Lack of 'intelligence' behind attack in Iraq

[chomskysright]

Mosul attack evidence insurgents' intel better
By John Diamond, USA TODAY

http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2004-12-22-mosul-analysis_x.htm?csp=24&RM_Exclude=Juno


WASHINGTON — The implications of the audacious suicide attack in the center of a heavily guarded U.S. military base in Mosul go beyond a failure of base security.
The attack is the latest evidence that Iraqi insurgents have better intelligence about U.S. forces than U.S. forces have on the insurgents.

"The message that the attack on the base sends to average Iraqis is that if the Americans can't protect their own soldiers on their own bases, how are they going to protect you," said Andrew Krepinevich, a military analyst with the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments.


******My letter to USA today************


THE LACK OF INTELLIGENCE IS NOT THE PROBLEM IN IRAQ

In the article by John Diamond which put forward that, "The attack is the latest evidence that Iraqi insurgents have better intelligence about U.S. forces than U.S. forces have on the insurgents" may have some truth to it.

However, overall, it is EXTREMELY misleading. The issue it that we should not be there in the first place. The issue is that the FBI and the CIA, sources of significant intelligence in the USA and as associated with our interests, insisted, in memos easily available on the internet as a result of probes by the American Civil Liberties Union, that torture which was applied to prisoner in Iraq and at Guantanamo Bay, was not acceptable.

The president of the United STates has lied and manipulated the citizens of the US and attempts to pin the difficulties on a lack of intelligence.

I'll have none of this manipulation.

Sincerely,

[truthisfreedom]

1. it makes sense, because we have known installations, operate in the open,

and they operate as... insurgents. it's essentially guerrilla warfare, where we never know where the enemy is.

[Barrett808]

2. "We can not allow those who chop off people's heads to take control"

But it's okay for those who drop cluster bombs on cities to take control.

Rumsfeld isn't winning any friends anywhere with this kind of rhetoric.

[Barrett808]

3. "The way we prevent this is we win. And that's what we're going to do."

And it appears Myers has gone over the edge with BushCo tautological delusions.

[fshrink]

4. Title pretty much sums it up...

[arikara]

5. Glad to see that they are finally recognizing that fact

Idiocy, greed, I guess "lack of intelligence" is a good start.

[R Hickey]

6. How soon before Iraq's cook's put poison in our soldier's soup?

If the Iraqis can put bombs in our chow lines, how soon before dioxin-flavored soup appears on the menu?

[Disturbed]

7. Are all the Insurgents terrorists?

Is it an act of terror to blow up people at a military place?

I have noticed that lately all who attack the U.S. in Iraq are now called terrorists. Of course this is a purposeful use of the term to instill into Amerikans and Iraqis that all who resist the U.S are terrorists.

[leftchick]

10. exactly Disturbed...

and keeps that 'war on terra/Iraq war' forever the same in the small minded ameriKan.

[annabanana]

11. guess what "Disturbed"....WE are terrorists too!

And so are the officials of teacher's unions, and all Democrats, and people who would stop them from torturing, etc etc etc

[The_Casual_Observer]

19. Terrorist - it takes one to know one.

[Redstone]

12. Good question

"Disturbed" asks: "Is it an act of terror to blow up people at a military place?"

I don't have an answer for that, but I can tell you one thing: Dropping thousand-pound bombs and cruise misiles into the middle of a city full of civilians at night is definitely an act of terror. And how many cities did we do that to, and how many times?

What happened to my country?

Redstone

(edited to fix punctuation)

[4dsc]

21. Its a message creap by some networks

I too have noticed that the mainstream media is slowing repeating the mantra of the extreminst on the right and blaming terrorist's for attacks against US personal.. If you watch FOX(its sometime wise to know what your enemy is up to)they refer to all attacks in Iraq as terrorist attacks.. Most of the other networks correct refer to the Iraqi as insurgents..


Sorry to say but Iraqi's killing Americans should not be considered terrorist..

[radfringe]

8. Lack of INTELLIGENCE in the White House is more like it... n/t

[leftchick]

9. What She Said!

:grr:

[MaineDem]

13. What they said!

Absolutely!

