Posted on 03/23/2003 4:38:21 AM PST by yatros from flatwater
CAMP PENNSYLVANIA, Kuwait -- A U.S. soldier was being held early today in connection with a grenade attack on the 101st Airborne Division's infantry brigade. The attack killed one and injured about 15 soldiers.
Eleven of the victims were airlifted to the combat support hospital in nearby Camp Udairi.
The sergeant, whose identity has not been released, was himself wounded either before or during his capture, Army officials said. Early this morning (late Saturday night in Florida), the sergeant was being questioned along with two Middle Eastern civilians, Army officials said. Authorities declined to say whether the two civilians were suspects.
Meanwhile, scouts scoured the desert on foot and in trucks for interlopers, and soldiers remained at high alert.
The attack is believed to be the first successful terrorist attack at the string of U.S. military camps along the Kuwaiti-Iraqi border since troops began arriving last fall.
The sergeant is with the engineering unit attached to the 2nd Battalion of the 327th infantry, commanders said.
"We think he's one of the guys," Maj. Pete Rooks said.
He appeared to have been shot in the legs during or before his capture.
The sergeant, an American and a practicing Muslim, had been guarding grenades during the midnight shift. He came under suspicion soon after the attack, when he -- and four grenades -- were missing.
By dawn today, the sergeant was being held in a Humvee about 100 yards from the tents he was suspected of attacking.
Many of the 4,000 infantrymen and support staff here were roused just before 1:30 a.m. by a deep, concussive blast.
Three grenades were thrown into tents at headquarters, and a fourth was rolled into the tent of brigade commander, Col. Ben Hodges. That grenade did not detonate. Hodges was struck by shrapnel in his right arm, but was later treated and returned to duty.
A smattering of small-arms fire followed the grenade blasts.
Camp guards rousted their colleagues, screaming that they were under attack.
At the cluster of tents in the 2nd Battalion, soldiers raced to a bunker and donned their gas masks, thinking the camp was under attack by mortar fire or other missiles.
A radioman in the bunker received a report, then shouted, "There's enemy in the camp! There's enemy in the camp!"
The camp was pitch dark at the time of the attack, and many soldiers did not have their night-vision goggles. They were scattered around the camp in concrete bunkers and had no clue from which way the enemy might be coming.
Soon squads of soldiers throughout the camp quietly began going tent to tent, their rifle barrels straight ahead, looking for anyone who might have sneaked inside to hide.
Commanders have long warned that terrorism was the biggest threat to U.S. forces massing at the camps for an invasion of Iraq, and the Army has taken steps to prevent such incidents.
All entrances to the six Army camps, Pennsylvania, Udairi, New Jersey, New York, Virginia and Victory, are aggressively guarded and patrolled. Towers also are posted at and between each corner of the sand berm around the camps.
(Excerpt) Read more at sptimes.com ...
The original CBS report had him being a "Black Muslim", but that has since been edited out of the CBS site. Now he's just a "digruntled soldier"
I'm sure it's just a coincidence.
Exactly.
Discounted by 'Socal Actions" or whatever the 2003 PC version of that crap is. Brace yourself, there will be more of this, if it isn't wide spread already. Notice how the newsguy in the line of fire was a lot more willing to tell the unspun truth? Maybe having them embedded, taking actual risks, is a good idea. "Gee, that guy just tried to blow me up, but, but I'm a reporter", "Can they do that?"
It was not mentioned.
Its been heard on MSNBC, so NBC definitely knows. I believe Time's online stories have reported it. You could hear Lacey stumbling, trying to figure a way to talk around the stories most salient point! Sounded like he'd been told not to mention it.
Political correctness kills. Blatant bias. NBC should be ashamed.
....to top it off, in their next segment, Lauer tried to embarrass former Iraq inspector, Richard Butler because no WMD's have been found yet. Butler shut him down, with a 'wait til we get to Baghdad/Tikrit.'
Man, oh man, have you got that right. He did his cause no good, and great harm. Imagine the suspicions now cast on perhaps all blacks serving. If it's me, I'd be very careful about who 'had my back.'
Is a 'black muslim' a 'black muslim' (IOW, a member of Farrakhan's cult, or someother bizarre offshoot of Islam considered heretical by mainstream Muslims, shia or sunni )? . Or is he a 'black muslim', (IOW, a black man who converted to Islam)?
Hopefully, once the media clarifies whether he belongs to a mainstream Muslim sect, or a cult like NOI or the one percenters or whatever, they'll begin reporting this.
If they do not, then this calls for massive complaints to any and all media outlets not giving us the full truth.
I think we have all come to terms with the Two Forms of APB
If it's a white perp, it's "white male, age 25-30, blond hair, hazel eyes, approx 200 lbs and 6'-6' 2" tall, wearing denim jeans and a white t shirt".
If it's a black perp, it's "a 6 foot male wearing blue jeans and a white t shirt".
All this attempt at 'not stereotyping black people' (which is why this nonsense began in the early 1990s, after demands to do so were made upon the national media by 'black activists' and protesters ; I remember those protests) has only led us to the point where, when a perp isn't described, everyone just assumes he's black. IOW, it's made the 'stereotyping' problem worse, rather than eliminating it.
And we've had to come to terms with the fact that only some crimes are worthy of nationwide attention:
Two straight men beat a gay man and leave him for dead in WY...that requires worldwide media exposure.
But two black guys torturing four white people, inflicting on them gratuitous humiliations like something out of a demented XXX film...that gets the local press, and not even the front pages (per freepers living in KS).
A truckload of white guys drags a black guy to his death in TX, that gets worldwide attention.
A carload of black guys deliberately runs down a white guy and kills him (also in TX), that gets a day or two of local press, a sheriff assuring everyone that there's 'no racial motivation', and media snickering over the victim's name and the fact that he lives in a trailer. (Ditto the homeless guy who wound up bleeding to death in Chante Mallard's windshield.)
And the Seattle mardi gras strippings, assaults, and murder...And the Cincinatti riots...and the Virginia assaults...And the rape/torture of Jesse Dirkheissing...etc.
But there's a difference between not reporting something at all, and reporting something dishonestly. I think a line was crossed in much of the DC sniper reporting, and if the media tries to conceal religion in this instance, they will be crossing that line between obscuring the news, and dishonestly reporting it.
They need to hear complaints if they do this, and they need to be reminded-once again-that they can no longer lie to us. Thanks to the internet, the day themedia could control what we know, and how much we know, is over FOREVER. If the media tries to'kill' a horrific crime (like the Wichita Horror) then locals with internet access will see to it that the news gets out. Media blackouts no longer work....I wonder why reporters on abc-cbs-nbc-cnn-et al can't understand this.
It wasn't discounted entirely---earlier reports said he was reprimanded and a decision was made not to include him when the troops advanced into Iraq. ~~~ But, who would have though he'd turn on his own.
Hang him.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.