***Operation Infinite Freedom - Situation Room - 11 JUN 03/Day 84***

Everywhere TexKat goes, or Ragtime Cowgirl transcribes... | 11 JUN 03 | null and void

[TexKat]

Japan Bars N. Korea Vessel From Leaving

TOKYO - Japan barred a North Korean cargo ship from leaving port Tuesday because of safety violations, amid efforts by Tokyo and Washington to crack down on illicit commerce with the communist country and rein in its nuclear programs.

The beefed-up security comes days after a North Korean ferry canceled plans to dock in northern Japan in the face of Tokyo's pledge to scrutinize that ship for customs, immigration, health and safety problems.

At a summit two weeks ago, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and President Bush promised to combat suspected North Korean smuggling of drugs, illicit funds and weapons. Critics say such commerce underpins Pyongyang's ambition to build an arsenal of atomic bombs.

U.S. officials have said North Korea admitted it had a clandestine nuclear program in violation of a 1994 agreement with Washington. North Korea sharpened its tone in the standoff with the United States on Monday, publicly threatening for the first time to develop a nuclear deterrent unless Washington abandons its "hostile" stance toward the communist nation.

[TexKat]

U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage, right, chats with Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe at a two-day conference of Sri Lanka donors in Tokyo Monday, June 10, 2003. The conference on rebuilding Sri Lanka wrapped up with pledges of aid worth more than $4.5 billion.

U.S. Urges Japan to Get Involved in Iraq

TOKYO - U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage urged Japan on Tuesday to get "onto the playing field" in Iraq, a show of support for controversial talk in Tokyo of sending troops to help rebuild the country.

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi wants to submit legislation allowing the military to aid reconstruction. But critics say it would violate Japan's constitution.

"I'm hoping the nation will decide to get out of the stands and onto the playing field," Armitage told reporters at a Tokyo conference to raise money for Sri Lankan civil war reconstruction.

[MEG33]

Did you get my ping?It's a stinging critique of the media and everyone who believed the Iraqi museum employees.

[TexKat]

German soldiers of International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) pray near the coffins of soldiers killed in Afghanistan during a memorial service, at a military base in Kabul, Afghanistan, Tuesday, June 10, 2003. Hundreds of peacekeepers paid tribute to four German peacekeepering soldiers killed over the weekend.

German Victims Remembered in Afghanistan

KABUL, Afghanistan - Hundreds of peacekeepers held a solemn service in Afghanistan 's capital Tuesday to honor four German soldiers killed over the weekend in the deadliest terror attack on the multinational force.

The bodies left Kabul on a military flight headed for Termez, Uzbekistan, and then Cologne, Germany, where official funeral ceremonies will be attended by German government ministers, said German Lt. Col. Thomas Lobbering, spokesman for the 29-nation peacekeeping force.

In Kabul, peacekeepers in flak jackets stood at attention as four military trucks draped in black sheets, each bearing a wooden coffin covered with the German flag, drove out of the military base toward the airport under tight security.

[TexKat]

Okay I am going to check now.

[TexKat]

MEG33 thanks for the ping. I must post it here on this thread for RC to see in the morning. I'm happy to see that it was not the American press that originated the highly exaggerated story.

Lost from the Baghdad museum: truth (Guardian says it's sorry)

When, back in mid-April, the news first arrived of the looting at the Iraqi National Museum in Baghdad, words hardly failed anyone. No fewer than 170,000 items had, it was universally reported, been stolen or destroyed, representing a large proportion of Iraq's tangible culture. And it had all happened as some US troops stood by and watched, and others had guarded the oil ministry.

Professors wrote articles. Professor Michalowski of Michigan argued that this was "a tragedy that has no parallel in world history; it is as if the Uffizi, the Louvre, or all the museums of Washington DC had been wiped out in one fell swoop". Professor Zinab Bahrani from Columbia University claimed that, "By April 12 the entire museum had been looted," and added, "Blame must be placed with the Bush administration for a catastrophic destruction of culture unparalleled in modern history." From Edinburgh Professor Trevor Watkins lamented that, "The loss of Iraq's cultural heritage will go down in history - like the burning of the Library at Alexandria - and Britain and the US will be to blame." Others used phrases such as cultural genocide and compared the US in particular to the Mongol invaders of 13th-century Iraq.

Back in Baghdad there was anger. On April 14, Dr Donny George, the museum's director of research, was distraught. The museum had housed the leading collection of the continuous history of mankind, "And it's gone, and it's lost. If Marines had started [protecting the museum] before, none of this would have happened. It's too late. It's no use. It's no use."

[MEG33]

I got in trouble pinging two hand wringers when the story started falling apart! LOL..Thanks for posting it!.

[Aaron0617]

Question of the Day:Is the WMD scandal worse than Watergate?

