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*IRAQ: latest news and developments

"WE HAD a great day," said Sgt Eric Schrumpf of the US Marines last Saturday. "We killed a lot of people."

He added: "We dropped a few civilians, but what do you do?" He said there were women standing near an Iraqi soldier, and one of them fell when he and other Marines opened fire. "I'm sorry," said Sgt Schrumpf, "but the chick was in the way".

Pilger on Iraq: http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/allnews/page.cfm?objectid=12812671&method=full&siteid=50143
 
Iraqi Oil is flowing. Or is it?

""We have no jobs," complained Nadam Hussain Ali, chief mechanical officer at the facility. "Now we come, we register, we turn the station on and turn it off. Mostly, we stand around."

Much of the bitterness was directed at KBR and the growing view that the company is slowing down progress. "We can do our jobs; we don't need anybody to help us," said Hadi Sultan, a chief technical officer at the plant. "All we need is the tools."

Article taken from Washington Post. http://www.iraqwar.ru/iraq-read_article.php?articleId=4622&lang=en
 
Iraqis left baffled as Don drops in for a chat

http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,947144,00.html

"Hello, I'm Don Rumsfeld," he said, opening the broadcast.
...
Nowhere in the speech did he mention that he had been in Iraq almost 20 years ago, a private businessman acting on behalf of the Reagan administration and dealing with Saddam.
...
He said there was more food, water and electricity in parts of Iraq than under the previous regime, remarks that might have been met with tortured laughter by anyone tuning in, given the lack of at least the last two throughout much of southern Iraq.
...
Seemingly oblivious to the fact that he was addressing one of the best-educated societies in the Middle East, with a big middle class, his tone was at times that of the colonial governor addressing the natives. "Building a free society isn't easy. It requires hard work and sacrifice," he said.
 
'large' explosions heard in baghdad.

Big Explosions Shake Baghdad
Fri May 2, 2003 07:54 AM ET
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Four big explosions rocked the Iraqi capital Baghdad on Friday.
Nothing was known yet about the cause and location of the series of explosions, which included one massive blast which shook the heart of the city.

A Reuters correspondent in Baghdad said the explosions appeared to have come from across the river near one of the presidential palaces.
 
Controlled explosions rock Baghdad

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - U.S. troops have blown up land mines and unexploded shells in central Baghdad, causing a series of explosions that rocked the Iraqi capital, witnesses say.
They said the soldiers detonated a number of land mines inside a former presidential complex on the western bank of Tigris river.

More explosions were heard from other parts of the city which were also believed to be controlled detonations of unexploded munitions, residents said.
 
Media bosses admit pro-war bias in coverage of Iraq.
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2003/may2003/med-m02.shtml

extract: While the BBC occasionally broadcast reports of the war that were at odds with the official story emanating from US CentCom, the Pentagon and 10 Downing Street, it was the worst among major broadcast outlets in covering the antiwar movement, according to a study by the German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.

The newspaper reviewed war coverage in five countries and found that the BBC provided the lowest proportion of coverage to dissenting views, 2 percent, even lower than the 7 percent of coverage provided by the US-based ABC network. So hostile was the network's attitude to the massive antiwar protests that British demonstrators regularly denounced it, along with Murdoch's tabloid Sun, for its coverage.

According to a report in the Guardian newspaper, the BBC cautioned senior management, in a memo dated February 6, the week before the biggest protests, to "be careful" about broadcasting antiwar actions.

San Francisco newspaper fires antiwar reporter.
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2003/may2003/norr-m02.shtml
 
Official to head Iraq's economic recovery says job will take time

To help pay for Iraq's revival, the Bush administration is starting to use roughly $1.7 billion in Iraqi funds that were frozen in 1990 as part of economic sanctions against the country and have been transferred to an account at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
Around $20 million has been drawn from the account so far to pay Iraqi civil servants, McPherson said.
http://www.silive.com/newsflash/was...BC_Rebuilding-Iraq&&news&newsflash-washington
 
NEW YORK -(Dow Jones)- A powerful explosion killed 100 to 130 people Friday in the Iraqi city of Al-Madain, Itar-Tass reported, citing Egyptian sources.

removed link as it didn't work but taken from

http://www.newsnow.co.uk/newsfeed/?name=Iraq

Probably the best place to get news on Iraq now as Iraq seems to be slipping from the headlines already - to join Afghanistan as yesterdays news.
 
Sorry FM - I deletd it after I had tested it and found it not working.
I thought that might happen and had looked around for another source for this but couldn't find any other mention of it. Which I guess could mean it didn't happen or 100 or more deaths in Iraq isn't newsworthy anymore.
 
