Iraqi Leaders Are Nowhere To Be Seen Forces May Be Protecting Figures Near Syria Border

Washington Post ^ | Aoril 10, 2003 | Dana Priest and Walter Pincus

[ZULU]

Secret CIA and military teams in Iraq and surveillance devices set up to monitor Saddam Hussein's inner circle reported yesterday that nearly the entire Iraqi leadership had vanished.

U.S. military commanders said they suspected that some leaders had headed to Hussein's hometown of Tikrit for a final bloody showdown and that others had fled to Syria. Dogged fighting by Iraqi forces at Qaim, near the Syrian border, has led some U.S. and British officials to suspect that Iraqi troops there may be protecting important Iraqi leaders or family members, although it was not clear who.

[ZULU]

The SYrian have learned NOTHING from what happened next door. With typical Arabic Muslim stupidity, they are injecting themselves into this conflict and inviting a confrontation with a force they can't withstand.

I hope Rumsfeld made good war plans and they keep Powell safely muzzled until the smoke clears in Damascus.

[Support Free Republic]

Hi mom!

[Teacher317]

Headed for Syria you say, pilgrim? Well, we'll just have to mosey on over and give it a good look-see.

[trebb]

This could become most syria...

[Quix]

Syrians are AT LEAST as arrogant and bull headed as SADDDDDamn, it seems to me.

[maro]

I would presume that all Tikritis are guilty of war crimes, and take the gloves off. There are very few innocent people living there.

[demnomo]

...U.S. intelligence officials said allied forces continued to stop and turn around busloads of non-Iraqi fighters attempting to come into Iraq from Syria.

Why are we sending these guys back? Obviously, more than a few have slipped into Baghdad and are intent on killing our troops. I say give them all a one way ticket to hell, er, paradise. That's what they came for in the long run. Why disappoint their desire to become martyrs for Saddam?

[VOA]

bump

[Conspiracy Guy]

They are all somewhere.

[Frumious Bandersnatch]

His support is so strong there, said Pollack, research director of the Brookings Institution's Saban Center, that "this could be a Mogadishu.

Where have I heard this one before?

[Black Bart]

allied forces continued to stop and turn around busloads of non-Iraqi fighters attempting to come into Iraq from Syria.

Burying them in Iraq would be preferrable to sending them back to Syria. Afterall, they want to be in Iraq.

[eureka!]

Compost article. Big snip in order...

[toddly]

I think Tikrit is the reason we are presently stocking up on MOABs in the region.

[dalebert]

Maybe the Syrians need to meet a MOAB.

[spodefly]

At the same time, U.S. intelligence officials said allied forces continued to stop and turn around busloads of non-Iraqi fighters attempting to come into Iraq from Syria.

Turning around??? I hope they are turning them inside out with 20mm cannons. Otherwise, these pathological jihadists will just be back in our face at some later date. We will have to deal with them eventually, why not now?

[Robe]

I have come to realize that the word ARAB is synonymous with MENTAL ILLNESS

[slimer]

Steve Harrigan on Fox News was at the Syrian Iraqi border and said that it was basically wide open. No Iraqi border guards anywhere.

I was wondering why we are not securing this point of entry. It occurrs to me that there may be a few plausible reasons.

1. Give Syria enough rope and they will invite us to take them on next. Rumsfeld has already warned them in no uncertain terms.
2. Why not let the jihadists come on over to Iraq ? We might as well take as many out as we can while we are there with the equipment.
3. If Iraqi leadership escapes into Syria and the Syrian Government harbors and protects them, guess what? We can justify attacking Syria for doing this.

[Justin Thyme]

Ooohhh, nice twist!

[Quix]

I suppose it's how one defines it,

though I'd prefer usually to avoid such global generalizations.

There DOES SEEM to be a chronic inferiority-chip-on-the-shoulder sort of thing . . .

and

a quickness to rush to, cling to shreds of delusion and inflate them into massive delusions.

There would be many explanations/rationalizations for such.

The volitile emotionality seems to be a cultural thing and not necessarily deranged except when it's driven by other dysfunctional dynamics.

Anyway--INSANITY in our era is no monopoly of the Arabs

as

Dillbo and

her unroyal lowness,
her hideous heinous--
Bwitch Shrillery

Dashdull,

Boxerface,

MooreAsLessThanAdequate,

Babs Streidunce,

KerryBlerryBrained,

et al

so flagrantly demonstrate.