No. There is NO scandal. The "no WMDs" accusation is an invention of the hatemongering enemies of the President. Some of these critics are Senators who signed a letter in 1998 to then President Bill Clinton asking him to take action against Saddam Hussein and Iraq because of their WMDs.

Earlier this year, some of these critics were loudly denouncing the upcoming war because they were afraid that Saddam would use his WMDs - but now they want to pretend those WMDs that so frightened them never existed.

Todd E.Arizona

Question of the Day

- - - - - -

From the Village Voice question of the day. Interesting response. Though I'd post.

[TexKat]

US Army PFC Leonard Talley sips water from his CamelBak or water pack as he mans his post under a sweltering heat in Baghdad, Iraq Monday June 9, 2003. For US soldiers patrolling Baghdad, there is no escaping the heat and it is made worse by by their lack of summer uniform.

U.S. Soldiers Wilt Under Fierce Iraqi Sun

BAGHDAD, Iraq - On Abi Nawas Street, the heat shimmers off the blacktop and the blue-green leaves of the eucalyptus trees droop in defeat. And though he stares at the Tigris River, U.S. Army Sgt. Donald Stretz sees something else: a Mexican restaurant in Mt. Kisco, N.Y.

"I wish I was there right now, drinking a cold Corona with a lime," says Stretz, his face basted in sweat.

At 3 p.m., it's 110 degrees in the shade. With the legendary Mesopotamian sun hammering down, U.S. troops swaddled in long-sleeve uniforms and gear look like ants roasting under a magnifying glass.

"It feels like someone's holding a hairdryer to your face," says Army Sgt. Daniel Conforti, 22, of Selden, N.Y.

And it's going to get worse. To hear Iraqis tell it, June is mild. "This is nothing," they repeat, sometimes laughing. "Wait until July. Wait until August." In those months, the mercury challenges the 130-degree mark.

For U.S. soldiers patrolling Baghdad, there's no escaping the heat. There is no air conditioning. No swimming pools. Cooling off means a seat in the shade with a baby wipe to cut the grime. Sleeping is a fitful affair, with men stripped to their shorts, spread-eagled on cots.

"I pity them," said 73-year-old Hajj Talib Taha, as a pair of rumbling Humvees sat stuck in traffic on teeming al-Rashid street.

Others said the Americans should've considered the heat before invading the kitchen.

"They came here to do a job. They have to endure the heat, just like us," said Mohammed Jassim, 18, selling bootleg CDs in a sun-drenched market on Tahrir Square. Jassim conceded the gear-burdened Americans "feel it more than we do."

Unlike other troops in Iraq, the Americans seem to lack a summer uniform. No matter how hot it gets, they don long-sleeve fatigues with desert boots and a heavy Kevlar helmet. They wear T-shirts underneath, often skipping the underwear — a state known as "going commando."

On top, they wear body armor vests with heavy ceramic plates, plus tens of pounds of other gear. The ensemble would be more appropriate in 45-degree weather.

"Try putting a trash bag on your torso and cinch off the bottom and the top," said Army Sgt. Ray Poole, 39, of Winter Haven, Fla., guarding a gate in the midday glare.

Poole spends the day drenched in sweat, guzzling water to keep pace with the sweat pumping from his pores. It floods his chest and back, dribbling down his legs and soaking into his socks. Poole points to wet patches on his boots where the sweat weeps out.

Others suffer far less. The Nepalese Gurkhas guarding the Republican Palace radiate comfort. They wear short-sleeve khaki shirts and light canvas caps. In the deepest midafternoon furnace funk, Gurkhas smile as they check IDs, bidding guests to enter the palace with a slight bow and a wave.

Baghdadis traditionally leave the streets at midday to take their chief meal. Then they settle under a fan — or air conditioning for the well-off — for the qaylulah, or siesta. When the sun drops and mellows to orange, they return.

The heat does have its benefits. A cup of hot coffee stays hot. Making tea means shoving a few tea bags in a water bottle and setting it on the dashboard. The lack of hot showers on most U.S. bases isn't a problem.

But it can be dangerous.

Stretz, a pudgy man from Millwood, N.Y., says he felt dizzy and run down after a long day in the sun. Army medics told him it was heat exhaustion. They laid him on a litter and started pumping cold bags of saline solution into his arm.

"I took eight bags," Stretz says. "You can feel the cold running up your arm. After three or four bags you start feeling better."

Some soldiers sweat away their weight, often because they can't eat in the heat. Others affect a cavalier attitude toward the heat.

"We can fight in any weather, sir," says Lt. Brian Scicluna, 23, a bookish officer leading a group on guard duty in front of the Palestine Hotel. "You just get acclimatized."

