Free Republic

The town of Hasankeyf, Turkey, will soon be only a memory. From her front door, Fatima Salkan has a sweeping view of the fruit trees, historic ruins and tidy stone compounds that run along this stretch of the Tigris River in southeastern Turkey. She tries her best not to look off in the distance, to the right. The town on the horizon, still under construction, is where she will move when the valley is flooded by a downstream hydropower dam. “Do you see all these old places?” she asks in Kurdish. “We are the owner, but today we are homeless.”...

Spooks dig for secrets of Saddam As Blair prepares to issue his dossier on Iraq's weapons, Peter Beaumont and Ed Vulliamy assess the quality of intelligence - and the difficulty of obtaining it Peter Beaumont in London and Ed Vulliamy in New York Sunday September 15, 2002 The Observer He is there at almost every official photo-opportunity with Saddam Hussein, a compact and wiry military officer, his khaki shirt rolled up to his elbows, a beret pulled across his brow. A heavy handlebar moustache hangs over a solid jaw, grey with a permanent five o'clock shadow. The recent prominence of...

WASHINGTON, Sept. 9, 2007 – Coalition forces killed six terrorists and detained 21 suspects during operations over the past two days in Iraq’s Tarmiyah area and Tigris River Valley to disrupt al Qaeda senior leadership. Several synchronized raids in Tarmiyah targeted the al Qaeda network operating in the northern belt around Baghdad, including its leaders. The network is responsible for car bombings, kidnappings, publishing extremist propaganda and operating an illegal court system in the area. As coalition forces cleared a building, three men inside reached for weapons in the room. Coalition forces engaged and killed them. A related assault force...

WASHINGTON, Aug. 24, 2007 – Coalition forces killed seven terrorists and detained 12 suspected terrorists today during operations in central and northern Iraq. During an operation targeting an al Qaeda cell, coalition forces returned to an area east of Tarmiyah where they killed 13 terrorists and captured 12 suspects last week. Local Iraqis who had helped coalition forces target the cell last week continued to provide information about terrorist operations there. The assault force killed two armed men who attacked with small-arms fire. As the force continued to secure the buildings, they repeatedly encountered armed men attempting to barricade themselves...

[VHFCN] Real news from Iraq Went to an AUSA dinner last night at the Ft. Hood Officers' Club to hear a speech by MG Pete Chiarelli, CG of the 1st Cav Div. He and most of the Div. have just returned from Iraq. Very informative and, surprise, the Mainstream Media (MSM) isn't telling the story. I was not there as a reporter, didn't take notes but I'll make some the points I remember that were interesting, suprising or generally stuff I had not heard before. It was not a speech per se. He just walked and talked, showed some slides...

AL-TUWAYTHA, Iraq (AFP) Mar 31, 2004 Hundreds of Iraqis living near the country's largest nuclear plant fear for their lives as dozens of radioactive barrels from the site looted at the end of the war a year ago remain there. Residents of Al-Tuwaytha compound, south of Baghdad, are reporting strange ailments and doctors say the number of children suffering from blood-related diseases is on the rise. "There are people who are losing their hair, others find spots on their skin and the colour of the face is changing," said Mohammad Abbas, a tailor. "One of my clients knows an entire...