[artboy]

14. remember the old movie

Red Dawn.....USA was attacked and we fought the occupation....same as the insurgents (shit lets just call um Iraqi citizens) are doing now. If the USA was attacked and occupied, you can bet your sweet ass, Americans would be doing the same things....seems like we need homeland security measures over there. There is nothing in this world to stop a person who follows whatever religion, one who is already an American citizen, already living here, from doing the same kinda thing.....some lunatic could just as easy strap themselves full of explosives, walk into any po-dunk mall, in any state of the union, and unleash the same kind of damage.....this just boggles my mind...

[txaslftist]

15. I thought this was unbelievable...

when I pulled it off of Lew Rockwell this morning. Talk about a lack of intelligence:

Memo To: Website Fans & Browsers
From: Jude Wanniski
Re: He Didn't Gas the Kurds!!

The neo-cons who propagated the story that Saddam "gassed his own people," i.e., the Iraqi Kurds, will still insist he did gas the Kurds, back in 1988 when he gave the order to Chemical Ali, who told the Iraqi army to commit genocide at the town of Halabja. But the news from Mohammed al-Obaidi is that the team prosecuting Saddam for crimes against humanity has dropped the genocide charge “due to insufficient evidence.”

Al-Obaidi assures me the news is true, and if it is, we should be learning about it sooner or later from our news media. It will further complicate the Bush administration’s problems in Iraq, as it had been relying on the genocide charge to justify “regime change” in Baghdad when the other rationales – WMD and Al Qaida connections – failed. I may be wrong, but if this turns out to be true, it would be a positive development in resolving the conflict in Iraq sooner, rather than later. Once the U.S. press corps focuses on the issue, it would force President Bush to re-examine his own assumptions about the rationale for unilateral action and make it easier for him to shift gears toward greater international involvement in resolving the several conflated issues in the Middle East.

As most of you know, I have for the last two years argued that whatever else Saddam Hussein did for good or ill as Iraq’s president since 1978, there is no evidence that he committed genocide. That he gassed the Iraqi Kurds has been an assertion that has been repeated so often by President Bush, Vice President Cheney and the American press that I’m sure 99.9% of the people believe it is gospel. I sent the "news" to several editors and a great many political reporters yesterday when I learned of it, but nothing yet has surfaced. Al-Obaidi tells me the news has appeared in the Arabic press.

Here is the note I got Monday from Dr. al-Obaidi (a medical doctor who has been in exile in London for 20 years and is no fan of Saddam, but who has been among those who have insisted there was no genocide committed by his regime). It is followed with a press release he subsequently sent from the legal defense team that spent several hours with Saddam on December 16, which is interesting in and of itself, but which of course should be taken with a grain of salt.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dear Jude: I have just been informed by Mr. Al-Khasawnah, Chief lawyer of Saddam's legal team, that after the Iraqi lawyer, Mr. Khalil Al-Dulaimi met with Saddam a couple of days ago, the American legal authority in Iraq informed the lawyer that they have dropped the charges of Halabja and genocide in the south against Saddam due to insufficient evidence.

This clearly indicates that the information the legal team had about the responsibility of what happened in Halabja lies on Iran and not Iraq and made the American authority drop this charge against him.

Best regards
Mohammed

[OnlyInAmerica]

16. The title of this thread is certainly ironic

Considering Shrub's lack of intelligence and the fact that he's behind our attack on Iraq

[rocktivity]

17. I'm still trying to figure out how a bomb can be confused with a rocket

I wonder if they're pushing this suicide bomber story because miliary bases getting hit by rockets by commoners is not a great story.

:headbang:
rocknation

[cliss]

18. Rock, I read that it was actually

pineapple grenades that the Iraqis threw onto the roof of the mess hall. This was from a European online newspaper.

Apparently, someone got into the compound and threw 3 or 4 grenades onto the roof.

If you look at the photos of the mess hall, you'll see there are big holes in the roof of the tent. There's general devastation in the mess hall, but there are no holes blown out of the ground. No huge piles of debris which would indicate some big explosion.

My hunch: it was an Iraqi who worked there. No one broke in. It was someone on the inside.

[rocktivity]

20. Grenades on the roof? So they WERE hit from above!

I got suspicous when they said it was rockets one minute and a suicide bomber the next. The Bush camp should have stuck to the original story--can't they tell that it's less politically embarrassing for someone to throw something onto the roof of the tent than for someone to walk into it with a bomb?

:headbang:
rocknation

[Sara Beverley]

22. Torture blow-back is a bitch!!

And it isn't over yet.