Article

2003-03-19 Iraq

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Posted by jrosevear 2003-03-19 09:03 am|| || Front Page|| [3 views since 2007-05-07] Top

#1 Debka has a followup now claiming that Aziz was caught by the Kurds and is now having a chat with "US intelligence officials". Usual Debka disclaimers apply.

Posted by jrosevear 2003-03-19 06:36:22|| 2003-03-19 06:36:22|| Front Page Top

#2 This was picked up from Bulgarian Khorizont Radio by BBC monitoring - http://www.monitor.bbc.co.uk/nfnews.shtml#third - although they claim he's dead...

Posted by yellerKat 2003-03-19 06:56:01|| 2003-03-19 06:56:01|| Front Page Top

#3 Fox News was reporting this morning that US troops were moving into the DMZ between Kuwait and Iraq.

Posted by Hermetic 2003-03-19 07:18:54|| 2003-03-19 07:18:54|| Front Page Top

#4 Aziz was on an Iraqi (supposedly live?) broadcast yesterday wearing his XXL Iraqi army monkey suit in a meeting with Saddam and his generals - Saddam was also wearing his ill-fitting Iraqi army uni... Aziz looked no deader than usual

Posted by Frank G 2003-03-19 07:25:39|| 2003-03-19 07:25:39|| Front Page Top

#5 More Debka now: "US warplanes taking off from the USS Abraham Lincoln are bombing Iraqi military targets along the US-UK line of advance."

I suppose kicking off in daylight would have the advantage of surprise, at least...

Posted by jrosevear 2003-03-19 07:29:06|| 2003-03-19 07:29:06|| Front Page Top

#6 I can't believe that. We gave a 48-hour deadline, and, as the Guys in the White Hats(TM), we have to honor it.

Only if Saddam launches a pre-emptive strike will we be justified in attacking before the deadline expires at 8pm EST.

Posted by Dar Steckelberg 2003-03-19 08:10:28|| 2003-03-19 08:10:28|| Front Page Top

#7 Dunno, Dar... W seemed to leave plenty of room to start at a "time of our choosing" if Sammy rejected the ultimatum, which he pretty clearly has.

OTOH, the fog of war is going to be really thick for a couple of days no matter what.

Posted by jrosevear 2003-03-19 08:14:04|| 2003-03-19 08:14:04|| Front Page Top

#8 "We gave a 48-hour deadline,"
Sen Joe Biden (D) was asked last night, since Saddam rejected the ultimatum do we have to honor it ? He stated no, so it seems as if there is plenty of cover for going early.

Posted by Domingo 2003-03-19 08:18:43|| 2003-03-19 08:18:43|| Front Page Top

#9 This is being reported in the Jerusalem Post:
Iraqi deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz has been shot by Iraqi troops while attempting to defect, media reports said. Reports on the BBC and MSNBC said that Aziz had been shot while attempting to defect to Turkey. His condition was not known. The BBC said their information was based on reports generating from the British Parliament.
However, the Arabic Al-Jazeera and Kuwaiti TV said that there were reports that Aziz had escaped into northern Iraq, territory currently held by the Kurds. A spokesman for the Pentagon could not confirm the report and said that they had no knowledge of Aziz's whereabouts.
How sweet would this be if true?

Posted by Steve 2003-03-19 08:44:55|| 2003-03-19 08:44:55|| Front Page Top

#10 From Al-Bawaba: The Iraqi opposition is trying to verify reports indicating that Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tareq Aziz may have been killed on his way to the Kurdish part of the country. Ismail Zayer of the Iraqi opposition broke the news Wednesday, interviewed for Radio Free Europe.
According to BTA, Zayer expressed hope that this news will be confirmed by an independent source by Thursday. "The Iraqi opposition has reasons to believe that Aziz has attempted to escape into the Kurdish region of Iraq," Zayer said. "We have received no confirmation of such information," Iraqi Charge d'Affaires in Sofia Yahya Mahdi told BTA. "This is not true. Mr Tariq Aziz is a well-known patriot, he will stay in Iraq and he will be in Iraq till his last moment," the charge d'affaires said. He conveyed that the murder allegation is "cheap propaganda against Iraq."
"They are aggressors and have no grounds whatsoever in terms of international law or the practice of international relations," the diplomat said in connection with the planned military operation against his country. "We have no concrete information about Tareq Aziz," Bulgarian Deputy Foreign Minister Lyubomir Ivanov said. "We have lost the direct channels of information from Iraq because we have pulled out our embassy officers from that country. We are now trying to obtain information by cooperating with other services," Ivanov said.

Posted by Steve 2003-03-19 09:02:05|| 2003-03-19 09:02:05|| Front Page Top

#11 I'd much rather have him alive than dead, not so much for intel value, but for postwar propaganda purposes. Think of what he knows, and what he's been through...

Posted by jrosevear 2003-03-19 09:02:34|| 2003-03-19 09:02:34|| Front Page Top

#12 Just to add more confusion to the stew, Instapundit links to another report that claims that Tariq Aziz did in fact defect successfully and is now in Kurdistan (though he may have been wounded in the process).

Posted by Joe 2003-03-19 09:30:44|| 2003-03-19 09:30:44|| Front Page Top

#13 I am with jrosevear that Aziz is one guy I would like to see interviewed in the "post game" show. You don't live through that many of saddams performance reviews without having some unsavory skill sets.

Posted by Capsu78 2003-03-19 10:00:29|| 2003-03-19 10:00:29|| Front Page Top

16:38 alan matula
18:55 SparcVark
09:05 Alex
06:12 raptor
00:18 someone
23:34 Dishman
23:34 Jake
23:32 Jon
22:44 penguin
22:34 john
22:33 Old_Grouch
22:25 john
22:23 tu3031
22:18 tu3031
22:10 tu3031
22:10 john
22:08 Hungry Valley
21:54 TJ Jackson
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21:39 tcc
21:35 Brian
21:28 Chuck
21:17 Annoying Old Guy