Red Cross Weighs Withdrawal After Baghdad Attack

[NNN0LHI]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=574&e=3&u=/nm/20031027/wl_nm/iraq_icrc_shock_dc_1

GENEVA (Reuters) - The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) expressed outrage at Monday's unprecedented suicide bombing of its Baghdad headquarters, which killed at least 10 people, and said it was weighing a withdrawal from Iraq.

It was the first time the Swiss-based relief agency, which for 140 years has sought to protect the victims of war, had been targeted by suicide bombers, although a number of officials have died in shootings and other attacks in places such as Chechnya (news - web sites) and Afghanistan in recent years.

"We are deeply shocked...because it is an attack against the ICRC ... and that means, of course, a deliberate attack against our protective emblem and against our work," chief spokeswoman Antonella Notari told Reuters Television.

The organization issued a statement condemning the bombing, in which two of its Iraqi guards were among the dead, and stressed that all deliberate attacks on civilians were violations of "international humanitarian law and negate the most basic principles of humanity."

more

[OneBlueSky]

1. ain't gonna be no one left in Iraq 'cept us Yanks . . .

think W has an exit strategy? . . . think the PNAC boys are rethinking the need to control Iraq and its oil? . . . think the US will be there indefinitely? . . . a bad idea to begin with is getting worse and worse by the day, with no end in sight . . .

[midnight armadillo]

2. "foreign elements"

NY Times reports that the Pentagon is claiming evidence of "foreign elements" in these attacks.

$100 says they're pinned on Syrian forces inside of a week.

The NYT article also emphasizes that some of the missile attacks on the hotel were French...

[underpants]

4. Everyone knows that the French missiles hate us

Well since the French were the ONE and ONLY ones to sell arms to the Iraqis.... :eyes: indeed.

[Paschall]

3. Lest we forget

As the occupying power, WE are responsible for these people's lives. And without the ICRC, --besides the loss of aid to civilians-- who will have access to all our prisoners of war, I mean enemy combatants?

[gratuitous]

5. I'm a bit surprised they're still there

I know that in Chiapas, the Red Cross wouldn't go into an area until it had been "secured" by government forces. This usually meant that the same government forces who were attacking people by night were in charge of security by day. The local people who were supposed to be helped by the Red Cross would often leave any area where the government held control unless there were international observers present, too.

I will always be grateful for the assistance the Red Cross gave our delegation at Nuevo Yibeljoj, but their presence was not always a comforting sight. If they pull out of Baghdad, that is as sure a condemnation of the precariousness of the situation as anyone could possibly make. There's no patching up or glossing over the public relations damage that would cause. The corrupt Bush administration will do anything they can to keep the ICRC presence there.

[NNN0LHI]

6. The Red Cross has been in Iraq for over 20 years n/t