***Operation Infinite Freedom - Situation Room

***Excellent read***

Remedial History Lessons
The greatest weapon of mass destruction has been destroyed by the Iraq war.
It was Saddam Hussein's regime — history’s biggest killer of Muslims, with upwards of 1,000,000 in the wars he launched, plus 300,000 (and counting) in the mass graves being uncovered daily around Iraq.
The spectacle of Islamic leaders grumbling at us for a war which ended the biggest killing spree of Muslims ever shows that Islamic leaders will grumble at us for anything. And do.
For self-styled “peace advocates” to remain bitter at President Bush for liberating Iraq shows their acceptance of the peace of the dead above human life.
Hundreds of children — eight, nine, 10, 11 years old — languished in Saddam’s prisons before being freed by coalition forces. I’d like these “peace advocates” and sundry Muslim leaders to meet in a room with these kids 10 years from now and explain why they should have remained in Saddam’s dungeons instead of living their lives.
The third wave of blasting Bush is underway — now gleefully piling on the lack of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) yet found in Iraq.
The first wave attempted to block Bush’s launching the liberation. Its key weapon was rampant fear-mongering. For instance, Brookings Institution (search) analysts Philip H. Gordon and Michael E. O'Hanlon concluded, among many other dire warnings, that "the United States could lose thousands of troops" in a war in Iraq.
Other commentators were yet scarier. Attempting regime change would trigger Scud and other missile attacks to obliterate Israel and U.S. troops stationed in the region; provoke the igniting of thousands of Iraqi oil fields; prompt a wave of terrorism across America; impel mobs into the Arab street to foment revolution against friendly regimes; cause flooding across Iraqi plains; induce Saddam Hussein to attack us and his own people with chemical and biological weapons.
This fear-mongering list could go on (and usually did!).
Taking first prize among the many frightful forecasters was the respected former national security adviser Brent Scowcroft (search). His influential Wall Street Journal piece of Aug. 15, 2002, said Israel "would have to expect to be the first casualty," which could easily cause that country "to respond, perhaps with nuclear weapons, unleashing an Armageddon in the Middle East."
While we in the liberate-Iraq camp have been castigated for exaggeration, nothing any of us said, or even suggested, can match that.
The second wave of Bush-blasting came during the war, with some retired U.S. generals — virtually “embedded” in television studios, as Vice President Cheney quipped — lamenting that there were too few coalition troops and too much Iraqi resistance. Quick as a flash, The New York Times rolled into its reflex action of trotting out the Q word. Another quagmire; another Vietnam.
Just as the “this is no cakewalk” cliché was gaining traction, U.S. Marines cakewalked into Baghdad in half the time with half the casualties of the initial Gulf War (which was often acknowledged to be a cakewalk).
The third wave is more promising at this point. At least, it’s not been totally disproved yet.
It holds that Bush launched the war merely over Saddam’s maintaining and developing gobs of weapons of mass destruction and having ties to international terrorist networks.
I’ll admit that I’m surprised we haven’t found gobs of weapons of mass destruction yet. Surely the impression given of their size and proximity to the battlefield front was greater than we found them to be.
Yet if Saddam had no weapons of mass destruction program, why would he pretend he had?
Why would he give 15 out of the 15 members of the U.N. Security Council (including Syria) reason to find him in “material breach” of previous U.N. resolutions that mandated that he end any weapons of mass destruction program?
And why would he forgo some $180 billion worth of income — the estimate from 12 years of U.N. imposed sanctions — rather than come clean and show that his actions justified lifting the embargo?
Saddam was evil, but wasn’t that stupid.
Confessions by top Iraqis and discoveries by top U.S. weapons investigators will reveal his ties to the weapons of mass destruction and international terrorists. The third wave will get disproved.
Yet by then, a fourth wave of Bush-blasting will likely have begun.
Kenneth Adelman is a frequent guest commentator on Fox News, was assistant to U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld from 1975 to 1977 and, under President Ronald Reagan, U.N. ambassador and arms-control director. Mr. Adelman is now co-host of TechCentralStation.com.

