Welcome! Our goal is to give you one power-packed briefing of insights, news and trends from the global War on Terror that leaves you stimulated, informed, and occasionally amused every Monday & Thursday. Today's "Winds of War" is brought to you by Dan Darling. of Regnum Crucis.
TOP TOPICS
- Joe was already kind enough to blog a post on my take on the Amman plot by al-Qaeda to use chemical weapons in Jordan. This was easily an attack on par with 9/11 for al-Qaeda. The full transcript of the confessions as they were delivered to Jordanian TV are also well worth reading.
- 3/11 mastermind Amer Azizi has been indicted as a co-conspirator in the 9/11 attacks. Azizi is a key Zarqawi lieutenant, which would seem to clarify any lingering doubts as to his relationship with al-Qaeda.
- Thailand has 108 suspected Islamic fighters in a series of clashes in the nation's Muslim provinces. B. Raman, a former Indian intelligence chief, has a primer on the al-Qaeda presence in Thailand that should help to shed some light on recent events.
Other Topics Today Include: Iraq Briefing; Iran Reports; 12 Hezb-e-Islami members arrested in Kabul; Pakistan hopes amnesty deal will stem tribal support for al-Qaeda; Nek Mohammed formerly an al-Qaeda trainer; Hamid Karzai prepared for amnesty for rank-and-file Taliban; Abu Bakar Bashir tied to Bali bombing; self-professed al-Qaeda supporters operating openly in Europe; Captain Hook gets 9 more months in the UK; Saudi cash and Turkish jihadis fueling Chechen war; Philippines watching Janjalani; Saudi terrorists dress in drag and flee to mountains; al-Muqrin sez he didn't bomb Riyadh; Sudan ditches Syrian WMD; Damascus terrorist cell battle; Honduras investigating Muslim converts; and UFOs in Iran.
IRAQ BRIEFING
- IGC member Massoud Barzani, the powerful leader of the Kurdish KDP, is saying that the US has made mistakes in the post-war occupation, but is not pessimistic for the future.
- The US has told the new Iraqi government that even after the transfer of powert it will still have to delegate some of its duties to the coalition.
- US forces launched a major attack on insurgent forces based in the Julan neighborhood of Fallujah. A parallel strike near An Najaf appears to have killed a large number of Mahdi Army fighters.
- Iraqi insurgents have placed a bounty on the heads of Rumsfeld, Sanchez, and Kimmit.
- US troops looking for chemical weapons in Baghdad were apparently lured into an ambush in Sadr City.
- The Fox company of US Marine Corps is active in Fallujah and battling insurgent forces there.
- The insurgent group Green Brigade, which is holding 3 Italians citizens, is telling the Italian people to protest the more in Iraq or they'll kill the hostages.
- The motorcade of Bulgarian president Georgi Parvanovmade came under attack in Karbala, though there were no casualties.
- Al-Qaeda leader Abu Musab Zarqawi has issued a communique on a jihadi website claiming responsibility for the recent attacks on Iraqi oil terminals. He doesn't seem too fond of the Australian prime minister, either ...
- The Scotsman provides a look at how the Mahdi Army is treating the residents of An Najaf since seizing control of the city earlier this month.
- Speaking of the An Najafi, they are apparently actively turning against Sadr and have formed a group called the Thulfiqar Army to drive the Mahdi Army out of the city.
- There appears to be some speculation that one of those bribed by Saddam Hussein was a former president of NATO.
- Ralph Peters believes that Iraqi Kurds may serve as an example to the rest of the nation for how to form a peaceful society in the new Iraq.
- The UK is considering boosting troop levels to take up the tab left behind by the Spanish withdrawl.
- The US is considering sending more armor to Iraq after fears that Humvees now being used may not offer enough protection against attacks on US forces.
IRAN REPORTS
- An Iranian opposition group is claiming that Iran is rushing to build nuclear weapons as soon as possible and says that the ayatollahs will have the bomb with 1-2 years.
- Iranian president Khatami has admitted that Iran has political prisoners, but claims that is only the case because Iran existed in the East rather than the West. Khatami has also taken to defending Hezbollah in recent days.
THE WIDER WAR
- 12 Hezb-e-Islami members have been busted in Kabul on the suspicion of planning attacks.
- Pakistan hopes that the amnesty deal will stem tribal support for al-Qaeda. I wish that I was as optimistic ...
- It seems that Nek Mohammed, one of the al-Qaeda supporters recently granted amnesty, formerly ran a terrorist training camp in Afghanistan.
