***Operation Infinite Freedom - Situation Room - 13 JUN 03/Day 86***

Everywhere TexKat goes, or Ragtime Cowgirl transcribes... | 13 JUN 03 | null and void

[null and void]

Operation Infinite Freedom

Link to the previous thread

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. In addition to the ongoing conversations related to terrorism and our place in it's ultimate defeat, 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.

[Ragtime Cowgirl]

Oh, man. I scannded the news until I came to the new posts at 50 and stopped. Sorry! Will hit the abuse button on my CENTCOM reports.

[TexKat]

DC, perhaps these will help you get well sooner:

.S. President George W. Bush is pictured in this combo image falling off a Segway personal transporter on the front driveway of his parents' summer home June 12, 2003 in Kennebunkport, Maine. Bush arrived from Washington to spend the weekend with his father, former President George Bush, who celebrates his 79th birthday today and his mother Barbara. Bush was not injured in the fall.

RECROPPED FOR BETTER QUALITY --- President George W. Bush (news - web sites), center, momentarily looses his balance while riding a segway personal transporter, as First Lady Laura Bush, left, looks on in front of former President George Bush's house, in Kennebunkport, Me., Thursday, June 12, 2003. Thursday is the former President's 79th birthday.

U.S. President George W. Bush follows through with a tee shot on the first hole during a round with his father and former President George Bush at Cape Arundel Golf Club in Kennebunkport, Maine June 13, 2003. Bush is spending this weekend with his extended family including his father who turned 79 on June 12.

U.S. President George W. Bush waves to photographers as he plays golf June 13, 2003 at Cape Arundel Golf Club in Kennebunkport, Maine. The president is visiting his parents' home on the coast of Maine for five days.

[null and void]

WadidImiss???

[TexKat]

Regarding all articles and cable news reports of the number (27) of Iraqi loyalist and other foreigners killed last night that is incorrect for whatever reason. Fox News's Molly H. said that Centcom had reported to them that it was 27, but the General there in Iraq said it was 7 Iraqi loyalist and other foreigners killed. I guess we will know by the end of the day.

[windchime]

Happy Birthday bump!

[DollyCali]

That clip is TOO funny, Some of the Keelhaulers (my water club locally) do very adverturious things & go down steep, long falls around the world (not me - yet) .. but the ice was a hoot. I will pass on to a few...

I have been doing LOTS of fluids, vit C, zinc, sleep & am on various symptom meds.

[DollyCali]

wonderful pix.. he looks great even flubbing around on toys

"Good evening Ladies & Gentlemen, this cast- well, all three of them, have a good explanation. Maybe someday we will all know & understand it. For now we can look at the press pix .... "

thanks Kat

[DollyCali]

whatdidyamiss?

58 & 59???

I was wondering the same. Go take an hour nap & the "fun happens" & is so much fun, it has to be deleted!!!

someone tell us, please?

[DollyCali]

thaks for link. read / posted there.

Is that part of what was cut? (58/59) ???

if so, why? I don't truly understand lots of do & don'ts of posting

[Ragtime Cowgirl]

Afternoon, nully! Thanks for the thread.

You didn't miss anything...'cept me w/ an itchy trigger finger duplicate posted the CENTCOM reports.

Kat's doing such a thorough job, I'm off to hunt. (^;

---

L.T. SMASH

LIVE FROM THE SANDBOX

13 June 2003

A Kodak Moment

A senior officer has been trying to arrange a trip to see a mostly intact mural of Saddam (the same one that I wrote about several weeks ago). But something urgent always came up, forcing him to change his plans.

Today was the day. I came along for the ride, because you don't say no to an officer of his rank. There was some other pretext for the trip, I'm sure--but it was really just an opportunity to see some sights and take some photos.

It took an hour and a half of hard driving to reach the town. The same hordes of children from my last visit lined the streets, trying to get our attention to sell souveneirs or just beg for a handout. Someone threw a handful of candy out of a vehicle, and dropped a few bottles of water.

After a couple of wrong turns, we found the mural next to a large, empty field. A man resting in the shade of the wall was politely asked to step aside. We had weapons and he didn't, so there was no argument. He stood a few yards away and watched as one of our drivers took photos of the rest of us, one camera after another.

It was very hot, as usual, but we still managed to attract a small throng of locals, trying to sell us dinars and looking for handouts. They had very limited success--we have all the Iraqi money we want now, thank you.

Just as we were getting ready to leave, a boy who appeared to be about eight years old climbed up the base of the monument and stared at the image of Saddam.

We stopped, halfway to our vehicles, waiting to see what he would do.

The boy took off his shoe, and started beating Saddam on the face. The adults were cheering him on. He seemed to enjoy the attention.

The cameras came back out. I finished my roll of film.

Not such a waste of time, after all.

TRANSMISSION FROM LT Smash 1500Z |

http://www.lt-smash.us/

[Dog]

Nully!

