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| Iraq-Jordan |
| Do-Gooders Confront Fallujah Snipers Who Don’t Seem to Understand English |
| 2004-04-28 |
| From Jihad Unspun, written by Donna Mulhearn, an Austrialian who went to Iraq as a human shield and went back last Nov to start a house for street kids in Baghdad. .... We talked about how we could help. In the last mission a few days earlier, our friends had been successful in negotiating with soldiers in getting wounded people off the street and evacuating families from areas of cross-fire. The doctors asked if we could accompany an ambulance packed with food and medical supplies across town to a hospital that had been cut off. It was in the US controlled section of the town so it was not able to receive aid because of constant sniper fire. The doctors figured our foreign nationality could make a difference in negotiating the safe passage of the ambulance with the soldiers. It might seem a strange and unnecessary mission to help an ambulance drive from one place to another - anywhere else in the world it’s a basic thing, but this is Fallujah and this is war and nothing is as it should be, despite guarantees laid out in the Geneva Convention. The last time an ambulance went to this part of town it was shot at by US troops. I know this because two of my friends were in the ambulance at the time, trying to reach a pregnant woman who had gone into pre-mature labor. They didn’t reach her, but the bullet holes in the ambulance are a testament to the fact they tried. So we packed the ambulance with supplies and got in the back. With me were three other foreigners: Jo, Dave and Beth - two British, an American and an Aussie, a good representation of young people from the "Coalition of the Willing" trying to counter-balance the military intervention of our countries with loving intervention. We donned bright blue surgical gowns and held our passports in our hands. A couple of medical staff were with us, as well as the drivers in the front. We drove slowly through the parts of Fallujah controlled by Iraqi fighters then stopped in a side-street that faced a main road. We could not go any further because the main road was under watch and control of US snipers. They had developed a habit of shooting at anything that moved. So we parked the ambulance in the side street and the four of us got out with the task of approaching the American soldiers, communicating with them and getting permission for the ambulance to continue to the hospital. The area was completely quiet. The silence was unnerving. We prepared the loudspeaker, put our hands in the air and held our passports high. Before we ventured onto the main road we called out a message from the side street. "Hello? American soldiers! We are a group of international aid workers. We are unarmed. We are asking permission to transport an ambulance full of medical supplies to the hospital. Can you hear us?" The reply was just a chilling silence. We repeated the message. Silence again. We looked at each other. Perhaps the soldiers were too far away to hear us? We had to walk onto the main road and take the risk that we would be clearly visible as unarmed civilians, and approach the soldiers with our hands in the air. I took a deep breathe and for a split-second thought that this was probably the most dangerous thing I had ever done in my life. As I exhaled, my heart gave me strength: I looked at the others and could tell we were all thinking the same thing: "If I don’t do this, then who will?" Their courage inspired me as we all stepped out on the road together. We walked slowly with our arms raised in the air. My eyes scanned the tops of the buildings for snipers. We didn’t know where they were set up so we walked in the direction of the hospital. We repeated the message over and over again on the loudspeaker, in the silence it would have been heard for hundreds of metres. It echoed eerily throughout the neighbourhood. I turned my head briefly and just in time. In the distance I saw two white flashes, then the loud bang of gunshots and the ugly realisation that they were shooting into our backs. It all happened so fast: ducking, hearing the whizz of the bullets above our heads, diving for cover off the side of the road against a wall. We huddled there for a moment behind a bush, then someone cried: "Let’s go". We crawled along the ground, at one stage I was walking low with