- Afghan president Hamid Karzai is courting rank-and-file to abandon the fight against the new government in return for reintegration into Afghan society.
- Indonesian cleric Abu Bakar Bashir has been yet again linked, this time by the Indonesian authorities, to the Bali bombing.
- In Europe, the call for jihad is still going out to self-professed supporters of Osama bin Laden, many of whom are based in the UK.
- One of those supporters, Sheikh Abu Hamza al-Masri, is appealing his citizenship ruling, meaning that he'll remain in the UK for at least 9 more months.
- Russia believes that Saudi cash and Turkish jihadis are helping to fuel the continued fighting Chechnya.
- The Filippino military is carefully watching the moves of Abu Sayyaf leader Khadaffi Janjalani.
- Saudi terrorists have been disguising themselves as women in an effort to evade the authorities, who, incidentally, also believe they've cornered Abdul Aziz Isa Abdul Mohsin al-Muqrin, the highest-ranking al-Qaeda leader in Saudi Arabia.
- Al-Muqrin is also denying any connection between al-Qaeda and the recent bombing in Riyadh. This is actually likely a credible claim, as the bombing was claimed by the al-Haramain Brigades, who were specifically formed to fight the Saudi royal family for al-Qaeda so that the organization could focus its efforts on killing Americans in Iraq.
- Sudan is ordering Syrian WMD out of the country over fears that their presence could hamper efforts by the NIF to free itself from US sanctions.
- Syria is fingering al-Qaeda for the recent incident in Damascus. Bashar al-Assad is said to have personally supervised the military operation that crushed the terrorist cell.
- Honduras fears that al-Qaeda may be recruiting Honduran converts to Islam to commit terrorist attacks upon their return.
- We try to end on a lighter note if possible. Iran appears to be experiencing a UFO craze of sorts these days. What's the Farsi for "Take me to your leader?"
Here's another link you might want to peruse:
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/04/29/1083224523783.html
Also, we are turning the Fallujah mess over to a former aide of Chemical Ali.
Appeasement??
I think you may have listed the wrong link.
You know, as soon as I saw that story, I thought "I bet that 'Winds of War' will omit that story."
For more information about these abuses, see blog by Iraqi woman who's been telling about this for some time:
http://riverbendblog.blogspot.com/
Dan,
I don't know what you mean, it works for me. There's an article in the Guardian which also claims that contractors (that is, mercenaries) hired by the US have raped male prisoners. No URL now, but see atrios.blogspot.com.
Terror? Bring it on!!!! we can dish it out as good as they can.
http://www.livejournal.com/users/transmigrant/31681.html
> You know, as soon as I saw that story, I thought "I bet that 'Winds of War' will omit that story."
Hm. Looks like Instapundit isn't saying anything either. Neither is OxBlog. They're both awake, they have posts up this morning, but not a word about this...
Diana:
Okay, I understand what you are trying to say now, it appears I misread you before. The link you supplied goes to a Sydney Morning Herald story that talks about Iraqi abuse at the hands of six US soldiers who have subsequently been charged, 3 of which are already recommended for court martial. It didn't say anything about an aide to Chemical Ali taking charge of Fallujah, hence my initial thought that you might have posted the wrong link. As I said, I misread your comment.
Josh Yelon:
It didn't end up in Winds of War because I didn't run across it at the time I was compiling it. And if you have a problem with how Winds of War is compiled, I invite you to forward relevant links to Joe or myself the way that many others, most notably the Art of Peace, have done on a semi-regular basis for the better part of the last year (same goes to Diana for the Guardian article in question). Winds of Change is not OxBlog or Instapundit, so I can't speak as to why they have yet to reference the story, though one might note much the same on a number of other blogs I could name regarding the recent NYT article that dealt with Feith's work as far as just how right his claims can be shown to have been with regard to Saudi and Iranian connections to al-Qaeda. So if you're implying ideological blinders in this instance, as appears to be the case, what's good for the goose is also good for the gander.
It seems ironic that the "Nightline" program which began because of one of the first terrorist acts against the USA by Islamic fundamentalists, i.e., the taking of American hostages in Iran, is now seeming to side with the Islamic terrorists against the Iraq war.
> It didn't end up in Winds of War because I didn't run across it at the time I was compiling it.
That's plausible. Since nobody else in the conservative world is mentioning it, it seems likely that you wouldn't have heard about it.
> if you're implying ideological blinders...