Hello everyone!

[Ragtime Cowgirl]

Sorry, Dolly! No worries. #58 and 59 were duplicates.

I had to hit the abuse button on myself - again. (^;

[MEG33]

Been having cable problems....probably due to a wind storm.I will BBL(cable willing)

[TexKat]

House Intelligence Leaders OK WMD Review

WASHINGTON - The Republican and Democratic leaders of the House Intelligence Committee have reached an agreement on how to examine prewar intelligence on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction.

What they haven't agreed on is how to characterize their inquiry.

To Rep. Jane Harman, D-Calif., the committee is launching an investigation that "will unflinchingly follow the facts wherever they lead."

To Chairman Porter Goss, R-Fla., it isn't an investigation, but a review that falls under the committee's normal oversight role. He said the committee will not be pressured "into any particular course of action in order to meet arbitrary expectations."

In announcing their plans Thursday, Goss and Harman bridged a gap that has deeply divided their counterparts on the Senate Intelligence Committee.

Democrats on the Senate panel have demanded a full investigation because no weapons of mass destruction have been found and some of the evidence cited by the Bush administration has proven to be false or misleading.

But the committee's majority Republicans say there is no evidence of wrongdoing and that routine oversight procedures are sufficient to determine if the intelligence was flawed.

In a joint statement Thursday, Goss and Harman described their plans for a "comprehensive review of questions concerning the quality and objectivity of prewar intelligence relating to Iraqi weapons of mass destruction and Iraqi ties to terrorism."

They said they would hold hearings to allow committee members to question administration officials about weapons intelligence. Hearings would be open "as appropriate."

The first two hearings, though, will be closed. On Wednesday the committee will hear about efforts to locate weapons of mass destruction. On Thursday, it will hear testimony about an October 2002 intelligence review of Iraq's weapons programs.

The inquiry will also include staff interviews of intelligence personnel and regular updates on efforts to locate weapons of mass destruction. The committee has already begun reviewing documents submitted by the CIA on weapons programs.

Democrats have questioned whether intelligence was steered to support the case for war. Questions have also been raised about whether agencies relied too much on exile groups for information about weapons programs.

In the Capitol on Thursday, an Iraqi exile leader told reporters "there was no hyping of information."

Ahmed Chalabi, head of the Iraqi National Congress, said his group had put the U.S. government in contact with three defectors who provided information on Iraqi weapons

One was an engineer "who built sites for the weapons storage areas." He was presented to the U.S. government on Dec. 17, 2001, and entered into the witness protection program, Chalabi said.

The second exile told the United States about mobile biological labs, he said. U.S. officials believe two truck trailers it seized in Iraq were likely those labs. But no traces of biological weapons have been found.

The third exile spoke only briefly to U.S. officials. Chalabi said he was involved in a nuclear weapons program.

In an interview, Secretary of State Colin Powell shrugged off Chalabi's statements. "I can't substantiate his claims. He makes new ones every year," he said.

Chalabi is a former banker who recently returned to Iraq after 45 years abroad.

Supporters credit him with keeping U.S attention on Iraq in the past decade and some U.S. officials see him as a potential future leader of Iraq. Critics have also questioned his credibility, noting that a Jordanian court convicted him in absentia of embezzlement in 1992.

[Socratic]

"I had to hit the abuse button on myself"

Is self-abuse allowed in these forums?

[TexKat]

Belgium to Transfer War Crimes Probe to Israel

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Belgium said on Friday it was taking steps to transfer to Israel a war crimes probe into the role of an Israeli general in the 1982 massacre of Palestinians in Lebanon linked to then-Defense Minister Ariel Sharon.

A group of Palestinian plaintiffs is using a Belgian law that claims universal jurisdiction, allowing the country's courts to try people for crimes against humanity and genocide no matter where they were committed.

Sharon, now Israeli prime minister, was the main focus of the complaint, but the Belgian Supreme Court of Appeals ruled his investigation could only continue once he is out of office.

A Brussels court earlier this week ruled the complaint against Amos Yaron, which had been disassociated from the now-frozen lawsuit against Sharon, admissible and could proceed.

"The procedure has been started in the case of Yaron," a spokesman for the Belgian Foreign Ministry said.

Lawyers for the Palestinian plaintiffs called the move "unfortunate" and said it was a result of Israeli pressure.

"It is an incontrovertible fact that, despite the clear dispositions of international law, Palestinians living in forced exile since 1948 have never been allowed any access to Israel, let alone any access to justice in Israel," a statement from the lawyers said.

The plaintiffs would continue to pursue justice for the victims of the massacre, said the statement sent to Reuters by Beirut-based lawyer Chibli Mallat.

An Israeli judicial inquiry found in 1983 that Yaron, commander of Israeli forces in Beirut at the time, had shown "insensitivity to the dangers of massacre in the camps" after he received reports of killings there by Lebanese Christian militiamen allied to Israel.

