liberating iraqis: smiling, jubilant, rejoicing war news o'the day for wednesday april 9th 2003.

adventures in liberation

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,932005,00.html

Iraqi exiles likely to form part of a new legal system in Baghdad are urging Washington to allow them to impose the death penalty on Saddam Hussein and his closest associates, an approach that could further strain America's relations with Britain and the United Nations... UN involvement would be unacceptable to the US and to Iraqi opposition leaders, who accuse the international community of having neglected Saddam Hussein's war crimes until now. The Iraqi exiles' stance on the death penalty looks likely to close the door even more firmly on UN involvement, since no UN tribunal can impose more than a life sentence... Officials have spoken of a "dirty dozen", or a "filthy 40", who would be targeted for prosecution.

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americans = the experts on liberty and justice

http://babelogue.citypages.com:8080/mmosedale/2003/04/07

According to a new report released by the U.S. Department of Justice, the U.S. prison inmate population surpassed 2,000,000 people for the first time last year. That means one out of 142 inhabitants of the land of the free are, well, not free.

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with vanity and fresh air for all

http://www.newsday.com/news/obituaries/ny-stoja063208865apr06,0,3014671.story?coll=ny-obits-archive

Paul Stojanovich, the creator of the pioneer police reality series "Cops," died March 15... Stojanovich had spent the night with his fiancee, Kimberly Crowell, in a motor home overlooking his favorite spot, Treasure Cove... The couple went for a hike. Crowell said Stojanovich stood on a large, exposed tree root that jutted out over the cove to have his picture taken by her. Just after Crowell snapped the picture, she said, Stojanovich slipped on the rain-slick root and fell [off the cliff].

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over there

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/04/09/1049567715079.html

[Here is what] a top United States military officer said yesterday. "They stand, they fight, sometimes they run when we engage them," Brigadier-General John Kelly said. "But often they run into our machine guns and we shoot them down like the morons they are."

General Kelly... said... there might be anywhere between 500 and 5000 of the fighters, whom he described as terrorists. "They appear willing to die. We are trying our best to help them out in that endeavour," he said. General Kelly said a captured Syrian fighter who had his leg blown off had refused medical help. "They are arrogant."

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over there over there over there

http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,932073,00.html

[Each] US marine in the ["humvee"] had coated his face in black and green warpaint in preparation for yesterday's entry into Baghdad. Eric the medic had painted his eyes black with stars like a clown, and blackened his lips so they spread across his chops from side to side. Staff Sergeant Jeff Fowler had completely blackened the bottom of his face, up to halfway up his nose, the top half remaining its natural pink. "This is not the face of a peacekeeper," he said. "I'm doin' the whole Last of the Mohicans kinda thing." ...Some had used the black and green warpaint to reproduce skulls on their faces... The third battalion of the 7th Marine regiment, one of three columns waiting to cross over into Baghdad city limits, was... fizzing with adrenalin and testosterone.

...The US troops sternly warned off any Iraqi civilian vehicles which tried to approach. They ignored the looters, except to occasionally cheer them on. "Yeah, lookin' good!" called one marine to a thin, exhausted man pushing an enormous load of several generators on a trolley that was not up to the task. "Water, water," called the man. "Ain't got none, buddy."

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that's my "all subjunctive, all the time" bush

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apmideast_story.asp?category=1107&slug=War%20Where%20is%20Saddam%3F

Baghdad's rapid slide into lawlessness has convinced many that the regime has fallen and its leader is dead... When President Bush was asked about the airstrike Tuesday, he said simply, "Saddam Hussein will be gone. It might have been yesterday, I don't know. But he'll be gone."

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apparently it's all good

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=2534661

[On Wednesday,] elated Iraqis welcomed U.S. forces while looters and gunmen ran wild... Reuters Television crews watched cheering crowds sack U.N. headquarters in the Canal Hotel and drive off in U.N. cars... Invasion forces have yet to find any banned chemical or biological arms.

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the nerve!

http://www.news.scotsman.com/international.cfm?id=410632003

Yesterday, the allies were all but certain that they had stumbled across... a horde of nerve agents. United States troops once again declared that they had discovered the smoking gun that had evaded Hans Blix and his team of United Nations weapons inspectors... [But] the chemicals found at the facility near Baghdad turned out to contain nothing more lethal than pesticide.

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the war according to bob fisk

http://argument.independent.co.uk/commentators/story.jsp?story=395416

09 April 2003... Day 20 of America's war for the "liberation" of Iraq was another day of fire, pain and death. It started with an attack by two A-10 jets that danced in the air like acrobats, tipping on one wing, sliding down the sky to turn on another, and spraying burning phosphorus to mislead heat-seeking missiles before turning their cannons on a government ministry and plastering it with depleted uranium shells. The day ended in blood-streaked hospital corridors and with three foreign correspondents dead and five wounded.

...While American fighter-bombers criss-crossed the sky, while the ground shook to the sound of exploding ordnance, while the American tanks now stood above the Tigris, vast areas of Baghdad – astonishing when you consider the American claim to be "in the heart" of the city – remain under Saddam Hussein's control... I found a crowd of spectators standing on the parapet, watching the American tanks with a mixture of amusement and fear. Did they not know what was happening in their city?

