Suspected Taliban fighters attacked a government checkpoint in northwestern Afghanistan, starting fighting that left at least 13 combatants dead, a military commander said Wednesday. About 400 gunmen attacked the checkpoint Tuesday in Tora Shaikh in the northwestern province of Badghis near the border with Turkmenistan, said Mohammad Karim Khadem, a brigade commander in the area. Seven attackers and six government soldiers were killed in fighting on Tuesday and Wednesday, Khadem said. A commander in neighboring Herat province, Ammanullah Khan, gave a different version of events and suggested the fighting was ethnically motivated. Ethnically motivated fighting in Afghanistan? Who'd thunk? Ammanullah Khan, a Pashtun, said forces loyal to Tajik warlord Ismail Khan, who also is governor of Herat province, began attacking the Pashtun village of Atashan in Badghis province on Tuesday. He said Ismail Khan's forces captured Atashan and burned scores of houses before advancing toward nearby Mangan on Wednesday, where he said fighting was continuing. Fighting has rarely been reported in Badghis province. Ammanullah Khan said the area was inhabited mostly by Pashtuns. Maybe the fighting is rarely reported because it's so common?
Forces loyal to Ismail Khan have clashed repeatedly with those of Ammanullah Khan since the former Taliban regime was ousted in a U.S.-led war in 2001. Like I said, common.
Posted by: Steve ||
03/26/2003 12:14 pm ||
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Amanullah Khan's a trouble-making Pashtun bully boy who's been a thorn in Ismail's side for at least a year. Afghanistan will be better off when he's nothing but a lingering odor.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/26/2003 12:15 Comments ||
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Don't those dumbasses in that part of the world EVER get tired of fighting????
Afghan security forces arrested four former Taliban officials southwest of the capital, state television reported Wednesday. Those arrested in Ghazni province include Akhand Sayed Shaheed, a former deputy education minister under the Taliban regime. The television station did not say when the arrests were made or in what circumstances. It also did not name the three others detained.
If the Karzai regime's getting serious about taking control of the country, maybe they'll keep these guys jugged for more than just a week or two...
Posted by: Steve ||
03/26/2003 11:28 am ||
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Deputy Education Minister of the Taliban Government, hmmm, impressive title for a non-existant job. Bumping off infidels was the Minister's own domain and that was about the only education available under Talib rule.
Posted by: Peter ||
03/26/2003 15:20 Comments ||
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Slightly edited to stay on target.
An estimated 300 Kuwaitis marched through the streets of Kuwait City Tuesday, waving U.S., British and Kuwaiti flags in support of the war against Saddam Hussein. Participants in the demonstration said people in other Arab nations protesting against the war are unaware of how Kuwait fared under the occupation of Iraq in 1990 and 1991. Kuwaiti Arabs interviewed earlier by CNSNews.com have spoken of widespread looting by Iraq during the occupation, and have told stories of imprisonment of opponents of Saddam Hussein. The demonstrators carried banners in English reading 'Iraqi People Need a Free Country' and 'Kuwait Doesn't Forget What Saddam Did.' The southern front against Iraq was established in Kuwait, where as many as a quarter million allied forces assembled prior to the move into Iraq. Police were evident during the demonstration, which took place as air raid sirens continued and a blinding sandstorm began to bear down on the area. Kuwaiti military officials said an Iraqi missile was fired at Kuwait Tuesday afternoon, apparently targeting an air base west of Kuwait City. Officials said the missile was shot down by a Patriot anti-missile battery. The acid test: DID Al Jazeera cover this?
Posted by: Bulldog ||
03/26/2003 11:11 am ||
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I heard they made it a point to find the Al Jazeera reporters. I don't know how that worked out. But they were only under Iraqi occupation for 7 or 8 months, so what do they know, right?
The Saudi perspective on the war is the same as that of every other Arab country. They are against it. Say it ain't so!
There have been no public manifestations of this, because the Saudis are not a demonstrating kind of people. They don't go out onto the streets like they do in Egypt and Jordan. It is not really part of the tradition, and the authorities wouldn't allow it anyway. Demonstrating is an, um, unhealthy spectator sport in SA.
Yet the feeling here is as strong and passionate as anywhere else: in fact, you could argue that it is more intense. There was an opinion poll recently, which suggested that, among the nominally officially pro-western Arab countries of Egypt, Morocco, Jordan, UAE and Saudi, public hostility to America was greater here than anywhere else. Only 3% of the population had what could be defined as a favourable view of the US, whereas last year it was 12%.
They realize who the real enemy is. And they're hoping Iraq's a flop, because if it isn't, they're eventually toast.
The Saudi regime, like every other Arab regime, wants the war to be finished as quickly and painlessly as possible. They want as few casualties and as few spectacles of dead civilians seen on their television sets as possible. Wouldn't want anyone to get any ideas, you know.
They'd prefer that the pictures of dead Iraqis, civilian or military, be vastly outnumbered by pictures of stacks of dead Merkins...
Everyone is glued to the television here. Most Arabs watch al-Jazeera, and the Saudis are no exception. They are also listening to the Lebanese Hizbullah radio station. They aren't watching their own TV stations. Reminds me of the old Yakov Smirnoff joke: "In Russia there are two TV stations. Channel 1 has propaganda. Channel 2 has KGB agent telling you to turn back to Channel 1."
Saudi newspapers are pretty similar to other Arab newspapers. That bad?
There is a good deal of hostility to Saddam Hussein, but this in no way detracts from the anger about the invasion. Well, okay then, no more hypocritical than the Independent.
There is great resentment that an Arab country with an Arab population is being invaded by a foreign power. It is also noticeable that the pockets of Iraqi resistance are generating a lot of Arab pride. People feel that this is what Arabs should be doing. Wonder how much pride they'll take in the good people of Basra off'ing the Fedayeen yesterday. If they ever hear about it.
Officially, the US troops stationed in Saudi are not playing any part in the war, but they obviously are. There are no ground troops, but the regime is very ambiguous and evasive about it. "We know nothing. NOTHING!"
The Saudi people only learn about it from foreign radio stations and gossip. It seems to be an established fact that US troops in Saudi do have a role directing the air war, even though no fighter planes actually take off from here to participate in action. Saudi people are very opposed to US troops in their country. This situation exemplifies the dilemma facing the Saudi regime, which is officially opposed to the war. They are trapped between their need to please the Americans, on whom they think they depend for their survival, and their public's anti-American opinion." They won't be depending on us for their survival much longer. As Glenn Reynolds would say, "Heh."
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/26/2003 01:27 pm ||
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I hope we get out of there soon as the war is over. Dramatic reduction, if not total withdrawal. Bases in Iraq and Kuwait should be good enough. Let the Saudis fend for themselves.
Do you think Bush is thinking along those lines?
Posted by: Tokyo Taro ||
03/26/2003 0:43 Comments ||
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Taro:
I hope we stay in some of those bases. They'll make nice staging areas for the invasion of the Arabian peninsula to depose the House of Sa'ud.
Posted by: Mike ||
03/26/2003 5:37 Comments ||
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To paraphrase Rupert Giles- "When I want your opinion, Saud-- I will never want your opinion."
Vandals in southwest Bordeaux torched a replica of the Statue of Liberty and cracked the pedestal of a plaque honoring victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks. The crowned head of the 8-foot-tall statue was blackened by fire and its eyes were marked with red paint, apparently to symbolize tears of blood, an official at the mayor's office said. The statue and the Sept. 11 plaque are beside each other in a square near the city center. ziss iss for zee weesels rrreh-mahrks, Amehri-can peeg dohks
In France, vandals have ransacked McDonald's restaurants in Paris and Strasbourg, targeting the fast food chain as a symbol of American influence. (U.S.) Lawmakers also introduced bills preventing France from participating in any postwar reconstruction projects. NOW yer talkin, boys!
Posted by: Pierre Poo Poo ||
03/26/2003 03:23 pm ||
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The exasperating last gasps of self inflicted irrelevance are beginning to be heard.
Posted by: Yosemite Sam ||
03/26/2003 14:04 Comments ||
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Dear France:
Please take your seat next to Belguim and Switzerland, and refrain from speaking until the adults have finished their meals.
#4
At least the french took a break from attacking the Jews this time.
Posted by: Dave ||
03/26/2003 15:09 Comments ||
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The Statue in Le Jardin de Luxembourg, was defaced last summer right after they put the plaque on. Paris is crawling with Al Quaeda. 10% of the population in Muslim. Most of which live just outside the city. This place is a powder keg. I currently live in Paris. Oh, by the way, the French are vehmenently anti-American, most Americans don't relize the depth of the hate. I could write a novel. My uncle fought with the 101st in Normandy; I'm so pissed!
Posted by: George ||
03/26/2003 15:22 Comments ||
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#6
Lawmakers also introduced bills preventing France from participating in any postwar reconstruction projects.
#7
It's been awhile since I was there (1988), but at that time, Paris was very anti-American, while those in other parts of France had very different views, especially those in Normandy and the Bordeaux region. Wonder if it's still that way.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
03/26/2003 16:25 Comments ||
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Nobody likes Parisians, and I think the feeling's mutual. They're notoriously rude and unfriendly. I wouldn't take it personally.
A Saudi diplomat in Germany under investigation for supporting a "terrorist group" left the country before he was to be formally expelled, Germany's public television ARD network reported on Wednesday. Tap, tap, tap..Fred, your suprise meter is broken as well.
The network said federal prosecutors believed the diplomat was an active supporter of Berlin's Al-Nur mosque. He's a very holy man.
Prosecutors last week arrested a man from a north African country linked to the mosque on suspicion of forming a "terrorist organization." Another one of those "North Africans".
Five others were detained, questioned and later released after raids on buildings in the German capital including the mosque. Bet they're being watched. It's a German thing.
The Foreign Ministry in Berlin declined comment on the report. The Saudi Arabian embassy in Berlin had no immediate comment. If nobody says anything, that means it's true.
But German sources close to the case confirmed the diplomat left the country before being expelled. Bet the German government dropped a hint.
"To avoid a threatened expulsion the Saudi diplomat F. recently left Germany, ARD has learned," the network said in a statement. "He is suspected of supporting a terrorist group in Germany...and violating weapons laws and falsifying documents." Guns and false documents, you knew there was a Saudi involved in there somewhere. Wonder who Diplomat F really is?
Posted by: Steve ||
03/26/2003 11:29 am ||
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In 1960, South Korea had about one-tenth your GDP. Now the reverse is true. South Korea has nothing to speak of regarding natural resources. They succeed on knowledge capital alone. You have been swimming in black gold for almost a century. Yet you remain a repressive, backwards, 11th-Century artifact. You're way of doing things has failed and placed our world in peril. Period. Jackasses.
The New York Stock Exchange has banned reporters for Al-Jazeera from presenting their U.S. stock reports from the exchange — a move that the Arab TV station is attributing to its reports on the Iraq war. "Al-Jazeera has received an official letter from the New York Stock Exchange informing it that the station's financial reporters can no longer present their reports from the exchange," the Qatar-based news station said Tuesday morning. The Nasdaq Stock Market has indicated that it too would refuse any request by Al-Jazeera to broadcast from its premises, according to Bloomberg News. A spokesman for NYSE has said that security was the reason for the ban, and that the exchange has limited the number of broadcasters as it gives access to media outlets that focus "on responsible business coverage." Al-Jazeera says it believes it is the only channel affected by the action. The station has been widely criticized for broadcasting scenes of dead U.S. soldiers and interviews with prisoners of war. How do you say GTFO in Arabic?
Posted by: SchlepRock ||
03/26/2003 09:45 am ||
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Subscriptions to the Arabic-language television network al-Jazeera have doubled since the liberation of war on Iraq began last week, signalling a significant demand for an alternative to sane western media coverage. The broadcaster said it has signed up 4 million insurgents subscribers in Europe since last Wednesday. It has also launched an English-language website, and plans an English version of its TV channel. If they ever do this in the US, the FCC will mandate that equal time be given to DEBKA.
Al-Jazeera had around 35 million Arabic-speaking viewers before the start of the war in Iraq but most were in the Arabic world, where it is shown free since no one will pay for it. Outside the Middle East 10 million easily-led rubes people had access to the network. The broadcaster enjoys greater freedom than western broadcasters in Iraq, with eight camera crews operating outside the confines of the military, and some journalists embedded with the coalition forces. Journalists playing both sides? I suppose they're professionals after all!
Although western TV crews remain in Baghdad, al-Jazeera has the only camera crew known to be operating in Basra, Iraq's second city. It also has crews in Baghdad and Mosul. "All the war that's fit to report!"
An al-Jazeera crew helped ITN to establish the whereabouts of Terry Lloyd, the veteran reporter who died after coming under fire on Saturday. He was taken to a Basra hospital, where al-Jazeera was allowed to film. The broadcaster has been at the centre of the controversy surrounding the transmission of footage showing Iraqi and American casualties, which many western news organisations considered too sensitive to screen. One image shown repeatedly on Sunday showed the head of a child aged about 12 that had been split apart, reportedly in the US-led assault on Basra. Other footage came from northern Iraq, where US missiles had targeted the Kurdish Islamist Ansar al-Islam organisation.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/26/2003 08:33 am ||
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al-Jazeera is an arm of islamo-fascism, endlessly spreading jihad propaganda. They don't report facts or try to tell the truth -- they create programmes that pander to Arab/Moslem hatred directed at the free world (mainly the USA and Israel). al-Guardian is not far behind.
Posted by: Kalle ||
03/26/2003 1:29 Comments ||
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Kalle:
Good English language sources for understanding the Arab mentality are the Yemen "Local Press" summaries, from:
http://www.yementimes.com/page.shtml?p=press
The Bush administration should be forced to read these comments, before they announce their unity-through-democracy scheme, for the Arab sandbox.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/15_03_03_c.html
They also need to know why democracy is merely a means to ulama-dictatorship ends in Islamania.
http://english.daralhayat.com/opinion/22-03-2003/Article-20030322-1511cf49-c0a8-01fc-0031-9753f507e183/story.html
Folks: This is what Captain David Waldron (US 3rd Infantry Division) says about Bush/Powell's war-making: "We don't want to hurt people if we can avoid it, but now it has got to be that if you have got a weapon, you have become an Iraqi soldier and we can kill you. This rules of engagement crap is making me lose men." (Oliver Poole, London Telegraph) Am I the only one who remembers that, with the Northern Alliance poised to take Kabul, Bush called for a "broad-based" government of Afghanistan, which was to include the "Taliban." US forces need to be able to kill the Fedayen without case-by-case approval by the State Department.
#3
CNN gets compition? What's bad about that, no single sided censored news, great.
Posted by: Murat ||
03/26/2003 2:24 Comments ||
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Murat:
CNN already has competition here in the US: FoxNews, MSNBC, CNBC.
Posted by: Mike ||
03/26/2003 8:01 Comments ||
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Mike, I think Murat meant CNN has competition now for the "sucking-up to the Arab masses" and "Religion of Peaceâ¢" propaganda market....
or was he?
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/26/2003 8:29 Comments ||
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Al-Jazeera showed on Saturday the results of our attack on the al-Ansar group. I mentioned this in a previous comment. My question at that time and my question still is: Why haven't we heard about this attack on ABC, NBC, CBS, etc? (I have satellite dish, but no cable. Go figure) As I said before, I happened to be in a barber shop(Subscriber to AJ)in Chicago when I saw the reportage. So give credit to AJ for covering a story that our big boys haven't, or am I wrong? (I'm a busy guy on weekends) Jeffrey Goldberg of the New Yorker has written extensively on Ansar in Kurdistan and how the only way they could be in the country is with the permission of Saddam, thus the link with Al-Qaeda since most of the Ansar are purported to be Kurdish/Arab mujahideen/Taliban/Al-Qaeda on the run from Afghanistan. No, we get Friedman on Charlie Rose with questions like "So how bloody will the storming of Baghdad be?", or something like that. So if AJ reports on this stuff, I find value in it. I just have to keep getting weekly trims to keep up. If I don't like the coverage, I'll change channels. So it's pick and choose.
Just like I find value in the BBC, but I've been watching it for years now and am able hear between the lines of the news reader's often loaded/provacative questions and how his/her questions are designed to put the Coalition spokesperson or someone who favors our action on the spot and make him sweat. They never ask the same questions to Iraqi officials. For example Peter Jennings was talking by phone (I guess Saturday night) to an Iraqi perfesser and MP, a guy Peter has met and spoken to previously. I won't call them interviews. Peter just kept gushing about how happy he was that the MP was alive. All it takes is for a Baathist to be loved by Peter is to give P. some tea, baklawa, and pretty words. I was pissed off and my kids wanted to know why. I told them that the kinds of tough questions the P. or any of the other talking heads would ask an American/Brit official just don't get asked to Baathists of similar rank and responsibility. My kids told me that the Baathist would get into trouble is he had to answer such sensitive questions. Then I said there's no reason to conduct such interviews because I want tough questions to EVERYBODY regardless of where he's from. This is one of my yardsticks on the value of a channel. Are the tough questions only to Ari, Tommy, and Rummy? Why doesn't Helen Thomas get off her fat ass, take a plane and taxi to Baghdad and pop inane questions to Iraq's Min. of Information? Then I'd respect her just a little bit.
Another thing about AJ, but non-war wise. AJ is trusted by Arabs because it is not afraid to get in the faces of regimes and govts. in region. It pisses off Mubarak, Ben Ali, the House of Saud, etc. And all of it coming from Qatar with the permission and money from its Emir, our best ally (or Kuwait) in region. Yes, it's going to be a different world once we fix things in Iraq. Maybe even AJ will be a bit more to our liking editorial-wise but I'm not anticipating this change nor will be disappointed if it doesn't occur. I'll just change barbers.
Posted by: Michael ||
03/26/2003 10:22 Comments ||
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Canalsat, an offspring of the (fashionably liberal) pay-channel Canal+ and one of the two main sattelite broadcasting providers in France, has banned Foxnews some times ago (still showing CNN & BBC world, though) and has announced it will add AJ to its programs.
Sixteen ninnies people protesting against the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories and the U.S.-led war in Iraq lay down in a busy Manhattan intersection on Wednesday, halting traffic for blocks before being carried into police vans. The protesters, chained together by handcuffs, doused themselves in mock pig blood and bleated chanted the refrain, "Occupation is a Crime, Free Iraq and Palestine," unfazed by the honking buses and jeering patriotsnormal people spectators crowded around the corner of Fifth Avenue and 47th Street. Just a few blocks from Letterman's studio. It would be poetic justice for Dave to get out there with a camera crew and put his own special spin on this.
In addition to the Israeli occupation, the activists were protesting against what they claim is a recent crackdown by Israeli authorities on peace activists. They called specific attention to Rachel Corrie, the 23-year-old American roadkill activist who was killed March 16 in Gaza after being squashed like a bug by while trying to stop an Israeli bulldozer from demolishing a Palestinian physician's home. Israel claims the death was an suicide accident. Step in front of an armored bulldozer and bad things can happen.
The activists said they feared that the Iraq war would divert attention from the conflict in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, allowing the Israeli military to conduct self-defense police operations violent acts unnoticed. "It's important to know, as the chant goes, there will be no peace without justice," said Ryan Senser, 28, an unemployed a freelance numbnutz tutor who helped organize the protest. "The Israeli occupation is a constant provocateur of violent Palestinian resistance."
Some passersby, angered by the disturbance as well as the cause, yelled insults at the activists and pointed fingers in their faces. Some called the protesters "cowards" and "losers," telling them to get a job and take their protest to Iraq. The boos quickly turned to cheers as police moved in to break up the protest. The first activist to go limp and be carried away was a young woman who blocked traffic in an orange traffic-control vest adorned with a sign that read "Stop." I would have been happy to ululate and pass out sweets to the police officers.
"They should all go to the West Bank and be left there," said patriot passerby Michael Lagana, 33, shaking his head. "They're cowards, every last one of them."
"I think they're a bunch of morons," said patriot Monica Nathans, 28, as she turned away from the scene. "We're fighting a war against terrorism. They're not Americans."
Yet not everyone disagreed with their message â or even their methods. "It's a dire time right now," drooled said apologist Pam Galpern, 34, who works for a non-profit legal aid organization. "I think dire acts need to be taken." For dire action, see what the good people of Basra are doing to the Baathists.
The 16 protesters were arrested on charges of disorderly conduct and obstruction of government administration, police said.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/26/2003 05:06 pm ||
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Oops. Missed a somehow. Fred, a little help please?
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/26/2003 15:52 Comments ||
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Where's an M1A2 Abrams tank when you really need one? Or maybe two...
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
03/26/2003 16:02 Comments ||
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Man, Steve---I know these protestors piss you off, but you don't have to strike through everything like Zorro, heh heh...........
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
03/26/2003 16:02 Comments ||
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#4
There's plans for this to happen again tomorrow.
#5
They selected that intersection well for maximum exposure to there target audience. It's the corner of 47th St. & 5th Ave, entrance to the 'Diamond District," which employs many Jews; Israeli, religious and non-religious.
#7
These folks should pop out of the wading end of the gene pool - maybe not in as dramatic a fashion as Rachel Corrie (messy, that), but out nonetheless. Stupid breeds true ...
#8
There are times when I wonder if the CIA or FBI or _somebody_ didn't infiltrate the peace movement and put a bunch of screaming fruitbats in charge. The peacenik's tactics are guaranteed to have the exact opposite effect of what they want -- they're ticking people off, not convincing them to change their minds.
Hmm, come to think of it, whatever happened to those "heroes for peace" who claimed that they were going to disrupt military bases? They were talking pretty big at one point. Anything ever come of it?
Posted by: Patrick Phillips ||
03/26/2003 16:36 Comments ||
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#9
whatever happened to those "heroes for peace" who claimed that they were going to disrupt military bases? They were talking pretty big at one point. Anything ever come of it?
actually Patrick, an excellent point! Here in California, land of fruits and nuts (and good wine as well....) Vandenburg AFB, where they launch many missiles and satellites, notified the press that, although they had always had the discretion depending on the potential threat, they would invoke deadly force to any idiots trying to get on base and damage materials...brought out a couple defiant bleats, but self-preservation seems to have overridden that "peace-at-any-cost principles" thang
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/26/2003 17:07 Comments ||
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#10
"They called specific attention to Rachel Corrie, the 23-year-old American roadkill^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H activist..."
I hereby suggest that she always be referred to in future as Rachel "Speedbump" Corrie.
#12
I was always impressed with the idea of a tanker truck with a pressure hose filled with tomato paste with which to apply a liberal coating over those who lay in the street. Let the sun heat that up a bit to a nice crusty scab. Biodegradable as well.
Posted by: Don ||
03/26/2003 17:38 Comments ||
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#13
It was an innocent mistake, Paul, I missed a slash mark on that DEL. When Fred cleans up after me he usually puts in several other insults improvements to the story. :-)
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/26/2003 17:38 Comments ||
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#14
More I think about this story, more I kinda wish I was a construction worker at a site a block or two away, and just happened to be operating a killbulldozer. I think I'd paint "Sweet Rachel" on the nose and drive down the street towards the protesters, to see who had balls who would stand fast to their beliefs.
"A-i-i-i-i-i-i-e-e-e-e-e-e!!!!!!"
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/26/2003 17:42 Comments ||
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#15
Steve - Lol on Fred's cleaning up! Ouch!
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/26/2003 17:54 Comments ||
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#16
Ya know, NYC ain't exactly the best place to pull this kind of stunt.
There are certain 'businessmen' around here who don't take kindly to people impeding traffic, if you get my drift.
#2
Yup, as soon as their english language site came online, it got hit with a DOS attack.
Posted by: Steve ||
03/26/2003 15:02 Comments ||
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#3
Can't see any point in attacking the English website myself. I want to know what they have to say, and not have to imagine what the curly-wurlies the original site's written in mean.
March 26, 2003, 8:25 a.m. An analysis by Walid Phares, National Review Online Al-Jazeera is ruled by politics. Take the recent airing of footage of American soldiers killed by Iraqis and of the interrogation of American POWs. The decision to air the footage was just another example of the network making politics â rather than reporting â its business. The constant replay of the graphic images on Sunday was a flagrant violation of the Geneva Convention. Showing footage of dead soldiers and conducting of prisoner interrogations before the media both clearly undermine international law. The Qatar-based network's goal was clear: It wanted the Americans to be seen as mercenaries.
And the network's politics was all over the coverage. Consider: Al-Jazeera's correspondent in Washington, Wajd Waqfi, challenged the American media to broadcast the footage of dead American soldiers and of prisoners of war. Waqfi alleged that such a broadcast would have a "tremendous impact on the American street." Later on, Hafiz al-Mirazi, the network's director in Washington, said while interviewing U.S. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher: "How can you talk about the Geneva convention when the U.S. showed political prisoners to the media in Afghanistan" â a subtle attempt to defend al Qaeda and the Taliban.
