Twenty-eight people suspected of planning attacks â including three Pakistanis â have been apprehended in the past 24 hours in the northern Afghan town of Mazar-i-Sharif. âWe had information which reported the infiltration of Al-Qaeda and Taliban into the city which led to the arrests,â said Isa Ifikhary, one of the townâs heads of security. Three Pakistani nationals were stopped and found to be in possession of two weapons, Ifikhary said. The 25 Afghans were all Pashtun, he said. Those arrested allegedly wanted to disrupt Afghan New Year celebrations which attracted tens of thousands of people to the streets of Mazar-i-Sharif on Friday. I wonder if the Paks are just JUI thugs, or if they're connected to ISI? And here it is, only a week after the Afghans were nice enough to announce they were going to release 900 Paks who'd been captured fighting with the Talibs. Those bastards are tenacious, aren't they?
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
03/22/2003 10:25 pm ||
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Three Afghan soldiers were killed and four kidnapped in two separate pre-dawn attacks on security checkposts near the eastern border town of Spin Boldak, police said on Saturday. A police official said the simultaneous attacks, in which two soldiers were also injured, were the work of the Taliban and renegade warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar's Hizb-e-Islami group. Who else?
One of the injured men said grenades and machine guns were used in the strikes, 6 to 12 miles north of Spin Boldak, the official said. A man claiming to have been an official in the former hardline Taliban regime told Reuters, on condition of anonymity, that remnants of the Taliban had carried out the attacks. In the southeast, where troops are combing mountain caves and conducting house-to-house searches, a major military operation entered its third day and the U.S. Army said it had arrested two men and found a cache of weapons and ammunition. Afghan officials had earlier said 12 people, including members of former Taliban regime and Hezb-e-Islami, had been arrested in Operation Valiant Strike, which began almost simultaneously with the Iraq war on Thursday. But U.S. military spokesman Colonel Roger King said only two had been arrested, adding there had still been no encounter with enemy forces in the operation in Kandahar province, the biggest military operation in months. The two men were detained after a small cache of ammunition of small arms was found, he said. Toldja they'd beat it back to Pakland.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
03/22/2003 09:56 am ||
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#1
if Sam Peckinpah were alive, he'd be remaking a movie: "Bring Me The Head Of Alfredo Garcia Gulbuddin Hekmatyar"
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/22/2003 10:43 Comments ||
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#2
Lets git 'buddins head on a stick
Posted by: jon lemming ||
03/22/2003 16:45 Comments ||
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A grenade attack on a command tent of the U.S. 101st Airborne Division in Kuwait wounded at least eight soldiers, six of them seriously, a U.S. journalist with the unit told CNN on Sunday. The journalist said two grenades had been rolled into the command tent, in what appeared to be a "terrorist attack." I don't think this one's a nut â at least no more a nut than can be found running around Pakistan...
FOLLOWUP:
Speaker on FoxNews says the two attackers were Arabs, possibly Kuwaitis on the translation staff, who were dressed in military uniform. Speaker â Stuart Ramsey, of Sky News â says he doesn't know if the attackers were caught up in the blast. CENTCOM says ten people injured. Info is just coming in to the command. Action took place at Camp Pennsylvania.
More followup, from CBS News...
An American Muslim soldier is among three people being questioned in connection with a grenade and small-arms attack that injured at least 10 U.S. soldiers at Camp Pennsylvania in northern Kuwait, reports CBS News Correspondent Mark Strassman. Strassmann said three grenades were rolled into three officers' tents at the camp. When officers ran from the tents, they were hit by small arms fire. George Heath, spokesman at Fort Campbell, home base of the 101st, said 10 people were wounded, six seriously. The American was found injured and hiding in a bunker. Asked if he was hurt throwing a grenade, Strassman reports the soldier replied, "Yes." Cheeze. A nut, alright — but an inside job.
The injured soldiers were rushed to a field hospital but military officials had no word on their conditions, Lt. Cmdr. Charles Owens said from Camp As Sayliyah in Qatar.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
03/22/2003 08:14 pm ||
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#1
Fox News now hinting that it was a disgruntled U.S. soldier.
#3
Muslim or non muslim, this guy is part of a military unit in a war situation. This guy is in deep shit and if not found a nutcase could be easily executed.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
03/22/2003 23:46 Comments ||
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#4
CAIR might be irrelevant... a soldier will face a military tribunal, not the "OJ Jury" stuff you get back home. FoxNews just reported one of the injured has in fact died. This sick f*ck is in some deep trouble. He's lucky that he wasn't beaten to death.
#9
Jim Lacey for Tima mag, whose tent was next to the command post. just stated on CNN that this act was committed by was a troubled (deranged) muslim soldier from the 101st.
#13
Muslim or non muslim, this guy is part of a military unit in a war situation. This guy is in deep shit and if not found a nutcase could be easily executed.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
03/22/2003 23:46 Comments ||
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#14
CAIR might be irrelevant... a soldier will face a military tribunal, not the "OJ Jury" stuff you get back home. FoxNews just reported one of the injured has in fact died. This sick f*ck is in some deep trouble. He's lucky that he wasn't beaten to death.
#16
Jim Lacey from Time magazine just stated on Fox that this 101st murderer did this in support of his faith. He stated that this a**hole was not under the 101st command (ie. had no motive for cold-blooded murder) other then a desire for jihad.
The D.C. sniper is a black muslim. The 101st murderer is a black muslim. When will america wake up to the fact that victimization mixed with the avoidance of reponsibility and added with a dash of multiculturalism is a toxic disaster. Sad, Sad, Sad.
A senior legal adviser to the foreign secretary, Jack Straw, has quit the Foreign Office because of a difference over the legal advice sanctioning the war against Iraq, it emerged last night. Elizabeth Wilmhurst, 54, deputy legal adviser, is understood to be blubbering over unhappy with the government's official line that it has sufficient basis for war under UN resolutions. Ms Wilmhurst has been a legal adviser at the Foreign Office for 30 years, and deputy legal officer since 1997. Ta-ta, Lizzie.
Her resignation will be humorous an embarrassment to Tony Blair as well as to Mr Straw and raises new doubts about the legal basis for the war. It will encourage anti-war MPs to renew pressure on the attorney general, Lord Goldsmith, to publish in full his legal advice to the government. The Foreign Office was reluctant to discuss Ms Wilmhurst's departure. A spokesman said: "A legal adviser has decided to leave over the last few days." Asked the reason, he said: "That is a matter for them." "They're holding a going-away party for Liz the day after she leaves. You can ask them about it then."
After a week of reported unease within the government about the legality of going to war without a second UN resolution, Lord Goldsmith on Monday published a condensed version of his advice to Mr Blair. But anti-war MPs and many lawyers suspect the full version may be more evenly balanced. He's a lawyer: of course it's going to be evenly balanced.
Concern about the legal advice was expressed this week by two former Foreign Office legal advisers. In a letter to the Times, Sir Franklin Berman, legal adviser from 1991-99, and Sir Arthur Watts, legal adviser from 1987-91, expressed regret that the search for a second resolution had been abandoned. They said the onus was on the government to account "for their actions to the international community in whose name they claim to act". Tony did that nicely in the House of Commons.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/22/2003 08:35 am ||
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#2
Better to quit than to hang around making a nuisance of yourself. If your convictions bother you that badly by all means leave, there is a certain honor in that.
#3
Yes, Hiryu, your advice would apply universally wouldn't it. The more-radical protestors in San Francisco and the French ambassador to the U.S. come to mind at the moment.
Posted by: Tom ||
03/22/2003 8:51 Comments ||
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I really think ChIraq and his cohorts thought this legal wrangling was their ace in the hole.
It wasn't until March 16th that the ruling "Attorney General, Lord Goldsmith, said Britain is within its legal rights to launch an attack without a second resolution."
Seconds after they received it, Britian made it clear they would join us for war.
http://www.rantburg.com/?d=3/16/2003#11341 )
The very next day, Bush said he would not seek the UN vote on the war, Robin Cook quit his position and the UN started to behave in a somewhat strange manner, with Blix's bizarre decision to give his to-do list for weapons inspectors to UN (on the eve of war). Then, Mr Putin said a war without UN approval "would be fraught with the gravest consequences, will result in casualties and destabilise the international situation in general...The Kremlin's foreign minister, Igor Ivanov, said: "The use of force against Iraq, especially with reference to previous resolutions of the UN security council, has no legal grounds."
Then that term, "gravest consequences" (ominously like "serious consequences") was bantered about for a few days as a threat.
I really think that France, Turkey, Russia et al believed that between Turkey's eventual (and treacherous) refusal to accomodate us, and their belief that they could get legal rulings in both the US and British governments determining that the term in 1441, "serious consequences" did not mean "war".... they felt certain that the US would not be able to go it without Britian or the use of Turkey for a northern front.
Thus, we would be forced to back down, without that second UN resolution which France would veto, even if we did get the votes. Thinking we would be forced to go home with our tails between our legs, ChIraq was certain he would be victorious with this ploy. He was wrong, and now he stands alone.
And I bet Turkey and Russia are mad at France now that they didn't get the great aid packages they could have have if they hadn't been suckered into this little scheme.
Now, from this article, it looks like they still intend to pursue this "doubts about the legal basis of the war" course of action. Either that, or they are resigning in mass because they gambled and lost.
#5
The UNSC unanimously voted for 1441 because the "serious consequences" did not actually say war or military force, though everyone knew it meant that. In typical UN fashion, they felt that it would go away. The facts discovered in the inspections showed a material breach kept forcing the issue and nobody wanted to take the heat except the US, the UK, Spain and a bunch of smaller countries with more cojones than the AOW. They are still playing games but it just amounts to smoke blowing out their collective asses. Now it is show time and they lose, and it is ironic, but the AOW and friends are beginning to see another version of "serious consequences"---for them.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
03/22/2003 11:14 Comments ||
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Paul, you are right, but it's a game they will keep playing, because it keeps them in the game. you will "illegal war" or words to that effect in every statement from those who oppose us. If the war is "illegal" - then they Russia, France and Turkey can claim their contacts with Iraq are still valid. That's why they refuse to kick out their "Iraqi Ambassadors" as Ivanov made clear earlier.
#8
Becky---Your 12:09 post is well taken. What we need here is a change of consciousness. So the question is: if we stay the course and the US/UK et al (read: the willing and able) are reasonably successful at rebuilding Iraq, both physically and governmentally, can we build on this success? Will AOW and Russia finally quit whining and start changing their ways, even a little bit? I can't help but think that by setting a good example by deeds that we will slowly make things better. I keep thinking of those people in the Ivory Coast with their signs saying "US is better."
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
03/22/2003 14:37 Comments ||
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Paul, I have to believe that you are right. Even if it were all about oiiil.. those signs say it all!
If I were Russia, I'd quick stab France in the back in exchange for some lucrative deals/contracts and a good long term relationship with the US. France has little to offer and has just proven (again) she's a worthless ally. The US makes a mighty one. Even if Russia does it for reasons of self-interest, rather than because "it's right", the world will be a better place.
Explosions damaged two police stations in Kosovo in simultaneous attacks, a U.N. police spokesman said Saturday. No one was injured. Sounds like Hekmatyar's boyz, but they don't operate that far west...
The attacks late Friday targeted Pristina police stations manned by both U.N. and local police, spokesman Al Garcia said. No motive was known, and police had no suspects, he added. The blasts broke windows at both stations and damaged at least one U.N. police car. Kosovo's police stations were put on alert because of the attacks, Garcia said. Kosovo has been run by the United Nations and NATO since 1999, when the military alliance bombed Serb troops loyal to former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic to stop their crackdown on independence-minded ethnic Albanians.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
03/22/2003 10:41 am ||
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France, a staunch opponent of war in Iraq, said on Saturday it would send personnel and chemical, bacteriological and nuclear detection equipment to Qatar, fulfilling a defense pact with the emirate. The French defense ministry said the move followed a request from Qatar, host to the war command center of General Tommy Franks, overall controller of U.S. and allied forces, and a visit to the emirate on March 16 by Defense Minister Michele Alliot-Marie. The deployment was a result of "defense agreements and to respond favorably to all requests from Qatar to ensure the protection of its territory and population," the ministry said in a statement. A spokesman said 39 personnel and at least four vehicles were in the army's nuclear, bacteriological and chemical unit, based in Draguignan in southern France. They would help with detection and possible decontamination. Alliot-Marie said during her visit to the Qatari capital Doha that in the event of war, France was ready to help Gulf countries with which it has defense pacts to protect themselves, for example from chemical attack. I notice this takes place when U.S. and British troops are sufficiently far into Iraq, and the war's gone well enough, that there's not much danger of a chem attack actually occurring in Qatar...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
03/22/2003 09:49 am ||
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France Sends Chemical Detection Unit to Qatar
Why? Iraq doesn't have chemical weapons. Blixie said so.