...I saw the smoke of the shell that the Americans had just fired into the Reuters office... [Hours earlier, Al Jazeera's headquarters] were destroyed. Just an hour later, one of the tanks on the Jumhuriya Bridge fired a shell into the wreckage. Eighteen civilians – 15 of them women – were reported to be still hiding in the basement.

...The International Red Cross had tried to arrange a convoy out of Baghdad; inexplicably, it was reported that the Americans had refused it passage from the city... The dogs always get it right. Every time they start baying, you know that the bombers are coming back. And they yelped and barked as night fell last night. And within 15 minutes, even we humans could hear the rumble of explosions.

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too little too late

http://jang.com.pk/thenews/apr2003-daily/09-04-2003/world/w4.htm

NEW DELHI: The Indian parliament on Tuesday condemned the US-led war on Iraq and demanded an immediate withdrawal of American and British forces.

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fisk again

http://argument.independent.co.uk/commentators/story.jsp?story=395412

First the Americans killed the correspondent of al-Jazeera yesterday and wounded his cameraman. Then, within four hours, they attacked the Reuters television bureau in Baghdad, killing one of its cameramen and a cameraman for Spain's Tele 5 channel and wounding four other members of the Reuters staff. Was it possible to believe this was an accident? ...The facts of yesterday should speak for themselves. Unfortunately for the Americans, they make it look very like murder.

...Back in 2001, the United States fired a cruise missile at al-Jazeera's office in Kabul – from which tapes of Osama bin Laden had been broadcast around the world. No explanation was ever given for this extraordinary attack on the night before the city's "liberation"; the Kabul correspondent, Taiseer Alouni, was unhurt. By the strange coincidence of journalism, Mr Alouni was in the Baghdad office yesterday to endure the USAF's second attack on al-Jazeera.

Far more disturbing, however, is the fact that the al-Jazeera network – the freest Arab television station, which has incurred the fury of both the Americans and the Iraqi authorities for its live coverage of the war – gave the Pentagon the co-ordinates of its Baghdad office two months ago and received assurances that the bureau would not be attacked. Then on Monday, the US State Department's spokesman in Doha, an Arab-American called Nabil Khouri, visited al-Jazeera's offices in the city and, according to a source within the Qatari satellite channel, repeated the Pentagon's assurances.

Within 24 hours, the Americans had fired their missile into the Baghdad office. The next assault, on Reuters, came just before midday when an Abrams tank on the Jamhuriya Bridge suddenly pointed its gun barrel towards the Palestine Hotel where more than 200 foreign journalists are staying to cover the war from the Iraqi side. Sky Television's David Chater noticed the barrel moving. The French television channel France 3 had a crew in a neighbouring room and videotaped the tank on the bridge.

...In the Reuters bureau on the 15th floor, the shell exploded amid the staff. It mortally wounded a Ukrainian cameraman, Taras Protsyuk, who was also filming the tanks, and seriously wounded another member of the staff, Paul Pasquale from Britain, and two other journalists, including Reuters' Lebanese-Palestinian reporter Samia Nakhoul. On the next floor, Tele 5's cameraman Jose Couso was badly hurt. Mr Protsyuk died shortly afterwards. His camera and its tripod were left in the office, which was swamped with the crew's blood. Mr Couso had a leg amputated but he died half an hour after the operation.

The Americans responded with what all the evidence proves to be a straightforward lie. General Buford Blount of the US 3rd Infantry Division – whose tanks were on the bridge – announced that his vehicles had come under rocket and rifle fire from snipers in the Palestine Hotel, that his tank had fired a single round at the hotel and that the gunfire had then ceased. The general's statement, however, was untrue.

I was driving on a road between the tanks and the hotel at the moment the shell was fired – and heard no shooting. The French videotape of the attack runs for more than four minutes and records absolute silence before the tank's armament is fired. And there were no snipers in the building. Indeed, the dozens of journalists and crews living there – myself included – have watched like hawks to make sure that no armed men should ever use the hotel as an assault point.

This is, one should add, the same General Blount who boasted just over a month ago that his crews would be using depleted uranium munitions... in their tanks.

...Is there some element in the American military that has come to hate the press and wants to take out journalists based in Baghdad, to hurt those whom our Home Secretary, David Blunkett, has maliciously claimed to be working "behind enemy lines"? Could it be that this claim – that international correspondents are in effect collaborating with Mr Blunkett's enemy (most Britons having never supported this war in the first place) – is turning into some kind of a death sentence?

......... .......... ............ ........ ........ ............... .......... ....... ............... ............

The Sky News correspondent David Chater was in the Palestine Hotel when the hotel was hit by American tank fire. This is his account of what happened: "...We saw the tanks up on the bridge. They started firing across the bank. The shells were landing either side of us at what we thought were military targets. Then we were hit. We are in the middle of a tank battle. I don't understand why they were doing that. There was no fire coming out of this hotel – everyone knows it's full of journalists.