Mohammed al-Said Idriss, who is serving as al-Jazeera's analyst on the war in Iraq, claimed that the "American media is an arm of the American government," adding that its role is to prepare the psychological ground for U.S. government decisions. The media in America, he insisted, is as state-controlled as the media in Iraq. As a result, he explained, neutral media â such as al-Jazeera â are needed to "uncover lies." To rebut these allegations, let's note that in Afghanistan, U.S. forces captured terrorist elements and followed the terms of the Geneva Convention. They haven't filmed al Qaeda and Taliban fighters in close-ups with bullets in their heads. It's one thing for the media to film dead fighters and soldiers in the battlefield, quite another to film and broadcast corpses in the custody of the Iraqi regime. It's one thing to show prisoners before and as they are arrested, quite another to film an interrogation session in which subjects are humiliated. The American forces' handling of irregular militias in Afghanistan exceeded the requirements of the Geneva Convention; the Iraqis' treatment of our troops has flouted it.
Following the sharp criticism of the Iraqis for breaching international law, al-Jazeera asked one of its advisers to provide additional defense arguments. Former Colonel Osama Damj at first acknowledged that prisoners should not be displayed for public curiosity. But, he added, there is an exception: that is, if the display is in the interest of the prisoners. Damj explained that the Iraqi leadership had two objectives in airing this broadcast. One was to prove they did indeed have U.S. soldiers in their custody. The other was to demonstrate that Baghdad respects human rights and that the prisoners are in good health. And then, Damj disclosed the real reason behind his arguments. To back up the so-called humane aspect of the Iraqis' behavior, he cited the example of the mother of one of the soldiers â who, as soon as she had learned her son was in captivity, begged President Bush to do something for her son. Damj eventually admitted that, at the end of the day, the broadcast was really about using the prisoners to score a political victory.
So, is al-Jazeera a media outlet or a political organization? Answer: It's both. It has the sophistication of modern-day, multidimensional satellite TV â which has led many in the Western intellectual establishment to dub it the "Arab CNN." Despite the nickname, however, al-Jazeera is nothing like Western media outlets, which operate independently of government mandate in countries that guarantee freedom of the press.
In sum, it's "Jihad TV." Its doctrinal message is sculpted patiently through panel discussions including the "al-Sharia wal Hayat" (Law and Life), featuring mainly Sheikh Yussef al-Qardawi, a very influential Muslim Brotherhood cleric. The network functions essentially as a high-tech madrassa, broadcasting the ideology of jihad to millions around the world. Every development is thoroughly analyzed from a jihadist angle.One example was the Iraq campaign. Months before the U.S. engagement began, two audiotapes were aired by al-Jazeera in which Osama bin Laden called on Muslims to fight for Baghdad as the "second capital of Islam" â not as the center of Saddam's Baath. al-Jazeera was to use the term repeatedly, slowly building up the illusion that such a jihad would be fought for Iraq, not for Saddam. Interviews with religious fundamentalist leaders multiplied. The pressure eventually led al-Azhar, the Vatican of Sunni Islam, to call for jihad if Baghdad were to be attacked. That call, now "news," in turn was broadcasted by al-Jazeera. Call it an electronic fatwa. By the time allied forces invade Iraq and the region's fundamentalist masses explode, al-Jazeera has not merely reported the fact â it has created it.
â Walid Phares is a professor of Middle East studies and comparative politics at Florida Atlantic University, and author of several books on the Middle East. He is also an analyst for MSNBC.
Posted by: kgb ||
03/26/2003 10:34 am ||
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#1
Where does their money come from? are they part of the nebula of Saudi-financed jihadi activism?
I noticed they ran an ad for Swiss watches (Tissot, spit!).
Posted by: Kalle ||
03/26/2003 11:21 Comments ||
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#2
I believe a lot of their money comes from the Emir of Qatar.
Posted by: Michael ||
03/26/2003 12:45 Comments ||
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#3
Is this expert going to offer any credible evidence to back up these claims? There can be no doubt that Al-Jazeera broadcasts propaganda....all networks due during war time. However, the American news channels far exceed anything done before. They all seemed to proudly and uncritically present Powell's "evidence" to the world, diligently failing to verify any of it. When most of the "evidence" was rebuked, I did not see reporters clammoring over themselves trying to "challenge authority", as we all think they are supposed to.
Where are the question's about America's past relationship with Hussein? How much democracy did they bring to countries like Nicaragua, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, and the numerous other countries that it has "intervened" in.
Your cry for respect for international law is truly hysterical. First off....this is an ILLEGAL invasion. UNSC 1441 did not authorize this attack. The UN Charter is clear on this point. Customary international law is clear on this point.
With respect to the Geneva Convention, all U.S., British, and Candian networks have been showing footage of Iraqi prisoners in restraints, sometimes even face down in the sand. Does this violate article 13? Probably.
"Enemy combatants" held in Guantanamo Bay are being mistreated to such a degree that the U.S. is in violation of no less than 15 articles of the same convention. They were displayed on TV (art. 13), stripped and deprived of their possessions (art. 18), interned in a penitentiary (art. 22), denied proper mess facilities (art. 26), canteens (28), religios premises (34), opportunities for physical exercise (38), access to the text of the convention (41).
Worse yet, they cannot write their families (Arts. 70 and 71), and are denied access to parcels of food and books. (72)
They have not been released and repatriated withoud delay (Art. 118), because they are being interrogated in a manner that contravenes Article 17.
They have no access to counsel, and many have attempted suicide.
The U.S. says the convention does not apply to them because they are not prisoners of war. This claim itself runs contrary to Article 4 of the third convention.
I guess the message from the right is the same as it has always been....International Law does not apply to us, but it applies to everyone else....Our side reports the truth, while everyone else has ulterior motives.
It's easy to criticize others. It takes courage to turn a critical eye towards yourself and your own country. Nevertheless, it is infinitely more important that you hold yourself accountable.
By the way, to all you right-wing human rights advocates, where were all your cries back in the 70s and 80s, when the Washington Post and the New York Times were praising Hussein as a "moderate"? Where were your voices when the government was spending tax-payers' money to supply Iraq with Chemical and Biological weapons, knowing full well what they were used for?
How does it feel to know that our children our being shot at with ammunition that we all paid for?
#4
Uh, Drew: The United States is a sovereign nation. We don't give a damn what the United Nations says. We feel the need to put an end to Saddam Hussein's government in Iraq, to protect our nation and its people. We will stomp that government into the dust, wipe off our shoes, and go about setting up a government that will both be nice to its people and the rest of the world. I'm sure there are a number of people watching very closely as we do this - people who will suddenly decide to "make nice", instead of continuing their irrelevant rant and arrogant, angry screams.
All we want in this world is to live in peace. Those that disturb that peace will be hunted down and destroyed.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
03/26/2003 15:45 Comments ||
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#5
Uh, Old Patriot: Tell me why you believe that we will set up a nice government? We've never done that before. The usual practice is to install a puppet dictator who will prompltly slaughter all those who foolishly think that the resources of their nation belong to them....instead of us and our puppets.
I am shocked that you people actually believe Iraq is a threat to the most powerful empire on earth. They can barely defend their own country, let alone attack ours.
Terrorism you say? Give me a break. The administration has provided no evidence that substantiates this outrageous claim. Even if they do knowingly support terror, they have a long way to go to approach our record....remember the Contras? You remember, those Honduran mercinaries who bravely attacked Nicaraguan "soft targets" - ie, schools, clinics, civilians - rather than take on the Army?
By the way, the constitution of this "soveriegn nation" states that all international treaties are immediately part of the domestic law. That means the government is breaking their own laws right now.
Oh yeah, all we want is to live in peace....with those who obey and give us what we want. But if there really was peace, what would we do with GE, Honeywell, Boeing, Lockheed-Martin, etc., etc., etc.
By the way, the Germans felt the need to put an end to the Polish and Czech governments to protect its people too. They also thought the Russians would welcome them with open-arms, since Stalin was so brutal.
We live in an empire. It's hard to admit this, so most of go about our daily lives internally rebutting the evidence, or convincing ourselves that our country is hated because everyone else "is jealous". What a joke.
Perhaps one day there will be enough courage in this country to ask these questions....and go about building the type of democracy that Thomas Jefferson had intended.
Probably not though. We'll all just continue to live in irrational fear, waiting for the all-powerful Cubans to overrun us.
#6
Drew - thank you for your rant. You've proven beyond a shadow of a doubt what kind of individual you are, and what you believe. Now that I have learned all I ever needed to know about you, you will be placed in my "Ignore" bin, where you belong.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
03/26/2003 16:30 Comments ||
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#7
Ah yes...the mantra of the right....
"Don't bother me with facts or intellectual analysis, my mind is made up! Racism, obedience and hatred are much easier"
#8
Hoo, boy...first, allow me to apologize to the other readers for the following response rant to Drew's slimey schpiel.
Hey, Drew! Why don;t you bring your person and your leftist ideals over to Antioch, CA and confront me with this claptrap? Got the guts, boy? I deal with leftist racist bigots like yourself in a very straightforward way and I dealt with one just like you last night when I told him essentially the same thing I'm telling you.
Point: Resolution 1441 actually did authorize "severe consequences" for any material breach by Iraq.
Point: Iraq was found in "material breach" of UN resolutions.
Point: Iraq has repeatedly and irresponsibly violated the terms of Gulf War I's ceasefire agreement. By that authority alone the US has the right and the responsibility to wage war on Iraq. Iraq's repeated violations of humanitarian rights, its repeated violations of the no-fly zones, its repeated firings on US aircraft enforcing the ceasefire agreement terms, and countless other violations over the past 10 years gives the US and its allies the moral authority to do exactly what we are doing.
Point: The USA does not bow to anyone, particularly the UN. The surrender of US sovereignty to the UN has been the goal of that organization and leftist idiots like yourself for years.
This war is patently not illegal except to uninformed leftist halfwits like yourself who worship on your knees at the feet of the Clintons and whom would gladly perform for BillyJeff just exactly the same service that Monica gave the impeached one.
Where were you when Clinton tossed a few cruise missiles into Sudan at an aspirin factory? Where were you when the massacre in Rwanda was going on? Where were you and your fellow leftists when Clinton rained hell on Serbia?
You sure as hell weren;t marching in the streets or arguing on Rantburg. No, you guys were all for those actions (or lack thereof in Rwanda's case).
If you hate this country half so much as you indicate in your rant, get the f*ck out of it already! We have enough to deal with without Marxist/Leninist/Trotskyite trash whose only wish is to see America fall before world communism and socialism. I'll pay for your G*dda*ned ticket so long as you promise not to come back!
#9
Serious Consequences DO NOT equal an authorization for military force. In fact, 1441 contemplated that the UNSC would meet again to discuss whether or not the "material breaches" constituted a threat to international peace and security. Determination of such a threat is a NECESSARY prerequisite to a legal war.
By the way, it was not a cease-fire agreement. All the council authorized in the original Gulf War was the use of all necessary means to get Iraq out of Kuwait. Once that mandate was fulfilled, the use of force was no longer legal.
Iraq is in violation of UN resolutions. But the U.S. is in violation of the same resolutions. They call on member states to share all intelligence with the inspectors....that was not done. The seminal resolution (UNSC 687)contemplated Iraqi disarmament in accordance with regional disarmament, and I don't see other countries in the region stepping up to comply.
By the way, Iraq would have to continue to violate UNSC resolutions consistently for about 20 more years to even approach Israel's record. And if you take away the U.S. veto, we're up there too.
Sovereignty is not the issue. All states are supposed to be members of the international community, and bound by its rules.
I am not a Clinton supporter. Clinton was not left-wing at all on issues that matter. The only difference between Bush and Gore were social issues -- religion, abortion, etc. When it comes to economics and foreign policy, both parties are practically identical.
I don't think anyone on the left was in favour of inaction in Rwanda....though you'll recall it was Albright who prevented the U.S. from acting, just as Reagan and his cronies did with Lebanon.
With regard to your "get out of America" comment....is that the best you got? Don't like dissenting views? Then you better leave buddy. These are hallmarks of free speech.
There is nothing in my "rant" that signifies hatred for this country. You just interpret it that way because you're too afraid to seriously read history.
By the way, I'm not in your country anyway. I'm Canadian.
#10
By the way, to all you right-wing human rights advocates, where were all your cries back in the 70s and 80s, when the Washington Post and the New York Times were praising Hussein as a "moderate"? Where were your voices when the government was spending tax-payers' money to supply Iraq with Chemical and Biological weapons, knowing full well what they were used for?
Compared to the Ayatollah Khomenhi he was moderate.
He was taking out the Iranians who seiged our embassy and kidnapped our people.
I have no qualms about it.
I do have a question though: How can you and all these Arabs/Muslims condemn us taking Saddam out, when he's killed millions of Arabs and Muslims without our help?
How does it feel to know that our children our being shot at with ammunition that we all paid for?
Unless you're French, Russian, German, or Chinese he's not using "our" ammunition. We stopped arming him a long time ago.
And if you're French, Russian, German or Chinese, your children aren't in danger are they?
Racism, obedience and hatred are much easier"
I certainly seems that it's easier for ignorant Bolshicrats, terrorists, and equivocators who choose to ignore the terms of the 1991 cease fire.
It's pointless to try to present actual facts to someone so brainwashed by PC, "il"literati, Socialist crap.
Like Drew, for one.
Actually the U.S. continued to supply military aid to Iraq until almost one month prior to the Kuwait invasion....Check the Wall St. Journal and Wash. Post of the period.
What do you mean "moderate"...he was using gas on Kurds and in the Iran-Iraq war. Some of this gas was manufactured in NY State. By the way, relativity is not a logical rebuttal anyway. Is it ok to say "I support Mussolini, but that's ok because Hitler was worse" - no.
By the way, I think the Arabs and Kurds have every right to be angry, especially after the U.S. returned weapons to the Republican Guard, but refused weapons to rebelling Generals and Shi'ites after Gilf War I. Hussein then promptly carried out the slaughter while the U.S. watched on.
Explanation? Powell said that it was an internal manner. Thomas Freidman said that an "iron-fisted Iraqi junta" was preferable to a popular uprising, since it was more "stable" and and friendly to western commercial interests.
Once again....Not a cease fire, the mandate was fulfilled. They were UNSC Resolutions, let's call them what they are.
Brainwashed? That's a good one. Let's just remember it was you people who started the name-calling, and you people who are using the personal attacks.
#15
Oh and Drew, don't get the idea that all Canadians think like you do. I live in Toronto. You have a twisted view of the facts. And let me guess, you voted for Chretien 3 times in a row. Idiot.
DREW[no doubt that Al-Jazeera broadcasts propaganda....all networks due during war time.]
First off, its "do", not "due". And no, nota all do that. Look at the variety of news flowing from CNN, MSNBC, Fox, etc. Oh thats right, you listen to the Beeb - BBC, whose OWN REPORTERS are complaining of the bias.
DREW[diligently failing to verify any of it]
Prove it. You cannot - therefore you are LYING when you assert that as a fact. There are a lot of people verifying these things. How about the multiple launching of missles that exceed UN limitations on range? Thats enough proof even for room temperature IQ types like you.
DREW[Where are the question's about America's past relationship with Hussein?]
These are well adressed - simply look around son. It started with Jimmy Carter encouraging Iraq to distract Iran so he could try his ill advised rescue attempt. The relationsship over the past 12 years is what matters, and that most certainly is not coddling. So there another one of your points demolished.
DREW[How much democracy did they bring to countries like Nicaragua, Haiti, the Dominican Republic]
Actually all those countries are doing quite well now compared to their prior existence. So yet another one of your points drops to the buzzsaw of truth.
DREW[this is an ILLEGAL invasion. UNSC 1441 did not authorize this attack]
1441 didn't need to. But 660, 678 and 687 do. Ah you forgot about those resolutions. Remember - this, legally speaking, is a continuance of the 1991 war, whose ceasefire resolutions Iraq has violated. So smack goea another one of your biased and wrong points.
DREW[With respect to the Geneva Convention, all U.S., British, and Candian networks have been showing footage of Iraqi prisoners in restraints, sometimes even face down in the sand. Does this violate article 13? Probably.]
No - they were not exploited, nor personally identified, nor were they questioned and paraded solely for the benefit of the camera and propaganda. They were being marched to the rear and were simply filmed in passing. So say goodbye to another half-truth and innuendo from you.
And I notice you did NOT mention the summary execution of surrendered US troops, which was a flagrant violation. Go look - bullet holes and powder burns on their foreheads, shot at point blank range. Wheres you apologist half truth to try to slide that event aside? Hmm?
DREW["Enemy combatants" held in Guantanamo Bay are being mistreated to such a degree that the U.S. is in violation of no less than 15 articles of the same convention. ]
Stupid Stupid Stupid Drew. They are not "Enemy Combatants", they are very specifically "ILLEGAL Combatants", and as such have no rights under the laws of war, nor the Hague and Geneva conventions.
So another attempt at a lie-by-half-truth exposed on your part. Drew you are LYING to start with, and then building onthe lie in hopes nobody will discover that your case is built on a lie. Too bad for you that peopel here spot leftist liars like you at long range.
DREW[claim itself runs contrary to Article 4]
Wrong - and wrong interpretation of it too.
FYI here is article 4 that you cite:
...fulfil the following conditions:
(a) That of being commanded by a person responsible for his subordinates;
(b) That of having a fixed distinctive sign recognizable at a distance;
(c) That of carrying arms openly;
(d) That of conducting their operations in accordance with the laws and customs of war.
The illegal combatants held at GTMO fail on b, c, and d. And they very likely fail on (a) as well since members of terrorist cells do not take responsibility for their subordinates - indeed they deny it to maintain their organizational compartmentalization. The above is very obvious to anyone that is not as self deluded as you seem to be.
DREW[I guess the message from the right is the same as it has always been....International Law does not apply to us, but it applies to everyone else....Our side reports the truth, while everyone else has ulterior motives.]
Actually you just showed a very good example of the famous (on the internet) "Recurve" technique used frequently by Scientologists and other intellectually dishonest people - take what you are doing, turn it around and direct it at the people who oppose you.
YOU are the one telling half truths as I showed above,
YOU are the one distorting things as I showed above,
YOU are the one thats making the errors of assuming you are correct and everyone else is wrong due to political orientation (as you show yourself on your web page and by your posts).
DREW[It's easy to criticize others. It takes courage to turn a critical eye towards yourself and your own country.]
Advice YOU would do well to take, in light of all the errors, omissions logical flaws and lies I've exposed in your writing. This time take in ALL the facts - stop leaving out those that contradict you.
DREW[Where were your voices when the government was spending tax-payers' money to supply Iraq with Chemical and Biological weapons, knowing full well what they were used for?]
A patent LIE - show evidence or retract it. Drew, this old saw has been completely discredited. If you'd bother to search and learn, you'd know better. Look to the French and Germans for the gear used to build those chemical weapons. As they say in criminal investigations of the Mafia - Follow The Money. You'll see it does nto lead back to the US, but to Germany, France and Russia. What A Surprise, eh?
OK - here is some advice for you:
Drew, when will you learn that people here look for the WHOLE truth and your clever little half truth and disenngenous distortions methods will get you busted every time?
If yours is an example of the shallow intellect that passes for intelligence up there in the great White North, I suggest you retreat back to the Labatts and Hockey, and leave the real thinking to those who have the rational capacity to do so, just the way the cowardly politicians of Canada leave the defense of the hemisphere and freedom to the USA.
#18
Hey Drew.So far I havn't seen any American putting a bullet in an Iraqi solders forehead,then paraded in front of TV cameras.Don't know how someone could side with such a demonic regime.May someone put one in your head soon.
Edited for length It always amazes me how small and incestuous it is at the top of the Anti-American/Marxist movement. I predict it will ultimately become their Achilles Heel
If you didnât know any better, youâd think the leaders of the womenâs anti-war group Code Pink got lost on their way to the carpool line. Theyâve played the part so convincingly that over the last six months, theyâve become the media darlings of war protest movement. But the untold story is what they were doing before October. They've toned their Marxist rhetoric down for their stint with Code Pink. Though theyâve taken great pains to differentiate themselves from the other, more radical anti-war protesters, they are one and the same. The leaders of Code Pink didnât merely take part in the Washington and San Francisco protests that made international headlines â they also organized them. In the process, theyâve provided a rare public glimpse of the faces behind the modern, highly organized American Marxist movement. Needless to say, these women have little in common with the carpool moms of America.
At the center of Code Pink is legendary leftist organizer Medea Benjamin, the 50-year-old mother of two widely credited as a chief organizing force behind the 1999 Seattle riots in which 50,000 protesters did millions of dollars worth of property damage in their effort to shut down meetings of the World Trade Organization. In addition to Code Pink, Benjaminâs San Francisco-based human rights organization Global Exchange was the founding force for United for Peace and Justice coalition, the nexus of the anti-war protests.
The United for Peace coalition, which includes Socialist Action and the Socialist Party USA, is also led by Leslie Cagan, who has a long history of activism with the American Communist Party. If you want to know what anti-war activities United for Peace and its more radical partner, Act Now To Stop War & End Racism (ANSWER) have planned for the near future or contact information for how you can join in, you can click on the Communist World Workers Party website, one of the central grassroots clearing houses for communist organizers in the United States and around the world.
The mindset of Benjamin and her friends can best be summed up by her description in the San Francisco Chronicle of how she felt on her first pilgrimage to Cuba in the early 1980s. Compared to life in the United States, the communist social equality of Cuba "made it seem like I died and went to heaven," Benjamin enthused. Now it appears that Benjamin is trying to recreate it here.
The ties that continue to bind Benjamin, Cagan and the others behind Code Pink and todayâs anti-war movement were formed in the early-to-mid 1980s when the still young Marxist-American activists found the cause that first unified them: a communist government in Nicaragua. Using the same sort of incestuous, sprawling coalitions they created to oppose the war in Iraq and the invasion of Afghanistan after Sept. 11, they helped aid the Marxist Sandinista regime in its struggle against the American-backed Contras for control of the Nicaraguan government. Benjamin worked as a project coordinator for Institute for Food and Development Policy (IFDP), which was widely credited with aiding the Marxist Sandinista regime while Cagan, coordinator of the National Mobilization for Justice and Peace in Central America, led marches against US aid to the contras at home that at times attracted upwards of 75,000 people. Hmm, clever tactic, using US food and development money to support Marxist/Terrorist goals...makes one wonder what we might soon find out about all that missing UN money.
When Sand Brim, the widely interviewed voice of Code Pink, insisted to the reporters who interviewed her in January that she was not an activist, just a businesswoman with reservations about war, her 1985 stint in Nicaragua must have slipped her mind. As the executive director of Medical Aid, Brim flew an American neurosurgeon to San Salvador to operate on Marxist Revolutionary Party Commander Nidia Diazâs hand, which had been injured in combat. That Diazâs group had claimed responsibility for the murders of four U.S. Marines and nine civilians two months before was apparently not an issue for Brim. Nor were such ironies a problem for Kirsten Moller, the current executive director of Global Exchange and Code Pink organizer who, like Benjamin, also worked for IFDP in the 80s.
In the 1990s, Benjamin and other Code Pink Marxists focused their energies on organizing sometimes-violent protests against free trade across the globe, targeting large corporations with high-profile campaigns and lawsuits that cost consumers and companies like Gap, Nike and Starbucks millions of dollars. As with the anti-war protests of the moment, the Marxist World Workerâs Party website has played a crucial organizing role in their anti-corporate activities, letting would-be agitators know when and where to show up for demonstrations. Meanwhile, other Code Pink organizers were making a name for themselves in domestic and eco-terrorism in the 1990s. Code Pink Co-Founder Jodie Evans also sits on the board of directors of Rain Forest Action Network (RAN), a radical anti-capitalist, anti-corporate coalition of environmental groups co-founded by Mike Roselle, who also founded the domestic terrorist organization Earth Liberation Front (ELF), which along with the Animal Liberation Front (ALF) is ranked the No. 1 domestic terrorism threat by the FBI. The FBI attributes over 600 criminal acts and $43 million in damages to the two groups since 1996. Wherever RAN pops up, youâll also tend to find the Ruckus Society, which has trained activists for ELF/ALF. Just like they did the other day for their March in LA against corporate evil in Columbia.
Ruckus Society organizer Steve Kretzmann, also a Code Pink coordinator, has helped train activists in the agitation tactics that have earned the Ruckus Society its reputation. The Ruckus Society, itâs also worth mentioning, is a coalition member of Benjaminâs United for Peace and Justice.
Code Pink may be communism central for the moment, but if the past is any indication, the group will be left to die on the vine as soon as public attention shifts away from the war in Iraq. Like the other wedge issues these activists are so skilled at creating and taking advantage of, the Iraqi conflict is little more than an opportunity to ingratiate themselves with the American public and swell their volunteer rosters while energizing and solidifying the organization theyâd been building since the Seattle riots. While it may seem chaotic with its mass of groups with varied interests, "the movement" as the organizers like to call it, is built around a simple theme: that America and the rest of the world is increasingly controlled by corporate powers that threaten democratic rights.
Its goals, as laid out by Benjamin and others in a variety of newspapers over the years, are clear-cut. They want to redistribute wealth from the top tiers of society to the poorest Americans by raising minimum wages, choking off trade, pushing up inflation, limiting corporate growth and dragging down the stock market, cutting into the profits of the countryâs largest corporations or shutting them down completely and prompting white collar layoffs. As Benjamin explained to The Sunday Oregonian in 2000, these changes would be made slowly, perhaps over 20 years or more. Though she admits that the above would cause an economic shakedown or even a stock-market crash, she insists the changes would lead to a "healthier, more stable economy." A revolution, where I am in charge, will lead to utopia.
