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Manning The Post
History As It Happened
Saturday, March 22, 2003 |
You have to be quick
Ye Gods, by the time I'd *thought* about what to write and post, looks like what, half-a-dozen got in before me.
Saturday, March 22, 2003 |
RAF Aircraft Lost in Blue-on-Blue
According to official spokesmen, it looks like a US Patriot battery shot down the RAF aircraft that's been reported missing. Systems are now being looked at to prevent a repeat. Shit happens in war - but any such error should happen at most once.
My sympathies to the families, the squadron, and also to the guys who did the firing. They must feel like shit at the moment. (I apologise for the language, but I reserve it for such occasions.)
Saturday, March 22, 2003 |
Um Qasr Mop Up (Live on TV)
Some US Marines, supported by what appears to be 2 British Challenger II Tanks (but could be US M1A2s if I've got the ID wrong) is on MNBC and other channels (see previous posts) doing some mopping-up. A convoy has just arrived, passing through the area.
Latest report: a Republican Guard Officer is civilian clothes captured earlier reports some 120 hostiles in the area. The threat is in 3 regions: a) a bunker or bunker complex which appears to have been neutralised though not occupied, b) a single well-built 3 or 4-story structure which took a few 120mm rounds plus much 40mm AGL (Auto Grenade Launcher) rounds and much other fire, and from which no fire has appeared since and c) A large factory or warehouse complex, with thin walls.
120 hostiles is no longer a mop-up, it's an engagement. Worth an airstrike or an artillery stonk, and I'm glad I'm not handling the insurance on those buildings. Hopefully, with the sight of the "reinforcements" who are actually just passers-by, white flags will start flying soon. If not, the burial detail will be busy, and a lot of Iraqi widows and orphans will be created. So let's hope they see sense, I really don't want to watch a snuff flick.
As for the Marines - they're acting with professional caution, and although in War nothing is certain, I doubt that there will be any friendly military casualties. The only ones at risk are the camera team, who are putting themselves in an exposed position, ie where they'll draw fire if anyone will.
And the Tanks - Challenger IIs - have got some of the heaviest armour of any MBT in service. Even from the side, there's little that would be a major threat, and nothing the Iraqis appear to have available. But they're not taking chances either.
Saturday, March 22, 2003 |
DRUDGE HOURS AND HOURS BEHIND:
Nothing on the DRUDGE REPORT that wasn't on the Command Post and elsewhere hours ago. The top half of the page is devoted to an Oscar party. Unbelievable.
Alan checking in ... the site looks absolutely fantastic. Michele was spot-on with her earlier compliments, as well as her reminders -- while we have had a couple of emails noting that the "voice of the site" was starting to move away from cutting-edge news and toward rants and self-links, overall the response has been overwhelmingly positive. Thanks for keeping The Command Post a constant source of the freshest news about the war out there (IMHO).
In other news, I'm playing with some ideas for how we can use the traffic of this site (and of our own blogs, should we choose) to do some good. One idea is to post links to existing charities. Another is to begin our own effort, and I've been thinking about establishing a way to collect donations toward the education of children of American soldiers killed in Iraq. Just a thought, but I've taken it so far as to speak with an attorney and CPA about the possibilities. If anyone has any thoughts or opinions on this, I'd welcome them either in the feedback or via email to avocare at comcast dot net.
Saturday, March 22, 2003 |
Al Qeda in South America
. . . bin Laden spent three days in 1995 in the tri-border area where Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay meet and where several Middle Eastern terrorist groups are known to be active. . . . American and regional intelligence officials contend the region is first and foremost a financing hub for the Shiite Lebanese group Hezbollah and to a lesser extent for Sunni groups like Hamas and the Egyptian Islamic Jihad.
. . . an Egyptian called El Said Hassan Ali Mokhles has been sitting in a jail in Montevideo, Uruguay, for the past four years, awaiting a decision by the country's Supreme Court on an Egyptian extradition request. Cairo claims that he participated in a 1997 attack on tourists in Luxor that killed 58 people and that he spent 18 months in a training camp in Afghanistan run by Al Qaeda
Saturday, March 22, 2003 |
CNN stealing Fox coverage
CNN is copying, without attribution, video of Fox's sister Sky News live reporting of British firefight in Umm Qasr trying to protect incoming convoy of US tanks. CNN refers to source, David Bowden, only as a "British pool reporter". MSNBC is copying video with proper credit to Sky News.
I know it's a late notice (sorry!) but I was talking to Michele about this and she gave me the ok to post about it:
A group called the Free Republic is organizing a Rally for America in Times Square today (3/23) starting at noon. According to the digital flyer, if you're interested in getting updates about the rally, the group has set up a dedicated number (917-387-8865) that will give you a pre-recorded message update. Just letting you all know...
THE coalition says it has taken the port town of Umm Qasr, although forces were facing semi-organised resistance from Iraqi troops in civilian clothes. "We're seeing onesies and twosies popping up and shooting at us," said Colonel Larry Brown. "Someone will pop up over a berm and fire an RPG (rocket-propelled grenade) and run away like hell." The sniping has not caused any casualties.
Saturday, March 22, 2003 |
3rd Infantry going strong
The Washington Post reports that the 3rd Infantry Division has had, "one good fight," and, well, that's about it really. 150 miles, one skirmish, and one mortar fired at them. That's about it.
Here's Fisk's latest explanation of why war's bad. Read it if you can. I got about half way through the third paragraph. Personally, I already knew war was bad. It's just that some things are worse.
