ARAB MEDIA DEPART FALLUJAH; INTIMIDATION CITED

BAGHDAD, IRAQ – Quds Arab-language news wire service in recent days has reported that four Arab-language media outlets have been forced from the city of Fallujah by Anti-Iraqi Forces.

According to Quds, Al-Arabiya, Middle East Broadcasting Company, Lebanese Broadcasting Company and Al-Iraqiyah television were forced from Fallujah by Anti-Iraqi Forces because they were accused of providing biased coverage to Coalition forces by refusing to air insurgent stock footage of alleged civilian casualties. In discussions with Coalition officials, reporters from both Al Arabiya and MBC acknowledged threats to correspondents and indicated that some correspondents had withdrawn from Fallujah for their own safety and were reporting via phone from outside the city.

Saturday, seven people were killed and 19 wounded when a car bomb exploded outside the Baghdad offices of Al-Arabiya, the Dubai-based TV network. A web post claimed responsibility for the bombing on the Al-Izah bulletin board (http://www.alezah.com) in the name of the ‘1920 Revolution Brigades’, and another post to the Arab Dialogue Forum (http://www.hdrmut.net/vb) claimed the attack on behalf of the Jihad Martyrs Companies in Iraq.

Shootings, abductions and other acts of intimidation by Iraqi insurgents have made it difficult for journalists to operate and report freely.

Jeff, I know my history far better than you ever will.

Since you do not know me, (and I do not know you), that's a fairly bomblastic and presumptuous statement.

We can just indicate this...we disagree on the historical front. I am not about to say I either do or do not know it better than you. You can point to all the rags you want on a wall...but that means little. In far too many instances BS means exactly what is says, MS means more of the same and PHD means piled higher and deeper.

I do not know how you spend your time and to what level you dig, and delve into historical issues...and you certainly do not know to what degree I do.

We'd best leave at that and understand that even a massive amount of reading is going to be subject to our own interpretation and feeling on the matter.

As regard Black Jack Pershing...

In the "Black Jack: The Life and Times of John J. Pershing" by Frank E. Vandiver, and in the 1938 book, "Jungle Patrol", those authors provide quite a bit of ancedotal evidence that Pershing and others in that campaign handled the muslims just that way.

The stories regarding it are persistant and the ancedotal accounts and evidence agree that is happened. I believe it did.

As it stands, the more I hear of the plan of the assault on Fallujah, the more I believe it is closer tyo what I propose. They apparently are going in behind massive bombing and artillery barages with orders to shoot to kill anyone with a weapon and anyone driving. They are apparently going to immediately level any building they take fire from.

In my estimation they would do better to save the trouble and threat to our people and level it from the get go. Others may disagree and that's fine. But that's how I see it.

". . . As it stands, the more I hear of the plan of the assault on Fallujah, the more I believe it is closer tyo what I propose. They apparently are going in behind massive bombing and artillery barages with orders to shoot to kill anyone with a weapon and anyone driving. They are apparently going to immediately level any building they take fire from. . . ."

Yes they are. And I am fully in support of that action. But dropping pig's blood on Muslims? That's ridiculous. And I thank God that the U.S. is going to do no such thing.

And as for Frank Vandiver, I took his "Military Biography" graduate seminar at Texas A&M. He is a remarkable man and an extremely accomplished historian. I assure you I am quite familiar with his work.

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