Breaking: Baghdad Hotel bombed.

[FDRrocks]

Breaking on MSNBC! Huge explosion. Shocks felt at Palestine Hotel.

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=3599000

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A large explosion hit a hotel used by U.S. security personnel in central Baghdad on Sunday, Reuters witnesses said.
The witnesses said they saw a car ablaze at the Baghdad Hotel. Ambulances rushed to the scene and there appeared to be several casualties, they said.

EDIT: 10 dead, twin suicide mobiles.

[Khephra]

1. CNN is live too

Guns being fired to "control the crowd".

[Khephra]

2. Several deaths already being reported

.

[Khephra]

4. It was 4 blocks away from the Hotel

and NOT the Hotel itself.

[Aidoneus]

6. I thought it said 4 blocks away from Palestine Hotel?

which is where journalists are based.. this is said to have been just outside the Baghdad Hotel, which I believe housed "senior" occupation force officials..

[Khephra]

8. Not sure...I'm a bit confused about the "hotel" situation myself

.

[Dover]

22. The blast shook the Palestine Hotel about 4 blocks away.

The bomb at the Baghdad hotel, which was thought to be the safest one in the city, took out first three floors.

[Newsjock]

3. Off the AP wire

No link

p0678
ibx
AP-IRAQ BAGHDAD BLAST
Huge explosion rocks central Baghdad

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - A huge explosion rocked central Baghdad Sunday; and smoke was billowing from the direction of the Baghdad Hotel, which is believed to be a headquarters of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency in the Iraqi capital.

The blast rattled windows in the Palestine Hotel, home to many members of the international press corps covering the aftermath of the U.S.-led war in Iraq.

[Paschall]

12. CIA

Hmmm? Is it time to call off the Plame investigation or what? Odd how the interests of the "enemy" and the White House seem to converge, huh?

[0007]

47. I think they better put Rumsfield

back in charge. This is just not gonna work with Condoleezza Rice.

Even junior told Americans how well things were going, so why did he want to put Ms. Rice in charge. She's nothing but a trouble maker, 'eh?

[pippin]

67. send Condi and Dumbsfeld

to Iraq to fix it. This management from the comfortable distance of D.C. is nonsense.

Come to think of it, send Dickhead Cheney too -- after all he says everything that's happened is justified. :mad:

[Khephra]

5. CNN reporting that Reuters says witnesses say a car is

ablaze at the site.

[FDRrocks]

7. Also exchanging fire

I believe I heard...

[bluestateguy]

9. I told you so

This foolish Bush Administration policy will lead to even more tragedies like the one taking place now. Thank God people like us were there to speak out against their policies even when it was unpopular.

I will continue to comment about the failure of this policy every time something like this happens.

[Eloriel]

57. Yeah, bluestateguy

Our speaking out did so much good, didn't it?

Eloriel

[Paschall]

10. Here's a working Reuters link

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=3599000

Maybe the story will be updated.

[joshcryer]

11. Shit, wonderful news to go to sleep to.

I'll sleep well (better than usual) tonight, at least. My brother is on leave.

[Newsjock]

13. Link to BBC

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/3185014.stm

Blast rocks central Baghdad

A huge explosion has rocked central Baghdad.

Smoke is billowing into the air from the direction of the Baghdad Hotel, which is believed to be a headquarters of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).

The blast rattled windows in the Palestine Hotel, home to many foreign journalists.

A BBC correspondent in Baghdad says the blast was preceded by gunshots - but it is not clear where they were in the same place.

[truthisfreedom]

14. quite a rush to publish... should have edited more carefully... whether,

not where.

[Barrett808]

71. Another BBC story: Shock waves in Baghdad

It was almost exactly 1245 (0945 GMT) when two shots rang out from Saadoon Street followed almost immediately by a huge explosion.

The victims appear to have been mostly Iraqis
The explosion - from a car bomb - sent up a large brown smoke ring, then thick black smoke filled the air, just north of the Palestine and Sheraton Hotel complex where many of the international media stay.

The target was the Baghdad Hotel, set back from Saadoun Street and conspicuous in the area because of its razor-wire checkpoints and a wall of concrete slabs protecting it from the street.

Two cars burnt fiercely outside the hotel and the force of the blast had knocked over at least one of the massive four-metre high slabs.

(more)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/3185514.stm

[rooboy]

15. I heard a comment from a guy on Sky (UK)...

that this hotel is used mainly by Bechtel personnel.

[FDRrocks]

16. Twin car bombs

driving down wrong side of the road.

[JeebusH]

17. Thank God Condi in charge

but I guess the Iraqis didn't get the memo that freedom and sunshine is the order of the day

I bet everyone is happy to know that the President is sleeping soundly thru this situation as we speak

[spinbaby]

33. I wonder when we'll hear from Condi

Anyone know if she's scheduled for the Sunday-morning shows?