#3
Make sure they stay outta our way and don't let them near any sensitive info - remember how they passed espionage and targetting data on to the serbs? The French can't be trusted - accept that and adapt relationship accordingly - and move on. We certainly don't need their help.
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/22/2003 10:41 Comments ||
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France Sends Chemical Detection Unit to Qatar
Why? Iraq doesn't have chemical weapons. Blixie said so.
#5
The french [lower caps on purpose] always show up when the fighting is far enough away to be a non-factor. The "Frogs" need to stay the heck away from this...they're not needed, appreciated, valued, nor respected.
A Spanish judge has released 14 of 16 suspected Islamic terrorists arrested in eastern Spain on January 24. The releases came in two court sessions, seven of them late Thursday and seven more Friday, the sources said. Two of the 16 â Mohamed Tahraoui and Mohamed Amine Benaboura â remained in custody on Friday. They are charged with collaborating with terrorist organizations, which carries a minimum six-year sentence. The 14 people released are still under investigation, but the court official and defense lawyers said the judge did not have enough evidence to keep them in jail. Those released must report each week to court officials near their new homes in Inqaluit Barcelona and surrounding towns in eastern Nunavut Spain. On the day of the arrests, Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar told a news conference that the 16 were "linked to al Qaeda" and "were preparing attacks with explosive and chemical material." But investigators have since determined through laboratory tests that highly suspect liquids in two barrels and a bottle seized during the arrests turned out to be common detergents. Oops.
Aznar, on February 5 in the Spanish Parliament, cited the arrests of the 16 to link Iraq to al Qaeda, while an international debate was raging on that possible link, in the run-up to the U.S.-led attack on Iraq. Spain's largest newspaper, El Pais, reported on Friday that the seven people released Thursday were Smail Boudjelthia, the brothers Ali and Sohuil Kouka, Youb Soudi, Amin El Ghzaoui, Majid Alhoujad and Mohamed Benammou. The 16 were arrested in January based on information provided to Spain by a French Judge Jean-Louis Brugiere, a leading official in the fight against Islamic terrorism. But on February 19, Brugiere advised Spanish officials that he would not seek extradition of the 16 because they had not committed any crimes in France. "Shucks, kinds of jihadis we got living in the cities, why, your boys don't even make the junior varsity."
Since then, Spanish media, citing officials, have reported that at least some of the 16 would be released from jail. Officials on January 24 linked the 16 to al Qaeda and the Salafist Group for Call and Combat. The Salafists are a spin-off of the main militant Islamic opposition group, Armed Islamic Group, or GIA, in Algeria. At least some of the 16 had been in contact with four Islamic terrorist suspects arrested in France in last December. Sound like low-level hard boys.
The French suspects included Merouane Benahmed, a suspected expert in chemistry and explosives who was linked to a to a terrorist cell arrested in Frankfurt in December 2000 that had plotted to attack Strasbourg Cathedral in France.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/22/2003 08:17 am ||
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Edited to stay on target.
The battle within Europe prompted by the war in Iraq raged on today as President Jacques Chirac of France vowed to oppose a British idea for a Security Council resolution that would give the United States and Britain the right to govern Iraq. Sure, Jacques, just throw us out, okay?
The deepest fissure was between Britain and France, whose leaders seemed to be talking past each other about the postwar administration of Iraq. Rejecting an idea floated by Prime Minister Tony Blair of Britain for a resolution to give international authority to an occupation government in Baghdad, Mr. Chirac told a news conference, "This idea of a resolution seems to me to be a way of authorizing military intervention after the fact and so is not from my point of view fitting in the current situation." "I will veto the opening prayer if it appears to authorize anything at all!"
Asked in a news conference whether he and his fellow leaders in Europe want a United Nations mandate over Iraq as soon as possible, Mr. Blair replied that a resolution was necessary, not just to address the potential humanitarian crisis in the country but also to authorize what he called "the post-Saddam civil authority" in Iraq. But in the absence of one, I guess the powers that end up in Baghdad will just have to do the job. Think Jacques, think about what you really want in the end.
"I think there is a general agreement about the central involvement of the United Nations," Mr. Blair said. "Now exactly how that process takes place is precisely the issue that we discuss, but there is a common view now, not just amongst the Europeans but also with the United States, that it is important that we have a new United Nations resolution that authorizes that and that governs not merely the humanitarian situation but also the post-Saddam civil authority in Iraq."
Actually, I think any UN involvement in Iraq is an idea that should be smothered at birth. The wonderful job they're done running Paleostinian hellholes refugee camps should be sufficient reason to include them out in itself.
With the United Nations' role in postwar Iraq fading unclear, Security Council diplomats indicated after a meeting today that the oil-for-food program, which for the past few years has been the main source of UN revenues food for 60 percent of the Iraqi population, should be revived under the temporary authority of Secretary General Kofi Annan. The lucrative source of graft program was effectively suspended on Monday when United Nations workers were pulled from Iraq. Experts representing the 15 Council members are to meet Saturday to discuss Mr. Annan's March 19 proposal to reauthorize the program.
Can I vote "No way in hell"? Guess not, huh...
On Thursday, the European Union leaders signaled that they would resist an American-led administration for Iraq and in a joint statement called for the United Nations to play a central role. But Mr. Chirac seemed to think that a Security Council resolution would make the United States and Britain the de facto governors of Iraq. He added, "France would not accept a resolution tending to legitimize the military intervention and giving the Americans and British the power to administer Iraq." As opposed to no resolution, which will leave, um, the US and UK in charge.
He said the League of United Nations was not the only body that could take responsibility for rebuilding Iraq, underscoring that he is willing to consider some sort of resolution for rebuilding the country but not one that would seem to legitimize the war or give the United States and Britain exceptional powers. "Whatever the results of the military operation," Mr. Chirac said, Iraq "must be rebuilt, and for that there is just one forum, the United States Nations."
Got a one-track mind, if any, doesn't he?
Later in Washington, Secretary of State Colin L. Powell said the United States was in contact with members of the Security Council "as to what is appropriate" for a postwar Iraqi authority. "I hope that France will want to be a partner in such an effort, but that remains to be seen," Mr. Powell said. He said that nicer than I would have.
Britain, which has committed 45,000 troops to the Iraqi campaign, continued to hurl justified accusations that France sabotaged an effort to win international approval at the United Nations for the war. Asked about the plan by France, Germany and Belgium to hold their own defense meeting, Denis McShane, Britain's senior official on Europe, told French reporters, "The idea of a European defense based on Belgium and without England? I wonder how serious this could be." Ah, the subtle British sense of humor.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/22/2003 08:32 am ||
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Even if France plays the 'illegal intervention' card and gets some international backing, whoâs going to enforce it if the US doesnât want to play along?
Posted by: John Phares ||
03/22/2003 13:19 Comments ||
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Den Beste has a good analysis of how Jacques La Ver has painted himself into a very bad corner and can't back down...in addition, if he's removed as President, immunity's gone poof! , he's subject to indictment and possible jail over bribery charges. Couldn't happen to a nicer guy unless if that struttin' little peacock de Villepin went too
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/22/2003 7:25 Comments ||
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"France would not accept a resolution tending to legitimize the military intervention "
You watch, it's becoming obvious that his new little scheme is to claim the "gravest consequences" to the US for its illegal military intervention. Everything he does and says makes sense when viewed in this light. Russia and France greedily rejected US offers for fair and cooperative efforts to divide the "spoils" and now, being left out completely, they are looking for ways to make this war illegal, so their contracts in Iraq are still good.
Note the two other rantburg aticles today that support this....Russia Claims US Trying to Step on Economic Interests and Advisor Quits Foreign Office Over Legality of War.
I can't believe Putin is being so stupid and greedy. When will he get it that if he just sits down at the diplomatic table, we'll work out a better deal than he will ever get by playing all of these childish ego games. He can't see past the easy money in Iraq (and slapping Bush) to consider what's best in the long term for his country.
#5
Even if France plays the 'illegal intervention' card and gets some international backing, whoâs going to enforce it if the US doesnât want to play along?
Posted by: John Phares ||
03/22/2003 13:19 Comments ||
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Don't get me wrong, I think we will prevail, but it seems clear that they will do their best to use this Clintonian tactic to try and (unsuccessfully) slap us around in the UN. It's all about the meaning of the word "consequences".
They will play to the same anti-US idiots that are out marching against the liberation of Iraq right now. It's sure to cause us headaches, but I agree with Alaska Paul (another article)..if we can hold firm, we can change the world into a better place.
#7
Jacques doesn't seem to realize that a veto cannot *get* you anything, it can only deny something to someone else. The legal status of the invasion is moot, Sammy's regime is history, and *that's the way it will stay*. Any move to pass a "this is illegal" statement will be vetoed by the US and UK.
#8
Chirac cant pass "this is illegal statement" but he can veto a "this occupation is authorized by the UNSC" which would have been nice to have for a number of reasons (add legitimacy in US and UK for when times get rough, add resources, add legitimacy in Iraq and the region). But by doing so he's passing up a chance to reconcile with the "anglosphere" and get out of the corner. Makes it appear more like he is really commited to a geopolitics of counter balance. Which may make sense for France, China, and even Russia, but probably not for Germany, which seems to have been more motivated by pacifism - not a reason not to cooperate in the aftermath. If France continues hardline in aftermath, i would expect (perhaps i am too optimistic?) growing strain between Paris and Berlin, already uncomfortable with French dissing of eastern europeans.
#9
Saw an article yesterday that made sense: "First Afghanistan, then Iraq, next: France!"
The best way to deal with France, Germany, et al, is to pull out of their countries - lock, stock and barrel (or keg, whichever you prefer). Their socialist governments will fold without being constantly propped up by American dollars buying their goods.
As for what happens after the war is over, that will be up to the victors, as it has always been.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
03/23/2003 0:13 Comments ||
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A group of American anti-war demonstrators who came to Iraq with Japanese human shield volunteers made it across the border today with 14 hours of uncensored video, all shot without Iraqi government minders present. Kenneth Joseph, a young American pastor with the Assyrian Church of the East, told UPI the trip "had shocked me back to reality." Some of the Iraqis he interviewed on camera "told me they would commit suicide if American bombing didn't start. They were willing to see their homes demolished to gain their freedom from Saddam's bloody tyranny. They convinced me that Saddam was a monster the likes of which the world had not seen since Stalin and Hitler. He and his sons are sick sadists. Their tales of slow torture and killing made me ill, such as people put in a huge shredder for plastic products, feet first so they could hear their screams as bodies got chewed up from foot to head."
Posted by: John Phares ||
03/22/2003 08:35 am ||
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#1
Reminds me of a line from 'The Maxx': "A liberal is a conservative who's never been mugged."
#6
What happens to these human shields when American soldiers occupy Bagdad. Will the US military protect the "shields" from the wrath of the Iraqi people?
Posted by: canaveral dan ||
03/22/2003 22:54 Comments ||
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San Francisco arson investigators removed 12 Molotov-type cocktails on Friday from a backpack discovered by a groundskeeper cleaning up debris left by anti-war protesters in a downtown alley way. Officers also discovered a collection of rags, lighter fluid, and other materials with which to make incendiary objects in front of the Four Seasons Hotel. Meanwhile, raucous bands of demonstrators marched through San the city's streets Friday in the largest of many anti-war protests around the country. About a thousand anit-capatilist swine protesters chanted "The bombs are dropping, stop the shopping," during an after-work gathering in the touristy shopping district at the intersection of Powell and Market Streets. A morning die-in outside the federal building in Sacramento resulted in 30 arrests, and an attempt in Capitola to block entrance to a military recruiting center ended in about a dozen arrests.
