U.S. Insists Iraq Desert Strike Targeted Criminals

[minkyboodle]

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Saying "bad people have parties too," a U.S. general told a news conference on Saturday there was strong evidence of illegal activity at a house in the remote desert where U.S. forces killed about 40 Iraqis this week.

The U.S. military says the house was a staging post for foreign fighters entering Iraq (news - web sites), but Iraqi witnesses and relatives of the dead say the attack targeted a wedding party and that several women and children were among those killed.

"The more we look at the post-strike intelligence, the more that we continue to dig in to what we found at that location, the more we are persuaded that there was not a wedding going on," Brigadier General Mark
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=578&e=2&u=/nm/20040522/ts_nm/iraq_attack_dc

(sorry if I still doubt the Pentagon line on this one. Seems like at the very least excessive force was used... How likely is it that a high level secret resistance meeting would hire Bagdad's most famous wedding singer.... bad guys have parties to... :eyes:

[Barrett808]

1. Oh, you lying bastard....

Infuriating! :mad:

[saigon68]

21. A THUMBS UP TO KILL THE RAGHEADS

 IT’S A FESTIVAL OF THUMBS UP WAR CRIMINALS

[Barrett808]

22. Good collection, as usual, Saigon n/t

[indepat]

32. But never forget a criminal is who they say is a criminal and they need no

evidence, much less proof. Just trust them to do the right, the far-right, thing.

[qanda]

2. If they were going after criminals

Then why aren't the survivors of the attack being arrested? I will assume that at the very least they would be accomplices or material witnesses. People need to start calling them on their foolishness.

Riverbend wrote a little bit about this today and also gave two very good links to other bloggers. http://riverbendblog.blogspot.com/

[Spazito]

3. They are lying through their teeth, imo

This statement says it all, imo. It says who do you believe me or your own eyes:

"Television footage after the attack showed weeping relatives burying bodies, including that of a child.


Kimmitt said there were "several inconsistencies" between what soldiers found at the site and the television footage of relatives of the victims, which were still being investigated."

I will believe the videos over Kimmitt any day.

[markses]

4. Since when does one go after "criminals" with helicopter gunships??

Absurd, either way.

Either they were combatants, or they were not. You do not bring that kind of firepower for a meeting of "criminals." Is it just because they found weapons? Must make the Ruby Ridge crowd proud that mere presence of weapons justifies the use of helicopter gunships on families! Jesus.

[Just Me]

5. Who was their freakin' source of intelligence: Chalabi?

or a tortured prisoner.

Which is more reliable?

UGH!!!

[Media_Lies_Daily]

6. There are some major disconnects with the so-called "evidence"...

...that the military is claiming they found a couple of days after the fact, and what they were claiming they found a few hours after the attack. Here's the latest claim from the article linked to the thread:

<http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=578&e=2&u=/nm/20040522/ts_nm/iraq_attack_dc>

Excerpt:

"Among the items found at the house were weapons, binoculars modified for aiming artillery, significant amounts of medical equipment, fake identity cards and the machines for making them, 'terrorist training manuals' and suspected cocaine, he said.

The house also seemed to have been used as a dormitory, with more than 300 sets of bedding gear and about 100 sets of prepackaged clothing, Kimmitt said. He said this suggested it was a staging post for foreign fighters coming into Iraq.

He added none of the dead had identity documents.

'We feel that that was an indicator that this was a high-risk meeting of high-level anti-coalition forces,' Kimmitt said.

He said there was no sign of food or wedding gifts, although relatives of a well-known Iraqi singer said he had traveled from Baghdad to perform at a wedding at the house and had been killed in the attack."

....and here's what they claimed was found hours after the attack:

<http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/content/auto/epaper/editions/today/news_04dac83781593293009e.html>

Excerpt:

"Ground forces found AK-47 rifles, sniper rifles, shotguns, handguns and machine guns at the desert site, along with foreign passports, satellite communication equipment and roughly $1,000 in Iraqi dinars, Kimmitt said."


Anyone else see some major discrepancies? Can anyone say "Cover-up"?

[Barrett808]

7. "Bad people have parties too"

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x574566

[markses]

16. LOL: You come to my daughter's wedding, asking for a favor....

[Spirochete]

18. They sure do...

the Republican party, for instance...

[markses]

19. Bad people at a party

[killbotfactory]

8. What bullshit...

They haven't found anything that you wouldn't expect to find in a remote region near the border of an unstable country, and the survivors haven't been arrested. They are lying throught their teeth.