"Everybody is putting on flak jackets. Everybody is running for cover. We now feel extremely vulnerable and we are now going to say goodbye to you." The line was cut, but minutes later Chater resumed his report, saying journalists had been watching American forces from their balconies and the troops had surely been aware of their presence.

"They knew exactly what this hotel is. They know the press corps is here. I don't know why they are trying to target journalists. There are awful scenes around me. There's a Reuters tent just a few yards away from me where people are in tears. It makes you realise how vulnerable you are. What are we supposed to do? How are we supposed to carry on if American shells are targeting Western journalists?"

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military "intelligence"

http://www.upi.com/view.cfm?StoryID=20030408-051001-1217r

WASHINGTON, April 8 (UPI) -- Pentagon officials expressed regret three journalists were killed by U.S. fire Tuesday in two separate incidents in Baghdad but declined to call it a mistake on the part of the military. "...You're not safe when you're in a war zone," Pentagon spokeswoman Victoria Clarke said at a Pentagon news conference Tuesday.

...Maj. Gen. Stanley McChrystal, Joint Staff vice director of operations, said the tank that fired on the building had been fired on first and was acting in self-defense... The culpability for the deaths is not just the military's, the Pentagon officials said. There are questions that news media organizations must answer as well. What were the reporters doing at that particular hotel in Baghdad in the first place?

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new evidence of love for the press

http://www.twincities.com/mld/pioneerpress/news/local/5581200.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp

Dean Staley and Joe Caffrey, the KSTP-TV, Channel 5, team embedded with the 101st Airborne in Iraq... sent an e-mail... saying, "Joe and I were working on a story in our camp here in the middle of the desert... We looked up, and there were Geraldo [Rivera] and his producers climbing out of a Humvee." ...Rivera signed a few autographs, exchanged a few soul hugs and headed off for the flight back to professional exile in Kuwait... "We later found out a few who shook his hand had put those hands in unmentionable places prior. Army justice?"

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the nerve, part 2

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/04/08/1049567687869.html

Defence Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, urged caution over reports on discovery of chemical weapons. "We have to recognise that almost all first reports that we get turn out to be wrong", Mr Rumsfeld said... US military and intelligence officials are convinced they will discover prohibited chemical and biological agents or weapons but believe it will take time... One military unit on the outskirts of [Baghdad] was told it could dispense with chemical protection suits.

...While Mr Rumsfeld repeated that the US forces were "going to extraordinary lengths to protect innocent lives" ...hundreds of civilians wounded in the fighting are now reported to be flooding into Baghdad hospitals.

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john wayne's teeth

http://www.reuters.com/printerFriendlyPopup.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=2529342

A local militia opposed to Iraqi President Saddam Hussein took control of the southeastern city of Amara on Sunday but a CIA officer told them to withdrew under threat of bombing, opposition officials said on Tuesday. The militia of several thousand armed men [was] led by a man by the name of Abu Hatem Mohammed Ali... Abu Hatem [is] a well-known guerrilla leader, a longtime contact of the opposition Iraqi National Congress (INC) and a man known to the Pentagon. "He was... told by a CIA officer whose name I do not know but who spoke perfect Arabic that he had to vacate that city ... He was threatened with bombing and strafing of the building, the compound he took over, so he decided it would be better to be wise and he did withdraw in fact," added [opposition leader Kanan Makiya]. Makiya said the lesson of the incident was that U.S. forces should cooperate with local opposition forces.

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all right, okay

http://news.ft.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=FT.com/StoryFT/FullStory&c=StoryFT&cid=1048313570322&p=1012571727088

[The city of] Hay Al Ansar... was glad to be rid of Saddam Hussein's Ba'ath party government... but they appear to be just as terrified, if not more so, of their new rulers - a little-known Iraqi militia backed by the US special forces... The Iraqi Coalition of National Unity (ICNU), which appeared in the city last week riding on US special forces vehicles, has taken to looting and terrorising their neighbourhood with impunity, according to most residents... The testimony of residents reveals a darker side to US policy in Iraq [and] their distaste for peacekeeping.

...Hassan Mussawi, a Shia cleric who helps lead the ICNU, said reports of looting by his group were untrue - fabricated by religious extremists to discredit his movement. He said his group was seeking to arrest former Iraqi government officials and "collaborators" with Mr Hussein's regime. "If they do not resist arrest we hand them over to the Americans. If they resist then we take measures accordingly."

...US special forces have [also] objected to certain Shia leaders distributing food aid, for fear of their ties to Iran.

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rumsfeld: fuck all y'all

http://www.washtimes.com/national/20030408-56118187.htm

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said yesterday that the administration's dispute with Congress over whether the State or Defense department will control the money to rebuild Iraq is irrelevant because the president will spend the money as he deems fit. "In the last analysis it's the president's policy, and whatever is put forward by the Congress by way of money will be expended in a way that the president decides should be expended," Mr. Rumsfeld said.

