Posted on 11/23/2004 7:37:42 AM PST by Matttheconservative
UBATI, Iraq (Nov. 14, 2004) -- Assembling in the dead of night, the Marines of “Suicide Charlie” prepare to provide the wake up call of a lifetime for a handful of known insurgents. They mount their vehicles and head towards the small town on the banks of the Euphrates River and as the sun rises the Marines knock on the insurgents door in a way that only Marines can.
With a bang on the door, the Marines entered houses with such speed that the insurgents didn’t have time to react to the early morning visitors. At the completion of this early morning visit, the Marines leave with five insurgents detained and weapons that could have been used to kill coalition forces or innocent Iraqi civilians.
The Marines of 1st Platoon, C Company, 1st Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment, 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit, conducted simultaneous cordon and knocks on three houses’ to capture insurgents.
They entered through the front door of the first house and began clearing the each room, said Sgt. Tobey J. Owens, squad leader, 1st Squad.
The Marines had cleared most of the house when they entered a small room in the rear. They discovered a man crouching along the wall with a loaded weapon pointed at them, stated Cpl. Travis M. Ball, team leader, 1st Squad.
“We were on top of the man so quickly he did not have time to react,” said Owens. “I kicked him as Ball tackled him to the floor so he would not have the opportunity to shoot at us.”
The squad captured the armed insurgent, Kais Atal Mutatharer, who had worked with the U.S. Army as a translator in the Al Qaim area.
“The quick actions of the Marines enabled us to gather intelligence out of him,” said Capt. Chris DeAntoni, company commander. “They had every justification to shoot this guy, but they had the discipline not to and we’ll be able to use this guy to get bigger fish.”
Then they entered the house next door and discovered four insurgents along with three women and a baby. The Marines quickly separated the males and moved the females outside of the house, according to Cpl. Brandon L. Soetaert, team leader, 1st Squad.
The Marines also provided medical care to a known terrorist facilitator after entering the house. The man had gone into shock as the Marines entered the house, stated Soetaert, 20, from Kansas City, Mo.
Inside the two houses the Marines found loaded weapons, ammunition, anti-coalition propaganda, falsified documents, identification papers and tools for making vehicle borne improvised explosive devices, Owens added.
The Marines also visited an insurgent house in the northern section of the town. Scaling the wall they surrounded the perimeter of the house and gained entry only to discover that the informant and given the Marines incorrect information, but the insurgents house was actually across the street, according to Cpl. Timothy A. Collier, team leader, 1st Squad.
The head of the household showed the Marines which house the insurgent lived in and the Marines searched the house. According to an Iraqi woman inside of the house the insurgent had left earlier that morning, said Collier, a 24 year-old native of Akron, Ohio.
As the sun rose across the Iraqi sky, the Marines left the small town on the riverbank of the Euphrates and returned to their base with five terrorists captured.
"The squad captured the armed insurgent, Kais Atal Mutatharer, who had worked with the U.S. Army as a translator in the Al Qaim area."
In other words, he's a traitor. Shoot him.
These people need to be dealt with in the most extreme manner. Make an example of them.
Good job. Semper Fi!
"The head of the household showed the Marines which house the insurgent lived in..."
*sigh*
Are the Iraqis generally not interested in ridding themselves of terrorists, was it just this guy, or what's the deal?
He knew where he lived and what he did. Why does it take the USMC to nab the guy when his occupation was not exactly a secret?
Interrogation is the only reason I can see for allowing him to continue drawing breath; he's shown himself to be a spy, now kill him!
But when the Marines are there to protect you and can take the local terrorist in, then you feel more comfortable doing the right thing.
LOL! Way to minimize collateral damage. I wonder whether they laundered his shorts for him, too.
Ahhh, the stuff of legends. I want terrorists the world over to quake in their boots and piss themselves when they hear the name Marines. Give 'em hell Men.
I follow that, and it makes some kind of sense to me.
But it's the numbers that make that answer fall a little short for me. I mean, if there are so many otherwise peaceful Iraqi citizens (25-odd million?), and only a relative handful of terroristic malcontents (a few thousand?), and they all sort of know where they live and what they're up to, why don't they get together and roust them?
Iraqis are used to being acted upon rather than acting.
Better yet, embed a bunch of C4 in his along with a homing device and a little radio. When he goes to see his terrorist buddies, the radio starts blaring "This is Allah, Hey ya'll, watch this" and light him off. Imagine the look on their faces when one of the buddies cooks off without any warning except a message from the big guy.
Good thing a pool reporter wasn't on hand with his camera to record this brutal treatment.
Pretty obvious we're getting some good infomation on these guys from some Iraqi sources.
I think you call it "winning the hearts and minds"--but of course, sometimes you win their hearts and minds by grabbing them by the balls.
Actually, now that Iraq has a provisional govt..I'd expect that these prsioners are being turned over to the Iraqis for interrogation...which is probably why we're starting to et good intel..
bttt
I mean, if there are so many otherwise peaceful Iraqi citizens (25-odd million?), and only a relative handful of terroristic malcontents (a few thousand?), and they all sort of know where they live and what they're up to, why don't they get together and roust them?"
How many people in the US wake up to find that a neighbor down the street was involved in dealing drugs without their 'sure knowlege'? Happens all the time in our safer society.
And even if you knew, given the comparative safety of our society, wouldn't someone in the family express the viewpoint of "dont get involved. Those people are dangerous and might come after us if we tell the police."
bttt
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