Free Iraq

The US's occupation of Iraq will see to it that the Lion of Babylon rises again .. سنـُبعـَث ُ من جَديد ، وإلى ضَـيـرِِهِـم
Iraq'scover72dpi Iraq'scover72dpi

Iraq's Nuclear Mirage ... سَراب السلاح النووي العراقي

Unrevealed Milestones in the Iraqi National Nuclear Program: 1981-1991

معالم وأحداث غير مكشوفة في البرنامج النووي الوطني العراقي 1981-1991

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Friday, August 05, 2005

Spinning death


"A Marine Reserve company that was known as "Lucky Lima" before suffering heavy casualties in May was hit Wednesday by the deadliest roadside bombing of the Iraq war, a massive explosion that killed 14 Marines and the unit's Iraqi interpreter, according to witnesses and military spokesmen."
14 Marines Die in Huge Explosion in Western Iraq August 4, 2005

Take a look at the size of an Armored Assault Amphibious Vehicle (Amtrac):

Amphibious Amphibious1

Can it hold 14 people?

So what did really happen to the 14 dead American Marines (and one Iraqi interpreter)? How come this time the true number of dead American soldiers is announced by DoD, for a change?

This is the Iraqi Resistance's version of what happened to these soldiers:

"Today, Pentagon officials have concluded it was a massive roadside bomb that killed 14 Marines in the western city of Haditha! Some people were astonished and surprised by the announcement of this news. Many of us have multiplied this number by 4. All people were correct with respect to their surprise and expectation. But where is the truth?! Why did the American Administration and the Pentagon officials go out now and acknowledge this big loss in one operation?! What’s next to this declaration which disappointed the American’s public opinion including those who were pro-Bush and those who were beating the drums of war?

The key answer for these questions is the people of Haditha who had witnessed the whole event or some of it. Here is what they had to say - yesterday- and their stories have been confirmed today by the American pronouncement.

Following the retreat of the American troops from the areas of Haditha and Haqlania as a result of a massive fire and brave assault by the Iraqi resistance forces, the American Marines have kidnapped some old men, a little girl and some men who were praying in nearby mosques and held them as hostages. The Americans have also observed the retreat and redeployment of the resistance fighter around the towns and behind the enemy lines. The defeated Marines have tried the day before yesterday to trap the resistance fighters in ambushes installed in places they expected the fighters would pass through. The best of the Marine’s engineering officers have participated in the installation of the ambushes. However, they did not know that they were being watched ever since they entered the area by the resistance reconnaissance. The resistance fighters then attacked the Marines and killed three and took ten of them as prisoners of war, five of them were engineering officers. The resistance fighters have released one wounded Marine soldier in order to let him go and inform his commanders – who were in the neighbouring area- that the fighters were ready to negotiate the release of the Americans if the Americans were ready to release the old men and the little girl from Haditha who were taken hostages by the retreating Marines.

The criminal Marines have answered the resistance fighter by a new attack using all kinds of weapons including helicopters and cannon boats in an attempt to surround the freedom fighters. The brave Iraqi freedom fighters responded to the attack and lost four of their comrades. They then retreated and took with them the ten American prisoners. The freedom fighter realised that the Americans forces did not respect or even tried to preserve the souls of the best of their officers and soldiers. They also remembered the crimes committed by the American forces and their intelligence against Iraqi prisoners of war a few months ago. Namely, the Americans have tortured and killed in cold blood some captured Iraqi resistance fighters and threw them in the river over the Haditha-Haqlania Bridge which is now call the martyr’s bridge. The Iraqi freedom fighter had then no choice but to kill the American prisoners of war and threw them in the river the same way as the Americans previously did -over the same bridge- just to remind them about the crimes they have committed against the Iraqi prisoners of war and to let them bear the responsible for the lost lives of their comrades as a result of their refusal to negotiate the terms for their safe release.

Now, what are the American forces going to do when most of their officers have already been informed about what had happened? The death of the ten American officers – who were considered to be some of the best-, could have been prevented. How would the American Administration stop or prevent the spread of this scandal among its forces? How would it cover up the killing of ten of its best officers which had occurred before the naked eyes of hundreds of Marines and inhabitants of Haditha and Haqlania? They were not mercenaries from Latin America, South East Asia or Africa, they were Americans ! Therefore, the criminal American Administration has chosen to announce their death today, 36 hour after their killing! The faked story about their killing by a roadside bomb was designed to cover up their failure to save their lives. The next step that is expected to be taken by the American occupation force following this announcement is the commitment of a new war crime against the innocent civilians in Haditha and Haqlania, as a cowardly vengeance act in order to deviate the attention of the mass media away from their failure and unwillingness in rescuing their colleagues." The True Story behind the Killing of 14 U.S. Marines in Haditha August 4, 2005 . This is the same above reported version on August 2, 2005 as posted by Muffakirat al-Islam (in Arabic).