"Seattle was this kind of battle cry," Benjamin told the San Jose Mercury News in 2000. "We now know we can mobilize hundreds of thousands of people." But to the dismay of the movementâs organizers, September 11 crushed some of that momentum. Ironically enough, September 11 was the day theyâd planned to announce their biggest demonstration yet, which was slated to draw well over 100,000 protesters to Washington from around the world in late September. It was instead replaced with a small peace demonstration. The Code Pink ladies have been biding their time ever since, reaching out to middle America, building their contact lists and dreaming of the Marxist America that might one day be. Too bad these super organizers didn't get real jobs. With their skills, they'd be super rich by now and enjoying the power and wealth they always dreamed would be theirs after The Revolution(TM). Instead, they've toiled endlessly year after year to create The Ruin(TM) from which they can rebuild the Utopia that will revere them.
Posted by: becky ||
03/26/2003 10:27 am ||
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#2
The mindset of Benjamin and her friends can best be summed up by her description in the San Francisco Chronicle of how she felt on her first pilgrimage to Cuba in the early 1980s. Compared to life in the United States, the communist social equality of Cuba "made it seem like I died and went to heaven," Benjamin enthused.
So why didn't you stay there, bitch?
They always wax eloquently about the socialist utopias, but they always come back here. Hypocrite assholes.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/26/2003 11:26 Comments ||
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#6
Here's a nice little summary
Media Benjamin
Code Pink, Organzier
chief organizing force 1999 Seattle riots
Global Exchange, leader
* San Francisco-based HR organization
* founding force for United for Peace and Justice coalition
Institute for Food and Development Policy (IFDP),
*widely credited with aiding the Marxist Sandinista regime
Leslie Cagan
Organizer, Code Pink
United for Peace coalition, leader
* Activities are listed on Communist World Workers Party website
** Coalition also includes
** Socialist Action and the Socialist Party USA
** Kretzmannâs Ruckus Society
American Communist Party, activist history
National Mobilization for Justice and Peace in Central America, coordinator
* led marches of 75,000 people against US aid to the contras
Sand Brim
widely interviewed voice of Code Pink
Medical Aid, Executive director of
* Brim flew an American neurosurgeon to San Salvador to operate on Marxist Revolutionary Party Commander Nidia Diazâs hand
Kristen Moller
Organizer, Code Pink
current executive director of Global Exchange
Food and Development Policy (IFDP), worked with Benjamin in 80âs
Jodie Evans
Organizer, Code Pink
Rain Forest Action Network (RAN), sits on board of directors
* Co-founded by Mike Roselle
* a radical anti-capitalist, anti-corporate coalition of environmental groups
Mike Roselle
Rain Forest Action Network (RAN), co-founder
* Earth Liberation Front (ELF), founded
* Animal Liberation Front (ALF),
Movements always coordinates with Ruckus Society
Steve Kretzmann
Code Pink coordinator,
Ruckus Society organizer,
* (train activists in the agitation tactics that have earned the Ruckus Society its reputation.,
coalition member of Benjaminâs United for Peace and Justice
Posted by: be ||
03/26/2003 13:24 Comments ||
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#7
be---Thanks for the summary. I hope that the FBI has these clowns tapped and under surveillance, and off the street soon, if they really have their act together.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
03/26/2003 14:18 Comments ||
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#9
I surprise myself by being surprised at the absolute idiocy of the left-wingers.
How many more hundreds of millions have to die under the boot of "Socialism" before these retards get it?
#10
hmm... Medea Benjamin... now where have i heard that name before... something about the Green Party candidate for some office in California a few elections back...
incredibly lame campaign ads. must be why i hadn't heard from her until today...
They just don't train hippies like they used to...
Thousands of Australian anti-war protesters, many of them students, have pelted police with bottles and chairs. The campaigners in Sydney then hurled more bottles outside the office of Prime Minister John Howard. The protest was the most violent yet against Australia's involvement in coalition attacks on Iraq. Police in riot gear arrested at least 45 people, and one officer was slightly injured when an object thrown by the protesters hit him on the head. The violence broke out after two separate groups of protesters merged outside Sydney's Town Hall and then streamed to the city's Hyde Park, where they chanted anti-war slogans and taunted police. The protesters later headed to Howard's Sydney office, where they again began hurling bottles at police. At least one protester, who suffered a gashed face, was injured. Some of the protesters said they were appalled that violence had broken out during the demonstration. "We should have a voice," said 15-year-old Laura Cunningham. "They are not going to respect what we say if they look at this and think we're all like this." If you didn't agree with what they were doing, why on earth didn't you throw bottles at them, lass? They ain't gonna listen otherwise...
Earlier, hundreds of protesters burned American flags, set off firecrackers and chanted "No war!" in a noisy demonstration close to the US Consulate.
Posted by: Bulldog ||
03/26/2003 08:34 am ||
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The sad fact for the well-mannered and well-meaning protesters is that their public protests tend to draw anarchists, commies, and other social misfits like flies. The only recourse is private protesting like letter-writing, etc. that doesn't give them a sense of community. It's a shame.
On the other hand, pelting police with anything deserves a jail term. Tolerating it is a big mistake.
Posted by: Tom ||
03/26/2003 9:31 Comments ||
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#2
As domestic terrorist organizer Mike Roselle stated the other day (rantburg post), the purpose of these riots (at least in US) are to constantly chip away at local, state and federal money meant for Homeland Security and the war effort.
His delusion is that enough people will rise up to riot, thus the National Guard would be required, thus hampering the war effort.
Read about Code Pink under 5th Column today...it gives you an idea of just how organized and subversive the Marxist movement really is.
Former Gujarat home minister Haren Pandy was shot dead on Wednesday by an unidentified gunman as he was returning from a morning walk in the Law Garden, about two km from his residence in Ahmedabad. 43-year-old Pandya was hit by five bullets fired from close range in his chest, neck and lower abdomen and was rushed to V.S. Hospital where doctors unsuccessfully struggled to save him. Doctors who attended to Pandya said he was already clinically dead when he was brought to the hospital at 11:00 a.m. local time. Official sources said the gunman on a motorcycle opened fire on Pandya when he sat in his car and was about to drive back home at around 10:30 a.m. after finishing his morning walk. The tactics suggest Islamist hard boyz, but at this point the murderers could be anyone...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
03/26/2003 11:18 am ||
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India's JAIN Television Chairman Dr J.K. Jain and Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind General-Secretary Maulana Mehmood Madani are sending a medical relief mission to Iraq and have invited applications from those interested in volunteering. According to an IRNA reporter, Jain, in a joint announcement with Maulana Mehmood Madani Tuesday evening, said: "Today, while American and British armed forces are blatantly asserting their right to kill and destroy in Iraq, we wish to assert our right to provide medical relief to the innocent victims of violence." "We'll just keep the killing and destruction in India, until this is all over, and then open some nice madrassahs..."
"If the American and British Air Force can blatantly invade Iraqi airspace and territory to drop bombs of destruction, the humanitarian and peace forces have the right to land their airplanes loaded with relief workers and medicine to serve the helpless innocents," the announcement said. "We hope the American, British and Iraqi governments will take responsibility and not hurt the relief workers or sabotage humanitarian options while choosing their targets for destruction. We urge all three governments to lend support to our contention and our rights stated," it added. Hokay by me. Try and stay out of the way, okay? And leave the turbans and automatic weapons at home.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
03/26/2003 11:05 am ||
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#1
An Islamic organization bleating the "BAAAAAAAAHS" of peace.
How sickening.
"We hope the American, British and Iraqi governments will take responsibility and not hurt the relief workers or sabotage humanitarian options while choosing their targets for destruction. We urge all three governments to lend support to our contention and our rights stated," it added.
"We hope you don't mind while we slip in the back with a Red Crescent truck full of automatic weapons, C4, Qu'rans, and jihadi moral retards."
Up to 1,000 Iraqi troops have been killed in the battle for the Iraqi town of Najaf, according to US officials. American forces say they have encountered "tenacious" resistance from the Iraqi Army and Saddam Hussein's loyalist militia around the town, which is 50 miles south of Baghdad. The fighting is said to have developed into the biggest battle of the war so far. US intelligence officer Major John Altman told Sky News correspondent Colin Brazier that Iraqi troops and militia were dressing up in civilian clothing, and were firing from tanks and artillery hidden in mosques and schools in the town. "It's frustrating for us because we have to determine who the friend and who the foe are," he told Brazier, who is with American forces near Najaf. "When we moved up to our positions outside the town we encountered some resistance form regular Iraqi Army forces, and as we tried to gain access to bridges and roads we came into contact with some of Saddam's irregular forces - his militia. These are hardline people that support the regime and although they vary in skill and the weapons they have, they tend to be a bit more tenacious." An unspecified number of US tanks and Bradley fighting vehicles were destroyed by Iraqis armed with rocket propelled grenades and automatic rifles. The fate of the tank drivers is not known. The clash took place at Abu Sukhayr, 13 miles southeast of Najaf.
Other US reports say Iraqis have executed 40 civilians acused of collaboration in Najaf. "This could be a way of making sure there are no uprisings," said Major Altman.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
03/26/2003 08:38 pm ||
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RPG's destroyed M-1's?
Damaged........maybe.
Destroyed? I think not.
Posted by: Eric ||
03/26/2003 21:04 Comments ||
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Tank officer probably used the term "Mobility Kill" and they took that to mean "Destroyed".
A Royal Marine Commando who was shot in the head four times has lived to tell the tale of his lucky escape. Eric Walderman's life was saved by his tough Kevlar helmet after he was caught in enemy gun sights during a savage firefight in Umm Qasr. The four bullets ripped through the outer camouflage of the 25-year-olds' standard-issue helmet but were stopped by the ultra-tough protective Kevlar shell. Just an inch lower and the father-of-one could have joined the list of British casualties. Marine Walderman is part of 40 Commando's Alpha Company.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
03/26/2003 07:51 pm ||
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Never knew a Marine, US or UK, that wasnt hard headed :-)
NASIRIYA, Iraq (CNN) -- U.S. Marines searching Iraqi military headquarters in this southern city that was the site of intensive fighting came across a mural depicting a plane crashing into a building complex resembling New York's twin towers, a news agency photograph showed Wednesday.
The plane's logo and coloring resembled that of Iraqi Airlines, said Getty Images News Service executive Brian Felber, based in New York.
#1
Jim Hoagland from the Washington Post stated on Charlie Rose that he had seen CIA doucuments that presented a circumstantial case that Saddam was behind 9/11. Charlie asked what Jim believed. Jim stated that he believed Saddam was involved.
#2
Kind of inspiring, isn't it? Makes me want to go paint a mural of Saddam asphyxiating in his bunker, Baghdad in flames, and burnt out Republican Guard tanks littering the desert...
Posted by: Dar Steckelberg ||
03/26/2003 20:39 Comments ||
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Sammy gave the Qaeda thugs the Salman Pak facility in which to train, I'm convinced of that. Regardless, I hear ya Dar, as our troops come across this garbage and more - they are going to be most inspired.
Posted by: Rex Mundi ||
03/26/2003 23:46 Comments ||
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I think there is ample evidence to link Saddam to both WTC attacks (1993 & 2001). However, the real treasure trove is the Baathist Party Archives, which are suppose to list every transaction - no wonder France, Germany & Russia are concerned.
Two suspected al-Qaida hard boyssnuffies militants were killed in a shootout as U.S.-led forces intensified bombing on parts of northern Iraq controlled by an Islamic terrorist group. Khaled al-Shami and Abdul al-Basir, killed in a firefight this week with Kurdish forces near the city of Halabja, were members of an Afghan-based al-Qaida cell, according to Khosrow Gul Mohammad, chief of security for the Kurdish government here. Khosrow described al-Shami and al-Basir as Jordanians of Palestinian origin who trained in Afghanistan with Osama bin Laden's group and belonged to a cell called Jund al-Islam. "After Afghanistan was attacked by the U.S.A., they decided to escape to a safe place," Khosrow said at a regularly scheduled briefing. "They chose to come to Kurdistan." Sometimes life's just an unmitigated bitch, ain't it?
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
03/26/2003 05:30 pm ||
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"What I just heard from a highly placed source here is that they've discovered, they've captured chemical warheads, they're Russian, they have Russian writing all over them and they are chemical warheads."
Posted by: B. ||
03/26/2003 04:57 pm ||
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Can you validate this? I can find no news outlets reporting this.
#2
Isn't this Pat Robertson's network? That leaves me skeptical.
Posted by: Yosemite Sam ||
03/26/2003 17:11 Comments ||
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Waiting for another source... a little more trustworthy.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/26/2003 17:18 Comments ||
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I was listening to "All Things Considered" on NPR earlier. FM Ivanov said something like "US claims of WMD will no longer be taken at face value. These claims must be verified by weapons inspectors." I'll bet the Russkies got wind of this hours ago, and issued that statement before we could make it public.
Posted by: Pete Stanley ||
03/26/2003 17:25 Comments ||
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No, this is the only source I've seen but it's very fresh so other sources may be forthcoming. This sounds very much like it's from CBN's embed so it makes sense that they'd have it first. We'll see.
Posted by: B. ||
03/26/2003 17:25 Comments ||
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I don't think it serves a good Intel purpose to release this info early... Embed may have talked it up out of turn. My read is Rummy,Inc. would rather have detailed, secured information that can be strategically rolled out, rather than quick finds on the battlefield, reported by lose lipped media. I agree we need to find some bad stuff, but I think the anticipation that it will be announced before the dust settles is misplaced. If we announce it, Saddam (or his now starting to smell a little bad remains) is moved to an end game, and he still is hoping the ghost of Nebacannerzer will rise up over the mountains yelling "EYEYEYEYEYEYEYEYEY!!!!" and come down to save Saddams sorry butt. Our War plan is much more boring and, well pragmatic.
#8
I heard reports that the Christian Science Monitor's reporter was given the boot from the frontline. Is Pat Robertson's network affiliated with the CSM? If so he may have gotten the boot for release of information without checking (ie it was vital info)
The II Marine Expeditionary Force is now believed to be located in Jordan. This analysis is based on news reports coming out of North Carolina indicating that some 11,000 Marines in addition to the 2nd MEB have departed Camp Lejeune. This is from the deployments page of www.globalsecurity.org -- they're normally a rather sober outfit, not given to wild theorizing. Anyone able to confirm this?
Posted by: Patrick Phillips ||
03/26/2003 04:47 pm ||
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This may tie in with that Asia Times article that was reported in these spaces the other day. IIRC, that article said there were 8,000 US combat troops in Jordan; Global Security has a number of 11,000. As I also think Global Security is a pretty accurate site, this corrorboration to the earlier report means something VERY interesting is going on in Jordan. I also wonder how II MEF could have snuck in there; Jordan can clamp down pretty tight at need, but it's hardly what you'd call a totalitarian state.
Posted by: Joe ||
03/26/2003 18:32 Comments ||
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Pretty easy - Israel and Jordan allow overflights to the western desert. Its pretty isolated there. Med Fleet float just hops on their birds and pops over. Now, if they have their armor with them, thats a different story. If this is true, and there is armor, its going to be intereresting after the war to see how they pulled this one off.
#5
It is my understanding that 2nd MEB's equipment was suppose to go through Turkey. I think they were transport ships in the Eastern Med and have transited the Suez.
About 1,000 U.S. troops have parachuted into northern Iraq and seized an airfield in Kurdish-controlled territory, CNN reported on Wednesday. The network said the troops were from the 173rd airborne brigade and seized the airfield to clear the way for armored tanks and Bradley fighting vehicles.
FOLLOWUP: from Washington Post...
A thousand paratroopers from the Army's 173rd Airborne Brigade jumped into Kurdish-controlled northern Iraq today at a strategic airfield to open a northern front for U.S. forces. The operation is also aimed at discouraging Turkish troops on the border from crossing into Iraq in large numbers, a move that could precipitate fighting with Kurdish forces. "Americans are asking you to make the world a better place by jumping into the unknown for the benefit of others," Col. William Mayville, the brigade commander, told the paratroops before they boarded Air Force C-17 jets. "Paratroopers, our cause is just and victory is certain," Mayville added. "I want you to join me tonight on an airborne assault."
The force dropped into northern Iraq includes rifle companies, platoons armed with mortars and antitank missiles, engineers for clearing mines, sniper teams, long-range surveillance teams, Air Force ground teams and Humvees equipped with missiles and .50-caliber machine guns. Heavy weaponry, equipment and more troops to support and expand the brigade's position will arrive in coming days, officers said. The complex operation, one of the largest U.S. airborne combat operations since World War II, takes the airborne brigade into an area controlled by the Kurdistan Democratic Party, one of two Kurdish groups governing an autonomous area that had been protected by U.S. and British fighter patrols. It places the U.S. forces at a location where commanders say they can influence the actions of all Iraqi, Turkish and Kurdish forces, including the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, the group governing the other part of the zone. The brigade is also positioned for involvement in the key cities of Irbil and Kirkuk, commanders said. Backed by heavy air cover, the airborne brigade is also prepared to fight Iraqi forces it encounters and could be launched to seize key strategic objectives outside Kurdish-controlled territory, officers said. I hope they've got the air cover really tightly integrated. Our airborne troops are very tough, and very well-trained, but they're of necessity a light infantry force. Sure would have been nice to mate them with 4ID...
Posted by: Yosemite Sam ||
03/26/2003 08:11 pm ||
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Sky Soldiers! To me (trying to airmchair G-2 the war from open sources and fragments like this), this was to force the RG division in the north to pay attention and not be able to flow south to the battle of Baghdad. Also stabilizes the Kurds by providing them with a "heavier" force thats going to follow-on into that airfield.
#2
CNN says that elements of the 1st ID are expected soon - with Bradleys and tanks!!!! Doesnt it take a very large transport (C5A?) to transport a main battle tank like an Abrams? Is the airstrip that big?
#3
Liberalhawk, a C-17 Globemaster can transport three M2 Bradleys or a single M1 tank. They're also built to land on cruddy strips. The linked page will show you more details. I've heard that we plan on deploying a battalion from the First Infantry Division. Time will provide further details.
Posted by: Patrick Phillips ||
03/26/2003 21:08 Comments ||
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March 26, 2003 -- PERHAPS the craziest notion bouncing around the media is that Saddam Hussein is a brilliant military strategist. He may be a champion dictator, good at slaughtering, torturing, raping and starving his own people. But his military schemes are masterpieces of incompetence.
Right now, the hand-wringers are warning that Saddam, in a stroke of genius, has deployed his Republican Guards in towns and villages, threatening us with deadly urban combat and inevitable destruction.
What Saddam actually has done is to break his last, best armored divisions into little pieces. He'll never be able to put them back together. And we'll destroy them, piece by piece.
Saddam's remaining "elite" troops are indeed hiding behind civilians and breaking the laws of war by placing tanks, artillery and other military systems next to mosques, hospitals and schools. Yes, they're using their own people as human shields. But the pundits - and Saddam - have utterly misread the consequences.
Certainly, this dispersal of his remaining divisions makes targeting them harder - because we don't intentionally kill innocent civilians. So the destruction of Saddam's last armored forces may go a bit more slowly. But that's only an annoyance. In the greater scheme of things, Saddam has done us a favor.
By breaking up his most-loyal brigades and divisions of his own free will, Saddam has thrown away his last chance to use them as a coherent military force. They're not only out of his control now, they're out of the control of their battalion and brigade commanders.
The purpose of an armored division is to strike swiftly, with massive, converging firepower, against your enemy. Tanks are not effective in ones and twos. A division's real advantage is the synergy it achieves by combining all of its combat systems - tanks, infantry, artillery - into one powerful package.
Just as he has trapped himself in Baghdad, like Hitler in Berlin, Saddam has trapped the best of his military in scattered villages, towns and suburbs. The moment they try to move out of their hiding places to gather and attack us, they will be destroyed.
They're not even that well hidden. When the sandstorms clear and we pick up the pace again, we'll strike them at our leisure. As for the cowards hiding next to hospitals and mosques, we'll spare them for now - but they might as well be chained to those buildings. They can't move, or they'll be destroyed.
That's not going to do Saddam or his grandiose plans much good.
I do agree with the straight-shooter generals we've heard briefing from the Gulf: Tough days still lie ahead. Some of that Iraqi armor will come out to fight in little groups. Our troops on the ground may get into some challenging armored gunfights. But we're better-trained, better-equipped, better-motivated, and we're led by real soldiers, not by dictators cross-dressing as field marshals.
Deadly dangers remain, and I do not ever want to suggest that the last stretch of the road to Baghdad will be an easy ride. Some Iraqi tanks have been dug in and carefully camouflaged. Some may even get off the first shot. But they won't get off a second one. A tank in a stationary position is nothing but a pillbox leaking oil - and a perfect target. No Iraqis who kill or injure Americans are going to survive.
And more indicators have popped up that Saddam has ordered the use of chemical weapons on the battlefield. If his subordinates are foolish enough to obey his orders to employ these inhumane weapons, they may, indeed, harm unknown numbers of our men and women in uniform. But our response will be fierce, and uncompromising, and irresistible.
If chemical weapons are used, the results could be ugly. And the broadcast media will go into a panic. But the readers of this newspaper (and you studs down on Wall Street) need to remain steady, in that great New York "I seen 'em tougher than you, buddy" spirit.
Since 9/11, America's been in the payback business. And there's nobody better at business than Americans. Any chemical attacks will be avenged.
Dictators always mistake freedom for weakness. We will not be deterred by anything Saddam and his dying regime throw at us. We will simply show the world that there is no courage more enduring or powerful than the courage born of liberty.
THIS column has consistently tried to apply common sense, honesty, and military experience to explaining the events of this war. But, just as I believe we can all be confident of the war's outcome, we also need to be willing to look hard at our mistakes. And some mistakes have been made.
The men and women of our armed forces are performing valiantly under difficult, exhausting conditions. They continue to face serious dangers, from chemical weapons to the bloody intensity of tactical combat. But there is one other risk that concerns me - and it was a needless risk to take.
Despite the warnings - even the pleading - of his generals, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld refused to send as many heavy ground forces to the Gulf as our military planners requested. In many ways an admirable and inspiring leader, Rumsfeld let himself be persuaded by a gang of civilian theorists and by mercenary defense contractors that airpower could win this war and that ground forces would just go in to tidy things up.
So the generals did not get the extra armored divisions they wanted to provide maximum punch on the battlefield and as insurance should unexpected difficulties emerge. Now we have no significant ground reserves in the theater of war, we lack adequate combat units to fully protect our supply lines - and the weary troops at the front must continue the fight by themselves.This has been a serious concern of mine. Hope the 4thID can get there quickly.
A campaign like this should be a matter of teamwork, with new players going in to relieve those who need a breather. But we went to war with nobody on the bench.
Make no mistake: Our soldiers and Marines will pull this one off. Count on it. But, in this single respect, the civilian leadership in the Pentagon let our troops down. We had the forces, we had the time, and Secretary Rumsfeld refused to send them. Just as Defense Secretary Les Aspin refused to send our troops in Somalia the tanks for which they begged.
This isn't Somalia, but any defense secretary unwilling to listen to the advice of his uniformed subordinates assumes a terrible responsibility.
Posted by: Yosemite Sam ||
03/26/2003 04:34 pm ||
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in defense of Rummy - i think he intended for the war to begin with a wave of "shock and awe" on the first night, that would blow apart the regime. They started the war instead with an assasination attempt - apparently an attempt to kill saddam and keep the Republican Guards in tact. That blew the surprise and the shock - when the Iraqis started blowing oil wells, they had to go in on the ground right away. I think the mistake was to focus on winning over the Republican Guards and to just decapitate the regime, rather than winning over the Iraqi people and destroying the regime. And that was driven in large part by the agenda of State and the CIA, directly against the views of the civilians in DOD. Now the effort to win over the RG has failed, and shock and awe is gone, and we have to destroy the RG slowly and steadily - which may require more troops.
#3
The American military has always suffered a deep current of McClellanism. The behavior is to ask for more troops and more time and to overestimate the real capabilities of the opponent. In a non-war environment, it is the manager and trainer who gets the promotions. They are risk adverse by their nature. If you want models of risk, look at Grant's campaign for Vicksbury or Sherman's march to the sea. Another example is Scott's campaign from Veracruz and capture of Mexico City. THE military expert of the time, the Duke of Wellington, declared Scott was lost [to fail] when he struck inland to Mexico City. After the dust settled there with the Americans victorious, the Duke then praised his performance. Hindsight is always 20/20. Unlike the traditional broad front strategy, this appears to be a mobile war aimed at the center of gravity of the opponent. There is more going on here than you can see [or are let to see]. We and the talking heads do not know the phaselines of the advance nor are we seeing all the units in operation. I expect a number of the TV personality retired military talking heads to end up with some serious egg on their face.
Posted by: Don ||
03/26/2003 18:03 Comments ||
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Again, why blame Rummy for the Turks' backstab?
#5
Rummy was wise not to concentrate too many troops before the start of war. The only weapons Saddam has that can hurt us are WMD, and the damage they do can be great only if we concentrate our troops. Since Kuwait was our only staging area, they were vulnerable in the leadup to war.
Now that our troops are dispersed across Iraq, it's time to move more in, and they are.
