It gets worse>
Are we in control? I don't think so.
Besides the following blurb, I understand there aren't too many UN people left in Baghdad either...
IMF, World Bank Pull Out of Iraq
UNITED NATIONS -- The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund pulled their staffs out of Iraq on Wednesday after the bombing of the U.N. headquarters in Baghdad, a U.S. official said.
The IMF and World Bank are key players in efforts by the U.S.-led coalition to rebuild Iraq's devastated economy. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the institutions informed the U.S. Treasury Department of their decision. The two are expected to provide billions of dollars in loans to help restart the country's economy and banking system. Both had sent assessment teams to Iraq to start the process.
Hopes of finding survivors faded Wednesday afternoon, 24 hours after an explosives-rigged truck brought down the facade of U.N. offices in the Canal Hotel, killing at least 20 people including the top U.N. envoy in Iraq, Sergio Vieira de Mello. About 100 people were wounded.
A key member of the U.S.-picked interim government said the death toll could go much higher. About 300 U.N. employees worked at the headquarters.
"There are many who are still trapped in there," said Ahmad Chalabi, a member of the Governing Council and leader of the Iraqi National Congress. Mr. Chalabi insisted the bomb was the work of Hussein loyalists but gave no evidence to support that.
FBI Special Agent Thomas Fuentes said the bomb had been delivered by a KAMAZ flatbed truck. Such trucks were made in the former Soviet Union. U.S. officials had said on Tuesday that a cement truck delivered the explosives.
"We believe it [the bomb] was made from existing military ordnance," he told the Associated Press. "I cannot say that it required any great degree of sophistication or expertise to create."
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And that is the problem in a "nutshell" and all the $billions in the world can't stop an illiterate moron from doing this type thing....
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And then here is this bit of news>>
Mr. Chalabi also said the Governing Council had received information Aug. 14 -- just days before the bombing -- that there would be a terror attack in Baghdad, and that the council warned the U.S.
"The information said that the attack would be aimed at a soft target, not the American military or forces. The information said the attack would use a truck and would be carried out by using a suicide mechanism or by remote control. We shared this information with the Americans," Mr. Chalabi told reporters. |
