U.S. Troops Find Bones at Saddam Bomb Site

Reuters ^ | Wednesday, June 04, 2003 12:46 p.m | Andrew Marshall

[epluribus_2]

... Lt. Gen. David McKiernan, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, said a more thorough search of the site in the upscale Mansur neighborhood of Baghdad had begun after intelligence reports suggested human remains were buried under the rubble. ...

[epluribus_2]

tick...tick...tick... (watch the left completely dissolve when the details of Saddam (and Osama's) fate become methodically known and the WMD program details come together with Carl Rove Flair - wait - not yet - wait - wait - NOW!)

[b4its2late]

U.S. Troops Find Bones at Saddam Bomb Site

Wednesday, June 04, 2003 12:46 p.m. ET

By Andrew Marshall

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - U.S. troops dug bones from a Baghdad bomb site Wednesday after launching a fresh search to see whether Saddam Hussein and his sons survived a bid to kill them in April with bunker-busting bombs.

Lt. Gen. David McKiernan, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, said a more thorough search of the site in the upscale Mansur neighborhood of Baghdad had begun after intelligence reports suggested human remains were buried under the rubble.

"You can imagine that if we have an intel lead that possibly there was somebody like Saddam Hussein in that location, we exploit it," he told a news conference in Baghdad. "That's what we're doing."

Gen. Tommy Franks, who commanded the war against Iraq, said in April that U.S.-led forces had DNA of the former Iraqi leader and it would be used to check whether attempts to kill him had succeeded. He gave no details about how it was obtained or authenticated.

Dust hung in the air at the bomb site as troops used bulldozers and cranes to haul debris onto trucks, which took it away for forensic examination.

"We are meticulously searching the rubble and we have found some skeletal remains," said a U.S. private at the site.

Locals in Mansur say several civilians died in the bombing, and some bodies have not yet been recovered.

Exactly eight weeks after U.S. forces seized Baghdad, the fate of Saddam and his sons Qusay and Uday remains a mystery.

Several houses in Mansur were destroyed on April 7 when U.S. planes dropped four 2,000-pound "bunker-buster" bombs after receiving reports that Saddam and his sons were meeting in a building in the area.

But a number of sightings of Saddam were reported after the air strike on Mansur. In particular, many Iraqis said they saw him near a mosque in the Adhamiya district of northern Baghdad on April 9, the day Baghdad fell to the Americans.

Video footage of Saddam, said to have been shot near the mosque on April 9, has also circulated.

McKiernan said more effort was needed to search the site for evidence on whether Saddam had been killed.

"We did this initially, but perhaps I did not do it in great enough detail, and so we are sending some additional assets into that area to look at it," he said.

McKiernan said he blamed "regime-connected or Baath party remnants" for a series of attacks that have killed and injured several U.S. soldiers in Baghdad and the surrounding provinces in the last few weeks. But he said there was no sign that the attacks were being coordinated by former Iraqi leaders.

"I do not see any pattern of any centralised command and control in these attacks," he said. "I believe these are localized, decentralized attacks by those who were part of the old regime and will not be part of the new regime."

He said removing the rubble from the bomb site could take two weeks, and the forensic tests even longer.

"It's a big hole," he said. "There's a lot of rubble to go through."

[Carolina]

"We are meticulously searching the rubble and we have found some skeletal remains," said a U.S. private at the site.

[epluribus_2]

didn't know it was okeydokey to post the whole article... anyone know what the "sensitive" news sites are?

[Dog]

Hi Carolina!

we have found some skeletal remains

Sounds like they found more then a few bones..

[Grampa Dave]

Is this one of the sites where a left wing news service said that there were no signs of a bunker after the bombing?

[C210N]

watch the left completely dissolve when the details of Saddam... fate become methodically known

May not matter. The left will conjure up an image of a limbless Saddam, with limbless sons, directing a growing resistance to Coalition forces, willing to bite us and give violent head nudges against our feet.

[Principled]

washington compost, la slimes AFAIO

[kellynla]

It's DNA time...wouldn't it be sweet if some of the bones belonged to Sadass...

[Carolina]

Hey, Dog!

Sounds like they found more then a few bones..

Very interesting....

[af_vet_1981]

tick...tick...tick... (watch the left completely dissolve when the details of Saddam (and Osama's) fate become methodically known and the WMD program details come together with Carl Rove Flair - wait - not yet - wait - wait - NOW!)

You imply the WH is deliberately withholding information for political reasons.

[PoorMuttly]

"...somebody like Saddam Hussein in that location, we explo...uh...exploit it."

Can Muttly have dibs on any "extra" Royal Family bones ?

It's O.K. if you're a different species, y'know. As long as they're not typing-dog bones...

...then on the other paw...

[dighton]

Related Publications in the LAT/WP vs Free Republic Settlement Agreement

[Dog]

LOL!

[RedBloodedAmerican]

They found Chandra!

[jriemer]

Look at all the bones!

[twigs]

Col. Hunt on FNC said this AM that his intelligence sources say that SH and his sons may well be dead in that rubble. I'm not sure what to think.

[don'tbedenied]

"You imply the WH is deliberately withholding information for political reasons"

Well duh!

[Howlin]

I bet it's him.

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

I think the failure of the US to find Saddam proves that he never existed. Intelligence reports indicating the existance of Saddam Hussein were hyped. If he existed we would have found him by now.

[RedBloodedAmerican]

Baghdad Bob? Can't be, he's in France.

[Studebaker Hawk]

Bobby: Mrs Huessain, can Sadamm come out and play?

