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2,500 Iraqi Guards Surrender
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Afghanistan
U.S. Aircraft Force Taliban To Abandon Afgan Hideout
Heavy pounding by U.S. fighter aircraft drove Pakistani Taliban holdouts from their mountain hideout, where cleanup crews today found a transit camp and a staging ground for hit-and-run assaults by the hard-line religious militia group and its allies. "We discovered a base with tents, food, weapons. It was here that Pakistanis Taliban coming from Pakistan would stay before moving out to other parts of the country," said Fazluddin Agha, district police chief of Spin Boldak.
Naturally, they're coming from Pakistan. I've come to the conclusion that there isn't a domestic anti-Karzai movement of any import or real capability.
U.S. air support launched from Bagram air base pounded the Tor Ghar mountain range, where about 60 Pakistanis Taliban fighters were dug in after fleeing a border village during fighting a day earlier. Col. Roger King, an Army spokesman, said that more than 35,000 pounds of ordnance was dropped or fired on the Pakistani rebel positions over a 14-hour span. "It's a pretty good use of close air support," King told reporters at Bagram air base, located north of Kabul. About 45 Special Forces soldiers and 250 Afghan soldiers drove the Pakistanis Taliban into the mountains from the village of Sikai Lashki, 25 miles north of Spin Boldak, the gateway to southeastern Afghanistan. Several Afghan fighters were injured, as were their Pakistani Taliban enemies, according to Agha.
I think it's a great thing that the Afghan troops are picking up more of the load for fighting off the invaders. Damned good sign.
Evidence is mounting in the southern regions of Afghanistan that the Pakistanis are Taliban is reorganizing and has found an ally in the ISI Gulbuddin Hekmatyar. "Six months ago their attacks were sporadic. But today there is a new organization to the Pakistanis Taliban," Kandahar's 2nd Corps commander, Khan Mohammed, said at the sprawling compound where Taliban supreme leader Mohammed Omar once lived.
Hek is most likely across the border. This is going to keep going on as long as they have a safe haven in Pakland.
Posted by: Steve || 04/04/2003 07:44 am || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Additional: "Eight enemy were killed in action and Afghan forces have taken 15 persons under control," US military spokesman, Colonel Roger King said on Friday. A spokesman for the Kandahar authorities, Khalid Pashtun, said two government soldiers were killed in the fighting and another two were wounded.

Posted by: Steve || 04/04/2003 8:07 Comments || Top||

#2  Evidence is mounting in the southern regions of Afghanistan that the Taliban is reorganizing and has found an ally in Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, a rebel commander who has been labeled a terrorist by the United States and hunted by its troops.


I thought Hek WAS a Talibani?
Posted by: Ptah || 04/04/2003 8:39 Comments || Top||

#3  'reorganizing' will be used to show Bush's failure in Afghanistan, but it's the best thing to happen. they make a better target in a group. like smashing an ant-pile, you have to wait for them to regroup before smashing them again.
Posted by: Dixie Normus || 04/04/2003 9:06 Comments || Top||

#4  This is all becoming similar to the Apache campaigns along the Mexican border 130 years ago.
Posted by: Don || 04/04/2003 9:14 Comments || Top||

#5  Re: hek and Taliban

Hek is a pashtun and and a fundi, so he has that in common with Taliban. After communist regime fell hek was one of the warlords who contested for control of Kabul and afghan govt with gen Dostum (uzbek, secularist) and Rahabani (Tajik, Fundie) Pakistan, discontented with the disorder, and wanting to use afgan as trade route and route for influence into central asia, and worried about Indian and Russian influence, supported a group of fighters/students recruited among afghan refugees in Pakistan called the taliban. One of the first things they did was chase off Hek, who went to Iran. Dostum and Rahabani kissed and made up and formed Northern Alliance, which lost Kabul and other cities, but held out in nothern mountain strongholds, with Russian support. They also had support of Ahmed Massoud, a key leader from anti-soviet war (and tajik). taliban imposed islamic regime far stricter than hek or Rahabbani - the most extreme muslim fundie regimi in the modern world. They continued to press against remnants of Northern Alliance, while becoming more enmeshed with Al qaeeda, and receiving support from Pakistans ISI. that was status quo on sept 9, 2001. On Sept 10, 2001 AQ operatives assasinated Ahmen Massoud (clearly anticipating US strategy in response to WTC attack and rightly seeing Massoud key to Northern Alliance)
On Sept 11 everything changed of course.

After formation of Karzai regime (with support of Dostum, more reluctant support of Rahabbani) Hek was expelled from Iran (which had opposed Taliban, been friendly to post-com Russian policy, and was trying to make nice with Karzai regime) Hek then went into afgan and into violent opposition to Karzai and Americans, with an on-again off-again alliance with Taliban.
Posted by: liberalhawk || 04/04/2003 9:24 Comments || Top||


Arabia
Kuwaitis outraged at biased Arab media
People in Kuwait continue to express outrage at the biased way the Arab language media, which they receive, is covering the war, including its neglect of humanitarian help the coalition is offering to Iraqi civilians, but especially its neglect of the missile attacks on Kuwait. Many Kuwaitis admit to being annoyed that little attention was given to the missiles lobbed at civilian targets in this country, further confirmation in their eyes that the war against Saddam Hussein is just. "Since the missile landed at Souk Sharq mall, we have not said anything, but now we will not be quiet," says Dhari Al-Otaibi. "Our message to the Arab world is we will stand up and show we are with the Iraqi people."
The Arab world hasn't quite gotten the idea of how you can be in favor of the Iraqi people and not be in favor of their tin-hat dictator and his flock of sadists. After all, they're Iraqis, too, right?
Many in the Arab press would have it that the Kuwaitis are actually in the pockets of the Americans and British, rather than acting out of genuine concern for their neighbours to the north. "We are hurt by what is said about us in the Arab media. And the Iraqis are also hurt by such statements," says Mr Al-Otaibi. Criticism from fellow Arabs is particularly hard to swallow, say some Kuwaitis, because of the aid this oil-rich emirate has given to its regional neighbours and its short, but bloody, experience of rule by Saddam Hussein during the Gulf War. "Many of our riches have gone to poor Arab countries and now they are stabbing us in the back for standing up for the Americans and British who stood up for us in 1991," says Ghaneema Al-Nassar.
Nope. No word in Arabic for gratitude, is there? Y'have to switch languages to even express the concept. And you can't use French, either...
But not all Kuwaitis are so happy to be a closely allied with the US. Local newspapers have quoted one Islamic charity worker who fears the real aim of the war is to "flood" the region with western values and culture. Already, affluent Kuwaiti teens appear to be drawn more to McDonald's than to Mecca.
Hyeh, hyeh, hyeh! The Plan seems to be working!
However, leading Muslim cleric Mohammed Hagif Al-Mutairi — a fierce opponent anything fun of innovations such as female suffrage — says he is confident the American influence is "limited" and that Kuwait's social and religious traditions can be maintained.
He's already lost that battle. When was the last time you heard of Kuwait cutting off anyone's head? Welcome to the trashbin of history, holy man!
Posted by: Liberalhawk || 04/04/2003 09:50 am || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Too bad that kuwaiti's are considered "the rich" and are not equated with poor struggling arabs on the street (like...say...the palestinians).

-DS
"the horns hold up the halo"
Posted by: DeviantSaint || 04/04/2003 10:01 Comments || Top||

#2  Are Kuwait's oil sheiks too poor to afford their own media? Why don't they start up a broadcast alternative to Al-Jazeera and give them some competition? End the monopoly and present an alternative view!
Posted by: Dar Steckelberg || 04/04/2003 13:07 Comments || Top||

#3  Imagine: equal rights for women in the new Iraq.

I wonder how many of the women of neighbouring countries would manage to run over the border?

prediction: Iraq, ratio of women to men: 10:1
surrounding countries: women to men: 1:10

i can't think of anything more likely to bring about a terrified revolution within Islam than the absence of females. No more baby machines means the mullahs are SCARED.
Posted by: anon1 || 04/04/2003 18:16 Comments || Top||


Europe
Schroeder willing to mend fences with Bush
German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder Friday announced his willingness - for the first time - to mend fences with US President George W. Bush, following their deep differences over the war in Iraq, media reports said. Asked in a television interview, to be aired on Sunday, if Schroeder would directly approach Bush to help repair the badly damaged bilateral ties, he responded, "I have absolutely no problem with that. There have always been such gestures."
Gerhard's the one who peed on our national leg. His feelings have already been expressed. He can be willing to kiss and make up until Doomsday, if not later, and what'll be important is what Bush is willing to do...
The German leader pointed out that he would be seeing the American president at the G-8 summit of industrial nations, scheduled to take place June 1 to 3 in Evian, France. "Of course we have to talk then," Schroeder said, insisting that Germany and America will remain close partners with shared values.
Maybe they'll talk then. Or maybe Gerhard can go chat with Jacques...
Schroeder has not spoken to Bush since their short encounter at NATO's November summit in the Czech capital, Prague. There has been no phone contact between Bush and Schroeder and the US president refused to send the obligatory congratulations after the chancellor eked out a close victory in last fall's parliamentary elections. Schroeder caused American indignation for campaigning on an anti- Iraq war platform and bilateral relations reached a post-world War II low point, after a German cabinet minister — who later resigned — likened Bush to Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler.
Maybe it was the fact that Gerhard was unwilling to fire her that had something to do with it. Kinda gave the impression he agreed with her, didn't it?
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 04/04/2003 01:08 pm || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  ...and the US president refused to send the obligatory congratulations after the chancellor eked out a close victory in last fall's parliamentary elections. Schroeder caused American indignation for campaigning on an anti- Iraq war platform

It was more an anti-american platform than anything else, If I recall.

And I did not know that Bush had not sent his congrats. Tougher man than I would have been...
Posted by: Ptah || 04/04/2003 13:13 Comments || Top||

#2  I don't know how this diplomacy stuff works. But Schroeder happens to be in deep trouble according to public opinion polls in Germany.

Yeah, let's "make up" with Germany -- all the while never forgetting how they shafted us. But we should wait until Schroeder is gone.
Posted by: Patrick Phillips || 04/04/2003 13:20 Comments || Top||

#3  The G8 summit looks like it'll be some fun this year.
Posted by: tu3031 || 04/04/2003 13:35 Comments || Top||

#4  Bend over George, Gerhard wants to kiss and make up...
Posted by: mojo || 04/04/2003 13:36 Comments || Top||

#5  Hidden Costs: By sitting this war out, in addition to opposing it and even sabotaging it in the first place, Germany and France have put the lie to the pretense that they were somehow "necessary" to NATO or anything else. Their "special skills" (I guess we're lacking in savoir-faire, or Gemuetlichkeit, or something), were totally unneeded and only the Brits & Aussies get to wear the ring.

So, thanks for the blitzkrieg lessons, c ya. We don't have to be mad 'cause yer irrelevant.
Posted by: Mark IV || 04/04/2003 13:43 Comments || Top||

#6  The German leader...would be seeing the American president at the G-8 summit...June 1 to 3.

JUNE ????? The world will not be the same in June, a-wipe.
Posted by: Dixie Normus || 04/04/2003 14:41 Comments || Top||

#7  This article is titled "Schroder willing to mend fences with Bush". Brings up a vision of Schroder and Bush, pulling a string of barbed wire toward a cresote post, ready to nail in the staple. Both men in blue jeans, cowboy boots, Stetsons and work gloves. Problem is, the image keeps fritzing out, worse than a cheap television with a bad tuner. While Schroder may want to "mend fences", there's no indication that BUSH is willing to go along. Like tu3031 said, this is going to be a very interesting G8 meeting!
Posted by: Old Patriot || 04/04/2003 16:35 Comments || Top||

#8  Metaphorically speaking, give Schroeder some boards, a hammer, some nails and say, "Mend the fence on your side and stay the hell off our land."
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 04/04/2003 17:10 Comments || Top||

#9  The Schroad is screwed with the US and he knows it. Our German bases will be Polish, Romanian and/or Bulgarian real soon.
Posted by: Christopher Johnson || 04/04/2003 17:43 Comments || Top||

#10  Mojo, Very good comment, thanks for making me laugh; and you're right on Alaska Paul.
Posted by: Sonnie || 04/04/2003 22:20 Comments || Top||


EU, NATO call for UN involvement in post-war Iraq reconstruction
The European Union and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Thursday stressed that it was incumbent on the international community to be involved in post-war reconstruction of Iraq. "A UN resolution would be a prerequisite for the EU to be involved in post-war reconstruction of Iraq," whined said Greek Foreign Minister George Papandreou in Brussels. Speaking to the press after a joint EU-NATO informal foreign ministers meeting this afternoon, Papandreou said the EU is ready to cooperate with Iraq's neighboring countries in dealing with the humanitarian problems in the current war. "We also reiterated our position that we want to see stability in the region, the territorial integrity of Iraq," said Papandreou, whose country holds the current EU presidency.
"We're trying to figure how to grab this bone away from the American doggy..."
He said the EU welcomed Turkey's assurances not to get involved in northern Iraq. "We also stressed that in dealing with regional stagnation stability it is top priority to move forward the Middle East peace process."
"If we divert everyone's attention to the Paleos, then maybe we can slip in and grab off some of that Iraqi money and they won't notice..."
"We also stressed the very important relationship Europe and the EU has with the Arab world and to further strengthen the dialogue of civilizations."
"We're on the Arab side, not the American. Everyone knows that. So you should give us money."
"This is not a clash of civilizations," added Papandreou. Most of the foreign ministers of the 19-member NATO are also EU hacks ministers.
Yes, it is.
For his part, NATO Secretary-General George Robertson said the ministers "made it clear the need to see the involvement of the international community, especially the UN, in post-war Iraq."
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 04/04/2003 12:32 pm || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  ...but the French blew the cover for everyone:

(French Foreign Minister Dominique)De Villepin cautioned against fighting over lucrative contracts to rebuild Iraq.

"The idea that Iraq can be an El Dorado, a cake that states can cut up and share doesn't appear to me to be good sense," he said.




The old colonial ways die hard... sell 'em the hardware right up to A-day, then get in on the rebuilding after the fall.
Posted by: Mark IV || 04/04/2003 14:16 Comments || Top||

#2  "This is not a clash of civilizations," added Papandreou. Most of the foreign ministers of the 19-member NATO are also EU hacks ministers.
Yes, it is.

Indeed, it is. It is a clash between western civilization and a culture that would revert civilization to the 7th century. The fact that France has given itself over to that culture and will soon not exist as a part of western civilization anymore is lost to these windbags.

"The idea that Iraq can be an El Dorado, a cake that states can cut up and share doesn't appear to me to be good sense," he said.

What he does not say is that France has been trying to re-establish its colonial empire in Africa. If its good enough to cut up Africa for France, it must be good enough to cut up Iraq for France as well, right?

The sheer pomposity of French politicians boggles my mind sometimes...
Posted by: FOTSGreg || 04/04/2003 16:54 Comments || Top||

#3  Whenever the US, Britain, Australia and the rest of the allies get their share, the EU, NATO and the UN are welcome to pick over what's left on the carcass. Not before.
Posted by: Christopher Johnson || 04/04/2003 17:47 Comments || Top||

#4  Can't ziss be likes ze old days? Everyvun gets a piece of ze action?

They sound like the Philly mob dividing up south Jersey.
Posted by: tu3031 || 04/04/2003 20:48 Comments || Top||

#5  Dominque the French,but use a little KY for Schroder.
Posted by: raptor || 04/05/2003 7:26 Comments || Top||


Russian May Prosecute Islamic Leader
Russian officials warned a top Islamic leader Friday that his call for a holy war against the United States was illegal and he will be prosecuted if he repeats it. Supreme Mufti Talgat Tadzhuddin said Thursday that his organization had declared jihad, or holy war, against the United States and would raise money to "buy weapons for fighting America and food for the people of Iraq." The Russian Prosecutor General's office said a regional prosecutor in the southern city of Ufa, where Tadzhuddin made his call, warned him Friday that he was breaking a law against inciting ethnic or religious discord. "The announcement of a holy war by the Muslims was helping fuel religious discord," said the prosecutor's statement, which was released Friday.
"Only the Russian government has the authority to fuel discord"
Tadzhuddin, who heads the Central Islamic Department of Muslims of Holy Russia, was warned that he would be brought to justice if he repeated the call, the statement said. Ravil Gainutdin, the head of the Council of Russian Muftis, a group that rivals Tadzhuddin's, has strongly condemned the call for a jihad. "The Council of Russian Muftis notes with deep regret that among Russian Muslims there are those who seek not peace in Iraq, but a third world war," he said in a statement. He added that a Russian religious group had no right to raise money for weapons to be used against a country with which Russia is not at war. An estimated 20 million of Russia's 145 million population are Muslims. According to some analysts, the Kremlin's tough opposition to the war in Iraq has stemmed partly from concern that the fighting could fuel Islamic extremism in Russia.

Russia's get enough problem with religious extremism as it is, as Chechnya vividly illustrates. Mr Supreme Mufti sounds like another of the never-ending stream of barely literate Koran pounders issuing from Muslim areas, rolling his eyes and spewing spittle and vitriol in equal proportions, calling for jihad because it's ever so much easier and more glamorous than getting a job and going to work every day — especially if you're a Supreme Mufti and too valuable to The Movement™ to be wasted as cannon fodder.
Posted by: Steve || 04/04/2003 08:14 am || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:


Fifth Column
Denver Fans Walk Out of Pearl Jam Show
I like Pearl Jam. But this is getting ridiculous...
Dozens of fans walked out of a Pearl Jam concert after lead singer Eddie Vedder took a mask of President Bush and impaled it on a microphone stand.Several concertgoers booed and shouted Tuesday night for Vedder to shut up as he told the crowd he was against the war and Bush. He impaled the mask during the encore of the band's opening show of a U.S. tour.
When will "artists" realize that we don't pay to come and hear what they think. Sing, dammit, sing!!! That's what I paid for.
"It was like he decapitated someone in a primal ritual and stuck their head on a stick," fan Keith Zimmerman said. Vedder used a Bush mask in Australia and Japan to perform the song "Bushleaguer," from the band's latest album, "Riot Act." The song's lyrics say, "He's not a leader, he's a Texas leaguer."
Jeez, it went over big in Australia and Japan...Why not here?
During the show, Vedder said: "Just to clarify... we support the troops. We're just confused on how wanting to bring them back safely all of a sudden becomes non-support," he said. "We love them. They're not the ones who make the foreign policy .... Let's hope for the best and speak our opinions."
Fine. Just don't speak them on my dime. Speak them when you're piling into the limo after the show. I paid the money, you do the show. And speaking of shows, why don't you truck your asses over to Iraq and Afghanistan and do one for the guys you love so much?

That stuff about "we support the troops, we don't support the war" has gotten pretty rank by now. It's a pious platitude — they don't want the vilification that's going to come in the wake of actually spitting on them or throwing rocks at them, but they regard the troops as some sort of subhumans, not worthy of actual consideration by important people like them — innalekshul people, who know stuff we don't, 'cuz they're so much smarter than we are... Oh, and they're sensitive, too. They can detect McCarthyism at 300 paces, f'instance...
Posted by: tu3031 || 04/04/2003 10:30 am || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1 
How does smashing a mask of Bush, during an anti-Bush song equal "we support our troops" and "want to bring them back safely"? I've hated Pearl Jam since they were Mother Love Bone. Not because they were partisan hacks, but because they are no-talent pukes. (I'm sorry tu3031, but all that hooting and shit that Eddie does in songs like "Jeremy", is absolutely maddening. If he wants to scat, he should learn how.) Now that I know what their all about, I don't like them as people either.
Posted by: Mike N. || 04/04/2003 11:25 Comments || Top||

#2  I'm with Fred. The only thing worse than the anti-war types who spew hatred - are the ones who spew hatred, but then lamely add, "BUT, I SUPPORT THE TROOPS (TM) disclaimer.

I suppose I should be grateful that they at least manage to gag that out. But there is no conviction behind any of the words, it's all about saying what they think makes them seem smarter, cooler and more nuanced than the rest of us. They are just too cowardly to face the potential confrontation that might result if they don't add their magic little phrase of absolution.
Posted by: becky || 04/04/2003 14:14 Comments || Top||

#3  You see, its only free speech if the Hollywood- luddites use their speech to tell you what to think, if you decide to disagree, well thats just wrong and must be stopped.
Posted by: Frank Martin || 04/04/2003 15:50 Comments || Top||

#4  Vedder has always been a Kurt Cobain wanna be, I just wish he would finish the job like Kurt did.
Posted by: Wills || 04/04/2003 19:52 Comments || Top||


UMass Prof arrested for assaulting cop
In another sign of increasing tensions on college campuses over the war in Iraq, a professor at the University of Massachusetts at Boston was arrested yesterday and charged with assaulting a police officer after he exchanged heated words with a National Guard recruiter. Eyewitnesses said the recruiter told adjunct professor Tony Van Der Meer and a student that they should be shot in the head for their antiwar views.

A Massachusetts National Guard spokesman, Captain Winfield Danielson, said the Guard is going to look into what happened yesterday at UMass and will take appropriate action. The skirmish is the latest in a growing list of incidents in which simmering tensions about the war have boiled over on high school and college campuses.

The confrontation, which began with activists handing out information on various causes, disintegrated into a shouting match, with students screaming at the guardsmen and campus police, eyewitnesses said. UMass student Tony Naro said the recruiter sparked the dispute by heckling him as he passed out leaflets to commemorate the 35th anniversary of the fatal shooting of Martin Luther King Jr. ''He called me a [expletive] communist,'' said Naro, a senior, who was wearing a black T-shirt with the words ''Education Not Enlistment'' on the front and ''Military Recruiters off My Campus'' on the back.

The two argued, and campus police were called because someone was ''blocking the guardsmen from handing out informational pamphlets,'' according to the police report. As the guardsmen packed up their literature and began to leave, Van Der Meer walked into the lobby. It's unclear what happened next, but a half-dozen students and Van Der Meer later said that one of the four guardsmen turned to Naro and the professor and said: ''You should be shot in the head.''

''No. You should be shot in the head,'' replied Van Der Meer, according to Shauntell Foster, a senior and a student of Van Der Meer's. Students Theresa Myrthil and Bethanie Petitfrere said they also watched the confrontation. According to the police report, which did not record their words, the men were screaming at each other, nose-to-nose. An officer stepped between them. The students said Van Der Meer never raised his hands or threatened the officer, and that the officer attacked Van Der Meer. In his report, the officer said Van Der Meer shoved him in the chest and told him to ''get out of my [expletive] face,'' and then elbowed him in the chest.

Three UMass-Boston police officers tackled Van Der Meer and wrestled him to the ground, several students said. Meanwhile, students started filing into the lobby and shouting ''Stop police brutality'' and ''Recruiters off our campus.''

After his arraignment and not-guilty plea yesterday Van Der Meer, still wearing the green corduroy jacket that was torn during his arrest, said he did resist arrest after police accosted him. ''I resisted,'' he said to the applause of about 30 students who had come to Dorchester District Court to support him. ''I don't see why I should be assaulted. It's shameful. It says something about academic freedom.''
Another Lefty who doesn't get it
Posted by: Frank G || 04/04/2003 09:56 am || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  One of the things that makes our country great are the freedoms that our citizens are allowed. But, like many Americans, I am sick of hearing the views of left-wing actors, musicians and college professors. They are intellectually dishonest and morally bankrupt, yet they masquerade in a cloak of moral superiority.

