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Politics : Stop the War! -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: tsigprofit who wrote (11075)	4/9/2003 3:38:58 PM
From: Tech Master	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 21614

Whatever... traitor. You're a sad excuse for an American. HOW SHOULD THE IRAQI PROBLEM HAVE BEEN SOLVED? C'mon Einstein... enlighten us. I await your feeble response.

To: tsigprofit who wrote (11075)	4/9/2003 3:44:22 PM
From: Mike M	Respond to of 21614

Marines receive welcome surprise in "enemy" townVirginian-Pilot (Hampton Roads) ^ \| 9 April 2002 \| Dennis O'Brien embedded with Task Force Tarawa pilotonline.com <<AMARAH, Iraq -- The Marines of Charlie Company did not sleep well Monday night. The next day's mission was their most serious yet -- a probable tank battle with an Iraqi armored division in this city on the Tigris River. That night and the next morning, many Marines talked openly about the possibility of dying. At dawn Tuesday, the company rolled out, a vanguard of a task force planning to attack the Iraqi tanks. But not much goes according to plan these days, and that's not always such a bad thing. When the convoy approached this alleged enemy stronghold, the company was hit, all right -- by an army of jubilant children that mobbed the Marines like they were rock stars. "Mis-tah! Mis-tah! Bush good!" they shouted at the stunned Marines. Charlie Company spent the next four hours wading through swarms of children asking for candy and men offering cigarettes -- hardly what the Marines had prepared themselves for in the hours leading up to the assignment. "This place is a zoo," company commander Greg Grunwald said as he tried to make his way through the crowd after they realized he was the leader. After a little research, Grunwald discovered what had happened. "There is no enemy," Grunwald said. "The general got shot yesterday and they quit." American airstrikes on the tank division outside town had killed or wounded its general and persuaded the soldiers to desert. About the same time, the townspeople apparently had thrown out the ruling Baath party officials. That left the task force facing a welcoming party instead of a firefight. As the people of Amarah clamored around the light armored reconnaissance vehicles, laughter filled the air. Among the throng was one boy who knew a bit of English, and how to use it. "What's your name?" he would say over and over. His payoff was having a disproportionate number of packs of Big Red and Dentyne gum thrown his way. Many of the smaller children were nudged out of the way by bigger kids, but the patient ones were rewarded with M&Ms. Some of the adults offered smokes to the Marines. Others asked for whiskey -- of which there is none, much to the Marines' chagrin. For the first couple of hours, women and girls hid in the background. But once it was clear that Charlie Company meant no harm, little girls began jockeying for position among the boys and men. Their mothers and older sisters hung back near the doors to their houses, but they waved enthusiastically as the Marines moved through town. The corpsmen of Charlie Company had come to Amarah expecting to patch up battle wounds, but instead they wound up treating Iraqi residents for conditions such as chicken pox and asthma. In all, it was a touching scene for many of these tough-guy Marines. "I was talking to all the little dudes, just teasing them and stuff and laughing," said Lance Cpl. Brian Norman, 19, of Troy, Mont. "There was this cute little girl back there -- she couldn't have been more than 6 or 7. I just waved to her and she got pushed to the front of the crowd, and the next thing you know she's all talking to me in Arabic. I was surprised they let me talk to her." For days, some in Charlie Company had been lamenting the lack of combat action. But after Tuesday's surprise "engagement," most of the Marines seemed relieved. "It was like the kind of liberation scene they show in war movies," said Lance Cpl. David Ploughe, 21, of Cloverdale, Ind. "Stuff like this makes me glad we're here."

To: tsigprofit who wrote (11075)	4/9/2003 3:46:23 PM
From: Mike M	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 21614