Annan names Perricos as new UN arms chief

Wednesday, 11 June , 2003, 17:07

United Nations: UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has appointed Dimitri Perricos as the new UN arms chief. He succeeds Hans Blix, whose three-year stint will come to an end soon.
Perricos is a veteran UN arms expert and has been acting as Blix's deputy. A technical expert with ample inspection experience, he actually led the search to locate weapons of mass destruction in Iraq allegedly amassed by Saddam Hussein. But the hunt in about 23 sites proved largely abortive.

Dimitri Perricos' own words: Understanding the Lessons of Nuclear Inspections and Monitoring in Iraq: A Ten-Year Review [June 14-15, 2001]

To begin my talk, I would make the observation that Iraq is a large country, and there are many locations where it could build nuclear sites. Because of this, it is very difficult to find everything. But the IAEA Action Team and UNSCOM both found the ways and means to access and investigate most of Iraq's nuclear, chemical, biological, and missile activities.
In the 1980s, the IAEA was performing regular safeguards inspections in Iraq. The Agency was implementing a safeguard system that depended on Iraqi declarations of nuclear material and nuclear activities. Although the Agency would take into consideration in its assessment that some undeclared activities existed, in reality safeguards were not focused on this issue.
Then, in 1991, after the Gulf War, everything broke loose. It was found out that Iraq was involved in a clandestine nuclear weapons program. The most shocking thing to the international community was the fact that this was the first time that an NPT state had violated the treaty by implementing a clandestine program--not only to produce fissile materials, but also to develop the weaponization of fissile material into a nuclear explosive device.
Well, what is important to understand is that resolution 687--the "mother of all resolutions" regarding Iraq--is a cease-fire agreement and not a safeguards agreement. The resolution gave the Agency responsibility for activities that were different than regualar safeguards activities. The fact that the Agency was able to uncover all that it did is owed to the fact that there was full support by the Security Council. The same can also be stated for UNSCOM.
As long as the Security Council was in full support of the inspections in Iraq, the Agency did a lot of effective work. But when that support started to weaken, it started to create some problems.
Resolution 687 provided for certain verification tasks. These were (1) to determine the scope and the extent of the nuclear program; (2) to destroy, remove, or render harmless the components of that program; and finally (3) to start implementing an Ongoing Monitoring and Verification (OMV) system. That's how the whole process was defined from the very beginning.

Go to the link and read the rest. It's pretty lengthy.

***More Krugman Woes***

Insane, Wild-Eyed, and Sourced [NRO]

have good news, and I have bad news. The good first: Paul Krugman is cleaning up his act.
In his latest New York Times column he has actually cited most of his sources. There are nine — count 'em, nine — source citations. That's one citation for every 81 words in the column. That might be a world record for any op-ed and certainly a personal best for Krugman.
Now the bad news: One of his sources is al Qaeda.
This latest column blasted the Bush administration for deception about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction. But this was not Krugman's usual pastiche of insane, wild-eyed, and unsourced allegations. No, it was a pastiche of insane, wild-eyed, and sourced allegations. As you'll see, when America's most dangerous liberal pundit is holding the pen, citing sources is just a whole new way of lying.
But, as you know, the Krugman Truth Squad isn't easily fooled.
For example, Krugman wrote,

... look at the way the administration rhetorically linked Saddam to Sept. 11. As The Associated Press put it: "The implication from Bush on down was that Saddam supported Osama bin Laden's network. Iraq and the Sept. 11 attacks frequently were mentioned in the same sentence, even though officials have no good evidence of such a link."

Krugman here gave the impression that the Associated Press itself has, as an institution, arrived at this judgment against the Bush administration. But as I pointed out on my blog, The Conspiracy to Keep You Poor and Stupid, a little fact-checking reveals that this quotation — from a Saturday AP story — is actually the news bureau's paraphrase of one man's view — that of Greg Thielmann, a retired State Department intelligence official. (Note to Joseph Lelyveld, interim executive editor of less than a week at the New York Times: vigorous fact-checking can only lift a damaged paper's credibility.)
Source-happy Krugman then went for corroboration, and he looked to no less a paragon of probity and truthfulness than those wonderful folks who brought you the World Trade Center terrorist attack — al Qaeda. Krugman wrote,

Not only was there no good evidence: according to The New York Times, captured leaders of Al Qaeda explicitly told the C.I.A. that they had not been working with Saddam.

