***Operation Infinite Freedom - Situation Room - 5 JUN 03/Day 78***

Everywhere TexKat goes, or Ragtime Cowgirl transcribes... | 5 JUN 03 | null and void

[DollyCali]

At one time I used to think diplomacy was great & to a degree I still do. But when historically someone is a liar, murderer, terror.. and it has gone on & On & on & on for years.....

well, it IS special ops time...... and not just to 'watch'

and after Arafat, there are other good targets.. or er, situations

[prairiebreeze]

Arafat was the leader Bubba entertained the most.

As in peas in a pod, birds of a feather etc....

Prairie

[DollyCali]

Well Sharon is getting a hard time from his protestors.

Blair is getting a hard time from his protestors

Bush is getting a hard time from his protestors..

Distractors, protestors, troublemakers. Makes me recall without fondness my times of public school teaching. How I wish I could have done/said what would have WORKED

[null and void]

Credit goes to: the gillman@blacklagoon.com (Save the plankton, kill the whales!)

[DollyCali]

Queen in gas mask. Best she has looked for years.

It is time for her to step down & see what her son can do. She is VERY well passed her prime and Charles needs the opportunity to do his thing.

I trust he will be a better monarch than he was husband

[prairiebreeze]

Great article on Media and information control Kat. Hope you don't mind I re-posted it on main forum. Would like to see Freepers comments and a search indicated it hadn't been posted there.

Prairie

[Aaron0617]

Iraqis queue to place bets on horses at a racetrack in the Amriya district of the Iraqi capital of Baghdad June 4, 2003 as racing resumed this week. Horse racing, which was banned in Iraq for about 7 years by toppled leader Saddam Hussein's regime and then resurrected unofficially by his son Uday in 1997, is a controversial sport in the Arab world due to the stance on gambling by Islam. REUTERS/Faleh Kheiber

[maica]

re Geraldo - He is the FOX defense that it is not a 'conservative' network.

Personally, I refuse to watch one word he says. Also I tend to believe the opposite of anything he says - based on his history!

[Socratic]

"the gillman@blacklagoon.com"

Interesting link, but I'm feeling a bit traumatized by the Spam invasion and Turkish MTV. I may need a dose of Shrillery to calm my nerves.

[Aaron0617]

A U.S. soldier talks to handcuffed Iraqi youth Rodha Ali Abbas, 15, who was arrested for smoking hashish in a central street in Baghdad, June 4, 2003. Soldiers said they arrested the orphan Rodha to give an example to other youths, and released him shortly after. REUTERS/Andrea Comas

- - - - - - - - -

Are you kidding me? With all the other work our soldiers could be doing (or maybe not doing in all that heat).

Our soldiers are arresting kids for smoking? Whether its pot or glue or whatever. What are they doing?

[Howlin]

A LATE Situation Room -- DAY 78 -- Live Thread Ping!

[Ragtime Cowgirl]

Morning, OIF crew! Over 70 posts...busy day. Thank you all for the news.

I posted a 2002 article on the main forum re. Falluja and chem. weapons history:

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Rats or Humans? Inside Saddam's Extermination Plant [Aug. 2002]
Originally in the Sydney Morning Herald (http://www.smh.com.au/ ) thru "The Iraqi Foundation" ^ | August 29, 2002

Posted on 06/05/2003 1:12 PM EDT by Ragtime Cowgirl

He was introduced as director of research and development at Falluja, one of the remote factories where the United States claims Saddam Hussein could be making chemical and biological weapons.

Asked if he had worked on any of Saddam's chemical weapons programs, Dr Mohammed Frah played a straight bat: "In the early 1980s I worked for five years on the chemical and biological programs at Al-Muthanna."

This is the name of a critical centre in Saddam's weapons program - a huge pesticide complex that produced thousands of tonnes of deadly chemical agents - including sarin, cyclosarin and mustard - for weapons of mass destruction.

The plant, 50 kilometres north of Falluja, was partly demolished by bombs during the 1991 Gulf War, but not before most of its stockpiles had been trucked out. United Nations inspection teams finished its demolition in 1994.

