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Whew - LORDY!
1 posted on 04/08/2003 7:47:58 AM PDT by Happy2BMe
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To: Happy2BMe

Buildings in the al-Mansour neighborhood of Baghdad lie in ruins Monday after the U.S. airstrike.


2 posted on 04/08/2003 7:50:22 AM PDT by Happy2BMe (HOLLYWOOD:Ask not what U can do for your country, ask what U can do for Iraq!)
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To: Happy2BMe
Watch the Abu-Dhabi film of the target...there is a fat man who is running towards the scene crying and then hugs another man in obvious sadness. Now it could be his 16 yr old pregnant wife was in there but this fat man look astonishingly like the fat man in the Saddam Walk-about. If you see both videos, you will see what I mean.
3 posted on 04/08/2003 7:53:09 AM PDT by smith288 (Visit my gallery http://www.ejsmithweb.com/fr/hollywood/hollywood.php)
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To: Happy2BMe
We'll know - when there are no more telephone calls originating from the phones known to be used by Saddam & Company.
4 posted on 04/08/2003 7:53:18 AM PDT by alloysteel
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To: Happy2BMe
April 8 — As U.S. officials tried to determine whether Saddam Hussein survived a massive bombing in Baghdad, the battle for control of the Iraqi capital raged Tuesday with American forces blasting government targets and foiling an apparent Iraqi counterattack. A U.S. warplane dropped four bunker-buster bombs and blasted a smoking crater 60 feet deep at a building Monday in the capital where U.S. officials believed the Iraqi president was meeting with at least one of his sons and other members of his inner circle.

PRESIDENT BUSH said he didn’t know whether Saddam was alive after a thunderous explosion rocked the upscale al-Mansour neighborhood of Baghdad.

“I don’t know whether he survived,” the president said. “The only thing I know is that he’s losing power,” Bush said at a news conference with British Prime Minister Tony Blair after a meeting at Hillsborough Castle outside Belfast.

And despite suspicions at the Pentagon that Saddam may have been killed, there were no signs of any unusual security measures at the site Tuesday. A reporter had no problem examining it, watching the rescue operation or speaking to neighbors.

The daylight airstrike by a single B-1B bomber broke windows and doors up to 300 yards away, ripped orange trees out by the roots, hurled steel beams 100 yards and left a heap of broken concrete, mangled iron rods and shredded furniture and clothes.

Iraqi rescue workers using a bulldozer to search the rubble said that three bodies had been recovered — those of a small boy, a young woman and an elderly man — and that the death toll could be as high as 14.
“At this point in time, I’m not aware of anyone from coalition forces that have walked the site,” said Brig. Gen. Vincent Brooks at U.S. Central Command in Doha, Qatar.

“When that’s possible, we’ll have more information about what exactly happened there,” Brooks said at a news briefing Tuesday. “Until then, we can only go with things we can gain information on. And we believe the strike was effective in hitting the target, creating the desired effect, but we don’t know all the circumstances of what happened to those who were contained inside.”

Brooks said it will take some time and perhaps detailed forensic work to establish who was killed.

“There’s lots of digging and DNA tests involved,” a U.S. official told the Associated Press, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Separately, NBC’s Andrea Mitchell reported that the investigation could be hampered because U.S. officials do not possess Saddam’s DNA.

2ND ATTEMPT
Iraqi Information Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf, speaking to reporters Tuesday, made no mention of Saddam’s fate, and rejected any suggestion that Iraq would surrender to American forces drawing a noose around the regime. “They will be burnt. We are going to tackle them,” he said.

U.S. intelligence sources told NBC that the Pentagon was confident that Saddam and his sons were in the building before it was bombed. The information was considered so reliable that it justified a massive attack in a residential area despite the administration’s emphasis on avoiding civilian casualties, they said.

A U.S. official told the Associated Press that Saddam was known to frequent the building, apparently because he thought coalition forces would not target him so close to a civilian center.

Those close to Saddam have said the Iraqi leader is so obsessed with security that very few people would know about his movements. He maintains dozens of residences and uses doubles to keep people guessing.

Coalition strikes have aimed at top Iraqi leaders from the very start of the war.

On March 20, the opening night of the war, President Bush authorized a strike on a suburban Baghdad compound where Saddam and his sons were thought to be staying. But U.S. intelligence officials suspect he survived.

URBAN WARFARE
Tuesday, U.S. forces set up a base in Baghdad as they stepped up their efforts to stamp out Iraqi resistance and extend American control of the city of 5 million people.