[Noordam]

18. There were rumors early on that Israel had Intel ppl

in that hotel.

FYI

[rooboy]

20. CIA and State Dept were using the hotel (CNN)... n/t

[Khephra]

19. Faux reports that Reuters is saying

10 people killed (CNN just reported this too). AP saying that at least 6 people taken away in ambulances.

[Dover]

21. New Iraqi Gov. Council was said to have entered the hotel prior

to the blast.

CIA headquarters may be a rumor. It was just assumed because the hotel had greater than usual security protection (cement barriors outside)

[dutchdemocrat]

24. The council have become a little unruly over the past few weeks

Dutch puts on his tinfoil hat.

[rooboy]

26. CNN Int'l said they had confirmed CIA and State Dept were in there. n/t

[dutchdemocrat]

23. Of course

They are being labelled as "terrorists" and "muslim extremists" by the whore media instead of Iraqis who just want the US to get the fuck out of there.

[Khephra]

25. I wasn't going to watch the Sunday shows

as I figured that they would all be about Ah-nold, but I guess I will now. James Woolsey is on Faux repeating the mantra "We can't pull out." over and over and over again. Funny thing is he's not sounding real confident right now. I'm hearing a bit of worry in his voice.

[Judi Lynn]

27. Al Jazeera article

US forces hit in Baghdad blast

Sunday 12 October 2003, 13:49 Makka Time, 10:49 GMT


The exact number of casualties remain unclear


At least 10 people are dead after a large explosion hit a hotel used by US security personnel in central Baghdad.


Details remain unclear, but witnesses said they saw a car ablaze at the Baghdad Hotel.

There were several casualties at the hotel as ambulances rushed to the scene.

Aljazeera's correspondent reported seeing body parts scattered 150 metres from the site of the blast.

The explosion sent a large plume of smoke into the air and shook windows in buildings several blocks away. (snip/...)

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/A42F7466-C314-4222-8BCF-18AA05F3F3B6.htm

On edit:

CBS radio news just said there were quite a few Iraqii police people guarding the entrance to the building, and that they took the full force of the explosion. 2 cars. 2 explosions.

[Kamika]

28. any us casualities?

Reported

[dutchdemocrat]

29. Not yet but AP says this

Huge Explosion Rocks Central Baghdad Near Hotel Believed to Be CIA Headquarters
The Associated Press
Published: Oct 12, 2003

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - A huge explosion apparently caused by a car bomb rocked central Baghdad on Sunday near the Baghdad Hotel, which is believed to be a headquarters of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency in the Iraqi capital. A witness said he saw several injured people.
Bystander Sevan Armin, 33, said a car approached the Baghdad Hotel on the wrong side of the street.

"It was traveling at high speed. The guards at the gate fired on it. The car hit the concrete blast barrier and exploded," he said. Armin had a minor head injury.

Another bystander, Hamid Rahim, 22, said two cars tried to enter a side street leading from Saadoun Street to the Baghdad Hotel, but both exploded.

He and hotel co-worker Karim Abdel al-Hussein, 23, both said two cars approached the barricaded street at high speed and one or both got behind the barricade on the side street. They believed both cars exploded before reaching the hotel.

Rahim said he saw about a half-dozen injured people taken away in police cars.

Ambulances and police vehicles rushed to the scene as U.S. helicopters circled overhead.

Associated Press Television News footage showed U.S. troops ordering people away from the bombing site. Firefighters sprayed water on piles of burning rubble.

The blast rattled windows in the Palestine Hotel, home to many members of the international press corps covering the aftermath of the U.S.-led war in Iraq.

AP-ES-10-12-03 0634EDT

http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGAE49ZXOLD.html

[PsychoDad]

32. No mention of US casualities

But CNN has just reported that a part of the building has also collapsed. The blast was felt almost a mile away at the Palistine hotel where several reporters are.

[Judi Lynn]

30. How many cars, three?

Wonder how our smug, slimey Bushonies will explain THIS to us.

[dutchdemocrat]

31. They will just say

That word

Terrorists

And use it to justify staying in Iraq.

[leftchick]

34. dead-enders, saddam loyalists, terrists.....blah, blah,blah

Not the truth, that these are resistance fighters trying to rid their country of the occupiers....

[davhill]

40. Coordinate attacks, high explosives, high profile target

Definitely the hallmarks of Al Qaeda

[dArKeR]

35. What are 'U.S. security personnel'? Soldiers?

[dutchdemocrat]

36. Spooks

CIA

[Robb]

48. Bechtel

Bechtel = United Fruit Company

(or CIA, if you're not old enough for that reference) ;)

[MUAD_DIB]

62. Central American bannana republics, right?

Or am I thinking of some other friut company?