That's what I was implying, yes. I've seen an emergent phenomenon which that the entire conservative blogosphere is somehow unaware of this story. As for why any particular person is unaware of it, I have no idea. But the lack of awareness is systematic. Obviously, some process exists, perhaps a subtle unconscious one, for simply allowing such stories to die.
> Saudi and Iranian connections
I went to the NYT and searched for "Feith Iran Saudi", but the only thing I see that looks even vaguely relevant is this:
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/28/politics/28INTE.html
Which is a piece on Feith's shop to reanalyze old CIA data. Is that what you're referring to?
Bear with me, but I've been skeptical for a while now whether the "riverbendblog" mentioned above is actually written by the person it purports to be written by. Here's why:
1 - It's conveniently anonymous: hosted on blogspot so no way to look up WHOIS records; the email contact domain is registered (and appears to be hosted) out of Bangkok; no real personally identifiable information, as far as I can see.
2 - Why does someone in Iraq end up with email hosted out of Bangkok anyway? While it's conveniently difficult to trace, the advantage to Velocall.com appears to be that they can provide a telephone and fax front-end to an email box. It makes me wonder who is this person, living in Iraq, who had as a priority getting fax->email and phone->email support, but didn't care enough to go better than blogspot? Smells fishy.
3 - (U.S.) Left bias: "Baghdad Burning" is the slogan for the site. The linked resources are all left-leaning, anti-war, or anti-US (occupationwatch.com? wow.). The commentary is of the tear-jerking Leftist "look at the tear-stained eyes" "for the cost of a cup of coffee" overblown Sally Struthers sort.
4 - U.S. POV: quoting Morrissey lyrics, talking about "Bush & Co." (as if just freshly indoctrinated at an ANSWER rally in DC), a continual focus on the actions of particular U.S. politicians as if more familiar with American politics than Iraqi politics, etc. This is someone who spent most of their life Over Here, not Over There.
5 - The entire site is conveniently Bush-bashing in its rhetoric, tailor-made for consumption by Angry Left U.S. Democrats, mirroring anti-war talking points at just the times when they are being spewed here in the U.S.
6 - Why is there no comment forum anywhere? I'm betting that the author is not looking forward to critical analysis, inconveniently available to loyal readers where they can easily find it. (Now, I'll admit that I'm not running a comment forum on my personal site either (maintenance overhead and the problems with comment spam on other sites I maintain have dissuaded me), but then again I don't run much more than a linklog.)
The lack of any real insightful information from Iraq on the side leads me to want to call "bullshit" on this "girl blog from Iraq". There's nothing on that site I couldn't write after going to IndyMedia's website and surfing cable channels for an afternoon.
I expect, if there is ever a revelation on who actually wrote this site, to not be surprised to learn:
- that the author is not in Iraq
- that the author is in the U.S.
- that the author is a registered Democrat
- that the author is not of Iraqi descent
- that it's not even a "girl blog" at all
- there might even be multiple authors
Now, I could have my bets placed on the wrong squares: It could be that the writer is actually in Iraq (presumably watching CNN on a hotel television due to the dearth of local information presented), working with some far left Rachel Corrie-style activist organization or NGO. Or perhaps the author is actually an Iraqi, just living in NY and fuming about how "Bush LIED!!!" and running a hoax site to do {his,her} part against "Bush & Co.", complaining about the "Puppets" running around in Iraq.
Maybe one day we'll find out.
> Maybe one day we'll find out.
Probably the best way to find out is to ask to talk to her by phone.
If she's hesitant to give out her phone to some random guy on the internet (which I would be), then get some high-profile blogger to talk to her. I'm sure she'd accept a call if it were from somebody well-known.
I got an email once from Riverbend. Sure sounded real to me. Of course, I can't say for certain.
Regarding the rape of Iraqi prisoners, see:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1206725,00.html
Dan, relax. I recongize that you compiled your post on 4/29 and these stories were filed on 4/30.
I just thought that they deserved to be part of the post, that is all.
Regarding the guy we've turned over Fallujah to being a former Baathist and aide to Chemical Ali, see Juancole.com.
I got an email once from Riverbend. Sure sounded real to me. Of course, I can't say for certain.
Regarding the rape of Iraqi prisoners, see:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1206725,00.html
Dan, relax. I recongize that you compiled your post on 4/29 and these stories were filed on 4/30.
I just thought that they deserved to be part of the post, that is all.
Regarding the guy we've turned over Fallujah to being a former Baathist and aide to Chemical Ali, see Juancole.com.
Feith's work as far as just how right his claims can be shown to have been with regard to Saudi and Iranian connections to al-Qaeda.
