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~* 101st, former high level Ba’ath party official secure weapons caches
CJTF7 ^ | Dec. 28, 2003

Posted on 12/29/2003 9:42:15 AM PST by Ragtime Cowgirl

101st, former high level Ba’ath party official secure weapons caches
party official secure weapons caches
 

MOSUL, IraqSaturday was a busy day for the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) as soldiers all over the division’s area of operations collected scores of munitions from Iraqi communities.

The Coalition for Iraqi National Unity handed over an AK-47, nine rocket-propelled grenade launchers (RPG), and 33 RPG rounds to the 101st’s 3rd Brigade Combat Team. Later, the 3rd BCT received a sniper rifle, 93 magazines, and 55 AK-47’s from a former high-level Ba’ath Party official.

The 1st Brigade Combat Team (BCT) collected an additional two surface-to-air missiles at the Qayyarah Oil Refinery from an individual who had turned in weapons to Coalition Forces in the past.

A 2nd BCT patrol turned up 20 rockets and at least three 155mm rounds with wires running through them rigged as an improvised explosive device (IED). The area was secured and explosive ordinance personnel later disarmed the IED’s.

The 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) will continue similar security operations throughout Northern Iraq.


http://www.vcorps.army.mil/www/CJTF7/Releases/releases_dec/cjtf7_media_031228h.htm

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 
High-level Ba'ath members hand in weapons to coalition forces
 

 MOSUL, Iraq High-level Ba’ath Party members in northern Iraq cooperated with Coalition Forces by handing in weapons to soldiers of the 101st Airborne Division Saturday.

A Shua’aba (third tier) member of the Ba’ath Party in Tallafar turned in 30 AK-47 rifles and 49 AK-47 magazines Saturday to the Tactical Operations Command of the 101st’s 1st Battalion, 187th Infantry Regiment.

On the same day, a second Shua’aba level member, in Abu Mariyah, handed in three AK-47 rifles and one rocket-propelled grenade launcher to the 1st Battalion TOC.

Both members are scheduled to turn in more weapons to Coalition Forces in the coming week, according to a unit report.

http://www.vcorps.army.mil/www/CJTF7/Releases/releases_dec/cjtf7_media_031228f.htm

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: centcom; cjtf7; gnfi; iraq; terrorism
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1 posted on 12/29/2003 9:42:16 AM PST by Ragtime Cowgirl
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To: MJY1288; Calpernia; Grampa Dave; anniegetyourgun; Ernest_at_the_Beach; BOBTHENAILER; ...
A 2nd BCT patrol turned up 20 rockets and at least three 155mm rounds with wires running through them rigged as an improvised explosive device (IED). The area was secured and explosive ordinance personnel later disarmed the IED’s.

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101st Airborne Division, ping!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

If you want on or off my Pro-Coalition ping list, please Freepmail me. Warning: it is a high volume ping list on good days. (Most days are good days).

2 posted on 12/29/2003 9:44:27 AM PST by Ragtime Cowgirl ( "Our military is full of the finest people on the face of the earth." ~ Pres. Bush, Baghdad)
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To: Ragtime Cowgirl
Well, considering these RPGs kill Americans, this is great news. Some days though, and today is one, I get the distinct impression we will never find any WMD caches in Iraq. I trusted this Administration, and they convinced me the weapons were there. But some days I wonder.
3 posted on 12/29/2003 9:46:42 AM PST by Huck (F the terrorists! We are winning!)
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To: Huck
they convinced me the weapons were there

And perhaps they were.

4 posted on 12/29/2003 9:51:23 AM PST by angkor
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To: angkor
And perhaps they were.

Fool me once, shame on you...

5 posted on 12/29/2003 9:51:55 AM PST by Huck (F the terrorists! We are winning!)
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To: Ragtime Cowgirl
Sounds like our warriors had a great day grabbing and hauling away these weapons.
6 posted on 12/29/2003 9:53:38 AM PST by Grampa Dave (Kaddaffi, "I will do whatever the Americans want because I saw what happened in Iraq. ")
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To: angkor; Huck
Iraq is a big country..and Syria's borders were very porous.
7 posted on 12/29/2003 9:54:57 AM PST by MEG33 (We Got Him!)
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To: Ragtime Cowgirl
This is all wonderful, and all, but strikes me as a bit pointless. In fact, it reminds me of the gun-contol crowd. The problem over there isn't the RPGs, Kalashnikovs, IEDs, etc. The problem is the towelheaded freaks using them. The raids which result in captured guerillas are far more useful.
8 posted on 12/29/2003 9:57:37 AM PST by ArrogantBustard
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To: Huck
I get the distinct impression we will never find any WMD caches in Iraq. I trusted this Administration, and they convinced me the weapons were there. But some days I wonder.