Uruklink the official Iraqi ISP is 101'ing (connection timeout). As Salam Pax uses it for updating his blog, he'll be off-line. My Best Wishes go out to him and his family and friends, and I hope that the US Military-Industrialist complex continues to retain its fantastic record of superb quality control and inhuman accuracy. I dips me lid to all those working on JDAM, PAVE TACK, and various AGMs etc, and to the people who've been delivering them so accurately.
Saturday, March 22, 2003 |
Another human shield recants
This guy has the guts to admit he was wrong. Like several other naive peaceniks, he was enlightened by Iraqis.
. . . . We just sat, listening, our mouths open wide. Jake, one of the others, just kept saying, "Oh my God" as the driver described the horrors of the regime. Jake was so shocked at how naive he had been. We all were. It hadn't occurred to anyone that the Iraqis might actually be pro-war . . . . Perhaps the most crushing thing we learned was that most ordinary Iraqis thought Saddam Hussein had paid us to come to protest in Iraq. Although we explained that this was categorically not the case, I don't think he believed us. Later he asked me: "Really, how much did Saddam pay you to come?"
Newsday has a particularly interesting report about the current situation in Baghdad. I was struck by the stuff coming out of the Information Ministry though.
But top Iraqis were, if anything, even more vehement than ever in asserting that not only was the regime holding steady, but also that the Iraqi military was more than bearing the brunt of the American and British attacks around the country.
"In Umm Qasr, the fighting is fierce and we have inflicted many damages," Information Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf told reporters. "The stupid enemy, the Americans and British, failed completely. They're not making any penetration."
In fact, according to reporters with coalition troops in the southern port, most of the town is under British and American control.
Every similar report of coalition advances or Iraqi troops surrendering was also rubbish, he said: Iraqi divisions reported to have surrendered were in fact fighting bravely; American tanks were being destroyed; the town of Nassariya was not in coalition hands; Iraqi militia fighters were driving the invading forces back; there were "thousands of casualties among American troops."
Encountered by chance at lunchtime, the uniformed Information Ministry spokesman Uday al-Taie had barely sat down before he called across a restaurant to a table of reporters.
"We have got two American pilots," he said, angrily. "They are in Baghdad. They thought it was going to be a picnic with cream cakes and crates of Pepsi but you will see -- they will be slaughtered."
When asked later, he brushed aside a request to see or interview the two allegedly captured American pilots. American and British military spokesmen said that none of their aircraft have so far been hit by enemy fire.
I'm beginning to think that either the Minister of Information or Minister of Defense will be taken into custody by U.S. troops while giving a press conference explaining that the coalition doesn't have troops within a hundred miles of Baghdad.
. . . . as a lone candle flickered in a tent at Camp Commando near the Iraqi border, one of four Jewish soldiers at the evening Sabbath service began to cry when Rabbi Irving Elson put his hands on his shoulders and prayed. “Be strong and of courage and trust in the Lord,” Rabbi Elson said, quoting from the Book of Joshua.
There are between 5000 and 8000 Jews in the US military, and about 1500 now in the Gulf. Jewish organizations have organized to provide them with chaplains (there are 4) and kosher-for-Pesach food. Rabbi Elson, who has been traveling throughout the Kuwaiti desert the last few weeks to conduct weekday and Sabbath services for the Jewish soldiers, described the services last Sabbath as “awesome.”
Saddam Hussein is thought to have needed a blood transfusion after being seriously wounded in the first wave of cruise missile attacks, according to a British intelligence briefing.
British prime minister Tony Blair's War Cabinet was told in the special 40-minute briefing of the injuries suffered by Saddam when his bunker was hit on Wednesday night.
His son, Uday, is also thought to have been badly hurt and may be dead. According to Britain's Sunday Telegraph, American officials claimed that another of Saddam's relatives, Ali Hassan al-Majid - known as Chemical Ali for his involvement the infamous 1988 Halabja chemical weapons attacks - had been killed.
"Saddam Hussein was so badly injured he needed a blood transfusion," an official told the newspaper. "Unfortunately, he was not critically injured. We think he is still alive. We also think his son Uday was killed or badly injured in the attack."
A Muslim-American soldier has been apprehended under suspicion that he was responsible for the grenade attack within a rear base camp of the 101st Airborne Division in Kuwait, Sky News reports. 13 soldiers were injured in the attack.
Taken right from LGF, Some info on the Terror Wars thats going on in our own house:
"We are not Americans," he shouted. "We are Muslims. [The U.S.] is going to deport and attack us! It is us vs. them! Truth against falsehood! The colonizers and masters against the oppressed, and we will burn down the master's house!"
Posted
by Nick ( http://arrogantrants.blogspot.com/ ) |
Permalink |
Howard seems to have left his ultra-brief speaking notes (written on hotel notepaper) at the lectern after he gave a controversial press conference last week in the Kiwi capital Wellington, linking the campaign against Iraq with the Bali bombings. And this is what the PM, who famously shuns speechwriters and typically speaks off the cuff, wrote down: "Disarming Iraq is part of the wider war vs terror, because of Iraqi's past and ongoing support for terrorists. If Iraq is not disarmed there cd be more terrorist attacks like Bali or worse (worse sharply underlined)". So frightfully simple.
Not to be compared with Blair's razor-sharp intellectual analysis, nor even Bush's simple homespun call-to-arms. Just the simple truth.
"Disarming Iraq is part of the wider war vs terror, because of Iraqi's past and ongoing support for terrorists. If Iraq is not disarmed there cd be more terrorist attacks like Bali or worse ".
