Posted on 04/18/2002 1:31:31 PM PDT by LarryLied
received via email:
Hello Everyone,
Just to let you know the Embassy in Bahrain was attacked yesterday at 4:00 p.m. The five Marine Security Guards and the two Regional Security Officers were the only ones protecting the Embassy. The Embassy was closed so luckily we only had to protect ourselves and the Embassy compound from destruction. The protest was a pro-Palestinian rally that started a few miles from the embassy and became fueled for violence as radical Muslim groups took charge and led the march on the embassy at 3:30 p.m.
The march was between 2600 and 3000 protestors, but we do not have an exact count because it just happened several hours ago. The protestors were throwing rocks, sticks and fire bombs at the embassy. Between 20 and 30 protestors climbed the wall and started setting the cars, trucks and embassy on fire. When the protestors climbed the walls, the 5 Marines were authorized to use necessary force.
We shot tear gas into the crowd of over 2600 people to try and turn them away from the compound and then continued destruction of our pov's and satellite communication equipment, which was outside the embassy but inside the compound wall. At 4:10 p.m. no firefighters had arrived, so three Marines had to leave the embassy under covering fire of the Marines with gas on the third floor to go to the back of the compound to put out the fires themselves.
We sustained minor injuries from the protestors attacking us with rocks and sticks as we chased them out of the compound and back over the walls using force, while the remaining Marine put out the fires to the best of his ability. After the fires were secured the Marines pulled back into the embassy and continued to force the protestors back onto the highway behind the embassy. The protests were mainly secured by 7:00 p.m. and the investigation was in full swing by this time as well. The Marines stayed at the embassy for security throughout the night and will continue to do so today.
The host government was embarassed that they could not control its own people and that their riot control police were no match for the number of protestors.
The King of Bahrain instructed the Ministry of Interior to fix the problem before dawn, so that minimal damage would be seen this morning. When the Marines were told at 6:00 a.m. this morning we could leave to go get some sleep, we drove past the outside of the embassy and were amazed. The grafitti had been painted over, the guard shacks that had been burned were replaced, the fire bomb burns on the wall had been painted over, the thousand's of rocks that had been thrown were swept away, and the barbed wire that surround the embassy the previous day was gone. Other than the total destruction of all government property inside the compound it looked to anyone passing by, that nothing had really happened.
The host government represenatives called the Ambassador last night and told him they would replace everything that was destroyed and that cost was not an issue. The Kingdom of Bahrain is so scared of pissing off the U.S. that it will do anything in its power to preserve its relationship with us even in the shadow of ignorance from it's own people. The entire fight was caught on video because we saw the Al Jazerra News choppers over our heads. The video may or may not be released because it will be handled the same way the Daniel Pearl murder was handled, since the government will try and pressure what is released and given the fact that the news agency that filmed the riot yesterday is the same one that had the Daniel Pearl murder on tape.
This is the story of what took place on April 5th 2002 in Manama, Bahrain at 3:30 p.m., regardless of what you see or hear. Before I leave and go treat my scrapes and cuts and then go to bed for about 12 hours, I would like to say that the two RSO's and five Marines kept the Embassy from burning to an embarassing pile of United States image, and successfully held off and injured any one that intended to come take our pride from us.
Did I mention the riot was at least 2600 people? Just wanted to make sure anyone out there who thought the Marines who guard the embassies were NOT bad ass boys with guns, does not have that in their heads anymore.
Well, ladies and gentlemen, I am off to bed because I am dead tired, but it was worth it because I had the time of my life yesterday, by far the most fun I have ever had. And one more thing, the American flag is still flying as high and bright as it was before the riot and the protestors' flags are lying on the ground covered in mud.
FR posts on the attack:
Bahrain Protesters Smash Windows at U.S. Embassy
Thousands protest Zionist atrocities(Bahrain:site of US Air and Naval base)
Protester Dies of Injuries Suffered in Demonstration Outside US Embassy in Bahrain
This is first time I've encountered such hostility in my six months as a freeper. She...has to be a she...reminds me of some of the women I'd meet in the Waldbaums chekout line back in NYC. I'm so glad I came south :-)
I was quite impressed when I read the email. The fellow who forwarded to me spent 36 years in the Air Force (fought in three wars) and I'm sure he wouldn't send me any government secrets. I wanted to share it with my fellow freepers. I did a thread search to see if there really was an attack that day, there was, and I came across the thread posted by you. I asked you to post my email as you had an interest in the subject matter. The email is "signed" by two people, with contact telephone and fax numbers, and it stated that it was "unclassified". I wouldn't have the slightest idea of how to link back to my email, 'tho many are upset that I didn't.
What a joke!
You think I give a sh*t about your respect?
Each of your posts to me have been hysterical attacks.
I feel nothing but contempt regarding you!
I want no further contact with you...ever.
I knew this would happen and probably should have warned you. Had you been able to post this, none of this would have occurred. But then this thread did get a lot of attention and that is good. Americans do need to know there is more to our foreign problems than what is going on in the West bank.
I see you haven't posted much if at all on Mideast threads. This is quite an introduction, isn't it? Almost like the mideast itself...
In reply # 90, I wrote:
The King of Bahrain is trying to stamp out the Shi'ite Hezbollah in the country as best he can. But there were more protests today. Now they want the US 5th Fleet to pull out. . .
The King of Bahrain is not several people. He is not a plural. The "they" refers to the protesters. If the government of Bahrain told us to get out, it would be on the front page of every newspaper. You would not read about it in a reply buried in a long thread on FR first.
Enough already with the nitpicking. You always try to say someone said, implied or thought something they did not. And you always lose. Give it a rest, OK?
To me, based on being around Marines my whole life, the text just doesn't sound right. That could just be the author though.
But there are other reasons...mostly mentioned on this thread. The biggest reason I don't believe it is that he would have had to have written this immediately after the action...such an email is a massive breach of protocol. I don't see a competent Marine, trained to guard an embassy in a hot country being this foolish.
Did you catch that one of the Israel seminar posters apparently even ran to management and tried to get this thread pulled because of that?
I don't get it. Don't see why they think this email is so threatening that no one should be able to read it.
Until 9/11, I didn't think Flight 800 was anything but a fluke mechanical accident despite the numerous threads on FR claiming it was anything but. Now I believe it was brought down. A brave new world, we are in, isn't it?
btw...this thread is fairly tame compared to some of them. The one below is what really precipitated the comments to me you see on this one:
Wiesenthal raps EU endorsement of terror
It is not Politically Correct to point out that Simon Wiesenthal is not the great man some think him to be. As I quickly discovered...lol
As my dear Jewish friend Marvin would say: "be glad you're not married to her/him...you'd have to live with that day in and day out for the rest of your life."
I think I'd better start a crash course on the Mideast and would appreciate it if you'd add me to your ping list. Thanks.
Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it.
#5 is popular with them too:
Ridicule is man's most potent weapon.
Not that any of these works. Conservatives see though them. But it is fun to keep track of how they shift from one of Saul's tactics to the next.
You mean, Mr. Lied, people like President GW Bush? :)
You mean the first impression you tried to pawn off about yourself here that you were pro Israel? Yes, indeedy, much was learned on that thread, Mr. Lied. Lots of valuable information.
As an "outsider" it seems to me that this group is following Saul Alinsky's "Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it" rule. This group almost seems to be stalking LarryLied.
BTW, I don't "stick" with any one person...I have a brain and I use it to make my own decisions.
1. Keep your friends close to you, but keep your enemies closer.
(to be continued)
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