Iraq raid photos show weapons caches: senator (Warner)

[Barrett808]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Pentagon has photographs that show Iraqi and U.S. forces were fired on from buildings filled with weapons in an operation that has generated controversy after Shi'ite accounts of a mosque massacre, Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John Warner, said on Tuesday.

Accusations of a U.S.-led massacre of unarmed worshipers on the weekend have prompted the Shi'ite-led Iraqi government to demand that U.S. forces give up control of security.

U.S. commanders in Iraq have accused Shi'ite groups of moving the corpses of gunmen killed in battle to encourage such accusations.

The U.S. military has said that the raid on Sunday in Baghdad was by about 50 Iraqi special forces troops backed by about 25 American "advisers."

Warner, after a briefing on Iraq at the White House, said the strike was conducted largely by Iraqi forces supported by American forces, and they were fired upon from surrounding buildings.

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld showed photographs taken immediately after the raid, "and clearly you can see all types of armament and other military paraphernalia there," Warner, a Virginia Republican, said.

"I think the sooner those pictures are out, the sooner we can dispel that there was any wrong attack by our forces on a mosque or other buildings," he said.

(more)

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060328/ts_nm/iraq_usa_dc

[underpants]

1. Hey assbuckets-Why are US troops there in the first place?

get the answer to that and get back to me.

[napi21]

2. OH, so they want us to believe pics AGAIN?

Well, I remember those damn pics Powell showed to the UN, and they were from PRIOR to the first Gulf war! Wonder where these new ones Rummy found were from?

[atreides1]

3. So now they have photographs

And of course Senator Warner always believs what the military tells him!!!!

[DELUSIONAL]

4. can we say PHOTO SHOPPED photos??

Yes please do bring on the photos.

[Supersedeas]

5. Got credibility? -- I don't think so. Don't have it here...don't have it

there, either.

[AlCzervik]

6. He and Rumsfeld are hurting the troops by making such accusations

about the shites.

[BootinUp]

7. I wonder if the Bushie propogandists have met their match?

n/t

[RufusEarl]

8. One question!

If US military was involved, why did they up and leave the scene of the battle? This has bothered me ever since this came up, the US military don't do operations in this manner.

[0007]

9. Where is the creditability and the accountability?

Rummy sez it's here..

The U.S. military has said that the raid on Sunday in Baghdad was by about 50 Iraqi special forces troops backed by about 25 American "advisers."

Warner, after a briefing on Iraq at the White House, said the strike was conducted largely by Iraqi forces supported by American forces, and they were fired upon from surrounding buildings.

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld showed photographs taken immediately after the raid, "and clearly you can see all types of armament and other military paraphernalia there," Warner, a Virginia Republican, said.

"I think the sooner those pictures are out, the sooner we can dispel that there was any wrong attack by our forces on a mosque or other buildings," he said.

U.S. commanders say bodies of gunmen killed fighting Iraqi troops in an office compound, not a mosque, were moved.

Sen. John McCain (news, bio, voting record), an Arizona Republican who also attended the White House meeting, said after his weekend visit to Iraq he does not believe there is a civil war, but that U.S. troops should not withdraw at this time.

"I think the biggest mistake we could make is having a calendar dictate the troop strengths over there," he said to reporters at the White House, echoing
President George W. Bush's repeated assertion.

"I am confident that we can, and will, and must win because the consequences of failure are catastrophic," McCain said.

Bush's public approval ratings have dipped to the lowest of his presidency amid growing concern over the three-year-old Iraq war. The president has insisted that there can be no timetable for withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq, beyond planning to reduce numbers as Iraqi forces take over security in the country.

[EST]

10. McCain has mastered the straw dog attack-now it's the

calendar. Just another crook with zero credibility outside the mob.
Should he, somehow, manage to inherit his last, fondest dream, what's to prevent the unearthing and use of the puke attack ads against him from 2000?
Crazy John will not survive his presidency, should he be installed by the syndicate. He knows it and so do we.
I hope he is forever disappointed.

[Zhade]

11. Liars.

Our guys murdered unarmed innocents - you can lie to US, but the Iraqis fucking know better, and they're PISSED.

[gratuitous]

12. Wow, are we righteous!

Our faultless, star-spangled boys in uniform can get into a firefight with enemy insurgents, and we kill 37 of theirs and they don't even so much as nick one of ours.

Oh yeah, that's believable. Totally.

[stillcool]

13. Let's see ALL the pictures..... n/t

[ShortnFiery]

14. John Warner was very eloquent ...

when he stated words to the effect, "Wolf, we must stay there and help the poor CLUELESS brown native Iraqi people LEARN FROM US what Democracy is like. Why? They are not used to enjoying a functioning Democracy and it will take a LONG TIME for us to show them how." :wtf: <in the background the Military Contracting Corporate Monstrosity goes "Cha Ching!" in unison>

Hey Senator(R-VA) Warner! How about we, in AmeriKKa start practicing a little bit of that Democracy instead of allowing the Executive branch to rule us like a Monarchy?

IMO the Iraqi People are intelligent and will be much more successful at working out the government that will WORK FOR THEM. Hint: They don't want us to continue to occupy THEIR LAND.

[catnhatnh]

15. Para 1 lie....

"that show Iraqi and us forces were fired upon"-at best they show the dead folks may have had the ABILITY to fire...and since they have those photos WHY no photos of BEING fired on...I know how to plant evidence and I'm not even a republican...

[Karmakaze]

16. Ok, so where are the photos?

I see lots of descriptions (by Republicans) of what's in them, and Rumsfeld talking about releasing them, but I still don't see them. What's the delay?