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2007-04-03 Syria-Lebanon-Iran
The botched US raid that led to the hostage crisis
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Posted by ryuge 2007-04-03 00:05|| || Front Page|| [11124 views since 2007-05-07]  Top

#1 DELTA FORCE can capture them at any time - theres no need to capture these personages whom by this article were already on an "official visit", unless by "official" mean ilegal incognito to a non-IGA/CENTCOM-sanctioned "armed local office" ala Vietnam-era COSVN, WHICH ONLY SHOWS THAT IRAN SSSSSSSSHHHHHHHHHH DOES CONSIDER IRAQ ITS [FUTURE?] TERRITORY = NK-style TRIBUTARY/VASSAL/
PEON-SLAVE STATE.
Posted by JosephMendiola 2007-04-03 00:26||   2007-04-03 00:26|| Front Page Top

#2 Britain: No I didn't. Honest... I ran out of gas. I, I had a flat tire. I didn't have enough money for cab fare. My tux didn't come back from the cleaners. An old friend came in from out of town. Someone stole my car. There was an earthquake. A terrible flood. Locusts. IT WASN'T MY FAULT, I SWEAR TO GOD. It was the Merkins!
Posted by Frank G">Frank G  2007-04-03 00:30||   2007-04-03 00:30|| Front Page Top

#3 OMG they are like children they can not even take responsibility for there own people getting taken, they have to blame the USA. Damn.
Posted by djohn66 2007-04-03 00:38||   2007-04-03 00:38|| Front Page Top

#4 The Independent at its clueless, pro-fascist, pro-terrorist, pro-criminal worst. Oh, the US was "escalating" by going after people who have been murdering hundreds or thousands of Coalition soldiers, Iraqi soldiers, and civilians with their various illegal interventions across international borders? Right.

Their attempt at an analogy is utterly absurd. THIS is what passes for journalism today.

Folks oughta know that if the Independent were as it is today and around in 1944, they'd be snarking incessantly against American bombing raids and portraying the Waffen SS as legitimate players in occupied Europe.

Moral and general imbecility combined.
Posted by Verlaine 2007-04-03 00:40||   2007-04-03 00:40|| Front Page Top

#5 Al Independent is the global headquarters of the Hate America cult, and home paper of the despicable liar and antisemite Robert “hit me again” Fisk.

These arrogant monsters need to be reminded of their predecessor, Julius Streicher.

Follow his path, share his fate.

Posted by Atomic Conspiracy 2007-04-03 00:48||   2007-04-03 00:48|| Front Page Top

#6 I'm more interested in the possibility that these two were actually in Kurdistan. If so, why?
Posted by Classical_Liberal 2007-04-03 01:05||   2007-04-03 01:05|| Front Page Top

#7 This is "The Independent", or as AC so very rightly calls it "Al Independent". It is the home of Robert Fisk and he gets front page coverage almost continuously. It's a joke 'newspaper'.
Posted by Tony (UK) 2007-04-03 01:07||   2007-04-03 01:07|| Front Page Top

#8 Prolly in Kurdistan 'cos it's the only place in Iraq you can get any work done. It's quiet, no car bombs, no gangs of kidnappers, reliable wireless, no Marine snipers. The food's good and the 'lectricity stays on more often than not.

Top brass the world 'round likes its creature comforts
Posted by Seafarious">Seafarious  2007-04-03 01:11||   2007-04-03 01:11|| Front Page Top

#9 The attempt by the US to seize the two high-ranking Iranian security officers openly meeting with Iraqi leaders is somewhat as if Iran had tried to kidnap the heads of the CIA and MI6 while they were on an official visit to a country neighbouring Iran, such as Pakistan or Afghanistan.

Ummmm ... no. We were going after known criminal terrorist facilitators. In Iran's position, they merely would be starting a war.
Posted by Zenster">Zenster  2007-04-03 01:55||   2007-04-03 01:55|| Front Page Top

#10 This story sounds totally unbelievable if for no other reason that I have no doubt but that the Kurds would have helped us nail them if we had wanted them to. They know where their bread is buttered.
Posted by Mac 2007-04-03 03:09||   2007-04-03 03:09|| Front Page Top

#11 Patrick Cockburn Has worked for The Independent & Financial Times since 1979. Robert Fisk also works for The Independant. Month to Month sales seem to be going down! hehehe, 3.69%.