But yesterday it soon emerged that Dr Frah was not the only Al-Muthanna alumnus at Falluja. The manager of the Falluja plant, Dr Jamal Hider Hassan, said he had spent much of his career there, and when asked how many of his staff of 200 might also have served at Al-Muthanna, he said: "About 80 per cent."

~~~

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Check out this excellent post - what the UN knew years ago - how to hide WMDs in plain sight. Great WMD links, too:

FAS (Fed Am Scientist) Report: Iraqi Precursor Chemicals Stored Separately for Weapon-side Mixing 
FAS.org ^ | Federation of American Scientists

~~~

Although the Iraqis initially used chemical weapons to prevent defeat and to reduce battlefield losses, they later integrated CW attacks into combined-armed operations designed to regain lost territory and to gain the offensive. Iraq's use of CW in the war with Iran can be divided into three distinct phases:

1. 1983 to 1986--used in a defensive role; typically to deflect Iranian human-wave assaults. In 1984 Iraq became the first nation to use a nerve agent on the battlefield when it deployed Tabun-filled aerial bombs during the Iran-Iraq war. Some 5,500 Iranians were killed by the nerve agent between March 1984 and March 1985. Tabun kills within minutes. Some 16,000 Iranians were reported killed by the toxic blister agent mustard gas between August 1983 and February 1986.
2. 1986 to early 1988--iraq adapts use against Iran to disrupt Iranian offensive preparations.
3. early 1988 to conclusion of the war-- Iraq integrated large nerve agent strikes into its overall offensive during the spring and summer of 1988 leading to the ceasefire.

Iran used chemical weapons late in the war, but never as extensively or successfully as Iraq. The success of Iraqi offensive operations in the southern sector in mid-1988 ultimately caused the Iranians to cease hostilities. The use of chemical weapons contributed to the success of these operations.

The first chemical attacks by Saddam Hussein against civilian populations included attacks launched by Iraqi aircraft against 20 small villages in 1987.

