbed the equivalent of the population of Canuckistan between 1990-2000, 30 mil. And unemployment figures are finally reaching the former panty-snapper-in-chief from 1993-95.

How many people did we have in the US during Hoover's administration? How many do we have now? What was one of the FPSIC's reasons to vote for him? B41 was paying too much attention to foreign affairs and not enough on the domestic front.

In case you haven't noticed, we were attacked on 9/11, much less since 1979.

Foreign is domestic.

--
--and Gore beat Bradley in 2000)--

An interesting tidbit ended up in the blogosphere w/in the last 6 weeks. A former talking head for Prince Al's campaign put a rumor to rest at a college talk. It seems Prince Al's team knew Bradley was on his way to winning the primary especially because those who would vote for Bradley would do so after work. They did not think about overturning a semi to block traffic on the main highway to discourage voters, but they did send thousands of their minions onto the same highway to slow traffic down so potential voters would be discouraged.

I think it was Crooowblog who had the link.
Posted by: Anonymous || 04/04/2003 1:04 Comments || Top||

#37  Wetzel=weasel,maybe the INS out to check this guy out.
I(One of 70%)of the U.S.fully support Pries.Bush.
It is about time we have a Priesedent with enough brass in his balls to stand-up to the Terrorist dominated U.N.S.C and the Axis of Weasals.
Posted by: raptor || 04/04/2003 7:30 Comments || Top||


Middle East
U.S. commandos destroy Iraqi pipeline to Syria
U.S. special operations forces are said to have blown up an Iraqi pipeline that delivered more than 200,000 barrels of oil a day to Syria. The Kuwaiti Al Rai Al Aam daily reported on Wednesday that U.S. forces sabotaged the Iraqi oil pipeline to Syria last week in an operation in northwestern Iraq. The newspaper quoted U.S. sources as saying the forces also blew up a railroad link between Iraq and Syria. Until the start of the U.S.-led war against Iraq, Syria obtained 250,000 barrels of oil per day through two pipelines that stemmed from the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk, Middle East Newsline reported. One pipeline reached the Syrian port of Banyas for export. The other provided oil directly to the Syrian national energy grid.
Think about your future in the dark
The U.S. sources said the destruction of the main pipeline came amid a warning by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld for a halt to Syrian military supplies to the regime of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. The newspaper reported that on Monday the pumping station on the Iraqi side of the pipeline had broken down.
C-4 will do that
The Kuwaiti report was not immediately confirmed by other sources. A Western intelligence source said on Wednesday that the Iraqi-Syrian pipeline was not blown up. The source would not elaborate.
You don't really need to blow it up, just turn off the pumps and close the valves. Another case of cause and effect.
Posted by: Steve || 04/03/2003 09:40 am || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Whether we blew it up or shut it down, maybe Damascus will get a clue. Debka reported today that Saddam and Sons are in a villa near Latakiya. It wouldn't take very much to take this place out with a short sortie from one of the Carriers in the eastern Med.
Posted by: Doug De Bono || 04/03/2003 9:57 Comments || Top||

#2  Joe: Hey Willie, look at dis 'ere paper I found in this building what we knocked down not just an hour ago. It says that SYRIA has a Baath Party too!
Willie: I hope the dust tasts better in syria.
Posted by: Frank Martin || 04/03/2003 10:07 Comments || Top||

#3  Some Muslim commentators are favoring protracted guerrilla war, as a means to advance the Arab League agenda. Manipulative scum:

http://english.daralhayat.com/column/03-04-2003/Article-20030403-53caa9ab-c0a8-01fc-0042-a1eddec65974/story.html
Posted by: Anonon || 04/03/2003 10:39 Comments || Top||

#4  I like it: the Syrian No-oil for Military Supplies Program.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 04/03/2003 10:46 Comments || Top||