#6
Someone... read this quite interesting editorial by Mike Ledeen. Makes sense to me. http://daily.nysun.com/Repository/ml.asp?Issue=NYS/2003/03/26&ID=Ar00106&Mode=HTML
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
03/26/2003 20:18 Comments ||
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#7
Rumsfeld had to launch the smallest attack possible because he didn't want Saddam to get wind the assault was underway and try to jump to a different bunker.
Posted by: Michael Levy ||
03/26/2003 21:20 Comments ||
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#8
Man, I hate to take issue with Peters on ANYTHING military related, but doesn't the military principle of economy of force apply here? In addition to paj's point, I've got to hope that contigency planning for any dramatic escalation on the Korean peninsula is also part of the force deployment equation.
2MRC seems not doable, and I'm worried that "win-hold-win" would rapidly become "win-die-lose".
The forces we have are superior, but can't be in two places at once...unless DARPA has that figured out too!
More than 1,300 soldiers with close ties to an Islamic terrorist organization have been granted safe passage from Kurds controlling northeastern Iraq in return for giving up land to make way for an attack route for U.S. special forces and Peshmerga troops. In an agreement signed Tuesday with the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), soldiers and their families loyal to the Komala political party will start evacuating the Halabja valley today in order to clear the way for an attack against hundreds of Ansar al-Islam fundamentalists.
I'm not sure letting the Komala "soldiers" sneak off into the night is the way to go. Komala appears to be the Jamaat Islami, described as a "mainstream" Islamic group, who just happen to be best friends with their Ansar soulmates. It'd be a better idea to let them remain and play the Ansar game out to the end. Letting them beat it is going to cause trouble down the road. You read it here first.
The Komala party holds territory in the northern section of the valley, and the creation of a temporary vacuum will allow ground forces to bypass heavily mined areas that were designed by Ansar to prevent a frontal attack on its territory. Muhammad Haji Mahmood, chairman of the Kurdistan Democratic Socialist Party, who helped negotiate the evacuation, said the agreement allows Komala soldiers to keep their arms when they depart over a three-day period for northern territory along the Iranian border.
That's an even worse idea, Muhammad Haji...
Mahmood said that the PUK, which had paid Komala nearly $200,000 a month in order to help keep stability in the region, agreed to pay the party upward of $600,000 in back payments in order to seal the agreement. In addition, the PUK will ensure that any injured soldiers will receive immediate medical treatment and that all the soldiers and their families will be able to return to their lands about five months after the U.S.-led war against Iraq is over. Rent-A-Army? What is this, Afghanistan-West?
We can only hope that when they come back conditions are changed enough that they can be disarmed. Put a wire around their territory and call it a zoo or something, filled with rustics. Charge tourists ten bucks a head to gawk at them, twenty to watch them inbreed...
Komala is considered a close ally of the Ansar group, and its soldiers have been seen mixing daily with the Islamists in the Khurmal region. I guess they aren't that close.
On Saturday, 43 Komala soldiers were killed and 30 were injured after several U.S. cruise missiles were fired from ships in the Red Sea, landing on barracks and bunkers, said a Komala party official. Anwar Muhammad, a senior leader of the Komala group, said, "We've agreed to move out of the region so we don't give another excuse for the Americans to attack us again â we are not surrendering. Someone gave the wrong information to the Americans. We think the bombing was a mistake." Either that or the landlord was trying to break your lease.
Nah. No mistake. Keep track of where they move to, and bomb them there, too...
He denied that Komala was linked to the Ansar group even though many Ansar families live in the Khurmal region where Komala is based. "We have adopted a different ideology from Ansar â who were previously our friends," said Muhammad. "We are not like them." The Komala party advocates a traditional Islamic society. The men are all bearded, and the women wear veils. They don't approve of secular ways and don't like foreigners living in Iraq. But they also don't enforce Islamic laws as severely as Ansar. Tailban-Lite?
"Maybe bump off a few infidels now and then, but nothing serious..."
The Kurds have been battling with Ansar forces â ranging from 500 to 700 fighters â for nearly two years. Ansar allegedly has ties to Osama bin Laden's al Quad network and the Iranian government, said U.S. officials.
Abu Zubaydah used to be their controller, back in the good old days in Afghanistan... Sorry. He's alleged to have been their controller... Say! Don't we have him in custody or something? Maybe somebody should ask him. Y'don't suppose they have already, do you?
Ansar has engaged in suicide attacks in Kurdish areas, initiated assassination attempts against Kurdish officials and waged a military campaign against Kurdish forces. The Kurds have a big score to settle.
Mahmood said that Peshmerga soldiers loyal to him, as well as PUK soldiers, will oversee the evacuation at checkpoints and will try to ensure that no Ansar terrorists try to mix with departing Komala families.
"That's a lovely beard y'got there, ma'am. Can I see your papers, please?"
"There could be up to 3,300 people leaving the area," Mahmood said. "They will be allowed to keep their guns, take any of their belongings, their sheep as well. It will be orderly." He said that he is no longer worried that Komala will turn on his militia and PUK forces. "At this stage, they can't fight. It's not easy to take the guns from them â but they're fragile now," he said. On Tuesday morning, coalition jets attacked Ansar positions in preparation for a ground assault that is expected to begin soon after the Komala evacuation is complete. "The attack on Ansar will be much easier because it will come from the side that was held by Komala," Mahmood said.
Aside from letting the armed and dangerous Komala rustics depart for greener pastures, there to beat their wives in peace and bully their neighbors who might not be as holy as they are, this is ducky news. What a pity Mullah Krekar is in jug in Norway and can't be on hand for the blow-off. Perhaps they could Fedex him in? More likely, he'll spend six months in jug, get off on a technicality, and go back to dealing drugs in Jordan and Lebanon until he's got enough dough to start again somewhere else. On the other hand, maybe Zarqawi is still on hand in Ansarland, and can meet his Maker and a Tomahawk at about the same instant. But that's probably too much to hope for. It'll be nice to be able to move Ansar onto the "retired" list — except for the ones who scoot over the border to Iran, if they haven't yet.
Posted by: Steve ||
03/26/2003 03:17 pm ||
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The U.S. Agency for International Development on Wednesday said that post-war reconstruction contracts for Iraq totaling $1.9 billion will go to yet-undetermined American firms. Sounds fair. We got the contract to take the country apart, we should get the contract to put it back together...
Half of the rebuilding work, however, will be open to subcontractors from around the world. The winning prime contractors, which will be announced by the end of the month, will hand-pick subcontractors. I'll be highly cheesed if the majority aren't American, British, or Australian, followed by Spanish, Portuguese, Danish, Polish, Italian, Dutch, Kuwaiti and Qatari, not necessarily in that order...
The government's development agency plans to spend a total of $2.4 billion in Iraq, $1.9 billion of it on rebuilding infrastructure such as roads, bridges, and water treatment and power plants. The remaining $500 million will go to humanitarian aid. "Federal law requires us to use American companies (as prime contractors) for competitive bids," USAID's administrator Andrew Natsios told a press conference. "Subcontracts are open to any country anywhere in the world." As long as they're not French or German...
British politicians and engineering and construction firms have complained about being excluded from bidding for USAID's contracts. Natsios, however, said that British procurement company Crown Agents would be in charge of purchasing activities in the Gulf region for USAID's Iraqi initiatives. "We have had extensive discussions (with British companies) and there is no doubt that some of the American funds will go to British subcontractors," Natsios said.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
03/26/2003 01:44 pm ||
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Natsios ran the Big Dig, the World's Largest Moneypit, up here in Boston for awhile and got out while the getting was good. To him, $1.9B is chicken feed.
British forces engaged a column of Iraqi armored vehicles â tanks and armored personnel carriers â that filed out of the southern city of Basra late Wednesday, a British military source said. The source said coalition aircraft as well as ground units were hitting the column, which he estimated at about 120 vehicles. The vehicles were moving south along Highway 6. That's a lot of vehicles. Nice of them to come out into the open instead of hiding next to hospitals.
Basra had been largely quiet for much of the day, with British forces trading occasional fire with some of the estimated 1,000 die-hard Iraqi loyalists fighting for control of the country's second-largest city. 1,000 people would be about right for 120 tanks, APCs, etc.
The British said they were coming to the defense of inhabitants who rose up in the streets against Saddam Hussein's regime. Britain's 7th Armored Brigade â the famed Desert Rats â was said to be awaiting orders to enter the heart of the city. On Tuesday, inhabitants of the mostly Shiite Muslim city started attacking members of Saddam's Baath Party and other Iraqi fighters, who responded by firing mortars at their own people, the British military said. The British, in turn, shelled the mortar positions and bombed Baath headquarters. This is a very confusing battle. I can't figure out why they'd leave Basra and move south unless they were getting their asses kicked in the city and they had to leave or die. Now they leave and die. I guess we won't know for sure until the Brits move in.
FOLLOWUP: From al-Guardian:
Coalition war planes have launched air strikes on a 120-strong convoy of tanks and armoured personnel carriers heading south-east out of Basra. The column, including artillery and Soviet era tanks, is heading towards Royal marines. Allied commanders called in air support, including RAF harriers, to bomb and strafe the convoy as it headed towards the coalition forces. It is believed the column could signal a tactical retreat in the face of last night's limited uprising in Basra. More likely, it signalled the beginning of an Iraqi counterattack in a bid to regain ground lost over the last two or three days. The convoy was described by witnesses as "sitting ducks." It is understood to have splintered with vehicles heading into the country. British radar spotted the column following the coast road along the Shatt al-Arab waterway. Another "Highway of Death"? Here's hoping... And the same for the ones reputed coming south from Baghdad.
Posted by: Steve ||
03/26/2003 08:48 pm ||
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Yeah, the "that's odd" factor is getting a bit high. Those troops would have been a bit more of a problem for us if they had sat in Basra. Like the large Republican Guard troop movements from Baghdad, this seems to indicate a ridiculous level of faith in the cover provided by sandstorms, or a "use it or lose it" mentality, or some incredibly stupid orders to attack no matter what, or some combination of the above.
Posted by: Patrick Phillips ||
03/26/2003 13:47 Comments ||
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Or they fill those vehicles with women and children attempting to "escape" coailition bombing in Basra. I pray that's not the case.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
03/26/2003 14:21 Comments ||
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There was a comment I saw last night on FOX that said that Saddam had ordered his troops to "Just fight them". If someone in the enemy command received that order and he happened to be on the business end of a Fedayeen pol's pistol, he might just order his troops out to do just that in spite of the knowledge that he was committing military suicide. Sounds like the same thing is happening up north near Baghdad (I don't think anyone in their right mind really wants to pick a fight with US Marines).
#5
Special Forces tapping phone lines or high ranking turncoats order the most loyal units on suicide charges, saying "the sandstorm will give you cover."
Afterwards, Commando Solo says, "They were ordered into the grinder by the regime. Saddam might have been disposing of units he distrusted... or maybe he's just that inept a commander."
If we knew about the sandstorm in advance (and we probably did) then this scenario makes a lot of sense.
#6
It looks like a general counterattack. Iraqi forces are striking south; from Baghdad, from Basra, from Al Kut. Under the cover of sandstorms, they are now attacking Army, Marine, and British forces that are in the open and away from cities. Motives?
1. Saddam believes that absent airpower, American ground troops can't fight, and will run.
2. By just sitting and waiting, his army will have too much time to think; Attacking at least gives them something to do
(If it was use âem or lose âem with Saddam now seeing the end, I think we would also be seeing WMD use.
Saddam is about to learn the truth about the American fighting man. This attack could shorten the war and reduce our, and civilian casualties. Think Battle of the Bulge lite and the West Wall.
Posted by: Dave ||
03/26/2003 15:05 Comments ||
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Perhaps its a desperation move to attack the port area after it was declared safe. First, this would be an embarisment to the coalition forces. Second, it would take the "food and water" incentive away from the revolting Basra residents.
Posted by: Canaveral Dan ||
03/26/2003 15:12 Comments ||
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Latest from BBC: A number of vehicles in this Iraqi column of armour have been hit by Coalition jets. The attacks from the air and ground have been going on now for over two hours. This was after a huge column was seen to be leaving the south-eastern approach roads of Basra heading towards our position down on the Al-Faw peninsula. Coalition planes are using thermal imaging and night vision so they have an advantage over the Iraqis. At the moment it would seem the Iraqis are sitting ducks.
They're extra crispy duck about now.
Posted by: Steve ||
03/26/2003 15:21 Comments ||
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Call me paranoid, but I also hope this isn't a distraction, hoping to get the Marines engaged in a firefight then pop some chems in the area. Marines faced with a choice of dropping their weapons to don gas masks or continue to fire at the advancing enemy. I'm pretty sure our vehicles will be buttoned up, but that doesn't help the grunt on the ground with an M-16.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
03/26/2003 15:30 Comments ||
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Chieftains and Warthogs vs. T-55s and BTR-50s. Not very sporting, but this ain't the Summer Olympics, either.
Posted by: Mike ||
03/26/2003 15:35 Comments ||
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Had a stray thought when I was on the way to the local library a few minutes ago: Seems there were some very sophisticated Russian-made cruise missiles found in Al Faw. Then there's the report that 3ID discovered some Russian chemical warheads and a Russian technician. Wonder if these two deployments are tasked with "destroying the evidence". May not do them any good, but they may have to try, or face some really embarassing questions in a couple of weeks.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
03/26/2003 19:39 Comments ||
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A man claiming to be a British citizen fighting for Iraqi President Saddam Hussein surrendered to British forces near Basra, telling them he wanted to go home to his family in Manchester. Maybe you can meet them again in the afterlife, dirtbag...
The man, in his mid-20s with a Manchester accent, handed himself over to British troops outside the southern Iraqi city on Sunday after attacks on British forces by Iraqi militiamen in civilian clothes. "He said that he had come out here to fight against coalition forces because he didn't believe in what we were doing," Corporal Jonathan Duffy, 21, of Britain's Irish Guards said. Guess he stopped believing in what Sammy's doing, huh? Or is he allergic to the smell of gunpowder?
The unidentified man was being held at a prisoner of war camp to the southwest of al Zubayr, an Iraqi town a short distance from Basra. The prisoner was quoted as saying he joined a militia group after a deal was set up by relatives in the Basra area. A spokesman for the British Army confirmed that a man from Britain had been detained and further investigations into his activities in Iraq and his precise nationality were being conducted. Britain's Ministry of Defense in London was not immediately able to confirm the report. The way the world is today, he'll probably end up back in Manchester, instead of standing in front of a wall with a blindfold and a cigarette. Too bad.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
03/26/2003 01:37 pm ||
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Now the Brits have their own "American Taliban".
#2
I don't think he'll get the blindfold treatment, but I don't think he'll be back in Manchester anytime soon once the tabloids get hold of the story.
#4
Tie some of that "unexploded ordinance" the Brits captured to his feet, and have him swim home.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
03/26/2003 15:52 Comments ||
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Turn him over to the Queens Royal Marines
Posted by: Someone who did NOT vote for William Proxmire ||
03/26/2003 16:14 Comments ||
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Put him in a cell with Johnny Bin Walker. I am sure love will flourish. Of course Jack can't go back in Gen-pop because the other prisoners tried to kill him. Why aren't convicted felons more understanding and sensitive? With spring upon us we can be sure that Johnny will find a friend soon.
#7
Dishman, Treason's a capital offence in the UK. but somehow I don't think... I read on BBC earlier that the cowardly **** was "...being very arrogant and offensive, swearing at everyone". Unbelievable.
The equipment of the 4th Infantry Division began transiting the Suez Canal on March 23. Some twelve ships, including the MV Cape Race, MV Cape Vincent, MV Cape Texas, MV Cape Diamond, MV Cape Rise, MV Cape Taylor, MV Cape Decision, USNS Mendonca and the USNS Cornhusker transited the canal headed towards the Persian Gulf, according to Defense Department sources. It is possible however that those ships might head for ports in western Saudi Arabia. The MV Cape Ducato, MV Cape Washington, MV Cape Douglas, MV Cape Orlando, MV Cape Henry and MV Cape Edmont transited the Suez Canal on March 25. The Cape Island, Cape Isabel and Cape Knox transited through the Suez Canal on March 26. These ships are carrying equipment for the 4th Infantry Division. Additional from Reuters:
The United States is flying its high-tech 4th Infantry Division and other units totaling more than 30,000 troops to the Gulf to join the invasion of Iraq. Troops from the division, based at Fort Hood, Texas, and considered one of the most modern fighting forces in the military, will begin flying to the Gulf region in coming days to join its heavy armor and equipment now approaching Kuwait on ships. The division, with a total of 16,000 troops at Fort Hood and Fort Carson, Colorado, has been awaiting deployment for more than two months. It was originally scheduled to go to Turkey to open a northern front against Baghdad, but Ankara refused to grant basing rights for American forces. The division's equipment, including more than 200 M-1A2 tanks, is currently being shipped from waters off Turkey to Kuwait and the troops are expected to go there. "The 4th Infantry Division has received orders to move and will be going in the coming days," Dan Hassett, a spokesman at Fort Hood, told Reuters. He said that other military units totaling about 14,000 troops were also moving with the division. The mobile 3d Armored Cavalry Regiment, with 5,200 troops, announced at Fort Carson on Tuesday that it had received orders to go. It's about time.
Posted by: Steve ||
03/26/2003 01:18 pm ||
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Military friends at Fort Carson are glad they're finally moving. They've been 'under orders' to prepare for departure for almost a month now. Also expect to see another Marine brigade moving to the Middle East within the next few weeks. I think GW is definitely planning to remain in position for more than a few months.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
03/26/2003 13:15 Comments ||
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Strike fighters from the USS Theodore Roosevelt bombed a terrorist training camp in northern Iraq early Wednesday.
One F/A-18 pilot described the target as an "Al Qaeda terrorist camp," presumably a reference to Ansar al-Islam's camp, which Secretary of State Colin Powell described as al-Qaeda linked in a presentation before the UN. The aircraft were on a "close air support" mission, flying in a box over the area, when they were given coordinates mid-flight to strike. If this really is a "close air support" mission, it means that the Kurds are ready to move in.
The pilots dropped GPS-guided bombs on the target, but heavy cloud cover prevented them from assessing the damage. SF will be spotting for the planes.
The planes sensed surface-to-air missiles being fired from the ground by Iraqi forces but none managed to strike the aircraft, which returned safely to the ship. Humm, shoulder fired SAMs or bigger stuff, I wonder?
Coalition aircraft, since the start of the war last Thursday, have carried out several air strikes in northern Iraq, targeting primarily Ansar al-Islam. They've been pounding them for about a week, should be ready to finish them off.
Posted by: Steve ||
03/26/2003 11:59 am ||
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An Iraqi opposition group reported here on Wednesday that the security chief of Basra had been killed during US-British air raids on the city Monday. The public relations of the Supreme Assembly of the Islamic Revolution of Iraq (SAIRI) in a message faxed to IRNA quoted its sources in Iraq as saying that the official, identified as "Mahdi", and his deputy for political affairs had been killed in the raids on Basra's Security Office. The SAIRI added that an Iraqi security official has also confirmed the report. G'bye, Mahdi! G'bye, zampolit! Say hello to Himmler for us!
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
03/26/2003 11:25 am ||
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U.S.-led forces were readying Iraq's vital Gulf crude terminal for export on Wednesday while only three wells burned in the vast southern oil region, calming fears Saddam Hussein would destroy his country's oil wealth. According to the U.S. military, the logistics are now in place for Baghdad to resume crude exports even as war rages throughout the country and as the United Nations prepares to modify its oil-for-food program. And all but three of seven oil wells set alight by Iraqi troops at the giant southern Rumaila field have been snuffed out by the weather and a fast-acting Kuwaiti team of firefighters. "It will now take three to seven days to put them out," a Kuwaiti official said, cutting back an earlier estimated timetable of one month for the operation in the field dotted with 500 wellheads. "We have received news that three wells have extinguished themselves because of the dust and weather conditions," he told Reuters. That must of been one hell of a sandstorm!
A team of Kuwaiti firefighters, who won their stripes battling more than 700 oil fires set by Iraqi troops departing their country in 1991, put out the first fire on Monday. The area of the Rumaila fields, near the border with Kuwait, was deserted, Chief Kuwaiti firefighter Aisa Bou Yabes said, with no sign of armed Iraqis that had been reported in other parts of the 50-mile-long (80-km-long) oilfield. "The area where we are working is under British control. We hear news of problems, but we don't see anything," he said. "We even hear the Kuwaiti firefighting team was taken hostage, but we are alive and well." I guess he would know if he was taken hostage.
Secured by U.S.-led forces in the early hours of battle, Rumaila is the main oil artery to Iraq's key Gulf terminal of Mina al-Bakr, which escaped attempted sabotage and stands ready to resume operations. "Everything is good to go...," said Commander Kevin Aandahl of the U.S. Navy, referring to the possibility of restarting operations from the facility that exported more than half of Iraq's U.N.-supervised oil sales. Obviously, this is proof that it was indeed all about the oil.
He said the main task now was to safeguard the facility. "We want to make sure, most of all, that the situation is secure and there are no bad guys around," he said. Swift action by U.S. troops thwarted Baghdad's scheme to wreak havoc on its oil export terminal, said Aandahl. "In some areas of the oil platforms there were preparations made by Iraqi forces to blow those terminals," he said. "They had explosives on there...they were wired in some places." We got there too fast for them to complete work.
Over the border in Kuwait, there were further signs oil production was returning to normal in the region. Kuwait resumed pumping 27,000 bpd of oil from its northern Ratqa field and said it may gradually restore output of 85,000 barrels per day (bpd) from its main northern fields halted well before the outbreak of war last week. Watch oil prices drop when this word gets out.
Posted by: Steve ||
03/26/2003 01:20 pm ||
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There was a report on the radio a few minutes ago that columns of bad guys were moving south to counterattack in al-Faw. Sure hope the guys upstairs are on them... And I don't mean the angels.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/26/2003 13:15 Comments ||
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According to the U.S. military, the logistics are now in place for Baghdad to resume crude exports even as war rages throughout the country and as the United Nations prepares to modify its oil-for-food program.
Screw that. Some other group can take over exporting crude and feeding the population; one not as corrupt and bureaucratic as the U.N.
The al-Arabiya TV reported on Wednesday that US forces are facing high resistance of Iraqis near the city of Safwan. "Americans do not allow reporters to enter the city since they fear the reporters would find out America's heavy failure," a TV correspondent said. The TV added that sandstorm still is hitting Basra and electricity and water in most parts of the city are cut.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
03/26/2003 11:14 am ||
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"Americans do not allow reporters to enter the city since they fear the reporters would find out America's heavy failure," a TV correspondent said.
I don't know why we even try.
These people are just innundated with propoganda 24/7.
The sad part is, no matter how much you try to give them truth, they won't accept it.
I think the whole area is hopeless, really.
Any democratic form of government that is set up will just be squandered on Islamists.
If there was any way to protect Israel, we'b be better off just to turn the whole freakin' Mid-East into a glass parking lot.
It's sad that I've been reduced to thinking like the Mid-East nuts..............
#2
" I don't know why we even try. These people are just innundated with propoganda 24/7. The sad part is, no matter how much you try to give them truth, they won't accept it"
Heh, sounds like a few liberals I work with. I gave them a sheet outlining how Michael Moore's movie "Bowling for Colombine" is packed full of lies. What did they do? They argued with me that I hadn't seen the movie and that what I had in my had was lies. Nevermind that it is backed up by sources and the sources are all documented.
A former chief of the Egyptian Army, Sa'ad Eldin Shazli, predicted on Wednesday that the US-led coalition would not be able to reach Baghdad at least until next week. Speaking to the Qatari-based TV channel Al-Jazeera, he said that US and British forces could reach the outskirts of Baghdad in the next two days but that it is too soon for them to be able to launch a military attack on the Iraqi capital. If we intend to... We could just sit there, shut off the lights and water and wait...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
03/26/2003 11:08 am ||
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We had a shot at a one-week war, but now we might as well admit that we have at least a one-month war on our hands and take the time to get properly organized for investing and if need be assaulting Baghdad.
#3
Whoever said it'd be over in one week (other than the media)? Iraq is a country of 20+ MILLION. If you figure at least 5% are willing to support Saddam to the end, that's 1 million combatants to deal with. Hopefully an equal or greater number will be willing to support us, while the balance may be too busy with their own lives and problems or too apathetic to care.
Posted by: Dar Steckelberg ||
03/26/2003 11:54 Comments ||
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Yes, Dar, and it's more like 5 % who don't support Saddam. There is a reason Saddam is in charge for 30+ years : he's just the kind of leader the Iraqis seem to prefer.
Posted by: Peter ||
03/26/2003 12:45 Comments ||
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I'm with Fred. Depending on whether they use chemical weapons, I think they'll get up there, surround the city, bomb whatever they have to bomb, and wait while things get cleaned up in the south and the north. If we're lucky, and they're stupid (which it looks like they are from what I read today), they'll come out to fight in the open rather then us going in to dig them out.
#6
I think Peter is way off, I think few support Saddam, but many fear him. With Iraqi columns coming out to fight the Iraqi's uprising in Basra may succeed and spread. The fear will go away. We may see the end of the Saddam regime by the end of the weekend.
#7
That's too hopeful Yank. I sure do hope Franks has something original up his sleeve to avoid house to house combat. There's not enough troops for that.
