Posted on 04/26/2003 12:10:12 AM PDT by tgslTakoma
ZAAFARANIYA, Iraq (Reuters) - Attackers fired flares into an arms dump near Baghdad on Saturday, setting off a huge chain of explosions that wounded a U.S. soldier and also caused civilian Iraqi casualties, a U.S. officer said.
"Hostile forces fired four flares into an ammunition storage area. One of the flares ignited an explosion and that set off a chain of explosions," Captain Patrick Sullivan told Reuters at the scene at Zaafaraniya, on the outskirts of the capital.
Reuters photographer Yannis Behrakis, at the scene, said it appeared there had been considerable civilian casualties: "There's a panic here among local residents," he said.
Sullivan said the U.S. soldier was only slightly hurt and that it was not immediately clear how serious the civilian casualties were. U.S. troops blocked the road leading to the ammunition storage area.
Just after 8 a.m. local time, loud explosions were heard in central Baghdad, coming from the outskirts of the capital. They went on for at least an hour.
U.S. soldiers in the city center had earlier said the blasts were controlled detonations at an arms dump.
U.S. forces have destroyed large quantities of Iraqi munitions since taking the capital city on April 9.
"Intellectual activity is a danger to the building of character."
Joseph Goebbels (1897-1945)
I am so angry at CNN I could spit. I watched their "report" on this tragedy. It is infuriating.
They started out by telling us how the Iraqis are "furious at the Americans, and that Iraqis had warned the US troops days ago the ammo dump was in a residential area."
Then they showed an Iraqi man screaming (IN ENGLISH) that it was the Americans fault this thing blew up.
Only later did they show an American soldier say the Iraqis fired a flare at the ammo dump, and CNN reported it in such a way as to frame the Americans as being deceptive.
It has been 2 days since CNN founder Ted Turner labled Robert Murdoch as a "war mongerer." I think it is high time to label CNN and their employees as propganda criminals in league with mayhem, terror, and war crimes. By CNN's own admission, they have been in complicity with Saddam's reign of terror for over a decade. To enable the terrorists who ignited this ammo dump (that injured killed innocent children) is akin to complicity in the crime itself.
CNN has already show it's true colors. We cannot depend on the UN or the Hague to hold these people accountable. The US and British should ban CNN from Iraq--the grounds being they are enablers to terrorists in their propaganda war--which is outside their rights as journalists and against the Geneva Convention and the Internatioal Code of the Law of Armed Conflict (LOAC). The Coalition of the Willing should set the example that if you are there to propagandize for terrorists--you will be exposed and punished.
I have a question for you. Do you think it is feasable, with this new development, to have enough Probable Cause to arrest Ted Turner for War Crimes??.... [HUGE Evil Vietnam Vet Grin] It should also be, in the scheme of things, time to knock 'ol Hanoi Jane off the pedestal as well.arrest her too..would have been a LONG time coming, but oh so satisfying.
Keep the Faith for Freedom
Greg
Don't lump them all together. Most of these loud ones are foreign agents. The noisy demonstrating ones are on their own campaign to destabilize the region and institute their own version of utopia. They are taking advantage of the situation whenever possible and sound exactly like the "No Blood for Oil" crowd over here. They are there and have nothing better to do. Either arrest them all or accept their presence at every photo op.
Here is one suggestion: have the Pentagon's ace spokesperson (Torrie Clark) thrown down the gauntlet to CNN on camera, and challenge them about what they are doing. These bastards are still trying to SPIN SPIN SPIN their way out of the Eason Jordan fiasco. They are on their heels more than even they realize.
I say go after the cowards...I predict they will exhibit as much testicular fortitude as Tariq Aziz.
Watching the events unfold on FOX News would be uplifting.
Greg
"We're overwhelmed with information," says one Pentagon official. "It's going to take a long time to go through it all."
That process is just now beginning--a fact that is surely rattling nerves around the world.
IRAQ IS WINNING the battles in the propaganda war with a modest media strategy, despite a multi-million dollar U.S. campaign featuring painstakingly choreographed briefings and Hollywood-style sets. Undeterred by America's elaborate media plan, Iraq is making its mark on the airwaves with its decidedly basic approach, media pundits say, and list their latest claims of conquest, sometimes wielding chrome-plated Kalashnikovs. Unlike America and its allies, theirs is a simple message delivered directly: "We will defeat the infidel invaders."
This article details how journalists and editors around the world were bribed by Saddam and his regimefor years---with cars, cash, gifts, and blackmail. In regards to this barbaric regime that has tortured thousands and murdered millions, it is time to get the truth about what CNN and other media knew, and when they knew it.
Greg
Good thing there's no snow on the ground in Baghdad.
Iraqi militants fire flares into an Iraqi military ammunition dump resulting in the death of some Iraqi civilians.
And it is the U.S. military's fault?
What do you expect from people who just had their friends, family members and neighbors blown up?...do you expect them to be reasonable and rational about the big picture about how their country is really much better off now?
The Americans are the only authority in the country now...it should be no surprise that they catch blame for something like this.
In any case...outside of the locals who were personally affected by this tragedy....the military says most Iraqis know they are there to help and are grateful.
Flare gets down in a pile of those and things are gonna start to cook off......the rest is iceing on the cake per se !
Just My SWAG from the recliner of course !!.........
Stay Safe !
Sun Apr 27,10:13 AM ET | 14 of 348 |
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