Article

2003-10-27 Iraq

Saddam ally an insider at hotel hit by rockets

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Posted by Steve White 2003-10-27 2:17:34 AM|| || Front Page|| [4 views since 2007-05-07] Top

#1 Somebody fire the guy who ignored the letter. Over-looking something like this is in-exusable.

Posted by Charles 2003-10-27 2:40:57 AM|| 2003-10-27 2:40:57 AM|| Front Page Top

#2 Shit.

[rant]
The "quagmire" is here (and it's domestic equivalent at Homeland Security) - and was the import of Rummy's memo. Not to hurt feelings, but shouldn't Chief Wiggles and his peers get rock-hard serious when something - no make that anything - comes in that smells this bad? I love a good toy drive and I'm not one who thinks military intelligence is an oxymoron (because it saved my ass at least a few times) and I hate the "20/20 hindsight / I told you so" shit, but there is something very wrong with this. And it doesn't matter if it's a fluke, which I don't buy at the moment, cuz flukes kill, too. I would not want to be the one who has to explain to the late Colonel's wife how and why this could happen - that should be enough motivation alone to make some hard decisions and the changes they entail.

Sorry, but this is a stupid SNAFU and needs a fucking steamroller applied. The same thorough ass kicking also should be applied to the Sunni Triangle strategy team. Enough is enough. Gloves off internally and externally.

OP, I think they need a wakeup call from someone they will understand and take criticism from. Until Rummy's people craft a roadmap of rolling heads and dynamited empires, these people need a helping hand - before they get themselves blown up. Again.
[/rant]

Posted by .com 2003-10-27 3:29:57 AM|| 2003-10-27 3:29:57 AM|| Front Page Top

#3 My God! In its own way, this would be as stupid as appointing a traitor and fifth columnist like Ramsey Clark to a cabinet position. Can you imagine anyone being so stupid?
Oh, never mind.

Posted by Atomic Conspiracy 2003-10-27 5:17:29 AM|| 2003-10-27 5:17:29 AM|| Front Page Top

#4 I was really puzzled about the Viet Nam and Somalia experiences.
It didn't take long before the US was hiring anybody who walked in the door without worrying about security.
It's as if they had a blind spot.

Posted by Richard Aubrey 2003-10-27 9:12:18 AM|| 2003-10-27 9:12:18 AM|| Front Page Top

#5 Ah, why would they need a inside man? Everybody knows the Al Rasheed Hotel is full of juicy targets. And with the multiple rocket launcher they used, just hitting the hotel would do the trick. Now, if they had precision guided weapons, that would be different.

Posted by Steve 2003-10-27 11:50:37 AM|| 2003-10-27 11:50:37 AM|| Front Page Top

#6 I'm not surprised our 'military leadership'outside the actual war-fighting skills is so shaky - I saw this coming ten years ago.

Most promotions of senior officers and NCOs is based more on political rather than military behavior. I don't mean the Dem/Rep type of thing, but the bootlicking, yes-man type of politics that gets one a "good" ER, regardless of individual merit. That also includes going to the right 'school's, getting the right tickets punched, and being a go-along/get-along kind of guy. It's also appropos that the best war-fighting general the US Army has fielded in the last hundred years was George W. Patton, who was the exact OPPOSITE of most of that.

Leadership is a rare commodity, worth its weight in gold in any organization. I saw thousands of true leaders bail after the first Gulf War, the election of Bill Clinton, and the downsizing of our military by several hundreds of thousands of positions. Too many of the people that were left were the 'greasers', the slick manipulators who work not for the best of the military, but for promotion and their own personal agrandizement. I doubt Rumsfeld or Wolfowitz need a reminder - I'm sure they see it every day. It's hard to get rid of these useless pegs, but that's what needs to be done. They certainly don't need a position where high integrity and innovative thinking are necessary prerequisites.

Posted by Old Patriot 2003-10-27 12:31:46 PM|| [http://users.codenet.net/mweather/default.htm] 2003-10-27 12:31:46 PM|| Front Page Top

#7 Anyone know if the whole staff of this hotel was replaced? It was built/controlled by Saddam to be a showcase hotel for Western journalists--now we're surprised that there was an Iraqi spook in the kitchen!>!?

Posted by NotMikeMoore 2003-10-28 12:03:06 AM|| 2003-10-28 12:03:06 AM|| Front Page Top

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