In downtown Los Angeles on Friday, 27 people were arrested for blocking the street in front of the federal building. As demonstrators cheered, police in faceshields took away protesters one by one after they had linked arms and sat down in the street. One of those arrested was Vanessa Acosta. She knelt in the street and prayed the rosary. She held a sign saying "Peace is the first casualty in war." She held her hands together in prayer as she was led away. "I want to give a little bit of myself ... the people in Iraq don't know who I am but at least I know that I'm against their liberation with them," she said. Duh...
And in Sacramento, U.S. marshals arrested about 30 protesters who were blocking the entrances to the federal building. "I believe we have an illegal government that stole the election, is robbing the treasury and is waging a war against a country that can't resist," said Murray Cohen, a 65 year old moonbat, before police took him away.
Larger anti-war demonstrations and vigils were scheduled for Saturday in San Francisco and Los Angeles, while in Long Beach the Surfrider Foundation was coordinating the formation of a giant peace sign consisting of 400 surfboards. Like, way cool, huh dude? Surfers for, like, peace, man!
Police, who kept a tight rein on the moving masses, said they learned a lesson after demonstrations grew out of control leading to 1,600 arrests on Thursday. "They think they can do this indefinitely. Not anymore," San Francisco police spokesman Dewayne Tully said. Police, bolstered by 450 California Highway Patrol officers, were determined to keep bridges and major arteries open.
If they did a little more with them than book 'em and let 'em go â give give them six months in jug â there wouldn't be so many of them. But since there's no real punishment associated with being an idiot, they're free to indulge their childishness without any cost...
Posted by: John Phares ||
03/22/2003 09:06 am ||
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For the life of me I can't figure out how Ms Acosta managed to hold a protest sign and pray the rosary while also linking arms with other protesters. Apparently, she can sit and kneel at the same time too. Folks in San Francisco must be extraordinarily limber.
Posted by: John Phares ||
03/22/2003 8:18 Comments ||
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Ah, the romance of revolution. Some people make do with going to Miami or Sebring to raise hell during spring break. This is the wannabe radical's version thereof.
Edited for brevity
Under the guise of working to end corporate "terror" in Colombia, 100 organizations are working to bring an end to US military aid to Colombia. A March is scheduled for March 24, in LA. Join people of conscience all over the country to generate a photo-op for anti-American press releases, for Colombian consumption confront the corporations that profit off of US-funded terror in Colombia. 100 organizations and probably 80 people will show up. West Coast Regional Mobilization is sponsored by: Amazon Watch, Colombia Peace Project, Fellowship of Reconciliation, Project Underground, the Ruckus Society, Witness for Peace Southwest, and other(s) usual suspects. I just thought this was relevant because these little "cells" all work together up to make up the instant rent-a-crowd for those who seek to undermine America. Fred, feel free to delete if too off topic.
I was originally going to put it under Latin America, but then I moved it to Fifth Column. This is what these people do for a living. I don't think they're going to get that big a turn-out, what with the Iraq war going on...
Posted by: Becky ||
03/22/2003 09:07 am ||
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correct link is, http://www.moles.org/ProjectUnderground/events/actions/colombia0303.shtml
A scrap metal dealer and two small girls were killed and five other people were wounded Saturday when a shell exploded as the man was handling it. The man was hammering the shell in order to break it apart and sell the metal when it went off in his courtyard, said Malik Mohammed Iqbal, a police official in Gujranwala. Five of the scrap dealer's relatives were injured, and two were taken to a local hospital with serious shrapnel wounds. The man was identified as Mohammed Iqbal, who ran his scrap metal business from his home and had set up a junkyard in the courtyard, the police official said. There was no relation between the police official and the victim. "Hmmm... What's this? It appears to be a high explosive artillery shell. I'll just give it a tap or two with this here hammer and... [BOOM!]
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
03/22/2003 10:53 am ||
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Hadn't that guy ever seen any Bugs Bunny? I guess not. The developing world has a lot to learn from American imperialist Saturday morning cartoons.
Posted by: matt ||
03/22/2003 11:02 Comments ||
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"The man was hammering the shell in order to break it apart and sell the metal". Might of been a secret Iraqi lauching a scud.To bad he had the launch booklet upside down.You're supposed to hit the BOTTOM of the bomb with the hammer.
An appeals court has ordered the release of two Christians in eastern Pakistan who were sentenced to life in prison for allegedly insulting Islam's Prophet Mohammed, a Christian activist said Saturday. The Lahore High Court overturned a lower court's conviction of the Christians, brothers Rasheed and Saleem Nazir, in a ruling Friday, said Joseph Francis, head of the Center for Legal Aid Assistance and Settlement. The center represented the brothers in their appeal. The Nazirs were convicted three years ago by a court in the town of Pasrur, about 90 miles southwest of Lahore. Police had charged them with blasphemy on the basis of a complaint by a Muslim ice cream vendor who had argued with them, according to Francis. And that was all it took to toss them in jug...
The appeals court ruled there was insufficient evidence for the conviction. Under Pakistani Islamic law, the word of a Muslim accuser is all that is needed to prosecute a non-Muslim on blasphemy charges, which can carry the death penalty. That's because Islam is the Master Religion...
Last year Amnesty International urged Pakistan to amend or abolish its blasphemy law. "The law has frequently been abused to imprison people on grounds of religious enmity, but also has proved an easy tool to have people imprisoned when the real motives are business rivalry or land issues," the human rights group said. That's why they have it in the first place, isn't it?
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
03/22/2003 10:49 am ||
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FoxNews was reporting the KIA count at 200 earlier. Rooters, via WaPo, reports at least 100..
The United States yesterday widened its war in Iraq with a missile blitz of two Islamist groups in Iraqi Kurdistan killing at least 50 people but sending tensions in the area rising and raising questions over the validity of their targets. Mustafa Sayed Khader, a top commander with the pro-US Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), said the pre-dawn attack on Ansar Al Islam (Supporters of Islam), which Washington has linked to the Al Qaeda terror network, involved a two-hour bombardment by some 50 cruise missiles. "Ansar positions were bombarded by around 40-50 cruise missiles. The missiles hit Ansar centres. There are many dead and injured, although we don't know how many for sure," Khader said in PUK-held Halabja. But in a surprise move, missiles also hit the base of a mainstream Islamic party, Komala Islami Kurdistan (Islamic Society of Kurdistan), in the small town of Khormal, killing at least 50 people. Komala control an area between PUK and Ansar territory, and the PUK justified the attack on the group by arguing that it had refused to allow PUK fighters to use its positions to attack Ansar. Sounds reasonable to me. Wonder if this is the same bunch as Jamaat e-Islami?
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
03/22/2003 10:19 pm ||
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Iraq's main Shia opposition faction, based in Iran, has not yet decided to send its military wing into action against the Baghdad regime. "So far no decision has been made by the armed wing of Supreme Assembly of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SAIRI) to confront the Iraqi regime," said SAIRI number two Abdul Aziz al-Hakim. SAIRI's armed wing, the Al-Badr Brigade, is believed to number between 10,000 and 15,000 fighters. Many are said to have crossed into Kurdish-held northern Iraq in anticipation of the US-led war aimed at toppling Saddam Hussein. Hakim said Friday his party was "in contact with its armed forces in the north, south, and centre (of Iraq), notably in Baghdad, who are ready to implement certain plans as soon as they receive orders." I've got a feeling what those "certain plans" might be...
Western diplomatic sources in Tehran say that the United States, which sees the group as too close to the Iranian regime, has told the Shia opposition that its armed forces were not authorised to enter Iraq after the start of war. Hakim was named at a meeting in late February as part of a six-member collective leadership which is set to decide on a post-Saddam Hussein interim government. The collective leadership was set to include Kurdish parties, the Iraqi National Congress and SAIRI, which is the main Shia opposition group. Hundreds of Al-Badr Brigade fighters earlier this month put on a rare show of military force at their northern Iraqi base, while their leadership vowed to act independently of the United States in the battle against Saddam. The "show of military force" was a parade...
During a parade by the group in the southeast of the Kurdish autonomous zone close to the Iranian border, Hakim said his well-disciplined army would quickly move to secure areas captured from the Iraqi regime in the hours following a US assault. Ummm... Lemme get this straight: you don't have the strength to throw Sammy out, so you're waiting for us to do it. Then you're going to take it away from us? Figger the odds...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
03/22/2003 10:04 pm ||
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Ali Hassan Majeed, commander of Iraq's southern military region and known as "Chemical Ali" by opposition groups, has taken refuge in a hospital in the southern city of Nasiriyah, a Shiite Iraqi opposition leader in Iran said Friday. Majeed moved his command to the hospital in Nasiriyah, 208 kilometers (129 miles) northwest of Basra, ahead of the expected US attacks, said Mohsen Hakim, son of Abdul Aziz Hakim, the second-in-command of the Supreme Assembly of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq based in Iran. Mohsen Hakim also told AFP that the Iraqi army has killed the son of a tribe leader in southern Iraq for refusing to cooperate.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
03/22/2003 09:16 pm ||
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#1
I thought he was quietly decomposing somewhere.
But if he is not, isn't he in a heap of trouble? I thought we had Nasiriyah surrounded, or nearly so.
Coming into Basra as part of a massive military convoy, I encountered a stream of young men, dressed in what appeared to be Iraqi army uniforms, applauding the US marines as they swept past in tanks. That says more than I could ever say...
US predictions that many here would choose to surrender rather than fight appear to have come true. Leaflets had been dropped on the city, urging members of the 51st Iraqi Division to surrender, and I saw hundreds doing so. Late on Friday night, they were lined up along the roadside, being separated according to rank, checked for weapons and documented. Processing EPWs is something like triage. The cannon fodder is basically deloused and sent home. The guys who know something — mostly officers, especially in the Middle East — are prioritized according to what they can be expected to know.
Some, however, chose to fight on, and were met with a fierce barrage of artillery fire on Friday night and early Saturday morning. US and British marines now seem confident that they have secured Iraq's second-largest city, Basra. Intermittent shelling continued around the port city throughout Saturday morning. Troops are now securing the city's vast oil fields, although some have been set ablaze. Giant plumes of smoke now dominate the horizon of this historic city as, in what looks like an eerie repeat of the last Gulf War, oil fields are ablaze. As we arrived in Basra, I counted half a dozen oil fields billowing smoke and flame. The Rumeila oil fields account for roughly half of Iraq's oil output and are capable of pumping one million barrels a day. US and British forces succeeded in securing the majority before they could be set alight.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
03/22/2003 08:35 pm ||
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Iraqi forces have been repositioning their surface-to-surface missiles and are expected to try further missile attacks against advancing American troops. U.S. officials also disclosed that the missiles fired at Kuwait over the past few days have not been random shots but have been targeted, based on Iraqi intelligence about where American units were positioned. That would represent either poor intel or poor aim...
Allied warplanes are now involved in an intensive effort to strike the Iraqis' mobile missile launchers before they fire again. United States military officials say they bombed several Iraqi missile launchers last night. But the Iraqi missile batteries now appear to be heading north on the highway out of Basra so they can fire at the right flank of the American troops as they advance toward Baghdad. "They are not out of the game," said Brig. Gen. Howard Bromberg, the commander of the 32nd Army Air and Missile Defense Command, which is commanding the Patriots batteries in the Persian Gulf region. "They are repositioning." That's the time to take them out from the air, before they're settled in and camouflaged...
Iraq has fired six Ababil-100 missiles, at the 101st Airborne division, at an allied air base in Kuwait, at the command center for the land war, at a huge Marine logistics area and at other important targets. Looks like it was easier to send in a couple hard boys with some grenades to strike against the 101st. Not as much arithmetic involved, either...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
03/22/2003 06:09 pm ||
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Germany said Saturday it would withdraw its crew members from NATO surveillance planes that are patrolling Turkish airspace if Turkey moves its troops into Iraq. The threat was announced by Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer and Defence Minister Peter Struck following a meeting of Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's Security Cabinet. It came as the Turkish military denied reports that some 1,000 Turkish commandos had crossed into northern Iraq. Did the Germans think this one up on their own, or did we prompt them to do it?