( An Update to the above: The above ended with: "The next step that is expected to be taken by the American occupation force following this announcement is the commitment of a new war crime against the innocent civilians in Haditha and Haqlania, as a cowardly vengeance act in order to deviate the attention of the mass media away from their failure and unwillingness in rescuing their colleagues." ....

"On Friday, U.S. and Iraqi troops, including Special Operations forces, moved into the city of Haqlaniyah, the Marine statement said. U.S. jets conducted an airstrike on insurgents hiding in buildings outside of the town. Residents in the area said U.S. and Iraqi forces had cordoned off Haqlaniyah, about 140 miles northwest of Baghdad, and began conducting house to house searches. American warplanes were hovering overhead and a number of heavy explosions were heard. Witnesses said 500-pound bombs were being dropped in the area." U.S. Launches Attacks in Western Iraq August 5, 2005 , and the Iraqi Resistance has issued an ultimatum to the Americans to lift the siege within hours, and warned their 'Iraqi SO forces', that the Americans use as life vests, of dire consequences, Mufakirrat Al-Islam, (in Arabic) August 5, 2005)

Earlier in this week;

"Insurgents in western Iraq killed seven U.S. Marines, five of them in an unusually deadly small-arms attack (added emphasis) , during one of the bloodiest days for American forces in months, the U.S. military said Tuesday." Rebels In Iraq Kill 7 Marines August 3, 2005

Here is what happened:

"This video is purported to have been taken on 08/01/05 by a section of the Iraqi Resistance and shows an attack in which 6 U.S. marines are killed." Iraqi Resistance Kills U.S. Marines

The Iraqi Resistance ambushed an American sniper unit that intended to ambush them. Mortars were used at the end to finish the Marines off. The snipers' rifles are shown, and a dead Marine.


Comments:
Kindly note that only discussible comments are welcome for posting on this Blog. Irrelevant/impolite comments will be deleted.
Who is this site for?

 
Thank you, Imad Khaddari, for your blog. It is good to get the truth. I don't believe anything we are "told" by our leaders now.

I was first introduced to you through "Yellow Times", before the start of this "invasion", when you were trying to get the word out that there were no WMD in Iraq anymore. I later bought your book.

I am writing as I am extremely concerned for Riverbend right now. As you will know, her last post was about Raed's brother, who was captured and imprisoned for a few days.

I know she writes spasmodically now, but I tried to email her and my email came back.

I just need to know that she is okay please. Can you let me know please? I am sure there are a great many readers concerned about Riverbend right now. I am hoping she is just afraid at this point to post, and I wouldn't blame her.

Thanking you, Daphne
 
Thank you, Daphne, for enquiring about Riverbend. I too look for her every day and am worried.
 
Greetings Daphne
Thank you for the expressed sentiments.

Yellow Times has shut down, since two-three months ago. I do personally miss Eric Marquardt, its mentor, whom I met in Toronto last year, wishing him the best of luck in his new endeavours.

I have not recieved any bounced email from Riverbend. She has changed her email address from that dreaded hotmail to Google's baghdad.burning@gmail.com. Her book was out a couple of months ago, rather it was a book about her Blog site by Femenist Press, NY.

She does haunt our thoughts, fills us with pride and admiration and anchors our faith in Iraq, though a few written lines ever so distant in time.

We have a proverb in Iraq: " The absent one bears her/his excuse with her/him".

You may be assured that this Blog site will humbly be the first to announce her new blogs and/or news.

 
you do have great insights.im expecting to read more of your blogs..
 
From above post link true number:

“President Bush personally ordered that no pictures be taken of the coffined and flag-draped dead under any circumstances . . . He claims this is to comfort the bereaved relatives, but is designed to keep the huge number of arriving bodies secret.

“Bush has never attended any kind of a memorial service for his dead soldiers . . . He never will because he is terrified some parent might curse him in front of the press, or, worse, attack him.”
 
"[He] then begins to tell of his unit firing the wrong artillery rounds which hit 5-10 km from their intended target."
“We have no idea where those rounds fell, or what they hit.”

And I ask: In principle, how does this 'approved' method of slaughter differ from the 'unapproved' method?
 
"You do all these things and come back and think, ‘what have we done?’ We just rolled right by an Iraqi man with a gunshot in his thigh and two guys near him waving white flags….he probably bled to death.”
 