my back hunched. In the scramble I fell. My hands broke my fall onto sharp gravel on the rough ground. I felt the sting of pain and could see the blood, but I had no time to stop and check what happened. We ended up in someone’s back yard then made our way back to the ambulances by jumping fences and going through gates. My hands were covered with blood, my left foot cut and my passport was stained red, leaving an ever-constant reminder of the episode. We re-grouped, but we didn’t want to give up. Now we knew where the soldiers were, we could walk towards them. We decided to go out again. Same drill: we called out the message first, then stepped out onto the road, this time facing the direction the gunfire had come from. "Hello! American soldiers. We are foreign aid workers- British, Australian, American. We are not armed. We are asking permission to transport an ambulance on this road." My injured hand was shaking as I held my passport now damp with my blood. I tried to work out what I was feeling: fear, anger, determination. I still don’t know. We had only repeated the message twice and walked a few metres when our answer came. Two more bullets. By this stage I think I entered a state of shock. I had been shot at, not once, but twice by American soldiers after politely asking permission to transport aid to a hospital. I guess the answer was ’No’. Jo got angry. We all did. We stepped back to the corner but Jo continued on the loud speaker. ’Do you know it is against the Geneva Convention to fire at unarmed civilians and at ambulances?" she cried. "How would you feel if your sister was trapped in a hospital under siege without food or water?" .... We bundled in the back of the ambulance. It was a handy place to be with deep cuts and grazes on my hand. I bowed my head as someone tended to my wounds. .... PPS: Some people have asked: "how can you be sure it was American soldiers who shot at you?". The answer is that the area we were in was under the control of US soldiers for at least five days. Iraqi fighters did not have had access to the area the shots came from. |
| Posted by:Mike Sylwester |
| #35 Its fiction, and not particularly good fiction at that. Thanks ex-lib for pointing it out. |
| Posted by: Phil B 2004-04-28 8:00:04 PM |
| #34 RWV - It was a dark and dusty night. It's Iraq man, IRAQ! |
| Posted by: BigEd 2004-04-28 7:58:37 PM |
| #33 This should have started with "It was a dark and stormy night... |
| Posted by: RWV 2004-04-28 7:50:44 PM |
| #32 If the story has any legitimacy whatsoever, (and I'm still sticking with my original take #18, #23), then it's choice #2: a typical, run-of-the-mill liberal traitor--who's been quite "Islamisized" of late, I may add. (Rare, but it can happen . . . I think. ) In a certain sense, it doesn't matter. Let's say it's on the level (and my, hasn't she "recovered" nicely from her terrible, traumatic, life-threatening, life-changing "ordeal" to put out such a well-written In a sense, it boils down to the same thing. Let's pretend, for a moment so we can get into the right "mood" (a favorite liberal pasttime), that the story stands as real. Okay. No prob. "I tried to work out what I was feeling: fear, anger, determination. I still don’t know. (stupidity, perhaps?) We had only repeated the message twice and walked a few metres when our answer came. Two more bullets. (Maybe you should have repeated it again, and again, and again--let's see, that'd be 8 bullets . . . ) By this stage I think I entered a state of shock. ("Oh, my god, I'm in Iraq and no one cares--what ever will my narcissitic little self do now?" ) I had been shot at (Gasp! And, duh, you're in a war zone--isn't that why you went there? ) not once, but twice by American soldiers("I saw 'em do it--that's why I was so shocked, because there they stood, right out there in broad daylight--they just stood up and SHOT at me, those American aggressor soldiers") after politely asking permission to transport aid to a hospital (politeness--yeah, that's what the Iraqi terrorists in Fallujah are all about--oh, sorry, those damned impolite American soldier bad guys--she said pulleeeeze, after all. Insert California Valley Speak: "I mean--oh my gosh, they should have provided escort, oh my gosh . . .") I think since Jo, Jenny, and Donna, evidently, don't have any children of their own to take care of, their mothering instincts have led them to Iraq as human shields--they just gotta "save" the |