Saturday, March 22, 2003 |
Iraq Information Minister refuses to answer questions about Saddam
From the New York Times (of all places)...scroll to bottom of article:
Today, attempts by reporters to gain some elucidation met with a blank wall. At a news conference, an American reporter asked when Mr. Hussein would be making another address on the war to the Iraqi people.
"Next!" the information minister, Muhammad Said al-Sahhaf, said sharply, beckoning to another reporter for a new question.
Moments later, a different reporter tried again. Had the minister seen Mr. Hussein in person at any time in the last few days?
"Next! Next!" Mr. Sahhaf replied, still more testily, then demanded: "Please ask something reasonable."
Saturday, March 22, 2003 |
Why The Old Media is Useless
This is the huge headline at Boston.Com, the Boston Globe's "continuously" updated website:
"Baghdad Ravaged by Bombardment". One of the story's first paragraph reads..."Warplanes targeted Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein's palace on the banks of the River Tigris, government and military targets and other symbols of his rule. The precise scale of Iraqi fatalities from the bombing and the hostilities was not clear."
There are still 600 Kuwaitis missing, believed captured, by the Saddam regime during the 1991 contretemps. Their release, or an accounting for them, should have been one of the non-negotiable demands of the cease-fire.
"Asalamu Alikum Wa Rahmatu Allah Wa Barakatu,
I always thought (and still think) it's a great idea to join the US ground forces for a simple reason: they're all getting shipped off to the Middle East for FREE! So, you go there, free, with US equipment and weapons, yada yada yada, then when you get there, you change sides and fight the kufar! After changing your uniform of course! And while you're at it, you can sabotage some of their stuff from the inside! "
Saturday, March 22, 2003 |
Iraqis and Americans To Rally
There is an Iraqi-American on Fox reporting that there is going to be a rally tomorrow at the Lincoln Memorial made up of Iraqis and Americans who support the military action taking place. I didn't catch the specific time, but it sounds like something that should get some press. This gentlemen has family there and he is looking forward to seeing his country being liberated.
dateline NBC is showing some "objectivity." They just ran a bleak piece about the economy post-war. The concern? People might learn how to "live lean" and not bother to pick up spending after the war is over.
I think they're spinning in a different direction than fox or cnn.
Courtesy of Bargarz, PBS has an interesting article about Free Iraqi Forces now training in the USA. Given that there's 4 million refugees from Saddam, that's about 15% of the Iraqi population, there isn't likely to be a shortage of volunteers. This is how we'll deal with the Werewolves in the cities - we won't, the Iraqis will.
The several hundred people who showed up get signed up with the Titan Corporation, a private contractor providing interpreters for the military, sign a personal services contract with or become a term employee of the military, join the reserves or in one of the most popular options, join the Free Iraqi Forces, or FIF.
MAN: You'd be in uniform in a free Iraq... a special Free Iraqi Force uniform.
ELIZABETH BRACKETT: The Pentagon says nearly 1,000 Iraqi-Americans have already been sent to Hungary for a four-week army training course for FIF fighters.
Someone in the Puzzle Palace* is thinking long-term, and is smarter-than-the-average-bear.
* As the Pentagon is known to those who work within it... even some Aussies have been known to call it that.
Just a quick remark : as I've often found when telecommuting from Australia to Europe, the time-zone differece can really work for you. CommandPost is a 24-hour service, with shifts in the US, Australia and the UK each taking about 8 hours. This wasn't planned, it just self-organised. Call it the Coalition of the Willing, you see a job that needs doing, and do it..
Saturday, March 22, 2003 |
Armed masked thugs attack major American cities
Even Justin Raimondo is seriously fed up with the antiwar protesters.
Masked thugs stopped cars, and tried to drag people out. These "peaceful" protesters had quite an array of weapons: stun guns, crowbars, brass knuckles, and other instruments of mayhem were confiscated from arrested demonstrators. They deliberately blocked streets, tied up the entire city for 8 hours, broke windows, threw rocks, and wreaked havoc, acting like the hooligans they are. Some of them wore masks, demonstrating that they are also cowards. News crews were assaulted with spraypaint, rocks, and other objects.
A milder version of these tactics were replicated in Chicago, Washington, D.C., New York City, and elsewhere, but San Francisco was, naturally, the worst. Over 1,000 people were arrested in the City by the Bay, but most were, unfortunately, released. Shouting their defiance – "We’ll be back! We’ll be back!" – they are still out there, as I write [10:00 PM, March 20], moving in groups from intersection to intersection, creating as much chaos as possible. They are organized, they are violent, and they are nuts.
Saturday, March 22, 2003 |
Shock and Awe downgraded?
Jim Micklashefki (I know that's not right) on NBC now reports that Baghdad is relatively quiet tonight because "Shock and Awe" has been downgraded today, with only 500 missiles being fired throughout the country.
Question: What do you call a "downgraded" Shock and Awe? Sudden Jolt and Mild Astonishment? Suggestions?
NBC also had some eerie video of the car bomb explosion that killed the journalists.
More evidence of a link between Al Qeada and Iraq, via the Ricin in Paris
Posted
by Nick ( http://arrogantrants.blogspot.com/ ) |
Permalink |
Saturday, March 22, 2003 |
The Werewolf Principle
One thing about Saddam Hussein: he is ( or rather, was ) a student of history. In talking with many Iraqi refugees here in Australia over the years, I was always struck by the similarity of methods between Saddam and Stalin.
In the military area, Saddam appears to have learnt two distinct lessons: Firstly, that Stalingrad managed to destroy an entire German Army: and secondly, the use of Werewolves as a weapon of war.