Mrs Huessain: Bobby you know Saddamm has no arms or legs!

Bobby: That's OK. We want him to be the homeplate.

[Maceman]

It's DNA time...wouldn't it be sweet if some of the bones belonged to Sadass...

Where are they getting the DNA samples to compare them to? (I mean, besides Dan Rather's blue dress).

[Constitution Day]

...Bones are heard of, but seldom seen,
'Cept each year 'round Halloween.
But I've got a shockeroo,
Right now there's a skeleton locked up inside of you. (Ha-ha-ha)...

[clamboat]

Is this one of the sites where a left wing news service said that there were no signs of a bunker after the bombing?

No, the reports of a bunker at the first site bombed the very first night of the war, turned out to be unfounded. This article is about the site bombed toward the end of the war in the Mansour (sp?) neighborhood.

So does that make a new service left-wing? Reporting that, in fact, there was no bunker at the first site bombed?

[epluribus_2]

well - withholding disconnected findings that would not be recognizable as evidence without completion of analysis and interpretation as a whole package - including the explanations they will undoubtably get from Iraqi captives after sufficient conditioning. Once corroborated, these will be the mosting damning proofs of the WMD programs and intentions. Blair seems to smart not to have damn good information before the war and Powell would not lie. Bush had lots of reasons for bouncing Saddam but he does have a knack for coming through with the touchdown pass just when the opposition thinks they have the momentum.

[7 x 77]

WHY DIDN'T THEY DO THIS BEFORE!!!!

Someone who has been paying closer attention please explain.

[epluribus_2]

thanks. will do.

[epluribus_2]

LOL!

[Carolina]

Dem bones, dem bones, dem dry bones....

[oyez]

The chances of those remains being of Saddam and family are still slim. Reports of finding various things in Iraq and down playing the same story the next day seems to be a regular game by the media. Its almost predictable so that when real item come up it will be automaticly discredited.

[Pro-Bush]

ALL YOUR BONES ARE BELONG TO US!

[SirAllen]

Bones: "He's dead Jim!"

[Howlin]

Bones McCoy?

[af_vet_1981]

The WH does not need to (and will not IMO) withhold information in the War on Terrorists for domestic political advantage. The only valid reason is national security and I give them the benefit of the doubt. If otherwise, I think they would be derelict in their duty to the nation.

[EGPWS]

U.S. Troops Find "Bones" at Saddam Bomb Site

Apparently, the Enterprises 5 year mission to boldly go where no man has gone before has ended and The Enterprise has returned!

[Normal4me]

My thoughts too. Also wouldn't this place be kinda stinky if there were decomposing bodies? I also recall that about 14 persons were reportedly in the building when it went ka-boom.

[epluribus_2]

well I agree, but simply reporting raw data that has not been corroborated has led to numerous false alarms. I bet they have some findings but are doubly and triply checking things before endangering their reputation any more. Bush and Blair would look a lot less confident if they had nothing.

[Constitution Day]

Bones McCoy?

LOL.
We do have a Freeper by that name!

[Consort]

.............    Dem    bones,      dem   bones,    dem   dry    bones....

[kidd]

I've been dead for years, Jim!

[GalaxieFiveHundred]

U.S. Troops Find Bones at Saddam Bomb Site

?

[Paradox]

Supposedly, up to 14 civilians were killed in that attack. This is likely to be the bones of someone else, not Saddam, but I am hopeful.

[Gunslingr3]

The left will conjure up an image of a limbless Saddam, with limbless sons, directing a growing resistance to Coalition forces, willing to bite us and give violent head nudges against our feet.

Saddam Hussien is... The Black Knight!?

[GalaxieFiveHundred]

Great minds think alike, but your faster fingers prevailed.

[Carolina]

Waaaah! I can't stop singing that song now.

[Lady Heron]

Lets just say that facts to supporting the administrations point of view have in the past have had a tendency to come to light after a cresendo of the lefts complaints condemming the administration. Leaving the left to look like fools time and time again with the biggest impact.

If I were a democrat I would be very careful about jumping on the bandwagon of WND not being found.

[kellynla]

Couldn't tell ya...that's way above my pay grade but I know there was some talk early about DNA and some one of the relatives???

[The Great Satan]

Saddam is safe and sound and living in exile, courtesy of the deal our Russian intermediaries brokered for us at the April 9 meeting between Tariq Aziz and Vladimir Titorenko. Shortly after that meeting, Saddam went for a valedictory walkabout among supporters in Baghdad, completely umconcerned about the possibility of a US bombing strike. After all, you don't attack someone who has advertised they have sleepers with weaponized anthraxed forward-positioned in your population centers, now, do you? Saddam told the adoring crowd that Iraq was a defeated country, but that the vanquished ultimately rise again, and, in any case, they would be rewarded in heaven. He then recorded a concession video, and left the country, escorted by his Russian hosts. The two so-called "decapitation strikes" were simply window-dressing to cover up the fact that we were blackmailed into letting Saddam off the hook for 9-11, thanks to his WMD -- much like the Amerithrax chardae, starring US Army psychological warfare expert Steven J. Hatfill. So don't hold your breath for another two months waiting for the DNA tests on those "bones," because you're going to be disappointed.

Remember...

WMD mean never having to say you're sorry.

[Lady Heron]

The WH does not need to (and will not IMO) withhold information in the War on Terrorists for domestic political advantage. The only valid reason is national security and I give them the benefit of the doubt. If otherwise, I think they would be derelict in their duty to the nation.

But, there is also the need to verify facts that they have obtained before releasing them to the public, and that takes time. ;-)