He's right up there with the best haters of America, ---> Robert Fisk, Peter Arnett, George Galloway, Osama bin Lying about etc.

Rantburgers check this huge list, each with a link for the whole article. Iraq, Afghanistan, Israel, "Palistine" all proove this guy is a world class asshat.
Patrick Cockburn'S Articles

a selection of his titles.

**2 April 2007: How the war on terror made the world a more terrifying place

**26 February 2007: 'Exodus' of Iraq's ancient minorities

**22 February 2007: The retreat from Basra

**31 January 2007: US 'victory' against cult leader was 'massacre'

**25 January 2007: Inside Baghdad: A city paralysed by fear

**Iraq is a Vast, Blood-Drenched Human Disaster

**November 2006: Baghdad is under siege

Patrick Cockburn is a fellow travler of Peter Arnett and Both stayed on in Baghdad during the Gulf War.

IIRC, CNN cut a deal with Saddam in order to stay in Iraq during the Gulf War festivities and I believe that the Independant did too..

The terms were such that CNN had to submit each article/script to an Iraqi Minder who veted each report BEFORE it went on the Air. If the Iraqi censor didn't like the report it was shit-canned or sent back for a Saddam re-do.

In addition the "deal" included a tidy sum from CNN to Supremo Saddam for the privilage of having a Saddam Minder with them at all times while in Iraq.
Posted by Red Dog">Red Dog  2007-04-03 03:24||   2007-04-03 03:24|| Front Page Top

#12 The radio report this morning suggested this "botched attempt" (which everyone knew about, because it did net five minor players), should have tipped people off that Iran might try a retaliatory snatch.

I swear I read that somewhere.

Like here.
Posted by Bobby 2007-04-03 05:45||   2007-04-03 05:45|| Front Page Top

#13 Even the lowly New York Times would be embarrassed to put out a story/editorial (same thing in these liberal rags) blaming the coalition forces for Iran's hostage taking.
Posted by Grumenk Philalzabod0723 2007-04-03 07:56||   2007-04-03 07:56|| Front Page Top

#14 Tried and true drive by media formula - "It's Bush's Fault!"
Posted by doc 2007-04-03 07:58||   2007-04-03 07:58|| Front Page Top

#15 Sick... just sick.
Posted by DarthVader">DarthVader  2007-04-03 09:01||   2007-04-03 09:01|| Front Page Top

#16 “The two men were in Kurdistan on an official visit during which they met the Iraqi President, Jalal Talabani…”

“Mr. Jafari himself later complained about US allegations. "So far has there been a single Iranian among suicide bombers in the war-battered country?"

Uhemmm…that’s called a Diplospeak “non-denial”. They tend to say that kind of stuff when the visiting dignitaries are by their side.

This article is a rather sloppy piece from an author and publication that has honed their skills at slanted journalism. One gets the impression they were intoxicated when cobbling this article together. The five-paragraph break in contextual background is a dead give away. Even the greenest interns at Al-Jizz will recognize this as propaganda 101. What should be interesting to see is which US media picks this up first. Look for the teaser headline before they go to break. Is the US to blame?
Posted by Waldemar Croluper3514 2007-04-03 09:35||   2007-04-03 09:35|| Front Page Top

#17 Frank: How could you overlook blaming the dog ( he of homework eating fame?)
Posted by USN, Ret. 2007-04-03 09:40||   2007-04-03 09:40|| Front Page Top

#18 Iran was likely to retaliate against American or British forces such as highly vulnerable Navy search parties in the Gulf

Only British ROE and a ministry level decision to over-rule the local commander rendered that search party vulnerable. If the Iranians had tried to do the same to the Americans they would have encountered a radically different response. It is, of course, precisely the views of the Independent which put those sailors and marines at risk in the first place.

As has already been said of Julius Streicher: The Independent editorial board should share his fate.
Posted by Excalibur 2007-04-03 09:41||   2007-04-03 09:41|| Front Page Top

#19 You mean like this?