"[S]eeing the full humanity of Iraqis made me realize I couldn’t participate in these operations.”

“I didn’t want to kill another soul for no reason. . . .We were firing into small towns….you see people just running, cars going, guys falling off bikes…it was just sad. You just sit there and look through your binos and see things blowing up, and you think, man they have no water . . . , and we’re just bombing them to hell. Blowing up buildings, shrapnel tearing people to shreds.”
 
The Conviction of Kevin Benderman: "How much better to serve 15 months in prison as a free man of conscience than to serve 12 months in Iraq fighting an illegal war."
 
Occam
Thank you for the info.
Specs may be thus stated, nevertheless, I would still maintain that one should take a look at the size of the AAVP7A1 and imagine fitting 3 crew and 21 combat sardines in that space.
The Shuttle also has nice belly specs, no?

 
Occam
Would you kindly clear your above posting from that rubbish?
Do repost it without, please.
Thank you.

 
"In war, truth is the first casualty".

Except this time, truth was Dead on Arrival (D.O.A.) far before the actual shooting started... it met an untimely death the second that Mssrs. Bush and Blair opened their mouths about "weapons of mass destruction".

BTW -- we watched all the tearful stories about the families of the lost Marines on the CBS news last night.

In between yelling at the TV, "why don't you put on some stories about the thousands of Iraqi families with dead loved ones", it occurred to me that here is yet again another replay of the Vietnam experience.

"We just want it (his death) to have counted for something," one grieving mother said. Suuure.

It counts for something, allright: imperialism, colonialism, American exceptionalism, jingoism and the gas in your SUV, lady.
 
The truth of the matter is my friends that the attack that destroyed the APC and killed the 14 marines was indeed an IED but not of the ordinary type, this was a modified artillery shell weighing around 100kg and if you bothered to look at the resistance reports posted all the time on www.iraq-war.ru of tue or wed im not sure but the resistance describes how the rigged the shell and blew it up as the armor passes over or near it. Fact is way more marines have died than just 14 + the 6+ sniper squad killed by ansar al-sunnah. it was another attack again where the marines where captured then shot over the bridge in Haditha again 10-14 killed, so please get your facts right before making these articles fools.
 
Awaiting the 140 + 60 in one attack, and then see them high tailing it.
 
Imad

I sent your above posting to a friend of mine. This was his response:

"Yup them yanks are lying pigs alright. Wouldn't know truth if it punched 'em in the eye . . . But don't tell me you seriously believe the arab reportage?

As for truth: there's three sides to any story: yours mine and the truth."

To which I responded:

I'll tell you what I believe:

I read the American, the Iraqi resistance, the Canadian, the European (BBC) and (sometimes) the Russian stories of what's going on over there. By comparing all of these sources you can get what I believe is a pretty accurate picture of the situation.

You would be totally insane to believe either just the Americans or just the "mujihedeen" (as they call themselves). Both sides have a long record of publishing fantastic lies about the war, although if I had to choose one over the other I'd probably give the nod to the Iraqis simply because they have fewer levels of bureaucracy between them and the media.

The upshot of all of it:

Just as was predicted, the mighty U.S. army is being slowly worn down, being bled white, soldier by soldier, with casualties far worse than anything that's being publicly acknowledged in Washington.

To tell you the truth I'm (mildly) surprised that Bush and his compliant little crew of patriotic voters have been able to ride it out this far, but the outcome won't change, one way or another. The Iraqi resistance will win
simply because of fanatical motivation and the fact that it has nothing to lose and nowhere else to go. Conversely, there is a finite pool of American occupation troops that is steadily diminishing.

With each passing day, those fair-haired American boys and girls sweating it out in Mesopotamia can't help but keep thinking,
"well it's 1-2-3, what're we fighting for, don't ask me I don't give a damn, next stop is Viet..."

(Oh, sorry, Bagdhad, but it doesn't quite rhyme. No matter, the song remains the same.)

Have a good weekend..
 
The Leader of the Free World (Cont'd)
 
"With each passing day, those fair-haired American boys and girls sweating it out in Mesopotamia"

A large number of US troops actually come from mixed race and ethnic minorities of the US, basically because much of the poorer population in general there has Mexican, South American, Italian, Spanish, African etc ancestry.

Calling them "fair-haired boys and girls" is trying to link them to what???? "Bad supremist whites"?

Even Norway (my ancestral/paternal country) is changing fast with respect to ethnic homogeneity.

