***Operation Iraqi Freedom - Situation Room - 24 APR 03/Day 36 - LIVE THREAD***

24 APR 03 | An.American.Expatriate

[Mo1]

Operation Iraqi Freedom

Link to the previous thread

Good Morning.

This is the Daily Thread of Operation Iraqi Freedom - Situation Room - LIVE THREAD.

It is designed for general conversation about the events of the day. In depth discussion of events should be left to individual threads - but links to the threads or other articles is highly encouraged. This allows us to stay abreast of the situation in general, while also providing a means of obtaining specific information.

[TexKat]

Uh, was Garner done or did all the stations switch to something else? I never left my seat and both Fox and MSNBC went to something else.

[DollyCali]

How simply wonderful that this man will give a dumb question an appropriate response!

I have a feeling that Brooks told them to start up on the right footing..

Hopefully, No More Mr Nice Guy... and we will have more useful press briefings

FReep mail back to you

[Timeout]

Geeeeez Louise, more shockers this morning.

File these in the "Dems are For Sale" folder (also see #167 above).

Chuckie Shumer took a $47,000 contribution from "employees" of a private security firm just two months before sponsoring legislation on their behalf.
http://nypost.com/news/regionalnews/74251.htm

And, in Brookly, the feds have nabbed a whole gang of senior judges and their staff who were taking HUGH bribes to fix cases. (This one is really revolting....divorce cases were being fixed.) And I'll bet your they weren't Republicans!
http://nypost.com/news/regionalnews/74251.htm

[DollyCali]

Yes, the Stupid Question response to reporter was based on question that the US would be running whole show & not have any Iraqi's in charge of key things, running committees, depts etc.

[DollyCali]

Morning BeforrISleep....... your handle is my reality today.

No shut eye for 40 hours.... need to catch some Zzsss soon.

[Ragtime Cowgirl]

Iraqi Reconstruction Director Jay Garner, first press conference in Baghdad, Apr. 24, 2003:

 

Ret. General Jay Garner and Maj. Gen. Tim Cross (Ret) British Army:

 

Gives brief recap of his movements. "We arrived here Mon. Spent Mon. in Baghdad"..(too fast)

 

Lists staff: "I have a coordinator for Civil Administration, a coordinator for Humanitarian Affairs, coordinator for Reconstruction, coordin. in the north who is in Urbil, in the south...in Umm Qasr -> moving north., Chief of Staff, Dept for Policy..." etc..

 

Questions:

 

Maj. Gen. Tim Cross (Ret) British Army, reassures press the US isn't doing this alone, along with him there are ...."2 other int'l officers..one from Japan, and one from Australia...will be joined by others later on." ( MG Cross's job is to internationalize the agency.)

 

JG: "I don't have a calendar for the length of time. We'll do it as fast as we can....I think you'll start to see the governmental process next week...and it will have Iraqi faces on it"..."As we start the reconstruction effort, when the Iraqis are ready to accept the leadsership, we'll turn it over to them - there' s no doubt of that."

 

JG: "We want to reopen the ministries next week...we have a coordinator for each ministry.".."If they have no furniture...we'll buy the furniture"..."It's very important that people start back to work...it's a good plan."

 

TC: "We are trying to int'l that, we're trying to int'l the teams that will work with the ministers..."No one's going to run the ministries, but the Iraqis themselves. We need to be absolutely clear about this."

 

Re. how to know who's trustworthy to hire - JG: "We need to do some vetting...we have a data base."

 

"That's the most rediculous thing I've ever heard in my life." JG to a question I couldn't hear.

 

Re. oil: (General I didn't catch the name ):- "Oil is flowing in the south 175,000 barrels a day to the refinery in Basrah..and to the power plants in area...strictly for domestic...not export"...Also anticipate (more oil from north....and natural gas - sorry, see transcript)..

 

Re. money from the oil: JG: "They (the President, etc.) have been very emphatic that the oil for Iraq is for the people of Iraq." "Once sanctions have been lifted "..(oil will be sold... money will be for the Iraqi people)...

 

FoxNews left...turned to MSNBC:

 

TC: "Quite  a lot of the stuff remains in Baghdad...one of the things we're going to do is find it." (re. looting of museum).

 

JG: "If those people who have the artifacts....(we've announced, or are announcing..) "if they bring them back there will be no repercussions.".