The left used to actually stand for a few decent things, like getting rid of brutal dictators and not supporting totalitarian regimes. Today they stand squarely in support of brutal dictators, in support of torture and mutilation, in support of mass murder because they actively hinder those that would oppose it. They are for "Peace at any cost" even if the result is massive human suffering. As long as its not their suffering, as long as it's not their starving children, as long as it's "Peace for them" .

I loathe these people. Their narcissim, their willingness to look the other way, their hindrance of Americas moral action to depose evil is true evil.

What's encouraging is that ALOT of other Americans appear to loathe them as well. People are bashing the left-wing fringe like I have never seen before and they feel pretty threatened.

I believe we should deport them all to France where they will feel right at home.
Posted by: Jonesy || 04/04/2003 13:34 Comments || Top||

#2  oops - premature post w/o comment and editing for brevity...damn
Posted by: Frank G || 04/04/2003 10:01 Comments || Top||

#3  He should be shot in the head...

Send him to Baghdad, where they will shoot him in the head.
Posted by: mojo || 04/04/2003 10:15 Comments || Top||

#4  The National Guard guy's lucky. If it was UMASS- Amherst, they would have captured him and held him as a POW.
Posted by: tu3031 || 04/04/2003 10:28 Comments || Top||

#5  There needs to be a showdown with these campus "intellectuals", something that really, really HURTS - like rifle butts in the face. These people have been brainwashed into believing they can do anything they want, without any consequences. One good riot firmly smashed by the US Marines would put an end to that. Arrest several hundred teachers, throw the students into a POW cage, and let them learn firsthand what it's like to be on the LOSING side. Also let them know their stupidity will not be ignored. It would put an end to a lot of this stuff in a hurry.

As someone said to me on another blog, "if we arrested every leftwing extremist on college campuses in the United States, there wouldn't be enough professors left to hold two classes".

There is going to HAVE to be an accounting. The sooner the better.
Posted by: Old Patriot || 04/04/2003 11:53 Comments || Top||

#6  Spare the billy-club, spoil the teacher.
Posted by: Cyber Sarge || 04/04/2003 11:57 Comments || Top||

#7  Sorry, Old Pat. But I can't agree with you on this one. What you're advocating is Tiananmen Square on the Campus quad. Are you sure that's what you really want?
We don't need it. Let the bozo's run their mouth's and spew their insanity and the only thing they'll succeed at is running their movement headlong into oblivion. The best part? They'll do it to themselves.
Posted by: tu3031 || 04/04/2003 13:50 Comments || Top||

#8  As long at the looney left can get away with their name-calling, 'moral indignity', and all the other false facades they display to the world, while still trying to destroy the very fundamentals this nation was built upon, with absolutely no cost to themselves for their action, it will continue. Once you put a price on such stupidity, those who find it "fun" will stop. Those who continue will prove to the world their hatred is not just a way to make points with the chicks, but a deep, abiding hate for the freedom, individual responsibility, and loyalty, not to a "cause" or a "party",but to an IDEAL. Being "left" these days is chic, and easy. It requires no real moral thougth or principles. It exhausts the rest of us, however, by constantly bombarding us with blather that has no value and no meaning.

Swatting a spoiled brat across the bottom with a bare hand does wonders for establishing self-discipline. Doing the same thing on our college campuses will be more difficult, and will require more force. This is NOT Tienamen, and the attempt to portray it as such is horseshit. This is correcting a major failure on the part of society for not correcting this irresponsible behavior in the first place.
Posted by: Old Patriot || 04/04/2003 15:07 Comments || Top||

#9  Flood UMass with e-mail(someone post it please,my ISP is funky this morn.),like what happen to Genova.Heard a report that contributors and alumni have threatened to pull thier funding if Genova is not firied.
Posted by: raptor || 04/05/2003 7:46 Comments || Top||


Anti-war activists picket Fox News
Anti-war activists gathered in front of the Fox News Channel offices in Washington on Thursday to protest the network's coverage of the war in Iraq. Organized by Code Pink, Global Exchange, and Media Alliance, the event drew about 75 protesters.
Snicker
In a letter to the bureau, Code Pink told Fox News it not reporting the events in Iraq objectively. "We are writing to remind the Fox News Channel that according to your own promotions, you are supposed to be 'fair and balanced,'" the letter said. "You seem to have forgotten this motto in your coverage of the war in Iraq. You also seem to have forgotten some of the basic precepts of journalism — such as the one that journalists are supposed to report the truth."
Posted by: Steve || 04/04/2003 08:44 am || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  If this was the protest a couple days ago, there was a story about it noting that the "news ticker" that shows the news on the outside of the building was used by Fox to taunt the hecklers...heh heh
Posted by: Frank G || 04/04/2003 9:54 Comments || Top||

#2  There was another one in SF yesterday.
Posted by: Dishman || 04/04/2003 9:55 Comments || Top||

#3  Hee-hee-haaa-hoot! *snrk* What a hell of a gathering that was! *sniggle* Hoo! Yep. A mojority of our popular consensus there. *hic* Heee! I've seen more people get upset over a bad referee's call at a PeeWee soccer game. Oh - wait. Doesn't Code Pink tend to masquerade as Soccer Moms(TM)?! THAT's where the 75 came from, then. *snrk*
Posted by: Tadderly || 04/04/2003 9:55 Comments || Top||

#4  Maybe we'll start the war over again and deliberately lose it just to keep these people happy. Wonder what life's like in Bizzarro World?
Posted by: tu3031 || 04/04/2003 10:04 Comments || Top||

#5  Frank G. -

That ticker-taunting preotest was here in NYC.
Posted by: growler || 04/04/2003 10:19 Comments || Top||

#6  If Fox were fair and balanced and thorough (they don't make that last claim), they would report how Code Pink, etc. have accepted tainted money.
Posted by: mhw || 04/04/2003 12:10 Comments || Top||

#7  They protested Fox news because they won't stop broadcasting things they dont want to hear.
Posted by: g wiz || 04/04/2003 13:02 Comments || Top||

#8  snicker! Not a bad turnout considering the millions they rake in to help organize just such an event.
Posted by: becky || 04/04/2003 14:20 Comments || Top||

#9  Growler - you are correct - I didn't notice the washington location
Posted by: Frank G || 04/04/2003 14:34 Comments || Top||

#10  i highly recommend renting a megaphone and going to contest the protesters

they will look at you with utter shock

they honestly believe they speak for the whole non-corporate world and that everyone agrees with them.

one well-informed rantburger with a megaphone can truly work wonders.

oh yeah: they can't attack you either, as you are one person against 75 or 1000 or whatever, YOU have become the moral underdog, with all the pointscoring that gets you with the left.
Posted by: anon1 || 04/04/2003 18:31 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Jihadis and fundos rant against U.S.
The crusaders’ invasion of Iraq if not stopped, the military might of US, Britain and Australia could invade entire Muslim countries, China and South Asia. The speakers of Difa-e-Ummat Conference (Defend Muslim Ummah Conference) were of the view while addressing a rally of thousands organized by Jamaat-ul-Dawa Wednesday in Islamabad. The conference was addressed by chief of Jamaat, Hafiz Mohammad Saeed, former ISI Chief Lt. Gen (Retd) Hameed Gul, Maulana Amir Hamza, Chairman Pak-Iran Friendship Abdul Qadeer Khamosh, MNA Mian Mohammad Aslam and many others.
All of them certifiable, frothing at the mouth Islamist lunatics...
“The country’s nuclear arms and missile force should be used against the US-led aggressors to protect our Iraqi brothers and this is the only way to stop the crusaders of furthering their aggression against Muslim countries including Pakistan,” Hafiz Mohammad Saeed said.
That sounds like a good reason to clean out Pakistan right there. No other reason needed...
He said that three forces of evils including US, Israel and India have gone through many defense pacts “America is encouraging India to attack Pakistan and following Iraq, US new World Order meant to complete its aggressive mission against oil rich Muslim countries and South Asia. Following which the target of the US and its western allies would be China.” The speakers vowed that Allah Almighty has made Jihad compulsory and mandatory for the Muslims to stop aggressor from destruction of humanity.
It's the One Note Samba all over again...
“The US wanted to have monopoly of getting benefit of the entire world’s resources. So the first target of American imperialism is oil rich Muslim countries and lately rest of the regions including South Asia and others,” Hameed Gul said.
First target of American imperialism really has to be jihadi lunatics...
Hafiz Saeed has raised the question asking the gathering to tell why steel and iron has been exported to Afghanistan. “The Americans are importing steel and Iron from Pakistan that has not only raised the prices of the same. But they are making bunkers and airports with the steel purchased from Pakistan. These bunkers and airport would be used against Pakistan,” he said.
If you export things, the money you get for them doesn't count. And bunkers being used against Pakistan would seem to be an admission that Afghanistan is being invaded by Pakistan...
He argued that in these days same statements from the US side have started appearing in the media which were being witnessed against Iraq. “So they have invaded peace loving people of Afghanistan to ultimately use the Afghan territory to invade Pakistan as non of the Muslim country with nuclear power has any place in the Americans world order,” he said.
Certainly not in the hands of nutbags like Hafiz Saeed and Hamid Gul...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 04/04/2003 01:42 pm || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  A shame one of those Tomahawks couldn't have gone off course on Wednesday. Way off course. Like Islamabad off course.
Posted by: tu3031 || 04/04/2003 14:06 Comments || Top||

#2  "...peace loving people of Afghanistan..."
Must be another Afghanistan...or a different planet.
Posted by: Pink & Fluffy || 04/04/2003 14:45 Comments || Top||

#3  Heh! First Afghanistan, then Iraq, then the world, right?

These guys must stay up nights trying to find things to be frightened of. They seem to forget little things like the fact that China's got an army of 200 million and that our last little foray into Southeast Asia didn't exactly sit well with much of anybody.

Buncha' gasbags...

Still, to misquote Patrick Henry "If this be empire, make the most of it!"

Posted by: FOTSGreg || 04/04/2003 16:42 Comments || Top||

#4  I don't know maybe I'm getting a little cranky, but can we just kill these f_cking dirtbags?
Posted by: Wills || 04/04/2003 20:02 Comments || Top||


Indian Army will go hi-tech
Indian Army is clamoring for rapid overall modernization to ensure "credible deterrence" against Pakistan which includes "a strategic nuclear deterrence" to dissuade adversaries from any misadventures, local press reported on Friday. Defense sources said, India has only a slight edge over Pakistan in terms of conventional military capabilities. The Army's modernization plan becomes more important with the government considering "tough options" against Pakistan.
Meaning that they fully expect the jihadis to ignite a real war between the two countries in the relatively near future...
Sources say the alarming shortfalls are in fields like self-propelled and air defense artillery guns, night-fighting capabilities and attack helicopters, weapon-locating and battlefield surveillance radars, early-warning devices and electronic warfare systems.
Been watching operations in Iraq, have they?
The 10-month troop deployment along the Indo-Pak border, Operation Parakram, also exposed the lack of effective precision-strike capabilities. Consequently, the Army now wants more precision-guided munitions. A balanced force structure with matching capabilities in weapons and equipment is needed to get "full spectrum capability" and decisive technological edge over Pakistan.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 04/04/2003 01:13 pm || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  That's interesting. Thanks to a very good educational system, India has a cadre of very competent, technically-oriented people. Their computer programmers, for example, are second to none in my experience.

However, I question the ability of the semi-socialist Indian economy to deliver the needed hi-tech equipment for a modernized Indian army.

I wonder if we're seeing an interesting fallout from the obvious dominance of US military capabilities. Many nations may begin to realize that if they want to be a contender, they'll need US-style equipment. But the only way to get US-style equipment (unless you want to import ) is to create an economy that can support the sort of efficiencies and ability to innovate that characterizes the US economy. Which means you may be forced to restructure your economy along more Western lines.

Hmm, is that what happened to China?
Posted by: Patrick Phillips || 04/04/2003 13:38 Comments || Top||

#2  Patrick----Interesting comments. If all these countries want the techno wiz-bangs like the US, then they will need to have the economy to afford to develop it, buy it, or steal it (like China). To have an economy robust enough to afford it, one has to have the freedom, creativity and the energy of the populace to make things happen. Saudi has the money, India has the brains, but none of them have that basic sense of freedom and liberty that brings out the best in people to make good things happen. Until some fundamentals are changed, nothing else will really happen. Adapt or die, basic evolution.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 04/04/2003 14:18 Comments || Top||

#3  Patrick,
I think your comments are fair but I think the emphasis in semi-socialist should be on SEMI. The government is making some progress in privatising the huge money sucking public sector companies [Ministry of Divestment] even though there is opposition from the lefty parties.
Most of the defence equipment is currently bought from Russia or developed / manufactured by public sector companies [DRDO]. But the government is making the industry open to the private sector including foreign companies [India Woos Foreign Aircraft, Military Hardware Makers]
With regards to this being a fallout of the Iraq war, I must disagree. In 1998 India had a major border war with Pakland [Kargil War, American Diplomacy and the 1999 Kargil Summit at Blair House ]. Since that war, India has been making a major attempt to modernise the military.
India's IT industry gives it a huge advantage in its goal to modernise the military. There are a few examples where this has worked, eg [Brahmos]

Just my thought...
Posted by: rg117 || 04/04/2003 14:35 Comments || Top||

#4  rg117,

You make some very good points. Thanks for the links -- I'll give them a read.
Posted by: Patrick Phillips || 04/04/2003 15:09 Comments || Top||

#5  Patrick,
I'm glad that you're interested. I think the general problem in the west is that most people underestimate the technological capabilities of India. Until a few years a go I used to think the same, but after doing my own research on the Net I came to realise how advanced India actaully. Admitedly, there is a lot of poverty but you have to remember that India has a Middle Class equal to the population of Europe.
India has some great technology that doesn't get the same publicity as in the west eg
Kali-5000
A useful site is BHARAT RAKSHAK
Posted by: rg117 || 04/04/2003 15:32 Comments || Top||

#6  Question to ask yourself:

If the UN is "viable" - they why does the largest deomcarcy on Earth NOT have a seat on the Scruity Council, yet a small bigoted racist country thats not even in the top 25 economies (France) has a VETO on that council?

Yet another reason the UN is beyond salvage, and shoudl be abandoned.
Posted by: OldSpook || 04/04/2003 16:19 Comments || Top||

#7  The UN is not a democratic institution. As an Indian I am completely against the concept of permanent members of the security councils (with their undemocratic veto power), however if it has to exist than India should be a member of it.
Although frankly I think that the UN should be disbanded completely, though related organisation such as WHO, UNESCO, UNAID etc should be kept. It seems incredible to me that the UNSC which has a majority of non-democratic nations in terms of population (due to china) would be able to dictate terms to a country like India, or for that matter any other democratic nations. How is it that when most of these dictatorships deny any freedom to their own citizens should be able to tell democratic nations how to run their affairs.
Posted by: rg117 || 04/04/2003 17:53 Comments || Top||

#8  Damn straight,RJ.Say it agin and make it loud!
Posted by: raptor || 04/05/2003 8:28 Comments || Top||


3 Al-Qaeda "operatives" held in Pakistan
Two Arabs and an Afghan national were arrested for alleged links with terrorist groups during a raid in Pakistan's Northwestern Frontier Province (NWFP). The Rawalpindi-based newspaper The News said in its Friday issue that personnel of intelligence and law enforcement agencies, during a raid on a house in Hayatabad city, arrested the three. The detainees were taken to the Crime Investigation Department post from where they were later shifted to an unknown place, the newspaper said. It said one captive, identified only as Abdullah, was from Egypt while the other was Abdul Karim, his nationality still to be established.
He's trying to remember which of his 57 passports is his real one. It'll come to him...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 04/04/2003 12:46 pm || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:


Policeman killed, camp attacked by NLFT in India's Tripura
A police constable was killed and four others were injured when insurgents of the banned National Liberation Front of Tripura (NLFT) attacked a police camp at Maithulungbari in south Tripura district on Friday, the local media reported on Friday. Police said a group of about 25 NLFT insurgents, clad in olive green uniform and armed with sophisticated weapons, raided the camp of the Special Police Officers (SPO) at Maithulungbari, a remote tribal hamlet, at about 4:00 am (local time) in the northeastern Indian state of Tripura. The SPOs and police personnel, after being fired upon by the ultras, retaliated. In the 30-minute long encounter, the ultras killed a constable and injured four others. Among the four injured, three were admitted to the Tripura Sundari district hospital where their condition was described as critical. Any information about casualties on the ultras' side was not available.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 04/04/2003 12:43 pm || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:


NSCN threatens to pull out of ceasefire with Indian gov't
A powerful tribal separatist group Friday threatened to pull out of a ceasefire if the federal government insists on rebels surrendering their arms and giving up their demand for sovereignty. "Nagas will never lay down three things from their hands—their arms, their freedom and their territories. There should be no illusion whatsoever," a statement by the National Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN), led by guerilla leaders Isak Chishi Swu and Thuingaleng Muivah, said.
That's what Nagaland needs, by golly — National Socialism!
The NSCN leadership and the government are currently holding peace talks after the two sides agreed on a ceasefire in 1997. NSCN leaders Swu and Muivah held talks with Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee in January to bring an end to the more than five decades of violent insurgency in the region. Despite the ceasefire, NSCN cadres move around with arms, although the truce ground rules agreed upon prohibits a display of weapons and confines the rebels to some designated camps.
'Nother words, they're ignoring it...
New Delhi had lifted a ban on the NSCN in November, 12 years after the organization was declared "unlawful" as it led a separatist insurgency in Nagaland. Talks between the NSCN and the government emissary, K. Padmanabhaiah, have been held for years now in several South Asian cities, with Vajpayee meeting the rebel leadership in 2001 in the Japanese city of Osaka. The peace talks in January was the first time the two NSCN leaders arrived on Indian soil in the last 37 years for holding negotiations with the federal authorities. The NSCN's threat to call off the ceasefire comes amid reports that New Delhi was contemplating moves to disarm the rebels and start negotiations with the rival NSCN faction headed by S.S. Khaplang.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 04/04/2003 12:37 pm || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:


23 people massacred by tribal seperatists in Assam
At least 22 people were killed by tribal separatists in India's northeastern state of Assam. A police spokesman said a security patrol Thursday evening recovered the bodies of the 22 people belonging to the Dimasa tribe from a thickly forested area called Natsul Pahar, in southern Assam's Cachar district, 410 kilometers from Guwahati. "The bodies were highly decomposed and bore bullet injuries. Most of them were shot from a close range with automatic weapons," a senior police official told IRNA by telephone. The victims, most of them peasants, were kidnapped by tribal rebels of the Hmar People's Convention (HPC) Monday from three villages in the district. "The killings appear to be a case of inter-tribal rivalry for territorial supremacy," the official said. "Six more Dimasa tribesmen kidnapped by the HPC along with the 22 killed were still missing." The HPC is a rag-tag militant group fighting for greater autonomy for the Hmar tribe living in parts of southern Assam and the adjoining Mizoram state.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 04/04/2003 12:25 pm || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:


Iraq
In Baghdad
Greg Kelly is reporting on FoxNews with 3ID. He's inside Baghdad, in an industrial area of the city. Ollie North reports he's inside the city, too, with the Marines. Defense Department officials say they see no effective command and control of Iraqi forces.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 04/04/2003 10:11 pm || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I am surprised that Shepard Smith can sit under his anchor desk... he sounds like he's got a woody!

FWIW... HOOORAY!
Posted by: Tex || 04/04/2003 22:27 Comments || Top||

#2  Tex. You must be psychic. I had the exact same thought. Calm the f**k down, will you Shep!
Posted by: tu3031 || 04/04/2003 23:59 Comments || Top||


Tornadoes to chuck big rocks
Tornado jets are poised to use yet another different weapon in the war against Iraq ... concrete bombs. The jets have already used high-tech weaponry such as the "bunker busting" cruise missile Storm Shadow, which cost £750,000 apiece and can pierce several feet of concrete. But now the crews operating over Iraq from the Ali Al Salem airbase in northern Kuwait are about to go to the opposite extreme and use "inert bombs". These are basically blocks of concrete shaped as bombs and painted blue to identify them as non-explosive if they are discovered still intact after the war. But they will be laser-guided 1,000lb blocks of concrete, capable of destroying a tank or artillery piece, but without causing a devastating explosion that would put civilians at risk and shatter surrounding buildings.

Tornado Detachment commander, Group Captain Simon Dobb, said: "We have the option of using these inert bombs. "They still have the guidance and steering methods of other high explosive weapons but the risk of causing civilian casualties is greatly reduced." There is the impact, without a massive explosive effect. The weapons, dropped from height and with great accuracy, can destroy a tank without affecting surrounding buildings.

The weapon is on standby if Saddam Hussein moves his tanks and artillery pieces further into Baghdad, hiding them in areas of dense population. It means the Tornados can still destroy them but leave civilian buildings intact and the population unscathed. He said: "There is the impact, without a massive explosive effect. It's all about proportionality."

Ah, the utilitarian joys of kinetic energy. The Tornado has a top speed of 1,452 mph. A thousand pounds of concrete, thumping a T55, dropped from, say, 1000 feet, makes a clang that will no doubt be very painful to the recipients. Briefly.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 04/04/2003 08:33 pm || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  If I remember my physics from school, three or more decades ago, KE=M*V. A 1000 pound concrete bomb, moving at 32ft/sec/sec, from say, 5000 feet, would hit with quite a thump - enough to dig a very deep hole, or cave in about 8 inches of hardened steel a couple of feet. I've been inside a T-55 - there isn't that much spare room. Not to mention dozens of very fragile components (including fragile human beings) that would probably stop working after such an impact.
Posted by: Old Patriot || 04/04/2003 21:21 Comments || Top||

#2  I think I'm more impressed by this than by MOAB bombs. Minimalism at its finest.
Posted by: Dave D. || 04/04/2003 21:38 Comments || Top||

#3  Old Patriot,
KE = ((M * (V**2))/2
In other words KE grows with velocity squared. I do not know whether it will flatten a tank but for sure it will be noticed.
Posted by: marek || 04/04/2003 21:40 Comments || Top||

#4  So now they got high tech big rocks. Any word on that laser guided sharp stick they've been working on?
Posted by: tu3031 || 04/04/2003 22:11 Comments || Top||

#5  The USAF has been using these to. Basicly a JDAM kit on a inert bomb. Very nice for trashing an aircraft parked next to a daycare center. Oh, and that laser guided stick? Try a gps guided crowbar, from orbit. It's in planning phase. One shitload of kinetic energy.
Posted by: Steve || 04/04/2003 22:20 Comments || Top||

#6  Its kind-of obvious when you think about it (and sci-fi writers have speculated about it for years).

Explosive force and imprecision go hand-in-hand. Once you have precision you don't need explosive force. Anti-tank weapons have used this principle for years.