Germany has staunchly opposed military action in Iraq, and has said that it will not participate in a war. Schroeder has said the AWACS flights over Turkey are covered by Germany's obligations to defend a NATO ally and would not be used to support a war. Fischer said that Turkish participation in a war would produce an "entirely new situation," given Germany's refusal to take part in the war. However, he said Germany's foreign intelligence service currently has no information that Turkish troops have entered Iraq. Struck said the withdrawal threat also applied to German Patriot missiles that were handed over to the Netherlands for use in Dutch Patriot batteries in Turkey. On Friday, an opposition party unhappy that parliament was not consulted on allowing German soldiers to man the surveillance flights along Turkey's border with Iraq said it would take its complaint to the supreme court. The centrist party Free Democrats said they would file the complaint next week. Question is, do the Turks need the Patriots and AWACS any more?
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/22/2003 06:02 pm ||
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#1
This is good news. Let German pacifism work to our advantage this time.
Posted by: Dar Steckelberg ||
03/22/2003 18:57 Comments ||
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Boy, you know you're suddenly unpopular when Iraq, Germany and the United States all tell you to butt out at the same time...
Posted by: Mac ||
03/22/2003 23:51 Comments ||
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Don't let the door slam your butt on the way out.
Severely edited to stay on target.
U.S. special operations troops combing Iraq for Scud missiles and chemical or biological weapons have found none so far, a senior American military officer said Saturday. Maj. Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the vice director of operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told a Pentagon news conference that the Iraqis have not fired any Scuds and that U.S. forces searching airfields in the far western desert of Iraq have uncovered no missiles or launchers. Iraq denies having any Scuds, which have sufficient range to reach Israel, but Gen. Tommy Franks, who is running the war, said Saturday that Iraq has yet to account for about two dozen Scuds that United Nations inspectors have said were left over from the 1991 Gulf War. "Mr. President, incredible as it seems, it appears that the Iraqis were telling the truth."
"My bad, Don."
Iraq also denies it holds any chemical or biological weapons. McChrystal said the United States will either bomb any such weapons it should find or seize them with ground forces, whichever is safer. With U.S. ground forces advancing toward Baghdad, Pentagon officials expressed concerns the troops might come across Republican Guard troops armed with chemical weapons. "We would be hopeful that those with their triggers on these weapons understand what Secretary Don Rumsfeld said in his comments yesterday: `Don't use it. Don't use it,'" Franks, the top U.S. war commander, said Saturday at a news conference at his Persian Gulf command post. Anybody home in Baghdad to give the order to use these weapons? That bunker shot the first night might have been the single best thing done so far.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/22/2003 06:00 pm ||
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I gotta be honest... if we don't find ANY bio or chem weapons in Iraq then I am personally going to be very disillusioned with this administration. A very real threat of WMD is/was the only real reason for a pre-emptive foray into Iraq. If there isn't one, then what is all this for?
Liberty for Iraqis? Puh-leeze, I don't want US troops dying for something they aren't willing to fight for themselves.
I am not hoping that they use WMD, mind you, I just want them found. In a perverse way, I would be able to relax more after that. There has been sooooooo much certainty that they exist, and every day that does by without the evidence gets me more anxious.
But I rationalize by telling myself that IF Sadaam has them, they are close to Baghdad, with the elite units, being held for a final seige, because as soon as they are used then world opinion might sway for the Colilitions' justness of the war. I believe that Hussein's plan is to hunker down in Baghdad, try to turn it into a "Stalingrad" and hope world and US opinion can turn against us as it has Israel in Palestine.
#2
First, Hussein wasn't going to place any chemical weapons in either of the no-fly zones, which are watched like a hawk. They will all be found between the 33rd and the 36th parallel, probably in/around Hussein's "Palaces" or some of the nice, fancy mosques he's built since 1991. This guy getting religion just doesn't seem plausible - there HAS to be an alternate reason for all that effort.
Second, he's already screwed. The United States has identified at least two missiles fired at Kuwait as being Scuds, which Hussein isn't "allowed" to have.
Third, something I've brought up several times elsewhere, which no one seems to want to consider: there are going to be hundreds of Iraqi casualties in Baghdad, simply because Hussein is throwing up tons of lead, trying to bring down some of our incoming missiles. What goes up must come down. Big chunks, too!
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
03/23/2003 0:39 Comments ||
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Have to say if no WmD found I will be highly pissed.If the U.S. lied about WMD what else have they lied about?
Iraqi troops clashed with U.S.-led forces in the desert near the holy city of Najaf, 160 km (100 miles) south of the capital Baghdad, Iraqi television reported on Sunday. The report said the leader of President Saddam Hussein's Baath party in Najaf was killed in the clashes, the closest ground fighting to the capital since U.S. and British forces launched a war against the Iraqi regime on Thursday. So long, whatsyername!
Iraqi TV said the U.S.-led forces fled after the clash. Sure, towards Baghdad.
A spokesman for U.S. forces in Kuwait had no comment on the report. "Ya can't expect us to respond to every nut-brained report from the Iraqis!"
The U.S. military says it has secured a bridge across the Euphrates river at the city of Nassiriya, 375 km (235 miles) southeast of Baghdad. Najaf also lies on the western banks of the Euphrates, but much closer to the capital. Najaf has a population of around 420,000, and is home to the shrine of Imam Ali, a figure revered by Shi'ite Muslims. From the jump-off point in Kuwait (say near Highway 80) to al-Najaf is about 230 miles. It's the capital of province of the same name. So we have units that are 2/3 of the way to Baghdad. Our guys are trucking!
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/22/2003 05:58 pm ||
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Either that, or our guys are still 75 miles away, the local gun bunnies are jumpy and trigger happy, and they blew off when they heard a noise - now the perimeter's littered with dead camels and one of his own boys is trying to explain why he prematurely fed Mr Big his pill.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/22/2003 17:51 Comments ||
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FoxNews says they've been in ground contact about 40 miles south of Najaf for the past couple hours. Our guys say they haven't seen any incoming rounds...
Posted by: Fred ||
03/22/2003 18:11 Comments ||
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Edging closer to Iraq's hard-core defenders, U.S. and British forces besieged the southern city of Basra on Saturday and rolled to within 150 miles of Baghdad. Diplomatic complications closed off the option of a heavy invasion from the north. Allies boasted "the instruments of tyranny are collapsing," and so, from all appearances, was the will to fight among thousands in the regular Iraqi army.
U.S. forces crossed the Euphrates River and were halfway to Baghdad, two days after spilling from Kuwait in a dusty dash that has secured strategic oil fields, a seaport and towns. Near Basra, Cobra attack helicopters, attack jets, tanks and 155 mm howitzers fought ahead of the troops to clear Highway 80. The road was nicknamed Highway of Death during the 1991 Gulf War because of an American air assault so devastating and graphic it even gave U.S. officials pause.
Officials said 1,000 to 2,000 Iraqi soldiers were in allied custody and many others gave up the fight. But six divisions of the Republican Guard, Saddam's best and most loyal soldiers, were still in the way. "So we must remain prepared for potentially tough fights as we move forward," Gen. Stanley McChrystal told a Pentagon briefing. "There's a long way to go."
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
03/22/2003 05:24 pm ||
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I hope they have enough air support.The soldiers' lives are more important than "shock and awe".
Posted by: El Id ||
03/22/2003 18:43 Comments ||
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Four U.S. soldiers were killed on Saturday in central Iraq, according to a reporter from Britainâs Sky TV who was travelling with them. Meanwhile, at least one journalist was killed and nine other people injured on Saturday in a car bombing in northern Iraq.
JOURNALIST COLIN BRAZIER of Britainâs Sky TV said four U.S. reconnaissance scouts were ambushed while driving Humvee jeeps at the head of a column. âRocket-propelled grenades were fired, one at each Humvee; (they) killed both sets of occupants,â he said in a brief live report on TV. âThere was a position we were heading to for refueling at about the same time â it was clearly a coordinated attack. There was the extraordinary sight of local people actually pointing out some of those positions that were being fired from,â Brazier said, speaking rapidly by satellite phone before he had to cut off. U.S. military officials said they had no information on the latest report of casualties. Four more good men. Prayers for all.
FOLLOWUP:
FoxNews says the four were wounded, not killed. They're under care by 3ID.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/22/2003 05:43 pm ||
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The expected exodus of refugees from Iraq has yet to materialize, U.N. officials said Friday, but cautioned that it may be too early in the 2-day-old U.S.-led invasion to tell how bad things may become. "Come on, people, you're not trying!"
International relief agencies predicted that a large-scale humanitarian crisis could develop inside Iraq, however, because of shortages of food, health care and other basic needs in the coming days and weeks. "How can we have a humanitarian crisis without refugees?"
"It is clear that Iraq is on the brink of an unprecedented humanitarian crisis and that UNICEF is facing possibly the largest and most complex humanitarian operation we've ever undertaken," United Nations Children's Fund spokeswoman Wivina Belmontescreeched said in Geneva. "Then again, maybe we aren't. We really have no clue, you understand, we're from the UN!"
Military operations in the western Iraqi desert may be one reason few people are venturing toward the Iraq-Jordan border, said Peter Kessler, spokesman for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees. He cited an unconfirmed report of a bridge bombed along the lone westbound highway through the desert as possibly hindering westward movement. The U.N. agency had no reports of Iraqi refugees crossing the Jordanian, Syrian, Turkish or Iranian frontiers. Sorta blows the previous theory.
However, thousands of Iraqi Muslim Shiites have crossed into Syria in the past four weeks, ostensibly as pilgrims, said Syrian government officials, speaking on condition of anonymity. "Of course we're on a pilgrimage. We always bring our household goods, goats and chickens on a pilgrimage!"
The Iraqis came to pay homage at Shiite shrines for the feast of Ashoura last week, but many decided to stay on, saying they would return to Iraq only when the war ends. "Fatima, bad news."
"Yes, Achmed dear?"
"Allah wills that we stay in Syria."
"You mean we can't go back home to Basra?"
"No, dove, Allah and the US Marines think we should stay here."
"Inshallah, husband, but what if the Marines come here next?"
"I guess we set a few extra places at the table."
In Amman, refugee officials said that almost 500 third-country nationals, most of them workers or students from Sudan, had entered Jordan from Iraq since Wednesday. A group of 140 was scheduled to fly home to Sudan on a chartered plane, said Chris Lom, spokesman for the Geneva-based International Organization for Migration. I dunno, I almost think I'd stay in Basra as opposed to going "home" to Sudan. UNICEF, meanwhile, said the dangerous situation inside Iraq kept it from getting two truckloads of food to hundreds of handicapped and orphaned children® in the Iraqi capital on Friday. "In 1991, many children® in institutions died," UNICEF spokesman Geoff Keele said in Amman, referring to the 1991 Gulf War. Aid officials say millions of Iraqis, most of them children®, may soon face food shortages because of the collapse of the U.N.-supervised, government-operated food rationing system in Iraq. The Marines the the Airborne can fix this.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/22/2003 02:01 pm ||
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They're not leaving because we're killing the bad folks and not them. Why leave just when the joint's gettin' cleaned up at long last?
Edited to just the new stuff.
Saddam Hussein is seen being placed on a stretcher and into an ambulance in photographs in the possession of the U.S. government showing what is described as "panicked digging" at the bunker/command-and-control facility that was struck in the first strike of the war March 19, U.S. officials told Fox News late Friday. Bodies are seen as they are removed, and these officials are confident that Saddam was seen being placed upon a stretcher. Did the blanket extend over his face?
Meanwhile, sources in the Iraqi opposition have told Fox News that the U.S. attack Wednesday night on a bunker at a command-and-control center in Baghdad came during an intelligence meeting headed by Qusay Hussein, Saddam's younger son. Qusay was wounded, opposition sources said. Also at the meeting during the U.S. strike were Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan and Vice President Izzat Ibrahim Al-Douri. The Iraqi opposition has no information that Saddam Hussein was injured. U.S. intelligence officials said Friday it was almost certainly Saddam, not a look-alike, who appeared in a video recording on Iraqi television a few hours after he was targeted by the American air strike. It is unclear whether the message was recorded before or after the strike, however. Officials said some reports indicate Saddam pre-recorded several speeches to air during fighting. I'll bet Sammy made videos for every day going into May.