 

Re. JG's praise for the Kurds the other day (upsetting the Turks) - JG: "What I said is that in the 12 years since we've provided security up there and liberated the Kurds...that the Kurds have done  a great job of (bringing a growing economy, parliament)..."I said that what they've done there could be a model for the rest of the country"...that up in the north...they can help by what they did - bringing Iraq back to the Dem. process.."

 

MSNBC cuts away -

NO ONE IS showing this (~7:15 EST) - FoxNews, MSNBC, CNN, C-Span and every other broadcast news network chooses not to show the American people this historic first press conference w/ the reconstruction team in Baghdad.

[Carolina]

MSNBC White House reporter just used the hated "trying" word again.

Well, these mediots are trying my patience. Journalism school must've killed their imagination.

Anyway, they have love their buzzwords. Remember gravitas?

[Carolina]

NO ONE IS showing this (~7:15 EST) - FoxNews, MSNBC, CNN, C-Span and every other broadcast news network chooses not to show the American people this historic first press conference w/ the reconstruction team in Baghdad.

Isn't that amazing? The press harped for 3 weeks about "winning hearts and minds" and "winning the peace" and now that the actual process has started AND PROGRESS IS BEING MADE, where are the presstitutes?

[Timeout]

Oooooo! MP George Galloway has responded in The Independent (U.K.) to charges he took Iraqi oil-for-food money.

Like other lefties, he's so blinded by his hate for the west and Israel that his screed reveals his true sentiments.

First he cites support from, of all people, that known Saddam-loving, America-hating, former Dem Whip David Bonior!

Then he refers to the Daily Telegraph, which revealed his perfidy, as "the right-wing pro-Zionist Daily Telegraph".

He closes with this:

"My only regret is that, in the end, we failed to halt the slaughter – to stop the opening of the gates of hell, as the Arab League secretary general Amr Moussa memorably put it. Many interests and many lives are going to be scorched in the fire that is coming. And it is going to spread far and wide." (he hopes)

Read it and note that he never says that one dime of his "charity" funds was spent on the children of Iraq...he talks about buying that stupid double-decker bus. Oh yeah, THAT helped a lot of kids. LOL!

http://argument.independent.co.uk/commentators/story.jsp?story=399799

[DollyCali]

I would like to suggest (lovingly) a change to your handle.

Ragtime Cowgirl

becomes

Awesome Ragtime Cowgirl

Thanks for synopsis

[Carolina]

[Galloway]: And what happened to the proceeds? In other words, where is the money? From whom did I buy the food that I allegedly sold to Iraq? Which food? When? Where?

George, George, George. That's a pretty sophomoric argument there.

[SoldiersGirl]

Good morning all
200 posts at 7 am, have I missed news? Or is it still just a whine-off between France and Peterson?

[Miss Marple]

What a dweeb. I am certain that Blair is going to find that money, and I will bet any amount that it wasn't spent to buy food for Iraqis. That is NOT the accusation!

[SoldiersGirl]

http://www.afapetitions.com/signpetition.asp?id=1010

On Friday, May 16, American Family Association (AFA) will deliver the world's biggest Thank You Card to each of these brave troops. We would like your signature to be on it.


I'm usually suspicious about things like these, but on the off chance it's legit, I signed anyhow.

[Dog]

Morning Jane!

Morning everyone.......keep Scott Speicher in your thoughts and prayers..

[TexKat]

Hoon downplays need for Blix

[Carolina]

Morning everyone.......keep Scott Speicher in your thoughts and prayers..

Morning, Dog. It would be an awesome miracle to find him.

[mhking]

Good morning, Michael. How's the search coming along?

Slow but sure...starting to plod along, rather. I had a THIRD interview with one company last week, but I've heard nothing on it one way or the other yet. [sigh]

[CurlyBill]

That would be unbelievable ... I just hope they didn't decide to do away with him before the war knowing that he might be found.

Also, it would be a bittersweet situation. Scott Speicher would come home and find out that his wife had remarried because she thought he was dead.

[mhking]

NO ONE IS showing this (~7:15 EST) - FoxNews, MSNBC, CNN, C-Span and every other broadcast news network chooses not to show the American people this historic first press conference w/ the reconstruction team in Baghdad.

FNC ran with it for about 15 mins; then bailed.