story.news.yahoo.com <<U.S. Finds Alleged Iraqi Torture Chamber By DOUG MELLGREN, Associated Press Writer NASIRIYAH, Iraq - The Marine patrol thought they found a small police station — a one-story building in this impoverished city in southern Iraq (news - web sites). But deep inside, they found a wooden stockade, what looked like a primitive electric chair, photos of burned bodies amid reams of surveillance documents. Five tiny cells weren't just to imprison people, it seemed, but to torture them. "It looks a bit too much like Nazi Germany to me," said Capt. Pete McAleer, commander of Echo Company of the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit, whose patrol found the small compound. Across Iraq, coalition troops are finding glimpses of past horrors — suspected torture chambers, secret police headquarters, Iraqis who reveal scars to show the cruelty of Saddam Hussein (news - web sites)'s rule carved onto their bodies. At a prison in Basra, Iraqis showed journalists a white stone jail known as the "White Lion" where they claim Saddam's secret police for decades tortured inmates with beatings, mutilations, electric shocks and chemical baths. "They did unthinkable things — electrocution, immersion in a bath of chemicals and ripping off people's finger- and toenails," resident Hamed Fattil told British reporters. Outside the jail, a man showed Associated Press Television News his mangled ears — he said Iraqi police cut them off. Fattil said Iraqi police locked him and his two brothers in a jail dungeon in 1991, and that he was freed after eight months but his brothers were still missing. Human rights groups and exiled Iraqis have long claimed that Saddam ran a regime built on torture and intimidation. In Nasiriyah, McAleer said they believed the building they found was used by Iraqi police or Baath party security forces to hold and torture prisoners, and to keep documents and identification cards to monitor local residents. Some cards showed pictures of small children; it was not clear why. "The records were very detailed," said McAleer. The compound was surrounded by a wall that included hand-painted outlines of people and tanks to use for target practice. Deep inside the building, there was a small room with no natural light with five tiny cells, all with heavy barred doors. In one, a wire was connected to a small hand-cranked generator and steel bar. Marines who searched the building said it had also been connected to a steel chair in what appeared to be a primitive electric chair. "Who knows what they did with that steel rod," McAleer said. Lance Cpl. James Jeffreys, of Oxnard, Calif., said the room also had a type of wooden stock, where a rope could be wrapped around a prisoner's neck, laced through holes in the wood, and then back to bind a prisoner's hands. "I believed it to be a police substation, but as soon as I got back in there I thought (of a torture chamber)," he said. Elsewhere in the building, the floor was strewn with clothing, medicine and documents — including photographs of badly burned human bodies, Jeffreys said. "From the position of the bodies, it looked like they could have been (burned) alive," said Jeffreys. Key documents and photographs that could be salvaged during the short initial search were turned over to a higher headquarters. Much of the building's clothing and medicines were burned in a fire. McAleer said he believed the fire was set by local residents after the Marines first checked the building to rid their community of the torture chamber and its instruments. "We have seen this done before," said McAleer. "Once the locals know it is safe, they will come in and destroy" such police and government compounds. In Basra, Associated Press Television News captured footage of a jail basement that was a warren of cells, chambers and cages. For the cameras, two men re-enacted how jailers allegedly tortured prisoners. 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. Fattil took British reporters into a yard behind the jail to see a set of white boxy cells, surrounded by red wire mesh with a low, wire roof. Some cells were used to hold women and children. Hundreds of men were kept in a single cell about the size of a living room with one rusted grate window, he said. Between the men's and women's cells was a long mesh cage. Hamed said here, jailers pressed prisoners against the mesh and squeezed hot irons against their backs or threw scalding water on them in front of other inmates. "It was a place of evil," he said.

To: tsigprofit who wrote (11075)	4/9/2003 3:49:06 PM
From: Mike M	Respond to of 21614