| Posted by: ex-lib 2004-04-28 7:40:20 PM |
| #31 Fox had a breaking news bit on western 'Human Shields' going to Fallujah and Najaf to protect the |
| Posted by: Frank G 2004-04-28 6:12:20 PM |
| #30 Cyber Sarge, if you hit one of those links in my comment, above, you'll see that Mulhearn and Wilding (if "Jo" is she) were captured. Apparently Mulhearn was more afraid of the big bad Americans than the guys who actually captured and threatened her. |
| Posted by: Angie Schultz 2004-04-28 6:01:27 PM |
| #29 Antiwar, why aren't you in there in Fallujah helping Donna and Jo write their anti-US tripe? You could show 'em how fiction should be written. |
| Posted by: GK 2004-04-28 4:18:53 PM |
| #28 Not to seem crass but shouldn't there be some Rachael Corrie award for stupidy? The winner has to either die, wounded, or captured doing something stupid for the Jihadis. This group would not qualify but the Japanese group would! |
| Posted by: Cyber Sarge (VRWC CA Chapter) 2004-04-28 3:49:13 PM |
| #27 "......trying to reach a pregnant woman who had gone into pre-mature labor". Pre-mature??? Another young girl subjected to Son of Allan's lust. I also notice how her fellows fail to have their surnames attached. Now, why is that? Do they not want recognition for their good deeds, or do they fear recognition in the World, when and if they return? Talk about dumb! |
| Posted by: rhodesiafever 2004-04-28 2:43:34 PM |
| #26 From Fox News describing the fighting in Faluhja - "Witnesses on the ground said insurgents were hiding behind women and children during the firefight." On whose hands is the blood of "innocent" Iraqis? |
| Posted by: Sam 2004-04-28 2:29:56 PM |
| #25 Here is my version of what really happend. Some usefull idiots got into Fallujah amungst the bad guys. Bad guys realized dead westerners (blamed on US) would make great propoganda so they convinced them to walk into an ambush. Lied about where the US was, etc, and had one or two of their hardboys shoot at them. But the hardboys couldn't shoot worth a damn and the usefull idiots never figured it out. That's what I read when I read this story. |
| Posted by: ruprecht 2004-04-28 1:34:07 PM |
| #24 I'm pretty sure the "Jo" mentioned in the article is Jo Wilding, occasional Guardian columnist, serial pest, and PM-attacker. She and fellow nutbar Jenny Gaiawyn were in Iraq to teach circus tricks to the Iraqi children when they were taken hostage by "militants". I was sure Rantburg had this story but a search turned up nothing. See details here and scroll up for some more. Since Mulhearn tells a similar story, I assume they were together. But Gaiawyn is not mentioned here. Off clowning around somewhere I suppose. |
| Posted by: Angie Schultz 2004-04-28 12:54:47 PM |
| #23 Cyber Sarge: Yeah, it really is an amazing piece. I like all the (Islamic) references to "blood." You've probably noticed how the Islamoids have a real emotional tie to "blood-soaked this, blood-soaked that," their wounds, their scrapes, their cuts, blah, blah blah. It's very personal for them. This is fun: go back into the story and imagine a Marine, or even better, an average American, Brit, or Aussie talking about blood this way--no way! Or take one of my favorite excerpts, for example: It all happened so fast: ducking, hearing the whizz of the bullets above our heads, diving for cover off the side of the road against a wall. We huddled there for a moment behind a bush, then someone cried: "Let’s go". We crawled along the ground, at one stage I was walking low with my back hunched. In the scramble I fell. My hands broke my fall onto sharp gravel on the rough ground. I felt the sting of pain and could see the blood, but I had no time to stop and check what happened. Gotta admit--it sure is entertaining--great imagery--not bad fiction writing at all. The most hysterical thing about it is the end note. Just doesn't quite fit with the rest of the story, does it? ("But, it's true--it was the Americans who shot at us so unfairly--I swear to Allah!") Just a bit smoother, and more fine-tuned to the Western ear, is all. Just not fine-tuned enough for this Western ear, I'm afraid! I just want to know who they got workin' for 'em. It's either one of their own who was educated in the West, or your typical, run-of-the-mill liberal traitor. |
| Posted by: ex-lib 2004-04-28 12:37:11 PM |
