Proof that US cruise missile hit Iraqi marketplace

[Tingkai]

The US government has tried to suggest that the bombing of an Iraqi market, which killed more than 60 civillians, was caused by an Iraqi missile, not an American missile.

The Guardian has a story that provides proof that it was an American missile. According to the story:

"A metal fragment found at the scene by British journalist Robert Fisk carried various markings, including "MFR 96214 09". This, our reader pointed out in an email, is a manufacturer's identification number known as a "cage code".

Cage codes can be looked up on the internet (www.gidm.dlis.dla.mil), and keying in the number 96214 traces the fragment back to a plant in McKinney, Texas, owned by the Raytheon Company.

Raytheon, whose headquarters are in Lexington, Massachusetts, aspires "to be the most admired defence and aerospace systems supplier through world-class people and technology", according to its website (www.raytheon.com). It makes a vast array of military equipment, including the AGM-129 cruise missile which is launched from B-52 bombers."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/dailybriefing/story/0,12965,927233,00.html

The truth is out there.

[connorkimbro]

what a terrible accident.

[Serb]

Proof that US cruise missile hit Iraqi marketplace

It's very surprising.
I thought it was Martians who launched it.








"See, we love - we love freedom. That's what they didn't understand. They hate things; we love things. They act out of hatred; we don't seek revenge, we seek justice out of love."
~ George W. Bush
Lover
-Oklahoma City, Aug. 29, 2002

[muppet]

sig line
"See, we love - we love freedom. That's what they didn't understand. They hate things; we love things. They act out of hatred; we don't seek revenge, we seek justice out of love."
~ George W. Bush
Lover
-Oklahoma City, Aug. 29, 2002

Americans must really love Iraqi merchants.

[CerberusIV]

Proof of a US missile - probably.

Cruise - maybe.

Raytheon also make the radar homing missiles fired at Iraqi SAM sites. That would fit with the relatively small size of the crater - cruise missiles usually make a bigger hole in whatever they hit.

Rather that a stray cruise it could have been a missile fired at a SAM site located within a few kilometers. No more excusable but perhaps more understandable.

[MarkG]

The Guardian

when i see a cnn report, i'll believe!

[Serb]

Good point.




"I know what I believe. I will continue to articulate what I believe and what I believe, I believe, what I believe is right."
~ George W. Bush
Believer

[spiritof1202]

So, how do we know that the Iraqi security forces didn't plant a fragment of a weapon used on another site?

Journalists, particularly Western Journalists have severe limitations on when and where they can go. Iraqi's had all the time in the world to prep the site.

[Urban Ranger]

Must be it. The Iraqis blew up their own people and blamed the US. Then again, US could have blown up its own people too.

[gunkulator]

Originally posted by Urban Ranger
Then again, US could have blown up its own people too.

[Daz]

When I see a CNN report denying it, I will start believing.

Well, I guess nobody will tell us what really happened. So everything else is just picking sides... with no real proof.

What we do know is that hundreds of missiles and bombs have fallen on Baghdad, and the people on that market didnt die of old age. Also, bombs tend to fall on the wrong place from time to time. Also, Saddam is a known lunatic and could have blown them up himself.

There is probably hundreds of truths out there. Which ones are the most credible ones... you decide!

[spiritof1202]

Originally posted by Urban Ranger
Must be it. The Iraqis blew up their own people and blamed the US.

Good point. The Iraqis have been firing dozens of SA-2s, SA-3s and SA-6s into the air in ballistic mode, where they set the proximity fuzes to detonate on contact, and fire without the benefit of radar (if they used radar seeking then they'd denonate if they missed, however they are unable to even pulse the radar even for a moment, to lock on to anything.)

Unsuprisingly, gravity works just the same in Baghdad, as anywhere else on earth, and the missiles run out of fuel and fall to earth. These are unguided and indiscriminate weapons that the Iraqis are bombarding their own city with, causing damage such as is seen in this market.

[Sirotnikov]

Actually I just read that recently the head of Iraqi AA forces was fired because most of the missiles just fell down onto Baghdad.


And in anycase, a journalists who comes to the site, 4 days after the event, and finds a piece of scrap metal that the Iraqis have conviniently "forgotten to pickup" ....

give me a break.

[spiritof1202]

Originally posted by Sirotnikov
Actually I just read that recently the head of Iraqi AA forces was fired because most of the missiles just fell down onto Baghdad.

Not quite. He was apparently fired because he'd failed to down any coalition aircraft. Saddam et al aren't concerned about their population comparitively to a propaganda victory.

[SpencerH]

Even a 500 lb bomb makes a bigger creater than that in the market. Theres little chance it's from a cruise missile.