Respectfully, I think you are selling the administrations intent short. All Hussein had to do was open the gates to the UN and none of this would have happened. The Bush administration went three times to the UN in an effort to either compel Iraq's compliance with UN resolution 1441 or form a multi-lateral coalition to seize Iraq. The UN only responded with its feckless impotence and hid behind the bluff of France,Germany and Russia.

There may be no WMD's. We may not find a nuclear warhead. We may not find a chemical or biological laboratory. However, is this Bush's fault? Or is it the fault of a bragging, towelhead punk with the first name of Saddam? I think it the latter. And, if left alone, Hussein would be (if not already) a willing partner in Al Qaeda's crimes.

Bush did the right and correct thing. As one who was drafted by the wrong man for the wrong reasons, I believe know the difference.

9 posted on 12/29/2003 10:06:47 AM PST by elbucko
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To: Huck
Hang in there. Remember, Saddam was in a hole in a mud hut in a country as big as California. He's talking. We'll get them.

BTW I suspect that Libya's program may have "Made in Iraq" stamped all over it.

10 posted on 12/29/2003 10:12:19 AM PST by pfflier
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To: Ragtime Cowgirl
101st Airborne Division ~ Bump!
11 posted on 12/29/2003 10:22:04 AM PST by blackie
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To: Ragtime Cowgirl
Bump!
12 posted on 12/29/2003 12:41:14 PM PST by Alamo-Girl
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To: Ragtime Cowgirl
This may be an important breakthrough.The Ba'ath Party is becoming part of the solution,rather than part of the problem.The beginning of the end may be in sight.
13 posted on 12/29/2003 12:41:42 PM PST by whizzer
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To: Huck
Huck.............GW based his WMD posture on 11 years of the INTELLIGENCE AGENCIES and SOURCES from the British, MI6, the Germans, the French, the Russians, IRAQI DEFECTORS both military and CIVILIAN, our own CIA and NSA and military intelligence from both the CLINTON administration and the Bush 41 administration. Please......don't give us this "I TRUSTED him" but he lied.........or I just don't know anymore BS. LOOK AT THE FACTS............
14 posted on 12/29/2003 12:49:34 PM PST by PISANO (God Bless our Troops........They will not TIRE - They will not FALTER - They will not FAIL!!!!!)
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To: PISANO
I didn't single out President Bush, I said the Administration. And I didn't say they lied. I said they led me to believe the weapons were there and that we would find them. I went on to say on some days, like today, I have serious doubts we'll find them. Bremer's remarks regarding Blair's recent statements don't do anything to discourage my doubt. Try not to misrepresent my remarks if you can help it. Thanks. I forgot how unseemly anything less than blind faith in the gubmint can be these days. LOL.
15 posted on 12/29/2003 1:08:36 PM PST by Huck (F the terrorists! We are winning!)
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To: Ragtime Cowgirl
bump
16 posted on 12/29/2003 1:19:05 PM PST by VOA
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To: Huck
Ok...........I like straight talk. You did NOT single out GW but said the ADMINISTRATION led you to believe there were WMD. IMHO GW is the administration and if he is NOT literally........then he is it's HEAD, and thereby responsible for what the Administration says and does. You also said "I forgot how unseemly anything less than blind faith in the gubmint can be these days. LOL." Yet, unlike myself, you based your BELIEF that IRAQ had WMD on nothing OTHER than the ADMINISTRATION.

To end this amicably I must admit I 'read' into your post a back door slam at the POTUS that many lefties do while ignoring the plethora of intelligence sources that had IRAQ having WMD. For this I apologize!

17 posted on 12/29/2003 2:18:05 PM PST by PISANO (God Bless our Troops........They will not TIRE - They will not FALTER - They will not FAIL!!!!!)
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To: Ragtime Cowgirl
How interesting. Looks like they're beginning to see the handwriting on the wall.
18 posted on 12/29/2003 4:37:07 PM PST by McGavin999
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To: Huck
A few of the reasons why I know Pres. Bush was right to go in and remove Saddam:

8 Why Denmark Decided to Participate in the War Against Saddam Hussein ~ The Intellectual Conservative  | Frank Laybourn, Foreign and Security Policy Adviser to the Liberal Party of Denmark