story.news.yahoo.com <<Rumsfeld Praises Progress of War in Iraq 31 minutes ago By PAULINE JELINEK, Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON - U.S. led forces are liberating Baghdad and removing the Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) regime from power, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said Wednesday, declaring it "a good day for the Iraqi people." AP Photo AP Photo Slideshow: U.S. Military U.S. Doesn't Know if Saddam Is Alive (AP Video) "Saddam Hussein is now taking his rightful place alongside Hitler, Stalin, Lenin, Ceausescu in the pantheon of failed brutal dictators and the Iraqi people are well on their way to freedom," Rumsfeld told a Pentagon (news - web sites) briefing. Rumsfeld described as "breathtaking" the many scenes broadcast around the world showing jubilant Baghdad residents greeting arriving U.S. forces. Rumsfeld and Air Force Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, cautioned that despite the day's developments, there still remained work to do and hard fighting. "Other Iraqi cities are still being contested," even though the capital was not, Rumsfeld said. He said that U.S.-led forces still needed to find the seven American prisoners of war who were captured by Iraqi troops and locate the regime's weapons of mass destruction. Rumsfeld encouraged Iraqi scientists, military officers and others to come forward with information, saying "rewards are available to those who help us." Myers said there were still Iraqi paramilitary fighters operating west of Baghdad and pockets of resistance to the north. "We must not and should not become overconfident," Myers said. Myers said there were more than 10 regular Iraqi army divisions intact in the north and one brigade of the Republican Guard. The Pentagon officials shed no new light on Saddam's personal status after Monday's U.S. bombing in a residential area of the capital that had targeted him and his sons. He said there was intelligence suggesting that senior regime leaders were escaping to Syria and beyond. He answered "don't know" to questions about whether Saddam was dead or alive, or if he was in the bombed building. "He's either dead, or he's incapacitated. Or he's healthy and cowering in some tunnel someplace trying to avoid being caught," Rumsfeld said. "He's not been around, he's not been active," Rumsfeld noted. He said it was hard to find a single person. "It is hard to find them when they're alive and mobile, it's hard to find them when they're not well and it's hard to find them if they're buried under rubble." Rumsfeld also had stern words for Syria, reiterating earlier assertions that the government was serving as a conduit for military equipment, including night-vision goggles, heading to Iraqi forces. "They would be well advised not to provide military equipment to Iraq (news - web sites)," he said. "I find it notably unhelpful." Rumsfeld also said there is some intelligence indicating the Syrian government was helping senior people from Saddam's regime escape into Syria and then onward. Asked if other countries beyond Iraq were potential targets for use of U.S. military force, Rumsfeld said: "No one is throwing down the gauntlet....I have nothing to announce. We're still dealing with Iraq." Rumsfeld and Myers briefed reporters as American forces pushed into Baghdad with new freedom of movement. They were moving throughout the capital to seize and destroy buildings, having abandoned the brief in-and-out forays into Baghdad begun over the weekend to clean out resistance in the capital piece-by-piece. The Defense Department briefed senators on the fast-moving developments. "It's a matter of time," Sen. John Warner, R-Va., chairman of Armed Services Committee, said after the closed-door meeting on Capitol Hill. "It's obvious that the end is near," said Sen. Carl Levin of Michigan, top Democrat on Armed Services Committee. One question, for instance, was what would happen in Baghdad's residential areas, where officials say it is possible some Iraqi forces have taken refuge and could try to regroup. Another was whether the greater ability to move around would help coalition forces find Saddam and other leadership figures who may still be alive, the eight missing and seven captured American soldiers, and the weapons of mass destruction the Bush administration said were the reason for waging the war. At police stations, universities, government ministries, the headquarters of the Iraq Olympic Committee, looters unhindered by any police presence made off with computers, furniture, even military jeeps. Iraqis danced in the streets, waving rifles, palm fronds and flags, thrusting their arms in the air and flashing the V-for-victory sign. Some of Saddam's forces were still in his birthplace and northern stronghold of Tikrit, some 100 miles north of Baghdad, and U.S. special forces were engaging them, defense officials said. One official said it was possible that remaining regime officials could try to make a last stand in Tikrit. A relatively smaller ground component of special operations forces was working with local Kurdish fighting forces in the north. The coalition has been using air strikes nightly in an effort to degrade military units there.

To: tsigprofit who wrote (11075)	4/9/2003 3:53:01 PM
From: Mike M	Respond to of 21614

