Free Republic

The war in Iraq is a war of information, and spinning unfortunate events in one’s direction is how you cover your tracks. A case in point was the May 19th U.S. bombing of a remote compound in Iraq, near the Syrian border. The U.S. said the place was a smugglers way station being used to bring anti-government fighters, terrorists and weapons in from Syria. An American assessment team got to the scene shortly after the bomb strike. What they found was; - The only permanent buildings at the site contained large stocks of food (the meat was still frozen solid),...

Reader WEH sends this email from an American acquaintance in Iraq dated May 21, which may bear upon the story of the Wedding Party video. I can’t be absolutely sure what happened out there but if you know a few things about Iraq it doesn’t sound so outlandish. These people are members of a clan well known in Anbar province. They are supposedly "shepherds" but they are really more like livestock owners. The herds are large and the business is profitable. After the spring rains end, and they just did, these people and other clans like them follow the herds...

U.S. military forces have discovered a smuggling ring moving copious quantities of explosives and weapons from Iraq to terrorist training camps constructed by the Saddam Hussein regime inside Syria prior to Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF). The Pentagon also announced that the structure bombed by U.S. warplanes last week, described by many major media outlets as a wedding celebration at a private ranching operation, was actually a "dormitory-like" facility used as a "safe house" to facilitate the clandestine movement of foreign terrorists into Iraq from Syria. According to Pentagon officials, small arms, explosives, and bomb making materials are being removed from...

06-02-2004 Guest Column: The Desert Wedding That Wasn’t Editor’s Note: The following memorandum was sent by a Pentagon contact to Col. David Hackworth regarding the incident on May 19 in western Iraq where U.S. forces attacked a large group of people at a remote farmhouse. Many news media outlets have prominently reported claims from some Iraqis charging that the group was a wedding party, although CENTCOM has flatly denied that. The officer’s name has been removed for his own protection. Hack: CLASSIFICATION: UNCLASSIFIED “Wedding Party” Details Just reviewed a classified brief on the supposed wedding - no way it was....

The background to American bombing raid on a village wedding party on May 18 that killed the bridegroom along with over 40 other villagers has remained largely a mystery in the international media. After the bomb raid, which the Pentagon claimed was an attempted assault on Resistance fighters in the area of al-Qa’im on the Syrian border, the AP broadcast video of the wedding contradicted the official US storey. Now an Iraqi resident of the area has come forward with information, published by Quds Press and carried on Mafkarat al-Islam’s website, indicating that the real reason for the US attack...

Just reviewed a classified brief on the supposed wedding - no way it was. Here are some unclass details I can provide (brief had lots of pictures to back up the details): > > > - Weddings traditionally held on Thursdays in Iraq to take advantage of Friday as a day of rest - raid took place on Tuesday night. - Only permanent dwelling at the site held large stocks of food, bedding, medical supplies (lots of these - was the wedding going to be a cage match of some sort or were the caterers just bad cooks?), ammunition and...

This magazine was discovered in the destroyed camp:

Yesterday’s Guardian headline was unequivocal: the Americans were behind a “Wedding Party Massacre.” No scare-quotes. No qualifiers. There was a wedding and there was a massacre. It’s not unlikely, of course. The Unites States military has made grave errors in the past (recall the wedding party in Afghanistan, the pharmaceutical plant in Sudan and the Chinese embassy in Belgrade). But I am skeptical of this “massacre” for a variety of reasons, not least the conflicting eye-witness accounts. One “massacre” survivor told the Washington Post that “the wedding party was in full swing – with dinner just finished and the band...

The supposed U.S. killing of 40 Iraqis in a “wedding party” in Western Iraq, though the U.S. Army says it hit arms smugglers near the Syrian border, led the ABC, CBS and CNN evening newscasts Wednesday night as each portrayed the event as symbolic of why the U.S. is losing support in the region. “We’re going to begin this evening with why it is so hard for the United States to make headway in the Middle East,” ABC’s Peter Jennings announced as he cited the killing, the court martial for prisoner abuse and how Israeli, “using American helicopters and tanks,...

A videotape has been broadcast which purports to show before-and-after footage of a wedding which Iraqis say the US attacked, killing about 40. The film, broadcast by Associated Press Television News, knits together a home movie of a wedding and APTN video of the aftermath of Wednesday's attack. Some victims and survivors of the air strike appear to be present in the footage of the wedding celebrations. The US has insisted its target was not a wedding but foreign fighters. It says that its soldiers were responding to fire and there was no evidence of a wedding. The incident occurred...

RAMADI, Iraq - A videotape obtained Sunday by Associated Press Television News captures a wedding party that survivors say was later attacked by U.S. planes early Wednesday, killing up to 45 people. The dead included the cameraman, Yasser Shawkat Abdullah, hired to record the festivities, which ended Tuesday night before the planes struck. The U.S. military says it is investigating the attack, which took place in the village of Mogr el-Deeb about five miles from the Syrian border, but that all evidence so far indicates the target was a safehouse for foreign fighters. "There was no evidence of a wedding:...

