Go to CBSnews.com now

[kstewart33]

In the upper left hand corner, there is a video icon with the headline, 'CBS cameraman captures explosion....' The video (roughly 5 minutes) was shot by a cameraman who was attending a press conference in the UN building when the explosion occurred. He captured the mayhem and devastation inside the building and out. Terribly upsetting, shocking, and the best look at real terrorism I've seen. What is the world coming to?

[Jacobin]

1. Terrorism?

I thought it was soldiers in Iraq engaged in guerilla warfare to expel the infidels who invaded, conquered and now occupy their country.

Wouldn't you do the same if America were occupied by soldiers from, say, China, who conquered this country?

[kstewart33]

2. No, I wouldn't

I would not kill UN members, specifically UNICEF employees who are there for strictly humanitarian reasons. The people had nothing to do with the American occupation. They were there to help relieve the inhumane conditions in Baghdad (no power, little water and so forth).

Take a good look at this tape. I wouldn't wish this hell on anyone.

[Skip Intro]

5. Two things

First,
I wouldn't wish that attack on ANYONE, let alone the UN, but the Iraqi anger is very understandable. I wonder how we all would feel had we viewed a real-time video of the bloody death and dismemberment that went on inside Iraq for days during our "prime time, get the popcorn" brutal shock and awe party. Having not been there, I don't see how you or I could possibly imagine the seething anger the survivors must now feel, not to mention everday proud Iraqis who now see that the only thing the "west" cares about protecting and tending to is the almighty oil wells.

Add into the mix more than a decade of debilitating, murderous sanctions and humiliting demands, and it is not hard to see how some in Iraq could view the whole sad, deadly mess as a war on the brown people by the white people - a "crusade" as president moron once put it.

\
Second, and yes this is possible, the attack on the UN, yet another tragedy to happen on bush's watch, could well have been another rove ploy to gain some political advantage - my guess being a needed mandate to pour a few tens of thousands more US patriots into harm's way to secure the oil, er, I mean liberation.

On edit: all you really did was react to a horrible event unfold on your monitor, and I took offense for some reason. I think it was the earlier post labeling this attack terrorism, which may apply, tho terrorism connotates, to me, something unprovoked. We are in their country. No offense to you intended, emotional topic. Not one more person should die for this sham of a war.

[kstewart33]

6. Iraqi anger?

What evidence is there that this bombing was done by Iraqis or that it had anything to do with Iraqi anger? A far more likely possibility is that far bigger-time terrorists did the bombing, because multiple terrorist groups see Iraqi as just the latest battlefield in the war against the U.S.

Don't you get it? Terrorists (likely with rich financial supporters) see an opportunity to chase the U.S. out of Iraq and thoroughly humiliate the U.S. If they do, they will have defeated the U.S. in the middle east. They will have won the war.

Iraq has become the biggest terrorist target in the world. And it has nothing to do with Iraqi anger. It has everything to do with a perceived terrorist opportunity.

[Skip Intro]

8. Sorry, I don't see invisible "terrorstis"

every time a bomb goes off or a blackout occours.

Please see the edit to my post - I was not defending the attack, or attacking you.

But yeah, I can understand some anger from the Iraqis. I mean, all we did was cripple their country for twelve or so years before we, without provocation, broke international and US LAW by attacking them, and wasting THEIR contry and THEIR culture.

Yeah, as the earlier poster pointed out, if that had been some other nation invading MY country, I would refuse to recognize that invading nation's self-proclaimed "superiority" and would fight until they were banished from MY nation. You wouldn't?????


WE DO NOT BELONG IN IRAQ!

WE HAVE NO RIGHT!

[Not a robought]

4. You must have missed the essence of this story today

They killed Sergio Vieira de Mello in what looks like a targetted attack.

Amongst humanitarian aid, it WAS part of his agenda to bring about the end of US occupation in Iraq.

[frylock]

7. this has task force 20 written all over it..

The bomb was hidden in a cement mixer lorry, but confusion surrounds whether it was allowed into the compound - where building work had been going on - or whether it was detonated while parked outside a new 12ft-high perimeter wall. The truck was thought to have contained 500lb of C4 military plastic explosive.

"All this happened right below the window of Sergio Vieira de Mello," a UN spokesman, Salim Lone, said. "I guess it was targeted for that. It was a pretty huge bomb. His office and those around it no longer exist, it's all rubble.

"I grieve most of all for the people of Iraq because he was really the man who could have helped bring about an end to the occupation. An end to the trauma the people of Iraq have suffered for so long."

[Wwagsthedog]

3. CBS Video?

CBS played this video complete with Japanese subtitles on their nightly news show. Maybe they bought the film after the fact.

"UN Headquarters Bombing in Iraq Exposes US News Media Bias
Jesse, Editor, TvNewsLies.org. 19-August-2003

This morning, a car bomb explosion ripped through the hotel housing the UN headquarters in Baghdad: A live shot of the explosion was captured by NHK, a Japanese news crew covering a UN press briefing in the building at the time."

http://tvnewslies.org/html/journalistic_bias.html

[veracity]

9. CBS camera man was outside the hotel...not inside.

The CBS camera man happened to be outside the hotel with his camera, and filmed the scene from that vantage point. The interior shots were filmed by a Japanese camera man.

If you go to CBSnews.com, the video clip of the blast explains that. From all I've read, - the US media was not at the press conference.

According to the article at TvNewsLies (http://www.tvnewslies.org/html/journalistic_bias.html) the CNN reported didn't even know what the press conference was about. Strange that a press conference in Baghdad -called by the UN would go unattended by the US media. Strange, but not unexpected.

[NNN0LHI]

10. Here is why the Iraqi resistance may want to target the United Nations

Why the UN is a target - BBC

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3164675.stm

The attack on UN headquarters in Baghdad, in which the Special Representative Sergio Vieira de Mello died, might have been carried out not only because the Iraqi resistance objects to all occupiers.

There could have been a specific reason as well, tied to a vote in the Security Council last week.

On 14 August the Council gave its approval to the recently formed Iraqi Governing Council and it also approved the establishment of a United National Assistance Mission in Iraq (Unami).

The UN might therefore have been seen by the Iraqi resistance as an instrument of the United States and Britain in their occupation of the country. snip

By approving the Governing Council of Iraqis appointed by the Coalition Provisional Authority, the Security Council put its weight behind the move towards an eventual democratic Iraq. more

But if the resistance is now targeting the UN itself, then those countries will be reluctant to help even with a mandate.


more

[Devlzown]

11. Why would anyone attack the U.N.?

I can think of a couple of reasons.
1. The neocons had it done to scare away others and to reduce European concern for the plight of the Iraqis.
2. The Iraqi resistance did it to scare away others and make the Americans face the music there.

[NNN0LHI]

12. It was a warning

Just like the Jordanian embassy. It was explicit too. You play ball with the occupiers and you go on the list. And you don't want to be on the list.

Don

[Devlzown]

13. That's my take on it too.

While I wouldn't put anything past the neocons, they stand to gain everything by handing things over to the U.N. and sending our increasingly disillusioned troops home to their angry families. The Iraqis are saying "this is between us and them. Stay out of it."