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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Dan B. who wrote (484305)	10/31/2003 1:50:35 AM
From: tejek	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769670

What, you don't think my words here support the troops? I do. Hey, you didn't counter anything I said(not new). EOM Words are easy......put your life where your mouth is!

To: Dan B. who wrote (484305)	10/31/2003 6:53:12 PM
From: tejek	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769670

U.S. Troops Clash With Rioters in Baghdad Explosion Hits Pro-U.S. Mayor's Office in Fallujah By SAMEER N. YACOUB, AP ABU GHRAIB, Iraq (Oct. 31) - U.S. troops battled Iraqi rioters when a dispute over a marketplace exploded into anti-American fury Friday. Leaflets and rumored warnings called for a ''Day of Resistance'' Saturday at the start of a three-day general strike to protest U.S. occupation. Two Iraqis were killed, and 17 others and two U.S. soldiers were reported wounded at the marketplace clashes outside Baghdad, as Iraqi rioters waved portraits of Saddam Hussein and shouted ''Allahu Akbar!'' - ''God is great!'' Men hurl stones at Iraqi police during clashes after a blast rocked Fallujah. A bomb exploded Friday morning near an 82nd Airborne Division patrol outside Khaldiyah, west of Baghdad, killing one soldier and wounding four others, the U.S. military reported. In Fallujah, also west of Baghdad and a center of the anti-U.S. resistance, an explosion and fire struck the office of the mayor, who has cooperated with the U.S. occupation. In a melee that followed, one Iraqi was killed. Later Friday, U.S. troops came under attack at the same spot. Three or four American soldiers were wounded in the northern city of Mosul late Friday when assailants threw a grenade at them from a speeding car, Iraqi police said. The U.S. military confirmed an attack at the same time but declined to give details. An Islamic clergymen's association, meanwhile, issued a statement for Friday prayer congregations denouncing as sinful any Muslim's support for the Americans. ''Supporting them is apostasy,'' it said, ''... a betrayal of religion.'' Rumors spread through Baghdad that bombings or other resistance action would strike the capital Saturday. A street leaflet attributed to the ousted Baathists declared it would be the ''Day of Resistance,'' and also called for a three-day general strike to begin Saturday. As a result, U.S. officials urged Americans in the Iraqi capital to ''maintain a high level of vigilance.'' The fresh violence flared as U.S. forces contended with an upsurge in the 6-month-old campaign of ambushes and bombings by the shadowy resistance forces, who now strike almost three dozen times a day, mostly in central Iraq. The U.S. command is grappling with unanswered questions of who is behind the harassing attacks, how coordinated they are, and how to bring them under control. American officials variously blame die-hard Saddam loyalists, foreign and local Islamic extremists, and even released criminals, and some suggest Saddam himself may be plotting some attacks. Before dawn on Friday, U.S. troops sealed off Saddam's birthplace village of Uja, about 95 miles north of Baghdad, where relatives of Saddam and adherents of his Baath Party have long been suspected of maintaining contacts with the ousted leader. The 4th Infantry Division troops ringed the village with razor wire, set up checkpoints and began issuing identity cards to villagers to control their movements. The bloody, on-and-off clashes in Abu Ghraib, just west of Baghdad, broke out Friday morning when U.S. troops tried to clear market stalls from a main road, Iraqi police reported. The reason for the U.S. action and the sequence of events remained unclear late Friday. But at some early point someone tossed a grenade at U.S. soldiers, slightly wounding two, Army 1st Lt. Joseph Harrison said at the scene, and mortar rounds fell on a nearby police station. Young Iraqis threw stones at soldiers and tanks, set tires ablaze, and brandished Saddam portraits, shouting religious slogans. Gunfire broke out sporadically, but then the Iraqis retired for midday prayers in nearby mosques. When they returned to the market, gunfire erupted again as more U.S. armored vehicles moved in. Ten explosions and machine-gun fire were heard, and American helicopters hovered overhead. In late afternoon, the bodies of two Iraqi men - identified by friends as Mohammed Auweid, 45, and Hamid Abdullah, 41 - were carried from the sealed-off area. ''God damn America!'' shouted friend Ali Hussein, who said the men were passing by when the Americans opened fire on rock-throwers. ''U.S. soldiers are the real terrorists, not us!'' he said. Nearby Shula Hospital received 17 wounded civilians, said the hospital's Dr. Imad Ali. He said three were in critical condition. The Americans said they arrested two Iraqis found carrying a mortar firing tube. Some 40 miles to the west, an explosion rocked the center of Fallujah at midday, and thick, black smoke billowed from the mayor's office. The town hall had been the target of previous attacks as well, since its leadership began cooperating with the American military last April. Firemen extinguished the flames, and no casualties were reported, but authorities said one Iraqi was killed and one wounded when residents converged on the scene outraged that their district was again the target of an attack because it was associated with the U.S. occupation. Police shot and killed the man during the argument, said civil defense officer Ahmed Khalil reported. 10/31/03 15:46 EST Copyright 2003 The Associated Press.

