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Iraqi weapons cache found
EFLTIKRIT, Iraq -- U.S. soldiers yesterday discovered 40 anti-tank mines, dozens of mortar rounds and hundreds of kilograms of gunpowder buried in Saddam Husseinâs home town: enough for a month of attacks on U.S. troops. Whaddya know, in the Sunni Triangle - whoâda thunk it? U.S. soldiers dug up the freshly buried weapons outside an abandoned building that once belonged to Saddamâs Fedayeen militia in Tikrit, Saddamâs home town and power base in which he still enjoys widespread support. That "widespread" support claim is a classic unsubstantiated AP Stylebook - Approved spin term. They teach this in J-School, widely-known as BS-School nowadays. Maj. Bryan Luke, 37, of Mobile, Alabama, said the weaponry was enough for a month of guerrilla attacks and the discovery "saved a few lives out there." Ah, finally, the story quotes someone who actually can tell shit from shinloa - and was actually there. "Forty mines could have caused a lot of problems for U.S. forces here in Tikrit," he said. From someone who knows... North of Baghdad, guerrillas floated a bomb on a palm log down the Diala River, a Tigris tributary, and detonated it under an old bridge linking the northern cities of Baqouba and Tikrit, hotbeds of Saddam support in the Sunni Triangle. And? Does the AP describe the damage? U.S. soldiers had built a pontoon bridge farther downstream and were renovating the old bridge, but after the explosion they closed both to the public. And we still donât know... "Weâve been repairing it since the end of April, but now weâve got people trying to blow it up," said Lt.-Col. Bill Adamson, a 4th Infantry Division commander. "Because of this damage weâve got to shut it to all the civilian traffic." ...Ah, finally, someone who knows something. Catch that? The Green Machine will prolly use it, but no Sunni-Triangle civvies. The bomb was the first known guerrilla attack on a bridge. Bridges are especially crucial in a country born around its two major rivers, the Tigris and the Euphrates. For a reporter, an AP reporter, no less, this is an astute observation! Therefore, it is highly likely he heard this from the soldiers and just chose not attribute it, as J-School used to teach in the OLD days. Posted by: PD 2003-07-29 |
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