"HUMAN SHIELDS" NOW ATTEMPTING TO FLEE BAGHDAD (GREAT READ!) From Australia

The Australian Age (Australia) ^ | 1 April 2003 | The Australian Age (Australia)

[AmericanInTokyo]

"Human Shields Flee Baghdad"

Tuesday 1 April 2003, 8:05 AM

Australian human shield Donna Mulhearn has fled Baghdad for Amman before what is expected to be a bloody battle for the capital.

The 34-year-old said she and five other people arrived in Jordan on Sunday night, after paying a driver the equivalent of $A1,250 to drive them out of Iraq.

She said the trip would normally cost less than $A16.71 on a bus.

Ms Mulhearn said she met Australian SAS soldiers about 200km west of Baghdad at a roadblock, describing them as professional.

"I was actually quite relieved when I saw they were Australians," she told the Nine Network. Ms Mulhearn said her main reason for leaving Iraq was to avoid chaos and possibly civil strife when coalition troops arrived.

"... the human shields started to discuss what would happen when, or if, the American troops came into Baghdad and a ground war began," she said.

"We were unsure of what our status would be in that situation and we were unsure of how the coalition troops would see us, and how they would treat us, and what they would do with us.

"So in order to avoid any type of confrontation we decided it was best to leave before we met them."

Ms Mulhearn said Baghdad was covered in thick black smoke, its streets deserted and government buildings destroyed. "The feeling is getting more tense by the day," she said. "The Iraqi people are starting to get quite fed up and quite angry with the coalition forces because these ordinary Iraqi families just want to get on with their lives in peace."

[AmericanInTokyo]

Nope. This is not an "April Fools Joke".

I think the real reason is they are starting to suspect that if the Iraq government does not 'off' them for the propaganda war, they will be torn to bits by the Iraqi citizens when they are finally liberated and the "Stockholm Syndrome" that they have under years of terrorist dictatorship, starts to wear off, and they figure out who their 'real protectors' were all along.

[SAMWolf]

Gee, I hope they don't try to run any roadblocks.

[pgyanke]

Boy, talk about the power of your convictions! I'm impressed! [/sarcasm]

[anymouse]

Darwin's road rally. Last dweep out of Baghdad is a goner. :)

[jwalburg]

Too late: human shields shot

[Bahbah]

"I was actually quite relieved when I saw they were Australians,"
as opposed to, I suppose, those savage Americans. LOL. What a dope.

[WaveThatFlag]

"The Iraqi people are starting to get quite fed up and quite angry with the coalition forces because these ordinary Iraqi families just want to get on with their lives in peace."

In that case, they know just what they have to do...

[Lowcountry]

Looks like "Shock and Awe" is working.....

[AmericanInTokyo]

According to Senator Graham of South Carolina, who is hot on this issue, they would be arrested and taken back to the United States either as enemy combatants or as war criminals. I am sure that movement may have also affected their dwindling ranks.

They haven't an ounce of conviction. They all said they would be willing to die for the Iraqi people.

A few MOABS, assorted precision guided missiles and GBU bunker busters sent to the Ba'athists must have changed their minds.

I still think US Embassy personnel from Amman should greet them at the Iraq/Jordan border, and take then into custody and turn them over to the FBI for war crimes and sedition. Perphaps Senator Graham and others will stay on top of this one.

[pgyanke]

Hear, hear!

[wideawake]

Good points. I'll bang out an email to Senator Graham.

[demnomo]

Yup. These useful idiots ain't afraid of what the Coalition forces "may do to them." They have far greater worries. Like getting stoned by the Iraqi people that they were supposed to "protect." A few weeks in Ba'athist "paradise" has wised them up a bit and I'll bet that they are far more afraid of what the soon-to-be liberated Iraqi people may do to "friends" and "coddlers" of the former brutal regime.

More than a few FReepers have predicted this. On a related note, one of the "Human Shields" (an assyrian Pastor, I believe) who finally saw the light had escaped earlier with smuggled video interviews of oppressed Iraqi people. He will be on 20/20 this week with Barbra Walters to talk about the evil Iraqi government and how he was terribly wrong about opposing this war. Must see TV.

[fml]

"The Iraqi people are starting to get quite fed up and quite angry with the coalition forces because these ordinary Iraqi families just want to get on with their lives in peace."
______________________________

Brave talk from someone running the other way.

[Grampa Dave]

Hopefully, they will be captured by Kurds or some other group of Free Iraqis.

Then they can have a quick trial and convict these clymers of aiding and abetting the War Criminals of Soddomite.

Then they can administer justice and put their stinking heads on pikes.

That might serve as a warning to left wing lunatics who might rush to the next Axis of Evil country.

[Sam Cree]

"they are starting to suspect that if the Iraq government does not 'off' them for the propaganda war, they will be torn to bits by the Iraqi citizens"

Yep

[7 x 77]

He will be on 20/20 this week with Barbra Walters to talk about the evil Iraqi government and how he was terribly wrong about opposing this war. Must see TV.

What's Barbara's angle? Is she pulling a Geraldo and jumping on the patriotic, ratings bandwagon?

[AmericanInTokyo]

Go for it. Keep us informed re: your contact with Senator Graham's office.

Try to call D.C. first and get the name of Sen. Graham's 'legislative assistant' for this issue and directly address it to him or her (so your comments do not get mixed in with all the other constituent mail with requests for Capitol tour or lost VA checks).

While the story here is about an Australian, I am all for US officials in the Middle East detaining and repatriating to US law enforcement any Americans, so-called human shield activists, coming out of there now, particularly any who made anti-US statements on Iraqi TV or otherwise demonstrated against the Coalition in favor of the Ba'athists. They can be tried for sedition if not war crimes and dealt heavy penalties.

[AmericanInTokyo]

Believe it or not, I personally met several times that particular 'human shield' ("former shield", I should say; Ken Joseph was open-minded while in Iraq and was disturbed when really talking with the people unofficially/clandestinely instead of arrogantly assuming what was good for them as a do-good western visitor); he is a resident of Tokyo, Japan and has actually done a lot of good things in the past, humanitarian. He is pretty 'apolitical'. Hoping to find out when that segment airs this week!

[demnomo]

What's Barbara's angle? Is she pulling a Geraldo and jumping on the patriotic, ratings bandwagon?

I dunno. Maybe she will end the interview and video clips with a remark about the guy possibly being a CIA propaganda plant.

Or, maybe, just, maybe, Baba Wawa sees the reality of the situation. Oh, not the "reality" of the barbarism and evil of Saddam and his rule; but the real "reality" that she and her kind can relate to...ratings.

[bmwcyle]

Blind and stupid in no way to go through life. What hole did they come from?