Some Iraqi forces staged a counterattack after dawn, sending fighters to overrun U.S. forces holding a strategic intersection. U.S. troops strafed the Iraqis from planes overhead and with mortar and artillery fire.

Within an hour, U.S. tanks retook the intersection. At least 50 Iraqi fighters were killed, and two U.S. soldiers were reported wounded, one seriously, by snipers on rooftops, military officials said.

Col. David Perkins of the 3rd Infantry Division said about 500 Iraqi forces took part in the counterattack. They were a combination of special Republican Guard, Fedayeen and Baath Party loyalists — “a lot of civilian-dressed fighters,” he said.
8 posted on 04/08/2003 8:01:53 AM PDT by sharktrager
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To: Happy2BMe
Just pave over the crater and call it "The Tomb of the Unknown Tyrants."
38 posted on 04/08/2003 8:33:48 AM PDT by The_Victor
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To: Happy2BMe
JDAM - Made in America, tested in Iraq.

http://www.AmericanOwned.com
39 posted on 04/08/2003 8:37:07 AM PDT by americanowned_com
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To: Happy2BMe
Saddam is a savvy survivor. The Iraqis are not that stupid. They know very well by now that we can find and target them very quickly.

While I really hope 60 of them were just sitting there dining out waiting to be bombed, I think there are other possiblities.

I have not seen this mentioned as a possibility , but what if that restaurant just had a concealed entrance to an underground tunnel complex leading to a distant bunker that has its own second exit?

Whatever leaders entered the restaurant would just be laughing their asses off.

40 posted on 04/08/2003 8:38:16 AM PDT by S.O.L.
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To: Happy2BMe
Saddam will keep "getting targeted" as long as there are buildings and people that need to be blown to smithereens.

I think Hillary and John Kerry are penciled in for lunch with him today.

52 posted on 04/08/2003 8:53:15 AM PDT by Dr. Eckleburg (There are very few shades of gray.)
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To: Happy2BMe
I don't mind this, but at the start of the war we heard the same thing...Saddam and his Sons were at a building. It would be nice if we got them, however.
74 posted on 04/08/2003 10:09:08 AM PDT by rs79bm
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To: Happy2BMe
1. It is hard to believe he'd be so stupid as to be seen going in somewhere in broad daylight and then staying there for over an hour. It was probably just an entrance point for a tunnel.

2. If a guy resembling Saddam was seen going in, then it almost certainly was a double and not Saddam, because he is probably going around in complete disquise. (Wouldn't you?)

3. If we picked up his voice, it was probably another Bin Laden/Tora Bora ruse, i.e. some sap was sent there to play a recording of Saddam's voice as either (a.) a decoy maneuver so he could escape the city from elsewhere, or (b.) a means of determing whether his communciation system had been compromised.

In any event, we did the right thing, bombing the crap out of it.

79 posted on 04/08/2003 1:21:24 PM PDT by Goodman26
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To: Happy2BMe
As Cody, a young Marine in the First Division says, "Kill'em all" by Metallica.
88 posted on 04/08/2003 5:53:44 PM PDT by jwalsh07
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To: Happy2BMe; ConservativeMan55; sharktrager; Salvation; Coop
Report of John Loftus
WABC radio:

'Retired' Russian generals Atelov and Matsov
have been in charge of Iraqi command and control.
That is why no communications
from Iraqi command and control have been intercepted
since the start of the war.
The Russians have been directing everything.

The Russian convoy headed for Syria
with the Russian ambassador
was shot up
(30 minute gunfight)
because the secret communications equipment
was being taken out.
This equipment uses encryption
that connects with the Russian equivalent
of NSA.

When asked whether US forces seized any equipment
John Loftus said: "No comment".

With regard to the latest bomb on Saddam
Loftus said it was a 'sting' operation
again carried out by a Russian advisor.
Iraqis were attempting to see
if the US could intercept their underground communications
so they played an old tape
with Saddam arranging with his sons
to meet at a restaurant.

The US fell for the sting
and bombed the restaurant.

(The possibility of a 'sting'
apparently has been mentioned on Fox)

Loftus still maintains Saddam was killed
on the first night.

91 posted on 04/08/2003 8:18:46 PM PDT by Allan
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To: Happy2BMe

Will The REAL Saddam Hussein, Please Stand-up!


95 posted on 04/10/2003 5:39:59 AM PDT by TaRaRaBoomDeAyGoreLostToday!
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To: Happy2BMe
How are little miss muffet and Saddam alike? They both have kurds in their way.
96 posted on 04/14/2003 7:38:31 PM PDT by Frapster (*cough*)
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