Mass graves `are everywhere': Iraq littered with bodies, but number of dead unknown

Chicago Tribune ^ | 21Jan04 | Stephen Franklin

[xzins]

BAGHDAD -- They were killed in their hospital beds and buried in the hospital flower gardens, some with their arms still wrapped in bandages or IVs still connected.

And they were killed on long death marches in northern Iraq--Kurdish women and children, separated from their families and carrying the few household items they could drag with them.

Wherever they were killed, many were blindfolded and shot in the forehead. Saddam Hussein's whole country became a killing field.

Mass graves "are everywhere," said Sandy Hodgkinson, a U.S. State Department attorney who has been working with Iraq's Human Rights Ministry, the agency in charge of investigating the mass graves. "You follow reports, and they turn up in places you would never suspect."

Iraq is littered with bodies stuffed dozens at a time into cemetery plots, bodies shoved over cliffs, tossed in lakes or hidden in farm fields where vegetables still grow, said Saad Sultan, 32, a lawyer and detective with the Human Rights Ministry's mass graves research team.

So far, 282 possible mass grave sites have been identified, 55 have been confirmed and 20 have been explored. But nine months after Hussein's fall, the total number of graves is unknown. So, too, is the number buried, though the figure is estimated to be in the hundreds of thousands.

Among Kurds alone, for example, there are at least 182,000 people missing, 8,000 of them from one clan, the Barzanis.

[JimRed]

The only answer: Politics.

Specifically, DemocRAT politics.

[Cvengr]

Bump for later reference

[autoresponder]

I find it quite odd that a missile that has an extended range can be a WMD but all the buried MIG25s are simply "UN-legal" defensive aircraft.

Who is setting the parameters and definitions of WMDs?

You and I both know common chemicals and products found in the kitchen and bathroom sink cabinets, food panties, laundry room, plant potting shed, barbeque grill, basement shop, camping supplies, attic, and garage can be quickly turned into deadly weapons that can kill 1000s in mere seconds.

Unlike the lib media I will not post any recipes or devices or other pertinent info here.

The dems, radicals, media and the 9-8-7-? Dwarves seem to be appalled at the "quagmire" of the massive "body count" of 505+/- (over 150 by accients!)

DC has been 100% gun-banned for over 27 years yet has over 301 handgun murders year (knifes, poisonings, blunt instruments, rifles, and batteries not included!) in a city of only 340,000 population tops by civilian criminals.

Iraq has over 25 million population and US military deaths are in combat and terrorist action areas; less the 150 accidental deaths, that is only 350+ US military deaths since we invaded Iraq.

So basically Washington DC has nearly 70 times times the kill rate/100,000 population of Iraq.

Any corrections or additions are welcome.

[autoresponder]

If you find Parathon or Clordane in Iraq as you can at a Mexican farm, you have found WMDs.

I used Parathon before it was banned in the USA.

Even diluted in a water spray it is a deadly chemical.

Tell me when and where and how you used Parathon and how you dressed and protected yourself.

Give me 5 mintes and $50 in a Walmart and within 20 minutes I will produce a devastating WMD.

[MeekOneGOP]

Re #58, #83: bumpity ! bumpity ! bumpity !

[George W. Bush]

Agreed. Most people here think making rudimentary but effective chem weapons is like the Manhatten Project. And some bioweapons aren't hard either.

This stuff can be made in your backyard if you're crazy enough to try it.

[onyx]

Bump your #83. That's a damn good post. Bull's-eye accurate. (applause)

[George W. Bush]

DC has been 100% gun-banned for over 27 years yet has over 301 handgun murders year (knifes, poisonings, blunt instruments, rifles, and batteries not included!) in a city of only 340,000 population tops by civilian criminals. Iraq has over 25 million population and US military deaths are in combat and terrorist action areas; less the 150 accidental deaths, that is only 350+ US military deaths since we invaded Iraq. So basically Washington DC has nearly 70 times times the kill rate/100,000 population of Iraq.

I hope you post this on all the gun threads. Excellent.

[Happy2BMe]

QUOTE:

================

Iraq has over 25 million population and US military deaths are in combat and terrorist action areas; less the 150 accidental deaths, that is only 350+ US military deaths since we invaded Iraq.

So basically Washington DC has nearly 70 times times the kill rate/100,000 population of Iraq. ================

UNQUOTE

Sounds about right. Our soldiers are doing a tremendous, tremendous job of protecting the peace in Iraq especially faced with the constant and explosive nature of the population there.

Thanks for the ping!

[bray]

How CAN they find WMDs? Everytime they dig to find WMD they find murdered bodies! There was plenty of evidence of WMD before the war and Saddamn dared us to go to war with him by his actions. If there were no WMD, the world with one less out of control maniacal murderous terroist is a safer world. Not to mention, the ME is a changed place now and changing.

Not that any of this matters because your mind is made up.

Pray for W and The Truth

[ntnychik]

I'm so confused. When we went into Iraq I thought we were supposed to have at least 50,000 battlefield deaths and be responsible for millions of dead Iraqis. IIRC, that was an argument to take the slow diplomatic road that would get us to Iraq around the time of the terrible sandstorms. Sheesh, we were one day early. It's Bush's fault!

[Ragtime Cowgirl]

There were mass killings in the late 90s, and an estimated 10s of thousands of Iraqi Hussein critics were rounded up, bussed out of town, executed while we waited for the UN pre-war, 2003.

The Iraqi people are now free to speak, millions of them.

While the mainstream press still controls the loudest voice in the public square, the Iraqi people are putting out their own free press, their own free TV shows, using blogs, grafitti (sp), and many other ways to now speak up for themselves after being ignored by Saddam's press apologists for decades.

[Ragtime Cowgirl]

Bump!

[bray]

Iraq has over 25 million population and US military deaths are in combat and terrorist action areas; less the 150 accidental deaths, that is only 350+ US military deaths since we invaded Iraq.

Of course the Rats are touting that 500+ number to inflate it! The 150 accidental deaths would most likely happen in peacetime also. So 350 deaths since we went in and going down is a pretty small number. Tragic of course, but hardly the numbers the Rats were hoping for.

Pray for W and Our Troops

[potlatch]

I wonder how many digrees of Hell there are, do men like Saddam and Hitler have any concept of the evil they've done?