Marines in Falluja Find Rebel Leader's Arsenal, in a Mosque [massive supply dwarves 100s others]

New York Times ^ | Nov 24, 2004 | ROBERT F. WORTH

[sinanju]

"in the street outside, a ship mine stood in a puddle."

Okay. That's just odd.

Good read

____________________________________________________________

Call me insane, but I think I can guess where that ship mine came from. When I was still in the Nav I recall reading about the provenance of the mines that the Iraqis were sowing in the Straits of Hormuz during the "tanker wars" (1986-1988). Its alternatingly fascinating and ridiculous. The mines were of the simple contact variety (aka: the knobby, cable-anchored cartoon image) manufactured for the Russo-Japanese War of 1904. They passed through numerous hands over the decades. They sat in the armories of Kim Il Sung for a long time and were finally sold off as a job lot to Saddam in the eighties. The fact that these museum pieces still worked and could still wreak such havoc created a great deal of consternation and institutional soul-searching in the U.S. Navy at the time. Particularly the fact that Mr. Lehman's "500 Ship Navy" had given such short shrift to such unglamorous vessels as minesweepers.

[Billthedrill]

In the back of the compound was an ice cream truck, its sides colorfully decorated with orange, red and blue popsicles. Inside it was packed with rocket-propelled grenades and bomb-making materials.

That's a fairly normal load-out for certain sections of New York.

[denydenydeny]

the only country he had traveled to recently was Syria

How about that.

[maine-iac7]

It also sounds like we are finally fighting a war instead of being "sensitive

Maybe since Alawii gave us permission to go after the mosques, with his edict that if the rebels used them for weapons depots, they were no longer off limits - which would have been bedlam before - we can mop them up...

combined with the press maybe getting the message that we are not going to allow another debacle like the 1970's driven press-kerry-VAVW - they'd better play it a bit straighter...or we'll reduce them to non-relevency - and they go join Gore/Kerry/Clinton/Rather sipping cool-aide juleps.

[Dog]

al-Janabi bump..

[SunkenCiv]

[singing] Hi-ho, hi-ho...

[SunkenCiv]

The terrorists had to use it for bomb assembly rather than suicide bombing, because it can't be driven over three miles an hour.

[csvset]

Thanks for posting that Powerpoint. Stuff you'd never see on the Evening News.

[gbaker]

Their manic episode subsided with Kerry's defeat. They're now in a depressive cycle. Heck they probably don't view this article as good news.

[B4Ranch]

ping to the I.E.D. station and ammo dump.

[freeperfromnj]

Related article

"West said U.S. forces turned up a "cook book" with instructions on using mercury nitrate and silver nitrate and descriptions of nerve agents. He didn't elaborate."

http://www.nj.com/newsflash/international/index.ssf?/base/international-19/1101326968242180.xml&storylist=international

[weenie]

"If you were a glass merchant in this city - ," he said. The men laughed, and there was a pause. General Natonski looked up and smiled. "Who would have thought three or four weeks ago we'd be sitting in Janabi's living room?" he said."

Great insight into the state of mind of the leadership.

[maine-iac7]

Their manic episode subsided with Kerry's defeat. They're now in a depressive cycle. Heck they probably don't view this article as good news.

wouldn't it be fun - for a second or two - to be a fly on the wall at their storyboard meetings while they try to decide what stories to run and with what slant - they know it can't be the way they want anymore...but they don't want to do it straight -

what to do what to do what

[B4Ranch]

Only meanies say things like that.

[Dark Wing]

That list in and of itself is a great intelligence haul because it tells us which families to squeeze for more leads.

[thegreatbeast]

Also found in the house were files showing the names of people who had been tortured and executed for cooperating with the Americans and their allies, military officials said.

There were also more than 500 letters from the families of insurgents who had been killed or wounded, asking for compensation from Mr. Janabi, said a military translator on the scene. They included the families of fighters from Lebanon, Jordan, Yemen, Syria, Algeria, and about 100 native Fallujans.

These families should be visited wherever they be and "pacified".

[FairfaxVA]

I'd love to see the Iraqi gov't do this, but sadly I don't think it would matter. The Iraqi people listen to the clerics, and that, for the most part, spells disaster for the coalition.

[rector seal]

(There were also more than 500 letters from the families of insurgents who had been killed or wounded, asking for compensation from Mr. Janabi, said a military translator on the scene. They included the families of fighters from Lebanon, Jordan, Yemen, Syria, Algeria, and about "100 native Fallujans.")

Perhaps a few Israeli type bulldozings by the US military might get the message across to the families and future murderers.

[FairfaxVA]

I could not agree more. If they use mosques as command and control centers, then they are fair game. I can't believe how pathetic these dirtbags are...or how PC we have become, sometimes; specificaly, that we would consider not attacking a mosque because we are afraid to upset more muslims. Sheesh, I'm pretty sure that we can't possibly upset them more. I think we are at a crossroads in this war, and going "full tilt boogie" against these killers is the only option. God bless the US!

[spodefly]

Did the NYTimes screw up and actually hire an "Objective Journalist"^TM???