While Saddam read the date — March 20 — during his speech, that could have been pre-recorded. He did not speak specifically of the attack on him or other events that would positively confirm the message was recorded after the attacks. CIA and military analysts were vigorously reviewing this and other clues about the fate of Saddam, his inner circle and his two powerful sons who were also targeted in the attacks. Senior officials cautioned Friday that they do not know whether Saddam or his sons are alive or dead. U.S. intelligence believes they were inside a residential compound bombarded by American forces. Government officials were examining a request for medical attention that could indicate injuries to the senior Iraqi leaders. "We have reason to believe that bits and pieces of him arehe was still in there," one senior U.S. official said. The officials said they believed medical attention was urgently summoned to the compound in the aftermath of the attack. One senior military official said the manner in which the help was summoned raised the possibility Saddam himself or someone of high-level importance in the Iraqi leadership was injured. But other officials cautioned there was nothing definitive. "It is not clear exactly on whose behalf the medical attention was summoned," one U.S. official said. It wasn't for the valet.
U.S. officials said intelligence indicated Saddam was still in the compound when U.S. bombs and missiles rained down late Wednesday night Washington time, about six hours after U.S. intelligence first detected that Saddam and his leadership might be there. If Saddam survived, U.S. officials hoped the surprise attack at least would leave him distrustful of his inner circle and suspecting betrayal by one of his advisers, leaving him less able to command. I saw a report somewhere that said that the news about Aziz fleeing was a CIA plant; they then followed him somehow after the press conference he gave denying that he left. When he arrived at where he was going, they decided that that was where Sammy was and launched the cruise missiles. Don't know if it's true, but what a great idea.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/22/2003 02:04 pm ||
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I keep getting this "Matrix" flashback, a cell phone being turned on and dropped into the bushes outside the bunker's entrance.
After weeks of waiting off Turkey's coast, dozens of U.S. ships carrying weaponry for the Army's 4th Infantry Division have been redirected to the Persian Gulf. The decision ends U.S. hopes of using Turkish bases to move heavy armored forces into northern Iraq. About 40 ships carrying the division's weaponry and equipment were to begin moving through the Suez Canal on Sunday. The 4th Infantry's soldiers, who remained at Fort Hood, Texas, after their weaponry and equipment went to the Mediterranean last month, are likely to go to Kuwait, the officials said. It also was possible that they could enter Iraq directly through the Gulf port of Umm Qasr, now under the control of British and U.S. Marines. The original plan had the entire division of about 17,500 soldiers heading to Turkey, along with some Army troops based in Germany. The redirected cargo ships are to begin arriving off the coast of Kuwait about March 30, one official said. All the ships would arrive by about April 10. From Kuwait they could move into Iraq to serve as reinforcements if the ground war lasts more than several weeks, or as occupation forces after the Iraqi government's collapse. I'll bet the 4ID guys are seriously cheezed — and the Bush guys are probably dwelling on the fact that "Turk" is a 4-letter word...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
03/22/2003 11:03 am ||
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This whole question should have been decided before the war began. Its called dipolmacy.
There's been too much time wasted already on the diplomatic route. There's been 12 years of it, and until the attack was launched, little in the way of progress was being made. Since Turkey is a NATO member, it made sense to take advantage of their location and ask for assistance, but now that it's apparent that Turkey can't be counted on, they should also be excluded from any participation in any plans for a post-Saddam Iraq.
#4
Turkey is part of a growing unstable neighborhood.
They have seen what happens to countries that are promised money and credits by America, witness Afghanistan.
Turkey also has its own agenda with the Kurds and the possible establishment of Kurdistan in northern Iraq.
If America acts in its own best interest then there no reason for President Bush to believe that Turkey would roll over and ignore their own interests.
This whole question should have been decided before the war began. Its called dipolmacy.
#5
This whole question should have been decided before the war began. Its called dipolmacy.
There's been too much time wasted already on the diplomatic route. There's been 12 years of it, and until the attack was launched, little in the way of progress was being made. Since Turkey is a NATO member, it made sense to take advantage of their location and ask for assistance, but now that it's apparent that Turkey can't be counted on, they should also be excluded from any participation in any plans for a post-Saddam Iraq.
#6
whether the absence of turkish help is due to poor diplomacy on the part of the Bush admin, or a brave attempt not to sell out the Kurds, is unclear at this point in time. I reserve judgement.
At least one person was killed in an explosion Saturday at a checkpoint near the camp of the al-Qaida-linked militant group Ansar al-Islam, whose northern-Iraqi base reportedly was attacked overnight by U.S. cruise missiles. The shattered remains of a car and at least one body were found, but few details were available about what caused the explosion or how many people were involved. It was not clear if there was a surviving witness at the checkpoint. The unidentified body was put in the back of a taxi and taken to the city of Sulaymaniah. "Yo! Taxi! To the morgue, and make it snappy!"
There was an unconfirmed report that a vehicle driving back from Khurmal had reached the checkpoint when a taxi pulled alongside and exploded.
FOLLOWUP:
An apparent car bomb killed at least five people, including a Western journalist, on Saturday at a checkpoint near a camp of a militant group linked to al-Qaida. The checkpoint blast in northern Iraq injured eight people, who were taken to hospitals. Journalists had gone to the checkpoint to interview refugees after the area â a base for the al-Qaida-linked militant group Ansar al-Islam â came under attack overnight by U.S. cruise missiles. One of the cars coming out with the refugees exploded. Killed at the checkpoint were a journalist, another civilian and three Kurdish soldiers. Their names were not made public. Vicious little bastards, aren't they?
More followup:
An Australian cameraman on assignment for the ABC in northern Iraq has been killed by a car bomb. Freelance cameraman Paul Moran, 39, and ABC correspondent Eric Campbell had gone to the northern town of Sayed Sadiq where there had been some fighting between Kurds and Iraqi militants. Mr Campbell says Mr Moran had gone ahead of him to do some filming. Mr Moran was filming final shots for their story, when a taxi sped up alongside him and exploded. "Paul was getting one last shot of some peshmergas who were running towards the base and he walked about 50 metres in front of me to get this shot, and a taxi just screamed up beside him and exploded and, we were thrown back, and Paul was dead," he said.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
03/22/2003 05:43 pm ||
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Two CNN reporters expelled from Baghdad were safe in Jordan on Saturday and don't expect to be returning anytime soon. Nic Robertson described how an official from the ministry of information summoned him and his crew from their hotel room at about 3:30 p.m. Baghdad time on Friday to say they had to leave. The official said, "you're worse than the American administration. Get out of Iraq! Get out immediately!" Robertson said. They probably had to use that sort of language, since Nic is dumb as a post...
He said the official gave a list of reasons, which Robertson said were "ludicrous." Robertson, Rym Brahimi, producer Ingrid Formanek and photographer Brian Puchaty had been the only staff members of a U.S.-based TV network still in Baghdad. They waited until daylight Saturday to drive to Jordan. In a telephone interview, Robertson speculated that the authorities didn't want Iraqi citizens — many of whom can see CNN — to view pictures of the country losing territory to American troops. "One of the only ways they can vent their anger and frustration is on the international media organizations," Robertson said, "and CNN is the one they see most and know most." Baghdadis will continue to see pieces of their country being occupied in the next few days, and probably sometime around Wednesday they can see it up close and personal...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
03/22/2003 10:30 am ||
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I had to turn this interview off when Formanek said, "Well, both sides try to control the media as much as they can..." She wasn't in Iraq, then, with a gun pointed at her head. She was in Jordan.
That's right, Ingrid. We're just like they are. Keep repeating that to yourself.
U.S. and British forces moved in on Iraq's second-largest city Saturday, taking its airport and a bridge while Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein's security forces resisted with artillery and heavy machine guns. U.S. forces captured the airport on the north side of Basra after encountering resistance from Iraqi troops in armored personnel carriers, said Marine Lt. Eric Gentrup. "There was a decent amount of resistance," Gentrup said.
Seeking to avoid bloody urban warfare the troops faced in capturing Umm-Qasr, U.S. and British forces will not immediately storm Basra, British military spokesman Lt. Col. Chris Vernon said. At Umm-Qasr, troops are facing street-to-street fighting against soldiers wearing civilian clothes and using guerrilla tactics, Vernon said. "Military commanders do not engage in urban areas unless they have to," Vernon told a news briefing. "It was necessary in Qasr because of the port." A battle for Basra would have no strategic objective, Vernon said. Commanders do not want to take risks as they press onward with their key mission, toppling Saddam, he said.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Army's V Corps took Nassiriyah, northwest of Basra, said U.S. Navy Capt. Frank Thorp, a spokesman for Central Command. At Nassiriyah, the commander and deputy commander of Iraq's 51st Infantry were among those who surrendered Friday night, becoming the highest-ranking Iraqi officials to give up, Thorp said. I may be wrong — and I often am — but it seems we're spending entirely too much time "sending messages" instead of running a tightly integrated combined arms operation that destroys the enemy that destroys the enemy with air, followed by artillery, followed by tanks, followed by bored infantrymen picking up the survivors. We're trying to fight on the Iraqis' terms, and that's going to cause casualties.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
03/22/2003 10:15 am ||
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The war is being fought on political as much as military terms, and the political dictates that 1) we don't blow any Iraqi military units without first givin them a chance to surrender and 2) we avoid civilian casualties at almost any cost. I understand the political terms, even though I'm not happy about it.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/22/2003 12:09 Comments ||
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Syria, the only Arab non-permanent member of the U.N. Security Council, demanded on Saturday an immediate end to what it called the "barbaric aggression" against neighboring Iraq. "As it condemns this barbaric aggression to which our Iraqi brethren are being subjected... Syria calls for an immediate end to the war and the withdrawal of invading forces," an official statement carried by the state-run news agency said. The statement was issued by the country's ruling party and key allied parties after a meeting chaired by President Bashar al-Assad. Syria warned that the war would have "grave ramifications on the security of the region." Yeah. Like Syria being next on the list...
"It (Syria) urges the United Nations to assume its role in addressing this dangerous situation," it said of the conflict which it called a "flagrant infringement" of international law. It praised the Iraqi people for their "heroic steadfastness" in the face of the U.S.-led forces.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
03/22/2003 10:07 am ||
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Consider for a minute. Iraq has Iran on the east, Syria, Jordan on the west, Turkey to the north, and Saudi Arabia and Kuwait to the south.
We have, or soon will have, most of four divisions and their support equipment on the ground in Iraq.
We have another division, or at least large parts of it, on Iraq's eastern border with Afghanistan.
The situation in the Middle East is GOING to change, regardless of what France, Russia, Syria, Iran, Saudi Arabia, the Palestinians, or any other dumb B****** thinks.
I haven't been terribly pleased with George Bush, but I'm beginning to change my mind, as this war continues to unfold. We may have seriously underestimated this Ivy-League playboy.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
03/23/2003 1:15 Comments ||
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#2
Consider for a minute. Iraq has Iran on the east, Syria, Jordan on the west, Turkey to the north, and Saudi Arabia and Kuwait to the south.
We have, or soon will have, most of four divisions and their support equipment on the ground in Iraq.
We have another division, or at least large parts of it, on Iraq's eastern border with Afghanistan.
The situation in the Middle East is GOING to change, regardless of what France, Russia, Syria, Iran, Saudi Arabia, the Palestinians, or any other dumb B****** thinks.
I haven't been terribly pleased with George Bush, but I'm beginning to change my mind, as this war continues to unfold. We may have seriously underestimated this Ivy-League playboy.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
03/23/2003 1:15 Comments ||
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#3
Send the 4ID to Syria.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
03/22/2003 11:26 Comments ||
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Nice thing for baby Assad is that he was trained originally as an ophthalmologist. This means that after he gets tossed, he can go out into the countryside, find a nice small town, hang up his shingle and practice medicine. Get a wife, some kids, join the local soccer club and the PTA, and drive a Mercedes. Ah, the life of a doctor :-)
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/22/2003 12:11 Comments ||
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"flagrant infringement" of international law
here it is again. The war is illegal. The US therefore can not win. France and Russia will claim their contracts are still valid.