| #22 Ex-lib - you're right on the money. Murray - You are correct - had it been a Marine sniper, they would not have lived tell the tale, and what a tale it is. |
| Posted by: jawa 2004-04-28 12:33:52 PM |
| #21 Ex-Lib, I also noticed that they had to confiscate a Coke machine to keep blood cold yet they say power was shut off days ago? Double whamy against evil Coke and the U.S. |
| Posted by: Cyber Sarge (VRWC CA Chapter) 2004-04-28 12:02:00 PM |
| #20 Hey abdul.....Watch this shit.....bang bang. ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha |
| Posted by: Halfass Pete 2004-04-28 12:00:27 PM |
| #19 I love in the article how they point out that only the Woman and Child were hit by U.S. snipers. I would check the balistics before I made that statement, but clearly these girls grew up in a FAR LEFT household. Why were they trying to bring supplies to a hospital in the American sector? If there was a hospital being used there wouldn't the Americans take care of it's needs? This story has more holes in it than Odai and Qusai. |
| Posted by: Cyber Sarge (VRWC CA Chapter) 2004-04-28 11:59:31 AM |
| #18 Okee-dokee. Here we go. First thing in the morning . . . As a journalist, I would like to say, and must say, that this story sounds SO INCREDIBLY AND COMPLETELY FAKE. Someone is just having a good ol' time. (Much more sophisticated than "Anti"-war(s) ever get.) Nobody, I repeat, NOBODY writes like this unless they have had training to write like this--it's so "clean," so "perfect," so "relaxed," so "professional." What a story! ( ***Sometime, when I have more time, I'll write a piece myself and post it on Rantburg to illustrate how it's done--and hey, I'll make mine even more "exciting" and "damning" of the American troops, and the WOT--okay? ***) Read the article again slowly and carefully (for some laughs ) within the context of an almost pulp fiction attempt to garner support against the WOT from Westerners, by painting American forces as (you guessed it--and please, do feel free to use an Arab accent when speaking the word) "aggressors." I could be wrong. But that's my take on it. And I don't think I'm wrong. |
| Posted by: ex-lib 2004-04-28 11:59:12 AM |
| #17 (fmr Anonymous4052) Man - these women won't let up. Raised as pacifist ninconpoops, they see us as the Great Satan, just like the Islamofacists. Proof that politics is a circle, and if you go far enough left, you are on the far right. I wonder if these "aid workers" have been measured for thier burkas yet? I agree with all that the Marines wouldn't miss a kill shot. This Donna Mulhearn has got to be a real piece of work. |
| Posted by: BigEd 2004-04-28 11:30:29 AM |
| #16 What amazes me is that these useful idiots believe that since they are not Iraqis or Arabs they has some ‘shield’ that protects them from harm. Since the town is surrounded and yet they somehow arrived in Fullujah, I suspect they probably used a smugglers route. I also suspect that my Marine friends are well aware of these routes and keep them under watch. Since the ‘insurgents’ have been using Ambulances fro transporting troops and arms, I would be VERY suspicious of one that suddenly showed up along one of the smuggler routes. Given the choice of talking to useful idiots or firing a volley over their head and scaring them away I would take the later. I have known Marines and if they wanted them dead we would not be reading this story. Advise to them would be to stay out of the city until it is ‘pacified’. |
| Posted by: Cyber Sarge (VRWC CA Chapter) 2004-04-28 11:29:15 AM |
| #15 The best part is that there are no soldiers in the area. However, there are Marines. LOL. That's why they got shot near. |
| Posted by: Shipman 2004-04-28 11:28:03 AM |
| #14 Mike: good story, and Jo's account is good reading too. I suspect that at this point the Fallujans are starting to understand just how costly their little stunt at the bridge was. Or will, soon. |
| Posted by: Cthulhu Akbar 2004-04-28 11:22:06 AM |
| #13 Update: a lovely debumking of this story may be found here. (Tip of the hat to Tim Blair.) |
| Posted by: Mike 2004-04-28 10:39:52 AM |
| #12 If those were Marine snipers, you'd be dead. True enough, C.A.--but if those were just plain old Marines (or plain old U.S. Army regulars)she'd still be looking at the dasies from the wrong end. Our training has reached the point where most U.S. troops would qualify as snipers in most of the rest of the world's armed forces. |
| Posted by: Mike 2004-04-28 10:33:08 AM |
