Iraqi Opposition Groups Call for Uprising

Newsday ^ | 3/27/03

[areafiftyone]

DAMASCUS, Syria -- Iraqi opposition groups called Thursday for a popular uprising to liberate the country from Iraqi "dictatorship" and outlined a detailed plan for the future of Iraq.

In a statement faxed to The Associated Press, the six-member Iraqi opposition leadership council -- set up this year to formulate policies for a post-Saddam Iraq -- urged the Iraqi armed forces to "sever ties with the Baghdad regime" and join them.

"The Iraqi opposition command, out of a sense of responsibility to save the people, army and people of Iraq ... calls on the people of Iraq in northern, central and southern Iraq to prepare for an uprising," it said.

The Iraqi armed forces, it continued, should "reject carrying out orders of the tyrants and avoid turning their members into fuel for a destructive and losing war." The statement said that after Iraqi armed forces join forces with the opposition in southern Iraq, the Iraqi opposition command would inform coalition countries "so that they can distinguish between opposition forces and other armed forces and safeguard security for citizens and guard against acts of vengeance and chaos."

[SolutionsOnly]

Did they fax a copy to Al-Jazeera?

[Semper Paratus]

I've been wondering where these guys have been.

Assuming they have support inside Iraq, they should get into Basra and start setting up the provisional government.

[hawaiian]

It's about friggin' time!!

[dfwgator]

Is this the Iraqi People's Front or the People's Front of Iraq?

[RetiredArmy]

Offices located in Syria???? Mummmmmmmmm.

[adam_az]

HAH

[Fulbright]

If we stir up the pot, we had better be there to back these people up because the US reputation for not following through and letting people hang out to dry is very long.

[areafiftyone]

I just hope the Iraqi people act on it!

[areafiftyone]

Bush made a promise and so did Tony Blair. I believe in them! I believe they will carry this out!

[IowaHawk]

Iraqi opposition groups called Thursday for a popular uprising to liberate the country from Iraqi "dictatorship" and outlined a detailed plan for the future of Iraq.

Note the sneer quotes around "dictatorship."

This is was printed in Newsday, a "newspaper."

[areafiftyone]

I am not crazy about Newsday either but I use them as a AP Newswire source sometimes. That is about the only thing they are good for!

[First_Salute]

These guys are a separate movement set up by the French and Syria --- they are intended to thwart and compete with the Allies relationships with the Iraqi rebels against Saddam who are already in Iraq and mostly besieged by Saddam's terror squads.

The group in Syria is like the French Communists who tried to take over Paris in August of 1944 during the battle for its liberation, but not to be confused with the small Kurdish communists.

[Amerigomag]

Pretty easy to due when the statement is faxed from an airconditioned office in Syria.

Had the group issued the statement from downtown Baghdad or Basra their leadership might be more credible.

[Semper Paratus]

These guys are a separate movement set up by the French and Syria -

So they are more like the Polish "Lublin" group set up by Stalin in 1944?

[Numbers Guy]

Is this the Iraqi People's Front or the People's Front of Iraq?

Splinter!!!!

[First_Salute]

It's the French, as usual, trying to insert themselves ... they will be claiming that the Iraqi "opposition" based in Syria, is the "legitimate" heir to the Iraq government.

[RadojeS]

I think it is the Iraqi Popular Peoples Front.

....


"I thought we were the Popular Front."

"Peoples Front!"

[SuziQ]

I heard some boob on National Public Radio the other day saying that it would be BIG mistake for Bush to try to put any of these Iraqi exiles in charge of the post war Govt. He said that someone who 'sat out' the Sadaam years in another country wouldn't have any legitimacy.

I wonder how he thinks someone who was in opposition to Sadaam would have fared over the last 25 years. I'm sure there are plenty of unmarked graves in Baghdad or out in the desert where lie the bones of many who defied him. And there are probably entire families which no longer exist because of Sadaam's penchant for killing everyone connected with someone who would defy him.

If it were someone from INSIDE Iraq, I'd be very suspicious of him until he'd proved himself trustworthy TO THE IRAQI PEOPLE

[Teacher317]

start setting up the provisional government

My thoughts exactly ;^)