Blackout Increases Foreboding [Minister increases blackout on telling the truth]

Washington Post ^ | April 4, 2003 | Anthony Shadid

[DED]

BAGHDAD, April 3 -- At 8 p.m., as a weary capital settled in for another night of explosions, electricity was cut to many of the 5 million residents, enveloping Baghdad in darkness for the first time since the concussions of U.S. bombing began two weeks ago.

The cause of the blackout was not clear. U.S. military officials in Qatar said American planes and missiles had not targeted Baghdad's electrical grid. Neither Iraqi radio nor Iraqi television mentioned the outage, continuing almost blanket programming of patriotic music, nationalist speeches and odes to President Saddam Hussein.

[DED]

So our guys got a real lesson today? Maybe in how to fight a pathetic bunch of evil war criminals. They are not near Baghdad, huh? I guess it depends on how you define NEAR. We may be trapped, but my guess is Sahhaf is hoping they don't manage to trap any more of our military, and that we don't send any more soldiers in to be trapped.