Post Latest Iraq War News Here - Part III

[CrONoS]

Hans Blix: War Planned 'Long in Advance'
News24.com
"There is evidence that this war was planned well in advance. Sometimes this raises doubts about their attitude to the (weapons) inspections," Blix told Spanish daily El Pais.

"I now believe that finding weapons of mass destruction has been relegated, I would say, to fourth place, which is why the United States and Britain are now waging war on Iraq.

By attacking Iraq, Washington had sent the wrong message - that if a country did not possess biological, chemical or nuclear weapons, it risked being attacked.
==

http://truthout.org/docs_03/041203A.shtml

===

Yeah And i forget something:

http://www.welovetheiraqiinformationminister.com/

[CrONoS]

Is There Some Element in the US Military that Wants to take Out Journalists?
Robert Fisk
Independent UK

http://truthout.org/docs_03/041203B.shtml

[Jack the Bodiless]

BBC: Kurds take Mosul

Kurdish pershmerga fighters are in control of the centre of the main northern Iraqi city of Mosul, witnesses say.

The move came as Kurdish leaders said their forces, which have seized the nearby oil-rich city of Kirkuk, would start handing over to US troops on Friday.

[DAVOUT]

Barzan Al-Tikriti killed

Half-brother of Saddam Hussein, he was killed last night by an USAF raid.

http://www.lemonde.fr/dh/0,5987,3208--13524605,00.html

[My Wife Hates CIV]

proof that france has been training/helping iraq!!!!!


MOSUL, Iraq — The northern city of Mosul fell into U.S. and Kurdish hands Friday after an entire corps of the Iraqi army *surrendered*.

[CrONoS]

Iraq creates National resistance front to US- British coalition
11.04.2003 [18:09]


Iraq has launched activities with the aim to create a National resistance front to the U.S. British coalition.

One of its leaders in exile, Abdel Amir ar-Rakabi, who represents the Iraqi patriotic movement, told Abu Dhabi satellite television that a resolution on the establishment of the National resistance front would be announced in Iraq in two days' time,

The leader of the National resistance front has called on all the Iraqi patriotic forces to boycott any government created under conditions of the Iraqi occupation.

Ar- Rakabi has declared that the Shiite and Sunnit religious authorities should adopt a religious law that shall ban cooperation with any of the occupying governments.
==

http://www1.iraqwar.ru/iraq-read_article.php?articleId=2645&lang=en

[CrONoS]

12:02 Le Guide suprême iranien Ali Khamenei demande à l'opposition chiite irakienne de ne pas commettre "l'infamie historique" de collaborer avec la coalition
====
12:02 The Iranian supreme Guide Ali Khamenei asks the Iraqi Shiite opposition not to commit " the historic slander " to collaborate with the coalition
===

https://www.tf1.fr/news

[SlowwHand]

Putin to be treated for substance abuse.

Russia's Putin Says U.N. Must Have Key Role in Iraq
12 minutes ago


ST. PETERSBURG, Russia (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Friday there were no prospects for a military solution to the crisis in Iraq (and called for the issue to be solved within the United Nations.


"We stand for the fastest return of this issue to the framework of the United Nations," Putin said after talks with German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder in Russia's second city. The two were later scheduled to meet French President Jacques Chirac, who, like them, opposed the U.S.-led war on Iraq.


"Russia and Germany are in favor of a political solution. There are no prospects for a military solution.


"Military action in Iraq has been continuing for four weeks. The results of this are well known. They give rise to regret," he added.

[Ned]

Iraq "censors" western media

On CNN.Com (I cannot post the link because my browser is not showing the URL):

An emerging story is the extent to which the Iraqi regime intimidated the press and those who cooperated with it. Here is the concluding part of the story now on CNN.com.


"CNN had staff members in Baghdad until about three weeks ago, when they were expelled by Iraqi authorities as the coalition launched airstrikes on the Iraqi capital. After the expulsion, other international media outlets were warned that any of their staff members in Baghdad who helped CNN cover the war would be jailed and charged with spying for the CIA, Jordan said.