#8
What the U.S. doesn't understand: They CAN'T take Baghdad at all unless they are willing to flatten it or to starve it's inhabitants to death. A guerrilla war in Baghdad is not winnable, it will just lead to destruction. Tanks will be useless in the rubble.
Baghdad will be America's Stalingrad.
Unless... yes unless Saddam gets killed and the Iraqis are sure he is dead. If not, expect the Hitler effect. Only when he was dead Germany capitulated although in 1945 he probably had less followers than Saddam has in Iraq today.
I know this will earn me nothing more than a laughter from you all. But you might remember this post in about 3 months when the "Bring our boys home" call becomes deafening.
Decapitation was the great chance. The CIA got that right. America lost this war in the first hours. And I'm not happy about it. You will leave the world in a far bigger chaos than it was before. Congratulations!
#9
"...expect the Hitler effect. Only when he was dead Germany capitulated"
I think he killed himself because the end was near, not the other way around. But ok... "You will leave the world in a far bigger chaos than it was before"
Not at all. All the hatred will be directed at Americans, which it already was anyway. And they will survive just fine. France & Germany, Russia & China, and the rest of the weasels will be quite safe. And can't imagine things getting worse than they already are in the rest of the world.
So go back under the covers until America tells you it's safe to come out again.
Gen. Hilmi Ozkok, chief of staff of the Turkish armed forces, sounds like the fundo politicians just haven't got the word yet, hmmm?
said today that barring human catastrophe or open warfare between rival Kurdish factions, Turkey would not send more troops into northern Iraq. That would be the criteria we have to prevent from happening, then... ok
"This is not our war," the general said, reading from a prepared text at a local military base here. "This is not our mission." His announcement eases fears of a war-within-a-war on the northern front, though General Ozkok did say that he reserved the right to send additional forces into Iraq if the situation there spins out of control. wise reservation...
"As it is known, there is a Turkish military presence in northern Iraq," the general said, without specifying the number soldiers or the type of equipment that Turkey already has in Iraq. "Our biggest concern is an attack on our position or a large refugee crisis from an unexpected development in the war or an attack on our stability from the armed elements in the region," the general said. He added that if Turkey does send troops, it would only do so under the supervision of the United States. If this holds - watch the stock market today..
Turkey told its Western allies on Monday that it planned to create a buffer zone up to 13 miles wide to contain refugees in northern Iraq if there were a mass exodus. But today General Ozkok backed away from those plans. "We have no desire to establish a permanent buffer zone," he said. It is unclear why the military had a change of heart, but perhaps it had to do with White House plans to offer $1 billion in cash grants to Turkey to cushion the economic trauma of war. still a principled stand, Murat?
If approved by Congress, Turkey will also receive loan guarantees of $8.5 billion. The financial package is only a fraction of what Washington had initially offered its ally for "full cooperation" in the Iraq campaign. But better than nothing, and Gen. Ozkok just showed who's competent and who's just spewing spittle
The White House initially offered $6 billion in direct aid and $24 billion in loans before the Turkish Parliament refused on March 1 to open its bases to United States troops. Eventually the Parliament did authorize over-flights for American warplanes attacking targets in northern Iraq. The beleaguered Turkish markets rose for the second consecutive day on reports of the aid. And will again today
It was a humbling day for General Ozkok, considered to be the single most powerful man in Turkey, the supreme commander of a semi-autonomous military, and a man who is not used to explaining himself. Not as humbling as for the pinheads who negotiated the previous deal: i.e. nothing, zero, zilch
Addressing the news media as "dear members of the press," the general delivered a 20-minute statement chockablock with high-flown language. does that sound like a piss-poor metaphor? Chockablock with high flown language??? Thank you NY Times - the metaphor-mangler of record
Though he did not take questions, the general could not resist taking a shot at American diplomats whose negotiating style, it is said, has been nothing short of arrogant. "I have difficulty understanding those who claim there is a threat to them across the ocean," the general said. "And when Turkey says the same threat exists on the other side of its border, this is found to be unbelievable." And then he proffered a scenario. "If things get out of control, I hope our friends will not ask us take action that they oppose now."
If things get that much out of control, we won't have to ask...
Though he said the purpose of the existing force along the Iraqi border was intended to keep the peace and provide relief aid, General Ozkok did not say when the border would be open to international aid agencies trying to reach Iraqi refugees. Kurdish officials say there is no refugee crisis in northern Iraq and no need for a Turkish incursion. Aid groups are split over the issue. Human Rights Watch produced a critical assessment, warning on Friday that the Kurdish government in northern Iraq and international aid groups did not have enough food, tents and other supplies to handle a refugee crisis. But some aid groups said the situation is not so dire. "There are not many tents," said Dr. Giorgio Francia, a manager for Relief International, a Los Angeles-based health aid organization. "But there are also not that many refugees." and no excuse for Turkey to shove troops in
The exact number of displaced people in northern Iraq is unclear, but hundreds of thousands of Kurds fearing a chemical attack by Saddam Hussein are believed to have fled major cities in Iraq. Hundreds, possibly thousands, of those people are living in the open in caves, tents, trucks and buses. Kurdish opposition to an incursion remains adamant. A young policeman in Kani Masi, an Iraqi town that sits a few miles from a crossing point where Turkish soldiers and tanks are massed, said Tuesday that he had blunt orders from his superiors: "to resist and to fight the Turks." Asked if he was ready to die in what would likely be a fruitless effort to stop tanks with assault rifles, he said. "I am ready to sacrifice." Not voluntarily, of course...
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/26/2003 03:38 pm ||
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Iraqi Information Minister Mohammad Said al-Sahhaf denied on Wednesday the uprising of Basra people against ruling regime in Iraq and called it a US lie out of their disappointment and disillusion. "Nope. Nope. Never happened. Nope..."
Al-Sahhaf told the Qatari Al-Jazeera TV that the United States and Britain seek to deviate public opinion from the realities of US-led war on Iraq using psychological warfare. He stressed that Basra still resists and the invaders will learn more from Basra resistance. "I am confident that the US people will rise against their wicked rulers," the minister said. Basra people seem to have risen agains their wicked rulers first...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
03/26/2003 11:03 am ||
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"I am confident that the US people will rise against their wicked rulers," the minister said.
Sanandaj, Kurdestan -- The Ansar al-Islam Party of Iraqi Kurdistan attacked positions of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) near Halabja on Tuesday night. The attack failed due to the resistance of PUK forces, said the Kurd Sat satellite channel, adding that the attackers left behind tens killed or wounded and fled the scene. Oh, I do so-o-o-o-o-o love it when that happens!
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
03/26/2003 10:57 am ||
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Focus: Israeli military experts assess the
U.S.-led invasion
By Amnon Barzilai, Haaretz Correspondent
There has never been a war with such a high level of disinformation about what exactly is happening on the battlefield as the present conflict in Iraq, according to Israeli researchers and senior military officers. Former Chief of Staff Amnon Lipkin Shahak, and Major Generals (res.) Yossi Peled and Ilan Biran, Brigadier General (res.) Avigdor Kahalani and Professor Martin van Creveld, are almost all in agreement on another point: Contrary to the sense that has been created in the last few days, including in the media, there have not been any particularly tough battles in Iraq so far, and the American military has chalked up a series of achievements.
Others in the IDF and the defense establishment agree with this assessment, and do not attach any great importance to the problems the Americans have encountered in the last few days. According to Shahak, Israelis are "frustrated that the Iraqi regime has still not collapsed, which would suit us. You don't hear such frustration expressed in the U.S. over the pace of the campaign. I didn't think that it was possible to win a war like this and bring about the collapse of a regime within three days. I would counsel patience. The Americans are very determined to go all the way."
Ilan Biran, the former GOC Central Command and ex-director general of the Ministry of Defense, says "the problems encountered by the U.S. Army, and which were captured on television, like the POWs, do not change the broad picture, which is one of the impressive capabilities of the American forces on sea and on land." Most of those interviewed agree that, paradoxically, despite the unprecedented media coverage of the war, including the many correspondents who are embedded in fighting units, nobody knows what is really happening in Iraq. Yossi Peled, former GOC Northern Command, thinks the U.S. has shown great skill in its control of the media. "You have lots of television crews in the field, yet as someone watching TV you have no overall picture."
Military historian Prof. Martin van Creveld goes further: "Everyone is lying about everything all the time, and it is difficult to say what is happening. I've stopped listening. All the pictures shown on TV are color pieces which have no significance. There is a lot of disinformation," he concludes. Every word that is spoken is suspect." Shahak says that until now the American's have managed to conceal their true battle plan. "Do you know what the Americans have planned? I don't. They also never said (what they were planning to do). How do you topple a regime in 48 hours? In a week? Seventeen days? If we don't want to make fools of ourselves, we should wait patiently. It would just be arrogant to judge from what we see on TV."
Van Creveld supports the view that the we know little about the American war plan. "I have a list of questions for which I haven't found answers," he said. "Did the American forces cross the Euphrates on their way to Nasiriyah? How far are they from Baghdad? What is air division 101 doing? It is clear to me that the U.S. troops are advancing, but the significance of this advance is not clear. And are the achievements real or not." Shahak points out that the Americans are engaging in psychological warfare, far more than they have in conflicts in the past 20-30 years. "It is not clear how effective it is," he says.
How is the overall operation going from the American point of view? Peled believes that, so far, it is proceeding well. "The commentators can say what they want, but to cross a distance of 500 km in the desert with such a (large) force, and while encountering skirmishes, is not easy. I think the Americans have managed to stick to their plan. They have faced resistance... but they are proceeding towards their main goal - Baghdad." Peled emphasizes what he sees as the two main achievements by the Allied forces so far: their fast advance across the desert, and their success in preventing the oil wells from being set alight. Kahalani agrees that preventing the burning of the oil wells has been one of the main achievements. He also points to the taking over of western Iraq, the decision not to get waylayed in the southern cities, and the preservation of the bridges.
Shahak also believes that the number of casualties sustained by the U.S.-led forces so far has not been high, in relation to the total number of troops the Allied forces have arrayed on the battlefield. In order to reach Baghdad, he says, it was clear that the Americans would have to invade Iraq. Despite Turkey's refusal to allow the U.S. to move troops into Iraq from its territory - a decision which ruled out any invasion from the north - the Allied forces are advancing at a good pace, he says. "They have not been drawn into major battles, and they have circumvented some of the Iraqi military forces so as not to get worn down. Their aim is not to wipe out every tank, but to bring about the collapse of the regime."
Posted by: kgb ||
03/26/2003 09:52 am ||
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You'd have to have a peculiar sense of the world not to believe that, especially relative to the amount of energy spent forwarding information, there has been very little information available. I thought I'd add my uninformed two cents to the mix. By (seemingly) bypassing urban quagmires & heading straight for the heart of Iraq, we have affected two things in addition to what's in this article: we have put a huge pressure on the (probably degraded) Iraq command structure to commit to a plan; and, in stretching our army across the desert, we have likely also stretched out their military resources across the desert. Who's more capable stetched out?
#3
I think the Israeli generals are interpreting things from the viewpoint of Israeli operations, and don't have a clue about this type of large-scale warfare. We've moved "500 km". There's NO PLACE in all of Israel that's farther than 500km from any other. Having the advantage of spending 26 years in OUR military intelligence structure, I think I have a pretty good idea what's going on. Most of that information, btw, has come from blogs, rather than news articles. Most of the commercial news organizations are out to report a certain way, to keep their readership. That frequently interferes with their reporters' abilities to "see" beyond their immediate surroundings. The proof of this observation is in the reports filed by those reporters covering Coalition headquarters. There's far more going on, both within military units and within their headquarters organizations, than most of those reporters even have a clue about. The biggest problem facing most of those reporters is that they have no idea what the military is capable of doing, what the military organization is like, or what the individual soldier has been trained to do. They're whistling past the graveyard, trying to make sense of something that is totally alien to them and their mental processes.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
03/26/2003 13:08 Comments ||
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Shahak points out that the Americans are engaging in psychological warfare, far more than they have in conflicts in the past 20-30 years.
I'd say the spooks at CIA and NSA have been working on the mind-f*** for quite some time.
I'm sure some of the military guys that post here regularly would agree that the DOD, CIA, and NSA have psy-ops plans that would stand your hair on end...
The Special Ops guys have probably been in country for months, the spies, defectors, plants, disinformationists...
I agree with the Israelis and Old Patriot, there is so much going on that we can't begin to know the half of it.
The French continue their 'principled' stand.
Tue Mar 25, 4:11 PM ET
Snipped. This is a re-run from yesterday...
Posted by: kgb ||
03/26/2003 11:38 am ||
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GWB needs to nip this in the bud no matter where it pops up. The French (and the U.N.) should be totally excluded from Iraq until the occupation is over. Allied blood is being shed to liberate Iraq, and the treacherous French in particular need to suffer for their breech of the alliance.
Posted by: Tom ||
03/26/2003 9:39 Comments ||
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Chirac has warned that France would vote against any U.N. Security Council resolution that would give "the American and British belligerents the right to administer Iraq."
In typical "faschion" the French show their veto hole card before discussion. So much for compromise and negotiation, heh heh. Lesson 1 not learned, secound round. Chiraq does not get it that he killed the UNSC horse. Tom is right. GWB must make it clear that the door is closed to France and here are the reasons..............
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
03/26/2003 10:00 Comments ||
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Of course the French should be given a role in reconstruction. There must be latrines somewhere that need cleaning.
Posted by: John B ||
03/26/2003 10:38 Comments ||
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Jacques: Tell your people to reserve a conference room at the Al-Rasheed where they can present their wares, just like any other middle-of-the road country. You screwed up big-time mon vieux, and the UN is going to save your sorry ass?
A bigger mistake would be for us to let them take the UN route and get what they want. GWB: Talk to Colin and let him know. Tom Friedman: We DON'T need their help. AGAIN, let them show their wares just like any other country. If the Iraqis buy, fine. If not, fine.
Posted by: Michael ||
03/26/2003 10:47 Comments ||
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They should get them to commit peacekeeping troops to the occupation in return for token contracts. I have no desire for substantial US forces to be there longer than 6 mos. Same thing with the Germans and Russians.
#8
"Munier criticized French companies for negotiating with American companies for a piece of their businesses in Iraq, saying that such "collaboration" would damage the image of French business among Iraqis"
veddy eeenteresting!! Sounds like there unity in France is beginning to crack with some Frenchmen lining up with the Americans to get where the getting is good. I sure don't know, but perhaps Munier, rather than damaging your image, it will damage some of those backroom deals you thought you already had in the bag.
#10
The pain in my side tells me a number of French are beginning to grasp the damage that Chiraq as done. It will remain to be seen if they will act on that realization and put Chiraq out back.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
03/26/2003 13:10 Comments ||
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We'll need "volunteers" to clean up all that unexploded ordinance. I think we can 'allow' the French to bid on that contract.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
03/26/2003 13:37 Comments ||
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saying that such "collaboration" would damage the image of French business among Iraqis"
Given their history, the back-biting French have cornered the market on collaborating.
They're old, dried-out diplomatic whores, working the docks for nickles to buy beer.
US and British fighters bombarded positions of the grouplet, Ansar al-Islam, of Iraqi Kurdistan in Biyarah city in Sulaimaniya province for the fifth time on Wednesday. There were no immediate reports of probable casualties or damage inflicted. How many terrorists are there in a grouplet?
Posted by: Steve ||
03/26/2003 10:28 am ||
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Sanandaj, Kurdestan prov, March 26, IRNA -- The Ansar al-Islam Party of Iraqi Kurdistan attacked positions of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) near the city of Halabja on Tuesday night. The attack failed due to the resistance of PUK forces, said the Kurd Sat satellite channel, adding that the attackers left behind tens killed or wounded and fled the scene.
Attempting a breakout or tired of sitting there being pounded by air strikes?
Posted by: Steve ||
03/26/2003 8:51 Comments ||
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"How many terrorists are there in a grouplet?"
It's usually a gross, I think. Incidentally, there's the same number of rats in your average weasels' parliament.
#3
A grouplet is the left-overs of a group that got the hell pounded out of it by the zoomies and the PUK. A RAT (Rarely Accountable & Truthful) is a member of the AWP (Average Weasel's Parliament) Thanks, Bulldog for the inspiration.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
03/26/2003 10:08 Comments ||
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Certain military officials here on Wednesday stressed that several of the missiles hitting the Iraqi capital over the past days were Israeli-made ones. IRNA correspondent in Baghdad quoted the officials as saying that at least two of the missiles fired at the city on Wednesday had been made by the Zionist regime of Israel. The officials also added that certain Hebrew phrases written on the missiles are visible on remains of the missiles found after the air raids. This follows previous reports that parachutes of cluster bombs that had been found in Baghdad after US bombardments were carrying the word "Jerusalem". Iraq's Ambassador to Moscow Abbas Khalaf had on Sunday said that several missiles made by the Zionist regime of Israel had hit Baghdad in the earlier days of the US-British war on Iraq. Unless we have Israeli subcontractors for missile componants, I tend to doubt these reports.
Posted by: Steve ||
03/26/2003 08:38 am ||
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Nah, we got plenty of our own. Thanks for the offer though.
IRNA? Please....
#2
Of course, there are no jews in the US Navy or Air Force, all of whom undoubtably know Hebrew. And write it. On mmissles. Then fire them at Baghdad.
#3
Actually, we do have several Israeli-made weapons and components in our arsenal. Israeli-Weapons.com lists a lot of their weapons systems. Some UAVs, like the Pioneer, may be in service with our troops.
Posted by: Dar Steckelberg ||
03/26/2003 11:17 Comments ||
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"the cluster bombs also have shown traces of matzoh balls and the tiny parachutes were actually yarmulkes...... "
Lol - I think this shows the desperation of true idiots
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/26/2003 11:51 Comments ||
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What did they imagine that they found? A little piece of metal with the Star of David on it? ;)
SURPRISING STATEMENT OF U.S. COMMANDER
General Henry Osman, the commander of the special unit which was sent to northern Iraq, said at a press conference that his headquarters would be in Silopi town of southeastern province of Sirnak. Noting that their target was to provide communication between Turks and Kurds, General Osman said that the United States and the coalition partners wanted to protect territorial integrity, security and stability of Iraq. So what's the surprise?
GUL: ''WE WILL ENTER NORTHERN IRAQ BEFORE INFLOW OF REFUGEES''
Turkey informed the United States that it would send its military troops to northern Iraq before a possible inflow of Iraqi refugees into its borders. Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul said that they would not wait for inflow of refugees. Meanwhile, negotiations between U.S. President George W. Bush's Adviser for Iraq Zalmay Khalilzad and Ministry of Foreign Affairs Deputy Undersecretary Ali Tuygan have been continuing. Sources said that the negotiations would last for a few days. "We aren't going to wait for a refugee crisis to send in our troops, because there may not be a refugee crisis that would let us send in our troops."
DEMIREL: ''UNITED STATES HANDED OVER OCALAN TO TURKEY''
Referring to Ankara's policy about Iraq, former President Suleyman Demirel said, ''the United States has made a number of gestures in the past. For instance, it was not Turkey, which captured Abdullah Ocalan, the head of the terrorist organization PKK. The United States handed over him to Turkey. I do not talk about these gestures to mean that we should be involved in the Iraq war. Turkey should have expressed its views at the very beginning.'' Oh ho! Is Turkey trying to stir up trouble by releasing this info now?
SIX HELICOPTERS UNLOADED
Six helicopters were unloaded from a ship in Iskenderun Port. The ship named ''Repubblica Di Roma'' brought military vehicles and equipment to the port on March 15. Sources said that the ship unloaded military vehicles and equipment it was carrying but was kept waiting at the port for ten days since it was not permitted to unload the remaining equipment because they were not notified. Unassembled helicopters and armored vehicles were unloaded from the ship. Six ''Scorsky'' helicopters unloaded from the ship would be used for search and rescue purposes. Blackhawks? And what's with the armor?
TSK PREPARES ITS PLAN FOR IRAQ
Turkey has determined its conditions for sending soldiers to northern Iraq. If the ''Rain Line'' in border region between Turkey and Iraq is violated, the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) will enter northern Iraq. The General Staff briefed Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and a group of members of the cabinet about recent developments in Iraq. During the meetings between government and General Staff officials, it was decided, ''if Kurdish groups violate the Rain Line, Turkish army will enter northern Iraq.'' I thought the Kurds going deeper into Iraqi territory is what was bothering Turkey?
MIT: ''KADEK CAN REVIVE''
The National Intelligence Agency (MIT) briefed Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and ministers, who are members of the National Security Council (NSC) about northern Iraq. During the briefing, MIT officials referred to a possible inflow of Iraqi refugees into Turkish borders as a result of the Iraq war. ''Such an inflow of refugees can create an appropriate atmosphere for revival of the terrorist organization PKK/KADEK,'' they said. Make up your mind.
Posted by: Steve ||
03/26/2003 08:39 am ||
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Capt. Clay Lyle's voice on the radio gave no hint of the violence that was about to erupt. "We're in contact," Lyle said calmly.
His words marked the first moments of a 24-hour running battle that pitted the 3rd Squadron, 7th Cavalry Regiment, 3rd Infantry Division against Iraqi troops as the squadron pushed north toward Baghdad along the Euphrates River. By the time the fighting ended, Lyle's regiment had lost three Abrams tanks, a Bradley fighting vehicle and several trucks â but no U.S. soldiers were seriously injured. Two of the tanks were knocked out by Iraqi shelling, the first Abrams ever lost to enemy fire.
The fighting began at 8:30 p.m. Monday local time when about 200 Iraqi troops ambushed the 500-vehicle convoy at night along the western bank of the Euphrates. Red tracers arched back and forth as the Iraqis, dug in 100 yards back on each side of the road, traded fire with the U.S. troops. The U.S. forces poured high-explosive shells into the Iraqi positions, and the Iraqis responded with mortars and rocket-propelled grenades, hitting two U.S. trucks and a Humvee. The encounter ended soon after squadron commander Lt. Col. Terry Ferrell ordered his soldiers to fire howitzers at the Iraqis. The radio crackled with taut voices barking grid references, then six orange fireballs blossomed over the Iraqi positions. A pair of A-10 Warthog jets delivered the final blow, dropping bombs, then strafing the enemy position.
That was just the start. Just before midnight local time in the streets on the edge of Al Faysaliyah, just west of the Euphrates, the Iraqis attacked again. Dozens of Iraqi militiamen hit the convoy with rocket-propelled grenades and machine guns. The convoy dispersed up side streets, but the leading elements headed for a bridge that seemed to offer an avenue of escape. The bridge held up under the first five vehicles but buckled under the 70-ton weight of an Abrams tank, plunging the tank into a gulch. The crew escaped uninjured, but Ferrell had no choice but to turn all 500 vehicles in the convoy around to find another route. In the darkness and confusion, with Iraqis continuing to fire on the convoy, two more tanks and a fuel truck rolled into ditches. Of the three tanks that had fallen into ditches, Ferrell managed to put two back on the road, but he had to abandon the other tank and the fuel truck. The squadron then retraced its way through the town, knocking out Iraqis, some firing rocket-propelled grenades.
Once out of town, the convoy continued pushing north toward Baghdad. A few hours later, as dawn approached, U.S. soldiers spotted Iraqis armed with mortars and rocket-propelled grenades about 1,000 yards from the road on each side. The fight was on again.
With his convoy strung out for many miles behind him and his troops weary from almost 10 continuous hours of combat, Ferrell called in airstrikes. Within minutes, two more A-10s dropped eight 500-pound bombs and raked the Iraqi positions with cannon fire, setting two tree lines ablaze. "It looks like 'Apocalypse Now,'" Air Force Tech. Sgt. Michael Keehan, Ferrell's senior enlisted tactical air controller, said with a look of pride.
The troops watching the burning tree lines could now see buildings among the trees. A man came running from one house, waving a white cloth and screaming that his family had been hurt. He was told to bring his family to the road, where a medical team patched up a 4-year-old boy, a pregnant woman and two men, one in his late teens, the other in his 30s. All had shrapnel in their legs. Maj. Todd Albright, a doctor, predicted a full recovery for all the victims except one man who would probably lose a foot. The family was driven away in an Iraqi ambulance.
Ferrell gave his troops two hours to catch their breath. He estimated his squadron had killed 150 Iraqi militia troops â not including those killed by the A-10s â with no casualties among his own soldiers. The three Bradleys and two tanks that had made it across the bridge before it collapsed rejoined the squadron and the convoy continued its drive north, crossing the Euphrates and working its way up the eastern bank. A sickly yellow-gray fog filled with fine grit settled over a landscape of marshes and bogs and empty factories. Iraqi forces appeared from around almost every corner, turning the morning and afternoon into a running firefight. At one point, the squadron commander's driver, Pfc. Randall Duke Newcomb, had to steer his Humvee with one hand and his knees while firing out the window.
The squadron captured three enemy soldiers before the Iraqis, perhaps using an anti-tank gun mounted on a truck, blasted the rear of two Abrams tanks, setting them ablaze. One driver was trapped inside his tank for several minutes before crawling to safety. In the 1991 Persian Gulf War, nine Abrams tanks were damaged by mines but were repaired. No U.S. soldier has ever died in an Abrams.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
03/26/2003 08:02 am ||
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Wonder if they had a recoilless rifle on a technical to get those rear shots on the Abrams?