I would assume that that the concrete just gives mass and there is something harder at the pointed end of the weapon.
Posted by: Phil B || 04/05/2003 0:07 Comments || Top||

#7  Pictures aqnd video,PALESE!I gotta see this,must be like haveing a ring side seat for a meteor strike.
Keneitic energy weapons(banned WMD)used in a war on TV series Babylon Five
Posted by: raptor || 04/05/2003 9:52 Comments || Top||


3 CIA assets killed in Baghdad - payback for hit on Saddam’s bunker
Three Iraqis who aided the CIA in the March 20 attempt by the United States to kill Iraqi President Saddam Hussein were executed this week by Iraqi counterintelligence, former and serving U.S. officials told United Press International.
Damn, I hope they were rewarded with a lot better than 72 virgins, something like love from a peaceful God?

A super-secret U.S. intelligence operation, working in Baghdad for weeks before the war, provided the crucial targeting data for the attack on Saddam and his sons, launched in an effort to pre-empt a full-scale war, these sources said, speaking on condition of anonymity and fear. The war had been scheduled to start Friday, March 21, U.S. officials told UPI. But — after getting intelligence that a brief target opportunity presented itself to decapitate the Iraqi leadership — President George W. Bush instead announced at 10:15 p.m. Wednesday, March 19 — 6:15 a.m. March 20 Baghdad time — that hostilities had begun.
That's leadership, John Kerry, serving in Viet Nam isn't a "get-outta-stoopid-jail" card good for all purchases: large or small

Delta and Special Forces units in the country had help from three Iraqi agents recruited by the CIA some time after June 2000, when the first CIA paramilitary teams secretly entered Baghdad to do reconnaissance and recruitment.
Balls

Sources told UPI that Iraqi counterintelligence killed the three, shooting two and cutting out the tongue of a third, who bled to death. They said U.S. intelligence had learned this from their forces on the ground in Iraq. Why the delay? - I still think Saddam and Uday bought the farm - welcome to hell, boys

The March 20 operation involved more than 300 Special Forces, who moved into the country to join Delta troops and CIA paramilitaries, these sources said. One former long-time CIA operative said it was the Delta men, already in country, who made the breakthrough for the U.S. attack by infiltrating a key Baghdad telecommunications center and tapping a fiber optic telephone line. It was this that enabled the U.S. clandestine team to locate Saddam and top leaders at Dora Farm, an Iraqi command and control complex and a legitimate war target, U.S. officials said. Iraqi assets, recruited by the agency, played a key part in the operation by providing "priceless" information, relating to the phone system and details of Dora Farm.

After CIA Director George Tenet conveyed the information to the White House, the administration quickly launched strikes by F-117A warplanes and ship-launched cruise missiles. The attack was thought to have wounded Saddam and is also believed to have killed his son Qusay, 37, who was being groomed as Saddam's successor, according to half a dozen former and serving U.S. officials. The strike hit at 5:36 a.m. Baghdad time March 20, after Bush's ultimatum to Saddam to leave Iraq or face war had expired.

A senior administration official told UPI that Saddam had suffered two burst eardrums in the attack, and "was bleeding from the nose and mouth." This source added that Saddam was so disoriented by concussion damage that he was in "a vegetative state" for hours after the strike. Another administration official said that Saddam was "definitely alive" after the strike and appeared on Friday, March 21, wearing glasses because of concussive damage to the capillaries of his retinas.

Aerial photos showed that the three-building compound had suffered severe damage from 2,000-pound bunker buster bombs and some 40 cruise missiles, U.S. officials said. Details of the timing and recruitment of the Iraqi CIA assets remain vague because "we want to protect our tradecraft," one U.S. intelligence official said.

"The agency has been working for months to hook up with Iraqi dissidents in country," an administration official said. CIA paramilitary teams, working with Delta Forces, still are inside Iraq, attempting to kill 30 top Iraqi leaders, including Saddam's other son, Uday, who commands the Iraqi Fedayeen, several U.S. sources said. One administration official confirmed that U.S. intelligence has the names, addresses and cell phone numbers of the 30 targets.

At least a half a dozen U.S. officials interviewed by UPI said that they believe that Saddam is wounded but still alive. "The strategy is to goad him to appear so that we can kill him," one former senior agency covert operative said. Saddam appears aware of this. On Tuesday, he did not appear for a scheduled TV address. Instead, a senior Iraqi official read a statement in his name. But self-composed and defiant Saddam Hussein apparently made his first public appearance Friday since U.S. forces bombed his bunker March 20. Iraqi TV showed pictures of him walking the streets of a Baghdad neighborhood where a throng of jubilant and enthusiastic residents greeted him. The appearance was the culmination of several efforts Friday by the Iraqi president to rally his people against coalition troops poised just outside the Iraqi capital. The date of his actual visit was not definitive, but some nearby buildings showed possible bomb damage. U.S. analysts noted the apparent lack of smoke that has hovered over most parts of Baghdad for days.

The television pictures showed a smiling Saddam in military uniform and black beret surrounded by people in what was said to be the al-Mansour area and a target of coalition bombardment. "With soul, with blood, we redeem you Saddam," shouted dozens of bystanders. Women ululated while some of the men pushed through to kiss their leader's hand or cheeks. "May God protect you," shouted one man as more joined the crowd.

Saddam, his military men and armed bodyguards in a cluster around him, was then seen checking military reinforcements in the city and chatting with residents. Afterwards he stood to overlook the crowd and raised his fist to salute them. The television then showed pictures from a driving car allegedly with Saddam aboard of many streets in Baghdad. Smoke clouds were seen in these pictures. It was one of the very rare public appearances of Saddam. Mideast commentators called it an act of courage and a strong message to Iraqis and coalition alike that he was still alive, in control of the country and ready for confrontation.

The question that occurs to me is both when the tape was made, and also where it was made. Yeah, yeah. It was the al-Mansour area — but where? Buildings on a residential street look much alike. They could just as easily be in one of the burbs, in Tikrit, or in some other town.
Posted by: Frank G || 04/04/2003 08:37 pm || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:


Intelligence Guidance
found this on Stratfore- No link- need memborship, but found it interesting


Intelligence Guidance - April 4, 2003
Apr 04, 2003 - 0530 GMT

1. On the surface, everything appears clear. We've laid out the Battle of Budapest scenario and that seems to be that. But when we start to dwell on things, the clarity fades. The more we look at it, the more it appears that we are missing something very important, something that should be obvious but we don't quite get.

2. There is something odd about the order of battle and operations south of Baghdad. Three divisions are being used. All three have been moving and fighting for about two weeks. It is really hard to believe that these three divisions, along with the Brits and the part of the 4th Infantry that is in country, are all the force that CENTCOM is going to use to take Baghdad. Even a perimeter around the city needs more force, and it is hard to imagine a dynamic war plan culminating in a static constriction. CENTCOM has riveted every eye on the southern approaches to Baghdad -- including Iraqi eyes. There is something here we are missing -- if not a dazzling political coup, then some other units that haven't shown up on any of our maps. There is something more at work here, some other axis of attack we haven't considered.

3. The action in Mosul is equally baffling. The U.S. seems to have nothing up there but Special Forces and the 173rd Airborne brigade that either came from Jordan or Italy, either delivered to the airfield in C-17s or had 1,000 of them do a night drop on an airfield that was in friendly hands. News from up there is both sporadic and contradictory. Nobody seems to be doing anything up there or even to be interested in doing anything up there, but the Air Force is pounding the place. There are a bunch of Iraqi army divisions up around Kirkuk. Is this the Iraqis' last stand? Is Saddam holed up with those troops? Nothing can be as pointless as the northern front appears to be.

4. Syria's behavior and the electric U.S. response are not easily explained. But there appears to be a lot of attention being paid to the Iraqi-Syrian frontier and some unexplained action up in the al Jazeera Desert involving British troops. We need to deepen our understanding of the dynamics with Syria.

5. Remember Rumsfeld saying that we will see a war unlike anything seen before. Ok, Rumsfeld says a lot of things, but this wasn't a throw-away line. It may be far-fetched, but there almost has to be more to this war plan than we are seeing.




Posted by: Scott Ross || 04/04/2003 06:04 pm || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  If we simply look at what has been accomplished in the south, it can be easily be said that this is a war unlike anything we've seen - but Stratfore could be on to something. There is almost no news coming out of the north, and we do know that we are pouring men and material in there. Also, the 4th ID has yet to join the fight. This thing is just gettig' warmed up, so one should pay attention when CentCom says there is tough fighting ahead.
Posted by: Rex Mundi || 04/04/2003 18:29 Comments || Top||

#2  I have to agree with Stratfor, but there's more to it than just "there has to be more to this war plan tha we are seeing".

We KNOW the 3ID, the 101st, and the 2MEF are arrayed around the southern edge of Baghdad, from the airport to the eastern edges. They've been moving and fighting for the better part of three weeks now. They had a very short Rest & Replentishment break two days ago. We know elements of the 173rd are in the north, and have captured an airfield. We've had reports that C-17's and C-130's are hitting and turning every 30 minutes - thats 2 an hour, for how many hours? What were they bringing in? Tanks, APC's, food/fuel/equipment? We don't know.

We also know that the US has captured H1, H2, and H3. We "assume" they control most of the desert to the west of Baghdad. Either of those three airfields can support C-17, C-130, or even C-5 aircraft. What we don't know is if any of them have actually seen any traffic.

We also know that "special operations" units are on the highway west of Baghdad - Australian SAS types. We've had rumors of burned-out busses and other incidents on the road between Baghdad and Jordan, and on the road between Baghdad and Damascus. What force(s) sit on those roads, and how strong are they?

We've been told that "special operations" forces have captured the dam northwest of Damascus. Where else are special forces operating? Just how many "special operations" troops does the coalition have, and what are their orders? We haven't a clue, and get brief glimpses before the darkness shuts down again.

I have no idea what the battle plan is, but I'm beginning to believe there's a lot more to it than we are now seeing displayed. My only prayer is that there are no major snafus, and this thing is over with, soon!
Posted by: Old Patriot || 04/04/2003 18:48 Comments || Top||

#3  Interesting article, and it raises my eyebrows a little.

So far, two weeks into this war, the Northern Front seems almost an afterthought. We hear little about it- almost too little.

Also, there's an assumption I've never seen discussed, something that seems taken for granted: that every significant fighting unit has embedded journalists with it. What if this isn't so? Are there units with no reporters tagging along, doing things we don't hear about, while our attention is misdirected to the units that have the embeds?

Interesting...
Posted by: Dave D. || 04/04/2003 18:53 Comments || Top||

#4  One report I heard today( CNN )radio was that special operations personnel have been operating in and around Bahgdad since right after the war started. Spotting targets and who knows what else. When this is all over the stories that will come out about the SF and SAS operatiions are going to be remarkable
Posted by: Someone who did NOT vote for William Proxmire || 04/04/2003 19:05 Comments || Top||

#5  And interestingly, the heavy shelling and bombing of Baghdad tonight is on the Eastern side of town.

We've seen the hammer from the South and West. Will we see an anvil appear from the East?
Posted by: Parabellum || 04/04/2003 19:35 Comments || Top||

#6  How do you hid a tree?
Posted by: Don || 04/04/2003 21:41 Comments || Top||

#7  this also from Stratfore, backs up your theory about journalists not being attached to the misisng units-
edited
Blind Spots and Missing Units
Apr 05, 2003 - 0244 GMT

Summary

Thanks to the military embedding program for journalists, tracking the movements of some U.S. units on the battlefield has been relatively easy. However, it has also meant that large numbers of U.S. troops have dropped off the radar. While this hinders the accuracy of Stratfor's mapping efforts, it could facilitate the unobserved movement of U.S. troops and the achievement of tactical surprise.

Analysis

Tracking the location of particular units helps us hone our understanding of CENTCOM's chosen strategy. It also alerts us to impending developments on the battlefield.

Thanks to the military embedding program for journalists, tracking the movements of some U.S. units on the battlefield has been relatively easy. Geraldo Rivera does not have to draw a map in the sand for us to track units. Journalists are obliged to report at regular intervals, and they report on the activities of the units within which they are embedded. We just connect the dots, making inferences as necessary, and often correcting the misperceptions of disoriented journalists.

But as we noted on March 22, the embedding program is meant to do more than assist the media in informing the public about the course of the war. It is meant to distract. It is meant to focus attention on the actions of particular units -- the units with embedded journalists.

The decision to embed CNN's Walter Rodgers with the 3rd Squadron, 7th Cavalry, has ensured hours of airtime of the 3rd Infantry Division's race up the Euphrates. But who has been watching the battalions of the 124th Infantry Regiment, or the elements of the 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Armored Division, or 2nd Brigade, 1st Infantry Division, that reportedly have been deployed somewhere in theater?

But while the media relations aspect of the embedding program has not been everything the Pentagon would have desired, it is still proving useful in limiting knowledge of the battlefield. Large swathes of western Iraq remain invisible, as does the area between Baghdad and the Mosul-Kirkuk line, and southern Iraq east of the Tigris. Action in these areas is only revealed by CENTCOM -- such as the raids on H2 and H3 airfields and the Hadithah Dam, or by foreign news or intelligence sources -- such as the failed British commando operation at Al Bajar.

Moreover, embeds provide knowledge of only a limited number of troops. Even units with embeds have been known to disappear for a time, as was the case with the 7th Marine Regiment's secret supply convoy. Until major new units arriving now in theater receive their media embeds, they remain nearly invisible to us as well.

Recent embed reports identify the locations of the units listed below. Some of them are a couple of days old, and the units could have moved significant distances in the meantime. And simple comparison of the known movements listed below with our inevitably incomplete and outdated Order of Battle demonstrates just how much we do not know about this battlefield. Even in an era of multi-channel 24-hour media coverage, the fog of war apparently remains sufficiently thick to provide cover and concealment to military plans.

Known Recent Battlefield Movements




Posted by: scott || 04/04/2003 23:46 Comments || Top||


Pilots Report In-Flight Target Changes
Coalition ground forces are taking Iraqi positions around Baghdad so quickly that American fighter pilots are being forced to switch their bombing targets in flight. F/A-18 Hornet and F-14 Tomcat pilots have intensified direct attacks on Baghdad in recent days, after weeks of pounding dug-in defensive posts just south of the city. They are clearing the way for troops and flying support missions as well as hitting strategic targets. That means plans have changed quickly. "On our way to our target we received a kind of good-news, bad-news story," Cmdr. Brian Corey, an F/A-18 pilot, said of a mission he flew Thursday night. "The bad news was our pre-planned mission was canceled. The good news was it was canceled because friendly forces were moving faster than earlier planned, and they had moved beyond my pre-planned target."
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 04/04/2003 03:01 pm || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:


Michael Kelly, RIP
Peggy Noonan's classy tribute to the late Mr. Kelly, from OpinionJournal.

The death of Michael Kelly is a sin against the order of the world. He was a young man on his way to becoming a great man. He was going to be one of the great editors of his time, and at the age of 46 he was already one of its great journalists. And one's first thought about him, after saying the obvious--that he wrote like a dream, that he was a great reporter with great eyes, that he was a keen judge of what is news and what should be news--is this. He was an independent man. He had an indignant independence that was beauty to behold. He knew what he thought and why, and he announced it in his columns and essays with wit and anger.

Virtually from the beginning of his career it was clear--he made it clear--that he would not accept the enforced Official Version of Reality that various luminaries and establishments attempted to force on him and others who report the news for a living. Was the vast American media establishment inclined to think one way? Then he would think another. Not necessarily the opposite--he was not a contrarian. He'd just think what he actually thought. And write it. He wouldn't let anyone tell him how to think. One would hope that would be a given in the world of big-league reporting, but newspapers and networks are full of journalists who let others tell them what to think.

I knew him as most people did, through what he wrote. I'd met him and admired him easily, but the Michael I read I loved. And so today, without a particular right to, I feel heartbroken. When the news broke, Mencken biographer Terry Teachout expressed with concision what I felt and had not been able to articulate: "This is horrible, horrible news--[Michael] had evolved into a great force for journalistic good, not just as regards this war but in general, and his death will leave a black hole in the sky."

Go read all of it.
Posted by: Mike || 04/04/2003 02:47 pm || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Damn, I was a huge fan of Michael Kelly. Why couldn't it have been Ted Koppel? RIP Michael.
Posted by: Anonymous || 04/04/2003 19:52 Comments || Top||

#2  "Embedded" journalists are nothing new. Ernie Pyle got "embedded" at Ie Shima. :-<
Posted by: Ernest Brown || 04/04/2003 20:19 Comments || Top||


Marines Say 2,500 Iraqi Guards Surrender
U.S. Marines have reported that about 2,500 Iraqi Republican Guards surrendered between Kut and Baghdad, U.S. Central Command said Friday. The surrender apparently occurred after clashes of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force and the Republican Guard's Baghdad Division, said Navy Capt. Frank Thorp, spokesman at U.S. Central Command. U.S. Central Command has said it has more than 4,500 POWs in custody.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 04/04/2003 01:53 pm || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  it's the beginning of the end.
Posted by: becky || 04/04/2003 14:16 Comments || Top||

#2  Let's be sure to put them in elite POW cages.
Posted by: Matt || 04/04/2003 15:09 Comments || Top||

#3  My guess is next Wednesday. I've been wrong lots of times, but I'm guessing Wednesday.
Posted by: Fred || 04/04/2003 18:25 Comments || Top||


Manhunt operations in Nassiriya
Coalition aircraft have launched manhunt operations in the southern Iraqi city of Nassiriya for those forming strong line of resistance against intruders, according to reliable sources. Casualty toll is reportedly too high in Nassiriya and dead bodies have been scattered in different areas. Unabated air and missile raids and fierce ground battles have left nearly no hope for sustained resistance by Iraqis to prevent the fall of the city. US forces have also blocked the Shatra-Nassiriya road, cutting links between the two centers.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 04/04/2003 12:57 pm || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:


Iraqi envoy claims US trapped in his country
Iraq's Ambassador to Pakistan Khadim Abdul Hameed al-Rawi has claimed that the invading US forces have been trapped in Iraq and will face humiliation. In an interview with the Islamabad-based daily `Khabrain,' Rawi said that the Iraqi forces and people would fight to the very end to defend their motherland and inflict maximum damage to the invaders. He said that although the invaders hardly faced any problem passing through the desert, the US-led forces were confronted with stiff resistance from the Iraqi forces and civilians in cities and towns. "The invading forces tried to pass through Najaf and had to face heavy losses and now they are trying to cross Nasiriya," he pointed out. Lacking courage, he noted, the enemy mainly relied on aerial bombardments instead of making advances through land. Rawi claimed that at present Baghdad was in no danger. To a question, the envoy made it clear that the government was trying desperately to protect holy shrines, saying the allied forces had not spared these shrines and were causing damage to some.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 04/04/2003 12:50 pm || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Some pundits used to say that Apple Computer co-founder Steve Jobs projected a personal "reality distortion field", meaning that he had an infectious knack for not letting facts get in the way of his beliefs.

Well, Jobs has nothing on Ambassador al-Rawi!!!
Posted by: Scooter McGruder || 04/04/2003 15:55 Comments || Top||

#2  This tack head must be getting his info from Peter jennings, or janine garbuffalo
Posted by: Wills || 04/04/2003 19:48 Comments || Top||

#3  He's got us just where we want him...
Posted by: mojo || 04/04/2003 23:30 Comments || Top||


US forces find a tunnel underneath Saddam Int'l Airport
US military forces have discovered a huge tunnel underneath the Saddam International Airport in Baghdad, the Kuwaiti TV channel reported early Friday. According to the report, the tunnel connects the airport to the Tigris River. The Pentagon, in its latest briefing, announced that US forces have taken control of Baghdad's international airport. However, Iraq's information minister forthwith rejected the claim. The Iraq Information Ministry took reporters on a verification visit of Saddam International Airport on Thursday.
There isn't one scheduled for Friday, though...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 04/04/2003 12:27 pm || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Iraq's Info. Minister said that they were going to do something at the airport tonight. Could it be their intention to flood it, through the captured tunnel? We'll see. I strongly oppose use of limited-war methodology against genocidal animals, such as those who rule Iraq. My solution to the crisis, would have been to use nuclear blackmail to force the liquidation of the entire jihadi movement on a global scale. Under threat of annihilation, each Mideast entity would have been ordered to deliver - dead or alive - each and every known or suspected member of a jihadi organization, including the clergy who issue genocidal khutbah, every Friday. Rogue states and entities - including the palestine authority, Syria, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and Somalia - would be required to give up power. Threat of annihilation has a way of producing consensus. Smart bombs are too good for this enemy.

Bush-Cheney's insane "50 year" counter terror plan is pure snakeoil. Those who back it, are human doormats. I'll give you something to chew on.
http://nni-news.com/thu/main/main-06.htm
Posted by: Anonon || 04/04/2003 13:34 Comments || Top||

#2  I'm more worried about a human wave attack, with women and children in front. That would fit with these guys tactics and current capabilities. Hope some of our guys think about this and are ready to target the rear of such an assault. Have the cameras rolling too.
Posted by: Steve || 04/04/2003 13:47 Comments || Top||

#3  AP reports the following:

"Flashes from what appeared to be machine guns could be seen from the southern end of the presidential Old Palace complex on the west bank of the Tigris River"

Machine gun fire in the very center of Bagdad? Spec. Ops guys? Uprising? Coup? Trigger happy Baathists? Futile pot shots at aircraft?
Posted by: liberalhawk || 04/04/2003 14:54 Comments || Top||

#4  More on "tonight's" actions:

"We will do something that will be a great example for these mercenaries," Sahaf threatened chillingly.

He added that five columns of Iraqi armour have been airlifted to the airport and that the army would conduct "martyrdom operations" but denied weapons of mass destruction would be used.


I dont' think Iraq has five columns of armor LEFT. How are they going to "airlift" them to the airport when they have absolutely no chance of sending an aircraft aloft, much less of transporting multiple columns of armor anywhere? Unless the Russkies are going to help, which will end up with a lot of Russian aircraft shot down in Iraq, really muck up the works.
Posted by: Old Patriot || 04/04/2003 16:09 Comments || Top||

#5  Anonon: And what would you do when one of the countries you named dared us to nuke them? Do it? I'm sorry, and as much as I want to see Iraq glow in the dark if they use chem/bio or anything else in the WMD department on us, I'm afraid that your solution would be criminal and just a little insane.

We are better than that. We should be better than that. We must be better than that. Wholesale slaughter and murder of the type you advocate is beneath us - and it's beneath you as well I think.

Do not sink to the levels of our enemies. It makes us as bad as they are.

Keep in mind the following statement,

"Evil flourishes when good men fail to act"
Edmund Burke, 1634

We need to be the "good men" that Burke was speaking about. Fight, and fight hard and even dirty when necessary, but do not become the evil that we fight.
Posted by: FOTSGreg || 04/04/2003 16:32 Comments || Top||


British troops pull down Saddam's statue in Faw
British troops pulled down on Thursday the statue of President Saddam Hussein of Iraq in a major square in the city of Faw. According to IRNA reporters, the British soldiers pulled down the statue using a heavy military vehicle. A group of civilians were only witnessing the act of the British troops in the city. Faw Peninsula was nearly captured on the second day of the US-led assault which began on Thursday March 20.
Sammy's statues are coming down all over the place. But that's okay. He's got more in his bunker...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 04/04/2003 12:23 pm || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:


Iraqi TV Shows What Says Is Saddam Touring Baghdad
Fri April 4, 2003 12:30 PM ET
Iraqi television showed footage of what it said was President Saddam Hussein visiting residential areas of Baghdad on Friday. Saddam, dressed in a military uniform, was mobbed by cheering, chanting Iraqis. Some of them kissed him on his cheeks and hands and he held up a small child. The television said he visited buildings bombed by U.S. warplanes.

