No updates this morning for three reasons:
a) Its the Boston Marathon
b) 11o'clock Sox game this morning
c) I am going to enjoy the day
I will start posting at about 3:30 this afternoon, so you can all look forward to that.
Posted at 11:25am by Andrew H
Let me just remind all you tax payers that you need your taxes in by midnight. With that said, here is the post:
This summer, when the New York Yankees acquired Cuban pitcher Jose Conteras one of the Red Sox owners called them (and I quote)
An Evil Empire
Well, I am proud to say that the New York Yankees are also viewed as an evil empire and on the
same level as Wal Mart by the wonderful United States government who gave the team a $75,000 fine. This is the kicker, the fine is for
the Yankees violating our embargo of Cuba by getting Cuban born players. Too bad, for good old George Stienbrenner $75,000 is chump
change.
The original evil empire, the now defunct Soviet Union, is up to its old games. The United States says it knew of Russian spy
link.
"We knew that there were contacts between the intelligence services of Iraq and Russia,"
The Associated Press quoted Vershbow[US ambassador to Russia].
In February, the U.S. government accused Russian weapons suppliers of trying to sell surface-to-air missiles to Iraq
From Russia with Love?If the Russians want to try to get out of the horrible economy they are in, they better start helping
us. Sure our dollar is based on nothing, but it still is very powerful and will go a long way in a place like Russia. When are the Russia's and
Turkey's going to smarten up and relize if they want billions of dollars of aid they shouldn't (a) provide weapons and intel to countries we are
about to/in the process of invading and (b) let us put our troops in the country to allow another front in a war we are about to/in the process
of invading.
Sure this might make us out to be international bullies but look at what we have done. We have freed the Iraqi's and defeated the ruthless
Taliban. You can't say the people we have helped arn't gratefull either. Is this ungrateful?
Yep, they are very ungrateful. But back to the topic at hand, other countries need to relize that they don't get aid by hampering our operations.
Panama gets it, they get a boost to their economy because of us and they let us control the canal. Brazil gets it, they get money and let us operate
in country to take out drug cartels. Why can't the people on the other side of the Atlantic just step in line?
Posted at 5:32pm by Andrew H
This is a really freaky event. Last
night on CSI Miami the team spent the entire episode trying to find this highschool kid who was missing. They recovered
a tree from the kids house that had hundreds of shells in it from .22 to .50 cal and even AK rounds. Doesn't that sound
like the sniper from the DC area. It turns out this kid was going to open up on his fellow students at an assembly on
April 20th because it was Hitlers birthday. And the day afterwords I read about a real school shooting involving an
AK 47. One difference is that the real shooting was gang related.The fact that gangs are moving back into the schools
and off the streets is scary. And the hard part is stoping it, because a lot of gang members are high school kids and
the school can't not let them attend. About the only thing you can do is put up metal dectectors and have a cop or two
stay at the school. In the town where I live their are very strict laws about guns and of course you can't bring guns
into a school but that includes officers. Police officers can only bring their firearm into the school if responding to
an emergency.
It looks like the Iraqi conflict is over, and is now on the level of the Afghanistan fighting. Meaning
sporadic fighting and a stron pressence on land.
Posted at 7:03am by Andrew H
4.14.03
Do we break out the victory banner yet?
"I would anticipate that the major combat operations are over," Maj. Gen. Stanley McChrystal told reporters at a Pentagon briefing.
Well, thats good news, it looks like all we have left are a few of our good friends the
Fedayeen Saddam.
He said U.S. forces are moving into a phase of "smaller, albeit sharper fights."
Also known as finishing the job.
The USS Kitty Hawk and USS Constellation could leave the Persian Gulf in the next several days, officials said. That would
leave the USS Nimitz, which recently replaced the USS Abraham Lincoln, as the only remaining carrier group in the gulf.
This is the best news yet, because it shows that are happy with our situation and feel we have Iraq under control but it also
shows to other Middle East nations that our intent is not to be imperalistic. If we back off our navy pressence, it is a
sign of goodwill and that we don't intend on invading anyone else soon. Although, if Syria continues to help Saddam and
his thugs they may be the next head to be axed. And I think that with terrorist connections that are so obvious with
Syria its not far fetched that people will be less against that war than the one we are fighting right now.