The United States and Britain unleashed their first daylight air strikes on Baghdad on Saturday after pounding it with a fearsome night blitz. Repeated air raids rocked Baghdad through the day after a devastating night bombardment that set off giant fireballs, thunderous explosions and mushroom clouds, reddening the sky in a major intensification of the three-day-old war. After the bombing rose to a new intensity in the Iraqi capital, U.S. forces said they had captured a vital crossing point over the Euphrates river, and were battling toward Iraq's second city of Basra in the south. A U.S. officer near Nassiriya, about 200 miles southeast of Baghdad, said forces trying to clear a path to the capital had secured a bridge over the Euphrates. "We've established checkpoints at both ends" of the bridge, he said.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
03/22/2003 09:44 am ||
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British TV company ITN said on Saturday three members of a crew were missing after coming under fire in Iraq on their way to the southern city of Basra. ITN named the three as correspondent Terry Lloyd and colleagues Fred Nerac and Hussein Othman from its ITV News unit. "An ITV News crew came under fire at Iman Anas, near Basra, as they drove toward the city in two vehicles," ITN said in a statement. "One of the crew, Daniel Demoustier, was injured but was able to get to safety. He was not able to see what happened to his colleagues... At present, they are still missing." That's the bad part about "embedding." If the news guys are up front with the shooters, they're taking the same chances as the shooters, but without the training basis.
British and Iraqi forces were in the area at the time, the ITN statement said. "Coalition and Iraqi military sources have been unable to confirm their whereabouts. Every effort is being made to establish what happened."
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
03/22/2003 09:40 am ||
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Great. Reccon by media. Environmentally and civilian friendly, and promotes troop safety. Be my guest, just drive through my position and flush out the opfor.
Posted by: Don ||
03/22/2003 15:51 Comments ||
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According to ITV News (ITN), the fire might have come from British troops, presumably believing the vehicles were part of an Iraqi attack. The Iraqis were obviously armed. Shame the journalists might have run into the most idiotic surrendering Iraqis in town.
#3
Were they in fact "imbedded"? Or were they just free-lancing? The story's unclear. It seems to me that, had they been imbedded with troops, but story would have said so.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
03/22/2003 10:12 Comments ||
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...Another member of the team, cameraman Daniel Demoustier, was able to reach safety having suffered minor injuries. He was not able to see what happened to his colleagues and said: "I'm really praying that they're still okay." The team had been travelling in two vehicles towards Iraq's second city, the scene of heavy fighting. ITV News said: "There were British and Iraqi forces in the area at the time. Coalition and Iraqi military sources have been unable to confirm their whereabouts. Every effort is being made to establish what happened."
Mr Demoustier, who had a heavy black eye and cuts to his face, said the ITV crew had passed many Iraqi civilians out on the streets and their cars on the road. "We saw tanks burning, we saw trucks burning, helmets, lots of signs of heavy fighting from probably last night. "But it looked like it was pretty under control now and so you move step by step and we put big TV signs on the car." After passing British and US positions Mr Demoustier saw Iraqi forces approaching and turned his vehicle around when he noticed they were still armed. Two Iraqi vehicles followed them, the occupants making "thumbs up" signs, which Mr Demoustier took to mean they wanted to surrender using them as cover. But at that same moment very heavy gunfire started towards my car, from the right hand side. I had to duck down straight away, windows were exploding inside the car. In a split second I looked to my right side and the right door where my correspondent (Terry Lloyd) was open and he was not there anymore," he said. Mr Demoustier, who survived by jumping into a ditch just before the oil covered vehicle exploded, said he hoped his colleagues escaped in a similar way. "I saw another press vehicle - colleagues from the Mail on Sunday - and they just arrived on the scene and I took a run to that car and they got me out," he added.
#6
Great. Reccon by media. Environmentally and civilian friendly, and promotes troop safety. Be my guest, just drive through my position and flush out the opfor.
Posted by: Don ||
03/22/2003 15:51 Comments ||
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According to ITV News (ITN), the fire might have come from British troops, presumably believing the vehicles were part of an Iraqi attack. The Iraqis were obviously armed. Shame the journalists might have run into the most idiotic surrendering Iraqis in town.
#8
At the Pentagon press conference this afternoon, the military spokesperson indicated that these reporters were not embedded (which is also implied by the story). She strongly recommended that reporters stay out of areas where fighting is going on or might go on. One of the reporters wanted to know what the military was doing to be sure these independent roving journalists didn't get hit by coalition fire. She didn't seem to think that was our responsibility, somehow! Wonder why???
The Southern Iraqi oil city of Basra remained a battleground as hundreds of U.S. aircraft began dropping bombs and launching missiles at several hundred Iraqi military targets Friday, the leading edge of the furious air assault intended to "shock and awe" the enemy into surrender, Chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Richard Myers said Friday. Saddam Hussein is losing control of his country, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said, after three days of ground and air attacks that have yielded significant gains for the force of about 300,000 steadily moving toward Baghdad. "The confusion of Iraqi officials is growing. Their ability to see what is happening on the battlefield, to communicate with their forces and to control their country is slipping away. They're beginning to realize, I suspect that the regime is history," Rumsfeld said. Iraqi resistance has been "sporadic," according to Myers. "There have been tank battles. Generally limited, but there has been some fighting," he said.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
03/22/2003 09:32 am ||
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Iraq said Saturday that Iraqi tribal fighters and members of the ruling Baath Party destroyed five U.S. tanks and a number of military vehicles in battles in the Bat-ha region between the cities of al-Nasseria and Samawah south of Iraq. Information Minister Mohammad Saeed al-Sahhaf told reporters in Baghdad, that Iraqi tribal fighters were also fiercely fighting U.S. and British columns south of Nasseria, 350 kilometers south of Baghdad, and Souq al-Shiyoukh. "The U.S. forces in Nasseria had to retreat because of the Iraqi fighters' fire, and fighting between the two sides is fiercely continuing until this moment," said al-Sahhaf. There was fighting yesterday, but I think it's reported over now...
Al-Sahhaf denied in his daily briefing reports that U.S and British forces had taken control of the port of Um Qasr and the strategic city of Faw in the deep south of Iraq. He said: "The invading forces did not succeed in penetrating Um Qasr," which overlooks the Persian Gulf. "That's someplace else they captured. Maybe it's Bombay..."
The minister, dressed in the military-styled uniform of the ruling Baath Party, added that the Iraqi forces were "fixed in their positions," denying that any Iraqi soldier had been taken prisoner by the U.S. and British forces. He accused the forces of kidnapping Iraqi civilians and filming them on television as Iraqi prisoners of war "after these forces succeeded in putting a foothold in the city of Faw." He insisted that Iraqi artillery was "until this moment pounding the American and British forces in that area." "Yep. We're beating the crap out them Merkins and Limeys..."
On the damage from Friday night's intensive U.S.-British bombardment of Baghdad, al-Sahhaf said 207 Iraqi civilians were injured, most of them women and children and puppies and kittens and baby ducks who were now being treated in five different hospitals in the capital.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
03/22/2003 09:26 am ||
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"He accused the forces of kidnapping Iraqi civilians and filming them on television as Iraqi prisoners of war."
Well, I accuse Saddam of kidnapping Iraqi civilians, dressing them up as soldiers, and putting them out to die for him.
#2
When you see those surrenders, many of the Iraqi soldiers have a piece of paper in their hand. It is a "surrender ticket", that we airdropped, entitling you to surrender. It currently specifies one or more persons, because the last time it only said one. And soldiers were telling us that lots more would have surrendered but they didn't have a ticket.
It is not clear whether or not the tickets had corporate sponsors, like McDonalds or Coke, but it would have helped finance the war. Surrender, and get an ice cold 12 ounce Coke free. Void where prohibited by law.
#7
When you see those surrenders, many of the Iraqi soldiers have a piece of paper in their hand. It is a "surrender ticket", that we airdropped, entitling you to surrender. It currently specifies one or more persons, because the last time it only said one. And soldiers were telling us that lots more would have surrendered but they didn't have a ticket.
It is not clear whether or not the tickets had corporate sponsors, like McDonalds or Coke, but it would have helped finance the war. Surrender, and get an ice cold 12 ounce Coke free. Void where prohibited by law.
Turkey has denied sending troops to Kurdish northern Iraq. "Nope. Nope. Wudn't us. Nope."
It had been reported that Turkish troops had crossed the border, sparking fears of a "war within a war". With Turkey wary that the power vacuum will reignite Kurdish fervour for statehood, Washington fears that a second conflict could erupt in the region, greatly complicating the main war and middle east political picture. Using strong diplomatic language, American Secretary of State Colin Powell said that if Turkey did move into Iraq it would be "particularly unhelpful". It is thought Turkey need troops in Iraq to control refugees from the US-led war on Baghdad and forestall any attempt to create a Kurdish state — a move it fears could reignite separatism on Turkish soil. However, Barham Salih, prime minister of the Kurds in northern Iraq, said he regretted the incursion by Turkish troops.
Mr Salih told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "Our position has always been clear, we don't believe that Turkish military incursion into Iraqi Kurdistan is warranted. This will destabilise the region. This will cause many complications in the process of a transition from dictatorship to what we hope will be some form of democratic government in Baghdad." "So stay the hell out and don't jiggle our elbow. We'll talk later, when we're not so busy..."
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
03/22/2003 09:14 am ||
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word out of the Pentagon now is that the Turks are not in Iraq? Obfuscation? or did someone explain how hard it would be to tell Ansar gunnies and Turks who weren't there apart when the bombing increased?
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/22/2003 11:01 Comments ||
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Iraqi forces lit trenches filled with oil around the capital Baghdad on Saturday in an apparent bid to obscure visibility over the city, a target of air strikes by U.S. and British forces, Reuters correspondents said. The correspondents saw at least two dozen fires raging around Baghdad, sending thick black smoke into the sky. "We can smell burning oil in the city," one reporter said.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
03/22/2003 09:11 am ||
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Idiots. Even if that had a remote chance of working, how long could they keep it burning? They're suffocating themselves. Absolute idiots.
Posted by: Tom ||
03/22/2003 14:53 Comments ||
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Reports say Iraqs ploy was to confuse the Americans by making Iraq look like Los Angeles.
American officials have told ABCNEWS that even with today's bombing, secret talks have continued behind the scenes about a Saddam Hussein surrender and exile to, among other places, Mauritania. Secretary of State Colin Powell hinted at the possibility of ongoing talks, saying: "There are a number of channels open to Baghdad. There are a number of individuals in countries around the world who have been conveying the message to the Iraqi regime that it is now inevitable that there will be a change."
I think "surrender or die" puts it pretty succinctly...
One of the back channels goes through France, according to American officials aware of the negotiations. Since December, ABCNEWS has learned, an emissary from the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs has been in the middle of the secret offer of exile. American officials say the French go-between, Pierre Delval, an expert on counterfeiting, has repeatedly traveled to Baghdad to persuade Saddam to accept exile in Mauritania. A former French colony, Mauritania is an Islamic republic said to have warm ties with Iraq. Officials in Mauritania said they knew nothing of any exile offer to Saddam Hussein or his sons. This was on last night & had much more info on the UNBELEEEEEVABLE cozy connection between Chirac & Saddam, via Pierre Delval. Saddam must have something HUGE on Jacques "Itch" Chirac.
Posted by: Anonymous ||
03/22/2003 08:47 am ||
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The whole idea of Saddam exile at this point makes me want to puke. No way! Time's up. Game's over!
If Powell has any part of this, he needs to take a poll fast.
Posted by: Tom ||
03/22/2003 8:57 Comments ||
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Once again, this makes sense when you consider that the French and Russians want this war to be declared illegal.
If Sadaam is still alive, he's still in charge and can keep his contracts with the French and the Russians.
I just heard on FOX an expert saying that many in US suspect that Sadaam is still alive, otherwise the oppositon should have folded by now. Impossible to know..but why else would they be working an exile deal?
#4
If Saddam is dead, that means that the other big cheeses are still alive, otherwise there would be a surrender of Baghdad already. The big cheeses would include his sons, the dweeb(s) in charge of his inner circle, and some generals of the republican guard. I suspect Sammy is still alive. I also suspect he's found a house in the middle of a residential district somewhere.