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bolton: i am psychotic

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=2535984

ROME (Reuters) - The United States on Wednesday warned countries it has accused of pursuing weapons of mass destruction, including Iran, Syria and North Korea, to "draw the appropriate lesson from Iraq."John R. Bolton, U.S. undersecretary of state for arms control and international security... specifically mentioned Syria, North Korea and Iran in his comments in response to a question about what the postwar period would hold... "I think Syria is a good case where I hope that they will conclude that the chemicals weapons program and the biological weapons program that they have been pursuing are things that they should give up," said Bolton, a leading U.S. hawk... Bolton said the United States' priority was "the peaceful elimination of these programs" and that this was the guiding principle in Washington's attitude toward North Korea and Iran.

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syria 1

http://atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/ED09Ak02.html

Rumsfeld has accused Syria and Iran of being engaged in "hostile acts". He warned Iran about allegedly allowing an Iran-based Iraqi opposition to deploy its forces in Iraq, but he reserved his anger for Syria for its alleged delivery of military equipment to the Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein... The Syrian government is understandably concerned about a US attack on it to change its regime, a policy backed, if not pushed, by Israel, which wants to turn hostile Syria, its last major Arab enemy, into a docile neighbor. Despite United Nations resolutions, Israel's refusal to withdraw from Syria's Golan Heights, which has been under its occupation since 1967, has demonstrated its willingness to annex that territory. The Syrians therefore see Israel as the real force behind the US war on Iraq and a call for its expansion to Syria and Iran. No wonder [Syrian Information Minister Adnan] Omran held, "We see no sign that the United States can look at the region except from one vantage point - Israel's."

...The remarks of a former head of the Israeli military intelligence, Amus Golad, during a television interview of Israel's Channel One, suggested that a US war against Syria could be conceivable at some point in the future. Accordingly, the US government requested from Israel unspecified "urgent intelligence" about Syria.

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syria 2

http://www.rferl.org/nca/features/2003/04/08042003160204.asp

In a 6 April interview on American NBC television, U.S. Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz threatened Syria with diplomatic and other consequences over suspected military aid to neighboring Iraq. "The Syrians should know that what they do now, they will be held accountable for," Wolfowitz said. His comments echoed earlier remarks by U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld... It's not clear what prompted the U.S. criticisms of Syria.

...Almost since its accession to independence in the wake of World War II, the Syrian Arab Republic has had uneasy relations with Washington. Damascus's strong Arab-nationalist and socialist line, confrontation with Israel over the capture of the Golan Heights during the 1967 war, and Syria's subsequent occupation of northern Lebanon have all been sources of friction with Washington. Soon after succeeding his late father in July 2000, Bashar al-Assad engaged in a policy of modest liberalization and tried, with limited success, to boost ties with the U.S. and the West. Over the past 2 1/2 years Damascus has softened its stance on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, officially restraining its demands for the return of the Golan Heights. After the 11 September 2001 attacks on the U.S., Damascus helped U.S. law-enforcement agencies hunt down Al-Qaeda operatives and even detained the suspected recruiter of the suicide hijackers, Syrian-born Muhammad Haydar Zammar.

Yet, while praising Assad for this cooperation, the State Department regularly blacklists Syria among countries that allegedly sponsor terrorism... Arab commentators generally believe the renewed charges against Syria herald a new phase in the U.S.'s Middle Eastern policy. Despite U.S. denials, some even go so far as to say Rumsfeld's comments foreshadow possible U.S.-sponsored "regime change" in Damascus... Addressing the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) on 30 March, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell leveled fresh accusations against Syria's suspected links with Hizballah and issued what sounded as an ultimatum: "Syria can continue direct support for terrorist groups and the dying regime of Saddam Hussein, or it can embark on a different and more hopeful course. Either way, Syria bears the responsibility for its choices and for the consequences." In comments made before the same audience the following day, U.S. national security adviser Condoleezza Rice denounced both Syria and Iran as "rogue regimes."

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speaking of rogues

http://jang.com.pk/thenews/apr2003-daily/09-04-2003/world/w8.htm

TEHRAN: Molotov cocktails were thrown at the British embassy here on Tuesday as around 250 Iranian students demonstrated against the war in Iraq. Riot police immediately arrested two demonstrators who threw the home-made petrol bombs which hit the gates and fell inside the compound but did no damage to the main building. The protestors comprised mainly of members of Basij Islamic militia from Tehran University medical department. The demonstrators, who were calling for the expulsion of the British ambassador, burned the US and the British flags and chanted "death to America, death to Britain", while throwing tomatoes and eggs at the embassy.

..."Where is the United Nations? Where are human rights?" read one placard on Tuesday. Earlier in the day several hundred female students from Tehran schools had assembled outside the United Nations office in Tehran shouting slogans against the war and the "massacre of innocent Iraqi children".

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whoopsy daisy

http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5478,6259163%255E25778,00.html

A YOUNG Iranian man has been killed after a stray rocket hit south-western Iran near the Iraqi border, an official has said. Mohammad Kianoush-Rad, who represents Ahvaz, the capital of Khuzestan province, in the Iranian parliament, said the rocket had "apparently been fired by US-led coalition planes".