Posted at 5:00pm by Andrew H
4.12.03
For your weekend enjoyment...
Remember that feared Medina divison, well, they got destroyed. To see what's left of them head on over to the
Kuwait Truck Project. This is an embedded reporters
website where he posts pictures of what he sees in Iraq. Got some very good pictures up, spend some time over there,
it's worth it.
Posted at 11:44pm by Andrew H
4.11.03
You folks may remeber our good friend Assistant Professor De Genova, the man who said he wished for a thousand Mogadishu's
to happen if Iraq. I, along with thousands of others, sent an email to the university expressing my displeasure at what he
had said and asked that the university take action. Well, this is the response that the president of Columbia University
sent to people via the public affairs office of his university.
I want to acknowledge your email message concerning Assistant
Professor De Genova's remarks. I am appalled by his outrageous
comments. I want to assure you that his comments in no way represent
my views nor anyone with whom I have spoken at the University. His
comments were not made in a classroom, but rather at a teach-in, an
informal gathering where faculty and students come together to discuss
and debate the pressing and important issues of the moment. They are
not authorized or officially sanctioned classroom experiences.
Assistant Professor De Genova was exercising his freedom of speech
when he made those remarks. However, free speech does not insulate
him from criticism. Our faculty and students, regardless of their
position on the war, have not been silent in their denunciation of his
remarks.
While Nicholas De Genova's words properly invite anger and sharp
rebuke, there are few things more precious on any University campus
than freedom of thought and expression. That is the teaching of the
First Amendment and I believe it should be the principle we live by at
Columbia University.
I appreciate your adding your voice to those who have expressed their
opinions. At a time of war, when American troops are in harm's way,
his comments are especially disturbing. I am particularly saddened
for the families of those whose lives are at risk and who must endure
the pain provoked by his statements.
Sincerely,
Lee C. Bollinger
President
Columbia University
Posted at 11:44pm by Andrew H
Lt Smash, you put what everyone is feeling into such a great letter:
Hey Saddam,
This will be my last note to you. Because you’re dead.
Oh, I know that there is a good chance that you survived that bombing a couple of days ago. You might very well be walking and breathing, hiding out somewhere.
But that’s a technicality. You’re just as dead as your hero, Joe Stalin.
You died yesterday, in Firdos Square - the center of Baghdad.
The Iraqi people, the same ones that used to cower in fear at the mention of your name, put a chain around your neck.
United States Marines attached the chain to an armored vehicle, and toppled you.
The Iraqis removed your head from your body, and dragged it through the streets.
Men spit on your head. Women and children slapped it with the soles of their shoes.
They were happy, Saddam. Happy to finally let the world know how much they hated and despised you.
They never loved you, no matter how much they proclaimed it. They feared you. It’s not the same thing.
Of course, I am aware that it was only a bronze statue that they dismembered. But you were never just a man, were you? You were an image. You were everywhere in Iraq. But you only existed as long as you could make people fear you.
They don’t fear you anymore.
I hope that you are still breathing. And that you were watching yesterday.
How does it feel, to watch yourself die?
It’s over, Saddam.
You're dead.
Posted at 5:21pm by Andrew H
So I sit down to write this article and my nose starts bleeding. That can't be a good omen, so if the article stinks I gave
you fair warning.
The White House told us two days ago when we took Baghdad that the war wasn't nearly over. Now they are saying otherwise.
The White House on Friday declared that Saddam Hussein's "regime is gone,"
Ari Fleischer said
"There is no question the regime has lost control, and that represents a great turning point for the people of Iraq, as the regime is gone,"
Well, all thats left to do is to hunt down the remaining leaders. And it seems we are on top of that...
Coalition troops in the field have been given the list of 52 former regime leaders in several forms -- one of them a deck of playing cards with images of the people's faces and job descriptions
[...]
Coalition forces also are hanging posters and handbills
[...]
leaders would be "pursued, killed or captured."
With the joy displayed by the Iraqi people across the country, it doesn't look like it will take much to find the 52 men
we are after. Unlike Afghanistan, where bin Laden just vanished, the people in Iraq are really happy to see the regime
fall and a new era begin.