Thank God we had no seriously wounded, but I am saddened to see our seemingly invincible Abrams lose its perfect combat record.
Posted by: Dar Steckelberg ||
03/26/2003 8:19 Comments ||
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Reports on Fox last night said they had been hit by anti-tank missiles, mounted on "technicals". The rear of any tank is the softest spot. Not much armor protecting the engine, but the crew compartment is secure.
Posted by: Steve ||
03/26/2003 8:41 Comments ||
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Recoiless rifle woull just make a scorch mark on the armor of these puppies - RR's are ancient and ineffective against modern layered armor. What got them was something like a Sagger - the Rumor is the newer Russian KOMORANT AT missle was used.
Edited for relevance.
Fourteen civilians died and another 30 were injured in Baghdad when a shopping area was hit during an air raid by US-led coalition forces, the Iraqi authorities say. The BBC's Andrew Gilligan, at the scene in the north of the city, says it appears that two missiles hit a busy parade of shops. An angry crowd of several hundred people gathered in the area following the strike, waving the shoes and clothes of victims. They shouted: "Down with Bush" and "Long live Saddam". Our correspondent says the buildings have been burnt out and their contents scattered over a wide area, while several cars were set on fire. He adds that the nearest military buildings are at least a quarter of a mile away. Reuters news agency correspondents say they have seen at least 15 burnt bodies, while some local people have said the number of dead could be as high as 45. Correspondents say the incident, if confirmed as a coalition attack, is a massive blow to attempts by the US-led forces to minimise civilian casualties during their drive to unseat Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. It's a blow, wouldn't go so far as to call it massive. An incident like this is overdue, IMO. It'll go down great on Arab St. No surprises if Sammy arranged this.
It is likely to increase anger in the Arab world and beyond about the war. A spokesman for the Royal Air Force said an investigation would be held into the incident. If the market had been hit as a result of coalition action, he said, "we deeply regret the loss of civilian life". Amnesty International has warned that the bombing of Iraqi state television station in Baghdad by US allied forces could be a breach of the Geneva Conventions. Have they been holding their breath for the last week? Wouldn't have wanted to be around for the spittle explosion.
Posted by: Bulldog ||
03/26/2003 10:30 am ||
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That reporter's hands are probably raw from all the wringing going on.
Developing story right now is that the 'bomb' that went off in the market earlier is left too small a crater for coalition weapon. It was only 2 feet deep. Suspected to be an Iraqi air defense weapon. The weapon, repeat, does not resemble any coalition 'penetration weapon'.
#4
It is likely to increase anger in the Arab world
Wouldn't want to risk the high opinion of the Arab Street would we?
Just think, to lose the respect of such peaceful, reasonable people would be a freakin' tragedy....
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#5
agonist.org is okay if you don't delve too far into the comments section.
It's full of "If Bush executed my family I wouldn't think much of the Americans either", and "Every TV station in the world is broadcasting civilian casualties except the United States. You are being lied to by this Administration..." and on and on.
God what assclowns.
#6
"'bomb' that went off in the market earlier is left too small a crater for coalition weapon"
I thought so too.
A 1000lb warhead on cruise missle would have made a hell of a hole,500lb JDAM smaller,but still a big hole,CBU would have seen a line of similar holes running down the street.
Just the relevant part is excerpted below:
As allied troops slowed their rush through Iraq after blinding sandstorms and word of Saddam's "dirty tricks," a convoy of at least 1,000 Republican Guard vehicles headed south to meet them. Intelligence officers with the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force said the units of Saddam's best trained and most loyal troops were headed from Baghdad on a route that avoids advancing U.S. Army forces and leads them directly to the Marines undoubtedly worn from intense fighting around An Nasiriyah. They can't be serious, can they? Leaving the city they're supposed to be defending and heading south in a convoy when the other side controls the air?
Posted by: jrosevear ||
03/26/2003 10:30 am ||
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#1
Allah Akhbar! What do they think they're doing?
#4
It's possible they think that the sandstorms will keep them safe from our air cover. I can't see any other reason they think they can get away with this... can anyone else?
#7
All I can figure is they're counting on the sandstorms to give them their "final victory". Or maybe they're eager to collect their 72 virgins.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
03/26/2003 8:20 Comments ||
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as far as i can tell from press reports, the regular Republican Guards have NOT moved into Bagdad - the city is held by Special Rep. Guards, Fedayeen/Brown Shirts, and Police/Securitate. Evidently the regime doesnt trust the RG. So given a choice between holding them in place in the ring around Bagdad, to be ground down by air power and artillery, or trying to use them for an attack, using them for an attack, which stands some chance of inflicting at least SOME damage on coalition forces, makes sense. It also is psy ops - by showing the will to fight offensively, it inspires, resistang remnants, and, in the regimes mind, demoralizes the coalition, and inspires the arab street.
#9
Knowing Saddam and Thugs, Inc., every other vehicle is probably a van or flatbed packed with women and children forced into the convoy under penalty of death--from Iraqi bullets or Coalition bombs--and Murat's beloved al-Jazeera will be only too happy to show the end results to the Arab world with their so-called unbiased coverage.
Posted by: Dar Steckelberg ||
03/26/2003 8:26 Comments ||
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War is hard, except when your enemy makes life easy for you.
#11
SammyCo must have been listening to NPR, where everything is always on the verge o' disaster.
Posted by: (lowercase) matt ||
03/26/2003 8:44 Comments ||
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#12
The Marines appear to be tied up at the river crossings. Irregulars to the rear making resupply difficult. Reported to be exhausted. The Guards command feels it can isolate and defeat in detail the Marines.
Unfortunately, the Marines have them right where they want them. They're goona rip off their heads and sh*t down their necks.
#13
I suspect the Iraqi Army is making a stab at relief and resupply of forces in the south. It is possible that they didn't expect their resistance in the south to collapse so quickly.
If the Iraqi command thinks they will gain an advantage by striking at US Marine light infantry, you gotta feel sorry for what the RGs are about to experience.
#15
This is going to be the most critical battle of the entire war on Terror and radical Islam. There is a METHOD to this seeming madness. I can't go into detail here, but please see a post I made this morning
A CLASS=ED HREF="HTTP://www.crusaderwarcollege.org">on my weblog.. It explains the seeming motivation behind the advance, and what the Iraquis hope to achieve. Please visit if you're a praying person: specific guidance there.
Don't be deceived by appearances: This battle will replace Iwo Jima and Okinawa as the most important battle the Marines have ever fought. If there is a time you have respected my judgment and opinion, please do so now.
#17
It's a bit hard to figure this one. Iraqi formations haven't performed well on the offensive against Western troops, so I find it hard to believe that they plan an actual attack on First MEF positions. Is it possible that they are trying to deploy into urban or broken ground positions in front of the Marines?
And while the sandstorm does provide some concealment, as well as grounding our helicopters, is that really going to be enough to allow the RG to move safely? Large weather systems are patchy -- you have congested areas and clear areas -- and we have the ability to loiter over the roads with everything from A-10s to B-52s.
Posted by: Patrick Phillips ||
03/26/2003 9:52 Comments ||
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#18
www.crusaderwarcollege.org is refusing connections. What's up?
#20
I've just started the blog, and the name must still be working its way through the domain name server system. I've looked at my site, and already have several hits, so I know the name is good in some places.
#21
interesting Ptah - BUT: The '67 war, IIUC, had a far greater impact on the arab world than on the rest of the muslim world. While many arabs see things in islamic terms, and Nasserite secularism has been on the decline since 1967, I have my doubts that the entire arab world sees things through an Islamic lens (though even those who are not are certainly familiar with the texts you have cited) I also dont know if an Iraqi victory here would redound to the direct benefit of the radical fundamentalists - in the short run it would show Allah smiling on the Baathists, and what it would show in the long run would depend on the eventual fate of the regime, and its choice of allies.
And the value of showing "faith" in a suicidal dash can be seen in nationalist terms (arab nationalist more than Iraqi nationalist, in this case) as well as in Islamic terms. Indeed, it may be that Islamic concepts paved the way for nationalist intensity in the Arab world (just as in very different ways Western nationalism had at least some of its roots in the religious crusader spirit - Im thinking very much of Spain, Prussia, and reformation England - not France though - maybe thats in insight about the French - the first cause they were "disloyal" to was the 17thc Catholic cause, establishing the placement of realpolitik above ideology as part of their national character)
#22
You're thinking like a westerner, liberalhawk, not a "true believer". Consider how the shuttle disaster was seen as Allah striking down American pride. Same issue here, with the added advantage of pushing the "victory in battle" hot button.
However, you are correct in that I did not sufficiently distinguish between Arab Muslims, Arab non-muslims, and non-arab muslims. Some take their faith more radically than others, and its the radical Islamists to which a military disaster happening in the desert to our brave Marines will resonate the most. Point taken. Thanks.
#25
All through this fight we keep hearing about JADMS and GBU-15's being used. Are the RGs about to meet the flying pigs?
Posted by: Someone who did NOT vote for William Proxmire ||
03/26/2003 16:28 Comments ||
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#26
The strategy is obvious. It was the carnage of the highway of death that finally led Bush Sr. and the American people to call off the combat. Saddam hopes to repeat the event hoping for the same results.
Royal Marines were deployed to Iraq's border with Iran yesterday in a move that will unnerve Teheran's regime, which fears encirclement by American-led forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Ministry of Defence said the Royal Marines were merely "securing their area of operations" after seizing at the Faw peninsula. But with Iranian troops manning positions on the other side of the Shatt al-Arab waterway, British forces face a highly sensitive task. Tensions were illustrated by a succession of border incidents. A rocket struck an Iranian oil refinery depot in Abadan, just across from Basra, on Friday injuring two people while there were reports on Monday that Iranian forces had fired on British troops on the Faw peninsula. Iran is torn between publicly denouncing the "imperialist" war on a fellow Muslim country and co-operating tacitly with America and Britain in removing the old enemy, Saddam Hussein.
America has waged war against two of Iran's most hated foes, the former Taliban regime in Afghanistan and the Ba'athists in Baghdad. But the "Great Satan", as America is known, now has forces on two of Iran's borders. Neighbouring Arab countries have long feared a war in Iraq could suck in forces from Turkey and Iran. Western diplomats said Turkish intervention to forestall any Kurdish attempt to seize greater autonomy could encourage Iran to cross the border to support fellow Shi'ites and clear out bases of the main Iranian opposition group, the Mujahideen-e-Khalq. The leading Iraqi Shi'ite opposition group, the Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution, has thousands of fighters in Iran. Some have slipped into Iraqi Kurdistan and many more may cross the border to claim a stake in the future Iraqi government. Watch out, you may get that stake, it will be a little wood one about three feet high.
Posted by: Becky ||
03/26/2003 10:36 am ||
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Defense Secretary Geoff Hoon Wednesday dismissed reports that British troops had been deployed on Iraq's eastern border to counter any intervention in the Iraq war by Iran. "Much of coalition-controlled Iraq bordering Iran is under British
command, but the suggestion that Royal Marines were sent to guard against Iranian forces are simply not true," Hoon told MPs. "We are seeking close contact with Iranian authorities to reduce
the scope for any potential misunderstanding," he said in reference to a report by the BBC that the US and UK were concerned about Iran's interference in the war. On Tuesday, Foreign Secretary Jack Straw dismissed the BBC's
claims about Iranian troops as 'poor' reporting, saying that there was 'no basis of evidence at all to substantiate' claimed Iranian militia
incursions. Speaking during Prime Minister's Questions Wednesday, Tony Blair also said 'there appears to be no substance' to reports that Iranian irregular militia had opened fire on British troops. "I think they know what the consequences for any such action against British military troops will be," he said. Messages sent to Iran had been 'very, very clear' he said, adding he believed that they 'will be heeded'. His more stark tone contrasted with Straw emphasizing that the importance he attached to developing good relations with Iran and
saying that he was 'only in touch with Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi talking about this and other matters last Thursday'.
This is another reason Brit Forces are on the right flank, the British have much better relations with the Iranians than we do.
Posted by: Steve ||
03/26/2003 9:02 Comments ||
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I saw a Brit embed report someplace yesterday where he watched Iranian gunners shooting at an A-10 while it was making an attack run.
#4
Iran is torn between publicly denouncing the "imperialist" war on a fellow Muslim country and co-operating tacitly with America and Britain in removing the old enemy, Saddam Hussein.
Hah, stuck between Iraq and a hard place. Don'tcha just love this sort of thing?
Paul Reynolds
BBC News Online world affairs correspondent
They were supposed to be cheering in the streets as the American and British tanks rolled in, just as they did in France in 1944. On 18 March, the New York Times reported: "Military and allied officials familiar with the planning of the upcoming campaign say they hope that a successful and 'benign' occupation of Basra that results in flag-waving crowds hugging British and American soldiers will create an immediate and positive image worldwide while also undermining Iraqi resistance elsewhere." The fact is that Basra is not undergoing a benign occupation. It has just been declared a military target by British forces which have come under attack from inside. This was a city which the British spokesman Colonel Chris Vernon said early on was not of military importance. In the scheme of things, it still isn't. But it has become a problem.
'Under threat'
What has happened? The explanation, according to British and American officials, is that Saddam Hussein's forces are still oppressing the people who cannot therefore show their true emotions. Right now they're still under threat - Saddam is still maybe alive and his goons and his assassination squads are still there [said] Paul Wolfowitz, US Deputy Defence Secretary Dr John Reid, the British Labour Party chairman compared the irregular Saddam forces dressed in black - known as Saddam's Fedayeen - to the SS in Nazi Germany.
The US Deputy Defence Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, one of those who wants Iraq to be at the start of a democratization process across the Arab world, told the BBC: "I think that when the people of Basra no longer feel the threat of that regime, you are going to see an explosion of joy and relief, but right now they're still under threat.
Bad memories
The people remember, it is said, what happened in 1991 when on 15 February, President George Bush senior urged "the Iraqi military and the Iraqi people to take matters in their own hands and force Saddam Hussein the dictator to step aside". The people did try, both in the Kurdish areas of the north and the mainly Shia areas of the south, including Basra. They were cut down. The Kurds fled into the mountains of southern Turkey, but the Shias (and others like the communists) in the south had nowhere to go. The London-based organisation Indict, which seeks to put Iraqi leaders on trial for war crimes, has accounts of mass executions in Basra and other southern cities as the Ba'ath party and the Republican Guard re-imposed their control.
Not cheering
However, it might not be as simple as that. Consider what happened in Basra last Saturday when there were air raids. The Qatari television channel al-Jazeera had a team in the city and it sent back graphic pictures of dead and wounded civilians which were widely shown in the Arab world. But these images were all but ignored in the West, which seemed more interested in pictures of the American prisoners of war. Pictures used in the West tend to be sanitised. The photograph with this story, taken after an air raid in Basra on Saturday, shows a wounded girl. What it doesn't show is that her foot has been blown off.
We don't want Saddam, but we don't want them [the Americans] to stay afterwards Mustafa Mohammed Ali, Nasiriya People do not take kindly to being bombed, even by "friendly forces". British forces, if they enter Basra to counter resistance there, will have to follow the advice of Colonel Tim Collins of the Royal Irish Regiment who told his men before the war started: "Tread carefully".
There is an interesting article in the alGuardian of 25 March from its correspondent, James Meek, who has been with the US Marines in Nasiriya. He shows how hostility to Saddam Hussein is not necessarily converted into support for the invasion. He managed to talk not just to marines but to locals, one of whom Mustafa Mohammed Ali was a surgical assistant at the Saddam hospital in the city. The sufferers from sanctions may take time to be convinced that the invaders are bringing them relief. He said that in fighting on Sunday bombs were dropped on civilian areas, killing 10 people. That day, two dead marines were brought to the hospital and he made this admission: "When I saw the dead Americans I cheered in my heart." And yet he did not support Saddam Hussein: "We don't want Saddam, but we don't want them [the Americans] to stay afterwards." Meek quoted another man, a farmer named Said Yahir, as saying that the marines had come to his house and had taken his son, his rifle and 3m dinars (£500; $800). "This is your freedom that you're talking about? This is my life savings," he said. Said Yahir himself had taken part in the uprising of 1991. He is not cheering in 2003.
Effect of sanctions
There are two other points: the effect of years of sanctions and the effect of nationalism. Although the sanctions regime allows for the provision of food and medicine, this is not always delivered to the poor. Saddam Hussein is not blamed but the United Nations and the United States are. The sufferers from sanctions may take time to be convinced that the invaders are bringing them relief.
Iraqi nationalism is another powerful influence. Those who know the country say that it can hold people together, whether they are Kurds, Sunnis or Shias. It appears to be a factor in the current phenomenon. A coming together often happens to a people under siege, and a siege is what the Iraqis are now experiencing.
Published: 2003/03/26 08:34:09
Posted by: Kerry ||
03/26/2003 05:57 am ||
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I always enjoy reading the BBC. They aren't very smooth at spinning, though I'm sure it works for their target audience. You actually get good information out of them - once you learn to read between the, "Although it may appear that"... XYZ... "closer examination reveals that the sky is falling and that Jews and Americans are pigs".
#2
A lot of the hostile quotes are already a day or two old. You see the same story reappearing everywhere. The situation is not clear and we'll have to wait and see. I hope the reports of an uprising continue but I doubt now that the allies will be celebrated liberators. People (including me at times) let their optimism get the better of themselves. I imagine there will be something closer to Afghanistan where the resistance will crumble and people will be glad to get rid of the old regime, no matter how distrustful they are of the foreigners. Americans yearn to be loved but all we need is a little grudging respect and mostly success.
Posted by: Tokyo Taro ||
03/26/2003 7:07 Comments ||
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A different BBC reporter in Iraq has blasted his own network's dishonest and defeatist coverage in an internal memo that was leaked to our favorite balls-to-the-wall British tabloid, The Sun.
#4
Oh hell, I don't want to get into a rant about the BBC. It does provide a comprehensive news coverage, and because it's not got sponsors to keep happy, it posts whatever it gets straight onto the internet. This gives it a huge and unfair advantage over just about anyone else, UK or US included, who have to rely on (primarily TV) advertising or subscription.
The BBC grows fat thanks to British TV licence-payers, who are obliged to pay this mandatory tax which benefits just the one media corporation. It's message will always tend towards the left as it relies on state money for its very existence. There's growing disquiet about this, especially as it spends an ever increasing amout of time promoting itself and its own subscription TV channels.
The TV licence also pays for BBC national and local radio stations, of which there are a great many and variety. Commerical stations are somehow expected to compete.
#5
"Although the sanctions regime allows for the provision of food and medicine, this is not always delivered to the poor. Saddam Hussein is not blamed but the United Nations and the United States are."
Figures -- it's another good reason to keep the UN out of Iraq during reconstruction.
Posted by: John Phares ||
03/26/2003 7:50 Comments ||
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#6
In a way this is a good thing, the administration has a tendency to see everything outside their inner circle as being nothing but objects to be manipulated. It's past time they wised up
"The British moves came amid reports of rebellion in the Shiite-dominated city and harsh reprisals by security forces loyal to Mr. Hussein's government.
A woman who waved to British forces on the outskirts of the city was later found hanged, an American officer said, and the Iraqis moved D-30 artillery in place to shell rebellious residents."
#9
"When I saw the dead Americans I cheered in my heart." And yet he did not support Saddam Hussein: "We don't want Saddam, but we don't want them [the Americans] to stay afterwards."
And if it were up to me, you freakazoids would be contained to your own land were you could continue to gleefully kill each other and leave us the hell alone.
Tell us where the WMDs are, lead us to bin Laden, quit killing Israelis, and stop fostering sick Islamic hate and you can be left to finish each other off.
Then Westerners can cheer in their hearts, too.
Coalition forces are reportedly standing by to enter the southern Iraqi city of Basra to support a possible civilian uprising. British troops are also said to be fighting Iraqi paramilitary units and soldiers attempting to flee the country's second city through its western outskirts. I've got a mental image of these guys shielding their heads whilst running through the skirts of giant kitchen utensil-wielding housewives towards a line coalition tanks.
Iraqi soldiers are believed to have opened fire on residents who joined revolts against Saddam Hussein - although reports of an uprising were described as "lies" by Baghdad. "Oh, it's true, it's so truuuuue, the people hate us! We're a detested bunch of thugs and murderers, and we've got just days to live! D'OH! What have I said?! I mean, LIES, ALL LIES!!! British Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon said that the situation in the city on Wednesday morning was "unclear", while some reports said that its streets were quiet. British military officials said overnight air raids on Basra city centre destroyed the headquarters of Saddam Hussein's ruling Ba'ath Party and several Iraqi mortar positions. British forces spokesman Group Captain Al Lockwood told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that before Basra was entered commanders would look "very, very carefully at all options available to us". Just don't take too long, pls.
He said the streets of Basra were quiet on Wednesday, adding: "We are therefore very carefully assessing the situation to see how we can capitalise on it this morning." One unnamed British officer said the decision was taken to not go into Basra overnight because of fears that civilians could be mistakenly hit in any fighting. Describing the apparent rebellion Mr Lockwood said: "It started yesterday afternoon — it appeared some of the population rose up and started attacking the elements defending the city, these more and more appear to be criminal elements and members of the ruling Ba'ath Party. I'm curious to know precisely what he means by "criminal elements" — and surely the Ba'athists are cell-fodder if anyone is.
"The attack from the local population obviously gave them cause for concern, to the extent that they started mortaring them." UK forces then targeted the mortar positions and dropped a precision bomb on the headquarters of Saddam Hussein's ruling Ba'ath Party, Mr Lockwood said. Mr Hoon told the BBC that there had been an attempted uprising on some scale in Basra, which had been met with mortar and gun fire by soldiers. The defence secretary said: "Certainly there have been disturbances, local people rising up against the regime."
And Mr Baath Bigshot doorknob dead... I like that.
Claims of a revolt were backed by the main Shia Iraqi opposition group, the Iran-based Supreme Assembly for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, which claims connections in the city. But Iraqi Information Minister Mohammed al-Sahhafdenied that any revolt had taken place in Basra. "The situation is stable. Resistance is continuing and we are teaching them more lessons," he told Qatar-based al-Jazeera television. We appreciate the lessons, thanks. Really.
#1
now the Supreme Assembly says its disturbances and not quite an uprising. Al jazeera reporter inside Basra sees no uprising. OTOH UK forces, saw mortar fire from one part of city to another, and less targeting of UK forces as mortars fire inside city. Coalition spokespeople continue to be cautious.
Sounds like there have been people out on the streets in SOME parts of the city, with the Fedayeen responding - but no generalized citywide uprising yet. Unclear how it is turning out. Brit forces will fire on regime mortars - both cause this is a good opportunity to do so, and to support uprising. I assume there are coalition spec. forces inside the city, or at least intel assets, and that coalition knows considerably more about what is going on then they are saying. I assume that they are looking for right opportunity to go in - perhaps waiting for arrival of HMS (?) Sir Galahad, with food and water for inhabitants.
It's very difficult to pin down what is actually happening in Basra. We've been metaphorically pinning British military spokesmen against the wall all day and last night saying "Come on - what is the evidence of this uprising?"
All they have said to us is that they are absolutely 100 percent, copper-bottom certain that there was some sort of uprising. They don't know its scale, they don't know where exactly it happened but they are certain there was some sort of disturbance there.
Indeed since then it's been a very active morning - street to street fighting between British forces and Iraqi forces just to the west of Basra and in the outskirts of the city."
#3
BBC and others now report a column of about 100 iraqi vehicles LEAVING Basra, headed SOUTH for Fao Peninsula. Either trying to recapture Fao (?!?!?) or trying to flee uprising (more likely, IMHO) In either case, they are being hit hard by coalition air.
BBC Reporter's Log, Wednesday, 26 March
(Most recent postings on the BBC warblog are at the top, so you may need to scroll down.) Baghdad :: Andrew Gilligan :: 0602GMT
Iraqi TV is off air this morning, so is the rival channel owned by Saddam Hussein's son, Uday. Their normal breakfast diet of patriotic songs and pictures of Saddam Hussein has been replaced by wavy lines and static. It took the allies several tries to silence the broadcasts on Tuesday night. Programmes stopped at least twice, then resumed from relief transmitters.
------------------------------------------------------------ Washington DC :: Ian Pannell :: 0427GMT
The Pentagon is confirming that Iraqi state television has been knocked off their air and that that was the target. They deny that the so-called e-bomb or microwave bomb was used. The purpose of the operation was to counter command and control abilities of the Iraqi regime and also to deal with propaganda and the disinformation campaign of Baghdad. At the moment, it is still too early to say how successful or otherwise the bombing campaign was other than the fact that the Iraqi state television is off air and the damage assessment continues.
Posted by: Kerry ||
03/26/2003 12:43 am ||
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The domestic service of Iraqi TV is back on the air now, but with a much weaker signal and operating from another location, according to Fox News. The international satellite channel, presumably including outgoing transmission capability, has definitely been knocked out.