Saddam Hussein's forces reportedly killed hundreds of Iraqi Kurds with chemical agents in the Kurdish town of Halabja in March 1988. The poison gas attack on Halabja was the largest-scale chemical weapons (CW) attack against a civilian population in modern times. Halabja had a population of about 80,000 people who was predominantly Kurdish and had sympathised with Iran during the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s. Troops from the Kurdish Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) entered Halabja on 15th March 1988, accompanied by Iranian revolutionary guards. The Iraqi CW attack began early in the evening of March 16th, when a group of eight aircraft began dropping chemical bombs; the chemical bombardment continued all night. The Halabja attack involved multiple chemical agents -- including mustard gas, and the nerve agents SARIN, TABUN and VX. Some sources report that cyanide was also used.

~~~

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Weapon-Side Mixing (WSM) of Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) = Bush Doctrine Preemption(BPJ)

WSM of WMD = BPJ

34 posted on 06/04/2003 12:26 PM EDT by HatSteel

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[Ragtime Cowgirl]

nully, could you add *war_list to your ping list. Ping lists, I forget about 'em. So, the war is officially over. We're so popular who knows where we may be needed next. (^:

[Howlin]

Did you hear anything on TV today about a new Saddam video?

[Ragtime Cowgirl]

No. Sigh. Saddam-ites (including the UN and the DNC/EU) will do anything to undermine our efforts and keep the Iraqi people in bondage.

I did hear that Chem Ali's relative - son? - is in US custody, claims C.A.'s still alive in Baghdad..and that Dr. Germ and other arrested pals are lying to us. Time to crank up the volume on Barney.

---

CENTCOM:

 

June 5, 2003
Release Number: 03-06-15

COALITION EFFORTS AID IRAQ'S RECOVERY (June 5, 2003)

CAMP DOHA, Kuwait – Coalition Forces continue to assist in developing a safer and more secure environment in Iraq through the following activities.

NORTHERN AND CENTRAL IRAQ

Coalition Forces recently
- Conducted the 10th "Task Force Neighborhood" mission in the Al Rashid District of Baghdad, with the assistance of 50 hired Iraqis, which:
-- Repaired four doors in the Al Shafek Middle School for girls.
-- Rewired and connected electrical power to the district council building.
-- Hauled away 280 tons of rubble from behind the District Counsel Building.
-- Treated three Iraqis for minor ailments and provided information for further care.
-- Provided dental treatment to 39 patients along with a local dentist who also helped with translation.
-- Removed 11 rocket-propelled grenade rounds from a market place, ammunition and weapons from two other sites, and verified clearance of a reported cache near a school.
-- Conducted the 11th Task Force Neighborhood clean-up mission at a school in Mosul, which:
-- Hired four civilian dump trucks to supplement US military assets.
-- Purchased $2,500 in parts and supplies for the Mosul Olympic pool with repairs estimated to be complete by June 6.
-- Completed graffiti removal in the University area.
-- Distributed 5.5 million liters of benzene in Baghdad, exceeding the pre-war high of 5.2 million.
-- Received 167 benzene and 52 propane trucks from Turkey in Mosul.
-- Continued $40 emergency payments to pensioners in the greater Mosul area.
-- Distributed $1,248,660 to banks and post offices in Northern Iraq for pension payments yesterday.
-- Distributed $263,960 to post offices for social care and social security payments starting June 5.
-- Reported that the World Food Program distributed 150 metric tons of wheat to food agents in Northern Iraq, and began distribution of sugar, detergent, soap, and tea today.

- Hosted the Mayor of Mosul in the Sununi area to discus elections, legitimate local authority and harvest issues.
- Participated in the second Tuz city council meeting to discuss local sanitation, city sewage and fuel resupply.
- Continued to conduct "Team Neighborhood" missions in Baqubah which collected trash, conducted area beautification and assessed needed repairs to local schools.
- Met with Al Qaim area sheikhs and Iraqi National Congress representative to discuss the formation of a city council and restoration of basic services.
- Helped Iraqi engineers complete repairs of dams north of Ar Ramadi.
- Transported and consolidated 70 truckloads (over 6,800 tons) of captured Iraqi munitions outside of Baghdad.
- Destroyed 39 tons of captured Iraqi ammunition in Baghdad.
- Facilitated a 238-truck World Food Program convoy (5,449 metric tons) from Turkey to deliver food to Dohuk, Mosul, Erbil and Sulaymaniwah.
- Facilitated a 298-truck World Food Program convoy from Jordan to deliver food to Baghdad, Babil, Diyala, Wasit and Dohuk.
- Reported that 50 trucks from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia resupplied their field hospital in Baghdad.

SOUTHERN IRAQ

AN NASARIYAH
- Assisted the Red Crescent in the planning for the repair and upgrade of the water pumping stations in Ash Shatrah.
- Paid former Iraqi army members a one-time payment of 70,000 dinars each.
- Assisted in the removal of four low lift pumps from an obsolete irrigation pumping station to use for future rehabilitation projects at other locations.
- Attended the first all-governate meeting of the An Nasiriyah City Council and town councils of Suk Ash Shuyukh, As Sahtra, Ar Rifa, and Al Cubaiyish. This is a major step forward in improving the responsibility, accountability and inclusiveness of the government structure in Thi Qar.

AL KUT
- Reported two Marine Corps staff non-commissioned officer rescued two young boys from drowning in the Tigris river by throwing a cargo strap to them and pulling them out.
- Report that Al Kut is now receiving 10 tons of Iraqi propane per day.

AN NAJAF
- Granted $500 each to 18 schools for repairs.
- Reported that the election committee met to draft the election timeline proposal.

AL HILLAH
- Continued discussions with civic and religious leaders for the establishment of a city council that provides a system of checks and balances within the local government.