The only problem is where will this new regime take them. The United States is looking to put in place a goverment
of the people, and the majority Shia Arabs will most likely cause problems with the Kurds and Sunni. The best bet is for
a congress of sorts running the country, and each group having an equal say. That, of course, would last all of a year or
so. Lets just stay tuned and see what happens.
On the homefront, rapper Snoop Dogg got ambushed in LA. Not like I care, but I always find it funny how these rappers
are always involved in shootings and then think they are gangster because of it.
Posted at 4:04pm by Andrew H
This is a disgrace.
The fact that NBC is going to make a made for TV movie of the Jessica Lynch story is so depressing. What about the
591 Vietnam POW that came home after the war, leaving behind what is believed to be 50 or more Americans soldiers. What
about the Gulf War pilots who were shot down and kept prisoner, and some believe they still have a few pilots in Iraq
from the first Gulf War. The making of this movie whould show no respect to those who prisoners of war, missing in action
or killed in action. While the story of Jessica Lynch is a good rescue story, it does a dishonor to those, past and present
POW's. We still have around 20 POW/MIA's in Iraq right now, making a movie about the one who got rescued is not a smart
thing. It makes the ones still in Iraqi hands seem less important. At this moment in time, they are more important than
Jessica because they are in enemy hands while she is here, safe in America with her family.
Posted at 12:04am by Andrew H
4.10.03
Saddam,
Since we all know that you don't have Weapons of Mass Destruction, what is
this, and what is
this? Somebody must of framed
you, putting those missile in the soccer stadium and building this massive complex underground with those high radiation
levels. Those sneeky Americans, they think they can fool us by building that huge complex and by putting lethal amounts
of nuclear residue.
"It's amazing," [Chief Warrant Officer Darrin] Flick said. "I went to the off-site storage buildings, and the rad detector went off the charts. Then I
opened the steel door, and there were all these drums, many, many drums, of highly radioactive material."
Those arn't Iraqi drums of highly radioactive material, right?
And that missile was placed there to try to trick people into thinking that you hide your weapons among civilians. We know
better Saddam. Those were put there by the blasted Americans.
--a concerned Iraqi
Posted at 10:22am by Andrew H
4.9.03
What more can one say?
No school tommorow morning, so I am probably going to sleep in. Going to sleep in 5...4...3...2...1...
Posted at 11:25pm by Andrew H
The ICRC (International Committee of the Red Cross) is
pulling out of Baghdad. The people in Baghdad need the help of the ICRC and other organizations now, and the help that the ICRC will give them when
the war is over is going to be to late for some. Much like the American Army, people volunteer to be in the ICRC and work in places like Iraq. The risk of
getting hurt is one that they knew when the signed up. "ICRC delegates and local staff have been unable to move about in Baghdad since this
morning. Given the chaotic and totally unpredictable situation in the city, getting from one place to another involves incalculable risks,"
I
understand that these people are afraid, and the fact that the city is a war zone only adds on to their fear, but what about the folks who live there? They can't
just get up and go. They don't have the funds available to the ICRC to set up shop somewhere else until Baghdad is safe. These ICRC people should think about
why they are over there and then think about what the people that live there are going to do. The ICRC does an incredibly important job and helps these people
greatly, but they shouldn't run away and abandon the people they are there to help.
This,
on the other hand, shows how happy the Iraqi people in Baghdad are.
Saddam Hussein's rule over Iraq collapsed on Wednesday as U.S. troops swept into the heart of Baghdad and helped jubilant residents celebrate by toppling a huge statue of their ousted leader and dragging its severed head through the streets.
[...]
Iraqis danced and trampled on the fallen 20-foot high metal statue in contempt for the man who had held them in fear for 24 years
[...]
Earlier, in scenes recalling the 1989 fall of the Berlin Wall, Iraqis hacked at the marble plinth of Saddam's statue with a sledgehammer. Youths hooked a noose around the statue's neck and attached the rope to a Marine armored vehicle, which dragged it over.
[...]
As Marines drove into Baghdad through the vast eastern township of Saddam City, home to about two million impoverished Shi'ite Muslims, jubilant crowds threw flowers and cheered .