Morning, all! I posted a thread re. Saddam's brutalities - straight from the WH website and readily available to every member of the press and every politician around the world. The ball is in their court, the defenders of this:

Tales of Saddam's Brutality [lengthy, graphic, White House websight]
White House -> various press. ^ | Updated regularly, latest - June 3, 2003

VOICES OF FREEDOM
Quotes from the grateful Iraqi people. Y

“I have no more fear now. From the moment Iraq was liberated I felt as though my two sons had been brought back to me.”
A woman whose 17-year-old son, Sardar Osman Faraj, was executed in Iraq in 1985 and another was killed by unknown assassins in 1992. Los Angeles Times, 6/8/03

“Every day I buy a different paper. I like them all.”
Ali Jabar, 28, picking up a Kurdish daily newly available in Iraq, Washington Post, 6/8/03

“It's a big change. We used to get central instructions from the Ministry of Information. Now we no longer do. Azzaman is independent. It lets the readers learn and decide the political currents.”
Abdel-Majid, of the Azzaman newspaper in Iraq, Washington Post, 6/8/03

“Newspapers are not the only forum being used to express political views in postwar Iraq. The walls of the capital – once decorated with portraits of Saddam Hussein – have become a battleground for competing ideas. They even show a sense of humor. In Baghdad this week, the following was neatly written in marker on the back of a double-decker bus: ‘Very urgent, wanted: New president for Iraq.’”
Washington Post, 6/8/03

~~~

Morning, Carolina, kitten. Check out #67 and send the entire list of atrocities to accusers - that's my project for today. As Torie Clarke said, how could the press and the left not know of Saddam's history and his threat to the world with the "reams, and reams and reams" of documented evidence. It calls for a Senate investigation into the press, imho.

www.centcom.mil - Daily

June 11, 2003
Release Number: 03-06-43

COALITION EFFORTS AID IRAQ’S RECOVERY (June 11, 2003)

CAMP DOHA, Kuwait – Coalition Forces continue to assist in developing a safer and more secure environment in Iraq through the following activities:

NORTHERN AND CENTRAL IRAQ

Coalition Forces recently:

• Continued "Task Force Neighborhood" cleanup operations in As Shurah.

• Paid $27,000 in OCPA funds for water projects in the Kirkuk/Mosul area.

• Completed delivery of the civil servant funds, and supervised mayoral elections in Muqudadiya in which an interim mayor was elected.

• Delivered 20 tons of propane within Baghdad Tuesday.

• Hauled and consolidated 88 tons of captured Iraqi ammunition. 8,281 tons of ammunition has been consolidated out of Baghdad to date, with 9 of 23 sites remaining to be cleared.

• Supported a feasibility study for an open-air market in Mosul.

• Reported a World Food Program convoy of 159 trucks departed Turkey with 5,200 metric tons of food for delivery in Dohuk, Mosul, Irbil, and Sulaymaniah. Also reported 201 trucks departed from Jordan with 3,600 metric tons of food for delivery in Baghdad, Babil, Anbar, and Wasit.

• Met with the World Food Program to discuss traffic issues associated with humanitarian shipments transiting the Iraq/Jordan border.

• Received a medical donation for pharmaceutical supplies from Sukhtian Group (Sukha Pharmaceuticals Division) valued at $140,000. Sukhtian Group has also tentatively agreed to provide an aid package specifically for displaced Palestinians within Iraq.

• Met with the mayor of Al Fallujah, Chief of Police, Imam’s and Sheiks to discuss city reconstruction efforts. Also met with city industrial leaders to discuss re-establishment of infrastructure, such as the cement factory, power plants, and automobile plant.

• Developed an information campaign to encourage recruitment efforts among former Iraqi military members for positions as Iraqi facility security guards.

• Delivered a 2 1/2 ton truckload of medical supplies to the Al Karmah Primary Health Center and $3000 to the municipality water department in order to establish potable water service to 11,000 people in the area.

• Utilized contracting and purchasing officers to buy generators for a water treatment facility in Baghdad. Also continued to assess city police departments for renovation work (electrical, masonry, plumbing and basic construction) scheduled to begin in the next several days.