Of course, the Werewolf Nazi Resistance Movement was an abject failure, but expect to see attacks by people out of uniform over the coming few days at least. Probably weeks, possibly much longer. And the Coalition has also learnt a lot about MOUT ( Military Operations in Urban Terrain ). The first rule of which is not to engage in them if we don't have to. Remember, the war has 3 objectives. The first is to get rid of Iraq's WMD capability. This can be accomplished by occupying the country, and confining any resistance to small areas, like cities. We don't need them, providing we can get supplies to the populace. The second is to get rid of Saddam's regime, and Saddam and his sons. This may well have been accomplished on Day 1, we'll see. The third is to make a reasonably humane, democratic and stable regime in Iraq. This won't be done overnight, and will require both a "Hearts and Minds" and de-Ba'athification campaign, a la Germany in 45-48.
Saturday, March 22, 2003 |
What's going on at Camp Pennsy?
Shep on FoxNews is reporting that one soldier is missing there, a search is going on for him, and the two translators who were suspected have been located. The report seemed to indicate that there is confusion about precisely what happened, that the missing soldier may be involved and the two translators may not be. Very confusing.
UPDATE: Okay, I misunderstood. Now he's saying, the two translators threw in the grenades and opened up with small arms fire. They're in custody, the soldier is still missing.
UPDATE: Back to the original story - from Stuart Ramsey at Camp Pennsy, it could be the missing soldier, and the two translators are "accounted for", which seems to indicate not in custody.
UPDATE: Ramsey said the info on the soldier says he was guarding some materiel, that some of that is missing as is the officer, who may or may not be involved. Ramsey is reporting the information based on listening to the two-way radio he has that is keying in on conversations by the military there.
Missing British TV reporter Terry Lloyd and two of his news crew may have been hit in crossfire from coalition forces in Iraq, it has been reported.[...]
The Ministry of Defence has said it is possible the crew got caught in crossfire between coalition forces and Iraqis.
MoD sources have said the ITN group had gone through several checkpoints where they had been warned to turn back but instead they chose to carry on.
[Emphasis mine.] They ended up in the midst of a firefight between coalition tanks and Iraqi forces.
Saturday, March 22, 2003 |
Don't Expect This To Last Just 100 Hours
In his radio address, the President was working to set expectations about how long this will take:
A campaign on harsh terrain in a vast country could be longer and more difficult than some have predicted. And helping Iraqis achieve a united, stable, and free country will require our sustained commitment. Yet, whatever is required of us, we will carry out all the duties we have accepted.
Fox News confirmed 10 wounded, six seriously; one or two terrorists apparently infiltrated the camp, the reporter said. The unit is US 101 Airborne in Camp Pennsylvania; most of the unit is apparently already in Iraq. They're not sure yet if the one(s) responsible have been caught.
UPDATE: Stuart Ramsey of Sky News is at Camp Pennsylvania; he reports on Fox News that it was two Kuwaiti or Arab nationals. They threw the explosive device into the command tent. A medical evacuation helicopter has arrived to take the injured away. Ramsey says the terrorists may have been in the translation staff used by the unit, and were wearing camouflage uniforms. It's unknown if the terrorists were caught, got away or were injured in the attack.
Saturday, March 22, 2003 |
Rather on grenade attack
Dan Rather just broke in on the NCAA tourney to say that someone threw grenades into those officers' tents (referred to below in John's post); 8 are injured, four seriously.
Three people were martyred in Baghdad last night and we are preparing for more deaths because the situation is developing rapidly," Iraqi Health Minister Umeed Midhat Mubarak told a news conference.
Baghdad is a big city. Coalition forces have been bombing the bejeezus out of it for three days. Shock and awe, and all that. And we have killed only three civilians? I knew our "brilliant bombs" were good; I had no idea they were that good.
Saturday, March 22, 2003 |
media critical of shock&awe show
At the afternoon Pentagon briefing, media reporters expressed disappointment that the Shock & Awe Show was much less spectacular than expected, apparently having concluded in advance that the unilateral coalition's goal was to give the world a fireworks display rivaling Epcot. Military leaders took pains to translate their remarks to a lower grade level trying to explain that 'shock & awe' should be viewed as perceived by its intended recipients as opposed to casual remote spectators.
The Department of Defense announced today the identities of four U.S. Marines killed in a CH-46E helicopter crash on March 20 in Kuwait. Killed were:
Maj. Jay Thomas Aubin, 36, of Waterville, Maine
Capt. Ryan Anthony Beaupre, 30, of Bloomington, Ill.
Cpl. Brian Matthew Kennedy, 25, of Houston, Texas
Staff Sgt. Kendall Damon Watersbey, 29, of Baltimore, Md.
Aubin was assigned to the Marine Aviation Weapons and Tactics Squadron - 1, 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing, Marine Corps Air Station Yuma, Ariz. Beaupre, Kennedy and Watersbey were assigned to the Marine Medium Helicopter Squadron - 268, 3d Marine Aircraft Wing, Marine Corps Air Station Camp Pendleton, Calif.
The Pentagon Comms. Director just made a great point: that the burning of oil in trenches around Baghdad is not about air defense, it's about creating dramatic images that make our targeting process look less accurate than it is. And I think she may be right.
Several newsies annoyed that Pentagon warns against non embedded newsies roaming the battlefield. It's dangerous, especially if you go between our forces and Iraqi forces, according to Pentagon.
Others annoyed that we will not tell them exactly where we are or what route we're taking to Baghdad.