"No more Saddam Hussein," chanted one group, waving to troops as they passed. "We love you, we love you."
It is all nice and dandy that the people in Baghdad are so jubilant but the war is hardly over as Bush said. We are still at war.
Unfortunately more deaths are to come to both soldiers and civilians. But, in the liberated areas people are rejoicing and getting food and medicine. And the
army of Americans and British are doing good.
Posted at 5:28pm by Andrew H
CNN had an interesting article
on the jail that we captured the other day.
Iraqis showed journalists a white stone jail where they claim Saddam Hussein's secret police for decades tortured inmates with beatings, mutilations, electric shocks and chemical baths.
[...]
People taken behind the jail's sandstone facade usually did not come out, residents said.
[...]
Relatives of missing inmates checked fingerprinted files and lists of names found amid the fallen bricks.
"It was a place of evil," resident Hamed Fattil said.
[...]
"They used to strap a leather cord around our head, hands and shoulders and hoist us two feet off the ground. Then they would beat us as we hung there," Hamed said.
"They did unthinkable things -- electrocution, immersion in a bath of chemicals and ripping off people's finger and toenails."
[...]
One man, hands tied behind his back with a rope attached to a hook on the ceiling, bent over while another man pantomimed hitting him on the back and the face with his hands and a long, white rod.
One man shuddered while the other gave him a pretend electric shock.
[...]
He said some of the cells, which had red doors with large bolts, were used to hold women and children. He also said hundreds of men were kept in a single cell about the size of a living room, which had one rusted grate window.
Now I see why the anti-war crowd though we shouldn't of gone to war. The Gestapo beat people, tore off fingernails, and used electric shock, so
if Saddam used it its ok.
If you really believed that Saddam isn't this evil dude, please, just think about what it would be like to see your son or daughter disappear forever.
Then you find out that s/he ended up in a torture chamber had those horrible things done to him/her. This man did horrible things to these
people and deserves whatever fate has brought him.
And to all you who said that the Iraqi people wouldn't welcome us as liberators, what's this man holding up the sign for?
Good old North Korea issued a threat to Japan in response to the launching of two Japanese spy satellites. North Korea politely reminded
Japan it is within striking distance of North Korea's ballistic missiles. Pyongyang seems to be like Michael Jackson. After a week or so, if
he isn't in the news he does something stupid to get in the news. North Korea, though, is lead by a man that is crazy enough to use nuclear
weapons which is a very scary thing. Especially when it is near Japan, China, and South Korea. Three major countries in Asia's economy.
I think that the fact North Korea is threatening Japan with missiles and is developing nuclear weapons might put them at the bottom of the
pecking order after Iraq. Who would want to see another nuclear weapon going off in Japan. The overpopulated country would be devastated
and might not survive it.
Posted at 7:17am by Andrew H
4.8.03
Africa is a great, rich history but today it is a joke. I am reminded of the Simpsons episode where they go to Africa and when they leave the taxi driver that
drove them is the president of the country. Africa is such a war-torn place, every year a new bloody civil war breaks out and goes on for five or six years
until some warlord gains total control. Then in one or two years a new warlord starts another civil war. It is a vicious and bloody cycle. So when something
like this
happens, I am upset over the deaths, but I am not as fazed by it. In a place that has some of the highest AID's related deaths and has these bloody wars
it doesn't come as such a shock. The United Nations needs to do something. Instead of just handing out food and medicine, they need to take action against
these vicious warlords. What good is it to give out food when it all ends up in the hands of the man that causes the need for food to be handed out. The United
Nations has to take action, but not like what they did in Somalia. They can't just broker deals with different warlords to please the one who has the upper hand
at that current time. We need to end this cycle. Soon, between the war related deaths and the AID's related deaths Africa will be a baren place with no population.
If the United Nations wants to reclaim its respect, it needs to stop these deaths by forcing peace in Africa. By force, I don't mean a military takeover (although that
is an option), I mean by cutting these warlords off at the knees. Offer people that would be fighting for the warlords better jobs. Take away the AK-47 and give
them food. Now that's an idea, set up exchange markets where people can take guns and trade it for food. If you get rid of the foot soldiers, you can get rid of
the warlords and might actually have a stable government in place for more than one year.