There are many more demonstrable AQ ties to Saudi & Iran than to Iraq. We didn't invade them, nor will we. The war was based on lies, Dan.
Josh:
Unlike some bloggers I could name, my daily blogosphere diet does not simply consist of some flavor of Instapundit, Andrew Sullivan, LGF, and a couple others (they're all fine blogs, but if you're only working off of one set of information from a single ideological perspective, that's a problem, ignoring the fact that I can easily see most of these being far more libertarian than they are conservative). I look for hard news stories, which generally involves me going through about two dozen Google news search results twice (once for date, once for relevance) on a number of topics. Just to give you an idea, a regular day's work in this regard involves searching for al-Qaeda, al-Qaida, Chechnya, Basayev, Philippines Abu Sayyaf, Philippines MILF, Jemaah Islamiyah, Lashkar-e-Taiba, Kashmir, Pakistan, Sulawesi, Ansar al-Islam, Hezb-e-Islami, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, Algeria GIA, Algeria GSPC, Somalia, Sudan, Darfur, Lord's Resistance Army, bin Laden, al-Zawahiri, Saif al-Adel, and Abu Musab Zarqawi. If I use Rantburg as a back-up source, it is only because I am a major contributor to the group blog and see no reason to do more work than necessary - as I noted previously, my time online is not unlimited.
"That's what I was implying, yes. I've seen an emergent phenomenon which that the entire conservative blogosphere is somehow unaware of this story. As for why any particular person is unaware of it, I have no idea. But the lack of awareness is systematic. Obviously, some process exists, perhaps a subtle unconscious one, for simply allowing such stories to die."
I cannot speak for others, though I would here again note that this is by no means phenomenon unique to conservative blogosphere. The Feith story is a fairly good illustration of this, for reasons I will explain in a moment.
"I went to the NYT and searched for "Feith Iran Saudi", but the only thing I see that looks even vaguely relevant is this ... Which is a piece on Feith's shop to reanalyze old CIA data. Is that what you're referring to?"
That's the correct.
The following passage in particular is rather illuminating:
"Their analysis covered plenty of controversial ground. The two men identified members of the Saudi royal family who they said had aided Al Qaeda over the years. They warned that Al Qaeda had operatives in Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon, where they were establishing ties with the Iranian-backed Hezbollah. They suspected Abu Nidal, an aging Palestinian terrorist leader living in Baghdad, of being an indirect link between Iraq and Al Qaeda, even though many other analysts believed that he was essentially retired and that his once-fearsome organization had been shattered. Mr. Nidal died under mysterious circumstances in Baghdad in 2002."
Now let me explain to you why this is important. Liberal blogosphere (or at least those bloggers intelligent enough to know who Feith is) have more or less been painting Feith et al as a bunch of hacks who cooked up intelligence in order to justify the war in Iraq. Yet with the exception of the Iraqi connection to al-Qaeda, everything that came out of their analysis according to that paragraph has panned out 100%. The Saudi royals are in cahoots with al-Qaeda, and no less a source than St. Richard Clarke outlines the Iran/al-Qaeda connection in his book (to say nothing of the 1998 indictment against bin Laden), which lefties had no problem with taking as gospel truth when it presented a negative picture of the administration. Moreover, the presence of al-Qaeda operatives in Ein al-Hilweh in Lebanon is now common knowledge for anyone remotely informed about the nature of the Palestinian refugee camps in that country.
Yet I have yet to find a single left-wing blogger who has acknowledged that Feith and Co were correct on all of these previous points of analysis, which might perhaps lead one to conclude that there was (and, dare I say, is?) good evidence to trust them on an Iraqi connection with al-Qaeda. This is why I was bringing up the issue of ideological blinders and saying that you're demonstrating your own if you consign it strictly to the right you're ignoring that there is an equally apparent problem on the left.
Rick:
No comment on Riverbend. I was initially skeptical of both Salam Pax and Zeyad until sufficient proof was presented to convince me that they were legitimate. If she is a fake, then I think you're limiting your perspective by arguing that she's an American Democrat - she could just as easily be an anti-war Euro, where such sentiments are equally widespread.
Diana:
I apologize for my somewhat curt reaction, I simply got annoyed by the claim that I deliberately left out a news story because of ideological blinders.
Much obliged for the Guardian link. As I said earlier, I have no problem with including this stuff in the WoW, just e-mail it to me or Joe beforehand.
