Iraq Desert Bombing Video Shows Carnage

Associated Press ^ | 05-21-2004 | Scheherezade Faramarzi

[Ol' Dan Tucker]

Where are the G*d-d*mned gunsight photos and on-the-ground photos that the US military MUST have? They went in on the ground to collect weapons and other stuff. This press bullsh*t will continue to fester until the military gets the facts out.

Or perhaps the wedding cameraman shot photos/video that will prove who's right...

The body of what survivors said was the wedding's cameraman was pulled out of the debris Thursday.

[I got the rope]

I watched the whole thing...I can't help but think this commission is a big waste of time and effort.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Over here!

[cyncooper]

I have been posting today the transcript of the briefing I heard *yesterday* where Kimmitt informed everyone that no children were killed.

Every last media outlet ignored it and I thought I must have misheard until I checked first thing this morning and saw I had heard correctly.

Credibility goes to our team at this point.

[cyncooper]

Thanks.

I'll just cut and paste the post I made on the other thread

To: Ernest_at_the_Beach

Thank you for the latest from Scheherezade.

I wonder if she's the 'AP reporter' that she writes saw bodies of children:

But an Associated Press reporter in the Ramadi area, at least 275 miles east of Mogr el-Deeb, was able to identify at least 10 of the bodies as those of children.

Now, color me clueless, but if the reporter is "at least 275 miles east" of where this operation happened, then how does yon reporter know these children were killed during it?! I hope our investigation does indeed find out who killed any children because I know it was not us.

I'll also note she finally states the military denied 'on Friday' killing children. As the transcript I posted earlier indicates, they denied it yesterday, too, but the reporters--every last one--ignored it.

18 posted on 05/21/2004 6:01:51 PM PDT by cyncooper (There's a RAT line in Iraq)
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[cyncooper]

If it is true that ground forces never got closer than two miles away at night, then it is a pretty good bet they had no idea who they were attacking before they attacked.

Where did you pull that out from?

I did not hear or see the briefing today (but I'm going to read the transcript tonight or tomorrow), but I watched it live yesterday. Our forces not only were on the ground, they were there *extensively* afterwards.

Kimmitt/Senor Briefing, May 20, 2004

Q And on the situation yesterday, you said that you were fairly convinced this was not what some of the Iraqis were saying, a wedding party that was hit, but -- and part of the justification was the weapons and everything else you found. But it sounds like, you know, $1,000, a few weapons are not that unusual here. Do you have other evidence that would suggest this is definite, and will there be an investigation?

GEN. KIMMITT: Well, certainly because of the interest that's been shown by the media we're going to have an investigation. Some of the allegations that have been made would cause us to go back and look at this. But it's important to understand that this operation was not something that just fell out of the sky.

We had significant intelligence which caused us to conduct a military operation into the middle of the desert, 85 kilometers south of Husaybah, al Qaim, and 25 kilometers inside from the Syrian border. Relatively barren area. We had a group of people there, not Bedouin. They were -- would appear to have been town dwellers. You saw 4x4s, jewelry. This is one of those routes that we have watched for a long period of time as a place where foreign fighters and smugglers come into this country.

We have consistently talked inside this forum about the foreign fighter flow. This was clearly, in our -- the intelligence that we had suggested that this was a foreign fighter "rat line," as we call them, one of the way stations. We conducted military operations down there last night. The ground force that swept through the objective found a significant amount of material and intelligence which validated that attack. And we are satisfied at this point that the intelligence that led us there was validated by what we found on the ground, and it was not that there was a wedding party going on.

~SNIP~

(different reporter, with the WaPo)

Q For General Kimmitt, sir. There was footage shown on Associated Press Television Network yesterday that seemed to depict civilians who were purportedly killed in the incident near the Syrian border. Is the military disputing that any civilians were killed? There were graphic images of dead children. Does the military have a position on whether these children were killed in this incident?

GEN. KIMMITT: The persons that we had on the ground did not find -- and they were on the ground for an extensive period of time -- they did not find any dead children among the casualties of that engagement.

~SNIP~

Q Yes, Mike Georgia (sp) from Reuters. There are relatives of a well-known wedding singer who say he and his brother were killed in this incident near the Syrian border. And they brought the bodies back to Baghdad. Are you willing to sort of review your assessment of what happened in terms of civilians and combatants at this point?

GEN. KIMMITT: Oh, absolutely. We said we're going to do an investigation. We're going to take a hard look at that.

Obviously, for operational and security reasons, I can't reveal much of the details of what got us there and what we did while we were there. But I am persuaded that, again, the purposes that caused us to conduct that operation in the middle of the barren desert in the early mornings (sic) of the hour, which is kind of an odd time to be having a wedding, against what we believed to be 34 to 35 men and a number of women, less than a handful of women, which doesn't seem to be numbers that one would associate with a wedding, by a group in their four-by- fours, well away from any town, in a known RAT line, which is being used by smugglers and foreign fighters frequently, and other intelligence that we found on the ground, pretty well convinces us that what got us there had a valid purpose.

Are we going to take a look at it, are we going to review it, are we going to conduct some measure of investigation based on some of the things that we're hearing here? Of course we are. I think that's the only prudent thing to do. And we may find out new information that we don't have currently. But we are satisfied that the intelligence that we had, the multiple correlated evidence that got us there, and the actions of our forces on the ground, what they found and what they brought back -- foreign passports, money, weapons, satellite communications -- would be inconsistent with a wedding party for sure, and fairly consistent with what we have seen throughout this country time after time after time, which is the flow of foreign fighters to come in to terrorize and kill the Iraqi citizens.

Q Is it possible that you were targeting these fighters and you hit a wedding party next door? Is that possible?

GEN. KIMMITT: Well, I think let's let the investigation bear out. But this was not "next door." This was in the middle of the open desert.

~SNIP~

[the lone highschooler]

Honorable Congressman,

Please check out: http://belmontclub.blogspot.com/ for the best analysis to date of the rapid evolution of the reporting of the story and some of the unusual pecularities surrounding it.

[ladyinred]

Children are using Uzi's against our troops as this lying propaganda machine media well knows. If they say they were under fire from this group, then they were under fire from this group. I do not believe one word the media says anymore.

[dead]

Where are the G*d-d*mned gunsight photos and on-the-ground photos that the US military MUST have? They went in on the ground to collect weapons and other stuff. This press bullsh*t will continue to fester until the military gets the facts out.

It's all about timing. Let the media get into a frenzy, then prove that they're idiots with the video.

At least, I hope that's the plan.

[Congressman Billybob]

Thank you very much for the reference. That was a thoughtful analysis of the flow of information concerning actions on the battlefield.

John / Billybob

[Imal]

No Wedding Party, Children's Deaths Indicated, Military Spokesman Says

[monday]

I said "If it is true that ground forces never got closer than two miles away at night, then it is a pretty good bet they had no idea who they were attacking before they attacked."

You said "Where did you pull that out from?"

From the article: "Witnesses, interviewed Thursday by AP in Ramadi, said revelers at the wedding party began worrying when they heard aircraft overhead at about 9 p.m. Tuesday. __Then came military vehicles, which stopped about two miles away from the village and switched off their headlights.___ The planes were still overhead at 11 p.m, so the hosts told the band to stop playing and everyone went to bed. "

[cyncooper]

I see where you pulled it from.

I hope you then read my link to Kimmitt correcting that mistaken assertion.