Posted at 10:55pm by Andrew H
I know you all wondering, if Iraq wins, what the world would look like.
Posted at 6:44pm by Andrew H
Good old Geraldo Rivera is keeping it real. The man with the loose lips was visiting the 101st airborne division and shook hands with the troops.
Looks like he got a bit of a surprise, though. It says here:
"We later found out a few who shook his hand had put those hands in unmentionable places prior. Army justice?"
What ever Geraldo got, Geraldo deserved. He had it coming to him... listen to what else he had to say:
Asked if Rivera seemed at all remorseful about the situation, especially since he was still denying any awareness of the
military's displeasure with him and accusing the "rats" at NBC, MSNBC and CNBC of "stabbing me in the back" with "a pack
of lies,"
"He said he felt scolded but that infantry troops he had been embedded with wanted him to stay."
Now that sounds like a "pack of lies."
Others here wanted to harm him, were disgusted with him, thought he should have been sent home in a Humvee (a 40-hour
drive south through the desert).
Well, maybe that was the answer, it was probably cheaper, but the Army probably wanted the Humvee back in good condition
and didn't want to subject a grunt to driving Geraldo.
The Rivera and Peter Arnett stories have been quickly and appropriately pushed aside as the sideshows they are. Primarily,
they are a distraction for other media types - ripe, easy fodder for columnists and radio fulminators.
This guy got it right on the head.
I am still trying to start COBMN, which stands for Comb Over And Big Moustache News. I think that it would be good.
Peter Arnett and Geraldo Rivera, two reporters who have loose lip syndrome and who like going to a war every fifteen years.
Posted at 5:33pm by Andrew H
What a great picture. You can tell by the way the troops are acting that their moral is really high as we close in for the
kill. The Pentagon says
that coalition forces are moving "at will" within and around Baghdad, describing the capital city as isolated.
[...]
Saddam's regime still controls elements of the Iraqi military, specifically Special Republican Guard units and death squads, even though command and control has deteriorated.
[...]
There are still some orders being given by somebody. They don't seem to be the best of orders. They don't seem to be very well coordinated.
[...]
Maj. Gen. Stanley McChrystal said U.S. forces in and around Baghdad "are spending the night wherever they want to."
You have to mix the good with bad, though. We may have isolated Baghdad and are moving around as we like, but as evident
by this artical
Their is a real threat posed by the units that are under the control of someone.
The U.S. National Public Radio, reporting what appeared to be a separate discovery to the one in Albu Mahawish, said U.S. forces found a weapons cache of around 20 medium-range missiles equipped with potent chemical weapons.
NPR said the rockets, BM-21 missiles, were equipped with sarin and mustard gas and were "ready to fire."
The radicals are ready to go, it seems. It would only take one BM-21 missile loaded with Sarin gas to hit a unit and the
moral of the troops, the Iraqi citizens, and the United States citizens whould go down the drain. And not just that, but
if one Iraqi has the guts to launch one, it could cause a chain effect and others may launch. It would be a diaster
and a potentially very deadly one at that. I would be interested to know how much of an early warning troops 5 miles outside
Baghdad whould get if an artillery peice in the city launched some sort of chemical attack. I can't imagine it taking more
than three minutes from it going from Baghdad to its target. Thats not a lot of time to find out about it and then
jump into your chemical/biological protection suit, is it? Lets just pray that the Iraqi soldiers still fighting see the
fact that we are their to help them and that we just want Saddam and his posse.
Posted at 4:44pm by Andrew H
Last night was a good night. We went after Saddam and might of gotten him. The fact that we are hitting these places when Iraqi people say
the think they saw him here is scary. We might get Baath Party
officials providing false information in an effort to get us to hit anti-Saddam supporters. All I want to know is that we are double checking info
before we drop 2,000lbs bombs on these homes. If we got Saddam though, everything will fall apart for remaining regime and we will be able to
deliver aid to Baghdad. If we didn't get Saddam it may look like we will be street fighting. When we do street fight the A-10 will be the primary
support because it has a 30mm cannon and is able to take out a tank. The A-10 is very slow, too, so it is better suited for close air support in
a city envoirment. The only problem is last night one went down. And if they can take an A-10 down, that might change our strategy.