To: Dan B. who wrote (484305)	10/31/2003 6:57:59 PM
From: tejek	Respond to of 769670

<font color=green>He's baaaaaaaaaaaaaccckkkkk!<font color=black> *************************************************** U.S. Sees Hussein's Hand in Attacks in Iraq By DOUGLAS JEHL, The New York Times WASHINGTON (Oct. 31) — Saddam Hussein may be playing a significant role in coordinating and directing attacks by his loyalists against American forces in Iraq, senior American officials said Thursday. The officials cited recent intelligence reports indicating that Mr. Hussein is acting as a catalyst or even a leader in the armed opposition, probably from a base of operations near Tikrit, his hometown and stronghold. A leadership role by Mr. Hussein would go far beyond anything previously acknowledged by the Bush administration, which has sought in its public remarks to portray the former Iraqi leader as being on the run and irrelevant. Officials acknowledged that the reports of a significant role by Mr. Hussein could not be corroborated, and one senior official cautioned that recent intelligence reports contained conflicting assessments. Nonetheless, three senior officials described reports of a larger role by Mr. Hussein as credible, and a Defense Department official said the information had given a fresh sense of urgency to the American-led manhunt for the former Iraqi leader. "There are some accounts that say he is somehow instigating or fomenting some of the resistance," a second American official said of the intelligence reports. Baghdad, meanwhile, was unnerved Thursday by more explosions and a terrorist threat against schoolchildren. Mr. Hussein is believed to have met with Izzat Ibrahim, an Iraqi general who was officially the second highest ranking member of the Iraqi government at the time of the invasion, and who is described by American officials as playing a significant role in the insurgency. General Ibrahim, who is No. 6 on the American most-wanted list, has been described by some Defense Department officials as having recently been in contact with members of Ansar al-Islam, a militant group that had been based in northern Iraq before the American-led invasion and which is linked to Al Qaeda. Such contacts would be the clearest evidence to date of coordination between forces loyal to Mr. Hussein and members of the extremist group in the campaign against American forces in Iraq. But one senior American official said Thursday that while General Ibrahim was clearly playing a role in coordinating attacks by those loyal to Mr. Hussein, it was much less clear whether he had been in contact with Ansar al-Islam. For more than six months, Bush administration officials have been saying they believe Mr. Hussein is spending nearly all of his time trying to evade detection by the American-led forces. During his time in hiding, Mr. Hussein has issued at least five audio recordings that have served as calls to arms. But American officials have sought to discount the idea that he is playing anything more than a symbolic role in inspiring opposition to the American occupation. But over the last month or two, the senior American officials said, there have been increasing signs that his role may well be more significant. Two officials said there were indications that, in addition to meeting with subordinates to discuss the armed opposition, Mr. Hussein may be playing a role in bringing together different factions of loyalists involved in the attacks. Some of the meetings may have been conducted in moving cars to avoid detection by United States forces, one American official said. "Everyone has always recognized that it's important to get Saddam," the Defense Department official said. "But with these continued reports that Saddam may be behind some of the attacks, or coordinating them or leading them, there's now a military reason as well." Sunni Muslim Iraqis loyal to Mr. Hussein are thought to make up the overwhelming majority of the forces arrayed against the American occupation. In recent weeks the insurgents have attacked United States forces two dozen or more times times a day. More American soldiers have been killed in attacks in Iraq since May 1, when President Bush declared an end to major combat, than during the six weeks of fighting that followed the invasion. Condoleezza Rice, the national security adviser, asked Thursday night on "The Charlie Rose Show" whether Mr. Hussein was coordinating attacks in Iraq, said, "It's a little hard to tell. Once in a while there are rumors that he is somehow involved in coordinating attacks." Ms. Rice said she wondered how much of a role Mr. Hussein could play, given that he was "saving his own skin." A senior Congressional official said that the growing Iraqi resentment against the American occupation may be becoming a more important factor than any role played by Mr. Hussein, because "people are not fighting for Saddam; they are fighting against the Americans, and against the occupation." Several hundred American commandos and intelligence officers have been involved in the search for Mr. Hussein and his confederates, mostly focusing on the region near Tikrit. Mr. Hussein's sons Uday and Qusay were tracked down and killed this summer in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul. From a list of 55 Iraqis most wanted by the United States in the immediate aftermath of the invasion, Mr. Hussein and 11 others remain at large. It was not until June, more than two months after Mr. Hussein was toppled, that Bush administration officials began to acknowledge that he had almost certainly survived the invasion and two American attempts to kill him during that conflict. In early summer, the Central Intelligence Agency confirmed that an audiotape broadcast on Arabic-language television stations almost certainly included the voice of Mr. Hussein, and since then American officials have acknowledged that he is still alive and in Iraq. On July 2, Mr. Bush declared that Mr. Hussein was "no longer a threat to the United States, because we removed him." In more recent remarks, including those at a fund-raising event on Oct. 8, Mr. Bush has been proclaiming that Mr. Hussein is "no more," because he is no longer in power. In Baghdad on Oct. 8, Lt. Gen. Ricardo S. Sanchez, the top American commander in Iraq, said of Mr. Hussein "that he's hiding and running away constantly from the relentless hunt that we are on to find him, capture him, kill him." But in comments little-noticed at the time, General Sanchez went on to say: "Could he be a part of the attacks? He could." October 31, 2003 Copyright © 2003 The New York Times Company.