FOLLOWUP: From Associated Press...
In an unannounced television broadcast Friday designed to rally his people, President Saddam Hussein called on Iraqis to strike at the U.S.-led coalition. Iraq TV also showed a man identified as Saddam being cheered by a crowd. The speech made one topical reference — to the capture of an Apache helicopter March 23, which Iraqi officials have said was brought down by farmers in central Iraq. "Perhaps you remember the valiant Iraqi peasant and how he shot down an American Apache with an old weapon," Saddam said in the brief speech.
If it's actually his voice, and not that of one of his doubles, that's the proof he's still alive. We're going to have to go root him out...
Also Friday, Arab television networks aired footage of a man they said was Saddam walking among excited crowds cheering. The man identified as Saddam was dressed in a green-olive military uniform with a beret. He smiled, appeared relaxed and shook hands, kissed a baby and waved. Al-Jazeera said the tape was made Friday. It was taken in daylight, but not broadcast until after nightfall.
Posted by: Yosemite Sam || 04/04/2003 12:01 pm || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Rightttttt! He's going to be out strolling around the streets with Predators loaded with Hellfire missiles cruising overhead. Sammy never wandered the streets, that's always a double. Either that or it's file footage from after GW1.
Posted by: Steve || 04/04/2003 12:48 Comments || Top||

#2  ... or the bombing that took place in '98.
Posted by: Samma-lamma || 04/04/2003 15:50 Comments || Top||

#3  Spot on. If the guy in the streets matches the one on the video, Saddam's gone or out of commission.

(He's still dead, Jim.)
Posted by: Anonymous || 04/04/2003 16:56 Comments || Top||

#4  Saddam, a well known germophobe is not likely to walk the streets of bagdhad acting like hes running for an aldermans job in chicago.

Im betting its one of the body doubles, the more I look at it, the goofier it looks.
Posted by: Frank Martin || 04/04/2003 17:24 Comments || Top||


Iraqi exiles stream home
But not to help Saddam — rather to help the US take control and rebuild. But will we let them play the role they are eager to play? More from Prof. Makiya, with continued concern about the struggle between the Pentagon and State for control of Iraq. (Makiya is no fan of the State Department)
Posted by: Liberalhawk || 04/04/2003 11:18 am || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Just read the full article. He's pissed off State is going to supervise the use of money approved yesterday by Congress. Makiya wants DOD to do it. He doesnt trust CIA either. BTW, read his book "Republic of Fear".
Posted by: Michael || 04/04/2003 13:27 Comments || Top||


Kurd officials recover 200 corpses at Ansar’s hideout
Edited for length:
Two former Toronto residents are not among the 200 members of Ansar al-Islam killed during a U.S.-led battle to wipe out the radical Islamist group. But more bodies continue to be found in the crevices and isolated footpaths of Ansar's overrun mountaintop bases, so it may be some time before the fate of the former Toronto residents is clear, Westa Hassan said. "It's very difficult terrain," said Hassan, the chief Ansar investigator for the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) militia. "We find more bodies every day."
"We just follow the smell and the flies..."
The former Toronto residents, Saeed Sobrhatolla Muhammad and Abdul Jaber, joined Ansar at separate times during the past two years. Jaber has been described as a top Ansar ideologue and commander of the armed group. Both lived in one of the 17 mountain villages in northern Iraq, hugging the Iranian border, where the group had imposed a Taliban-style regime.
Alas, poor Saeed and Abdul! Now they're maggot chow...
Hassan said he personally tried to identify the more than 200 bodies found scattered around the former Ansar bases, overrun last Friday by heavy U.S. bombardment, followed by a ground assault by up to 10,000 Kurdish militia fighters.
The size of this battle grows every day.
With Hassan was Osman Ali, an 18-year-old Ansar prisoner who used to be in the Ansar unit of suicide bombers Jaber commanded. "We washed the faces of the corpses and, one by one, Osman looked at them. Jaber was not one of them," Hassan said in an interview yesterday. A process of elimination determined Sobrhatolla was also not among the dead. Hassan said Osman and other Ansar prisoners identified the other dead Ansar fighters, 95 per cent of whom were Arabs from across the Middle East.
Suprise meter didn't budge
Hassan believes the Arabs died in the battle — while Ansar fighters of Kurdish origin fled to Iran — because they were not familiar with the mountain passages that lead across the border. None of the Ansar fighters killed in the battle were leaders of the group, Hassan said, adding they likely fled to Iran.
Big shots are always the first to run.
Jaber, whom PUK officials say also goes by the name of Hassan Farahat, is described by Ali as being in his late 40s. He commanded two fighting units, including one made up of 80 guerrillas, most of them Arabs from across the Middle East, and a six-man cell of suicide bombers. Sobrhatolla, whose wife Ibtisam is under a form of house arrest in PUK-controlled Sulaymaniya, was Ansar's 29-year-old computer expert. Ibtisam is a Canadian citizen who wants to return to Canada, but the Canadian government has so far done little to help her.
"Who? Never heard of her?"
Farahat and Sobrhatolla met at a Scarborough mosque founded by Farahat. Hassan is convinced Farahat and Abdul Jaber are one and the same person. As evidence, he notes their sons have the same names, and both are members of Iraq's Turkoman minority. Muhammad Saeed Hussein, a PUK prisoner in Sulaymaniya, also believes Farahat and Jaber are the same person. Hussein, 30, was arrested last December while trying to reach Ansar bases. He's from the Iraqi-controlled town of Telafa, west of Mosul, the same town Farahat is originally from.
Posted by: Steve || 04/04/2003 11:01 am || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:


Atlantic Monthly Editor Killed in Iraq
Michael Kelly, the Atlantic Monthly editor-at-large and Washington Post columnist who abandoned the safety of editorial offices to cover the war in Iraq, has been killed in a Humvee accident while traveling with the Army's 3rd Infantry Division. Kelly, the first American journalist killed in the war, had also served as editor of the New Republic and National Journal. But his decision to join up with U.S. forces marked a return to his reporting roots, since he covered the first Persian Gulf War as a magazine freelancer and turned his observations into a book, "Martyrs' Day." While one Australian and two British journalists have been killed covering the war, Kelly's death is the first among the 600 correspondents participating in the Pentagon's embedding program.
He revitalized The Atlantic Monthly, which last year ran that amazing three-part story on Ground Zero. Why, oh why, couldn't it have been Lewis Lapham instead?
Posted by: growler || 04/04/2003 10:48 am || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Great writer although I've only read his stuff for the last month. RIP, Kelly. Condolences to your family, too.
Posted by: Michael || 04/04/2003 13:34 Comments || Top||

#2  Kelly was a tremendous writer with a gift for clear-headed analysis. You can view an archive of his work here. His last column, published yesterday, was a vivid description of the advance of the Third Infantry over the Euphrates. He also wrote a masterful skewering of NPR's coverage of the Afghan campaign, "Perfectly Modulated Voice of Reason."

Requiem in pace.
Posted by: Mike || 04/04/2003 11:12 Comments || Top||

#3  This is terrible, terrible news. In memoriam, please go read the wonderful column he wrote in November of 2001:

``Good evening, and welcome to `All Is Lost,' the nightly public affairs program produced by National Public Radio and the British Broadcasting Corporation. Tonight, we discuss what has been called America's war against terror. I am your host, Perfectly Modulated Voice of Reason.

``With me, in our Washington studio, are: Fabled Newsman Who Was There When Saigon Fell ... Scientifically Trained Impartial Scholar ... and Bureau Chief of Second-Rate Regional Monopoly Newspaper Who Is Desperate to be Hired by The New York Times. From London, we are joined by our European affairs analyst, Loathes America and Prays for its Swift Destruction.

There's more. Go read it all.
Posted by: Angie Schultz || 04/04/2003 11:15 Comments || Top||

#4  What a terrible loss.
Posted by: Fred || 04/04/2003 11:16 Comments || Top||

#5  Exactly - one of the clear headed writers around today....damn
Posted by: Frank G || 04/04/2003 12:31 Comments || Top||

#6  This is truly sad. A professional journalist who did a spectacular job covering a professional military (his last column, linked by Mike above, is a fine piece of work).

RIP, Michael.
Posted by: Dar Steckelberg || 04/04/2003 12:41 Comments || Top||

#7  In addition to being highly respected in his field, he was also very well liked as a person - see the tribute page at The Atlantic site. Hard to imagine leaving a better legacy than having people who've known you for years to have lots of good things to say about you.

He will be sorely missed. My post, if you are interested, is here.
Posted by: Jeff Brokaw || 04/04/2003 13:19 Comments || Top||

#8  Kelly is survived by his wife, Madelyn, and two sons, Tom, 6, and Jack, 3.

From Wash. Post article.
Posted by: Dar Steckelberg || 04/04/2003 13:26 Comments || Top||

#9  This war's Ernie Pyle. RIP, Michael Kelly.
Posted by: Old Patriot || 04/04/2003 15:32 Comments || Top||

#10  This is a great loss, nobody more clearly made the case for this war than Michael Kelly, and now it has taken him, when I heard this news this morning I balled like a child, my thoughts and prayers go out to his family.
Posted by: Wills || 04/04/2003 19:57 Comments || Top||


Saddam statue comes a-tumblin’ down
At one end of the city, the Tomb of Ali, son-in-law of the Prophet Muhammad, occupies a place of honor that has been revered by Shiite Muslims for centuries. And dominating the four-lane boulevard approaching the holy site is a monument loathed by the Shiites for a decade: a gigantic bronze statue of Saddam Hussein on a horse, seeming to dare posterity to set its gaze on his grandeur.
Everything Saddam did seems like something a mobster would do — tasteless, tacky, gauche.
In a couple of hours today, a handful of American soldiers proved it was possible to topple Mr. Hussein. Officially, the demolition was carried out at the behest of an Iraqi Army colonel leading several dozen Iraqi soldiers who styled themselves the Coalition of Iraqi National Unity. The actual razing of the statue, however, was a production of United States Army engineers.
Bring him down, boys!
"Six Bangalore torpedoes," Sgt. Kris Catts, 23, said, reciting the explosive recipe he used. "Eight blocks of C-4. One M-12 — that's shock tube, it'll detonate when you push the button. One M-11, another shock tube. One M-14, a timer fuse, set for five minutes. Two M-81 fuse igniters, in case the shock tube doesn't blow. Fifty feet of detonation cord."
That's quite a cake he's baking.
Sergeant Catts made a ladder out of rope and pulled himself 20 feet up the marble pedestal on which the statue stood, guided from the ground by Sgt. Shawn Love. The explosives were passed up by rope to Sergeant Catts by Sergeant Love and Cpl. Francisco Santiago. "This statue will come down," said Sergeant Love. That prospect drew crowds. The Hussein monument is in one of the few verdant patches in this city of 400,000, where other than the golden domes of the mosques, the poured concrete architecture stretches into grindingly dusty vistas, interrupted only by broken glass, or crumbled buildings. There is little public art other than elaborate portraits of Mr. Hussein, which appear on government buildings, sometimes with him depicted having gun sex firing his rifle into the sky, other times just gazing into the distance. Many of these seem to have taken a beating in the last few days. As the engineers strapped explosives to the legs of the horse that Mr. Hussein sat astride, Army tanks blocked entry to the boulevard. Hundreds of men and boys crowded on nearby street corners. The blast, when it came, was met with rousing cheers.
I'd be ululating if I were there.
The horse and its rider were sent hurtling off the pedestal, crashing to the base. Then the Iraqi colonel and his men began speaking over a loudspeaker, proclaiming an uprising against Mr. Hussein's government. When they were finished, residents snapped pictures of friends on top of the pile of ruins of the statue, or posed with the soldiers. Then came questions for the nearest available Americans. "When Saddam Hussein goes?" Ali Salah asked. "Not in Najaf. Saddam in Baghdad."
Either there or in Tikrit. We'll find him, Ali.
Posted by: Steve White || 04/04/2003 09:58 am || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  does anyone have before / during / after pictures ?
Posted by: Anonymous || 04/04/2003 11:15 Comments || Top||

#2  Gotta get one of these Saddam statues, put a mumu on it, and put it out in the cornfield where it will do some good.
Posted by: Dar Steckelberg || 04/04/2003 13:11 Comments || Top||


Iraqi Official Threatens ’Non-Conventional’ Attacks
Edited for length
In the face of the allied juggernaut, Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf, Iraq's information minister, sent a threat to coalition forces. "Tonight we are going to commit untraditional attacks," he said during a press conference Friday. "We will commit a non-conventional act on them, not necessarily military. We will do something that will be a great example for these mercenaries." Al-Sahhaf described the threats as a "kind of martyrdom operations" and insisted Iraq will not use weapons of mass destruction. But he added that the airport, which he described as an "isolated island," will be a "graveyard" for Americans.
Yesterday this nimrod said we were over a hundred miles from Baghdad.
Al-Sahhaf said it will be "difficult for the U.S. forces that are surrounded in Saddam airport to come out alive." Al-Sahhaf's proclamations have been notorious since the war started. He has told the media that the Iraqis have been slaughtering coalition forces and has insisted that Saddam's regime is in full control of Iraq, despite all the reports coming directly from embedded reporters and U.S. military officials that the situation is exactly the opposite.
Posted by: Yosemite Sam || 04/04/2003 09:53 am || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Mr. al-Sahhaf: Be warned that untraditional or unnatural acts on our troops will be met with a fury that will pale before your little hyperboles. You can stop digging your grave. It is deep enough now. Bloody moron...........
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 04/04/2003 10:02 Comments || Top||

#2  Mo, ever hear of a guy named Joseph Goebbels?
He had a job similar to yours sometime ago in Germany. Read up on him. It'll be enlightening. But it doesn't have a happy ending.
Posted by: tu3031 || 04/04/2003 10:07 Comments || Top||

#3  I'm sitting here at my desk at 2:30MST, or about 12:30AM Baghdad time. Has anything happened yet, or is this another example of "wishful thinking"?
Posted by: Old Patriot || 04/04/2003 15:40 Comments || Top||

#4  Um ... I think I saw a fuzzy white bunny, with blood stains on his mouth hopping around in file footage from the airport.

"Look, that rabbit's got a vicious streak a mile wide! It's a killer!"

I wonder if we have a Holy Hand Grenade??
Posted by: Samma-lamma || 04/04/2003 15:58 Comments || Top||


Neighbouring nations close possible Iraqi escape hatch
Iran and Syria have heeded blunt US diplomatic warnings and at least temporarily closed their borders with Iraq. Senior US officials say the move could prevent hundreds of al-Qaeda and Ansar al Islam extremists from escaping into Iran and cut off Arab fighters and military equipment arriving from Syria.
"Don't make me come in there!"
The developments underscored the intense diplomacy required to prevent the war from becoming a regional conflict. To drive home its message with Iran, US officials in recent weeks have held at least two rounds of secret talks in Europe with Iranian representatives and relayed three "tests" through Swiss diplomats in Tehran designed to determine whether the Islamic republic intends to use the Iraq war to back away from or draw closer to terrorists. US officials said the escape of Muslim extremists into Iran would be a setback in the war on terrorism because the northern Iraq enclave was the largest known concentration of al-Qaeda and Ansar al Islam operatives outside Afghanistan.
We'll have to wait and see what Iran does
Posted by: Steve || 04/04/2003 09:12 am || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:


’Suspect’ vials found
Courtesy of 'British' 'Broadcasting' 'Corporation'.
US troops say they have found thousands of boxes of unidentified white powder and some nerve agent antidote at an industrial site south-west of Baghdad. They also said they discovered documents in Arabic, which apparently explain how to carry out chemical warfare. A special team has been sent to investigate the discovery at Latifiya - part of a large military complex frequently visited frequently by UN weapons inspectors before the war began. According to Reuters news agency, US troops also said they had found a second site nearby containing vials of unidentified liquid and white powder. The Iraqi authorities have not commented on the finds so far. The BBC's Paul Adams says Latifiya is part of the large Qa Qa military complex, just one of a number of sites clustered around the capital where the Iraqi government is thought to have developed chemical, biological and nuclear weapons. In a separate development, US military spokesman Vincent Brooks said troops in the western desert had found what they suspected was a training school for nuclear, chemical and biological warfare.
Posted by: Bulldog || 04/04/2003 09:13 am || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Another smoking gun. More to some, I'm sure, now that we have time to look for stuff instead of fighting.
Posted by: Anonymous || 04/04/2003 9:18 Comments || Top||

#2  I didn't mean that there was no evidence... I meant there was no "evidence" of illegal weapons.
Posted by: Jenine Grrafalu || 04/04/2003 9:31 Comments || Top||

#3  Maybe the delivery system for this stuff was for an Iraqi "martyr" to sneak up on an invading soldier and dump it on them.
Posted by: Hiryu || 04/04/2003 9:36 Comments || Top||

#4  I'm with Hiryu, only I think the technique of choice would be to put the substance in a balloon and toss it at our guys "squiggy' style.
Posted by: Wills || 04/04/2003 9:48 Comments || Top||

#5  All generic white powder discovered in Iraq should be called milk of Arnett.
Posted by: mhw || 04/04/2003 9:59 Comments || Top||

#6  Latest reports say that the white powder seems to be an explosive, not chemical weapon.
Posted by: Steve || 04/04/2003 10:22 Comments || Top||


Positive test for terror toxins in Iraq
MSNBC.com tests reveal evidence of the deadly toxins ricin and botulinum at a laboratory in a remote mountain region of northern Iraq allegedly used as a terrorist training camp by Islamic militants with ties to the al-Qaida terrorist network. The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency is conducting its own tests at the same area, but has not yet released the results, according to officials in northern Iraq.
Posted by: OldSpook || 04/04/2003 09:11 am || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Smoking gun, anyone?
Posted by: Anonymous || 04/04/2003 9:14 Comments || Top||

#2  "CIA/Mossad/Halliburton planted it all" -the Left,the French,the Arab News,Hans Blix etc.
Posted by: El Id || 04/04/2003 9:25 Comments || Top||


A lie told often enough becomes truth... or it just makes you look stupid
Iraqi Foreign Minister Naji Sabri said on Friday that Saddam Hussein was alive, but refused to say whether he had seen the Iraqi president. Asked if he had seen him personally, he replied: "It's none of your business to ask this question. The president is well, the leadership are well... and they are functioning as normal."
He continued by saying: "Everything is great here in beautiful Iraq... really great. Saddam and I have never been happier. We, like the North Koreans, are so blissfully happy, that we're going to need surgery to remove the freakin smiles from our freakin faces. Thanks for askin'"
Posted by: ----------<<<<-- || 04/04/2003 08:42 am || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  All is well remain calm, we control the vertical we control the horizontal.....
Posted by: Wills || 04/04/2003 9:51 Comments || Top||

#2  "Do not mind the blasting outside. We are making way for glorious new palace!"
Posted by: Dar Steckelberg || 04/04/2003 12:46 Comments || Top||


These Iraqis seemed to be totally prepared to die for their country
WE HAD just arrived at Saddam International Airport yesterday when the battle for Baghdad erupted in its full fury right above our heads. In seconds we were huddled inside a makeshift shelter with six terrified Iraqi soldiers as mortars and artillery shells whistled overhead. Our government minder had taken my cameraman, Phil Dye, and I the 12 miles out out to the airport on the capital’s southwest fringe to rebut reports that coalition forces were massed to attack.
Whoops! That doesn't seem to be the best of all possible jobs of rebuttal...
A much larger group of reporters had visited earlier in the afternoon, courtesy of the Iraqi Government, and did indeed see nothing but a vast expanse of Tarmac and two completely empty runways of what was effectively a ghost airport. We arrived two hours later, at about 6pm. We were the last people there, and we had just stopped at a makeshift checkpoint 400 yards short of the terminal when the shelling started. The irregular Iraqi soldiers at the checkpoint dived into a dugout ringed by sandbags and we joined them as the barrage erupted. We heard distant cracks, then the shells whistled and whined overhead. It is a noise I will not forget. Five or six seconds elapsing between firing and impact. No shells landed on the airport itself. They were destined for Iraqi positions around the airport, and for Baghdad itself.
Saw this episode on the terriblevision last night. You could hear the rounds whistle as they passed overhead...
It seemed like an eternity, but it was probably only four or five minutes before there was a lull in the barrage and we decided to make a break for it. The dugout offered us protection against nothing.
It "seemed like an eternity" when the rounds weren't even aimed at him? Guess it'd seem longer than an eternity if he was actually spitting dirt from them and dodging shrapnel...
Our driver sped us back toward Baghdad down a deserted multi-lane highway when the shelling began again. We abandoned the car, ran into a field and took shelter in a ditch, hoping to sit it out. But there was no let-up so we returned to the car and carried on driving. It was now dusk. We drove through thick smoke and saw detonations of some sort at a nearby army base. As we entered the city we veered off onto the side streets, and found a city braced to defend itself. The Fedayin were out in their black uniforms and balaclavas. Men armed with Kalashnikovs were manning sandbag emplacements on the corners. I had never seen so many armed Iraqis on the streets. The Americans and British may say their motivation is to liberate the Iraqis, but these people gave every impression that they were prepared to die for their country.
Nah, first bomb em, then liberate the survivors

This guy is obviously a master of perception. He sees some guys in sinister black uniforms and balaclavas and immediately comes to the conclusion that they're soliders... Makes sense, I guess. But if I ever meet him, I'll make a point of telling him what an honest fellow I am, and then asking him if I can hold his wallet for awhile. There's probably nothing in it, though; I get the feeling he's the kind of guy who loans money to hookers whose Moms need an operation...
Posted by: Murat || 04/04/2003 06:56 am || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Is this all you've got, Murat? That the Fedayeen death squads are "prepared to die" defending the regime that is the source of their power? Is this the best you can do at this point? Loser.
Posted by: jrosevear || 04/04/2003 7:25 Comments || Top||

#2  Very bravely waiting for the enemy AWAY from the airport.

I'm surprised you're supporting a bunch of armed hoodlums, bullies, and gangsters. That's all they are, threatening the Iraqi People, holding families hostage to force the men to fight, using women and children as human shields. I have, as yet, to hear a SINGLE WORD OF CONDEMNATION out of you or any Muslim outside of Kuwait.

You continue to FAIL to convince me of your ability or qualifications to sit in judgment of ANYONE.

They're crooked players.

YOU'RE a crooked referee.

