Free Republic

Language gap put them in peril at U.S. checkpoint By Meg Laughlin Knight Ridder/Tribune news Published April 2, 2003 NEAR NAJAF, Iraq -- An Iraqi family that lost 11 members when U.S. soldiers opened fire as their vehicle approached a checkpoint was fleeing toward U.S. lines because they thought a leaflet dropped by American helicopters told them to "be safe," and that meant leaving their village, a survivor of the incident said Tuesday. Bakhat Hassan--who lost his daughters, ages 2 and 5, his son, 3, his parents, two older brothers, their wives and two nieces, ages 12 and 15, in...

Allies Pound Iraqi Vehicles in Basra By DOUG MELLGREN and NICOLE WINFIELD .c The Associated Press NEAR BASRA, Iraq (AP) - British and U.S. aircraft pounded a convoy of Iraqi tanks and armored vehicles that was streaming out of the besieged southern city of Basra late Wednesday, British military sources said. The sources estimated the column at about 120 vehicles, heading southeast along the main road toward Abadan. They said it appeared the Iraqis were using the sandstorm that had blanketed the region to try to sneak out. Basra had been largely quiet for much of the day Wednesday, with...

<p>The U.S. soldiers of the mind who have deployed over Iraq an arsenal of psychological weapons yesterday saw dividends from their efforts as the "shock and awe" bomb and missile attack described in leaflets, broadcasts and e-mails was launched.</p> <p>Iraqi soldiers surrendering to advancing ground forces waved some of the 17 million leaflets rained onto Iraq in 42 separate drops, most recently Tuesday morning when 360,000 pieces fell on two southeast Iraqi cities.</p>

Leaflets Drop, Iraqi Soldiers SurrenderNewsMax WiresThursday, March 20, 2003The world seemed to be holding its breath Wednesday as President Bush's deadline for Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein to leave his country or face war passed, amid last-minute preparations by U.S. forces and the first surrenders of Iraqi troops -- but no immediate assault. U.S. and British aircraft earlier Wednesday pounded targets in Iraq's southern no-fly zone and dropped leaflets telling Iraqi soldiers how to surrender, a U.S. Air Force spokeswoman based at an undisclosed location in Southwest Asia told United Press International. She said the targets of the strikes were communication,...

Now we return to finish the job. "This elaborately illustrated Gulf War PSYOP leaflet portrays a giant wave as a knife-wielding, war-ready, US Marine. Twelve thousand copies of the leaflet were placed in sealed bottles and dumped off the Kuwait coastline by a smuggler from the United Arab Emirates. Copies of this leaflet were also disseminated by F-16 air dropped leaflet bombs. This deception launched just days before the ground war played the Iraqi fear of an amphibious attack by the United States. As a result, this leaflet is credited with convincing the Iraqis to reorient their defenses in...

As Washington readies its forces for war in Iraq, a quiet military effort is already under way that is aimed at persuading Iraq's senior military officials to refrain from fighting U.S. and British soldiers. As RFE/RL reports, a quick and "clean" conflict may hinge on the success of the United States' psychological-warfare campaign. Washington, 19 March 2003 (RFE/RL) -- Is the pen mightier than the sword? U.S. war planners hope so. Hundreds of thousands of U.S. and British troops and thousands of tanks, jet fighters, bombs, and missiles may be set to strike Iraq in hours in a bid to...

Open acts of defiance by opponents of Saddam Hussein's regime have intensified in the past week, with saboteurs carrying out attacks against Iraq's railway system and protesters openly calling for the overthrow of the Iraqi dictator. The most blatant act of sabotage took place 20 miles south of the north Iraqi city of Mosul when members of the Iraqi opposition blew up a stretch of track on the Mosul-Baghdad railway, causing the derailment of a train. Before fleeing back to their base in Kurdistan, they left piles of leaflets by the side of the track urging the Iraqi soldiers who...

GOTTA SEE THIS - War for Enduring Freedom 03/16/03 -USS T.Roosevelt, USS Kitty Hawk, B-2, GR7, A10, AV-8B, leaflets BREAKING: US SEEKS PEACE ---- BUT IS READY - GOOD MORNING BAGHDAD!!!!!!!!!!!!! BREAKING: USS Theodore Roosevelt, USS Kitty Hawk BREAKING: B-2, 'Spirit of Oklahoma', 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit, 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, BREAKING: Harrier GR7, A10, Harrier AV-8B, Living Support Area 7, 633 Squadron Royal Air Force BREAKING: Nutcakes in Saddam City BREAKING: Leaflets dropped BREAKING: B-1 JDAMs in measured response ========= USS Kitty Hawk ========= Somewhere near Iraq, heroes on the USS Kitty Hawk prepare. ========= USS Theodore Roosevelt =========...

Anti-Hussein messages, secret missions part of psychological warfareBy Richard Whittle, The Dallas Morning NewsWASHINGTON - The message in Arabic crackles over the radio waves above Iraq, beamed down by a U.S. Air Force EC-130 "Commando Solo" aircraft: "Soldiers of Iraq. Since the beginning of time, there has been no profession more honorable than that of a soldier. ... Saddam has tarnished this legacy. ... Do not let Saddam tarnish the reputation of soldiers any longer. ... Make the decision." No bombs have fallen on Baghdad yet, but U.S. forces in the Persian Gulf are busily "preparing the battlefield," as military...