A coalition A-10 "warthog" warplane went down near Baghdad early Tuesday. The pilot ejected safely and was recovered by coalition ground forces near the airport, the U.S. Central Command said.
The pilot is ok, which is good to here.
Posted at 7:36am by Andrew H
4.7.03
So I am switching my TV from the NCAA Championship game to Third Watch to CNN and back to Third Watch when Randy Price,
a newscaster for the Boston affiliate of NBC says that we bombed Saddam and his sons and other ranking members of the
Iraqi regime. For some reason, though, I think this time we might of actually done it. Think about it, we took out
Chemical Ali yesterday and we are roaming around Baghdad, we are getting good intel. This time we might of gotten the
guy. Of course, we shouldn't get our hopes up, we thought we got him the first night of the war for about a week. If we
did get him, though, the Baath Party folks
might stop fighting and we could start to make Iraq a democratic society. Of course, if we didn't get him its not that big
of a set back. We are already in Baghdad for all intensive purposes. We come and go as we please, like the wind in a forest
at night.
Now back to the Basketball game... Go Orangemen!
Posted at 10:32pm by Andrew H
In Massachusetts we have the MCAS exam, or Massachusetts Comprehension Assessment Test. Which, oddly enough, spells Scam when the
letters are rearranged. Most states have state wide exams now to see how different schools stack up to others in different districts. It helps
the Education Boards decide who needs more funding than others and where their are major gaps to fill and so forth. The MCAS is given to
4th graders (9 years olds), 8th graders (13 years old), and 10th graders (15 years old). In 4th grade everyone learns the same curriculum and
their aren't separation of levels and their aren't choices as to what classes you can take. In 8th grade everyone learns the same curriculum but there are separation of levels in Math class. Their are smart/average/below average classes. Of course, the state administers the same test
to the people, not withstanding that they are in different Math levels. In 10th grade you are in one of three levels in Math, Science, History, English and a foreign language. You are either in curriculum two, curriculum one, or honors. Curriculum two goes at a much slower pace,
curriculum one goes at a normal speed and honors is very fast and intense. Yet, the MCAS doesn't acknowledge the difference in levels and gives
the same test to everyone. Kids these days, according to psychology, are uber-sensitive and receiving a test like the MCAS just makes them feel
worst about there academic standing and causes problems. It could do its job if they saw the difference in levels and acknowledge that some kids
have different needs and know more than others. Of course, I am biased because I need to take it.
Posted at 4:43pm by Andrew H
U.S. forces in tanks and armored vehicles stormed into the center of Baghdad on Monday, seizing one of Saddam Hussein's palaces and briefly surrounding the Information Ministry in a bold daylight raid aimed at demonstrating the Americans can come and go as they please.
More than 70 tanks and 60 Bradley fighting vehicles took part in the lightning thrust by the Army's 3rd Infantry Division, with tank-killing A-10 Warthog planes and pilotless drones providing air cover against mostly disorganized resistance.
This is probably the way the 'invasion' of Baghdad will happen. Lots of patrols deep into the city until we feel safe enough
to put units in there for the duration of the remaining war. I think that instead of just going to the information ministry
we should of taken it, though. That way the Information Minister couldn't of said this stuff:
Iraq's information minister denied in a rooftop news conference Monday that the Americans were in the city, declaring: "Be assured Baghdad is safe, secure and great."
[...]
"They are sick in their minds. They say they brought 65 tanks into center of city. I say to you this talk is not true. This is part of their sick mind," Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf said. "There is no presence of American infidels in the city of Baghdad at all."
[...]
"Their forces committed suicide by the hundreds. ... The battle is very fierce and God made us victorious. The fighting continues," he said. "Yesterday, we slaughtered them and we will continue to slaughter them."
Oh yes, we are losing the war and killing ourselfs.
Ali Hassan al-Majid, one of the most brutal members of President Saddam Hussein's inner circle, was apparently killed by an airstrike on his house in Basra, British officials said Monday.