Posted by: Ptah || 04/04/2003 7:41 Comments || Top||

#3  Osama and Sadaam should have taken a lesson from Pearl Harbor, before they attacked our shores.
Blather on all you want to Murat, about inspections, preemption, unilateral, action and "illegal conflicts", but do take note:

Threaten our freedom and way of life, and expect our young men and women to be ready and prepared to defend it with their lives AND the full might of what a country founded on freedom and democracy can bear. It is a fierce and terrible fury that will not be quelled until the theat to our freedom is subdued. Watch and learn.
Posted by: becky || 04/04/2003 7:47 Comments || Top||

#4  Not unlike Japan and Germany in winter 1945.If anything,the Japanese and the Germans were much more committed to their Emperor and Fuhrer,respectively,as well as being better fighters than any Arab force,past or present.Not that it helped them any better,you know.
Posted by: El Id || 04/04/2003 7:49 Comments || Top||

#5  Can anyone recall of a worse PR exercise than this?! "Come see, come see, our airport is open and doing good business. The Americans are a hundred miles away...[one hour later]...Aaargh! Merkins everywhere! Run away! Run away, back to the city!"
Posted by: Bulldog || 04/04/2003 8:00 Comments || Top||

#6  "Even if we do kill Saddam, there will still be some question about whether resistance will go away," says Andrew Terrill, a professor of national security at the U.S. Army War College. "We seem to have a lot of folks in Iraq not interested in being liberated by us, no matter how repressive the regime is." USATODAY

In 1942, the German army attacked the Russian city of Stalingrad, unleashing wholesale bombing and shelling. But tenacious Russian defenders turned that into an advantage as they used the chaotic, rubble-strewn landscape as a fortress that became a black hole of casualties for the Germans. The battle turned the tide of the war on the Russian front.

Half a century later in 1994, the Russians sent their large army into the Chechen capital of Grozny to put down a rebellion. There, a ragtag band of several hundred rebels employed guerrilla tactics to destroy entire tank columns, used dead Russian soldiers as shields and defeated the much larger force. Grozny has become a tutorial in how not to fight in cities.

Posted by: Murat || 04/04/2003 8:03 Comments || Top||

#7  "but these people gave every impression that they were prepared to die for their country."

You may well be right and unfortunately it looks like we have to accomodate those who are prepared to die before Iraq can move on to the twentieth century ( yes, I realize we are in the 21C).

Posted by: Phil B || 04/04/2003 8:04 Comments || Top||

#8  Marines Say 2,500 Iraqi Guards Surrender

I guess they had second thoughts.
Posted by: tu3031 || 04/04/2003 8:08 Comments || Top||

#9  How could John Irvine be the *last* journalist at Saddam airport? I saw Ted Koppel reporting from there just last night. Oh, wait -- that's right... it's been renamed as Baghdad International Airport. ;-)
Posted by: Reed || 04/04/2003 8:08 Comments || Top||

#10  You really want a bloodbath in Baghdad don't you, Murat? So what's that say about you?
Posted by: tu3031 || 04/04/2003 8:32 Comments || Top||

#11  Our government minder had taken my cameraman... and I

That's some professional journalism. Editor on vacation?
Posted by: Dar Steckelberg || 04/04/2003 8:34 Comments || Top||

#12  tu3031, and you must be expecting Iraqis to jump and kiss the boots of their "liberators", that word has become a sarcasm since almost all cities are still resisting to be liberated.

Let's be fair, we talk about occupation and read liberation.
Posted by: Murat || 04/04/2003 8:42 Comments || Top||

#13  The russians were bogged down in Afghanistan too, Murat! Don't forget Afghanistan! It was their Vietnam!

Oh. You DIDN'T want my help in reminding you of the Russians in Afghanistan? *blinks back tears* why, I was just TRYING to be helpful, y'know. I mean, just because there were no worldwide protests of Russians unilaterally invading Afghanistan, just because they sowed land mines disguised as children's toys to maim and kill The Chidlren (TM), and just because the Americans succeeded where the Russians failed aren't good reasons to IGNORE the Russian Vietnam of Afghanistan, is it?

They are?

Well, phooey on YOU! See if I come help you after THIS!
Posted by: Ptah || 04/04/2003 8:46 Comments || Top||

#14  Leave it to a Turk to back a Genocidal, megalomaniac, who also happens to lead a group of murdering, torturing, rapists. And also leave it to a Turk to recognize that same group of murdering, torturing, rapists as "the people of Iraq". That way, he can say that "The Iraqi people" don't want us there. Of course, the left in this country is just as guilty as our Turkish friend(s). "If you're not a Democrat by the time you're 20, you probably don't have a heart. If you're not a Republican by the time you're 30, you probably don't have a brain."
Posted by: Mike N. || 04/04/2003 8:50 Comments || Top||

#15  Perfect Americanism?

Two “US” soldiers who died in Iraq Jose Gutierrez from Guatemala and Jose Angel Garibay from Mexico received their American citizenship after their death, in the glory of patriotism.

Sorry but I had to post it, it is too sarcastic this perfect Americanism.
Posted by: Murat || 04/04/2003 9:05 Comments || Top||

#16  Your point being, Murat? Can't see many foreigners dying to achieve the status of "Turk"...
Posted by: Bulldog || 04/04/2003 9:10 Comments || Top||

#17  This will all be made clear when Saddam's goons and party members (murat's heroes) are hanging from lamp-posts, placed there by Iraqis who agree with them - you SHOULD INDEED die for your country.
Posted by: Dixie Normus || 04/04/2003 9:14 Comments || Top||

#18  murat,

There are reports of welcoming civilians from Um Qasr, Nassiriyah, Al najaf, and now Bagdada. there are also reports of civilians who are sullne and distrusting becauase we failed them and 1991, and they are waiting to see if we really mean it this time.

And then there are the fedayeen and Baathists who are attacking bravely even suicidally. But is it for their country? Or because they expect that their neighbors will kill them when the regime falls, so they have nothing to lose?
Posted by: liberalhawk || 04/04/2003 9:32 Comments || Top||

#19  In grozny the russians received no help from the local civilians, IIUC. In southern Iraqi cities local civilians have helped coalition forces to find fedayeen/baathists, weapons caches, etc. This has helped immensely. It show that a POLITICAL strategy is a key part of urban warfare.
Posted by: liberalhawk || 04/04/2003 9:34 Comments || Top||

#20  Murat. First, I'm glad you consider the death of two good men as an occasion for "sarcasm". Again, what's that say about you? What does it say that two men were willing to fight and die for a country they weren't even citizens of? I think it says a lot.
Second: You may get your bloodbath. It'll be the death throes of a dying regime slaughtering it's own people.
Posted by: tu3031 || 04/04/2003 9:39 Comments || Top||

#21  Murat,Murat don't you watch anything besides Al-Jeezera.
I've seen plenty of support for the Imperialist Merkins from Iraqis.
Why don't you talk to the Shites of Najaf,I don't hear you saying anything about U.S.military restrant when being shot at by Fedayeen murderers/rapists who were using the Ali Mosque for cover(much less condemning these bastards)?
How come you haven't condemned these a-holes in Qom Qusar,and Nassariha for keeping food and medicine from starving women and children?
Is it part of the Turkish mindset that it's ok to shoot at an enemy from behind the cover of women and children(human shields)?
Do you have the courage to answer these charges with honesty?
Or will hide behind Anti-American propagnda,AGIN
Posted by: raptor || 04/04/2003 9:57 Comments || Top||

#22  Our government minder had taken my cameraman, Phil Dye, and I the 12 miles out out to the airport on the capital’s southwest fringe to rebut reports that coalition forces were massed to attack.

Heh-heh! That worked well, didn't it? Wonder if the sight of the 3ID convinced the government minder, at least. "Pay no attention to the shootin' and shellin'. It's just ... elk hunting!"
Posted by: Steve White || 04/04/2003 10:09 Comments || Top||

#23  tu3031,

Yes, and even at his advaced age, the -man- below could probably unstrap one of his prosthetic legs and beat Murat to death with it:


http://www.homeofheroes.com/profiles/profiles_herrera.html
Posted by: Ernest Brown || 04/04/2003 10:23 Comments || Top||

#24  Men armed with Kalashnikovs were manning sandbag emplacements on the corners. I had never seen so many armed Iraqis on the streets.

So what? So the fedayeen are milling around with weapons. Big deal. How many of Baghdad's residents are NOT fedayeen, and where are they?

The Americans and British may say their motivation is to liberate the Iraqis, but these people gave every impression that they were prepared to die for their country.

That could be arranged quite easily.
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 04/04/2003 10:58 Comments || Top||

#25  Osama and Sadaam should have taken a lesson from Pearl Harbor, before they attacked our shores.
Blather on all you want to Murat, about inspections, preemption, unilateral, action and "illegal conflicts", but do take note:

Threaten our freedom and way of life, and expect our young men and women to be ready and prepared to defend it with their lives AND the full might of what a country founded on freedom and democracy can bear. It is a fierce and terrible fury that will not be quelled until the theat to our freedom is subdued. Watch and learn.

so saddam invaded the us
funny i didnt see it on cnn or one of the other alphabet lookalikes


its really sad-when sept 11 happened -the world stood behind you in support

and now-we wish we hadnt

Posted by: boppa australia || 04/04/2003 11:06 Comments || Top||

#26  Two “US” soldiers who died in Iraq Jose Gutierrez from Guatemala and Jose Angel Garibay from Mexico received their American citizenship after their death, in the glory of patriotism.

Murat, you know how some of the posters on this site say a lot of foolish things about Turkey -- even though they're obviously talking about something they don't understand?

Congratulations, you just did the same thing about the US with your comment above.

It's extremely normal -- extremely American -- for immigrants to serve in the US military. My grandfathers came from Italy and Slovakia (then a part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire). Heck, when you get down to it, they were both draft-dodgers from the army's of the nations in which they were born. Both served in the U.S. Army during World War One. Neither was a citizen at the time.
Posted by: Patrick Phillips || 04/04/2003 11:06 Comments || Top||

#27  Murat:
The word you should use is "ironic" in your statement describing Gutierrez and Garibay's sacrifice. "Sarcastic" is an adjective that means saying one thing yet meaning the opposite, with the opposite meaning obvious to all around. How about an example, I don't know, a statement like, "Murat is an excellent debater."

Listen, pal, I teach bunches of new-comers to these shores who have names like Gomez and Hernandez. They may not be as sophisticated as you, (refer to previous explanation of "sarcastic"), but 90% are honorable, hard-working, and gutsy.

You see, you think you've just tweeked us, but all you've done is make the readers of this blog more resolute in our belief that we are a nation of ideas and not bloodlines. (Please refer to your belief of Kurds as "Mountain Turks")

BTW, 70% of the Turks I have taught here in Chicago are whiney babies who are just here to pick up a little English before running home to go work in their Dad's textile factory. The other 30% are just looking for an American to marry so they can be legal here.
Posted by: Michael || 04/04/2003 14:06 Comments || Top||

#28  Learn about Jose Antonio Gutierrez, USMC, now one of America's heros -

http://www.opinionjournal.com/columnists/bminiter/?id=110003295

Posted by: Don || 04/04/2003 17:03 Comments || Top||

#29  boppa australia: Get bent. Who is this "we" you speak of that wishes you hadn't backed us? Seems to me, the last I heard, that a lot of Australians do back us. As I recall, thee are Australian combat troops in there with us and the Brits. Good lads too - and some Poles, and some others just to name one.

When did Saddam attack us? In 1993 when he tried to have our first president Bush and our current President Bush's wife assassinated in Kuwait. In 1993 (I believe) when he funded a group that bombed the World Trade Center. They didn;t succeed either time, but the connections have been made and it's clear.

Murat: I used to have respect for your views and avidly read most items that you posted from Turkish news agencies. Now, you are simply another of the "useful idiots" that Lenin spoke about so long ago. I have lost the respect I had for you due to the dribble and diatribes you spread in this community against the US. That saddens me as I thought you were smarter than you apparently are. So, you get bent too.
Posted by: FOTSGreg || 04/04/2003 17:45 Comments || Top||

#30  Boppa AUstralia: I am Australian too, and YOU bring shame on our country.

WHy don't you Bopp on off to Iraq.

I and many other Aussies SUPPORT the US and UK for doing what is RIGHT instead of what is POPULAR.

Thank goodness there is FINALLY a US president who not only means what he says, but acts on it.

NB: Bush just nominated Daniel Pipes for a seat on the Peace Institute or somesuch. Hoorah!

Boppa: what will you say, when the Ba'ath party is wiped off the board, and the remaining Iraqis commence living in peace and prosperity, and are actually HAPPY to be liberated? What rock will you crawl under then?
Posted by: anon1 || 04/04/2003 19:23 Comments || Top||

#31  By the way, Bopp, we only have 1 resident troll around here, his name is Murat. He is much more interesting than YOU because he is Turkish, hence it is fun to bait him about Cyprus and the Armenians or the Kurds whenever he opens his trap.

You on the other hand can just troll off to wherever you like to hang on the net. Probably the DSP or Resistance or Greens websites...
Posted by: anon1 || 04/04/2003 19:29 Comments || Top||


Five die in Iraq ’suicide attack’
Three coalition soldiers and two other people have been killed in an apparent suicide car bombing at a checkpoint north-west of Baghdad. US Central Command in Qatar said the incident occurred on Thursday evening close to the Haditha Dam, about 130km from the Iraq-Syria border. "A pregnant female stepped out of the vehicle and began screaming in fear," a statement said. "At this point the civilian vehicle exploded, killing three coalition force members who were approaching the vehicle and wounding two others." The woman and the driver were also killed. Jim Wilkinson, spokesman at US Central Command, said the incident showed the Iraqi regime was using desperate measures to remain in power. "The more desperate the regime gets, the more desperate their tactics become," he said.
Posted by: Paul Moloney || 04/04/2003 06:56 am || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Let's play guess the source!

Without clicking the link...but noting the 'moral equivalence quotes' I'm guessing either Reuters or the BBC...

Seriously...why the hell would there be quotes around what is...by all descriptions and definitions a suicide attack!?
Posted by: mjh || 04/04/2003 7:52 Comments || Top||

#2  DAMN I'm good...
Posted by: mjh || 04/04/2003 7:53 Comments || Top||

#3  mjh, I don't suppose there's malice intended here, just excessive cautiousness - not 100% cerain this was a suicide attack until confirmed by a wise man.

Anyone (e.g. Murat) want to comment on the valiant Iraqi defender who so loves his fellow countrymen he'll blow them to bits as effective bomb components?
Posted by: Bulldog || 04/04/2003 8:07 Comments || Top||

#4  So will they get their check? Or has that account been closed?
Posted by: tu3031 || 04/04/2003 8:24 Comments || Top||


Iraqi Risked Life Leading Marines to Rescued POW
An Iraqi lawyer tipped U.S. forces to the location of POW Jessica Lynch after seeing her slapped in the face by a burly Fedayeen security man guarding her in a Nasiriyah hospital, according published reports. The 32-year-old lawyer, identified only as Mohammed, told The Washington Post and USA Today that he peered through a window at the hospital where his wife worked as a nurse and saw a sight that "cut" his heart: Lynch being slapped in the face by the black-clad Iraqi security agent.

He said he decided on the spot he had to tell U.S. forces where to find the captured American private. "Don't worry, don't worry," he recalled telling Lynch after later sneaking into her hospital room and promising to help. Mohammed walked out of Nasiriyah along a treacherous road known as "ambush alley" and, hands raised, approached a U.S. Marine. The Marine asked curtly: "What do you want?" Mohammed offered "important information about woman soldier in hospital."

In the days that followed, Mohammed made several more risky trips to the hospital, which was full of Iraqi security guards, at the request of U.S. officers. He gathered information on the number of troops and made hand-drawn maps of the building's layout and location. His wife, Iman, filled in other crucial details, including the fact a helicopter could land on the roof, according to USA Today.

Lynch, a 19-year-old Army supply clerk, was captured in an ambush when she and other members of the 507th Maintenance Company made a wrong turn in Nasiriyah. U.S. commandos rescued her Tuesday in a nighttime raid. Asked why he decided to help, Mohammed said he simply couldn't watch the mistreatment of a fellow human being without taking action.

"A person is a human being regardless of nationality," he told the Post. "Believe me, I love Americans." Mohammed, talked to the newspapers after he, his wife and daughter were taken to a U.S. military camp in the Iraqi desert. They were to be flown later to a refugee center in Umm Qasr, Iraq's deepwater Persian Gulf port. He withheld his last name to protect his family.

Mohammed told the newspapers he acted will full knowledge of the risks. "I am afraid not for me," he said. "I am afraid about my daughter and my wife. ... Because I love much." Marines said Mohammed's story gave them courage. "He's sort of an inspiration to all of us," Lt. Col. Rick Long told the Post.

Lynch was flown Wednesday to a U.S. air base in Landstuhl, Germany, where she underwent back surgery at a military hospital. She was said also to have suffered fractures in both legs and a broken arm.
Posted by: Bent Pyramid || 04/04/2003 06:12 am || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Kudos to Mohammed! Put this guy in charge of something, ANYTHING! The Iraqi nation will then be in good hands!

Dammit Murat! THIS is how a REAL human being behaves!
Posted by: Ptah || 04/04/2003 7:45 Comments || Top||

#2  Maybe we could get him to do a swing through the USA. There are an awful lot of folks over here who don't know when to stand up and do the right thing.
Posted by: B. || 04/04/2003 8:07 Comments || Top||

#3  It's wonderful that several colleges in WV have offered scholarships to Lynch after her ordeal, but there should definitely be some reward for this brave man and his wife as well.
Posted by: Dar Steckelberg || 04/04/2003 8:23 Comments || Top||

#4  He's an Iraqi lawyer, and his wife is a nurse, so they're pretty well set up there. I wouldn't put him on a pedestal or have him show his face for a few years, to avoid revenge killings.

To be blunt, someone experienced in Law with this kind of heart is desperately needed in his own country to help rebuild the government. Thus, my call to put him in charge of something. Temporary administration.

In the meantime, I wonder if a Blogosphere Thank You Fund to send reward money to Iraqis who behave like Mohammed, as well as Mohammed himself, isn't in order. Government reward money is one thing, but the Muslim culture is very heavy into Alms, and they know how to put value on money coming from individuals, rather than the government. I think $1000 from individual Americans would mean more emotionally than $10,000 from the US Government.
Posted by: Ptah || 04/04/2003 8:53 Comments || Top||

#5  Two “US” soldiers who died in Iraq Jose Gutierrez from Guatemala and Jose Angel Garibay from Mexico received their American citizenship after their death, in the glory of patriotism.

Dammit Ptah!!!THIS is how a REAL human beings behave!
Posted by: Murat || 04/04/2003 9:12 Comments || Top||

#6  THIS is how a REAL human being behaves!

[murat]

Enemy to Islam!
American Bootlicker!
Bad Iraqi, BAD!
You are supposed to die for you savior, Saddam, not the evil, American, imperialist, dog, colonialist, infidel, baby-killer, bastards!
Bad Muslim, BAAAAAAAADDDDDD.
Why did you want to save evil Iraqi civilian murdering American bitch?
You must defy America like we Turks.
You must stab your friend in the back and suck on Chiraq's doodle.
You must be willing to take their dirty American dollars and spit on them like a good Middle Easterner.
You should watch more Al-Jazeera.
Bad Doctor,BAD!

[/murat]
Posted by: Celissa || 04/04/2003 9:45 Comments || Top||

#7  Wow, Murat. Did you save up all that bile while you took a vacation from posting, to make sure you could take all the cheap shots possible upon your return? Might want to watch the plural/single agreement when writing, though. Bad grammar ruins many a point.
Posted by: Anonymous || 04/04/2003 9:49 Comments || Top||

#8  Murat, since you know nothing about the naturalization process in the US, you only entertain us with uninformed and illinformed comments. One has to apply for citizenship and go through a period of process, sometimes several years. There is no automatic citizenship for those not born here or of American parentage. Mexican women actually illegally enter the country for the sole purpose of insuring their children are born on US soil in order to establish legal American citizenship. Our military is voluntary. Further, there is no requirement for one to be a citizen to enlist in the armed services, though you can not get a secret clearence and are therefore prohibited from certain military occupational specialities. Twice in my career I had junior enlisted personnel who had applied for citizenship ask me to stand with them when they received theirs. I consider each instances of the highest honors of my uniform experience to do so. These young men had probably also applied for citizenship as well but had not completed the full process. Even though the process was not completed as normal, they were granted their request for citizenship. The military also after death has awarded medals and promotions. It is not just a respect, but, if they were married or family men, the citizenship allows their family to apply for visa and citizenship entitlments. Note well, Murat, they were indeed not born here, but valued what America is and can be as to be so dedicated to give service and the ultimate sacrifice to their adopted country. No one forced them at the end of gun to go to the frontlines of the combat as your neighbors are doing. America is a country of every race, color and creed. It is a cross section of the world unlike any other nation state. Which is why we give little ear to those who denouce our imperfections while the world they live in has decades, nay, centuries to even come close to us in peacefully integrating so many races, colors, and creeds in a system which permits each opportunities to advance themselves and their posterity far beyond those found elsewhere. If you can do a better job, then do it. Don't talk, do.
Posted by: Don || 04/04/2003 9:53 Comments || Top||

#9  Two “US” soldiers who died in Iraq Jose Gutierrez from Guatemala and Jose Angel Garibay from Mexico received their American citizenship after their death, in the glory of patriotism. Dammit Ptah!!!THIS is how a REAL human beings behave!
Posted by: Murat 4/4/2003 9:12:43 AM


Look--A troll!
Posted by: Flaming Sword || 04/04/2003 9:56 Comments || Top||

#10  *Hops with glee*

Finally got under your skin, didn't I Murat?
Posted by: Ptah || 04/04/2003 12:06 Comments || Top||


U.S. Takes Battle to Baghdad Airport
Compare this report to Robert Fisk's report in the Independent today. I think Robert is going to need his pills. Fred, is Ethel about?

Meeting only light resistance, U.S. forces charged up to the outskirts of Baghdad on Thursday and fought their way into Saddam International Airport, just 10 miles from the center of the blacked-out Iraqi capital. Forward elements of the Army's 3rd Infantry Division, having captured the southern side of the vast facility stretching across flat suburbs southwest of the city, battled early today with Iraqi soldiers holding out with small arms in the northern part, U.S. military officials said. Iraqi officials, desperate to hold on to the airport and its modern terminal, used loudspeakers to exhort nearby residents to join in the defense, reports from the area said, but it was not clear whether anyone heeded the call.
"We've always hated the airport anyway -- all that noise, congestion, and traffic! Who needs it? The Merkins are welcome to it so long as they don't let Northwest Airlines handle the baggage."
A large formation of Iraqi tanks and armed trucks tried to stage a counterattack at the airport this morning, the Reuters news agency reported, but U.S. forces repulsed them. Reuters quoted Col. John Peabody, commander of the 3rd Infantry's Engineer Brigade as saying U.S. troops "control the airport. It's a big area with a lot of buildings that need to be cleared, but it's ours."

Other units from the 3rd Infantry approached Baghdad from a more southerly direction, driving up a four-lane highway and plowing through the sandy desert before stopping about 10 miles from the edge, well within sight of the bomb-scarred skyline and sprawling outer suburbs. Regiments of the 1st Marine Division, meanwhile, closed in from the southeast, rushing up a highway along the Tigris River, blasting an Iraqi tank battalion and eventually halting within 15 miles of the capital.