Sources: Garner Out in Iraq Shuffle

http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/iraq/ny-wogarn0502.story

Washington -- In an apparent acknowledgment that postwar reconstruction efforts in Iraq are floundering, the White House plans to name a politically astute career diplomat to replace Jay Garner as the civilian administrator of the country, sources said Thursday.

the replacement:

But another former senior State Department official who worked with Bremer said that Bremer is a "voracious opportunist with voracious ambitions.”

"What he knows about Iraq could not quite fill a thimble,” he said. "What he knows about any part of the world would not fill a thimble. But what he knows about Washington infighting could fill three or four bushel baskets.”
 
The shooting of protesters in Fallujah. Looks messier and messier everytime I read artilces relating to this:

The affair has angered British Army officials who believe that the US troops lack the vital experience which the British acquired – painfully at first – in Northern Ireland. "Don't talk to me about the US army," said one British military source. "Let's just say that they face a very steep leaning curve."


http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=402964
 
Pfc. Lynch and the 507th Maintenance Company (search) she was traveling with were ambushed on March 23 near Nasiriyah (search), a major crossing point on the Euphrates River northwest of Basra in Iraq. Five were held captive for three weeks until U.S. Marines rescued them and two helicopter pilots south of Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit.

Lynch, of Palestine, W. Va., was rescued April 1 at a hospital behind Iraqi lines after several Iraqis supplied information to U.S. troops about her whereabouts. The bodies of nine members of the 507th were found during Lynch's rescue.

Lynch suffered a head wound, spinal injury and fractures to her right arm, both legs and her right foot and ankle. She is being treated at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Bethesda, Md.

But U.S. government sources told Fox News that they are concerned about Lynch's mental and physical state, saying she can't remember anything after the moment the 507th was ambushed nor can she remember anything about her days in captivity and the brutality U.S. military officials believe she endured.

Officials hope to help her regain her memory, since it's important for her to be able to provide evidence for war crimes (search) and to provide details for the family members of her fellow soldiers who want to know how their loved ones died.

U.S. officials say Lynch most likely knows something about how her nine comrades were killed.

But one U.S. official said: "she basically has amnesia, and has mentally blocked out the horrible things we strongly believe she went through."

"This is a very sad thing about Jessica but it's not unexpected," Dr. Isadore Rosenfeld told Fox News Sunday.

Rosenfeld said Lynch is likely suffering from something called total global amnesia (search), which often occurs after someone endures a traumatic emotional and/or physical stress.

"These things usually take months -- sometimes years - but usually months to eventually clear up," and the patient recovers, Rosenfeld said.

Asked if Lynch would eventually remember details of her ordeal, Rosenfeld said: "I would expect that she would, yes."

The military has had Lynch talking to psychiatrists but they may soon bring in additional people, including others from her military unit who survived the ambush, to help refresh her memory. They say she "has to be brought back to reality," since she may be the last living witness to war crimes in Iraq against those U.S. soldiers.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,85936,00.html


To reiterate: I hope the rescuing troops shot every fucker within eyesight at that hospital.
 
Originally posted by Johnny Canuck2
To reiterate: I hope the rescuing troops shot every fucker within eyesight at that hospital. [/B]

Just shows how easy it must be for fundamentalists to get recruits - just fire people up and let them go - guess Johnny would make an ideal candidate.
 
Originally posted by Johnny Boloney the Canadian misanthropist

To reiterate: I hope the rescuing troops shot every fucker within eyesight at that hospital.

Of course you do Johnny, because maggots and other low life like you think this way.
 
London, May 6, IRNA -- The British government Tuesday denied that there had been a special deal by the US to allow the Mujahedeen-e Khalq terrorist organization (MKO) to keep its arsenal of weapons in Iraq. "The MKO will not be allowed to operate in Iraq," a Foreign Office spokesman told IRNA. He said that he understood 'US forces were in the process of bringing the MKO under control'. Britain's denial follows reports that members of the exiled terrorist group had moved within 15 kms of the Iranian border. The advance comes two weeks after the US was reported to have agreed a ceasefire with the MKO, allowing the group to retain their arms.
http://www.irna.com/en/head/030506195708.ehe.shtml

Though I for one don't believe much the British Gvt says these days.
 
Baghdad blogger re-appears

"To see your city destroyed before your own eyes is not a pain that can be described and put to words," he wrote, "the American Government is getting as many curses as the Iraqi."
"Somehow when the bombs start dropping or you hear the sound of machine guns at the end of your street you don't think about your 'imminent liberation' anymore," he wrote.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/3009843.stm

http://dearraed.blogspot.com/
 
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