The Official Iraq War Thread...

[cphilip]

I do not know if any of you have seen the video footage and report on this supposed "Hospital" we took yesterday. The one they found all the Chemical Suits and Antidotes for Chemical weapons in? the one we found large amounts of troops in?

Well the grim news is they found a jail cell like area in it and there with bloody cut up clothing from our POW's and a torture chamber with a battery hooked up as well. No sign of the POW's. Plenty of video from the embedded reporters to verify it.

Also we again saw Iraqis loading chemical weapons surrounded by decontamination vehicles and people in chemical suits loading them and preparing them for deployment. that the second report of that. One was by a reporter in Bagdad that has been in there since the thing started. All that was just confirmed by CENTCOM.

[Jack_Dubious]

Originally posted by Collegeboy
Question.

Are the single basic Scud missiles illegal?

Or the three scud missiles latched together (called the scud, way to make things confusing ) illegal.

The first one couldn't go very far, but when they strapped three together they was able to hit Israel.

I am also confused on the news when they say SCUD. For I am never sure which SCUD they are talking about.

Any help would be appreciated.

The Scud is a specific missile model. Saddam shot a whole bunch in Desert Storm. They are illegal, but so far he has not shot any actual Scuds. The missiles he has launched have been smaller surface to surface missiles.(Al-Samoud i believe) Some of these missiles have gone farther than is legal.

The latest missile attack was most likely the Chinese silkworm...but im still trying to verify that. The Scud has a very high/steep trajectory...so I doubt its a Scud.

JDub

[pbzmag]

I remember seeing some pictures of missiles drapped in como netting in Iraq. Are there any more info on them?

[Load SM5]

4 soldiers have been killed in a car bomb attack. They were inspecting a taxi at a checkpoint near Najaf when it exploded. For the love of God, if that does'nt smack of terrorism, I don't know what does.

Also there are reports of Al-Qaeda fighting with Iraqis near Basraf.

[aaron_mag]

Originally posted by Load SM5
Also there are reports of Al-Qaeda fighting with Iraqis near Basraf.

This would be interesting if it is true since Saddam's party was not one for fervent muslims. His party was anti communist and anti fundamental islam. Also Bin Laden is not a Saddam supporter. Saddam threatened to invade Saudi Arabia back in the first Gulf War (while Bin Laden is living there). If you find anymore stories about about the Al Qaeda link please post them here.

Also Rumsfield stated that we will treat exiled Iraqis that are coming across the border from Iran to fight Saddam as enemies. Seems like they might be useful in forming grass root resistance against Saddam. Isn't that what we want?

[Load SM5]

Older story:

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,77135,00.html

Newer:

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,82542,00.html

and

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/03/28/1048653833092.html

Also was'nt there a radio address from Bin Ladin encouraging the Iraqi's a few months ago? My memory is fuzzy on that one.

[FactsOfLife]

Originally posted by aaron_mag


This would be interesting if it is true since Saddam's party is not one for fervent muslims. His party was anti communist and anti fundamental islam. Also Bin Laden is not a Saddam supporter. Saddam threatened to invade Saudi Arabia back in the first Gulf War (while Bin Laden is living there). If you find anymore stories about about the Al Qaeda link please post them here.

Also Rumsfield stated that we will treat exiled Iraqis that are coming across the border from Iran to fight Saddam as enemies. Seems like they might be useful in forming grass root resistance against Saddam. Isn't that what we want?

You don't think they'd forego their supposed differences with each other to fight us?

There are many documented examples of SH providing training for terrorists in his country.

Guardian UK story
Middle East Times story

And this is with about 2 seconds of looking...

[Collegeboy]

A kurdish official said the first one so I stopped reading it.

The last one is interesting, but I have my reservations.

[Jack_Dubious]

"Regardless of the removal or the survival of the socialist party or Saddam, Muslims in general and the Iraqis in particular must brace themselves for jihad against this unjust campaign and acquire ammunition and weapons. "
-snip-
"Under these circumstances, there will be no harm if the interests of Muslims converge with the interests of the socialists in the fight against the crusaders, despite our belief in the infidelity of socialists.

The jurisdiction of the socialists and those rulers has fallen a long time ago.

Socialists are infidels wherever they are, whether they are in Baghdad or Aden. "
Bin Laden tape: Text


Take what you want from those statements. Ill believe that Al-Qaeda forces are fighting in Iraq. But I still dont buy any link between Osama and Saddam. They may fight a common enemy but that still does not make them friends.

JDub

[Load SM5]

Originally posted by Jack_Dubious
They may fight a common enemy but that still does not make them friends.

JDub

"The enemy of my enemy is my friend"

[cphilip]

Originally posted by aaron_mag
This would be interesting if it is true since Saddam's party was not one for fervent muslims. His party was anti communist and anti fundamental islam. Also Bin Laden is not a Saddam supporter.

This I disagree with. They are Muslim extremist in a unique different way from the others. Note I didn't use the Fundamental label at all. That is another thing and it doesn't always mean extremist. Iraqis still talk about Jihad and still ally themselves with Muslim reasons to hate the "Infidel" and kill them. They use it even if they do not represent it well. They are calling for a Jihad. Saddams own people and even he have said those very words. Now they may not be the best liked Muslim country or government...and certainly do things different but yet they do indeed in support each other when it comes to attacking us. They have said they prefer dealing with each if it came to that and would support each other as long as its against us. The will and are uniting against us. Because basicaly they are muslim extremests in that one united respect. Maybe not in others but certainly THAT One. They will help and support each other to kill us. Thats one thing they agree on.

The Statement you make about Rumsfield I cannot follow at all. Not sure what you are talking about. We have threatened fighters coming across the borders to help Saddam. Mostly from Syria. And we have asked the Turk's to stay away for now. We are letting the Kurds do some things for us but they are already in there. Not sure you may have some of that twisted up.

[aaron_mag]

Originally posted by cphilip
The Statement you make about Rumsfield I cannot follow at all. Not sure what you are talking about. We have threatened fighters coming across the borders to help Saddam. Mostly from Syria. And we have asked the Turk's to stay away for now. We are letting the Kurds do some things for us but they are already in there. Not sure you may have some of that twisted up.

Here is a quote I found on the web (boston.com).

Rumsfeld said hundreds of Badr Corps members are inside Iraq now, with more inside Iran near the Iraqi border.

Abu Eslam al-Saqir, a top adviser to council leader Ayatollah Mohammed Baqir al-Hakim, said the Badr Corps would not seek confrontation with U.S. and allied forces.

''Our Badr army is not seeking any military confrontation with coalition forces. We only fight Saddam,'' al-Saqir told The Associated Press.

These are the forces (Iraqi exiles) that Rumsfeld does not want coming in from Iran. They hate Saddam and are coming over to fight him. I can understand why the U.S. is concerned as this is a rogue force that the U.S. does not coordinate with. Still they don't like Saddam and want to fight him. Seems like we may be able to make some use of them.

Here is the link to the story on CNN.com

http://cnn.nl/2003/US/03/28/sprj.irq.pentagon.syria/index.html

[Jack_Dubious]

Originally posted by Load SM5

"The enemy of my enemy is my friend"

I really hope we dont keep following that doctrine. It kinda backfired on us with Osama and Saddam. Thats why Im a bit wary of "liberating" the Shiites in the south. If anyone can remember the terrorist attacks in the 80's, most of those are attributed to Shiite terrorists.


JDub

[FactsOfLife]

Originally posted by Load SM5


"The enemy of my enemy is my friend"

Word to your Mullah...

[Collegeboy]

So Saddam Hussien and Al Queda are now friends of ours?