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forewarned is forearmed

http://www.iraqwar.ru/iraq-read_article.php?articleId=2153&lang=en

Iranian army chief Major General Mohammad Salimi Monday called on the armed forces to get prepared to confront any probable foreign threats, the official IRNA news agency said. Speaking to a group of army cadets and their trainers, Salimi said "the armed forces, especially students of higher military science courses, must be ready to confront any probable threats andattacks of aliens." He stressed Iran had not been safe from global and regional crisis so far and its northern, western and eastern neighbors have been attacked. "We are being threatened and this leaves no other alternative than for our armed forces to get totally prepared and remain vigilant," Salimi said.

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we don't care, we don't have to, we're exxon

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/2931297.stm

The US military in Afghanistan says it has killed 11 Afghan civilians by mistake in an air attack.

The deaths occurred when "a bomb dropped by coalition aircraft landed on a house... near the Pakistan border," a statement issued the US air base at Bagram said... One of the jets dropped a 1,000 pound laser-guided bomb... "Coalition forces never intentionally target civilian locations..." [bla, bla, bla.]

...[Lest we forget, last year] 48 civilians - mostly women and children - were killed and 117 injured when a US AC-130 plane opened fire on a wedding party. A US investigation concluded that the air crew were justified in attacking because they had come under fire. [and so on.]

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editors confused about civilians

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/editorandpublisher/headlines/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1859190

Most editors who spoke with Editor & Publisher believe civilian casualties need equal attention [compared to American casualties] because they are an important effect of the war. "Our reporters are encouraged to cover everything they see," said John Walcott, Washington bureau chief for Knight Ridder Newspapers... But Geneva Overholser, a professor at the University of Missouri School of Journalism and former editor of The Des Moines (Iowa) Register, said that strong civilian coverage had been lacking at newspapers... "We have more than 600 reporters embedded, and we have better access, but we are not seeing much in the way of civilian casualties."

..."We have gotten some criticism that our coverage is too sympathetic to Iraqi civilians," said Tim Connolly, international editor at The Dallas Morning News, who cited a Page One photo the paper ran of a Baghdad market bombing. "I've heard comments that we should pay more attention to our troops. Some people view coverage of the victims of war as being antiwar." ...Paula Nelson, [Boston] Globe deputy director of photography in charge of Page One, said... the paper has declined to run photos of the dead if they showed identifiable faces.

At least 60 readers wrote or called USA Today with complaints after it ran a picture of dead Iraqi soldiers on its front page March 28. Several asked why the paper did not replace it with an inside photo of a U.S. soldier walking with several smiling Iraqi children... The paper has created a committee of five top editors who are reviewing all "questionable" photos.

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war is peace, day is night, up is down

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-0304070189apr07,1,4382383.story?coll=chi%2Dnews%2Dhed

The Office of Global Communications, a controversial agency created by President Bush in January, has blossomed into a huge production company, issuing daily scripts on the Iraq war to U.S. spokesmen around the world... ensuring that any war commentary by a U.S. official is approved in advance by the White House... Administration officials insist the office does not deal in disinformation... Civilian and military personnel, for example, are told to refer to the invasion of Iraq as a "war of liberation." Iraqi paramilitary forces are to be called "death squads."

...Officials from Bush on down often use identical anecdotes to make their points, for example about Hussein's brutality. But the White House sometimes has been unable to provide details or documentation to back up those stories... One oft-repeated anecdote, for example, concerned an Iraqi woman who ostensibly waved at a U.S. military unit. When the unit returned to the area, the story goes, it found the woman hanged from a lamppost. Yet U.S. officials never specified where that happened or gave any further details, and they declined to say how they know about it beyond citing "intelligence reports."

A second story involved an Iraqi man who, having criticized Hussein's regime, was tied to a post in a Baghdad square after his tongue was cut out and bled to death. "That's how Saddam Hussein retains power," Bush said at Camp David on March 27. The story was repeated by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, his deputy Paul Wolfowitz and Pentagon briefers during the next several days. But administration officials have declined to say when the incident occurred or who saw it... The specific anecdotes could not be corroborated by Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, journalists in the region, or U.S. intelligence sources... The White House would say only that the stories match what is known about Hussein's cruelty.

...Bush's global communications strategy is the brainchild of one of his closest advisers, Karen Hughes. It is a strategy born of the Bush team's experience in political campaigns... The office is headed by Tucker Eskew, a soft-spoken but brass-knuckles political operative who ran Bush's South Carolina presidential primary campaign.

...The Washington office... issues the "Global Messenger," a daily e-mail to U.S. embassies and others outlining the administration's message. On March 24, while the U.S. media were reporting that the invasion had fallen behind schedule, the Messenger reported that "news accounts today paint a vivid picture of joy and relief inside Iraq. American and coalition troops were being welcomed by smiling Iraqis."

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smiling iraqis

http://www.tribuneindia.com/2003/20030410/main1.htm

Marines fanned out through the Shia stronghold suburb of Saddam City, where they were greeted by smiling Iraqis.

...

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=395705

As they fanned out through the Shia stronghold the Americans were greeted by smiling Iraqis.