8 Baghdad City Cop  ~ Wall Street Journal  | BERNARD B. KERIK

8 Voices of Baghdad Etched on Its Walls  ~ News Day  | 11/19/03 | Samson Mulugeta

8 MSNBC's Arnot Sees Iraqis Angry At TV Coverage ~ MRC | 11/14/03 | Brent Baker

8 "The Bodybags of Iraq and Afghanistan"  ~ Talks with Roger....and of course Fred | 12/13/03 | redrock

8 THE CRUELEST COVER-UP ~ Tales of Saddam's Brutality ~ White House  | Various

8 Protests From Those Who Don't Know Ring Hollow  ~ Austin American Statesman  | 10/9/03 | Sgt N.J. Todd

8 I Was Wrong! ~ An Assyrian Christian and human shield learns of the Iraqi people's suffering. ~  Townhall.com  | 10/12/03 | Ken Joseph

8 The homecoming ~ The Independent | 9/18/03 | Johann Hari..."This isn't a game. This isn't about poking a stick at George Bush. This is our lives."

  A note of thanks to those who serve  ~ a 9-11 widow in Iraq ~ Christy Ferer

  Proud to Have Liberated Iraq ~ Barry Farber

8 IRAQI 'BLOGGERS' SHARE THEIR JOY AND THANKS TO THE U.S. ~ 12/15/03

8 GOTTA SEE THIS-WarEndur.Freedom 12/16/03-Iraqis celebrate Saddam's capture~ Diogenesis PICS

8 The Day Iraq Learned Saddam Was Captured ~  EducationNews.org  | 12/16/03 | Christina Asquith
 "Ladies and Gentleman, We got him." The Iraqi reporters at the press conference didn't feign objectivity...one Iraqi reporter...crumpled back into his seat in sobs before 300 of his colleagues-reporters from The New York Times, CBS, Wall Street Journal, Chicago Tribune-who watched in silence. This brief moment changed the tone of the press conference. I came the closest yet to understanding the anguish, humiliation and terror that was Saddam's strongest weapon. ~*

8 Uncovering the truth about going to war ~ Soldiers for the Truth  | Ed Offley
 "This is a message for Barbara and David McPhillips...Ignore the naysayers...Your loved ones perished in a just conflict that was urgently required, fully justified and sanctioned by the United Nations and a bipartisan vote of Congress. Their service was honorable and their sacrifices warrant our eternal gratitude."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Excerpt from:

STATEMENT BY DAVID KAY ON THE INTERIM PROGRESS REPORT ON THE ACTIVITIES OF THE IRAQ SURVEY GROUP (ISG)
BEFORE THE HOUSE PERMANENT SELECT COMMITTEE ON INTELLIGENCE,
THE HOUSE COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS, SUBCOMMITTEE ON DEFENSE, AND THE
SENATE SELECT COMMITTEE ON INTELLIGENCE

("With regard to delivery systems...")


With regard to delivery systems, the ISG team has discovered sufficient evidence to date to conclude that the Iraqi regime was committed to delivery system improvements that would have, if OIF had not occurred, dramatically breached UN restrictions placed on Iraq after the 1991 Gulf War.

Detainees and co-operative sources indicate that beginning in 2000 Saddam ordered the development of ballistic missiles with ranges of at least 400km and up to 1000km and that measures to conceal these projects from UNMOVIC were initiated in late-2002, ahead of the arrival of inspectors. Work was also underway for a clustered engine liquid propellant missile, and it appears the work had progressed to a point to support initial prototype production of some parts and assemblies. According to a cooperating senior detainee, Saddam concluded that the proposals from both the liquid-propellant and solid-propellant missile design centers would take too long. For instance, the liquid-propellant missile project team forecast first delivery in six years. Saddam countered in 2000 that he wanted the missile designed and built inside of six months. On the other hand several sources contend that Saddam's range requirements for the missiles grew from 400-500km in 2000 to 600-1000km in 2002. (Continued)

llllll

 
 
'We smelled something rotten, and when we breathed in, we couldn't breathe out. The sky was full of smoke, and someone said it was chemicals. People started crying and running toward the mountains. I was burning and I became blind, but someone led me out. After walking for two days, we reached Iran.' [Wais Abdel] Qadr was the only member of his family to survive the gassing of Halabja by the Iraqi military on March 16, 1988."
-- The Washington Post, August 7, 2003
 
lll
 
President Bush, March 15th, 2003 to the Nation

This weekend marks a bitter anniversary for the people of Iraq. Fifteen years ago, Saddam Hussein's regime ordered a chemical weapons attack on a village in Iraq called Halabja. With that single order, the regime killed thousands of Iraq's Kurdish citizens. Whole families died while trying to flee clouds of nerve and mustard agents descending from the sky. Many who managed to survive still suffer from cancer, blindness, respiratory diseases, miscarriages, and severe birth defects among their children.