Even though he wanted more time for inspections, Blix said yesterday that he didn't know if he could ever be sure that Iraq wasn't hiding the illegal missiles. "I could not guarantee that we would come to clear conclusions even after some months more," he said
If this sentence doesn't sum up the stupidity of the UN weapons inspections, I don't know what does.
"We have a bad impression of the human shields. Some of them are crazy," said an Iraqi Foreign Ministry official, who requested anonymity. "Yes, there are some fruitcakes among us," said Marc Eubanks, a Wyoming native and Air Force veteran who now lives in Athens, Greece. He was referring to some anarchists, who he said could provoke major culture clashes with Iraqi officials at joint meetings.
Saturday, March 22, 2003 |
Greek universities encourage antiwar protests
A four-hour nationwide strike called in opposition to the war brought Greece to a standstill,with schools and universities closed to allow students to protest. [emphasis mine - JW ]
Well I see that Fox is now down to using ex Captains as expert commentators. No offense to Capt Custer formerly of the 101st Airborne, he seems OK, but I was a Major in Airborne Ranger forces. I suppose I'd better saddle up and get on down to LZ Fox.
On 4/17 New Yorker reporter Jon Lee Anderson (in Baghdad at the time) reported:
Later, in a situation without minders or translators, I told a man who is highly placed in Baghdad that I had seen trenches and foxholes on the road to Kut, and he laughed. That was just to keep people busy doing things, he said. It was obvious that the regime did not intend to defend anything but Baghdad itself. The Republican Guard and the Special Republican Guard had been pulled to Baghdad from the south and the north and had been dispersed throughout the city, in civilian areas. This seemed like a foolhardy policy to him, but there it was. “If everything else is gone,” he said, “then why fight for Baghdad? What is the point in that?”
Reuters Raw Iraq Video: Reuters has launched a free streaming video feed online that shows raw war-related footage such as government briefings and footage from on the ground in Iraq -- including battlefield images. The service is free, although Reuters plans to charge for it eventually.
Saturday, March 22, 2003 |
That woul be embarrassing (And so was my initial spelling in this headline.)
Bad roads and falling asleep at the wheel are listed as two of the biggest threats to journalists and soldiers alike in this story. (Warning, the font size is like pt. 6 on this page.
Fox is reporting the Pentagon is saying that the four presumed KIA from the Third Infantry are, in fact, wounded. Also, an embed with the Marines reported that two Navy Corpmen stepped on a mine, with limb loss. Marine aviation landed under fire to extract them.
The Pentagon has released the names of the two Marines killed in action Friday: 2nd Lt. Therrel Childers, 30, of Harrison, Miss. and Lance Cpl. Jose Gutierrez, 22, of Los Angeles. They were assigned to the 5th Regiment of the 1st Marine Division based at Camp Pendleton, Calif.
Saturday, March 22, 2003 |
CNN Clarifies The Air War
CNN's pentagon correspondent is reporting that the coalition has flown 2,000 missions, 1,000 of which have been combat missions. Also saying we are in the middle of a 3-4 day campaign against fixed targets with the intention of getting the Iraqi regime to capitulate. If they don't by then, the air war will shift to Iraqi combat forces.
A top-secret U.S. intelligence operation, working in Baghdad weeks before the war, provided the crucial targeting information for the attack on Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, which may have killed Saddam's son Qusay, administration officials said...the "most important" information was obtained by a small group of Delta Force operatives who infiltrated a fiber optic communication center in Baghdad, compromising its communications... "They were able to triangulate phone calls and determine their point of origin," this source said.
Saturday, March 22, 2003 |
More on the captured Americans
According to a Russian television network and Hizballah Al-Manar TV station the Iraqis have captured at least 3 Americans after they parachuted in West Iraq near the Syrian border. (NFC - Hebrew link)
"Department of Defense military planners are considering operational strategies in response to possible flooding by Iraqi military forces. If the Iraqi military releases water into the Tigris River from upstream reservoirs, extensive flooding between Baghdad and Al Kut could occur. Thousands of Iraqis could be displaced, adding to congestion on roads and requiring extensive humanitarian support.
Despite Saddam Hussein's claims to the contrary, historical precedence indicates Iraqi military strategies include the release of water as a viable option for deterring enemy forces. For example, during the Iran-Iraq war, the Iraqi military created water obstacles to deter Iranian advances.
Iraq's strategy could include releasing a small amount of water from major dams and canals to interrupt maneuvering units. Iraq also could cause catastrophic flooding of portions of the Tigris and Euphrates river valleys, either by releasing large amounts of water from dams or by destroying them. The latter could cause major humanitarian crises in parts of Iraq, though Baghdad would experience minimal damage. "
Saturday, March 22, 2003 |
Syria condemns war. Calls it "barbaric".
Are they nervous?
DAMASCUS (Reuters) - 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.
I particularly like this gem.
Syria warned that the war would have "grave ramifications on the security of the region."
Anti-war demonstrators were able to gather loads of people tonight here in Israel. A total of 15 people demonstrated against the war in front of the US embassy in Tel Aviv. (Ynet – Israeli news site).
Saturday, March 22, 2003 |
Anti-war protest snobbery
More protests are scheduled for today. Earlier this morning, I saw Roy Scheider interviewed on CBS. Here's a quote that I quickly wrote down:
"I feel that when the dust clears, the American people will become more sophisticated, and they're going to understand what this administration is up to."
So nice to know that we poor schlubs have celebrities to explain the world to us. We're so unsophisticated, dontchaknow. That sneaky administration gets everything past us.