- Coordinated the third day of the civil servant salary payments. The team paid the municipal services, education, police and communications departments.

AL HILLAH
- Report that construction work at the Hammurabi, Al Jannan and Mahawil fire stations is progressing well.
- Received a total of 17 boxes of medical supplies for distribution to the International Dispensary Association.
- Completed the first draft of the Babylon City Council bylaws.
- Received initial funding to begin the sewage aeration tank clean up.

AS SAMAWAH
- Reported funding was approved for basic repairs to the police facilities.
Started to replace windows at the Samawah General Hospital.
- Transferred funds to the municipal department to support their caretakers and associated vehicles.
- Met with the advisory council and reviewed the names that they recommended to create a reformed city council.

AD DIWANIYAH
- Coordinated the Coalition Provisional Authority stipend payment of $20 each to 800 traffic and city policemen in the governate.
- Reported the banks received 4.8 billion dinars to use for civil service salary payments.
- Have assisted in completing assessments of five of the nine fire stations in the Ad-Diwaniyah province, and have started initial assessments of rescue vehicles and equipment.
- Completed questioning of 188 teachers and headmasters about possible Ba'ath party affiliation and participation.
- Coordinated a dedication ceremony at the Developmental Secondary School.

KARBALA
- Received a benzene gasoline shipment, which is a four-day supply for the city.
- Met with representatives from Bechtel to discus infrastructure projects at the hospital and sewage treatment plant.

[Ragtime Cowgirl]

CENTCOM:

 

June 5, 2003
Release Number: 03-06-16

COALITION AND IRAQI POLICE WORK TO MAKE IRAQ SECURE ( June 5, 2003)

CAMP DOHA, Kuwait -- Coalition Forces continue to aggressively patrol Iraq to eliminate crimes against people and property, rid populated areas of weapons, ammunition and explosives, and stopping the black market trade in fuel and other commodities. Coalition Forces also continue to conduct joint security patrols with Iraqi police in their efforts to increase the professionalism of the police force and prepare them for their role in a self-governed Iraq.

Weapons Turn-In Program:

Iraqi citizens voluntarily turned in a variety of weapons under the Weapons Turn-In Program that began June 1. As of today's count, Coalition Forces throughout Iraq received 39 pistols, 57 semi-automatic rifles or shotguns, 199 automatic rifles, 9 machine guns, 62 anti-tank weapons (i.e., rocket-propelled grenade launchers), 77 grenades and other explosive devices.

The amnesty period for the Weapons Turn-In Program will run through June 14.

Coalition Activity:

Soldiers from the 3d Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) detained four individuals in Mosul yesterday during a routine traffic control point stop. They confiscated 16 AK-47 rifles.

Marines from the 3d Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment and US Army military policemen arrested 46 individuals who were running a diesel fuel hijacking ring and trying to steal diesel fuel from a pipeline near Karbala yesterday. During the course of the one-day operation, the joint Marine-Army team confiscated two tanker trucks, three smaller trucks, a car, a tractor with a fuel trailer, 14 donkey fuel carts, two fuel pumps and assorted weapons, including two AK-47 rifles.

Soldiers from the 1st Armored Division conducted a cordon and search operation in Baghdad yesterday to remove illegal weapons from the city. They detained 20 people for questioning and confiscated 29 AK-47 rifles, numerous hand grenades and around 2,000 rounds of rifle ammunition.

Police Activity in the Last 24 Hours:

Coalition Forces conducted 9 raids and a total of 2,178 patrols throughout Iraq. Of thos, they conducted 278 joint Iraqi and Coalition patrols. They detained or arrested 162 individuals for a variety of criminal activities, including looting, curfew violations, weapons violations, theft, larceny and dealing drugs.

Recent Police Activity:

Iraqi police and soldiers from the 549th Military Police Company detained a man in Baghdad yesterday when he attempted to run away after they stopped him in his vehicle. They searched the vehicle and found six sticks of an explosive substance, detonation cord and blasting caps. The patrol took him to the East Baghdad Jail and the explosives to a U.S. military weapons collection point.

A man approached Iraqi police and soldiers from the 307th Military Police Company in Baghdad recently and stated that a suspected Ba'ath party member had killed his brother and threatened to kill the rest of his family. The joint patrol apprehended the suspect at his residence without incident. The U.S. military is holding him for questioning

[maica]

But yesterday it soon emerged that Dr Frah was not the only Al-Muthanna alumnus at Falluja. The manager of the Falluja plant, Dr Jamal Hider Hassan, said he had spent much of his career there, and when asked how many of his staff of 200 might also have served at Al-Muthanna, he said: "About 80 per cent."

Isn't Falluja where our soldiers are being shot? Maybe our troops are a little too 'warm' in the hunt for WMD caches.

[Aaron0617]

Update: Iraq war 'was about oil'(Correction coming)

05/06/2003 14:12 - (SA) Although The Guardian earlier reported that US deputy defence secretary, Paul Wolfowitz had said that the Iraq war was all about oil, the newspaper has now removed the article from its web site, and will print a full correction in Friday's edition. According to the Guardian's ombudsman, the quote, "Let's look at it simply. The most important difference between North Korea and Iraq is that economically, we just had no choice in Iraq. The country swims on a sea of oil," was taken out of context, and misconstrued.

[OldFriend]

The question I would love to have answered is why Hannity feels the need to fawn over his new found friendship with Geraldo. Seemingly Hannity hasn't figured out that his attempt to give Geralso credibility only detracts from his own rapidly diminishing (IMHO) credibility.

[Howlin]

I have simply lost track of all of the lies and distortions and who they are by.