The chemical attack on Halabja -- just one of 40 targeted at Iraq's own people -- provided a glimpse of the crimes Saddam Hussein is willing to commit, and the kind of threat he now presents to the entire world. He is among history's cruelest dictators, and he is arming himself with the world's most terrible weapons.

Recognizing this threat, the United Nations Security Council demanded that Saddam Hussein give up all his weapons of mass destruction as a condition for ending the Gulf War 12 years ago. The Security Council has repeated this demand numerous times and warned that Iraq faces serious consequences if it fails to comply. Iraq has responded with defiance, delay and deception.

The United States, Great Britain and Spain continue to work with fellow members of the U.N. Security Council to confront this common danger. We have seen far too many instances in the past decade -- from Bosnia, to Rwanda, to Kosovo -- where the failure of the Security Council to act decisively has led to tragedy. And we must recognize that some threats are so grave -- and their potential consequences so terrible -- that they must be removed, even if it requires military force.

As diplomatic efforts continue, we must never lose sight of the basic facts about the regime of Baghdad.

We know from recent history that Saddam Hussein is a reckless dictator who has twice invaded his neighbors without provocation -- wars that led to death and suffering on a massive scale. We know from human rights groups that dissidents in Iraq are tortured, imprisoned and sometimes just disappear; their hands, feet and tongues are cut off; their eyes are gouged out; and female relatives are raped in their presence.

As the Nobel laureate and Holocaust survivor, Elie Wiesel, said this week, "We have a moral obligation to intervene where evil is in control. Today, that place is Iraq." We know from prior weapons inspections that Saddam has failed to account for vast quantities of biological and chemical agents, including mustard agent, botulinum toxin and sarin, capable of killing millions of people. We know the Iraqi regime finances and sponsors terror. And we know the regime has plans to place innocent people around military installations to act as human shields.

There is little reason to hope that Saddam Hussein will disarm. If force is required to disarm him, the American people can know that our armed forces have been given every tool and every resource to achieve victory. The people of Iraq can know that every effort will be made to spare innocent life, and to help Iraq recover from three decades of totalitarian rule. And plans are in place to provide Iraqis with massive amounts of food, as well as medicine and other essential supplies, in the event of hostilities.

Crucial days lie ahead for the free nations of the world. Governments are now showing whether their stated commitments to liberty and security are words alone -- or convictions they're prepared to act upon. And for the government of the United States and the coalition we lead, there is no doubt: we will confront a growing danger, to protect ourselves, to remove a patron and protector of terror, and to keep the peace of the world.

Thank you for listening.

lll

March 29, 2003

 Victoria Clarke: And finally, before I turn things over to General McChrystal, there's been some talk lately and some observations in the early days. People seem to have been surprised at the brutality, at what the Iraqi regime is doing to some of their people. And on the one hand, it's hard to understand that. It has been so well-documented. It has been so well-reported for years what the regime has done to its own people.

....(Begin videotape of BBC program.)

NARRATOR: Halabja was bombed with a cocktail of mustard gas and the nerve agents tabun and sarin. On that day, up to 5,000 people were gassed. And this was not -- (inaudible). Forty other villages across northern Iraq were poisoned. Cancer and birth defects have shot up since the war crimes, and every home contains its own horror story.

MS. CLARKE: So it is hard to imagine that people don't know, as I said, about the brutality of this regime. It has been going on for decades. It has been well-documented and well-reported.

DoD News Briefing - ASD PA Clarke and Maj. Gen. McChrystal

Vistas of Halabja: An Online Slideshow at KRG.ORG

Victims of Halabja Chemical Attacks

lll
 
America is great because America is good.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
To America's Soldiers
An open letter.
 
BY BARBARA J. MAKUCH 
April 9, 2003
 
I want to thank you for my existence. I want to thank you for your sacrifices, and for your courage, because without your heroism, this world would indeed be a different place. Were it not for the brave soldiers who liberated my father from Dachau, and my mother and her family from the Nazi slaveholders, I would not be here today. Nor would millions of others, all of whom remain indebted to you...(cont.)
 
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            Thank you  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

19 posted on 12/29/2003 5:33:22 PM PST by Ragtime Cowgirl ( "Our military is full of the finest people on the face of the earth." ~ Pres. Bush, Baghdad)
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To: Ragtime Cowgirl
Oh, but this can have nothing to do with Saddam's capture.
20 posted on 12/29/2003 5:50:51 PM PST by PhilDragoo (Hitlery: das Butch von Buchenvald)
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