Hit the Guardian's web page at 6:20 AM GMT
Two British Navy helicopters collided Saturday over international waters in the Persian Gulf, and seven crew members were missing. The collision involved Sea King search and rescue helicopters and did not result from enemy fire, said Group Capt. Al Lockwood, a spokesman for British forces in the Gulf. A search and rescue operation was under way to find the missing crew members. ``We are doing everything we can to ascertain what caused the accident,'' Lockwood told Sky News. The collision happened around 4:30 a.m. Saturday, officials said. Wonder who they were searching for?
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/22/2003 08:37 am ||
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Update: Seven dead (six UK crewmen, one US officer). Not search and rescue choppers, but EW:
The Ark Royal's Captain Alan Massey said the deaths were caused by a "tragic accident", five miles from the Royal Navy's flagship. The Sea King Airborne Early Warning aircraft crashed at around 4.15am local time (1.15 GMT) and the Royal Navy has launched an investigation into the cause of the accident. One of the helicopters had been going out on a mission from the Ark Royal, while the other was returning from the same operation. The collision happened over international waters in the Gulf on Saturday, UK Central Command in Qatar said.
The helicopters had been providing surveillance for missions involving British Royal Marines. Former Navy serviceman Michael McGinty, from the Royal United Services Institute, told BBC News the helicopters would probably be of the type known as "junglies".
#2
What is it with helicopters? It seems that 95% of the casualties on our side for the past five years were helicopter crashes. Are they really that unsafe, or is it the conditions they're flying under?
#3
I'm not an expert, but it seems to be from : the nonstandard areas used for landing/takeoff's (unlike runways and carriers), frequency of missions, low altitude, firefight situations, etc....they just have a tough job in bad environs - I give credit to the many who do so much with so little (situations, not equipment)
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/22/2003 19:03 Comments ||
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It took only 20 seconds for HMS Marlborough's main gun to fire 10 rounds at the Iraqi bunker complex six miles away on the Faw peninsula. The shock wave of each high explosive round exiting the barrel might have shaken the 3,500 tonne ship to the core, but it was nothing to the effect the shells had when they hit their target 25 seconds later. Moments after the final shell had reached its destination the radio on the bridge crackled into life. "End of mission, good shooting," said the Royal Artillery spotter on the ground who had ordered the strike on the bunker. "Enemy positions thoroughly neutralised," he added.
Exactly how many Iraqi casualties the salvo inflicted nobody on the ship yet knows, but those soldiers who survived the white-hot razor-sharp shrapnel were in no doubt they did not want to go through the experience again. Minutes later the artillery spotter was back on the radio. "Possible white flags being raised," he reported. The first round, fired at 0720am, had landed 400 yards short. The spotter had purposefully called the strike in short to give those in the bunker a chance to surrender. "Damn, Mahmoud, that was close!"
"Don't worry, Achmed, he couldn't hit the broadside of a .. OWWW!"
After the next three shots had been "walked" progressively closer, and with still no sign of submission despite a misfire that had given those inside the bunker a few precious extra minutes, the spotter had asked for the full force of the warship to be released.
It was a story that was repeated several times yesterday on the Faw peninsula, as the Royal Navy ships Marlborough, Chatham and Richmond and the Australian frigate Anzak unleashed a barrage of fire. By the end of the morning not only was the bunker system in ruins, but a large military installation on the southern tip of the peninsula also appeared to have been destroyed.
The invasion of Faw had begun on Thursday night when US navy Seals secured the Kwahr al Amaya and Mina al Bakr oil terminals, which had been used to supply the UN oil for food programme. The first coalition boot landed on Iraqi soil moments later as members of the Royal Marines Bravo Company captured the oil pumping station on the mainland that piped oil to the terminals. As they bunkered down to wait for support, helicopter troop carriers containing the other three companies of 40 Commando Royal Marines were already in the air from Viking, the code name for their base in Kuwait, while smaller units were deploying from the aircraft carriers Ocean and Ark Royal, both of which had moved up into the waters of the northern Gulf. Swift, fast, quiet, deadly.
On Tuesday the Iraqi military had seized the Mina al Bakr terminal and ejected the five UN workers who remained, raising fears among the coalition's military leaders that Saddam Hussein was planning to blow up the terminals, in an attempt to release thousands of gallons of oil into the seas around the Gulf. The operation to take down the terminal was vital. Few Iraqis were killed and 13 were captured during Bravo Company's operation to take the pumping station, while no marines were injured. Bravo, boys! Well done!
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/22/2003 08:51 am ||
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Hail to the Brits! They are a force to be contended with. Thank God they are on our side.
Yesterday afternoon a truck drove down a side road in the Iraqi town of Safwan, laden with rugs and furniture. Booty or precious possessions? In a day of death, joy and looting, it was hard to know. As the passengers spotted European faces, one boy grinned and put his thumb up. The other nervously waved a white flag. The mixed messages defined the moment: Thank you. We love you. Please don't kill us. US marines took Safwan at about 8am yesterday. There was no rose-petal welcome, no cheering crowd, no stars and stripes. Afraid that the US and Britain will abandon them, the people of Safwan did not touch the portraits and murals of Saddam Hussein hanging everywhere. At this point I think you'd have to show them Saddam's head on a stick, and even then they'd be afraid that it was a secret police trick.
It was left to the Marines to tear them down. It did not mean there was not heartfelt gladness at the marines' arrival. Ajami Saadoun Khlis, whose son and brother were executed under the Saddam regime, sobbed like a child on the shoulder of the Guardian's Egyptian translator. He mopped the tears but they kept coming. "You just arrived," he said. "You're late. What took you so long? God help you become victorious. I want to say hello to Bush, to shake his hand. We came out of the grave." What will the peaceniks say to this man?
They'll ignore it, of course. The man's obviously some sort of capitalist, probably a plant from the CIA...
"For a long time we've been saying: 'Let them come'," his wife, Zahara, said. "Last night we were afraid, but we said: 'Never mind, as long as they get rid of him, as long as they overthrow him, no problem'." Their 29-year-old son was executed in July 2001, accused of harbouring warm feelings for Iran. "He was a farmer, he had a car, he sold tomatoes, and we had a life that we were satisfied with," said Khlis. "He was in prison for a whole year, and I raised 75m dinars in bribes. It didn't work. The money was gone, and he was gone. They sent me a telegram. They gave me the body." We all have the sinking feeling that there are a million stories like this waiting to come out.
The Marines rolled into the border town after a bombardment which left up to a dozen people dead. Residents gave different figures. A farmer, Haider, who knew one of the men killed, Sharif Badoun, said: "Killing some is worth it, to end the injustice and suffering." The men around him gave a collective hysterical laugh.
Those are the ones the lefties are going to latch onto...
The injustice of tyranny was merged in their minds with the effects of sanctions. "Look at the way we're dressed!" said Haider, and scores of men held up their stained, holed clothes. "We are isolated from the rest of the world."
And that's the fault of the U.S., of course...
The Marines took Safwan without loss, although a tank hit a mine. "They had to clear that route through. They found the way to punch through and about 10 Iraqi soldiers surrendered immediately," said Marine Sergeant Jason Lewis, from Denver, standing at a checkpoint at the entrance to the town where, minutes earlier, a comrade had folded a huge portrait of President Saddam and tucked it into his souvenir box. The welcome, he admitted, had been cool. "At first they were a little hesitant," he said. "As you know, Saddam's a dictator, so we've got to reassure them we're here to stay — We tore down the Saddam signs to show them we mean business. Hopefully this time we'll do it right, and give these Iraqis a chance of liberty."
If we don't, we'll never get the chance to do it again...
But the Marines' presence was light. They had not brought food, medicines, or even order. All day hundreds of armoured vehicles poured through the town. But they did not stop, and the looting continued. Every government establishment seemed to be fair game. People covered their faces in shame as they carried books out of a school. Tawfik Mohammed, the headmaster, initially denied his school had been looted, then admitted it. "This is the result of your entering," he said. "Whenever any army enters an area it becomes chaos. We are cautious about the future. We are very afraid."
The lefties will probably latch on that, too...
Safwan yesterday was a place where people were constantly taking you aside to warn in veiled terms that it was necessary to be careful. Everywhere was the lingering fear that the revenge killings that swept the area in 1991 — a product of US encouragement and then abandonment of the southern Iraqi revolt — could happen again. "Now, we are afraid [Saddam's] government will come back," said Haider, as the Safwan Farmers' Cooperative was being looted behind him. "We don't trust the Americans anymore. People made a revolution, and they didn't help us." We're genuinely sorry, pal, and we're trying to make good on that.
Safwan is a crumbling, dead-end place, full of poor, restless young men, and reliant on the tomato trade for its income. Farmers were panicking yesterday as they asked journalists, in lieu of anyone better, how they were supposed to sell their tomatoes. A handful of soldiers, mainly US marines but with a few British, are struggling to cope with the chaos and the lack of health care or aid. At a checkpoint just north of the town two British military policemen with paramedical training and a US doctor rushed to treat two Iraqi men brought in on the back of a beaten-up pick-up truck. Their legs were lacerated by shrapnel. The military policemen did their conscientious best, and may have saved their lives.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/22/2003 08:59 am ||
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Ack! Fred, sorry, missed a hilite off there. Can you fix this?
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/22/2003 0:38 Comments ||
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The Australian foreign ministry warned Saturday that terrorist groups may be planning an attack on Westerners in the Indonesian city of Surabaya in coming days. "The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade advises that it has credible information that terrorist groups with a history of targeting Westerners and Western interests may be planning terrorist activity on or about 23 March in Surabaya, Indonesia," the ministry said in a statement. The government has warned Australians not to travel to Indonesia since Oct. 12, when bombings on the island of Bali killed more than 200 people, including 89 Australians. But who pays attention to that sort of warning?
In the latest bulletin, Australians were warned not to travel to Surabaya and those already there were advised to stay home and exercise extreme caution. They should avoid commercial and public places frequented by foreigners, including clubs, restaurants, bars, hotels, schools, fast food outlets, shopping centers, places of worship, public transport and any buildings associated with foreign interests, the foreign ministry said. The statement noted that Surabaya, on Indonesia's main island of Java, has been the scene of street protests over U.S.-led military attacks in Iraq. Thumping Iraq provides some sort of excuse for Islamist xenophobes to do what Islamist xenophobes do best...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
03/22/2003 10:39 am ||
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Israeli troops bulldozed a factory and used their tanks to fire on houses in Gaza City after finding a bomb and anti-tank missiles close to a Jewish settlement near the town. In Rafah, in the south of the Gaza Strip, Israeli soldiers pushed one kilometre into Palestinian territory and destroyed a security post, the same sources said. The operations came after the army said it had discovered an explosive device weighing some 100 kilograms on a road leading to the Jewish settlement of Netzarim just south of Gaza City. A spokesman said the bomb, which was destroyed in a controlled explosion, was linked to a detonator in a nearby house. He said the army had demolished the house and adjacent buildings, which he said were used by Palestinian extremists. Four anti-tank missiles were also found in the same area, the army said.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
03/22/2003 06:22 pm ||
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220lbs? jeez...must be tank-huntin'? how do you conceal something like that?
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/22/2003 18:59 Comments ||
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The Russian Defence Ministry said it deployed two fighters Saturday to track a U.S. spy plane flying near the Russian border with neighbouring Georgia. Russian air defence systems locked on to the American U-2 plane as it began its flight over the former Soviet republic of Georgia, ministry spokesman Nikolai Deryabin was quoted as saying by Russian news agencies. "To prevent the possible breach of the Russian border, two destroyers were sent up," Deryabin was quoted by the Interfax news agency as saying. They have ships that fly? Or do their planes fly like ships?
It was not immediately clear what the plane was doing. It's a U-2. Guess.
The United States has expressed concerns about the alleged presence of Islamic militants linked to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network in Georgia's rugged border region near Russia's breakaway region of Chechnya. Deryabin said the U-2 spy plane flew about 20 to 30 kilometres from Russia's border. He said this was the third time that Russian air defence systems have spotted a U.S. spy plane along this route. Deryabin said these incidents "cannot but arouse bewilderment and worry from Russia's military leadership," the ITAR-Tass news agency reported. C'mon, Derby, you've seen this before; remember the Cold War? Makes you wonder if he has a North Korean ancestor.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/22/2003 06:13 pm ||
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They have ships that fly? Or do their planes fly like ships?
