Posted on 06/04/2003 11:04:33 PM PDT by null and void
Good Morning.
Welcome to the daily thread of Operation Infinite Freedom - Situation Room.
It is designed for general conversation about the ongoing war on terror, and the related events of the day. Im addition to the ongoing conversations related to terrorism and our place in it's ultimate defete, this thread is a clearinghouse of links to War On Terrorism threads. This allows us to stay abreast of the situation in general, while also providing a means of obtaining specific information and mutual support.
We need to get used to this. It's going to get worse as we get closer to the election cycle. Thanks for all the great articles.
U.S. Pulling Troops From Korean DMZ
SEOUL, South Korea - The United States agreed Thursday to dismantle its bases and withdraw American troops from positions they have occupied for decades near the tense Demilitarized Zone separating South Korea from communist North Korea.
The troops will eventually be moved to "hub bases" at least 75 miles south of the Demilitarized Zone, according to a joint statement after two days of talks between U.S. and South Korean officials. Even after the redeployment, however, U.S. troops will continue to train north of Seoul and close to the DMZ, the statement said.
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U.S. Military Says Iraqi 'Chemical Ali' May Be Alive
June 05, 2003 WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The cousin of toppled Iraqi President Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) known as "Chemical Ali," who U.S. and British officials earlier said they thought died in a bombing raid on April 5, may still be alive, U.S. defense officials said on Thursday.
U.S. forces bombed the home of Ali Hassan al-Majid in the southern city of Basra during the war to oust Saddam, and British and American officials expressed confidence at the time that Majid had been killed.
U.N.'s Blix Cautions on Iraq Weapons
UNITED NATIONS - Chief U.N. inspector Hans Blix warned Thursday against jumping to the conclusion that Iraq possesses weapons of mass destruction just because there is a long list of outstanding questions about its weapons program.
Saddam Hussein's regime may have hidden weapons, but it also may have destroyed them, and now that the Iraqi dictator has been ousted "it should be possible to establish the truth we all want to know," he told the U.N. Security Council.
Wed Jun 4, 3:25 AM DENPASAR, Indonesia (AFP) - The Bali bombers were ready to die in what they considered a holy war against white people, a witness told a court on the Indonesian resort island.
Ali Imron was testifying at the trial of his older brother Amrozi, the first man to appear in court for the October 12, 2002 nightspot blasts that killed 202 people from 21 countries.
Imron testified that he drove to the Kuta tourist strip with two other bombers, Jimi and Isa, but he got out before Jimmy drove a van loaded with explosives to the Sari Club
The only video I heard about was the one with Saddam at a birthday party for, I believe, his daughter when she was little. It's apparently very popular viewing among the Iraqis. I was listening with one ear, so I may not have all the details correct.
BAGHDAD, Iraq - Sheik Abdul Jabar leaned forward in his chair, stroked his beard and delivered a warning to the U.S. Army Psychological Operations soldier seated across from him.
"We don't want anyone to touch our women," the Shiite cleric said as his companions in turbans and headscarves nodded. Then came other grievances, including a vague warning about U.S. soldiers displaying pornography.
Oh...no. This gets worse?
Their newspapers are going under. They're retracting stories left and right. The RATS/Marxist are doing everything they can to attack Bush and the GOP.
sigh, well...I'm ready for the fight if everyone else is.
For the record there are two Guardian retractions today.
First was Paul Wolfowitz, I posted earlier, here is the second:
Corrections and clarifications
Thursday June 5, 2003 The Guardian In our front page lead on May 31 headlined "Straw, Powell had serious doubts over their Iraqi weapons claims," we said that the foreign secretary Jack Straw and his US counterpart Colin Powell had met at the Waldorf Hotel in New York shortly before Mr Powell addressed the United Nations on February 5.
Mr Straw has now made it clear that no such meeting took place. The Guardian accepts that and apologises for suggesting it did.
Okay, pinch me.
Now, on to those unnamed sources.
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - The afterglow of a U.S.-led Middle East summit faded on Thursday, with Palestinian President Yasser Arafat saying Israel had offered nothing "tangible" and hard-liners on both sides vowing to oppose a road map to peace.
Arafat, who was excluded from Wednesday's landmark talks in Jordan but apparently played a behind-the-scenes role, dismissed Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's pledge to uproot some settler outposts in the West Bank as meaningless.
JERUSALEM - Palestinian leaders expressed doubts Thursday about Israel's commitment to remove all unauthorized Jewish settlement outposts in the West Bank under a new Mideast peace plan.
Jewish settlers, meanwhile, have waged angry protests and are pledging to resist the dismantling of even one of the approximately 100 outposts they have set up in the past five years to thwart land-for-peace agreements with the Palestinians.
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Belgian prosecutors said on Thursday they had detained a man of Iraqi nationality after a series of letters containing a nerve gas ingredient were sent to the prime minister's office and the U.S. and British embassies.
A spokeswoman for the federal prosecutor's office told a news conference the 45-year-old man was arrested late on Wednesday in the western Belgian town of Deinze.
Two postal workers were taken to hospital after being exposed to the chemicals in the letters at mail depots.
No one else was hurt by the 10 letters sent to a variety of targets, including a court trying al Qaeda suspects in Brussels, the Saudi Arabian embassy, three ministries, an airport and a port authority. The letters were received on Wednesday.
The brownish-yellow powder contained phenarsazine chloride, an arsenic derivative used in nerve gas, as well as hydrazine, an agent used as a rocket propellant, the Health Ministry said. Both substances are also found in pesticides.
The letters contained no more than a spoonful of the chemicals -- not enough to be life-threatening -- but caused irritation to the eyes, skin and breathing.
The prosecutor's office spokesman said that if the man was found guilty of injuring the people and making them unable to work, he could face between six months and two years in jail.
A spokeswoman for the federal police said that five police officers had also been taken to hospital on Thursday, but she could not confirm a report on Belgian radio that the officers had been affected by powder from the letters.
Belgian news agency Belga said the policemen had been working at an office block in central Brussels housing various judicial services, which had then been evacuated for fear the powder could spread through the air conditioning system.
Possible Iraqi Nuclear Barrels Recovered
WASHINGTON - American forces have gathered more than 100 metal barrels and five radiological devices which Iraqis may have looted from the country's largest nuclear storage site, Pentagon officails said Thursday.
None of the people who turned in the contraband for rewards of $3 showed any more than background levels of radiation, the military officials said. And none of the equipment was emitting more radiation than slightly above background levels, they said.
But American officials still aren't sure what else may have been stolen from the Tuwaitha nuclear complex during the war, said three top military and Defense Department officials who briefed reporters on the issue on condition they not be named.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. forces will accompany inspectors from the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency while they visit a key Iraqi nuclear site, and their limited mission sets no precedent for any future role for the agency in Iraq, Defense Department officials said on Thursday.
A senior U.S. military official, speaking by telephone from Baghdad, also said Army health officials were arriving in Iraq to gauge if American troops had been exposed to medical risks while at the looted Tuwaitha Nuclear Research Center.
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