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| Iraq-Jordan |
| Mass Grave With 1,500 Bodies Found in Iraq |
| 2005-05-01 |
| With a red paint brush, a female forensic specialist carefully brushed dirt away from a human skull covered with sandy soil, one of 1,500 believed to be buried in seven mass graves uncovered in this desolate stretch of Iraqi desert. In a nearby trench dug by investigators, a mass of black, tangled hair gave a second skull an almost life-like appearance. A third skull appeared to be screaming, mouth wide open. Skulls and bones, clothing and other belongings found in shallow graves here offer up valuable clues to investigators gathering evidence against Saddam Hussein and others from the former regime, said Gregg Nivala, a regime crimes liaison officer working from the US Embassy in Baghdad. "This allows us to prove the crimes," he said. A shiny gold and purple dress and a blue bead necklace laying next to a fourth skull in another trench is distinctive enough to indicate that people buried there were Kurds from northern Iraq, according to Nivala. Dates on medicine found in the graves indicate the people were killed around the time of the 1987-1988 "Anfal campaign" that saw Kurdish villages razed and hundreds of people relocated south, said Sonny Trimble, archaeologist in charge of the excavation. "Blister packs of pills have expiration dates, wristwatches have the day, and dates go back to that year," Trimble said. "We're finding them very effective." |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #12 Oh, cool. Everybody's on the same page, again. Sorry for posting RM - overlapped with you. TMH won't be offended, heh! She'll prolly be overjoyed by your anger, after your follow-up post, knowing she struck a nerve for what this jackoff wrote. No harm, no foul! Except for loretto - let's do a number on his ass, per my suggestion, heh. |
| Posted by: .com 2005-05-01 10:52:11 PM |
| #11 RM - I believe you mean to tell this to thomas.loretto@aramco.com. TMH was informing us that this "loretto" cretin lived next to her in Aramco Camp and wrote the letter. TMH is one of the "good guys" and recently returned to the US from the Saudi Sand Pit. Send this response to the email given, so the asstard knows your feelings. Then everyone sign him up for every list service they can find, especially the XXX pr0n variety. That will make him very popular with the Aramco Network folks. Might even get Industrial Security on his ass. |
| Posted by: .com 2005-05-01 10:48:43 PM |
| #10 Holy shit TMH my sincere apologies....I failed to differentiate the letter from your post. I've been away too long. Whew! That letter just fried too many neurons. Well - apology or no -feel free to have at me - it's certainly deserved. Apologies to the rest of Rantburg U for having to wade through that tripe....oy. (Slinks away) |
| Posted by: Rex Mundi 2005-05-01 10:44:32 PM |
| #9 TMH: Blow it out your ass! First off, asshat - Sgt Smith was not engaged against Iraqi National Guard, they were Republican Guard. Very similar in organization and purpose to Hitler's SS, and in that regard their very membership makes them suspected war criminals worthy of the righteous dispatching they received. They were not fighting to retain the liberty of the common Iraqi, they were seeking to maintain the rule of a murderous regime. Some advice: 1. Get past your Bush hatred - you lost an election. Feh. 2. Try to educate yourself on what it is you're addressing. 3. Put down the bong. Oh and by the way...just who in Iraq thinks we are the enemy...that is after all the company you seek common cause with isn't it? Thanks for the email address but such offerings by Kool Aid drinkers such as you are rarely worth the effort. FOAD. |
| Posted by: Rex Mundi 2005-05-01 10:38:09 PM |
| #8 Old Patriot and the rest, Nothing that you can subject these moonbats to would make any difference in their little minds. Take this POS, who was my neighbor for 4 years in SA, for example. He wrote the following letter to the Arab News about Paul Smith, the recently decorated Vietnam/Iraq hero: "Medal of Honor The United Statesâ Armed Forces Radio and Television Service (AFRTS) announced on April 6 that Sgt. Paul Smith was posthumously decorated the Medal of Honor â the highest award for valor awarded by the US military. Smith was the third soldier so decorated since Vietnam. The award was presented by US President Bush to Smithâs wife and son. Smith was awarded for his efforts in combating Iraqi forces during the fall of Baghdad. In the vicinity of the Baghdad airport, under heavy fire from the Iraqi National Guard, Smith saved the lives of over 100 of his fellow soldiers, and, in the words of President Bush, âkilled as many as 50 enemy soldiers.