Posted on 05/12/2003 9:19:00 PM PDT by null and void
Good Morning.
This is the Daily Thread of Operation Infinite Freedom, formerly Operation Iraqi Freedom - Situation Room - LIVE THREAD.
It is designed for general conversation about the ongoing war on terror, and the related 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.
Twelve men suspected of financing the al-Qa'eda network and recruiting terrorists in the Netherlands went on trial in Rotterdam yesterday.
The men, who were held in raids across the Netherlands last year, are accused of "helping the enemy in a time of armed conflict" - a charge not filed since the end of the Second World War.
Smoke rises from the site of an explosion in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in this image made from television Tuesday, May 13, 2003. Four explosions rocked Riyadh late Monday and early Tuesday, including a car packed with explosions that rammed into a residential compound housing westerners, injuring about 50 people, hospital and security officials said.
Blasts Kill 3 Before Powell's Saudi Visit
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia - Hours before a visit by the American secretary of state, attackers shot their way into three gated compounds housing Westerners in Saudi Arabia's capital and set off car bombs. At least three people were killed and about 60 injured, officials said.
The string of attacks occurred in quick succession Monday night, capped by a fourth explosion early Tuesday outside the headquarters of a joint U.S.-Saudi owned company in Riyadh.
SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea blamed the United States on Tuesday for the nuclear crisis on the divided Korean peninsula and said it would boost its defenses "to destroy aggressors at a single stroke."
The communist North's official KCNA news agency said in a long and detailed report over many pages the United States was chiefly to blame for derailing a decade-old North-South Korea declaration to keep their countries free of nuclear weapons.
An Iraqi soldier chants slogans during a demonstration in front of the main Presidental Palace, now a U.S. Army base, in Baghdad, Iraq, Monday May 12, 2003. Just a month after their defeat at the Americans' hands, 300 Iraqi soldiers marched on the U.S. Army's main Baghdad base to demand back pay and a future in the new Iraq. Police Rearm, Troops Protest in Baghdad
BAGHDAD, Iraq - Police packed guns again Monday for the first time since the war and unpaid Iraqi soldiers rallied angrily outside a U.S. Army base in Baghdad, a city of people outraged over crime, blackouts and lack of salaries.
Many residents have said they feel helpless over the looting, arson and general lawlessness of fellow Iraqis since the U.S.-British invasion brought down President Saddam Hussein's government last month.
Plea for Bush to keep troops on N Korean border
Roh Moo-hyun, South Korean president, will urge the US not to withdraw troops stationed along the border with North Korea when he meets president George W. Bush on Tuesday.
The US is considering re-positioning the US Army's Second Infantry Division (2ID), its main combat unit in South Korea, to the south of Seoul, the national capital that lies only 40km from the demilitarised zone.
US to confront EU on genetically modified foods
The US is set to announce on Tuesday it will file a long-anticipated case in the World Trade Organisation aimed at forcing the European Union to lift its de facto moratorium on genetically modified foods, according to administration and congressional officials.
The decision will further escalate trade tensions between the US and Europe, just days after the EU threatened to impose sanctions by the end of the year in a separate dispute over a $4bn subsidy for US exporters.
The Bush administration is coming to the view that it may not find a huge arsenal of biological or chemical weapons in Iraq, but rather the pieces of a "just-in-time delivery" system for weapons of mass destruction.
US Central Command reported yesterday that Rihab Rashid Taha, an Iraqi biological weapons expert nicknamed "Dr Germ", has turned herself over to the coalition forces. Ms Taha is expected to play a crucial role in providing much-needed information to assist the so-far fruitless search for Saddam Hussein's alleged cache of banned weapons.
Literally too tired to almost type, but tempted to see what, if any, the current poll #s are on Americans even CARING about WMD finds. Sure, a nuke with Saddam's John Hancock on it, maybe, would swing things positive, but...wasn't it 60%+ last I heard that supported Iraq action even if no WMD?
US President George W. Bush acknowledges the crowd prior to speaking at Airlite Plastics in Omaha, Nebraska
President Bush waves before boarding Air Force One Monday May 12, 2003 in Omaha, Neb.">
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