...

http://www.nypost.com/news/worldnews/72874.htm

Throughout the country, waving and smiling Iraqis turned out by the thousands yesterday to greet allied troops.

...

http://www.voanews.com/article.cfm?objectID=7878B796-780E-4E03-AAB923E343B25905

Coalition forces continued to extend their control over the capital. And they did so in front of cheering, smiling Iraqis.

...

http://www.iht.com/articles/90995.html

Video cameras rolled and smiling Iraqis looked on.

...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&node=&contentId=A16297-2003Mar23¬Found=true

Brig. Gen. Andrew B. Davis, the director of public affairs for the Marine Corps... cited a recent conversation with an Egyptian newspaper editor who said Arab viewers would never believe images of smiling Iraqis embracing U.S. troops broadcast by Fox or CNN. "But they will believe those images if they see them on al-Jazeera."

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you'll dance to anything

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/cms.dll/html/uncomp/articleshow?msid=42896753

Joyful crowds threw flowers and cheered as US Marines drove into the city.

...

http://www.femail.co.uk/pages/news/iraq/article.html?in_article_id=176076&in_page_id=1625

US marines were greeted with flowers and applause as they made their way through the east of the city.

...

http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/200304090019871.php

Iraqis welcomed advancing US forces into the capital with flowers.

...

http://www.bayarea.com/mld/cctimes/5589612.htm

Elated crowds handed yellow flowers to U.S. Marines...They waved palm fronds and they blew kisses and they danced atop splintered symbols of oppression.

...

http://www.spacewar.com/2003/030409221019.mnxynzp3.html

Iraqi children plucked flowers to give to the soldiers.

...

http://www.dailytelegraph.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5936,6211170%255E10431,00.html

There's something compelling about a photo of hundreds of Iraqis kissing US Marines.

...

http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=282479&contrassID=1&subContrassID=8&sbSubContrassID=0&listSrc=Y

Jubilant Iraqis cheered, danced, waved white flags and threw flowers at Marines advancing toward the heart of Saddam Hussein's capital.

http://www.wmcstations.com/Global/story.asp?S=1223325

One unit was swarmed by cheering Iraqis, with women lifting their babies for the soldiers to kiss. Young men shouted, "Bush No. 1, Bush No. 1."

...

http://www.japantoday.com/e/?content=news&cat=1&id=256097

Men hugged Americans in full combat gear and women held up babies so soldiers riding on tanks could kiss them.

...

http://www.newsday.com/business/nationworld/ats-ap_top10apr09,0,5316776.story?coll=sns-business-headlines

The troops were welcomed by cheering crowds of Ma'dan, marsh Arabs... There was celebrating, too, in Basra.

...

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/iraq/battle/la-iraq-c040903leadall_lat.story

Hundreds of people were in the streets. They waved and smiled at American soldiers... Birds sang. Children's voices floated in the springtime air.

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life in basra

http://www.islam-online.net/English/News/2003-04/09/article02.shtml

British forces in southern Iraq said Wednesday, April 9, that they have asked a tribal leader to take over as the "mayor" of Basra as they faced criticism for failure to prevent a looting spree.

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free press blues

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2003/04/08/MN298656.DTL&type=printable

A full-page ad Monday calling for the impeachment of President Bush sparked dozens of calls, letters and e-mails from readers angered that it would appear in The Chronicle... The ad and the impeachment campaign are the brainchild of former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark... Monday's ad, which typically would cost about $45,000, called for the impeachment of Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Attorney General John Ashcroft. The ad charged that all four have committed war crimes and crimes against the Constitution. In the course of the war in Iraq and the campaign against terrorism, the Bush administration has "ordered and directed the violent overthrow of sovereign states, disappearances, kidnappings, assassinations, summary executions, murders and torture," the ad continued.

Tens of thousands of people already have turned in impeachment petitions downloaded from the Internet or clipped from a similar ad that appeared in the New York Times last month, said Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, a spokeswoman for VoteToImpeach.org, the group that bought the ad. "There are people all around the country who strongly feel the (Bush) administration is conducting itself in a criminal fashion," she said. "They want to take back the Constitution."

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possible satire, or a charlotte beers hangover

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2003/04/07/DD296366.DTL&type=printable

It appears that after this pesky war is over, the State Department will start publishing a magazine about American culture to be distributed in Arab countries. The name of the magazine is "Hi"... Even though it's going to be a "newsstand, lifestyle, consumer magazine," according to Richard Creighton, one of the publishers, the magazine is going to be distributed in 22 Arab countries, each of which has different laws, customs and levels of tolerance about, let's see, lifestyle issues.

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ex-allies again

http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/04/07/1049567621537.html

[Russian] polls show strong anti-war, or anti-US, feelings. About 90 per cent were opposed to the military operation in Iraq a month before it began, and 71 per cent said the US was itself a security threat, while only 45 per cent thought Iraq was. The media has assumed an anti-US tone, and a popular Sunday news show yielded an astounding result: 80 per cent of the relatively liberal audience said they hoped Iraq would win the war.