It's probably a translation artifact. Russian word for "fighter" is "istrebitel", which literally means "exterminator" or "destroyer".
The United States has told Iran it takes a report of misfired missiles landing in Iranian territory seriously and will investigate, State Department deputy spokesman Phillip Reeker said on Saturday. After receiving a message from Tehran about a report of missiles striking an Iranian oil refinery depot, he said ''we responded last night through the Swiss channel saying that we take this seriously and will look into it.''
''Today, we are sending a second message (to Tehran) through the Swiss confirming that we are looking into it,'' Reeker added. ''We take seriously Iranian sovereignty and territorial integrity.'' "They didn't make the 'Axis of Evil' list for nothing, you know!"
Initially, a U.S. official reported that the United States had apologized to Iran after a number of stray missiles crashed inside its territory. But later, he retracted that, saying he had been misinformed. ''There is no apology. There is nothing to apologize for yet,'' said the official. ''We have to find out what happened. Apparently there are different schools of thought'' as to what might have occurred.
Iran, which is torn between its hatred of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and deep distrust of Washington, has blamed U.S. jets for firing three missiles that landed in southwestern Iran and accused U.S. and British forces of violating its airspace. Although the rockets, one of which injured two guards at an oil refinery depot, were blamed on U.S. fighter pilots engaged in attacks on southern Iraq, Iranian officials privately acknowledge the missiles could well have come from Iraqi forces trying to bring the U.S. jets down, diplomats said in Tehran. A U.S. official said this explanation was ''plausible.'' Diplospeak for "you bet your ass."
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/22/2003 02:07 pm ||
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Two Iraqis have been arrested for allegedly operating an unlicensed money transferring business that sent more than $7 million to Iraq. Maitham Abdulla Jaber Al Samar, 39, and his brother, Qassim Abdulla Jaber Al Samar, 38, both of Denver, made initial appearances in federal court Friday, one day after they were arrested. Maitham Al Samar, who does business as Alrafden Transactions, is accused of sending more than $7 million to Iraq during the past 2œ years, U.S. Attorney John Suthers said. Qassim Al Samar does business as a tobacco sales company called Wholly Smokes, authorities said. A man arrested Wednesday in Indiana on similar accusations told federal authorities he provided money to Maitham Al Samar to be sent to Iraq, officials said. According to an affidavit for the Denver arrests, Maitham Al Samar used bank accounts in Denver to wire money to accounts in Jordan and Kuwait, and the money was then sent to Iraq. Bad time to be an Iraqi in the U.S. engaged in shady dealings...
Federal officials also are searching for Iraqis who are living illegally in the United States. An undisclosed number of other Iraqis in the country have been asked to report to the FBI for interviews, said Nina Pruneda, spokeswoman for the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
03/22/2003 11:18 am ||
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The way it's looking now, looks like they might've flushed 7 mil down the toilet.
Dozens of Chechen rebels surrendered their weapons Saturday in a ceremony apparently designed to promote harmony in the war-ruined region on the eve of a constitutional referendum. Russian and pro-Moscow Chechen officials looked on as 46 rebels put down their weapons in Grozny. All 46 will be exempt from criminal prosecution. The ceremony came a day before the region was to vote in a constitutional referendum that Moscow has advertised as the key to peace in Chechnya. Russian officials want to show Chechnya is on the path to normalcy after nearly a decade of war or lawlessness. Which is something the turban and automatic weapons set can't let happen, so...
Meanwhile, violence continued in the region, killing at least two people Saturday. An armored personnel carrier exploded on a land mine in the capital, Grozny, killing a soldier and a civilian in a passing car. Two soldiers and two civilians were wounded. Grozny's Hospital No. 9 confirmed that one civilian, the man driving the passing car, died of his wounds and that two women riding with him were injured. Russia's TVS television reported four military checkpoints in Grozny's Staropromyslovsky district had been fired on overnight, but gave no word on casualties. That's the same tactics the Kashmir jihadis used to try to delegitimize the vote there last year...
However, officials said the region was ready for the vote. "Nobody plans to initiate any emergency measures — no curfew or anything else," Chechnya's Moscow-appointed prime minister, Anatoly Popov, told TVS. "We can attend to that later..."
Kadyrov vowed the referendum would be a success. "The people themselves want it," the ITAR-Tass news agency quoted him as saying at a soccer tournament in Grozny dubbed the "Chechnya Revival Cup." Sunday's vote will ask Chechens to approve a new constitution that cements the region's status as part of Russia. The Kremlin says it is the beginning of a peace process, but critics say it cannot replace negotiations with rebel leader Aslan Maskhadov, who was elected Chechnya's president in 1997.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
03/22/2003 11:12 am ||
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Russia's Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov has accused the US of trying to step on Russia's economic interests in Iraq. He said Moscow would oppose any bid to give a US occupation of Iraq international legitimacy through the UN. He called an American request for countries to expel Iraqi diplomats as "strange", suggesting it was part of a US strategy to trample on existing oil contracts between Iraq and non-US companies.
"We will have to defend our interests so that the contracts which were signed under Saddam Hussein are not annulled as lacking legal force and to make sure the Iraqi debt owed us is respected," he said. Baghdad owes Moscow at least £4.5 billion in Soviet-era debt.
The request to expel diplomats and freeze Iraqi assets was "not made by accident," Ivanov said. "In this way, they are saying that everything before today was illegal, all contracts signed before are illegal, and legality begins with the arrival of a new administration, even a temporary one."
He catches on quick, don't he? Wonder how long it will take France to have a cow about this?
Posted by: John Phares ||
03/22/2003 10:06 am ||
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This is the key to understanding this whole mess. This is what connects the dots of all articles here on Rantburg today. The war is illegal, their contracts are still good - worse, if they can exile him (assuming his still alive) then they will claim US occupation of Iraq is meaningless and any thing we try to do is null and void.
I suspect this is the "better deal" that was offered to Turkey and why they stalled and then screwed us. These backstabbers probably had been working out a deal to take advantage of this tactic long before the war had begun.
#3
All Russia had to do was some mild public protest of the US actions and quietly take a percentage of the $9bn owed as the Iraqi bad debt from the US and everything would be cool. Putin blew it big time.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
03/22/2003 11:22 Comments ||
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"We will have to defend our interests so that the contracts which were signed under Saddam Hussein are not annulled as lacking legal force and to make sure the Iraqi debt owed us is respected."
Would have been refreshing to hear Igor put this statement on the official record at UN -- anytime in past six months. Oops, did I place "candor" and the "UN" in same sentence? Silly me.
#5
This is the key to understanding this whole mess. This is what connects the dots of all articles here on Rantburg today. The war is illegal, their contracts are still good - worse, if they can exile him (assuming his still alive) then they will claim US occupation of Iraq is meaningless and any thing we try to do is null and void.
I suspect this is the "better deal" that was offered to Turkey and why they stalled and then screwed us. These backstabbers probably had been working out a deal to take advantage of this tactic long before the war had begun.
North Korea has suspended next week's talks on economic and maritime cooperation with South Korea, blaming Seoul's heightened military alert status. The suspension was reported Saturday by South Korea's Yonhap news agency. Yonhap quoted Park Chang-ryon, North Korean chairman of the inter-Korean economic cooperation promotion committee, as saying the postponement was necessary when "one party to the talks points a sword at the other." The two sides were to have begun a new round of talks in the North Korean capital of Pyongyang on Wednesday on aspects of economic cooperation, including commercial shipping. Commercial shipping? How in the world do the NKors manage to have any of that?
"South Korea will have to take full responsibility for this," Yonhap quoted Park as saying. "He ain't heavy, he's my brother ..."
South Korea moved to "defense readiness condition 2" on Thursday, with new President Roh Moo-hyun citing the situation with North Korea and the government's need to be prepared for a possible terrorist incident or "other contingencies" after the start of the U.S.-led attack on Iraq. The heightened military alert also coincides with the start of the South's annual large-scale joint military exercises with the United States, dubbed "Blow Up Your Nuclear Reactor Real Soon Now" "Foal Eagle." "Annual" means every year, which apparently doesn't translate well into the NKor dictionary.
North Korea objects to the exercises, calling them a rehearsal for invasion and claims they are pushing the situation on the Korean peninsula to the "brink of a nuclear war." Its Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said that South Korea's move — which Seoul said did not involve significant troop movements — was a "reckless confrontation campaign" timed to coincide with the start of the war on Iraq. Nervous, are we?
A statement read on KCNA said the United States was planning to mount a "preemptive attack" on nuclear facilities in North Korea. "The U.S. has so far put an international pressure on the DPRK (North Korea) to scrap its 'nuclear weapons program,' claiming that the DPRK's 'nuclear issue' poses a threat to the world," the statement said. "As this did not work on the DPRK, it is now going to settle it by military means." Well now that you mention it ...
The North's postponement of next week's talks raises concern that it might suspend more important inter-Korean talks scheduled for next month to ease tensions over the nuclear issue, the Associated Press reported Saturday. The two sides have made little progress in improving ties since they held a historic summit in 2000. "Hey, Kim!"
"Yes, Kim?"
"We got any discretionary funds to bribe our rabid friends to the north for another meeting?"
"Nope, tapped out. I think it's the recession."
"Guess we won't be meeting with them next month."
"Ouch. Bummer."
"Yeah, let's go to the red-lamp district in Tokyo and tie one on."
"I'm sure we got money for that!"
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/22/2003 09:02 am ||
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North Korea has at least one viable commercial export, weapons. Remember the ship that was interdicted by Spanish warship earlier in the year? That was carrying the North Korean scud missle which was originally claimed by Yamen government, but later re-routed to Iraq.
#2
The North Koreans are NOT weasels. They are moles! There are several thousands of miles of tunnels in North Korea. Bunker-buster bombs can't get down quite far enough, but I'm sure Kim wasn't terribly pleased to hear of that opening salvo. The one GOOD thing - on our part, at least - is that we've watched North Korea like a hawk for the last 50 years. While not everything they've done has been observed, we do know enough to know which air vents to hit with a nice mix of chemicals that will seep down, down, down, and then go BOOM!
I'm sure Kim has lost 40 pounds this past week, thinking of how the war with Iraq opened.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
03/23/2003 1:10 Comments ||
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The North Koreans are NOT weasels. They are moles! There are several thousands of miles of tunnels in North Korea. Bunker-buster bombs can't get down quite far enough, but I'm sure Kim wasn't terribly pleased to hear of that opening salvo. The one GOOD thing - on our part, at least - is that we've watched North Korea like a hawk for the last 50 years. While not everything they've done has been observed, we do know enough to know which air vents to hit with a nice mix of chemicals that will seep down, down, down, and then go BOOM!
I'm sure Kim has lost 40 pounds this past week, thinking of how the war with Iraq opened.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
03/23/2003 1:10 Comments ||
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North Korea has at least one viable commercial export, weapons. Remember the ship that was interdicted by Spanish warship earlier in the year? That was carrying the North Korean scud missle which was originally claimed by Yamen government, but later re-routed to Iraq.
#5
I believe it was our old friend Alaska Paul that suggested interdiction by torpedo of any shipping from NK? A blockade is an act of war, but seeing as how they've torn up the truce, what's the diff? If the NK's don't wake up to reality soon, they'll be faced with 2 options, one ending with the NK regime dead, and the other with most of NK and Seoul dead - trouble is, I don't think they have a preference
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/22/2003 11:18 Comments ||
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Frank---I wonder how much shipping has gone in and out of Nampo harbor since the "Whatsitsname" w/o any flag finally got back with a load of cyanide. I will bet there are some "silent service" types loitering around station, just in case....
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
03/22/2003 11:34 Comments ||
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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.
Iraq said Saturday that Iraqi tribal fighters and members of the ruling Baath Party destroyed five U.S. tanks and a number of military vehicles in battles in the Bat-ha region between the cities of al-Nasseria and Samawah south of Iraq. 