As the search for Osama bin Laden continues in a rugged mountain region along the Afghani/Pakistani border, the area is being flooded with leaflets offering a reward for his capture. Dropped from helicopters, the leaflets remind anyone who picks them up of a $25 million reward for information leading to the al-Qaida leader's arrest. The leaflets are part of an intensified search for the terrorist chief conducted by U.S. and Pakistani forces in Pakistan's southwest Baluchistan province and further north, in the Chitral region of the North West Frontier province. Reports from the region were contradictory Friday. U.S. and Pakistani...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- At 10 million leaflets and counting, the United States is stepping up its message to Iraqi troops: don't mine waterways or dump oil into them, don't use weapons of mass destruction, do desert your station so you'll live to see your children grow up. Allied planes on Thursday dropped 660,000 leaflets, with a half-dozen different messages, over 11 sites in southern Iraq. It was the latest paper downpour aimed at softening the battlefield for possible war against President Saddam Hussein's government."Saddam has poisoned your waterways before," said a message delivered for the first time Thursday. "You must...

CHAMAN: Pamphlets offering rewards for the capture of Osama bin Laden's deputy Ayman al-Zawahri, the al-Qaeda terror network's number-two, were air-dropped on Tuesday along the southern Afghan-Pakistani border. Pamphlets carrying the photo of Ayman al-Zawahri under the caption 'Wanted' and alongside images of US dollar bills fell from planes over the Afghan town of Spin Boldak, just across the border from Chaman. Written in Arabic and the local Pashtu language, the pamphlets offered rewards for information leading to al-Zawahiri's arrest. Witnesses said the pamphlets were dropped from US planes, although there was no independent confirmation available. Al-Zawahri, an Egyptian, is...

Online gallery of the leaflets dropped on Iraq by US forces during the past few months. Link Here's an example:

ANKARA, Turkey - The U.S. military for the first time dumped some 240,000 leaflets over northern Iraq on Saturday, warning anti-aircraft gunners not to fire on coalition aircraft. The airdrop brings to the north a propaganda campaign that the U.S. military has been waging for months in southern Iraq ahead of a possible war. Since late last year, U.S. aircraft have dropped millions of leaflets over southern Iraq with various messages to soldiers and civilians. The leaflets were dropped Saturday near Iraqi anti-aircraft artillery batteries about 10 miles north of the city of Mosul, the U.S. European Command said in...

Authorities in Baghdad are using a new scare tactic in an effort to dissuade Iraqi civilians from picking up information leaflets being dropped by U.S. led coalition aircraft. Pentagon officials tell VOA Iraqi authorities are warning residents throughout the southern part of the country that the leaflets being dropped by coalition aircraft are treated with a deadly chemical and should not be touched. To underscore the claim, U.S. officials say the Iraqis are dispatching personnel in what appear to be protective chemical suits to collect the leaflets. U.S. officials deny that the hundreds of thousands of leaflets that have been...

MANAMA (Reuters) - The U.S. military has prepared a leaflet for possible dropping by air, obtained by Reuters on Monday, that warns Iraqis not to help President Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) or his aides flee abroad and escape justice. U.S. military sources confirmed they had prepared the "highly classified" leaflet, which warns shipowners in Arabic that their boats will be confiscated if they help Iraqi leaders to escape, but that it had not yet been used. U.S. and British warplanes have already dropped hundreds of thousands of leaflets over the two no-fly zones they enforce urging locals to...

Coalition drops leaflets warning Iraqis not to repair air defenses WASHINGTON - Allied aircraft dropped leaflets over Iraq's southern no-fly zone again Friday, telling Iraqis to tune in to American radio broadcasts and warning military forces not to repair air defenses that are being targeted for destruction. It was the seventh time this year that a leaflet drop was made over the decade-old flight-interdiction zone that British and American planes monitor to keep Saddam Hussein (news - web sites)'s forces from flying there, the U.S. Central Command said in a statement from its Tampa, Florida, headquarters. Coalition forces dropped 360,000...

The leaflets, both in Arabic and English, warned Iraqi forces that the coalition had targeted fiber optic cables for destruction and that repairing the facilities place Iraqi military lives at risk. The military fiber optic cables have frequently been targeted by coalition warplanes. One of the leaflets describe them as "tools used by Saddam and his regime to suppress the Iraqi people". "Before you engage coalition aircraft, think about the consequences," the leaflet urged. "Think about your family, do what you must to survive." Other leaflets referred Iraqis to radio frequencies where they could hear broadcasts by coalition forces providing...

Don’t tell the New York times, but….. We don’t need the help of the Arab Nations to take care of Iraq. We only asked them to be polite. Second; Saddam Hussein is not worth one drop of American Service Man’s blood, so forget about the ground war with 200,000 of our best, exposed to that crazy. Here is the plan! Make up several thousand leaflets showing a 30 mile square area near enough to Baghdad for them to hear the boom. Put an X in the center. State that this area is going to be destroyed next Monday morning. If...

The U.S. military and the United Nations have expressed concern over threats to their security in Afghanistan. U.S. military officials confirm that leaflets apparently distributed by al-Qaida and Taleban fighters in eastern Afghanistan are offering rewards for the capture or killing of foreigners connected with the U.S.-led military operations. U.S. officials say the leaflets are indications that al-Qaida and Taleban forces remain active in the region and continue to pose a threat to U.S. forces, local citizens and journalists. Meanwhile, U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan says security is adequate in Kabul where international forces are deployed, but that elsewhere there...