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claptrap

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/04/08/international/worldspecial/08CND-JOUR.html?ex=1050848180&ei=1&en=e329e53d3f7a04bd

[article explains that 0.52 journalists have been killed per day in operation iraqi liberation --mrs.h.] ..."We have warned news organizations that being in Baghdad would be very unsafe once military action began," Colonel Lapan added. "It would be difficult to understand that people wouldn't understand the danger." [bla, bla, bla.]

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danger, will robinson, danger

http://www.upi.com/view.cfm?StoryID=20030408-030019-5434r

GAZA, April 8 (UPI) -- An Israeli F-16 warplane fired a missile Tuesday night into Gaza City's crowded Zeitoon neighborhood, Palestinian witnesses said, a shot that killed the leader of the armed wing of Hamas as well as six others. Hundreds of people rushed over to look for survivors while several Apache attack helicopters flew over the area, they said.

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new frontiers of bush diplomacy

http://www.reuters.com/home.jhtml;jsessionid=QPOH1SCA523WQCRBAELCFEY

Voicing admiration for British Prime Minister Tony Blair's dedication to peace in Northern Ireland, Bush told a joint news conference in Belfast on Tuesday: "I'm willing to spend the same amount of energy in the Middle East." Most Palestinians, pro-Western Arab leaders and European governments fervently wish that were true, but the consensus among Middle East analysts is: Don't hold your breath.

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legislation follies

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/04/09/international/worldspecial/09TERR.html?pagewanted=print&position=top

Congressional Republicans are maneuvering to make permanent the sweeping antiterrorism powers granted to federal law enforcement... The landmark legislation expanded the government's power to use eavesdropping, surveillance, access to financial and computer records and other tools to track terrorist suspects... Many critical provisions [were] temporary. Those provisions will expire, or "sunset," at the end of 2005, unless Congress re-authorizes them. But Republicans in the Senate in recent days have discussed a proposal, written by Senator Orrin G. Hatch, Republican of Utah, that would repeal the sunset provisions and make the law's new powers permanent... Republicans may seek to move on the proposal this week by trying to attaching it to another antiterrorism bill that would make it easier for the government to use secret surveillance warrants against "lone wolf" terrorism suspects... The proposal was approved unanimously by the Senate Judiciary Committee. But Republicans are upset because several Democrats say that when the measure reaches the Senate floor for a full vote, perhaps this week or later in the month, they plan to offer amendments that would impose tougher restrictions on the use of secret warrants.

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regression to the norm

http://www.startribune.com/viewers/story.php?template=print_a&story=3810823

U.S. Rep. Betty McCollum, D-Minn., asked Sen. Norm Coleman to apologize on Monday after the Republican senator told a Capitol Hill newspaper that..."To be very blunt and God watch over Paul's soul, I am a 99 percent improvement over Paul Wellstone," Coleman said in a front-page story published in Roll Call. "Just about on every issue." Coleman made the remark as he sought to stress his ties to President Bush. He told Roll Call that Wellstone "was never with the president."

...In a statement released by his office Monday night, Coleman said: "[Mark] Twain said the problem with talking to the media is they're likely to print what you say."

...They lost their champion and they thought something was taken away," he told the newspaper. "All you can do is say, 'Hey, I mourn the loss, but I am here and I am going to do what I think is the right thing to do, and thank God I have a chance to be here.' "

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fun with civil liberties

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/04/07/national/07LIBR.html?ei=5062&en=cac12896888c9943&ex=1050292800&partner=GOOGLE&pagewanted=print&position=top

SANTA CRUZ, Calif., April 4 — The humming noise from a back room of the central library here today was the sound of Barbara Gail Snider, a librarian, at work. Her hands stuffed with wads of paper, Ms. Snider was feeding a small shredding machine mounted on a plastic wastebasket. First to be sliced by the electronic teeth were several pink sheets with handwritten requests to the reference desk. One asked for the origin of the expression "to cost an arm and a leg." Another sought the address of a collection agency. Next to go were the logs of people who had signed up to use the library's Internet computer stations. Bill L., Mike B., Rolando, Steve and Patrick were all shredded into white paper spaghetti.

...At a meeting of library officials last week, it was decided the materials should be shredded daily. "The basic strategy now is to keep as little historical information as possible," said Anne M. Turner, director of the library system. The move was part of a campaign by the Santa Cruz libraries to demonstrate their opposition to the Patriot Act... In a survey sent to 1,500 libraries last fall by the Library Research Center at the University of Illinois, the staffs at 219 libraries said they had cooperated with law enforcement requests for information about patrons; staffs at 225 libraries said they had not.

...The City Council also passed a resolution condemning the Patriot Act.

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more fun with civil liberties

http://boston.com/dailynews/097/technology/Oregonians_hold_rally_for_deta:.shtml

PORTLAND (Reuters) - About 150 people demonstrated at the Portland, Oregon Federal courthouse Monday against what they said might be a secret court procedure going on inside -- a hearing for an Arab-American computer programmer held without charge since March 20. The man is West Bank-born Mike Hawash, who is being held in solitary confinement as a material witness in a case the FBI says it cannot discuss because of court rules, that it also cannot discuss... The Portland Oregonian reported that he was denied bail in a secret hearing last week.