BAGHDAD (AFP) - The US military admitted that there were inconsistencies between its insistance foreign fighters had been killed in an airstrike earlier this week and claims from Iraqis that a wedding party had been hit. Displaying photographs of military equipment, medical supplies and "dormitory" style accommodation found at the site of the airstrike, Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt acknowledged that six women were killed in the attack. "There are still some inconsistences. We still remain open-minded about this. We will continue to look into everything that is provided to us in the way of evidence," the military spokesman said. Kimmitt...

BAGHDAD, Iraq - The U.S. military said Saturday it has found "no evidence of a wedding" at the site of an airstrike last week near the Syrian border, and said evidence so far suggested the target was a desert base for foreign terrorists sneaking into Iraq. Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, coalition deputy chief of staff for operations, showed slides of military binoculars, guns and battery packs that could be used to trigger roadside bombs found by U.S. troops at the site. He said "terrorist manuals," telephone numbers for Afghanistan and foreign passports, including one Sudanese, were also recovered there. Survivors...

Saturday, May 22, 2004  The Wedding Party 2 This article from the Guardian, 'US soldiers started to shoot us, one by one' is the most serious allegation on the wedding incident so far. It has the plethora of detail characteristic of a true story. As Mrs Shihab spoke she gestured with hands still daubed red-brown with the henna the women had used to decorate themselves for the wedding. Alongside her in the ward yesterday were three badly injured girls from the Rakat family: Khalood Mohammed, aged just a year and struggling for breath, Moaza Rakat, 12, and Iqbal Rakat, 15,...

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Saying "bad people have parties too," a U.S. general told a news conference on Saturday there was strong evidence of illegal activity at a house in the remote desert where U.S. forces killed about 40 Iraqis this week. The U.S. military says the house was a staging post for foreign fighters entering Iraq, but Iraqi witnesses and relatives of the dead say the attack targeted a wedding party and that several women and children were among those killed. "The more we look at the post-strike intelligence, the more that we continue to dig in to what we...

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - The U.S. military said Saturday it has found "no evidence of a wedding" at the site of an airstrike last week near the Syrian border, and said evidence so far suggested the target was a desert base for foreign terrorists sneaking into Iraq. Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, coalition deputy chief of staff for operations, showed slides of military binoculars, guns and battery packs that could be used to trigger roadside bombs found by U.S. troops at the site. He said "terrorist manuals," telephone numbers for Afghanistan and foreign passports, including one Sudanese, were also recovered there....

No Wedding Party, Children's Deaths Indicated, Military Spokesman Says By Rudi WilliamsAmerican Forces Press Service WASHINGTON, May 22, 2004 – There are no indications a wedding party took place at a remote desert site in western Iraq near the Syrian border where U.S. forces are accused of killing about 20 people May 19, including women and children, a senior military spokesman said today. "Contrary to media reports, there was no wedding tent and no nuptial tent in the area," Army Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, deputy operations director for Multinational Force Iraq said during a Baghdad news conference. "To the...

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Dozens of people killed in a U.S. attack in the Iraqi desert Wednesday were attending a high-level meeting of foreign fighters, not a wedding, and photos shown to reporters in Baghdad support that belief, according to the senior coalition military spokesman. Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt said six women were among the dead, but there is no evidence any children died in the raid early Wednesday near the Syrian border. Coalition officials have said that as many as 40 people were killed in the attack. He said that video showing dead children killed was actually recorded in...

Thursday, May 20, 2004 The Wedding Party It's an imaginary scene from World War 2, though it could have happened. Battalion headquarters gets a report over the phone from a front line sector. 'Armor moving to our front, 300 yards out bearing 75 degrees.' The information is plotted in grease pencil on a 1:10,000 map with an an acetate overlay. The position of the platoon reporting is known on the map. A protractor marks out the bearing and ruler paces off the distance. A symbol for enemy armor is drawn on the acetate. Ten minutes later, more details come in....

Print This Story Subscribe    AP Photo/Khalid Mohammed Iraqi mourners carry the coffin of Hussein Ali, 35, along the streets of Baghdad during his funeral procession on Thursday. Ali was one of 4O people killed when a U.S. helicopter fired on a wedding party in a remote desert area. Related Info U.S. aircraft reportedly kills 40 Iraqis U.S. military raids Iraqi politician's home General: Iraq violence likely to get worse List of coalition casualties Arab media condemn U.S. over deadly attackBy DONNA BRYSON, Associated PressCAIRO, Egypt (AP) - Arab media gave little credence Thursday to to U.S. military claims...