[dArKeR]

37. Blast rocks major hotel in Baghdad - MSGOP - back to normal

http://msnbc.com/news/870749.asp?0cv=CA00

[dArKeR]

38. Explosion Rocks Baghdad - CBS - Back to Normal

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/02/24/iraq/main541815.shtml

[Khephra]

39. 2 CNN reporters just said that they woke up their state department

contacts this morning and that THEY KNEW NOTHING ABOUT WHAT WAS HAPPENING. People in the State Dept. had to be informed of the bombing by CNN reporters! WTF is up with that?

[lindashaw]

41. Carl Rochelle said that the CIA was not in this hotel...

[Khephra]

43. They're trying to downplay this already

First they've backtracked from the CIA angle, and now I'm seeing the meme of "The Security did not fail." being pushed on both MSNBC and Faux.

[salin]

45. perhaps not CIA - but privatized army/intel and 'support'

KBR? Bechtel? Other war profiteering buds of bushco?

[dArKeR]

49. Do you actually believe the American Whore Media? 'Bring'em On!'

They wouldn't admit it if it was true because it would show the guerilla's intel was better than ours.

[MUAD_DIB]

63. Of course they weren't.

Even if the CIA was there they were never there.

[DoYouEverWonder]

46. Same thing at the Pentagon and the WH

Reporter at the Pentagon couldn't even find anybody who was awake yet and supposedly the WH has made a statement that they won't be making a statement. I guess they can't wake W up from his Saturday night binging.

[leftchick]

42. MSRNC Warmonger Whores just said...

this shows how the security worked or there would have been HUNDREDS of casualties... Spinnning, spinning ... I"m Dizzy!

[Khephra]

44. GMTA

I just commented on the same thing.

[Judi Lynn]

50. Suicide Car Bomb Rocks Central Baghdad

Suicide Car Bomb Rocks Central Baghdad
By Charles J. Hanley Associated Press Writer
Published: Oct 12, 2003




BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - A suicide attacker slammed an explosives-rigged car into a barrier Sunday outside the Baghdad Hotel, home to many U.S. officials and security agents. At least one bystander was killed and 32 others injured, police said.
Police said the victim was an Iraqi security guard, and that the attacker also was killed. Iraqi Governing Council member Mouwafak al-Rabii was in the hotel at the time and had a slight hand injury, he told Al-Jazeera satellite television.

It was the second big car bombing in the capital in the past four days. A suicide bomber hit a police station in Sadr City, the northeast Shiite Muslim slum, on Thursday, killing at least 10 people, including the bomber.

At al-Kindi Hospital, Dr. Ahmed Mustafa said his facility was treating 32 wounded and that four were in critical condition.

L. Paul Bremer, the U.S. civilian administrator for Iraq, quickly issued a statement of condolences to the victims.

"The terrorists know that the Iraqi people and the coalition are succeeding in the reconstruction of Iraq. They do not share the vision of hope for this new Iraq. They will do anything, including taking the lives of innocent Iraqis, to draw attention away from the extraordinary progress made since liberation.
(snip/...)

http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGAEPGI1PLD.html

Bremer truly sucks. What a failed human.

[teryang]

53. Earth to Bremer and other "terrorism" experts

The basic standard for "political progress" in Iraq and throughout the middle east is whether there is social order. That has been the standard there for 1500 years. The current situation in Iraq is evidence of political failure not progress. It is a political failure innuring to the falsehood, deception and fundamental wrongheadedness of our cause. Righteousness is a factor in military conflict as well. We don't have any.

The fact that conquest and colonialism died it's last breath of legitimacy during WWII and that our Washington leaders prefer not to believe that (even after Vietnam) indicates that we are being ruled by people who have something fundamentally wrong with them.

The daily litany of attacks and bombings which our junta does their best to hide is current empirical proof that we cannot rule there. Squandering lives and hundreds of billions of dollars isn't going to change that.

[Khephra]

51. CNN REPORTING "LOUD BANG"

Off in the distance from the reporter, just a few moments ago.

[alcuno]

52. Is FAUX calling this a "homicide bombing?"

Or for FAUX, do those only happen in Israel?

[tlcandie]

54. Islamic extremists? You decide...

Taken from the above linkded BBC report....

<snip>
"The car in front of us, a 1990 Toyota Corolla, suddenly turned into the hotel. I saw the driver. He was not an Iraqi, he had a lighter complexion... A policeman shot at him four times, and then there was the explosion."
<snip>

BOLD type added for emphasis

[hang a left]

70. Whoa, I wonder if he was Israeli or an MKUltra

[Mari333]

55. But But But Pickles said everything is wunnnnnnerful in Iraq!

"everythin is wunnerful in Iraq sugah!"