...Hawash, an Intel Corp. software contractor, was arrested in the parking lot at one of the semiconductor maker's facilities in Oregon as he appeared for work. Law enforcement officers wearing bulletproof vests and carrying assault rifles then searched his house waking his wife and three children. Officers took computers, financial records, and other items, including some of the children's videos, McGeady said. Hawash is one of 44 people who have been detained as material witnesses since the Sept. 11, 2001 suicide attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

...Hawash became a U.S. citizen in 1988. ''Mike is such a pillar of the community. He is such a normal guy. He is the tip of the iceberg of a lot of Arab-American men that have been detained like this,'' said McGeady, who was formerly Hawash's boss at Intel.

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more fun with civil liberties than you ever dreamed of

http://www.unknownnews.net/0409-1.html

Highland Park officials [in Dallas, Texas] are considering creating a protest ordinance... that would place time-of-day restrictions on demonstrations and more clearly define what constitutes disturbing the peace. The ordinance would also require protesters to get permits... "We discovered that we needed an ordinance to clarify what's permitted," said Chief Darrell Fant, director of the Highland Park Department of Public Safety.

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kids' civil-liberties korner

http://timesargus.nybor.com/Story/63500.html

Misbehavior will soon be costly at West Rutland School [in Vermont]. Remaining on school grounds after being told to leave could cost a student $75. Fighting or using foul language could cost $125... The measure was proposed by Rutland County Sheriff R.J. Elrick. “It’s not rocket science,” he told the boards. “It’s a great intermediate tool to use to deal with some of the issues we’re faced with today.”

...A fine for a first offense at West Rutland School would range from $75 to $150. Fines would increase up to a maximum of $500 for additional offenses. Tickets would be issued by the school resource officer, a specially trained sheriff’s deputy assigned to the school... the money from them would go into the town’s general fund... They may be contested with the Judicial Bureau, like traffic tickets, or students can simply pay the fine.

...The ordinance... defines “school premises” to include “any property within 500 feet of the land upon which the building is situated.”

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dress code issues

http://www.nwaonline.net/283633295717134.bsp

The American Civil Liberties Union is investigating the arrest of a student who was denied entrance to the Northwest Arkansas Mall over the weekend because he was wearing a T-shirt bearing anti-war sentiments... Daniel Vaught, 22, of Fayetteville was arrested Saturday on a complaint of criminal trespassing... Vaught, a University of Arkansas student, and other members of the Progressive Student Association met at the mall at about 1:30 p.m. Saturday, intending to eat lunch, shop and walk around in their hand-lettered anti-war T-shirts... [They] were all wearing T-shirts bearing anti-war slogans such as "Support Troops, not War or Bush," Vaught said... He said the guards recited some mall rules about "no offensive clothing..." allowed on mall property.

...Vaught said... when he was about 20 feet away from the police, he turned around to "survey" the situation -- "[to] make sure the others were leaving." At that point, the officers came over to him and informed him he was under arrest, he said.

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yet more dress code issues

http://www.counterpunch.org/lindorff04022003.html

Under international law, if Iraq were to attack the U.S. with teams of sappers, blowing up bridges, tunnels, TV stations, power plants, factories or refineries (all legitimate wartime targets), if the attackers were to wear military uniforms identifying them as Iraqi soldiers, legal scholars say they would not be terrorists at all, but rather soldiers engaged in acts of war. The penalty, should such attackers be later apprehended, would be a prisoner of war camp for the duration of the conflict, after which time they'd be repatriated.

...Nor would Iraq have to declare war against the U.S. for its agents in the U.S. to acquire military standing, according to [George Fletcher, a professor of jurisprudence and a specialist in the law of war at Columbia University], because Iraq was attacked first by the U.S. "I think under the circumstances, they could certainly claim the right of self-defense," he said.

According to Fletcher, the key to establishing whether an attack by Iraqi agents in the U.S. was an act of terror or an act of war would be whether those agents were identifiable as Iraqi military personnel or not. "If they were dressed as civilians, then they would be considered to be unlawful combatants," he says... Even if Iraq never succeeds in opening up a front in the domestic U.S., or against American government, military or business assets overseas, Americans should be prepared for some ugly scenes. Fletcher notes that those Americans who are fighting in Iraq as special forces or as CIA operatives--that is, if they are undercover and not in uniforms that clearly identify them as American soldiers--do not have the protection of the Geneva Convention themselves, and could be treated themselves as unlawful combatants--which could mean torture or execution.

Is everyone feeling safer now?

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oh i remember... five days ago

http://www.newsday.com/news/politics/wire/sns-ap-war-civilian-clothes,0,5575615.story?coll=sns%2Dap%2Dpolitics%2Dheadlines

April 4, 2003 WASHINGTON -- The Pentagon on Friday defended the use of some civilian clothes by U.S. special operations forces, a tactic used to help them blend in with the local population... Defense Department spokeswoman Victoria Clarke said she thought American forces wear something that distinguishes them from civilians, but deferred the question for a later answer.

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