The US armed forces maybe being worn down (gladly), but George Bush and Tony Blair are not being worn down. Their parties may well win the next elections and because there will always be impoverished people willing to sign up to the armed forces as some kind of future, the occupation could last another 10 years for all you know (like Nam). I would not hold my breath on that one.

It is very sad because more lives will be wasted. I hope they do leave Iraq quickly but I think it wont happen
 
US General: More sophisticated bombs mark Iraq attacks
 
Tony Blair, Press Briefing, 26 July 05
" . . . [W]hat you are saying about America is rubbish. . . . there are people who write things in this country saying America has an evil foreign policy . . . leave aside whether it [American foreign policy] is right or wrong . . . "
 
"MEIN KAMPF by George W. Bush & Tony Blair"
 
Watching Tony Blair today with his fanatical announcements made me sad and pissed off - the extremists are winning. On both sides. Bush and Blair change fast their societies in a direction witch only increases tensions and control. As Bush said “you either on our side or against us” so said Blair today more or less directly. On our side or against us – no other options. If you criticize and wonder the policy of these western powers you are automatically turned as a pro-Saddamist, Saddam worshipper and pro-terrorist (as I learned from Heidi and Hamudi in the previous discussions). So this dualism works already in the minds of people. There seems no more to be other middle ground than being silent. Soon even remembering the lies Bush and Blair told us before the war will be criminal in USA and UK.

Terrorism is now used as it is used in Israel, an excuse to justify an ever increasing stupid policy and focus only to terrorism and not to the things that cause that terrorism. Blair doesn’t even want to stop to think “in public” about the reasons for terrorism, well on the other hand what could he say. “Yes of course it happens because our role in Iraq” and he would be a former prime minister. So the official mantra is that “they” want simply to destroy our life style. Well Blair is doing “good” job in destroying that. These new US and UK anti-terrorist laws have their effects also in my country. UK and USA are leaning heavily against EU to increase control. Also Finland’s police has new and unseen rights. Internet operators are soon demanded to save the traffic data (as USA and UK have demanded) even nobody has a clear vision how it is done or who pays it and how the data is used etc. The big brother society is a step nearer also here, where the Muslim minority is a couple of thousands of 5 million.

A couple of nights ago I watched from Finnish television an Indian documentary about the Indian atom bomb. In that documentary was shown the growing religious nationalism in India, Pakistan and USA. The message was the same on all sides Hindu, Muslim and Christian: we will win and kill all the “others”. All those extremists were ready to kill and used without shame their religion as a reason for their more or less insane politics. And those extremists are no small “groups” in their countries. In USA are millions of Christians ready to spread their religion with the sword. Christian Identity movement is not the only one.
 
In Baghdad, Shoot to Kill
(In Baghdad, practice; in London, policy.)
 
And, in the "Struggle Against Extremism" The Faulty Logic of "Terrorist" Profiling
 
"Soon even remembering the lies Bush and Blair told us before the war will be criminal in USA and UK."
Indeed, SimoHurtta. Truth telling has always been a dangerous business. Thank you for putting it so well.
 
Rules of the Game: "Bush and Blair share the same mindset. "However, the question is, how long before people who dispense “hate speech” (i.e., speech the government disapproves of and wants to punish) will be summarily executed like Jean Charles de Menezes?"
 
Reposted.

Can it carry 14 people? Yes.

http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/systems/ground/aavp7a1-specs.htm

I am not saying that this makes the USMC's version of events truthful but I dont think they are lying about the capabilities of their equipment.

I've driven around in some tiny British army APCs and you'd be amazed how many soldiers you can cram into a little metal box.
 
Juan Cole: "Vietnam-Speak in Iraq": " . . . [T]he insurgents seem to be able to plant their mines without either being detected by our surveillance [e.g., drone aircraft] or being reported to the police by the local people. . . That is a bad sign, and means we control neither the terrain nor the populace."
 
When they're not spreading freedom around the world, the U.S. Army (Corps of Engineers, specifically) likes to find other things to blow up.

http://www.ifilm.com/ifilmdetail/2676022
 
I'm amazed at the delusional nature of the comments here. The U.S. Army is being bled white? Pardon me while I pick myself up off the floor from laughing so hard.

Guys, there are hundreds of milblogs out there. Read what the soldiers themselves are saying. Yeah, it's a moderately tough insurgency, but it's only in Sunni areas (20% of the population) and the terrorists/insurgents are taking the worst of it by far. They're poorly trained, the population (even Sunnis) mostly despises them, and every month 4,000+ Iraqis join the real freedom fighters in defense of a free and democratic Iraq.
 
Juan Cole thought Jenin happened before 9/11. He's not much of an authority.
 
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