A heavyset soldier chimes in, saying he's on his third tour in the Persian Gulf. Then the braggarts wander off — probably seeking shade — and Pfc. Leonard Talley, 25, pshaws their statements.

"Don't believe those guys. Especially that fat guy," Talley says. "He complains about the heat more than anyone."

[TexKat]

Question of the Day Tuesday morning on Fox News had the question of: Should GWB be impeached if WMDs are not found? I was shocked.

A couple of days ago there was a thread regarding where are the WMDs and some freepers was given Bill O'Reilly credit for being patient. Well they were definitely wrong about BO. He was the first one bellowing about where are the WMDs and that the administration would have to answer regarding this matter. The war had not been over a good week before O'Reilly started belly aching. Someone evidently toned him down after about a week or so demanding an answer.

[TexKat]

Report: Iran Nuke Experts Visited N.Korea This Year

TOKYO (Reuters) - Iranian experts on nuclear issues secretly visited North Korea this year, possibly to ask North Korean officials for advice on how to handle international inspectors, a Japanese newspaper said on Wednesday.

The Iranian experts made three visits to North Korea between March and May, the conservative Sankei Shimbun said, quoting what it described as "a Korean peninsula source," who was not named.

The visits "may have been intended to ask North Korea for know-how on how to act when accepting inspectors," Sankei quoted the source as saying. "Cooperation on nuclear development may also have been discussed," the source added.

Two Iranian experts stayed in North Korea for several days in March for talks with North Korean officials in charge of nuclear development, Sankei said. One expert visited in April and two experts visited in May, the newspaper added.

[TexKat]

GOP Resists Call for Intelligence Probe

WASHINGTON - Senate Republicans are resisting Democrats' calls for a full-blown investigation of whether intelligence on Iraq's weapons programs was inaccurate or manipulated to make the case for war.

Leading Republicans say there is no evidence of wrongdoing and no need yet for an inquiry that goes much beyond routine oversight. Democrats want a more thorough investigation in light of doubts raised about some of the intelligence and the failure so far to find weapons of mass destruction.

Both sides say they lack political motives, but the stakes could be high ahead of next year's election if President Bush's primary reason for going to war continues to be called into question.

[TexKat]

Iraqis gather human remains, unearthed from a mass grave near the holy city of Najaf, south of Baghdad. Two hundred and sixteen bodies of men, women and children, victims of repression by Saddam Hussein's government were discovered. Iraqis are beginning to discover the fate of loved ones who went missing during Saddam's years of terror

Burial : Iraqi men throw sand over human remains recovered from an unmarked mass grave during proper burial at a cemetery in Najaf, 180kms south of Baghdad.

After Saddam's fall, Iraqis finally learn fate of the missing

BAGHDAD (AFP) - A riverside mansion that used to belong to one of Saddam Hussein's security guards has become a makeshift grieving place for Iraqis whose loved ones went missing during the ousted dictator's years of terror.

Now the headquarters of the Committee for Free Prisoners, the house helps relatives find out what happened to brothers, fathers and sons feared lost to Saddam's execution squads.

Inside, dozens of anxious women wait in line in front of a computer that contains the names of 200,000 missing Iraqis.

The committee was created by former political prisoners who recovered reams of police and intelligence documents after the fall of the regime on April 9.

[TexKat]

Iraq's would-be king says he has no desire for regal lifestyle

LONDON (AFP) - Al-Shareef Ali bin al-Hussein, a pretender to Iraq's throne who has returned to Baghdad for the first time in 45 years, has told a British newspaper his homecoming is not about seeking power or wealth but rather to help the Iraqi people.

"I don't want any political power. I just want to help provide a constitutional framework, protect civil liberties and ensure there will not be another dictatorship," Al-Shareef Ali told The Daily Telegraph.

"I'd be a neutral symbol that all Iraqis could unite around," he added in an interview conducted on board the plane that Tuesday flew him from London to Baghdad.

[TexKat]

Rumsfeld’s new Army man

THE FIRST UNUSUAL thing about Schoomaker — and I should caution here that it has not yet been confirmed whether he’ll take the job — is that he is a retired general. He left the military three years ago. Usually, chiefs of staff are named from the ranks of active-duty generals.

The second, and most telling, point is that, from the early 1980s on, Schoomaker served with the “shadow soldiers,” rising in 1994 to be head of the U.S. Joint Special Operations Command and then, from 1997 till his retirement, commander in chief of the Army’s Special Operations Forces.

He also had experience with tanks (with the 8th Army in Korea in the mid ’70s; as assistant commander of the 1st Cavalry Division in the early ’90s) and inside the bureaucracy (a mid ’90s stint as deputy director of Army operations). But Rumsfeld clearly hired Schoomaker (pronounced “Shoemaker”) for embodying the vision of what he wants the Army to become — a smaller, lighter, more agile force.