â Smith died from wounds a day later. Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld noted that, for his valor, bravery, perseverance in the face of tremendous adversity, loyalty to the cause and selfless commitment to the lives of his fellow soldiers, Smith now joins a âHall of Heroesâ, so rarely decorated in the annals of US military history. Of course, we as Americans have come to believe that the Medal of Honor awards action of tremendous bravery and selflessness, under tremendously hostile conditions. We donât doubt that, and probably donât need to. But we as Americans have also been led to believe, with no alternate consideration, that this bravery is to be decorated because it comes in the cause of just action, just cause. So when President Bush tells us that Sgt. Smith âkilled as many as 50 enemy soldiers,â we are expected to believe that the sergeantâs actions are due the greatest honor â because they were for, and still are for, âthe good.â Because they are for âthe good,â they are to be rewarded. What Bush did not tell us, and never has â to my knowledge â is that the 50 or so Iraqi National Guard that Sgt. Smith killed were fighting to stave off an overwhelming, unprovoked attack from a foreign power, and imminent takeover of their homeland. We as Americans would be expected to do exactly the same thing, in the face of similar adversity. But in that case, we would be âthe enemy.â "Link I hope people here e-mail him with appropiate responses : thomas.loretto@aramco.com |
| Posted by: TMH 2005-05-01 3:44:45 PM |
| #7 There are far too many moonbats in the world that refuse to acknowledge that anything can be "evil". I propose we round up several thousand of them and let them help Verlaine uncover these bodies. It might - just might - bang the idea that there are such things as evil, and that Saddam Hussein was a VERY evil man. |
| Posted by: Old Patriot 2005-05-01 3:32:38 PM |
| #6 But that's not important! They're just brown people! And anyway, they belonged to the hero Saddam, who stood up to Amerikkka, so he could do whatever he wished with them! They probably deserved it! What's important is that Bushitler is a war criminal! He should be shot! Randi Rhodes says so! Aaaarrrrrrggggg! /moonbat F'ing |
| Posted by: Barbara Skolaut 2005-05-01 2:51:50 PM |
| #5 Great post, Verlaine. Interesting that the article appears in the Arab News. |
| Posted by: Matt 2005-05-01 11:33:25 AM |
| #4 If you ever get the urge to do any photoblogging, you can send 'em along to me or the Steves. (Fred too, but his spam phaser is set to *terminate with extreme prejudice*) And if you have a whole lot of photos, or video, I'd be glad to host them over at Random Probabilities with a link here, to preserve RB bandwidth. |
| Posted by: rkb 2005-05-01 11:19:58 AM |
| #3 Lol, ViI! Yogi sure had a way with the werdz thingy, lol! Satellite imagery and similar tech, such as used in Bosnia, will make hiding the large secrets impossible, and the small ones improbable. Glad you are there on our behalf, bro, we appreciate it -- Thanks! And please do send along any images you feel comfortable sharing, if you're allowed. |
| Posted by: .com 2005-05-01 2:25:54 AM |
| #2 Thanks Verlaine. If you ever get the urge to do any photoblogging, you can send 'em along to me or the Steves. (Fred too, but his spam phaser is set to *terminate with extreme prejudice*) |
| Posted by: Seafarious 2005-05-01 2:15:25 AM |
| #1 Your humble correspondent was on this press trip south. I don't need exposure to things like this to know why I came or to inspire me to work harder -- but it doesn't hurt. One can imagine the killers thinking the site -- utterly remote and a moon-scape -- would effectively hide their crimes. But now at least some of those responsible will get to watch as the evidence is meticulously presented. One side note of possible interest. At a refueling stop we landed between two Polish Mi-24 gunships. One of our Blackhawk pilots had an obviously Russian name and appearance, and when I made a comment about the Hind he said his father had flown them for the Soviets in Afghanistan. He then proceeded to note the features of the ship as we did a walk-around. As Yogi Berra reportedly said when told that a Jewish guy had been elected mayor of Dublin, Ireland: "only in America!" |
| Posted by: Verlaine in Iraq 2005-05-01 1:57:21 AM |
