Man with Knives Tries to Enter UN Baghdad Office
Sat January 25, 2003 02:19 AM ETBAGHDAD (Reuters) - A man wielding two knives tried to enter the building housing U.N. arms inspectors in Baghdad on Saturday, witnesses said, but was stopped by guards.
A Reuters cameraman and driver saw Iraqi guards and U.N. security stop the man, who held the knives in his hands and appeared to be Iraqi in his twenties.
The weapons inspectors were preparing to leave for daily inspections of Iraqi sites.
Another person jumped into one of the inspectors' cars as it was leaving the headquarters and tried to seize documents before Iraqi guards seized him.
U.N. officials were not available for comment.
This was the first such incident since weapons inspectors resumed their work on November 27 after a four-year absence. The inspections have aroused much resentment among Iraqis.
The inspectors are to deliver a report on their work to the U.N. Security Council on Monday, which could begin a countdown for a possible U.S. invasion to force Iraq to disarm.
Incident at the beginning of the inspectors of UNO of their HQ
A young Iraqi temporarily seized Saturday a car of the inspectors in disarmament of UNO, at the exit of their HQ of Baghdad, with the cries of "save me!", before being controlled and given to the Iraqi authorities, a photographer of the AFP.L' man, old noted of a score of years, blocked the passage of a convoy of the inspectors at their exit of their HQ, the Channel Hotel, throwing himself on the cap of one of the cars, forcing it with arrêter.Il the door of the vehicle opened and taken the place of the driver who left there. "Save me please, save me please!", the young man in anglais.L' man shouted refused to go to the Iraqi guards posted in front of the Channel Hotel, requiring the intervention of the safety of the United Nations of which one of the members succeeded in making it leave the véhicule.Il was given thereafter to the Iraqi soldiers in charge of the protection of the Channel Hotel which retained it in the car park at the entry of the establishment where it started to shout "Allah Akbar" (God is more grand).Les mobile of the man were not known in the immediate future. The incident lasted ten minutes.
I thought Scott Ritter had cancelled his trip to Baghdad...?
A guy comes up yelling "save me" and then tries to seize documents in a car already surrounded by Iraqi guards...
(So, wonder if there was an unseen document switch amid the fuss?)
You see. The inspection process works!
that's plum strange
Ah....a bit of street theater for the Useful Numbnuts inspectors. I guess this means both Iraqis are safely in the hands of the Iraqis. Way to go, UN.
And the article you posted in your reply #24 says
"The first two vehicles swerved around him, but the third stopped, the witnesses said. 'Save me!' he shouted in Arabic and English, after which he was allowed to enter the vehicle. He was carrying a notebook, witnesses said."
So he was either trying to steal papers or was trying to GIVE papers in exchange for protection.
I thought I read the same article twice and misunderstood it the first time around....
I hate the media.