Streicher went down kicking and fully conscious, and struggled violently at the end of the rope until the hangman, master sergeant John C. Woods, went into the concealed interior of the scaffold and "did something" that put a stop to the groans and brought the rope to a standstill. Presumably Woods grabbed Streicher by the legs and pulled down hard in order to break his neck.

Except without the assist?
Posted by Bobby 2007-04-03 10:07||   2007-04-03 10:07|| Front Page Top

#20 Red Dog hit the nail on the head. Cockburn is a lying marxist dog with a record of anti-American propaganda. One of his more outlandish claims is that Saddam was a CIA asset.
Posted by Apostate 2007-04-03 10:08||   2007-04-03 10:08|| Front Page Top

#21 USN ret - that was a Belushi quote from Blues Brothers.... :-)
Posted by Frank G">Frank G  2007-04-03 10:22||   2007-04-03 10:22|| Front Page Top

#22 Dear US Navy: The next time an Iranian submarine ventures into Iraqi waters, we would ever so much appreciate it, if some of your Otariidae (SEAL) gentlemen would wind about 300 feet of stout manila rope about its propeller, thus compelling it to surface. Please RSVP when and where you might be inclined to do this, so that we may greet this boat on its emergence and give our welcome to its crew.

Your friends in Her Majesty's Royal Navy
Posted by Anonymoose 2007-04-03 13:21||   2007-04-03 13:21|| Front Page Top

#23 Frank: thanks, my bad; i missed it (off my meds today)
Posted by USN, Ret. 2007-04-03 14:09||   2007-04-03 14:09|| Front Page Top

#24 Frank,
and I think Carrie Fischer believed him! lol
Posted by Jan from work 2007-04-03 14:49||   2007-04-03 14:49|| Front Page Top

#25 Isn't the whole thing designed to rally the Brit population against any MidEast/Iran/Iraq/Saudi military action PERMANENTLY? If they can clear the Brits out of the way throught the misunderstandings and bad press this situation generates, then Tehran will gain much more power in that region, and the US will be left alone in its stand against Iranian/Arab (Chinese/Russian) aggression.
Posted by ex-lib 2007-04-03 15:58||   2007-04-03 15:58|| Front Page Top

#26 I'm with Ex-Lib, in suspecting that this is a means of peeling the Brits off from the coalition. The longer the captivity of the fifteen is milked out, the better and better it will look to the British public and political establishment to disengage.
I hate to say it, but the Britian of today is not the one that my grandparents emigrated from, early in the 20th century.
Posted by Sgt. Mom 2007-04-03 17:00|| www.ncobrief.com]">[www.ncobrief.com]  2007-04-03 17:00|| Front Page Top

#27 Sgt. Mom, in suspecting that this is a means of peeling the Brits off from the coalition

dittos, we also have enablers here in the USA willing to help the Iranians peel us off to stand alone.

The demoCrap leadership and the MSM are esentially doing the same job that Patrick Cockburn is doing.

Sadly any nasty stab in the back for our men and women serving or the Bush Administration is fair game for them.
Posted by Red Dog">Red Dog  2007-04-03 18:37||   2007-04-03 18:37|| Front Page Top

#28 Divide and conquer, guys... divide and conquer.
Posted by Sgt. Mom 2007-04-03 18:59|| www.ncobrief.com]">[www.ncobrief.com]  2007-04-03 18:59|| Front Page Top

#29 Where's the "Smells like bull shit" pic?

More conspiracy wrapped in an enema.
Posted by Captain America 2007-04-03 19:02||   2007-04-03 19:02|| Front Page Top

23:46 Ebbeanter Ulemp4173
23:35 Frank G
23:34 Eric Jablow
23:32 Eric Jablow
23:17 Atomic Conspiracy
23:12 newc
23:10 newc
22:59 Jan
22:58 Frank G
22:56 Frank G
22:55 trailing wife
22:48 Sneaze
22:48 Red Dog
22:48 newc
22:43 Ebbeanter Ulemp4173
22:42 Sneaze
22:39 DMFD
22:37 Sneaze
22:35 DMFD
22:34 trailing wife
22:30 Sneaze
22:25 trailing wife
22:24 trailing wife
22:23 Frank G









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