I read Juan Cole after reading your comment (he's actually one of my daily reads, a fact that I imagine may surprise some readers) and he says that there appears to be some difference of reporting between whether it's Major General Jasim Mohammed Salih al-Mohammedi or Salah Aboud who is taking over Fallujah. The latter is a former deputy chief of staff to Ali Hassan Majid who worked for him during the early 1990s (i.e. post-Anfal). So it would seem we may have to wait until getting some clarification on this one.
"There are many more demonstrable AQ ties to Saudi & Iran than to Iraq. We didn't invade them, nor will we. The war was based on lies, Dan."
I suspect that we aren't going to agree on this one. I am currently preparing a full response to Andrew Lazarus's critique of the war in Iraq that will address this issue in full, but you'll have to wait until after finals to read that. My point, however, was that Feith did a lot of very good intel work that can be shown as being accurate and that any analysis or commentary on his role in formulating the Iraq/al-Qaeda connection should take this into account. Most critiques, unfortunately, are not.
Regardless of whether this guy is a former aide to Chemical Ali, the country is undergoing an American-approved "re-Baathification." Just about every rationale for this war was bogus, and we have backtracked on every goal. Now the torture revelations (by mercs!).
Sorry for the double posting.
"Just about every rationale for this war was bogus, and we have backtracked on every goal. Now the torture revelations (by mercs!)."
What makes you believe that if you assert a conclusion enough times it becomes an argument? I'm just curious about your strategy here.
I thought the conventional opinion among many opponents of the war was that de-Baathification was a Chalabi-driven, ill-conceived venture that alienated the Sunni technocrat class? Or at least, that was what I got from reading Cole and Clarke's writings on the subject.
> painting Feith et al as a bunch of hacks
The takeaway from that article is supposed to be that Feith's intelligence team isn't incompetent? That was what I was supposed to get out of it?
Look again. The article presents no evidence one way or the other. I'm not saying that no such evidence exists, but it's sure as heck not in that article.
> Now the torture revelations (by mercs!).
Not mercs, diana. "Contractors."
Diana,
You should go read the article at the link you posted more carefully. Ir clearly states that the men acused of abusing prisoners are reservists, nit contractors.
Josh, Maybe you should read it again also.
thought the conventional opinion among many opponents of the war was that de-Baathification was a Chalabi-driven, ill-conceived venture that alienated the Sunni technocrat class? Or at least, that was what I got from reading Cole and Clarke's writings on the subject.
Sneering will get you nowhere. It's a rather sad attempt to deflect attention from the facts, which is that this occupation is a disaster.
Diana & Josh,
Sorry. I originally overlooked the mentioned Guardian source which is much more detailed. Here's thelink.
I note the photos of prisoner abuse etc. have become as prominent on FOX as MSNBC and CNN. Actually MSNBC doesn't seem to be giving the story as much play as CNN & FOX (I do digital satellite radio and keep the channel moving).
'
Don't know if anyone else has been following that editorial on UMASS collegiate paper "Pat Tillman got what he had coming to him" (or some such) but the site disappeared yesterday (replaced by error message) and today I simply time out trying to get in. There were many posted negative comments to article (and also a few positive) and I'm wondering if some jerk took the site down with a DNS attack. Writer of piece was really getting blasted.
http://www.dailycollegian.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2004/04/28/408f27f0591be
Would like to know if anyone can get in. Original readership likely limited and am just curious how article and replies reflects collegiate opinion etc.
Steve
Diana,
"Sneering will get you nowhere. It's a rather sad attempt to deflect attention from the facts, which is that this occupation is a disaster."
Since you no longer feel compelled to make arguments, I'll chip in with some unsupported assertions of my own.
This occupation is a disaster if you are: 1) a venal, corrupt, parasitic French government official or "merchant" who grew bloated from sucking the blood of ordinary Iraqis; 2) an irrelevant, incoherent leftist academic who supported a fascist dictatorship only to be confronted by the horror of mass graves, rape rooms and torture chambers 3) a tired, saggy old 60's hippie addled by too much drug consumption to know that genocidal tyrants are uncool; 4) a petty Arab princeling who would rather use his nation's petro-dollars to go whoring in Paris than build a productive Middle Eastern society or 5) a homicidal Jihadist two evolutionary steps away from a marauding primate.
Otherwise, the occupation is going as best as can be reasonably hoped in the cirumstances.