Its good that Chemical Ali is out of the way. He only gassed thousands of Iraqi Kurds, so he probably whould of gassed us
if we had not gotten him. It is also an example on the kind of attacks we are carrying out. We've hit all of Saddam's palaces
and raided them in hopes of killing him, and then we moved on and attacked all his little minions and in this case it payed
off.
Posted at 7:30am by Andrew H
4.6.03
Mustard gas and cyanide have been found in river water in the Iraqi city of Nasiriyah
quantities of chemical agents found as "significant"
--The Daily Telegraph
No wonder the UN never found the gassses, they didn't pack their scuba gear.
A spokesman for the United States marines
[...]
said yesterday: "I think this discovery shows what kind of guy is running this country.
"This stuff is just dumped in the Euphrates without any concern for the many people who drink and wash with water from the river."
The poisons were discovered by the marines' scientists who were testing the quality of water taken from the Euphrates before purifying it and distributing it to the residents of Nasiriyah, a city of 250,000 people.
Well, at least we found it before the people started drinking the water. It might of actually been dumped there for the purpose
of poisoning the people so Saddam could turn around and say that the people we provide aid to are dying.
Posted at 10:11pm by Andrew H
4.5.03
CentCom is saying that
the Republican Guard has ceased to exist as a cohesive fighting force. Looks like the main threat against us is going
to be the Fedayeen Saddam. The Republican Guard was
supposed to defend Baghdad to the death, or thats what the Iraqi's were saying. Reports on BBC radio say that the majority
of defenses in the city are manned by what appears to be Fedayeen Saddam and
Baath Party members. What I see happening is
we take the city, but don't occupy it. We just sweep it with lots of armored patrols until we route out most of the
Baath Party members and Fedayeen Saddam.
I don't see us occupying it because it has the potential to become a mirror image of Israel with major suicide bombings against
us every week.
Posted at 11:00pm by Andrew H
4.4.03
The smoking gun...
U.S. troops found thousands of boxes of white powder, nerve agent antidote and Arabic documents on how to engage in chemical warfare at an industrial site south of Baghdad, a U.S. officer said Friday.
Col. John Peabody, engineer brigade commander of the 3rd Infantry Division, said the materials were found Friday at the Latifiyah industrial complex just south of Baghdad.
"It is clearly a suspicious site," Peabody said.
Peabody said troops found thousands of boxes, each of which contained three vials of white powder, together with documents written in Arabic that dealt with how to engage in chemical warfare.
He also said they discovered atropine, used to counter the effects of nerve agents. --(AP)
I'm glad that they found what looks to be chemical weapons and they found them before the Iraqi's used them. Wouldn't it be amazing if the powder
was refined and just happened to be the same strain of anthrax that killed all those people last year. Then we could see how many people opposed
the war.
2,500 Iraqi s0ldiers surrendered between Kut and Baghdad. Its nice to see the mass surrenders of regular troops again. There haven't really
been many surrenders since the opening days. The more surrenders that there are, the less fighting, the less fighting, the quicker the war, and
the quicker the war, the happier the Iraqi people and the American and British people will be. The fact that we have almost secured Saddam
International Airport is very important. It gives us a base less than 30 miles from Baghdad and means that we will be in Baghdad very soon.
We would probably be there today if it weren't for Turkey, but at least they are helping now.
The story of the man who saved Jessica Lynch's life. Taken from Right Wing News
The Iraqi man who tipped U.S. Marines to the location of American POW Jessica Lynch said Thursday he did so after he saw her Iraqi captor slap her twice as she lay wounded in a hospital.
"A person, no matter his nationality, is a human being," the tipster, a 32-year-old lawyer whose wife was a nurse at the hospital, said in an interview at Marines' headquarters, where he, his wife and daughter are being treated as heroes and guests of honor.
...After he saw Lynch slapped, the lawyer slipped into her room at the Saddam Hospital in Nasiriyah and told her, "Don't worry." Then he walked six miles to the nearest U.S. Marines and told them where she was.
...The lawyer, whose first name is Mohammed and who asked that his last name not be published, smiled between every sentence as he recounted in broken but expressive English how he helped the Amer