Posted by: Joe ||
03/26/2003 4:44 Comments ||
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Baghdad :: Paul Wood :: 0851GMT BBC Warblog
I can see the television building about 200 meters behind where I am standing now and the white smoke is still billowing from there, following the bombing last night. Service was only off air for about 20 minutes before it came back on, not as good a picture, but back on air. The leadership realises how important it is to keep the tv network broadcasting, and how important it is for him to be visible and to be seen to be still in charge. There was clearly a plan laid to keep this on air. Members of the government are looking astonishing confident and relaxed at the moment considering there is a quarter of a million coalition troops knocking on their door. We are seeing a lot more preparations around the city, an increase in sandbags on the street and a lot more military personnel are visible.
#4
"Maybe Iraq TV wasn't the main target. Could have been collateral to other communication systems."
If indeed SF have been issuing false (and suicidal) orders to Iraqi troops, it would be important to cut their other means of communication. This would seem extremely difficult, though.
Posted by: Michael Levy ||
03/26/2003 21:37 Comments ||
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"If indeed SF have been issuing false (and suicidal) orders to Iraqi troops"...SEND YOUR BEST MEN TO AL NASARIAH, NOW! wow!
Posted by: john ||
03/26/2003 22:09 Comments ||
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A second serviceman died Tuesday from wounds suffered in a grenade attack blamed on an Army sergeant, the military said. Air Force Maj. Gregory Stone, 40, based in Boise, was pronounced dead at an Army field hospital in Kuwait, the Idaho Air National Guard said. Sgt. Asan Akbar is in custody in the attack. He was shipped to a military jail in Germany on Tuesday after a judge found probable cause to try him for the crime. Akbar, an American Muslim who told family members he was wary of going to war in Iraq, has not been charged. Capt. Christopher Scott Seifert, 27, of Easton, Pa., was killed and 14 other soldiers were injured in the attack.
Lt. Col. Tim Marsano, spokesman for the Idaho Air National Guard, said Stone, a 20-year active and reserve veteran of the Air Force, was the Air Liaison Officer with the Army's 101st Airborne Division at Camp Pennsylvania. ``My son died to allow the guy who killed him to believe what he believed,'' his father, Richard Stone of Riggins, Idaho, told television station KIVI. The father said his last contact with his son was through an e-mail Saturday. In it, Stone, said things were going well and he was a little nervous but ready for the mission. Stone graduated from Benson High School in Portland, Ore., and Oregon State University. He enlisted in 1983, went through the ROTC program at Oregon State and was commissioned in 1988. ``He was wonderful, the best son anybody could ask for,'' said his stepmother, Sally Stone of Riggins, Idaho. Stone's mother, Betty Lenzi of Ontario, Ore., said she was too upset to talk. Stone had two sons, ages 11 and 7, who live in Boise. Major Stone sounds like a great guy, just the kind of guy I'd like as a neighbor. We will remember you.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/26/2003 10:40 am ||
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Sounds like one of the members of the military who went to our church and went to GWI. Let's say a prayer for all the families of those lost in combat, stay on task, and finish the job of liberation they started.
Iraqi state-run television may have been one of the casualties of the latest round of bombing raids on Baghdad today, according to the US military. Smoke was seen in the vicinity of the information ministry and the Iraqi TV building, following a series of loud explosions which rocked the south and centre of the city as dawn broke over Baghdad this morning. A spokeswoman at the Pentagon announced that coalition aircraft had struck the Iraqi television channel, but told the Associated Press that, as yet, damage assessment was not complete. Well they hit something! It's off the air!
US military officials have previously asserted that Iraqi television is a legitimate military target, since cutting communications links between President Saddam Hussein and the Iraqi people is an important goal of the campaign. Smoke was seen rising from the area of the city where the ministry of information and television station are situated. Republican Guard divisions are also believed to be housed in the south of the capital. Maybe we got a two-fer?
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/26/2003 10:41 am ||
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Provided Saddam IS capable of communicating with his people...
The Iraqis revolt Filed: 26/03/2003) (via The Corner/NRO) An opinion piece from the Telegraph
The popular uprising in Basra that began last night may prove to be the best news of the war so far for the allied forces. Thousands of civilians are reported to have confronted the Ba'athist authorities in the heart of this, the second most important city in Iraq. The insurrection suggests that the Anglo-American message - that this is a war against Saddam's regime, not the Iraqi people - is at last getting through.
As the visible symbols, leaders and cadres of the totalitarian system are relentlessly targeted by the coalition onslaught, the Ba'ath Party's grip on the country is beginning to weaken. Despite the vicious attempts by Saddam's Fedayeen and others to kill and intimidate the protesters in Basra, if the uprising is successful its significance cannot be overestimated. What had hitherto deterred the mainly Shia Muslims of southern Iraq from rebelling was fear, pure and simple. Twelve years ago these Shi'ites rose in order to overthrow Saddam, encouraged by America, only to be suppressed with the utmost savagery.
In the early days of the allied invasion, they were understandably cautious, particularly when the main American thrust simply bypassed Basra, leaving Saddam's machinery of terror in place. Many inhabitants of the city suspected that, if they rose immediately, they might be abandoned. The skirmishes over the weekend brought about a change in allied strategy, however, with Basra redesignated a military target. Once British troops, principally the 7th Armoured Brigade (the "Desert Rats") began to surround Basra in the past two days, the city was reinforced by up to 1,000 Saddam loyalists.
Yesterday, by annihilating an Iraqi armoured column that ventured out of Basra and mounting a spectacular dawn raid on a Ba'athist stronghold in neighbouring Zubayr, capturing a senior party official, the British showed that they meant business. This was the signal for the uprising. Once they observed mortars firing on protesters, British forces immediately called up artillery and air support, destroying the Ba'ath Party headquarters. Horrified Black Watch officers watched the "carnage", but their task was hampered by the RAF's lack of Apache attack helicopters. Last night, the British commanders faced an unenviable decision: whether to send in troops and armour to support the uprising. After Tony Blair yesterday promised the Iraqi opposition, "This time we will not let you down", it would be unthinkable to allow the revolt to be crushed.
There is no risk-free option, though: if an assault on the city were resisted by substantial Ba'athist forces, both the British and the civilians risk heavy casualties. Whatever happens now in Basra, however, one body of opinion has been defeated: the armchair generals at BBC, CNN, NYT and NPR who gleefully claimed that the apparent loyalty of Iraqis to Saddam proved that the allied strategy was a disastrous miscalculation. In fact, the vast majority of Iraqis have nothing but fear and loathing for Saddam, but they need to see evidence that his power is crumbling. The allied war aims do not only involve the fall of the dictator, but also the destruction of the entire structure of his tyranny. Just as Germany, even after Hitler, could not return to democracy without undergoing a process of denazification, so Iraq needs "de-Ba'athification". That task has already begun. If the Basra uprising proves to have been the decisive turning point in the war, the British Army should be proud indeed.
Posted by: Kerry ||
03/26/2003 12:30 am ||
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Will Iraq have its own Hekmatyar? If so, it could be: Ayatollah Mohammed Baqir al-Hakim. Call 'em the "Hek" and "Hak" show.
More evidence that the Iraqi regime easily adopts al Qaeda tactics.
Coalition naval forces were on high alert against suicide attacks after Iranian gunboats intercepted an Iraqi speedboat packed with half a tonne of high explosive. Three other Iraqi speedboats, which it is feared may contain similar amounts of explosive, got away when Iranian forces engaged Iraqis at the mouth of the Shatt-al-Arab River. The explosives were discovered after one of the Iraqi boats was run aground during the confrontation. British, American and Australian warships in the region have been on high alert for the risk of al-Qaeda strikes. But the discovery of the Iraqi speedboats is the first definite physical evidence that suicide attacks are being planned in the region.
Before the war started Rear Admiral David Snelson, the British naval commander in the Gulf, said the threat of small speedboats packed with explosives was "uppermost in his mind" in terms of threats to the Royal Navy. All 30 navy and Royal Fleet auxiliary vessels in the Gulf have mounted round-the-clock force protection squads on deck. Armed with general-purpose machine guns, the squads have permission to open fire on vessels if they continue to close on a ship after ignoring signals and warning shots across the bow. The Australian warship Kanimbla which is responsible for orchestrating the clearance of the Kwahrade Abdalla river to allow humanitarian aid into Iraq, also has more than 20 heavily armed boarding passes of Royal Marines and other specialist troops operating out of rigid rubber inflatable boats.
Posted by: Kerry ||
03/26/2003 10:44 am ||
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Um, isn't a "suicide speedboat" packed with explosives supposed to go "boom" when run aground? Criminy, these guys can't get anything right!
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/26/2003 0:31 Comments ||
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Iran joins the coalition! Or at least the target practice.
Posted by: B. ||
03/26/2003 0:33 Comments ||
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After the missile attack a couple days ago, the Iranians couldn't be sure of that boat's intentions. It seems to me they have an oil terminal near the mouth of the Shatt-al-Arab.
It's a bit of a roaring sea out here in the Gulf at the moment and the ship is tilting acutely at times. There is also a rolling fog now which will hinder flying from this and the other carriers around me.
The Iraqi navy, in the sense of a real navy, no longer exists. Under sanctions it was never allowed to build itself up. They did build up about 100 hyper speedboats which have operated from ports like Umm Qasr.
It is understood that the crews of these speedboats are missing and that coalition vessels have to be alert to suicide attacks in the waters off the Al Faw peninsula.
#5
RE: BBC imbedded reporter in Kerry's comments It's a bit of a roaring sea out here in the Gulf at the moment and the ship is tilting acutely at times.
Now there is an old sea dog for ye. Don Quixote tilted at windmills, while ships PITCH and ROLL.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
03/26/2003 10:30 Comments ||
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Philippine troops killed a senior commander of the Muslim extremist Abu Sayyaf group in a raid on his hideout, the military said Wednesday. Salip Asman Halipa, who was allegedly involved in a series of kidnappings and murders in southern Basilan province, was killed late Tuesday on the islet of Malamawi. The raid followed a tip from fishermen. There were no government casualties and troops were pursuing guerrillas who escaped. Halipa had a $18,350 bounty on his head. It's Miller Time!
It was not immediately certain if he was involved in the May 2001 kidnapping of three Americans and 17 Filipinos from a resort island. One of the Americans was beheaded by the guerrillas and another died in a military operation that led to the rescue of the third.
In a separate clash, Muslim rebels fired rocket-propelled grenades into a row of houses in a southern farming village Wednesday, killing at least five residents and wounding several others, officials said. Moro Islamic Liberation Front spokesman Eid Kabalu acknowledged the rebels attacked New Antique village in M'lang town, but said the target was a military detachment. Army troops later confronted the attackers and killed five rebels in a gunbattle, army spokesman Maj. Julieto Ando said. It's easier attacking civilians, the army shoots back.
Lito Pinol, vice mayor of the predominantly Christian town, said three of the dead villagers were shot while they were sleeping. Two other residents, including a child, also were killed, he said. That would be the "military detachment", I guess.
Posted by: Steve ||
03/26/2003 10:48 am ||
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CAMP DOHA, Kuwait, March 24 The way to Baghdad is through the Republican Guard. The United States Army and the Marine Corps are now moving up supplies and getting their forces into place to take the fight to Saddam Hussein's most loyal units. According to the allied war plan, by the time the onslaught begins in earnest, the Iraqi troops will have been thoroughly pummeled from the air.
There is little doubt that the United States military has the skills, training and weapons to take the capital and dislodge the Hussein government. The questions are how long it will take, and what the cost will be in terms of casualties, both allied and Iraqi.
True, but every time Rumsfeld did open his mouth, it did the US cost an ally
The Iraqis are trying to counter the allied strategy by carrying out guerrilla-style raids to disrupt the movement of troops and supplies and divert allied attention to threats in the rear. The advance on the Iraqi capital may also bring allied forces closer to the threat of chemical weapons, according to American officials. They are concerned that the Iraqis have drawn a red line around the approaches to the capital and that crossing it could prompt Mr. Hussein's forces to fire artillery and missiles tipped with chemical or germ warheads.
Baghdad is what the United States military calls the center of gravity. It is the stronghold from which Mr. Hussein controls his forces, a bulls-eye for the American air war commanders and the final objective for American ground forces that have drawn up plans to fight their way to the gates of the capital, then conduct thrusts at power centers inside the city.
From the start, the campaign to take Baghdad was envisioned as a multifaceted effort.
It began with a cruise missile attack that was intended to kill Mr. Hussein. Government command centers and bunkers have been blasted with bombs and cruise missiles, attacks that can be expected to continue periodically.
For all the talk about waging a punishing air campaign, the United States has been holding back some punch. The Pentagon removed hundreds of strikes from its attack plan in an effort to limit civilian casualties and damage to civilian structures.
The calculation is that this approach will make it easier for American officials to receive public support and rebuild Iraq after Mr. Hussein is toppled. In contrast to the Persian Gulf war in 1991, Iraqi television is still on the air.
Should American air power destroy Mr. Hussein's government a prospect that seems increasingly unlikely American ground forces would be rushed to Baghdad to fill the power vacuum.
Otherwise, the role of air power is to weaken the government's command and control and knock out Iraqi air defenses, then provide United States ground commanders with air cover if American ground forces have to venture into the still-defended capital.
Airstrikes will also be directed against Republican Guard forces protecting the approaches to the city, including their command and control, artillery and tanks. The goal is to weaken the units and freeze the Republican Guard in place so they cannot drop back and prepare for urban warfare.
The land attack on Baghdad is still in its initial phases. The first step took place Sunday night when the 11th Attack Helicopter Regiment began to strike a brigade of the Medina.
To set the stage for the assault, the United States military hammered Iraqi radar and tried to suppress surface-to-air missiles. But the Iraqis had a low-tech solution: they deployed a large number of irregular fighters who were equipped with machine guns and small arms.
Darn, this is against the Geneva convention, the Iraqis play foul!
As the helicopters took off, they flew low off the ground to make themselves less inviting targets for surface-to-air missiles. But that made them vulnerable to the small-arms fire. Thirty of 32 Apache helicopters were struck by small-arms fire.
One helicopter went down, and its two-man crew was captured. The Army was so concerned that the Iraqis would get their hands on the technology that they fired two Atacms missiles today to destroy the helicopter. Because of bad weather after the action, the military had no report on whether they succeeded. The Apaches destroyed only 10 to 15 Iraqi armored vehicles. American military commanders say they are rethinking their helicopter tactics as a result of the events of the past 24 hours.
Only 10 to 15?
The weather has also become at least a temporary ally of the Iraqis. American military officials are forecasting several days of cloudy weather with 10,000-foot ceilings and 30-knot winds that will create sandstorms. The bad weather will preclude helicopter attacks and make it more difficult for allied warplanes to attack the three Republican Guard divisions around Bagdad.
But the bad weather will not last forever, and American forces are using the time to get their forces into position and move up large amounts of fuel and supplies.
The marines, for example, are laying a long fuel pipeline in Iraqi territory. American forces are also trying to improve the security of their convoys by deploying more armed escorts on the ground and by helicopter in response to a wave of attacks by Iraqi fedayeen and other irregular forces.
During the stretch of bad weather, the Army hopes to keep the pressure on by firing Atacms surface-to-surface missiles. The weather will make it difficult for allied pilots to hit mobile targets, but the air war commanders could try to keep the heat on by dropping gravity bombs or cluster bombs.
When the moment comes to battle the Republican Guards full tilt, it will be through a combined arms attack involving artillery, close air support and tanks. Army and Marine forces will be involved.
After reaching the outskirts of the capital, American commanders envision a deliberate fight and say they are determined not to rush into the city.
Yeah, that wouldn't be so wise of course, no rush.
Rather, their plan calls for patient reconnaissance to try to pinpoint the location of Mr. Hussein, his top deputies and the main defenders of his rule, including internal security organizations and elements of the Special Republican Guard. They are hoping that residents will provide the necessary intelligence.
???? residents or agents?
The goal is to avoid house-to-house fighting that could result in large American and civilian casualties. Instead, allied commanders envision thrusts at crucial power centers. Army combat engineers might be at the front of a formation to destroy barricades and other obstacles. Tanks could follow, protected by light infantry to guard against attacks, rocket-propelled grenades and antitank weapons. The formations would also be protected by air power, including spotters that would call in airstrikes and Apache helicopters, which could fire Hellfire missiles.
Looks like another picnic scenario from Rumsfeld to me
"If there is to be a fight in and around Baghdad, we're going to have to be very patient to establish the right conditions for us to engage in that fight," Gen. William S. Wallace, the commander of the V Corps, said in a recent interview. "I think that means forming joint combined arms teams that include Air Force, Army aviation, light infantry, armored forces, engineer forces that together can go after a specific target, for a specific purpose."
Posted by: Anonymous ||
03/26/2003 03:43 am ||
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Sorry I forgot to put my name it is not Anonymous but Murat.
It looks like American troops got stuck in the Tigris delta due to bad planning and the lack of backup reserves. The war has started without completion of the necessary force build-up due to political misfortunes and self-deceptions, believing that Iraqis would welcome the forces as âliberatorsâ. Where are those virtually supposed 100.000 peshmerga forces, intelligence reports show that in reality Kurds have only 30.000 light armed fighters, no match at all for the Iraqis to open the northern front or rallying the opposition forces a la Afghan style. Military strategists say it is unlikely that the planning has been made by Gen. Tommy Franks who stated the need of an additional army.
Posted by: Murat ||
03/26/2003 4:49 Comments ||
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Latest reports have a convoy of perhaps 1000 republican guard vehicles headed towards the force that is "stuck in the Tigris delta". Remember the Iraqi retreat from Kuwait during Gulf War I and the result? Moving large columns of ground forces through open space when the enemy is in sole control of the air is suicide. Hey Murat, you don't suppose that drawing them out of Baghdad just might have been part of the plan do you?
Posted by: B. ||
03/26/2003 6:13 Comments ||
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Hello Buldog, the Iraqis are maybe planning to make use of the sandstorm cover, or they rush in backup troops to keep a strategic position and maybe to rescue a valuable person of the Saddam familie, who knows. I have no idea of how severe such sandstorms can be, the Iraqis are taking big risks, interesting.
Posted by: Murat ||
03/26/2003 6:35 Comments ||
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The Iraqis are definitely using the sandstorm coverage.
Posted by: Murat ||
03/26/2003 6:52 Comments ||
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#5
"True, but every time Rumsfeld did open his mouth, it did the US cost an ally"
The utter cluelessness- the sheer stupidity- of this statement is simply breathtaking. It pains me terribly to point out something that should be patently obvious, Murat, but the truth is we haven't lost any allies at all: we've just learned who is our friend, and who is not.
It is you, not we, who have cause for concern: in the space of barely two months your country's bumbling, venal leadership has transformed Turkey; once a trusted, valued friend, you are now a probable future enemy.
What the hell are you people using for brains, anyway? Just curious...
Posted by: Dave D. ||
03/26/2003 7:03 Comments ||
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we've just learned who is our friend, and who is not.
Sure buddy, "who is not with is, is against us". Must be a really comfortable way to make up who is friend or foe, and vouches for a lot of brain use.
Posted by: Murat ||
03/26/2003 7:12 Comments ||
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I'm flattered, Murat, but that's not me you're talking to. I'll read the post and might comment later...
#8
Murat - Read all about JSTARS. Sandstorms are irrelevant, trust me.
Posted by: B. ||
03/26/2003 7:37 Comments ||
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And Turkey's refusal to allow the 4th I.D.has nothing to do with it?(I Suppose)
I've been in Phoenix,Az.during sandstorms
you will be driving along(50mph/about65kph)You'll see a brown wall in the distance,next thing you know all you can see is brown.There have been some horiffic pile-ups on the highways/freeways because visibility can drop too zero in a couple of secounds.
#10
B., It is hard to believe that the Iraqi military planners don't know about the JSTARS and their ability, must be a reason they risk 1000 vehicles and I guess the timing during a sandstorm is not just a stupid coincedence.
Posted by: Murat ||
03/26/2003 8:14 Comments ||
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It will be interesting to see who is really to blame for the great force-level screwup. I recall Stratfor running a piece claiming that Rummy was mad at the Army for being unable to get mobilized fast enough once he had agreed to a heavier force. The weather and time are against us so the administration obviously decided to roll the dice. The problem is Rummy/Wolfowitz/Perle etc. seem to have forgotten their Clauswitz and that nice little concept known as friction.
I still don't understand why we aren't seeing elements of the 2nd Cavalry Regiment in region to do road patrol work. They can at least be flown in in a pinch. Using battle tanks seems less then optimal, that little matter of bridges that go crunch.
#12
Force level scew-up - i suspect the military will end up blaming State and the politicals - if 4th ID was coming down from the north, they could use 101st for other tasks.
#13
And Turkey's refusal to allow the 4th I.D.has nothing to do with it?
So, you suppose Turkey is to blame then, what about those politicians talking about "horse trading" and "bribing the Turkish belly dancer", they did their job excellent?
Posted by: Murat ||
03/26/2003 9:11 Comments ||
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Murat, your highlighted comments have become a bit nasty lately. As I see it, you think we'd be better off dumping Rumsfeld, dumping the Geneva Conventions, and plunging headlong into Iraqi forces like a bunch of suicidal maniacs. You clearly suffer the delusion that our leadership and our military are inept. I wonder if your opinions reflect typical attitudes in Turkey. If so, it is perhaps best that our alliance with Turkey is crumbling.
Posted by: Tom ||
03/26/2003 10:00 Comments ||
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#15
They light up oil trenches in Baghdad every morning to try and stop the cruise missiles and GPS bombs. That's worked REALLY well. Now they send out a 1000 vehicle convoy they think can hide in a sandstorm. Military geniuses they ain't. And that's a HUGE, probably decisive, advantage to us.
#16
We don't really need agents or the locals to point out the Ba'athist scum. Just look for the well-fed, even chubby, Iraqis.
And Murat, I think you misread the real message of the Times' story - they're real, real scared that nothing absolutely horiffic has happened to the coalition troops yet. US politics is the Grey Lady's baliwick, first last and always.
#17
What happen Murat,you used to be a reasonable guy.Is that"Screw America milk"getting sour.
If I remember right Turkey's haggling kept the 4thI.D.hanging around waiting for permision to land.
Now your upset that America say's"Go piss up a rope".Let me clue you in on a fact of life:Everyone(governments included)have decisions and choices to make,Turkey made thier decision now they have to live with it.
I guess the $6bn included in Bush' supplamentary budget doesn't mean much to you.Well that is fine with me you can take a handfull of sand and pound it.
#18
Reports are that the turkey shoot involving that RG convoy is underway. Highway of Death II it is. Sorry Murat, no sneaky Iraqi troop movements under the cover of sandstorms today.
Posted by: B. ||
03/26/2003 13:30 Comments ||
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Wow! That they believed they could hide from us in the sandstorms is unreal. Maybe the Drudge title is right, Sandstorm from God.
#20
Hey Murat: Major Garrett on Fox broke the news just now that 1000 paratroopers from a base in Vincenza (sp?) Italy had entered the northern front. That along with the announcement earlier by the Military (the only brains in Turkey apparently) that they would not enter Turkey with more troops yet had secured a marginally better aid bribe package, shows you Turks really know how to bargain....I wanna play Poker with you, son, bring some money ;-)
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/26/2003 16:41 Comments ||
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The United States will not cede control of Iraq to the United Nations if and when it overthrows President Saddam Hussein, Secretary of State Colin Powell said Wednesday. "We didnât take on this huge burden with our coalition partners not to be able to have a significant dominating control over how it unfolds in the future," Powell told a House subcommittee. "We would not support ... essentially handing everything over to the U.N. for someone designated by the U.N. to suddenly become in charge of this whole operation. We have picked on a greater obligation -- to make sure there is a functioning Iraqi government that is supported by the coalition, the center of gravity remaining with the coalition, military and civilian." Powell said the United Nations should, however, have a role in a post-Saddam Iraq, if only because it makes it easier for other countries to contribute to reconstruction costs. And we need somebody to go for coffee. Don't forget that.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
03/26/2003 08:18 pm ||
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"If and when"?
I wonder if those were his words. Yeah right.
#2
I'm glad to see Colin Powell finally fully-integrated into the Bush team.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
03/26/2003 20:54 Comments ||
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Nope. No UN, and America pays it alone. All of it. Fair enough. Expect 500bn or so. Good luck.
I so agree with Powell. Whether the U.S. taxpayer will is another matter.
#4
Powell said the United Nations should, however, have a role in a post-Saddam Iraq, if only because it makes it easier for other countries to contribute to reconstruction costs.
I nominate the U.N. to be in the position of observer. No influence, no decision, no say, and NO authority.
San Francisco -- More than 600 journalists are embedded with the U.S. military forces in the Middle East. But no journalists are believed to have been embedded in the peace movement.
Until now.
The invitation to attend an activist training session came from organizers with Enraged Loser Socialists Who Cant Accept the Loss of the Soviet Union Direct Action to Stop the War, the umbrella group that coordinated the civil disobedience protests that knotted up downtown San Francisco last week and have led to 2,300 arrests. While activists aren't planning any more large- scale civil disobedience, they will aim protests at corporations they deem to be "war profiteers." Get your lawyer on the phone taxpayers of San Francsico.
Training to do civil disobedience wasn't tough. Certainly not compared with what reporters embedded in the military are enduring. Good point. Being shot at is clearly more dangerous than taking an afteroon of tear gas on the embarcadero
One Chronicle reporter spent a week at an Army camp before being embedded into a unit now in Iraq. During training he was shot at, made to do calisthenics and forced to eat tasteless food. Those inhuman bastards!, dont they know that J-school grads are tender sissy boys?