Sharon was defense minister at the time of the massacre of hundreds of Palestinians at the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps in Lebanon. The Israeli commission found him indirectly responsible for the killings and he resigned, but was never prosecuted.

Yaron was reassigned after the commission's report was issued and held various positions in the Israeli military afterwards. He was named director general of the Israeli Defense Ministry in 1999.

A Belgian government source told Reuters the Justice Ministry had asked the appeals court for a formal advice, which could take up to two weeks, after which the government will have the final say on whether the case will be moved to Israel.

Asked whether the government would approve the transfer, the source said: "That's the objective."

The move should ease fears of a new diplomatic spat between Belgium and Israel. Relations have been strained since the appointment of an examining magistrate in the Sharon case.

A recent amendment allows Belgium to send a lawsuit to the defendant's country if that country has a legal system that guarantees proper handling of the complaint.

The law was changed to stem a flood of complaints against foreign political figures which threatened to clog Belgium's courts and compromise its foreign relations.

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld vowed on Thursday to block spending on NATO's new Brussels headquarters as long as the law stands.

[DollyCali]

Is self-abuse allowed in these forums?

Isn't masochism part of interest in politics? Not intentional, mind you, but there

[DollyCali]

Happy Birthday Fly over !

[Ragtime Cowgirl]

Do news anchors wear pants? (^;

---

Saddam, the Stalinist - America's #1 NEWS(?) source:

Pulitzer-winning Lies (from The New York Times)
The Weekly Standard ^ | 6/12/03 | Arnold Beichman

AT LONG LAST a Pulitzer Prize committee is looking into the possibility that the Pulitzer awarded to Walter Duranty, the New York Times Moscow correspondent whose dispatches covered up Stalin's infamies, might be revoked.

In order to assist in their researches, I am downloading here some of the lies contained in those dispatches, lies which the New York Times has never repudiated with the same splash as it accorded Jayson Blair's comparatively trivial lies:

"There is no famine or actual starvation nor is there likely to be." --New York Times, Nov. 15, 1931, page 1

"Any report of a famine in Russia is today an exaggeration or malignant propaganda." --New York Times, August 23, 1933

"Enemies and foreign critics can say what they please. Weaklings and despondents at home may groan under the burden, but the youth and strength of the Russian people is essentially at one with the Kremlin's program, believes it worthwhile and supports it, however hard be the sledding." --New York Times, December 9, 1932, page 6

"You can't make an omelet without breaking eggs." --New York Times, May 14, 1933, page 18

"There is no actual starvation or deaths from starvation but there is widespread mortality from diseases due to malnutrition." --New York Times, March 31, 1933, page 13

I would like to add another Duranty quote, not in his dispatches, which is reported in a memoir by Zara Witkin, a Los Angeles architect, who lived in the Soviet Union during the 1930s. ("An American Engineer in Stalin's Russia: The Memoirs of Zara Witkin, 1932-1934," University of California Press ). The memoirist describes an evening during which the Moscow correspondents were discussing how to get out the story about the Stalin-made Russian famine. To get around the censorship, the UP's Eugene Lyons was telephoning the dire news of the famine to his New York office but the was ordered to stop because it was antagonizing the Kremlin. Ralph Barnes, the New York Herald Tribune reporter, turned to Duranty and asked him what he was going to write. Duranty replied:

Nothing. What are a few million dead Russians in a situation like this? Quite unimportant. This is just an incident in the sweeping historical changes here. I think the entire matter is exaggerated.

And this was at a time when peasants in Ukraine were dying of starvation at the rate of 25,000 a day.

In his masterwork about Stalin's imposed famine on Ukraine, "Harvest of Sorrow," Robert Conquest has written:

As one of the best known correspondents in the world for one of the best known newspapers in the world, Mr. Duranty's denial that there was a famine was accepted as gospel. Thus Mr. Duranty gulled not only the readers of the New York Times but because of the newspaper's prestige, he influenced the thinking of countless thousands of other readers about the character of Josef Stalin and the Soviet regime. And he certainly influenced the newly-elected President Roosevelt to recognize the Soviet Union.

What is so awful about Duranty is that Times top brass suspected that Duranty was writing Stalinist propaganda, but did nothing.

~~~

Tales of Saddam's Brutality [lengthy, graphic, White House websight] (includes lengthy press/Senate e-mail contact list) 

[Common Tator]

The Erie canal spilled over the roads not far from my home.. the cuyahoga is very high.

I hope you are referring to the river and not the county.

As I recall the Cuyahoga river is said to be dangerous for kayakers only when it is on fire. It has been decades since the Cuyahoga has caught fire.

I think it would be fun to get a group of Freepers together for the Bay Village Beck Picnic. I wonder how many times I have said on the air the words "Bay Village" followed or preceded by "Sam Shepard". I would bet it is in the thousands.