Saturday, March 22, 2003 |
Chirac, irrelevant to the end
In his ongoing bid to destroy the UN, Jacques Chirac is now threatening to veto UN humanitarian aid to Iraq. He wants to prevent the UN from doing the one thing it actually has a chance of getting right.
Saturday, March 22, 2003 |
Three Protesters Killed Outside US Embassy In Yemen
Police clashed with 30,000 anti-war demonstrators Friday outside the U.S. Embassy in Yemen, setting off an exchange of gunfire that killed three people and injured dozens. Similar outrage over the U.S.-led assault on Iraq spilled into streets in cities around the world. From Newsobserver.com.
An ABC-Washington Post poll found the president's job approval rating at 67 percent, up from prewar polls that showed his approval level ranging from the middle 50s to about 60 percent. A CBS-New York Times poll found that 62 percent say they think the United States did the right thing about Iraq. Slightly more in a CNN-USA Today-Gallup poll, 70 percent, said they agreed this country acted at the right time. From the Billings Gazette.
An AFP correspondent has reported US Marines are still battling Iraqi resistance on the outskirts of the strategic southern port of Umm Qasr.
Iraqi commandos are hiding around the city putting up significant resistance, Lieutenant Colonel Steve Holmes of the US Marines told AFP close to the fighting.
"The city is under control, but there are various organised groups offering resistance on the outskirts," he said.
US Cobra helicopters have been engaged in combat, firing missiles while both sides were heard launching mortar rounds.
The attack helicopters were backed up by US tanks positioned in Umm Qasr and British artillery units in Kuwaiti territory beyond the 10-kilometre demilitarised zone between Iraq and Kuwait.
The Iraqis apparently have placed anti-tank mines around the area.
Lieutenant Colonel Holmes said US Marines found Iraqi munitions in abandoned bunkers.
Also, in the same story, it appears that the Marines have been forced to take POWs against their will.
Major Bull Gurfein of the Marines Expeditionary Force said many fighters in Umm Qasr surrendered, wanting to become prisoners of war.
"We told them to go slowly to their homes but they didn't want to because they're scared that Saddam's men will go and kill them," he said.
They'd rather get processed into a POW camp than go home and risk Saddam's goons finding them. That ought to tell you something.
Captain Steve, a pilot based at Prince Sultan Air Force Base in Saudi Arabia, sent a new letter today. It's too long to post here, unless Michele thinks I should do it anyway. Just give the word.
Enjoy the steak, Captain, and keep on giving us those Frog updates.
Employees at the General Patton Memorial Museum arrived at work Thursday morning to find anti-American, anti-war and pro-Iraqi graffiti on military tanks, a Christian altar and a memorial plaque.
"No War," in more than foot-tall letters, was scrawled on a wall surrounding a statue of Gen. George S. Patton, who in 1942 established a training center near this remote outpost 30 miles east of Indio along Interstate 10.
[...]
The vandals used the Arab word for God several times, misspelling it each time: "Alla" instead of "Allah."
"Alla is God," they wrote in block letters on the front of one tank. On one side of the same tank they wrote "America is evil," and "Iraq will win" on the other side.
Salam Al-Marayati, executive director of the Muslim Public Affairs Council in Los Angeles, said it could not have been Muslims who did the defacing.
"Every Muslim knows Allah is spelled A-L-L-A-H," he said. Muslims say, "Allah is the one God," not "Allah is God," he added.
"That's somebody trying to frame Muslims," Al-Marayati said.
In addition to defacing many of the 19 tanks outside the museum, the vandals painted "Alla" over a cross made of white quartz stones embedded in a stone Altar of Heroes that replicates an altar at which Patton's men worshiped when training in the region before shipping off to fight in World War II. Roberts, Chiriaco-Rusche and a third woman had gathered the stones and built the altar.
(user info for P.E. news: michele@asmallvictory.net, password: warblog)
This Reuters piece, despite the timestamp, is mainly a news summary. It does have some interesting color, including this classic quotation:
In a defiant response to the repeated bombing raids, Iraq's information minister said the attacks were the work of an "international gang of criminal bastards" and had wounded more than 200 civilians in Baghdad.
He of course meant "unilateral American bastards."
Most of the wounded in this hospital appeared to suffer from cuts caused by shattered windows. The more seriously wounded had been transferred to specialist hospitals, the officials said.
"It does not matter. One casualty is too many," said Roland Huguenin-Benjamin, an official in the International Committee of the Red Cross, who was checking on the wounded.
According to military analysts on MSNBC, the oil fires in Baghdad will not interfere with US targetting systems, and will likely cause more trouble for the Iraqis than it will for coaltion forces.
Fox is reporting that the Turkish troops on the border are being monitored by coalition forces, and at this point the Turks are simply acting like a border guard. This latter piece of info comes from a "senior administration source."
I'm looking out now as this large convoy and can see local people in Basra . There are lots of people coming out, lots of children and they are applauding. The people coming out to shake the hands of American forces who are seen as liberating the city of Basra. This has a significant impact on morale.
"It is regrettable that US decision makers were not able to hold off longer before bombing Baghdad. No matter how carefully the targets and weapons are chosen to prevent civilian casualties, bombs and missiles kill and destroy. The spectacle of even the most accurate precision-guided munitions falling on a city still horrifies the global village."
Washington Post correspondent Karl Vick describes a car bombing at a checkpoint in the Kurdish autonomous zone in northern Iraq. Vick spoke by phone to Post deputy foreign editor Andy Mosher.
"FORMER Iraqi army chief Nizar al-Khazraji, who disappeared from his home in Denmark last week, was spirited away by CIA agents and taken to Saudi Arabia, a Danish newspaper has said.