Imagine if these kinds of tactics were used in the US. "Suspect someone of being in the mob? Oh, well, let's blow up a whole city block! Yeah, that'll get 'em! Hey look, we found weapons and money... they must have been in the mob!"

Who the hell is in charge of this debacle?

[muriel_volestrangler]

9. No Iraqis captured, no Americans injured

basically the Americans hit the houses with massive firepower with no warning. Maybe if they can't torture prisoners any more, or threaten their families, they think they may as well kill them all at once?

All evidence shows it was a wedding, whatever the village does with the rest of its time. I think this probably counts as another war crime.

[saigon68]

25. BLAST THEM TO BITS

Those pesky hoods are hard to tie anyway. Just blow them to pieces.

[Barrett808]

10. Expect more random mass death when Negroponte takes the reins

Imagine Battalion 316 made up of former Mukhabharat. Or an Atlacatl Battalion made up of Iraqi exiles and Saddam-era military. The possibilities are endless.

[Webster Green]

11. Ah-ha! Suspected cocaine!.. There you go then....

Its part of the "war on drugs", so anything goes.

This is getting ridiculous. There is no justification for slaughtering Iraqi citizens, so they don't have much choice but to lie about it.

[qanda]

12. This is the main point

"The acting United Nations (news - web sites) High Commissioner for Human Rights has expressed shock over the deaths of some 40 civilians at a wedding party in Iraq near the Syrian border," his office said in a statement.


"Even if there are security-related concerns, there can be no license to commit carnage."

[shraby]

13. I guess they think we

are all fools, after all we let Bush into the white house. They should call Kimmet out of Iraq. He's part of the problem there.

[madrchsod]

15. sorry, wimpy boy

but the usa can commit carnage where ever and when ever it fuck`n pleases-got that-so just shut the fuck up...

[NNN0LHI]

14. How did he go from terrorists to criminals? n/t

[AngryWhiteLiberal]

17. Ooiooo...those "criminal/killer" BABIES sure are fearce.

F* you, Kimmet. I tell you what, why don't we have a few blackhawks visit your neighborhood this Summer during the 4th of July. Hopefully, the gunners can distinguish between the firecrackers and hostile fire...

JB

[leftchick]

20. wtf is a "terrorist manual"?!?

for cripes sakes this is so lame. I watched Krazy Killer Kimmitt smirk and laugh as he said "even bad people have parties". What an ass! :grr:

[lumpy]

23. Is this the same General

wondered aloud why a wedding party would be held way out in the desert many miles from civilization ? Yes, bad guys have parties, also. It's getting harder and harder to distinguish the bad from the bad. Murdering children under any circumstances is pretty bad. Torturing/ killing 'prisoners' is pretty bad. Blowing up houses is pretty bad and, as far as that goes, bombing a country to hell, based on lies is pretty bad.

[minkyboodle]

24. self kick

we can't let this die down and let Kimmel and comp get away with this....

[daleo]

26. Do "terrorists" take their wives and children with them?

"Kimmitt said six women were killed in the attack on the house, which was in western Iraq close to the Syrian border, but that no children had been killed.
Television footage after the attack showed weeping relatives burying bodies, including that of a child."

Kimmit sounds like a psychotic. The other day he described these six women by saying "aircraft fire killed a handful of women". How many deaths must he have on his conscious to be able to describe six dead innocent civilians this way?

[saigon68]

27. kimmitt is a psychopath



KRAZY KILLER KIMMITT enforcer for the Viceroy Pontius Paul Bremer I

His quote " if you don’t like watching women and children die, change the channel."

[daleo]

28. I couldn't agree more

And his boss, Rummy, is even worse, if that is possible.

I remember in the first days of shock and awe, he was asked about civilian deaths. He said something like "if you knew the care, that goes into the targeting of each and every bomb...", with a strange faraway look in his eyes. Honestly, I expected him to say "if you knew the love that we pack into each and every bomb...". At that moment I was pretty sure I was watching someone who was seriously deranged, and I mean that literally.

[dudeness]

29. this guy seems to have a lower than average IQ..

just an observation from numerous news conferences etc...he seems easily programmed and spews forth the required amount of daily propaganda..

[saigon68]

30. HE'S SHILLING FOR A SECOND STAR

He will be forced to retire when we win in NOV. He'll have to live on his 7500 per month retirement pay.

But alas, some NeoCon think tank, will put him on the lecture circuit for Big Bucks.

[Darranar]

31. "Criminals" like innocent people celebrating a wedding?

Is that now illegal?