President to Address Nation from Oval Office This Afternoon, Condolences to Israel PM

CBS News ^ | February 1, 2003 | John Roberts at the Whitehouse

[ewing]

President Bush will address the nation from the Oval Office on the Columbia tragedy, after calling the Prime Minister of Israel to give his condolences.

There have already been mid level diplomatic exchanges of sorrow between the two nations.

[Howlin]

Welcome to FR!

[mhking]

Per Reuters:

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Iraqis Call Shuttle Disaster God's Vengeance

Sat February 1, 2003 02:08 PM ET
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Immediate popular reaction in Baghdad on Saturday to the loss of the U.S. space shuttle Columbia and its seven-member crew -- including the first Israeli in space -- was that its was God's retribution on Americans. "We are happy that it broke up," government employee Abdul Jabbar al-Quraishi said.

"God wants to show that his might is greater than the Americans. They have encroached on our country. God is avenging us," he said.

Car mechanic Mohammed Jaber al-Tamini noted Israeli air force Colonel Ilan Ramon was among the dead when the shuttle broke up shortly before its return to earth.

"Israel launched an aggression on us when it raided our nuclear reactor without any reason (in 1981), now time has come and God has retaliated to their aggression," Tamini said.

[Ipberg]

This is a terrible way to start a month that was going to be very difficult anyways.

[Howlin]

I agree.

[Howlin]

OMG.

[RoseofTexas]

Please pray for the President and the family members of those lost this morn. I hope the media liberal whores are sensitive to the nature of this tragic event. These are extremely difficult times for the US and our already beaten with burden president. WOW! I feel so bad for our president, what else can go wrong..:(

[nicmarlo]

One of the tough parts of being President.....giving these kind of speeches.

Yes; not one time now, but at least twice like this.....right after 9/11 (a few times, if I recall) and now this.....a short time apart, really.

[Ragtime Cowgirl]

Iraqis don't know much about PR, do they? Even the French would find that distasteful.

[mhking]

OMG.

Yeah. I'm tired of this. I think it's time to take the bastards out.

[Wphile]

Is that for real? Man, I'm gonna be sick.

[Mo1]

Somehow I am not surprised at their response

[TheLion]

They are supposed to have a NASA news conference at 3pm Eastern.

I wonder what they know at this point. So many things could have gone wrong. They could have hit the atmosphere at the wrong speed or one of the tiles could have failed, causing a chain reaction.

Maybe it was fatigue. Does anyone know how many flights the Columbia has done?

[rwfromkansas]

I missed the speech!!!! Does anyone have a link to a transcript or a video of it???

I woke up late late this morning and only heard about this when my dad told me. Seeing the shuttle just fall apart was awful. Quite frankly, it takes a lot to get me to cry when these things happen. I think I possibly cried once about Sept. 11 but it was WELL after it happened (like 6 months). At least I managed to choke up seeing this shuttle just come unglued.....hopefully I am beginning to reverse my youthful conditioning (due to crying a lot from loneliness) to not cry or express emotion about these things.

[Rockitz]

Bush will probably get a boost in the polls following this so as I said in post #57, the RATS will strategize on how to blame him for this disaster. I'm guessing Bubba will be the trigger man.

[sweetliberty]

#$%T these scum and may the Lord deal them justice swiftly!!!!

[CalvaryJohn]

Here's my tribute. I've had this song going in my head for at least a month, now, I suspect, prophetically. It's the theme song from the new Enterprise, "Faith of the Heart".http://scifi.myrealm.co.uk/audio/enterprise2.mp3

[JennysCool]

I'm tired of this. I think it's time to take the bastards out.

Count me in, 'King.

[knak]

Nice passage, thanks for posting it. The Presidents speech brought tears to my eyes.

[rwfromkansas]

Look at his eyes! My gosh what a man.....we are so incredibly blessed to have him as our leader and heaven help me, I don't know why God would bestow such grace on this disgraceful nation....but glory be to Him for giving us another chance.