Khazraji, believed to be the highest ranking officer to have defected from Iraq and touted by US media as a possible successor to Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, was reported missing from his address on March 17."
"AN Australian journalist has been killed after a car bomb exploded in Kurdish-controlled northern Iraq, colleagues and eyewitnesses said.
Three Kurdish peshmerga fighters were killed and another journalist wounded in the blast at a checkpoint outside the village of Khormal, a base of an Islamic group which had earlier been destroyed by US cruise missiles."
Read this account of the Baghdad air raid. Here is just a bit:
"Watched from the balcony of a city hotel that shook with the force of the explosions, the skyline became a fearsome necklace of light and dark, with other, more distant targets filling the background with lightning-like blasts and whoomping explosions that rolled ominously across Baghdad's urban sprawl.
The roar when one of the missiles passed right by the hotel was so ferocious that six of us bolted indoors, dropping to the floor.
But we were back on the balcony in time to see its spectacular, direct hit on one of the buildings in the compound.
At times, three and four of the regime's iconic symbols of power imploded simultaneously.
It was hard to keep a tally of what was happening around us, but such was the destruction of the edifices of Saddam's brutal dictatorship, that it didn't seem to matter."
After pulling the late shift last night I'm back at the Post. Incredible work, everyone, over the course of the night. I'll be catching up on invitations, etc., and if we have not yet added you to the blogroll, please send a note. Again, great work.
A barrage of 40 to 50 Tomahawk cruise missiles slammed into mountainside positions held by a radical Islamic militia force early this morning, killing and injuring an estimated 100 fighters, according to Kurdish commanders working with U.S. Special Forces who directed the attack.
The two-hour missile attack on Ansar al-Islam, a militant group U.S. officials said is linked to al Qaeda, began at 12:30 a.m. and was followed by a bombing raid by a single warplane shortly after 8 a.m."
Sydney Morning Herald:
A Sydney Iraqi family has slammed ongoing Australian anti-war protests, saying demonstrators have no idea who or what they are campaigning for.Dhafir Al-Shammery escaped certain death under Saddam Hussein's regime in 1996. Today he is one of several hundred Iraqis living in Sydney who now know what the term freedom truly means. In an exclusive interview with The Sun-Herald, he said: "When I see thousands of Australians marching the streets on behalf of the Iraqi people, my heart sinks, because their view is not that of the Iraqi people. They [the protesters] say they are making a stand against the war because of human rights issues. They say it is the Iraqi people who will suffer most through this conflict.
"I speak out because they need to be told they are wrong. They need to support their country. They need to be told the truth - and that is that the Iraqi people have been suffering human rights crimes for decades.
"I am sorry, but these protesters cannot even imagine what has gone on there. Nobody would know unless they had lived and suffered it."
Mr Al-Shammery, 38, was one of the Shi'ite Muslim majority crushed by Saddam after the 1991 Gulf War.
When he saw his cousin executed, he fled with six other Iraqis on an open skiff, eight metres long and one metre wide, which for seven days battled two- to three-metre waves. He neither slept nor ate in that time. He simply sat with his knees pressed against his chest and prayed for a day when he would be free.
"I knew I had a 100 per cent chance of death if I stayed [in Iraq] but only a 90 per cent chance of death if I fled in a little boat," he said.
"So I chose the 10 per cent chance of life. Wouldn't you?"...
"If you are not with him [Saddam], that means you are against him. A murmur of discontent to your neighbour across the fence can lead to your wife being executed. And then, the Government visits your home and makes you pay money for the bullet that killed her. They bring your dead wife, they show you how she was tortured before the bullet put her out of her misery. And if you refuse to pay for the bullet that killed her, they simply take more of your family."
WASHINGTON — 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.
Additionally, these same officials told Fox News that top security and military personnel have been leaving Baghdad, and more are preparing to leave. "The erosion from Baghdad has begun," one official said.
I'm hearing speculation on ABC that the fires around Baghdad could conceivably be an effort to obscure visual surveillance to allow Saddam to move around.
Here's an AP roundup of the current situation. Do note the only Iraqi quote they manage though, despite the images I've seen on TV of Iraqis dancing in the streets.
"Australia's elite SAS soldiers have engaged in gun battles with Iraqi soldiers, killing and wounding several before others dropped their guns and ran away. The SAS are deeper inside Iraq than any other coalition troops and have found sites key to Iraq's possible use of chemical and biological weapons." Check out the pic on this link, too.
American and British marines now seem confident that they've secured Iraq's second-largest city, Basra. Intermittent shelling continued around the port city throughout the morning. Troops are now securing the city's vast oil fields, although some have been set ablaze.
Giant plumes of smoke dominate the horizon of this historic city; 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.
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 American marines as they swept past in tanks. American predictions that many here would choose to surrender rather than fight appear to have come true.
What I am being told is that the coalition air strikes are very, very precisely targeted, not against the regime in its entirety but against certain parts of the regime.
We've seen attacks on the defence and interior ministries, the security apparatus but not on other parts of the administration. What they are trying to do is go after the parts that they see as most closely identified with Saddam Hussein himself and leave other parts more or less intact.
They are hoping that people will draw conclusions from those strikes so that they feel perhaps there is something in it for them to abandon the regime. They want to bring down the regime, sow doubt and discord and watch the regime crumble."
AUSTRALIAN forces had captured Iraqi soldiers on a tug armed with 68 mines, Australian Defence Forces chief General Peter Cosgrove said today.
General Cosgrove said about 50 POWs were being held on HMAS Kanimbla at any one time, following a series of captures and surrenders of the Iraqi soldiers.