[MEG33]

Hope he accepts the job if he's right for it.

[TexKat]

:>)

Marine had baby on ship in war zone

A Marine gave birth aboard the amphibious assault ship USS Boxer in the Persian Gulf last month, marking what Pentagon officials believe is the first time an active-duty woman delivered a baby on a combat ship in a war zone.

As a rule, the Pentagon does not deploy pregnant service members to war zones. Navy regulations, which also cover the Marine Corps, require a pregnant servicewoman to notify her commanding officer no later than two weeks after diagnosis.

A Pentagon official said the Marine in this case told superiors that she did not know she was pregnant.

"She never told anybody she was pregnant," the official said. "I think she claimed she didn't know she was pregnant. The good thing was the Boxer has a complete hospital on board, so that was not a problem."

The Marine is assigned to a ground unit in Kuwait and was aboard the USS Boxer in the Gulf area when she went into labor.

Marine Corps headquarters, in response to an inquiry from The Washington Times, released a statement yesterday:

"The medical staff of the USS Boxer delivered a 7-pound baby boy on board the ship May 23 at 10:58 p.m. The mother, a 33-year-old U.S. Marine staff sergeant, is assigned to Headquarters Battery 11th Marines as an administrative chief. Mother and baby, both healthy and in good condition, were transported from Boxer to the New al Mowasat Hospital in Salmiya, Kuwait. Following a short stay, they will travel to San Diego. Names are being withheld until immediate family has been notified."

As women play a larger role in the armed forces today, pregnancy during military operations is a matter the Pentagon studies to determine whether it hurts combat readiness by leaving critical jobs vacant.

The Navy at one point in the mid-1990s experienced a 10 percent pregnancy rate for women on six-month sea tours and looked at policies to discourage pregnancies while assigned to ships.

A Pentagon spokeswoman said yesterday that she had no data on the pregnancy rate in Operation Iraqi Freedom, in which more than 25,000 women, out of the total U.S. force of about 270,000, were deployed.

Elaine Donnelly, director of the Center for Military Readiness, said the birth should spur the Pentagon to review its policies.

"I know the Marines are good at 'multiplying' the force, but this is ridiculous," Mrs. Donnelly said.

"President Bush should immediately request detailed information on deployability problems and evacuations due to pregnancy during the battle of Iraq," she said. "Today's Marine Corps and Navy cannot afford policies that subsidize and, therefore, encourage irresponsible behavior. This baby was born safely, despite obvious hazards, but childbirth aboard warships is not an acceptable situation."

The Navy adopted regulations in the mid-1990s that declare pregnancy compatible with military service. But the new policy also placed requirements on service members.

The regulations, updated in March, state: "The individual servicewoman is responsible for notifying her CO ... of her pregnancy as soon as possible, but no later than two weeks after diagnosis of pregnancy. This will help facilitate planning a request for replacement requisition if the servicewoman is in a sea going/deployable billet."

No service member can be assigned overseas after the 28th week of pregnancy, the policy says.

The rule is designed to protect the health of the mother and the baby.

Mrs. Donnelly said her research shows that there have been four deliveries at sea since women entered the fleet in 1978. None happened in a war zone on a combat ship. Two occurred in 1994 on support ships while in port.

[TexKat]

U.S. works on Iraq deployment deal

Indian Deputy Prime Minister Lal Krishna Advani said yesterday that he expects India and the United States to finalize an agreement early next week for India to send peacekeepers to Iraq.

A Pentagon team will visit New Delhi next week to offer "clarifications" sought by members of India's ruling coalition government, Mr. Advani told The Washington Times. He said the U.S. request for Indian troops in Iraq was made some time ago and repeated by Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld on Sunday.

India's Cabinet Committee on Security, which has discussed the U.S. request twice before, will decide on offering troops after the visit by the Pentagon team, Mr. Advani said.

"A decision was not taken [immediately] because certain questions were raised by members of the government, and it was felt that we should have clarifications in that regard," he said.

[MEG33]

I find the new India relations interesting.

[TexKat]

Fallujah seethes with anti-American anger

FALLUJAH, Iraq — This is an angry town that sees itself as the center of a nationwide revolt against the U.S.-led occupation.

People chafe at the sight of U.S. soldiers, seethe at checkpoints around town and submit to weapons searches with a fury that is more likely to explode than subside.

"The resistance will be continuous and it will increase not only in Fallujah but all across Iraq. The resistance is organized and it will grow, but Fallujah is the center," said Tariq Kamil, who sells cooking oil from a tiny shop at the local market.

Fallujah, some 30 miles west of Baghdad, is a predominantly Sunni Muslim community that benefited greatly from industrial projects under Saddam Hussein.