Wolfowitz Unhurt, Says Attack On Hotel Won’t Deter Mission

DoD ^ | Oct. 26, 2003 (Baghdad) | Donna Miles

[Ragtime Cowgirl]

Deputy Defense Secretary Paul D. Wolfowitz (fourth from left) talks with reporters and military personnel following a rocket propelled grenade attack on Al Rasheed Hotel in downtown Baghdad on Oct. 26. Wolfowitz was on the 12th floor of the hotel when it was hit. American Forces Press Service photo by Donna Miles
Wolfowitz Unhurt, Says Attack On Hotel Won’t Deter Mission
By Donna Miles / American Forces Press Service
BAGHDAD, Iraq, Oct. 26, 2003 — Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, who was on the 12th floor of the Al Rasheed Hotel in downtown Baghdad when it was hit today by rocket-propelled grenades in a terrorist attack, insisted that “this terrorist act will not deter us from completing our mission – which is to help the Iraqi people free themselves from the type of criminals who did this and to protect the American people from this kind of terrorism.” Wolfowitz, in Iraq for a four-day visit to assess progress in the country’s rebuilding, was unhurt in the attack. He said initial reports indicate that one American may have been killed in the attack, which occurred just after 6 a.m. on what is expected to be declared the first day of Ramadan, the Muslim holy month. Several others were wounded, carried through the hotel lobby on litters by U.S. soldiers. A U.S. military spokesman later confirmed six to eight rockets propelled grenades struck the west side of the hotel between the second and tenth floors at about 6:10 a.m. local time. One U.S. soldier was killed and 15 people were wounded – seven U.S. civilians, four U.S. military personnel and four coalition partner civilians. “I want to express our profound sympathy for the victims of this attack,” he said. “The Americans who were here doing this job – civilians as well as military – are heroes.” Wolfowitz called the attacks “desperate acts of a dying regime of criminals” who he said “refuse to accept the reality of a free Iraq.” He told reporters that “we will be unrelenting in our pursuit of them.” “As the president has said, we are taking this fight to the enemy,” Wolfowitz continued. “We are bringing in additional international support. And most important of all, we have steadily growing numbers of Iraqis fighting alongside us for a free Iraq. We are getting the job done despite the desperate acts of a dying regime of criminals.” Wolfowitz said that even bigger than the news of the attack is “what we have seen in the last two days going around this country, even in Saddam Hussein’s own hometown of Tikrit.” “There are more and more Iraqis being trained and equipped and going out on patrols fighting these criminals,” he said.	“I am struck that every commander I talk to says that most of the problem comes from former regime loyalists … and the big news is to me that the Iraqis are fighting and killing those people. They are not staying and fighting, they are running.” “People who are here helping the Iraqi people confront that risk, and the Iraqis who are standing up for their country taking on that risk, are heroes.” Wolfowitz said there are no guarantees that similar attacks won’t happen again. “As long as there are criminals out there staging hit and run attacks, there is going to be risk in this country,” he said. The attack was the second within a month at the Al Rasheed Hotel. The last attack, in late September, wasn’t anything like this one,” said Army Master Sgt. John Hodges, noncommissioned officer in charge of the Coalition Press Information Center. “I could tell that this was a much more intense attack.” Hodges was in the shower of his seventh-floor room when he heard several loud booms that he said “sounded like mortars” and brought back memories of his days in the jungles of Vietnam. The windows of his room had shattered and the area was thick with smoke and the smell of gunpowder, he said. Hodges said he quickly dressed and hurried toward the stairway, where he noticed blood on the floor at the fifth or sixth floor. Army Sgt. 1st Class Ken Hudson from the 319th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment, based at Fort Jackson, S.C., was on the 10th floor of the hotel, which was hit during the attack. As he left his room to evacuate to the hotel lobby, Hudson said the hallway was full of smoke, doors to some of the rooms had been blown off their frames and broken glass was scattered in the hallway. “It was very smoky and hard to see,” he said. “Water was running out of one of the rooms.”

[Ragtime Cowgirl]

“I want to express our profound sympathy for the victims of this attack,” he said. “The Americans who were here doing this job – civilians as well as military – are heroes.”

Wolfowitz called the attacks “desperate acts of a dying regime of criminals” who he said “refuse to accept the reality of a free Iraq.” He told reporters that “we will be unrelenting in our pursuit of them.”

~~~
Bad idea for bad guys to anger this administration.
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[ExSES]

Any reason why snipers (with night vision scopes) are not posted on the roofs of obvious targets? (rhetorical question)!

[facedown]

YIKES!

[boxerblues]

Good question considering just how many people stay at this hotel

[genefromjersey]

Isn't about time we accepted the reality of the situation ?

The Saudi princes have been funding groups like al-Qaeda, etc.. because they are deathly afraid , with plenty of Iraqi oil, we won't need theirs !

Their personal lifestyles are dependent upon the US buying at least 20% of its oil from them, and on the sales of oil to Europe , and when we get the oil flowing in Iraq, and when the Russians manage to keep their pipelines in Chechnya in tact, it is bribe and extortion dollars out of their pockets !

The Saudi princes are not the only ones: There are at least two generations of American politicians-some in office right now-who have a vested financial interest in keeping us dependent on Saudi oil.There are US defense contractors who would be in deep trouble without Saudi arms orders.

There are even Freepers, who go into virtual orbit when it is suggested we should TRY for energy independence- whether it be fuel cells, hydrogen fuel,increased use of nuclear power generation, conservation, or whatever.

The House of Saud is in imminent danger of collapse from its own internal rot, and, if it falls, it will bring US down - unless we get clear of the danger.

[tkathy]

Oil is murdering western civilization. Time to wake up and smell the hydrogen fuel.

What are our soldiers doing in a residential hotel? Is anyone over there using their brain cell?

[tkathy]

Oil is murdering western civilization. Time to wake up and smell the hydrogen fuel.

What are our soldiers doing in a residential hotel? Is anyone over there using their brain cell?

[Voice in your head]

Good question! The Al-Rasheed hotel is one of the cushiest places in Baghdad, but not an easy place to defend against anybody who wants to dress in civilian clothes and sneak up on it, close enough to fire an RPG. The soldiers guarding this place are being put in unnecessary danger for the comfort of their superiors. There is nothing that can be done at the Al-Rasheed hotel that cannot be done in a more easily defendable location in Baghdad - but the rest of Baghdad is just so darn hot and uncomfortable! Quote me a passage from FM 22-100 Army Leadership that outlines that type of disregard for soldier welfare.

[gatorbait]

Any reason why snipers (with night vision scopes) are not posted on the roofs of obvious targets? (rhetorical question)!


State Department interference would be my guess.

[windchime]

Bump!

[FreedomPoster]

Oil is both an energy source and a convenient storage system for portable energy for automotive use.

Right now, hydrogen is neither. Absent the discovery of hydrogen deposits and drilling of hydrogen wells, it will never be the former. Given what I know of hydrogen embrittlement of steel, I have my doubts that it will ever be the latter.

I hope you're not buying the Green "hydrogen is the answer to automotive energy problems" propaganda.

[Alamo-Girl]

Bump!

[blackie]

Bad idea for bad guys to anger this administration ~ Bump!

[PhilDragoo]

most of the problem comes from former regime loyalists … and the big news is to me that the Iraqis are fighting and killing those people.

Losers losing faster and faster.