With thousands of U.S. soldiers and armored vehicles arrayed in an arc around the city's southern rim, the 15-day-old military campaign to destroy President Saddam Hussein's three-decade-old rule shifted into a crucial and dangerous phase -- the battle for control of the capital, with its 5 million residents, Hussein's seat of government and his most loyal Baath Party defenders.

U.S. commanders, whose troops have sliced through southern and central Iraq with minimal resistance and relatively few casualties, now must decide whether to lay siege to the city in hopes residents will rise up, push into the center to engage in urban warfare or try a combination of encirclement and targeted raids to whittle down Hussein's grip on power.
Basra is an example of the latter.
Conspicuously absent from the battlefield were significant concentrations of Republican Guard soldiers or any use of chemical or biological weapons as U.S. commanders had feared. The commanders said intense U.S. and British airstrikes had crushed two of the six Guard divisions protecting the capital and severely damaged two others, clearing the way for a relatively unobstructed push toward the capital.

Although some U.S. military officials asserted that the 70,000-soldier Republican Guard was a largely broken force, other American defense officials warned that Guard units still could pose a threat to U.S. troops massing outside Baghdad. Elements of the four remaining Guard divisions have been trying to circle around the city in recent days to challenge front-line American units on the southern approaches, according to officials at Central Command regional headquarters in Doha, Qatar. Many Guard soldiers also may have retreated into Baghdad where they're not wanted by the Special Republican Guard with the intention of luring U.S. forces into urban combat, they warned.
Going to be interesting.
Posted by: Steve White || 04/04/2003 01:56 am || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Flit makes the point that the airport is a lovely place from which to interdict Iraqi troops trying to retreat back into the city. Those attacks on the airport are likely to be Iraqi troops desperately trying to shot their way out of the cordon around them.
Posted by: Hiryu || 04/04/2003 6:09 Comments || Top||

#2  I'd like Fiskie's next report to be on the merits of Iraqi hash vs. Afghan hash. Sounds like he knows a lot about both.
Also, Iraqi citizens. Please feel free to whale the shit out of him. He wants it, he NEEDS it. It's how he assuages his Anglo-Saxon guilt. It's his therapy. And it makes for an easy story.
And Fiskie. Next stop Damascus. Book a room.
Posted by: tu3031 || 04/04/2003 8:21 Comments || Top||

#3  Saddam International - Airport code: FCDK
Posted by: Steve || 04/04/2003 10:56 Comments || Top||

#4  Must have more coffee.
Saddam International - Airport code: FCKD
Posted by: Steve || 04/04/2003 10:58 Comments || Top||

#5  Steve. Either way, their F**Ked.
Posted by: tu3031 || 04/04/2003 11:18 Comments || Top||


Kurdish Farmers Head Home As Iraqis Abandon Villages
Hussein's Forces Retreat, Leaving 'Arabized' Settlements Exposed
Edited for length.

SHAMAMAR, Iraq, April 3 -- Amir Shaykhani would like to announce a name change for his home village. For 16 years, it has been called Hadidyin, an Arabic name, and populated only by Iraqi Arabs. From now on it will go by its Kurdish name, Shamamar, and soon Kurds will return to live here.

Shaykhani left the village at the age of 10, clutching blankets and pots, when President Saddam Hussein's forces crushed a Kurdish revolt in northern Iraq. On his homecoming today, Shaykhani wielded an AK-47 assault rifle as a fighter in the anti-Hussein Kurdish militia. The Arab inhabitants fled over night. "God willing, they will not come back," he told visiting reporters.

This week, as Iraqi forces have withdrawn from the frontline positions that separate government-held territory from an autonomous Kurdish zone, they left Arab residents of the area exposed. The Arabs were settled in hamlets once populated by Kurds in a program designed to alter the ethnic balance of the oil-rich region.
Sammy got the idea from Stalin; Stalin must have moved half the population of the USSR.
Tens of thousands of ethnic Kurds say they want to go home -- not only to mud-hut communities like this one, but to the major cities of Kirkuk and Mosul. So far, they are moving gingerly. Kurdish authorities have forbidden wholesale, unorganized returns. Shaykhani was part of a pesh merga unit inspecting Shamamar and securing a checkpoint on the main road close by. The village sits about 22 miles from the Kurdish-controlled city of Irbil on the way to Mosul, another 25 miles away.

Slivers of northern Iraq that only a few days ago were defended by Baghdad's forces are entering an era without Hussein's rule. The end of "Arabization" is an ardent Kurdish desire. Kurdish officials say they hope to gain political influence in a future, democratic Iraq, ending a long period of repression punctuated by frequent Kurdish revolts.

The Arab settlers left late Wednesday, firing a few shots as the pesh merga approached, Shaykhani said. The Arabs had evidently prepared their exit in advance. The houses were empty and only one stray dog remained. The doors had been pried off their hinges and carted away. "They knew they would have to leave when we came," said Shaykhani.

Nearby Iraqi army units had been hit by heavy U.S. bombing. The mangled hulk of a truck that carried mortar shells lay a few miles north on the road. Some of the shells were strewn several yards over the surrounding pasture.

American bombing and a tactical Iraqi retreat closer to Mosul and Kirkuk have opened the way for a Kurdish return to a handful of locations. Dozens of villages, some destroyed, some populated by Arabs, lie in the territory around both cities. Until today, the Iraqi pullback had been mostly orderly. However, bombing intensified all along the line north of Kirkuk and Mosul.

A few miles northwest of the town of Kalek, on the main Irbil-Mosul road, U.S. special forces working with the Kurdish militias joined a firefight, directing machine gun fire at a bridge. F-14 Tomcats bombed Iraqi positions, but by late afternoon, the Iraqis were still holding on, sending mortars and artillery toward Kalek, which they had abandoned the night before. Airstrikes from AC-130 planes targeted an Iraqi mechanized battalion in the area.

Nonetheless, the Iraqis still control important approaches to oil fields between Kirkuk and Mosul and the main road that connects the two cities.

At a ridge north-northwest of Kalek, residents of Gurilan village made their way to a twin hamlet just two miles away. The shepherds and farmers inhabit what until today was called Kurdish Gurilan. Arab Gurilan was the object of their visit. The last Arab residents fled this morning. They left behind empty houses, a school, a mosque, a police station, perimeter trenches, six donkeys, a couple flocks of ducks and some chickens.
So, at least they left dinner.
Arab Gurilan sits on land that once belonged to Kurdish Gurilan. Except for a few smugglers, the Kurds had not visited the area since 1974, when the government confiscated their wheat fields during another Kurdish revolt. "We will not let the Arabs come back. They had never lived here before. They are kind of enemies. This is our fathers' and grandfathers' land. That was not right," said Mohammed Ramazan , Kurdish Gurilan's mukhtar, or traditional leader.

Kurdish officials authorized Shaykhani's visit to Shamamar. The Kurdistan Democratic Party, which administers this part of northern Iraq, has been keeping a tight leash on returnees; checkpoints on the road were turning back curiosity seekers to Irbil. Kurdish authorities are especially concerned about a return to Kirkuk because Turkey has threatened to invade if the Kurds take the city. No imminent assault on Kirkuk appears in the works. The United States lacks forces to attack the city and employing the Kurds as a battering ram would be a major departure from Washington's policy of fighting in Iraq without the aid of local forces.
We need our guys in the north right now to ensure the Turks behave.
Posted by: Steve White || 04/04/2003 01:46 am || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "ethnic Kurds say they want to go home"

I can't imagine how this works! Do they have old deeds to the property; will it be first-come-first-serve, like, OKLAHOMA; or will it be more like the native Americans - pitch a tee-pee where the spirit moves you.
Posted by: becky || 04/04/2003 6:57 Comments || Top||

#2  We'll have to drive up from the south. Perhaps 4ID will have to be the one to do the job.

We don't want the Kurds to do the job, mainly because they haven't had the discipline and training our troops have had, both in being highly skilled warriors and in Geneva convention niceties. In fact, the better warrior one is, the more capable one becomes in adhering to the Geneva conventions.

In a sense, we'd be held indirectly responsible for any atrocities they'd commit. Thus, the delay in attacking Kirkuk.

Perhaps the plan is to take out Baghdad, show Saddam's head on a pike on national TV, and wait for the people's revolution in Kirkuk, using the Kurds to cordion off the city.

An interesting question is how to ensure that the Kurds stay in a post-war Iraq and participate. I'll have to put some thoughts into electrons and see what everyone thinks...
Posted by: Ptah || 04/04/2003 8:38 Comments || Top||


CNN Medical Correspondent Operates on Iraqi Child
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Sanjay Gupta, CNN's medical correspondent and a neurosurgeon, performed emergency brain surgery on Thursday in a vain effort to save the life of a 2-year-old Iraqi boy wounded at a U.S. Marine checkpoint south of Baghdad.

CNN issued a statement saying the network applauded Gupta's decision, on humanitarian grounds, to cross the line between journalists and the U.S. armed forces unit he was "embedded" with, to participate in the operation. "Sanjay was sent to that particular unit as a medical correspondent, but we clearly support his efforts under these extraordinary circumstances to save the life of a dying boy," CNN spokeswoman Christa Robinson said. "We are all proud of him."

The boy, who had been struck in the head by a bullet or shrapnel in a shooting incident at the checkpoint, died despite Gupta's efforts. Gupta said the brain surgery went "very well" but the boy's other injuries proved too extensive.

Assigned by CNN to cover the mobile staff of naval surgeons known as the "devil docs," Gupta said he was called on to operate on the boy because he was the only neurosurgeon present. "Medically and morally, I thought it was the right thing to do," Gupta said later in a report from the scene. "I did not hesitate at all ... I thought we could give this kid a fighting chance to live, and we came very close to doing exactly that."

Gupta said the boy was one of three people who died in the shooting, which, according to the military, occurred when a taxicab passed through a U.S. Marine checkpoint south of Baghdad without stopping, prompting Marines to open fire. The driver and another man in the front passenger seat were killed. The boy's mother, who was in the backseat with the child, survived the shooting in critical condition, Gupta said.

During one of his reports on the incident Thursday, unit commander Dr. Rob Hinks thanked Gupta for his help, welcoming him as "an honorary member of the devil docs."
Good job, doc. Glad he remembered what comes first.
Posted by: Steve White || 04/04/2003 01:39 am || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  embedded neurosurgeon journalist? How STRANGE! There is a big leap between a neurosurgeon being a CNN "medical correspondent" v/s him taking the steps to become an embedded journalist in combat. One wonders whether or not he might be willing/available to operate on Sadaam or other Iraqi leaders, should the opportunity arise.
Posted by: becky || 04/04/2003 7:22 Comments || Top||

#2  Think if Bob Steele caught a round in the head, and Doc Gupta was around, he'd be concerned about the docs' "journalistic independence and detachment to a story"? Yeah, me neither.
Posted by: tu3031 || 04/04/2003 13:29 Comments || Top||

#3  Gupta's been covering the medical units over there and I think he's been doing a great job. I always had a feeling that if things got hairy, he'd get asked to step in and go to work. He's to be commended for doing the right thing.
Now I look forward to the great debate of the "journalistic ethics" folks as to whether or not he should have become part of the story or maintained his journalistic objectivity. That should be good for a few laughs.
Posted by: tu3031 || 04/04/2003 11:12 Comments || Top||

#4  Kudos to the doctor!
Posted by: Ptah || 04/04/2003 12:08 Comments || Top||

#5  tu3031, here it is:"But Bob Steele, director of the ethics program at the Poynter Institute for Media Studies, said he was uncomfortable with Gupta's situation, now that the operation is over. ''I'm hoping and trusting that he and CNN set some thresholds,'' Steele said. ''I think it's problematic if this is a role that he's going to be playing on any kind of frequent basis. I don't think he should be reporting on it if he's also a participant. He can't bring appropriate journalistic independence and detachment to a story.''
I guess if you are going to be a "journalist" you have to check your humanity at the door.
Posted by: Steve || 04/04/2003 13:01 Comments || Top||

#6  Or Geraldo or Arnett for that matter
Posted by: Someone who did NOT vote for William Proxmire || 04/04/2003 18:04 Comments || Top||


U.S. Needs U.N. OK on Iraq Oil Revenues
The United States will have to go back to the bitterly divided U.N. Security Council for approval to tap Iraqi oil revenues for reconstruction or to award contracts to modernize the oil industry, a senior U.N. official asserted said.

The Bush administration has made oil central to its postwar plans, choosing a former U.S. oil executive to resuscitate Iraq's oil industry and saying it wants to use the nation's vast reserves to finance rebuilding.

But Mark Malloch Brown, high swindler administrator of the United Nations Mis-Development Program, said Thursday the United States as a liberating an occupying power in Iraq doesn't have authority over its oil riches.
Feel free to fly to Baghdad and enforce that.
Iraq's oil is currently sold under the U.N. oil-for-food program, which is controlled by the Security Council. The proceeds go into a U.N.-run escrow account and are used primarily to buy food, medicine and humanitarian supplies. Even though no oil is being shipped at the moment, only the Security Council can change how it is sold - and what the money is used for.
The oil-for-food program was done via an agreement with a government that will shortly cease to exist. I don't see a problem here.
Similarly, any U.S.-run administration in Iraq would not be entitled under international law to award American companies major contracts to modernize and run Iraq's oil industry, Malloch Brown said.

``Under the Geneva Conventions, which will be the only international legal framework unless and until there is a new Security Council resolution, you are only as the occupying power able to deal with day-to-day administrative decisions,'' he said.
Until, of course, the Interim Authority is established and asserts sovereignty. Then it will decide how the oil money is spent.
For the United States, going to the Security Council to divert oil money to reconstruction or reward U.S. companies will be not be easy, not least because France and Russia used to have extensive oil concessions in Iraq.

France, Russia, Germany, China and other countries on the 15-member council opposed the U.S. and British rush to war, hallucinating arguing that Iraq could be disarmed peacefully through strengthened U.N. weapons inspections. The unreasonable strong opposition forced Washington and London to drop a resolution that would have given U.N. backing to the war. But days later, they attacked Iraq without council authorization.

Malloch Brown said ``emotions are still high'' and ``a lot of damage has been done'' but he held out hope that council members will return to the table to agree on post-conflict arrangements for Iraq. The United Nations, he said, will be pushing for quick restoration of Iraqi civil authority to control the people and the country's resources, including its oil.

``In the interim, we will equally be pushing for as international and broad-based as possible a management of both the humanitarian and reconstruction (problems),'' Malloch Brown said.

He said he believes ``the overwhelming consensus of the international community other than the powers that really matter'' is that the best way to get from occupation to self-government in Iraq is through U.N. management and a U.N.-brokered political process.
Lovely straw man he built there.
The French, Germans and even the British, the closest U.S. ally, agree that a U.S.-British occupation of Iraq ``is going to create huge problems,'' he said.
For whom?
Malloch Brown questioned the wisdom of U.S. plans to install an American ministerial team in Iraq rather than rely on Iraq's highly trained bureaucracy.
Yes, highly trained thugs and swindlers. We have to de-Baath the place, not put them back in charge.
Philip Carroll, who was president and chief executive of Shell Oil Co., the U.S. arm of the London-based Royal Dutch/Shell Group, from 1993 until his retirement in 1998 confirmed to the Houston Chronicle Thursday that he had been asked by the Defense Department to restore oil production and create new production capacity if needed.

``If you take the oil sector, any potential American oil company investing in the modernizing of those fields will need legal assurance that the concessions that it's granted are secure for a 10-20 year horizon, a kind of payback period for this industry,'' he said.

But Malloch Brown said Washington has no right to authorize such concessions. ``You are not able to either change the constitution or make legal commitments with the country going ahead many years of any major kind,'' Malloch Brown said.
We'll just allow the Interim Authority to do that. Watch how easy we make it look.
Posted by: Steve White || 04/04/2003 01:30 am || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The UN created Israel, yet the dirty majority has been trying to destroy it ever since. It is that majority which is interpreting the UN Charter in a lawless manner. Israel has always complied with the Charter, and not the sharia based orders of terrorists.
Posted by: Anonon || 04/04/2003 1:51 Comments || Top||

#2  What, placing the oil under the UN, after all the hard efforts of operation free iraqi oil?
Posted by: Murat || 04/04/2003 3:06 Comments || Top||

#3  Why does the UN believe it has any authority left whatsoever? Are they going to send their uberarmy into Iraq to sort out the nasty Anglos?

Hey Murat, did you enjoy the football on Wednesday? Heh heh heh heh heh...
Posted by: Bulldog || 04/04/2003 4:14 Comments || Top||

#4  Murat has a point. After what TotalFinaElf, the french run "oil for food" program, and the efforts to prevent the liberation of the Iraqi people, it would really dumb to hand it back to that bunch of windbags.
Posted by: Ben || 04/04/2003 4:23 Comments || Top||

#5  Hi Bulldog, congrats with the victory, well deserved at least, but there is still the home game to play I have hope. I liked specially that Rooney guy, a very talented lat.
Posted by: Murat || 04/04/2003 4:59 Comments || Top||

#6  Hi Bulldog, congrats with the victory, well deserved at least, but there is still the home game to play I have hope. I liked specially that Rooney guy, a very talented lad.
Posted by: Murat || 04/04/2003 5:01 Comments || Top||

#7  By the time the fighting's over, all's calmed down, and the full extent of breaching of UN sanctions is exposed, the French and Russian reputaions will be so tattered I think they'll be inclined to keep shtoom over oil rights and will be trying to forget Iraq even exists.

Thanks Murat, but you didn't mention the second goal was of questionable legitimacy, to say the least. I commend your restraint. Next leg should be exciting - I hope the Turkish fans are better behaved than some of England's were this time.
Posted by: Bulldog || 04/04/2003 5:20 Comments || Top||

#8  Till now the battle developed in a different way than planned, people didn’t rise up against Saddam in fact they where (and still are) quite anti to the Anglo-Sakson coalition and there is still no proof of WMD weapons found which should legitimize this war (but these are of course of minor concern as one can bring in a couple of trucks loaded with chemicals and brand them as being Iraqi). Being sceptical I would be concerned of how to handle a 5mln populated Baghdad if they continue to show the same determination, is the coalition prepared for a show down of the proportion Mega Mogadishu and the civilian casualties liberations it would invoke?

Bulldog, the second goal was not that important anymore as the game was lost already. The game caused however quite an earthquake for our squad, the coach is likely to scrap Okan and Umit Davala for their bad performance and maybe a few others to be replaced by younger blood. Well the next game will be interesting indeed.
Posted by: Murat || 04/04/2003 6:20 Comments || Top||

#9  Flash news, last minute: another suicide attack kills 3 soldiers at the Hadisa checkpoint
Posted by: Murat || 04/04/2003 6:26 Comments || Top||

#10  Murat, when you say: "Being sceptical I would be concerned of how to handle a 5mln populated Baghdad if they continue to show the same determination, is the coalition prepared for a show down of the proportion Mega Mogadishu and the civilian (casualties) liberations it would invoke?" do you really believe that with overwhelming air power (we had no fixed wing in Somalia) and heavy armor (ditto, we had to borrow Pakistani [!] forces) that we're going to get sucked into anything resembling Stalingrad Grozny Jenin (oh Ethyl, my pills!) or do you think that we'll just crush them like the rest of the opposition?
Posted by: Brian || 04/04/2003 7:05 Comments || Top||

#11  Brian, you are right when you put it like: crushing = liberating
Posted by: Murat || 04/04/2003 7:09 Comments || Top||

#12  So this is the UN ace in the hole to strongarm their way into postwar Iraq? Hold Iraqi aid (and the Iraqi people) hostage so they can advance their agenda? Beautiful. Restores my faith in this fine organization.
Posted by: tu3031 || 04/04/2003 8:57 Comments || Top||

#13  Oh poor murat, a Victim of Al-jazeera's selective journalism!
Posted by: Ptah || 04/04/2003 8:57 Comments || Top||

#14  No, my dear Ptah, a victim of British journalism almost all my pieces posted where from British papers and sources.
Posted by: Murat || 04/04/2003 9:08 Comments || Top||

#15  FINALLY! Murat has figured it out! We just had to put it in easier terms. Crushing = Liberating.
Pure genius I tell you.
Posted by: Mike N. || 04/04/2003 9:12 Comments || Top||

#16  Don't forget to impound that $40 billion in Oil for Food cash in French banks when the program goes dark. It's not *their* money, y'know, it belongs to the people of Iraq.
Posted by: mojo || 04/04/2003 9:30 Comments || Top||

#17  I think the traditional response is you and what army. Some sort of deal will have to be done eventually though.
Posted by: Hiryu || 04/04/2003 9:35 Comments || Top||

#18  The oil can only go out under oil for food program because of the existence of sanctions. SO we may soon have the absurd prospect of the US pushing for an end to sanctions, and France vetoing!!!!!!

The principle US weapon against any UN authority is the proclamation of a provisional Iraqi government - in that case we would no longer be an occupying power but we would be present at the invitation of the govt. For various good reasons the US doesnt want to rush the creation of such a govt, but if the UN (IE the French and Russians) prove recalcitrant, thats the option in our back pocket.
Posted by: liberalhawk || 04/04/2003 9:40 Comments || Top||

#19  Murat, MSNBC didn't need to truck the stuff in -

http://msnbc.com/news/895185.asp?0cv=CA01&cp1=1

Its starting to show up without government help.
Posted by: Don || 04/04/2003 10:00 Comments || Top||

#20  Once again, we have the United Nations trying to dictate to the United States. Haven't they figured it out yet that we're tired of that c$$p and won't play? What are they going to do? If worse comes to worse, we can take a batallion of New York National Guard and ring the damned UN building, and lay seige to it. How long do you think those diplomatic types will be able to hold out? Rent the QEII for a few days, and transport them to someone who cares. France sounds about right - that way we only have to target ONE place, instead of several.
Posted by: Old Patriot || 04/04/2003 12:50 Comments || Top||

#21  Thanks Murat. We use the same semantics: crush, liberate. Just like the Kurds. Except, oh yeah, they don't throw flowers at your tanks, do they?

I guess we actually follow through on our committments to liberty (viz. Japan, Germany) while I hear the former-Ottoman nations are doing quite well in that department...

PS, Speaking of crushing, can you explain your nation's conduct in the Armenian genocide? Or is that just an Islamist thing to do?
Posted by: Brian || 04/04/2003 15:55 Comments || Top||


Where have all the Guard tanks gone?
Tunefully edited.

The last few days have been a cause of great bemusement to military experts. Three divisions of the much-feared Republican Guard were said to be lined up south of Baghdad, itching for a fight; and yet when US forces arrived the Iraqi troops largely vanished in front of their eyes. The war plan was alleged to have become bogged down; and yet in recent days the push north towards Baghdad has been quicker than anyone imagined.
"Where have all the Guard tanks gone,
Short time passing?
Where have all the Guard tanks gone,
Short time ago?"

What happened to the Republican Guard? "They didn't show up," Lieutenant-Colonel Terry Ferrell, a squadron commander in the US 7th Cavalry Regiment told the Army Times. He and other officers of the 3rd Infantry Division had expected a major confrontation with the Republican Guard's formerly 10,000-strong Medina Division at the Kerbala Gap 70 miles south-west of Baghdad.