However, for unknown reasons, the Iraqi government did not complain when CNN broadcast footage from Arab TV networks, he said.
Jordan: Iraq tortured, killed those who helped CNN

In an article published in Friday's editions of The New York Times, Jordan outlined incidents in which Iraqi officials had intimidated, tortured and killed people who had worked for CNN or helped the network with its coverage in Iraq. Those incidents have never before been revealed because they could have put people in jeopardy, Jordan said.

In the mid-1990s, a Iraqi cameraman working for CNN was abducted, held for weeks and subjected to electroshock torture in a secret police headquarters when he refused to confirm that Jordan was the CIA station chief in Iraq, Jordan said.

Also, a Kuwaiti woman, Asrar Qabandi, who had talked to CNN by telephone during Iraq's occupation of her country in 1990, was captured by Iraqi secret police. On the eve of the U.S.-led campaign, she was killed, her body torn limb from limb and the body parts left on the doorstep of her family's home, Jordan said.

Jordan also said that in 1995, Saddam Hussein's son, Uday, had told him that he planned to assassinate his two brothers-in-law who had defected from Iraq to Jordan. In addition, Uday said, he planned to kill Jordan's King Hussein, who had given them asylum.

Eason Jordan said he told King Hussein of the plot, but the king dismissed it as "a madman's rant." The Jordanian monarch was not harmed, but Uday's brothers-in-law were lured back to Iraq and killed several months later. "

[CrONoS]

PLUNDERINGS IN BAGHDAD
Militias of self-defence made their appearance on Friday in districts of Bagdad to defend itself against the looters who are putting the city in bag, noticed journalists of AFP. In the bourgeois district of Mansour, armed men held a dam of blocks of stone and tires when they began firing towards a car already loaded with stolen possessions which approached the entranceof their sector. The car turned back whereas the other terrified motorists lost the control of their vehicles. Bagdadis, equipped with rifles of assault and pistols, bustled everywhere to raise barricades and elevations of groundto cut the streets of access to the blocks.
(translated french->english)

http://www.cyberpresse.ca/irak/article/1,3727,0,042003,263878.shtml

[CrONoS]

FIRES BURN IN BAGHDAD

Fires are raging across the Iraqi capital tonight after looters set light to government ministries and banks in full view of US forces.

Mohammed al-Shamai fired his pistol in the air when he saw young looters nearing his seven-storey garment store. "We want law and order and we want the Americans to protect our stores," said Shamai, who complained that much of his merchandise had been stolen.

http://www.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30200-1087160,00.html

[monkspider]

Baghdad slides into ruin and lawlessness

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/2940307.stm

Chaos as Mosul falls

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/2938191.stm

UK begins shooting looters

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/2940739.stm

[Ned]

Monkspider, that bit about shooting looters - the story clearly says the looter shot first.

[Ned]

"What happened in Baghdad must be taken into consideration by Arab rulers because the people are the ones who defend a country, and if they are tortured and their honour is violated then they will be the first to abandon it," said Hussein Taher, a 37-year-old private sector employee in Saudi Arabia.

Egyptian political commentator Salama Ahmed Salama told Reuters: "The gap between Arab governments and the people represents a source of anxiety for different Arab regimes. But whether they'll learn the lesson or not, I don't know."

Lesson to others?

The Iraqi example showed that the backing of a party, clique or tribe was not enough to sustain a legitimate government.

"The scene of the statue being brought down showed how Iraqis were dissatisfied with (Saddam's) regime. Maybe this is going to be a lesson and an example to other Arab leaders who consider themselves as gods," said Ali Hassan, a shopper in the West Bank city of Ramallah."

from an al Jazeera story on the Arab street reaction to the fall of Baghdad

http://english.aljazeera.net/topics/article.asp?cu_no=1&item_no=2299&version=1&template_id=263&parent_id=258

[monkspider]

Fall of Baghdad fuels fear and anger, "who is next?" the Arab people ask.

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?eo20030410a3.htm.htm

Powell in new warning to Syria, Persia: You're next

http://7am.com/cgi-bin/catwire.cgi?EYEONIRAQ_1000_2003041103.htm