• Successfully repaired several police cars in Baghdad and acquired several others, which will be painted and marked prior to putting them on joint patrol in the city.

• Conducted assessments of the judicial system in Al Fallujah and discussed establishment of a criminal docket, courthouse buildings security, and salary payments. Also reported what may be the first criminal trials completed in Iraq since the end of the war.

• Received 193 benzene and 27 propane trucks in Mosul/Kirkuk area from Turkey on Tuesday. Also reported forces observed 166 humanitarian assistance shipments entering Iraq from Syria in the last 24 hours.

• Reported 700 million Iraqi Dinars and $380,000 in salary payments were distributed to civil servants in the past 24 hours.

SOUTHERN IRAQ

• Repaired a broken water main in As Samawah that restored water service to an educational facility. Also located two school warehouses with a large amount of school supplies.

• Reported that chemicals are scheduled to arrive in An Nasariyah that will allow the electric power plant to start up two remaining turbines.

• Facilitated delivery of 16 truckloads of medical supplies for distribution to hospitals in An Nasariyah and a reserve of 10 truckloads for storage.

• Provided diesel refuelers that continued to increase diesel reserves at the An Najaf electric power plant.

• Supervised $40 stipend payments to more than 1,800 pensioners through the retirement office.

• In Ad Diwaniyah, the Governor, new chief of police as well as representative leadership from the former police force attended a Coalition hosted security conference. The agenda set the stage for police force transformation, discussion on how to maintain / improve security and how to gain further trust and confidence from the local population in their new police force. The police academy class continues to train 280 students.

• Reported the Karbala TV station is fully functional, and broadcasting daily from 5 pm to midnight.

Them is fighting words from MR. Blix. The left is working so hard to turn our honorable military back into the "cruel military machine" they deceitfully defined them as during and after the Vietnam War. No, the left, Hans and co., defended (and profited from) an oppressive mass-murderer. Their days of buying and selling Saddam's anti-American propaganda are OVER. OUR troops risked their lives to free strangers. THIS President and THIS military are the liberators.

www.centcom.mil: Daily

June 11, 2003
Release Number: 03-06-41

COALITION AND IRAQI POLICE WORK TO MAKE IRAQ SECURE (June 11, 2003)

CAMP DOHA, Kuwait -- Coalition Forces continue to patrol Iraq to eliminate crimes against people and property, rid populated areas of weapons, ammunition and explosives, and stop the black market trade in fuel and other commodities. Coalition Forces also continue to conduct joint security patrols with Iraqi police to increase the professionalism of the police force and prepare them for their role in a self-governed Iraq.

Task Force "Ironhorse" Launches Operation Peninsula Strike

The operation took place in two major stages. The first stage of the operation involved moving soldiers and equipment into strike positions, intelligence gathering, and coordination with local police. During the second stage, raids were conducted within the area of operation via land, air and water to capture or destroy subversive elements. Air assault teams, ground attack squads, raid teams, river patrol boats and local security combined forces to block off escape routes and operate check points to ensure the operation’s success.

A variety of units are incorporated into the operation, using the overwhelming firepower and effects of a joint and combined arms team. Army infantry, armor, artillery, aviation, and engineers, along with Air Force elements continue to work together to accomplish the mission. Because of operational security concerns, specific information regarding the units participating in the operation cannot be discussed until the operation is concluded.

Coalition forces detained 397 suspects and numerous weapons systems and ammunition. A curfew is in place from 10 p.m. until 4 a.m., which allows civilians to transit the area that acknowledge U.S. authority. Task Force Ironhorse continues to seize illegal weapons in support of the National Weapons Policy implemented on June 1, 2003.

Weapons Turn-In Program:

Iraqi citizens voluntarily turned in a variety of weapons under the Weapons Turn-In Program that began June 1. As of today, Iraqi citizens have delivered to Weapons Collection Points a total of 85 pistols, 72 semi-automatic rifles or shotguns, 363 automatic rifles, 40 machine guns, 120 anti-tank weapons (i.e., rocket-propelled grenade launchers), 10 anti-air weapons, and 230 grenades and other explosive devices.

The amnesty period for the Weapons Turn-In Program will run through June 14.

Coalition Activity:

A local farmer led a Coalition patrol to a previously undiscovered weapons cache in Mosul. The patrol confiscated 3,000 x 12.7mm rounds, three mortars with tripods, 3 rocket-propelled grenades, and four firearms. The weapons were secured at the local police station and then delivered to a brigade weapons collection point.

A 4th Infantry Division patrol discovered three ammunition bunkers in Northern Iraq that contained thousands of rocket-propelled grenades, anti-tank/anti-personnel mines, and mortar rounds. The patrol detained 9 personnel with shovels and pick-axes who had attempted to loot the ammunition. The bunkers were secured and are in the process of being destroyed.

The 101st Airborne Division hired an additional 50 former Iraqi military personnel to increase the power of the Joint Iraqi Security Company being stood up in Northern Iraq.

Marines detained 17 individuals in An Najaf after responding to explosions near an ammunition bunker. Four of the detainees were found with empty artillery shells in their vehicles.

Fifteen more Iraqi police officers were hired in the city of Al Sammawah.

The police chief of Al Dinawiah was removed from his position due to allegations of corruption.

The 101st Airborne Division detained two individuals for running a black-market fuel ring in Mosul. A truck and a supply of propane and gasoline were also seized.

Coalition forces captured and detained two more alleged war criminals. They are Latif Nusayyif Jasim Al-Dulaymi, Ba'ath party military bureau deputy chairman (#18), and Husayn Al Awadi, Ba'ath party regional chairman - Ninawa governorate (#53 BG in the former regime’s chemical corps).

Police Activity in the Last 24 Hours:

Coalition Forces conducted 8 raids and a total of 2,595 patrols throughout Iraq. Of those patrols, they conducted 253 joint Iraqi and Coalition patrols. They also detained or arrested 264 individuals for a variety of criminal activities including looting, curfew violations, weapons violations, theft, larceny and dealing drugs.

Recent Police Activity:

While on patrols in north and central Baghdad, US military police came across several types of unexploded ordnance (UXO). The discoveries varied from small missiles, to rocket propelled grenades and launchers, blasting caps, fuses and grenades. All areas were clearly marked and cordoned by the military police as explosive ordnance experts dispose of the ordnance.

A possible murder reported in northwest Baghdad was investigated during a joint patrol. Iraqi police investigators questioned several suspects at the scene of the crime, and then transported all suspects to the local station for further processing.

Three assailants, believed to be arms dealers, assaulted an off duty Iraqi policeman in northern Baghdad. A joint patrol was sent to the suspects' house(s) to make an arrest. A search of the premises revealed one AK-47. The Iraqi police apprehended one of the assailants and took him to the Al Hurriyah police station for questioning.

***More Terrorist News***

Grenade Attack Rocks U.S. Consulate in Turkey

ISTANBUL (Reuters) - A man threw two grenades into the grounds of the United States consulate in Turkey's southern city of Adana Wednesday, damaging a wall but causing no injuries, officials said.

Turkish police arrested the man, in his 30s, after he entered the garden of the consulate around 11:35 a.m. GMT and threw the hand grenades toward the main building, shattering windows.

"A Turkish male threw two grenades into the compound and one exploded. There was minimal damage, no injuries and the suspect was captured," a U.S. consulate official told Reuters.

The United States has warned its citizens against possible attacks from Turkish guerrilla groups, particularly the far-left Revolutionary People's Liberation Party-Front (DHKP-C).

Police were investigating whether the man was connected with any outlawed local groups, which also include Kurdish and Islamist militants, the state-run Anatolian news agency said.