"Some surrendered, many are surrendering," Gen Cosgrove told Channel Nine.
"Some were captured on a tug which had 68 mines on it, thank heavens they weren't released into the Gulf."
I've not heard much about what the Australian troops are doing. I think it's important to remember they're out there with us too, at some risk to John Howard's administration.
"Three missiles fired by U.S. jets taking part in attacks in Iraq landed over the border in southwestern Iran, Iran's official IRNA news agency said on Saturday.
Citing an unnamed military commander, IRNA also said that U.S. and British military jets violated the Islamic Republic's airspace several times on Friday and Saturday during operations against targets in southern Iraq."
The Globe and Mail is reporting a suicide attack in the Kurdish controlled area. There's not many details about wounded or dead. Well, except for the jouranlist killed and wounded.
"The US-led coalition is not short of military hardware. But if it was, it could always resort to miming. Recorded sound of approaching helicopters, for instance, can be blasted through loudspeakers. And according to the BBC's Andrew North, witnessing this particular branch of psychological operations - "psyops" - can be frighteningly realistic. Sergeant Dan Voss told him: "When we see an Iraqi position we can make it appear there is an extremely large US force nearby, playing the sounds of tanks for instance or even of a group of US marines charging." "
There's speculation on ABC that the Iraqis have set fire to the trenches around Baghdad. One of their military consultants thinks not. His reasoning is that it would constitute a premature use of a stupid tactic.
Charlie Gibson responded, "Well, we're not fighting one of the world's greatest military tacticians, I would think."
The Times of India says that Saddam's regime is cracking up (mentally that is).
CAIRO: Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and his coterie have been hurling verbal abuse at the United States and Britain at a level never before heard in Iraqi propaganda, perhaps reflecting their fear or frustration.
[...]
Ali Abdel Amir, an Iraqi journalist who watches Iraqi affairs from neighboring Jordan, said that now that the war has started, the Iraqi leadership is dropping diplomatic niceties.
"They are terrified," he said. "When they discovered that they are going to lose power, the mask was dropped."
On the call given by Lahore High Court Bar Association, lawyers all over the country on Friday observed strike against the US-led invasion of Iraq.
Successful protests were reported by the lawyers in different parts of the country where they boycotted courts and took out processions and held meetings to condemn the US aggression on Iraq.
Saturday, March 22, 2003 |
Fresh Afternoon Explosions Rock Baghdad
Reuters: Sat March 22, 2003 07:36 AM ET
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Fresh afternoon explosions rocked Baghdad on Saturday and smoke was seen rising from several locations across the Iraqi capital, a Reuters witness said.
"There are six columns of thick black smoke rising from six different bombed positions," correspondent Nadim Ladki said. "There are three to the south of the city and three to the east." "Large black clouds of smoke are forming on both sides of the city," he added.
Saturday, March 22, 2003 |
Boston Globe Doesn't Get It
Today's message board discussion question at the Globe:
"Message board: Now that the US has launched a major air assault on Iraq, are you more worried about a possible terrorist strike here at home?"
Saturday, March 22, 2003 |
Robert Fisk States the Obvious
Arab News has an article entitled "Iraqi Leadership Buries Its Head in the Sand" by one Robert Fisk. There's a lot of sand in Saudi Arabia.
The article also lists some interesting prices, to wit:
For the downing of an American or British aircraft: 100 million Iraqi dinars (30,810 pounds sterling). For the capture of an American or British soldier: 15, 405 pounds. For the killing of an American or British soldier: 7,703 pounds.
I'll do a bit of stating the obvious myself, and just say that you have to be alive to collect...
"DEBKAfile’s military sources: Four Iraqi divisions defending Baghdad pull back from positions 50km outside city to 30km-line after sustaining heavy casualties in night’s massive bombardment on military and government targets. Civilian casualties among 6 million population relatively light." also...
"US truck convoys transport hundreds of floating bridges from Kuwait into southern Iraq. DEBKAfile: Bridges prepared to carry allied forces across marshes northwest of Basra on way to strategic confluence of Tigris and Euphrates Rivers."
"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."
"One of the aircraft was just leaving the deck of Ark Royal, the other aircraft was just in its final stages of recovery to the ship, some five miles out when they collided.
"They've been operating in arduous conditions day in day out for weeks on end, providing essential support, surveillance support that is, to Royal Marines occupying the al-Faw peninsula at the moment, and support to me... in my role as a maritime commander here at sea in the northern Gulf."
Saturday, March 22, 2003 |
"Where is this desert? It can't be in Iraq. They are not Iraqi soldiers."
'Unscathed locals sense hope' discusses the differences between the outlooks of the Iraqi regime and the citizens of Baghdad: "...so long as the rest of Baghdad remains almost unscathed, ordinary Iraqis appear relatively buoyant, as they reach for the possibility that maybe this war will be less punishing than they had feared... A dozen wounded were brought to al-Kindi's casualty ward within the first 24 hours of the bombardment... [a doctor] said he had been expecting far worse. "You don't feel that panicked state in people," he said... The prevailing calm does not appear to extend to Iraqi officialdom... Yesterday's television pictures showing American tanks trundling across the desert and long files of surrendering Iraqi soldiers, seem to have unnerved officials. "Where is this desert? It can't be in Iraq," said Mr Sahaf. "They are not Iraqi soldiers..." "Bush is trying to show that he is an enemy of the Iraqi government, and not an enemy of the Iraqi people," said an engineer, venturing out for a few hours' work in his office. "But we will have to wait and see whether we can believe him."
