Attack Is a Media Coup for Iraq Resistance, Experts Say

LA Times ^ | 10-27-03

[Brian S]

BAGHDAD — The assault on the Rashid Hotel by Iraqi resistance fighters Sunday was designed to grab attention by flaunting their ability to inflict casualties on U.S. soldiers and civilians, even those ensconced within the most secure compound in Iraq, according to terrorism experts and law enforcement officials in Baghdad.

The onslaught, in which one U.S. colonel was killed and 15 people were wounded, did not cause as many casualties as previous attacks on other high-profile targets in the capital. But it exhibited the growing sophistication of the opposition's tactics and raised hard questions about whether it would be possible to stem such attacks.

...snip...

Toby Dodge, a terrorism expert at the Royal Institute of International Affairs in London, called the attack on the Rashid "a coup for the guys who did it."

"Politically, it shows people that they can deploy at will.... By attacking the most famous landmark in the compound, they are saying, 'We rule the streets. You don't,' " he said.

Jabber Habib, a political science professor at Baghdad University, agreed. "They are picking targets for their media value," he said, noting that the hotel is well known as the Baghdad residence of many civilian members of the American-led coalition, as well as some senior U.S. military officers.

[Spruce]

Our enemies know they have all the free propoganda they can possibly use based right here, in our own house.

[dead]

They kill a single US soldier in the attack (God bless him) and the LA Times congratulates them on their stunning success.

[Arpege92]

I hope it's not shocking you that the LA Times behaves in this manner?

[Prodigal Son]

You know, it doesn't surprise me that the LA Times has hit the nail on the head and indicted themselves at the same time. It is a well acknowledged fact that terrorism would not be effective without the media.

[RightWhale]

they are saying, 'We rule the streets. You don't,' " he said.

Actually they have demonstrated that they have criminal intent. They are not Muslim, they are godless, and they are immoral.

[Billthedrill]

The Times is just bitter because their side lost the war.

[mystery-ak]

*Iraqi Resistance*....now isn't that nice....I keep hearing that phrase......whatever happened to TERRORIST!

[mountaineer]

Iraqi resistance, my Aunt Fanny.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A U.S. general said the one attacker captured in the bombings that killed 34 Monday had a Syrian passport, fueling suspicions that foreign fighters were behind a rising tide of violence. Brig. Gen. Mark Hertling of the U.S. Army's 1st Armored Division said police shot and wounded the man when he got out of a car and tried to hurl a grenade at a Baghdad police station. The car carried three mortar rounds and was packed with TNT, he said.

"He's a foreign fighter. He had a Syrian passport and the policemen claim that as he was shot and fell that he said he was Syrian," Hertling told a news conference. full story

[RobertM]

Since when are the terrorists being called resistance fighters, the LA Time are wrong as usual. These people are killers, they target aid workers, women and childern.

[eureka!]

The LA Slimes knows no shame. On the bright side, they are dying, their influence more nominal every day. I wish I had a subscription to cancel...

[mvpel]

Maybe the US military should declassify some of the photos from the war, showing the vast forest of smoking stumps protruding from Iraqi combat boots in the wake of a single US attack that prompted the rest of the Iraqi army to surrender or retreat whenever the media goes into hysterics over a single Iraqi-imposed combat death.

[Petronski]

Resistance!?! What a shabby way to twist the vocabulary.

[Righty1]

Muslim TET Offensive?

[Grampa Dave]

Muslim TET Offensive?

Yep, the LA Slimes, NY Slimes and ABCNNBCBS used the same strategy to turn our victories in Nam into the perception of defeat.

The Islamofascist/kazis have plenty of fifth columnists in America to make their defeat appear to be a win for them and a loss for America.

[Napoleon Solo]

Iraqi resistance my arse!! Sounds like the worlds media are latching onto the same rubbish they spew out daily in describing the Palistinians as only militants. A terrorist is a terrorist, period no matter if they be in Iraq or in the Israeli won territories from the just wars Israel fought for survival in 1967 and 1973.

The fifth column of Muslims (all of them), as others have already mentioned is living, breathing and eating very well in this country, using us as a bunch of stooges. Pretty soon they will be calling more and more shots concerning our American lives. They want nothing more than to reproduce like bunnies (sorry Bugs), so that soon they will be in control. They already control the State Department and have made hugh inroads into the Executive branch where GWB or CR or CP are daily "reminding" us how Islam is a Religion of Peace.

If anyone doesn't think this is happening now, just look around at your own communities. It seems a new mosque is going up daily and all around the country. It is no longer New York's problem...it's yours everywhere!!

[bruin66]

The assault on the Rashid Hotel by Iraqi resistance fighters

This saved me a lot of reading...

[Argus]

This infuriated me this morning - a regular occurence whenever I look at their front page. The Al Qaeda/Hezbollah/Baathist scum trying to destroy Free Iraq are "The Iraqi Resistance" per the LA Times, conjuring images of brave chaps in berets shooting it out with SS occupiers in WWII France. This goes beyond even the Reuters scare quotes "terrorist" and "freedom fighters" labelling. I can't stand this swill anymore.