Good morning all.

CNN reporting airships enroute to Gaza now.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, center, arrives at his Jerusalem office for a cabinet meeting Wednesday June 11, 2003. The cabinet meeting took place a day after the Islamic group Hamas threatened bloody revenge following an Israeli attack to a vehicle carrying Abdel Aziz Rantisi, a high-profile Hamas political leader, in a botched effort to kill him. ">

Suicide Bomber Kills 9 on Jerusalem Bus

JERUSALEM - A suicide bomber blew himself up on a bus in downtown Jerusalem on Wednesday, killing nine people and wounding about 40, police said.

The bombing followed a threat by the Islamic militant group Hamas to take bloody revenge for Tuesday's botched missile attack by Israel on one of its leaders, Abdel Aziz Rantisi, who was wounded. There was no immediate claim of responsibility.

The explosion went off during afternoon rush hour on city bus No. 14 on Jaffa Street, Jerusalem's main thoroughfare, near Mahane Yehuda, Jerusalem's outdoor market which repeatedly has been targeted by Palestinian militants in the past.

Paramedics and police reported that 15 people were in serious condition.

A U.S. soldier uses a towel to stay cool while sitting on an armoured vehicle outside Baghdad's Hotel Palestine where temperatures reached 115 degrees Farenheit on Wednesday June 11, 2003.

Iraqis cross the temporary Diala Iron Bridge recently put up by US forces after the former Iraqi forces destroyed it to prevent the US soldiers from advancing towards Baghdad during the war on Wednesday, June 11, 2003 in Tuwaitha, 50 kilometers south of Baghdad, Iraq. Below is the Tigris River which flows through the capital.

Smoke rises from a U.S. ammunition vehicle which explodes inside the main U.S. military base in Baghdad, Iraq, Wednesday, June 11, 2003. The cause of the explosion is unknown at this time. No soldiers were reported injured or killed in the incident.

An Iraqi man sits outside a foreign exchange shop in Baghdad. The US-led administration in Iraq is printing new Iraqi banknotes bearing Saddam Hussein's portrait.

Whats really going on? Abbas is not empowered yet.

Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas talks to reporters along with Yasser Arafat, after their meeting with Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman in the West Bank city of Ramallah , Wednesday, June 11 , 2003. Suleiman renewed truce efforts Wednesday, a long-shot mission aimed at persuading Hamas to halt violence despite an Israeli missile strike that wounded a leader of the Islamic militant group.

Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, left, shakes hands with Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman, right, during a meeting at his office in the West Bank city of Ramallah, Wednesday, June 11, 2003. Suleiman renewed truce efforts Wednesday, in a mission aimed at persuading Hamas to halt violence despite an Israeli missile strike that wounded a leader of the Islamic militant group.

The wreckage of a bus is cordoned off after a suicide bomber onboard blew himself up, in this image made from television Wednesday, June 11, 2003 on Jaffa Street in downtown Jerusalem. The bomber killed at least 13 bystanders, including himself, and wounded at least 40.

An Israeli police explosives expert searches a bus destroyed by a suspected Palestinian suicide bomber in Jerusalem June 11, 2003. A suspected suicide bomber blew up a bus in Jerusalem killing at least 13 people on Wednesday, a day after Israel tried to kill a leader of the militant Islamic group Hamas.

A masked Palestinian Hamas activist shoots in the air during a march in support of Hamas' leader Abdul Aziz al-Rantissi. Rantissi was wounded earlier in the day in an Israeli helicopter attack targeting him directly in Gaza City.

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Wednesday, 11 June , 2003, 17:07

United Nations: UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has appointed Dimitri Perricos as the new UN arms chief. He succeeds Hans Blix, whose three-year stint will come to an end soon. Perricos is a veteran UN arms expert and has been acting as Blix's deputy. A technical expert with ample inspection experience, he actually led the search to locate weapons of mass destruction in Iraq allegedly amassed by Saddam Hussein. But the hunt in about 23 sites proved largely abortive.