The most serious skirmish came when the 3rd Division crossed the Euphrates at Musayib, but it involved only about a dozen Iraqi armoured cars, all destroyed. "Where are they all hiding?" asked one soldier. "Something's got to be up," muttered another.
"Where have all the Guard tanks gone?
Young Merkins knicked them, every one.
When will they ever learn?
When will the Iraqis learn?"

The 1st Marine Division encountered the same spooky lack of resistance when it crossed the Tigris near Kut, where it had expected to confront the Baghdad Infantry Division.

From the reports from journalists and the accounts of coalition military officials, there is no one explanation of the guards' evaporation.
"Where have all the Merkins gone,
Short time passing?
Where have all the Merkins gone,
Short time ago?"

First of all, it does look as if this was the part of the war the military planners got right. They did not foresee the ambivalence of the people and the tenacity of the Fedayeen, but they did believe the Republican Guard was not the elite it was purported to be. Furthermore, the Soviet-era T-72 tanks were hobbled by neglect and a lack of spare parts. Even dug among the palms and villages of the Euphrates valley they were easy targets for thousands of coalition bombing sorties. Two-thirds of the roughly 800 strike sorties a day were aimed at the six Republican Guard divisions. In the ring around Baghdad, they were devastated.
"Where have all the Merkins gone?
Gone to Baghdad everyone.
When will they ever learn?
When will the Iraqis learn?"
Posted by: Steve White || 04/04/2003 01:18 am || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Way to go on the editing...
Posted by: Hiryu || 04/04/2003 6:06 Comments || Top||

#2  ROFL! Wow. That'll wake you up in the morning. Almost as good as strong coffee - Thanks, Steve!
Posted by: Tadderly || 04/04/2003 9:11 Comments || Top||

#3  Baghdad division destroyed.
Medina division destroyed.
Now Reuters reports Marines claim al-Nida division destroyed. Reports of destroyed vehicles, dead Iraqi soldiers, and thousands of prisoners.

Possible that some escaped back into the city. OTOH some SRG's and Fedayeen that could easily have fought in the city are attacking out toward the airport.

Not clear what Iraqi strat is - try to get the airport back so top officials can flee? But they cant get off the ground there anyway. Or try to force coalition troops to concentrate, so they can use WMD? Or just uncoordinated kamikaze attacks?
Posted by: liberalhawk || 04/04/2003 10:33 Comments || Top||

#4  Who's in charge, here?????
Sadsack's "generals" were promoted more for loyalty than for military ability. Hussein himself is no military genius, as GWI taught everyone. The cadres of trained troops - those with at least some modicum of experience, were the Republican Guard. They've been decimated, frozen in fixed defensive positions, and denied maneuverability. Not that it mattered, with US air superiority, ANY armored force was dead meat waiting for the butcher.

What we're seeing here is the same death throes that occurred in Berlin once the Russians arrived. Hitler still believed in non-existent divisions, and in the ability to move masses of artillery and tanks, when none existed. Baghdad is seeing much the same thing.

It really doesn't matter - once we ring Baghdad, the game's over. The guys on the inside of the ring won't know what to do, and will do stupid things. The iron discipline of the fanatical fedayeen will collapse like a house of cards, and they will run for cover, defecating in their pants as huge iron bombs explode around them, and artillery shells scream overhead.

The end is at hand, and it's Saddam's end that's in the meat grinder. Or is that plastics shredder?
Posted by: Old Patriot || 04/04/2003 13:07 Comments || Top||


Southeast Asia
US aggression on Iraq reflects its barbarity: Muslim leader
Syafii Maarif, chairman of Muhammadiyah, Indonesia's second largest Muslim organization, lashed out at the US-led military invasion of Iraq, saying it was a display of barbarity. "What is happening (in Iraq) is beyond the values of humanity," Syafii told a conference discussing Muslim youth and world peace, organized by Muhammadiyah Youth, the organization's youth wing. "The attack on Iraq by the US and its allies should be denounced by peace-loving people all over the world," he said, as quoted by Antara news agency.
People who believe in keeping slaves and cutting people's heads off call us barbarians? I can't even dignify that statement with a razzberry...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 04/04/2003 12:23 pm || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Maybe we can send Syafii Maarif to one of those nice, pleasant Vietnamese "reeducation centers", where they can explain to him the errors of his ways. I'm sure he'd just looooovve that. The Vietnamese are such peace-loving people, you know.
Posted by: Old Patriot || 04/04/2003 13:14 Comments || Top||

#2  As opposed to the totally civilized practice of chopping up people with machetes...
Posted by: mojo || 04/04/2003 13:35 Comments || Top||

#3  Of course, you know, he IS right. We ARE a band of barbarians. Never said we weren't. Why, even on my personal webpage, I call myself a "cultured" barbarian. That's only saying that I like good food, good music, good surroundings, and don't like some numbwit thumbsucking scumvermin causing trouble. Yeah, I like Bach, Brahms, and Beethoven. That doesn't keep me from being able to butcher my own kill, or setting up a defensive fire support position, or ramming a bayonet through the throat of a piece of garbage trying to force his religion, his politics, or his bad breath on me. We need to remain a nation of "barbarians". It's a good way to remain a nation of Free Men.
Posted by: Old Patriot || 04/04/2003 15:55 Comments || Top||

#4  Old Patriot: That reminds me of something Capt Kirk said on one of the old Star Trek episodes. A planetary minister was horrified when Kirk told him that he was going to stop their "peaceful" warfare with a neighboring planet and called Kirk a barbarian. Kirk's response was something like "Yes, I'm a barbarian, but at least when I kill somebody I do it the old-fashioned way and not by herding them into disintegration chambers".

For a long time now people have been trying to convince us that we should be sheep, but humans are not sheep. Humans are hunters by nature. We are wolves, the top dogs of the food chain - and we should continue to be wolves.

The current foreign policy of the US seems to be that of wolves and wolves don;t like being picked on. They tend to show their teeth and get very nasty with whatever's picking on them - and the whole pack is likely to tear into a flock of sheep and keep on tearing until there are no sheep left - only wolves.
Posted by: FOTSGreg || 04/04/2003 17:25 Comments || Top||

#5  Isn’t that a bit too surprising that some wise guy has to bring up a paradoxical issues like this ….

Islam, as a faith and world religion, has had a long history of violence against any and all who reject its teachings. Wherever Islam has been the dominate force in a culture, it has suppressed and persecuted all opposition without mercy. In the Koran, for example, it is taught that Muslims should not befriend Jews or Christians. When you meet the unbelievers, strike off their heads: then when you have made wide slaughter among them, carefully tie up the remaining captives.” Surah 8:12, 17 "I will instill terror into the hearts of the unbelievers, smite ye above their necks and smite all their finger-tips off them. It is not ye who slew them; it was Allah." Surah 5:75, “It should be noted that the tax levied upon the Christians and Jews was not to support the state in general affairs; it was simply to compensate Muslims. In fact, the Koran and history report that he fought over 66 battles, killing tens of thousands of people. In one of his revelations, Muhammad was told to kill and drive out all the Jews. One time he had 1,000 Jewish men brought together and had them all beheaded. Islam became known as the “religion of the sword.” Like the follwing examples….

1. Muslim Turkey has expelled approximately 1,500,000 Greeks from its empire in the east and replaced them with Turks. They have massacred approximately 2 million Armenians and replaced them with Turks in the west.

2. Muslim Turkey has invaded and occupied northern Cyprus, displacing the Greeks living there.

3. Muslim northern Sudan has conquered much of southern Sudan, literally enslaving its Christian and pagan population.

4. Indonesian imperialism has occupied all of non-Islamic western New Guinea and incorporated into Indonesia.

5. Muslim Indonesia has invaded and conquered Christian East Timor with horrible loss of life.

6. This very day, Muslim Indonesia is attempting to destroy Christianity in what used to be called the Celebes.

7. A half-dozen Arab countries have fought two to four wars (depending how you count) in an attempt to destroy Israel and occupy its territory, and is currently continuing the attempt this very day with the publicly voted consent of 55 of the world's 57 Islamic nations.

8. For no good reason, Muslim Libya has blown up western aircraft, killing many civilians.

9. Muslim Iraq, in an imperialist war of aggression, invaded and occupied Muslim Kuwait.
10. Muslim Iraq, in an imperialist act of aggression, invaded Muslim Iran with a resulting (some estimates say) death of 2 million people.

11. Muslim Albania, this very minute, is attempting to enlarge its borders at Christian Macedonia's expense.

12. Muslim Northern Nigeria has been (and is currently) an aggressor against the Christian south.

13. Muslims expelled approximately 800,000 Jews from their homelands between 1947 and 1955.

14. During Jordan's occupation of the West Bank, the kingdom undertook an unsuccessful attempt to make Jerusalem a Muslim city by forcing out approximately 10,000 Christian inhabitants.

15. Islamic Pakistan had had numerous full scales wars after aggressing against the Indian Kashmir. The barbarity and the animal behavior Pakistani military demonstrated with the Bangladeshi women. The Hamood Commission report findings on the debacle could not be made public by the government of Pakistan for almost twenty years until one of the Indian newspapers published it one morning!

Sometime I wonder why some one wants to pontificate peace that they cannot practise themselves.
Posted by: ISHMAIL || 04/04/2003 23:48 Comments || Top||


Terror Networks
Dixie Chicks get ready for US tour
EDITED

Country radio stations across the nation stopped playing the Texas trio's music and record sales have plummeted.

Things have apparently gotten so bad that Chick Martie Maguire said the musicians now fears for their safety.

"We've gotten a lot of hate mail, a lot of threatening mail," Maguire told reporters in Australia. "Emily [Robison] had the front gate of her ranch smashed in. We have to have security when we get back to the States. It puts my well-being in jeopardy." Hmm, if finances are getting a little tight, perhaps the bartenders from your new waitressing gig will watch out for you..

The Chicks kick off their previously mostly sold-out U.S. tour May 1 in Greenville, South Carolina, where a protest is already planned.
Hmm, You know Nat, I'd be worried that those tickets are mostly sold-out to the protestors. Or maybe it's just that The Greenville Bar and Grill has limited seating...

Still, Maines is sticking by her guns. "The more flak I get for it, the poorer prouder I am," said Maines.
Posted by: becky || 04/04/2003 03:48 pm || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "Sticking by her guns"?

That got a laugh out of me!

Maines is a poor not-so-little room-temperature IQ type who started believing her own press and fa-nmail, and got sucked in by the liberal culture in the Pop Music industry. Much to her detriment.
Posted by: OldSpook || 04/04/2003 16:24 Comments || Top||

#2  Love the catagory you selected for this OldSpook!!! LOL!!!
Posted by: Yosemite Sam || 04/04/2003 16:36 Comments || Top||

#3  Probably should have gone under "Fifth Column," but somehow it seems right that it's listed here.

From the outlandish rumors department: I read yesterday on some website (and, no, I can't recall which) that there are rumors the Chicks will break up after their tour. In essence, Maine is going to get the boot and the other two reform.

Take that with as much salt as necessary.
Posted by: growler || 04/04/2003 16:37 Comments || Top||

#4  I heard that a group of country artists were holding "counter" concerts in the cities where the Dixie Chicks are scheduled to play. A ticket to the Dixie Chicks' show gets you into the "counter" concert for free. tee hee!! I'm sure the powers that be for the venues where the Dixie Chunks are scheduled are just loving that news. ::smirk::
Posted by: Samma-lamma || 04/04/2003 16:37 Comments || Top||

#5  I have a sneaking suspiscion that the Ditzy Chicks are going to get a very hot reception at some of their concerts in some parts of the US.
Posted by: FOTSGreg || 04/04/2003 17:15 Comments || Top||

#6  sorry, I should have clicked on Fifth Column, but I forgot. I love the counter concerts idea! Wouldn't surpise me if they cancel the tour citing "security concerns" to save face at the low turnout. But they probably figure they need get whatever they can, while it lasts.
Posted by: becky || 04/04/2003 17:32 Comments || Top||

#7  Still, Maines is sticking by her guns. "The more flak I get for it, the poorer prouder I am," said Maines.

That's nice to know. If she's smart, she'll have saved up all her money. If not, well....
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 04/04/2003 17:35 Comments || Top||

#8  All thats left is for them to pick the Indian casino that the want to be a waitress at. Of course they might not be welcome at most of them! I plan to attend the counter-concert in Sacramento.....KICK THE CHICKS!
Posted by: Cyber Sarge || 04/04/2003 17:36 Comments || Top||

#9  Ol Fat Nat should have stuck to being just fat and unattractive, now she's opened her big pie hole to let the world know that she is dumb as a bag of hammers, next stop: a single wide trailer in Arkansas, but hey maybe she can hook up with Bubba, he likes em chubby and stupid.
Posted by: Wills || 04/04/2003 17:57 Comments || Top||

#10  What the fuck is a Dixie Chick?? Dixie?? Hasn't Jesse (She's Not My Daughter) Jackson launched a self-important protest?? Oh wait, she's anti-Bush...that's OK.
Posted by: Thane of Cawdor || 04/04/2003 21:29 Comments || Top||

#11  Still, Maines is sticking by her guns. "The more flak I get for it, the prouder I am," said Maines.

Pride goeth before the fall...

Remember you said that a couple of years from now when your sneaking a smoke between gigs in the alley behind Billy Bobs in Sinkhole, Oklahoma.
Posted by: tu3031 || 04/04/2003 21:46 Comments || Top||


Home Front
U.S. Soldier Charged in Grenade Attack
A soldier faces murder charges in a grenade attack at a U.S. camp in Kuwait that killed two officers, the military announced Friday. The charges against Sgt. Hasan K. Akbar, 32, were filed two days after the March 23 incident at a 101st Airborne Division camp in Kuwait. They were disclosed in a statement from Fort Campbell, home of the 101st.
Akbar is the only person charged in the attack at the command center of the 101st Division's 1st Brigade at Camp Pennsylvania. Fourteen soldiers were wounded. Days later, the 1st Brigade began moving into Iraq.
Akbar is being held at an undisclosed U.S. military facility. Military lawyers assigned to represent Akbar had no comment, the military's statement said.
Bet they were thrilled to get that assignment. Somehow I don't see the "A Few Good Men" scenario playing out here.
Dennis Olgin, a retired judge advocate general's corps officer, said the charges carry the death penalty. Akbar, an American Muslim, told family members he was wary of going to war in Iraq. His mother, Quran Bilal, told The Tennessean of Nashville that she was concerned he might have been accused because he is a Muslim.
He was framed. I know because I'm his mother. So could you just let him go?
Akbar was charged under military law with two counts of premeditated murder and 17 counts of attempted murder. Akbar was also charged with aggravated arson of an inhabited dwelling and misbehavior as a sentinel while receiving special pay.
Olgin said the 17 attempted murder charges likely include other soldiers in the tents who were not injured.
Anyone remember the last time the military executed anyone? I think hanging was the method but I'm sure they've gone humane and adopted the needle. Either way, Hasan, dead is dead.
Killed in the attack were Army Capt. Christopher Scott Seifert, 27, of Easton, Pa., and Air Force Maj. Gregory Stone, 40, of Boise, Idaho. Akbar, of the 101st's 326th Engineer Battalion, was taken into custody shortly after the explosions and a military magistrate found probable cause that he committed the attack. An earlier statement from Fort Campbell said three grenades were thrown or rolled through the front door of three tents. Akbar's case has been forwarded to the commander of his unit who has authority to direct an investigation under Article 32 of military law, the post said. An Article 32 investigation is similar to a civilian grand jury. A 30-day delay was granted due to the war in Iraq.
Bet you're hoping for a long war, huh Hasan?
The entire 101st Airborne, a rapid-deployment helicopter assault division of about 20,000 soldiers, is deployed for the first time since the 1991 Persian Gulf War.
Posted by: tu3031 || 04/04/2003 08:52 pm || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Yup,the needle for all fed crimes, including military.
Posted by: Anonymous || 04/04/2003 22:11 Comments || Top||

#2  On April 13, 1961, U.S. Army Private John A. Bennett was hanged after being convicted of rape and attempted murder. (R. Serrano, "Last Soldier to Die at Levenworth Hanged in an April Storm," Los Angeles Times, 7/12/94).
Posted by: mojo || 04/04/2003 23:18 Comments || Top||

#3  OT: On April 12, 1961 Yuri Gagarin became the first human being to orbit the earth.
Posted by: mojo || 04/04/2003 23:21 Comments || Top||


Moussaoui trial might move to Military court
A JUDGE today questioned whether the government could proceed with the public trial of accused terrorist Zacarias Moussaoui because prosecutors are operating in a "shroud of secrecy". US District Judge Leonie Brinkema said she was disturbed the government had classified so many pleadings, orders and court opinions. Brinkema said she joined in Moussaoui's scepticism about the government's ability to prosecute him in open court. Brinkema's order came at a crucial time, when the government has appealed her secret order granting Moussaoui access to captured al-Qaeda prisoner Ramzi Binalshibh. If the 4th US Circuit Court of Appeals upholds the defendant's constitutional right to potentially favourable material, the government could decide to drop the case in a civilian court and proceed to a military tribunal where greater secrecy would be allowed. The case has become a dispute between the government's right to protect national security and a defendant's constitutional right to information and witnesses who could help his case.

A key problem is that Moussaoui is representing himself and is not cleared to receive the information he says he would need to defend himself, and he cannot attend hearings where classified matters are discussed. While court-appointed lawyers remain in the case to represent his interests, Moussaoui has chosen to avoid contact with the attorneys - who do have clearances and access to the classified material. Moussaoui, the lone defendant in the United States accused of conspiring with the September 11 hijackers to commit terrorism, could face the death penalty if convicted. The French citizen, arrested a month before the attacks in 2001, has requested unclassified, uncensored copies of the transcript of a closed, January 30, 2003, hearing and a secret opinion of the court issued last March 10.

Brinkema ordered the government to respond. "In particular, the defendant complains that he first learned of the prosecution's theory of the case in reading the heavily redacted version of the court's memorandum opinion and argues that he is entitled to know the facts underlying the government's theory so that he can prepare his defence," Brinkema said. The judge pronounced herself "disturbed by the extent to which the United States' intelligence officials have classified the pleadings, orders and memorandum opinions in this case; and further agrees with the defendant's scepticism of the government's ability to prosecute this case in open court in light of the shroud of secrecy under which it seeks to proceed". Brinkema added the government apparently has taken inconsistent positions on whether the theory of its case can be classified.
Oh well, military court or civilian court, let's give him the good ol' death penalty!
Posted by: Anon1 || 04/04/2003 07:32 pm || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:


Public radio station fires host
WEMU-FM host Terry Hughes, known on the air as "Thayrone," was fired from the Eastern Michigan University public radio station Wednesday for repeatedly expressing his views about the war in Iraq, and refusing to run NPR news during his Sunday night music program "The Bone Conduction Show."
Oooh! Sounds like Censorship®! Even McCarthyism®!
Hughes was fired by station manager Art Timko. "Art said he was 'tired of the fight,' trying to get me to run news on the show and not have an opinion," Hughes said. In between the vintage Detroit R&B and soul music he plays, Hughes has been talking up the war in Iraq, expressing his support for the troops and for President Bush, and denigrating National Public Radio.
Wanna bet what would have happened had his opinions been, uh... different?
On his show this past Sunday, among other things, Hughes was explaining why the station's fund-raiser had been postponed: "Because (Bush) has the (guts) to get up to do the right thing after 18 attempts to get everybody to help..." Hughes also complained to his listeners about not wanting to run NPR news. "We know if you want a current assessment of what's going on, you're sure not listening to us," he said on last week's show. "You'll be over at Fox TV where they're not bending the news... It ain't happening on NPR."
Obviously not...
Station manager Timko's account doesn't differ much. "He was fired basically over philosophical differences," Timko said. "We have a policy that eliminates or restricts the expression of personal opinion on issues of controversy, and he didn't believe that applied to him."
No more so than to other NPR commentators, anyway...
The WEMU station manager admitted: "Thayrone has always been opinionated. But most of what he had opinions about was not controversial. This time, it was."
"I mean, it's okay, as long as we agree with him, or it's on some subject that we don't care about..."
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 04/04/2003 02:59 pm || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "Hughes will continue to tape his show at home for syndication."

Heh, heh, brilliant idea to get max publicity to launch that new show. I bet you can't believe your good luck that the National Propaganda Radio manager took your bait. Oh and hey, thanks for further exposing their bias on your way out the door. Good Luck to ya.
Posted by: becky || 04/04/2003 15:21 Comments || Top||

#2  Does this surprise anyone? I live in Denver, we have and NPR affliate that has two stations, one is a talk show format the other is Classical Music. I offered to pledge money only to the Classical station and they wouldn't accept the money.
Posted by: Ken Mason || 04/04/2003 15:31 Comments || Top||


Korea
U.S.-S. Korea joint military exercises flailed worldwide
Pyongyang, April 3 (KCNA): At least 200 media, political parties and organizations and many figures of different social standings in the world strongly condemned the U.S-South Korea joint military exercises staged in South Korea, holding that they were chiefly aimed to ignite the second Korean war.
  • The Australian newspaper Canberra Times and AFP said that those operations were planned nine months ago and the U.S. and South Korea decided to stage the exercises in order to show that they remain alert on the Korean Peninsula despite the U.S. Iraqi war.
    Yes. That's clearly designed to ignite a second Korean war...

  • Radio Voice of Russia commented the deployment of more U.S. Forces on the Korean Peninsula is an indication that such military operation as the one against Iraq can be staged on the peninsula.

  • The U.S. newspapers Worker and Worker's World, the Malaysian newspaper New Straits Times, the Mexican newspaper Reforma, the Czech newspaper Halo Noviny and many other newspapers observed that the involvement of large-size bombers and stealth fighters of the U.S. air force in the exercises suggests that they can easily go over to an actual war operation anytime as it is an open warning to the DPRK.

  • The Romanian newspaper Curierul National said Bush's remark that if diplomatic efforts to solve the crisis fail during the joint military exercises, the U.S. may turn to a military option proves that it is going to steadily escalate tensions on the peninsula by staging military exercises in a bid to destroy socialism in the DPRK.
    Musta missed it when Bush actually said that...