But it took just an hour to learn how to properly block the front door of Bechtel Corp., high on the protesters' list of "war profiteers." No calisthenics required. ...and a little help on how to get your resume on the front door while you are also protesting the very same company.
Instead, wannabe Asshats Gandhis learned how to go limp when police tried to remove them, when to call their lawyer and how to craft pithy sound bites for TV reporters while being dragged away in cuffs. Going "limp" is easy as hell when you have no backbone.
There were no snacks. But someone did offer a bite of her Luna bar. Bastards. Someone call Kofi Annan
"We'd really like everyone to come back for the four-hour training course," said Leone Reinbold, who has been training civil disobedience activists around the country for several years. For the Ph.D.-inclined, there's also a two-hour follow-up on legal issues and four-hour courses on medical issues and "jail solidarity."
"We're condensing a lot here," Reinbold said. Condensing. Thats what my colon does with lunch.
It's not sexy stuff. While military embedding offers the chance to see high- tech gadgetry up close, activist training is a low-budget deal. Ever seen those Berkeley girls? Makes you want to burn every bed in the world.
On a tiny swath of Civic Center plaza, Reinbold taped the course outline -- written in marker on a brown piece of butcher paper -- on the back of a light pole. Seated around her in a semi-circle were about 60 students. ....Dear mom and dad, I really need more money this semester, I'm learning a lot, but a dollar doesnt go as far as it did when you were in school......
Some in the class were veteran protesters, as they called out their civil disobedience credentials when asked.
"Trespassing," said one.
"Ooh, that's great," Reinbold said.
"Blocking a building," said another.
"Yeahhh," she said.
"Nevada Test Site," said an older woman.
"Wow," Reinbold said, "You make me feel like such a newbie. There's so much I haven't done yet." Get used to that empty feeling, sweetie. When you live a life with "just you" at the center of it, its an empty life no matter how long you live.
Shutting down an intersection isn't worth much without getting out the anti- war message. Activists have "about one sentence" to condense their message into a digestible morsel for the "corporate media," Reinbold said. damn them. damn those rantburgers
To practice this retarded drama queen crap art form, Reinbold and co-teacher Jene DeSpain divided the class into two lines. On one side were the reporters, on the other the activists, and they practiced interviewing each other.
The activist on the other side was a bit wordy when the embedded reporter asked why he was protesting.
"Go back to Nazi Germany and you'll see that there were . . ."
Fourteen sentences later, the activist stopped talking.
Soon, the class ended to a round of applause. "It was a good refresher," said Jon Jassy, 32, a veteran protester who works at an Oakland nonprofit. Dontcha love that? "I need a refresher to be a protester". I guess he probably forgets where he left his bong too.
But there's a big problem for reporters embedding into the peace movement: Getting arrested makes it hard to hit deadline.
So Remember Kids!, When you see a big protest sucking up all of the homeland secuirty money in extra police overtime and effort, you'll know who to thank.
Posted by: Frank Martin ||
03/26/2003 06:05 pm ||
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Cc this article to the FBI, who could use a copy. The agitators need to go down. I'm getting PTSD from my UC Berkeley days seeing this scum rise out of the swamp again. These demogogues have finally found a new bag.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
03/26/2003 19:06 Comments ||
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Tucked in the classifieds of national Indian dailies on Wednesday was an advertisement that could further alienate the Muslim community from the United States.
The advertisement calls for applications from "non-Muslims only" for sundry jobs at the US base in northern Kuwait.
The US base "urgently requires" lift operators, store keepers, clerks, typists, security guards and drivers. The advertisement insists that the applicants, besides being non-Muslims, should speak English and be below 35.
The advertisement was issued by Indian head-hunters Rehman Enterprises and Continental Mercantile.
Executives of these firms said they were representing a Kuwaiti company, Marafi, which has a "maintenance contract" with the US army.
"The Americans are strict that we should only process applications sent in by non-Muslims," Rehman Enterprises' head Abdul Rehman told the Hindustan Times on Wednesday.
"What to do? They probably don't want to take chances with Muslims," said Continental Mercantile's manager in Kochi TS Jairaj.
There is an unmistakable sense of urgency in the advertisement which asks applicants to "contact immediately with relevant documents".
"The response has been very bad," said Jairaj. "We are getting very few calls."
The head-hunters are in a fix since the executives of Marafi are flying to India to interview and shortlist candidates on March 31 for a final selection by the US army.
"The poor response is not just because of the war situation," Jairaj explained. "The age limit and the condition on English speaking ability are also problems."
The recruitment effort could be an indication of the US intention of digging its heels in for a long time in the Middle East.
Edited
Accusing the United States of planning an invasion, North Korea on Wednesday cut off the only regular military contact with the U.S.-led command that monitors the Korean War armistice. The move will further isolate the communist North amid tensions over its suspected nuclear weapons programs. South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun on Wednesday dismissed as "groundless" allegations by the North that American forces may attack. "There will be no war on the Korean Peninsula as long as we do not want a war," Roh was quoted as saying by his office, adding that Washington has repeatedly pledged to resolve the crisis peacefully.
Meanwhile, U.N. envoy Maurice Strong said that North Korean officials told him in meetings in Pyongyang last week that they "reserved the right" to reprocess their spent fuel rods that experts say could yield enough plutonium for several atomic bombs within months. Such a move would spike tension even further. North's Korea People's Army sent a telephone message to the U.S.-led U.N. Command saying it will no longer send its delegates to the liaison-officers' meeting at the inter-Korean border village of Panmunjom. "It is meaningless to sit together with the U.S. forces side to discuss any issue as long as it remains arrogant," the North's official news agency KCNA quoted the North Korean message as saying. I'll have to read it tomorrow. But I usually do everyday.
North Korea claimed again Tuesday the United States may attack the communist state after the war in Iraq and spark a "second Iraqi crisis." It pledged to beef up its defenses. U.S. officials representing the U.N. Command have met North Korean officers at Panmunjom almost weekly since the end of the war in 1953. What a waste of oxygen.
In Japan, space agency officials were preparing to launch their first spy satellites into orbit on Friday. North Korea has condemned the move, prompting fears it may retaliate and test-fire a long-range missile. Somebody warn the ocean.
Meanwhile in the North's capital, Pyongyang, lawmakers convened the rubber-stamp parliament. North Korean Finance Minister Mun Il bong said that the 2003 budget will increase 14.4 percent from last year, according to KCNA. The North Korean government will allocate 15.4 percent of the budget for national defense, up from 14.9 percent last year, Mun said. What's 15.4% of not much?
"This year.. the state will give top priority to the production of quality raw and other materials needed for increasing the combat power of the people's army and the national defense industry so as to boost the capability of the revolutionary armed forces in every way," he said. We will mine more rocks! Big rocks! Beware Yankee Dog!
Two Palestinian Web sites claimed Tuesday that the US Marines are training in guerilla warfare tactics in the Jenin refugee camp. According to the Palestine Information Center, which is affiliated with Hamas, the training is aimed at preparing the troops for the invasion of the Iraqi capital of Baghdad. It said that for the past 48 hours, US Marines and IDF soldiers have stormed the camp as part of the exercise. Another Web site, Arabs48, which is affiliated with MK Azmi Bishara's party, said Tuesday that Palestinian security "sources" in the camp quoted witnesses as reporting that they saw American and Israeli soldiers in the camp over the past two days. The sources said they believe the Marines came to the narrow alleyways of the camp to learn from the IDF's fighting tactics as part of the US-led coalition preparations to enter Baghdad. Consider the source, but interesting.
Meanwhile, representatives of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein on Monday night handed out more checks to Palestinian families in the Gaza Strip. Palestinian sources told The Jerusalem Post that 21 families received $10,000 each from officials of the pro-Iraqi Arab Liberation Front. The families are all from the city of Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip. Khan Yunis Governor Hosni Zu'rub, who personally delivered the checks to the families, praised Saddam for continuing to support the Palestinians financially "even after the US and British aggression on Iraq." He said the Palestinian and Iraqi people are "in the same trench, facing American and Israeli terror." ALF representative Naji Sadi told the families that Saddam insisted on delivering the checks even under the worst conditions, pledging to continue distributing money to families whose beloved ones were killed in clashes with the IDF or those who carried out suicide attacks against Israel. I'd cash that check real quick.
Posted by: Steve ||
03/26/2003 03:21 pm ||
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Any word on whether the Scout-Sniper teams got a chance to workout?
#5
Could also be the beginning of a new campaign in Israel: "Secure the borders". The best way for Israel to end the constant attacks from the Palestinians is to expel the Palestinians. They've considered that once or twice. Now with attention averted from Israel for the moment, they may decide this is the time.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
03/26/2003 15:36 Comments ||
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It could also be the 2nd MEF moving through the area (just saw a report above that GlobalSecurity thinks the 2nd MEF may be in Jordan).
That would open up a whole different kettle of fish. The 2nd MEF rides in like the cavalry to the rescue screaming out of the western desert to roll back anything that gets through the Karbala Gap (or swings north and comes down on Baghdad from the northwest).
It makes sense with 4th ID about to start flowing out of the Saudi port of Yanbo and racing across the desert from the southwest.
#7
"even after the US and British aggression on Iraq." He said the Palestinian and Iraqi people are "in the same trench, facing American and Israeli terror."
I wonder if everything these gutless turds say is hyperbole?
"The evil Western burrito has taken the sword of Allah's revenge to my colon, I must evacuate the refugee camp of my bowels! Damn the evil Zionist Imperial plot for stealing my blessed t.p.!"
I only hope that the Marines got to do some target practice...
From Clandestine Radio....
The propaganda war raging in Iraq is heating up as the U.S.-led coalition fights for control over Southern Iraq. Anti-war and anti-Saddam/anti-U.S. messages are filtering into the beseiged nation via Iran, which harbors and supports the Shii Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution of Iraq (SCIRI). SCIRI's station, Voice of Islamic Revolution in Iraq, broadcasts daily on 9575 and 7100 kHz between 0330 and 0530 GMT. The group, which refuses to participate in U.S.-led efforts to unite the Iraqi opposition, seeks to install an Islamic-based regime similar to the government in Tehran. According to the broadcast, monitored by ClandestineRadio.com on March 22 and linked above, SCIRI blames the war on both the U.S. and Baghdad and calls for national elections to be supervised by the United Nations in order to "legally" oust Saddam Hussein. This might explain why the Basra 'uprising' is shooting at both coalition troops and saddam fedyeen at the same time.
Posted by: Frank Martin ||
03/26/2003 01:10 pm ||
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this would mean SCIRI is fully breaking with Kurds, INC, etc. I bet this has something to do with disputes over postwar divisions of power.
BTW - any sources for reports that uprising fired on coalition troops?
#2
No it means the Mullahs and Islamic clerics in Iran are shitting their pants at the fact that Iraq might fall. If it falls, it stands to reason that the 80% of Iranians who want talks with the US and some secular form of Government may ask the US to help (post-war of course)
Officials in western Iranian city of Qasr-e Shirin on Wednesday denied as 'baseless speculation' an AFP report that a missile had hit the city. IRNA correspondents in Qasr-e Shirin say that on the seventh day of the US-led war on Iraq no missile or shell had hit Qasr-e Shirin. AFP quoted sources in Tehran as saying on Wednesday, "A further stray missile from the war in neighboring Iraq has hit Iran, although it caused no casualties or damage." The officials in charge in Qasr-e Shirin said no evidence is available to substantiate the missile raid. Governor of Qasr-e Shirin denied the report and said full security is prevailing in the regions bordering the city. Just another wartime rumor...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
03/26/2003 11:22 am ||
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published by Agence France Press....
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/26/2003 11:36 Comments ||
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Try and keep articles short and to the point, please. Grab the info, cut the redundant explanation. Yesterday we had 61 posts — that's a lot to read, even when entries are short and sweet.
Thanks!
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
03/26/2003 11:10 am ||
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THE United States government has praised last week's MDC mass action that left a trail of violence, destruction of vehicles and shops, and caused serious injury to people, as "successful and largely peaceful". However, the permanent secretary for Foreign Affairs, Mr Willard Chiwewe, said the interest by the US government in the affairs of Zimbabwe clearly showed unilateral interventionism and intrusion in the internal affairs of small countries."It is not a secret that the US is already playing its assumed role as the epicentre and police general headquarters of the world," he said yesterday. Willard must be a graduate of the DPRK school of journalism.
The comments from the US government on Zimbabwe come after several vehicles, including a bus carrying puppies, kittens, baby ducks and pre-school kids, were petrol bombed and reduced to shells, while shops, a bridge and the ruling Zanu-PF's Chinhoyi office were also burnt down and extensively damaged. Mentioning the pre-school bus was a nice touch.
Police arrested 200 people, who included MDC legislators. I wonder why that happened?
Most of those arrested appeared before the courts throughout the country this week facing charges of breaching the Public Order and Security Act. BobPresident Mugabe last Friday accused the United States, Britain and other Western powers of sponsoring the MDC's violent protests in the country. He warned the MDC against abusing freedom of expression to promote violence and terrorism. They have freedom of expression? Have to wipe that out, someone might abuse it.
Cde Mugabe said it was ironic that the US and some Western countries had ganged up to fan violence on the pretext that they wanted to bring freedom and democracy and deliver the country from food shortages and a declining economy. We're funny that way.
MDC youths were allegedly paid $5 000 each to unleash violence and intimidate workers not to go to work during last week's two-day mass action. Mr Chiwewe said the broader US policy of interfering in the internal affairs of other states was in breach of international law. "The so-called mass action, which the Americans are hailing as successful was a shut out of industries and workers. The workers reported for work but were shut out," said Mr Chiwewe.
We paid $5000 apiece to buy muscle? In Zim-Bob-We? I don't think so... Or if we did, we'd better hire some new instigators, guys that don't pay top dollar for middlin' henchmen...
In a statement yesterday, a US State Department spokesman, Mr Richard Boucher, protested over the arrest of the suspected perpetrators of violence during the mass action, accusing the Government of unleashing violence and torturing MDC supporters. Police have denied the torture allegations. "The police want to interview and charge those involved in any kind of violence. We are not going to get distracted by people who organise violence and then cry foul when the law is applied to them," said a police spokesman. "We're the only people allowed to use violence here!"
Posted by: Steve ||
03/26/2003 12:22 pm ||
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Not bad. Not quite KCNA, but not bad. The pre-school bus burning, the paid thugs. Nice touches.
Needs more "running amuck", "go reckless", and "sea of fire" type descriptives. Tell him to work on it.
#3
They need some more spittle-covered adjectives and adverbs to sell this copy. They must realize that we all are in a global economy now and they must compete with KCNA (numbah wun!!!) and Jihadii boys in cut-throat competition for a piece of the action.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
03/26/2003 13:25 Comments ||
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#4
5 grand? I missed that, thought it was 500. Hell for $5,000, Bob will probably beat himself up.
Clint Black's new song "I Raq and Roll" is available in a free MP3 download on his website! Dump the Chicks, support a patriot!
"I RAQ AND ROLL"
Words and Music by Clint Black and Hayden Nicholas
YOU CAN WAVE YOUR SIGNS IN PROTEST
AGAINST AMERICA TAKING STANDS
THE STANDS AMERICA'S TAKEN
ARE THE REASON THAT YOU CAN
IF EVERYONE WOULD GO FOR PEACE
THERE'D BE NO NEED FOR WAR
BUT WE CAN'T IGNORE THE DEVIL
HE'LL KEEP COMING BACK FOR MORE
SOME SEE THIS IN BLACK AND WHITE
OTHERS ONLY GRAY
WE'RE NOT BEGGING FOR A FIGHT
NO MATTER WHAT THEY SAY
WE HAVE THE RESOLUTION
THAT SHOULD PUT'EM ALL TO SHAME
BUT IT'S A DIFFERENT KIND OF DEADLINE
WHEN I'M CALLED IN THE GAME
CHORUS
I RAQ, I RACK'EM UP AND I ROLL
I'M BACK AND I'M A HIGH TECH GI JOE
I PRAY FOR PEACE, PREPARE FOR WAR
AND I NEVER WILL FORGET
THERE'S NO PRICE TOO HIGH FOR FREEDOM
SO BE CAREFUL WHERE YOU TREAD
THIS TERROR ISN'T MAN TO MAN
THEY CAN BE NO MORE THAN COWARDS
IF THEY WON'T SHOW US THEIR WEAPONS
WE MIGHT HAVE TO SHOW THEM OURS
IT MIGHT BE A SMART BOMB
THEY FIND STUPID PEOPLE TOO
AND IF YOU STAND WITH THE LIKES OF SADDAM
ONE JUST MIIGHT FIND YOU
CHORUS II
I ROCK, I RACK'EM UP AND I ROLL
I'M BACK AND I'M A HIGH TECH GI JOE
I'VE GOT INFRARED, I'VE GOT GPS AND I'VE GOT THAT GOOD OLD FASHIONED LEAD
THERE'S NO PRICE TOO HIGH FOR FREEDOM
SO BE CAREFUL WHERE YOU TREAD
BRIDGE
NOW YOU CAN COME ALONG
OR YOU CAN STAY BEHIND
OR YOU CAN GET OUT OF THE WAY
BUT OUR TROOPS TAKE OUT THE GARBAGE
FOR THE GOOD OLD U.S.A.
I ROCK, I RACK'EM UP AND I ROLL
IN THE USA
I ROCK, I RACK'EM UP AND I ROLL
I'M TALKIN' ABOUT THE USA
Posted by: Steve ||
03/26/2003 09:30 am ||
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The Chicks have screwed themselves Soooooo bigtime. They went Hollywood from all the TV Guide, ET, E! News, Vogue, Vanity Fair interviews and forgot who their former fan base was. Now, if they did a song like this, it would be seen and rightfully so as an insincere suckup....
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/26/2003 10:05 Comments ||
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#2
A little humility would be well advised. It reads like Clint Black has never seen a man die. At any rate, he's incapable of writing intelligent copy.
This war is not an excuse to bond with hick retards.
So I guess you won't be bonding. You would do well to remember that many of the "Hick Retards" have their finger on the trigger in Iraq protecting your right to insult them
Posted by: Tom ||
03/26/2003 16:52 Comments ||
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#4
Tom...you jackass, I'm a Navy vet. Go crawl back in your hole and learn to read.
#5
Figures a squid pogue would be trolling with crap like that. Step down swabbie, and let the real troops get the work done. Let me guess - you were a deck ape or a cook's assistant. And don't say Corpsman, because I know ones that served with the Marines and they'd never be as stupid as you.
#7
CTT? LMAO! "see men die"? BAHAHA - you certainly never did. An Intel Weenie, probably a repairman since you obviously lack analytical skills. 85-89? No war duty eh?
And you stack that up against combat vet? Too bad for you, you're still a squid pogue. Eat your own crow - after you get your foot out of your mouth.
Try reading the lyrics - you can read, right?
Look at these:
IF EVERYONE WOULD GO FOR PEACE
THERE'D BE NO NEED FOR WAR
BUT WE CAN'T IGNORE THE DEVIL
HE'LL KEEP COMING BACK FOR MORE
You certainly do the Navy proud - almost as much as Jimmy Carter.
Why is it the most damaging spies this nation has are mostly Navy? Navy Warrant Office John Walker, Petty Officer First Class Daniel King, Petty Officer Kurt G. Lessenthien, Robert Kim a former Navy computer specialist, Jonathan Jay Pollard - a civilian employee at the Naval Intelligence Service, Bruce Leland Kearn a Navy operations specialist, Samuel L. Morrison a civilian analyst with the Office of Naval Intelligence, Jay Clyde Wolff Navy enlisted, Hans Palmer Wold an Intelligence Specialist Third Class assigned to the USS Ranger, John Raymond Maynard Navy Seaman, Robert Wade Ellis Navy Petty Officer, Brian P. Horton US Navy Intelligence Specialist Second Class, Michael R. Murphy a Navy Seaman assigned to the USS James K. Polk, Stephen Baba an ensign in the US Navy, LEE EUGENE MADSEN, a Navy Yeoman is quoted as saying that he stole Top Secret documents "to prove...I could be a man and still be gay."
(Note ALL of the above were convicted at courts martial or federal court for espionage)
Kenya on Wednesday named the suspected al Qaeda member accused of involvement in the 1998 bombing of U.S. embassies in East Africa and the attack last November on an Israeli-owned hotel near Mombasa. National Security Minister Chris Murungaru told a news conference the suspect, in his early thirties, was "the al Qaeda terrorist operative Suleiman Abdalla alias Ngaka, alias Chuck Norris." Chuck, how could you!
"He is one of the ones being sought by American and Kenyan security agencies. I'm sure his capture is very welcome," Murungaru said, adding that Abdulla had provided information that would help prevent future terror attacks in East Africa. "Ouch, put that down! I'll talk!"
Abdalla has already been extradited to the United States, where four people were convicted in May 2001 of taking part in the bombings of the U.S. embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam, killing 224 people including 12 Americans. Abdalla's nationality remains a mystery. He has on different occasions claimed to be Kenyan, Afghan and various other east African nationalities. He can't remember who the hell he is.
Murungaru said Abdalla, arrested by Kenyan police last week in the Somali capital Mogadishu, had taken part in the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings. He had given police useful leads on the November suicide bombing of an Israeli-owned hotel in the coastal resort of Mombasa, as well as information about possible future attacks in east Africa, Murungaru said. "What he has told us is that the terrorists have not gone to sleep and they're still active," Murungaru said. "The information that we have received from him will go a long way to forestalling any of the previously planned terrorist activities not just in Kenya but other east African nations." Sources in Somalia said Abdalla was arrested at a hospital in Mogadishu after being wounded in a gunbattle with militiamen. Murungaru rejected suggestions that the arrest justified recent U.S. and British government warnings to tourists not to travel to Kenya because of the possibility of attacks.
Guess these guys have a hard time staying away from trouble, regardless of where it is. His presence in Mogadishu kinda suggests that Abdulkassim's indulging in a bit of wishful thinking when he says Somalia's not harboring Qaeda Bad Guys. Maybe the Rangers would like to lend a little assistance in checking that statement?
Posted by: Steve ||
03/26/2003 09:44 am ||
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I'm sure Abdulkassim (or whoever's the interimtemporarytransitionalnext-dead-warlord government spokesman at the time) would want the rangers' help to assure the world. This time with armor support
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/26/2003 11:22 Comments ||
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Forget precision bombs, unmanned spy-planes and high-tech weaponry, the US army is about to unveil its most unlikely mine detector - all the way from San Diego, California, the Atlantic Bottle-Nosed Dolphin. At the southern Iraqi port of Umm Qasr, secured by US and British forces after days of fighting, soldiers made last-minute preparations for the imminent arrival of a team of specially trained dolphins to help divers ensure the coastline is free of danger before humanitarian aid shipments can dock.
US Navy Captain Mike Tillotson told reporters three or four dolphins would work from Umm Qasr, using their natural sonar abilities to seek out mines or other explosive devices which Iraqi forces may have planted on the seabed. "They were flown over on a military animal transporter in fleece-lined slings," Tillotson said. "We keep them in a certain amount of water. They travel very well. They will be given restaurant quality food and vitamins, and they will work out of wells which we've set up here." Tillotson said the dolphins were trained not to swim up to mines, but to place a marker a small distance away, minimizing any danger to themselves. Several mines have been discovered on the back of ships along the Faw peninsula, but teams of divers searching around Umm Qasr port have not recently found any embedded mines.
Posted by: George ||
03/26/2003 08:36 am ||
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If we can teach a dolphin to detect a mine.Why can't we teach a chicken to fire a m-16.Intelligence wise it would be a fairer fight.
Black Hawk helicopters and infrared-equipped planes have begun flying over New York City under tightened security measures implemented around the start of war in Iraq, officials said Tuesday. The helicopters and Cessna Citation II jets, from the Department of Homeland Security's Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, began round-the-clock patrols Monday, the bureau said. The unarmed aircraft are linked with a base in California that uses ground-based radar and computer databases to analyze threats. Slower-moving than fighter jets, the Cessnas and Black Hawks are well suited to locating and warding off aircraft that accidentally wander into restricted airspace. In the event of an intentional threat, pilots can call in Air National Guard and active-duty aircraft patrolling over New York City.
Fighter jets under the North American Aerospace Defense Command halted their 24-hour-day, seven-day-a-week patrols over the city early last year but renewed them over the weekend, according to a federal official familiar with the plans who spoke on condition of anonymity. City officials said the renewed patrols are a reaction to generalized warnings from law enforcement and intelligence agencies - not specific threats against New York. ``Is there a real risk? I don't think so, but that doesn't mean you don't take precautions,'' Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Tuesday. Somebody know something? Or are we just displaying common sense?
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/26/2003 08:37 am ||
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Common sense, I presume. Happy to have 'em, and they're certainly less obtrusive than the news and police choppers called out for the protest here this past weekend. Sort of wish they were armed, though....
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
A Royal Marine Commando who was shot in the head four times has lived to tell the tale of his lucky escape. 
NASIRIYA, Iraq (CNN) -- U.S. Marines searching Iraqi military headquarters in this southern city that was the site of intensive fighting came across a mural depicting a plane crashing into a building complex resembling New York's twin towers, a news agency photograph showed Wednesday. 