| #11 I turned my head briefly and just in time. In the distance I saw two white flashes, then the loud bang of gunshots and the ugly realisation that they were shooting into our backs. Lie. If those were Marine snipers, you'd be dead. Jo got angry. We all did. Lol. You can't shoot me, because I'm an American citizen! |
| Posted by: Cthulhu Akbar 2004-04-28 10:27:48 AM |
| #10 In the distance I saw two white flashes, then the loud bang of gunshots and the ugly realisation that they were shooting into our backs. Eh.. hey dumbshit.... the people to you back were your 'Insurgent' friends from Iran, Syria, and a few Iraqi's..... Iaqi fighters did not have had access to the area the shots came from. How do you know? Why would U.S. snipers establish themselves deeply in their own territory where there are few targets... the targets are out near the 'front lines' or in 'enemy territory'.... You dont go deer hunting in Downtown New York. |
| Posted by: CrazyFool 2004-04-28 10:24:06 AM |
| #9 Too bad they missed. |
| Posted by: RWV 2004-04-28 10:23:38 AM |
| #8 If the yanks wanted em dead they would be . walking down a warzone street like a bunch of retards deserve to get shot at , by either side . let me rephrase ... clueless f*cktards .. |
| Posted by: MacNails 2004-04-28 10:18:22 AM |
| #7 That is absolutely the funniest thing I have read in days. The best part is that there are no soldiers in the area. However, there are Marines. |
| Posted by: Dragon Fly 2004-04-28 9:50:45 AM |
| #6 PPS: Some people have asked: "how can you be sure it was American soldiers who shot at you?" She can't be sure, but she doesnt let that stop her, now does she? |
| Posted by: TS (vice girl) 2004-04-28 9:37:20 AM |
| #5 They could also have been treated to a little Potemkin village by the terrorists. We know some of them are savvy enough to kidnap journalists, plant stories, then let the idiots go; who's to say they're not also up to driving a couple of useful idiots to an area they SWEAR is under US control then firing a few rounds in their direction? |
| Posted by: Robert Crawford 2004-04-28 9:36:42 AM |
| #4 Hmpf. I was going to mock her, but I re-read it. They didn't hit anybody, and fired two shots, rather than a wild volley. It might have been some marines trying to scare a passel of damned fools out of their killsack without seriously hurting them. I don't think a true sniper team would have exposed their position in this fashion, but the reports suggest that the Marines have a lot of "sharpshooter" teams operating without full sniper training in Fallujah. |
| Posted by: Mitch H. 2004-04-28 9:34:18 AM |
| #3 I'm gonna let them in on a little secret. If American snipers shoot at you, they don't miss. Therefore, since they are alive, the shooters were not American, even though they think was a "secure" American zone. |
| Posted by: mmurray821 2004-04-28 9:32:22 AM |
| #2 Jo got angry. We all did. We stepped back to the corner but Jo continued on the loud speaker. ’Do you know it is against the Geneva Convention to fire at unarmed civilians and at ambulances?" she cried. It is a long time standard of war conduct, when one side suspends the rules, the rules no longer apply. And I am very certain our snipers (God Bless them!) know what the 'rules' are when there are JAG officers sniffing up their commanders' asses. "How would you feel if your sister was trapped in a hospital under siege without food or water?" I would feel: 1) My sister is an idiot for not evacuating the area once it became a warzone. 2) My sister is a traitor for providing medical services also available to a lethal enemy of the United States. 3) Nothing stops my sister from leaving now and letting the Iraqis care for their own. You would have to be a moron... or a traitor not to know ambulances have been routinely used by Arab/Islamists in other theatres as a means of clandestinely transporting weapons across the lines. Nothing stops residents of a war zone from evacuating and transporting their wounded across the lines so they can get help. I truly feel sorry for those who are caught inside the enemy's camp, but I am not in the mood to allow our troops to become more vulnerable to further uneccesary harm because three or four Americans want to be awarded the Humanitarian of the Year awrd, even posthumously. |
| Posted by: badanov 2004-04-28 9:30:22 AM |
| #1 F*cking idiots. |
| Posted by: Howard UK 2004-04-28 9:20:54 AM |