  • The exercises were hit as criminal and provocative manoeuvres to mount a preemptive nuclear attack on the DPRK and an extension of the team spirit joint military exercise by many political parties, organizations and personages of the world. They included

    • the Socialist Unionist Party of Syria,
    • the Lebanese Communist Party,
    • the Genuine Lumumbist Patriotic Party of Democratic Congo,
    • the Palestine National Liberation Movement (FATAH),
    • the British Association for Friendship with Korea,
    • the Norway-Korea Friendship Society,
    • the International Liaison Committee for Reunification and Peace in Korea,
    • the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Nepal (Marxist-Leninist),
    • the secretary general of the Arabic Association for Arts, Culture and Information of Egypt,
    • the chairman of the Swiss Committee for Supporting Korea's Reunification and
    • the chairman of the Peruvian Committee for Supporting the Independent and Peaceful Reunification of Korea.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 04/04/2003 02:18 pm || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  figures of different social standings in the world
Except they're all Communists.
I'm trying to figure out who is more delusional, Saddam or Kim. But I think Kim takes the cake.
Posted by: RW || 04/04/2003 14:35 Comments || Top||

#2  Oh no! We've lost the Genuine Lumumbist Patriotic Party?
Posted by: Matt || 04/04/2003 15:07 Comments || Top||

#3  The Norway-Korea Friendship Society? What the hell is that?
Posted by: Anonymous || 04/04/2003 15:11 Comments || Top||

#4  AKA the False Lumumbist Patriotic Party of Las Vegas
Posted by: Anonymous || 04/04/2003 15:41 Comments || Top||

#5  No loss on the Genuine Lumumbist Patriotic Party....too old school. I much prefer The All New and Improved Lumumbist Patriotic Party (less calories, and half the fat).
Posted by: Rex Mundi || 04/04/2003 15:59 Comments || Top||

#6  slightly OT, courtesy of The Corner, I found Kim Jong Il's Blog - pretty funny
Posted by: Frank G || 04/04/2003 16:31 Comments || Top||

#7  FATAH? That's not Arafat's homies, is it?
Posted by: Former Russian Major || 04/04/2003 23:50 Comments || Top||


Middle East
Syrian leaders speak out against the war
Syria has added its voice to the growing support for mounting Iraqi resistance. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad predicted the failure of the America- led operation in the face of “popular Arab resistance”, and the country's top Islamic leader mufti Sheikh Ahmed Kaftaro has called for attacks against US and British forces in Iraq. “I call on Muslims to use all means possible to thwart the aggression, including martyr operations against the belligerent invaders,” the mufti said.
Okay. We've noted his opinion...
President Assad predicted that US led forces would be unable to subdue the Iraqi people that are now vehemently resisting. “The United States is a superpower which can occupy a relatively small state but can it impose control?” asked President Assad. “The United States and Britain will not be able to control all of Iraq.”
And we know which side the Boy President is on...
In the strongest public Syrian condemnation of the invasion, Assad spoke of the difficulties the US will face in trying to quell local resistance. “The army and Iraqi people are putting up strong opposition but if the US strategy succeeds, which we hope not and which we doubt, there will still be popular Arab resistance to the occupation and this has already started,” said Assad.
"And we'll make sure it happens. Matter of fact, they'll be headquartered right here in beautiful Damascus, next door to Islamic Jihad..."
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 04/04/2003 02:07 pm || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Sure would be terrible if, after the war, Iraqis with direct experience of Ba'athist fascists started slipping over the border and causing trouble for Baby Assad and his hench-thugs.

Yep. Simply teddible...
Posted by: mojo || 04/04/2003 14:19 Comments || Top||

#2  Maybe the UN could provide some peace keepers to patrol the Iraqi-Syrian border. Then they can feel safe.
Posted by: Michael || 04/04/2003 16:13 Comments || Top||


Home Front
El Paso becomes hostile territory for German troops
For 35 years, there has been a single permanent force of foreign troops on US soil, here on the western tip of Texas, home of the largest air defence training centre in the world and the permanent home of Germany's Air Force Command. On joint training exercises, over pilseners at the Soldatenstube pub, the two forces have coalesced as partners, a proud emblem of post-World War II alliances. But the war against Iraq is beginning to weaken that cherished solidarity. As Germany's opposition to the war has grown increasingly strident, as the mood here plunges with word that Iraqis have killed or captured at least 15 Fort Bliss soldiers, the troops are suddenly viewing each other with a wary, distant eye. After all these years, they are - once again - strangers more than allies.

The changes are subtle. There are no brawls, and publicly military officials on both sides downplay the tension or deny that it exists. But privately some military personnel at Fort Bliss grumble about the irony of welcoming German troops only to watch them lay their arms down when America went to war. "It's shocking," Eric Hildreth, a Department of Defence official who oversees sports programs at Fort Bliss, said of Germany's war opposition. Some German and American families who have been neighbours for years are suddenly not speaking to one another. "I don't understand this stand-off," said Skip Stoltenberg, an El Paso resident who was born in Germany and emigrated to the US in 1948 after marrying a US Army officer.

Ilse Irwin, 73, was born in Wiesbaden, Germany, near Frankfurt, and emigrated to the US as a Fulbright scholar in 1954. A practising Catholic, the retired university professor devotes much of her time to fighting hatred and genocide, largely by working with the area's Jewish community. Irwin volunteers at the local Holocaust museum, and lately has steeled herself every time she has to guide German airmen through an exhibit or take them on a tour of a local temple. Repeatedly, she said, they have been hostile about her work. Some have raised questions about the US's agenda and suggested that the motivation for the war is oil and the close relationship between the US and Israel - a common charge in Western Europe. "I've had a terrible time," she said. "They say that Israelis are just modern-day Nazis. I defend Israel, but I get very nervous because I don't want to blow my cool. I don't hear it too often. But I hear it often enough."

Fort Bliss, built before the days of Pancho Villa as a cavalry outpost to protect the border, became the US Army's air defence centre during World War II. With increased attention focused on the Middle East, its desert conditions and surrounding military bases have increased the post's importance to both the US military and its allies. Thirty-one allied nations train here, said Fort Bliss spokeswoman Jean Offutt. Only Germany, however, has used US facilities to house permanent military installations. German officials say they reap a number of benefits from being in Texas, from the ease of purchasing US weapons systems to the arid weather. German troops have their own school, church and social club, and have long forged close friendships with US residents and military officials. Postings to Fort Bliss, which often last three years, are seen as plum assignments, leading some Germans to break their ties with the military and move to El Paso permanently. Many German families become taken with the area's culture and several German airmen are so enamoured with Texas that they've become proficient rodeo riders. "Many of them return over and over again," Offutt said. "It's a lifestyle that is very different for them. And they love it."

Even among European leaders who have denounced the war as reckless and unnecessary, however, Germany's opposition has been vociferous. One sign carried by a protester last week at Berlin's Brandenberg Gate read: "Stupid war; Mindless violence." The tension has escalated in America, too. In Tennessee, one high school cancelled a scheduled student-exchange program with a German school, citing Germany's opposition to the war.
Sad times, I did two tours in Germany and worked with the German Air Force stationed at Holloman. Had a great time. There were a few protestors in Germany, but nothing like what I see now. I wonder if the influx of East Germans has poisoned the well.
Posted by: Steve || 04/04/2003 01:25 pm || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Disenchanted Ossis may having something to do with it, but it seems to be running deeper than that. Having lived and studied in Germany and Austria for some time, one thing I picked up on, particularly in young Germans, was a very dark sense of their own guilt in history. Germany was guilty of starting two world wars and nearly exterminating a whole race. It's drilled into them as young kids, giving them the sense that there's really nothing -- aside from producing nice cars -- for their country to be proud of. Now that Germany's economy is in the dumps and both Schroeder and Merkel (head of the conservative CDP) are deeply distrusted and disliked, this "Erbitterung" is growing. It's left a deep vaccum in the national soul that's easily filled with all sorts of lunacies as they attempt to grasp for something that will restore a sense of political pride and direction in the society. Until recently, neo-Nazism or radical leftism were two attractive possibilities, but both tinged with violence and generally looked down upon by the middle classes. Anti-americanism, on the other hand, is something everyone can safely rally around because there's a facade of superior morality to hide behind. Lashing out at imperious America, and viewing it as a loose consortium of all the world's dark conspiratorial economic, political and social forces -- is a way for German gen-Xers to unload a lot of their collective psychological baggage.
Posted by: JTE || 04/04/2003 14:13 Comments || Top||

#2  Re: Influx of East Germans. Observing the reaction and support for the US of the old eastern block countries, I would think the East Germans would be more supportive. Do you have info that is different?
Posted by: mCrane || 04/04/2003 14:28 Comments || Top||

#3  Like a mirror of the Middle East, old Europe has problems - and rather than realizing that the majority of the blame resides in the choices they have made themselves, they point to “The Superpower” who surely must be prospering at their expense. It is total leftist nonsense – Germany, France, et al have 1) chosen socialism over the past decades, despite it proven track record of failures and 2) opened their borders, seriously diluting their internal native ability to self-correct from their poor choices. The result? Intellectual bigotries of all types; political war waged against the US, hatred for the US, and alignment with countries whose racism against Israel and Jews worldwide cannot be denied.

At one time I thought that the Middle Eastern despots and the kingdoms of the area were merely keeping their people distracted from the evil plight being inflicted upon them by whipping up the straw man of racism (i.e. by pointing the finger at the Jews in their back yard and at the US who supports them). I thought this merely the rhetoric of evil by regionally isolated benign totalitarians - and that it should be relatively easy to manage politically (or with the dropping of a couple of well placed bombs, as President Reagan did in Libya). But as I look back over the recent decades of Middle East history, witnessing the willingness of the not so ignorant leadership within those countries to turn their governments over to radical Islam, witnessing the eagerness of the not so ignorant leadership within those countries to develop weapons of mass destruction, witnessing the enthusiasm with which they are willing to train terrorists (even to the point raping childhood from their offspring by selling their children as slaves to the likes of Sadam - by training them as child terrorists/murderers), and having witnessed the crazed passion with which they embrace all western technology to achieve their goals – I no longer view Europe (or any other part of the world) as easily or correctly politically managed.

In the 60s it took Kennedy’s will to tell the USSR that it would indeed pull the plug on our nuclear missiles to defend the US way of life.

And now I thank God Bush has the will to tell the despots of the world that we will come after terrorists and all nations who harbor them.
Posted by: R Bennett || 04/04/2003 15:20 Comments || Top||

#4  I find this deeply disturbing in a somewhat historical context. Prior to the rise of Nazism Germans also were experiencing a deep sense of loss of national pride and were grasping at seemingly anything that might help restore their nationalistic "sense". We all know where that led last century and to hear that the same sort of thing might be stirring there again is, well, disturbing to say the least (not that I really believe that Germans would embrace anything close to Nazism or fascism again, but you have to look at the historical precedence I think).
Posted by: FOTSGreg || 04/04/2003 15:23 Comments || Top||

#5  mCrane -- the Ossis got the long and short end of the stick as it were: they got to become part of the largest and (at the time) most dynamic economy in Western Europe, but also paid a price in the process. While the Poles, Czechs, Slovaks, etc. gained their independence and found their own paths to democracy and economic liberalization, the East Germans -- very happily initially -- essentially handed their fates to Helmut Kohl and the bureaucrats in Bonn and cultivated the notion among themselves that they could just kick back and prosperity and good times would roll overthem like a warm, gentle wave out of the West. So while the east Germans were of course grateful not to live under a communist police state any longer, they were given unrealistically high expectations of the implications of reunification. Thus many in the east feel like they were sold out to uncaring and unresponsive government and corporate interests. Of course it was all a lot more complicated than that. Overnight, West Germany essentially absorbed a bankrupt third-world country into a first-world economy at enormous cost to its taxpayers and businesses, but has found it increasingly difficult to recreate the conditions for a second "German miracle" in the east, such as the west experienced in the 50's and 60's.
Posted by: JTE || 04/04/2003 16:03 Comments || Top||

#6  Having lived and worked in Hungary for three years with the U.S. Department of State just after the end of Communism, I found a few differences in general attitude and outlook between the West and East Europeans. The East, including many East Germans, know first hand what oppression is. Those from the West are more concerned with keeping their socialist benefits, and don't seem to be concerned about the gathering clouds over the last decade.
Posted by: D Hyatt || 04/04/2003 16:20 Comments || Top||


Iran
Office didn't confirm claim on an edict by Ayat. Sistani
Tehran, April 4, IRNA -- The Tehran office of a Shiite religious leader based in Najaf, Ayatollah Seyed Ali Sistani, on Thursday did not confirm a recent claim by US on a fatwa (religious decree), attributed to him. "We pray God Almighty to save us of the damn of conspiracies and diversionary stances and protect religious values of Islam and Shiism for us," added the office in its statement, a copy of which was made available to IRNA on Thursday night. The statement said authenticity of the fatwa had been checked with sources close to the Najaf office of the ayatollah and they also did not confirm the report. Meanwhile, the Al-Khoie Foundation, based in London, too was not able to confirm the issuance of the latest fatwa attributed to Ayatollah Sistani.
Sounds like a disavowal to me. But Islamists never seem to have any problem with giving their word and then taking it away...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 04/04/2003 12:55 pm || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Al-Aska is watching you...............
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 04/04/2003 13:06 Comments || Top||

#2  Tis IRNA. Take with salt.
Posted by: Ptah || 04/04/2003 13:16 Comments || Top||

#3  Don't they have some "Fatwas R Us" place in Saudi that does all this stuff? As I remember, I read about it here a couple of months ago.
Posted by: tu3031 || 04/04/2003 13:58 Comments || Top||


East/Subsaharan Africa
Islamic Preacher Nabbed in Hotel Attacks
Police have arrested an Islamic preacher suspected of involvement in the Nov. 28 suicide attacks on a hotel that killed 11 Kenyans and three Israeli tourists, authorities said Thursday.
Suicide + attacks = Islamic preachers
Police picked up Aboud Rogo, 34, on Wednesday in the Likoni district of Mombasa and were taking him to Nairobi for questioning, police spokesman Gideon Kibunja said.
Truncheon alert!
Last month, Mohamed Kubwa, who also is in police custody, told The Associated Press that his cousin Rogo had introduced his family to Abdul Karim — believed to be fugitive al-Qaida operative Fazul Abdullah Mohammed.
Note that it's his "Cousin Rogo". What have we said before about terror groups being a family affair?
Fazul has been indicted for the simultaneous car bombings outside American embassies in Kenya and neighboring Tanzania in 1988 that killed some 230 people, including 12 Americans. Mohamed Kubwa identified Fazul in an FBI photo, in the clearest indication yet of a link between the Nov. 28 attacks and the embassy bombings.
Humm, I must have missed that report. Fazul has been a busy boy.
Last week, Mohamed Kubwa and his father were charged with harboring an illegal alien — Abdul Karim. They pleaded innocent, were denied bail and have remained in jail. Both have denied any involvement in the attacks. His father told The Associated Press last month his family doesn't know much about Abdul Karim, who married his teenage daughter before he disappeared in January — only that the man had relatives in Mombasa's Tudor neighborhood, where police believe the bomb used in the Nov. 28 attack was built.
This is what happens when you marry your daughter off to the first guy who passes by.
Posted by: Steve || 04/04/2003 10:34 am || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Roland searched the continent for the man who'd done him in
He found him in Mombasa, in a barroom drinking gin
Roland aimed his Thompson gun, he didn't say a word
But he blew Van Rogo's body from there to Johannesburg
Posted by: Anonymous || 04/04/2003 15:29 Comments || Top||


Middle East
Israel catches Islamic Jihad commander
Israeli troops Friday successfully apprehended a local Islamic Jihad commander and four associates from the Tulkarim refugee camp after expelling as many as 1,500 Palestinian males from the area. The Israeli army said the group was planning a car bomb attack and a suicide bombing inside Israel.
It's in their mission statement
Military sources who spoke on condition of anonymity told United Press International the curfew and sweeping searches they have been conducting in Tulkarim since Wednesday were designed to catch the Islamic Jihad commander, Anwar Elian, and his men. In the course of the search, the soldiers rounded up as many as 1,500 Palestinian males and sent them out of the Tulkarim refugee camp.
Sorting through the rabble, looking for the big fish
Soldiers surrounded Elian's hideout in the camp Thursday night. Friday morning, "We called him to come out and said that we'll go in if he doesn't, and he gave himself up," a military source in the West Bank told UPI.
"Elian, come out and play!"
"He surrendered without a fight," another military source said.
Commanders are too important to fight
The soldiers found explosives too, but not the car. Soldiers also caught the commander of the Fatah Tanzim in town, a military source said.
Two for one special
Israeli troops were then leaving the town.
"Goodbye, we'll be back soon"
Posted by: Steve || 04/04/2003 08:34 am || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  After post-Saddam Iraq, the Bush administration has made clear it's intention to reward the "Palestinian" terrorists with their own state carved from the nation of Israel.

Considering the results of the cruel Oslo "peace" process, and the remarkable success of Israel's ongoing raids and sporadic re-occupation of Gaza and the West Bank I wonder what kind of reaction the Jewish Street will have to Washington's upcoming "roadmap" to Palestinian statehood?
Posted by: Scooter McGruder || 04/04/2003 8:57 Comments || Top||

#2  Well surprise. They Kept their word.
Posted by: Ptah || 04/04/2003 8:59 Comments || Top||

#3  the israeli street is divided - much will depend on the details of the road map, in particular the timing of Israeli concessions on settlements versus Palestinian action on security. Will they be sequential (first a stop to terror, THEN a settlement freeze) or simultaneous?
Posted by: liberalhawk || 04/04/2003 9:43 Comments || Top||

#4  I say there should be a rolling, 120 day halt on terror attacks, parallel to a settlement freeze: ONE terror attack, and the clock resets and adds 30 days.
Posted by: Ptah || 04/04/2003 12:11 Comments || Top||

#5  We should give Syria to the Palestineans. Of course we'll have to clean it out but it's on the way home for our guys.
Posted by: B. || 04/04/2003 13:13 Comments || Top||


Home Front
Hastert and Delay Assail Kerry Speech
The top three Republicans in Congress sharply criticized Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry on Thursday for saying that the United States, like Iraq, needs a regime change.
These guys are the artillery, softening up Mr. Kerry for the coming assault in early 2004.
  • House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., released a statement that said in the midst of war, the nation should pull together to support the troops and commander in chief. "Once this war is over, there will be plenty of time for the next election," the statement said. "But the war is not yet over, and we still have much work to do to rid the world of Saddam Hussein and his brutal regime."

  • Sen. Bill Frist, R.-Tenn., the senate majority leader, said the statement called into question Daschle's (sic) fitness for presidential office. "Free and open discourse is one thing, but petty, partisan insults launched solely for personal political gain are highly inappropriate at a time when American men and women are in harm's way," Frist said in a statement.

  • House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, released a statement calling Kerry's words "desperate and inappropriate." "America before New Hampshire," DeLay said.
Kerry backed a congressional resolution last fall giving Bush the authority to use force to oust Saddam, but he repeatedly and hypocritically has criticized the president for failing to give diplomacy more time. "Clearly, Senator Kerry intended no disrespect or lack of support for our commander in chief during wartime, but the point of this campaign is, obviously, to change the administration of this government," said Kerry spokesman Robert Gibbs. "And unlike many of his Republican critics, Senator Kerry has worn the uniform, served his country, seen combat, so he'd just as soon skip their lectures about supporting our troops."
Wonder, if we took a count, how many Dems and Reps in Congress served in the military.
Kerry is a decorated Vietnam War veteran. Hastert and DeLay did not serve in the military. In response to Gibbs, DeLay's spokesman Jonathan Grella said, "His service to our country was admirable, but his words now are shamelessly political."

On the day that Bush announced military strikes would begin unless Saddam left the country, Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., said Bush's diplomatic efforts failed "miserably" because he failed to secure a U.N. resolution for the war. Daschle's remarks drew a sharp rebuke from Hastert and DeLay. This week, Daschle said that he was satisfied with Bush's strategy.
Please, Tom, please express your dissatisfaction. Don't be shy.
Posted by: Steve White || 04/04/2003 01:41 am || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The GOP hopes Kerry is going to be the nominee. But Dean is going to win.
Posted by: wetzel || 04/04/2003 3:07 Comments || Top||

#2  Heh heh heh. I hate to think of the crap that would fly if Kerry got the nomination--but that would pale into insignificance compared to what would happen if Dean Howard won the ballot. Kerry at least tries to be circumspect, but leaves the telltale traces of his his inclinations in his wake. Like today. But Howard just lets it all loose. This could really be fun.
Posted by: therien || 04/04/2003 4:23 Comments || Top||

#3  I've written how Kerry doesn't impress me, well, I'll also note that Hastert and DeLay don't impress me either.

While turnabout is not necessarily fair play, H&D could be big enough to admit that Clinton deserved more support at the time over the Balkans.
Posted by: Hiryu || 04/04/2003 6:12 Comments || Top||

#4  Anyone but Lieberman has 0 foreign policy experience or general credibility vis-a-vis war or homeland security. Also, there are 11 (?) candidates. To knock each one out of the process requires a "concession" to said candidate. The moderates will be torn out of the strategic decision making process and replaced with Team Kuchinch.
Posted by: Brian || 04/04/2003 7:00 Comments || Top||

#5  actually kucinich hurts Dean, just as Dean hurts Kerry. One of the things that tends to help moderate dems is the proclivity of lefty dems to pursue a "holier than thou" strategy.
Posted by: liberalhawk || 04/04/2003 9:27 Comments || Top||

#6  from foxnews - remarks from al from, leader of moderate DLC.

'But with polls suggesting that as much as 80 percent of the public strongly backs military action in Iraq, some Democrats are increasingly worried that the anti-war sentiment will backfire against the party.

"If a minority of our party can create doubts among the American people about our ability and our willingness to defend the country and keep it safe, we will be in trouble as a party, period," said Al From, president of the moderate Democratic Leadership Council.

From told Fox News he fears that anti-war liberals may restore a 1970s-era image of the party as weak, just when it needs to appear strong in the wake of Sept. 11.

"I don't care if it's an old image or a new image that says we're not strong enough to promote America's interests in the world. If that's the case, it's a bad image," From said.'

Posted by: liberalhawk || 04/04/2003 9:47 Comments || Top||

#7  He's like an adolescent-Pat Paulson yelling poo poo at a church supper. Yeah, he stands out from the crowd but not in the way he intended. A little too immature to be taken seriously but a little too old not to know better.
Posted by: Hudson || 04/04/2003 10:20 Comments || Top||

#8  Sharpton! Sharpton! Sharpton! Sharpton!.....
Posted by: tu3031 || 04/04/2003 10:24 Comments || Top||

#9  If the U.S. needs a "regime change", it's not likely to be pulled off by the likes of Kerry.
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 04/04/2003 10:47 Comments || Top||

#10  The harder left the dems go, the better. They are so far out of touch with the American people right now that you'd think they were all permanently vacationing in France.

Wee Doggies!
Posted by: Jonesy || 04/04/2003 13:41 Comments || Top||

#11  Kerry never opens his mouth unless he needs to change feet...
Posted by: mojo || 04/04/2003 14:15 Comments || Top||

#12  Neither political party has shown any real understanding of what the PEOPLE in this great nation want. Kerry (and his fellow dummycheats) wants a Democratic lock, so he can continue to destroy this nation with social welfare programs. The Repuglycons want an even bigger win in the House and Senate, so they can promote their own pet projects. Neither has stood back, read the Constitution, and decided to pursue the LEGITIMATE ACTIONS of Congress, as detailed in that document. Until they do, both parties will be part and parcel with the downward spiral of both politics and the national character of the United States.
Posted by: Old Patriot || 04/04/2003 15:18 Comments || Top||

#13  Dean, Wetzel?!! You're kidding, right? Would the Democrats really be that stupid? The only Democrat that has a chance of making a race out of 2004 is Lieberman. Or Gephardt, if Dickie adopts a new set of "core beliefs."
Posted by: Christopher Johnson || 04/04/2003 17:33 Comments || Top||



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