[underpants]

61. MSNBC said W&Co. will say this is evidence that things are working in Iraq

I didn't catch his name but their reporter (State Dept. I think)mention the PR campaign and that surely the Bushies will say this is evidence that indeed things are working in Iraq.

Ever positive
Sell Sell Sell

[tabasco]

56. Ignore this bad news, people!

Focus on the good news. F'er example, ain't it great the bomb wasn't a really bigger bomb? Oh, yeah, they're playing soccer in Iraq now.

[Frances]

58. I feel so sorry for the ordinary men and women

who are in the U.S. military in Iraq. Most of them joined the military because they wanted a chance to better themselves in life. Now the Bush administrtion is putting them in harm's way 24 hours a day just so Bush's buddies can get their foot in the door to control the oil in the Middle East.

[Jack Rabbit]

59. Bremer has failed from top to bottom

Of course, he shouldn't be blamed. The Iraqi people will allow no American viceroy to succeed.

Nevertheless, if Bremer's regime can't keep ordinary Iraqi women from being attacked by hoodlums, then why should he be expected to keep colonialists safe from nationalists? The occupation is a greater failure than any could have have imagined.

The American people have no disposition to be emperors. The Iraqi people have no disposition to be imperial subjects. An American withdrawl from Iraq should be planned; the administration of Iraq should be turned over to the UN; finally, without any interference from Bush, a constitutional convention should be called to be followed by internationally supervised elections.

[Nottingham]

60. Baghdad is definitely not under control

UN knows it
And Bush knows it


Send in Rice.............Is that like send in the Clowns :bounce:

[MUAD_DIB]

64. Like Barron Harkonnen sending in Feyde Rautha

to replace Raban the Beast.


Amatures.

[Q]

66. Join the Army. Meet interesting people. Kill them.

- That's about the extent of the Bush* doctrine.

- Does anyone in this administration really believe this carnage will suddenly end simply by throwing around words like 'liberation' and 'democracy'?

[jokerman93]

73. seems to me

if your basic objective is to open up markets with unending demand for weaponry, energy management, and infrasturcture contracts, it would be wise to create a breeding ground for "terrorist" enemies not on American soil -- so the war is prolonged in the name of our way of life, liberty, jesus, and walmart

Dust off your codpieces folks -- Mission accomplished either way.

The only sense I can make of the neo-con Iraq strategy is that this chaos IS their postwar plan now.

other obvious points:
Poor economy at home makes joining the military a last resort option for many patriotic but out-of-work or poverty level Americans. Guarenteed work and career training!

Of course they wanted an American controled "free-trade" zone (whatever that is), but we're obviously in that predicted prolonged war now.

The Bushies may not survive this politically, but the extra-national energy/war machine profits either way.

[leftchick]

65. AP link says the IGC(US puppets) in the hotel too!

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20031012/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_307

<snip>
A witness said a guard shot at the approaching car, apparently stopping it 50 yards short of the Baghdad Hotel, the closely guarded home to officials associated with the U.S. occupation.


Members of Iraq's 25-seat interim Governing Council are also believed to be staying in the hotel. One, Mouwafak al-Rabii, told Al-Jazeera satellite television he suffered a slight hand injury.



Ok, so are they all holed up there? The contracters, the spooks and the IGC? I even heard someone on MSRNC this AM try to say no one was in the hotel! Yes, it was heavily guarded because NO ONE was in there! Sheesh... :crazy:

[VeniceBeat]

68. Bremer Wears Very Nice French Cuffs

The cufflinks are nice, too, don't you think?

[leftchick]

69. up until recently, until it became public knowledge,...

he had all of his clothing sent to Kuwait to be cleaned! I think we have another little emporer on our hands!

[Kucinich04]

72. Shit...

God I hate to hear about our brave brethren dying like this!!!

FUCK Bush. FUCK FUCK FUCK.

This is so sad. Only a matter of time before the Iraqi's (note: I don't say "Remants of the Baath regime" like the media whores slavishly repeat, cause anybody with half a brain has figured out that plain ol' Iraqi's want us out, too, and are most likely involved in these types of attacks) find some way to hit us REALLY hard, take out a few hundred of our people in one incident. I SOOOO hope I am wrong, but I just have a bad feeling about this one - I think it portends of bigger, worser things to come.

FUCK.

May these brave souls rest in peace.

SUPPORT THE TROOPS - BRING 'Em HOME!!!

[jokerman93]

74. more and more lately

I'm getting that old vietnam feeling.

Pray I'm wrong.