For those concerned, the conservative end of the blogoshpere is addressing the torture story.
http://www.instapundit.com/archives/015346.php
http://www.nationalreview.com/thecorner/04_04_25_corner-archive.asp#031030
http://www.outsidethebeltway.com/archives/005978.html
http://joatmoaf.typepad.com/i_love_jet_noise/2004/04/a_sad_day.html
http://www.balloon-juice.com/archives/003922.html
http://www.poliblogger.com/poliblog/archives/003506.html
These are just a few I ran across through intermittent blog surfing today.
I'm sure there are more if one cared to look.
CBK
> For those concerned, the conservative end of the blogoshpere is addressing the torture story.
I see they're all acting very surprised. However, the allegations of this sort of behavior have been "out there" for two months. Nobody bothered to investigate. Nobody cared.
Anyone recall that the allies employed Nazi lower echelon bureaucrats (without a great deal of fanfare) at the end of WW II in Germany as a practical means to provide services?
The fact that those employed claimed to be "only Nazis by convenience" may have helped the consciences of the allies.
Come to think of it the compacts made by Churchill and Roosevelt with Chairman Stalin weren't entirely idealistic ventures, but more one of convenience (necessity?).
"Pragmatism" is the dirtiest word in the dictionary.
Josh:
Actually, I thought the NYT story was rather balanced if compared with what has been widely reported in any number of other accounts, most recently that of Richard Clarke. Or don't you think that the Saudi royals are in cahoots with Osama?
As far as the allegations are concerned, allegations of this sort have appeared in the Arab press (often alongside reports of hundreds upon hundreds of US casualties in Afghanistan or the blood libel) for the better part of the last 3 years. That they're appearing isn't news, but rather, in this particular instance, there appears to be something to them. And given that the individuals responsible for the activities in question are being charged, it would seem that someone does indeed care.
Diana:
Actually, I was not so much sneering as attempting to request an explanation for an apparent shift in tone among opponents of the war: is de-Baathification a good or bad policy? Before the US started allowing ex-Baathists to rejoin Iraqi society, it was widely criticized as an ostracization of Sunni technocrats by Chalabi. Now that this policy has been ended, the administration is being blasted for bringing back members of an oppressive dictatorial regime? So which is it?
Josh, I think your bias is showing. No, in fact, I'm sure that your post indicates you are "acting biased".
Instapundit for instance, investigated and linked to previous accusations of abuse.
"Nobody"?
http://www.instapundit.com/archives/014901.php
I could dig further to find other examples. This one happened to be handy in the instapundit post I originally linked to. Had you bothered reading this inline link you would know that he has "investigated" other such incidents.
Furthermore, I'm not sure how you could use the word "surprised" to describe Glenn's post or any of the others.
No doubt, your reading comprehension must be exceedingly sharp to detect such subtle "acting very surprised" when no words like "surprised" or "shocked" or even "startled" were present in any of these posts.
CBK
Let me go further on your "acting biased", Josh.
I would have been "surprised" and "shocked" and "startled" had AL or Joe or one of the other fine contributers (including Dan of course!) here at WOC didn't write a post on this disgusting event.
I would have expected one of them to construct a well thought out, well written essay on this tragedy and the repurcussions of this event on our efforts in the GWoT.
But, I also would allow them the time to compose such an essay, as they have a very high standard of writing here, not some slipshod, willy nilly, instant hodgepodge of utterances. Their writing reflects their patience and deliberateness, thoroughness and thoughtfulness.
You, on the other hand, already made your mind up. You looked through Dan's post and thought "Gotcha!" And proceded to post "I thought "I bet that 'Winds of War' will omit that story."
Now, should one of the WoCers post on this abuse, I hope you don't think your virtual finger wagging had anything to do with it. None of us are "surprised" by that from either you or your like minded compatriot Diana.
If they don't compose such an essay I know that it is not because "nobody" at WoC "cares". And if you truly believe that your bias is worse than I imagined.
Just because your preconceived, and biased, version of reality seemed true at 2:53 PM Zulu Time, doesn't mean it is actually true.
CBK
You know, as soon as I saw that story, I thought "I bet that 'Winds of War' will omit that story."
For more information about these abuses, see blog by Iraqi woman who's been telling about this for some time:
http://riverbendblog.blogspot.com/
Posted by: Josh Yelon on April 30, 2004 02:53 PM
************************************************
rotflmao
YOU accuse Dan of filtered blogging and your source if RIVERBEND all by her sweet self?
Here
http://healingiraq.blogspot.com/
Zeyad not only includes Baghdad Burning which I doubt he agrees with but a host of other Iraqi and MidEast blogs,
YOU were the one who "cherrypicked"