story.news.yahoo.com <<Iraqis Celebrate As U.S. Takes Baghdad 13 minutes ago By RAVI NESSMAN and DAVID ESPO, Associated Press Writers BAGHDAD, Iraq - Liberated by U.S.-led troops, thousands of jubilant Iraqis celebrated the collapse of Saddam Hussein (news - web sites)'s murderous regime on Wednesday, beheading a toppled statue of their longtime ruler in the center of Baghdad and looting government sites. "He killed millions of us," said one young Iraqi, who spat on one of countless portraits of Saddam scattered throughout the capital. Women held up their babies so American soldiers riding on tanks could kiss them. Iraqis released decades of pent-up fury as U.S. armored forces solidified their grip on the city. Marine tanks rolled to the eastern bank of the Tigris River; the Army was on the western side of the waterway that curls through the ancient city. "We are not seeing any organized resistance," said Navy Capt. Frank Thorp at the U.S. Central Command. "The Iraqi military is unable to fight as an organized fighting force." There was scattered combat, including at Baghdad University, where Iraqis were cornered, the river at their backs. There were clashes in the northeast part of the capital, as well as sporadic sniper fire. Many Iraqis had clearly lost their fear of the ruling regime, brazenly entering government facilities and coming out with furniture, computers, air conditioners and even military jeeps. The city's medical system was overrun with casualties, including 30 bodies and 250 wounded brought to the al-Kindi hospital. Increasingly, American and British forces were turning their effort to humanitarian assistance in the southern part of the country, and their firepower on northern regions not yet under their control. Warplanes bombed Tikrit, Saddam's birthplace about 100 miles north of the capital, in advance of ground forces moving in. American commandos and Kurdish peshmerga fighters seized a key mountaintop in northern Iraq (news - web sites), eliminating an Iraqi air defense installation near the government-held city of Mosul. To the south, officials said the 1st Battalion Royal Irish Regiment had reached Qurnah, said to be the site of the biblical Garden of Eden and the birthplace of mankind. The troops were welcomed by cheering crowds of Ma'dan, marsh Arabs who have suffered genocide at the hands of Saddam. Saddam's whereabouts remained a mystery, especially so since a bombing Monday night on a building where U.S. intelligence officials believed he and at least one of his sons were meeting. Russia's Foreign Ministry denied that the Iraqi leader had taken refuge in Moscow's embassy in Baghdad. Administration officials cautioned that difficult and dangerous days may yet lie ahead for American and British forces. "This is not over, despite all the celebrating on the streets," said Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld. And Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Iraqi death squads still exist in the western part of the country. But whether Saddam was living or dead, wounded or hoping to escape, the signs of his regime's collapse were everywhere. For the first time since Operation Iraqi Freedom was launched three weeks ago, Information Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf failed to appear before reporters with claims of glorious battlefield victories by Iraqi troops. And for the first time in decades, Iraqis were defacing images of the man who ruled brutally for nearly a quarter century. One wall painting was spraypainted with black devil's horns, eyeglasses and a black chin beard. "We are relieved because for years we lived in anxiety and fear," said Shamoun George, a resident of Baghdad's Karrada district, as American troops entered the area. "Bush, Bush, Thank you," chanted small bands of youth in Saddam City, a predominantly Shiite area of eastern Baghdad. At the city center, a crowd gathered at the base of a large statue of Saddam inside al-Fardos (Paradise) Square. Several men climbed up a ladder, tied a thick rope around the statue like a noose, then tried to pull it over. When that failed, the Marines brought an M88 tank recovery vehicle into position. A chain was attached to the statue, which was toppled to the cheers of watching Iraqis. Quickly, they swarmed over the downed icon, stomping it. Not long later, several men were seen dragging its severed head through the streets, and Iraqis used a sledgehammer to attack the pedestal where it once stood. The scene was televised worldwide to an audience that included President Bush (news - web sites). At the same time Baghdad rejoiced, celebration broke out in Irbil, far to the north. There, hundreds of men clapped and waved yellow flags, the banner of the Kurdistan Democratic Party. There was joy, too, in the Kurdish city of Sulaymaniyah, base of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan. That celebration, and statements by Baghdad residents to American reporters, underscored the complexity of establishing a postwar government in Iraq. "We will never allow them to stay. Whatever he (Saddam) has done, he is a Muslim and we are a Muslim nation," said Ali al-Obeidim, a store owner in Baghdad. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair (news - web sites), as well as numerous officials in both countries, have made clear the forces will stay only as long as necessary. Already, there have been signs of maneuvering for a place in the new government by exiles and others, and the Kurds have long sought creation of an independent Kurdistan to be carved from several countries. Complicating matters further, Germany and France, which opposed the war, have made clear they want a role for the United Nations (news - web sites) in the postwar period. There were reminders of the cost of war for the United States. Dozens of wounded Americans were carried off an Air Force plane on stretchers or limped off on crutches in San Diego. And rescue teams were searching for two U.S. airmen from an F-15E Strike Eagle Fighter that went down over Iraq two days earlier. By the Pentagon (news - web sites)'s count, 96 U.S. troops were dead, eight missing and seven captured since the war began. The British said 30 of their troops were dead. There are no reliable estimates for Iraqi casualties, although an Army spokesman said 7,300 prisoners had been taken. A top U.S. State Department official, John R. Bolton, said in Rome that the Iraq war should be a lesson for other regimes pursuing weapons of mass destruction, although he insisted that the United States is seeking the peaceful elimination of those programs. ___ This story was written by Special Correspondent David Espo in Washington, based on reporting from Ellen Knickmeyer, Chris Tomlinson, Alex Zavis and Hamza Hendawi in Baghdad and other AP reporters in Iraq and elsewhere. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Next Story: Rumsfeld Praises Progress of War in Iraq (AP) More World - Middle East Stories · US troops topple Saddam statue to wild jubilation in Baghdad (AFP) · Israel kills 12 in Gaza, bomb rocks Palestinian school, as German FM meets Arafat (AFP) · Pleased Bush warns Iraq war not over (AFP) · As US troops seize Baghdad, Arab officials say Iraqis alone must decide fate (AFP) · Loud explosions in southwestern outskirts of Baghdad (AFP) --------------------------------------------------------------------------------