Korea
N Korea slams Seoul troop decision
Edited for length
North Korea has slammed a decision by Seoul to send non-combat troops to the Persian Gulf as a show of support for the U.S.-led war on Iraq. North Korean state-run TV on Thursday described the move as a "criminal act" that would heighten tensions on the Korean peninsula, according to South Korea's Yonhap news agency. South Korea's parliament on Wednesday narrowly passed a bill allowing 700 technical and medical personnel to be sent to the war zone after a personal appeal to legislators by newly elected President Roh Moo-hyun to pass the measure. Outside parliament, thousands of anti-war protestors battled police in a bid to disrupt the decision and show their displeasure at the move. North Korea described the protests as "righteous and patriotic" because sending troops to Iraq meant "supporting U.S. ambitions to invade North Korea... It is an act of crime further endangering the situation on the peninsula."
That's pretty mild for them
In contrast, President Roh said the deployment would strengthen the U.S.-South Korean alliance, thereby helping to peacefully resolve the current tensions with North Korea. "I came to the conclusion that helping the United States in difficult times and maintaining friendly U.S.-South Korean relations will help a lot in peacefully resolving the North Korean nuclear issue."
Thank you, every little bit helps.
Posted by: Steve || 04/03/2003 09:22 am || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Concluded?

Might be instructive to follow his reasoning.
Posted by: Michael || 04/03/2003 9:42 Comments || Top||


U.S. saber-rattling against DPRK flailed
...are we still using sabres?
The situation on the Korean Peninsula is reminiscent of an eve of a war as the U.S.-South Korea joint war exercises are at their height. They are an all-round test military operation to mount a preemptive attack on the DPRK and a dangerous play with fire aimed at the second Korean war. Rodong Sinmun today says this in a signed article.
"Dangerous play with fire"...been watching the news lately, Rodung? Kimmie still hiding in his underground palace?
The danger of these war exercises is increasing as they are under way at a time when the DPRK and the U.S. are standing in an acute confrontation over the nuclear issue and the bush group is kicking up an unprecedented nuclear racket against the DPRK after sparking the second nuclear crisis on the Korean Peninsula, the article notes, and goes on:
..that "nuclear racket".
The current joint war maneuvers are a preliminary military operation, a test war to shift the theatre of a "war against terrorism" to the Korean Peninsula.
As I remember, you are on the list...
The U.S. intends to ignite the second Korean war and make it a most destructive and disastrous war. This is clearly evidenced by the number of operational equipment and combat capacity involved in the maneuvers. The U.S. massed its armed forces of aggression around the Korean Peninsula, claiming that North Korea should not be allowed to have access to nukes and the military option is the best. The U.S. bellicose forces have pushed ahead with the manufacture of smaller nuclear weapons under a plan to turn the Korean war into a nuclear war.
I believe the "bellicose forces" are currently "running amuck" in Iraq. And we like to think of them as "kinder, gentler" nukes.
A special operation group of the CIA went to the lengths of conducting a secret training to destroy the DPRK's nuclear facilities.
There should be no compromise with the U.S. imperialists but it is imperative to fight them out. The army and the people of the DPRK will mercilessly wipe them out if they unleash a new war of aggression against it.
Now THAT'S the spit flying, ranting, raving KCNA we all know and love...
Posted by: tu3031 || 04/03/2003 08:26 am || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "war of aggression"
tisk tisk. marks off for doublespeak.
Posted by: RW || 04/03/2003 9:00 Comments || Top||

#2  How's that oil pipeline workin', boys?

Hint hint...
Posted by: mojo || 04/03/2003 9:50 Comments || Top||

#3  And if you don't watch it, Kimmie, we're going to redeploy Jessica Lynch to the Korean Peninsula. Except this time, she's bringing her sister.
Posted by: Matt || 04/03/2003 10:20 Comments || Top||

#4  KCNA spittle bath 2 days in a row! Life is good.
Posted by: Rex Mundi || 04/03/2003 11:58 Comments || Top||



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Two weeks of WOT
Thu 2003-04-03
  We've got the airport
Wed 2003-04-02
  19 miles from Baghdad
Tue 2003-04-01
  Royal Marines storm Basra burb
Mon 2003-03-31
  U.S Forces Edge Toward Baghdad
Sun 2003-03-30
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Sat 2003-03-29
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Fri 2003-03-28
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Thu 2003-03-27
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Wed 2003-03-26
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Tue 2003-03-25
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Mon 2003-03-24
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